Finally, the lillies have started to bloom!

I’m actually going to try and visit some other GTS bloggers today.  I’m usually too busy with the kids / garden or working to spend time on the internet but if I get a spare hour, I’ll be here seeing what’s new with everyone else!

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I slept most of today away as I was recovering from night shift, but I was able to spend a good three hours working outside.  Also, my parents are visiting for a few days so we had a lovely dinner in the front yard, built a poor man’s firepit, then had a soak in the hot tub.  What a great Sunday!

Our poor man’s fire pit built out of an old tire rim we found in the garden when we moved in.  I still want a grate and maybe some sort of surround.   It’s not pretty and not kid friendly but it will do the job for now:.  Any suggestions on how I can tart this up on a budget?

Some hens and chicks that I stuffed into a driftwood border:

A flowering stalk.

‘Upon maturity (usually around 3 to 4 years old) the plant will send up a single stalk that can reach 5-15 cm tall. The head of the stalk is a cluster of star-shaped flower buds 1-2 cm in diameter, which range in color from dark pink to yellow and that flower for several weeks. After blooming, the plant will die. Usually by this time it has produced many offsets (’chicks’).’

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Some random photos from this week in our garden (we are still working on securing all the sand for the sandbox, but Bart lugged home 1/6th of it from Thormaby Island today).  Poppies in the veggie garden:

Veggie garden:

A few of the raised beds at the front of the house:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

What is this, the third day of summer or something and finally we’ve had a half decent day!

We’d been planning on making a wooden sandbox for the kids but since money is a little tight, we decided that rather than buy timber, why not get it for free.  So we spent this afternoon down at the beach gathering driftwood.  We came back and laid it all out, removed the sod and dug down a bit.  Unfortunately, and to the disappointment of the kids, that’s as far as we got as there are no building supply shops open on Sundays in our town so the completion will have to wait until tomorrow.

Now to source out cheap / free sand.  I suggested to Bart to sneak down to the beach after dark, every night for a week with a big bucket but he’s not to keen on that idea.

Here are some pics of what is blooming in my garden this week:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Another post-dated photo this week as I am away being pampered at a spa resort all weekend, my first ever trip away from my kids since my eldest was born over four years ago. Can you tell I’m excited???

I took this photo to record the size of this giant hosta, although you can’t really tell that it’s almost as high as my waist. It wasn’t until I uploaded the photo that I really noticed the lonely yellow poppy. I have these poppies ‘popping up’ all of the garden in the strangest places, even on my gravel driveway:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Through the magic of post-dating, I am able to post while on vacation (well by now I might actually be home recovering). About a month ago the Rhodos started blooming. Here in a rural forested setting they seem to be much more at home than in our suburban garden in Langley.

I set about counting them and lost count at 21.

Here are a few of in full bloom:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

No garden pics today. Instead I thought I would talk about tools.

We all have tools we can’t work without. My favourite, especially this time of year is the Dutch Hoe. The long handle and angled head makes slicing those nasty little weeds out of the ground an easy task. I find it easy to use, with the intended pushing motion however care must be taken not to get carried away and slice something unintended.

Another tool I should use but never do, is the gardening glove. I’m booked in for a manicure in a few weeks and I know that it’s going to be a huge waste of money as within a few days the nail polish will be chipped and the dirt will have embedded itself once again.

What is your favourite gardening tool and why?

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

To my mum and all the other mums out there, have a happy day! Here’s a pretty poppy, the first one to bloom for you:

I’m sorry I can’t see you today Mum, but we’ll see you soon!

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

This week with the lack of free time and inappropriate weather, was still quite productive.

I planted all of my beans and finally sowed the seeds I meant to sow inside weeks ago. I’ll transplant and sow more directly into the garden over the next several weeks once I’ve figured out where to put it all.

I planted:

• Kale
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Carrots
• Sunflowers
• Pumpkins (jack-o-lantern)
• Heuchera sanguinea Coral Bells
• Scarlet runners
• Blue Meconopsis Tibetan Poppy
• Sunchokes (rather worried about these as they’ve shriveled over the last week)

Already growing away and having survived the move I also have some lavender and Leptospermum scoparium Manuka / Tea Tree seedlings which I am amazed have survived the neglect:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Happy GTS and Happy 4th birthday to my daughter.  This week, we walked up to the local nursery and took part in a moss basket workshop.  I’m the type who buys my baskets every single year with the thought in mine that next year, I’d re-use the baskets … but I never do, so this is a step in the right direction.

Here is C. thinking seriously about plant placement:

The finished product (the nursery is going to look after it for a few weeks until it can come out of the greenhouse):

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.