Beautiful Saturday!

Forgive my less than professional photography but I have yet to master touch-ups on Photoshop! I just had to get out there this morning and get a couple of pictures of the Irises while they looked so lovely. I had forgotten all about the pale violet ones that were a gift from the garden of a friend last year and to see them blooming this year was a real treat.
I just love having a garden, even if it were just the wildflowers in the meadow, it enriches my life so much and whenever I am out there talking to the plants, reveling in their beauty, I see the face of God and the world looks like a much sweeter, kinder place!

Storm!

I wanted rain for the garden and by golly I got rain along with some hail and high winds! But the garden finally got some rain and things look a little less parched this morning. I know I was getting tired of lugging water jugs all over the place so today I get a break...yah! Here's a little picture of the only lightening I could catch on camera. It went on for a few hours. I was just happy that the 90 degree temps we had been experiencing for the last few days were over.

My tiny patch of poppies is just popping out all over. What a shame that they look so good for a few hours then just disintegrate like they were made of tissue paper. Regal to shabby *sigh* in hours. And then there is the "no name" plant my girlfriend Julie gave me last year. It's been in her grandmother's garden for years and now that Julie inherited the property she has been updating things like the water pump and pipes and in the process had to transplant a few of the old garden girls. She knew I loved this plant and so she divided it up and brought me a little for my garden. They seem similar to a Stella D'Oro, same kind of tubers that multiply each season. But no one I have shown them to knows what they are called. If you have any idea please let me know!

Oh Bubbins!

I didn't think the meadow had grown enough for a cutting but I guess I was wrong. It makes for a weird day when farmer Bubbins mows as I have to keep the cats indoors while the machines and trucks do their thing. It also throws a lot of pollen into the air and disrupts all the ground nesting birds, which makes the crows and seagulls happy. For a few years the University of Vermont were here studying the Georgia Sparrow (ground nesters) that travel all the way to upstate New York to nest in the meadows. The University wondered what the repercussions were to the sparrow population when their habitat is routinely destroyed 2-3 times a season. I have no idea what their conclusion was, but I have noticed that this year I have not seen many sparrows.It's a choice between sparrows and feeding the cows. Cows 1...sparrows 0
Oh the joys of living in the country!

Lilacs-early color and beauty

Don't you just love the early guys who make the effort to brighten the garden long before the other sleepy heads bother to stretch and yawn?
I spent yesterday doing more weeding and  planting the Dahlias, a job I feel is tedious but I have to reward potential and perseverance. This variety was given to me by my friends Don and Diane and they get these huge burgundy red flowers that are so worth the effort to dig up each Fall.
Oh well, back to the Lilac, she is a sweet little bush planted by some previous tenant and I have done my best to continue to love and nurture her and even though she only produces a few select spires, the perfume is beyond anything you could ever get from a bottle!
While I was out snapping this picture one of my cats (Bruce Wayne) decided it was a good time to chase a butterfly and run across my field of vision so I snapped done of him....what's a garden without a few friends?
Happy plantings!

Springtime Blues

You know I love the new garden season but I will admit that it also brings with it a lot of work and preparation. I have very limited spare income so I have to make do a lot of the time and so I have to be creative with planning the garden. Thank  goodness  for perennials.                                                                                                                                                                                                This year I will be painting the deck and also my homemade bird feeder. I had wood left over from a few projects last year and with hammer and nails, a saw and ruler....voila! It looks a little shabby right now as we had a bad winter, but shortly it will be right as rain! 

Stay tuned for more "make-do" projects.