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You would have to be in a cave to not know about all the crazy rains that this part of the country has had! Quite crazy, really! I think the weather channel has dubbed it "the Deadly Deluge". Well, we are blessed! The only way this has impacted us is all the schools have closed down, which makes for an interested week in the land of little children. HAH!
It has cleared up very nicely today and it is just gorgeous outside right now! We are forcasted for more rain the rest of the week. The news is still reporting 90 roads closed in our county....
I took advantage of the dry day to go take some picts. With all the rain, mixed with sun, the grass is SO high and it is still too wet to mow...
I think I may resort to weedeating it soon!
The trumpet trees are all just bursting with blooms and they are over 8 feet tall with all this rain we have had. They will start opening any day now!
The creek had quite a time in the "deluge" Our back yard was full of water, prob about 6 inches high at one point and the creek looked like white water rapids. (If it hadn't been so wild out there, I would have stepped out to take a picture) All the rain did a bit of re-shaping to the creek and took up some dead wood:
We have a nice new little gravely beach that wasn't there before!Our raised veggie beds really paid off, if we didn't have them, they would have been washed away! I have been slowly clearing out summer's spent crops while I wait for the garden centers to get their fall merchandise in. I am ready to plant! Good thing I hadn't yet - the rain would have drowned any seeds!
All that is left to produce anything is the pepper plant and all my basils.
Funny thing is... I pulled out all the marigolds that had died back and with all this rain, all the dropped seeds are growing. Nice fall color!
Hope none of you have damaged homes due to this rain. My boss had her entire downstairs flooded and has had to take vacation time to clean it!
Happy gardening and Stay dry!
Well, I suppose its about time that I post something! My new job is 100% on the computer, so when work is done...the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer. So, I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with my blog! Things continue pretty much as usual here in the garden. I am enjoying watching things fill in and am trying to resist all urges that I have to buy more plants. I planted so much the last couple of years that I do believe it is now time to sit back and watch it do its thing for a bit.
My girls are growing up and my oldest has started to enjoy taking pictures with mommy in the garden:
Look at this pose!
So funny!
Work continues on the deck and next step is the long anticipated railing:
Then we are going to put in some pea gravel at the bottom of the steps and create a nice patio type area.
For my upcoming birthday, i got to make over the front porch.
here is a before picture:
And after:
I am so excited! I know we will get so much use out of it...we already used it alot,but now we will even more!
We pressured washed it before repainting and the funny thing is that I think we will be picking up blue paint chips for the rest of our lives - HAH!
The veggies are exploding and we are enjoying lots of eggplants and the tomatoes are really starting to do their thing. We have been blessed with a whole lot of rain this season and I am having a hard time keeping up with all the weeding and mowing. But, I really can not complain about rain, now can I?
This is the most consistent rain season we have had since we have lived in this house and it really is quite amazing! I know it does have something to do with the garden getting more mature, but things are just going CRAZY!
For the most part, that is wonderful...but, it makes the weeds grow crazy too...lots of rain with sunny, windy afternoons...well, you can imagine. So, I have been tackling a lot more weeding (and spraying) than I normally have to do. The vinca and the mint in the front bed is just going wild and has become quite the aggressive traveler...so, I have become one with the string trimmer and have been pulling a lot of it by hand to keep it in check.
I recently bought one of the Worx GT Weedeaters from the informercial. First time I have ever bought something off the TV...and I must say, I LOVE IT! It was my mother's day present and it is awesome!
It has helped me a lot in the garden, especially keeping up with all the spring growth from all the rain.
Here are some recent picts taken of the garden:
The hydrangea bed is really coming along. This is the first year that it has actually looked like something:
The black and blue salvia is such a nice accent in this bed:
I won't show you the view of the back of this bed...which is pretty much a nice collection of crab grass that i need to get out with my special weeding tool.
My purple beauty berry that was basically a stick in the mud when I planted it in the fall - is rally doing well!
The veggies are coming along very nicely and we are starting to enjoy some srawberries, lots of basil and we are greatly anticipating the tomatoes that are soon to ripen!
Hubby has also made a ton of progress with the deck! He has gotten it most of the way done. All thats left is the railing and the skirting. We are also going to put a stepping stone patio at the bottom of the steps to create a nice landing where we can put a grill and nice little bistro set. He will begin work on the railing soon...
Here is a before and after:
And one more before and after shot of stairs:
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And finally, a nice shot of the top of the deck with the Garapa Wood:
I love the rain at night, not so much during the day when I am home and want to garden...Take pictures and mow the grass... Yesterday was beautiful for the Memorial Day/birthday/graduation party...everything went smoothly.. I needed to nap today, a little too much yesterday and the rain today made me sleepy.
I was home for 4 days this weekend and needed to get out in the garden but couldn't with the weather. Too busy yesterday to get in the garden.. I am still trying to get those pictures downloaded to add a new album of my flowers. Also, took more pictures of Button this morning and I really think he likes it. He was showing off and jumping all over the place. He was playing Peek-A-Boo with me around the loveseat and when I couldn't find him for a minute he was actually on the loveseat watching me crawl around it on the floor...Very Cute...
He decided he was tired and laid down with me on the floor and took a short nap.. then decided he needed to go to the litter box. Then into his cage for a snack..I had to put up the baby gate to the bedrooms because he thinks hiding under the bed and not wanting to come out is Peek-A-Boo, but it is not!!!
Made a list of things to do today, accomplished nothing. The weather made me lazy and my husband works nights so since he was sleeping I figured I could too.
Veggiegardener
I thank God for the last few days. The rain comes and goes and the temperature is great for the veggies. It is great to have rain at night and sunny days. The plants are thriving. Except for those peskie weeds. I need to get the pine needles out from under the large pines and put them in the garden as weed control.. Last year we put manure in the garden from a horse farm. It had straw in it and now I am overrun by thistles.. Need gloves to pull those jaggy things. No problem it save the nails...
Most of my Iris's have bloomed (working on those pictures to download) The Day Lillys are full of buds, only a few of them have bloomed.... Can't wait for that beautiful sight. I want to get a few more of them for the other side of my porch.. Didn't finish the other side yet. Going to work on that for next season. The clearance sale at Wal Mart is the best way to start a new season..
Got an eye allergy this weekend. Swollen and itchy and watery... Can't see well with all of the swelling and water...Finally found the culprit.. Eye liner...I have experimented with many different kinds to see what is the best and the worst...Found the worst. THREW THAT AWAY!!!!
The slumber party went well with 6 little girls all between 3 and 9. Most of them are 7. Nobody got hurt and nobody cried. That is what makes it the best party ever.... They kept me up late and got me up early... I had to nap today. My daugther is stlll going strong without a nap...Go figure. How do they do it?
Veggie (working on the pics)
It's been raining and storming for three days now. I haven't been outside except to check on the plants that the wind blew off the plant stand on the carport - they were okay (impatiens). I had just bought some plants to replace the sprng bulbs in the planters out front, but haven't been able to plant becuase it's been raining for three solid days. Wow, this Texas Spring weather is something else.
The creek behind us is flooded again - it's halfway across the pasture to our house - a little scary. All my seedlings are waterlogged. I keep them up under the eaves, but the wind is so fierce it blows the rain right into them so they are completely waterlogged. Some of them won't make it, even tho I go out between cloud bursts and dump the water out. I was just starting to transplant them to the flower beds and containers when all this rain started.
For the most part I've been catching up on some reading and watching the birds and the baby calves next door. There are now five cute little calves frolicking around. There would be six, but one of the cows lost hers, the farmer told me it came out wrong (I think he said butt first and it should have come feet first or something like that),
I sure hope this weather clears up soon. Our carport sprung a leak also. Someone is supposed to come and take a look at it today, but it's been pouring rain all day and he hasn't shown up yet. We moved our vehicles away from the carport in case it falls down or something - not that we think it will - just being cautious.
More rain over the past few days has kept me out of the garden. We had frost overnight. I'd been bemoaning the fact that my annual seeds haven't germinated. It looks, now, like that was a good thing. More frost forecast for tonight.
Yesterday, a contractor who hires my husband to pour concrete foundations for him came by to get a price on another job. Actually, I think he dropped in because he was lonely. He lost his wife to cancer in January. Bev had been a healthy, active woman all her life, and one of the founders of our local walking trailway system and an avid gardener. The disease took her quickly - just a few weeks after the diagnosis. Her death was a huge loss to our community and devastating for her husband.
Bill stayed a couple of hours, and I was happy to share his memories of Bev. We talked about our gardens. Bill always maintained a sizeable vegetable garden and left the flower beds to Bev. But this year he intends to care for her flower beds and create a new one in her memory. What a lovely tribute. I can't think of much that would have pleased her more.
More rain again last night and this morning. I've never seen so much rain in my life. People think it rains a lot in Seattle, but it's nothing compared to this. My yard is so saturated that it squishes when I walk on it. The creek behind me in the cow pasture is normally just a little stream and now I can hear the rushing water all the way here at my house. Some young guys found a water mocassin there this morning. They stopped and got out of their truck to try and pick it up - silly and stupid if you ask me. But I sure don't like the thought of that snake so close to my house.
The ground is so saturated in places that some of my sunflowers which were growing really well have just fallen over. There's no support for them cause the ground is so soggy. And all my Shirley poppies got pounded by the rain and they are all fallen over also. I planted those seeds last fall and have been nurturing them along and they have just started blooming and now they are more or less done for. I don't think they will survive the beating that this last storm gave them.
But I can be thankful that no twisters came our way and we didn't lose any trees and didn't have any damage. Lots of others in the area didn't fare as well.
And speaking of trees, I have decided that I definitely do not like having pecan trees in my yard. Why anyone would plant them I can't figure out. So far all they have been is a big mess. When Hurricane Ike blew through here last Sept (2008) we ended up with tons and tons of pecans on the ground. Then the crows started in. They LOVE pecans and it was continuous from Sept through Oct - crows all day long cawing and cawing and making life miserable. Then all the pecans - I was out picking up pecans every single day. Then winter and all the leaves - 14 tress - that's a ton of leaves.
And now, now we have catkins - at least I think that's what they are called.
The trees are finally getting leaves, but they also get these long green dangly things called catkins and in the wind and rain last night they are now EVERYWHERE. I've been out picking them out of everything - flower beds, planters, bird feeders, bird baths, etc. They are all over the patio, the front walkway, the front porch, the carport - they make such a MESS! I will never plant a pecan tree. In fact I've been weeding a flower bed this morning and finding little bitty pecan trees growing from pecans the squirrels hid last fall. Well you can believe I pulled those little suckers right out of the ground.
Took a couple of days off from gardening due to the weather. We are getting an inordinate amount of rain this spring.
Got up this morning, raring to go! Just a smidgen of rain yesterday; and today promised to be sunny and warm. I wanted to get my onions planted at the farm. My husband was eager to get started at it, too, so I gathered my sets up and headed out. I hadn't showered this morning and I had dressed in my ratty old gardening clothes. No one would see me down there.
When we arrived at the farm, I was dubious about planting. The soil appeared too wet. It was really windy and my hubby thought that if he tilled, it might dry sufficiently to get the onions in. He got our little tiller going, but it was difficult to operate in the damp soil, so he decided to borrow a friend's tractor (The friend had already put his cultivator on.) and do the entire garden quickly.
While he went off to get the tractor (I knew it would take a long time because friend and hubby love to discuss the weather, the state of the economy, the price of wheat, beans and hay, any new equipment a neighbour may have acquired, the prospects for a prosperous harvest, the declining behaviour of teens these days, etc., etc., etc. You get my drift.), I cleaned up my holding bed. There was a lot of stinging nettle, so I used latex surgical gloves. That was a successful experiment. I'm not good with most gloves, but these worked well. Most of my plants over-wintered well. I worked away digging out old sunflower roots and lugging them to the compost pile, getting dirtier by the minute.
Back came hubby with the big tractor and cultivator. First he ripped up an old strawberry bed from which I had intended transplanting some of the healthy runners. Oh, well! Next, he came booting over near my holding bed (which isn't a bed unto itself, but rather the upper corner of our vegetable garden). Before I could place myself strategically to protect my perennials, he had managed to rip two of them out. That man is a disaster with any piece of machinery powered by gasoline!
Eventually, hubby finished cultivating with no further mishaps. I continued weeding and getting rid of the sunflower roots. I had taken my gloves off to open a soft drink and forgot to put them back on. Ouch! I hate stinging nettle with a passion. Brushed hair off my face with my filthy hands and managed to get soil well distributed throughout. Soil is definitely not an appropriate hair care ingredient!
I was just thinking longingly about a nice hot shower when I heard a vehicle come up our laneway. Customers often stop by to purchase hay, so I simply went about my business behind a large shed, assuming hubby would attend to the matter, an no one would see this unkempt, filthy old lady. Wrong!! My cousin and her husband were passing and decided to stop by when they saw our truck. Not only did I look awful, I'm sure I didn't smell very nice, either, not having showered then slugging away for most of the day. I'm sure our visitors left wondering if I was short of soap and water.
I didn't get any onions planted so will have to try to get them in tomorrow. (The forecast is for rain Wednesday through Saturday.)
The bright spot in my day was finding asparagus almost ready for harvest. Can hardly wait to enjoy it tomorrow with Hollandaise sauce. Mmmm! Mmmm!
So after several days of fun in the sun...the moisture is back...which I wouldn't call it rain, it really is more like drizzle. But the plants I planted and transplanted will enjoy the moisture and a cooler day to get settled in.
Some of my plants that are fall blooming are starting to come up...they are so late to come up in the spring I worry that they didn't make it, but I leave them and they reward me with little signs of life. Still no life out of the milk weed, but that will probably be another couple of weeks.
Although the garden still looks naked. With all the prennials, it takes time for them to gorw and fill in. I think I need to add some more evergreen plants. I recently visited a fellow gardeners garden and it was full and wonderful. Reminded me that when I add plants I need to remember winter color.
The sun is supposed to be back out tomorrow so maybe I will take some more pictures. My husband suggested taking pictures every month so we can keep track year to year. So tomorrow will probably bring pictures of the garden and maybe pictures of my slug traps. I have enough stuff to get a couple done.
Happy gardening to all!
**I wrote this entry yesterday, but since my internet wasn't working due to the storm, I am posting it today.**
It rained on and off today. It wasn’t quite a rain, but more like overcast misting and plenty of dripping off the eves. It continued like that until about 4p.m. and then the rain really started coming down. After about half an hour we began getting heavy cloud cover and then the thunder started!!
Hannah doesn’t mind the thunder, but when she’s not expecting it, she jumps a bit and then runs closer to me until she realizes it’s just thunder. It’s cute. We ended up with some thunder and lightning for about 45 minutes which was kind of nice to hear and watch. It’s good when the lightning is paired with the rain in case the lightning does hit and start a fire. The dry lightning is what scares me like crazy in the summer months! I have gotten way worse with worry since having Hannah. Lots of things scare and worry me now that she’s in my life.
Of course I didn’t’ go out and do anything in my garden today, I just sat back and appreciated the rain. It’s a part of spring that just has to happen, and my flowers need it so it’s okay by me.
After I post this I am going to browse through my garden book and see which seeds I should get into the ground first, which ones I still need to start inside and when, and the little extra bits of info about my various seeds.
I need to make a plan as well for my continued soil amendments. I know I need to get some more wheel-barrow loads of composted horse manure since it has a really great broken down texture to it. Another thing I have been doing is collecting any leaves , degrading bark, and dried up grass that I find around my garden area and then adding it to my two areas that I have all dug up. I found an area that had tons of worms in it and figured it must have been full of good things if the worms were there so I collected it in a bucket and will dump it all into those same dug up areas. I’m making a mini-composting dirt holes where I have dug up and removed some of the clay soil while adding lots of other good things to the soil. Then I will either leave it there as is, or I will use it in other places in my garden that need help. We’ll have to see what I end up doing in the end. My plans are always changing!
I also plan on moving those two Day Lily bunches from the area that I want only the wild roses in. I have no idea where exactly I want them to go, but they shouldn’t be in and amongst the prickly roses. It’s very hard reaching over all those prickles…haha. I have had second thoughts about planting all the wild roses around Hannah, but if she learns to stay away from that area it won’t be too bad. It’s up and kind of out of the way, so I don’t think it will cause any problems. It’s just when I am up there fiddling with my flowers (ie. The Day Lilies and others that I will be moving) that she comes up there and is exposed to the wrath of the thorns. She just doesn’t understand yet that they are incredibly pokey and that she will be hurt big time if she grabs or brushes up on them.
My layout plans for the “Leveling Project” have changed yet again. It all started when I ran into a really good sized boulder while digging out one of the areas that I had though of possibly planting all those evergreen bushes that I was digging out while I leveled the area. I was digging up so many and salvaged quite a few (ones with lots of roots attached, or ones with a whole root ball and soil) which I just placed in Hannah’s project garden wagon for temporary (so they would stay in the shade and would keep moist to help with the transplanting). I have transplanted one so well have to see if it stays alive and grows or if it will just end up dying off. Anyway, back to how the plans had changed. I hit the big boulder and as I have said before, I can’t just leave a boulder alone. If I know it is there I have to get it out! It’s a rock addiction….LOL! So, I was digging and digging and with each shovel of dirt the rock was getting bigger and bigger. Now, normally I am a good judge of character (a.k.a size of the boulder) when it comes to rocks, but this one tricked me. I had already un-dug nearly the whole top, and sides of the boulder and was thinking, “Now what?!”. I remembered back to a conversation my Dad and I had had regarding me not being able to move a rock that I had dug out and rolled out of the way temporarily. The rock had ended up flipping on a flat side making it much more difficult for me to pick up and roll. I had said, “Well, maybe I will just have to wait for Kyle to get home and help me move it.” and then my dad suggested that I use 2X4’s to get leverage underneath the rock to roll it. I decided what the heck, if I can get this rock to roll 3 feet forward it will go from being right in the way to being part of my retaining wall. It took me about an hour to get this thing dug out just right (which included me pulling out very carefully rocks underneath the boulder keeping it potentially from rolling where I wanted it), and to get the 2X4’s under and behind it. This mammoth was so heavy! Not only was it just a big rock, but it was made out of one of the heaviest rock compositions around here! It took a bunch of shoving, shifting, digging and bouncing on (the 2X4’s of course) to get this thing to move. I got it to approximately where I wanted it to go, but I didn’t like the way it looked on the front of it. It was kind of jagged and not a very nice looking rock. So, I decided to try and turn it around (swivel it around) so that the back side would be forward. That was tricky trying to keep if from rolling on my own foot or rolling the wrong way, but I did it! With the rock actually out of the way, I ended up making a path way that winds down from one of my existing upper garden areas down to the area I am flattening out for Hannah.
I was happy finally getting the rock it into it‘s final home. I didn’t realize how accomplished I felt until my Mother-In-Law made the comment about once you get a feat like that accomplished it sure feels good. It makes me so proud of my garden knowing how many hours I have dug, and how many rocks I have pulled out and re-positioned into the walls and steps. I am SO proud of it. I just wish my hubby shared the same enthusiasm as I do or could see the finished product and just know how much work it took me to make it look that way. It’s hard to convey exactly how much work it took through before and after pictures alone. I wish he was here to see it step by step, or at least a few of the stages and see exactly how many rocks are sitting there today waiting to be re-positioned. There are so many, plus my garbage rock pile is getting really big too!
Oh-My this is an incredibly long blog entry...LOL!
My “GOOD NEWS” that I wrote about in my last blog post was that I have discovered that quite a few of my perennials from last year are starting to come back! They are just starting to come through the ground. Things like my first ever Clematis (Nelly Moser), Bell Flower (Campanula - 3 years old), Veronica (3 years old), Globe Flower (I think that is what it’s called, it gets a round yellow ball flower that opens up when in full bloom - 3 years old), Polemonium Boreal (Heavenly Habit - New last year), Cat Mint (New last year), and a Mallow (it’s possibly Rose Mallow or Prairie Mallow, I will have to check out the tag tomorrow - New last year). There are a few others, but I don’t have pictures of the tags so I don’t remember the names off the top of my head. I will have to check out tomorrow as well.
I think that I also found a lonely Hens and Chicks that I planted a few years ago that never did very well and I thought that I lost them, but I guess one survived. They got pulled out (well I think rather knocked out of the ground) not very nicely and didn’t have much if any roots. It’s not entirely where I had thought I put them, but it’s still really nice to see. I do like them and have never heard of any not having success with Hens and Chicks. It is small, but never the less, it’s still growing, so it makes me happy.
My chives are coming in nicely and the ones that I re-planted that were out of the ground all winter are settling in just fine too. My little bunch of pink clover that I actually planted in my garden is coming back (2 years ago now). It’s just wild/natural clover that grows like weeds around here, but this one had little pink blossoms instead of our normal larger purple blossomed types. It was really pretty, so I dared to plant it in my garden and I have been very happy with it. It blooms pink blossoms and I just cut it back when it gets too leggy and it stays in a manageable little mound. I also found more last year and transplanted it into my garden in a different area deemed “temporary housing” for various plants I wanted, but didn‘t have a place for just yet, but it hasn’t come back. It may be that I have stepped on that area a bit this spring, but normally clover is pretty hearty, so I just don’t know. We’ll have to see if it comes back a little later in the season.
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Anyway, my internet is finally working today so it is nice to get to post it! I don't know if many people saw my last blog post with all the pictures or if it got bumped off early since I wrote it in the early a.m. There are lots and lots of pictures on there so I thought that I should mention that too.
Happy Gardening Everyone!!
~M~
I got up early today and mowed the lawn cause I knew another storm was heading our way. I also finally got my little japanese maple planted. I had to stake it in its pot though because when the storm did roll in around 2:30 this afternoon, it really blew the little tree around. It looked nice in its pot though. I can always tell when bad weather is coming because the birds go crazy at the feeders. During the storm today, this little squirrel showed up - poor little thing looked like a drowned rat:
Later in the evening there was a break in the weather and we had a beautiful double rainbow. You can't see both the rainbows in this picture because it was pretty dark at the time, but it was really pretty, take my word for it. This is a composite picture - I couldn't get the whole rainbow in one frame, so I had to put two pictures together. This is the first rainbow I've seen since I've come to Texas.
Here comes the sun ! If you live in Ohio you probably know that its been raining since Sunday evening . I was beginning to think that perhaps I should start building an ark :) I just realized looking outside that it seems to have really brightened the greens up ! I wish it was dry enough to work outside but I guess I better tend to some inside stuff seeings how I have been slacking some this week..lazy week since my plans where side-tracked..next week hopefully will be a new story. I can't wait until I can set some of my house plants outside on my porch..this seems to always freshen them up and they seem to grow like crazy ..I guess we are not the only ones that like getting outside after winter. All my plants are doing great except for one and I'm not even sure what it is...maybe I will take a picture today and put it up to see if any of you know what it is..but be kind..this little guy is not looking his best..I don't know what his problem is ?
Hope you all are having a super day and enjoy every moment of it ! Call someone you love today and tell them just that ...we can't take one moment for granite !
So as I sit and look out the window at the garden this morning the garden is crawling with grey squirrels digging in the garden. The squirrels and I have come to an agreement, I feed them peanuts and they leave my bulbs alone for the most part. Although I do still have plants come up in places I know I didn't plant them. During the summer I get nice little peanut plants coming up in the garden, but they are easy to pull.
Since I planted dahlias this weekend I best go out and feed the squirrels before they ruin all my hard work.
According to the weatherman we are supposed to have several days of rain this week. I am waiting for a nice sunny day again, since my plants are getting big enough to fertilize.
In our house and yard we don't use harmful chemicals and I have found that I really like Spray and Grow http://www.spray-n-growgarden
ing.com/ for my outdoor fertilizer. I have found that my plants are bigger and healthier.
When my husband and I have picked plants for our garden, we focused on plants for birds and butterflies, and plants that were NW Natives. We have natural springs, so we have some very wet parts of the garden, even with drainage, and then we have some really dry parts. Here in Western Washington between the 4th of July and Labor day, rain can really be scarce. I try very hard to make sure my plants can handle the summer without requiring water all the time. Last summer I think I watered twice and my plants did well.
I really do believe it is about picking the right plants for the right location and then "training" them to live naturally. My neighbors behind me have some similar plants, but they are wateraholics. They also like watering in the heat of the day. I really feel like giving them an intervention, since my hints haven't worked. Their plants look wilted and terrible if they don't water them, because they are used to water every day.
In fact, we had a little rain Saturday morning, and it was clearing off in the afternoon and I was out in the garden and my neighbor was out watering plants. I was shocked...it was supposed to rain all day Sunday and the ground is really wet still from all the rain we have had...but she was out watering...the logic escapes me.
Mother nature has been providing ample amounts of rain...I am hoping for a little more sunshine now. Maybe if there are some sunbreaks today I will get out and check on my plants and pull a couple of weeds that popped up over the weekend.
Happy gardening all!
I wake and greet the new day. It's Easter...although any bunnies out today will be getting wet. Speaking of bunnies, I think they are the one thing I just haven't seen in my garden. I live in the suburbs and we have a lot of wooded area around us. We do get frequent visits from the grey squirrels, raccoons, and coyotes. Along with all the neighborhood cats...they like to try to get the birds...but no bunnies and no deer. Although we really aren't in a place you find deer, too little habitat, too many people.
Although before we get too excited about no bunnies or deer, the main enemies of a gardener I will tell you, since I have natural streams in my backyard the slug population is out of conrol. When you plant shop a lot of times they will tell you if a plant is deer resistant, but you never find anything that says if they are slug resistant. I don't know how many plants I have brought home, planted and checked on the next morning and they were a late night snack.
My husband made me slug rings, because the ones you buy...they are a joke, so lightweight and hard to get to stay anywhere. So once I know if the slugs like a plant or not they get a ring. I tried the whole slug bait thing...doesn't work...the stupid crows think it is food. I do have containers with beer and that works, but they aren't the prettiest things in the world and the slug remains are gross.
Yesterday I planted my new dahlias. Every year the NW Flower and garden show falls on my birthday. So my hubby buys me flowers...the correct kind, that I can plant, not the ones that die in a vase. I have always had a love of dahlias, so this year that is what I got. There are several great growers out here, but this year I picked Connell's Dahlia's They had some that I had never seen.
Here's what I planted: Nicosia, Odyssey, Addison June, Jack O'Lantern, Sheabird, Amy's Star, Black Narcissus, Show-N-Tell, Unforgettable, Summer Breeze, Shadow Cat, Tomo, Pinelands Peace AND My Beverly. I bought My Beverly, because that was the name of my grandmother, and she loved gardening and she died last year.
In my garden I have plants I remember being in my mother and grandmother's gardens when I was growing up, as well as plants that are named after them. My garden really started as a tribute and it is a great way to remember my loved ones.
My dog died last Sunday, he lost his battle with kidney disease. He was my constant companion in the garden. Writing my blog this week has helped me a lot. I miss him greatly. His remains were cremated and he is ready for pick up today. He will also be memorialized in the garden. I bought a heucera, Fireworks, which reminded me of his color, and planted that yesterday. We picked up garden stakes that say Laugh and Love to mark his place in the garden. We loved him so much and he was always making us laugh, he was a smiling, happy goof.
That was just one of the many...many non-printable words that came flying out of my mouth this morning. I'm sure the sight I presented would have been comical to anyone looking on...it was a weekly winner of America's Funniest Home Videos...and absolutely a viewer must-see on YouTube...but...un
fortunately it was anything but...to me. Let me explain...
I awoke to pouring rain...flashes of lightening...and cracks of thunder...so I thought...okay...today isn't going to be the day to plant my garden after all. No problem...I'll just get up...drink my coffee...read the newspaper....then clean the house. Not too bad of a way to start my day...or so I thought. My dogs had other ideas of course. When they saw me it automatically became time for them to go outside to do their morning ablations...(my new word for the week!)...I told them we'd go out just as soon as I started the coffee maker...that held them pretty good and of course putting food in their bowls kept their attention off of me and on their breakfast. They ate...no...ate isn't quite the right word for what I was witnessing...they wolfed it down...while the coffee slowly dripped into the pot...and I do mean slowly dripped...it knew I needed coffee...that my body was screaming for it's first dose of caffeine...and it intended to make me suffer. I've learned that kitchen appliances have a way of torturing you at the most inappropriate times...and this was one of those times....
I finally got a cup of coffee in my hands...was bringing it up to my lips...savoring the wonderful smell of it all...and looked out my kitchen window. There to my horror was my Southern Engineered Greenhouse with it's vinyl sheeting roof holding what could only be described as a ton of rain water! Both sides of the roof was hanging inside and very low...it had pulled up the sides in order to hold all of this water! I never did get that first sip of coffee...I flew out of the house...still in my pj's and fuzzy black slippers...and into the backyard fearing the worst...and the worst was staring me in the face! I unzipped the front and tried to get inside but I couldn't because of the inside hanging roof! So I thought...okay...how do I fix this? I had as can only be described as...an AHA moment...you know what I'm talking about...that one brilliant idea pops into your mind and it should work...it will work...but somehow it goes oh so wrong...
I ran back to the carport where I'd seen a pushbroom leaning against the wall...grabbed it and headed back out to my greenhouse. My thought was to somehow get inside and slowly work the over hanging water filled roof until it drained. Darn good plan I thought...this will work...and it did...on one side. I started on the other side and was slowly working my way to the front of my greenhouse...water was draining just like it should be and I was feeling oh so smug about it all when it happened....I was standing in the wrong place at the right time when all of a sudden my broom slipped and it allowed the vinyl sheeting...with it's ton of water...to collapse...RIGHT ON TOP OF ME...that's right...I said it...right on top of me...the coldest water I've ever had the displeasure to experience!
That's when the words started flying out of my mouth! All the words you can't print...all the words that would make a lady blush...all the words that sailors use everyday...There I was...standing in a puddle of cold rain water...soaking wet...wet pj's...squishy slippers...hair stuck to my face...and I was just a cussing. If any of my neighbors had witnessed it with a camcorder I would now be rich...wet...but rich......................
Decided over my breakfast to run out right quick and get some pine straw for the azaleas. So I get dressed, the truck started and I headed out. Was to get cash at the bank first and forgot. So the man loaded my straw, said the price and NO he didn't take a credit card. He trusted me to take the straw, go to the bank and bring back his money then we shook on it . I did just that, the lady sent me the little container and said to me "Mrs did you know that your drivers license has expired"? Did I realize that, of course not. So now I realize for the past 2 months I have been all over town and into Columbia, driven my grand daughter that has just gotten her learners permit to school several times without a valid drivers license. How embarassed would I have been if I had gotten stopped with my GD in the car. Red face all the way.
Now I have the pine straw, have paid for it, came home went online, learned that I am now too old to get a license through that process. I did however establish that our Department of MV is open until 1 on Saturday. Called my sweet and wonderful DIL. She took me down and I did manage to get a DL. When I looked into the little box to read the letters? another surprise for the day. I couldn't see the fourth box of letters???? So now I will have to be sure I do have on my glasses for driving. It is rare I don't have them on because honestly anything less than 2 foot high is not so clear any more.
To make up for all the stress of the morning, we stopped at a new place in town that has been dubbed 'The Theives Market'. It was full of all kinds of dusty, very old stuff. I think the theives must have just given it to these people. She did find a small trellis for $11 and I found a square piece that will look good in the yard somewhere for $7. My purchase turned out to be part of a fund raiser for the Humane Society. A donation is good.
Now it is raining and I won't be able to get back outside until Monday when it is supposed to be clear for a couple of day. So the gardens wait again and so will I.
More To Come Later
We have had SO much rain this week and we are forecasted for more. Of course we pick the week of national flood warnings to build the new deck - LOL! But, I must say, hubby is quite the trooper. He has worked through most of the rain...unless it has been just pouring. He has gotten a lot done and it is looking SO good!
Probably one of the hardest parts was making multiple trips to the stone yard and shoveling gravel to cover the bottom for drainage:
Then he got a majority of the framing done:
He is still out there as I type working by a shop light in the dark - God bless him!
Now that we have gotten both of our little ones on the same nap schedule, I am able to get back out in the garden for good chunks of time during the afternoon. SO, I have been taking advantage of the wet soil and getting lots of weeds pulled.I am also pleased to say that I do believe we will get to see the azaleas in full bloom this year. Usually, they start to bud out and our late freeze zaps them. But, the last freeze we had was early enough that they are doing well now:
And, all 3 of my peonies are peeking out:
Also, the hostas just started to show their little green tips :)
Here is a nice shot of the front. See the dark spot in the front lawn? Thats where I filled a dip in the ground with some soil:
And, the backyard:
See the coral bark maple in the foreground? When I cleaned up the driveway the other day, I took some clumps of the blue grass and put them in this bed. I think that will be so fun come 4th of july to have the red and blue together. I think I have settled on the idea to make this little berm an ornamental grass bed, with some creeping phlox on the edge by the path.
I just love the way everything looks in this rain...like its glowing...and our creek has turned into more of a river, which is neat. we can hear the sounds of the water from the house.
I still have yet to get all the mulch moved, so If we get enough dryness this weekend, I will try to finish that. Happy gardening weekend everyone!
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