Category Archives: garden

What’s blooming!

Holy crow this was a hot week!  Today was the worst, too. Heat index hit 101. Yuck.  I keep biking earlier and earlier in the day and still end up really sweaty.  But, at least I am getting in the exercise.

I *still* have not gotten my new computer set up with work.  I emailed tech support to set up a time, who said to call, and then I just got voice mail.  So I left a voice mail message yesterday, which they didn’t return and then sent another email which went unanswered.  And now it is the weekend.  This frustrates me to no end.  I have my stuff all ready to go.  I have my text expander installed, my medical dictionary and spellcheckers.  I also installed Word 2003 – yes, 2003. That is the version we have to use.  I am just hoping the old computer hangs on long enough until tech support decides to work with me.  I tell you, if I could just get the software myself and install it I would LOL!  I am trying really hard not to be annoyed, but I think it is a bit late for that.

This computer is a touch screen computer, too.  I am doing surprisingly well with that.  Usually I have all kinds of trouble with touch screens, so this is encouraging.  I don’t have to use the touchscreen on the computer, but I have been playing with it.  I do have to get used to typing on a bigger keyboard and I make typing errors, which can be amusing.  I want to practice on it a lot so when (EVER) I get it set up for work it won’t be as hard an adjustment.  All this technology and I *still* do not have a smart phone 😀  I’m just cheap.

 

Anyhoo – you all aren’t coming here on a Friday for me to talk about work – it’s flower time!  My garden is pretty much in its glory time right now.  Freshly edged last weekend on the only cooler day.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My garden is very informal. Kind of a cottage garden, I guess.  I didn’t really have a plan when I made this garden other than the general shape and my anchor plants (the butterfly bush, burning bush, and rose bushes).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Most of you know I have been specialty cone flower obsessed the last couple years.

I have a couple white swan standard cone flowers:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 


Unfortunately, my globe thistle didn’t come back this year, which is one of my favorite flowers along side these cone flowers.  Here is a seedling, though.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I hope that will bloom next year.  I seem to have trouble getting my globe thistles to stay.

Here is a closeup of the milkshake:

milkshake

 

The razzmatazz:

razzmatazz

 

Liatris (gay feather)

liatris

 

Bees love the liatris!

More of the heirloom lily buds are opening.  These are so cool!  It’s like a bow.  A beautiful little package 😀

heirloom lilies

Tippy pots – number 1:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

These pots sunk down a little because they are plastic and the stick shows through. Lesson learned.

Tippy pot number 2:

tippy pots

 

I have a few buds on the rose bushes.  Time for a small flush.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2 of the bushes are getting black spot like last year.  These really humid spells seem to do them in.  I need to spray with some baking soda this weekend to see if I can halt the disease.

Lots o’ black eyed Susans now.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I think next week I will be able to show off the butterfly bush, too!  Aren’t you excited?  Then maybe I will actually get some butterflies to come around…

Hopefully some good solo riding this weekend as John is gone.  Maybe not Saturday as it will be in the mid 80s and stormy as the front moves through, but who knows?

Have a great weekend!

What’s Blooming – garden envy edition!

I thought I would show you pictures from a garden tour I took today.  My garden club met for this month to view the garden of one of our members.  I had serious envy of both the house and gardens!

We had our meeting on the deck:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Which overlooks this pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I know, right???

Then we were taken on a tour.  The owner did all her own garden design by trial and error. She did not know anything about gardening when she started.  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is a jackmani clematis:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

My garden is so tiny compared to this one!  I wish I had that much property 😀

I’ll end with a shot of my front bed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I still love it 😀

Saturday is cupcake riding!  Woo Hoo!

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Blooming – Lilies!

Seems like we swung into summer with a vengeance. Lots of heat and humidity and a *lot* of rain. It has  rained pretty much every day for the last few weeks!

Butterfly weed:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Haven’t seen any butterflies yet, though.

The hot papaya cone flower has a lot of blooms now:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The razzmatazz has one bloom on it so far.  This is my oldest plant.  It has to be 8 years old now.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is one of my new lilies that I planted last fall.  It is a hardy Orienpet from John Scheepers:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Maybe a foot and a half tall.  This is Anastasia:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It is just lovely and smells so good!!   I need to find more room for these.

The old fashioned day lilies are also in full flower:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

These are a good 4+ feet tall!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s amazing to me that the blooms only last a day. They are so prolific that you would never notice that.

Knockout rose bush:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I have a few black-eyed susans here and there.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

These sprout all over the place and I move them around to a bare spot and see if they take.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lots of cone flowers getting ready to bloom!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Have a wonderful weekend. We have some hot bike riding to do 😀

What’s Blooming!

I am on my way to Becoming an Outdoors Woman!  However, couldn’t leave you without showing the blooms 😀

It’s officially summer, so I changed out my my flag:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Not too many butterflies yet, mostly the little white and yellow sulfurs. Once my cone flowers and butterfly bush are blooming, I hope to get many, many butterflies like I had last year.

I planted a new rose bush in the extended bed, which you can barely see because it is so small:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This will get much bigger in the next year or two.  It is blooming, though!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Isn’t that a gorgeous color?

Time to cut the alliums down. I left them up because they were interesting, but I will cut them down when I get back. They are starting to really turn brown.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

A couple of the old-fashioned daylilies are open.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

The hot papaya echinacea is ruffing out more (for lack of a better word).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It has more blooms, too!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

One thing I love about the echinacea is the long bloom time.

Progress on the walkway.  We bought a sledgehammer to get the last broken block up.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

John carted all the pieces to the the side of the house, put a picture of them on craigslist offering them for free – and someone came and took them all!   It was hundreds of pounds of concrete, too. That saved us dump fees for that, plus helped the environment!  Hopefully he will be able to get some new cement down if this rain would ever quit.

Liatris is getting close to blooming.  I love all stages of this plant. It looks cool  all throughout the growing season.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

One last look at the astilbes.  Here is the shade garden from the side.  There are 2 new rows behind the white ones that I showed last week. You can see how much catching up they have to do 😀

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Not sure who the brilliant person is who put the metal sundial in the shade garden, though.   🙄

Porch view:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Have a great weekend everyone!  I will be trying to stay dry with my outdoor activities.  BOW is still fun, rain or shine!

 

What’s Blooming!

Another Friday post.  That was a rough work week.  Phew. Doesn’t look to get better any time soon, either, unfortunately.

One thing that always makes me happy and relieves stress? My garden!  Just looking at it makes me happy.

I moved my birdbath from the side shade bed to the middle of the front and really like it there.  It even got a good scrubbing  😳

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

The sun drops are starting to open up.  They got pretty beaten down by all the rain this week, so I might need to prop them up.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

There are lots of buds, though.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I have some self seeding snapdragons.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I don’t remember what the original color of the parents were several years ago, but each year I get different colors from the seeds that spread.  I deadhead these right into the bed and let them go wherever they want.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My first coneflower opened up as well.  The hot papaya!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This plant always sends out one early bud and then it will be July for the rest. Not sure why that happens.

John got a lot of the walkway cleared out.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

We need to rent a jackhammer for this last section. Whomever poured the concrete actually poured it over the old sidewalk underneath so there are 2 layers stuck together and they won’t break up.

My garden path on the edge to nowhere:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Scentimental rose bush with tons of blooms.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Here is progress on one of the tippy pots.  These are pink wave petunias with some lobelia on the bottom.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I saw a couple ladies walking by and pointing towards the garden, and I bet this is what they were pointing at.

Campanulas:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

These are small mounds of foliage that send up long flower stalks.  I moved these last fall and they seem to like this new spot.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I have all my potted plants on the back stoop.  I shopped the discount rack at Lowe’s and found some  dahlias for $3.  Score!  They didn’t have blooms on them (which is probably why they were on sale), but you just wait a bit and you get them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Such a cool color, too.

Pixie was watching me from the back door while I was taking these pictures.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

She wants outside so bad!

Finally got the burning bush trimmed.  We planted this 5 or 6 years ago as a small gallon plant and look at it today!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

It actually was growing over the path.  This is the first time we have ever trimmed it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

It’s bloomin’ time, that’s for sure!

 

What’s blooming – roses!

Welcome to Friday and What’s Blooming!  There was the tulip phase and now it’s the rose phase!

“Es ist ein Ros entsprungen”

My Sunsprite, aka 100-pound rose bush, has at least a couple dozen buds on it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Next week will be the big bloom week for it. Look at all those buds!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Neon pink Knockout rose:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And my other uber favorite rose – the Scentimental.

scentimental

This one also has probably 40 buds on it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The smell so dreamy, too.

The alliums are still going strong.  This is a very cool flower.

allium

These are some annuals called Wishbone flowers.  Not sure why, but they are cute and so I got some for one of my planters.

wishbone flower

 

I also have a surprise bloom on some new flowers I have in the garden.  I got 2 kinds of centaura (aka perennial bachelor buttons)  that I planted as young plants, so I wasn’t expecting any blooms this year.  Then I see this!

centaurea

 

This one is called Amethyst in Snow and I love it!  They are short plants and are at the front of my bed.  I don’t know if the other one will bloom or not.

Still have more of the irises blooming.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

This weekend will be some shopping for a couple stepping stones and then either a birdbath or obelisk or gazing ball thing for the middle of the garden.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Now that I expanded the bed, it needs something in the middle.

Here is my shade garden.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I have new astilbes planted underneath the window and they need a season or 2 to get to full size.

Tippy Pot Tutorial!

By request, I finally got the tippy pot post done.  Since I had to move the pots since they got overgrown by the burning bush (way to think ahead, Lori) – I thought I would show how super duper easy these are.

Inexpensive, too.  Both things near and dear to my heart. 😀

You need basically 6 things:

tippy pots

  • A 48 inch inch piece of rebar.  You can find this at a home improvement store in standard lengths (about $2.50).  If you can find a longer one, you can make a bigger tower, but you need to pound it further into the ground. FYI. 
  • Four 8-inch terra cotta pots
  • A small rock for tipping the first pot
  • A hammer
  • Measuring device (tape measure, ruler, etc)
  • Dirt and plants of choice

First, measure 12 inches on the rebar and mark it.  This is how far you need to pound the rebar into the ground unless you want your tippy pots to become tipped over pots.  Use the hammer and pound away!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Now please make sure that you know where you are doing this and aren’t going to hit any buried cable, gas or water lines.

Take your small rock or piece of wood or whatever that will go underneath one side of the pot to keep it tipped over and place it on the ground:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Next, thread the first pot on the pole.  It’s easier to do this empty, but I had to disassemble this and it already had the plants in it.  It still works.  The trick is to tilt the pot so the rebar is passing through at an angle.  You need to make sure your pot drainage holes are big enough to tip (otherwise they just sit straight up).  Most terra cotta pots are all the same.

tippy pots

The pot lip should be resting against the rebar as above.

Next, put the second pot on and tip it the opposite way of the first pot, sliding it down the rebar at an angle.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

See where this is going?

tippy pots

Stack the other 2 pots on the same way.

Then put some much around the bottom to hide the base and voila!

tippy pots

 

I also did one with plastic pots.  I had to use a 1/2 drill to put a hole in the bottom of the plastic ones.  This is a 12 inch pot and three 8 inch pots.

tippy pots

 

If you use plastic ones, make sure they are thick enough to support weighted pots above them.  These are a little thin and the first pot is squished a bit.  Lesson learned.  I put wave petunias in this one, so I will have to show how it looks later in the season – not to mention I need something for the bottom pot!

If you want to do these on a patio or porch, just use an old coffee can or something to pour cement in and set the rebar in it to make it weighted.  Then place the weighted rebar in a pot flat on the ground (like the above picture) and build up.

Also, anything can be tipped like galvanized buckets, old watering cans, etc.  It’s a very creative medium. You just need to be able to drill a hole in it!

On a final note, I had to share a picture of my big bearded iris that is now blooming!  This is the boysenberry buttercup.

boysenberry buttercup

 

It’s gorgeous!

What’s Blooming!

I have some fun new flowers to show you this week.  I was worried that these were going to open up and be spent during our vacation, but they were very slow at opening.

First off are my bleeding hearts.  These got a lot bigger.  The 2 plants are on each side of my bowling ball!

bleeding heart

 

Not sure if I ever told the story of the bowling ball.  It came from my first flip house.  There was junk in the home still when I bought it – although the bank cleaned most of it out upon request.  However, the bowling ball was still in there and struck me  as funny for some reason.  My MIL has bowling balls in her garden and I thought they were fun, so I kept this as a memento of that house.

These are so pretty!

bleeding heart

Near these in the shade garden are the lily of the valleys.  One of my favorites.


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

These spread like crazy.  Found them in the lawn this year.

I had some tulips left, like the purple passion:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

You can see the queen of the nights and the fringe tulips in the background as well.  As of today, these are all done.  The petals all fell off during the week with all the rain.

Snow Queen clematis opened up!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This plant has been in my garden for 5 years now, I think, and it never really gets bigger.  It sends out a lot of flowers, but not much in the way of greenery.

Now the new ones!  A couple of years ago, I got some iris rhizomes from my neighbor.  We didn’t know what color they were or anything.  Well, I had put them in a spot that was too shady and they never bloomed.  So when I expanded the garden bed last fall, I moved those irises over and voila! I have blooms!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I don’t know much about iris, so I don’t even know what kind this is.

iris

 

They obviously love this new spot because there is a ton of buds.

The other new plant is an allium.  These are members of the onion family and are bulbs.  The flowers don’t smell like onions, though 😀

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Aren’t they fun?  They remind me of fireworks for some reason.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I actually have another variety of these that are going to bloom soon.  I must get more of these bulbs!

I also need to move my tippy pots.  I first put them in bare ground in early spring:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I kind of forgot how much this would fill in.  Now it looks like this!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Oops!  The daylilies aren’t even close to their size, either.  So, I will have to move this over to the left.

I really wanted to get into the garden this weekend to much and weed, but the forecast is for 50s and rainy.  Yuck!  That also means no biking.  Gonna have to find something else for entertainment.

What’s Blooming!

Friday – yay!  What a nice day as well.  I made an executive decision to work a half day day and put in a half day on Saturday so I could enjoy some good weather since Saturday is supposed to be rainy.  As stressful as my job can get at times- you can’t beat being able to make decisions like that.

Here is a quick shot of breakfast because it was so tasty!

brekkie

Coconut flour waffles with apple/cranberry topping.  Who needs to go out for breakfast?  Okay, I like to go out for breakfast sometimes

Now right to the flowers:

The garden has loved all of this warm weather.  Cool front on the way, but things soaked up the sun!

New items this week:

One lonely little Princess Irene.  The only one that came back this year.

irene

Golden Parade:

golden parade

 

Purple passion:

purple passion

Kings blood.  These are really tall, too. they come up over my knees.

kings blood

This is a fringed tulip called Aleppo.   First time I have ever planted a fringe.

aleppo

Pretty neat! Kind of reminds me of a venus flytrap

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A few of the shirley tulips came back.  These are the ones that start white and fade to purple.  This is the same plant a few days apart.

shirleytulip

 

I do love that one.

All the late tulips are blooming now including the queen of the night and maureen.

queen of the night

I like the tuxedo look of these black and whites together.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

The yellow monte carlo tulips are on their last legs, but still going strong.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I can’t believe these are tulips!  I lucked out with the combo of the Christmas marvel and these together.  They bloomed at the same time and lasted together.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

I spy empty space there, too, in the back.  Time to go plant shopping!  My red hot pokers didn’t come back after I transplanted them there.

My alliums are starting to open.  I hope these don’t bloom and die next week while we are not here to see them.  Doesn’t it look like some alien eye?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bleeding hearts are starting to unfurl:

bleeding heart

 

And lilacs!  I brought these into the house.  These are actually from the neighbor’s bush.

lilacs

 

Lot’s and lots of flowers now!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Not much biking on tap this weekend as it is supposed to be rainy tomorrow, but maybe I can squeak a short ride in before it rains.

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

What’s Blooming! Pssst…. it’s tulips!

It’s tulip time around Casa Radiance!!  Last week one tulip opened – now a lot of them.  These are all the early and mid season tulips.

Seeing these makes me SO HAPPY!!!

Apricot Dreams:

apricot dreams

 

Christmas Marvel:

christmas marvel

 

This is a double tulip.  It looks almost like a rose.  Monte Carlo:

monte carlo

 

When it’s sunny, these open way up like this.  They are very fragrant, too. I paired them with the Christmas Marvel:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Who says pink and yellow don’t go together??

 

Then the Pink Impression – these are very tall.

pink impression

 

 

The fritillaria.  I really like these, but the bulbs are expensive and they are finicky.  3 planted, one came up.  Same as last year.  Not buying any more.  This plant was a big hit with the garden club that met at my house today.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

More hyacinths opened up:

hyacinth

 

Pretty

hyacinth

 

I planted alliums for the first time and they have sent up buds.  I can’t wait to see these (and show them to you)!

alium

 

I did my tippy pot demonstration for the garden club.  It’s too early for the annuals to be ready for planting (other than pansies), so these are empty.  I have a set of plastic ones in the front and the terracotta ones on the side.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

So cool!  I can’t wait until these are full of flowers.  I actually might take the pots off and paint them first.  ‘Cause I need another project…

 

No time this weekend, though.  Beautiful weather on tap and I feel a bike binge coming on!  😀