October Garden

Datura

This is a common wolf spider.
What makes her UNcommon
is that she is carrying hundreds of tiny spiderlings on her back.

I spotted her while I was out planting tulips this afternoon.
My camera didn't do justice to the fact, so I found a better photo online:

I spy with my little eye...
something green...

Spring and Summer and Back Again

On Monday the spring temperature rose to late summer level: 100º!!

This afternoon, it is 49º and blustery.
One can guess which day saw me outdoors doing things.

Irises!

Purple-laced

White and purple

Blue-laced

Dark, dark purple

Light-as-air blue

Really black

The roots to these irises all had their proper "iris" names penciled onto them two years ago. I suppose I was to write down the name and the location I planted each one for my records, but I find it easier to name them whatever I feel like naming them once I see them.

Lots of common purple irises.

Apropos that there should be
a bicycle wheel hanging in the Brickhouse window...
i.e., my conservatory, until I get this one:

Green Things

Two years ago my neighbor Mary invited me to accompany her on a trip to an iris sale sponsored by some iris club in Manhattan. I bought quite a few iris bulbs. I was told not to expect blooms the following year. And, I was accurately informed: no blooms whatsoever last year.

But this year:

a black iris is one of the first blooms

And it has a very pretty, bright orange beard and crest.

Meanwhile, back in the conservatory...

...awaiting something other than frost warnings in the forecast...

And my viney things: Cantaloupe (left),
watermelon (nonexistant at the moment),
white Valenciano pumpkin (three sprouting out of the soil...)
and birdhouse gourds.

Graham's Daffodils

The College Boy, Graham, took this photo just this morning.
It's a daffodil farm about 30 miles south of Western Washington University, where Graham studies.

Ah! Springtime!

In the spring,
I have counted one hundred and thirty-six
different kinds of weather
inside of four and twenty hours.
~Mark Twain

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like....

Garden Time!!

Basil...check.
Cantaloupe...check.
Collard Greens...check.
Echinacea...
Fennel...
Birdhouse Gourd...
Check...check...check.
Ornamental grasses...check.
Pepperocini...checkerocini!
Rosemary...check.
Rudbeckia...check.
Watermelon...Bush Sugar Baby...check-a-baby!

So, how doth my garden grow?