My tomatoes 2011

Despite the sadness and upheaval in my personal life, planting tomatoes makes me feel good, so I am considering this year's tomatoes a healing exercise. It is nice to have something healthy and growing on my portal.

June 2, the day I planted my tomatoes:


Today, June 25:






My first tomato:

Hydrangea year three

My hydrangea plant is still alive. This will be the third year, and we didn't think it would survive the first summer because it is so dry here and the hyrdangea loves moisture.

It's been hibernating inside all winter, and putting out new growth and is waiting the move to outside in a couple months.

I guess the woman at the florist shop knew what she was doing when my daughter requested a plant that would do well in Santa Fe's climate.

Russian Sage!

We went away for a week on vacation, and returned to find the Russian Sage in our front yard in full bloom.

It's one of my favorite summer flowers - it will be in bloom now for the rest of the summer. It makes my yard a happy place.

Oh, my wonderful penstemons!

They are everywhere. Every year they multiply. Our front yard is full of them, and they bloom for a long time in the early summer.

Right now our penstemons are in full bloom, turning our yard into a wonderful happy flower garden:

Spring is finally springing in Eldorado

Took a long time for spring to get here. We had a long winter and a late spring. But suddenly the yard and garden are green with new growth. Perennials are starting to come up and trees are budding. The bright color is a joy to see.

Of course, two hours after I took these pictures, it began snowing and didn't stop until we had two inches on the ground. Winter just doesn't want to leave!

FORSYTHIA:



CRABAPPLE TREE:




CATMINT:


PENSTEMON:



BUFFALO CURRANT:


ASPEN AND CISTENA PLUM TREES GETTING LEAVES:


FERNBUSH

The cotoneaster in my backyard

The former owner of our home planted three cotoneaster plants in the backyard. I am so glad he did, because this unobtrusive little shrub has become one of my favorite parts of our landscaping, especially in the fall, when the bushes become covered with bright red berries, right at the time that most other of my flowering shrubs are declining.

Cotoneaster is a compact horizontally spreading shrub with tiny leaves which form in a herringbone pattern. At the very most the plant will reach 3 feet in height but the width may spread to 15 feet. They grow well in New Mexico because they are considered drought resistant and like full sun. The red berries, which appear in the fall will last into the winter, and will attract birds, bees and butterflies; the birds may use them as an emergency food source in the winter.

Here’s a few pictures of the cotoneasters in my backyard:

Sad looking little hydrangea.

My daughter and son in law gave me a hydrangea plant for Mother's Day. They ordered it from a florist in Santa Fe and asked for a plant that grows well in our high desert / low humidity area.

So..the florist sent a hydrangea - which I found out later does NOT like sunshine and loves a lot of water. Perfect for Santa Fe, right? *rolling eyes*

So it became my challenge. I put it in a shady place and watered it every day. The thing looked good all summer. I noticed a week ago that it was putting out dozens of tiny new leaves, so I got quite drastic and chopped off every single one of the old leaves to give the new ones a chance to get all the water and nutrients.

Looks pretty sad right now, huh? But I think the outcome might be a good one. I'm watching you, little plant. I think you're going to flourish.

My little garden

This year was my first attempt at growing vegetables here in New Mexico. I tended to think of it as an experiment, to see what I could learn for the future.

These were my pepper and tomato plants in mid-May when I first planted them:





And this is how they look now. My little garden has for the most part been a success!




CHIVES AND BASIL PLANTS GROWN FROM SEED:



What have I learned?

1. The little irrigation system John hooked up has been great, but we have had to do quite a bit of adjusting in order not to water too little or too much.

2. Miracle Gro for Vegetables has been GREAT in producing larger and healthier plants.

3. Sometimes late in the day in the full afternoon sun, one of the tomato plants gets very wilted. We're thinking next year it will be best to use bigger pots.

Early June in my garden

We got home yesterday to find many of our early summer flowers had burst into bloom during our vacation out of state. What fun to see all the color here.

THESE LITTLE WHITE FLOWERS ARE IN BLOOM NEAR OUR FRONT PORCH. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE:


LOTS OF BEARD-TONGUE PENSTEMON ALL OVER THE YARD:




LAST YEAR'S NEW LITTLE COREOPSIS PLANT IS GOING TO TAKE OFF THIS YEAR:


WE HAVE MANY CATMINT PLANTS AROUND THE YARD. YARROW IS ABOUT TO BLOOM JUST IN FRONT OF THIS ONE:



APACHE PLUME BUSH IN OUR BACKYARD. NOT SURE I LIKE IT, BUT IT IS DIFFERENT! (It grows wild all along the roadsides here, too.)

My new roses

I have always wanted to have a rose garden. Last summer when I was sick, my 83-year old Mom sent me a get well card with some money in it. I told her we were going to plant a rose garden with it.

Last weekend we picked out three pink antique rose bushes at Santa Fe Greenhouses (High Country Gardens.) John chopped and dug away horrible soil to get a hole big enough to plant the roses.

Roses do well here in the Santa Fe area, so we will see what kind of success we have.

Sugar loves the rose bushes. You can see her in two of the pictures sniffing around the new bushes.