chattycarnation's Blog

Planted Cannas today
May 19, 2008 | 9:49 PM PST
Tag: Cannas
The weather today was cool, but dry this afternoon, so I got busy and planted some of my cannas. The ones I planted on the pipeline are a low-growing yellow canna called Eureka and Red cannas called Red King Humbert. I still have quite a few cannas that I dug up last year before the first frost and wintered over in my basement. It does not look like my pond lily made it over winter, so I think I will pot up a few cannas and elephant ears to put in the ''pond' Actually the pond is about the size of a bathtub and holds about 90 gallons of water. We plan to clean it out as soon as we get a few warmer days. So far the temps are staying about 10 degrees below normal or more.. mostly in the 60s with a cool wind almost every day.

So much to do!
May 17, 2008 | 3:04 AM PST

We have been having a wet cool spring. Compared to the dry, drought we had last year this is a blessing. however...it makes it hard to get things done in the garden! The forcast says that we are supposed to have 3 days before the next rain. Farmers are really getting antsy. Is it not too late to get the crops in, but if they farm a lot of acreage, it is beginning to get down to the wire for them.

My own garden is in dire need of weeding. And I am going to invest in a LOT of mulch this year. So as I get it cleaned out, I am adding more mulch. The local feed and seed place is going to deliver 30 bags of the stuff to get me started, but I know it is going to take a lot more than than. Our van is down at the moment so we cant hual anything for ourselves.

The plan for tomorrow afternoon... plant the 30 canna bulbs I dug up last year to winter over. I have some elephant ears that I need to get into the ground as well. Right now the annuals are giving me color along with the 30+ giant alliium. My russian sage is greening up. No sign of green yet on any of the hardy hibiscus or the butterfly bush. The kockout roses are looking good, no buds yet. I have most of my containers planted now, some sunny, some shady.

The buffalo gnats ran me out of the garden last night. Hubby had to wear a mask and LOTS of vanilla in order to do the riding mower. It is sure hard to get the grass down when it rains every time you turn around, you cant mow if the ground is too soft and we still have a place or two that is standing in water.

I finally did it!
May 15, 2008 | 9:14 PM PST
Tag: Giant Alliiums blooming

I finally got 5 pictures onto my album!! Yipee! LOL These are last years pictures and not some of the best ones, but still a little idea of what I am doing in our gardens. Last year was a rough one.. we were in drought for months and it was so hard to keep things going.

This year ..As I look out our backdoor right now, mostly I see green things, some pink tulips are on the tank along with some nemesia , some red salvia, purple colombine and several large purple alliums, not much color going on at the moment. Most of my tulips are gone by now and I have a bit of a lull going on with perennials. The weather has still been cool and wet. Way different than last year for sure! Now I will be playing the waiting game to see what died off after a drought, several ice storms and a difficult winter.

 

 

Our first Oriole!! And the hummers are back!
May 8, 2008 | 4:40 AM PST
Tag: orioles and hummers

We have always liked to feed and watch the birds and have several varieites of birds in the neighborhood. After going to a garden club meeting and listening to the speaker tell about how to attract oreoles to our backyard. We decided to give it a whirl!! And yes... that beautiful bird has joined the other birds in our back yard feeders!! Yipee!!

Who knew that they liked grape jelly?? Surely no us LOL. But now we do and plan to continue to enjoy the orioles along with the cardinals, woodpeckers, doves, Eurasean Doves, sparrows, red finch, yellow finch, purple martans, Red winged blackbirds, bluejays, robins, and the other various speciies who visit our feeders. And I dont want to forget the hummers!! They showed up this week as well:)

Sure wish those birds would eat the bufflow gnats!! People here are having to go to extremes to protect their animals from those nasty buggers..Last year one of my friends lost 27 prize winning chickens to those things.:(

Buffalo gnats.... AGAIN :(
May 6, 2008 | 9:18 PM PST
Tag: buffalo gnats

Well, I was certainly hoping that last year would be the one and only time we would have to deal with those little buggers.. but NO.. this morning I went out early to prune my roses and get them looking good .. when a swarm of the nasty bugs surrounded my face and tried to go up my nose. I had to run.. well.. walk fast LOL into the house for protection.

I got to thinking about the remedy we had last year.. not foolproof by any means, but very helpful. I got out my vanilla and a cotton ball and dobbed it all over my face, neck arms and ears. Then I was able to complete my task.

In case you are not familiar with buffalo gnats, you can read up on last years blog. Or just do a google search.. they are awful!! They are drawn to a person or animals breath and swarm at your head the minute you walk out the door. Last year they lasted for weeks and we were unable to do much outdoors. They bite and send people to the hospital. They kill numerous animals by going up their nostrils. Mnay local people lost a lot of chickens and other pets due to the buffalo gnats.