Thankful.

 

If I were a seed, I’d be most thankful for:

1. Rest.

2. Soil.

3. Water.

4. Warmth.

5. Stretching.

6. Sunlight.

7. Freedom.

I think I might actually be a seed.

Cherry.

Our Nanking Cherry was ravishing this year in full pink gown. I couldn’t stop looking at it, commenting on it, taking photos of it.  My eyes were opened again to this spring beauty. Like looking through the childhood window of memory at a cherry tree in blossom. Like feeling a story so deep it is like a memory.

“I had made up my mind that if you didn’t come for me to-night I’d go down the track to that big wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night. I wouldn’t be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don’t you think?”  “Yes, it was a cherry-tree in full bloom outside of her window.” from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

 

This moment.

Joining Amanda at Soulemama today with:

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Please feel free to share your moment with us.

Cartography.

This year, the impulse to create our garden map came suddenly and without planning. “Mama, we need to do our garden map”, I heard shortly after we returned from purchasing a few seed packets. I was summoned to get the paper, and this year the medium of choice was paint. “No”, not watercolor, “they are too dim, I need bright colors for the Indian corn”.

We’ll be growing tomatoes, peppers, Indian corn, peas, rainbow carrots, cherries, blue cherries, and more carrots!

And I fully expect our actual garden planning and planting to be just as abstract, just as bright, just as unique, and just as beautiful.

Garden portrait :: May 20

Busy.  We are officially open to the public, for the 2014 season.  Plants are moving out the greenhouse door and we are slowly filling in our own garden.

Stay tuned for a tour, this week, of what’s growing, both inside and out!

Thanks for stopping by today~

Enjoy!

Congratulations to Cortney, Linda and Mutie!

Bees!

Strawberries!

Tomatoes!

Magic.

Sweet.

Scrumptious.

How exciting!!!

 

Thank you Robin, with The Good Seed Company, for a great start to a wonderful growing season.

And thanks all around to those who have followed us over the past year and to those who have just recently joined us in this adventure.

New.

As we link the circle of our first year on grow, we feel the roots taking hold and fresh growth shooting up.

And as we roll on, past our 100th!! post, we seek out the new to add to the familiar.

We’ve discovered a local, new-to-us (although not new) seed company, The Good Seed Company.

In their own words they are:

“purveyors of regionally adapted, cold-hardy heirloom & open pollinated GMO-free, untreated seeds since about 1980”.

This season in our garden we’re trying out Black Krim Tomato, Green Arrow Shell Pea, and Painted Mountain Corn.

In thanks to all of our readers old and new, we are offering a small giveaway. Let us bring something new, in the form of The Good Seed Company seeds, to your garden this season. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post telling us something new you are trying in your garden this season. Five winners will be announced Sunday May 18 after a highly sophisticated random selection process.  If you are chosen, we will contact you for mailing information.

We are grateful to you all for reading, liking, sharing our words.

 

Garden portrait :: May 12

I thought I would change things up a bit today!  Here is a birds-eye view of the garden, from our upstairs window.

Enjoy the view and thanks for stopping by my garden.

 

Plant profile: Wooly Veronica

Common Name: Wooly Veronica, Wooly Speedwell, Creeping Veronica

Latin Name: Veronica pectinata

Family: Plantaginaceae.  (This is a huge plant family, with over 90 different genera!  Some other, more familiar, genera in this family are Antirrhinum– Snapdragon and Penstemon– Beardtongues.)

This is one tough perennial!  We had temperatures that dove down below -35F this winter, and this beauty is going strong.  Check out these photos of how it is thriving:

Growth Requirements: Full sun to partial shade.  Low moisture requirements; considered a xeriscaping must-have!   Low growing groundcover, 1″ to 2″ in height and up to 2 feet of spread.

Additional information: Flowers are a deep blue when they first appear and fade to a soft purple as they age.  An excellent choice for in between patio stones or pavers.  It can easily be divided to create new clumps…this one shown here came all the way from my parents’ yard, in Colorado.

Inside.

The mountains likely have a fresh blanket of snow today and we have a fresh fire in our fireplace.  Cold weather aided in changing my focus today, from outdoor cleaning and planning to indoor work.  My hands worked steadily inside the greenhouse today, despite the chill outside.  There were many critical tasks on hand, desperate to be accomplished today, such as smelling the basil, admiring the tomatoes, brushing the thyme leaves, petting the salvia…

Here are a few snapshots from inside the greenhouse today:

 

And as for tomorrow…some real work may just be in order.

That is, after I muse over the marjoram, breathe in the marigolds, hover over the onions….