Category Archives: yard

Jun9

My front step welcomes you

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Front step, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is just one side of my step. The fuzzy plant under the birdhouse is new, really pretty and called Nicolletta (I have a friend named Nicolette-I should root her a piece!). I added a few Nasturtium seeds in with it. I also have a pot of pansies and that unnamed pink daisy like flower keeping it company. I have a pretty coleus and peachy begonia on the other side.
Splish Splash Coleus
Splish Splash
We are expecting much needed rain today. My mom needs to come out this way and hopefully get her very pricey hearing aid. Unfortunately she isn’t the only family member who is hard of hearing, so is Bri’s dad and Bri was tested to have slight loss. I’m blaming headphone use! Bri is going to the eye doctor today(we are still trying to figure out why he doesn’t feel well so much). Sean and him were playing a little baseball and he thinks he hurt his knee and is limping around now. The poor guy!
I am so looking forward to Thursday evening as my ‘new’ high school friend Lorin and I are going to see James Taylor and Carole King down in south Philly. She asked me back in January if I’d like to go and I said sure, so she gifted me with a ticket. Will give you a report. If I take my camera, you’ll probably see a little video if I can sneak one in. And maybe Lorin’s hubby can take one of both of us. He’s driving us as she can’t drive at night and I don’t drive to south Philly! I guess I could, but I can’t drive Lorin home.

Jun6

Pond Garden 2010

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First of all, yes, this in on a slight incline. : )



Pond Garden 2010, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is finally weeded and edged so it is now worthy of sharing a photo of it. The Japanese irises were just ‘so-so’ this year. The foliage they leave behind looks nice next to the pond. The Red Hot Pokers on the other hand are gorgeous!
Red hot poker plant
I have them in about 3 places around the yard. My mom said she’d like me to dig some up for her. They are actually the orange topped plants. The large bunch of plants in the foreground are Shasta Daisies. They have a bit of a disease on them like last year. I have some next to the overgrown (never trimmed) butterfly bush there on the left. There are some Pinwheel Zinnias and Red Salvia around the gazing ball and also some potted Lantana
Orange Lantana
and another with white Salvia and a peachy Diascia.
Apricot Diascia and White Salvia
I have a pot of two tone white and wine colored petunias hanging up
Two tone purple/white Petunias

and some yellow calibrachoas there too.
The double light is solar powered and flashes different colors at night-very cool. The pond lights all got new batteries but aren’t working well. I have one frog resident that I see. : )

Jun6

The ‘C’ garden

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The ‘C’ garden, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This use to be the Circle garden, but Bri kept hitting a few box hedges on the right with the mower and they met their demise. It now looks like a ‘C’ which is the first letter in our last name! I realized my box hedges are a few different kinds, but just this year. It doesn’t bother me a whole lot, but the 3-4 different ones are bigger and needed more shaping. This is the garden where my irises, dinner plate hibiscus (the deer like to munch them), some Gladiolus and Black-eyed Susans are planted. I added a Julia Child yellow rose bush (gift from Brian), a gorgeous orange Wall Flower,Orange Wall Flower
a pink Columbine and a few others. I think it needs mulch-I love and hate the stuff, but it sure gives the gardens a finished look, but my poor back is already bad this year.
Update-that’s a pot of Hens an Chickens on the white stand Hens and Chicks

and a shallow bowl with colored glass too. Where the bowl is use to be where we had one of the monstrous satellite dishes.

May31

Roses and Spookiness

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Happy Memorial Day. A day to reflect and remember the brave soldiers and those who gave up their lives for our freedom.



Yellow rose bush with 17 buds, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Yes, and they all have bloomed except one or two. My other roses, though not as big, are blooming nicely also.

Here’s a pink one:
Deep pink rosebud
The guys are both home today. Not planning to do too much.

We decided to take a vacation to Ocean City, MD this year as Brian’s dad hasn’t been well and it’s not a plane trip away like a Carribean trip would be. Plus, the prices are better and I told Sean we can stay right on the beach if we could find a reasonably priced place. We pinpointed a place through Ex*pedia, but he has to see when he can take 3-4 days off.
Yesterday I had the entire afternoon to myself. I read, I sat a spell, I cleaned lawn furniture and I planted the last of my herbs. The bugs are coming out, so I need to buy mulch. My flowers in the front garden are much happier and productive being mulched.
Saturday I planted some perennials in my round bush edged garden where I have mainly irises. My pretty irises did not like the 4 feet of snow and only 7 out of 15 varieties made a show this spring. I then went and planted flowers in the pond garden and Brian edged it for me. It looks so much better.
I’m reading a young adult fiction by a lady also named Dianne (K. Salerni)
Sean and I were in a bookstore a few weeks ago and he saw her name on the cover and pointed out that she spells her name like I do! I then remembered she was the daughter of prominent church members and that there was an article in the paper about her writing ‘We Hear the Dead’-so I bought it. It’s based on a true story about the Fox sisters from the middle 1800s who were said to start seances. There are yet other coincidences besides our first name. In the first 30 pages of the book, there are two names of people with the same first and last names as people I know or have known. The doctor’s name is my maiden name of Knowles and they have an older brother David! Spooky. I plan to have Dianne autograph her book for my niece and I will pass it on to her in a year or so. I found Dianne on Facebook and we friended each other there.

May7

Two tone clematis vine

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Two tone clematis vine, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Here’s the pretty vine I told you about. I’m waiting on a white and lime green one out front next.
Brian planted a new ‘Gypsy’ rose for me last night. I had it a few weeks and the poor thing started to bud in it’s packaging. The roses look so healthy this year-shiny green leaves and buds galore.
I potted up mostly pink and purple petunias on Thursday. I need a few more bags of potting soil. I shouldn’t have been lifting as I pulled something near my left arm pit over to my scar area. I finally put a piece of that sticky icy hot patch on it and it feels better.
We are getting all this wind and no rain. Still have lots to do outside and inside. My summer clothes are still in the space*bags (which don’t work that great).
Have a great Friday!

Apr7

A little raking

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I felt a bit better and wanted to get some fresh air, though it was in the high 80s. Bri had cleaned out the pond for me a few days ago and since I was in the shade, I thought ‘why not’ do a little raking? Unfortunately my pond was the watery grave for two frogs, one rather large and the other a bit smaller. If I remember correctly, one or both enjoyed ‘croaking’ very loudly in the late summer and we could hear them almost every night if the window was open. I image the 4 feet of snow on top of the pond did them in. Poor things. I am ready for some new occupants now. I got the pump running after Bri got the motor part clogged. I have a few things left to do-weeding and edging, but I was glad to rake it out. I retrieved my gazing ball from the basement and Bri found the solar lights and arranged them nicely around the pond. I love the sound of running water, especially at night, it’s very soothing.
My little pond
I felt so good after eating my roast beef hoagie (sub) that I started to rake a few other places after dinner, a yucca bed near the road and my herb bed around back. My back started to complain, so I gave up for the night.
I am coughing a bit, but the nurse on the news (yep, they have a registered nurse/reporter) said today was the worse day of the year so far for allergies. I did take my allergy medicine. I guess I am using the inhaler correctly-only 3 times so far. I really think my allergies are what are driving me batty at times. Same with the guys. Bri’s been having a rough time on the Predn*isone which he is taking to try and help him get his sense of taste and smell back. He can smell and taste some things, but on the large part, he says he isn’t tasting his food and I notice he is trying to make up for it by eating crunchy or salty foods. The med is giving him a huge appetite. Only trouble with that, I need to do one of those $250+ food orders as I haven’t shopped like that for a while.
I go for a follow-up for the procedure I had on Friday. Got the explanation of benefits from the insurance and what they are allowed to allow is ridiculous. We were quoted a price for the procedure beforehand and had to give them some money that morning. Now it looks like it will be more than twice that according to the e. of benefits. They are allowed to say they used $14k in supplies! It’s ok according to the insurance lady. I was there for 2 hours and they gave me a threadbare nightgown and footies. You call them on this stuff and no one gives you a straight answer. This is so ridiculous. Wish us luck with this bill!

Feb18

Thursday-still snow and icicles!

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Similarities Skinny Card, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I do play with my paper crafts now and then. Here is one with my maternal great grandmom Caroline and the ladies that resembled her a bit. The paper was a Christmas gift and is so pretty.
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To Julia-I mailed off your package today parcel post as it’s a bit on the heavy side. I hope you get in within a week or so. We have fairly good mail service around here.
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Brian really suffered from bringing the large trash bin around front tonight. Two weeks ago, before we had 40″ of snow on the ground, he had an easier opportunity to get in around front(he had several reminders-I should have done it). He had to pull it on it’s side and trudge through the snow. He had a coughing wheezy attack for a few hours off and on. He’s good now. (I think Rolaids helped too)
I made us a steak dinner tonight. That’s what we ordered at the restaurant on Valentine’s Day that was so tough. Mine was very good-and easy to cut! I made mushroom gravy, broccoli perogies and asparagus too.
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Fighting a cold that Sean brought home from somewhere. I can feel it in my throat tonight. We have Zi*cam, so if I feel any worse, I will take some. I got caught in the wind when I went out to get some groceries earlier-my hair was all over the place!

My title above-I swore I saw Brian taking photos of icicles, but when I uploaded photos, I didn’t see any! I’ll have to take some photos.

Feb6

Bucky

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With a heavy heart, I have to report news that I think I rather have not known. The young buck I mentioned a few posts ago is now deceased. We found out from my neighbor who came over, not to offer the use of his snow blower, but to offer up this disheartening news. Seems ‘Bucky’ was sprawled out in his side yard yesterday or the day before. That means they are on their way out. The last time I saw the dear deer, he was sweetly curled up under a blue spruce in the back of our house. Our neighbor called the PA game warden, or someone from Harrisburg, and when they inspected the body of Bucky he appeared to have a wound from an arrow that became infected. I knew he was wounded, but I thought maybe he had a broken leg. In 23 yrs of living here, we never had a deer hang around so close to the house. I got worried about him and now I feel terrible to know he was probably suffering. Our neighbor said he knows of people not too far from here that raised deer. Because Bucky was hanging around the yard, we thought maybe he was use to being around buildings. The deer population is a bit out of control in Penna., so they aren’t too quick to say they will help a wounded deer. I did shed a few tears, couldn’t help it.