May 18 Friday Farming

I've missed a few weeks around here, haven't I? More on that tomorrow. For now, I need to catch up on my Friday farming posts!

The irises in our front yard, especially along the front porch, have exploded this year. The darker purple are from the lake and the lighter a gift from my friend Shannon when she split hers.

I'd never really known much about irises, other than these were free from my parent's lake place. Free is good. And I LOVE them!

They are HUGE; bigger than the bushes we have planted along the porch.

I think all of the plants along the south-facing porch benefit from how the cement retains heat through the night. These plants are far and away ahead of others further from the porch. The lilac bush in the back yard hasn't even bloomed yet.

Potted sugar snap peas.

The daylilly has looked like this for a few weeks now; buds, but not moving towards blooming. Maybe it realized that daylillies aren't supposed to bloom until late July and it is only mid-May?

Raspberry bush.

I think I ate 3 raspberries last summer. This year there are so many blossoms that I think we'll be eating them for a while!

Driveway beds.

The lupine is about to flower.

We'll see if I can coax blossoms out of the bee balm this year.

Kitchen beds.

 I love how this fern uncurls every year. I want to plant more of them!

Sticks are delicious.

 Out back the veggie garden is progressing. I ran out of room inside for starting tomatoes, and decided to chance it with putting mine outside. I've got Roma, Cherry, Brandywine, Early Girl and Black Krim in the ground so far. We'll see how they do. I also planted a couple mounds of zucchini and pumkins, as well as a carrot patch.

I also added marigolds and giant sunflowers.

The clematis is slowly climbing its trellis. I think I might get more out of the hollyhock this year too.

A biew like this out of the back yard is pretty hard to beat.

And finally, I put the broccoli in a pot with some lobelia. Hopefully the gophers won't be able to get into the pot...

 After Memorial Day weekend we'll fill the rest of the pots and hanging baskets around our house.

A couple of realizations: pretty much everything blooming at our house right now is purple. I apparently don't like pink. Or yellow. Or orange. Or... any other color. I need to work a bit more variety into the landscape.

We also really need to re-stain our back deck and touch up some white trim around the house.