show offs

Byzantine gladiolus

These weren't in their full glory on garden bloggers' bloom day (April 15), but I couldn't resist showing them now. Most of my front yard garden flowers are native or adapted and drought tolerant. As much as I appreciate them, not many are very showy, so I really look forward to the week or two my heirloom Byzantine gladiolus blooms. They came with the house, so someone planted these bulbs more than 20 years ago.



My only rose is this sun-loving miniature "Red Cascade" I've had for seven years. I really like this shade of red--not too pink and not too orange--plus it's super tough and dainty at the same time.


miniature "Red Cascade" rose

foliage follow up to bloom day

'Mahogany' nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) seedlings

Pam at Digging invites us to show off our foliage the day after garden bloggers' bloom day. Check out her blog to see hers and others' foliage standouts.


plumbago's slowly coming back after a tough winter


inland sea oats are lusher than I've ever seen them


Mexican feathergrass and bush germander


this biggest agave survived the cold winter pretty well, too

garden bloggers' bloom day

society garlic

Most of my salvias are a little behind bloom-wise, but they did make it through last winter's hard freezes.


victoria salvia peeking


Overall, things are pretty lush, but we still need today's predicted rain! Visit Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog to see other blooms from all over.


trailing verbena


"21st Century Blue" phlox


"Miss Tilly" balloon flower (platycodon)


byzantine gladiolus just began its show yesterday


"Diamond Frost" euphorbia


purple cauliflower finally bolted, too bad no purple blooms


blackfoot daisy


"Purple Moon" torenia

tomatoes in, lettuces out: sore muscles all over

At the moment, I'm lounging inside enjoying a chalupa, wine, and West Virginia versus Duke (go WVa) basketball. [EDITED 11:45 pm: ugh, cocky Duke won; well then, go Butler on Monday!] And I definitely earned this relaxation today.

I pulled out all the bolting lettuces and weeded four vegetable beds, which included mountains of chickweed. While I was doing that, husband Kurt was doing our taxes (yippee!) Later he came out and mixed up our compost and amended two of the newly empty beds for me to plant tomatoes (Old German, Arkansas Traveller, Valley Girl, Sun Gold), a tomatillo, basils (sweet, cinnamon, red rubin), and sweet banana peppers.

I left the monster parsley bush and oregano patch for now because both still have plenty of good stuff to offer. I also left the flowering broccoli and kale for now. I've still got some Juliet tomatoes in a big pot and six more sweet basils to plant somewhere, but they can all wait a week or two when I'm finally ready to pull out those bolting greens.


lettuce bed before


lettuce bed after, with new peppers, tomatillo, and tomatoes


old beet and carrot bed before


old beet and carrot bed during...


old beet and carrot bed during...


old beet and carrot bed after, before planting new basil


old beet and carrot bed after, with new basil: look how big the potato plants are now (far left)!


three kinds of basil