It's the end...the end of a fabulous Spring Break. I continued my "This Year" list and wonderfully accomplished more.

Sally and I had a great time together, doing so many of the things we have talked about doing. We are quite proud of ourselves! We made these adorable little pies in jars. I think they turned out terriffic!

We also got to finally set the table using the pretty new blue dishes. We had been waiting patiently for the Virburnum to bloom - how nice that it waited until I was off work for a week! To go along with our pretty table we had an equally pretty dinner of....pizza. Not just any pizza, but special, homemade pizza cooked on the grill. It was pretty good, but I kept thinking it was missing something. After all was done and I was cleaning up I saw the pack of cheese and it read "Colby and Monteray Jack" instead of mozzarella. Believe me, it made a difference. I will always be sure to double check next time I go to buy the cheese!

I spent a little time in the garden, not near as much as I should have, but I got a few things planted and have some good plans in my mind.

Daughter and I decided to join a community garden at our church where the produce will be going to a women's shelter in the county. We have had one good day of hard work (I'm older than I realize!) and more to come.

Not much else going on. DH is going to be having knee replacement surgery in two weeks, not looking forward to that!

Trying to keep all the fun stuff recorded in my journal was usually how I spent my evenings. All-in-all it was a lovely week spent at home with my children, spending time doing the stuff that matters - family stuff. Good times.

SNOW JAM 2010

Seriously!

We're all reeling from the Winter Weather we received last night. Schools are shut down, it's eerily quiet outside because no one is out. I think you would classify this amount of snow as "a dusting". Isn't that funny? One of my co-workers is from Buffalo, NY, and she thinks we're all crazy.

Seriously though, the side streets are treacherous. They are a solid sheet of ice. But doesn't the garden look pretty? It looks like fairies sprinkled it with sugar.

I have nothing to do today. I wish I had some fabric so I could sew something. I've been visiting the blogs and have seen some wonderful sewn gifts. Like this and this. The top would be great for my daughter (she received a sewing machine for Christmas). I showed her the top and she liked the pattern but thought she would go for a different print.

I wish I liked to cook. I think about the blog and how fun it would be to take pictures of me making some wonderful something. And then I think the reason I don't do it is because I don't have anything gorgeous to mix and bake in - like this. I think that is the prettiest mixing bowl I've ever seen. Alicia has many beautiful cooking pots - maybe it's the reason she enjoys cooking so much. I've even noticed she has disasters, but it doesn't curb her enthusiasm for baking. Hmmm, I'll have to give this some thought.

I bet the fabulous Mr. Don would be all for me getting pretty pots if it meant I would cook. I really am a good cook, when I keep my mind on what I'm doing and don't get sidetracked. But boy, have I had some disasters (there was a certain birthday cake I made for a certain BFF that had to be eaten with a spoon).

Okay, this post is getting too long. I wonder if anyone is still with me. Have a happy snow day.

It's Time To...

1. Take Christmas tree down. CHECK!
2. Watch Atlanta Falcons last game of the season. CHECK! Hurray for the win!
3. Go to grocery store to get lunch stuff for upcoming week. CHECK! See picture below.
4. Put bird seed out (now that window is cleared from the tree blocking view).CHECK
5. Clean window (so I can see birds enjoying the feast - seriously dirty). Umm, hmm...soon.
6. Remove shelves from my room and put in daughter's apartment. CHECK
7. Quit crying over having to return to work tomorrow. No-can-do.



My lunch for tomorrow in my adorable Bento Box:

Top Tier: Baked Chicken, cucumbers, tossed salad, no fat dressing.

Second Tier: Strawberries, grapes, kiwi flowers, yogurt covered raisins, Cherry tomato with bits of string cheese inside, carrots, cucumber.

All over now, and it will be back to work tomorrow. It should be an easy day, no children or teachers or administrators. It's fun to be in the school with no one there.

A lovely two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. I had my usual LOSER New Year's - in bed way before the stroke of 12:00. But it's good for me, I've never been a late-nighter.

It is ccccold. I keep telling myself how good it is for the garden. It makes the plants grow so much better when there has been long spells of cold. Plus I think it kills lots of the bugs that can winter-over in mild winters. I'll just keep reminding myself of that as I cozy up here in front of theTV for tonights offerings.

It's Time to try again

I'm ending the year with a post, in hopes it will help me to post in the New Year. The New Year is like every Monday...the beginning of all good things. Things are always possible on Monday's. Atleast that's the way it seems on Monday Eve.

Creative Time

Daughter and I spent some time making aprons. This is hers and I think it's adorable!

I became obsessed with Bento boxes and bought myself one. Here is one of my lunches:

Top tier - Lemon pepper chicken and salad

Bottom tier - Sliced strawberries, yogurt covered raisins, carrots, cheese cubes, olives, grapes.
I love the Bentos because it is good for portion control. Also, you add tiny bits of different things so you don't get burned out on any one item.

Garden Time

The garden wasn't much to my liking this year, but there is always the hope of next spring. It had moments of great delight though, so I tried to keep memories of those.

Crazy Time
We turned the garage into a little apartment.
It seemed to take for...ev...er.

Tomorrow I'll bring some Christmas memories to share with you.

SUMMER IS UPON US

And there is still much to do in the garden. However, the hot temps keep planning down to thoughts and diagrams. I've got some big plans for this fall though.


I am so happy with the big urn I planted this spring. It has just filled out so nicely. I love, love, love the Euphorbia, Diamond Frost. It's just wonderful, and I love it with the Asparagus Fern and the white impatience. I've decided to make this whole little shade garden green and white. It's been fun thinking about what to plant. I've got to get rid of the awful pink azalea. I may replace it with a nice white one, but I'm thinking of something that blooms later because the azaleas bloom before the hostas get any good growth on them.

I loved this astilbe. I thought I was getting a late blooming one when I purchased it late last year. It had a bloom on it, so I just figured it would be blooming with the black eyed susans. Oh well, a nice surprise. Maybe it will bloom twice!

I think it really makes a nice spot in the May garden.

I have mixed feelings about the lily in this photo below. I've just never been very happy with it and I hope to find something to replace it with. In the mean time, it does an adequate job.

Now, the lily below I LOVE. It is just the cutest thing and the blooms lasted a nice long time. I'm not good with keeping up with the names of things. I can't remember if it was Lollipop, or something like that. Anyway, I hope it multiplies rapidly.



This garden is in the works. It still needs a lot of work.




That's all for now, I'll have some June pictures next.

Warm Spring Days...

Have brought much change to the gardens. First the tulips brightened the day, and they were very beautiful this year. The temps were a little cooler than usual, which kept the flowers fresh for such a long time. The tulips lasted at least 3 weeks. Here is a picture of the garden in its tulip finery:














The lavender haze in the back is Money Penny. It's a great plant that grows easily from seed . I sprinkle it around every year. It's a biennial, but once you get it started you'll always have some. The large shrub with the big white blooms is a Viburnum. I love it, love it, love it! Now a bit later in April:

I love the look of this little path, but I really need to do some serious planning ehre. The little garden on the right is being reworked this year, and the little water feature on the left also needs to be reworked. As you can see, much to do!!


Iris are in bloom the later part of April. This pink one has been gorgeous. It is Beverly Sills and this is the first year it has bloomed like this. Usually it has just had one or two blooms.

Below is the new pot I bought with my DS Christmas gift certificate to Home Depot. I have it planted with Asparagus Fern; Euphorbia, Diamond Frost; white impatience and a tall fern from my little shade garden, but I don't know the name. This is the garden I am currently working on. I need to get some height added, or maybe some wall decoration. I'm thinking of a mirror. I have an old mirror that I could paint white and crackle it - try to age it some.

I have three weeks left of school, and then I can get some serious work done! So much to do, but I've recruited some of my kids friends, who have all said they would help. How lucky am I?! Next post will be for May. I'm waiting on the astilbe to bloom. Hopefully it will be very pretty. Until then, happy gardening!

Spring musings

A strange week, weather wise. After really nice weather last Saturday, Sunday broke cold and a bit windy. Then it progressively got worse until finally, it culminated in a 27 degree temperature that killed two impatience plants and three begonias, but didn't hurt a leaf on the petunias. I was delighted that a new petunia survived, as I had paid a bit for it. I think it's name is something like Lemon Zest. Petunias are amazing - last summer mine looked great even in the 100 degree- plus weather we had for a loooooong spell. Now here they are surviving the freezing temps. I also found a beautiful lavendar-ish purple one that I hope to plant soon.

Here are a few pictures, one of the Lemon petunia. I don't have it planted yet in this picture. Please excuse the horrible grass/dirt. We have a new puppy and this is his running area.


I love this pot of yellow tulips. It just says "Spring". I think it looks really nice with the muscari.
I like this color arrangement, too. Pink, purple, yellow and a little white...perfect!



Spring is just jumping all over the place. Won't be long until I can get some of the more tender annuals in the ground. I can't wait! Isn't it weird that there are no tulips blooming in the end of the garden on the right. There are plenty planted, but they haven't bloomed yet. I guess it just has a different micro-climate. I keep trying to get three groups blooming at the same time - middle and both ends. Oh well, maybe I'll plant some in pots next year and use it to fill in until they bloom.



Hope you are having a lovely gardening weekend.

Cleanup Day

Today dh took the day off and worked in the yard. There is so much to do and I know it may not look like much to anyone else, but to me it looks like he must have worked hard all day. Just the leaf pile-up was enough - and he removed all of the leaves from an area that was knee-deep in them. There also was an old potting table with way too many plastic pots laying about. He tidied that up too. Then he raked...and raked...and raked...well, you get the idea. The area on the right of the house is where he removed all the leaves and tidied up. You can see we are in great need of some grass. Never have been good at grass growing, but by September, it will be pretty, though weedy.

Next up is a picture of a pretty pot I planted with muscari. I forgot to plant them last fall and eneded up dumping them in this pot - old potting soil and all - and just look at them! They are so pretty. I love the little pots on this table. I found the vinyl tablecloth at Big Lots for about $2.00 and thought it would nicely hide the ugle plastic table. I can't wait for that big pot of tulips to begin blooming!

Hopefully I'll get some good time in the garden tomorrow.

A NEW GARDENING YEAR

And so it begins....and I am so excited. The garden is jumping to life. Today was really warm and nice, but we had devastating storms in the area. Thankfully, nothing serious here. The daffodils are done. The bi-colored ones are so pretty. 3 years ago I noticed hyacinths that I had planted in other parts of the garden were blooming at the same time as the bi-colored daffs. I actually made a plan and bought the pretty yellow and pink hyacinths to plant next to the daffs for the next years spring. Oh well, "best laid plan..." and all that.

February bleakness (my garden never completely goes away):

Beautiful snow fell on the garden in early March. It was so pretty. Just a very light dusting. Looked like fairies had spinkled the garden with sugar!

Today I planted the big urn, but my camera's battery gave out so I will have to save a posting of if it for another day.

Chores:

This week I finished putting out composted manure on the garden. I didn't have enough to spread all over, so I just heaped it around each individual plant - except for the bearded iris; I remembered reading somewhere that they don't like manure (or was it mushroom compost? - now I can't remember).

I made several notes to myself last year for this spring and I've been trying to get the list done.

I moved the phlox around. I am in the process of grouping some of the coneflowers that have come up from seeds - they are sprinkled all over the garden and I want to get them together. I moved one of my sedums over. I removed the alliums (time to replant with fresher bulbs I think).

I planted the big urn. They had the purple fountain grass out early this year. Usually it doesn't show up in the garden centers until April, so I was able to get it planted in the urn. I'm going for the same arrangement as last years - only for spring I'll plant alyssum to drape until I can get varigated sweet potato vine and coleus.

Lots still to do. I'll be having a week off work the second week of April. I can't wait!

IT'S THE END OF THE SEASON

And I couldn't be happier with the way things have grown this year! Here is how the garden looked in August:



















Because the garden doesn't get a lot of direct sun, I have to find plants that do well in shade. I decided to try and use annuals in the front of the garden for season-long color. I was so happy with how it turned out. Along the front of the border I have several impatience. They did okay until about half way through August. It got so hot (ten days in a row of over 100 degrees) that they had a hard time recupperating in the evening. I eventually cut them way back, but they never really bounced back.






















In the picture below you can see the urn. It's planted with Purple Fountain Grass, pink impatience and a varigated sweet potatoe plant. In the rear it has coleus. I love the grass with it's pink plumes. One thing I need to learn is how to pinch plants better. The impatience in the urn got very leggy. It's easy to pinch foliage plants, but I just don't quite get plants with blooms on them. I can't figure out if you're supposed to pinch the bloom off along with the leaves. Any advice???? Notice the pretty pink plant in the middle of the border - it's a pink caldium and it has been a powerhouse all summer. It never skipped a beat, even during the hot weather. I am going to try to save the tubers for next year. I want to have it in several places in the border. It looked so pretty with the yellow coreopsis that was blooming next to it.




















Here's a closeup of it. See how pretty it looks with the coreopsis. I like the balloon flower, too.


























Next up will be plans for next year. I've got a little shade garden that needs some cleanup!

JUNE GARDEN

Testing again. June Pictures

This year I planted annuals along the front, and I am so very pleased with them. They have brought some much needed color. Next I'll show you my urn.