Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pea Harvest and Grandmothers Rose

On Sunday morning I picked our first Sugar Snap Peas. We did eat a few earlier in the week off the vine. Here is our first harvest of peas, just a snack. That lovely bowl is one of Meg's creations! I also picked 2 quarts of sour cherries at Meg's house and we made two cherry cobblers!

On Monday it rained all day and night, we must have gotten 3-4 inches here finally. This rain was much needed. I believe we only had something like .667 inches in the past 50 days, unheard of shortage of rain fall for April in 120 years of record keeping. I bet yesterdays rain was more than we have gotten in all of 2010. The cracks in the dirt are gone and my new grass looks a bit perky.

Another thing that happened here on Sunday was a pillow case hung out on the clothes line, it was one of those open in the middle pillow cases. Anyway Meg hung it out in the morning. In the evening she brought it in, filled with enough debris to build a bird nest with. Darn Carolina Wrens are drinking way too much coffee around here!

A little family history in this rose featured below. This rose came to be called Grandmother's Rose as it came from my dad's grandmothers garden in Ohio. It dates back into the 1920s from her garden. Mom and Dad brought me a plant from a cutting 20 years ago or so and it has been growing in my garden here and the last place I lived Clayton, NC. It is the only rose in this garden.
Below is an Ice Plant Delosperma cooperi I planted 3-4 years ago. These give heavy blooms and are fairly carefree. Actually this plant is a broken off piece the original plant I stuck in the garden and it rooted very easily. Some butterflies do visit it, we like it as a bright and colorful edge plant.

12 comments:

Southern Lady said...

We got a good bit of rain too! It was such a welcome sight. I love the rose. It is beautiful. Carla

Sarah Knight said...

Very lovely!
I'm not a vegetable gardener (in fact, I'm more of a 'hey, bulbs come up every year, I only have to plant them once' kind of girl) but our neighbor grows a vegetable garden every year. They're always out there shucking green beans at the end of summer. It's very folksy
: )

Carol said...

When I first eyed your yummy pea harvest, I thought what a lovely bowl!! The colors are great together. How sweet to have a rose connected to your grandmother ... and for that to be the only rose in your garden. So glad you got some rain! Super photos Randy.

tina said...

Those peas look very good! The bowl is cool too. I haven't grown despermoma but would like to try it one day. Most nice! And that rose must be very special to be the only one you grow. Those are the best kinds.

Shady Gardener said...

Love Meg's bowl! The peas look delicious... and what a lovely contrast with the roses. :-) Looks like "everything's coming up roses" over there! (sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

Your peas look fabulous! How amusing, it's always interesting to see where birds choose to try to nest, but a pillowcase? Too cute! I suggest they switch to decaf.

compost in my shoe said...

Beautiful rose. Did I miss the name?

Lisa said...

Randy,
The dragonflies are lovely (in your previous post, as usual, but my attention was caught by your heirloom pass-a-long rose, which looks a lot like the hardy rose that came with our old house in Clemson. It's tough as nails, and sails through any sort of summer weather. And your peas look delicious, too (and Meg's bowl is great).
Best,
Lisa

The Redneck Rosarian said...

This post confirms my long held belief that every rose truly does have a story. Thanks for sharing your grandmother's rose. It is beautiful....

Andrea said...

Wow, i want that kind of peas too! ...and i also love the colors of your flowers, i am sure the butterflies love them more. But i envy your rain, coz it is already badly needed here, many plants that withstood years of dry season now succumbed to their end. Haaay, heat and humidigy sometimes aggravate emotions too!

sweetbay said...

I must try Sugar Snape Peas next year. Lovely bowl too! The rain was such a relief wasn't it. We got 2.75".

Those crazy Carolina Wrens build nests everywhere. One year a male built a dummy nest in the bumper of the truck, which worked for him because we parked the truck in the same place every night. Right now there's a nest on a shelf in the hay shelter and more than once we've found them on the tractor engine. I've even found them in my riding helmet.

I got the iris yesterday, they look great. Thank you!

kanak7 said...

I envy your harvest...And the rose with a history which goes that far back is special! I've not seen the Ice Plant before but they sure look gorgeous!

Kanak