Saturday's Garden and Farmer's Market Loot

My rugosa rose. Not fancy, and with flowers growing at the ends of long canes, but they smell so delightfully rose-y, and make really nice rose hips.

Wild blackberries. Looks like it will be a good year for berries this year.


Some sort of wildflower/weed growing in my front lawn. I had thought these were the wonderfully-named "pussytoes" but i don't think they are...whatever they are, i like them, and try to mow around them so they get to bloom.


My mountain laurel, bursting into bloom. The previous owner had cut this bush to ground but it resprouted from the roots and is quite a nice size now. I really like mountain laurels, even though in the wild they grow into huge tangles that are impossible to hike through!

Here's my gorgeous Festiva Maxima peony. As usual, the huge flowers weighed down the stems so i had to hold this one up for her portrait. My whole front yard is filled with wonderful spicy peony fragrance from this one plant that has about 8 blooms on it.

Bowman's Root, a lovely native wildflower that doesn't mind being in the shade. It's in the same bed with a pair of Astilbe that are getting ready to bloom soon and the Goat's beard (see below).

The goat's beard (aruncus dioicus) starting to bloom. It's so pleasant to have this spot of brightness in the shade garden.

Amongst all the goodies that i brought back from the Farmer's Market, the thing that the girls were most interested in was this "cat grass" plant. My friend Sabry http://www.sharkawifarm.com/ brings all sorts of wonderful herb plants, dried herbs, and teas to the market and he said that my cats would love this...it's some type of barley, apparently. Gingy and Sylvie liked it well enough to coexist (barely) while both chomping on opposite sides of it.

Fuzzy was more interested in a little nap while Gingy kept chewing.

Sorry about the amateur quality of the video (and the fact that i didn't turn off the radio!)...it begins with a deep growl from Sylvie and ends when Sylvie coughed to dislodge a piece of grass from her throat...

Before Leaving for Retreat

I need to backtrack to include some Spring flower pictures from weekend before last. Saturday April 18 our Farmer's Market opened (yay!) so i got some spinach, green onions, cilantro, perennials to plant, biscotti, etc. as well as hugs from the vendors who i haven't seen since November when the market closed for the winter. It was great catching up with them. Then i dashed off to volunteer at the Audubon Society.

The next day, Sunday, i did a massive amount of outdoors work since it really and truly felt like Spring. I mowed for the first time (the grass really needed it!), trimmed some trees, weeded the perennial bed in the front a bit, and assembled my new garden bench! The old one managed to last for 14 years while exposed to all sorts of weather, but the wood started rotting (it's cedar, not as durable as teak but not nearly as endangered or as expensive, either) and the bench began falling apart, especially after getting flipped over by the wind several times. Here's the pristine new one, which includes a lovely little brass plaque that says "Paula's Garden." (Thanks, Daddy!) The styling is a little different. Unfortunately one of the screws that holds the back in place split the wood so this one may not last 14 years....but i plan to enjoy it for as long as i can!

The dogwood by the house is blooming nicely.

The old apple tree next to my shed is in full abundant bloom. It blooms early, sometimes getting zapped by frost, and produces deliciously tart apples in late June and early July. It's way too big to be a good orchard tree and has had a lot of problems with tent caterpillar infestations over the years. There's a lot of dead wood, and many sapsucker holes that indicate there are bugs in the trunk, but the tree carries on. All sorts of birds love the apples, as do the woodchucks and squirrels. Little birds like the bugs they find amongst the blossoms...and when i was working out there, the whole tree was humming, it was that full of wild bees who were happy to find an abundant source of nectar.

The bleeding heart is now in full bloom, with the freshest bright pink color.

This little cat statue guards my dear Babka cat's regal tomb, and the violets just appeared by themselves.

I started getting ready for retreat, assembling all the materials for the projects i wanted to work on. Louie and Gingy both kept me company at the same time for a while...this picture of Louie is a view from the other direction of him looking out the sewing room window, while Gingy was perched over the sewing machine.

The evening cooled down and my assistant wandered off to do his impression of a ball!

Easter Flowers

Saturday i drove out towards the mountains to a new Gardener's Market set up on the front green of a gourmet food market. It was a bitterly cold, breezy, wet day, but there were at least four vendors there selling native shrubs as well as perennials and herbs. I could have dropped a bundle but kept tight rein on the pocketbook...bought 3 perennials in 1 quart pots, two for my shady backyard and one for my sunny front yard.

Next i went to Laughing Duck Gardens to pick up the Jerusalem artichokes that i won on her blog! It was really nice to look at a big, soon-to-be productive kitchen garden, sit down for a sociable cup of coffee and conversation, and spend some quality time with a couple of very excellent cats.

Sunday was almost as cold as Saturday had been, but at least the sun was out. I did a little bit of weeding and took some pictures of Spring's progress.
My bleeding hearts dicentra spectabilis are just popping up leaves and starting to unfurl a couple of pink flowers:
The viburnum, which is now showing LOTS of color in the buds and a few flowers are even opening:
A few flowerheads forming on "my" lilac. (This bush used to be in my former neighbor's back yard, but he kept piling up lumber and firewood along the fence, so the bush squeezed through the fence and now is growing entirely on my side.) Behind the lilacs you can see the plum trees blooming. I think these might be Damson plums. The fruit usually is full of bugs by the time it falls, but the birds and squirrels love them.
Lovely little wild violets everywhere. Most of them are the regular dark purple, but there are a few almost-white ones with purple stripes mixed in.
My hardy pansies, looking much happier now that they've gotten some rain and sun.
A few tulips blooming just in time for my across the street neighbor to look out her window and enjoy them for Easter
A really healthy clump of daffodils (with vinca behind them) in the front perennial bed.

My friend April invited me over to dinner at her house. It was her, her husband, her teen-age son, her grown-up daughter and daughter's boyfriend who were visiting from New York, and me. It was a huge spread...a ham, lasagna, green bean casserole, creamed spinach, asparagus, Greek salad, rolls...and about four or five kinds of dessert! With all that wonderfulness, the only picture i seem to have taken was of "Paul," April's son's female (!) hamster, stuffing a cracker into her cheek pouches!