It's been too long since I added anything here!
We had a good amount of rain this winter and spring, and it really made the weeds explode. I'm working full time at the moment, (not by choice, I was job sharing with my daughter and she moved away) so my gardening time is limited and things just got out of hand. I spent several after work evenings and weekends trying to catch up with trimming and weeding, finally making a little headway so the garden looks a bit better. The garden is abut to explode into bloom, May is always the best!
Just took these shots today of a favorite iris, Plum Pretty Whiskers. Love the color echo of the iris and chive blooms and also the clay urn and chickens color match!
(pretty impressed with my IPhone camera!)
I was away for 4 days (hubby and I did 4 National Parks in Utah plus 2 stops in AZ), got home last night and woke up this morning to see in that short time, with warm temps while we were gone, my garden has exploded into bloom with iris and roses!
Brass Band
Colette
Sally Holmes, planted 5 years ago from a 1 gal pot.
Westerland
They bloom side by side along the back fence
Solar Flair
Helen Hayes and Vesper bloom together, they compliment each other in coloring but HH is larger with the warm yellow suffusion
Helen Hayes
Eastern Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius Coppertina™) with deep burgundy Tradescant rose
Time flies but the garden is getting ready to explode into bloom so my camera has come back out. We had so much rain that the 6 year Calif. drought was officially declared over. My garden has never looked so full, lush and green, and of course, that includes the weeds. I have been filling 2 large green recycling bins every week for a month now, I add a lot to my compost pile too.
Spring color starts with Carolina Jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens 'Margarita')
I got this from Brushwood about 4 years ago and it's really filled in nicely on the metal arbor.
Cranesbill (Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle')
Huechera and petunias
And gradually the iris and clematis join in.
And one by one the roses are joining in.
Helen Hayes
Honey Perfume
I love seeing the variety of greens, especially the chartreuse and gold colors of the foliage mixed in with darker green, it adds so much pop, makes nice background for the bloom shots too.
The chickens blend in nicely too. 
The greens before the blooms explode into color. The yellow locust tree in the center is just leafing out, soon it will be the golden centerpiece of the garden again.
They warn you not to name your chickens, don't get too fond of them, don't make them your pets. Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good. For others.
Big ruckus in the coop at 7:30 yesterday morning, not their usual squawking, threw my robe on and ran down as fast as I could only to find my favorite, Lily, the Speckled Sussex, laying on the coop floor and big ol' Daphne, the white Orpington, missing. A trail of white feathers over and along the fence, through the open apple orchard, across the street and into the neighbors yard clearly indicated that she was breakfast for some one, most likely a raccoon or a fox. Lily was alive and although I could find no visible injuries, clearly she was hurt. I placed her in a box, talked to her and petted her, she opened and closed her eyes, lifted her head on occasion but from her breathing and shaking, clearly she was suffering. Hubby was out of town so a friend came over to end her suffering and bury her in the garden for me. My stupidity in forgetting to close the coop door last night led to their loss, although it was already daylight when it happened. Lesson learned. Brad promised to add a wire top over the entire run.
And despite the drama, my ever faithful Rosie, the Rhode Island Red, laid me an egg later that morning.
I am surprised how incredibly sad I am today. It's only chickens after all.
It sure seems like the summer flew by fast! We had a generally mild summer season but last week we hit almost 100 degrees for a couple of days, which then dropped about 40 degrees this week, with a couple of days of light drizzly rain. We had to turn on our furnace to nip off the morning chill in the house.
The garden appreciates the cooler weather and I am getting some nice new flushes on the roses. I picked a bouquet last week for my drab office at work. A bouquet always cheers up any room!
I hope you enlarge and click through the shots, you miss things in the smaller thumbnails.
Took the camera out today to walk around the garden, lots birds, butterflies and loud buzzing of bees too, especially in my abutilons and currently on the blooms of the Florist Silver Dollar (Eucalyptus pulverulenta 'Baby Blue')
And this bee posed next to a grape cluster, one of 6 different eating varieties we grow here.
Visitor on a dahlia
Clematis Romantika is in full flush again, it's a favorite, such a dramatic deep color! Even the back side is interesting.
My favorite Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria Inticancha® Indian Summer), I sure post about it a lot! For good reason too, it cranks out the blooms almost year round. I have a couple now and plan to add more.
And for fall blooms, I have the lovely Japanese Anemone (Eriocapitella hybrida 'Robustissima') blooming now.
I didn't buy enough coleus this year, they give such a lovely and colorful display in pots, next year I will certainly get more. This one is in my hanging basket under the shed window.
I have Autumn Fuchsia (Fuchsia austromontana 'Autumnale') planted next to the coleus, it hasn't bloomed yet this year, I think it's a bit stingy on blooms anyway but I actually bought it for the leaves!
I always thought False Shamrock (Oxalis triangularis subsp. papilionaceae 'Atropurpurea') would be something hard to grow, it looks delicate to me, but no, it's a tough little plant! I have a couple in pots in both full sun and semi shade and they do just fine. The little blooms are so sweet.
The planting around the satellite dish pergola sure has filled in, this is the shot from this morning. In an earlier post, it shows how great it looked with the yellow rose now arching over the top. I also added a shot from Aug. 2011 when it was first completed as well as another shot from Aug 2012 and May 2013.
These two just showed up one day in the raised veggie beds and since I had nothing planted there at the time, I let them be. The Nicotiana sylvestris pops up here and there every year but I have absolutely no idea where the butterfly bush came from. I have two and neither one looks like this. It's a nice one so I will transplant it.
I let the chickens out today because there were swarms of termites coming out of the ground from the recent first rains and so the chickens had a feast!
Ahhh, dust bath time!
On the home front, we finally replaced the 1978 cedar shingle roof last week! Brad and our husband & wife contractor friends installed it, just traded labor with them. Brad has been helping them on their new home they just finished building. we only hired pros for the tear off and hauling away of the old roof.
Before, during and after shots. It's a metal roof, really great looking! Now that the gutters are also finally installed, it's time to paint. Soon.
And I am still sewing, got the bug to make quilt tops while I was sick with a virus for a few weeks. This first one I made is a nod to my garden colors. It still needs to be quilted.
This one is the first ever completed one, a fun mix of color strips in an easy herringbone design.
And this one I am just completing. It's a housewarming gift for that contractor couple. She picked out all the little patches of fabric from my huge stash and many of them relate to them in some way; maps of Italy and France that they visited a few years ago, architectural drawings and accounting lists which are a nod to their business, wine themes for their love of our local wineries, lambs for their side business of raising them, and some birds and blooms of course. It's a busy and fun quilt, yet quiet in the colors selected. (colors off as I took the shots at dusk with my cell phone)
