in the garden : wild poppies in bloom

I sowed some poppy seeds early spring this year.......

Planted 4/20/2011

.....when the hyacinth, tulips and magnolia tree were blooming.......

4/20/2011: Note Zara's winter coat, yellow narcissus and an unopened tulip. All signs of early spring. The fence behind Zara is where I planted the poppies that day.

......and this week the poppies started appearing. so far only pink and red. Some lavendar and white ones should appear as well.

The petals looks like crepe paper. Hmmmm...paper poppies made of crepe paper. Idea for crafty project?

In front of the poppy patch are a few flat large rocks. Perfect for posing in front of said poppies.

in the garden: cutting peonies

Can you believe this is the first time I ever cut some peonies from the front yard to bring inside? I looked online to see what the best method of cutting peonies is. Apparently, it's best to cut them when they're still in the bud stage. They'll last longer indoors. When choosing which stem to cut, squeeze the bud between your fingers to check the firmness. Mushy like a marshmallow is good. Too hard is a no-go. Cut where the stem meets the base of the plant so you have a nice long stem. When you get them inside, trim the stem again and put into cold water. Replace water every couple of days.




6/24/2011: my cut peonies (photo by sofia!) | You can see the 5 tight buds and two partially opened flowers.


The ones I cut about 4 days ago are doing nicely! All but one bud has opened.

6/27/2011: cut peonies | vintage photo textures by jodie lee

p.s. All this talk about opening buds reminds me of one my favorite quotes:




Fonts: Garamond + LaurenScript

in the garden: first blooms

Since the gardening bug bit me this spring, I haven't shared any of the fruits of my labor yet. I've been planting and weeding and pruning and mulching and pruning some more. All in preparation for Zara's 2nd birthday party which we had a few weeks ago in our backyard. Of course, the spring tulips, hyacinths and crocuses have come and gone. Our lilacs bloomed for a few weeks in May. Our magnolia in early spring. After a bit of lull in color in our yard, I started planted a few annuals: petunias (red and pink).

petunia bought from amazonfresh. these add a bit of color around the front and back yards. regular deadheading (which I taught Sofia how to do) keeps them looking good.



 But now the summer color is slowly emerging.....




the very first peony bloom of the season. we have 3 peony plants in the front yard planted by previous owners of the house. the first couple of summers, we let them flop to the ground - they are so top-heavy. but this year I wised up and staked them using cut branches from various trees/shrubs in the yard along with these garden clips. since this photo was taken (6/20/2011), a dozen more buds have opened.

another peony bloom - this time in the bed next to the side of the house. i planted five peony tubers last year and did not dig them up in the winter. happily, they all came back even the one that looked totally dead. 

my first pincushion (aka scabiosa)! I've waited a long time for these to bloom. I have 5 of these in the flower bed in the frontyard and a single plant in a pot. The potted one was the first to bloom. (in the background of the photo are the irises that a neighbor was giving away. I worry for them. they look kinda sad. Jamie replanted them to replace our crocuses that never bloomed (due to our hungry cat)).



And we even planted our first vegetable garden: 2 tomato early girl starts and several cauliflower plants. I chose a particularly weedy, but sunny patch in the backyard for our veggie patch right next to the half-dozen reblooming day lilies I planted in early spring. We already spotted a couple of yellow flowers on both tomato plants.



sofia has taken a shine to gardening these days. here she is adjusting the tomato cages while wearing my floppy hat and her purple rain/gardening boots. So cute!




and another shot of my little gardening helper. and a glimpse of the blooming lavender i planted by the side of the house last spring (just in front of the row of peonies)






and inside the house: an orchid from Trader Joe's already blooming beautifully when I took it home.  it's on the windowsill beside the front door. Lots of indirect light through the window + a few ice cubes once week should do the trick (fingers crossed).



And so that's a mini-tour of what my garden flowers looks like right now. What a difference a year makes.

I'll try to dig up some before and after photos of the overall yard, which went through a dramatic transformation: I cut back blackberry bushes, overgrown bamboo and am now fighting back out-of-control ivy on the side fence....