MEANWHILE BACK ON THE HOME FRONT

Right after I left for England, Grandpère planted and tended greens in his autumn garden.  He knows I love my salads, and greens fresh from the garden make the best salads.
 

 

By the time I came home, the greens were ready to eat. Grandpère does not pull up the entire plant but rather breaks off leaves until a frost is on the way or the plant gets too old.  The two photos above are different varieties of lettuce.

My favorite green, roquette (rocket), is pictured above. Grandpère plants roquette especially for me, because he doesn't care for its bite, but the bite is what I like. The best salads include a combination of the three greens.

All too often, I take for granted the fresh produce from the garden, and sometimes it takes a reminder from others for me to realize how fortunate I am to have fresh fruit and vegetables throughout much of the year.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN - FLOWER POTS ON THE FENCE

Portulaca or Purslane

Portulaca or Purslane

Ivy

Portulaca or Purslane

All credit for the work involved in planting and upkeep of the garden goes to Grandpère, who is a gifted gardener and a very hard worker.  The idea for flower pots on the fence may have been mine, but I can't say for sure.

GRANDPÈRE'S HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

For the first time, Grandpère grew heirloom tomatoes in his garden.  The tomatoes don't look beautiful in the pictures, nor are the colors true, but the taste is delicious. The excellent flavor is different from any tomato I've eaten.  Wikipedia says:

Heirloom tomatoes lack a genetic mutation that gives tomatoes an appealing uniform red color while sacrificing the fruit's sweet taste.

The fruit in the pictures are not quite ripe, because GP is competing with a bird to pick the tomatoes whole without chunks pecked out of them.  The tops of the tomatoes never turn red, so the time is ripe for eating when the feel is slightly soft to the touch.  I'm told by a friend that when the tomatoes can be found in stores or markets, they are expensive.  What a treat for me.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

Azalea row

Indian hawthorne

Gardenia

Gardenia

Cold weather is on the way Sunday night with temperatures in the low 40s and Monday and Tuesday nights in the 30s. The blooms may suffer.

ODDS AND ENDS IN THE GARDEN

Diana

Diana is still looking good at her advanced age. She's a little slow to rise from a reclining position, but once she gets going, she's still fast.  She quickens my pace on our walks.

Azealeas beginning to bloom

The azaleas are just beginning to bloom. The bush will look gorgeous once it's covered with flowers. The small bush in the background looks as though it might not make it in the long term, but it's still blooming its heart out.

St Francis and the azealea bush

St Francis needs a good wash as he may have needed many times in his life on earth, with all his walking and preaching and eating and sleeping wherever he was made welcome.

Carolina jasmine vine

Alas, Grandpère and I have both forgotten the name of the vine with the pretty yellow flowers.  (Identified with the help of Facebook friends from the close-up photo below.)

St Francis, Diana, and the azalea bush

I have no idea what smell interested Diana so for her to sniff the azalea bush for such a long time. She does that on her walks, too, sniffs intently in one spot for an extended period.

UPDATE: Below is a close-up of the flowers on the vine.
 

Carolina jasmine

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

Azelea

Shrimp plant with St Francis

Petunias and gardenia

Hosta plantagenia
(Thanks to Bonnie)

Another azalea

Mock orange

Since the roses and bridal wreath flowers were fading, I took no pictures of them.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

 

Our azaleas are at different stages of blooming, some in full bloom, some just beginning to produce buds, and some fading.

 

The Indian hawthorne is in full bloom, while the dwarf azaleas in the background are beginning to fade. The dwarf azaleas bloom several times a year, usually with a display around Christmas, which is lovely.

 

As you see, this bush is just about covered with flowers.

 

St Francis points to the lovely azalea blooms - or perhaps he points to the birdie. Who can tell?

 

Our shrimp plant is not the greatest beauty in our garden, but the hummingbirds like to visit, so we must keep it going.

 

Diana lolls in the yard guarding, but not eating, her dog bone. Diana, we don't want your bone. Truly.

As regular readers know, Diana lost one diseased eye through an accident, but she was already nearly blind in the eye. Her remaining eye is clouded over, and she doesn't see well out of it. In addition, she suffers from arthritis and is going deaf. Poor old girl. Old age is not for sissies.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN - 3 - CATKINS

 

Catkins, the wormlike male flowers from an oak tree, blanket the ground. They fall after releasing their pollen. Photo by BILL FEIG.

From the Advocate:

Local allergists are theorizing that the bitter cold winter here has triggered an especially intense pollen season this year — and unpleasant symptoms for allergy sufferers.

“This year has been one of the worse seasons I’ve ever seen,” said allergist Dr. James M. Kidd III.

He’s been in practice for 28 years.

Kidd said that he did his medical training in Wisconsin, a place with distinct seasons, and he would see a surge in the spring pollen there, following heavy winters.

“We had a very cold winter” here, Kidd said.

In this area, trees actually start pollinating in late January, he said, but the heaviest tree pollen falls between March 15 and March 31, he said.

“Patients oftentimes will have a lag time and won’t see symptoms until several weeks later,” he said.

Louisiana trees with a high pollen count — a measure of how many pollen spores are prevalent per cubic meter of air — are the oak and the cypress, Kidd said.

We have both cypress and oak trees in our yard. The catkins were all over, covering great swaths of the driveway. The pictures below were taken after the initial clean-up. The yellow pollen from the flowers lands and clings to everything outside, plants, garden furniture, etc. The powder-like pollen even sticks to the window panes.

Grandpère and I both had a bout of either a spring cold or allergies a few weeks ago, that had us frequently sneezing with runny noses. The pollen could have been the culprit.

The flowers look like little brown caterpillars once they fall. I'd never thought much about them before this year's plague. I knew that the catkins were flowers from our oak trees, but I never knew their name until I read the article in the Advocate a few days ago.

 

 

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN - 2

 

A bridal wreath bush in bloom. It's planted beside the garden shed, which I cropped out of the picture.

 

Another variety of azalea. We have white azaleas, too, but I don't have a picture.

 

My favorite of all the pictures. The rosebush is a transplant from New Roads, where it grows and flourishes with little care. The bush does the same here. Grandpère stopped planting roses, because most rose plants require frequent treatment for black spot because of the humidity. However, we have two varieties here in Thibodaux, both of which came from New Roads, the pink above and a white rosebush, which grow and bloom well here without spraying. I'm guessing the roses are old varieties and not hybrids and are thus hardier and more resistant to disease than hybrids.

 

And last, but not least, the red geraniums in pots near the back door. They're beautiful now but will be less so in the height of the summer heat.

IN THE BLOOMIN' GARDEN

 

Above is the most popular variety of azaleas. The bushes bloom only once a year. I missed the flowers at the height of their beauty by a few days.

 

The azalea bush pictured above blooms several times a year. It's quite unusual to have the two varieties in bloom at the same time.

 

Above is our wee mock orange. The little shrub has had a hard time of it, suffering much tribulation during it's rather long life, including being pulled up from the roots by a neighborhood toddler and replanted and cut off at the ground by the riding lawn mower. Still, we take pleasure in its resurrection and its plucky persistence in producing lovely flowers this spring.

 

Above are the potted petunias, which are just beginning their lives in our garden.

More to come. I was quite surprised at the number of different blooms in our yard when I began to take pictures.