May Gardening 2017

Dear Family & Friends

We had T-storm almost every day for a week: Sunshine, then the wind blows, and in comes T-storm, sometimes the rumbling comes in with a drizzle or a torrent of rain, at times just dark clouds which clears up again to welcome back sunshine! I still say it is a perfect spring weather. No complaint whatsoever. I love being in our garden - protected in a bubble world full of plants, and so with the rest of our family crew:) Here's why - as I share with you some photos to cheer your day too:)

Granny's Bonnet (aquigelia)  shooting it's flowers skyward

The perennial Granny's Bonnet are left to self seed where they want. I noticed they like being closed with the Lavender plants. These flowers are beautiful. They come in many forms and colours but I only have pink ones, some darker than the others. Nonetheless, all beautiful:) Some seeds landed in my vegetable patch...I don't have the heart to pull them out even if I want that space for my veggies...After all, they attract many bees to the veggie patch too!

My veggie patch beds edged with flowering chives on each sides. A trench is in between as my walkway

There's also clamps of chives which  my two girls planted in rows two years ago. We lined them to act as veggie beds' edging. Now the strong big clamps holds the soil of the beds up and it also attracts many bees. 

I was transplanting some plants onto the bed this week and it was a bit too crowded for us all. Bees and butterflies were also working in the same area and they were all at my backside - literally!!

Row of rustic looking wooden stakes are placed in the middle of the beds for my tomato plants

At the end of the veggie patch is the area where the chickens are. They are my curious audiences whenever I garden. This week I ramp in some rustic looking A-frame wood stakes for my tomatoes in the middle of most veggie beds. Every time I hit the metal tube with the hammer to created a hole for me to put the wooden stake in, the chooks make a corresponding noise...the good fun we all had!

Can you see some green sprouts shooting out of the recycled wooden stake I used?

In my kitchen garden, I also placed a few wooden stakes which I'm growing some climbing green peas and later on I will plant in my cucumbers in the same row. I usually just pick up leftover long stems of fruit trees for my stakes. I also use some long cut stems of a plant which our big boss took  steal from our village forest.  Lately, I noticed that the stakes are all sprouting with green shoots!

My lavender bush edgings

The perennial lavender bushes are all growing very robust and are already shooting out lots of flower buds. From two parent plants I bought almost five years ago, I have succeeded in growing rows and rows of lavender from mere cuttings to fill our garden with. Even the two mother plants are still going very strong and are now so big a bush! I probably could fill up big pillows with dried lavender flower this year. The CEO is still insisting that I propagate some more! More??!

old frying pan recycled to house a stonecrop/hen and chick plant

By our water well...which have kept me so busy lately, as I manually draw water by throwing bucket down to get free water for my new seedlings, a sedum plant was growing where I had to stand on...so I took it out and planted it in a frying pan. Then, I sat it on top of a cherry tree stump. It will be beautiful once the pan has fill itself. I'm sure it will bring me some pleasure in due time:)

So, that's how part of our garden is looking for the moment and all the fun that had been done. I hope you get encouraged in your garden too. It's good for physical exercise and good for the soul:)  Wishing you a good weekend ahead:)

Yours