You've Come a Long Way, Baby

End of May


Today

Sunflower 'Red Sun'

This is my first ever successful seed-grown sunflower.
I was so excited to see it bloom!

Ducksfoot is not Ducky

I have decided that this 'ducksfoot' coleus on the top is a 'yawn'. On it's own it's dull and boring. I never should have given it top status in this double planter.


To prove my point, just look what happens when I swap it out with the container sitting next to it.

Now that plant is deserving of the top position. This combo makes me "Oh000000000" and "Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa".

A Summer Day of Gardening

I spent a good part of my day digging all the plants out of this area.

Nothing wants to grow here. I am guessing it's lack of sun, since the soil is probably the best in any area of these gardens.

I am going to turn it into a hosta garden by removing pieces of the dozens of hosta I already own. That's the great thing about having a well-established garden. When you get the urge to redesign, you can just go around digging out things you already have. It's very cost effective.

I have to hook two hoses together to water this area. I am willing to do that now and then if I can get something to grow and look decent.

I also cut down spent lily stems & shasta daisies, and dug out a bunch of pink mallow. Just a lot of general tidying up. I think I had about 3 wheelbarrow loads.

I removed stray Black-eyed Susans like these that seeded themselves too close to other plants.

I have a lot of white phlox blooming right now. I moved a few clumps of that, too.



All in all, I had a busy day outside.

Now I am going to shower, put on my "Green Acres" gown with my Crocs and break open that case of Relax. Then I'm going to grab my camera and go out to the deck to stalk the hummingbirds.

How many pairs of shoes do you have?

asked Pea (in the comments).

You know I was wondering the same thing after the last post.

Just before sitting down to post this, I went in the bedroom closet and made a quick count.

I must admit there were a few more pairs than I expected because not long ago I threw some in the garbage. Just this week I threw away a pair of shoe boots that were quite worn.

The fact that I cannot close the closet door due to shoes creeping out should have been a clue that my collection is expanding....

I had over 70 pairs.

Guess what was sitting on my porch when I got home this afternoon?



Yup, a bag with two pair of shoes I ordered last week.

I love to wear this style of shoe boot with pants.

My feeling is that if you have to dress up to go to work, you can never have too many shoes.

Tomorrow I am going to see if I can get rid of a few more. As I am getting more mature in years, I find some of those high skinny heels too uncomfortable. I may toss a few of those. 

Here's Something I like Almost as Much as Flowers

 
Shoes!
I am wearing these today.
Maybe I should start a shoe blog.
:) 

The Buddleia Brings Out the Beauties

Ever since the buddleia started blooming, I have tons of butterflies flying around the deck all the time. Today I counted six at one time sipping the sweet nectar.

I am also seeing hummingbirds every day - sometimes two or three at a time.

No wonder I love buddleias so much! 

No Flowers and It Still Looks Good

This calla finished blooming a couple of weeks ago. Right now there is nothing blooming and yet it still looks good. I know I've said this before, but I can't over emphasize the importance of good foliage plants. This particular combo is one I intend to use over and over. The nearly black foliage of the dahlia and the almost-perfect matching stripe in the canna are pure perfection in my humble opinion (I get all giddy over little successes like this)

Even the stems have interesting speckles.

Good Morning, Bloggy Friends!

I have nothing to post this morning because I did nothing in the garden yesterday.
N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
I did not even water the deck plants.
I can imagine they are sulking like crazy this morning.
Well, too bad.
They will just have to wait until later today to quinch their thrist.

Darn Blogger would not let me post a picture again.
Well, I don't give up easily. We live for pics here in Blogland.
I have discovered that when Blogger is in a bad mood, I can usually get Picassa to post the picture. I'll just consider that my "Tuesday Tip", so this post shall not be totally without merit.

Have a totally tantalizingly titillating Tuesday. 

OK. I Went Out and Took a Few Pics Before Going to Work....

 

This is the main entrance to the deck. I have some big sunflowers growing here. They are as tall as I am right now with quite a few buds on them. I think they will be those big reddish/brown flowers. I've never grown them before, so am excited to see what they look like. 

The Speckled Canna 'Picasso' is Progressing

 

I like this one. I did not realize it would have so much yellow, but that's a good thing because it's so different from my others. 

Just Getting Ready

Tomorrow is nail day.

I like all twenty digits to match, so tonight I gave myself a quick pedicure.

During the summer I always take my own nail polish so that everything matches. I decided on hot pink for this two-week period.

While the toes dried, I read blogs. 

Very Scary

I am sure you have all heard about the suspected plot to blow up the Mackinac bridge.
That's the bridge I go over all the time.
I just went over it yesterday and I will be going over it again Wednesday.

Very scary when it hits so close to home.

1st Canna Bloom of '06

This is 'Tropicana'

To Susie from Pittsburg, PA

Thank you for the nice comment you left on my old web site. Since you mentioned my blog, I am assuming you come here.

I am wondering why you didn't just leave a comment here, but maybe you are not aware of that feature? If not, you can just click on the comments below this post and leave a message. Right now I allow anonymous comments so even if you are not registered in Blogger you can still join in. If you just sign it Susie from PA, I will know it's you.

In any event I am happy that you come to visit and I hope you get a blog of your own so that you can post pictures for me to see of those two new decks at your new home. I am so happy that you have gotten a few ideas from my site!

Please continue to visit and feel free to comment whenever you feel the urge to do so.

Morning Glories

growing up the hibiscus tree.
I planted morning glories in this tree about three years ago. They have reseeded themselves ever since.

They looked pretty with the morning light shining through.

I spent a couple of hours early this morning moving hostas to one of the beds near the road. I haven't been able to get much to grow there. It's not very sunny and
I have to hook two hoses together to get water to the bed. So I never water it unless I am transplanting. The lack of water is one reason not much grows. Of course, hostas like a lot of water. I will just have to pray for rain next year. :)

Freddy's Grandpa?

I wasn't going to post this one, because I expect everyone is pretty sick of frogs. But just look at the size of this guy -- and he's laughing.
I couldn't resist.

Canna Picasso is almost Ready to Bloom

8:00 a.m. Saturday

What? Yellow?
It's supposed to be orange speckled....


8:00 p.m. Saturday

Ahhhh........here come the orange speckles

I can't wait to see the whole flower!

Lots of Black-eyed Susans and phlox and not much else at the moment.

It was 45 degrees when I got up this morning. Brrrrrrrr...a little chilly out there.
DH is washing the house today. The outside siding - he does it every year with bleach and water.

Everything had to be pulled away from the house

That looks like a re-arranging opportunity if ever I've seen one!

Right now I have to go out and wash all those windows. (Bleach and water leaves all kinds of little spots on the windows)

Hope you're all having an equally enjoyable Saturday morning. :)

8:00 p.m. Garden Views



It won't be long and all the sedum Autumn Joy will be blooming.

Cardinal Flower is a Dud

These two plants should be at least 3 feet high. They were planted last year.

The one above is 3 inches high and the one on the left is about 8 inches.

About a month ago I noticed they were not doing well. I researched a bit and found out they need a lot of water.

I moved them under the plant on the arbor so they would get water every day. It did not seem to help.

At least they are still alive. Maybe they will do better next year.