Sunday Stroll

I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what’s growing here at Happy Acres. If you’ve not entered my giveaway, be sure to check out the last post. Deadline is tomorrow at 8 am CST.  I also returned from the International Quilt Show and I have pictures to share which I plan to post tomorrow.

Here are how things are blooming here.

First tall bearded iris
#3 Old Fashion Iris

This is the first tall bearded iris of the season. In 2009 and 2010 I kept a running total on my blog and in my records of our irises. Last year with all of the early rain, very few of my irises even bloomed. So now I’ll be going back to my 2010 records to see how this year compares.

This iris is what I call the old fashion or what grandma always grew in her garden. In 2010 it bloomed on April 24. This iris bloomed on April 8 this year.

Two-tone Rust Tall Bearded Iris
#20 Two-tone rust tall bearded iris

This beauty bloomed April 13 this year. In 2010 it was the #20 iris to bloom and did so on May 1. So everything is really early this year.

Today I found two more irises blooming.

Dave's Dark Yellow Iris
#19 Dave's Dark Yellow Iris

This is one of the irises Dave brought over from his farm when we moved here in 2007. It bloomed today. In 2010 it bloomed on May 1.

#7 Light Mauve
#7 Light Mauve

This light mauve tall bearded iris is probably one of my favorites and it was here when we moved in. It bloomed April 28, 2010 and it first bloomed today.

If you are new to my blog and wonder about the numbering, I finally settled on numbers in 2010. Since I didn’t have names for them and wanted to establish a permanent name, I assigned them all numbers. I found out early that they did not bloom the same time from year to year so I decided the order they bloomed in 2010 would be their assigned number for life!!

The blueberries are also coming on.

Elizabeth Blueberry
Elizabeth Blueberry

Elizabeth is coming along fine.

older blueberry bush
original blueberry bush

This is one of the original blueberry bushes that was here when we moved in. This is an early one and you can see that they are already starting to turn. If we can keep the birds out of the blueberries, we should have a pretty good crop this year.

Our first peach
Our first peaches

This was so exciting to see – our first peaches on the trees we planted a couple years ago. Now whether we get any peaches is another story, but at least they are healthy.

Cherry Tree
Cherry Tree

This is the original cherry tree that came with the property. We planted three more, which one died. However, the others are doing real well and it looks like this year we will get cherries this year from them. Yeah!

Raspberries
Raspberries

How exciting! The black raspberries are looking good!

Shade area
Shade area

I’ve been working hard to weed and get everything mulched this year. With all of our warm weather I got a really good start but I still have much more cleanup to finish. This is part of the shade area we put in three years ago after our wonderful old elm had to be cut down.

Here is the area next to it where the actual tree lived which is now a sun area. As you can see I’ve still not finished weeding or mulching here. We’ve had to put cages around our new tree and one of the plants since the deer have been eating them.

new shade area
new sun area

Those lavender plants in the front of this area were planted last year. They have really grown since then. Look at how they looked last June when I planted them! I did lose one plant that I’ll need to replace, but I’m really happy how they’ve grown. Once I finish weeding them and adding more gravel, they will be all set for the season.

That’s all for now from HA. Hope everything is blooming where you are. Have a peaceful Sunday!