Category Archives: flowers

May15

Couldn’t go…

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Both Bri and I weren’t feeling well today so we had to skip a baby christening. His stomach has been upset and my muscles and joints are all achy. I think it’s the hbp med as one of the side effects is muscle pain. I have been doing a ton of gardening and the last couple of days I was sorting and putting away summer clothes, though I was lifting heavy bags of clothes. Sean said usually I just complain about my back or arm hurting, not everything! I didn’t go to sleep until about 5 am. I dislike missing family functions, especially those we don’t see that often. I plan of calling the doctor and seeing if I can try something else. We have a wedding to go to Saturday. The bride was just sick this past week. I’m sure she’s fine now.
Got to sit outside a bit until Bri called me into to look at the old computer. It’s having issues with the virus software…won’t update and runs and runs. He tried to look at the internet when it was having issues!
Sean’s first day in the garden department at work! He’s glad to be off the registers for a change and it should help him learn more about plants.
Will share more photos as soon as the computer works. Update-after 4 hours it updated and is working so:
New Iris-Apricot
Peach Azalea with raindrops

May3

Springtime Flowers

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Burgundy Columbine, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I’ve been really busy for a few days outside since we’ve had nice weather. I wore a tank top and shorts today it was so warm. I’m happy to see the flowers, but wish they weren’t coming up around that creepy ‘Creepy Charlie’ and leaf debris. I have 5 crates of yard decorations and emptied 3 of them! I didn’t show the Asian bed as it’s not too colorful yet, but I have the pagodas all set up there.
These Columbine are in the mainly Iris garden and I have white Irises blooming too:
Newly opened white iris
Brian just planted a new Iris for me tonight-apricot color.
Also have a garden named for my friend Gret who loves nature and squirrels:
Gret's Garden
Nicotiana with Squirrels
And the pond area is up and running and also cleaned out:
Pond Garden
There are two new plants here, a pink and purplish Wallflower and a red Salvia (not shown here, but planted near the gazing ball).
So I’m making a dent in the work, but lots to do!
Last but not least, the little strawberry house I found at the flea market set in the gnome garden:
Strawberry House for Gnome garden

May2

painted gourds

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Just curious if you’d add these to your garden decor? I thought they were a bit cosmic and snake looking. Interesting colors!
I got outside and weeded around the pond and out front where I planted burgundy Pansies, pale pink Nicotiana and yellow and purple Johnny Jump Ups (you can see these plants in the wagon photo below). My Bleeding Hearts and a ground cover (what’s it’s name?) look very lush this year. 2 down and about 6 to go plus around the house. I have to kill some faux Snow on the Mountain plant that took over my entire side bed. I use the weed wacker, but you have to get the roots. More work for me!

Apr24

Here comes Peter Cottontail

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I hope everyone had a lovely Easter today! We reached 81 outside and it was like a summer day and we put the a/c on. I raked the Lily and Iris garden a bit and then put a turkey breast in for dinner. Brian cut the entire yard and it looks better. The trees are another issue. I have never seen them looks so bad as they do this year in the over 24 years of living here. Brian’s going to have to cut down a few shrubs and dead fruit trees, but the ones on the hill that lead to the stream would cost a ton to get cut down. It’s very rustic looking!
Sean had to work and he said it was boring. He is itching to get in the garden center and asked again. He did come home for dinner and enjoyed the turkey, veggies and crumb apple pie.
Off to get my hair done in my hometown tomorrow. After dinner I put together the cutest owl gift box from http://www.myowlbarn.com. All you do is print it out on card stock, cut it out and glue it together. It comes with owl bookmarks too. I made one to keep and one to give to Tori. I will take a photo to share.
My collage was really easy as the bunny came in a package and I glued him on the background of my choice.

Easter roses from Brian
Easter roses from Brian (plus a few left he gave me before Easter)

Mar20

Plant flowers for the bees

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Chocolate Sunflower with Bee, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

When you go to buy your flowers and seeds, remember the bees. We need them more than most people realize! They pollinate the veggies in the gardens for one thing. Unfortunately they are dying and we need to help them anyway we can. I am happy to say I saw more bees than any other insects (maybe not skeeters) last year, but I feel they love the flowers I plant and also most of my perennials. They love red and even flowers that that have more that one color (variegated) because they use the stripes as ‘landing pads’. Be a keeper of bees in any way you can.

Jan7

Longwood Christmas Display 2010

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~Click here to enlarge~
It was very chilly (below freezing) day today, but Sean and I headed over to Longwood Gardens as we were gifted with tickets and the display is closing on Sunday. There were some very imaginative decorations. I really liked the tree with the moss, dried roses, silver painted ferns and pine cones that were cut in half (photos #3-thinking Ms. Zoey would like that too!)The tent was interesting-the 5th photo. It displayed a collection of perfume bottles inside and there were at least a dozen bonquets of white florals around it plus lit evergreens.

I also wanted to see the gardens with an icing of snow, I don’t remember seeing more than just a dusting of snow there before. Very pretty. We also go for the lights which were just as amazing, but difficult to photograph at night. We went up in one of the newer treehouses called ‘the birdhouse’ and that was 3 flights of stairs-oy! Nice view of the Dupont house.

Another new area was the hall of bathrooms-I kid you not-with about 20 large individual bathrooms. The walls of the hall are lined with living plants (first photo).

We ate a sandwich and mushroom soup in the cafe. I had an eggplant one which was cold-would have been tastier kept warm. The mushroom soup tasted good and warmed us up. It took me a good 45 minutes to warm up when we got home.

More snow expected tomorrow.

Aug24

Variegated Nasturtiums

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I took this photo a few weeks ago and this particular pot is just taking off well with it’s display of jewel tone flowers. I’ll have to go take a few new shots of the different ones. I think the variegated leaves are so interesting, like milk was spilled on them. And how easy is it to plant nasturtiums-you poke your finger in the dirty, drop in the seed and cover!
Our veggie garden is finishing up and mostly presented us with cucumbers. We only got 6 zucchini and a few cups of green beans. I see one spaghetti squash. And we have had at least 3 dozen tomatoes, but tossed a lot down the hill too. I asked Farmer Brian if he put down any fertilizer and he said ‘no’. We used Miracle*Gro a few times, but there is nothing like good old manure to sweeten the earth.
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On Saturday we went to a surprise party for my sister-in-law Colleen who hit 40. She’s the youngest of the in-laws and looks great for her age. She was very surprised. I gave her the cutest piggy watering can from good ol’ JoAnn’s with a gift card from Home*Goods. I think she got lots of them, but isn’t it fun to pick out what you really want or like?
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Heading back down to my hometown in the late afternoon. Sean is off and is nice enough to drive me as my van is still iffy with the transmission. It’s a 48 mile round road trip and that’s when we had a leakage issue before. I said we could stop at Tar-gay and the California*Tortilla for dinner.
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Finished the main design on my birthday gift-1 down 8 to go, but the small motifs can probably get finished in a night or two. I’m doing good!