A Little Gardening

I am such a control freak.  I add plants to my garden so that I'll have a little something blooming all through the year.

One of my favorite things about  May 15th through June 15th - Day Lillies!

I learned that trick from my neighbor, Angelica, who lived next door to me in Germany.  She always bought at least two, sometimes three or more, of the same plants and planted them around her garden.  If someone gave her one plant she would divide it so that it grew in more than one place.  Nothing about her garden looked skimpy.  Bunches of daffodils bloomed in different spots - all at the same time - and it was very pleasing to glance around her garden and see patches of yellow here and there. A few weeks later her tulips bloomed, then other plants - each in their own time.  In mid to late summer roses bloomed and were glorious - 'scattered' here and there.  In every season her garden was beautiful.  I learned a lot from my German gardening neighbor.  All it takes is a little planning and anyone can create a beautiful garden.

Even though I have not been out in my garden it has continued to grow, following it's own schedule and not giving a thought to the outside world.  My hibiscus (a gift from Patti that I posted about last summer) is starting to bloom. 

Once again this beautiful plant is on the patio - getting a little morning sun
and protected from the wind.

My day lillies are at their peak.

The yellow day lillies are the first to bloom in my garden.
Then a couple of weeks later all the other colors join them.

I am always amazed by how life goes on.  My children grew with minimal effort - sure they were fed and clothed, but honestly I didn't have to stretch them at night - they just grew.  Each year about this time when the garden is a riot of color I am reminded that living things just do that.  Follow their course and grow and bloom at their appointed times...

Here are the Hen-n-Chicks I got from Mom back in February.  They have added a couple of babies.  (Not sure what those white dots are - the next picture I took was of the cone flower in the daisies and there are no dots in that picture.)

Of course there are show offs who bloom early -

check out the only purple cone flower blooming the first of June - purple cone flowers aren't "scheduled" to start blooming until the daisies in front of them are cut back... looks like someone couldn't wait. 

Maybe I'm not in control of things...


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Invaders

Good things are popping up in the garden -

The red lily (a gift from Paula) blooms again.  The blue salvia is growing
strong (bought when I was out and about with Patti).  And the daisies,
 in a new spot this year, are amazing (thank you, Carrie).

In the pots on the patio my basil and mint, recently transplanted into larger pots, are filling in.  Not everything popping up in the garden is good.  Pests are invading.  Why does something insist on eating the mint before we do? 

I've got more than one type of bug bugging me. 

Insects who would rather eat my flowers than look at them.

This is my Passion Vine, it is slow to get started, and now that I know it has survived I want to take good care of it.

Yes, I am afraid of a little bug.  Me and my purple gloves.

On the bright side, the moon flowers (second planting) are up and healthy.

Over the last few weeks our tranquil existence has been shaken up a bit. The gorilla suit, pictured here and in my last post, remains in front of the television.   It will return to college in August.

I figure it's as real as any reality show on TV.

The month of May has watched us go from blissful empty nesters to happy parents - only for a few weeks this summer so we will enjoy it. Things are different - we had "Pickle Shots" before dinner on Tuesday.  (I tried to think of it as another type of Dirty Martini... I couldn't.)

Something Baby learned while at college this past year. 
Higher education is something else.

Recipe - Pickle Shots

1 ounce chilled vodka
1/2 ounce chilled pickle juice
1 or 2 dashes of Tabasco Sauce
slice of pickle for garnish

Pour vodka and pickle juice into small glass, add a dash or two of Tabasco Sauce, garnish with pickle slice. 

Down drink (no sipping! remember this is a 'shot') and eat pickle.  Smile and act like you could do this all night.  Face it, your college age child will not consider you cool no matter what you're doing.  Just try to act like you do this kind of thing all the time and are ready to try something else.  Don't act too bored - you don't wish to offend, but don't act happy or you'll be expected to drink this again.

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Lucky Me

I love to plan and I love it when a plan comes together.  Some might call it luck, but I believe "Luck" happens when hard work and preparation come together at just the right time.

Something I didn't plan was this sunflower. 

A sunflower blooming the first week of May is new for me - I'm lucky (there's that word again) if I can get them to bloom by August.  I first have to tell you I did not plant it.  A careless squirrel or bird got this beauty started for me. 

Mid April.
Yes, it seems the birdfeeder is always be slanted, I think it's because of the squirrels
or maybe I just need to get out there and straighten up the pole.

When I noticed it coming up, right next to the bird feeder, my first impulse was to pull it up.  But I just left it to see what would happen.  As I explained in my post "Moving On" (June 2011) the squirrels and I have a running battle over the bird feeder here outside the kitchen window.  This particular bird feeder ("Texas Star" - got it at Lowes) is metal.  I have had it almost a year and I love it - so do the birds and squirrels.

Last Friday I noticed that 'someone' had used the sunflower to break a fall or as a climbing aid.  Either way the flower was broken.

Too bad. I saw this and thought
"Next time I mow, I'll get rid of the poor thing."

Now here it is Tuesday morning and "TA DA!"  How lucky am I?  I have a sunflower blooming just outside my kitchen making even this cloudy day seem sunshiny.

Talk about blooming where you are planted - no matter what.

I have to put away my computer and get busy.  The carpets are scheduled to be cleaned this week, the guest room looks like a quilt bomb went off in it (I really, really need to finish my sewing room), and my neighbor stopped me while I was outside taking pictures for this post to ask me if I'd seen the article in this morning's paper about all the snakes around town...  He asked this just as I reached down to pick a few blackberries.

He looked at the blackberries in my hand and then back at the garden (imagine eyebrow raised to suggest weeding might be in order) and told me how lucky I was I didn't get snake bit.

I better get busy. 

Don't worry about me.  I will get the rooms cleaned and be ready for the carpet cleaners, I'll get back outside and finish weeding the garden (I'm sure all the snakes will have left our side of town by then), and - I've saved the best for last:  All my financial needs will be taken care of.  That's right, I got this email yesterday so I'm sure as soon as this sweet, old thing kicks the bucket, I'll be in the money. 

Maybe I was just born under a Lucky Star.



_______from the email of joyandcomfort@sbcglobal.net

__________________________*******

Re: A Call From Above,

What I am about to do is based on blind trust, hoping and praying that you will expand my wishes as desired. Just recently I have notified my bank that I am willing my fund over to you for a good, effective and prudent work.

I have lost hope because Doctors said that my chances of survival are very poor because several diagnoses confirmed that I have Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Cancer since the past two years.

My happiness is that I have also adjusted my WILL and notified my lawyer about the adjustments; all you have to do is to contact my bank through my lawyer and present yourself as my appoint charity partner if I don’t make it out from the major surgery that I will be undergoing next week.

I don’t have a child of my own and that was why I decided to will/ this huge sum of amount to you for the good work and also to help the less privileged children and widows.

Mrs. Alimatu Zainab Khalid
__________________________________********


One more thing from cJoy:  Being lucky is one thing.  Being gullible and 'just believing' may not be the way we were meant to live this life.  I'm a bit creeped out by the fact that my good fortune depends of the death of this grammatically challenged woman.  Having blind faith may not be the best way to plan for the future.  And as we all know "HUGE AMOUNT" depends entirely upon your point of view. 



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Vintage Thursday

Morning arrived very early today.  This morning the light outside woke me before 6:30... or maybe it was the neighbor rushing to get his trash cart out to the curb...

I feel like I'm running late - having my first cup of coffee and already the sun is up.

We live on one of the quietest streets in the city, so I stepped outside to see what all the noise was about.  The 'tile men' arrived early this morning to finish a neighbor's "new" bathroom.  Some one's lawn guy is here and mowing before 8 (isn't that against the law?).  The recycle collectors are not letting any grass grow under their feet - that is one noisy vehicle - especially when they dump our cart into their big truck.

(Sent to me by a friend - who knows me tooo well)

Once the door closed behind me and I was standing outside on the front porch I just had to smile. Yes, chaos is all around but the sweet smell of my first blooming gardenia was intoxicating.  On closer inspection I noticed two blooms.  I put broken oak twigs into the pots to 'hold' the plants - this also helps when you are trying to get a picture of the flower and the leaves keep getting in the way. 

Wish you could smell this, just two blooms and GARDENIA is everywhere.

Personally, I think the gardenia plant would be a great topic for Vintage Thingy Thursday.  How many grandmothers wore gardenia corsages or how many brides carried this beautiful flower in their bouquet?   If you want to grow something 'vintage' try these beauties - they work in containers or in your garden.  Sometime in my youth, I remember someone bragging about her gardenia bush growing just outside her bedroom window.  Back then I thought 'So What?'  Today I can't help but think what a clever friend my mom had.

But Suzanne has rules and I'm not sure my one year old gardenia is truly vintage.  So today I'm visiting Suzanne's blog ColoradoLady with my vintage Salt and Pepper shakers.

We've had these for years (we're not the original owners,
 but we did know and love them and that's why these
beauties have a place of honor on our table).

At night, work continues on my the scarf.  I am having fun working with this yarn, colors just pop in and out of my needles. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Hope you have a blessed weekend. 

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Clean up

Our house faces north. It's one of those 'must haves' on our list of what we're looking for in a home. My husband has his reasons. I have mine. The only trouble with this arrangement is I can't get roses to grow around the front door - I love that look. Every time I've tried it I just get tall, leggy thorns - not the look I'm going for. In fact at this house there's so much shade on the front porch that I just buy houseplants and grow those at my front door.  The gardenia, purple oxalis, and ivy are a year old (well, they've been on my front porch for a year).

This year I'm welcoming all visitors with green, pink, purple, and white.

The new plants I've added, including the Peace Lily, have just a hint of color  - and are lucky to be alive.

Some days I am my own worst enemy. 
The geraniums are for the back door - the door our children and friends use.

I had planned to have everything planted (and weeded!) in my garden by May 1st.  Sounds like a good idea.  Get the new plants into the ground so they can start growing and blooming.  Get rid of all the weeds so that everything is beautiful and the rain that we do get goes to help the plants that I want in my garden. 

The plastic carrier that I have had for at least a dozen years (got it when we lived in Germany) quit working the other day...  I was walking (rushing) through the kitchen with it full of baby plants and the bottom fell out.  New plants and dirt went everywhere.  What a mess. 

I wish I could say this is what prevented me from getting to all the weeding and planting but, no, this was just one of many little side adventures.  I leave you now to continue my garden clean up - I'm thinking I can have everything 'perfect' by May 17th...  June 3rd at the latest....  

Happy Gardening.


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Tax Day 2012

TO DO LIST

17 APRIL 2012 

 

Busy? 

What's on your list?

1.  Mail federal income tax package.

We've seen our duty and done it.

2.  Figure out what is eating garden flowers and make it stop.  Soak another batch of seeds. Replant.  (Wish I could figure out how to get 'it' to eat weeds.)

Yes, that was me moaning when I saw that my beautiful little plant was MIA. 
Cut down in its youth by unseen forces.... grasshoppers ... or something that did
not know Moonflowers are poisonous (not everything reads my blog).

Moonflower eaten by ???  (probably the same creature that ate every EVERY leaf off the redbud tree). 

Happy to report that the tree, after a few days of nakedness,
has started to grow leaves again.

3.  Remember to keep doors closed.  We have Butterflies and Lady Bugs everywhere, even in the house.  Not sure how that happens but it seems like at least once a day I am happily (and gently) putting the cute little creatures back outside to work in my garden (some one's got to).

4.  Get outside and enjoy the garden.  Things not eaten by the bugs and blooming include:

Oxalis, my purple plant (I've had it about a year) and the green one Mom gave me in February. 

Chives (can't wait to put them in a salad),

Have you ever had chive blossoms in your fresh salad? 
Try it (as long as you don't have any chemicals on your plants). 
I think they taste better just after they bloom -
if you wait too long they will go to seed.

and Marigolds - here's the first one to bloom this year (it wintered over in the one of my patio pots and got a head start on the seeds I've planted in recent weeks). 

5.  "Weed" around the grapevine.  I planted one grapevine last year.  It didn't get taller than 18 inches last year.  The little bit of fruit it produced was a dozen or so hard little greenish-blueish balls - not as big as a marble - and (of course I tasted one) they tasted like sour, bitter, yucky thingys.  This year the grapevine is up and running and the daisies that were planted in front of the grapevine are racing to fill up the bed. 

I have to clear this area out, notice the little white rocks -just to the right?
I've got a couple of moonflowers there that haven't been eaten. 

6.  Give away excess daisies to anyone who wants them.


Being "busy" is highly overstated (and overrated).  I just make a list so that when I get sidetracked I'll remember what I was planning/hoping to do.  One of my long term goals is to make our world a better place and you can help, just try this:

Go outside and just enjoy the day - or night.

The happiest people I know can tell the

difference between the way the air smells

in the spring and in the autumn.  

The seasons are gifts and your life will be

better if you spend at least

     ten minutes outside every day.    

I leave you now to go pull the grasshoppers off the roses, all part of my glamorous life.


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Plans for the Future

It's that time of year in the garden when everything is growing - I just need to get out of their way and let the plants do what they were put on this earth to do.

Knowing that spring will give way to summer is very comforting to me, it also allows me to plan and make my garden, well, my garden.   Every year there's a chance to make things better, try something new, and with a little planning now my summer nights will be even more fragrant and beautiful than they were last year.

Please note:  These vines really can get 15 feet tall.
 Plan ahead, have some place/space for them to grow.

This summer I want to have moonflowers.  Two weeks ago I soaked a few seeds overnight in a cup of  water, and the next day I planted the seeds around the garden.

Slightly warm water.  Twenty four hours later we have sprouting
(in one or two - not all).  This is where I tell you that these seeds are in a
very small cup -  less than two inches across.  I use this cup because it is
 not my every day coffee cup (this helps me not drink my sprouts).

I put little white stones around the seeds so I would remember not to weed anything growing between the stones (sometimes I get a bit zealous and start yanking out anything that looks 'out of place' to me).

It's a good thing I marked the plants because when I looked
at the seedlings Wednesday afternoon my first thought
was these are too ugly to be moonflowers.

In a few weeks these will be a beautiful shade of green and a little taller.  The trick to moonflowers is to know that they will grow and to have a place for them to stretch out a bit.  I'll keep you posted on these.  I'm now waiting patiently for a warm summer night when I can stand and watch the flowers bloom.  And the fragrance will be wonderful. 

If you have time and you like a sweet read, try Jan Karon's book The Trellis and the Seed.  It's a children's book, sort of, and you can probably read it in 10 minutes.

Thanks Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trellis-and-the-seed-jan-karon/1102238416

This book will explain the life of the moonflower as it gently reminds you that you're never too old (or too young) to enjoy a thing of beauty.


Thursday Morning UPDATE:   These plants are poisonous.  So are daffodils. clematis, azaleas and lots of other  beautiful things in our gardens.  This is one of the many reasons I wear gloves when I work in my garden.  Thanks for the reminder Robin.

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In the Garden Easter 2012



Last night's full moon was so bright, I kept checking to see if someone had left the outside lights on.  Sometime after 10 pm I went out to see for myself how beautiful and bright it was.  The weather here in Fort Worth is perfect.  My husband refers to days and nights like we are having as "Chamber of Commerce Weather."  As I looked around the garden in the bright moon light I could see my flowers and smell the roses and fresh cut lawn.

This morning I suspect it was the brightness of the moon that encouraged more of my flowers to bloom.

Some things in the garden are perfect.

I prefer the name "Pincushion Plant" to Scabiosa - who's with me?



I've grown Lantana for years, this is the earliest it has ever bloomed.

The scent of this rose is very spicy. 
I like the reddish foliage almost as much as the blooms.

There are three roses in this bed.  The one showing off right now was a gift from Patti.
The daffodils up front need a couple more weeks before I cut them back.

Happy Easter

Welcome Spring

God bless us - everyone!

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Spring

I love this time of year. 

Longer days, shorter nights.

Warmer winds, everything trying to grow - all at once.

We have been blessed with just enough rain 

and  the earth smells wonderful.

My garden gate.

Clematis.

Roses.

Winter was so mild that morning glories are blooming in March.

 

The Onion Patch - March 18.

Onion Patch - March 24.

UPDATE:  Here's my terra cotta rabbit.  I got my husband to tip it over -
 no snake.  So I happily continued to weed this flowerbed.

I did find a little (about the size of a new Number 2 pencil -
only it was light brown instead of yellow)
 ground snake (aren't they all?) in the daylillies -
yes, that was me you heard screaming Saturday morning.
No snake picture. 
I moved the rabbit to remind me where the red yarrow is planted.
I have no idea where the snake went.


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