Thursday, June 4, 2009

Rainbow Clouds

I know that if odour were visible, as colour is,
I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds.
~Robert Bridges, "Testament of Beauty"

This morning I walked through my garden with my camera and I'd like to share the pictures with you. I took a master gardener course last year and my garden looks like I flunked--I didn't. What's there is there by the grace of God and not too much toil of Nancy, but I still think it's beautiful. So does Max. 
That's wheat grass he's sniffing. Or rather I think that's what it is. It was labeled "cat grass." The bloomer is garlic chives.
Isn't he a cutie? Max in contemplation.
I think he's getting tired of having his photo taken. Those damn paparazzi!

I've shown this view before but it's one of my faves. This time my caladiums are exploding with color. Click on the pic to check them out.

This is toward the back. If you click on the pic, you should be able to see the row of granite boulders that were uprooted by a bulldozer when the water company trenched to the street behind us. We had a friend use his tractor to align them, or sorta kinda. It's actually a stone curve.

And this is a closer picture. The vine is the cross vine I showed in bloom earlier. Unfortunately a spring hail storm killed the flowers but the vine's flourishing.

This is my herb garden. And no, I haven't finished all the work I intended. The mulch still ends just before the fountain, which is still bare of the surrounding stone I intend to add. But see how pretty it looks even without my help. Okay, maybe my poor little parsley plant's not doing so great but you wouldn't be either if Tom pulled you up by your roots just so he could center you in the pot. (It was a self-sown seed.)
As was this. It looks like some kind of lettuce, but I'm afraid to try it. (My sister's friend's niece died after eating a plant she thought was cilantro. It was hemlock. Have you ever heard anything so horrible?)

And this. Both are probably weeds, but I find their foliage interesting  so I'm letting 'em show me what they got.
This hides in the herb garden along with a few other bits of statuary. I love items in the garden that just kind of peek out. 

This is the other side of the garden. The front of my studio--and yes, I still have the paper on the french door from when we replaced the glass. Shame on me! And yes, the rubber insulation thingie's sticking out at the bottom. I feel like taking a scissor to it--when I notice it--but I'm sure there's a proper way to replace it. Note to self: check the internet!

And Tom's workshop behind mine. I totally adore the colors we used on his shop. And why, you ask, did we make his so different from mine, which matches the house? His sits on a separate piece of property and we decided to keep the look different in case we ever want to sell it.

And that, my friends, is a walk through my garden. I love this time of year, love the time I spend in the garden and love how beautifully everything's growing right now--in spite of me!

Ta, y'all.

2 comments:

LITTLESASSY said...

I love these pictures! What a great day you chose to make them ... the clouds so pretty, the sky so blue. BTW the picture below the (suspected) lettuce is basil. Your garden looks great! Wish mine did! Maybe if I'd get out there and work in it, huh?

TexNan said...

So that's what it is! Yunno, I had basil come up voluntarily last year too, but I didn't recognize this one. I have another type of basil out there, but it doesn't look like this. Guess I'd best move it; basil gets so big and I have two separate bits in 'itty bitty spaces.

I saw on Rebecca's Garden this morning where she made a bamboo/chicken wire teepee-ish/ fort-ish type structure to grow her cukes on. Wish we'd done that. I try to train mine up the trellis but it doesn't want to learn maybe because it doesn't wanta grow straight up. I think with a tent-shape it'd be more like creeping on the ground. Maybe next year.