snow…?!

i haven’t been watching the weather, so i was surprised to see the giant flakes falling outside my window when i finally dragged my happy butt out of bed this morning.   stay safe, travelers!  wouldn’t it be great if we kept enough snow to do some sledding when the family gets here?

Merry Christmas!

May  you enjoy every minute of these blessed Holy Days and carry the Spirit of Love, that is born anew each Christmas, forever in your heart.   Amen.

project complete

the week-end was verry productive….and now we’ve had a nice rain…purrr…

we even managed to bring a rhododendron over from michael’s house and plant it along the north fence (looks good, but no picture).  i think overall about 3 dozen plants and a dozen shrubs were rearranged.   i’m still working on the area in front of the holly, moving brick and sedum, dragging home more mums for the planters and displays… but i’ve got to have something going…and does one ever have enough pumpkins and mums??

moving it around…

the weather is perfect…i don’t think i’d get tired of it 365…

we had planned an overhaul of the north fence area before the trees fell, but it had to be changed and delayed.  it’s only about half-shade now, but that was enough room for the hostas that had been out front.  i had put 2 red-twig dogwood bushes in intensive care this summer and they are doing well, so we moved them in the sunnier spot along with 2 knock-out roses that i’d hidden on the eastside chaos garden.  we dragged over one of the bird baths and a big stone urn that we found one heavy-trash day.  casey had been nursing a holly volunteer in a large pot and we were so happy to give it a permanent home.  it looks good….

and there’s more…we’ll put in a full day tomorrow…

yes, betsy, i DID have a vegetable garden this year

but i don’t have much to show for it.  this gardening blog has been neglected and forlorn while i griped and complained.   the peppers and eggplants were a no-show; green beans barely produced.  squash harvest was modest; the onions did well;  the sweet cherry 100′s were delicious, but i pulled them up a while back; the husky red cherries, better boys and early girl still have plenty on the vine.  if it weren’t for the herbs,  i’d have no reason to call myself a gardener (well, those and the flowers).  but i am a gardener, which means i have a plan for Next Year.  it will definitely be an improvement.

i’m still blaming the loss of the trees for all my outdoor-challenges.  we actually got the roofs fixed last friday and the trim fellas showed up yesterday morning…(only 3 1/2 months later)…and we’re still waiting on the gutter guys.  i’m warming up to the idea of a sunny flower garden in front of a screened-in front porch next summer. . .

so, i’m glad to see the season end and ready to put out the pumpkins…but in the meantime, there’s all that parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme….gobs of oregano, and my favorite, the basil…

i got to getaway

with the start of school bearing down on us, we’ve carved out a day–today–to pause from our usual mundanity and head on down the road.  i’ve got the camera ready to take some pictures that are NOT of my gardens…we’re looking for antiques and some tasty food, perhaps a short, shady hike, so cadiz, ky and land between the lakes is our default destination. 

until i get back with some new views, here are some snaps:

still growing…

 it’s hot as hell…heat index 114…i’m melting…but i did manage to get out and tend the garden this a.m. before the humidity became unbearable…

while i was gone…

everything kept growing…except those rascally pepper plants…i pulled up the mangy-looking ones and fussed over the others.  everything else is going strong…

see those straggly peppers on the right? harrumph...

the zinnias and morning glory in the center of the tomatoes

basil amongst the wild oregano

the eggplant looks pretty puny, but the peas are perky

scarlet runner beans cover the onions near the kent oregano

the early girl tomato, squash and a little tomatillo

cilantro is about done...geraniums and licorice in the washtub

solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as these echinacea

if the veggies don’t straighten up, i’m going to throw down some zinnia seeds…i can always count on the flowers…. can’t eat them, though.  the front of the house is still a little traumatic for me….so i just leave it alone and play in the other gardens for now.  this fall we’ll be verrry busy moving hosta and such, but the roofs and gutters have to be repaired and some soil brought in.  i can wait… 

peeking around the hydrangeas to the front yard...

good day for growing

 i question myself when i give up on plants and decide to put in more virile specimens…especially with bell peppers.  bell peppers have challenged me for all of the years i’ve lived at sonnystone.  on harmon court i had excess california wonders, but here…not so good…  i’ve amended, moved, changed up the type of pepper—to no avail!  but i remain resolved to have enough of those babies to give away.  to that end, i bought some new very green peppers to add to the old struggling ones, did some deep digging and put it all together with some hope.

then, there’s the eggplant dilemma.  i got on an eggplant binge and bought up 6 black beauties and 2 whoppers.  our next-door-neighbor brought over 4 black beauties (casey took them, not knowing for sure if we needed them).   the plants in the ground were struggling, showing some leafy stress, and i opted to dig it all up and do it again.  i left the hardy husky red cherry in the middle, placed the parsley below it,  and put a white sage on either side of the row..filled in with 2 of the neighbor’s eggplant in front of each of the sugar pea trellises; i kept one of the whoppers and put it in between the peas and  the sage.  had to throw away the leftovers…guilt…shame….

i got all that done yesterday, hoping to get it mulched today…but even better!!  it’s a rainy, cool day which will lead to sunny, hot days and i’m expecting everything to grow about a foot…or so…

 

containers are nice, too…

therapy

neither the vegetable garden nor the trellis garden were affected by the Big 5/25  Storm…a large limb jusstt missed the magnolia and landed on some lavendar, and the wind zipped a few leaves off of the wisteria, but that’s been easily fixed.  i’ve worked off my shock, planting and staking, watering and rearranging.  the ferns from the front porch have been moved to the screen porch for now, as even the trellis garden is getting more sun than before. 

i’ve planted scarlet runner beans and sugar snap peas, sunflowers, more basil, some parsley and petunias, zinnias and licorice vine.  i found one of the little ferns in a pile of dirt on the front porch and re-planted it. 

my daylilies, coneflower, daisies, anise hyssop, and bee balm are ready to burst into bloom soon.  no one can be un-cheered in a garden…