Posts about what is growing and blooming in my Sonoma County garden at various times of year.
Happy Easter and Passover to those who celebrate! Hope you are enjoying signs of spring in your area and hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. The last patch of daffodils finished blooming a few weeks ago (photo above). I love all the fresh spring green this time of year. The hills are covered with…
After nearly continuous rainy days since the start of February, we finally have some sunshine this second week of March and the garden is showing signs of life. The plum tree is almost in full bloom. The blue rosemary flowers along the garden fence are beautiful with the plum tree’s flush of bluish pink. The…
I’m nearly done with the new floral scent and am scaling up the formula. I’ll post more about it here on the blog, along with a link to the webpage for the scent. Some of the main notes are mimosa, orange blossom, jasmine, lilac, and beeswax/honey. I’m also hoping to finish the chocolate gourmand in…
I’ve been enjoying our warm summer weather, harvesting lots of tomatoes (sweet 100 and early girl) and strawberries, and also working on the floral scent that’s been in development for quite a while. The tomatoes are providing too much harvest to eat, so I’m freezing the extra. The new scent features a beautiful mimosa oil…
It’s been quite a while since I’ve checked in on the blog. I’m still working on the two new scents and will post about them when they are ready for sampling. I thought I’d share a few pictures from this spring. I’ve been working to improve the garden drip system because our mineral-rich well water…
We had a lovely day for May Day here yesterday, with a gorgeous blue sky, puffy clouds, and warm weather. The trees have leafed out in their spring green, and the hills have not yet turned from their winter green to their dry summer gold. My roses are in their first bloom of the season,…
A few days ago I watched the first flight of a gulf fritillary butterfly (shown above) after it emerged from the chrysalis; I was babysitting it for Nancy and had the fun of watching it emerge. The butterfly took a little while to fly off, flapping and drying its wings before it was ready to…
This morning was bright but cloudy, perfect for taking some photos in the garden. The pic above is Ballerina rose, a hybrid musk. Below is Climbing Pinky rose on the left and an overgrown Jacques Cartier rose on the right. Oak trees in the background. Below is Iris pallida, the iris that is grown to produce…
I have been testing small batches of Amber Incense as I scale up the formula, making twice as much each time. I think I will put samples on the site within a few days. I’ll post again here when I put them up. It’s always hard to let a new one go and call it done….
We’re trying a new zucchini seed this year developed especially for container growing, and the plants are great — giant decorative foliage with abundant zucchini tucked into the center of the bush. The variety is called Astia and is sold by Renee’s Garden seeds. If you need to grow your veggies in pots, this is…
I thought I’d share some photos I snapped recently. The first two photos show the Ballerina rose (a hybrid musk) that is currently in full bloom in my garden. It repeats bloom throughout the summer and the foliage is healthier than my other roses even during summer’s peak heat. The third photo shows the hills…
One more set of spring garden photos. 🙂 I posted a picture of Climbing Pinkie rose last year, but here she is again this spring in the photo above. The bloom should get heavier later this week with warm weather predicted. While I was outside yesterday, a deer was munching on grass around the foundation…
I took a few more garden pictures today. The photo above looks up the hill to the deer fence with several roses on it. Some oak trees are in the background, and you can see a bit of the plum tree on the left. The turkey is some garden art given to me as a…
Sitting on the front porch right now is delicious with the air scented by roses and pink jasmine. The jasmine scent travels literally 20 feet from the vine, but it is on the fence farther away and mingles perfectly with the fragrance from the roses that grow up the porch posts closer in. Clematis and…
I planted a peony a bit over a year ago, and it just produced its first bloom! We can’t grow peonies very well here because our winters aren’t cold enough, but some varieties will bloom. This flower is enormous – just over 8 inches in diameter. The scent is green and earthy, with what seems…
It hit 80 degrees here today and I couldn’t resist spending some time outside this afternoon. My SIL was in town and stopped by for a quick visit, so we sat on the porch for an hour catching spring fever. Here are a few photos I took in the garden today. Above is a winter…
Over the weekend my parents spotted some beautiful dogwoods in bloom at a nearby winery, so I stopped by to see them too. I’ve not seen dogwood trees in years because they are not often grown in gardens here. Dogwood prefers cooler summers and more winter chill than we have, but these at the winery…
Today is my post for the May Flowers group blog project organized by natural perfumer and artist Roxana Villa of Illuminated Perfume. You can visit her Illuminated Perfume blog to find links to the fun and creative May Flower posts that have been made every day in May by other participants in the project. Thanks…
I resisted cutting that rose yesterday since I had plenty others to cut for the house, and today I took another snapshot after it had unfurled for another day. This time the light was softer and better for pictures (in the early evening instead of noon). Morning is my favorite time for flower photos but…
I’ll be doing a May Flowers post for the group blogging project, but my assigned day isn’t until May 22 so I wanted to give a heads up for this May flowers event in Healdsburg: an open house on Mother’s Day at the nearby Russian River Roses nursery. I’ve mentioned this before on the…