As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for snow drops

Beautiful tasty chives

by

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Narrow

Blooming chives 4

I love how my chives look when they are blooming. Those pretty multi-petaled flowers on long narrow stalks.

Chives usually grown in dense clumps and when they are in flower they can create quite an intense display in the garden.

Other than crocus’ and snow drops, my chives are often one of the first plants to begin to grow each year. Once the snow begins to melt in March, well if we still have any snow that is, the chives begin to grow.

I’ve found that Chives are very easy to grow. They are an appealing plant in the garden and of course they’re handy when you are cooking or making a salad. I’ll often go outside and cut a few of the narrow green chive stems from the clump and then chop them up and add them to salads, stir fries, or add them to marinades that I’ve made for fish, chicken or steak. They have a mild flavor that is wonderful in many dishes.

Do you grow chives?






Working in the garden – Spring cleaning

by

Well I managed to finally get out into the Garden on Sunday. It was a lovely day and it was high time that I got out there to tidy up my garden and begin pruning the roses.

Last Autumn I didn’t even manage to put my garden to bed. By this I mean I didn’t do the usual winter protection. I was just too ill. So I’d have to say that I really haven’t done much in my garden at all since perhaps last September and at that time it was mainly only watering the garden.

That’s 7 months of not doing any garden work. Do you know how my body is feeling right now?

I was outside for about five hours. Once I got started I couldn’t make myself stop. Surprisingly I felt pretty good while I was working away. However once I got back inside I began to notice that my back was stiffening up. Now the bottom of my left foot is numb. I guess I must have a pinched nerve in my back! Oh the damage I do to myself when I garden. I tell you – it’s an extreme sport for me.

There are so many plants growing it’s unbelievable! Some are way ahead of themselves. For instance, my daffodils rarely make an appearance before mid-May, yet I have two that are up and blooming and more to come. Some of my supposedly later blooming Tulips are also up and about to bloom. What else was growing well? Strawberry plants, raspberry canes, several clematis, helebores, columbine, monkshood, toad lilies, regular lilies, oriental lilies, several types of tulip, hyacinth, muscari, lavender, Chionodoxa, snow drops, sedum, astilbe, geranium, new york asters, phlox, hostas, trilliums, peonies, rudbeckia, honeysuckle vines and on and on. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the perennials that I saw out there.

I believe that most of the roses will end up surviving. There’s a lot of dead branches but there’s life in the lower areas. Some are quite hardy and are already leaving out at the tips and upper branches. I didn’t survey each rose because I was trying to systematically work my way through the garden one area at a time.

I think I managed to tidy up half of the back garden beds. If my body cooperates I’ll go back outside later today and try to finish up the back. Then I’ll have to do the side of the house, the front garden and boulevard. Oh my … it’s a lot of work!

Meta