Update #4

Hello again!



We have been getting a lot of rain, so we haven't had to do any watering. On the downside, there hasn't been a lot of sun.



Here is the current state of the rock garden. If you click on the photo it will enlarge so you can see the plants in more detail.





Here is one of the astilbe I planted last year. Pretty! It really bloomed, much more than last year. I guess they need some time to get established.


The red astilbe that you planted seem to be finished blooming, and I googled astilbe and it said that they only bloom once per season, and that I can either trim the dead blooms, or leave them if I like how the seedheads look.


I'm pretty sure this is a tomato plant under the lily. What do you think?




Here is one of the many visitors to the rock garden.





Here is the lavender pot.



I've been pulling out all the weeds except the clover because the bunnies like it.

Here's the zucchini and yellow squash.


Lots of blossoms. We're tempted to eat some blossoms, so that we can at least get some food out of this crop if the zucchini never make an appearance. Jason trimmed a big branch above to try to let in more sun. It doesn't help that it's been cloudy for many days.

Here is the pepper/tomato garden/bean garden. A few blossoms on the tomatoes and peppers.


This is the plant at the corner of the house that I was describing to you when it was first sprouting.

Note the tiny white blossoms hanging under the fronds.

Remember the plant in the red pot that you said might be something? You were right. It's this:

I think it's an ipomopsis that I planted last year. It sure took it's time getting here! I've seen a few plantings of these in houses around the neighborhood; lots of stems that droop over and not a very notable flower. They looked much better on the package.

Here are the violas and sweet peas, doing great! The baskets are in questionable shape though.

Shasta daisies are blooming!

The two Shasta daisies that Jason planted on either side of the deck stairs are just about to bloom as well.

Aubrey would like you to see her new teeth.

The black raspberries are looking good. We're worried the birds will eat them.

Here are the Asian lilies out front. I remember that last year they didn't bloom until July, so I guess it's true we had an early spring.

Update #3

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Late edit: This morning, Jason talked with the neighbor and got the okay to cut down the tree between our front yards. So, more sun for the plum tree!
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Let's start with a couple photos of Aubrey.




And now for the garden. The violas are doing great, and the sweet peas are surpassing them in height. The blue jays are using the basket fibers for their nests.
I saw a bluejay in the basket and I was thinking, what could he possibly be doing in there? Then I saw the fibers strewn around and figured it out.

Here's the squash (foreground) which Jason planted just before the sprouts finally came out of the ground from the seeds we planted for your visit. Beets (background) are 3 inches tall. We haven't thinned out the wildflowers yet.

The clematis is growing like gangbusters.

Here are the pole beans Jason planted by the fence, behind the asparagus.

Speaking of asparagus, 2 of the 3 plants didn't come up this year, at least not yet. The third one produced maybe 7 asparagus. We probably shouldn't have picked the 4 shoots we picked; I just read that you have to wait until the third season, and this is the second. I looked up why the other two plants didn't produce and it could be overwatering or underwatering, which is strange because all three plants got the same amount of water, pretty much. It could also be pests, or stress from surrounding weeds. I think Jason plans to uproot them and check out the roots to see if they look healthy, then maybe plant them somewhere else. In hindsight we should have planted more of them to get a reasonable yield.

The tomato plants are taking off.

As are the hydrangea.

And the lavender.

The shasta daisies are getting ready to bloom.

Jason got two more and planted them on either side of the deck stairs, as you suggested (no photo).

He planted eggplant in front of the chimney.

And I don't have a photo, but the black raspberries are appearing; still green, though. Jason thinks we will get a lot this year.

Update #2

It's been pretty hot the past couple of days so we've been watering a lot. It's supposed to rain tonight, then 80s and no rain for the next week.

The wildflower seedlings bordering the squash/beet garden (photo below) are a few inches tall. Mom said something about thinning these out. How far apart should they be? And can we transplant the extras?


The bishop's weed is flourishing; our neighbor Scott even commented on how this spot is going a little wild. Jason pulled some out closest to the lilies and the other flowers to the right of the lilies, and next to the hypericum bush. But they could be thinned out a lot more.



The plum tree is leafing out and the salvia (purple flowers in the background) is happy.

Hydrangea is leafing out. I may have asked this before, but could we expect blossoms this season? I can't wait to cut them and put them in a vase.

The rhubarb has three leaves now.

Jason replanted the squash garden with squash seedlings since the seeds didn't seem to be coming up, but three days later there are sprouts from the seeds. So this will be a crowded squash garden.

Mint, cilantro, and basil which was planted two days ago.

We wanted pictures of Aubrey with the lilacs before they faded, and we barely missed the deadline.

Speaking of Aubrey, here she is demonstrating her rolling skills today.

Update #1

I finally took pictures of the garden today! Here is a report of its current state. If you are wondering about any plants I failed to mention, feel free to ask about them. To see the photos better, you can click on them to enlarge them.

We need to do some mulching, mowing, and weeding; hopefully this weekend, but my sister Kathy is coming to visit, so if she doesn't feel like gardening, it might not get done.

The lilac bush is nearly in full bloom.

The gnome failed to protect whatever plant he was assigned to protect. A squirrel trampled it or something. I hope it wasn't anything important. Also, I just realized that this gnome looks like my dad.


The clematis has grown and wound itself around the trellis a little, and two new blossoms came up. They are very pretty.

This is the weed that Mom and I discussed that is a tall stalk next to the chimney. It bloomed so I thought I would include a photo. As weeds go, it's not so bad.



The bishops weed is getting pretty high, and starting to crowd out the hypericum (?) bush in the corner, as well as the lilies on the left. Somebody will have to thin it out.



The lavender has grown a tiny bit, but I was excited to see the fern that I transplanted from last year. I wish I had transplanted more of them.




Someone threw the newspaper toward the deck and it landed on the mystery plant that mom planted in the red pot near the hose faucet.




The astilbe is flourishing. The ones I planted last year are starting to bud, which you may not be able to see in the photo.



And the astilbes that mom planted seem to be thinking about blooming soon.




Here's a wider view of the rock garden. Everything seems to be doing okay.

I need to move the bird feeder again because the sunflower shells are falling on one of the astilbes. Incidentally, lots of birds and few squirrels are coming to the feeder. So far I have seen cardinals, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, plain old sparrows, and a rose-breasted grosbeak. I had never seen a rose-breasted grosbeak before and had to look it up to see what kind of bird it was. Here is a link to a photo: http://photos.somd.com/data/27/RBGB_DSC_5078_2.jpg

The violas are doing great. I've been picking off the dead flowers every day or two.
On the right side of the above photo, it looks like some new sprouts are coming up out of the dirt. I assume this is also viola, but I am surprised that it comes up from the dirt rather than from the plants. So maybe it's a weed? Let me know if I should pull them out.

The shasta daisies wilted so I plucked them; I hope this was the right move. Each plant has at least 2-3 new buds.


The arrowwood/arrowroot bushes are budding.


The squash sprouts seem to be disappearing, and this morning I noticed squirrels digging in this area.
They dug a bunch of holes in the wildflower bed, and messed up a few of the sprouts, but hopefully they have done whatever damage they plan to do.

Here's the tomato/pepper/asparagus garden.

The leaves on the bottom of two tomato plants turned yellow, probably because they were touching the ground and got wet. If you have advice on that front we'd like to hear it. Only four asparagus spears so far, and no new spears have appeared. The rhubarb is struggling but getting bigger. And we have one little pepper so far.







Here's a wider view of the lilac bush.

And it was nice and warm today so Aubrey got to put on a summer dress. As you can see, she is quite pleased with it.

That's all for now! If there is anything else you are curious about, just ask. You can leave a comment below, or just email, call or skype.