Category Archives: yard

Jul25

Butterfly Paradise

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We have a bay window facing the backyard in our family room. The family room was the garage at one time. Why waste a big window facing the road when you can view a peaceful backyard? I have a butterfly bush planted under the window here. It’s as tall as the house and attracting a ton of butterflies. Right now I see a yellow shallowtail on it. I can’t even see the pond, but it’s nice to see the pretty purple blooms and the ‘flutterbys’.
I planted the 4 iris rhizomes yesterday and am expecting 10 more next month. My hibiscus seeds started to pop out of the pots. I planted10 and 6 are coming up. All the new plants benefited from the storm that went through here at 4 am.
I was just outside showing the guy where to pump out the septic tank. That’s country living for you though we now could get public water and sewer. Maybe someday if it becomes a problem. It’s the law to get them pumped every few years. Our toilets haven’t been flushing all the way and the shower isn’t draining that well. This should help as they pump out 1,000 gallons of waste.
I hope you saw the shows on the Titanic last night on the Discovery Channel. They were really good. Just when you think you have heard or seen everything about the Titanic, something new is unearthed. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, went down to the wreck again and had smaller robots to view parts of the ship that haven’t been seen before. They got to see the Turkish baths! The tile was still in good shape after 93 yrs! It was so neat. The other show talked about the building of the Titanic which was interesting and ‘reinacted’ very well. Five years of work for a ship that sunk in less than 3 hours.

Jul24

Think I’ll become a rhizome farmer!!

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You know what rhizomes are, don’t you? Sounds biological, but it’s just growing irises-the flower! They don’t have bulbs, they have rhizomes. I was out planting some rhizomes that I purchased on eBay. I was talking to myself (in my head) and I thought, if I could grow all these neat varieties on our acre of land that we don’t really use, I could sell them and make a mint! I paid roughly $3-4 each for them. If I only sold 10 a week, that could be an easy $40!!! It’s definitely something we could think about. I’ll have to Google iris growers/growing. I grew them in the past and they were gorgeous.
I didn’t go to my Mom’s today. She suggested tomorrow, just in case she needs to go to the doctor. She had a rough night last night. I still say she should put calomine lotion on the lesions, but the doctor said not to. I read in a number of places where it is okay. She is popping pain pills like crazy. Damn shingles.

Jul23

My son the almost lobster…

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Will kids ever listen? Sean went to the beach with some friends today. They went down in Ocean City, Maryland about 2.5-3 hours from here. I was putting sunscreen on his linen white back at 7 am. He came home here at 9:30pm all splotchy red and lobster like. I had recommended he keep his shirt on or wrap a towel around himself. I recommended water and snacks. He drank the solo bottle of water he took, but had no snacks and went about 7 hours without eating. Knowing him, he must have been starving! We eat 3 square meals, not 3 fancy squares, but we try to eat every 4-5 hours. I think he had a good time. He needed this so bad. He can learn from his mistakes with the sunscreen and snack packing.
Brian and I hung out today together. He rototilled a half moon around my circle of zinnias and cosmos so I could plant the various bearded iris rhizomes I have and am expecting next month. I miss them so much that I decided to get more and plant them in a place where I can dig them up when they need dividing. Plus they will bloom first and then the flowers seeds will follow.
I sat on the lounge chair and started a new novel! Yeah! It was lent to me by my mom and I opened it up and out fell the directions for the screen house we had so much trouble trying to assembly on the 3rd.
Brian and I went up to Kennett Square and were going to try this one restaurant out and decided on another and then we just got nachos and salads. I had a piece of coconut torte too. I love trying desserts. The food was ok. When we got home, he found a few coupons for the restaurant in a monthly coupon book that we get. We’ll have to try their brunch some Sunday and use the coupon. There was a ‘hot’ waiter in there who looked like a blue-eyed Matt LaBlanc (from friends). If you don’t look you’re dead, ya know? LOL
I’ll probably head off to mom’s in the morning to see what I can do for her. I hope it’s not food shopping.

Jun30

Some of my favorite places-my gardens…

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This fairy/gnome garden use to be my rose garden. There are some mini yellow and orange marigolds plus some snapdragons and blue lobelias on this side. On the other side (referring to the other side of the ancient stone birdbath) are the gnomes and some trailing herbs and a big plant of babies breath. I found those cute mini bed posts at Kohls one year and they are on either side of the garden (get it-‘garden bed’). The bush you see in this photo is a pink spirea. I love the red mulch and use it in 5 areas around the yard. Posted by Hello

Jun30

Pond area

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This is my little pond. I mostly have flowering plants in pots like sunny pale yellow petunias, mini orange marigold and lime green sweet potato vine. That is a neat gazing ball, like a champagne color and it’s crackled. I do have purple and pink flowers (salvia, lobelia, dianthus) planted around the gazing ball. I an see the waterlily blooming it’s deep pink flower in the middle of the pond. I added some Japanese irises to in between the stones near the wrought iron fish. In the background you can see the butterfly bush (under the bay window that faces this area, the backyard). There are some tiny white petunias, a yellow coreopsis and a hanging pot of more petunias and portulaca at the corner of that area. Posted by Hello

Jun30

Herbs and such

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This is a corner of my house next to a metal basement door (the kind that opens up) that needs painting. I ripped out a ton of viney growth and added some herbs, dianthus, marigold, daisies and even some eggplant, a couple of yellow pepper and a roma tomato. As you can see it’s very English garden like right now, which I like. The big pot is full of red & white candy cane striped petunias. The other plant that you can’t see is in a sofa table that lost it’s glass. It has petunias and portulacas in it. Posted by Hello

Jun29

Invasion of the Japanese beetles

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As a gardener, I dread the destructive Japanese beetle. For such an unusual and almost pretty bug, they are a nightmare. I see nibbles everywhere. I got out the bug juice and even sprayed my sunflowers, and about 4 of the beetles came to the top of the leaves and I could almost see them coughing from the spray.
I know some history about Japanese beetles. I can’t believe they were actually brought to this country! Why not throw some locust in too! I bet they came from foreign soil also. Eat everything that people grow!!
The Chestnut trees are dropping their fuzzy bombs all over everything now. What’s falling is like a skinny animal tail about 6″ long. And this year we have a bumper crop of them. In the fall the needle-like burrs with the chestnuts inside come a tumbling down followed by the leaves. We had a Lowe’s gift card and I was pushing for Brian to get a chainsaw-no luck! Just give them a little trim, please?

May27

Seed planting

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Just a little while ago, I finally got my first few packages of seeds in a circle garden that Brian dug up for me last night. It’s where we use to have a satellite dish (yep, one of those huge ones) and there’s a hunk of cement left there. I did the same thing last year and it looked pretty. I usually plant flower seeds every year anyway. I sprinkled some wildflower seeds in first followed by Cosmos, Zinnias (including lime green ones), and Marigolds. In the center is a raised up little container with colored glass and water. It got dirt in it from the rototiller, so I should have cleaned it out first before I planted anything.
I do have another circle garden for sunflowers. Last year the deer and probably groundhogs too ate almost everything in there. I’ll try again. I just don’t like breaking my back for wildlife who have acres and acres of vegetation behind my house to munch on.
I did a lot of running around today. I mailed off a few items, got a piece of posterboard (the store I went to doesn’t sell uncut mat board), gas (the van was running on fumes), strawberries for a picnic tomorrow at a produce place and finally I hit the grocery store. I can’t stop buying plants! I got some gorgeous geraniums-day glow pink, white with a pinkish center and dark burgundy. I got some coleus-some are similar to a few I saw on a fellow gardener’s blog-reddish orange, but they are a mixture. I also got some feathery celosia. Not many places have the portuluca I want for my yucca bed. I may get Brian to go with me to the garden center tomorrow. He needs to plant tomatoes and green peppers as they are sick of being in their containers. First he should add peat moss and manure. Ah, the joys of country living!