I Can't Leave them Alone for More than a Day

Thank you all for your comments over the past five days.  I have been out of town  without computer access so have not been able to answer as I usually try to do (had all my posts set to go before I left). I did read and appreciate every single comment. It was one of the first things I did after I got home. You know how I miss all you when I am away!
When I got home yesterday  afternoon my poor deck plants were pathetic. They have had no water or attention since last Sunday.  I think it did rain on Wednesday, but that was not enough for my pampered babies. They are used to getting a mega load of water every day. Most of the plants on the sunny side of the deck were near death.  I gave them all a good drink of water and they perked up nicely after a few hours, but a lot of the foliage was still yellow and  sickly looking.

How sad is this?

I went out this morning and cut off the yellowed leaves. It is looking pretty sparse, but I  think it will bounce back.

I also  cut off most of the drooping flowers from this big dahlia container, but the bottom foliage is beyond repair.

so I cut it off and then moved a big peach canna to cover its na*ked bottom.

 There. That's so much better.

I did have a few new blooms while I was gone.

This is my most interesting canna. I bought it as Picasso, but I don't think it is Picasso.  Whatever it is, it's so unusual with it's orange/yellow combination petals.  Most of the yellow section have orange dots all over.

My Peruvian Daffodil also put out it's second bloom:

 At least this year the flower was not half eaten by insects.  I am disappointed though as I had hoped for at least half a dozen flower stalks shooting out this watering can.

 I have another dahlia blooming. I can't remember the name of this peachy/yellow flower. It is probably on my blog somewhere, but I don't feel like looking for it.  :)

So after a few hours of work, the deck is looking OK, not good anymore, just OK. I knew all the plants would suffer if we did not get enough rain while I was gone, but I can't live to take care of the plants. So now I will just have to do the best I can with what I have left.

I am looking forward to catching up on all your blogs.

The Biggest Whiskey Barrel Planting I Have Ever Had

I mean, this thing is huge!  Who knew that the liatris would multiply like this?

 The liatris and purple coneflower stay in the whiskey barrel all winter.  The dahlias are in pots and just sitting there for now.  The bottom dahlia is yellow and looks like a daisy. It normally grows upward, but one windy day, the big blue door that used to be in this corner fell on it and nearly severed the stems.  I just left it there with its fallen stems until I had time to cut them out. Funny thing happened....it continued to grow! This planting needed a "spiller" plant anyway, so it all worked out perfectly.  I wish it was in bloom for this post. Just imagine a mass of yellow daisies at the bottom. :) While you are imaging, conjure up a nice mass of the blue salvia with the light green leaves filling in the side to your right with spikes of blue.  I think the poor salvia just ran out of space to grow.

 I used to have a pot of orange nasturtiums here, but changed to the pink dahlia yesterday.

My second whiskey barrel looks totally different.  It has the new orange coneflower 'Hot Papaya' that I bought in June.  Unfortunately 'Hot Papaya' finished blooming weeks ago and I cut it back hoping for a second flush of color.  The tall dahlia is another 'Myrtle's Folly'.  I had to tie the dahlias to the railing as they, too, were falling over from the wind.  I used fish line so you can't see the ties.  One thing I really dislike is seeing plants tied up!

 There are quite a few other plants in here, too--Russian Sage, salvia, nasturtium, ornamental kale, etc.   One of the 'Hot Papaya' flowers is just starting to rebloom.  I am hoping to get a half dozen or so of those with the dahlias as there is some orange in Myrtle.

So even though it is mid-August, I still have a lot to look forward to in my container gardens. As the perennial gardens begin to wane, the deck containers are just beginning. That is the great thing about growing dahlias, cannas, and calla lilies. When I am busy in the perennial gardens, they take little care as they are just beginning to grow. It is always August before they start needing my attention.

I also have liatris planted in the deck entrance planters.

When I used to plant it in the ground, it never spread. In fact, it always died out.  When I planted it in these containers, it spread and continues to do so every year.  I dug them from these planters for the whiskey barrel a few years ago.  The wind did a number on these, too.

So if you have tried liatris and could not get it to succeed, you may have better luck if you try it in containers. 

Globe Thistle

My globe thistle is a bit disappointing this year. The plants are smaller than normal and there are not as many blooms as I expected.

I think I should paint that orb green--the same green that I painted the deck chairs.

This photo shows all the globe thistles in this area.  Some are much shorter than others--don't ask me why--it's not by my hand.

The bottom foliage of Globe Thistle can get pretty ratty looking. This year the foliage stayed decent. It must be because I watered this area quite often.  I really love these little blue orbs. I have tried to get a few plants established in other areas, but so far no luck with that.

Contrast Makes a Garden

Every now and then I like to look at a black and white photo of my garden to see where I need  more contrast.  As I look up toward the main arbor, I think the contrast here is  pretty good.

Here is the same picture in color:

I see a good amount of like/dark. I am fairly happy.

As I go just a few feet further down the path,  I notice the top left side needs contrast--it all looks the same color in black/white. I have never been happy with this area.  It does not get much sun and it's all rock so I can't dig down very deep.  So far I have been content to let any plant that survives the winter to remain here.

 Here is the color version:

I wonder if I could dig deep enough to get a Ninebark back there. Hmmmm.....DH can dig deeper than I can, but he HATES to do it...If I talk sweetly maybe, just maybe he will try. It's a terrible job. You have to  chip away at the rock. If you are lucky you will hit a decent-sized boulder and after chipping away around it, you will be able to remove it and the hole left will be big enough to put a gallon-size shrub in.   I am alwalys amazed that any plant will grow in such poor conditions.  I bet a nice patch of Lamb's Ear would work there. That silver color is great in so many areas.

This path is the new one we put in a few weeks ago.  I am so happy with the Cardinal flower (the red one). It has been blooming for nearly two months. What a great perennial. I hope it survives the winter.  Please ignore the hose. I was lugging it around in the ealry morning hours to get the new path plantings watered.

Here I stepped back to get the coleus in the shot.

I really like that splotchy coleus. It had no name when I bought it. There are so many great coleus varieties now.   If you have not grown them in the past few years, you really should try a few of the new ones. Who needs flowers when the foliage is that gorgeous?

Container Plants

First I need to show you this calla lily. It's the first time I have ever seen one like this. It's a Siamese twin calla! The two flowers share one stamen. I just thought it was pretty unique.

After the big winds from last week, I had to rearrange all the tall flowers  on the deck because they were separating and starting to flop. I moved the green table so I could use the house wall as a windblock. This area happens to get hot afternoon sun and most of my containers have tropical plants that love the sun.  I put a huge pot of rather dull purple/white Rembrandt dahlias against the blue door.

I left a nice wide walking area as this is the main entrance to the deck. You can tell I am doing this very early in the morning as the dew is still on the floor.

I put the table under one of the plant pictures on the lattice wall where it would be shaded from that hot sun.  Later in the afternoon, I sat there with an afternoon glass of wine and enjoyed being able to see both sides of the new arrangement.  Side One:

Side 2:

Did you notice the orange cosmos at the bottom of the plant clusters on both sides?

I grew them from seed last year and they reseeded themselves in the long containers that I saved. 

 I am thrilled as they are so nice and thick this year.

Each long planter also had 3 cannas in it. The cannas all died. I was pretty bummed about that until I saw the cosmos.  Now I am happy because they work great to perk up the bottom of container combinations.

The big green/white striped leaves are from Tropicanna 'Gold'.

No blooms yet on 'Gold', but Tropicanna 'Black' in the background is throwing up a new bloom almost daily. 

It's been raining since Friday afternoon, so I have not had much time to enjoy the new set up. I think it is going to stop today, which will be good as we have a family picnic at the lake this afternoon.

I Went Out to Water and the Next Thing I Knew I Had a Big Hole to Fill

I ran outside to water one garden and did not get back in for three hours!  While the hose was watering, I grabbed the pruners and cut down a few lily seed heads, then I pulled a few weeds, then I grabbed a shovel and removed a red daylily that I did not like in this spot....just like that... in an instant I had this mess to deal with and I wondered why I did not leave well enough alone.  I keep forgetting that I can't dig down more than four inches in this area. It is all rock which makes planting difficult.

The daylily clump came out as its own little garden -- with this tall heirloom  Rudbeckia 'Golden Glow' and a few pieces of the shorter black-eyed Susan attached.

I left it all together and plopped it in this area, which was bare because I have been killing out pink mallow for two years.  I dug out all the little mallow plants I could find before planting it. I am sure there are still seeds waiting to come up again next year. I will deal with that when it happens. I chose this spot because it was there and because the deck railings will provide support for the tall 'Gloden Glow'  which can get up to 7 feet or so.

Unfortunately I bent the yellow flower stem after this pic was taken and had to cut it down.

Now what to fill that hole with?  I bought a bee balm (Fireball) for 1/2 price yesterday.

The easiest thing to do would be to just stick that in.  After a little more thought,  I decided against that because there is too much sun in this area.

I  walked a few feet behind the hole and dug up another daylily. A pink one that goes better with this pink garden area (which was never pink until this year).

The daylily is just beginning to bloom, too.  I am now much happier with this area.

From this angle, you can see the 'Golden Glow' flowers. 

Around here if you see a Daddy Longlegs spider folklore says it's going to rain.

Sure enough, by late afternoon, it was raining.

I think it is going to rain more today, which is wonderful.

I spent most of my day outside yesterday, but I did go in to do one dreaded chore -- scrub the floors--I hate dirty floors. 

I also did another spur-of-the-moment task.  I baked decorated sugar cookies for my sweet husband. He loves frosted sugar cookies. I rarely make them because they take forever and I can't decorate for diddly...now why did that expression just pop in to my head?  LOL.   I tried..........
I made royal icing and I made some stiffer to outline the cookie...

When that dried, I made flooding icing to fill in the outline...that's where it all went wrong.....I think I made it too thick because it never quite "flooded" to the edges.  LOL. 

Let's hope they taste better than they look.

I am in the Mood to Create

When I came home from work Wednesday, it was very windy and many of my containers with tall plants were beginning to flop over. Wind is not kind to huge planters! I cut off all the heavy flowers from Myrtle's Folly before the stems snapped  in the wind and brought them inside. I put them in vases above my kitchen sink where I could enjoy my Myrtle girls close up everyday.

I have been wanting to do something with this picture frame for years....

and I mean YEARS....I bought it in 1975 when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  It had a cougar oil painting inside. Years ago I gave the cougar away, but kept the frame. I painted it off white with a cranberry red center.

About 10 years ago DH bought this oil painting at a garage sale. ..Ugly with a capital "U". 

It's been sitting in the basement ever since.  It is signed "Pickett".  Now if you know that "Pickett" is akin to a Monet or some other famous landscape artist....don't tell me!  I have heard of people buying an oil at a garage sale and it's worth millions....if a "Pickett" is worth a million, don't tell me!  Because now it looks like this:

I took a straight-edged razor blade and skimmed the surface to get the high paint points off, then sprayed it with chalkboard paint.

I now have a huge chalkboard.  Don't ask what I am going to do with it because I have no idea. I had planned to hang it beside my kitchen desk, but after I put the frame on, I discovered it's too big! I am sure I will find a use for it...just give me a bit more time. :)

Yesterday I made a new blue jean purse for my mom.

I am off work today, so who knows what creations may appear!  The WHOLE day is mine to do whatever I want!! I hope I don't end up wasting it all cleaning.

Stuffed Roast Beef Bundles and Roasted Garden Beets

Every now and then I have to come in from the garden and cook a meal.  Thus was the case last weekend.  I don't have a recipe, but you don't really need one for this meal.

Here is the easiest and tastiest way I know to cook fresh beets.

First clean them, cut off both ends, and toss them in some vegetable oil.  Place in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with any nonstick coating.

and roast at 400 degrees  until fork tender. These took about one hour.
The skins will look pretty dark when done.

Let them cool;  I left mine in the refrigerator overnight. When you are ready to use them,  slip on food gloves to prevent your hands from turning red and gently rub the beets.The skins will just slip right off as you rub.

Slice the beets into small rounds, add salt, pepper and a few pieces of butter.

Put in oven at 350 degrees until hot.   Sometimes beets can be a tad too earthy for me---meaning they taste like the soil they grew in.  These did not. They were sweet and delicious.

The stuffed roast beef  was equally as easy to make.
I buy precooked sliced roast beef  like this :

and  prepare a boxed stuffing mix ( I added some caramelized onions (from my freezer) to the stuffing mix). Then place a small scoop of stuffing on the edge of the roast beef, like this:

I made a sauce using one can of beef broth and one packet of dry onion soup mix and one cup of water.  I heated this then used cornstarch to thicken.
Pour it over the beef bundles - I had enough sauce for both of these.

and bake at 350 until hot -- about half an hour. As long as I was cooking, I made an extra pan to freeze for a meal this fall.

This was really good! I have made it before with canned gravy, but the sauce I made this time was much better.