Glorious Spring!

" I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it."
- Gerald Manley Hopkins

 

 

Looking down our driveway from the back porch.




Lilacs!



Looking West over the tops of the Candytuft.



Coral Bells



Looking Southeast

Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the week! I usually have no obligations and get to play in the garden. For several hours I weeded like a mad woman. Andy & I are going to take a day and do the mulch. I want to be sure everything has come up first.  After that, very little weeding. Yippee!

I thought about doing some transplanting and now I really wish I had because we're getting a great spring rain. Between the rain and the cool weather the transplants would adjust very easily......

 

So far no fungus. WooHoo! If you follow my blog you know that fungus is the arch enemy of my garden. The weather has been cool and mostly dry which really makes a difference. We are talking about using the garden hoses that let the water seep into the earth. That way, the plant itself won't be wet.....that's what fungus really feeds on.

 

Everything is getting so beautiful. Green is SO green.....it actually pops. I don't expect that......it's the blossoms I expect to shine and they will.....some already are.....just another week or two and they will be glorious. Right now, it is so green outside.....lovely.

 

Once again, there are mystery plants coming up. Honestly, I can't remember anything! Just by looking at them poking through the soil I know they're perennials but I don't remember them. They could be some of the mystery plants I bought on markdown at the end of last season.......I have a Spurge I bought that way....had no idea what it was. it's very pretty.

 

The lattice room is being occupied by birds. I left a birdhouse hung in there over the winter. If I had the opening facing North they wouldn't have used it but, alas, I faced it South. Before we know it though, they will be gone and we'll have our lattice room back.

 

Here's what I'm grateful for today: My church family. Everyone is so loving and caring. God is good to have brought us to them.

 

Happy Gardening, Flower Freak 







Real Spring Weather!

To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat.

~Beverly Nichols~

 

 

It's the middle of May! Mother's Day, actually. Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there.

We spent the afternoon with our two daughters and their families. It was good to be together but as you know, if you read my last post, we lost a son-in-law. There's a huge hole in our family and an ache in our hearts. I would do anything to take the pain from my daughter.

 

Sweet Woodfuff

Here's what's blooming in my neck of the woods: Lilacs, Rhodadendrons, Columbine, Mini Irises, Creeping Phlox, Leopard's Bane & Coreopsis. Many others are on the verge of blooming.

 

The weather has been changeable today. It rained yesterday and through the evening. Throughout the day, there's been the process of clearing away the rainclouds.  I guess my weather guy would say partly cloudy, breezy and cool. Just lovely.

 I bought the Sweet Woodruff on markdown a few years ago. It was kind of on a whim. It's not fussy at all and is spreading nicely.  



Idgie enjoying the Catnip

I've been selling perennials through Craigs List. I haven't charged much for them and have done fairly well. It's now time to stop thinning and start transplanting to give the bed a more consistent look.

 

Every person who came to buy plants wanted my Candytuft. I only have one and am not about to part with any of it as of yet. It is one of the few plants I grew from seed.

 

Idgie joins me most every morning that I take a stroll or work in the garden. She enjoys outside as long as we are with her. I wish she took more interest in the catnip and left the Irises alone!



White Rhody

Our Rhody took a beating during one of our bad snowstorms. A Pine branch fell on it and broke it down very low to the ground. I'm hoping it'll prove to be a stroke of luck and make the little bugger take off like crazy.



Forget-Me-Nots

 

Forget-Me-Nots! They are sooo sweet. Small blossoms have never thrilled me but there's something about the little faces on this plant that I find heart warming.

 

We are waiting til the end of the month to put the mulch down because plants are still popping out of the ground and I don't want to cover them up. That means I'm still a weeding fool......it'll be worth it.....It'll be worth it......it'll be worth it.....there, I've convinced myself!!!

 

Here's what I'm grateful to God for today:

I'm grateful for family but more than anything for my two daughters, Julianne and Allison. What a wonderful gift from God they both are to me!!

 

Happy Gardening, Flower Freak

 



 

In This World You Will Have Trouble

"What we do in life echoes for an eternity".

 

The sun is out and the sky is a beautiful color blue with puffy white clouds. The Maple trees are getting their leaves and other trees are budding. My flowerbed is shaping up and lots of buds are appearing but none of that means a thing to me today.

This morning about 2:30, our son-in-law, Sean passed away. He's left a huge hole in our family.



 

 

 

 

 

Sean was asthmatic and had been in the hospital the week before for a really bad attack, He was doing fine and they released him on Tuesday of this week. This morning he just stopped breathing. We think his heart gave out because of the asthma. He was also battling a slow acting leukemia.

 

 

He was only 39. It's SO hard to realize he is really gone. He was a talented artist, song writer as well as writing a novel and many poems. He was just starting to come into his own. He was working for Entertainment Weekly Online as well as doing freelance work. He and my daughter were invited to Hollywood by his employer for a premier. They were going next week.........

He leaves his wife, our daughter, Allison and two sons, Griffin and Gabriel as well as many, many friends, admirers and followers.

I follow his blog. It's called "Hartters".

 

Our loss is Heaven's gain.

Flower Freak

 

 



 

The Beginning of the Color Show!

Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you.  

~Edward Payson Rod

Primrose

Columbine leaves are so pretty they almost don't need buds to make them interesting.

Lovely Daffs

A Burst of Blue!

It was another wonderful weather day here. Low 70's, sunny and breezy. Doesn't get much better than that in April. Much of my day was spent weeding the big bed. I estimate another 5 hours (at the least) of weeding to get it under control. But, when it's done, it will be spectacular. So many perennials are popping up and, as you can see, they are starting to bloom. My neighbors row of Forsythia is ablaze. It really brightens things up. 

The rest of the day I spent working on a planter. I've wanted to do this for a while but needed Andy to do the cutting for me. It's rock Maple and a bugger to cut!

It isn't finished but I can't wait to show it off. There will be a quote about flowers across the top of the back. To show it with something in it I used an ivy as it's the only thing I have big enough but, it really won't shine until I put color with it.....pansies, perhaps.

As I've mentioned before, Andy is a "collector". He gets things from the dump, side of the road and free columns. Therefore, we have a few more chairs to make planters out of. We also have some tables and a magazine rack that I plan to transform. I would like to try and sell a few. It would put a "cha-ching" in my pocket and be fun to know that some of my "works of art" were sitting in someones garden being admired........

Please let me know what you think! I'm open to all the constructive criticism you can give. Fresh ideas are welcome too!

What I'm grateful for today: The strength and resiliency of Bostonians! The stories coming out of the Marathon bombing are amazing. I believe good will overcome evil every time.....Jesus said, "It is done!" and good has won!

Happy Gardening, Flower Freak

Annuals

Awake, thou wintry earth - Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!

~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

Annuals

I'm a garden snob. I admit it......it's like annuals aren't quite good enough for my flowerbeds. There's no reason for me to think this way......If I were to compare it to something it would be the difference between baking a scratch cake or one from a box......

Annuals are beautiful and I am going to reluctantly use them......I have several that I'm growing from seed. (Feels like semi-homemade!) They are Impatiens, Poppies, Phlox, Zinnia, Coreopsis, Petunia and Heirloom Daisies. I had no idea that Phlox or Coreopsis were annuals as well as perennials. Live n learn!

The seeds are still in the packages because I can't decide whether to start them indoors or wait and sow them into the earth. Planting inside will give them a head start but there's minimum space to grow them in my house for the next 6 weeks. I've done it before and it's a pain. Decisions......decisions.....

Has anyone seen the Home Depot commercial where they make a planter by putting wire fencing around the inside of a pot with a plastic bag in the center filled with soil? They round off the top by bringing the wire together and punch holes in the plastic and push plants into the holes.....it's pretty amazing & I'm itching to try it..... definitely pics to follow if I can pull it off.

It was pretty chilly today and will be tomorrow as well. Tuesday, the day I'm too busy to garden is going to be sunny and warm....waaaa! My attention span isn't long enough for me to have absorbed the full weeks forecast so I'll have to wait and see what the weatherman says tomorrow. 

I'm done complaining....here's what I'm grateful for today: My husband of 43 years who is a great guy & lifemate.

Happy Gardening, 

Flower Freak