yardgranny6's Blog
yardgranny6's Blog
Last Post 1 day, 19 hours Ago
May 11, 2008 | 7:32 PM PST
I am still posting and reading on GG at this hour. I think is has to do with the two cups of coffee I had earlier. It was good!
Found a new color Iris in my garden this week. Sort of a copper/bronze one. Another I have not seen it years. This has been the most fun, discovering Iris again. No wonder I have so many. I relly do love them. And now with the varieties that rebloom it will be twice the beauty.
Mothers Day has lasted for two days this year. Met one son, DIL and grown grandson at our favorite BBQ place on Saturday evening. That was both fun and delicious. Ate too much.
Then today the other son, DIL, two grands and one boy friend had hamburgers and fantastic dip she had made to go with the chips. And we topped that off with good ole fashioned Chocolate ice cream for me and Black Cherry for the granddad. Another full belly. Now you know what that means for the rest of this week. Low Cal Healthy eating.
Got a wonderful phone call from my fantastic daughter in Oklahoma. Oh how I wish she lived where I could see her once in a while. She is taking an online course through her church denomination and will have a degree in counseling when she finishes. The next two months is the part where she is studying developing and giving sermons. She says she can talk in front of people for hours if needed but she doesn't want to see the video afterwards. But part of her in person interview will be to play the video. She is a brave person. And she will ace this just as she has any thing she has tried all through her life. She is a very intelligent young woman, got her photographic memory from my Dad. When asked by her college roommate one time if she wasn't going to study for their upcoming test, Amy told her she might go over it a bit. Turned out she can see page and paragraph for the correct answers in her mind. Many people have tried to get her to do the Mensa thing but she refuses saying it would not help her live her life any different than she already does. She has quite a gift. But her best attribute is her loving spirit. She is the Jewel in my life.
Must get off here and get some rest. Another big week coming up. Do you believe I have bought fabric and pillow forms to make seat cushions for my outdoor chairs? Am I completly nuts at this point in my life? One day I will start to blog and complete and utter nonsense will be before my eyes. If you are lucky and I have enough mind left, I will delete before the clicking of the Post To Blog.
More To Come Later
May 9, 2008 | 1:38 PM PST
Tags: hollyhock , strawberry pot , Speedwell , Veronica , salvia
how time flies when you are having fun in the garden.
All my plants are in the ground. The flower beds have been mulched.
Next week we will try to get the painting done. Buildings, metal chairs, a wood structure that shade lovers sit upon and where my dirty yard shoes and hand tools try to hide on the shelf below. Maybe a pix later.
There are many plants at the fence between my neighbor and myself and when they grow up we will may not be able to talk through them. It will look lots better for the summer though. She has a hummer feeder there that all the finches love. I have not had a feeder in many years that the finches could drink from so that is fun to watch.
I have had time to sit and watch the birds do their thing. The black-capped chickadee had their little brood out one evening, that was fun. The brown thrasher had at least one baby to nurse. I startled the baby one evening, they are so big but so clumsy trying to learn how to fly. They are now full fledged and almost as big as mom and dad. The cardinals must have little ones in the nest as they fly back and forth to the feeders in record time. The sparrow babies are so noisy they cheep and cry for more all day long. Still have not seen the hummers. I am putting out new food tonight in hopes the little bit of extra sweetness will entice them.
The squirrels are not so active right now and I think they must be in the nesting and reproducing stage. As cute as those babies are, playing and jumping and falling from one tree limb to another I don't like the aspect of the increased population. Soon I will be hearing those little 'mews' that will tell me the babies are up and ready to get out of the nest. The first year I had this house and wonderful yard, I thought there was a kitten somewhere, but soon learned that was not the case.
My neighbor, Judy (my gardening buddy) has her yard looking really cool now. She has a new hollyhock color growing in one of her old Tomato tubs, large cage and all.
Very pretty don't you think?
Here are the names of some of the new flowers in my beds. A white Speedwell and some white ice plant have been added to the White Garden Bed. After they get going will be the time for new pictures. Found two plants I have been looking for. One is a white vinca with a little pink in the throat. I have lots of the common pink, that are already coming up from last years seeds. And a little pot of Zinnias for the butterflies. Got a white angelonia to put with a purple petunia (Storm Blue) to put in a broken pot my DIL gave me. She loves the purple petunia because it has the best scent. Then picked up a Veronica called 'Red Fox' and a Salvia called 'Marcus'. Now I won't say never here but my gardens are so full of plants this year I won't need to purchase a single one.
This has been a goal, to have the flower gardens so full of blooming plants you can't see the ground. Could it be this is the year for reaching that goal? Will let you know as the season blooms along.
My blueberry 'Blue Sunshine' bushes are doing well and one has many berries. Can't wait to get a taste of the first ones to ripen. My strawberries have a few blooms now, so maybe one morning I can eat my breakfast in the gardens.
So much to tell and so many more days to relate the doings in the Gardens.
More To Come Later
Apr 30, 2008 | 1:42 PM PST
Tags: closets , complete bed , novels
day this has been. I started moving the seasonal clothes around, got involved with the DH's clothes. Ended up with two plastic yard bags full to give away. This just takes so much time.
It is now almost 5 and I have yet to get outside. Tomorrow in the morning I hope to get some positive things done in the gardens. Tonight I will just have time to be sure things are watered and looking good.
The White Garden is complete for now and looks really good.
This is Before:
This is during:
This is the finished product. It will be interesting to see how it looks in a couple of months:
There is a little Jewel in the White Garden in the spring :-)
I think she makes rather a nice addition.
It is so good to have one bed completed and to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the gardens. My new lounge chair awaits along with my newest Mary Higgins Clark novel and a glass of good ole southern 'sweet tea'. The binocs and the camera will be put to good use. And of course there is always a pad and pen waiting for sketches or verse to be placed thereon.
More To Come Later
Apr 28, 2008 | 9:34 AM PST
Tags: cleaning beds , new looks , shrimp & grits
Cleaning Poem
I asked the Lord to tell me
Why my house is such a mess.
He asked if I'd been 'computering', And I had to answer 'yes.'
He told me to get off my fanny
And tidy up the house.
And so I started cleaning up...
The smudges off my mouse.
I wiped and shined the topside.
That really did the trick...
I was just admiring my work..
I didn't mean to 'click.'
But click, I did, and oops I found
A real absorbing site.
(Garden Guides of course)
That I got SO way into.
I was into it all night.
Nothing's changed except my mouse It's very, very shiny.
I guess my house will stay a mess...
While I sit here on my hiney.
Yep that is me alright. Haven't been blogging for a good while. Been in the gardens, been on the road, been gardening in my sons gardens. Been really busy.
This past weekend I spent two days with my son and his wife. I have discovered the perfect gardening team, one to dig, one to clean up and one to plant. It takes all three to see the vision. This worked perfectly.
Here is garden number 1 Before
Nearly finished:
All clean and ready to enjoy. There will be two other Azaleas planted here, a Varigated Variety. The one azalea in the middle is a new Encore in a dark coral/pink.
Then the next morning an old unruly holly tree was taken down and we cleaned up the area.
Before: the holly was right in front of the center beam to the carport.
After: we planted Rosemary along the edge and one Variegated and One Pink Hydrangea at each end. There are Redtips at either end of the area. These may have to come down some day but they are fine for now.
The Hydrangeas are two that I propagated from cuttings.
Working in other peoples garden beds is every bit as fulfilling as digging in your own beds. We had a wonderful weekend together. My grandson (21) and his girlfriend were in and out. The grandson is a good cook and made Shrimp and Grits one evening. A highlight of the weekend.
More To Come Later
Apr 18, 2008 | 8:02 PM PST
I caught up on all the Garden members blogs, looked through my favorite forums, did a few PM's and just enjoyed being here with all you good folks.
Tomorrow will be a big day and I will have photos to post on my blog in the next couple of days.
Sleep well, everyone,
More to Come Later
Apr 17, 2008 | 7:32 PM PST
Beautiful Sunshine today! Did some errands in the morning then headed outside.
Planted my strawberries in the strawberry pot. Haven't had one of these in years. I am now actually growing something edible. Strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes. Wouldn't mind some cukes and yellow squash. Might look into that yet.
Then had to dig some Iris in order to plant my new Dill and Basil plants. Got them in and then got the much awaited phone call from my friend with a nice pick up truck. She is coming in the moring around 9am. We will go out to the farmers market to get a nice load of good looking black mulch. After that I will get my white bed finished out and ready to plant.
I had to move some 'ditch lilies' as we call the common orange lily as they had multiplied into the area I want to put the mulch. A friend came by and I gave her some of these. She has just started working in her yard and just really enjoys it. Her worst habit is moving the plants around. I keep telling her they do need to put down roots in order to do their best. She will learn her way I guess. So far some of her unorthodox methods have worked. We all do it differently dont' we?
One of the plants I moved was a huge Stokesia. I hope it forgives me for the interruption and doesn't die. I have never moved one this size before. I gave her a big drink of water after her shock. It is one of those plants you don't want too near a walking path as it gets very prickley when in bloom. Beautiful plant though.
At the supper hour we had a birthday cookout for my DIL's mom. Amazing how many people you can get on a smallish deck. We had a good time. The grandson (10 yrs) decided to get into the new pool. It was so cold. One of the fellows had a thermometer and it read 62 degrees. A female cousin decided she was brave enough to get in, poor girl nearly had a heart attack when she jumped in. Came up out of there like a rocket, bikini suit and all. The grandson came out and he was chilled to the bone. Hope they don't go in again until it warms up (two months from now?)
Looking forward to the morrow! More To Come Later
Apr 15, 2008 | 6:45 PM PST
Wonderful day and it started with meeting up with a new friend. I think we hit it off pretty well as we both love plants.
Then went to a couples place to pick up some annuals that they grow in their greenhouse. They were sweating having to cover plants that are already in the ground against the possible frosty situation in the morning. I too covered my two tomato plants that I bought from them a couple of weeks ago. I don't think we will get down to the freezing/frost degree here but you don't take any chances. It is hard work and too many dollars to toss out if you don't give them protection.
After that I took my son with me to look at DVD/VCRs. Seems if you don't have a TV ready for the new techno equiptment, you don't get it. He is going to look online for me to see if he can find a combo without a digital tuner. And I am going to ask him to look for a new computer monitor. This one is really aging and needs replacing. It is the big bulky one and it takes up half my desk.
When I returned this sons wife called and she was headed to Sam's and asked me to go. So I hopped into HER car this time and off we went. I didn't get any good snacking while I was there and I could have used a little something to nibble on. My grands used to love to go to Sams because of all the different items they could sample. Bought my DH the biscuits he loves plus some of his favorite chicken pot pies and a couple of other items.
Back home again and you would think I could stop for a minute, but a friend called and said she had misplaced her tax information and could I get her the extension form. So to the computer and TurboTax to find all the info. I have done her taxes for her the last few years using the TT program. I did manage to get the form ready for her, however, I don't know if she got it mailed or not. She was under the impression she could take it to the post office anytime before midnight. But I thought you had to have it to the post office by the time they closed, which today was 7:30pm. If that was the case she didn't make it. Guess she will let me know some day.
It was now 7:30 pm and I really wanted to take a break, so to the computer I went and logged on to see what all you good gardeners were up to. A bit quiet this evening but lots of fun to be had anyway. Going to go check it with DWTS now.
More To Come Later
Apr 14, 2008 | 5:59 PM PST
Tags: babies , brides , blooming iris
visiting with my baby sister. She came through on Wed night, left Thursday morning for the wedding of her son. Returned Sunday evening complete with video of not only the wedding but of her beautiful little granddaughter.
That baby looks so cuddly, like you just want to kiss every little crease and blow on her tummy. I love babies. And that bride of my nephew??? She was undoubtably the most animated girl getting married I have ever seen. She was so cute. Have never heard anyone say their vows like she did. She was so happy to be getting married. Turns out my nephews sister met this new bride while they were in college and was thinking she would be great for her brother. That didn't happen at first and the bride actually was engaged for a very short time to another guy in another state. Then when the family got back with her again, things started slowly with the two of them and for the past 2 1/2 years they have built a wonderful relationship. Now they are off for two weeks in sunny Italy. Aren't flyer miles great? I wish the best to them. They are well suited for one another. I know it is hard for today's world to believe but they had never kissed on the mouth until the wedding. This was also true for my niece and her husband. It is such a wonderful thing to find something pure in this world.
Needless to say I have not been in the yards this weekend. After a little rain the other day I pulled a mountain of weed out of the mulched area between my neighbors house and ours. What a mess that was. I was just out looking around and found this weedy thing all tangled into my butterfly bush. Bent over to pull it out and then it started. I pulled and pulled and one area led to another until I could barely stand up to survey what had occured. I kid you not when I finally quit that pile of mess must have been three feet tall. Most of it fit into the trash can that our city will empty tomorrow and the rest will have to wait until the can is empty again.
My son in another town had to borrow my truck and I need more mulch. Hoping to get the aid of a friends truck this week. In order to finish up the White Garden I will have to get the mulch. Then I will be ready to move along in other gardening projects.
I forgot to take pictures of my iris blooming :-( They are beautiful! My lovely brown one, one frilly pale cream with pale yellow edges, one white with a yellow edge and of course the purple. I am in hog heaven!! :-) No wonder I have so many Iris, they are truly a wonder to behold. The early whites have already gone and there appears to be the bud of my solid purple iris. Not another shade of color on it. Somewhere out there is a yellow that had no other color either. And the new blue collection looks good and may bloom this year. Joy is in the air in my gardens.
More To Come Later
Apr 12, 2008 | 3:47 PM PST
Tag: new bed
out the side bed this past week:
This is before, what a big mess!!
This is it all cleaned out. All that is left is the Dusty Miller, Two White Angel Trumpets and my beautiful double white Clematis.
I am ready to start planting as soon as I can get a load of wonderful, dark, rich mulch. Newspaper will go down first and then the plants will be planted right into that. Sure hope to see a beautiful white flower bed this summer.
More To Come Later
Apr 8, 2008 | 6:16 PM PST
Tags: love , outside , dogwood cuttings , cleaning , DWTS
What a day this has been
What a rare mood Im in
Why, its almost like being in love
Theres a smile on my face
For the whole human race
Why, its almost like being in love
All the music of life seems to be
Like a bell that is ringing for me
And from the way that I feel
When that bell starts to peal
I would swear I was falling
I could swear I was falling
Its almost like being in love
Yes that is what Gardening is to me. Almost like being in love. I spent the day OUTSIDE. First I mowed the front yard full of weeds and winter grass. I looks nice even if it is not what a lawn should be.
Then I got started on the White Garden Bed. Dug out about 5 plants and got them moved to other areas. And in doing so I got a little weeding done in each spot. Things are looking up in the new bed. Will take the rest of the week to really get it done.
My son had an 18 ft swimming pool installed today. There was an old pink dogwood right where the pool was to go. It had to be knocked down, literally as they used some type of small tractor and just gave it a push. So I went up and took some branches, brought them home and did some cuttings. In 6 pots I put small cuttings and used rootone on them. I made other cuttings and placed them in the ground in a shady spot using rootone again. I wasn't through and decided to take a bit larger cuttings and just placed them in a good area where the mulch has made a nice impromptu bed. Who knows one or two of them just might develop into a beautiful pink dogwood. My son did inquire as to whether it could be moved. He decided it wasn't worth the price and the big hole it would have made to have it moved.
At that point in the day (having taken an hour for lunch) it was about 5pm and I was dirty, a bit smelly and greatly tired. Came in and got that wonderful hot shower. Fixed DH and myself a salad and chilled for a bit.
My sister and her DH are coming in tomorrow evening just for the night, so I will have to get their bed ready and clean up the ever dirty bathroom. Are those rooms ever really clean? Maybe for an hour until someone steps inside. Cleaning house is a lot like my gardens, they are never finished. Dust? just gets picked up and somehow finds its way right back on top of all the furniture. Sometimes I think of that saying "dust to dust", do you suppose we really begin that process the moment we are born and that is where the dust comes from? It has to come off of something.
It is always so tempting to go to all paper plates and take out, like you see people do on TV programs. They never cook but they never look like they are suffering any. Then on trash day all that would get picked up and if you timed it right, your kitchen would be spotless. And I like a clean kitchen, might have to go next door to see a clean kitchen with the dishes done and the counters all shiny and bright. Seems like the evening I do get the kitchen all nicely polished, someone has to put that last glass or bowl from ice cream IN THE SINK. IIIIIIIIEEEEE. Does that just bite!!
Dancing with the stars is on now and I have the VCR taping it, but I will go watch the end to see who gets booted off. This has been an odd year and Len has been extra grumpy. They have been so hard on little Marissa and I don't think that is fair. So she has a Tony and does broadway, that doesn't make her a professional ballroom dancer. Everyone is trying so hard and it is fun to see them improve as the weeks go by.
OK Bill, did you make it all the way down here?
More To Come Later
Apr 6, 2008 | 3:17 PM PST
Tags: poems , fragrant , thyme
For Spring:
Shakespeare:
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
Friendship's Garden (author unknown to me)
In friendship's fragrant garden,
There are flowers of every hue.
Each with its own fair beauty
And its gift of joy for you.
More to Come Later
Apr 5, 2008 | 6:05 PM PST
Tags: ducks , cobwebs , goldfinch
didn't it Rain children, didn't it Rain? back to thinking in music again.
It was a great day for ducks and all growing things. The wind did not blow, it just gave us a wonderful straight down steady rain. And I imagine my babies that I kicked out of the sunroom are loving it just because it has not been too hot for them. They need to get acclimated to the outdoors without being overly warm.
This day inside was another day of cleaning out the dust and cobwebs. Three rooms done and two to go. Maybe next week will give me another not so rainy day to finish up. My sister and her husband will be here on Wednesday evening for the night. Then up early on Thursday to head to Florida for their sons wedding. I sure wish I was able to go. But can't hit all those nieces and nephews weddings. This young man has done well for himself in the buisness world and has found a wonderful young woman to keep him going the rest of their lives. They will be back through on Sunday to stay a couple of days. That will be fun.
The American Goldfinch have been going heavily at the feeders this week. They were here a few weeks ago but left. I really love to watch them. There are nuthatch, blackcapped chickadee, tufted titmouse and purple/rosy finch as well. All these little birds are delightful to watch. The yellow bellied sapsucker is always around as are the cardinals, brown thrasher, blue jays, mouning doves and the ever present mockingbirds and sparrows. The yard is never quiet and I love it that way. Oh and don't forget those little pesky squirrels.
Happy Plantin' and Seedin' More To Come Later
Apr 4, 2008 | 11:16 AM PST
Tags: new plants , pix in blogs
latest shipment came today. This was the order that was pay postage and get $20 worth in plants.
When I opened the box the plants were in these clever containers.
I took them outside to put in larger containers until the side bed is ready and found they were in small pots.
Carnation Starlight on the left and Crazy Daisy (a shasta daisy type) on the right.
So now I have two more reasons for getting the side bed ready. Think I will go right now while the sun is shinning and begin.
And look I actually was able to put pictures in my blog. I need smiley faces, faces, faces to place here.
used part of what Bill said and put the urls in my notepad and copied from there to the blog. YEA!!! This is really fun now.
More to Come Later
Apr 2, 2008 | 7:31 PM PST
Tag: Astilbes
two tomato plants today and my Lemon Creme Lantana. It was hard to decide whether to do the maters in pots or the flower bed. Decided to try the bed this year. I have one cherry tomato and one Celebrity which is for my hubby. Tomatoes have a hard life here in the south, one virus or another takes them out every year. They might produce some OK fruit but they just look really bad.
Also took out all the plants that have been wintering over inside the house. I know they will be much happier being exposed to some normal air and temps. Houses are not the best place for plants to live that are supposed to be outside. Our weather is supposed to be back to normal the next 10 days. But I will have to be vigilant with the tomatoes. They are the most tender especially since they are in the yard and not under the carport.
Finished cleaning the dining room today. Feel like I got most of the white silty dust off everything. Tomorrow I will do the living room and perhaps get my sunroom back in order. This is where the plants lived all winter and it is a mess. I have to rearrange the furniture there in order to bring plants indoors. For now I say I will not do as many cuttings or bring in so many plants this fall. I will not be doing as many seeds, I did not enjoy that experiment. Cudos to all of you that have the patience and perhaps a better space for growing seeds indoors. I want to remember to start winter seeds this coming fall/winter in the seed bed. That is more up my alley and what I really like to do.
The next outside project will be cleaning up the side bed to get ready for the White Garden. And I have some plants that need to be planted that I bought from friends that grow in their greenhouse each year. They do this to support their growing garden habit. They make a wonderful garden with many types of veggies, then when the fruit of their labors come in they sell them to anyone passing by their home. They have a sign they put out, a table with a scale to weigh the plants and a calculater. They have a nice little set up.
It has been a very good day, the squirrels have not dug up the new plantings I did a few days ago. Though I had to really look for my little root of the Yellow Butterfly Weed. Finally found it. They had dug around it and covered it up. Oops, I meant to put a plant marker on it. Will have to remember to do that tomorrow.
I found that my Astilbes are both coming up and look wonderful. The Hostas are looking great and the ferns I put out last year are beginning to come up as well. So far I am pleased with what is transpiring in my gardens. I may be able to do just what I intended with all my hard work last year. Enjoy my gardens, water, feed, weed, sit in my lounge chair and watch the birds, butterflys and hummers come flitting by.
More To Come Later
Mar 30, 2008 | 12:50 PM PST
Tags: sisters visits , new plants
and visits are very good things. The two of us and our hubbies enjoyed the day together.
It was rainy in and out and pretty cold, but we had a good time visiting and walking through the Dearness Gardens in North Carolina. They had steady business despite the weather and the grounds and plants all looked so good. I think they were loving that rain.
I did not buy any plants!!!! Would you believe it? My husband could not!! I did buy a metal robin that is so pretty and four little bells to use at Christmas time.
Since I was tired and the eyes were weary we spent the night around Rock Hill, NC and then had a leisurely drive back home. Being it was a sunday morning there was not much traffic just a bit of rain along the way.
Can't wait to get back to the yard tomorrow and work with my newest plants. I received an email from Spring Hill that my free $20 worth (two plants) were on their way. I had ordered CARNATION STARLIGHT and CRAZY DAISY. I only had to pay the shipping. These will go into the new White Garden Plot.
More to Come Later
