CSA

So, I decided to join a CSA this year.  In the past three years, I only grew a few vegetables at the community garden, but the theft from the gardens got so bad I was going to either get kicked out of the garden for being so bitchy, or get seriously hurt from attacking someone if I ever caught them stealing from the garden.  Neither option was a good one, so when I heard about the CSA, Community Supported Argiculture, see this link http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ I decided to join.  This one is with Connors Farm, see this link: http://www.connorsfarm.com/csa.htm  Besides the fact that I figured I was saving someone's life (probably my own), I thought it would be nice to save some money.  Well, I am going to blog about the CSA this year and how much I am saving.  Each week is suppose to equal approximately $30 in produce.  Today's haul from the farm included a lot of salad greens, so after using up almost a roll of bounty towels, I thought I would go out and buy a salad spinner.  So, off to Bed, Bath and Beyond I go.  No problem, there are many salad spinners to choose from.  I happen to like the XOXO brand, so I got there.  Cha-Ching!! $30, plus tax, spent on a salad spinner.  I also had to buy some thermal grocery bags and a bag of ice on the way to the farm.  It is Summer and I did not want all the salad greens to wilt, so the bags and ice, Cha-Ching, another $10!!!  Are you keeping track???  I spent $40 this week towards the CSA.  We will keep a running tally of monies spent as we go along.

No pictures from the garden today, we were suppose to have a garden meeting and clean up today, but it was raining, so this will be next week-end now.  I hope to get to the garden tomorrow to weed.  I leave you with a picture from a few days ago of a flower in my garden.  This is a Marigold.  Such a common flower, but this is such a pretty variety, don't know the name of it.

Globe Flower

Globe Flower, Trollius europaeus.  I just love this picture Diane took of my Globe Flower.  These flowers are so pretty, but unfortunately they only bloom for a period of about 3 weeks in early June.  The bottom photo is what the bloom looks like as it is dropping it's petals.  Quite an interesting picture.

More Dottie's Rompers

Dottie's Rompers has sent up another bloom, and I like this one much better.  The flower is rain stained, we've had a lot of rain lately.  The picture below looks like a petunia is growing out of it, but it is just an optical illusion.

Oriential Lily

This is an Oriential Lily plant in memory of my daughter's cat (named Lily) that died 3 years ago from FIP.  Last year it had the most magnificant pink flowers as big as dinner plates.  Originally she planted 2 bulbs, but one looked sickly and looked like it died the first year.  Last year, only one bulb came up and bloomed.  This year, due to her planting all her Daylilies, she had to move the bulb.  When she was digging it up, she cut into the bulb and we figured it would probably die this year, but she planted it anyways.  Not a week goes by and in the original place where we thought the original bulb had died, what do we see?  You guessed it, a new lily pushing it's way up in the ground.  She then dug it up and planted it next to the other one.  These two lilies are growing like trees, with stems as thich as anything.  Today while taking pictures she was surprised to see that the lily is sending out blooms.  Look at how many there are.  This plant blooms in mid August so did not expect to see blooms on the plant so early.  Stay tuned for periodic updates on this lily.

Angel Curls Daylily-My new favorite color today

This beautiful daylily is called Angel Curls.  It is the most glorious peach color.  This is the first flower to bloom, so I'm looking forward to future blooms, as the blooms get better with each flower.

The purple plant in the background is the Diana Blueberry Dianthus.

Herbs

I do have a few herbs planted in a small section of the garden.  I have Basil, Rosemary, Oregano.  I need to have these herbs to make my gravy!  It had rained so there is some dirt on the Oregano.

Dianthus - Unknown variety

These two flowers are from the same plant.  Dianthus opens with lighter flowers, then darken as they get older.  You can see in the picture on the right how the color is starting to spread (bleed) to the edge of the petal.  Very pretty.

Anyone up for some Buttered Popcorn

This is the latest new Daylily to open in the garden.  It is called Buttered Popcorn.  It is what is called a rebloomer and this is the first flower to open on this plant.  The first flower to open on a plant is usually not the best one, so we will post more blooms as they open.  But, doesn't this remind you of hot, buttery popcorn?

Hot Lava is getting bigger

I love my Hot Lava Echinacea.  This bud is getting bigger.  If you look closely at the pictures, you will see red starting to appear on the tips of the flower buds.  I can't wait to see what these look like when fully open.  Right now, looks nothing like a coneflower.

This is a Proven Winner's Marguerite Daisy, Argyranthemum frutescens.  If you look closely at the picture on the right, you will see a small bee or fly.  This was a must have for my garden.  By September, this small plant will be 2 feet tall x 2 feet wide and just loaded with flowers.  A truly specticular flower to have in a garden.

View of the garden looking North from my plot

This is the view from standing in my garden looking North.  You can see the dividers between the gardens.  It was a cloudy day.

Today's Pictures - Pull Up a Chair

Today there are a lot of new pictures, so get a good cup of coffee, get your slippers on and relax while smelling today's flower blooms.

Choctaw Brave is getting better color

Often times the first bloom to open on a daylily is not as good as future blooms.  I have to say that I do like both the color and bloom on Choctaw Brave after 3 blooms.

Daylily Blooms for today

Seminole Blood

Mitchell Leihhardt

Diana Blueberry Dianthus is getting fuller

This Diana Blueberry Dianthus is starting to open all it's buds.  The plant is far from fully open with all it's blooms.  The size of each flower is very large for a dianthus.  This plant was grown from seed started 2 years ago.  Last year it did not give any flowers and was a really small plant.

Valentine Dianthus

This plant is in Diane's garden.  She grew this from seed last year.  The plant was so tiny, and had no flowers last year.  This year, it still is small, but the flowers are so pretty.  Look at the anthers at the center, it looks like a hairy caterpillar.

Coneflower Hot Lava is working on opening it's bloom

These are 2 different buds on my Coneflower (Echinacea) Hot Lava plant, working on opening to reveal it's beautiful red color.  I am anxiously waiting..........

Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy

This is NOT a spider.  Click on this picture to see a larger view, the hairy leaf and the center of the bloom is so interesting looking at this stage of bloom.  This will be a red rudbeckia daisy flower when fully open.  The plant is loaded with buds right now.  This was planted last year and did nothing in my garden. Has come back wonderful, just this one plant, no others.

Gaillardia (Blanket Flower) Goblin

Goblin Variety Gaillardia (Blanket Flower) are daisies with serrated tips on the ray petals. These perennials are very tough and cheerful. Downy green leaves grow in low rosettes and have a hairy texture.   You can see my scabosia pincushion flower in the background.  This Goblin is blooming like crazy this year.

Sandi, this one is for you-from a fellow gardener's plot

This is what you call Tickseed, I call it Coreopsis.  It is a yellow daisy like flower. 

This is where my Bachelor Buttons came from

One of the neighbor's grew the Bachelor Buttons last year, a bird or the wind deposited some seed in my garden.  This is one that I thought was a weed, but for some reason, I left it growing.  I'm glad I did.  Here is a picture of his Bachelor Buttons.   My garden is directly behind his with a plot inbetween us.  These are the colors he has opening right now.   His plant looks tall, but he has it growing in a huge planter that is set off the ground.

Blue & Purple Bachelor Button (Cornflower)

Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower, Bachelor's button, Bluebottle, Boutonniere flower, Hurtsickle) is a small annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe.  I have another color of this cornflower growing in my garden.  How about this one? Or do you prefer the color Purple?

This is from another of the garden plot's near mine, this is chamomile.  What is Chamomile?

Chamomile is an herb that comes from a flowering plant from the daisy family. Both the fresh and dried flowers of chamomile have been used to create teas for centuries to cure a number of health problems. The active ingredient in chamomile essential oil is known as bisabolol, which has a number of anti-irritant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial properties.

One single unripe strawberry

Here is a picture from the same garden of an unripe strawberry.

Raspberries as you've never seen them

These raspberries are from a fellow garden's garden plot.  The way our eye looks at things is so different than from behind a camera.  I think these pictures are awesome.  Of course, these are unripe raspberries.

Coneflower a day later

This is the same flower on June 14, 2010.  Still a long while to go before the flower is perfectly formed.

This is the picture of the pink coneflower on June 8, 2010.  I plan on following this particular bloom until it finally goes to seed.  I think it will be fun to chronicle in pictures the beginning to end of a pretty flower.  If you click on the picture, you will see that the middle of the cone is actually pink.  I never noticed this before.  You sometimes can see things in pictures your eye just does not catch in real life.

Pink Generic Coneflower getting ready to open.

I have a lot of Coneflowers in my garden. I started out with just the plain ole purple coneflowers. I soon was bitten by the "need" to have many different colors. However, I have more of the generic pink coneflowers than any other. This is a bloom that is just starting to open. Hard to tell, but this will be a dark pink color. I now have ones growing in the garden in white, lemon, red, orange and yellow.

More Dottie's Rompers today

Only one new daylily bloomed today, it is the one called Dottie's Rompers.  Gee, I love this name.  Look at how the Anther's (the tips of the "fingers" coming out of the center of this daylily) are loaded with pollen.  Click on the photo to get a better view.  This is the same bloom taken at different angles with the camera.

Storm Damage

We had such a storm blow through here last night.  We were actually on a tornado watch all late afternoon into the early evening.  Naturally I was concerned about the damage to the garden due to the intense wind that was blowing with the rain.  Diane took pictures today to show me there really wasn't much damage.  My Heuchera suffered the most because it has those very tall stems of blossoms.  Here is a couple of pictures of it after the storm.  You can see the flower stems are laying practically on the ground.  Click on the pictures for a better view.