Thursday, November 11, 2010

Colourful November

I don't have that much space to grow many flowers that I would love to see them in my garden. But I am learning how to to grow them with vegetables side by side. Hopefully, pollinators will happily stay at our garden and we have much better luck with the fruits that need to be pollinated this summer. You can see almost every patch has coriander that is flowering profusely in the background of the picture when you see small white flowers.
I have never seen a poppy grown outside the nursery. This year we grow our poppy from seeds. I thought it will make a nice border for the veggie patch. However, never did  I expected that it will grow so tall and eventually shade any nearby plants. Every morning since our poppy starts to bloom I spend more longer time in the garden before I am off to school. I am still surprised and excited looking at the different colours of poppy flowers that are blooming in the garden. As I was looking at one of the bloom this morning, a big bee was off and on that flower, and I can see the pollen flying away and how it attach on the bees legs.  I felt like the bee was giving me a special lesson about how important its role as a pollinator.
This corner is near the front of our kitchen window. Self-seeded viola is growing below sunflower plant and nastartium has  to be tamed not to invade other plant spaces too much. Its neighbour zucchini has some bud developing when I peek yesterday.

The pansies has hide the leek stem from front view. We don't have to cover the leek stem to get those long white stem instead of green. The pansy is not just a pretty face but have done a good job on shading the leek stem.

The linaria has bloomed for months now since middle of winter. I should have stake them but like poppy I never thought it will grow so tall. Luckily I planted them at the back.
We still have many poppy plant which has not bloom yet. I wonder will we have another different colllection type of colour. I am making a mental note , I should have sowed the poppy seed earlier this year. Well I can try again next year.

12 comments:

Amy said...

You have done a great job mixing in vegetables and flowers. It looks very pretty! The third photo looks very cheery!!

cina_fong said...

Hi
Its cina from Malaysia. 1st time visiting yr blog. Because of yr avatar Malay-kadazan I thought you live in East Msia or the east coast my heart nearly missed a beat when I saw those poppy flowers cuz I would die to grow them in my garden. So lovely flowers you have.

Autumn Belle said...

Yeah, I'd like to have poppies in my garden too. I'm so jealous! Your vegetables and flowers seem to be living in harmony with each other, helping each other. You are very clever.

Sue Garrett said...

Everything is looking lovely. Your poppies and nasturtiums should self seed year after year and you should get some interesting new colours from cross pollination.

Malar said...

Your poppy flowers look so pretty! We can't grow them in Malaysia....

Your garden is so lovely with so many beautiful flowers!

waliz said...

its so beautiful!! i love the way the flowers scattering around yr garden wildly like that.

Sara Chapman in Seattle, USA said...

I live in Seattle and all is getting finished for the winter, even though the lawn is green. There are still carrots waiting in the ground, but my leeks don't look anything as lovely as yours. I love the pansy shade idea. I've enjoyed my visit to your garden blog immensely.

fer said...

I love how you mixed your vegetables and your flowers. They all go together very nice.
I also hope I can get some red poppy for next year. Yours are lovely

Veggie PAK said...

You have a beautiful garden, but what I like best is that you are teaching your children about raising their own food! I am teaching my grandchildren, the oldest being six years old. They really remember what you tell them as they help you in the garden! It's VERY exciting to hear it from them!

Keep up the good and important work!

Veggie PAK

Unknown said...

I love your garden, full of colors.
Nice post.

Julie said...

Thank-you for the pansy idea. So pretty and so practical. I look forward to longer leeks this year ; )

Stephanie said...

Oh so lovely! They look really happy in your garden. And I am sure they bring lots of joy to you and your family :-D