Bottle Wall, Day Two

 Been working pretty hard and have not had the time to do much towards the bottle wall. We had a much needed rain last night and are supposed to get more today so I stayed home. Tinkered cleaning bottles, they clean easier when wet from rain. I do have a lot of buckets to soak bottles in too.

Here is a design I made in the creative zone.

After placing bottles into the design.

 A close up of my blue flower. The pink eye is a flower vase I found in the recycling bins, there was also a red one. See the triangle shaped blue bottle? That brand of vodka now uses blue plactic bottles, this one must have been around for a while before someone recycled it.

 This pile of cleaned bottles was almost used up making the design in the sand. I need more clear bottles a lot more clear ones. This pile is a fraction of the pile behind my shed, I took a photo, you do not want to see, nor does Meg.

I have been working on a page here with our plant photos on them. If you like hellebores you really want to see this page, it is a work in progress.

I wanted to take a photo of our Swiss Card before we picked any of it. Meg made quiche (if I got the spelling right) pie with it last night. It was yummy! Not had chard in some time as the greens in the cold frame have been filling our greens needs now for about 6 weeks. Still hard to tell any chard was picked?

Here is our Rape starting to flower. I think it is what is also called Chinese Broccoli. The mustard greens are also going to flower. The Red Mustard we planted Sunday before last is already showing red and green.

 The hyacinths have started to open up. These news ones are supposed to be fragrant, nothing like I can remember in years past. 

Last note. On Sunday while it was raining I planted some seeds inside, 4 kinds of tomatoes( Rutgers, Jubilee, Big Rainbow and Roma), Genovese Italian Basil, Sweet Basil, Common Thyme and  Serrano Peppers. Still to early for sprouting, I am watching them.

Mystery daffodil and new camellias in bloom.

Today I worked on a house in Durham with a creek in the front and another along the side. Though I might have seen my first dragonfly there. Arrived home at 5pm and walked the dogs around the garden and a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flew by us, my first swallowtail of the year!

First things first. I found this all white large flowering daffodil in the old front flower bed. I'm sure it was planted by previous owner. I'd never noticed this beautiful daffodil in our garden of 12 years... There looks to be a cluster of at least 6-8 bulbs from the leaves that are out, but this is the only flower. It was next to or under a large juniper I cut down 3 years ago, might have been shaded out of the roots of the juniper staved it out. Looked on Brent and Becky's and could not find it? Neil Jean or anyone else have a clue to the name of this beauty?

The previous owners also planted the above scilla. These are lovely and thanks to my excellent gardening skills they have sprouted up every year under a Saint John's Wort shrub I planted years ago. I took photos of these on Sunday that were no so great but I noticed the upper flower had at least 6 ants on it.

Here is a mystery pink camellia  japonica that I purchased last year at our local Tree Frog Nursery, 3 miles from here. It was a typical landscape camellia and I liked it, so I bought it. Also wanted to support a local small business too! Anyway I took this photo Monday morning and that evening when I got home the bloom was on the ground from all the wind we had. Still has maybe 6-8 more buds to show us!

 Camellia japonica 'La Peppermint'

Here is is the most expensive camellia japonica we have in our garden. It was expensive because we bought it at Camellia Forest in a 3 or 5 gallon pot.. This is our first bloom, 3 more are on the way. I'm not overly excited about this one, but the next bud looks more interesting.

This large red flowering camellia sneaked up on me. Not sure of the ID, I think we bought it at Tree Frog Nursery last year. The deer almost ate this plant, the flower just appeared. We have nothing like this one in the garden it impresses me with the old world rose look to it!

Leaving our garden and going next door. These blue flowers were in the neighbors yard, she did not know what they were. Her husband that passed away in 1990 had planted them in the yard. Over 20 years ago and no maintenance, yet they still survive! I think we need to get some of these any one know what they might be?

These hyacinths I planted last fall, seems I lost the bags they came in, not really sure which they are. No big aroma yet. The one above is my favorite, love the color. The pink one below might be Pink Pearl.

Tete a Tete

We planted a lot of these little daffodils, they were real cheap and really big bulbs for such a small daffodil.

February Gold
We planted these with Tete a Tete because they bloom at the same time. Tete a tete were a few days ahead of February Gold and when they opened. It was hard to tell they were different without looking closely.

Barrett Browning

When I saw these blooming I knew it would be a favorite. But what was it? Barrett Browning looked huge on the bulb package, does this photo look huge? The flower is so flat it wide angles easily making it look bigger than it is.

Little Gem

These are only 6 inches tall, some have two blooms on one stalk. I think I got the ID correct? Planted them with a lot of crocus, but the crocus are finished in that bed.

Jonquilla Baby Moon

These one inch blooms were almost open when I got home tonight. I watered them and just before dinner I noticed two of them had opened. So little and so cute!

You should be seeing some butterflies and dragonflies here before long, so stay tuned.