Several years ago my wife was given this Peruvian Lily as a houseplant. It didn't do particularly well in the house (in fact, I thought it was dead), so I dumped it into the garden near the strawberry planter. Not only was the plant not dead, but it thrives in the dry soil and treats us to this show every spring through autumn.
The ruby ring onions I planted this past winter ready to harvest. I pulled them up and will allow them to dry before tying them up. In total I got about 50 really nice red onions. Considering I bought this seed on sale for 99 cents, I got a real nice return on my investment.
This is a native trailing blackberry. Usually you find it down along the creeks. I transplanted a few along my lower fence line 20 years ago and the blackberries have never looked back. Tis year the ground squirrels and I are in a battle to see who will get to eat more of them. So far the squirrels are winning.
Last fall I put up a rain gutter that redirected water from the roof to the camelias and hydrangea on the side yard. Whatever is in the roof runoff, for the first time all the hydrangeas blooms are pink this year.
One of my favorite native plants, Cleveland Sage (salvia clevelandii), which gets its name from the nearby Cleveland National Forest. Looks great, smells great and requires close to zero water and maintenance.
Okay, it's not an eagle, but a young Cooper's hawk who happened to be perched on the no parking sign just down the hill. He let me get just ten feet away to take this photo. After posing he dove into the brush for breakfast and then flew off.
It's only Mid-may and the Bon Apetit Sweet corn is going gangbusters. I wouldn't be surprised if there's fresh corn on the BBQ this Memorial Day. (Note: this photos was taken less than 3 weeks after this one).
Exactly two weeks after this photo, this is now what those corn and tomato plants look like.
I thought high pollen counts hit me pretty bad. I can only imagine what it's doing to this bee. It flew out of the wildflower field and landed on the bench to unload a bit before moving on.
The warm weather has also allow me to get corn (foreground) and tomatoes (background) in the ground several weeks earlier than usual. I'm hoping they're ready by Memorial Day.
