Some quick garden pics

A little more than two weeks after the early veggies were planted and they’re showing signs of life. It took a little longer than I thought for the peas and lettuce to peek out of the ground, but they slowly are. The onions also look like they’re off to a good start.

The weeds do, too, unfortunately! And the rain, while much needed for the veggies, is helping the weeds plenty, too. Already the spring/summer tug of war between THEM and me begins. Who will win? It’s hard to say, but I’ll try my best to rid the garden of those evil things.

Here are a few photos of my garden’s early veggies. Look hard enough and you’ll see them between the weeds.

There really are two rows of onions among the weeds. I plan to plant a few more rows in a week or two, too.

Bulbs ordered for my new flower garden — I hope!

So I’ve been slacking this past week. Meant to get all my bulbs ordered, but I had problems with two separate websites. When I called one of the companies, I was told there were problems with the Internet ordering system and was asked to try back another day. The other company’s sale ended that day, so I resorted to good old snail mail.

I’m curious to find out whether they’ ll honor the sale. I did get envelope postmarked by the sale’s end date after all.

I’ve never ordered bulbs via a company’s website (hell, I’ve never ordered bulbs!), so I don’t have any experience as to whether the Internet ordering issues are common. I order plenty other stuff via online (including the new iPad I’m writing this post with), and 99 percent of my experiences have been good.

Anyway, about the actual bulbs. I spread out my catalogs on the floor and started placing cut-out photos of the ones I thought would work on a dry-erase board. I tried to pick a variety of colors and types (Helenium Red Jewel, above) that would bloom at various points of the spring/summer/fall in order to have color all season long. I tried to figure in flowers of a descending height from back to front of the space, too.

Tulips are coming up – yippee!!

I’ve been waiting anxiously to see whether any of the tulips I planted last November would come up this spring. I’m ecstatic to report that at least some of them are. I looked mid-week and didn’t see any despite the super warm temps. I wasn’t too surprised because I haven’t planted bulbs in about 20 years and then it was in more of a garden setting.

But last fall I decided our brown mulch in front of the house needed some color. So, one warm November Sunday, I planted about 50 tulip bulbs I got at the local Stein’s. If I remember correctly, they were mostly yellow- and pink-colored tulips. I planted some in a straight line on one side of the front door, in clumps on the other side.

Today, I was playing with the camera on my new iPad (I’m writing this post on it) and decided to check again on the bulbs. I was giddy when I saw the first one, thrilled when I saw a few others. In all, there were 12 poking up today (a few of them are in photo below). I can’t wait to see if more pop up, but I’ll be happy if I only get the dozen. Can’t wait to take more photos once the flowers bloom.

Ahh, the sweet sting of blisters

Pruned some shrubs in the yard yesterday and finished up with the raspberries and salvia today. Didn’t take long for several

My raspberry patch after today's pruning.

blisters to bubble up on my right hand – my “winter soft” hands will need to start toughening up. Have to say though, if blisters are a sign that spring really is here, I’ll take one on every finger!

It is, after all, only March 15 and winter usually holds out for awhile longer in Northeastern Wisconsin. Temps in the 60s and 70s have been fabulous. Opening the windows in the house, feeling the warm breeze blow through, it all seems quite decadent. Even slept with the window open last night. Can’t ever recall doing that in March before.

Anyway, back to the subject of pruning.

Summer 2011, what didn’t work: No love for zucchini here

Actually, it wasn’t that the zucchini didn’t do well in the garden last summer. It did way, way, way too well! I’ve heard others say that it just keeps giving and giving, and it did. Once again — like my neighbor’s advice that corn wouldn’t grow in my garden — I didn’t listen. Plus, it turned out no one in the family really liked it. Couldn’t give it away either. Won’t. Plant. It. Again. Ever.