Photos of spring in the garden 10 April 2009

[Started on 4 April, when these photos were taken]

Unfortunately the weather and the luminescent petals have not lent the spring-blooming colchicum to excellent photos.  This is the best one I’ve taken so far (alas):

Spring-blooming colchicum with chives (upper right), pansies (upper left/center), and, fall-blooming crocus leaves (right)

Pansies

More pansies; the one on the right is the kind (I've mentioned before) that starts out in darker colors and fades to lighter ones as it ages (an old bloom is pictured here). It is very windy (yet again) today and they were flapping in the wind, as was much of the rest of the garden.

Pansy patch with many other things, such as leaves of bearded iris, tansy, euphorbia, and crocus.

Oriental poppy foliage coming up

Spring-blooming crocuses (& a few other bulbs) coming up: One of the odd things about having a garden that varies so dramatically in light from season to season is that my snow crocuses have been the last to come up in the neighborhood!

White creeping thyme, recently planted: It is so named because it is the type of creeping thyme whose flowers are white.

Lemon thyme, creeping variety, recently planted

Euphorbia

Alumroot (native Heuchera americana, AKA "American alumroot"), dwarf cranesbill (Geranium), and other things.

Plants, waiting to be planted: Two each of parsley, borage, and dill; potted shallots; oregano; golden oregano; one more thyme; more pansies and violas

Front garden, from the side: Those are the hardy lavenders waving in the wind (sort of in the foreground). That's a large patch of violas in front of them.

Herbs and veggies 4 July 2008

Cuban oregano (large plant on left) with culantro (below) and Aztec sweet herb (winding around on top/right)

In this shot are three herbs I’ve never grown before.  I’ve talked about Aztec sweet herb in another entry.  Cuban oregano (also known as Spanish thyme) is a very popular Latin American plant, so much so that according to Ethnic Culinary Herbs you can’t find plants of it for sale at markets in rural Latin America because every single garden already has one.  This shot is from a couple weeks ago.  It has been happy as a clam beside one of the largest rocks in the rock border, the heat radiating back to it.  Culantro, also known as recao, spiny coriander, and Mexican coriander, amongst other things, has been harder to situate here.  I first planted it at the front of the border beside the retaining wall, thinking the heat would please it, but instead it merely tried to bolt a second time (it was already trying to bolt when I bought it; I cut off the bud stalks, as recommended).  In retrospect, I think it may have been in too little sun for its liking in that spot.  I moved it up beside the Cuban oregano and it’s been happier, putting out new leaves instead of trying to bloom a third time. A nice article on culantro/recao is over here.  I have two other Eryngium species in the front garden, sea holly and rattlesnake master.  The genus members tend to be great for hot, windy sites.  (At the very top, in the center, you can also see a little bit of the sweet marjoram.  Like the Aztec sweet herb, it’s been winding its way around other plants.  I have them closer to the beans because they like more compost than the others.  Near the bottom, on the right, you can see one branch of the French tarragon.)

• Cuban Oregano – Plectranthus amboinicus
• Culantro – Eryngium foetidum
• Aztec sweet herb – Lippia dulcis
• Sweet marjoram – Origanum majorana
• French tarragon – Artemisia dracunculus var. sativa

Winter savory (Satureja montana)

Hollyhock leaf on the left.

Peas forming

Baby’s breath bloom

Retaining wall in the foreground.

Bean climbing a pole

Pea plants and fava/broad bean plants behind it.

Silver thyme, blooming, in front of Small’s penstemon and variegated catmint:

Creepers galore:  Creeping snapdragon and creeping thyme

This is the creeping spandragon that survived the winter!  The creeping thyme (AKA ‘mother of thyme’) is wandering around everywhere.  There are seeded annuals growing up out of the snapdragon – stalks of a poppy and some sweet alyssums. That’s a viola bloom on the far right.

Sedum, budded

This is an unknown sedum I bought (untagged) from a stall at the farmers’ market last year.  Oddly, it is the only sedum that survived the wintertime trampling of the garden by workmen, even though numerous other perennials survived.

Agastache ‘Apricot Sprite’

With lamb’s ears ‘Silver Carpet’ (fuzzy silvery leaves) and a cranesbill/hardy geranium I got at this year’s estate sale (pink blooms in background) and foliage of California poppies (at the edges on the left, right, and bottom).  Some sources say ‘Apricot Sprite’ is hardy in our average winters (USDA hardiness zone 6B) and others say it’s not, so we’ll see!

[Photos are from mid-June; camera/computer issue still not resolved]