May flowers

April showers bring May flowers and here it's no different.  I love my flowers and will miss them when we move.  But while I still have them lets take a walk and see them shall we?

 Although not planted or planned dandelions are quite the photographic and quite pretty in their own way.

 Next we start the daffodils....these are the bell of the garden.....the light colored ones are my favorite.

 Next come the Lily of the Valley...so small and delicate they are just starting to open up.

 Ahhh my delicate Lilac's are opening up and smelling wonderful....

 Then along comes the odd ball daffodil.....the dark one....it's amazingly beautiful.

 Another plant that is welcome but not planted are these viola's  I love the pretty yellow ones more than the purple ones that are abundant.

 Also blooming is the forsythia.....many people hate this bush cause of the pollen.  But I like it's pretty yellow flowers.

 Continuing along our journey is our Barberry bush and it's very tiny yellow red flowers.  They are hard to find along all the thorns and red-green leaves.

My pride and joy is the pink dogwood.  Such pretty flowers that come out long before any leaves.  So pretty and delicate looking.

So I hope you enjoyed today's walk through the front yard's show of flowers.  Until next time...have a wonderful weekend.

Signs of Spring

After a long hard winter spring is finally starting to show here at Irish Gardens.

Crocus finally popping out

Daffodils sprouting up

Its nice to see after the long hard winter we had that my flower did survive.

Whats starting to show up around tu gardens?

First signs of spring......

......Finally

Although there has been some warm days and the snow is gone, spring has been slow to show up here in NY.

But spring has finally started to arrive.  The crocus are blooming.  Not all of them mind you just these guys but they are always the first in my yard to bloom.  And they are so pretty too.  So how is spring showing off in your neck of the woods?  Anything?

The making of a new plant

Making baby plants is fun.  Kids will love it.
Here we have 2 kinds of mint that I placed in water 2 weeks ago.  About 4 days ago roots began to grow and now they are longer and more of them.  It is an exciting way to make baby plants.  Not only is it fun but also produces a bigger plant that starting one from seed.

In this picture I took a Japanese Maple and a Hydrangea and placed them in water.  Just over a week later the Hydrangea is sprouting roots all over.  In fact it is doing so well that it has begun to bud....yup this newly made baby plant is only 2 weeks old and is about to flower.  Starting from seed it would take sometimes over 2 years before you see flowers.

Not all perennials will root in water, and some won't even root.  But taking a cutting of your favorite bush or tree and seeing if it does is fun and can be very rewarding.  I still can't believe that the Hydrangea rooted in just water....

Have you every made baby plants?

GBBD - June

Ah yes it's that time again when Carol over at May Dreams Gardens host this lovely event called Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day where we all post about what is blooming in our gardens.  A day we get to see what is blooming in other gardens all around the world at all times of the year.  I would like to take you on a blooming tour of Irish Gardens now.....see what we have blooming today:

 The lilies have started to make their beauty and presence known in the front yard.  Pretty in pint these guys are big and bold.

 In the butterfly garden the first of 8 different Butterfly Bushes has begun to bloom as well.

 More lilies showing off.

 And add to that the day lilies have begun to open up.

 Still in the front yard but in the Rose garden we find but of course the Roses.

The morning sun shining on a newly opened rose makes for a lovely start to the day

 Right next to the Rose bush the 4 O'Clocks are still doing their blooming thing and showing off their yellow flowers.

On to the side of the house or also known as the driveway garden the Hosta's have decided to come out and play the blooming game too.

 A few mixed zinnia that still need to be planted have decided that even though they are becoming root bound and are craving some water they will bloom for me too.

 And into the heart of Irish Gardens we go.  Starting in this years bean and pea garden.

This Marigold decided to grow from a seed that some how was missed in the fall clean up....so the seed lasted the winter outside.....weird.

 Continuing our tour we head into the Greenhouse and see whats going on.
Anyone want to take a guess as to what this flower is of?  Many don't see it....it's lettuce.  Yup in case you didn't know if you leave the tops of lettuce alone long enough they will flower and produce seeds....

 Behind the lettuce is Echinacea showing off their pretty flowers now too.

 Here is another one that not many folks know about.. Marshmallow.  Pretty delicate flowers with purple pollen.

Leave the onions in the ground too long and this is what you get....I am wondering what happens now.

And finally we stay in the greenhouse for our last flower for bloom day....Dill


Hope you enjoyed the tour and come back again.  Leave a comment....let me know how many of my flowers you knew what they were before reading.  Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what others have blooming this fine bloom day.

How my gardens have changed.

It seems every year I add a new garden bed to my collection. I am not saying this is a bad thing as if I add a new one that means that I was able to handle last years load.  Now when I say add a new garden I usually mean for edibles......but this year it wasn't just 1 new garden it was 3.....Take a look

2009:  Lets start when we bought the house.  The front yard had minimal gardens...but some

 Here there is no Butterfly bush garden or my boarder garden full of Iris

 The poor Pussy Willow in a small little circle....

The back of the house where the greenhouse is now.....certainly makes the yard look bigger with out it.

 And the kitchen garden....a cleaned up version of it but this is the shape it was in....


That brings us to 2010:  Where the first of many new gardens were added to the yard.

 The beginnings of my blog started right here with my greenhouse.

 Later that same year this is the completed greenhouse and extension garden growing away.

The kitchen garden got a bit of a make over.

Then comes last year 2011:  Where gardens were added again and some were given new life....like

 Yup the kitchen garden again....a new flower bed area was added and the rest was straightened out a little more.

 The now bigger Pussy Willow tree now has it's very own shade garden....granted it provides the shade.

 Hard to see but here is the Iris boarder garden just after it was added.....

 Unhappy with the first try the Kitchen garden had more added to it....now I could harvest all of the garden.

 Then back by the Greenhouse the Strawberry mint garden was added.....sorry Strawberry Chocolate Mint garden.

 As was what became known as the vine garden....

   Another view of the Greenhouse for reference  as here comes 2012:  This year.....

The first of the gardens to be added this year.  One for the gardening class and one for Shannon.

 Remember back in 2009 that picture of the front yard with the Forsythia on the left?  Well to the right of that is now this guy....the Butterfly Bush garden.

Oh and that Boarder garden back from 2011 the one I promised was full of Iris.....well here it is.

And finally the last of the gardens built so far this year was added on to the new one at the back of the greenhouse.  One has plants for Aiden guy and the others are some of the veggies.

So my gardens have changed a lot over the last few years.  I imagine they will continue to change not only in what is planted in them but in how they look in general....then again I hope not too much....hard to name the gardens when they keep changing.