We’re planting a big rose garden out in front. What a lot of work! But it will be worth it, absolutely. This is one of the 18 roses waiting in pots, named Broadway. In a rare burst of sunshine, it created this shadow, almost like another petal form. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadows.

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers. Their mysterious depths, the petals like angel feathers, the indescribable fragrance—plus when peonies bloom, summer is not far behind. This one bloomed the other day in my garden; such a welcome sight.

For more Pink of all types, shapes and sizes, visit Pink Saturday.

These chive flowers are so pretty and the plants so easy to grow. I read they make a nice little hedge in front of bigger plants, but I have room only for one nice one. It’s near the kitchen door, and when I’m cooking, I just go outside and snip, snip, there you are.

I think that growing herbs and other food crops are a great way to garden, and good for the planet also. If you’d like other ideas about being green, visit Think Green Thursday.

We planted so many bulbs last fall, some tried and true, other new ones to take some chances. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of. And it’s fragrant, like most white flowers, a bonus! So amazingly graceful. And for other close ups, visit Macro Monday and take a look around.

I don’t usually like flower photos with insects, but I’m making an exception for this bee working the red rose. But then again, the non-bee one is pretty nice, too. Which do you prefer?

For more lovely flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

It’s Pink Saturday, so here’s a rose for you in that delectable hue! Who can argue with pink?

This is part of my backyard, and my neighbor’s yard beyond the little fence, just two weeks ago. The show is over now, but with the magic of photography, the moment lives on. I am happy that I planted all those bulbs last fall, even though it was such a short, but intense, pleasure. I feel that gardening is a very green activity, and if you’d like to see other photo interpretations of the idea of green, visit Think Green Thursday.

This is not my garden; again it’s from the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York City. This section was to inspire and inform the home gardener. While I have planted vegetable beds with flowers in them, I have never seen the plants planted in diagonal rows. So simple, but such a great idea. If you are going to have neat rows, might as well be at an angle, for pretty.

I like this photo for Think Green Thursday because to me the idea of growing your own food is about as green as you can get, especially if you do it the simple, cheap way with kitchen compost to enrich the soil, seeds, and there you go. No expensive supplies needed, just a bit of know how. Just ask a gardener and you’ll learn enough to get you going.

Just for the heck of it, here is a photo of the raised beds from October of 2007 in my last house. The string trellis at the right is for the flat peas which were already done by then. It was a nice garden, but the current one will be even nicer, eventually.

These tulips were part of the bulb marathon we planted last fall. Nothing on the package said they were more than twice the size of a normal tulip. If you look at the photo of my garden a few posts down, they are quite tall and you can see a couple behind the left vegetable bed. I have never seen anything like the size of these flowers. And they are beautiful as well!

For more flowers around the world, click HERE.

I realized it’s been just a year since we moved in. We dug up lawn and planted bulbs, dug the vegetable beds, and in general dove in to a very neglected situation. Today the sun peeked out and this is what it looks like out there. Not as good as it will look next year, but such an improvement over last year!