I love spring!

[FeelingTheBlues]

Greetings TRF,

Isn't spring such a beautiful season? I've spent the day with my parents buying a couple of plants, spices and vegetables for our backyard and I planted them while my father was "supervising".

I know it doesn't look very good now as they're brand new and some of them were freshly watered in the pictures (and therefore a bit why the long face?) but I thought I would take a couple of pictures to share them with you guys. Enjoy!

Here's some music to put you in the mood!



Here's our kitchen garden, I built the frame with my father a couple of years ago. We planted three different types of tomatoes (regular, cherry and grape ones), a couple of chili peppers, parsley, oregano, basil and rosemary. There are also mint plants and chive that we planted a couple of years ago as well.







The rosemary...feeling a bit lonely!



Here are the other plants we put in various places in the backyard as well as in front of the house.

A couple of roses.







This one had a little rough time while being watered but it shall rise again! I thought the macro shot was interesting.



And another one!



This one was planted, as stated, in front of the house. It's pretty much a bunch of leaves but it also has a stem with soon-to-be leaves (it had two but the dog ran outside and its leash cut one down...).

As you can see, I had some fun taking pictures of this one.

















And the last two ones, back in the backyard!

A lavander plant!









And this one, looks a bit special perhaps but we liked the cone shaped flowers so we bought it. We call it...the cone shaped flowers plant!







We planted them with other ones we have around our deck.







I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I know it doesn't look so amazing right now but I'll try to take other pictures when it starts to look a bit better. Feel free to comment!

[STEELINOX]

Nice expose and great looking gardens ya gots there !

I love spring too, we got a few veggy's growin, some spices and my orange tree is going to yield over a hundred fruit this year not to mention my mexican lime tree - my CORONA's are waitin the wait - not ! But they go down nicer when there'sa slice in the bottle baby

[HL65]

Great garden Carl--Thanks for sharing!

[STEELINOX]

Here's what my Spring Days look like.

Out on the cliffs at La Jolla's, Torrey Pines Glider Port.

Got my RC glider surfin the cliff effect, powerless fun in the sun...

[The Joker]

Nice pics Carl, great looking garden.

Pics look quite blue though, thought it was all underwater.

Heres some more appropriate music.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by STEELINOX

Nice expose and great looking gardens ya gots there !

I love spring too, we got a few veggy's growin, some spices and my orange tree is going to yield over a hundred fruit this year not to mention my mexican lime tree - my CORONA's are waitin the wait - not ! But they go down nicer when there'sa slice in the bottle baby

Thank you! I'm sure I will enjoy a good and cold beer on my deck in a couple of weeks!

Originally Posted by SteelerFan65

Great garden Carl--Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Ken!

Originally Posted by STEELINOX

Here's what my Spring Days look like.

Out on the cliffs at La Jolla's, Torrey Pines Glider Port.

Got my RC glider surfin the cliff effect, powerless fun in the sun...

That looks very nice! I hope you have a lot of fun with that big boy toy!

Originally Posted by The Joker

Nice pics Carl, great looking garden.

Pics look quite blue though, thought it was all underwater.

Heres some more appropriate music.

Thank you Wes! I'm afraid I don't know why they turned out more blue, I'm guessing that since I took those pictures at around 5:30-6:00 the Sun wasn't in a very good position and the sky made the pictures look like this (or am I being paranoid? ).

As for your song, I had to listen to it on Youtube but it does sound good with the pictures!

[drockadam]

Got any other type of plants Carl? I'm not a fan of spring. My allergies are terrible in spring. Currently sick at the moment!

[Peppers90]

Great job with your garden, Carl. There is nothing better than fresh cut herbs when cooking. I always have cilantro, basil, & rosemary growing.

[ratae1950]

Nice garden! Can't believe your lupins are ahead of mine, in Montreal???
I noticed a wabbit lurkin' in one of the pictures keep an eye on it!

[GradyPhilpott]

Spring is my least favorite season in New Mexico because of the strong winds.

We had an awfully windy Winter, so I'm hoping Spring is a little less windy, but it would be a miracle.

Actually, the Spring winds are the only aspect of New Mexico weather that bothers me. Everything else about the weather here is excellent, so I shouldn't complain.

[sea-dweller]

Nice photos!

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by drockadam

Got any other type of plants Carl? I'm not a fan of spring. My allergies are terrible in spring. Currently sick at the moment!

Not at the moment but I'll take other pictures during the Summer and if I buy myself a couple of indoor plants!

Sorry to hear about you being sick (still), I hope you get well soon!

Originally Posted by Peppers90

Great job with your garden, Carl. There is nothing better than fresh cut herbs when cooking. I always have cilantro, basil, & rosemary growing.

Thank you! Fresh cut herbs are indeed wonderful, we're thinking of using the rosemary in our salads and perhaps while cooking eggs as well (this is our first try with this particular herb, we've been using a lot of basil though). I'm guessing it would be delicious in a spaghetti sauce too.

Originally Posted by ratae1950

Nice garden! Can't believe your lupins are ahead of mine, in Montreal???
I noticed a wabbit lurkin' in one of the pictures keep an eye on it!

We've just bought the lupins and they were like this, we've had a pretty good weather recently and I hope it will continue. I'm just hoping it will not die!

Thank you for the kind words.

Originally Posted by GradyPhilpott

Spring is my least favorite season in New Mexico because of the strong winds.

We had an awfully windy Winter, so I'm hoping Spring is a little less windy, but it would be a miracle.

Actually, the Spring winds are the only aspect of New Mexico weather that bothers me. Everything else about the weather here is excellent, so I shouldn't complain.

Actually it was a bit windy today, it's funny you mention such a problem.

I hope this doesn't make you hate the season too much! I wish you to have a couple of wonderful afternoons outside Grady.

Originally Posted by sea-dweller

Nice photos!

Thank you!

[Peppers90]

Carl, you can use Rosemary on roasted chicken too...TDF!

[GradyPhilpott]

Originally Posted by FeelingTheBlues

I hope this doesn't make you hate the season too much! I wish you to have a couple of wonderful afternoons outside Grady.

Not to worry, I have enjoyed some beautiful days this Spring already. Fortunately, the winds abate from time to time.

[z32turbo]

Wow!! Great pics.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by Peppers90

Carl, you can use Rosemary on roasted chicken too...TDF!

Thank you for your advice! I'll try it when my rosemary is ready!

Originally Posted by GradyPhilpott

Not to worry, I have enjoyed some beautiful days this Spring already. Fortunately, the winds abate from time to time.

Glad to know!

Originally Posted by z32turbo

Wow!! Great pics.

Thank you!

[Lisa]

Originally Posted by Peppers90

Carl, you can use Rosemary on roasted chicken too...TDF!

Absolutely.... slip a few sprigs under the skin, with maybe a thin slice of lemon or two.... brush with olive oil, add salt and pepper.....

Carl, your garden looks great and shows a LOT of effort. Did you know the purple leafy plant is called a coral bell? We have a few of them in purple, and a couple of yellow ones too. They'll survive the winters here, but I don't know if they would in Canada.

Looks like you have good soil, too. Did you add much to it - compost, mulch, topsoil, etc.?

[threemonkeys]

Nice, Carl. I need to adopt you so I can supervise you in my yard.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Absolutely.... slip a few sprigs under the skin, with maybe a thin slice of lemon or two.... brush with olive oil, add salt and pepper.....

Carl, your garden looks great and shows a LOT of effort. Did you know the purple leafy plant is called a coral bell? We have a few of them in purple, and a couple of yellow ones too. They'll survive the winters here, but I don't know if they would in Canada.

Looks like you have good soil, too. Did you add much to it - compost, mulch, topsoil, etc.?

That's it! Coral bell! You know, I had all the names when we bought the plants but by the time I created this thread I kind of forgot a couple of them...

Thank you for the kind words Lisa, I appreciate them. As for your question, we got the soil at the same nursery and we've bought this one ever since we started to take care of plants. So far it has been a good one and we always mix it with sheep manure,

Originally Posted by threemonkeys

Nice, Carl. I need to adopt you so I can supervise you in my yard.

Thank you Craig, I'll think about your offer. Perhaps I could take care of that bonsai three of yours as well.

[Monte Cristo]

Hey Carl one or two of those "herbs" (lets call them that shall we) look suspicious you sure you didn't sneak anything in whilst your father wasn't looking ?

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by Monte Cristo

Hey Carl one or two of those "herbs" (lets call them that shall we) look suspicious you sure you didn't sneak anything in whilst your father wasn't looking ?

Oh please, I'm a hard working gardener who pleases himself with herbs, vegetables and flowers, why would I ever do that?











































...I don't know if my father did something in my back though!

[FeelingTheBlues]

Little update!

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to show you the work I've done today!

So the corner in which I've planted roses (the one with the little plastic rabbit) is actually longer than what I've shown you but unfortunately the second part was infested with weeds of all sorts.

As you can see, it looks very bad! The big branches come from our trees in our backyard and we've had quite a lot recently, it isn't something we want to see when we go outside.





We're literally getting lost in them!



So I've got rid of all those bloody weeds but, as some of you know, it's utopic to think this will stop them (they're everywhere), they always come back and they make your nice plants suffocate! Therefore we've decided to beat them at their own game and plant something else in order to take more space and try to at least control the growth of those thugs!

Here's what we've bought today (my father and I, that is. He buys the plants and acts as a foreman while I do the big job).





Of course, when we planted them the smaller ones got a little rough time (as always) but they still look pretty good and we are confident that next year (if we don't have good results this Summer) this spot will be quite nice.



Take a look at the beautiful flowers this one has!







Another coral bell, my father wanted something tall and we thought this one would do it.



This is the one who had the worst time...



...Still, the flowers look great and it will rise again!



If memory serves this one will not make any flowers but it does look nice (in my humble opinion).



Lilies! We already had three in our sea of weeds but we bought three more (two of them are supposed to be red while the other one is, if I'm not mistaken, yellow with red lines around the petals, kind of like the first flower in this post).



And our pride and joy! This corner is quite near one of our trees so it's hard to have something to grow there (the ground has no grass at all and is all dry because of the big roots). We still decided to give it a try with those and we hope it will make a wonderful line next year.



They're also supposed to make a whole lot of small yellow flowers, I'm looking forward to taking a picture of them when it happens.





Now, do you remember that yellow rose I posted the other day in that same thread? Well roses do lose their flowers when you plant them elsewhere because they put all their energy and ressources into their roots, therefore we had to sacrifice the flowers they had...including this one.





And here are some new friends I've made while working around the house. As stated above, I had to cut a lot of dead wood and while moving it we encountered those.

I didn't want to break its shell when I found him so I put him on a big plastic chest we have in the backyard. That's when he decided to move and before he left us I thought a couple of pictures would be nice.





I took those ones for Peter (Padi56) in case he ever gets in this thread (), this one climbed up our wall while we were still moving wood and it was quite big. I just had to keep a little souvenir of her!



This one isn't very good but it is the last one I could take before she ran away. She was quite a cutie (although rather big).



And this one was actually hidden in the dead yellow rose above. I moved the flower a couple of times to take the picture and she suddenly got out, ran to the corner of my table, jumped off and stood still on my patio. It wasn't as big as the one above but I accepted her anyway!



Thank you for watching!

[bayerische]

Nice pics Carl! Yes spring is indeed lovely. This week was the first proper spring week, with leaves and green grass here in southern Finland. Spring is very late this year.

But check your WB.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by bayerische

Nice pics Carl! Yes spring is indeed lovely. This week was the first proper spring week, with leaves and green grass here in southern Finland. Spring is very late this year.

But check your WB.

Thank you for the good words!

Trees pretty much all have leaves around here so we've been "in" Spring for a couple of weeks now. As for WB if you mean the weather our two work days have been amazing so we have nothing to complain about, however I did have a pretty bad sunburn today as I was working without a t-shirt, exposing my alpha male torso (which means my beer and chips belly...), I'll have to get used to it as Summer isn't even there and I'm prone to those.

[cecilia]

the garden looks beautiful. seems like you been quite busy this weekend. the lupins are so lovely but watch up they will very quick take over the whole garden. Looking forward to see more pics later on. Great work Carl.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by cecilia

the garden looks beautiful. seems like you been quite busy this weekend. the lupins are so lovely but watch up they will very quick take over the whole garden. Looking forward to see more pics later on. Great work Carl.

Thank you very much for the kind words Cecilia! My father wants the gardening job done as soon as possible because he wants to relax during the Summer, therefore we must be pretty active.

I'll remember that advice about the lupins, thank you for warning me!

[Lisa]

Whew, you've been working hard, but it must be very satisfying. I'm glad you didn't want to harm the spiders. I have a lot of respect for the good they do in the garden.

You've planted one of my favorites - the dianthus. They should reward you with pretty blooms all summer.

Enjoyed the pics, thank you!

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Whew, you've been working hard, but it must be very satisfying. I'm glad you didn't want to harm the spiders. I have a lot of respect for the good they do in the garden.

You've planted one of my favorites - the dianthus. They should reward you with pretty blooms all summer.

Enjoyed the pics, thank you!

Thank you Lisa, I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures and I shall take a lot more pictures when they make those blooms just for you. Work was rather hard (although I may just be a wuss) but it is satisfying indeed to see how it looks when done and especially to anticipate how it will look at the end of the Summer or the next one!

As for the spiders and other insects/animals/arachnids, I never kill them when they're outside the house (in fact, I don't even kill them when they're in). I used to dislike spiders but reading and looking at tarantulas recently made me realize they were much more fascinating than I thought, I do not play with them or try to pet them (think about how ridiculous I'd look doing that...) but I like to admire those great creatures.

...And if you ask me about the snail...well...he did look pretty sympathetic!

[azguy]

I figured it still being May, you would be skiing still........

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by azguy

I figured it still being May, you would be skiing still........

John, please, do you really think we can even think about skiing with such hot days?