03-10-2015 What a difference!

Just a few days ago, we were dealing with intense cold, ice and power failures.

Today, the thermometer reached 75; perfect temperature!

For the last couple of days, I have been busy cleaning up Winter's mess, weeding and transplanting lettuce and leeks. In 48 H. we went from devastation to an almost green look. I am about four weeks behind last year's schedule but, being a patient gardener and knowing that Mother Nature rules the game, I just do my best and know that it will be all right.

Head lettuce that need to mature before real heat sets in

Leeks

Escaroles

Kale

 The kale, chervil, Brussels sprouts and baby leeks overwintered in the garden, with a row cover on really cold nights.

You should see me tuck them in on those freezing evenings!

Remembers these guys: "Chervil" looks a lot like parsley but with a more anisy taste.  Great for winter soup! Hardly anybody grows it now but I believe that within the next couple of years NPR will go gaga over it like it did with kale last year.

We ate a load of those brussels sprouts at the end of last week. They are so much sweeter than what we buy in the store.

02-26-2015 Snow storm.

A bamboo cave!

OK, so I was a little optimistic in my last post!

It still does not feel good being outsmarted by a Pennsylvanian rodent!

Being optimistic, I might have to wait another few days but I am sure that spring is coming!

02-12-2015 All the signs are in! Spring is getting close!

Quince, one of the early bloomers!

This morning, I noticed that the maples across the street started showing their red buds; a number of my perennials are now peaking above ground (Do they not know what's coming this weekend? Another batch of Arctic air!)

For the last few days, Robins and Blackbirds have been tearing through my winter mulch to stuff themselves on worms before flying farther North. From what I understand, where they're heading to, only the frozen food section is open.

In any case, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, when WRAL tells me it's 52° F, I head out to pick some kale for dinner. In minutes,  some nasty cold gale blows in, covers the sun, scares away all the birds and I find myself, all alone in the garden, feeling my fingers freezing by the second.

Talk about a surprise, a sudden change of weather! Fortunately, we're in NC and if the weather disappoints, we can always wait a day or two and get a totally different one!

I am not giving up; maples and Robbins don't lie: Spring shouldn't take too much longer!

... When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze...

                                                      William Wordsworth

11-01-2014 Before it all disappears!

After a few beautiful days of colored leaves, blue skies and crisp air, snow is now falling on our mountains.

Tonight or tomorrow our first frost will kill tender vegetation in the garden.

Bananas!!!!

Bananas have been a little different this year; last winter having been colder than normal with some serious frost, my Cavendish type plants did not bloom at all this year. It took them longer to grow back in spring but a good amount of rain during summer helped them acquire good height but...still no flower!

Then, late fall, surprise, surprise! My other variety, a Red Abyssinian (Musa Ensete Maurelii for those who want to be picky!) started blooming, way later than expected but welcome none the less.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and, possibly, help you understand why I love banana plants, other than I met the woman of my life in a banana field 39 years ago in a place far away.
 :)

For more banana flowers, from the Cavendish, and more details about my love for the genus Musa,see an older post: http://thisweekinthegarden-roland.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Late blooming gladiolus.

09-28-2014 A sense of Fall!

This is a "Toad Lily"! I would love to see what a "frog lily" should look like!

One of the things a gardener will appreciate at this time of year is the temperature drop, allowing one to work out in the garden without frying or melting. The lack of humidity , being able to breathe!
With the cooler nights, we also get nice dewy morning even though this little fellow may have had a little too much of it:

This is the time when summer clean-up should be done, removing old and tired looking summer plants and making room for Fall lettuce or Winter leeks, onions, Brussels sprouts, kale, chervil, and endive.

This is also the last season for bright colors before everything turns into grayish green for the next few weeks.

Cotton! Nice flowers but still waiting for the stuff to make my T shirts.

This last winter's cold precluded me from getting any banana flower short of this little runt.

Pineapple sage! Rubbing its leaves frees that pineapple scent. I love that color in Fall. Hummingbirds and the last few honeybees still flying around here go crazy over it.

Second raspberry crop, not quite as tasty as the Spring ones; not to mention they ripen a couple at a time.

I lost half this fig tree to last Winter's frost and it too, produces half a dozen of fruit at a time; just enough to get a daily taste but there won't be any jam this year.

09-08-2014 A rainy day!

Rainy day in the garden! 

I missed the rain! For the last tens days I have had to face swarms of ravenous mosquitoes and temps in the high 90s to water my garden.

I had been spoiled this year, with regular rains falling at manageable intervals...until the last few days.

Baby eggplant enjoying its outdoors shower. It's summer after all!

When I did a quick check between cloud bursts to make sure my new transplants had not drowned and I noticed...I just about stuck my face in that waterlogged spider web. It is amazing that it can hold this much water and not shatter!

What a carrot looks like if you let it go to bloom!