Welcome to 2011

YES, I am backkkkkkkkkkkkkk.  Been a long Winter, my beloved Patriots fizzled in the end again, been in mourning that, time to get over it!!  OK, enough said about the Patriots.

Diane and I spent some time today at the Gardens.  Below you will see a host of pictures from our efforts.  Most of them won't mean anything to my blog readers, but they do help us memoralize our garden season from year to year.

Happy reading and please do come read as my blog will be updated regularly now.

Before and After in Lees Little Garden

 This is what faced me today when I went to the Community Garden for the purpose of working for the first time in 2011.  I thought I had cleaned up in the Fall, but I soon realized, I could have done better.

This is what the garden looked like after 3 HOURS of weeding and raking leaves.  Since my garden is the first one in from the Orchard, I tend to get a huge cover of leaves in the Winter to my garden.  I don't mind as the leaves help shield my perennials during the long Winter.  Click on pictures to get a close up view of before and after.

Candytuff

This Candytuff plant is getting ready to bloom.  It has hundreds of tiny, tiny white flowers that are Spring blooming only.  The plant grew a LOT over the Winter.

This Coral Bell may very well outgrow its garden spot

I could not believe how large this plant grew over the Winter.  This is also an established 5 year old plant, having bought it for my daughter the first year the Community Garden opened.  She did not want her garden and turned it over to her older sister, who is still there.  This plant is special as I call it Pamela's Plant.  A couple years ago, I had to move it in the garden, as it had heaved itself out of the ground over that Winter.  I decided to divide it, I thought for sure it would die.  The plant did not like it that year and barely held on.  This is the result the second year after moving it around.

Delphinium

This is the delphinium today.  Look at how tall it has gotten.  The fence behind it is 4 feet tall.  No support needed for this tall spike.  The plant has several spikes.

 Last year, I bought a few delphinium at our local supermarket, they were pretty.  This year will be their 3rd year (as they were 2 yr. old plants when purchased).  They should be spectacular.  One of them is a white one, a blue and a purple one.

My Beautiful Geranium

This is what my GIANT beautiful Geranium looks like in the Spring.  This is an established 5-year old plant that does not disappoint all Summer into Fall.  Looks like nothing, but OH so PRETTY soon.

Not sure what this is - perhaps Corn Flowers or Gallardia?

 Under all the leaves in the garden from the Winter, I found this cluster of plants.  They could be weeds, but I kinda suspect they may be Corn Flowers or Gallardia?  I will leave them here for a while to see what developes.

This is the white Rose bush from last year

Mini Rose Bushes

I now have a total of 5 different colored Rose bushes (all the mini potted ones, all purchased from the local supermarket) that are thriving in my garden.  Last year I added a red one and a white one.  These are the bare root photos of all of them.

Pink Rose Summer of 2010

Photo of Dan's Rose

This is the picture of the rose I planted in memory of my boyfriend when he passed away in 2007.  This was a beautiful mini potted rose bought at the grocery store.  The plant is now 5 years old and doing great.  It has grown so much, I had to prune it for the first time this year, and it has THORNS! now.  It is still a minature rose bush, but it has grown a lot.  The below photo is of the bush last Summer.

Before and After of Diane's Garden

 This is the picture of Diane's garden before she started doing anything.  If you click on the picture, you will see a lot of weeds and plant debris on and around her Lilies.

This is the picture of Diane's garden AFTER 3 hours of weeding and fussing.  Click on the picture to see the difference. The things that may look like weeds on the right side of the picture are her Dianthus, they will be blooming soon.

Right side of Diane's Garden

Top Photo is called the "Pink" Section

Middle picture is called the "Red & White" Section

This is called the "Pastel" section

Left side of Diane's Garden

 This is called the "Hot" Section of the Lilies.

This is called the "Cool" section for the Lilies.

This is called the "Bright" section.

Top is Dotties Rompers
Middle is Pink Jubilation
Bottom is Autumn Wood

These are pictures of lilies from Diane's garden, won't mean much to my blog readers, but for Diane, these are the 3 lilies she is worried about.  She did not lose any over the summer, but a few as pictured are questionable as to their survival.

The Quaker Parrots of East Boston

This year, I will be posting from time to time about the Parrots of East Boston.  The birds are called Quaker Parrots.  The first time I saw them I was so sure that someone had just opened their window and let pet birds fly out.  I was so mad, I called the local news people to come out and do a news story on them.  I was told to contact the local bird rescue people in RI, which I did.  I then got my first education about the Quaker Parrots.  They were not pet birds, but wild birds.  This is the nest our birds have built.  Last year, the pair had a successful hatch of two babies.  Over the past winter, I have only seen 3 of the birds surviving.  These birds first showed up in the Fall of 2009, and as you can imagine, have caused quite the stir.  Here is their nest.  In time, I will try to get a picture of the birds, but with the little hand held camera I have, not sure it will be possible.  They do not stay still for very long.

Scenes of the Daffodils at Breman Street Park

The Daffodils are just getting ready to bloom, I think they may have been a little late this year due to our cold winter.  These pictures are of the planted ones along my walk home from the Park today.

The Orchard at Breman Street Park

 The apple orchard outside the garden has been expaned this year.  In order to make room for the Community Garden expansion this year, there were some pear trees that had to be relocated.  This is the view of the orchard just before any leaves come.  If you look carefully, you can tell the newly moved trees, the ones with the stakes.