True Story

Talking to Youngest Daughter the other day…telling her something I heard on NPR.  It was something awesome and inspiring and deeply moving and no doubt humorous and full of truth, all at the same time.

She listened attentively.

And she responded, “you listen to NPR?!?”

Hmph. Yes. Yes, I do, and it doesn’t take away from my kewlness.

In other news, we have been totally enjoying a blissful March, with the middle of the month free of wind, and with temps in the high 60’s and low 70’s.

Last fall, with Wonderful Guy’s initiative and motivation, we hied ourselves to the local hardware store and bought a bag ‘o tulip bulbs.  Fifty of ‘em, then we went around the yard and stuck them in the ground.

Well, ‘we’ did until the guy ended up with blisters from the bulb digger thingie. I finished while he was in doctoring his wounds, so he didn’t know where the last several ended up.

Last week he asked me if some of those tulips ended up over by the blah blah blah because something was coming up…and I was all ‘Ohmigah!  I forgot about the TULIPS!!!  Lemme see lemme SEE!!!’

We have tulips sprouting all over, and hopefully soon we will have some blooming.  Oh, I am not fooling myself.  I know its just mid-March.  We are due chilly weather yet.  Maybe even more snow.  This is Colorado after all!  But still…we planted tulips last fall!

In the meantime, these bloomed this week.

The Garden

There were wonderful and beautiful iris. Almost at peak bloom they were.  I scurried out to photograph one evening.  And later that night…we were wakened by…hail!  Loud hail.  Big! Loud! Hail!

Hail that not only sliced iris blooms but made lace of hollyhock leaves, mashed soapwort, mangled hosta, dashed the newly opened peonies, and also…watered the basement.

I dutifully deadheaded later, and noted that the hateful hail even damaged the buds of my iris! It’s a good year to be a roofer in northern Colorado.  But! There were still blooms to come and I enjoyed them even more, I think, because of the destruction.

And then, when the last vestige of the icey destroyer was shaken off?  The night before we left for Mexico?

More hail.  So much for Iris 2011.  Whatever. (At least it wasn’t a wheat crop….)

Now it’s time to move on.  Lavendar is in full spread.  Roses are starting.  Carrots show promise, and so do the peas.

And the first evening back from our trip, sitting on the patio?  The fragrance of my honeysuckle was evident.

My tomatoes survived.  So there’s that.

Lettuce Salad

Oh yes…

My very own produce,

and it is ta-ast-ty (mostly because I grew it myself!)

Mother’s Day

I rarely get to spend Mother’s Day with Eldest, so this one was a special treat.  She asked Youngest what she should do.  Youngest told her our typical arrangement was to visit the nursery on Mother’s Day and pick out something for my yard.

So…while in Philly, Eldest and I picked up a couple of things from the nursery…and planted them in her yard…for Mother’s Day!  She bought me a peony and a hydrangea.

We saw this one in bloom at Longwood Gardens, and that is what we chose (or one close to it).  Not your typical hydrangea, and I liked it, because of that. I told her about hydrangeas being pink or blue depending on the alkalinity or acidity of the soil.  We are scientific that way...but I went on to say it was more like coffee grounds and lime....not sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid...

The peony was on sale, being rather puny in comparison to the big, robust bushes we found down the bench aways.  I am a sucker for the scrawny plants….at 50% off.  And a peony?  It’ll do. I just love me a good smelly peony!  Reminds me of old farm gardens, and big bouquets on kitchen tables.

But the big news on Mother’s Day?  Her first two tall bearded iris opened up.  Two that came from my yard, that I helped her plant 3 years ago.

Doesn’t get much better than that.

Lilac update

So far,  they are doing very well.  But I am under no illusions here.  We are not out of the frost free zone. This weekend, in fact...perhaps...

Spring is trying very hard.  And in spite of The Guy’s efforts at ‘thinning’ last year, the violets are blooming.

I am making good progress getting the beds cleaned out, and say that I am about 85% there.  Maybe 90%, because I am optimistic that way!

And I am seeing tall bearded iris buds in the front yard.  I have the little guys blooming already.

May is right around the corner.

Lilac Update

So far so good.

And this year I have 2 real life daffies blooming!  I planted these 6 or 7 years ago, and generally I get foliage sprouting and not much else.  Once in a while a puny little bloom that might last half a day…

What I think this bodes is one long dry season, though.

My hyacinths are all three showing again this year, regular as clockwork.  I should really get more of these.

Seed starting

I am ready for spring.

OK.  Not really ready, but you know….”ready”! So in an effort to get REALLY ready, I am going to start getting ready…

…by planting seeds.  Some I can’t do until I do some yard cleaning up, but others need to be started inside.

And that’s what I have done.  Peppers, pumpkins, squash, zucchinis, nasturtiums, and sunflowers.

Six pots of each…with a few seeds in each pot. I do not have the acreage in my back yard for all those vining vegetables, but it seems to be a waste of effort to plant only one little pot per packet of seed.

If I only planted one, not one seed would germinate. However? I am sure now that I have planted six pots, every single seed will sprout.

Perhaps I will have find other gardens for some.

Hiding Lilacs

They are in there.

Wonder if we will have a lilac sort of spring this year.

Making Room

I have had the distinct pleasure this month of having a visit from both sisters. I have already described some of what we did during Wisest’s stay. Dearest’s was not so long, not even 24 hours. But we filled it full, with the tail end of my iris bloom, grandbebe girls, softserve twist cones, and a drive up the canyon to where I had scoped out the lowest altitude where lilacs were still blooming.

Yes, we did, and she appreciated it, too!

We also stayed up past my bedtime talking because time was short. There was planning to be discussed pertaining to another grandbebe quilt (Yep!  Grandbebe the Fourth!) (I really need to get on number three. Seriously.) And she and I are wondering about the prospect of a long weekend to Salt Lake in Auguest or September.

I have been removing the spent bloom stalks from the iris, and many are done. Wonderful Guy mentioned it’s bittersweet when the iris are done, and he misses them. So will I, but after cleaning them up yesterday, I mentioned to him I still have seven different varietals blooming. When they first started opening up, I was pretty darned excited to have seven different ones open!

So as for the iris, they have their time, then they make room for the roses. And other things. While I was puttering around in the yard and on the patio over the weekend, every so often the breeze carried the fragrance of my honeysuckle. I planted the old fashioned kind that spreads like crazy and attracts bees like nobodies business. And it’s beautiful, and smells wonderfully.

Exactly what I wanted.

Also, I am going to have some pretty stunning hollyhocks this year, I do believe, thanks to Kate. Can’t wait to see what colors I get. I seem to have a memory at the edges of my mind of Momma making ‘little ladies’ with hollyhock blooms, one big bloom for a skirt, and a small bloom for….I don’t know…the top of the person. Anyone remember this sort of thing? Because I am going to have hollyhocks and may need to impress my Grandbebe Girls with little hollyhock ladies.

So bittersweet indeed. The iris are so welcome for many reasons, and I am sorry when they are done. I do have a very long bloom time here, though, and when they go, I know summer is here, and there are lots of other blooming things vying for my attention.

Also, Dearest Sister brought me some iris from the desert. I need to find places to plant those guys!

I Got The Blues

Blooming at chez Irons...flowers the color of my girl's eyes...

Yellow eyed Forget Me Nots...which I just love, but will miss if I am not attentive! (Love the alpine version, too!)

Fancy violets...

Common violets, but click to see the white one with speckles!  I think they are cross breeding and I am getting shades of violet...

Solomon's Seal, which are not blue or violet...but I don't care!

And....drum roll...I think I am going to have lilacs this year!  That is a squeal of joy coming from the foothills of Colorado, folks.

Followed by another, after a big inhale of the one fragrance guaranteed to take me back to walking to school in May in Greensburg, Kansas.

Spring Cleaning, the Yard

Being a glorious and splendid day on Sunday, I spent just a wee bit of time after the birthday barbeque in the yard. I could not help myself. I know. I KNOW! It's early. A full four weeks before the last average frost! I do know all that, but I just couldn't not do it. Just one corner. And maybe a bit more.

Then just a bit more on Monday. (Fortunately, Tuesday we were all involved with car-dealing or more would have been cleared...)

What could it hurt....

Nothing this week.  It's has been All. Spring! All The Time.  Stuff is growing by leaps and bounds.

Last week.

This week!

Last week...

This week!

(from seeds an old friend brought to me from Alaska...)

More...

And more...

It's heady stuff, and it's easy for me to be overcome with the whiff of fresh earth and chlorophyll.We might just have lilacs this year...(fingers crossed!)

T is for…

Tomatoes.
Green tomatoes.

Green tomatoes laying in my basement, hopefully ripening.

I know there are supposedly wonderful and delicious ways of preparing green tomatoes, but I am all about ripe tomatoes. So I will wait. And frankly, I have never tried any of those recipes.

Not all will make it, I know. But some will. And they will be tasty delights, almost as good as right off the vine, maybe into November. Maybe all the way to Thanksgiving, but that might be a stretch this year, what with that holiday being late.

In no other place where I have lived and grown tomatoes have I been so diligent about picking the green ones before the first good freezes. I use the plural, because I will cover the plants, and/or gamble the meteorologist doesn’t know what they are talking about, on one or two spaced out first frosts. But like this week, when two good freezes are predicted, down in the 20’s…I pick and call it good.

So why here and not in other places? Because in other places, tomatoes start in July and go like crazy until everyone has tomatoes coming out their ears, their kid’s ears, their neighbor’s ears, and are foisting them onto people who don’t even like tomatoes. So when the first freeze rolls around, it's easy to be ready to give them up.

Here, not so much. I have been lucky the last few summers to have ripe tomatoes the first of August…or so. This year not until after Labor Day. Oh my anguish with the shorter growing season of this elevation and northern latitude.

So I pick the green ones to extend my access to homegrown tomatoes.

Maybe not vine ripened, but garden grown.

Dearest Sister tried to get me to see the wisdom in giving up the growing of my own for the purchasing of them from the local farmer’s market, but it was folly on her part.

See. There is always next year…this summer was late…and coolish…and really noone’s tomatoes did well…

(I don’t always listen to her, but don't tell her that....)

Weekend Wrap-Up

And what a great weekend it was!

Laid back, time with family and friends, mountain scenery, good food...

And some time in my yard. Of which I will share these little snippets.

This little area has become more fun than any of my initial vision.

The johnny jumpups seeded out in an interesting variety. Oh, the hail damage!

Comfrey, which I end up cutting wa-aa-ay back about twice or three times a season. I should figure out something to do with it. I hear it is a miracle cure for most of what ails me...

Perennial sweet peas...that my neighbor...my previous neighbor, actually, planted. They have come to live at my house voluntarily.

Old fashioned honeysuckle. Plain, no frills, the crazy, spreading-like-wildfire, drive me wild fragrance kind. Exactly what I wanted.

Autumn bells and lupine, which was grown from seed that an old friend brought to me as an souvenir from an anniversary trip to Alaska.

Jupiter's Beard gone crazy! With old fashion tansy behind. I figure I will just let them go at it, like giants...and see who wins.

More Jupiter's Beard, and Coneflowers just starting to bloom. I planted one (1) coneflower here, and now pretty much what isn't Jupiter is coneflower!

Spiderwort

This is my seventh summer here. I don't know that I have ever had this many growing seasons in one yard. While it is still evolving (it is growing, after all!), many little corners and crannies are 'developed', settled, and full.

Not a week, and hardly a day, goes by without me remarking how much I enjoy our yard, and how much I am lovin' how it is growing.

This girl? She is one happy camper.

Harvest

While catching up in the yard after getting back, I trimmed my catnip…oh who I am kidding…I trimmed the kitty girls' catnip back. Usually I toss a few stems on the patio for their enjoyment and ditch the rest. This time it was primo gold. We are talking the good stuff. A fresh June crop, and I thought…you know, we are running a little low on the dried stuff in the house from way back when.

So I cut it back and laid the stalk/ branches/trimmed thingies on one of the pieces of patio furniture while I continued working.

Later that afternoon, I drug out my book on the ‘ways and means’ to harvest, dry, and use one’s own herbs (official title). I laid the catnip on the patio, sat down, and start stripping the leaves off the stalks, as best I could tell I was directed to do.

Oh. The kittie girls were so interested. They came over to where I sat. They smelled the catnip. They rubbed the catnip. They crawled up on the pile of leaves (on opposite sides, of course). The girls stretched out, drooled a bit, and settled in for the haul, which was a long one, because my catnip has proven durable in the northern Colorado climate, and seeded out in several places.

I have a lot of catnip.

Now it is drying in a cool dark place…the table in the basement. So far as I know, the girls haven’t found it yet. So far as I know.

Now I am charged up. I do believe I am going after my lavender next. Maybe in the morning, after things have dried out. I am feeling like a farmer!

Yep. Another afternoon drencher…

Recent Blooms

I have only had peonies in my yard for three years.

I have had blooms for two years, and only one real bloom last year.

They came from Dearest Sister's KC garden. I am not sure where she got them. She may remember. We have determined they are not the super-fragrant heirloom variety, but...

Look what I clipped Friday night.

(And no ants were spied!)

Yard Clean Up Begins!

Today the sun shone (mostly), the temperature was warm (er), and I put on a long sleeved tee, a sweatshirt, and a fleece, grabbed my basket of implements of destruction and my 'yardman' (a collapsible bag for which to collect debris so I don't leave piles for Wonderful Guy to pick up after me...he's wonderful...but with limits...) and headed out. The fleece came off in short order.

I got alot done in the backyard. Almost all the backyard is cleaned up.

Then I started hurting in all the 'out of gardening shape from wintering over' places. So I took a break, and saved some for tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the day after.

Can't have all my good stuff in one day!

It was sweet getting my fingernails dirty. And it is really sweet to see what the beds are looking like with their spring dresses on. And it is super sweet to see how they are developing their own personalities, like what is thriving where, what has seeded out and ended up where (actually fascinating...how did that end up here?), what is working and what is not growing(sometimes I just have to give up!).

Anyway. Now my allergies are making me sneeze, but that okay. My jeans are dirty, but so what. I might have a bit of sunburn on my neck and that is nothing but fun.

I am going to make Wonderful Guy take me out for BBQ. With dirty jeans. There's a new place in town that has decent, really better than decent BBQ. Finally... somewhere I can get some good BBQ in this state besides Steamboat Springs...

The Yard

She is calling to me.

And I hear her, but I am a wimp. It has been chilly and damp on the weekends, and I have been tired or busy in the evenings after work, when the weather has been nice.

She tempts me with color…

And with fragrance…

And with form extraordinaire…



With surprises unlooked for and unseen until…well…seen…

I might just bundle up in warm clothes, no matter the temperature, and get out there this weekend. If she can do all that through the debris of last winter, I should do my part.

But, alas, I might be too much a wimp.