Garden Abundance

This year (2012) everything is coming early; flowers that are supposed to bloom in August-September are blooming now. The vegetable garden is also producing an abundant supply. This is true for most gardens in the north-east. Luckily drought has not yet touched us as it has done, unfortunately, in large parts of the US. I hope all of my garden-friends' gardens are doing well.

Our garden has also started producing a lot. There is an over-abundant supply of tomatoes; well, no wonder since I have grown about eleven tomato plants from seed :-). I have started looking into all sorts of tomato related recipes - tomato chutney, tomato jam, tomato pickle, frozen tomato, tomato paste, and so on - because once the tomatoes start becoming ripe, the house will be overflowing with them. There are also lots of garlic, onion, beans, cucumber, pumpkin, cabbage; gourd plants are flowering profusely; so are all the ridge-gourds, squash plants; okra and broccoli plants are growing strong day by day. All the various pepper plants are fruiting. The jerusalem artichoke plants are vigorously growing. Only, I have no idea about the potato plants. I don't think I will have much success with them. I am feeling especially proud because this year, for the first time, I have grown everything from seeds.

Now and then, I am going to the garden and picking up fresh things for salad. Yesterday I picked some beans, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, mint and lemon-balm, as you see in the bowl. 

Hopefully I am back

Dear Blog and My Blog-Friends,

I hope everybody is doing fine. I have been away from my blog and all your blogs for so long because of my health. I have been really, really sick but now I am hopefully back. Lots of things are happening in my garden now - abundance of strawberries, green leafy vegetables and peas. I will start posting about them and their photos soon. Here are some pictures of flowers that were growing in our garden in March. Every year, they usually flower in late April/early May, but this year they came early as we didn't have a proper winter. How many of the following flowers can you name :-)? I can only name a few though they are growing in my garden!!

The Busy Garden

I always remember Leisure by William Henry Davis, especially at this time of the year
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

But, I was determined to take some time out today, update my blog and find what my busy garden is up to. All sorts of bees, butterflies, wasps, flowers, buds, new leaves are out. I tried to capture whatever I could but again time and energy constrained me to capture some poor shots. Hope you don't mind. How busy is your garden? So, here are some shots that were taken today and on March 19.



A snake on our driveway, going from our garden to my neighbor's garden. I don't know what these plants are, but they are indeed pretty; some crocuses.


More purple crocuses; some pretty wild-flowers, don't know what they are. Do you know? White Daffodil


Yellow Daffodil; a sea of daffodil; the Persian Lilac tree is full of new growth and buds.


Phlox; more wild flowers; dandelion - I love them for their vibrant yellow color and they are the first flower to appear in spring.

Being a veggie-grower, the sets of pictures will not be complete without some vegetable-plant photos :-). Here they are:

A line of pea-babies; potato plant; pak-choi