what's blooming

August 2016 Bloom Day
Flame flower (Phemeranthus (Talinum) calycinum ):



Leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides):



Desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua):



Sunset Hyssop (Agastache rupestris):





Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia):

weekend update

Backyard: Raised bed: The tomatoes are doing well, got a few Sungolds starting to ripen up. (Full disclosure, I picked 2 ripe ones already last weekend.) Basil is going like whoa, including a couple of Thai basil plants I picked up at Big Orange (to replace the dearly departed Persian basil). Thyme is back, chives are still chugging along.





Yard: Sigh. Dog decided her new spot to dig up and lay in was along the edge where the grass plugs went in. I've done 2 more Office Arugula Giveaways since the first one this season. The arugula is starting to flower, and gets more stemmy/less leafy as a result. I think I need to scalp it, in hopes of getting some more new growth. Sorry, bees!





Front yard: Front door bed and pot: Good news, one of the Ann Folkard geraniums seems to have resurrected itself (barely)! Neither came up in the spring, so I thought they'd both died. Bad news, one of the new Ruby Port columbines was doing fine, then just up and croaked (??? wtf?)



Front door pot is doing OK, even though the coleus is kind of buried. Impatiens could put out some dang flowers, already.

Sidewalk bed: The primroses and flame flowers I got at the Garden Fair are doing well! I also ordered three blue honeywort plants from Annie's Annuals. They describe them as “insanely easy to grow.” I've been watering them pretty regularly, and they seem to be doing OK — I saw the first bud this week!

what's blooming

May 2016 Bloom Day
Flax:



Arugula volunteers:



Claret cup hedgehog cactus:



Geranium richardsonii:



Geranium phaeum ‘Raven’:



Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris ‘William Guiness’):



Lilac:



Veronica, probably Turkish Speedwell (Veronica liwanensis):

2016 arugula harvest #1

Thanks to the ever-fabulous Bev (who gifted me some of her perennial arugula plants), and to my laziness (letting the arugula go to seed), we have a nice colony in the yard. We've been enjoying arugula for about a month now, but there's no way we're going to be able to keep up, and it's starting to go to flower. Last year, once in June and once in July, I brought garbage bags full of arugula in to the office (I didn't blog about it then). I decided to bring back the Office Arugula Giveaway, in an attempt to not get so buried by it this year.

Step 1: Get up early and spend 15 minutes scalping arugula. Pick out as much other stuff as you can. (Seriously, there were a ton of snails in there.)







Step 2: Bring giant bag of arugula to the office and send out a mass email begging people to come'n'get it.





Step 3: Repeat until frost.

weekend update

Backyard: Cleaned up the raised bed. Pulled all the tomatoes, except one Sungold for now. Also left the yard volunteer arugula — they're still (!!!!) full of bees, and I hate to cut them back while it's still warm enough for the bees to be stocking up for winter.

(UPDATE: The bees were probably our backyard neighbor's — didn't know they'd gotten a hive!)

Before-and-afters:











Late Sungolds:



Arugula and bees!







Fennel seeds:



Front yard: Front door pot:



Blackbird euphorbia and hens-and-chicks out by the mailbox:





Final diagram for the front door bed. Names in white are new plants, names in yellow are survivors from last year! [click for larger]

what’s blooming

October 2105 Bloom Day
Still bees in the arugula:



Arugula has taken over the yard. Note the primrose desperately trying to escape across the rock wall:

weekend update

Planted the tomatoes today (Memorial Day). Put one of the Sungolds in the raised bed, the other in the side bed with the Robesons and the basil.






[click for larger]

Lots of bees in the arugula volunteers:

arugula volunteers

... in the yard! I dug up a few to give away last fall, but we've been eating them since early April. Thanks again to the ever-fabulous Bev for hooking me up with a lifetime supply of perennial arugula!

weekend update

Front yard:
Planted in the sidewalk bed: 5 Dakota verbena; the 2 sages from NM Plant Co; babies offsets from the pot o'hens'n'chicks. Cota came back. Transplanted daisies have varying levels of vigor.



Front door bed: some things didn't make it — Ann Folkard geranium, one of the Richardsonii geraniums, one of the leadworts (leads wort?):



I hacked back/pulled up some of the prairie sage gray sagewort to give the new plants more space:



Back yard:
Planted the three chive starts from NM Plant Co:



Who wants chowdah? kale?



Giant colony of hollyhock volunteers back by the shed. The dog, she is only there for scale.