Sunday, November 15, 2009

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day November 2009

The season is fast closing down on blooms. My blooming season opened last year in March with my Johnny-Jump-Ups. It seems only fitting to close it down with the same. I seeded my carrots in late July. The carrots aren't growing fast enough, but Johnny grew fast enough to bloom among them. I always try to be careful when I'm weeding to leave them behind. It is one of the reasons I'm not like Carol. I don't like my hoes since they might inadvertently get rid of poor little Johnny.

Johnny is one of my all time favorite flowers in the garden. It isn't big and showy. His blooms are so tiny. But what they lack in size they make up for in personality. You just have to smile when you see his bright and cheerful face poking out over the carrot foliage.

I do have other things in bud in the garden. Here are my broccoli buds just waiting for me to pick them. I pick the buds and at the last moment before the ground freezes solid for the year, I pick the upper portion of the stems too. I peel the stem and cook it up in stirfries. I think the stems are just as good as the flowers.

Now is the time that our ground starts to freeze up for the year. I keep a close check on the weather reports. My weathermen are putting up a fight over what the weather will be come midweek. One is saying we won't get under freezing, but it will be close. Another is saying we will get to the mid twenties in mid week. So I went for another weatherman. His tiebreaker forecast said the lows would be in the fourties midweek. So only time will tell. History says we will go in the twenties and, but I'm pulling for fourties and to have the garden keep growing for another week.

13 comments:

  1. Every year I mean to sugar some Johnny Jump ups and scatter them on a cake. . . haven't done it yet!

    Your broccoli looks yummy.

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  2. I'm with you: who couldn't smile at the sight of those cheery Johnny Jump Ups? I think they're beautiful with their super-saturated coloring.

    Your broccoli looks great, too!

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  3. I never really think of broccoli heads as flowers (although they definitely are) but they're really quite beautiful (at least in your photo!).

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  4. The flowers are so cheerful and colorful. The broccoli looks just plain delicious!

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  5. The Johnny Jump-ups are delightful; they would certainly brighten my day in the vegetable garden! I hope the weather stays in the forties for you; looks like we're going to have nothing but rain for the next week.

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  6. wow, how cheerful are those happy little flowers?!!

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  7. Stefaneener, that sounds really pretty. I remember sugaring some violets when I was a kid, but I haven't for ages.

    kathy, thanks

    Iris, I think so too. I also like the range they come up in my garden. Some are pretty sedate with a little pale yellow, and some just jump out at you with their brightness.

    Garden Junkie, yup they are. If I let them actually bloom I've waited too far.

    joene, thanks

    kitsapFG, I'm hoping to eat it soon. I was going to pick it on Sunday, but it was still so wet in the garden I didn't want to go out.

    Rose, well we had about 6" over the weekend, but luckily we will have sunshine now for a while

    Wendy, they are always cheerful.

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  8. Bloom day? And a couple of months ago, there was a death day. Is there a gardening blogger's calender that I'm not aware of??? I feel so uncool. Beautiful pics!

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  9. Thomas, yup there is. On the 15th of every month Carol hosts Bloom Day. There are a million of these kinds of gardening memes. There is wordless wednesdays, skywatch fridays, green thumb sundays, hey and harvest mondays :> Someone starts them and as long as they continue it, it keeps going. Carol started Bloom Day years ago and it has a huge following. I like it because it gives me one day a month that I have to talk about something besides veggies. Of course I always throw in some veggie blooms anyway.

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  10. What beautiful Johnny portraits you have and so lucky to have buds of broccoli... mine never survive this time of year for the deer dine on them. Great photos. Carol

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  11. Good to know...now I don't feel so out of the loop!

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