Flowers From Around The Garden

I was walking around the garden yesterday and was surprised by the amount of flowers still in bloom. Having a large variety of plants flowering in your garden is beneficial in many ways. First is beauty, I will step out of my power tool infested man-cave and say, flowers make me happy, plain and simple. Secondly, flowers of different colors, shapes, and sizes bring all kinds of beneficial insects to your garden. Some of these insects are predators that help control insect pests, and some are pollinators that will help pollinate your food crops while they are in the area. Last but not least, many flowers have medicinal properties or are edible, or both. Here are some pics I took yesterday.

This is one of our favorite flowers in the garden. Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) is native to Mexico. The flowers attract birds and butterflies, and bees love them.

We bought a perennial flower seed mix that had dozens of different flowers in it. I am not sure what this is but it is a beautiful flower.

Same thing here, some kind of perennial flower. In the spring I plan on filling the beds along the back of the property with this mix.

Marigolds are very beneficial. They are said to deter some insect pests and bring in beneficial insects. This is a french marigold (Tagetes patula), it is not edible, just beneficial. Some people confuse the inedible french marigold with the edible, sort of look a like, Calendula (Calendula officinalis).

This is Borage (Borago officinalis), which is very edible and delicious. The flowers continuously bloom all through the season. Bees love these flowers and they make a nice addition to a salad.

 

The first Jerusalem Artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) are blooming. I took this picture with the camera extended as high as I could above my head and the flower was still a few feet away. Right now these plants are around 10-12 feet tall. I did a detailed post on Jerusalem Artichokes here if you are interested.

Not sure what this plant is. I was about to cut them all down when I noticed it was about to bloom. I am going to leave one and take the rest out. It has a very woody stalk that leads me to believe it might be a perennial. We will see if it comes back in the spring.

This is a perennial I bought in a big box store clearance sale. Not sure what it is, but it comes back every year and the bees like it.

Same here, this is a perennial from a clearance sale. I have a hard time passing up .50 cent flowering perennials.

My addiction strikes again. I often think about getting a part time job at my local big box store just so I can get first dibs on the clearance plants!

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a very valuable plant in the garden. It is a good companion plant, a medicinal and edible. It attracts predatory wasps, ladybugs and hover flies; all very beneficial to have around. It is said to improve the health of sick plants it is near to. Yarrow has been used for centuries as a pain reliever, an astringent, an anti-inflammatory,  a diaphoretic and it was used in ancient times to stanch blood flow in wounds. In those days it was called herbal militaris.

Seedling Update

Every single Jerusalem artichoke and Russian Comfrey that I planted earlier this year has either come up, or is coming up now. 100% success rate, not bad. I hope there is an interest in useful perennial plants in my area. If not I will have a lot of planting to do. If anyone who reads this blog wants some, let me know. I will give you a reader discount. 

Hello! You found my secret message! Words of wisdom: 'Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly' Thomas Jefferson

The indoor plants are doing great. I picked up some clearance plants at the local box store for next to nothing. You should check the back of the outdoor plant section at your local box store. Everyday they put plants they want to get rid of on racks and deeply discount them. I paid a dollar for each of these flats of marigolds. 

With our busy schedules, it is hard to find time to harden off our plants. I wanted to have my brassicas in the ground by now. Depending on the extended forecast, we may try to get a headstart on the season by planting next weekend. Around here, Mother's day is the safe time to plant every year. I want to try to push it up a week. 

Garden Flowers

Just thought I would share a pic of a flower arrangement I made for Dara. I had to cut the Jerusalem Artichoke flowers so they put their energy into the tubers and thought I would see what else was in bloom.

Flowers: Jerusalem Artichoke, Borage, Marigold, Yarrow and some white flower I found growing in the perennial flower bed.  

 

Planting Veggie Garden

We started most of the plants indoors in February on a metal shelving system with lights
set to a timer. We were able to move all of the seedlings the first day of planting.
There are still some seeds left to sow but most of the veggie garden is in!

Here are the seedlings that were started indoors in February and March.

We made the cubes of soil with the Soil Cube Tool and it is amazing. Very simple device
but definitely worth buying. The cubes held together nicely and the plants loved it.
Very minimal root disruption when transplanting.

The garden plan... sigh... this updates about every 10 seconds

(and as you can see... I lost my pencil).

Some of our seeds... and the peanuts that have no home yet. We buy seeds from High Mowing, Seed Savers, Botanical Interests and Landreth. We buy from a few others but these are our faves. I love Landreth because they have the coolest, best designed catalog – which is the most important thing of course. Botanical did send me a sweet desk calendar, though.

Kale and Swiss Chard in one of the smaller beds

The potato box and it's companion horseradish. This will have it's very own post later.

The idea is that as the potatoes grow we will stack more frames on.

The garden guardians.

And the star of the show right now. Beautiful Cabbages. I just hope it doesn't get too hot!