A nice little field trip to Logee’s was originally scheduled, but even after everyone else backed out I still had to make the trip.  I’m glad I did.  It’s so easy to forget how much a garden is constantly changing.  Logee’s is no exception.  This trip I was reminded why we always try to hard to make it in January before things get a little too crazy for me; the lemon tree.  The smell is out of this world.  The flowers smell absolutely incredible, and of course so many of their other flowers are blooming right now. 

As you walk through the paths it hard to figure out where some of the smells are coming from, and sometimes you just can’t find them.  All of this is what makes the trip so great.  I got an amazing photo of a passion flower. 

Couldn’t figure out which one is actually was, but decided that it didn’t really matter.  I wasn’t planning on getting sucked in, but with a 20% off coupon that’s exactly what happened.  Not too bad.  I only left with 4 plants.  Too passion flowers, a new berry that caught my husband’s eye and a mystery hibiscus.  Obviously we couldn’t figure out which hibiscus it was, but after looking at the possibilities we decided that we could probably live with the result.  We’ll have to wait and see what we got. 

Two of my favorites were in bloom when we went.  The hibiscus (this was on one for sale), and the puff flower.  I just think it looks so cool. 

Catalogs Catalogs Catalogs ! ! !

People don’t seem to like January too much.  It’s after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  The days are short the bills come due and if you’re in New England you get walloped with snow this year.  However, if you’re a gardener January is awesome.  All the catalogs start to come.  Some are old friends that you get every year, and some are new ones that just pop up.  And your favorites you sit by the mail box and just wait for like a little kid.  Some I always order from others I just love flipping through to look at all the pretty pictures and new varieties.  Some of my old favorites are Burpee and Dutch gardens.  While my newest ones are Baker Creeek, Comstock Ferre, High Mowing and Abundant life Seed.  Also online is reimer seeds.  Totally cool site and has ton of varieties of hot peppers if you like them.  Gotta love a cold winter’s day dreaming of spring time. 

My Avocado! ! ! !

Life outside may have taken a long winters nap, but my garden inside continues to keep me busy.  So during the Logee's Black Friday sale I decided to continue to expand my edible collection and picked up this Day Avocado.  I've recently been intruced to avacados and have found a new love of guacomole.  Avocados generally aren't that cheap, so I thought I would give it a try and see if I couldn't just grow it.  I can't tell you how excited I am that it has continued to grow and started putting out flowers.  I didn't actually know what was actually growing, but after a quick google search I found that they ar all flower bunches.  YEAH! ! ! !  



My avocado almost 2 months after I brought it home





Flower bunches !



According to my lovely google search each one of these bunches creates 2-3 avocados.  I don't have a pollinator for it so we'll have to wait and see what happens with it.  I think I'll be happy if I even get one my first year.  I don't think this is the small black one that is similar to the hass which is popular in stores, but I'll try anything.  I'm sure it will taste fabulous if I can get it to mature.  Don't think you can get any fresher than that. 

New England just got hit.  I personally love the snow.  I do wish I was able to just stay snowed in rather than to try to dig out and work at the same time, but such is life.  The picture on the left is what my well looked like when I went t bed thinking we weren't going to get anything.  However the next morning  I couldn't even find the well.  For the record that's about a 10 inch planter depending on where you're looking. 



After the storm



Before the storm



My dogs LOVE the snow, and I love playing in it with them.  Wasn't much time for me to play, but they've managed to create some pretty good paths.  Problem was I couldn't tell if they were standing or sitting half the time. 



Meet Lani



Meet Loke

This storm proves that sometimes you just can't plant for winter interest.  I like to, but I think it would help if you could actually see the garden.  It's sorta buried after all this snow.  At least it's all insulated now.  



Roses somewhere.  At least
you can still
see the two dwarf arborvitaes

Our picnic table and benches





I swear there are bushes somewhere



Three tiered planters with
 completely buried pots and
 benches somewhere under
all that snow



Hope You get to have some fun in the snow before it melts away.

Favorite Pictures From 2010

2010 was a whirl wind of a year, and while it had it's ups and downs mother nature never fails to provide us with some awe as she keeps on trucking.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2010. 

This is how my year started out.  While this has nothing to do with gardening I think it's one of my favorite pictures because it's amazing what water will do.  You can't stop mother nature if she's on a mission, and apparently you can't stop magazines from busting a shelf at it's seems.  That's about 2 feet of water.  I'm pretty sure we ended up breaking the shelf to get the magazines out they expanded so much and were so tight in there. 

This is from my front walk.  The dogs use to love running through the garden once the snow was down.  Unfortunately this beautiful lavender rose was a favorite spot.  I thought I had lost it from being broken down so many times, but come spring it started like magic.  In the background you can see some blue lupin that I had just started from seed .  It was a fantastic spring combination. 

This is a luffa plant.  Not a very pretty plant, but it has HUGE leaves that make for a great green privacy screen.  It got a little out of control this year, but this was the first time it actually grew.  I found out it's quite aggressive with it's tendrils grabbing onto just about anything it can reach.  Apparently no one told the luffa it should grab onto something other than itself.  Never did keep track of it to see what become of it. 

One of my favorite summer flowers around here.  These are a cross between various morning glories that I have grown.  All of these were collected from my plants last year.  They had a great range of colors and made a nice colorful screen on one side of our pool this summer even though they got planted very late.  I love that once these start they keep on going until the frost.  With care I've had them blooming as late as Thanksgiving.  While I love the colors I don't think my camera does them justice. 

This has got to be my other favorite flower.  They start a little later after all the spring blooms are long gone, but they give a great show until the first frost  I love this picture with the grass in the background and the sun coming through.  For some reason all the flowers wanted to face away from the road this year.  I usually have these out front as well, but I lost quite a few this year.  Turns out they don't like going for a swim in ice cold flood water.  Who would have known.  Hopefully next year they will be back out front where they were sorely missed this late summer. 

Our first "snow".  We didn't get much, but white stuff came out of the sky and created some breath taking views.  This one was my foxglove that decided to bloom even though it just started to grow this summer.  I love it with the snow in the background. 

This is the only picture not from my house or yard.  This was taken at the Logee's annual open house.  It's an angel's trumpet that looks and smells awesome.  I actually never knew until this November that they had any smell.  Now I can't wait to try to add some to my garden.  In the meantime I did purchase this one.  My friend wants to see if we can get it to grow to the second floor windows in my house.  That's probably about 20+ feet up.  I'm sure it will take a while, but it's a funny thought. 

I hope you've enjoyed some of these.  I love gardening and seeing the combinations that can be made.  I love my fresh food, herbs, and bouquets that I usually manage to find almost every week.  And the absolute best part of gardening is knowing that there really isn't such thing as total failure.  Ultimately you've just learned how to make things better next time.