Sunday, May 17, 2009

Waterlilies and the garden update

Last Saturday I got out in the solo canoe and trimmed out the willow trees that had fell into the pond to clean it up some. Sadly it was the last time we saw the pair of Mallard ducks in the pond. But the next day exactly a week ago, the waterlilies came out, only 3 but a start. Below is 2 of the 3.

I planted the waterlilies 6 or 7 years ago, they now cover 3/4 of the 70- 80 foot diameter pond. In a few years I'll likely have to do a major thinning to keep them under control. We also have several nice clusters of Pickerelweed in the pond.

Today a portion of thew waterlilies in the pond.

This iris is either an Louisiana Iris or a Siberian Iris, the blades seem too thin to be a Louisiana, could it have crossed with the Siberian nearby?

This is an Louisiana Iris for sure and only a few feet for the other iris.

One of my seedling tomatoes in the garden, we have had a terrible year for growing seedlings.

This was last Sunday nights dinner Swiss Chard from the garden finally. The next morning Meg found a pile of chard leaves on the deck that I must have dropped.


Beets and carrots growing in the garden today.

You know I'm legally colored blind, only greens and reds. Meg pointed out to me that this spiderwort was a bit pink and not blue. I stopped at a garden club plant sale yesterday, the garden they had the sale in was full of all kinds of spiderworts and none for sale. I did get 6 plants including a cultivated goldenrod, exciting.

Lemon Cucumber for this morning in our garden. we have an old fashioned tripod set up over it to grow on.

The upper half of the clematis growing along our walkway I featured last week on my blog entry.

The latest project here, Meg wanted dog protection for her batchler buttons. I made the lattice from scraps left over from a customers recent project. Each panel is removable too.

14 comments:

Aaron said...

Your beats are doing great!

-Aaron
www.CarolinaGardens.org

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Oh, those waterlilies reminded me of the Giverny garden! Spiderwart has some pink in it, indeed. Mine are just plain blue. Sorry for the dog, his territory just got shrunk.

Ginger said...

The dog protection fence looks great!
I just planted some lemon cucumber. Never tasted them before, but I love cucumbers and it looked intriguing!

Michelle said...

The waterlilies are beautiful! And the other flowers too. I had a hard time with tomato and pepper seedlings this year too - a bunch of runts. I hope they grow up ok. Good luck with your tomatoes.

Shady Gardener said...

Thank you for living such an interesting life! :-) I am such an outdoors "nut" when it comes to wildlife of any kind, life cycles, etc. So, I am always fulfilled! (Hope you don't mind these comments. I'm just letting you know how great I feel about my visits here.) :-)

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Just love the water lilies! I just noticed some buds coming up on mine. Your veggies are looking great!
I also really like the lattice you made. We had to put a little fence up to save some plants from our dog too. Yours is so nice it just adds charm to your garden!

Heather said...

All of it looks so nice. Now I know what the beet is supposed to look like. I have accidentally been weeding the wrong things in that bed I think. It seems to be taking forever to really get going. Obviously my first year with beets.

sweetbay said...

Love your waterlilies, iris and Clematis. They're beautiful!

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

With three dogs I can atest that garden protection is a necessity! Your water lilies are really pretty. Now do you dry the pods for use in arrangements/ wreaths? They are really neat looking.

Randy Emmitt said...

Ginger,
I tried lemon cucumbers for the first time last year at the local farmers market, loved them.

Shady,
No problem on the comments, I feel the same way about a lot of blogs.

Heather,
opps on your beets, you should have great luck with them.

Janet,

The pods you are thinking about are lotus pods, never seen a waterlily pods.

Town Mouse said...

Love the water lilies. I have one in a barrel, but have had a hard time keeping the raccoons away, they like the bulbs and, I think, just like to make a mess. May your pond be spared from them...

Lona said...

Your waterlilies are gorgeous. I just love the clematis growing up the tree trellis. What a great idea. Your tomatoes are doing wonderful.

wiseacre said...

I have to stop visiting other blogs - I have enough ideas on my own without getting tempted by other people's flowers. Love the water Lilies. Now I want some.

I'm sometimes sorry I didn't make my pond deeper. Water lilies are among my favorite flowers. I had wild ones as center pieces at my oldest daughter's wedding.

tina said...

Really cool Randy. I am new to all the varieties of irises so your help was a big deal to me. I do have Japanese irises (received from a fellow freecycler) and can recognize them as they are shorter than the Louisiana. I need to find a good reference for irises because honestly up until last year I had no idea there were types other than bearded irises! Just goes to show you that there is so much to learn in the gardening world. Thanks again for you help. P.S. I think the Louisiana rhizomes are so cool! And good luck digging your bamboo grass. I remember you posting about it taking over. I read that now is the time to move the Louisiana irises. They'll bounce back real nice!