Gardening 2018

[Karen]

Lilacs in full bloom
Scent the air with perfumed spice
Memories, portent

The heavy clusters
Bend time, it’s forever May;
We are young once more

Gathering armfuls
From abandoned places, white
And purple, fragrant

Silent beauty like
Love notes from ghost gardeners
Tinged with wistful tones

[cats4ever]

Karen, I just saw your picture of that beautiful lilac, and the haiku. I love the fragrance.
The month of May has been a washout. And now, with tropical storm Alberto, there's even more rain coming.
The garden, though, is growing well. But our deck can't handle all the water.
Amazingly, the honey bees are finding their way between the downpours. The first tomatoes are appearing right outside the kitchen window.

[mon]

Beautiful Haiku Karen. Brings so many lovely memories for me 💕

[Karen]

Aww, thank you.

[mon]

We transplanted a fig tree that is loaded this year. My husband snuck into the bush and liberated a small gooseberry tree which appears to be thriving. We also have Lillies, midnight fuschias, salvia and night sky, and red blue petunias. Guess I may need to make chutney one day. Wish I could send some to Pet talkers, not a lot of demand for fig chutney in my family 😐

[mon]

Oops, not a gooseberry tree, it is a huckleberry tree!

[Karen]

Wish I could send some to Pet talkers, not a lot of demand for fig chutney in my family 

Umm, you certainly could send some to us! Bet it's yummy!

[mon]

Flowers are doing great, sure miss a vegetable garden. Not much room for one here, although,last time we had one a whole gang of raccoons used one corner of it for their community toilet. Eeeeeeew! Like who wants to eat the vegetables knowing that 🤢 🙊 One could hurl just thinking about it 😂

[cats4ever]

I never had really luck with mail order plants. The only one that's ever worked out is an Egyptian walking onion.
It will grow a small bunch of onions on top of the stem, then, the stem will kink, so that the little onions will touch the ground and then grow a new plant, hence the name.
The onions have a pretty harsh flavor, but it's a neat plant, and I had it for about 10 years now.

[Karen]

We are cleaning up and renewing the gardens at my church. Someone donated three bag full of nice astilbe plants yesterday afternoon, but is handicapped and could not plant them herself. I had such a busy day, I ended up plating them after dark - even on one of the longest days of the year!

[cats4ever]

I love astilbes with their beautiful feathery blooms. Do you have some pictures? They are probably not in bloom right now.

[cats4ever]

Today, we found a shed snake skin. It's a about 3 feet long, so the snake should be a bit bigger.
I'm glad to have snakes in the garden. They are safe with me, and help with vermin in the garden.
Everybody at work will kill snakes as soon as they see them, and brag about it.. Peoples' ignorance makes me incredibly sad!

[cats4ever]

I found this tomato variety, called "Indigo Rose". The little tomatoes look as beautiful as they did in the picture.
But...they have NO flavor. I'm very disappointed.

[mon]

Thanks, good to know! I believe I should put a few in every salad with a nice dressing anyway. They are just too pretty to leave out, maybe a little sea salt....

[cats4ever]

I don't throw them out, either. They go on toasted sandwiches with onions, cheese and garlic powder.