Hayefield

Posted on May 15, 2023May 14, 2023 by Nan Ondra — 3 Comments

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2023

A month later and I’m still relying on the calendar to tell me what the date is, because the seasons are colliding. Chilly nights (we may still be flirting with frost this coming week—yikes!) have slowed the planting-out process, which has in turn delayed potting up seedlings, because all of my pots are full. It’s been so dry that I have to water to soften the soil before planting, then water again to keep all of the planted seedlings alive. I’m still cleaning and packing seeds from 2022 to fill orders, and about 10 days ago, the 2023 seed harvesting season began. I hope that things will get back in sync by next month. In the meantime, this Bloom Day post will have to be a quick one. That means my virtual garden journal of what looks good each month won’t be complete, but it’s better than missing the day altogether.

Continue reading Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2023

Posted on July 15, 2022July 14, 2022 by Nan Ondra — 13 Comments

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2022

After a very promising start to the growing season, the previously reliable rains have disappeared, making gardening a lot less enjoyable over the past month. Still, I know that many of you are enduring much worse drought, so I won’t whine about it further, I promise. Instead, let’s focus what is still looking ok despite the less-than-ideal growing conditions.

To mix things up a bit, I’m organizing the plants by color this time. I chose the photo above for the very first spot, because it didn’t fit well anywhere else due to the mix of colors. It was supposed to be Linaria ‘Plummy’, a blue-purple-flowered cross of L. purpurea and L. dalmatica from Plant World Seeds. The seeds produced a variety of colors, including pinks, purples, cream, and white, on plants that all look like L. purpurea. Though the results weren’t what I expected, I can’t say that I’m disappointed: the mix is very pretty, and the bumblebees certainly are enjoying the bountiful blooms.

Now, starting with the greens and creams…

Posted on May 15, 2022May 14, 2022 by Nan Ondra — 19 Comments

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2022

Hooray for the return of Bloom Day to Hayefield! I almost missed this one, as the weather finally turned perfect for planting this week, and getting hundreds of annuals in the ground for this year’s seed crop was top priority. But now, everything’s done but the containers, and sitting still to put a post together for today has been a very welcome break. I didn’t have time to grab photos of everything that looks good right now, so I tried to focus on things that I don’t usually show for this month. (Above is an abundance of wild columbine [Aquilegia canadensis], flowering here for the first time.)