Spring Blooms

A daffodil blooming on 3/18/2012

Southwest Wisconsin spring has arrived 5 to 4 weeks early.  It is unheard of to have 80F weather in mid-March.  So many plants have come into bloom way to early.  The fruit tree are now blooming and for the next several nights a hard freeze is forecast.  Wisconsin Orchards may lose their fruit crops this year.  Here are some photos of plants in my yard.

  

Violets blooming in the lawn on 3/21/2012

 

Hyacinth started opening on 3/18/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/21/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/25/2012

   


Crabapple Buds 4/3/2012



4/3/2012 Coral Bell Bud



Ground cover blooming 4/3/2012

Lilac buds 4/3/2012

      

The House Projects

This weekend I spend most of my time putting up vegetables from the garden. I cut the two “Cheddar” cauliflower heads and filled two Ziploc gallon bags for blanching. I spent Saturday morning freezing the beans, cauliflower and broccoli. I also prepared beet greens for freezing and cooked the beets. I save some beets for eating this week but the rest of the beets were pickled and canned for a total of 7 half-pint jars. Sunday morning I made 7 pints of canned dill pickles.

After getting that job done I found time to put the first coat of paint on the northeast corner of the basement. Putting the first coat on the wall takes the longest since I needed to painting over all the spray-foam and foam-board insulation between the cement wall and first floor. The next three coats should be a lot easier since I one coat usually covers the foam.

The rest of the Sunday I spent sowing “Detroit Red” &“Detroit Golden” beets and “Chantenay” & “Baby Nantes” carrot. I used boiling hot water from the food processing to kill weeds in the stone paths. I used some of leftover flowers from Farmer’s Market to fill in holes in the garden and composted the rest.

I also had the back deck on my “TO DO” list. I have a small area on the left stair riser left to sand. One week ago the heat wave broke and I spent that Monday home working on the deck. My upholstery teacher lent me her Black and Decker Mouse sander. The sander has attachments which allow you reach in the tight areas. I got all the deck done in 8 hours last Monday with only small area left to hand sand. The weather is going do cool down after Tuesday so I might take more time off to finish it.

Area that needs to be hand sanded.

The Garden Keeps Blooming

The different types of lilies are the main show this last week.  Here are the daylilies.



Lilies, I not sure what are Asia and Orientals but I just love having them in the garden.

Here picture of my small garden bed beside the back deck I am working on now.  There is another daylily is this picture when I brought this plant I was told that it does well in shade.  I do love the dark red with its yellow center.



Lastly, I also have an Indian Blanket flower just start blooming.  I planted it in the garden just last year; I been having trouble getting them to winter over in the garden.

Not Much Has Changed

I am still busy working on the garden. I have been harvesting pea pods, broccoli, and beets. This weekend I froze 5 to 6 quarts of pea pods and another 3 quarts of broccoli. My beans are just starting to produce; I pick only five beans off the bushes yesterday but there are many more beans coming. The tomatoes are growing now since we are finely getting some warm weather. The cucumbers are blooming and I also noticed that my pumpkins are blooming too. The golden zucchini has a 6 inch squash ready to harvest this evening.


The perennial garden is looking good now. Last week I dug up the iris and divided them. The irises were dying from iris bores. I saved what I could and threw the rest out. I also divided some of the other plants the garden to keep them from getting to big. Here are some pictures of the flowers in bloom.

 

 













Believe it or not I actually found time last weekend to start working on the house again.  I spray washed the front porch and back deck.  Vacuumed and washed the front porch furniture which was covered with White Pine pollen.  The back deck still needed to the rinsed down with a beach solution since there was still some algae that survived the commercial cleaning solution.  Now I need to sand down the back desk before staining it.

More Flowers



Spiderwort

 

Achillea






Tiger Lilies: The bulbs have been past down from my great grandmother's garden.

 

Yellow Loosestrife



Raspberry Ice Opera Supreme Petunias

 

Sedums

The Blooming Garden

Perennial garden on 6/14/2011



 

  

Serveral types of bearded Irises.



American Columbine



Seberian Iris



Bleeding Hearts

  

Jack In the Pulpit



Sage Flower

Creeping Phlox



Week 2: The weather has not been helpful.

 

We had freeze warnings from last Friday to Tuesday night, so none of the plants were put outside to harden off until this Wednesday afternoon.  I only put the cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower along side the house with a light covering over them.  The stones next to the house work as a heat sink and keep them warm overnight and the covering is also use to use the plants from being burned in direct sunlight. 



Plants are kept under a light weight cover the first couple days.





Here are some blooming plants that did survive the frost.

The first tulips of the year.



The hyacinth is near the end of its blooming cycle.



Prairie Smoke is just beginning to bloom.  When the flower starts to died it looks like smoke is billowing from it.

  

The next two pictures show Wild European Ginger in bloom.  The blooms are very hard to find.  It is hidden under the leavers on very short stems next to the ground.  The flowers are not at all showy.  If you look in the center of the pictures you will see a small bud like flower.

Last weekend I did get all my basil and paste tomatoes transplanted into their containers.  I did plant seeds for my cucumbers, winter and summer squashes.  I put the cucumber and squash plants in the garden on the last weekend of May.