Sitting on a bag of mulch

Warm sunshine, light breeze, not a cloud in the sky. A day as near to perfect as I can imagine. I went out to the hillside with the intention of tackling the mulching--the bags were stacked up waiting for me. And of course once I got out there I saw weeds. So back inside I went to get the hand tools. Set with one of my favorite implements of weed whackin' destruction I headed back up. When I got to the top of the hill and looked down I was mesmerized by the riot of colors and textures. I just plopped myself down on the nearest bag of mulch and took it all in.  I don't do that nearly enough--just sit and enjoy.

Just as the bottom of the hill starts to fade--daffodils, tulips, bluebells, lilacs--the top of the hill calls out, "Hey, ignore those fading beauties. They're all washed out. Look at us in our Spring finery!" I love looking up from the bottom of the hill first thing in the morning. Everything glows as the sun filters through the different colors and textures of foliage.

 

Galanthus nivalis

Snowdrop or perce-neige in French.

Flower Chorus

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Such a commotion under the ground,
When March called, "Ho there! ho!"
Such spreading of rootlets far and wide,
Such whisperings to and fro!
"Are you ready?" the Snowdrop asked,
" 'Tis time to start, you know."
"Almost, my dear!" the Scilla replied,
"I'll follow as soon as you go."
Then "Ha! ha! ha!" a chorus came
Of laughter sweet and low,
From millions of flowers under the ground,
Yes, millions beginning to grow.

Le Perce-Neige

Robert Desnos

Violette de la Chandeleur,
Perce, perce, perce-neige,
Annonces-tu la Chandeleur,
Le soleil et son cortège
De chansons, de fruits, de fleurs ?
Perce, perce, perce-neige
A la Chandeleur.

The Snowdrop

Alfred Lord tennyson

*

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid,

Ever as of old time,

Solitary firstling,

Coming in the cold time,

Prophet of the gay time,

Prophet of the May time,

Prophet of the roses,

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid!

More Hummingbird Sightings!

We've noticed the hummingbirds zooming around the hillside garden a few times. Our neighbor even said she and her girls noticed hummingbirds in our lovely garden. I've tried a few times without luck to get photos of them. Of course dead batteries in the camera once or twice didn't help.

This morning, after walking Diva Dog, I noticed two hummingbirds flying around. We carefully went inside, hoping not to disturb them too much. I got the camera and stationed myself at the side window in the bedroom which overlooks the hill. With some patience and a lot of luck, I managed to snap these photos.

Look closely at the right side of the blue-black sage and to the left of the agastache, roughly in the center of the picture.

Here's a close up of the hummingbird. You can almost make out the wings.

Here are two more photos of the hummingbird, again at the blue-black sage, but this time on the far left.



The wings are a blur, but the body, face and beak are much clearer. I belive this is an Anna's Hummingbird.

I'm looking forward to using the new tripod and testing the shutter speed settings on the camera to hopefully get more photos. Wish me luck!

Ribbon grass be gone!

Wing Nut prepares to tackle the ribbon grass.

One down...

... and one to go.

The ribbon grass in its new home.

The ribbon grass is replaced by rudebekia, variegated sage and a variegated hebe.

Here are the latest pepper pictures!

Peppers and more peppers!

Last week was very cool and rainy. This week we've had a couple of days in the 80s and the peppers are responding. We have more peppers than we can count!

Here are some pictures of the garden patch next to the patio. We didn't do a veggie garden this year due to sewer problems we had back i n January. Instead, we planted some seed packets we had. The nasturtiums are doing really well. Next to the purple potatoes (in the pot) you can see some little deep red flowers. These are corn flowers.

At the other end of the garden patch are the rhubarb and bronze fennel. Wing Nut is stilll apologizing to the rhubarb for having said it was dead and we should yank it out. It did look pretty sad when R & N first brought over the cuttings from their garden. And it did die back pretty completely before springing back to life.

The sedum on the hillside garden is starting to turn pink. It took some serious persistance to convince Wing Nut to put in some sedum. We found this dark purple sedum at our local Fred Meyer. It's called "postman's pride" for the Belgian postman who found it growing in his garden.

This stump sits at the bottom of our hillside garden. Wing Nut captured the play of light one evening as the sun was setting.

We have peppers!

One of the Italian Sweet Relleno plants has two peppers and one of the Bulgarian Chervena Chushka plants has one pepper. And ALL of the plants have lots of flowers that will hopefully produce more peppers!

And the hillside garden continues to amaze. The lobelia are blooming!

Hummingbird sighting!

Curmudgeon and I took Diva Dog for a walk before dinner this evening. When we returned, I heard a buzz and saw a blur. We quickly looked up and noticed a hummingbird buzzing over the hillside garden. It was hovering over the mystery plant and the lavender. Ivette asked how on earth we'll get a picture of the hummingbird. I don't know yet, but I'll work on it. Here's a website that has a picture of agastache and a hummingbird: http://www.highcountrygardens.com/agastache/ (okay, so that's cheating a little!)

I saw the hummingbird once earlier this summer. I had just finished planting the agastache (hyssop or hummingbird mint) and heard a buzzing over my head. It flew down to check out the agastache, which wasn't even blooming yet. The one we have is very fragrant - rich licorice scent. I told the hummingbird to come back in a few weeks when it was blooming. Well it's blooming now and my little feathered friend is back too! I love gardening! :-) I'll have to keep an eye on it to figure out what kind it is. We saw it a few times last summer, so we planted more things to attract it.

Here are some pictures of the hillside garden and the agastache. The garden area is about 14 ft wide by about 30 ft long. When we first moved in, the weeds (blackberries, wild clematis-like thing, morning glory and dandelions as big as your head) were dense, tall, thick and frightening. The vines came from the rock wall (that we didn't know we had for the first 2 years!) and the neighbor's yard and reached all the way to the sidewalk. We've been cutting, digging, pulling, and doing our damnedest to get them out. I even bought a machete!! Word of advice - a machete blade will throw sparks if you hit it on rocks. They aren't faking it on "Survivor." Be sure not to cut when things are too dry.

These pictures are from earlier in the spring. The agastache and lavender hadn't started blooming and we were still working on clearing out the bottom of the hill. Notice who has decided to take a nap amongst the impatiens! The red flower is a hibiscus. Oh yeah, and the striped grass which we think looks really cool with the hibiscus is actually considered a noxious weed here in WA! Ooooops!

I hope the peppers enjoy this heat!

I hope the peppers are enjoying this heat because I'm certainly not!! Ugh. 90+ degrees in Seattle?? The East Coast had hot summers. The blast furnace prairie plains had very hot summers. Seattle is not supposed to have hot summers! So today I'm very grateful that I'm not a plant! Okay, there are many days when I'm happy I'm not a plant, but that's another story...

The peppers seem to be growing and there are more buds and some flowers now on the Italian Sweet Peppers. Ivette said she waters the box daily as the six little plants are really soaking up the water. Here are some new pictures of them. The plants are now between 8 and 9 inches tall. We should have measured them previously, but didn't. Oh well. Trust me - they're growing!

It's amazing what the right tools for the job will do. Last summer we purchased a 50 ft hose to replace the one the previous tenants left behind. Well, apparently, 50 feet is just not long enough to reach the end of the garden bed or the top of the hillside garden. Curmudgeon complained that the bronze fennel and rhubarb in the garden patch and the various plants on the hillside were not getting enough water. We recently bought a 75 foot hose and she is able to not only reach the top of the hillside garden, but also the spot where I park the car! I wonder if she'd hose down the car if I sprinkled a few flower petals on it? It could really use a bath! But I digress. One of the plants on the hillside is something we planted 2 or 3 years ago. We no longer remember what it is and cannot find the tag for it. But it is blooming more beautifully this year than any previous year! I think the longer hose and better watering is really making a difference. Here's a picture of the mystery plant. If anyone can identify it - please let us know!