Crop Circles and Roses

I finally came in at 10pm tonight.  It was a lovely night - lots of light and not too hot; made good progress on my weeding.  I think I may have stayed out there too long though.  Someone (I'm guessing his name starts with "G") made himself a comfy place to sleep in my flower bed:

My own little crop circle!  How precious.  (Insert heavy sarcasm here.)

Those flowers may have taken a bit of a beating, but my Therese Bugnet rugosa is going gangbusters.  I bought it in August 2009.  It's quite well established and needs very little care.  I highly recommend it for Zone 2-3 gardens.  The Persian Yellow that I bought last year didn't put out shoots this spring.  I replaced it with another Therese Bugnet ($16 at Canadian Tire!).

My own Little Garden of Weedin'

I took time off work in early May to get some yard work done, but that didn't work out very well.  I got my cast off on May 2, and it took a full week before I could walk without crutches.  Then it was a matter of being able to stand or kneel for more than a few minutes at a time.  I'm walking well now, but I have a lot of catching up to do with the yard.  In the meantime, I started selling homemade dog cookies and dog food at the Farmers' Market every Sunday.  I've been spending my Saturdays baking and my Sundays at the Market.  My garden has been sorely neglected.

I'm reluctant to post pictures that would showcase my weeds in all their glory, so let's just do close-ups for now.  Therese Bugnet rose bud unfurling:

Chive flowers.  These are edible and surprisingly hot!

A peony bud ready to pop.

Yarrow buds.

The hanging basket I bought my mom for Mother's Day is flourishing.

The front yard is doing very well this year.  Most of the gout weed died off last year due to some mysterious disease/fungus thingie.  It came back, but in the interim, I think the other plants had a chance to get better established.  Usually you can't see the ferns for all the gout weed; and I noticed an iris blossom out there today.

If it wasn't for the weeds, I'd be pretty happy with how well the garden is doing.  With the veggies, my beans, zucchini, and cucumbers are all sprouted; and I'm sure I saw a few tiny beets popping out here and there.  All my seedlings (patty pan squash, several varieties of tomatoes and herbs, and flowers) are doing well too.

Fertilizer Friday ~ Flaunt your Flowers

It's Friday! Time to grab our fertilizer and give our plants inside and out a good feeding. Once you're done, post pictures of what's growing at your place. Don't forget to visit Tootsie Time to link up with her fun Fertilizer Friday meme!

My saskatoon berries are coming along. Lots to eat straight off the bushes, and my beagle Gabe heads straight for the bushes every time I let him outside, so that he can forage below the bushes to pick up the berries the birds drop.

These next flowers, I'm hoping someone can identify for me. My mom planted them. She chose them because they are very heat resistant and they grow bountifully against the garage, which gets full south and west sun. I suspect some people would classify these as weeds as they are mildly invasive.

I need help identifying these purple flowers too, please; also planted by my mom. They grow in the north-facing perennial bed and can tolerate a lot of shade. The petals are a deeper purple than the pictures show.

Barrel of geraniums, impatiens, and spikes by my backdoor.

And a closeup of a geranium ....

Friends of mine bought me this rosebush as a memorial to my mom. I'm not sure which variety it is.

A couple photos of my tomato plants, which are growing like gangbusters. Obviously the weekly fertilizing is doing the trick.

They are packed so tightly in the bed, you can't really tell one plant from the other. I had the same number of tomato plants in that bed last year, and they were nowhere near as bountiful.

And, that's what's going on at the School of Yard Knocks this Fertilizer Friday. Don't forget to check out Tootise Time, where you can link yourself up in this meme, or find links to other gardens that are participating.