Welcome back!

I took a walk around the yard today to see what was in bloom.  I love love love this time of year, when perennials make their appearance!  Three years ago, I bought one of those cheapy packets of snapdragon seeds for 25 cents.  You know, those packet of seeds that you see at the grocery store and you have no idea if they grow into anything. I was a newbie gardener back then.  I sowed the seeds and hoped for the best.  Well, let me tell ya, it was the best 25 cents I ever spent.  Year after year, the snapdragons come back in the front garden.  Snapdragons are not perennials, but they self sow pretty easily.  Every year, they multiply like crazy, last year it looked like this.

This year, now look at it!  So pretty!  It's amazing that these are not perennials!  But they are actually different plants that grow back from the seeds left behind from the previous year!

In the same front garden, the purple and white salvia has come back as pretty as ever.  I love this flower.  It's such a reliable perennial, totally low maintenance and comes back without much help.

The climbing rose bush that I rescued 2 years ago is blooming pretty well!    This bush was dug out of a Brooklyn garden and replanted here, and to my surprise it loves the space it's in.  I thought it would struggle with being transplanted, but it wasn't effected at all!

It's a very good bloomer!  Just look at all those flowers!

The Nancy Nora peony is blooming too!  I love this flower.  It smells just amazing, and the pale pink bloom is stunning!

In the side yard is this blooming bush.  I have no idea what the name of this plant is.  The previous owners of this house planted it.

Here is a closeup of the flowers.  Do you know what it is?  The scent is incredible!  It is really fragrant!

The spider worts are also back!  I love blueish colored flowers.  This one is a great perennial.  Also extremely low maintenance and does well in partial shade.  I love the punch of color it adds to any garden.

As I walked around, I had my clippers, so I snipped some flowers to make a bouquet.  The scent of this arrangement is incredible.  How beautiful is this?  Proof that a lazy gardener such as myself can grow a beautiful arrangement with very little effort.  Just plant perennials, or (self sowing plants)!  You will welcome them back year after year!

An Edible Weed

I call strawberry plants my edible weed because they sure are prolific plants!  I planted 20 plants over 3 years ago, and now the patch has quadrupled in size. They send out runners like crazy, and if they weren't so tasty, I'd seriously consider them a weed! Everyone talks about mint being invasive, but why doesn't anyone mention strawberry plants as being crazy producers!  I'd argue strawberries are just as invasive as mint, if not more!

Here's another look of the patch.  Insanity!  I can't wait for the berries to start ripening!  Strawberry jam is definitely in my future!

Just to prove a point of how invasive the strawberry plants are, they have crept over to the other side of the garden fence and onto the lawn.  Which actually made me think, it's be great if they overtook the lawn!  How amazing would it be to have a whole yard of strawberry plants!!  Who needs grass anyway!

I dug up lots of the plants that were growing on the outside of the garden fence and potted them up to give away to friends.  These plants went into my tote bag and on the subway with me to my friends in Brooklyn.  Christina will be planting these in her window planter!  Nothing makes me happier than giving away plants!

I potted some for myself to see if I could grow strawberries in pots.  And yup, I can.  I grew a strawberry!  How cool is this???

Man, I can't wait to eat this berry.  Yummo!

Fun with Funghi

I can't believe it's been a week since I last wrote a blog post. I have been so busy with life in general, but I've been taking a lot of photos and will be writing a lot soon about all of my gardening related activities. One thing in particular that I've been totally excited about is growing mushrooms!  About two months ago, I had bought the Back to the Roots mushroom kit. After I received it in the mail, I had left it on my desk and totally forgot about it.  Then the other day, I saw that it has a mushroom growing out of the top of the box!  I was so surprised because I had not watered it at all!

I could not believe it started growing all by itself!  I do remember though that when it was shipped to my house, that it was raining that day.  So I think the box may have gotten wet in the rain.

Here's a closer look at the oyster mushroom!  Isn't it so cool looking? I think it's beautiful.

There was another mushroom growing on the other side!  I hope it gets as big as the one on the right!

Here's a look at the underside.  You can see the gills.

I harvested the large mushroom and decided to eat it before it got old and inedible.

I just cut it up and sauteed it in olive oil and some salt.  It was delicious!

I opened the inside of the box and the mushrooms were definitely growing in all directions!  I can't wait to harvest the next one!

It's such a fun and easy kit to try growing mushrooms!  And so much fun to watch them grow!   And Fab.com is having a sale right now for 20% off the retail price of the Back to the Roots Oyster mushroom kit.  Go here to check out the sale!

The Scent is Intoxicating!

Probably one of my most favorite blooms of the spring is the Lilac.  It definitely has the most amazing scent.  I had rescued this Lilac bush from a backyard in Brooklyn 2 years ago.  I had read on Freecycle that a homeowner was re-landscaping their backyard and they didn't want to trash the living Lilac bush so they listed it on Freecycle for anyone to dig up and take home with them.  So I went there to rescue it.  The first year after I had replanted to bush, we only got 3 blooms.  But this year, the Lilac has provided us with lots of blooms to enjoy.  There are over a dozen blooming flower heads this year.  I could not be happier!!

Miss Lilac must be happy planted in this spot.  I just loving walking passed this bush, the scent is so fragrant!

 Another view of how well it's doing.  I am so happy to have given this Lilac bush a second life. 

I snipped a few blooms to bring inside to enjoy.  Definitely tops my list of favorite flowers!! What flowers are you enjoying this spring?