Category Archives: gardening

May2

Dianne loves Coleus…and shopping for plants

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Dianne loves Coleus, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Brian was kind enough to take me on a little excursion up in lower Lancaster County plant farm. Such a pretty area! We cross from our county Chester to Lancaster over the Octoraro Reservoir.
Octoraro Reservoir
It was in the 60s, but not really sunny. We had a good time looking in the greenhouses and looking at about half of the perennials-I think there were 20 rows of them! I only bought a couple as I want to do a little more research on the ones I really want. It’s nice they offer two sizes- a $2.49 pot and the bigger one to see if you like it I guess. I did buy one apricot color iris and a few other perennials.
Some of my plant haul
We then went down the road a bit to a flea market.
Nottingham Flea Market
The place is poorly lit and the prices were a bit high. I found a Snowbabies music box-it sure looks like one and I got this strawberry ceramic ‘house’ that went right in the gnome and fairy garden-she gave them to us for $5. The music box was really dirty and I had to dunk the top in soapy water and sand off the old glitter. The one baby came off and he got a bath. It looks like new again and plays ‘Twinkle, Twinkle..little star’.
Snowbabies music box
We came home and grilled up steak, chicken and hot dogs, some for other meals. I made homemade mac and cheese with chives and a variety of cheeses. We had a nice day and it was especially meaningful when we heard that Bin Laden was deceased. It’s about time!

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.

Oct20

Fall clean-up

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Milkweed seeds, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Today I decided to dig up the Ornamental grass that had taken over my Lily garden. I ‘dislike’ forgetting to do things. I don’t know what happened last fall, but the one plant I had kept didn’t get it’s seed heads snipped and there were at least a dozen or more grasses everywhere in this bed. I still did keep one plant, but off came the seed heads!
Dug up Ornamental grass
Since I was all ‘worked up’, I went around back and tackled the Butterfly bush. Another shrub which was either not cut back enough or ignored. This was a job and a half! It took me a good 45 minutes to trim. I left an almost full garden cart for Brian who needs to empty it as I can’t lift it (with the grasses). I just left the big pile of branches from the Butterfly bush.
Pile from Butterfly Bush trim back
I also planted two pinkish-purple mums and 6 yellow pansies and dug up a Flowering maple plant. I am still packing up stuff to store-now I know why it takes me weeks to get it right as I have so much put out. I am sore, but glad I got done more in the yard.
Isn’t that a neat photo of the Milkweed above? I should cut most of those seed heads off too. Nature sure knows how to regenerate well!
Red leaves and berries of the Burning Bush
Burning bush
Mums blooms galore
Down the front path
Behind the house
Behind the house
Witchy pal
Witchy pal from the Christmas Tree Shops.

Oct18

All fixed- I hope

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Going to the dentist ruined my day in a way. Sean was off and he is always kind enough to take me somewhere. We had planned to go to my mom’s house, but the appointment was at 3 and I didn’t get home until 4. My tummy was a bit bothersome, I think something is going around in the family. A piece of my tooth had broken off-the natural part, not a patch, so he patched it, but hurt my gums alot! He knew of the brewery we went to a few weeks back and was telling me a long story about that (he’s only about 30).
I did go with Sean to a place that not only changes oil, it changes tires. And they always tell you one or two tires need replacing. Sean didn’t get tires, he’ll go to a Wally World with a tire center and get his 10% off. Geez. We went to Macaroni*Grill which was good, but not as good as the other chain places. And beware of the Italian soda-no free refills, so it cost Sean $12 for 4 drinks-terrible.
I did do a collage, she is almost finished and I’ll put her up tomorrow. I was too tired to add the final touches and take a photo of it.
I can share the adorable gremlin I won from Honey Girl Studio

This is Melissa’s photo. I will have to find the perfect spot for him.
I need to cut back some ornamental grass that spread all over my lily garden and I remember digging most of it out last year. I also want to add a few mums I just purchased. Hope I get to the garden work!

Sep6

Seed collecting

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Just wondering if any of my gardening friends would like some Chocolate sunflower seeds, Dinner plate hibiscus or Cleome seeds? I am in the process of getting them rounded up. The Hibiscus and Cleome are okay, but the Sunflower heads need to dry out a bit. The birds got a lot of them too.
I had purchased the Hibiscus from an eBay seller and started them in pots. They do come up again year after year. The branches looks dead and all of the sudden you see green ones coming up. The Cleomes are self-seeders too.
Let me know. And if you had some to share with me-that would be cool!
Dinner Plate Hibiscus
Dinner Plate Hibiscus
Cleome
Cleomes
Chocolate Sunflowers
Chocolate Sunflower

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!

Aug10

Coordinating

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I think this pot goes so well next to our brick red shed. I plant nasturtium seeds all over in the various gardens and this year they just aren’t taking off. I am hoping when this ‘7th’ heatwave passes (and maybe is the last one for the year, but who knows) will help these particular plants creep, crawl and flower. The other plants are a deep ruby color Nicotiana and a lovely coleus. These plants are doing pretty good this year, though the coleus had a rough start.
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Sean had off so we went down to a mall in Delaware that they are redoing. It looks a lot like one of the biggest malls on the east coast-the King of Prussia mall. The Christiana Mall now has many high end shops. I head right to the sale tables-lol-like in Anthro*polgie. I got some cute things-like travel style rubber stamps, a cute big cup and bowl of the same design and a gift for someone. We ate at the Cheese*cake Factory. I will tell you that I would have been happy to go just for the huge plate of nachos for $5 and the fancy drinks for happy hour. I ended up bringing 2 of my fish tacos home (thx to Rachael*Ray for getting me hooked on them).
Have to share what was just on the news-Sean was pointing out that a town they were showing was where a pal lives and the soldier who came home to the town had the same name as him Sean Collins! LOL

Aug5

Follow the stepping stones

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Stepping stones to front door, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I like walking on these stones and need to get a few more as beyond them the ground is worn down to where the path ends (going the other way). I just mulched today near the brick sidewalk and it looks so much better. Two bags of mulch down, one to go, but my roses need a bag too.
Another very sticky day. I really mess with my sinuses going in and out of a cool house to the outside. It’s nice to cross some things off a list too! I’d like to do more inside now. We have a few a few pipes in the basement with leaks-just small ones, but they are 50 yrs old too. A friend on Facebook was telling me how he fixes his 80 yr old pipes.