Monday In Bloom

A warm day to work outside, but not terribly so.  A tiny bit humid.  Thankfully, it was nothing unbearable.  I realized that despite all the rain we’ve had this week. the pots in the side patch got only a tiny bit of that rain and were dry as a bone and drooping in sadness and thirst.  I watered heavily and hope they perk back up. 

I also sprayed the garden like a mad woman.  Well, I am a mad woman, I suppose.  Either Morticia Addams has taken a liking to pansies, or something has been making a meal out of them.  Many of the blooms are gone, just snipped off right at the tops of the stems.  So I whipped up a batch of some stuff I used last year that seemed to work pretty well, and now have my fingers crossed. 

Overall, things are looking pretty good!  The sage blooms have died off and I’ll probably dead-head those this week.  There are tiny new blooms raring to go so I want to make room for them, and give them plenty of energy to bloom forth and conquer.

Booyah, I remembered to get a shot of the corner patch this time.

The biggest garden news though – Daisies!!  Woohoo!!  Lots and lots of daisies!  Look at all those happy blooms and buds!  Isn’t it amazing?  *dreamysigh*

Hello, new daisy!  Welcome!

I’m pretty certain the lilies and Artemisia have made some kind of a deal to take over the garden front patch.  Rumor has it the daisies are thinking of teaming up with the sage.

Look!  Baby pine cones!  Twins!

As I was taking pictures, I realized that both of the colors of verbena in this pot (can you see the one peeking out in back?) perfectly match the leaves of the coleus.  This is what I call “gardendipity.” 

Wow, check out the … the … oh crap I forgot what it’s called!  The pretty purple vine thing!  Purple heart plant?  That rings a bell.  It’s really grown a lot this week!

A rainbow of snapdragons!  I lost one though.    It didn’t make it so I finally took it out of the pot.  I hate empty spaces in pots like that. 

I love daisies.  I love yellow.  Yellow daisies make me happy. 

The other big garden news – the lilies are going to try to steal the show from the daisies!  There are so many budlets like this one, it’s going to be a gorgeous yellow show!

And the speedwell is blooming!  Tiny lavender pink rockets!

And that’s how my garden’s growing this week!  How’s yours coming along?

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking!  2017 Garden Weekly 07 | Flickr

Monday In Bloom

Can you believe the size of those lily bushes?!  They’re even bigger than last year!  AND I saw buds on the daisy plant Sunday, too, woohoo! 

The purple sage in the background is really blooming too, it’s even bigger than last week and last week I thought it was as intense as it was going to get.

It was pretty warm Sunday afternoon when I went out to take my weekly pictures.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too humid, so I guess it was kind of like Phoenix.  You know, that whole “dry heat” thing.  I’ve always just called that an oven. 

The corner patch is starting to settle in and bloom – can you see the pretty yellow osterspemum?  We’ll just call those daisybushes from now on, okay?  I got one for each of the square pots and I think they’re really going to shine.  *fingerscrossed* 

Likewise, the side patch is also starting to finally settle in.  I do seem to still have some pesky pests so I’ll be treating again with the diatomaceous earth this week. 

This little pot I think has captured my eye the most this week.  That pop of hot pink/red was unexpected (I wasn’t sure what color some of the plants would end up being) and it’s very eye-catching against the white sweet alyssum.  The light purple sweet alyssum combined with the dark purple verbena really makes my eye happy, too.  I think this pot will be one to watch this season. 

This pot of pansies is really shining, so colorful!  Unfortunately, its sister pot still isn’t doing very well.  I’ve lost at least one, probably 4 plants from the other pot.  I don’t think my chipmunky nemesis has returned, but the pot is still suffering.  I don’t know what’s causing it, but I think it’s the same pot I had similar troubles with last year.  I shuffled pots around after the Winter so I’m not 100% positive.  If that pot continues to fail, I’ll just dump the soil and give it a good bleach scrub down at the end of the season and start fresh next year. 

These two – *dreamysigh*  Those colors together just make me feel all melty inside.  I wasn’t sure when I planted these pots how that bright turquoise would play with these plant textures and colors but wow, I am so happy with how they’ve turned out. 

Yellow daisybushes!  They are so cheery!

The new little lavender is still surviving.  So far so good, especially for a plant purchased online. 

The hanging baskets are still doing pretty good, too.  I always worry about them more than the other pots.  I guess because they seem to dry out faster and more frequently than the other pots. 

Purple! 

So that’s how my garden is growing this week!  How’s yours coming along?

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2017 Garden Weekly 05 | Flickr //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Effortlessly grow these ten plants in the shade with little to no sunlight – NaturalNews.com

(Natural News) Do you have a bare, shady spot in your garden? Or is your terrace facing the wrong side? Though it can be difficult for plants to survive in the shades, these conditions should not stop you from brightening up the darkest corners of your garden or terrace.

While many plants love the sun,

via Effortlessly grow these ten plants in the shade with little to no sunlight – NaturalNews.com

Effortlessly grow these ten plants in the shade with little to no sunlight

Effortlessly grow these ten plants in the shade with little to no sunlight:

(Natural News) Do you have a bare, shady spot in your garden? Or is your terrace facing the wrong side? Though it can be difficult for plants to survive in the shades, these conditions should not stop you from brightening up the darkest corners of your garden or terrace. While many plants love the sun,...

Monday In Bloom

It was a gorgeous day here Sunday, Mother’s Day.  Low to mid 60sF, clear blue skies, low humidity – just lovely!  My husband took me to the garden center, where I was able to replace the plants that I lost this past week due to all the wonky weather.  Man that place was crowded!  So I spent a little bit of time getting those potted, and I finally got my new perennial in the ground.  In general, things are looking fairly decent.  A few plants are struggling because of the recent cold snaps, but I do think they’ll recover with enough tender loving care. 

Kind of hard to see in the picture, but I found some heavy copper wire for my hanging pots.  I got so tired of the twine ropes breaking on me.  I’m hoping the wire is more sturdy.

The side patch.

The new section!  Not sure what to call it yet – the patio patch?  This is the “extension” I was working on a couple weeks ago.  Before, the grass went to the edge of the patio, but now I’ve wrapped the patio with mulch and garden fencing.  This enables me to get my long pots off the patio, and also gets the square pots out of the front patch.  I love the symmetry of how it looks.  Bonus, I’m hoping the extra fencing will keep critters and neighbor’s dogs off our patio. 

I think this must be my favorite pot, and I’m sure I’ve overloaded it again this year.  I love the graceful look of it.

The columbine have been blooming and look pretty
.

The newest addition to the perennials – a pincushion plant. 

That’s how my garden has been growing this week!  How’s yours coming along?

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To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2017 Garden Weekly 02 | Flickr //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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Monday In Bloom

Well, I still haven’t put anything in pots yet.  Can you believe we’ve had three frost warnings in the past week?!  I’m waiting to see how far the temps drop tonight (Sunday night #3 warning as I write this), in case I need to hurry out and put something over my plants.  Typically, when temps get down to the mid 30sF I don’t worry too much.  My patio is pretty much out of the elements, and the plants in the ground are close enough to the building to be out of harm’s way.  But tonight they were saying it might get down a couple degrees below freezing.  So I’m nervous.  In the meantime, while I wait for things to warm up a bit, I’ve been doing prep work.  I got all my pots ready for their new dwellers.  I didn’t clean anything out after last Autumn so that was quite a job.  Note to self: don’t do that again you dumbass! 

I also got the new “extensions” put down.  Woohoo!  I wrapped the mulch area around the entire patio and moved many of the pots from the patio onto the new area.  That, in addition to getting rid of the grill, should make the patio seem a tad more roomy. 

I got some new wire for the hanging pots.  Hopefully that will eliminate the problem of the pots falling off the hangers when I water them! 

Plus, I want to move my lavender plant to a different spot in the little front patch, but that has to wait until all this “freeze warning” crap is over.  Go AWAY Winter, it’s time for you to go home now, seriously!

Nice sun glare, huh?  I’m so glad I got those big square pots out of this front patch though.  They felt like a distraction somehow.

Clean up clean up!  I got all the Autumn leaves cleaned out of the little side patch under the bedroom window.  What a mess!

It’s a wrap!  New fencing and mulch all the way around now!  I love how the pots look. 

Hopefully, all the plants will be in their new pot homes by next week.  *fingerscrossed* 

Will you be gardening this year?

Monday In Bloom 2017

The gardening season is back!  Woohoo!!  It is officially Week 0, lol, as I have picked up the plants I’m going to put into my little garden this year.  I have plans to expand a little, too, so we’ll see how that turns out. 

With the exception of the April A-Z Challenge, I haven’t been blogging much.  To be honest, I feel too guilty to blog when I don’t have equal time to devote to reading other blogs.  Blogging is about the community, is it not?,. and I don’t feel right hoping for people to read my posts when I can’t reciprocate.  Even though the kids and I were off from school in March, I spent a good portion of that time trying to re-do some household things.  I really want to get a soaping business off the ground, so I took over the kids’ old toy shelf for soaping supplies.  (mean mom! lol)  That meant going through their old toys and getting rid of things they didn’t play with anymore, moving the stuff they’re keeping to the new shelf I got them for their room, moving many of the soaping supplies I had in the laundry closet to the new shelf, and trying to reorganize the whole kit-and-kaboodle.  I still have a few things to tweak, covering boxes and labeling containers, but I think I am mostly there. 

The next couple of weeks though – plants!  It’s been raining for days so the ground is super slushy, which should make digging in it nice and easy on these old knees. 

See all the pretty darlings I got for this year?  I can’t wait to get them into their new pot homes!