This time of the year I find myself walking around the yard as often as I can. I’ll go out the back door, head in one direction or the other, and walk in a loop until I return to where I started. Each area has something to see and things seemingly change in the space of a day. I make a mental list of things I need to do as I walk along.
The columbines are almost done blooming-I have several colors ranging from pale pink to dark purple. Each year’s growth cycle sends seeds flying to new places and I’m always surprised by columbines that end up in new and unusual places.
My purple geraniums’ pretty faces are smiling up at me. I know if I cut them back they’ll bloom again before summer is over.
Uncle Woodrow’s rose is spilling out into the onions-and wow I need to weed that bed! I thought I just did that?
Usually I have a bleeding heart bush-this year I have one stem with 2 hearts…what’s up with that?
Granny Gazzie’s pink rose is in full bloom and in full smell..if only you could smell it too. It’s an old fashioned variety that only blooms once a year-but the blooms are spectacular and the smell filters over the entire yard.
The clematis start Granny gave me 2 summers ago is blooming for the first time!
And another first-we have apples!!
The blueberries are coming along nicely. The last 2 seasons had such a poor blueberry production-that I went a little haywire last fall and cut my bushes way back. But it looks like the pruning helped.
My hostas are so dependable they’re like old friends. I can always count on the large varieties and the miniature varieties to look amazing in early summer.
All my walks include a peek in the greenhouse to check the tomatoes-I was so worried about them this year-but they’re looking good now…they just need to be put in the ground…like soon.
All along my walk are plants I had nothing to do with but sure am thankful for. The blackberries are in full bloom…just in time for the dose of blackberry winter we had over the weekend. When I see the blooms my mouth waters thinking about fresh blackberry jelly.
And the Ivies are putting on their usual spectacular show of pink and white. I can see them from every room in the house that has a window-how cool is that. I never get tired of seeing their lovely sweet beauty.
Even when I’m busy inside or just come in from work and need to get to cooking super I can always find time to make a quick circle around the yard-it always brightens my outlook. I hope you enjoyed the walk too!
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The Blind Pig got a shout out in the Asheville Citizen Times-go here to read the article.
Tipper
Thanks for the walk in your yard. Lovely. You are surely blessed.
Mike-Thank you for the comment! So far the coon dogs roaming loose in our holler have kept the deer at bay. But Ive been seeing some closer and closer in the last few months : )
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Pamela
Thank you for the great comment! I have no clue what the rose variety is-I just got a cutting from Granny. Maybe you could google old pink roses that smell really good LOL-that might work!
I hope you have a fantastic day!
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Song of Solomon 2:1 “I am the rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys.”
Plants and flowers are spoken of so lovingly in the Bible. I know God blesses them.
Thanks for the walk. It was Heavenly.
Your yard is just gorgeous! I think Granny Gazzie’s rose is a Bourbon called Louise Odier. I used to have one years ago. I’m afraid that my yard which is all garden and no grass is a bit messy just now. Most of my walks are straight out to the vegetable garden to see if things are popping up. I am so impatient!
Makes you wonder what the city folks do! Have really counted my blessings this week- glorious weather and something beautiful to see everywhere I look. Thanks for sharing your view.
Loved the pictures from your garden, Tipper! My wife was just telling me today that a friend of hers refers to hostas as “Deer Dessert”. Do you not have problems with deer, or does the reputation of the “Deer Hunter” make the deer steer widely clear of your place?
You have many of the same plants and flowers that we have.
Many of our “volunteers,” generally cherry tomatoes, which have popped up in the mulch pit Spring since we moved here, didn’t this year, so we’ll have to buy seeds for them because we enjoy them so much simply cut in half and tossed in salads, for pico de gallo or even tossed with hot pasta for a “salsa crudo” (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/salsa-crudo-10000001646436/). Yum!!!
Bro Tom think the repeated snows we got this “Spring” killed them. However, one real oddity is, the lettuce I planted in a window box last year DID come up again, even after all the snows and being in an exposed window box. Lettuce + snow + window box, usually = dead slimy lettuce. So go figure!!!
We lost a few of our “reclaimed” bushes (reclaimed from folks who were tossing them out). They did well after we planted them two autumns ago, then started sprouting leaves this spring and got burned by the repeated snows too. However, we are noticing a few sparse new leaves on a couple of them, so maybe some will pull through.
Mother Nature sure was interesting this “Spring,” wasn’t she. Still, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1
God bless.
RB
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You are a blessed woman! Thank you for sharing your ‘loop’.
The bleeding heart makes me miss my Granny. Hers finally died out about 15 years after she passed.
So pretty. Thanks for sharing.
Your yard is lovely. I especially love the roses, they remind me of some that I loved as a child, same color and very very fragrant. Do you know what variety of rose they are? I would love to get a bush.
Pam
acrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
Tipper,
You certainly have a Green Thumb. All
those flowers are growing beautifully,
even with all the Cold Snaps we’ve had.
I know what you mean by the “smell so
nice” fragrances that come off. About
all I have is wildflowers coming off
the creekbanks here at the shop, but
in August the Morning Glories will take
over my lower garden. Can’t wait till
July to pick them blackberries…Ken
I do the same in my yard each day. My girls call it “the garden tour”. Many times during the day I’ll even look out the front windows to see the flowers. Columbines are one of my favorites; I only have one blooming and have my eyes on the seed pods for next year’s planting. You certainly have a fine collection of flowers!
Lovely walk, Tipper! I wish we had laurel around our place, but it’s not native in this part of WV apparently. The clematis is gorgeous. And weeds? Oh yeah, they grow as soon as we pull one and turn our backs.
Tipper,
You have a bank of future savings stored in those perennials…Don’t you just love them! I love annuals, but once you plant perennials and each year they come back, you’re addicted! The foliage of the hostas are just the beginning, later or not, depending on the variety, you will have long blooming fragrant stalks of flowers..I love that you have wildflowers along with your hybrids…I had hybrid columbines along with my wild ones until this year…The wild ones have crowed out my mahognany one. I dig them up and move them when small, (scattered seeds) to other areas of the gardens. God provided these beautiful hardy wild columbines for the early bird, (pun intended) arrival of the hummingbirds. I actually saw some on my wild columbines, I was late getting my feeders up! I have to ask, is the pink flower a cranesbill? Also, I lost my beautiful bleeding heart, (wildflower) a few years back. Then one day a walk along the edge of the woods sprang a new one. Go figure…I have trillums, purple cranesbill, solomans seal, common, not giant, wild iris, jack-in-the pulpit, maypops, foam flower etc, etc. I have to stop, I didn’t realized we had moved so many starts down into our yard..some live and multiply some don’t so we let’um alone.
I am so jealous of the ivy or laural that you have surrounding your place. I love them. Are’nt their blooms the most unusal thang. Did you ever closely inspect one, I am sure you have.
I have to stop now…I love flowers and plants as you know…
Loved your yard and post! Wish we could swap some flowers like folks did in the olden days..I call them memory flowers like your roses you have in your yard.
PS…I have started you a pink bicolor honeysuckle by laying a piece down in a pot of dirt, pushing a curved piece of wire to hold it under the dirt, while still attached to the main plant. Sometimes this plant is fickle, to root, for me anyhow…hope it works. Maybe by next Appalachian Celebration, I can bring the pot with the new plant to you! PS..2
I think I have lost my Yellow Red hot poker..there is one little sprout left..if it blooms and makes seed. I will send them to you!
I’m outta here!
Are you leading me down the garden path?
When I take my stroll around the yard I ‘graze’. I usually have asparagus and peas now. Later I’ll munch on okra, blueberries, grapes and whatever else I can find. My wife will ask, “Did you not get enough to eat at supper.?” My answer is, “Sure, but I was sitting then. I can eat more when I’m standing.” She has flowers and shrubbery but I prefer to spend time and money on plants and trees that provide food. (I do stop to smell her roses as I go by there.)
Lovely!
At the risk of being a snob, I must say nothing more rewarding and peaceful than a walk through a yard in Appalachia. Your walk is beautiful. Love the apple tree, and I made crock pot apple butter from mine one year. Surely a look back to your post will bring a renewal of spirit in the coming year. I’m too wordy when words aren’t enough.
What a lovely walk!! Thank you for sharing the lovelies of the mountains and for telling us of your “passalongs” – those are very special plants indeed!
I loved the walk in your yard. Thanks for sharing.
Loved the walk. Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.
I do a walk very similar each day to see the floral beauty in my yard. Your flowers look so beautiful and peaceful. Aren’t we lucky to be able to see Mother Nature’s creations!
Thanks, Tipper, for the beautiful illustrated walk with you through your yard! I think only in the mountains could such a tour through a yard produce so much variety and so many beautiful plants and blossoms! Enjoyed the tour!
Tipper, it’s like you live in the middle of a big flower garden. They’re all absolutely beautiful. I tried to pick a favorite but couldn’t!
I’m glad to see you back today. They, Typepad, fixed it quicker this time.
I’m glad to see you have apples this year! It looks like apple pie and applesauce to me!
I do the exact same thing, making a loop around the back yard. I love seeing the daily chances.