Phaedra's 2023 Adventure

[Phaedra]

you'll never have a shortage of chives.

Yes! I love them! Compared with scallions, chives are even easier to grow and need almost no special care.

 

[Phaedra]

Aren't they lovely? Some for the eyes and mind, and some for a good appetite~

It was a lovely summer morning, and I walked both dogs first. They behaved very well today!

Then, I started harvesting flowers and veggies from different areas in the garden. Don't know why, but I love this kind of 'foraging in your own garden.'

Lush and Luxurious (Fast and Furious? 🤣)
The white perennial baby's-breaths are close to full bloom, and their existence does make the flower arrangement more delicate.

I guess I know myself much better this year, in the gardening domain, the flower beds and trails created this year look promising. The best place to learn about patience is the garden.

My cost-effective water feature - with the hydrangeas, dahlias, MUMs, geraniums, berries, catmint (dwarf variety as a cover crop) - this corner is much more interesting than before.

The first Sunflower over 2 Meters this year

The stem is soooooo thick!

The terrace N°1 looks so nice. But there is one funny thing - the overall harmonious look and feel might become hilarious after those volunteer tomatoes grow up.
Well, beside the eyes and the mind, the stomach needs some comfort as well.

My sub-brand, NichiNichi Garden - under NichiNichi Café - will appear on the selected products like seeds, bouquets, and plants. It's designed by a designer from Argentina, and we love it.

 

[baymule]

Lovely bouquets! I love all the different flowers that you grow! Sunflowers are such fun! I had volunteer sunflowers in the front yard, from feeding sheep. I mowed around them and now they are drying out.

Your logo is adorable. Love it! Does NichiNichi mean something special?

 

[Phaedra]

Lovely bouquets! I love all the different flowers that you grow! Sunflowers are such fun! I had volunteer sunflowers in the front yard, from feeding sheep. I mowed around them and now they are drying out.

Your logo is adorable. Love it! Does NichiNichi mean something special?

Yes, NichiNichi means 'every single day' in Japanese, and that's how I want to position my shop - warm and daily.

This year, I also tried an F1 sunflower variety called 'ProCut -white,' which has no pollen so it's suitable for indoor bouquets. However, most of them are destroyed by the rodents. It seems the rodents chewed the stems and killed them overnight.

However, other ordinary sunflowers survive well - not just taller, but also look more robust than my young fruit trees. Maybe that F1 variety is tastier?!

 

[flowerbug]

...
This year, I also tried an F1 sunflower variety called 'ProCut -white,' which has no pollen so it's suitable for indoor bouquets. However, most of them are destroyed by the rodents. It seems the rodents chewed the stems and killed them overnight.

However, other ordinary sunflowers survive well - not just taller, but also look more robust than my young fruit trees. Maybe that F1 variety is tastier?!

we have trouble starting and growing sunflowers here too, chipmunks find the seeds very easily and get them. starting them in containers helps but you want a deep container. our other challenge is that we want to plant them outside the fenced gardens and the deer will normally chew the tops off of those.

beautiful sunflower.

 

[Branching Out]

Deer damage can be so random. I grow have grown hundreds of sunflowers in an area frequented by deer, and so far they have not bothered them at all. Most of the ones that I grow are Pro Cut or Vincent's Choice/Fresh; I like them because they do not grow too tall. All of mine hit the ground as seedlings as my success rate with direct sowing is close to nil.

 

[Phaedra]

I harvested scallions, water spinach, some chilis, and 'autumn' raspberries. That's so weird - the autumn raspberries ripe earlier and earlier, while the summer varieties turn much later. Well, without heat waves from the south, the temperature here now is always under 20 degrees C, maybe that's the cause?

This year, I enjoy very much filling our garden with what I propagated. I relocated one Hydrangea and one MUM to a flowerbed.

It should be an ideal spot for both of them~

A lot of seedlings are still waiting to be transplanted - this is the first year I didn't stop sowing.

Bee Balm growing from seeds, wow, they look greater than I imagined.

Another variety is also about to blossom.

The forest garden patch N°2 - I just love it and can't wait to extend it further from both sides.

 

[baymule]

The other variety of bee balm looks like horse mint. It’s a wild variety here. I don’t know if it escaped a garden and went wild or is considered a wild flower. It makes an attractive plant.

 

[SPedigrees]

The other variety of bee balm looks like horse mint. It’s a wild variety here. I don’t know if it escaped a garden and went wild or is considered a wild flower. It makes an attractive plant.

The pollinators love bee balm. Mine stowed in here as a single stem misplaced in a container of phlox of the same color from a garden center some years ago, and it has taken over! The taller, bigger, and lighter colored varieties in the foreground showed up last summer as volunteers.

 

[digitS']

It makes an attractive plant.

Monarda species are North American Native Plants.