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garden pictures

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 3:23 pm

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Here is the garden last week. It had just rained. There are a few irises out.





And here's the garden yesterday. I finally got the patch in the foreground stripped of grass. The plan is to dig up more grass and put in a path beside where it is tilled. No time line for that, as we can't decide what to use for the path: flagstone, bricks, cement squares.

There are quite a few more irises that have bloomed. I've got dark purple, medium purple, white, purple/gold, and one peach. I think there's blue ones yet to bloom. The lilacs on the left-hand side are Miss Kim Miniature Lilacs. There are four bushes there that we planted in 2003. They are just starting to come out and they smell wonderful. The rocks to the left of the patio opening are just there temporarily until I find a new place for them. Of course, in my life, temporary means they'll probably be there in September. LOL.




Here's a close up of an iris after the rain.




Here's the area that I stripped the grass from. To the right are miniature lilacs we got from friends. They were planted last fall and are doing fabulous.




For the peony fans, there are a few that look like they will be blooming soon.




Here's the iris bed last week. Not too many bloomers.




And yesterday. I don't remember there being so many of the purple/gold ones. It seemed last year that it was all purple, but perhaps they just took a little longer to flower. You can't see it, but there is also a light purple one that's low to the ground.




I've started a few zuke seed inside and they are starting to sprout. I'm also trying to start watermelons inside. Nothing on those seeds yet. And I'm also starting basil inside. I just love fresh basil. Yum. As for vegetables, I want to put in a little lettuce, a few tomato plants, and the zukes and watermelons. I'm not expecting much from the watermelons, but it will be fun to see what happens.

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She flew the coop

Category: robin's egg blue | Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 2:55 pm

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Mama bird has flown the coop. I checked on Saturday, and there was one little peep and three eggs. Checked again on Sunday, and the count was 2-2. I went out this morning, camera in hand, and found...

Nothing. Wait, not nothing. There was one feather. But that was all. No Mama. No peeps. No shells. Just an empty nest. I guess she didn't like her privacy being invaded so much. Oh well. I can only hope she would have moved her family whether we watched her or not, having built her nest so close to the garage and driveway.

So that ends this blog. Thanks for reading.

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still just eggs

Category: robin's egg blue | Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 1:17 pm

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Nothing new on the eggs. I took a picture yesterday, but it looks just like all the rest. I'm not sure if Mama Bird is getting used to us, but she is flying off less and less. Only when we get too close. We're tyring to give her a wide berth.

More later.

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oooh. more irises

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 1:16 pm

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I now have about a dozen irises around the smoke tree. It's raining now, so I haven't taken a picture. I'll get one as soon as it stops raining. I also have two open in the big garden. One of them is a Pope. I'm not sure of the story behind it, but it is from my husband's uncle. The flowers are much larger than the other irises. I have them in white and blue.

Also, my miniature lilacs that we transplanted from my inlaw's house last fall are starting to bloom.

And the weeds continue to prosper as well. Pictures after the rain, I promise.

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a little mamma is going to have babies

Category: robin's egg blue | Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 1:23 am

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I was washing the car on Saturday, and every time I went into the garage, a bird flew out of the rhododendron bush beside the garage door. It took me a while before I got curious. Sure enough, there was a nest with four precious blue eggs. I took photos the past three days and hope to keep snapping them until the little guys fly away. Or until the mama robin pecks my eyes out. Lol.

Saturday:



Sunday:



Monday:



Obviously, it is going to be a little boring until something happens, but I had all the pics, so I posted them.

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my first iris!

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 1:18 am

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Saturday I got a very pleasant surprise to find one of the irises open. As of today, it's the only one, but there are a few more out there getting ready to pop. This is from today:



The open iris is on the right-hand side. Looking back, those flowers have really come a long way since March. I hope the pictures will do the garden justice when all of them are open. It's just beautiful.

The main garden continues to grow. I'm trying to get out there every few days to pull weeds. So many weeds. There are black-eyed susans growing between the cracks in the stones in the patio. They are a bugger to pull as the stones are only 1/4" apart. Any suggestions on what to use to kill them? They can't grow or you won't be able to use the patio. I've used vinegar and boiling water in the past. Both work well. I hate to use anything chemical for fear it would harm what I don't want to kill. Here's the latest picture from Saturday:


Here's a recent photo of the peonies. Nothing popping there yet:


We were forecasted to get a frost last night. Thankfully we didn't. Of course as DH pointed out, the weathermen put every county in our half of the state on frost watch so they'd look like heroes when only 2 square miles on the top of a hill got frosted. Lol.

I'm going to start my second blog. We got a little surprise over the weekend.

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Pictures...finally

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:56 pm

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April was a very busy month with very little getting done. Everyone in the house was sick and to the doctor's office at least once. A lot of things didn't get done, including my pledge to post the progress of my garden. But inspite of me, my garden has prospered.

Please check out the pictures while I go stand in the corner as punishment. LOL.


This is obviously the garden during our early April snowfest. We were to have mulch delivered and spread that day. Gee. I wonder why we didn't.


Here is on the 16th after we got the mulch down. It was raining that day. The yellow daffodils are just about done.


Here we are on the 26th. The white daffodils are now out. The small green blob to the left of the daffodils to the left of the tree are my peonies.


And here we are today. The peonies are about 2 feet tall. Check out the tree leaves! There's not much bare space, as a lot of other plants, including weeds are coming out.


Here's the iris bed in snow. Bleh.


And here's the iris bed today. I don't know if you can see the flowers -- not sure what the head is called in this stage. My BIL who lives a few miles away said his irises aren't out as much as mine. I'll attribute it to the mulch.

Okay, can I come out of the corner now? Now that I spent an hour relearning how to resize and upload photos, I'm hoping I won't take so long to post again.

I was at the garden center today to buy zucchini seeds and saw peony baskets. I'd never seen them before. Has anyone ever used them? Similar to a tomato basket but wider. Makes sense. I usually use fishing line to hold mine up. I love peonies, but I can't stand the ants that love them too. I'll be starting my zukes inside. Not sure what else I'll plant. My DS brought home two pea plants that he started from seed in science class, so those will find a special place in my garden. This child hates peas, but he's looking forward to eating these peas. LOL. Kids are so funny!


Last edited: Wed May 09, 2007 8:57 pm

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On the blog again. Just can't wait to get on the blog again

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:31 am

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I am so ashamed that I haven't posted in almost two weeks. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Well, although I haven't posted, I have been taking pictures of my garden. I'm sure my not posting had something to do with the fact that most of the pictures I took were when the garden was covered in snow. YUCK! This horrible weather has got to stop! Also, when last I posted, we were to get mulch delivered and spread. Unfortunately, the supplier didn't get his delivery. We rescheduled it for the following Friday (Good Friday), but woke to one inch of snow with more to follow throughout the day. I wasn't really too enthused to spend the day spreading sh#t in the snow (another four-letter word, in my book!). And I'm not sure it would have been good for the plants -- cold & frozen -- to have warm mulch spread on top of them. So now we're planning to have it delivered this Saturday. The last I checked, the weather for Saturday is 10% chance of rain and a high of 35. Woo Hoo. Let me say that again: Woo Hoo. Yee Hi Yippee Kye-A. Am I looking forward to this or what???

As for the snow and subsequent frost, our magnolia tree froze. It was just starting to bloom and it smelled soooo good. DH even commented it was a shame we were going to get mulch (two weeks ago) because it would interfere with the smell. So much for that.

My crab apple looks blighted, but it might be okay. Seems to me that in previous years, the buds look dead-ish before they pop. And I think the lilacs will be okay.

My daffodils have been amazing. The snow and frost knock them down, and by mid-afternoon each day, they are popping back up. I did cut a bunch prior to the snow and it was nice having a bouquet inside to enjoy. I probably wouldn't have done that if we had good weather.

The garden, despite the weather, is really starting to fill in. That's the disadvantage of waiting so long to put down the mulch -- we have to take special care not to bury the plants. If we could have gotten it two weeks ago, it would have been so much easier. Oh well. Things happen for a reason.

The other "fun" thing that's been going on is this: as I mentioned we have a magnolia tree. It is in our front yard. The branches are very very low to the ground, and therefore we cannot mow under it. We've been contemplating what to do every year we've been here: mulch, low flowering plants, rocks. We finally agreed on mulch, so after I trenched it, I covered it with weed fabric. We get so many weeds growing under it, it looks like grass from the road, but as I said, it's too low to mow. DH had the good idea to stake it down with aluminum nails. We just happened to have a large box of 2" nails. So after I carefully cut the fabric to fit the circle (25' in diameter), I tapped nails into it every foot or so (I was using 3' wide fabric). Well, that was two weeks ago when the mulch was supposed to be delivered. Today we got one heck of a wind storm, and the next thing I know, there's sheets of fabric blowing in the wind. I grabbed everything I could think of that was heavy and threw it down on the fabric to keep it in place. So now it is covered with somewhat twisted fabric, planks, rocks, a scooter, a toy truck, and a wheelbarrow. It looks great from the road. LOL. (I'm sure some of you are thinking that I was nuts for using 2" nails, but you have to admit, it held tight for 12 days. I'm sure Mother Nature got a good chuckle out of that one.)

Okay, so that catches me up to date. The grass is getting greener thanks to a healthy dose of fertilizer. The bulbs I ordered from Brecks should be here soon. I'll try to get back here soon to post the garden pics. Have a great evening.

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Somebody said this blogging stuff was addictive!

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:27 pm

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OMG! You guys are great. I can't believe somebody reads my stuff and then takes the time to post. I wish I had more time to read everybody's posts. Maybe clean clothes are over-rated.

Today (Tuesday, March 27) it got to (almost) 80 degrees. I took a picture:


Here's the two blooms I shot on Sunday:




Here's another daffodil. I took this picture at 1:30 this afternoon:



My daughter came in around 2:30 and said I had a daffodil open in the garden. It was the same plant!



And lastly, here's the flower garden and the iris bed:





That's all for now!

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A trenching we will go!

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:20 pm

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Sunday dawned a beautiful day that provided a wonderful opportunity to spend time working in the garden. My husband went to Lowe's and took the kids with him, which allowed me to begin trenching out the garden beds for the mulch that I hope to have delivered this Friday if DH can take the day off. We will get four yards of mulch. We have a tractor with a front-end loader. Honestly, the thing scares the he!! out of me, so I leave the driving to him. Someday I'll learn how to use it (I used to drive our tractor when I was a kid, but that was a looooooong time ago!) but while we have little kids, someone has to watch the kids so that they don't get underfoot, and I'm just as happy to do that.

Here is a before picture of the main garden



and an after picture. You can see in the foreground where I've started digging out the grass to expand the garden.




Here's the iris bed before



and after.



And now that I don't have to be jealous of those already getting flowers, here's two of my soon-to-be-bloomers:





I still have three mulch beds in the front yard to do before we get the mulch delivered. We are supposed to have good weather the rest of the week, but dip back down into the 40's next week :(

That's all for now. I'm hoping to get outside this afternoon to take more shots. Unfortunately, we got a new computer last year and for some reason, our digital camera will not work with the new computer. I've tried to fix it, and I know nothing about computers. DH has tried to fix it, and he does know about computers. So until we figure it out, we have to download the pictures to the old computer in the basement, move them to a flash drive, then put them onto the new computer. After that, it's edit, resize, upload. Whew. A lot of work to post a picture. That's why it takes me a while to post pictures I took a few days ago!

I ordered three "Lemon Queen Heliantus" from Brecks. Since I'm a frugal gardener, I took them up on their $25 free gift certificate and purchased a plant that would bloom the longest: early summer to frost. So many of their bulbs need to be lifted for my zone (5). I think the yellow will look good in the garden. Any comments on Breck's products?

I'll be back later! Thanks for reading.
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