Friday, November 13, 2009

seeds...

I have some seeds from my garden if anyone is interested.

I have Globe Thistle (light purpleish-blue blooms), Knautia Macedonica (Burgundy blooms) and Columbine (not sure what colors these seed are - you can check out my earlier posts about the Columbine and get an idea of what you might get).

If you would be interested in trying these out, then comment on this post with your name and address and I'll send some to you.

I am not guaranteeing that they will grow. I think that would be up to you. :)

If they DO grow and bloom, please send me a photo.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

leaf plow...

Today (and the previous week or so) we've been raking leaves.

Last week, it was getting too dark to complete the job, so in the morning on our way to work, we drove through a pile of leaves and for over a mile, we were dropping leaves from under our MINI Cooper.

This gave me an idea - let's use the MINI as a leaf plow...



Makes the majority of the work a lot easier.

Monday, October 26, 2009

autumn is about to fall...

I went to Boston last week. When I left, everything was still the same color as always. Something happened in a week. When I got home, I was surprised by all the vibrant colors in my garden. Here are just a few:

Red:






























Orange:




















Yellow:

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

summer is winding down...

but even though it's coming to an end, I still have plenty of flowers that are blooming.
Here's a Trumpet Vine, or what the former owner called a Lipstick Vine.
I have a crazy amount of pretty cosmos.
The mums are out in "full force".

and the hibiscus...



An update. After the contractors (actually the cement people) stomped all over my Chicago Peace roses - I dug them up and planted them in yet another "safe" place - threw some banana peels (cut up) into the hole along with them and also put some peels around the outside - this is what has happened so far...
They are growing like crazy! So, they were not dead, but it's really good that I replanted them otherwise they'd for sure be goners. Guess I don't have to charge the contractors for these ones. Of course, I will not see a bloom on them this year, I'm guessing and over the winter I'll need to cover them so that they don't completely die, but anyway, it's promising.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

dinner plate dahlias...

Look at the size of this dahlia!!!I told Jerome not to look goofy for the photo because it was going on the blog, but I guess he wanted to look goofy anyway...

The flower is bigger than his face!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

contractors and plants...

Today I yelled at the contractors. Well, yell is not exactly what it was, it was more like scolded.

Yesterday the cement guy was moving and arranging the boulders. I went out a couple of times to take a look at the progress and reiterated to the general contractor that if any plants need to be moved, to please let me know. He assured me that everything would be fine. And then I left to go to my parents to bring my mother on some errands (it's kinda nice to be laid off).

When I returned in the evening, the first thing I noticed was that a couple of rose bushes were nearly run over. Then I looked at where they moved the boulders and one of my precious Knautia Macidonica's had been yanked out of the ground and was lying on top of the boulder - dead...or dying (you can see it on the top left-most boulder).

Later, as I inspected the yard I noticed that where the faucet is that the contractors have been using for some water, one of the replanted rose bushes (that isn't doing very well) was obviously being moved back and forth as if to eventually pull out. I know that it's not that easy to get to the water faucet, but really, do they have to try to uproot the rose bush???

So, I bitched about it to my husband - who didn't seem to want to hear it.

I was going to send the general contractor an email last night, but instead I waited until today and in front of everyone I went off about how I didn't appreciate what they did. All they needed to do is tell me to move the plant and I would have. And I said - I'm sure that you also have a little shovel somewhere that you could have easily dug up the plant yourself and put it somewhere where it wouldn't have been in the way.

ARGH! This blatant disregard, the fact that we were told that they would clean up every night and the rising bill are some of the things that are getting under our skin. Otherwise, it's been a fine project.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

hydrangeas...

Is this one called a Mop-head?


What is the name of this one? First time it's grown flowers since we bought this place.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

taken this morning...


A different color Cosmo growing with the rest.

I believe the white one turns to be like the one above; pink outline and white in the center.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

garage demo is affecting my garden...

So, not only have I had to remove, store and rearrange many plants in my garden but the workers are stepping on, leaning heavy construction equipment against and killing some plants.

In an earlier post I had written about my Chicago Peace Roses - well, as of yesterday evening, they are GONE!

Yesterday the walls were being poured for the garage and they had a huge cement truck in the yard. I guess the workers either don't care or don't look where they are stepping - cuz BOTH of those rose bushes were stepped on and totally trampled.

We've also been told that more boulders will need to be moved, because they've had to move the location of the garage to the west another 2 feet, so that means that if I'm interested in keeping the plants in that area, I will have to move them to a "safe" place. I thought where I had moved the Chicago Peace roses WAS a safe place, but apparently I was way wrong.

They also moved my purple dahlia, which is in a container. But they moved it to a place where it was going to be really easy to hit as they move around the yard.

Our bill for this garage keeps growing - so I said to Jerome last night, "should I keep track of all the plants that they kill so that they can replace them at their cost?"

Am I being petty?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

beauty in chaos...

One thing you can count on; the flowers will bloom...

The yard is a complete MESS!!! But in the middle of all that chaos, the dahlias are starting to bloom. These are Dinner Plate Dahlias.

This year I planted most of them in containers and those are the ones that are doing the best. I planted 20; 10 from last year that I stored over the winter and 10 new from Brecks.The scarlet one is called 'Garden Wonder'.
The purple one is called 'Thomas Edison'.
This one is considered white and it is called 'Fleurel'.
This one is yellow and it's name is 'Kelvin Floodlight' - funny thing, I used to go to school with a Kevin Flood and so, the name reminds me of him.

The only color that is missing at the moment is the orange. That one is called 'Mrs. Eileen'.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

what to look for in august...

In August, these are the flowers in my garden that we need to watch for since this is the month that they begin to bloom:

Cyclamen (didn't grow this year)
Garden phlox
Black-eyed susans
Purple Coneflowers
Hardy hibiscus
Moon flowers (didn't grow this year)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Sparky standing watch over the containers that we transferred a couple of the bushes and the russian sage.


I think this is a weed, but I like it. It's in the "weed" area of the yard. The "weed" area is right in the middle of the yard where there used to be two ponds . The year after we moved in, Jerome took all the rocks and put them in a pile behind the garage. We were going to re-do the ponds. Then we decided that it was not a good location for the ponds (right under the magnolia tree), so we will eventually move them out in the open a little more. So, for nearly 3 years, this area has been collecting weeds and baby trees - the bamboo is getting over grown, etc. A neglected area.

Update - I spent a couple of hours weeding the neglected area Sunday - it looks MUCH better now. I filled up a whole "lawn and leaf" paper bag.


Update #2 - This weed is called a Purple Loosestrife (thanks again Dynochick) and apparently it's quite invasive. It's supposed to invade wetlands and choke out other plants and wildlife. I guess this is why it's in the area where the ponds were located. Not sure if it's wild or if the former owners planted it. I still think it's quite pretty and I really don't have very many spires...so...the jury is still out.

Monday, July 20, 2009

poi-son i-va-a-a-a-ay...

This is what happens when you weed-wack in a poison ivy patch - of course he didn't realize until a day or so later...

These pictures are somewhat disturbing. View at your own risk.


We've decided this is a 'Y', for Yvonne :)




life and death of a knautia bloom...


















































This is when it turns to seed and if you don't want millions of knautia plants growing everywhere, you'll need to deadhead at this point. It's a nearly everyday task from the moment they start blooming at the beginning of May until almost Thanksgiving.