Your Spring garden ...

[pacergal]

Better build an ark of your own, just in case! Sounds really wet.

I just looked up some statistics on rainy cities, and found this:



https://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/wettest-cities.php

There are rankings of cities both by amount of annual rainfall, and by the number of rainy days per year. According to this site, Portland, Oregon gets a whopping 164 rainy days each year! That's a lot of wet weather.

Yes, we do have plenty of rain. I did get my blueberry bush planted and it is currently blossoming. The rest of my garden is still waiting for some warm, dry days. It is raining again today.....

 

[bbbamI]

BbbamI, nice looking landscape you have there. Must be very peaceful. Does the pool have any fish in it? Any animal visitors to it?

Where we are, there are too many critters for a fountain or small pool. Once I put a bird bath near the ground and the raccoons made a mess of it. I guess they were washing off there food because it really stunk. Had to raise the bird bath. Mostly now just birds visit with the occasional squirrel.

Thank you.

No fish...we considered it, however the pool is next to our patio. We were afraid it would be too much work to keep it from smelling like your raccoon's activities.

We don't have many critters in our 'hood. We do have a variety of birds. Ducks have visited it and a Great Blue Heron has been by a couple of times. Now that was a shocker! DH managed to get a pic while it was perched on our fence.

 

[jjquantz]

Prime lettuce growing weather right now. I've been eating big salads every day for the last two weeks and DW has even added some lettuce to her preferred spinach salad. We still can't keep up. Oh well, it's good for me and the heat will get to it by the end of the month, more than likely.

 

[MissMolly]

Thank you.

No fish...we considered it, however the pool is next to our patio. We were afraid it would be too much work to keep it from smelling like your raccoon's activities.

We don't have many critters in our 'hood. We do have a variety of birds. Ducks have visited it and a Great Blue Heron has been by a couple of times. Now that was a shocker! DH managed to get a pic while it was perched on our fence.

We have a fishpond like this only our has a bunch of goldfish in it. It is also right next to our deck. It's been there for close to 20 years now. No smell at all and we have tons of wildlife that visit - dragonflies, butterflies, frogs, toads, snakes, squirrels, possum, raccoons, great blue heron, kingfisher, mallard ducks, little green heron and more. Even a turtle one time, but it was a snapping turtle, so we relocated him to a creek.

The fish have babies every year and it's fun to watch them grow and turn orange or white or orange/white combo (when they hatch they are black/dark brown and teeny-tiny). Some with long flowing tails, some with short. The goldfish eat the mosquito larvae so no problems with that.

Then when they get sort of big, they just disappear - I assume into the bellies of one of the above listed wildlife . So I have learned not to get attached to the fish and not to put expensive koi in the pond. Our kids loved feeding the fish Cheerios when they were little, now our little granddaughter is having fun with that.

The waterfall part has extra long "steps" that provide an excellent opportunity for the birds to take a bath and I cannot begin to name all the different types of birds that come and bathe, even in the dead of winter with snow/ice all around. Our waterfall runs every day of the year. We love our little pond (but it's not as nicely landscaped as yours).

 

[Fedup]

Peony, this is a plant I bought from Costco a few years back. Glad to have 2 blooms this year.

 

[bbbamI]

We have a fishpond like this only our has a bunch of goldfish in it. It is also right next to our deck. It's been there for close to 20 years now. No smell at all and we have tons of wildlife that visit - dragonflies, butterflies, frogs, toads, snakes, squirrels, possum, raccoons, great blue heron, kingfisher, mallard ducks, little green heron and more. Even a turtle one time, but it was a snapping turtle, so we relocated him to a creek.

The fish have babies every year and it's fun to watch them grow and turn orange or white or orange/white combo (when they hatch they are black/dark brown and teeny-tiny). Some with long flowing tails, some with short. The goldfish eat the mosquito larvae so no problems with that.

Then when they get sort of big, they just disappear - I assume into the bellies of one of the above listed wildlife . So I have learned not to get attached to the fish and not to put expensive koi in the pond. Our kids loved feeding the fish Cheerios when they were little, now our little granddaughter is having fun with that.

The waterfall part has extra long "steps" that provide an excellent opportunity for the birds to take a bath and I cannot begin to name all the different types of birds that come and bathe, even in the dead of winter with snow/ice all around. Our waterfall runs every day of the year. We love our little pond (but it's not as nicely landscaped as yours).

Heh...I'd be right out there with your granddaughter feeding the fish too.

Our pond has a liner; so, we would need to add plants as well. Seems to me we were told the pond needed to be about 3 inches deeper for the fish to survive in the winter. Like you, I'd have to try and not get attached to the fish.

I appreciate the compliment on our landscape, but it's fairly easy as our backyard is small. We like the look of the pond, but have it mostly for the sound of water.

....and I must say your flowers are beautiful. Flowers, a pond with fish and a giggling grandchild must be like the Garden of Eden.

 

[ikubak]

Love those pictures of Point Reyes. We visited that area last summer. Summers where I live are hot and humid. Point Reyes was a nice break.

 

[exnavynuke]

Peppers and some of the tomatoes are growing here pretty well

New raised bed starting to take off too (sorry for the blurry pic).

 

[exnavynuke]

Herb garden planted in the self-watering cedar planter boxes I built and installed on the deck railing.

Basil, parsley, dill, cilantro x 5, spicy oregano in this one.

Regular oregano, some lettuce, and some other seeds planted in this one.

Planted some that were already grown/growing, other stuff from seed.

I moved the basil outside because holy **** does that grow fast. If left in the Aerogarden it would overshadow everything else if I didn't cut it back daily.

 

[AllDone]

Tomatoes and eggplants have been in the ground for a few weeks. The peas were really producing, but then we went away, so they'll be shot by the time I get back. Not much else planned for the summer because I wrestle with nematodes. Letting the other beds go dry and fallow for a season knocks them back a little.

 

[FIREd]

We just moved into the house a month ago and the yard was a mess, but I attempted to decorate the back patio with a few planters. Now fighting with the squirrels to keep the plants in the dirt...

 

[bbbamI]

Well ok, it's not Spring...but I had to post a pic of my Pampas. Now I'm craving key lime pie....

 

[NW-Bound]

Spring garden? We now grow veggies, and not much flower, but the harsh SW sun has burned them to a crisp while we were on the 6-week European trip in May/June. Relatives who came by to look after our home harvested some nice cucumbers and squash, and saved some for us.

Here looking towards fall planting season.

 

[wmc1000]

bbbamI - key lime pie - just made some last week from limes picked from my BIL's tree on St. Simons Island GA we picked when we visited 2 weeks ago! MMM MMM!

 

[Gumby]

We just enjoyed some BLT's made with Ramapo tomatoes from our garden. I started them from seed in my south-facing office window in March. They are very robust now - the best we've ever grown.

 

[ocean view]

My roses are going crazy. I love this time of year. Here is my favorite, Julia Child with her butter yellow blossoms.

 

[Lsbcal]

Beautiful yellows Ocean View.

 

[Winemaker]

Onions and peas have been in the ground two weeks now, no signs of green yet. Planted cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts today before changing out a storm door at one of the rentals.

 

[RAE]

Onions and peas have been in the ground two weeks now, no signs of green yet. Planted cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts today before changing out a storm door at one of the rentals.

My peas will be going in the ground tomorrow. Planted leaf lettuce, kale, collard greens, onions, and swiss chard about a week ago. Hoping to be able to plant broccoli and brussels sprouts this coming week, and put some seed potatoes in also. Finally getting some nicer spring weather here in Michigan.

 

[Lsbcal]

Here is a small grouping that we just noticed after coming home from a vacation.

Flowers are Pansies, Alstroemeria (orange and coral ones), and lavendar Latana.

 

[Freedom56]

Everything is blooming here in Southern California! The plants have recovered from the brief cold snap several weeks ago. It should fill out nicely in about three weeks and will be in full bloom by mid-June. My wife has the green thumb. We re-did did the landscaping ourselves in late 2017 to reduce irrigation and maintenance requirements.

 

[RunningBum]

I planted a bunch of bulbs last fall. This is the most colorful part right here. Really neat to see all of these tulips every day.

 

[John Galt III]

You guys are supposed to wait til May 15 to avoid frost ! I just planted 4 rows of corn 5 seeds per row, at the end of my garden. Hope they work out OK this year. Planted just one row a few years ago which turned out awful (only a few cobs with very small kernels). Maybe I'll get better pollination this time, due to more rows and more plants.

 

[RAE]

You guys are supposed to wait til May 15 to avoid frost ! I just planted 4 rows of corn 5 seeds per row, at the end of my garden. Hope they work out OK this year. Planted just one row a few years ago which turned out awful (only a few cobs with very small kernels). Maybe I'll get better pollination this time, due to more rows and more plants.

Frost won't hurt veggies like kale, lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, chard peas. I do wait until later to plant tomatoes, squash, cucumbers. I gave up planting corn because I don't have enough garden space to plant a big block of corn (necessary for good pollination). I experimented with planting smaller blocks in the past, and got very poor results, similar to what you describe.

 

[HFWR]

Crabgrass, nutsedge, spurge, henbit, dandelion...