Green Strawberries

The strawberries are green.

Here are the lavender and blue iris. The lavender has really gotten big.
The lavender buds are just starting to open.
Here is a red bloom on a clover in the garden.
The tree has lots of white flowers, the bees love the white flowers. The whole tree is buzzing with tons of bees.

Birdy

Here is our little birdee! He comes and sits on the fence and looks both ways and then flies up into the bird house. Mark saw him make about 12 trips to the house with worms in his/her mouth so there must be babies! We think he is a black capped chickadee. We got the bird house two years ago at the street fair but this is the first time we've seen a bird use it. We are so excited. We were almost ready to give up and move the house. We did some research on chickadees:

The chickadee makes at least 15 different calls to communicate with its flockmates and offspring. The best known is the chickadee-dee-dee that gives the bird its name. Using this call both male and female chickadees challenge or scold intruders, and send information about the location of food and predators to their partners, their offspring, and members of their flock.

Here is a link to the site http://www.ffdp.ca/hww2.asp?id=29&cid=7. Also we found a pdf on how to identify common birds.

More Iris

I have more Iris blooming now.

these bulbs are fully open now.
This is one of my neighbor's yards, her flowers look great.

Whidbey lives next door and wants to come out and play.

First Iris

This is my first blue iris. Still has some dew on it from the night.

I bought a rosemary tree from the store.

Mom gave me some Lilly of the valley.

I planted some more peas and beans today in the spots where the first ones I planted didn't grow. I also planted forget me nots in some of the pots.

deck boxes

I planted geraniums in the deck railing boxes. I tried to save last year's but wasn't too good at bringing them in when it froze. I alternated pink and red to be like the ones we saw in Switzerland. In some cities you get a fine if you don't have the right color flowers and if you don't have enough. They have to keep up the image. So, to prevent getting any tickets I thought I better get my flowers up. :) It will be awhile before they have as many blooms as the ones in the picture from last year.

When I planted cilantro I imagined this cute little herb. Maybe it would be 8" tall when it grew to full size. I didn't expect a mammoth plant 4' tall. It seems to really like the garden soil.

Iris buds

It's been warm all week, in the 70s and I actually had to water the garden.

The is the pink bulb fully opened. Very pretty.
I'm going to have some Iris!
My Kale went to seed with a yellow flower.

The coral bell that Mom gave me is blooming.

Here is the Chard, getting bigger.


And the beans are starting to grow.
The peony might bloom , it has a bud.

The lettuce is getting bigger.
The lavendar has some buds!

Pink Bulb

This is a pink bulb that is starting to open up. I forget exactly what it is. It was in the 70's today and it felt really warm. I saw a little bird fly into our bird house when I got home.

New Soil

I did lots of work today. I got a garbage can full of top soil from the neighbors so I made a new bed in the back and planted sweet pea flowers, marigolds, and basil. I had started them indoors. Hopefully they make it outside. It is supposed to be 70 tomorrow.

I put some of the dirt in pots. You can also see that the elephant garlic is getting bigger in the front.

Marigolds in the pot.

The peas are up. and the Sumac is doing good too.
The radishes are getting big and the carrots at the top of the picture are starting to grow and need thinning.

Mark made a dessert that tasted really good after all of the hard work. :) YUMMY! Olive oil cake with grapefruit and oranges.

First Radish

Wow! My first radish! Simba didn't want to eat it but I did! It probably could have gotten bigger if I left it in the ground but it tasted good. Not at all like the ones in the grocery store.

Trellis for Raspberries

This is the trellis Mark built for the Raspberries. We plan to put in cross pieces as the plants get taller so they will have something to climb on.

We figure it's like investments you put it in and try to forget about it then someday you are suddenly surprised at the growth! Well maybe these well be better than money investments and they will actually grow. :)

We got the bamboo at the bamboo store in Roosevelt. They actually grow the bamboo in Vietnam because it grows better and stronger over there. Mark had to dig holes in the grass to anchor the poles. It looked like hard work.