My flower garden this year has the usual perennials, and some annuals for additional color splash, with one exception.

My sister sent me some seeds from her Hollyhocks, so I added these to my garden this year, making them very special to me.

Hollyhocks  (Malvy – in Ukrainian) are very popular in Ukraine and Poland, and are mentioned in many of their traditional songs, as well as incorporated into paintings.

I was lucky to plant these in a perfect location, since they turned out to be over 6 feet tall.  I knew they grew tall, but did not realize that they would get this tall.

Having these plants in my garden brings me closer, in thought, to my family in Europe.  The Bumble Bees also love all the nectar and pollen, they find on the numerous flowers.

If you are thinking of planting Hollyhocks in your garden, keep in mind the amount of space these will require, and the constant bee activity you will experience around them.

You definitely would not want to plant these close to an area where you plan to relax, or play with your grandchildren.

Here are some of the pictures of my very tall Hollyhocks:

This Hollyhock bush is very full, but only about 6 ft tall.

This one is the same color, and style, but already over 9 ft. tall.

They grow lots of blooms on each one long stalk.

This dainty white with pink/maroon center, is a heaven for bees.  As you can see there are two of them fighting for the sweet nectar and pollen.

Bumble Bees love this color just as much.  Notice one working hard in the center of this flower.

Last year I did not have good experience with growing my squash and zucchini.  They were overcrowding the rest of my garden plants, so I transplanted them to a different location, and they did not like that at all.

This year I had a better plan, and gave them more growing room in my newly expanded garden patch.

I planted four zucchini plants and four squash plants, but one of my zucchini plants is different from the rest.  It has two tone leaves, and bears same kind of two tone zucchini, as you see in this picture.

This is my “odd” zucchini plant with spotted leaves, and it is a much bigger plant than the regular zucchini plants.

A close up view of the spotted zucchini leaf.

These are my regular zucchini, from seeds in same packet as the spotted one…go figure.

These are my Summer Squash plants; blooming already, but not producing yet.  They had a late start, but it is worth the wait.

I love  zucchini and squash with sauteed fresh garlic and onions.

This year I planted some corn, for the first time.  Hopefully the birds will let them grow to maturity.

I planted the one that is mixed with yellow and white corn on the same cob….should be yummy!

My granddaughter loves getting out the sweet peas out of the pods,  and eating it fresh.  Very sweet tasting little morsels they are!

Please share your gardening experience with all of us.

Spring is my favorite season of the year, because Mother Nature is waking up from winter’s deep sleep, bringing out the beauty of every living thing.

I enjoy spending my free time outdoor, working in my vegetable garden, my flower patches, and capturing the beauty of nature in my photos.

The weather was very cooperative for the past few days, so my garden was ready for some TLC (all the gardeners out there know that weeds are the first thing that grows), so today was gardening time for me, and of course a picture session to share with you.

Hardy Viola -  these colorful flowers keep on reseeding themselves from year to year.  They bloom throughout May and into June.  Later on these plants become to leggy, and begin to dry out, thus need to be removed, and replaced with some pretty summer annuals.

Creeping Phlox in full bloom.  This is a perennial plant, which blooms in late April and early May.  The foliage stays green whole summer, and turns brownish during the winter season.

Sweetly fragrant Lilly of the Valley, is my favorite flower from childhood.  It reminds me of the walks through the woods with my mom, and the excitement of creating a nice bouquet for my grandma.

Lilly of the Valley grows nicely in partial shade, or full sun.  Their very dainty paper white bells-like flowers tend to hide between the very full foliage, but you can smell their sweetness from a distance.

Last fall I replanted my strawberry plants out of my main garden patch (due to overcrowding), to an outside area next to the garden, and to my surprise they will be producing fruits this year, as you can see from the abundant flowers they are covered with.  My granddaughter loved picking off her own strawberries last year, and will be delighted to do the same this year.

Pictured above is Flat Leaf Italian Parsley, which remained in ground over  winter.  It really had grown considerably in the past few days, due to the favorable weather conditions we had lately.

I prefer the Flat Leaf Italian Parsley over the Curly Leaf Parsley, due to it’s much stronger flavor enhancer properties.  How about you?

The Sorrel plants also survived the winter, and are ready to be picked off and used in soup, or salad.  The leaves resemble spinach, but have a quite tart flavor.

This  is my Yukon Gold potato plant, which I planted 3 weeks ago.   If you wanted to plant some potatoes in your garden, and did not have a chance yet, no worries, you still can to it now. Check out my previous post to find out how.

Here you see my FREE plants, once again.  To the left are self seeded tomatoes from last year’s crop, and to the right are  potatoes sprouting from my kitchen scrap potato peels.   Since potato plants can not replanted, and these are growing too closely together, I will just have to pull some of them out, to provide adequate room for the remaining ones.

Tomato plants, on the other hand, can be replanted, as soon as they get to be about 4-5 inches tall.  I will select the strongest ones, and plant them into their permanent location.

Please share your gardening stories with all of us.

Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays/celebrations.  I like pumpkins and  scarecrows, even witches and bats, but do not care for the RIP signs, the skeletons, sculls, and all the other grotesque decor.

I love watching children all dressed up in their favorite character’s costumes, getting all excited about checking out the candy supply I have ready to hand out.  I even like dressing up in a costume myself, to be festive for giving out the candy.

So, instead of more Halloween decorations, I decided to share a display of the beauty of nature at this time of the year.

Last year there was a mysterious tomato plant, that sprouted on its own, in my daughter’s flower patch.  It turned out to be an endless tomato producing plant.  Honestly, that one plant must have produced about 40 regular size tomatoes.  It was amazing!

This year she has another surprise plant in her flower patch.  At first we were not sure ourselves what it was, and almost pulled it during weeding, but now it turned out to be an asparagus plant.

You see, I am not the only one who gets freebies in her garden.  Are you this lucky as well?  We all would be delighted to hear about it, please.

For those of you who are familiar with asparagus, only from seeing it at your grocer, you will be quite surprised how it actually starts it cycle, and what better way than seeing it in pictures.

You see how beautiful and dainty are the fern like branches of the asparagus plant?  In Europe these branches have been used in flower arrangements, instead of Baby Breaths.

Here is a close up of the actual asparagus stalk , which as you can see,  grows separately from the fern leaves, yet from the same plant root system.

Here is a close up look of the top of the asparagus stalk, which you are so accustomed to seeing at the grocery store.

Very soon my daughter’s family will have at least three, very fresh, and free, asparagus pieces for dinner.

Nature is not only beautiful, but also bountiful.

Now I will also show you a picture of a Hardy Mum plant I bought for my daughter and son-in-law, when my granddaughter was born.  It was just a regular potted plant, about a foot tall, but look at it now.

Two years later, this potted average plant, turned into a huge mound of blooms.  It is at least three feet in diameter.

Here is a close up of the flowers, and a closer yet view the flower’s details.  Absolutely gorgeous!!

These Hardy Mums are perennial plants, and if you want to control their growth, you can keep them in the pot from year to year (see first picture above), or plant them in freedom, and expect them to really take off and give you a unbelievable display of beautiful color.

Here is my last flower display picture  of the season, and I will call it “Goodbye Summer” flower display.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

I already bragged about my free veggies from my garden, free potatoes and tomatoes.  Today I will show you my FREE peppers.  How cool is that?

Honestly, these peppers are a product of my veggie kitchen scraps which I save and bury in my garden, as part of composting to enrich the garden soil.

Low and behold, once the numerous seeds sprouted, I was not sure what to do with all the seedlings.  At first I did not even know they were peppers, since I never grew peppers before, and was not accustomed to seeing their seedlings.   I weeded most of them out, but saved several of the stronger ones to experiment with growing them to maturity, and fruition.  As you can see, they did very well.

This is a close up of a flowering green pepper plant.

Tiny green peppers began to form.

A close up of a baby green pepper.

Here are some of the FREE green peppers, and some are turning red and yellow.  I read somewhere that peppers which have three knobs at the bottom, are sweeter than the ones that have four of these.  The four knobbed  ones are more suitable for cooking.

As exciting as it was to watch these grow, one needs patience to wait for the mature pepper, as their growing season stretches from April, when they sprouted,  through the end of September, and they still would probably be growing until the end of October, if I let them.  They look fairly large, but in reality they are more on the  medium size.

I also told you before about my experiment with an artichoke plant, which is a perennial, thus just growing this year, and will not bear an artichoke heart until next year…hopefully.

I started this plant in early April, indoors from a seed.  Here it is in mid June, and to the right of it is the same plant right now.   It surely has grown quite a bit and got much stronger.  I am looking forward to its maturity next year.

I also planted pepper seeds in a pot, and was hoping to harvest some red and yellow peppers, but instead, these turned out to be very small and suicidally HOT in flavor.  I actually gave them away, as I do not cook with such strong flavors. Don’t let the size fool you; they are tiny, but very pungent!

Gardening season is coming to an end already, and soon it will be time to get the yard ready for it’s winter snooze.

Those of you who enjoy gardening, will be excited to see the 2010 additions to my flower patch, and my vegetable garden.

Last year I posted all my monthly blooms from May through September, so as not to bore you, this year I will only share the new additions and any amazing changes to last year’s plants.

As you already know that I use only natural fertilizers and do not spray my vegetables with any chemicals.

I also deposit my kitchen vegetable scraps into my vegetable garden to create compost as an additional nutrient for my garden soil.  Some of these vegetable scraps include potato peels, or chunks of potatoes not suitable for cooking.  Many of these potato pieces sprouted into new potato plants, and will produce new potatoes for us to enjoy.

Potatoes are not one of those vegetables that most small gardeners would plant, as they take lots of space, and I am one of those gardeners.  However, this one is a keeper since it is so vibrant and in full bloom now, so it will produce at least 2-4 potatoes, enough for one dinner.  I am very excited about that, because homegrown potatoes are delicious.  At the bottom of this post I will share a close up picture of a potato flower, if you never had a chance to see one before.

Sweet Williams – what a perfect name for these flowers, as their fragrance is truly very sweet.  Aren’t they lovely?

Perfect for cut flower bouquets, but I prefer to admire them live, in my garden.

These were here last year, but this year they really spread out and I totally admire the numerous blooms.

Pruning these rose bushes this spring, resulted in numerous new branches, full of gorgeous blooms.

Here is my self grown potato plant, and a close up view of the potato flower.  I would be curious to know how many of my readers had ever seen a potato bloom before.

This year I have added few artichoke plants and sweet peas.   Sweet peas will be able to produce this year, but the artichoke will only build up strength to produce next year.  I will share an update on its progress, and hopefully enjoy some fresh artichokes next year.

The weather has been so cooperative lately, just perfect for gardening.

If you read my gardening posts last year, (you my check the links below this post) you already know that gardening is one of my fun ways of spending time outdoors, and enjoying nature.

Last year I showed you my new plant, “sorrel”, which is doing very well, as it is a perennial plant, but this year it decided to grow long stalks, full of buds for blooms, thus new seeds for future new plants.

Take a look how “stalky” these plants look like this year?  See the close up on the right, it really should never come to that point, unless you want it to bloom and produce seeds for next year’s new plants.  I chopped off all the hard, long stalks, very close to the ground and discarded them, as I do not wish to have any additional seeds, but rather nice fresh leaves to use in my dishes.

So if you also planted your sorrel plants last year, and did not have a chance to check on them this year yet, you will find them looking just like mine, and need to act quickly to clear it up.

This is the most beautiful time of the year, because my flower garden is continuously in bloom.

I finally found some time to work in my vegetable garden, and seeded some red beets, parsley, dill, cilantro,basil, spinach, cucumbers, green bean, sweet peas, and zucchini.

I also planted my seedlings of tomatoes, artichokes and red and green peppers.  This sounds like a large garden, but it actually is quite small, but this year I decided to plant cucumbers in planters next to my fence, as well as zucchini, since they took lots of room last year in my garden.

I make my own compost from the vegetable scraps from my kitchen, and realized that my potato peels, tomato and pepper seeds, sprouted into nice plants.  How exciting is that?

This spring I followed the gardening rule, and trimmed my raspberry bushes, and rose bushes.

I can’t believe how nicely they are growing now.   The raspberry bushes are full of buds, which means lots of upcoming raspberries, and the rose bushes are looking very vibrant and healthy, and full of buds ready to bloom.

I also have an English Walnut tree, and can’t wait until it starts bearing walnuts.

This walnut tree is only 4 years old, so I think I still have to wait a couple more years before it will start producing nuts.

Here I have a questions to my readers, as I have these two bushes, and do not know the name for this plant.

It is from Poland from my parents garden, and they called it “Bozy Drzewek”, so if anyone can recognize this bush, please let me know if these are found here in the US and what are they called?

Here you can see what this bush looks like, and then a close up of the type of foliage it consists of.  For winter, the greenery dries up after a frost hits it, and only the bare branches stay up through the winter.  But in spring it starts all over again with new foliage, which  is very soft, and fragrant.

So, if you recognize this plant, please leave me a message or send me an email, as what is the name of this plant and does it have any other uses besides being a nice, fragrant bush in my garden, which brings my thoughts back to my birthplace and my family.

A couple of weeks ago, on Saturday, we had a gorgeous day.  It was sunny, pleasantly warm, with the temperature  in the low 50ties, but what was so peculiar about it, is that it’s still the middle of winter.  Mother Nature reminded us of this reality during this past weekend.

As you know, I love nature and gardening, so I could not resist to go outside and check out how my garden is doing this time of the year.

I was very surprised, and quite confused, when I noticed some of my spring plants are already popping out of the ground.  It definitely is way too early for them to be peeking out, but then again, it’s the call of Mother Nature.

I enjoy sharing everyday events with all of you, so I grabbed my camera and took some pictures, just to give you some hope that even though you might not see signs of spring in your area, spring definitely is on its way.

These are my Daffodils peeking out of the ground.

Red Sedum is squeezing out from between the old shoots from last year.

Hyacinths are poking through, and a nearby tulip is trying to compete as well.

In case you are wondering why I have a Christmas Cactus at the top of this post….well wonder no more, since the poor thing is confused, and decided to bloom now, rather than for Christmas, as it’s expected blooming season.

There is a very nice story behind that cactus as well, so here it comes.

Few years back, I worked with a really nice bunch of ladies who also knew how much I loved plants and flowers, and I had a Christmas Cactus on my desk.  While I was going on vacation, instead of taking the plant home, they offered to take care of it for me, and they did a wonderful job.

When I came back to work (two weeks later), I noticed that my plant looked great, vibrant, full of life.  I was very grateful that they took such good care of my plant, but they both had this certain look on their face, that something was not right.

As honest as they were, all true friends should be, they informed me that this was a replacement plant, as they “killed” the original one, without knowing what really happened.  “It just died” – they exclaimed!  I did not mind.  It was just a plant, and plants do die.  No big deal.

We all laughed uncontrollably about it.  They felt so much better by telling me the truth, and I could not believe that they actually went to so much trouble finding another cactus for me, an out of season plant during that particular time of the year.

So, when the time came for me to move and leave the company, I took the cactus with me, and now every time I look at it (it is hanging in my kitchen window), I think of our friendship and reminisce about all the great times we spent together.

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas Cactus story, and the early signs of spring.

Gardening is one of my favorite pass times, as well as a convenient way to exercise, and to relax. In my spare time, I keep busy tending to my flower patches, and organic garden of vegetables, herbs, and fruits.

It actually looks like this year my granddaughter and I might be able to pick fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries in my fruit garden…..there are lots of blooms… which hopefully will turn into fruits, and the birds won’t get them before we do.

I will try to take pictures throughout the gardening season, and keep you posted about our progress. I was planing to share some pictures of my spring blooms, but as my computer crashed, I lost them all. I will try again next year.

Here are some pictures to introduce you to one of my flower patches.

This is my East side, starter flower patch, as it appeared four years ago.

This is the same flower patch as of today. Lots of changes in four years!

Peony already has buds, Pink Azalea is in full bloom, and the Siberian Iris is not budding yet.

Columbine is starting to bloom, Hardy Viola already in full bloom, and German Iris might be ready to bloom in a week or so.

Isn’t nature beautiful and mesmerizing?

I LOVE SPRING!!!!