Pineapple Coconut Cake Vodka Slush--This Year's Signature Deck Drink

It's very common for events to have "signature" drinks these days.  So I decided I, too, could have a "signature" drink for summer entertaining.

Have you ever heard of this vodka?

I have seen it all over the net. It tastes like vanilla cake.  People were raving about it.

When DH saw it,  he asked me if I would like to try it.  Remembering all the good reviews, I thought I would give it a try.

I have to admit, I hated it. I had to dump out the fresh watermelon puree vodka martini I made with it.

Not one to waste, I had to come up with something to use this for. So I decided to try a version of my Christmas Frozen Slush drink.

I mixed one big can of pineapple juice, one can of coconut milk and one can of lemonade with the entire bottle  and then froze it. It's been waiting in the freezer for about a month.  Tonight I finally had the opportunity to test it.

I had a Father's Day BBQ and served the slush out on the deck before dinner.  YUM. It tasted so much better as a fruit slush with ginger ale added just before serving.  It really did taste like a pineapple cake.

After dinner my sister and mom finished watching NASCAR. They are both HUGE fans of #88.

I grabbed my camera when I heard yelling, clapping and jumping...

My 77-yr. old mother was doing jumping jacks! I guess they were happy that Jr. won (I think that is the name. I never watch NASCAR).

Royal Purple Smokebushes moved

Yes, it is absolutely the wrong time to move them, but that never stops me.  Once I get an idea in my head, I just do it.

I had a pretty good-sized smokebush growing in the rockwall garden. Given the fact that it has been in the ground, (in the same spot!) for six years, it should be a lot taller.  Lucky for me, it isn't so maybe it will survive the move.

Here it is at 7:15 a.m. all replanted in the bare spot I showed you yesterday. 

Fills it right up nicely, don't you agree?  I think the foliage contrast looks great. The shrub should not grow bigger than 15 feet. At the rate it's been growing, that will takes years.  Here it is looking from the back side toward the big arbor.

I love it.  I love it so much, that I moved a second one that is the same age, but only about 1/4 the size.

 It was growing in the woodland area and did not get much sun.

Now it lives here:

Directly opposite the other one.

 I just hope they don't die from the move!  I usually have very good luck moving plants at the wrong time.  I dig a big hole and I fill it with water. Once all the water is gone, I move the plant in, then water it again.  I have found that if given enough water, they usually survive.

As often happens when I start digging, I can't quit.  I started another big project.
I am removing everything from this very shaded woodland garden and turning it into a hosta garden.

I will probably replant with only hostas.

  I would like to get this all dug out today, so my breaktime is over-- I have a ton of work to do.

Seeds are just not my Thing

Remember all those seeds I bought from an online source....3 different amaranthus plants...I was so thrilled to find amaranthus seeds.............well, I planted all of them about six weeks ago....in the area where I removed some daylilies. Here is what it looks like today:

Yes, it is still bare. Not a single seed came up!  Now I need to find something else to plant in this bare area. 

I am very happy with the 'Manhattan' Asiatic lilies I moved here last summer.  They are full of big fat buds about to open:

I am also happy to see the 'Bridal Veil' shrub in bloom:

I may use some of this in my centerpiece for my Sunday Father's Day dinner.

Here is a nice combo of hardy geranium and silver Lamb's ear:

I was thrilled to see that my Ninebarks bloomed:

 

This weekend I really need to clean my paths...they are all full of pine cones and pine needles.

It's my #1 task on my list of things to do tomorrow.

As you can see,  I have tons of work to do! 

Here's hoping we all have a productive and fun weekend.

Frosty Morn

I know what most of you are thinking......surely she does not mean the icy cold kind of frost.......

Yes, it's a fact. I woke up to frost on June 13th.  Just for proof, I snapped this shot of the neighbor's roof.  I immediately ran out to the deck (6:15 a.m.)  and watered all of my containers.  My farmer friend says that if you water frost before the sun hits the leaves, it will save your plants.  I really did not see any frost on my plants, but just to be safe, I watered.    I felt pretty guilty as I knew last night that we had frost warnings, but I was too lazy to go out and cover everything.  I decided to let nature take it's course...but I would have cried like a baby if I woke up to a couple dozen dead containers.

I am happy to report that they all looked fine on my after-work walk through.

I was very surprised as coleus and cannas do not like it when the temp is below 50 degrees.  You can see in the background that I am beginning to bring the deck furniture out. We are hoping to get it all finished this weekend before my father's day BBQ that I am having on Sunday.

I have a few new things to show you from the arbor gardens.  Here you see the blue/purple spiderwort is now in bloom with the magenta.  It makes a nice combo with the one remaining allium 'Christopherii'.  I planted seven of them a few years ago.  They never survive more than a couple of years in my garden.

 Here is allium 'Molly'.  She has spread quite nicely through the years.

 Here she is peeking through a hosta.

 Ah, and here is my favorite poppy-- 'Queen Alexander' at 6:30 a.m.

 Here she is yesterday at 4:30 p.m.--not quite open.

and today at 3:30 p.m. -

Queen A may still be short with only four flowers, but she is a pastel beauty, don't you think?  I feel so good when I make a purchase that lives more than two years!

What to Do with the Pantyhose We No Longer Wear

First of all, let me say that I hate this bare leg decade and I can't wait to see pantyhose return.  In my humble opinion, there are very few women, over 18 years old, who look good in a dress without pantyhose.  I see wedding pics with bridesmaid's bare legs and I shake my head in awe at how terrible it looks. I wonder how they will feel about those pics when they look back 10  years from now.

Anyway I was putting out the deck plants over the weekend and I noticed this black pantyhose tie I used last  year:

 Quite visible, don't you think?  LOL.  This year I wanted something more hidden.  So I searched my panthose drawer and found a brand new pair of white tights in size "small".  As you can see they were marked down at the end of the season. 

It must have been the end of the same season when I stopped working out at the gym for two hours per day. I know that I will never again work out that much. Therefore, I expect that I will never again be able to wear a size "small". From here on in, the best I can hope for is big and voluptuous! :) I decided to cut this pair up for plant ties. That one pair provided enough ties for years to come!  Pantyhose ties are great because they have some "give" and they expand with the size of the plant.

I used one to hold this butterfly bush right against the deck.

Look. You can hardly see it! Perfect.  I want those long purple butterfly bush blooms to hang right over the deck so I can see all the humming birds and butterflies sipping their sweet nectar.

It has been HOT here for the past two days. I HATE hot weather.  Sunday we went to Wally's World and I saw these long muumuu things that I thought would be nice to lounge around the  deck.....remember I am no longer a small size, so tiny little shorts and tanks are out. :)  The muumuu things were in the junior section.  I bought the biggest one they had and brought it home. It fit in all areas but one....I guess juniors are still developing, so there really was not enough fabric to cover the girls (if you know what I mean).  So to keep this blog "G" rated, I can only show you this much:

I am holding the picture frame because I am planning to hang it on the lattice again this year with a container inside it.  Anyway, don't you just love this bold Hawaiian print? I know I do.

 Before I hang this on the lattice, I want to change it up a bit.    Today I spent over 9 hours at work and when I got home I did not feel like painting in this horribly hot weather.  Once it cools down a bit, I will show you what I ended up doing with this frame. 

Until then, stay cool!

It's Been a Great Day

I was up before 5 a.m. (I like to get up extra early on the weekend).  By 6:30 a.m. I was outside in a gentle rain removing grass from the rockwall garden. By gentle rain, I mean just an occasional couple of minutes of rain, then it would quit, then start up again........I don't mind working in a gentle warm rain. In fact I think it's much easier to dig weeds when the soil is wet.

I thoroughly enjoyed my two hours outside this morning.

I marveled at the fact that I was doing hard labor to remove grass with seed heads, yet I was thrilled to discover the seed heads on this blue oat grass:

and this blue fescue grass, 'Elijah Blue' (the one in my arbor garden has never thrown up seed heads):

DH just shook his head when he came out as he could not tell the difference between what I was removing and what I was thrilled to have blooming.

 I also removed these colchium so I could plant them in my front garden where I can see them from my living room window. 

They are small flowers and do not bloom until mid fall.  This thick green foliage dies back and they just suddenly appear when they are ready.  Here they are from a previous year:

Lovely little purple flowers that many call fall crocus. They need to be some place where you can see them close up to appreciate them. Now they are.

I enjoyed the rest of the morning watching HGTV shows while picking the paper off my green star quilt that I showed you a few days ago. This quilt was made by a technique called "paper piecing" which means you sew right on paper.  It's a great technique until the time comes to remove all of that paper!

It comes off easily, but it's a big mess, so I put a wastebasket and the vacuum cleaner next to where I sat. Every time I got up (5 times in a couple of hours), I ran the vacuum cleaner to pick up the tiny bits of paper that tend to get everywhere.  As you can see, I only have the last border of paper to remove.  I am thrilled about that!

I was also happy to find these two allium Christopherii growing on the messy neighbor side of my deck:

I don't know how they got here. I think I may have thrown seeds in this area a few years ago.  They are way shorter than they should be, but I don't mind that. I am just happy that they are growing here!

While I was removing paper, DH put the window AC in the bedroom, so that made me happy.  I am also very happy that after six months of searching, I found the lost curtains for the family room window.  I made them "custom" by inserting  the burlap panels and am now able to pull them closed to keep the summer sun out of the family room.

The chair covers I made a few months ago, look great with the new sofa (you can see a tiny portion of it in the family room - right side).  So today my world is quite wonderful!  I hope yours is, too.

Thunderstorms Predicted Tonight

That makes me happy as we still need more rain.  I am  happiest if we get two full days of rain each week in the summer.  Then my grass stays green and the flowers are also happy. It does not usually happen.

I went out after work today to tackle the weeds in the main gardens.  I lasted about 45 minutes before the mosquitoes had blood flowing down my arms.  That was long enough for me to get a full wheelbarrow load of weeds, so I was thrilled.  Just a few years ago, after 45 minutes, I was just getting started.....now I am thrilled to have worked 45 minutes in the garden! 

More rain will  keep all of these areas looking as good as (or better) than look today:

This is the path we put in last year. It is looking good with the Frances William hosta in the foreground, the 'Palace Purple' heuchera near the end of the path and the 'Manhattan' lilies I moved here last year.  I am amazed how those lilies took to this area (left side)...they are huge!

 I like this combo of chives and purple iris:

The Heuchera 'Caramel' that I planted last year survived our mild winter and looks pretty good right now against the Lamb's Ear.

My Siberian Iris has just started to bloom (the purple/blue flowers in the front): 

Here are the same plants from the opposite direction:

The orange poppies have begun to open in the little rusty wagon wheel garden I showed you a few days ago:

But what really surprised me was another yellow iris in this garden.  I probably purposely planted it here, but then forgot I did it. :) I bet many of you can relate to that!

Our weather forecast is to get more thunderstorms tomorrow, but I am still hoping to get a lot of work done this weekend in the gardens.  I really need to dig out a TON of grass with bobbing seed heads.  I hope, if you are so inclined, that you also get a lot of garden work done this weekend.

New Bloomers (NO, not that kind of bloomers!)

It rained all weekend. Since I was out of town all weekend, it was perfect! The garden got some much needed moisture.  After work today I went out to see what new blooms I had. 

I was surprised to find quite a few that are blooming 3 weeks earlier than last year.

I love this white with black markings poppy called 'Royal Wedding'.

I purchased it from Breck's and planted it in the fall of 2009.  This is 2012. I expected it to be a huge plant by now. Unfortunately it's still small with just another couple of buds to open.  I guess the "third year it leaps" is not true for poppies.  I have six poppies from Brecks planted in this area (3 varieties)and all six are still tiny.  On the bright side they are at least alive.

This white bloom is an heirloom plant from my mother-in-law who got it from her parent's farm when she was first married. She is now 83 years old.  So this lovely fragrant flower came from an original plant that is well over half a century old!

My MIL calls it 'Sweet Annie'.  I think it's an herb.

I may have mentioned that I planted my aqua milk cans with Sedum Autumn Joy.  I have tons of it, so I just dug up a few and stuck them in plastic pots that would fit inside the milk cans.

SAJ is the easiest plant I have to grow. It does not need much water, so it's perfect for the lazy gardener I have become. :) It is also most cost effective and who does not want to save a few bucks these days?

My garden is all pastel right now.  I was thrilled to see that the lupine I moved last year gave me one bloom.

You can see the 'Royal Wedding' poppy behind it.

The last new flower I found was this magenta spiderwort.  I like spiderwort, but it tends to overtake an area, so I am always removing huge chunks from my gardens.

I forgot the name of this plant, so I had to search  my own blog.  I was amazed to find that last year on June 21st, I did a 'what's blooming now' post with all of these same plants!  I guess the warm winter has caused them all to bloom very early this year.

I hope to get around to visiting all of your blogs soon. When I am out of town all weekend and working all week, it's tough to maintain my garden and visit blogs!  I really need a few more hours in my day.

My Garden on the Last Day of May

I am finally getting some color--mostly purple, yellow and orange.  Today I will just show you a few views from different parts of the yard.

You can see all three arbors from this view:

From the front yard under the apple tree:

Looking back into the woods where I allow the disobedient orange poppies and wild phlox to spread with abandon.

The little rusty wheel garden will soon be ablaze with bright orange poppies blooming in front.

Some areas near me had frost last night. I am thankful that we did not. It is in the mid 50's right now. Not so good for my tropical planters, but GREAT sleeping weather!