Flowers

 Spring and early summer are my favorite times to be in the garden.  It's so camera ready....so here is a view of what is blooming around Irish Gardens today


My pretty pink roses

 A purple rose or two

 This peony is flowering for the first time and boy does it look beautiful.

 My Rhoda was looking dead but behold it flowered.

 A yellow rose

 Another peony also opened....lots of blooms this year

And the 4 o'clocks opened too.

Lots is going on here in Irish Gardens and I will have more posts ready in a day or so.  Stay tuned to find out whats going on.  See what we are growing and what we are doing.

GBBD - June

Ah yes it's that time again when Carol over at May Dreams Gardens host this lovely event called Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day where we all post about what is blooming in our gardens.  A day we get to see what is blooming in other gardens all around the world at all times of the year.  I would like to take you on a blooming tour of Irish Gardens now.....see what we have blooming today:

 The lilies have started to make their beauty and presence known in the front yard.  Pretty in pint these guys are big and bold.

 In the butterfly garden the first of 8 different Butterfly Bushes has begun to bloom as well.

 More lilies showing off.

 And add to that the day lilies have begun to open up.

 Still in the front yard but in the Rose garden we find but of course the Roses.

The morning sun shining on a newly opened rose makes for a lovely start to the day

 Right next to the Rose bush the 4 O'Clocks are still doing their blooming thing and showing off their yellow flowers.

On to the side of the house or also known as the driveway garden the Hosta's have decided to come out and play the blooming game too.

 A few mixed zinnia that still need to be planted have decided that even though they are becoming root bound and are craving some water they will bloom for me too.

 And into the heart of Irish Gardens we go.  Starting in this years bean and pea garden.

This Marigold decided to grow from a seed that some how was missed in the fall clean up....so the seed lasted the winter outside.....weird.

 Continuing our tour we head into the Greenhouse and see whats going on.
Anyone want to take a guess as to what this flower is of?  Many don't see it....it's lettuce.  Yup in case you didn't know if you leave the tops of lettuce alone long enough they will flower and produce seeds....

 Behind the lettuce is Echinacea showing off their pretty flowers now too.

 Here is another one that not many folks know about.. Marshmallow.  Pretty delicate flowers with purple pollen.

Leave the onions in the ground too long and this is what you get....I am wondering what happens now.

And finally we stay in the greenhouse for our last flower for bloom day....Dill


Hope you enjoyed the tour and come back again.  Leave a comment....let me know how many of my flowers you knew what they were before reading.  Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what others have blooming this fine bloom day.

2 Years

Well 2 years ago yesterday My Garden, My Hobbies was born.  2 Years ago this past Memorial Day my garden was created.  A lot has happened in these last 2 years.  Good bad and other wise, but mostly good.  Today I did a little house keeping in the gardens....plucked out a few weeds, watered some newly planted herbs.....even gave a few herbs a hair cut.  Pictures were as always taken to document what was going on.

For my other blogging gardeners I am sure it is the same we look at the pictures each year and see when certain flowers bloomed.  I know I like to see did these 4 O'Clocks bloom the first week in June last year or was it in May?  And for spreading perennials like these 4 O'Clocks how much bigger is the patch than last year?  Did they just multiply or multiply and spread?

There have been a lot of posts lately about whether blogging is dying or not....not just garden blogging but blogging in general.  I know that for the ones I read it's not.  I like blogging about my garden.  I love showing it off and telling others what is going on.  My real journal though....thats my pictures.  Today I plan to spend the day organizing my pictures.  Like plants in the same folder separated maybe by year.....not sure how I want to go about it yet but I will figure it out.....I learn more about my garden through my pictures...

Have a wonderful weekend and take a picture of your garden this weekend....then look back over the years and see what has changed.

First ever sale

I love Spring! Plants that die back to the ground like Hosta and Peonies begin to grow again and grow inches each day.  Tree's and bushes that look half dead begin to show signs of life.  Little leaf buds begin to grow as do flowers.  Things seem to come alive.  The gardens get a fresh start after months of rest.

Well last weekend was my first every plant sale for Irish Gardens.  It wasn't all that bad.  Would have liked to sell more but I did sell some and got my name out there.  With the crazy mild winter we had I lost a lot of plants to late frost.  They started to grow and then bam a frost hit and killed the new growth.  What plants I did have  all had growth on them....but I think that if there was more lush looking plants I would have done better.  Lessons learned. Here are a few pictures from the sale and the gardens.

 My special little helper.  He helped me move the plants out from under the tents every day of the sale.  Even the ones that were taller than him.

 The tall plants that were not going on tables.

 My special red headed helper in the back ground checking out the price list..  On this table is was Iris, Lily, and Hosta roots as well as pots of Chocolate Mint

 The table full of plants...Fountain Grass, Four O'Clocks, Spirea....lots of stuff

And the other bench and other big plants.

The sale isn't the only this that has been going on here at Irish Gardens.....my gardens have been bursting out with color....

 My Iris decided that it would bloom last weekend.  Good timing too cause I was selling some and there were a few customers that weren't sure what Iris flowers looked like.

 A little sad looking by my columbine also is flowering.

 I bought this foxglove already in bloom.  Is that cheating?  Yea kinda...instant color.

 Now this columbine is far from sad.  It's absolutely beautiful.

 The Coral Bells have decided that it is their turn to grow like a weed.

Lily of the Valley started showing off their cute little white flowers.

And although not part of the garden he was part of the sale.  Buddy Dog joined us outside for the last day of the sale.  Spent the time between customers under the main table.

A little rain makes a big difference

So this crazy mild winter we had left us with dry gardens here in the Hudson Valley.  The lack of rain this month hasn't helped either.  But regardless the tree's decided to bloom and leaf out anyways.  Well that is what I thought anyways.  See last night it finally rained here...not snow like other parts of NY but rain....and this morning........

 I see this guy looking a new shade of green.  You know that green that screams of new young spring growth?  Yea that green. And not just in a few places but all over.

Then I go and look at other parts of the gardens and see even more green....or rather taller green.  The 4 O'Clocks seem to have grown a few inches and the Lily of the Valley are beginning to bloom.  My Columbine buds opened right up too.

 And in this garden the Hosta I swear grew a few inches over night.

My Rose of Sharon bushes in that garden are looking quite green now where yesterday you could just see the leaf buds getting ready to come out.  Ok maybe not yesterday but man it seems like it.

Isn't it amazing what a little rain can do for the garden?