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I hope you will indulge me. My daughters and I have been enjoying time 'off'. No work and no school since last fri. Except for one day of work for me. We were looking out the back window yesterday and spotted these cute little guys. The male put on an especially amusing show for his girl. I took way too many pictures for someone that would be considered 'normal' LOL. Oh, well. In the first picture he is kind of brown, I think because he noticed us all clustered around the window. He relaxed though after we stood really still for a bit. Hope you enjoy his pics as much as we did.
He is sitting up here on top of the handle of my cart, watching the girl down below. He was continuosly looking down to see what she thought of his show.
It took him about 15 minutes to get this beetle down!!!
He was very brave and let me get really close with the camera.
So far the blueberries are doing good this year. I love their little bubble blooms. They look like little pantaloons hanging in clusters. The color of the spring foliage is a beautiful seafoam green. The fat bumblebees are really loving all of the blooms. The first of the pollinated blooms are dropping their petals.
We bought a new weedeater / edger yesterday. It is the electric / rechargable type. It came with 2, 18volt batteries, they take 9 hrs to charge the first time!! Other than the fact that you have to wait on the batteries to charge, the weedeater works great. And I really appreciate not having to smell fumes when my husband is using it.
So, this morning my hubby used the weedeater while I did laundry. Then we went out to a Easter Egg hunt for the kids. They had fun, but we didn't linger too long. Since we have been wanting to do the privacy fence so badly we needed to get some prices. We made a trip into town for that. A wooden fence will run about $2,500 and a vinyl fence about $5,500. Pretty steep price for sure. We bought some tree fertilizer stakes and a couple of different kinds of tomato plants. One is a Black Prince and the other is a Yellow Pear. Looking forward to tasting some of those.
When we got home hubby did some more edging and mowed in the front. I potted up some odds and ends that needed homes. They will live on the porch now. A few small Split leaf plants, 3 caladium bulbs and 4 wax begonia plants that actually survived the winter and were sprouting new leaves. Hopefully they will make a pretty combination together.
The big job of the day was this evening. We revamped the front perennial bed. It was a little on the brutal side. I felt so bad ripping out so many plants. All of the ornamental kale is out, and all of the pansies were either moved or out. The next thing to receive some brutality were the irises. Once I started on them though I was glad that I did. The rhizomes that I started with originally were ready to be thrown out for sure. All of the new, good sized rhizomes were kept, though we didn't even replant half of them. I was surprised that the ones that had bloomed weren't even that big, they were all crowded already though.
So, in went the Daylilies, Crinum, Calla Lilies, Spring bulbs that we moved around in the bed, Iris that we moved around in the bed, 1 Carnation, and 20 Verbena.
We left in place the Rose, Lavenders, Narcissus and all of the plants that are back against the house.
I had also transplanted some volunteer Cosmos from the front section of the bed. I think I saved about 8, they were planted up against the house since they were soooooo tall last year.
I can't wait to see how it looks in a month or so. I will take some pics so we can see the progress from now on.
Here are some pictures I snapped before I started on this redo.
The peas have their first blooms!!! I am very excited! I love fresh peas and I never seem to have enough from the garden.
While I was out looking at the peas Bobby, my Siamese cat jumped the back fence and headed towards me, WITH A VERY FULL MOUTH......FULL OF MOUSE!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! He tried to meow, around his very full mouth, how proud he was of his catch! Then he let the varmit go, and IT WASN'T DEAD YET!!!! AHHHHHHHH again!!!!! Then I had to stay outside to be sure that the cat would actually finish his 'job' and do away with the thing. 'Sigh'......I hate rodents!!! Once the job was done I had to come inside, as my stomach was turning at the though of what might be to come. Gross.
VARMIT!!!!!!! It actually looked 3 times this size in real life, seriously! LOL
It has been really windy since Monday. So I really haven't done alot outside. But I still have been gardening.
Sunday evening I started transplanting my hot peppers, sweet peppers and eggplant. The cell packs that I started them in were too small. Some of them had started getting a little topsy turvy. The roots had pretty much filled the small soil space that they had. I put most of them into 3 inch pots. I think this is silly for me to be doing all of this transplanting. Next year I will do things a tiny bit different. I think that I will start out with 3 or 4inch pots, plastic or peat, then when I seed I will only fill it about 2/3 full of soil. Then if the stem needs a tiny bit of extra support when they get a little bigger, I can add a small amount of soil if needed. If that works then I won't have to transplant them and disturb the roots unneccesarily. I am almost done with the transplanting, (I have been doing a few at a time), I only have a few eggplant seedlings left to transplant.
Eggplant Babies
Hot Pepper Babies
Sweet Pepper Babies
I did get outside yesterday afternoon to put in the flower seeds before the rain. I mixed up a bunch of different kinds of seeds that should be about the same height. I put sunflowers in the back of the area along with some Castor Bean. In the front I spread the mix. I am hoping that I will have an area FULL OF BLOOMS.
I also have gotten the last plants that I need to finish the front perennial bed. I will take before and after photos to compare. I have made out a list of all the plants that are going to be in the area. Some are already in place from last year. For the annual that will be around the edge I chose a pretty verbena. I am hoping that it does good through the heat of the summer.
20 Pink Verbena Plants in 3 inch pots
My husband has said that he really likes Calla Lilies...they should be a perfect addition to that bed as well. I love the white spots on the leaves of this variety.
Where to start? We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Working and then working more here at home on my days off.
The front and side yard have been given a face lift. Edges have been trimmed. Plants added....Caladiums, Ferns, Coleus, Primroses....can't wait for it all to come up and fill in....give it a couple of weeks. I am afraid that the dogwood tree in the front yard is dead, hubby says to just give it some more time. I really want it to make it, but if it doesn't we have a free tree coming from our life insurance company. (Crabapple) Put out some of the shade loving houseplants that like to be outdoors in the summer, they went onto the porch, hope it isn't too much morning sun for them. Still need to do some revamping in the main bed, add some annuals and then the front will be set for the summer.
The creeping phlox is blooming like crazy!
In the veggie garden lots has been going on. 5 more beds have been tilled. Tomatoes have been planted in 2 of them. 2 Brandywine, 3 Roma and 3 Sweet 100s.
The potatoes are coming up!!!!!
The onions, shallots and garlic are looking good. I weeded that bed the other day and added some aged cow manure, it was fine enough that I could just sprinkle it over top of everything and it just fell into place.
Hubby tilled some today with our sm tiller that we bought last year. Its so small that I didn't think it would really do a good job. I was really wrong.....it actually does great!!!
Asparagus is popping up!!! Hubby had some in an omelett yesterday morning, he said it was good.
Blueberries are loaded with blooms that are just starting to open. I moved the pots onto the patio for a closer watch and I can water easily.
Bought a new vine for planting by the chickens yard. It is called Pink Jasmine. The smell of the blooms is just divinely intoxicating!!! My hubby loves it too.
Spotted this little guy while we were taking a rest this afternoon.
I also notice while we were resting that the moon was already high in the sky.
Lots more to be done. Hope to have more pics soon.
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