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39 years ago today

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:03 pm

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It was 39 years ago today that I planted my first vegie garden. I had helped my Mom when I was 4 but this one was mine.
The reason I remember it so clearly is because I had been having a true case of "nesting syndrome" for more than a week.
My first baby was due at any time, at my Drs. visit the previous Monday I told him about the nesting thing....cleaning house like a madwoman, rearranging cabinets (would have literally taken them off the wall, I had that much energy, but couldn't find a hammer). My Mom had said that meant the baby would be born in 7-10 days, my Dr. said that was an old wives tale and to make an appointment for the next Monday....they didn't induce labor in those days, the baby decided when it would be born.
So that Thursday I took a shovel and some okra and blackeye pea seeds out into the back yard and started digging in the hard, dry west Texas dirt to make a garden bed about 10'long and 2' wide. Got the seeds planted and watered, took a nap and we had some friends over for dinner that night.

4 o'clock the next morning I went into labor and my first baby, my beautiful Lisa was born just under 6 hours later that morning. (and this is one of those years when her birthday is on the same day of the week on which she was born)

The vegies did grow, even tho I was a little distracted the rest of the summer with a new baby. We never did pick and eat any of the produce, it got hot and with a new baby I just forgot the plants were out there until we were getting ready to sell the house in Sept and found the dried up remains out there.


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Daddies Birds

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:57 pm

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For many years my Dad's hobby was woodworking. He started small and progressed to making some gorgeous pieces of furniture....two sets of speaker cabinets (not the small black box kind either) and a octagonal pedestal game table approx 5' in diameter that matched one set of speaker cabinets. I have that set of cabinets in the livingroom and can still make the windows next door rattle when I turn the volume up on a favorite piece of music :)...another of his loves was building radios and record players (before the days of stereo) so these cabinets are not just for pretty :)

Anyway, the small things he started on were birds in assorted sizes and shapes. When he passed in 1995, I found the box of birds in their shed and brought them home. I knew I wanted them out where I could enjoy them but had no idea where, so they sat in the box in my workroom closet. When I started gardening the idea of painting them and mounting them to a fence panel started to form, but that just never worked out either. Then I spotted this stand on the curb two houses down waiting for trashday. It was just too good to passup so on the night of my birthday in April, I sent Randy and my son-in-law down there to get it for me. Randy is used to my odd ball collection of stuff but Kenny was just dumbfounded.
This is the piece that we figure was used by the neighbors to hold pool equipment of some sort.

The stars and birdhouses I bought and painted to use as fillers with the birds.


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It's not mine, but I have one

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:23 pm

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I have one of these Giant Swallowtail butterflies in the back yard. She flits around every morning from plant to plant then, of course, disappears as soon as I get back out with the camera.



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Just a puddle of water

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 5:19 pm

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That's me after feeding the birds and watering the garden. I overslept, couldn't get to sleep last night so I got up and knitted until 3. So sleeping in until 10 was not out of the question, but I did feel guilty about it. Why is that???

Got out to start watering about 11 and since the water restrictions are in effect and it was after 10 I could only water holding the hose or using a bucket and that took a long time out there.

There is a chance of rain tomorrow...hahahahahaha that is such a joke. Several areas around us got rain and hail yesterday afternoon. We heard thunder, the breeze picked up a bit and blew those beautiful dark clouds over us and away.
Rain or not the temp it supposed to cool down into the mid-80's so I will be getting up early and play out back for a while. Randy spread sulfur on the yard yesterday hoping to take care of the bugs that consider me their "meals on wheels" delivery.

I did get the other two ladders I was offered. I need to get the tall one painted and placed out where the Cypress Vines are getting longer and longer and twinning themselves around everything else.

Also got the wooden birds my Dad made painted and will get them on that hard to describe pool equipment stand, put it out back and take some pictures.





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FRED in pictures from on high

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:07 pm

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Randy got up on the roof this morning to take the pictures.
Cucumber trellis and the ever growing Rosemary bush


A meer six years ago this area was only the Fig tree and those rose bushes


I tried my best to stay out of camera range, but he got me anyway


My makeshift potting area next to the shed.


Just one of many as yet undone projects is to paint that shed.


This started out with the birdbath and an 18" tall dwarf hollyhock 5 years ago.


The Canna bed




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First blooms, this year - pictures

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 6:52 pm

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The white hibiscus is beginning to open it's blooms.



It was difficult to hold that ruler in the right place and take a picture, in the bright sun that prevented me from seeing anything, anyway. This bloom is 8" across.



One patch of Glads are begining to bloom too.....at least a month early thanks to the early heat we have been stuck with.




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Birthday Fairy

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 6:06 pm

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Can you tell I have a new camera? Got a good deal on a better digital and boy am I having fun taking much better pictures of things in the yard.
I will be chasing Randy up on the roof soon so he can get a good overall picture of the whole garden ....hopefully.

My youngest daughter gave me this fairy for my birthday. It has a sensor that turns the light in the lantern on at night and off at sunrise. The book she is reading was blank but I wrote the first two lines from The Two Trees by Yeats "Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
the holy tree is growing there"



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Bushy Tail Buffet - Pictures

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 10:37 pm

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Looks like I will only be getting one of the ladders afterall. The other lady forgot to put them out for us to pickup this afternoon and it is just too far to make another trip for them.

But the one I have is now the Bushy Tail Buffet
Dried corn on the cob on spikes on the ladder steps and where the old paint can holder used to be is a small green tray with sunflower seeds just for them. I painted it the same pale yellow as the fairy chair and put it in the middle of the Horseherb bed.



And another view


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Today is "Someday"

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 3:06 pm

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For months I have been looking at the bed around the hibiscus and saying "someday" I will expand that area since they are getting sooooooo big. Today I started weeding around them, one thing led to another as those things are want to do in the garden and before I knew it the whole 12foot long bed was 1 foot wider.

Those babies come back bigger and bigger each year and it looks like this will be a banner year for blooms. Since we basically had no winter, they are already covered with buds and that usually doesn't happen until late June.

I have two, a red and a white. The second spring they started growing I was really afraid someone driving down the alley would think the white one was a "pot" plant, the leaves looked very similar. Course some of our neighbors are the sort that would start picking the leaves instead of calling the narcs.

I can hardly wait until they start blooming so I can take pictures for you all to see. The blooms are usually 8-12 inches across.

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Almost finished? hahahahaha

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 4:49 pm

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Does it ever really come to an end? Just when I think I have it all done and can sit back to just enjoy it with only doing a little weeding now and again....I think of some other garden area I want to create, find another plant or bunch of plants I want or find another piece of junk to turn into garden junque....and that requires a special area too.

There really is no more space for plants....at least until I give the ones out there a chance to grow and see how full they get.
And no place for more garden areas until we get some trees trimmed back and a couple of dead ones taken down. (that is our job for this weekend) Both the peach and the redbud are almost 30 years old. The peach tries every year, it blooms and sets some fruit but they drop off before reaching marble size, then limbs start dying. The redbud didn't even come back this year. Those areas will still be pretty much shaded by the hackberry tree. I already have some Horseherb out there and would love to make a shade garden with lots of Hosta, Ferns and Impatients.

As far the garden junque.....I found a thing that was just way too cool to let the trashman take away a couple of weeks ago. We think it had been used by the neighbors to hold pool cleaning equipment. It is two tall shutters at a 45degree angle on a base. Pictures will be forth coming when I am finished with it. I am painting those wooden birds I mentioned in another blog entry that my Dad had made many years ago...they will be hung on it and it will stand in a bed area right behind the house.

I also posted a Wanted on the rEcycle list I own asking for old, wooden, rickety ladders. I was given one this week and we are picking up two more tomorrow. One will be a squirrel feeder.....on the other side of the yard from the bird feeders so maybe they will leave the birdseed alone....I can dream can't I? The other two will become trellis', one for a Cypress Vine I found coming up in the middle of the Mint Marigold, the one I had in that spot 3 years ago reseeded and they are just now coming up. The other one I will come up with something to use it for later.

See what I mean!!!! And I haven't even started on the front yard yet.




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