Work work work

Lawd, lawd!   I'm tired!!  Put the hardware cloth around the trees. Cleaned out the vines leaves around the trees and added trees rings.  Edged the flowerbed, transplanted Bugleweed, Violets and Daylilies, added edging to the flowerbed, and planted Touch-me-Nots.   God bless G!  He finished the mowing that I started yesterday.

I found some amazing edging at Home depot.  It's molded concrete painted to look like stones.  The end result is that it looks like you have rocks edging your flowerbeds.  I'm lovin' it.  Granny always had her beds outlined with rocks.  She gathered the rocks with Daddy from a creekbed.  There were alot, too.  I have no idea how they got all those rocks to the house and out in the beds.  She was a garden dynamo right up to the end.  She would grab her wheelbarrow and walk down to the "mulch pile" in the woods,  get her mulch and take it wherever she needed it.  She spent most of every day doing something in the garden.  Here's to the memory of Minnie.   Cheers, Granny!!

Since it's Dogwood season  I have to tell the story of how she saved a Dogwood sapling.
There was a Dogwood sapling that had come up on its' own in front of our porch.  Granny was doing something in the flowerbed and she accidentally cut off the sapling.  She went into overdrive!!  She knew that my mom loved Dogwoods and she wanted to save it.  I remember her fussing and worrying that Dorothy ( mom ) would be upset  as she worked at saving the tree.   She used first aid tape and popsicle sticks to put the tree back together.  The tree eventually grew taller than the porch.  Grandma died before the tree ever bloomed.  The spring after she passed away there was one single white bloom on the tree. After that season it was always covered in blooms.   I remember Mama crying over that single blossom because Granny never saw the Dogwood in bloom. She believed that the single bloom was a sign from Granny.

I loves my garden

The whole yard is smellin' good thanks to my purple Petunias   :)   I thought the Autumn Olive had come in to bloom.   Not at all.  It has buds on it but is not in full bloom where it would be smelling good.  It's my 'Tunias   :)

I transplanted wild Violets this evening before I mowed.  I am crazed.  I admit it.  I just could not bear to mow down those purple blooms.   I dug them out of the lawn and potted them.

Bought hardware cloth for the Dogwood and Redbud today.  I am going to put a sleeve around both trees since they are trying to come back.  The euivalent of a, "No Beavers Allowed" sign.  Found some Groundhog repellent, too.  I am giving that some serious consideration.  I'm so tired of having the flowers devoured.

I touched a Bumblebee today.  I found it dead on the lawn before I mowed.   I love Bumblebees and it saddened me to find it there.  I picked it up with my weeder since I wasn't sure it was dead.  Mighta' just been stunned and I didn't want any stings!!  Anyway, I just had to touch its' fuzziness.  It felt like a Pussywillow.  I set it in the pot of Mums out front.  I didn't want to mow it over. 
I once had a Bumblebee poop on me.  I was on vacation and was sitting around the pool. I had on a bright green tank top.  A Bumblebee flew up and was hovering around me.  It seemed to like the bright green of my shirt.  Then it flew over to my arm, pooped and flew off.  Who else can say they have experienced bee poop??   { rolling my eyes }   It's just that charm of mine.  All critters find me attractive.

No sprouts on the Freesia yet.  The Ranunculus is on the porch getting hardened off.  I am hesitantt to set it out front without the Groundhog repellent.  Potted some Catnip seed and Hyacinth Bean seed the other day.  I thought I had some Mexican Primrose seed around here but can't find it.  Nothing from the Brazilian Rock Rose seeds but I am thinking that the squirrels dug them up.  My Stellas are thriving and the Stargazer Lily is coming along nicely.   Man, I love having time to devote to my plantings.

Petunias are sprouting out front!!   HAPPY HAPPY DANCE!  I had volunteer spreading Petunias last summer and they were just plain amazing.  I want more.   I read that plants that grown in place from seed are heartier than transplants.  Transplants, although larger when set in the ground, go through the time of transplant shock and just don't acclimate as well.  I have to believe it. Those seed grown Petunias last year were beasts.  I really wish more people would let plants re-seed and witness the magic that nature gives us.   Everyone goes running off to the garden center in the springtime, tills over their flowerbeds and plants new.  Give the volunteers a chance.  Understand that I love me some garden center time, too, just like a fat kid loves cake, but I love more seeing my plants come back and surprise me.  I've had surprise Hostas, Roses, Violets, 'Tunias, Snapdragons, MorningGlories and even Bugleweed that has appeared from who knows where? I think it migrated over from the neighbor's yard but I am not sure.  It is such fun.

Purple Petunias Please Me Plentifully :)

It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood!!  I'm giddy!!  Can ya' tell??
The super WalMart had purple Petunias.  Yep.  I almost screamed when I saw them.
See, the purple Petunias at WalMart are fragrant. And it seems that ONLY WalMart carries fragrant puprle Petunias.  I made this discovery a few years ago.  I bought a hanging pot of purple Petunias and hung them on my shepehrd's hook.  I noticed whenever I was watering that there was this great perfume. I finally figured out that it was the Petunias.   The next season there were no hanging pots but I found a regular pot of purple Petunias. I set those on the back deck.  The entire deck smelled good all summer long.  Today, I was looking for tree rings in the garden center and there they were.  Fragrant as ever!! I could smell them as I walked through the store, as I walked out to the car, in the car and when I got home to hang them.   They smell like HEAVEN!!!

OK, so only a dyed in the wool plant person would find themselves guilty of this:  gardening in the WalMart parking lot   hahahahahahaha   oh yes!  I was out there deadheading my Petunias before I put them in the car.  Hey!  I'm not carrying home the wilted blooms!   If anyone saw me they must have thought I was nuts.  Oh, whatever!   I'm in my happy place.   Go to yours.

Whatever ate my Pansies also ate my Bluebells and my Violets.  I have no idea what's eating them so I have no idea how to keep "it" away from the garden.  Rabbits? Groundhog?     I'm thinking Groundhog.  The little marauder.  When he sticks to eating the Dandelions, I'm down with it.  When he starts moving on to the flowers I have planted, not so much.  

The weather today is superfantabulous!  It is sunny with a light breeze somewhere in the 70s.  I'm savoring it.

Tomorrow, hopefully I can find tree rings and hardware cloth for the Dogwood and Redbud.  

I'm singin' in the rain :)

YAHOOWA!!!  It has been raining all morning~~and probably most of overnight~~and there are severe weather warnings poping up like toast from a toaster.   But I felt the need to scale the hill and have a peep at the Dogwood and Redbud. You'll recall they were chewed off some weeks ago by marauding beavers. G's mom kept insisting that they might make a comeback.  I had left the 6" stumps standing in the hopes that they might but I was doubtful.   I'll be a monkey's uncle!!   I need to buy some hardware cloth  [ HAPPY DANCE!!!]  both trees have little teeny tiny sprouts on the side!!   Yippee!!  Hardware cloth is used to create a physical barrier to keep the beavers at bay in the future.

For the first time since we've lived here, going on 20 years, I completely weeded and mulched along the fenceline earlier this week.  I am so weary of the city weedwhacking my rosebushes I thought maybe if I keep the grass and weeds completely cleaned up they will cut me some slack.   Leave the roses, guys!  People LIKE my roses.  They comment positively on my roses as they use the walkway to get to the creek.  Yay roses   :)  The fenceline belongs to the city.  They send a crew of workers out twice a season to weed whack along the fence.  Curiously, their weed whacker always winds up at the top of the fence "pruning" my roses. Let there be an 11th Commandement:  Thou shalt not weed whack the rosebushes!!

Oh.  I guess my Pansies are now groundhog poop.  I had a pot of the prettiest purple Pansies.  As I left for work the other morning I noticed that something had chewed off every single bloom.  :(   Somedays it just doesn't pay to break out the shovel and hoe   ;)

Miscellany

I was out on the deck after dinner this evening.  As I worked on cleaning out a flowerpot I was enjoying the breeze,  the sound of the creek and the squwak of Blue Jays in the distance.  "It dsoesn't get any better." I thought to myself. Then I heard it, 'tippy tippy toe' in the leaves down below.  Probably a neighborhood cat. I peeked over the edge of the deck. [ insert pic of Possum, which I am unable to do right now ] I live in the Wild Kingdom!!

I have a bud on my Stargazer Lily [ insert that pic, too ].

And some nice blooms in the yard [ you get the idea ]

Potted up some Freesia this evening.

Spent Sunday afternoon iving the side flowerbeds a good spring cleaning and mowing.  I love my mower.  It's a beast.  It takes on all comers and never backs down   :)

Bleeding Hearts. The good kind!

I have four Bleeding Heart plants!  Count 'em!  1...2...3...4!    I planted the mama plant several seasons ago.  This spring she has three little shrubs coming up around her!   I love Bleeding Heart.   Grandma used to grow it.  It is so unique and graceful.  Once it is done blooming it dies back to the gound and you cannot even see where it grows once it dies backs.  Come springtime it sprouts up, seemingly overnight, and rewards me with its' beautiful hot pink heart shaped blooms.

Oh yay!   I can post pics again!!   :)

What a gray day!!   It is drizzly, dreary and miserably chilly because of the dampness.  No yardwork today.  :(  It's a little depressive in that the flowering trees have come out and now the blooms are fading.  There was never a time of mild weather where it was comfortable to be outside and enjoy their beauty.  Some of the Star and Saucer Magnolias have been nipped by the cold and their blooms are browned up before they even fully opened.  I remember when this happened as I was growing up.  I sat there looking out at our Saucer Magnolia, crying because the cold had browned the buds.  I wouldn't get to enjoy them!  Daddy explained that sometimes these things happen.  We can't fight it.  

On the bright side, my Ranunculus has sprouted!!  Finally!   Little green leaves and stems are peeking out.  I hope they will survive and bloom for me.

Can't wait for warmer weather and time spent outdoors.

There's no business like snow business

We are expecting snow tonight.  Snow.  SN*W???    Seriously?
Do you have any idea what the word snow does to the spirits of those who want to get in the garden?  It's not pretty.

I was hoping to get the rest of the flowerbed weeded and mulched but it is just plain too cold.
I brought the Stellas and my Brazilian Rock Rose into the garage.  The BRR hasn't sprouted yet but I have my fingers crossed.  The Stargazer Lily is getting taller and my Ranunculus?  Well.  Nuttin' hunny.  But I remain hopeful.  Gardening teaches one hope and patience.

Once I am ( somewhat ) confident that we are beyhond bad weather I am going to plant some Mexican Primrose seeds and move some of my lilies. 

A farewell to Big

Big died two days ago.  He was also known as Mr. Big.  Formally, his name was Beauregard.  G. gave him that name.  He was a red and blue colored tie dye looking Betta fish.

I can't tell you how old he was precisely.  I know he had to be at least four years old.  He was big for a Betta which is how he came by the name.  He was friendly and curious. I would greet him the morning at feeding time, "Another morning with Big!" 

Now, no more mornings with Big.  He is buried with the other fishes.

Swim on, Big!   Swim beneath the Rainbow Bridge.

Spring has sprung!

YAY!  Temps yesterday flirted with the seventy degree mark. It was overcast most of the day. Very pleasant for working in the yard.  I cleaned up the flowerbed around the mail box.  Got all of the winter debris cleaned out and side dressed it with leaf mulch.  The leaf mulch will enrich the soil, keep the soil somewhat insulated on any chilly nights and gives the bed a little more finished look. 

The Ditch Lilies are magnificent. I am so looking forward to their blooms.  I only wish that they had a longer bloom time.  I have a cultivated Daylily that looks to be be doing well, also.  I use the term "cultivated" to differentiate between a wild plant, like my Ditch Lilies, and one that was bred by a grower and purchased at a nursery.  Granny always broke things down that way so this is how I reason it in my mind.  Anyway, the cultivated Lily is a real pretty apricot color.  It's not been very hearty the past couple of years.  I was surprised to see it starting off so well.  I hope it will continue growing at this rate.
My Stella D'oro lily has come back, too  :)  Last season was my first try at growing those. I have it in a pot right now but will most lilely transplant it out by the mailbox.  Unless!  I can find a cobalt blue planter.  I would like to do some Stellas in a planter that color.  I have learned through some online searches that I would prefer the Happy Returns lily.  Happy Returns is a pure lemon yellow.  Stella is the color of cheddar cheese.  Not everyone is a fan of Stellas because they feel they are overplanted.  I learned online recently that some people refer to them as Gas Station Lilies because landscapers use them in that setting so often.  I know our city has used them extensively in landscaping a median strip.  I'm a little put off at the tin soldier grid planting but it is otherwise pleasing ro the eye.  Sure beats the usual overgrown strip of grass median . Ah well, to each his own.  That is the wonderful part of gardening: no one can patently tell you that you are doing it wrong.  If you like grid plantings and alot of manicuring, go for it.  If one plant especially appeals to you, plant it with abandon.  Do what makes you happy.

I have to say I was very happy out there yesterday!  The crows were holding a convention.  They kept calling to one another.  One was very near me and another was far off.  After a period of calling they took a road trip ( tree trip? ) and I could hear both of them in the distance chattering.  Suddenly, I noticed a chorus of crow calls.. I looked up and the sky was full of them! They were circling like vultures, soaring way up high, and calling to one another.  They would leave for a bit and return to circle and caw.  I sometimes wonder what the birds are up to.  I know all the cawing and circling was serving a purpose, I just don't know what that purpose was.

I also started on cleaning up the area by the garage where I have my container plants. An Aster and several pots of Mums.  Yay! All of my Mums came back.  I have a couple of Mum pots that I have been growing for years.  I just leave them in the pot they were grown in, usually.  Once I dismantle my Fall display I set them out by the garage and let them hibernate.  They get plenty of winter sun and they do quite nicely.  I leave them in their pots because I just plain do not have the space to plant them in the landscape.  I have a small area in the yard that gets full sun.  The rest is shaded by the hedge and two ginormous Southern Magnolias.  I was also cleaning up the leftovers of my volunteer sprawling Petunias.  Is that their name?  Not Wave Petunias but they have a similar groth pattern.  I had a hanging pot of them in the summer of 2009.  The pot dropped seed and in Spring 2010 I noticed little baby Petunias coming up in the lawn.  I asked G. to avoid mowing there.  I was rewarded with a blanket of gorgeous volunteer Petunias. Purple and lavender and hot pink.  So pretty! I went out every evening in the fall and faithfully covered them so I enjoy them for as long as possible.  I was hoping for a comeback but I don't see any babies.  I did,  however,  notice that one stem, deep in the tangle of stems,  appears to be green and have life in it.  For now I am leaving that little piece of the plants.  Hopefully it will revive.

I wandered down into the lower 40, as I call it.  It's a corner of yard that I don't often visit because it is so hilly and steep.  There, I have a volunteer Autumn Olive shrub.  It is so frgrant in the spring that it perfumes the entire street!  When we moved in there was this tall trunk of a dead tree where the Autumn Olive now grows.  G. had the city remove it, since it is on their easement for the public walkway.  Not long after the tree was removed I noticed sprouts at the base of the stump that did not appear to be sucker growth on the tree.  It is now a shrub that is 15 feet tall.  I noticed a couple canes of the Forsythia had twined into the Autumn Olive and grew straight up on thier makeshift support.  Yellow blooms fifteen feet up that appear be floating there. Crazy.  As I said before, I lke growing things so I left it as is.  I know most people would probably cut down the stray canes of Forsythia and prune back the Autumn Olive and make things more "controlled"!   Bah.  They wouldn't enjoy the fragrant Olive blooms in the spring or get to look up and see the yellow blooms in the sky.  There is something to be said for that, as far as I can see.

Gray day

It was a gray day.  Windy.  Old man winter does not want to yield.
More rain predicted for tomorrow afternoon.  I'm breaking out the ark building supplies.

I noticed that the wild rose is putting out leaves.   :)  The Knockout roses are still dormant.
I have a mounding wild rose in the side yard.  Shortly after we moved in,  I noticed two little rose leaves in the grass.  I marked them and asked  ( told? ) G. not to mow there.  As the rosebush grew I assumed it was a climbing rose.  So I erected a trellis and did my best to tame it into growing on the trellis.  Espellier at its' finest!  Yeah.  Not so much.  After some research,  I determined that I have what is known as a mounding rose.  I am wasting my time trying to train it onto a trellis.  This baby is like Macy Gray's hair:  it has a mind of its' own.   Allowing it to mound into its' natrual form and tenacious pruning has kept in a shape we can live with.  Seriously, it started taking over the yard at one point.  I let it mound out of bounds and it just plain took over.  Last fall, for the second season in a row, I pruned it back right after Halloween.  I'm hoping it will bloom for me this season.  Certainly, I know it will sprawl everywhere.  It's like The Little Shop of Horrors.  Rose canes flying off in all directions, bowing down across the fence line and into the public walkway that borders our yard.  Which means the city will come along at some point in the growing season WITH A WEEDWHACKER, thank you very much, and lop it back if I don't keep it contained.  Poor thing has endured some butchering in the past.  It cheerfully comes back every spring and forms little white apple blossom-esque roses.  It is truly a wild rose and most people would probably call it a weed, whack it off at the beginning and be done with it.  Not this kid.  If it lives and flourishes I try to work with it.  I know I wear on G's nerves and the nerves of my neighbors with my staunch protection of the "overgrown" ( G's words ) landscape.  I should probably bite the bullet and be more austere.  I just can't quite bring myself to have a manicured, suburban, cookie cutter landscape. 

In our first home the same exact thing happened with a rose.  I noticed rose leaves in the grass and took it on as a pet project.   Turns out it, too, was a moundng rose.  It had medium sized burgundy blooms in the springtime.  I think it's neat that both properties have yielded volunteer roses for us.  With the first house I'm sure it was a planting that a former owner had tried to cut back.  With this property it's just a wild rose hip that got dropped by a bird.  Must've been a landscape designing bird.  The rose is right against the fence.  But I guess that would come with a bird being perched on the fence.  At any rate!  I love my wild rose.

Back to our Garden of Eden, the front of the house is surrounded by evergreen shrubs ( Leland Cypress, maybe? ).  When we bought the house the shrubs were maybe three or four feet high.  Our lot is oddly situated in that the house is in the middle of a hillside.  There is the street level, the driveway slopes down to the site of the house and then the yard drops off to the back.  There is a concrete retaining wall which affords us about ten feet of turf right behind the house.  Which is, of course, shaded by the house so it is pretty much mossy back there.  I'm flying afield, though.  Because of the topography, the living room windows are just about at eye level with the street.  This means that anyone driving into the cul-de-sac at night will be shining their headlights right into our living room.  Yes, I'm aware of something called draperies and blinds.  I'm just not too big of a fan of them for a multitude of reasons.  So, anyway, the hedge at the front provides some privacy.  After twenty years, the hedge is taller than I am.  Neighbors have suggested to G. that we tear out the hedge.  What??   The house can't be seen, they opine.  Half the house is readily visible from the street.  I don't like the idea of tearing out the shrubs because they are so established, it would mean completely re-landscaping the front and, personally, I like the privacy.  I can be out working in the front part of the yard and nobody knows I'm there   :)  The summer before last, I took loppers in hand and Bonsaied the hedge.  I was inspired by neighbors who live near MIL.  The bottom of the shrubs are bare and the branches provide a sculptural element.  The top was left natural.  G. just gives them a haircut once a year.  I love the look.  And if nobody else wants to look on it, well, God made your head so that it swivels on your shoulders.  Just look the other way is all I can say.  I'm keeping my sculptured hedge.

Yoohoo!! Springtime!!

Springtime: you are cordially invited to come on to my house and sit a spell.  You can bring some sunshine and warm breezes and purty flowers and I won't complain a lick.   C'mon!

The temps are into the 20s again at night.  More rain is predicted for tomorrow.   Um, how's a dirt diva sposed to get in any diggin' time???  As I always say,  I'll just appreciate the warm weather all the more once it gets here.  But I am getting impatient.  Besides, my shorts and flip flops need some air.



Well, now!  This is a hoot.   I couldn't get the pics of the creek behind the house to upload full size so on a lark I C/Pd them.  I wound up with a lttle panorama shot!   I will post the full size pics later when the 'puter is more cooperative.

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

Rain, rain and more rain today.  Which is OK because I know the plants need the rain.

I was able to get outside for a bit yesterday.  It was mild but breezy, bordering on windy, so I didn't stay out for long.  Just long enough to get all three of the Butterfly Bushes at the front of the house pruned back.  They are monsters!  They grow like beasts every season.  I planted one and I have four of its' babies around the yard.  I've given away three or four others.  I try to keep them deadheaded during the growing season so I won't have so many new plants.  It doesn't always work that way, though. 

I've learned one thing about Butterfly Bushes, if you plan on transplnating/moving them do it early in their lifespan.  If left for any amount of time they develop a root system that cannot be disturbed.  I have one volunteer in the front of the house.  I had left it for several years and kept it pruned back.  I finally decided to move it.  HA!   Right.   Its' root was as big around as my forearm.  There was no way I was getting that sucker out of the ground.  After all my digging to learn this I figured the plant would die.  Ha!, Jr.    Nope, It is still as vigorous as ever.   And to think that at first I worried about pruning them!  

The wild Violets are starting up out of the earth and the Forsythia has buds.  Once the Forsythia begins blooming I will prune the Knockout roses.  I read that this is the perfect time of year for pruning roses since the Forsythia blooms mean that the earth is now warm.  What warm earth has to do with pruning roses,  I don't know.

Can somebody please explain to me the purpose of Stinkbugs??  One woke me this morning out of a sound sleep by crawling on my face!!!   UGH! This is not the first time it's happened but it is still as disgusting as ever.  Then I found one lurking in G's bathroom, just hanging out on his razor.  THEN! I went to get in the shower and one was hanging out on the bath mat!  I had just finished scrubbing down my bathroom so I don't know where he came from.   He wasn't there an hour earlier when I was cleaning.  I shudder to think just how many of these little disgusting creatures I will have to contend with  this spring and summer.  They were imported from Asia and they have no natural predators here.  There isn't even an insecticide that will kill them!  I tried using the old stand-by: water with dishwashing liquid added in.   Nope.  It seemed to stun the little bugger but didn't kill it.  I just scoop them up in a Kleenex and flush them.  A friend of mine at work says that the attic of her garage was alive with them a couple of weeks ago.  She was hoping that the bat population would take them out, but no.  Yech.  I will happily hug whoever creates an insecticide or control for these stinkers.  Pun intended!!

It's planting time:  I have Stargazer Lilies and Ranunculus to pot up  :)  I've not grown either of them so this will be an adventure. 

It's dumping outside!

Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear

♫♪♫ I bet you wonder how I knew ♪♫♪♫   I love me some Motown.

OK, so I had an eye exam today.  I know my vision is changing but even I can see that the label on my Amaryllis is all wrong.  Somehow the tags got switched and I have no idea what variety I'm growing.  It's lovely but ,  due to the  lack of a proper nametag,  I am calling it Orangina.

I'm suuposed to have an Apple Blossom Amaryllis.  Apple Blossom is a white bloom tinged with pink. Just like an Apple Blossom.   Makes sense.   My Amaryllis is a beautiful salmon/orange color.  I'm lovin' it but I don't know what it is.  I will enjoy it anyway.  A rose by any other name, or without a nametag, would still smell as sweet. And an Amaryllis would be just as purty.

It was downright cold today.  Not bad in the direct sun but a smidge breezy and just a li'l too bitter for yardwork.  Maybe tomorrow.

Orangina

I am but a young gardener

The Ditch Lilies are up higher than I recall them being at this time of year. As I eyed them this morning I panicked for one split nansecond ( Thanks, Charlie Sheen!  He cured himself in a nansecond, you know. )  worrying whether or not I should be covering them overnight and then I realized, they survive beautifully in the wilderness and they would be this tall in the wilderness.  They know what they are doing better than I do.

I started researching how to prune the Althea.  I planted it last spring.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Swinging a pick axe in the bright sunshine is not for the faint of heart.  I had to break up the clay soil somehow, though.  I learned that I will probably do only a light pruning since the plant is a  young'un. Althea is a relative of the Hibiscus family and is known as Rose of Sharon. Granny had a Rose of Sharon in the garden.  Hers was lavendar.  Mine is called red but the blooms are a medium raspberry color.
 I learned that the Rose of Sharon of the Bible is actually a pungent Crocus type flower, not my shrub.  And I learned that Sharon is an area in Israel.  It's true what they say: you DO learn something new every day.

 I love the Hibiscus flowers.  Rose of Sharon, Confederate Rose and Brazilian Rock Rose are all related to the Hibiscus. I have some Brazilian Rock Rose seeds sitting in the garage.  I hope to get them potted up this season.  Along with my Stargazer Lily and my Ranunculus. 

Why, yes, I will have some cheese with my whine

and some crackers, too, if you've got 'em.  A little nosh never hurt.

 

The temps are in the 60's today.  I'm at work.

The temps will be in the 40s tomorrow.  It's my day off.

 

Hello, is this the complaint department?  This be Miz Wannagetinthegarden.  Couldja' wouldja' please turn off the air conditioning from the North Pole?  I've had enough winter.  I'm ready for some spring. Thank you.   

 

   Ah well.  I will just appreciate the warm weather all the more when it finally gets here.  I'll be able to have the screen door open and enjoy the cross breezes.  ‼‼happy dance‼‼    

 

The Ditch Lilies are up higher than I recall them being at this time of year. As I eyed them this morning I panicked for one split nansecond ( Thanks, Charlie Sheen!  He cured himself in a nansecond, you know. )  worrying whether or not I should be covering them overnight and then I realized, they survive beautifully in the wilderness and they would be this tall in the wilderness.  They know what they are doing better than I do.

 

I started researching how to prune the Althea.  I planted it last spring.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Swinging a pick axe in the bright sunshine is not for the faint of heart.  I had to break up the clay soil somehow, though.  I learned that I will probably do only a light pruning since the plant is a  young'un. Althea is a relative of the Hibiscus family and is known as Rose of Sharon. Granny had a Rose of Sharon in the garden.  Hers was lavendar.  Mine is called red but the blooms are a medium raspberry color.
 I learned that the Rose of Sharon of the Bible is actually a pungent Crocus type flower, not my shrub.  And I learned that Sharon is an area in Israel.  It's true what they say: you DO learn something new every day.

 

Granny with a bouquet of her roses.  I still have the vase shown in this pic.

One of the Hibiscus family blossoms.  I have a Confederate Rose pic around here somewhere.  I just have to find it...

 I love the Hibiscus flowers.  Rose of Sharon, Confederate Rose and Brazilian Roack Rose are all related to the Hibiscus. I have some Brazilian Rock Rose seeds sitting in the garage.  I hope to get them potted up this season.  Along with my Stargazer Lily and my Ranunculus. 

We're not in Kansas Anymore!

Whoo-wee!  How the weather can turn on a dime this time of year.

This morning as I left for work it was a mild sunny almost springtime sort of morning.

The temps reached a high of 71 according to the weather report.

By noontime the sky was a funny dark color and there were tornado warnings.

The sky opened up and we had what you might call a tropical rainfall.

Granny would have called it a gully washer.  She would look outside at the sky and fret that there was, "going to come a gully washer".  I never understood what exactly that meant as a kid. Other than it was going to rain.

 

I recall during one gully washer lightning struck one of our favorite trees out back.  I don't know what wariety of tree it was.  All I remember is that it had to be 10 stories high if it was an inch and Ivy rambled up the trunk.  I remember the deafening clap when it was struck.  I remember Granny trying to calm the nerves of  a little girl who was terrified at the commotion.  And I remember Granny mourning its' loss.  I guess that's where I get it from.  At an early age I learned that plants are important and  people work hard to make those flowers look good and, "For Pete's sake, stay out of my rosebed!".    I hear ya'.

 

And so before I forget: about that Chrysler Imperial.  As I know it, it is a gorgeous velvety deep red rose.  Granny gifted one of her friends with a Chrysler Imperial rose.  At some later point she called her friend and somewhere in the midst of their chat asked, "How is that Chrysler Imperial that I gave you?"    There came an awkward silence.  Her friend replied, "Minnie, you never gave me a car."     Granny always laughed when telling that story.

 

 

G's cellphone died today.  ACK!  I love Bill the Cat and his ACK!.  What a classic. But back to the matter at hand, remember back in the day when cellphones were not an accessory?   Holy schnikeys you had to wait til you got home or to a payphone to call somebody.  And nobody called you while you were tootling down the highway or sitting at the Bob's Big Boy having dinner.  Hmmm   and I lived to tell.  A-mazin', ain't it? Sometimes being unplugged has its' advantages.  You can actually hear yourself think.  I think that scares some folks, though.  Lawd, I feel like Lucy in Peanuts with her, "The Doctor is In" sign.

 

Ah well.  I hear the windchimes outside.  Including the big black cowbell chime.  That means it it REALLY windy.  Another day draws to a close. I'm one day closer to retiring.  And the choir said: YEE-HAW!!

At the end of the day...

...I have to shake my head.  Sometimes nature throws me a curve ball.

Some years ago MIL gifted us with a red Dogwood sapling and, later, a Redbud sapling.
The Dogwood sat in its' pot for a time on our deck.  Buster, the squirrel, would come occasionally and roll in the soil that was in the pot.  I would watch him from the window and chuckle about Buster and his antics.  When I finally got around to planting the Dogwood, I found Buster had left me a present.  He had buried one of his treasured acorns in the pot. 

I worked at keeping the Dogwood watered and fretted when it looked wilty.  I can remember stnading on the hill where we planted the sapling,  filling the Tree Gator hoping that the tree would get enough water.

When Mom brought us the Redbud sapling from her yard I was delighted.  I loved its' heart shaped leaves and beautiful red/puprle blooms in the springtime. 

The trees are only now coming into their own.  They have had enough time in the yard to develop and begin to really shine in the landscape.   Well, I should they WERE coming into their own.  I walked down the hill this afternoon with prunings from the Butterfly Bush.  Um.  Where are the trees?  I went inside to ask G. if he knew what was going on.  My inital thought was that maybe he had accidentally cut them down not knowing that they were the Dogwood and Redbud.  Or had one of the kids who use the walkway in our side yard chopped them down as a prank?  G. and I walked down the hill to where the trees used to stand.  Upon close inspection it was clear:  the beavers had made their way up the hill from the creek and hewn down the only trees we had personally planted in the yard.

 Beavers!!!  They are ugly little rodents.  One confronted me on the back patio some years ago.  Thankfully, I was indoors looking out the sliding glass door at it.  UG-LY!  I mean scary ugly.  I will never forget it staring me down with those beady little eyes.  And that ugly whiskered face.   And now they have devoured our trees.    Live and learn.   Three feet of hardware cloth around their trunks would have saved them.

At least the houseplants were less of a shock.  The pleasant surprise of my Apple Blossom Amaryllis blooming was wonderful!  We had traveled out of town recently and I was expecting that it would bloom while we were away.  Instead, it waited to put on its' show now that we are home.  YAY!   

I have to include my a ( I think ) adorable little "finds".  They are with my houseplants because I can't bear to leave them outdoors to get beaten up by the elements.  Blue Boy and Big Red.  Who would not love those faces, I ask you!??  I love Dollar General for my little garden tcatchkes, gew gaws, kitschy goodies, whatever you might care to call them.


What is left of the red Dogwood.

 The remains of the day for the Redbud.

 Home of the malicious delinquent rodents.

Big Red

 Blue Boy

One of my sweet smellin' Paperwhites

Apple Blossom up close.

Jack and the  Beanstalk  Potato Vine

                                                                                                                                                                     

It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood!!

It is that exhilarating, yet confusing, time of year.  I looked at the thermometer this morning and it was 36 degrees.  I started on watering the houseplants and dustmopping the kitchen.  I stepped outside to shake off the mop and it was glorious!   The temperature had jumped to nearly 50 degrees and it is still climbing.  Time to get outdoors!

While watering the houseplants I found that my Apple Blossom Amaryllis has burst into bloom. It is the most beautiful salmon color.  My potato vine is jumping up like Jack and the Beanstalk. The Paperwhites are still in full bloom, too.  I love their fragrance!  I know their scent is divisive, you either love it or hate it.  I'm a Paperwhite lover and I always have a pot to help me through the wintertime.

Looking over the flowerbed out front I found that the Daffodils are pressing themselves up and out of the earth.  There is one small clump of Queen Anne's Lace that has greened up.  I have several clumps of Bachelor's Buttons that have survived the winter.  AMAZING! little plants.  Last season was the first time I had grown them.  A neighbor, Pat, approached me while I was cleaning out the front flowerbed and gifted me with Bachelor's Buttons seeds.  I sprinkled them in the flowerbed and they took off.  I am so looking forward to their little blue blooms this spring.  The Ditch Lilies are up!!  I so love those flowers.  They bloom only for a short time in June and I am in heaven while they do.  The blooms are there only for one day each but what beauty they offer!  They were a gift from my mother-in-law when she was moving from her house in Springfield to the house where she lives now, about a mile from us.  She also gifted me with Periwinkle, a Lilac shrub and several Peonies.  The Peonies!!   I cannot wait until it is time for them.  They smell so good!!  I have a Monsieur Jules Elie that I purchased several years ago.  I don't know what variety of the Peonies that Mom gave me.  They look the same as Monsieur, though.

I hope to get at least one of my numerous Butterfly Bushes pruned back later today.
I love springtime.   :)

Call it a Bachelor's Button or a Cornflower.  Either way it's bee-u-tee-ful!

And in the beginning...

...it was suggested that I have a welcome message for Growin' Susan.  I'm all about cleverness, or the elusive pursuit of cleverness as the case may be, and so in titling the welcome I was reminded of Sharon Stone when she guested on "Roseanne".Standing there in her pink bathrobe,curlers in her hair, she welcomes Roseanne and the Connor clan to the trailer park, "Welcome! Welcome!!"   with a dramatic wave of her hand.  I laugh every time I picture her in that role.  But this is about growin' stuff and not so much about vintage situation comedy.  Although that would be an apt descriptor for my life, overall.  

I don't think of myself so much as a gardener.  I just like growing things.  The pursuit of knowledge about anything that grows is my passion.  If I see a plant that I don't recognize, I am chasing it down like a bounty hunter.  I am looking for the name of the plant and any information I can find about it.  Most of what I know about plants is passed down from my family.  My maternal grandmother lived with us as I was growing up and that woman lived in the garden.  Specifically, she grew roses like a champ.  I learned the seasons by what was blooming in the garden.  I could identify a Chrysler Imperial rose before I knew the alphabet.  Which is not such a bad thing.  I have a treasured story about the Chrysler Imperial rose but I will save that for another time.

It is these early beginnings that have formed my love of the garden, plants, birds, the ourdoors in general.  I want to preserve my memories of grandma's gardening stories and I want to continue her traditions in the garden and the traditions of my mother.  I want to honor my father's hunger for knowledge.  Daddy taught me that I should never live ignorant, never be be numb to the facts.  If you don't know about a subject, whatever it is, and you are interested in that subject, LEARN!  Research it.  Fill your head with everything you can find on that subject and use that knowledge.  Knowledge is knowing what to do and wisdom is applyng that knowledge.  Get knowledge.  Get wisdom. And, "Use your head for something more than a hat rack!" oh, how your words are ringing in my head, Dad.  I know you are looking down on me right now nodding.

So, hopefully I can chronicle some knowledge, some folklore, some wisdom, some garden tidbits.  Who knows?  Save it all for posterity and weave it all into the tapestry that is my vintage situationally comical life.