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Not a heck of a lot blooming in Wisconsin in January, but this lipstick vine in our sun room has been putting out a fair bit of color lately. This isn't the only blooming plant in the house right now, but it was the only one worth photographing.
Now head on over to May Dreams Gardens, the home of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. There you can find bloom day submissions from all over the country and many places outside the country, too!
About a week and a half ago, I bought a house. It's my first house, and I have to admit I'm a bit intimidated by it. Just the idea of home ownership and the responsibility that goes with it is intimidating enough, but on top of that I had to go and buy a "fixer upper". The house needs new windows, new wiring, more insulation, an additional bathroom, new paint in every single room, floor refinishing, and a couple of new basement steps. Did I say basement? I meant hole in the ground.
As daunting as those repairs may seem, I think I'm even more afraid of the yard.
Long ago I used to have a bad attitude about ornamentals. I looked at flower gardening as an indulgence, without the necessity attached to growing plants to eat. That has changed and I now not only admire beautiful gardens, but I have great respect for the gardeners who create them. Nevertheless, I'm a hungry man, so it's mainly the vegetable garden for me. If I had more time, I would dabble in the artsy, but now I barely have time to secure the harvest.
Edible plants almost all produce flowers to attract pollinators. Some of these flowers are tiny or not even recognizable as a flower, but many can be every bit as gorgeous as the wildest exotics of the flower garden.
Today was a good Bloom Day. The weather was beautiful, and we actually had a few different blooms. Spring might just finally be here to stay. Noel and Judy are leaving tomorrow for the Cincinnati Flower Show , so we all spent a lot of time outside today while loading the van and getting other tasks done.
These Scillas are planted around the base of the hickory tree by our back door. They keep creeping farther into the lawn each year, but nobody minds. That part of the lawn doesn't seem to want to grow much grass anyway.
The snowdrops have stuck around. They stand out nicely from the surrounding Scillas.
These daffodils showed up today by the west side of the house. I took this picture just after noon.
A little after 4pm, I noticed that they had opened up, so I took another quick shot before getting back to work.
So there you have it! Happy Bloom Day!
Finally got our first outside blooms today! Dad took this pic of a cluster of snowdrops that came up on the west side of the house.
I have some blooms after all! The flowers on our potted Tradescantia are so small that you can't even see them unless you're quite close. Seriously, that little flower is barely over 1/4" across. I had quite a bit of trouble getting my camera to focus on it.
I'll be honest though, I'm still more excited about the sweet potato buds.
I have never participated in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for a few reasons. First of all, I'm an infrequent blogger, and remembering to post on the same day each month never felt like an important priority. Also, I travel a lot, especially in the spring during garden show season, so I'm not always around to see what's coming up outside. And probably most importantly, I don't really care that much about flowers. I know, sacrilege!
Okay, that's not entirely true. I like flowers. I've just never really bothered to worry about what's blooming on any specific date. I'm more concerned about what's being harvested and eaten. On that note, does anyone know if there's an edible equivalent to GBBD? Would it be called Garden Blogger's Harvest Day?
There are certainly a number of months when there is no activity whatsoever happening in the garden, but we continue to enjoy the summer and fall harvest throughout the winter and even into the spring. I'd be happy to report on that.
Oh, and if you hadn't figured it out, the picture above is a sweet potato with a few leaf buds emerging. Over the next few months, those buds will get bigger and leafier. They'll eventually be cut off so they develop their own roots, and finally we'll transplant them into the garden. You can read more about the process here.
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