Betts's Blog

Greetings Everyone!

This July will mark the 3rd year with Garden Guides, I have learned much and made some wonderful friends.

One thing I have found interesting are your summer rains.  While Rick was in the Coast Guard, I experience the summer thunder storms of Ohio, the afternoon showers of Virginia and the humidity!

Here in my home state, summer showers are not the norm.  There have been times in June or July that we’ve had some rains and once some sleet.   One July we got a lot of hail, but luckily they were small and no damaged was done.  But these rains are not seasonal like in your area, which it worries me you may be in a drought!

About two years ago Rick relinquished the front lawn for a drought tolerant garden.   The first was by our side fence, we started out with 2 soak hoses.  Today there are 3 soak hoses and one up the walkway bed.  On the other side of our front pathway are 2 soak hoses and on the other side of the driveway there will 4, right now there are only 3.  Rick has them all on a timer, which is ideal for length of soak and the days.   We have two 50 ft. soak hoses in the back that I do manually and enjoy.   I’m posting some pics, our lot is small enough for this system to work  and will take this over a drip system any time.   Guess I have no patience for drips, lol.

 You can no longer see the soak hoses by the fence bed, the ground cover hides them very well.

The other two new beds, they can still be seen, but in time their ground cover will hide them also.

you can see the soak hoses in the background of this Agastache/Hummingbird Mint)

Below are 'sundrops' from our Herbal Farm

This was the last area the lawn was removed

In the photo below you can see part of the stump bed and terraced bed

Yes, this was taken earlier in April, but it's hot and windy now

Rick did a awesome job, taking out the grass and you remember the stump 'n root removal pics.  He switch the sprinkler heads to soak hoses and in a year or two, these bed will look as lush as the first one. 

Well, just wanted to share how we deal with rainless summers.  The right plants, and they don't have to be cactus, grasses or succulents.  Although, sedum will be the main ground cover for one of the beds . . .they have the tiniest white flowers.  And we've been successful with the soak hoses on timers.

Hope your weather won't be too severe and if it is, be safe!!  Wishing you all very well (^_~)

Here is a picture of our vintage Iris taken in 2010 . . this is from Rick's Grandmother's side of the family, the Gundermans.  My sis in law gave me a bulb over 10 years ago and it was in a pot for most of that time.  About, 5 years ago I put it in ground and did they take off!  They flowered that season and every year after that . . . they bloom in April.

 I gave some to a friend who didn't expect it to flower for 3 years . . .it flowered the following April!  I love it!!

Wishing you all well

Greetings all, 

Hoping our garden friends are holding up with those last blasts of winter and the strong rains of spring!!

When I planted my moon flower seed in planters, I was warned they may be to big for them . . . well they were right!! 

I've moved the pot in front against our fence and hopefully it will hang on there!!  I'm so excited!  Still no show in the planter in back.

I did not realize how much larger these seedlings would be!!

 Here is the final location for this Moonflower pot . . we'll be securing the obelisk to the fence today (-_^)

 Our Vintage Bearded Iris is getting ready to flower and I divided them and transplanted them last fall!!

 The White Clematis is flowering on our back fence, the purple one is next to follow . . . the transplanting was a success!

Wishing you all well (^_~)

 Greetings! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

 We got our rains, with lightning and thunder last night and after our egg hunt and grilling!!  The only one missing was our Teri, but she had a great day too.

Here is a pic Aurora took from our kitchen window, I didn't recognize it when she posted it on F.B.!!

Wishing you all very well (^_~)

Greetings!!

After trying to take a shot of the full moon this month, I was finally successful this morning!!   I'm not fluent in how to adjust my camera, so I just set for flash, zoom in and click.  I was rewarded with some wonderful shots!!  Here is one.

The colors and clarity are true, I only re-sized the shot (^-^)

Have a wonderful Easter Weekend

(^_~)

Hello again . . .  thought  I would share with you, yet another attempt at growing moonflowers.  And, here is the branch trellis I put together . . . now please, feel free to have a good laugh.  This spot will get lots of sun in the summer until 2 pm . . so I don't mind the way it's listing, lol  Didn't have any straight enough, but what the heck!

I have pics of those 99 cent store tulips I got yesterday . . . Rick was thrill with them and wanted them in ground.  Poor things, after I did, their petals were kissing the dirt . . .but they are better today and upright!  See, the two little orange-red ones

Are these a parrot variety??  I wasn't sure, the pot didn't say and Rick has never seen these kind.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!  Rick is so enjoying his tulips, reminds him of his kid days in Michigan.

Hope your week is off to a good start, we're wishing for some more rain, hoping the clouds don't pass us by!!

 Wishing you all well (^_~)

Happy Sunday!  Hope you've had a nice weekend . . . 

Just wanted to share a couple of pics, while our thyme is in flower, great stuff!!

Needless to say our little egg hunt will be out here!

Have a good week, wishing you all well (^_~)

Greetings All,

Hope you're all well and there are signs of a new Spring season for you.  Know some are still in snow mode, but hang in there!!  Here are some pics I took yesterday morning after our first Spring Showers . . . . sure hope we get more!!

These snapdragons were planted last fall 'n all four are doing great!

A Tulip from a couple of years ago . . .  will have to move it to a better spot 

 I bought some Rununculus corms at the 99 cent store last year and they're coming up nicely too.

This is an Aeonium from a cousin's yard in Berkeley, I've had for a few years.

Love the color of the Creeping Jenny . . . so cheerful and when the thyme flowers it's so Easter-sy

Have a good week everyone!  Wishing you well (^_~)

Wishing you all very well

Happy Monday!

Our Evergreen Clematis vine is in full flower!!

 I always like the silhouettes my plants make. . . this is the Ficus

 And these guys got my attention with their bird songs . . . I can't remember what they are.

Have a great week everyone!

(^_~)

Greetings!  Hope you're having a good weekend.

Found my second Hellebore at Lowes this morning and it's in ground now!  Luckily it was overcast and we may get some rain next week.

Here's my lovely new Hellebore

Got a six pack very Fragrant Alyssum,  just under our Clematis on our fence

Next pic, of 3 leaves coming up in the same spot!

Also got a new planter stake

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

(^_~)

Our Tulips are coming up!!  Rick can't wait for them to bloom.

As you can see by the glare in the window, we face due West, which is perfect for these carnations and the cyclamens below, for now.

and last but not least,  my tiny Rhipsalis flower & a bud, it is covered with them and reminds me of star constellations

 Well, hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day and know we're all ready for some Spring gardening!! 

Except for our friends 'down under' . . . congrats to the Aussie who tracked that asteroid yesterday!!

Hi all!  Hope it's as lovely there as it is here .. it's a really nice 60 degrees here!!  Rick detailed his truck, which needed it since our trip to Teri's in Oct.

I got to pull out all the Watsonias and the orange Crocosmia in back, I'll replant some of the Crocosmia, maybe in planters.  But, just before I stopped completely ... I decided to pull out a Hollyhock that was too close to our fence.

OH MY GOSH!!!!  The root went not only deep, but under the double fences & into our neighbors backyard!  I thought I could get it from the other side . . .but NOOOOOO.    Finally, Rick had to unscrew the long bottom fence board on our side and had to use a pick axe claw thingy . . . I then went back over to our neighbor's yard, had to pull away about a foot of mulch and weed cloth to get to that root. . .had to dig a bit deep and the root spit in two directions!   The 4 foot rose bush was doing it's best to keep me from falling . . . but I finally got it out, then threw it back over the fence to Rick.  After that we were both done, lol   I have two more Hollyhocks, but they're in a good place . . .yay!

P.S. looking at the root in the green bin . . .it reminded me of that howling Mandrake root in Harry Potter (^_~) 

Greetings All!

Hope everyone is doing good, staying cold and flu free as possible.  Rick and I are good, but we don't live where it can get below 30 degrees, although he has said it's because of our warm winters folks get sick.  But either way, I'm very thankful we haven't caught anything!

Yesterday it broke 60 and we spent the late morning in the front, Rick washed his truck and I pulled some weeds, watered some plants and placed more planters on our two window shelves.  Added one with pink carnation with small sedums, one with I think some freesia and two that have rununuculus coming up!  Still need to add more sedum to our front for more ground cover.

Today, I hope to pull out some Watsonia plants, they've gotten invasive and transplant some crocosmia where they will get some more sun.  I know they can be invasive too, but I prefer them to the Watsonias ...what can I say, the hummers like them best.  I do have a snake plant that is losing it's leaves! I guess I shouldn't have watered it earlier this month, hopefully I won't lose it.  And, I didn't give it that much  ={

Well,
garden wise that's all for now ... it's been nice having our lavender Scabiosas flowering since last spring!  Guess I should cut the spent flowers.  I'll have lots of Pink Naked Ladies flowering this summer, they're coming up where I forgot I put them, lol.  The Hellebore is beginning to leaf out, it will be interesting to see how big it gets this year.

Okay, that's all for now.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend! (-_^)

You have got to take time to hear this!!  It's too wonderful and cheerful!  It's about 6 min, but well worth the time!

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

Dog has perfect pitch