Catching up!

It's been a while! Things have been busy the past couple of weeks - 4th of July weekend, then my husband's family came for a visit and we went to see the Yankees and the Mets, and had a really enjoyable visit! So now I'm trying to catch up a bit with the blog, here goes.

Remember that strange looking thing I showed you last time? Here is what it is - a voodoo bulb! Have you ever seen one bloom? Or smelled one. It's nasty. Next year I'll take a picture of it blooming. We have two of these that Mom brought us, one one each side of the fireplace. I like the tropical look they give the beds!



Okay, so these are from the end of June, but thought you'd like to see all the basil we had then, and the result - yum, pesto!





Back to flowers!

We planted spider flowers from seed, but they haven't taken off like I had hoped. They are blooming, though.



The hosta are blooming and look great in front of the shed.



The phlox and echinacea are blooming. I'm still waiting for that big patch of phlox in the middle to bloom, I can't decide if it's the white one I planted when we first got the house, or one I picked up at a plant sale last year.



The sunflowers out front are blooming. These are all the result of seeds that fell from the sunflowers we planted last year. There are tomato plants there, too. Yes, tomato plants in the front of the house. We planted a random, leftover cherry tomato plant there last year and on one day I picked 167 tomatoes! Yes, 167! Apparently they like this spot, because there are 4 or 5 plants that grew from tomatoes that dropped last year, plus we planted a couple of new ones.



I love the pollen on the leaf:

It's too nice out to blog

The grape hyacinths on the east side of the house are in full bloom now. Still waiting for the ones in the front beds to bloom. They'll look great with the new daffodils I planted if they ever catch up!

The hosta and Steve irises are significantly bigger now!

The myrtle is blooming really well this year. I think it's because we lost a big piece of the rhododendron that used to shade this area.

I love this flowering shrub with it's petite white flowers. We actually have two of these - I don't know what they are, they were here when we bought the house. One is in full bloom now, and the other hasn't even started! I don't know why they're not blooming at the same time, but it's nice that they'll be staggered and we'll get to enjoy them even longer.

I'm so excited there are buds on the rhododendron. It had a terrible fungus last year (we saw many others in the neighborhood with the same problem), and we had to cut out big sections and spray, but it seems like it's bouncing back this year.

I am (im)patiently waiting for the azaleas to bloom! We aggressively pruned them last year, and I'm hoping they'll be phenomenol this year! I'll have to do a post when they are in full bloom and show you the before and afters.

What a difference a week or so can make!

Daffodils are blooming, as are some hyacinths.

The grape hyacinths I planted along the east side of the house last fall are starting to peek through!

These daffodils were planted by the original (and only) owner of our house, Mrs. Pampalone.

She was definitely a gardener, and when we first bought the house she stopped by one day and told Steve that these were not weeds, but primrose she had planted.

The "Steve" irises that Mom gave us last year are just starting to come up.

The hosta from Lisa and Guy's house are poking through, too.

I bet you think these are daffodil foliage, but they're not. Come back in August and I'll show you what they are!

It was so beautiful out yesterday, we sat outside last night after dinner just looking and listening, and one of our cardinal friends stopped by for a snack.