Sheltering at our place is so nice that it’s easy to forget the outside world is a big, hot mess – April, 2020
TROUTS FARM
Home sweet home, with the fragrant phlox in bloom, and our mascot, Spot, yakking at us from the front porch.
The phlox garden has come a long way. It started out as a weedy daylilies and columbine garden. Camille dug out the well-established clumps of grass, and Bob and a friend removed the perimeter rocks. We added red hot poker, phlox, and lavender (not shown), and it is looking much better.
The pond garden, on the right, has also come into its own. Up front are red-blooming, “El Presidente” cannas from Linda Watson’s yard, and Purple Heart from Chatham Beverage District.
CUTE GUYS
Bob takes down the last remnants of boxwood, a shrub that once overwhelmed our south-facing windows. And here’s a cute skink on our front porch — a common sight.
FRONT YARD
This year, the azaleas really put on a show. We think they’re happy to get rid of their oppressor, the evil boxwood. The peonies put out a few gorgeous blooms and gave it up. Unlike the boom and bust perennials, our ice plant is happy as all get out year after year. It’s the perfect ground cover for our peony garden, a sparkling succulent with perky, pink, blooms that open when the sun is out. It blooms from spring through late fall, and spreads like magic, choking out the weeds.
NARCISSUS AND PERSIMMON BLOOMS
We extended the bulb garden around the well head by adding narcissus and hyacinth. The persimmon promises a bounty of fruit this year. Its flowers look like folded napkins.
OUR FROG GARDEN
Bob planted a red-blooming water lily in our frog pond.
At least one of the bullfrogs is happy about the new addition.
Sometimes we count five frogs, sometimes we count six. Mr. Green Lips is an American Bullfrog and there are also a few Leopard Frogs.
MOTHERHOOD
Camille’s mother gave us this doe loving on her fawn years ago. When Camille was a child, her mother called her “My little deer.” Mama Bluebird sits on four blue eggs in her tall, pine needle nest and looks out across the yard.
ARTICHOKES
We planted four Purple Italian and one Imperial Star Artichoke in the front yard, started from seed given us by Whitney. The Italians are perennial and we are experimenting with the Imperial Stars.
BACK YARD
Here are our seed starts awaiting their move into the garden, and our kitchen garden with parsley, chives, Red Rocket dianthus, pansies, and a garden gnome we discovered on the premises.
PINK PEACE
A fragrant hybrid tea, Pink Peace won the “First to Bloom” prize this year.
DANCE OF THE ANOLES
We’ve got a lot to learn about the mating habits of the Green Anole, Anolis carolinensis, but we think the brown anole on the right is a male who is chasing the female, in green, on the left. We read that they change color from green to brown and back, and that the females have a white dorsal stripe, although the males can, too.
This handsome guy is for you, Steph!
THE SUNKEN GARDENS OF MONCURE
Red Thumb fingerling potatoes, first week of April.
Week four: an avalanche of potatoes! Those are Huckleberry Golds in the near tote, followed by Red Thumb, and Yukon Gold. Not shown, German Butterball. Yes, we plant in alphabetical order.
COMFREY
We have not been making full use of this perennial at the deep end of our pool garden. Will let you know when we decide to do something about that. We hear that a comfrey poultice will reduce inflammation from arthritis, sprains, or burns, and that the leaves can be cut and laid on garden paths to add nutrients to the soil.
OLD AND NEW
Over wintered garlic and newly-planted asparagus. We planted 20 asparagus crowns this month: 10 each of Mary Washington, and Sweet Purple.
SPINACH AND PEPPERS
Started from seed in Feburary.
LETTUCE AND BEETS
Nothing dispels a sense of helplessness better than sitting down to a giant salad that you started from seed, covered, uncovered, kept an eye on, and harvested before the bugs moved in.