Could It Bee?

I was just taking a break from my pile of work (which is what has been keeping me from blogging...money) and I took a quick stroll around the grounds to check on the crops. I found 2 surprises that I was definitely NOT expecting to find. The first was this:

Last summer I bought a few bags of bareroot peony plants from Lowes on a whim and then left them to bake in the garage for a few weeks. Not smart. If there was such a thing as Child Services for plants, I'd have been hauled away long ago for neglect and abuse.

Anyway, we finally got around to planting them sometime in late June or so, I think, which with our heat was WAY too late. Live and learn. I thought for sure they'd just decompose in the ground and we'd start over someday with new peony plants and actual forethought and information. I was stunned to see these little peony shoots popping out of the front flower bed. Maybe they'll be fluffy pink flowers for us to enjoy this summer, after all!

The next surprise, and by far the most thrilling (in my opinion) was this little guy:

Now, I'm no insect expert, but I think that's a bee. Albeit a skinny and slow-moving bee, but what can one expect in mid-March? Here he is hanging out on my pear tree buds, and I found another hanging out in the blueberry patch. YES! THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE I WANT YOU! I'm nervous for the little buggers, considering we may get another dose of the white stuff this weekend. But I've learned that bees in the garden can only mean good things. I just hope they stick around.

Gardening readers, please feel free to weigh in on my mystery visitors to confirm or correct me.

I Love Today

Though blustery, today is an amazing 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny. I know many of you are still dealing with snow and frigid temps, so either this post will warm the frozen cockles of your heart, or make you really mad. I had to grab my camera and snap pics of the awesomeness outside (I'm trying very hard to avoid overused phrasing like "spring has sprung!" or "the earth is waking up!" so bear with me).

First the veggies.

From top to bottom are Oregon Snow Pod II peas, popping up nicely; Little Gem Lettuce seedlings; and one of many broccoli starts in the milk jugs growing true leaves. It was hard to get a good shot of the lettuce because it is SO bright and sunny outside, and because I couldn't get very close because of the mud between the rows.

Next up is the fruit:

It was next to impossible to get a decent shot of the blueberry buds with the wind whipping the branches around. These are the "Powder Blue" bushes that were rescued from certain death in the clearance section of the local feed store last fall, and they almost seem so grateful for the second chance at life that they are outpacing the "Misty Blue" bushes to bud.

Next are the flower buds:

These are buds on my little leaning pear tree. He may be slanted, but he's pretty.

These are buds on my beloved peach tree. It was worth braving the biting ice storm all day to break ice off of her.

And finally, the obligatory crocus shots, first blooms of spring:

Last year I didn't take any pictures of the crocus because I was waiting for all of the bulbing flowers to bloom, but they fizzled out before the tulips, etc. really got going. You can also see the pansies in the long shot, which came back despite being literally pansy-popsicles covered in several inches of ice. I deadheaded them last week and have been rewarded with big new blooms.

And lastly, the little human:

Mud. It does a baby good.



* I must take a moment to thank my husband once again for replacing our old craptastic camera this Christmas. I could have never gotten the bud shots with that old piece of junk. Good camera = good blog.

Fall: Best time for planting shrubs

Are you sensing a pattern by now?

After attempting to plant blueberry bushes this spring that consisted of a single twig in a bag of dirt, I was pretty discouraged. Continuing my trend of not researching plant needs or soil conditions, I literally just dug a hole and stuck the twig in the ground. Is anyone surprised when these little guys shriveled up and died on the first hot day in July?

When I saw that Lowes was selling berry bushes this fall, I jumped on it and bought up 9 blueberries immediately. The goal was to plant them along the front section of fence on the east side of the house. But a few weeks later, my friends over at the One Acre Homestead stumbled across the same bushes on sale for 75% off--which came to around $2 per shrub. Considering I spend about twice that much per pint of imported blueberries at the store, I jumped again.

These little beauties, known as "misty blue" now line the entire front east length, half of the west front length and then down the first few sections of the east side of our fence. I also picked up 4 "powder blue" bushes (also on sale for $2 from Atwoods) and planted them interspersed among the Mistys for cross pollination purposes. I actually did a little research and planted these with pine mulch at the root base and soaked the ground with a green acidifier, which these plants love.

Misty blue, which are already showing new growth and have started turning a lovely sunset color:

The powder blues, which were a bit worse for wear when I rescued them from the clearance section, but are thriving now that they're in the ground:

All told, there are TWENTY-TWO blueberry bushes that will one day grow into a hedge along the front of our fence. I can't wait to see what these do in the spring. Just for fun, we picked up 3 blackberries, too. Neither my husband nor I are big fans of blackberry, but they're so good for you, so we'll give them a try.


Another big sale item were crape myrtles. We found a purple one to match two that we already have in the front flower beds to balance out the colors. I'm all about balance.


Then we planted three "christmas tree" crapes (which should have white blossoms) and 2 "miami" crapes in front of our new, under-construction garden shed. I staggered the planting of these because they are so tiny, but they will one day be huge (hopefully).

Yes, that is construction debris all around the crape, but ignore that for now.

We've also added 5 new boxwoods around the side of the house and around the shed. The impulse buy was 5 gardenia bushes (seriously, who can pass up $1.75 per shrub?). I have no clue how these will do, but the picture of the blossom on the card was soooo pretty, and the greenery is super cute:

See? I told you the shrub post would be epic. If you're keeping track, you'll note that we planted 40 bushes around the property in the last 2-3 weeks. In related news, I'm adding "Digs a wicked hole" to my resume.