Follow Us!
† Requires Javascript
Copyright © 1997-2009 Demand Media. All rights reserved.
|
| Page 2 of 2 | First  |
1 | 2 |
First one ahead of them all except Apple Blossom is clematis Ruby Glow to open up today. One taken in the shade is sharper than the one taken in full sun. Clematis on the Web says that its color can range from ruby red to purple pink. I don't know what color to call this, lavender? lilac? light purple? It shows no pink at all. First one was taken in full sun, kind of fuzzy but second was taken in the shade.
This was taken today. This Clematis is already 3 years old. This is the first time it blooms like this. In previous years, I get at the most a dozen blooms. Happy gardening to all.
Wow, my account is finally working after so many days of login in again and again. Thanks Rachel at customer service for fixing it. Now I can add to my blog.
Started on 2/21 pruning my clematis and just finished all 72 of them today 2/26. I was late on some varieties as they had grown tall already but I was heartless on some as they needed hard pruning. Also pruned the grapes and hibiscus and finished weeding as well. Planted also an aloe vera pup in one small terra cotta pot. I hope the lemon grass survived the winter and not die. I love trimming the leaves which I use for hot tea; the lemon grass really help me sleep good.
I am very excited that our little cold front was a small one and we were back into the 60's today. Yay! When the little one went down for her nap, I began work on my to-do list. It actually didn't take me much time at all :) I did some various small pruning tasks and then set out to try my new pole pruner. It was a bit tricky...but after a good lesson from my hubby, it seemed to do the trick. We just took off some lower branches from a large tree in the backyard...to keep things opened up. My husband was kind enough to pick up a load of compost on his way home from work, so I also got that spread. I spread it around the back porch where I plan grow a flower garden from seed this spring. It looks great and the small bit of leftover compost is sitting in water tonight for a good batch of compost tea that I will use to water the azaleas with. Tomorrow is my hubby's day off, so we will hopefully get the veggie beds finished up :)
Here are some fun shots I took around my front yard today in between chores:
The daffodils are emerging under the redbud tree:
>
Crocus bulbs emerging: ( I always forget that their foliage has that great variagation on it until I see it each spring)
>
Clematis Armandi forming its buds:
I am just loving the anticipation of spring!
Thank you for the advice and ideas on what to do in the blank spot by my window seat. I decided to do a sculpture (the final product came from chatting about it with my Mother In Law). I didn't want to do another vine on a trellis because I thought that would be too symmetrical and matchy matchy. I love the idea of doing something fragrant...but the window on the window seat doesn't open...so it wouldn't get appreciated. The other thing I was really leaning towards was a nice evergreen, but I was worried how well it would do right up against the house. And, to get the instant gratification that I wanted, I would have to spend a small fortune to get a good size plant. So, a sculpture it is!
I took advantage of the after Christmas sales. The tall pole has a large Christmas ornament on top and all 3 have little christmas balls wired around them. The other 2 balls are "gazing" balls that I got at Old TIme Pottery for super cheap. The pipes are from the plumbing section at Home Depot. I think they pull in the iron on our shutter hardware in nicely.
I really am very happy with how they turned out! It will be fun to see how they weather. I also think I will get a clematis to grow up them. Or, I may do an annual sweet pea vine. And, the best part about going with a sculpture....no pruning or weeding. And, its drought tolerant! LOL!
It was a beautiful day! Only got to about 90 degrees and did I enjoy being outside.
Put a second coat of paint on the shed today and put a first coat on the trellis that is going to be put up at the chain link fence soon. There will be Clematis growing there. Spring will be looking pretty good I am thinking.
Some of you already know that I found some good buys at Lowe's yesterday. $1 clematis and another for $4 bucks. Also picked up a bale of peat moss to add to the new iris bed. We will get compost next week and maybe some mulch too.
Next week will be a busy time and the weather should hold to be quite nice. We are not getting any rain from the tropical storm going up the coast. Upper North Carolina and Virginia will benefit from this storm. Most of the time what we get from any storms coming in on the South Carolina coast is wind and rain. As long as it doesn't blow hard enough to rip the shingles off the roof we are usually OK in my town. We need rain just like so many of your areas.
I have 6 coccoons in the butterfly cage now and one in a jar so I can watch it up close. There are more cats in the big cage also. Such fun to watch them do their mother nature thing. Will take pictures as we go along.
Taking a time out now. More to Come Later
...especially when it's a nice, 65 degree day like we had today!!! How lovely! I took advantage by getting tons of things done that I have been meaning to for a while, but felt like 90 degrees was just too hot!
So today was the first day of summer vacation for my daughter, and being the wonderful mom I am, I got her up bright and early to head to the store to find a trellis (or two!!!) for my clematis!!! (She loves me!) We found some great obelisk ones and I got two, and she picked a rain gauge with a sun. Then I told her she could plant a "summer plant" of her own, which earned me a hot pink wave petunia! Very pretty!! We came home, cleaned up the inside a little, and then went outside and went to work.
I got several annuals planted (alyssum and dahlias, and a couple of others I'll be posting for identification since I've long ago lost their tags...as they waited patiently in their cellpacks for a home), along with the transplanting of my clematis, putting in the Japanese Maple and taking out the baby burning bush and shipping him to his new home at my neighbors! I also planted 2 more butterfly bushes on the west side of the house and some pretty little violets, too. I'm excited about these, they are perennial and so cute! I can't wait to see how they grow up to look! Then we put up a couple of mini hummingbird feeders the neighbor brought me earlier.
OH!! I also tried some boiling water on the weeds by my front step. I have a nightmare vine from hell that just won't go away. I pull it, I dig it, and the thing is like gray hair... for every one I get rid of, 5 more take its place!!! I'm going to suffocate under this stuff!!
I wish I had managed to get the overgrown irises out so that I can decide what should be in my bed. I know it's the wayyyy wrong time to mess with the irises, but the bed is horrid and the mom that gardens at my daughter's school will take them so I don't have to feel bad about getting rid of some! I'm sure they're original to the house (1952) and its first owners, so I don't want to completely eradicate them. I just want to keep a few and have the rest of the space to do my own thing.
A while ago at sunset when we rested on the porch (with our ice cream bars, of course!) I was just really enjoying how far my yard has come. My maple is getting bigger and I really love looking at its branches with the new, bronze leaves pointing up to the sky. Almost like it's jumping for joy over all the work I accomplished today!!!
Maybe I can get up early again tomorrow....
Two of the three elephant ears I planted are up and growing like crazy. My white clematis has two buds on it and the red one has finally decided to grow. The annual bed with the sun flowers, petunias and zinnias is filling in more everyday. If I could just keep the neighbor’s sheltie from doing his business there I think it would do better.
The hostas in the shade bed are all putting up buds and will flower soon. The coleus are huge and have filled in wonderfully. All the impatience are thick with flowers and the calla lily now has five blooms on it.
My dinner plate dahlias all have buds now and I can’t wait to see them bloom!! Lion Bane, Larkspur, Sweet William, Columbines, Coral Bells are all going great in my woodland bed.
The veggie patch is my favorite place. Checked last night and my squash all have blooms or buds and the cukes are not far behind. I pick four beans and ate them right there last night, oh so sweet. My two later tomatoes are now blooming and will add to the high count of maters very soon. Think my lettuce and spinach are just about done and I have some more bean starts that I am going to put in their place. So I will pull out the last of those greens this weekend and get that area ready for the beans. Need to start looking for some canning or pickling recipes for banana peppers, I am going to have a ton of those. I love pickled peppers.
Hubbers cut the lawns last night and watered a few of my pots that were looking sad after the first sunny day we’ve had in a while. The new willow likes its new digs at the back of the pond. I sent photos to our vagabonding parents and they loved all the work we have done so far. I will try to get on later tonight and post some update photos.
Started my compost heap but with all the rain we have had this week it still isn’t getting warm. What have I done wrong? I layered browns and greens just like the book says, should I give it a stir already? I shredded leafs that I used really well and added a layer of sticks at the bottom for air. Then in went a layer of grass clippings and deadheaded flowers, a layer of dried leafs, then more of the same and so on, with a squirt of water. But then it has rained all week also, is that the problem?
The 3 evergreen clematis I bought days ago finally have a home.
The second I saw the hideous pressure treated cedar poles my dh, Dave, used to replace the old lumber that supported the overhang of our shop, I knew I'd have to grow a vine up each one to hide it. I narrowed it down to clematis when I read in my Ed Hume book that they'd do well in containers and that helped, because the shop is located on a large gravel area and I didn't want to make beds around the poles. I also read that they would cover things up pretty fast and would have great flowers, AND that there were some evergreen varieties and that was good because then we'd never have to look at those damn poles again! So, I found 3 evergreen clematis at a local garden center, one for each pole, and bought them. They are Clematis armandii 'Snowdrift' and will have white flowers. Now, I wonder if I could've found some I like even better if I ordered some from a catalog. I bought 3 small (20", cedar-like wood planters that resemble miniature whiskey barrels, and that moisture control potting soil, too, at home depot today. I put an inch or two of wood chips (we chipped ourselves from downed trees in our forest) at the very bottom of each planter for drainage before I filled them with the soil and the plants. I read the directions AFTER I planted the first one. Bad idea. Those directions said to keep the clematis attached to its stake for the first year before removing it. Oops. Didn't do that for the first clematis. We'll see what happens with that one, then. What's the big deal, I wonder?
Then, I tried to plant some tomatoes (black cherry and yellow pear) in the topsy turvies Dave bought me, but realized I had no hooks to hang them from yet. Gotta go buy some at Ace later.
I should be grading papers and planning lessons for this week right now, but I will do what I do best and PROCRASTINATE instead. As Dave always says, do that stuff when there's no more daylight!
I also planted one cilantro plant and one flat leaf parsley plant in my herb planter which already has oregano and two kinds of basil. No good location for that planter yet. It has to go on the deck because the porch is too shady. If I put it up on the railing, it gets blown over by the wind (learned that the hard way). Guess I'll just set it on the deck in the corner and crouch to harvest. Maybe I can find a cute old chair to set it on.
For this summer, I'm going to try to focus on 2 major projects: a planting bed around the deck and raised beds in the veggie garden. That last one will take forever, b/c I'm using fallen logs from our forest for the beds and they are taking forever to find, haul out and cut. I have enough for ONE box and I need EIGHT boxes. Ugh.
School can't let out fast enough, because this work thing is just getting in the way of my gardening time, damnit!
Everything
green and growing! I loves all kinds of plants, trees and flowers.
Right after the holidays I went and bought a whole bunch of exotic
seeds to start her own. I love to bonsai as well. So I got tickets to
the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.
I had a really great time! I was there for most of Saturday, ooohing and aaahing over everything there. I bought two bonsai trees (one Japanese Elm and one cotoneaster ) and some lavender and lemon grass products (soap and body spray, yum!). I took a ton of pictures, here are a few of my favorites...
† Requires Javascript
Copyright © 1997-2009 Demand Media. All rights reserved.
