Welcome To My Garden!

  Just a picture or two to keep the story of my garden going.  After losing the trees opened a lot of the left back corner up to the full sun, I had to begin learning what would survive out there, and how much to water.  There have been some successes and some failures.  In days to come, I could tell the story of how the mushrooms are taking over.  Or I could single out my succulents.  Maybe I could focus on the cactus tower.  Or how rocks are playing a huge role in raising the gardens to a manageable height.  Or just focus on color.  Well, I will go to the pictures and see what will download tonight...internet is slow.  Here goes--

 

 

 

 

An Image or Two Since Last Story

Pine, log, mulch - defining  the edges

 

Intended to be a path around the large garden space, I have found this area with pine straw in it to be an excellent place for container gardening.  I set them up in little groupings according to how much sun they will withstand or love, and to provide some color through out.  The logs and chip-wood mulch are from the trees cut down in our yard. The pine straw is from a neighbors yard, who would love some grass under their trees. The inner border is monkey grass I planted 20 years ago to define the shape of the large inner garden. 

The inner garden has been overgrown with vines for years, hiding all the earlier makings of a garden I had started. This year's goal is to get rid of the vines and start again to make it look beautiful or be useful.  Since this picture, Jimmy hired a neighbor to pull off the vines since I had worked alone for so long and have only made a small dent in the vines.  All that is left is to dig up roots, so they won't reappear next year. I say that as if it were easy. NOT  It will take me hours to make a dent in it. But we are so much further along than we were. 

I now use the mulch for paths, and I am slowly removing all grass from the back yard.  Less weeding, less mud in the winter.  And it will provide a base for me to make some artsy pathway décor.  If I find time.  (Hey, spell ck just automatically put the slash above the e in décor. How cool. I've been wishing they would do that for years! Thank you people that make that happen. Wow.)

Not able to accomplish much in the summer heat, so I am making plans for the fall.  There will be an enormous amount of work to do to prepare for winter and next spring.  But I am excited because it is finally starting to look like a garden.  Feeling Blessed. Yay.

Recovering from the Power Company's Whopping Mistake

One year ago, the power company came into my back yard as it often does in our neighborhoods, to trim back limbs from their lines. A good practice that protects the lines from the winter icings on trees, or the high winds that drop super heavy limbs.  I greatly approve, but feel that some of the burden falls on us for the bushier stuff along the ditch.  So I worked last year to take down the overgrown shrubs that grow up from the ditch to a reasonable height that I can maintain.  Life had made a lot of stuff in my yard become overgrown, so it was slightly overwhelming to think of making it all right. But we determined that we would tackle it a little at a time a be winners eventually. So unwanted trees got cut to the ground, shrubs that sprung up from bird droppings of seeds were sheared to shrub height, and the vines that were a burden on everything, including my good trees, were cleared in part.  We discovered that we had problems. Some of our trees were dying.  And it began with one tree that the top was the first to fall out. Thankfully no one was hurt. Even when the bottom half toppled toward the house only seconds after I had walked by that spot. Thank you Lord for Guardian Angels!

Since my last posts, a lot has changed.  I haven't managed to keep up with the changes, but I was needing a place to put some pictures of those changes, and I remembered that is why I set this site up.  So, considering it could be a very long story, suffice it to say...I built a hoop house style green house that my grandson insists must be called a white house because the plastic is white, not green. LOL

 But I have used that little space to grow and learn all about keeping what I had through the winters, because pulling it all into the living room was a pill.  But in addition, I have experimented with started new plants from cuttings, seeds, and leaf sprouts.  I have rooted potatoes and harvested them from those plants.  I have doubled and tripled some things from cuttings, and I have divided ferns, and other old plants into multiple hanging baskets or rows of ground plantings...such as Hostas.  In other words, thanks to my Whitehouse, my garden has grown.

 

Shelves in back of the green house.
 

White plastic, 4 or 6 mil, with a zipper door.
(Used the ones meant for construction enclosures. Works great all winter.)

 

But up until the power company came, it was mostly for a shade garden which took me years to find plants that would survive, much less bloom, under all my trees.  I had come to a realization that our trees had become so large that losing a few would not hurt greatly, but how to accomplish the reduction was causing us grief, because of the incredible costs.

Several things happened, all of which turned the tide of my gardening in a big way:
1. The house next door burned completely, leaving a shell which sat there with high grass and weeds for several years. The fire caught into the limbs of our Wild Cherry tree, but it had recovered and put on long new limbs.  But we eventually found out that ants attacked it's center and were there because the fire had put the tree into shock,  overheating it's core to the point of causing its slow demise. Add to that the ivy that had taken over, the tree was choked to death as well.  So last year, even tho it put on leaves and berries....it suddenly died. It was right after being trimmed back, because new neighbors were rebuilding the house, and our trees limbs stretched over their roof.

We definitely didn't know this tree was hollow before they cut it, but we did
know that the vines had become a life threatening problem for this tree.

2. The Power company came in to trim, and because a pine near the back of the lot had lower limbs that were dying back, someone with less experience decided that they needed to cut our very tall pine down.  We came home from a day in the mountains to discover it in pieces in my brand new shade garden.  I had just cleaned it, made a hosta border, pulled up the rose into a support, and transplanted Ajuga as a ground cover beneath it. I also had Planted some bulbs, and a few other things that weren't showing their presence at the time. I used pine cones and sweetgum balls as mulch and it was looking rather woodsy/pretty.  But now our tree had crushed all of that, including the rose, and my Ajuga was overheating under 6 inches of saw dust.  Not to mention that we had lost a perfectly fine tree.  We had 2 separate arborists come out and give us quotes to do something about our trees, prior to this, and both said the pine was fine,  if we  just removed the ragged lower limbs.  Why we didn't have the power company turn it into wood planks I don't know, because we discovered it was worth $6000 in pine planking. Ugh! Hind sight is always better.

3. The power company gave us vouchers to buy items to rebuild the garden as we saw fit, because as it turned out. the management did decided they were in error, and asked how they could make it right. So we said, "take down the bad trees which might actually hit the wires if they fell.  Maybe even if they won't, you owe us." So they did.  And removed the stump of the pine tree. Then finally they allowed us to have the entire huge truck load of chipwood from the entire neighborhood.  A huge pile that had taken us an entire year to bring down to the size of about 2 truckloads. Because we have now mulched in pathways through out the yard, and at our hawk watch as well.

4. We were given a pile of flat rock, and the lumber from the burned out house. I started a raised bed where one of the trees was removed, and the sun now blazes down with the rock.  And used some of the chipped wood as fill to begin building it all up, before adding soil.  I used the broken limbs that were left and not cleaned up to lay along the bank to start putting leaves, and clippings into, to build up the bank.  And I purchased a pallet of wall retaining blocks to frame in a new bed where the pine had been.

  I then began to remove the sunscorched Aguga to a border around my large bed. Cleaned and cut back all the Monkey grass borders, and put pine straw from my neighbor's house in between the Monkey grass and the Ajuga.  they had cut up enough small logs that they left behind, that much to our surprise, were enough to go all the way around that path just inside the Ajuga, and still have enough to fill our fire wood holder. There are at least 100 logs around the largest bed.

5. I discovered that Dollar Store plastic containers used for storage and summer outdoor food containers make excellent planters. So I have used the things I grew in the "White house"  to make groupings all around the path, and plant into the raised bed. I took the bird seed which rooted as it fell to the ground and mixed it with seed a friend gave as a gift, to make a small sunflower bed at the extreme edge of the yard.

   

 Using these to shelter my Glad bulbs, newly planted in front, I criss- crossed and tied the sunflowers together so everything would stand against the wind. I made a little area for succulents, and another for herbs, planted 2 small maples. and some other flowering plants for butterflies and hummingbirds.

6. Next we spent our vouchers on pines that will remain small and decorative to put in a garden with a fountain.  I bought a couple of other pines, on sale when I bought the little maples, and a weeping redbud tree.  You see the Power company will not allow us to replant anything that will grow over 25 feet tall. So the weeping cherry that we wanted so much cannot be purchased because it grows to 26 ft. 

7. But I did plant some garden veggies in containers and one large raised bed built with the burnt house wood, and some flashing. It looks good with the galvanized planters I found at the farm centers.  We bought dirt from the landscapers by the truck load, and added all the compost I could make.  We mixed mushroom compost, a bit of manure compost, some peat moss, my compost, and a little top soil with the 6 month old chip wood mulch. Then on top I put potting soil purchased both in bags and bulk.   As much as we could come up with only filled the large raised veggie bed, and one half of the raised hill bed.  Jimmy bought watering troughs made from  a heavy duty fabricated products, in black. Two very large ones, one medium size one and one small round one. The small round one is at least 30 in across, the long ones are about 36 x 72 inches and 30 inches deep.  I raised them onto two layers of concrete block and am bringing the hill side of dirt up to their lip.  On one side the rock is piled to hold it back, on the other side the large logs from the trees are the bank base.  Eventually I will fill the trough and use it for veggies, as well as the back side of the bed behind the trough.  A second one, not so high will go where the pine tree was.  Again for veggies since there is now so much sun back there. 

8. Then finally, I want to include that I discovered that some growers run their pumpkin/gourd/cucumber/squash vines over an arch made from PVC and wire. the arches mirror my hoop house arches but when I made mine, I sprayed them black so they looked like black pipe.  So I made smaller raised beds and raised the arches between two of them, putting one of the arches on a raised bed that Jimmy made, so it's up in the air.  On it I have run my very favorite Small Pie Pumpkins.

Just recently we finally got almost all of the vines out of all the beds, except some roots.  We bought each other out door seating when we found it on sale, and were glad to let it be our gifts to one another.  It's nice benches and rockers and we placed them around the path, for resting places.  So little by little, it is finally looking like a garden once again.

As a blessed gift from God, Jimmy noticed that our gas station had replaced their lighting with new LED's and were discarding their heavy outdoor glass lamp covers.24 of them.  Since they were discarded, they were glad for us to take them away, not knowing how we would used them.  I began to wish I could come up with some outdoor light without risking the electric wires and water danger.  And I began to wonder if the dollar store solar lights would charge underneath  the glass domes, if I turned them upside down. They would seal out most water and would be very low to the ground.  We tried it, it worked, and now there is light all around the garden.

  So for the change, I want to put up some wonderful pictures of the progress so far.  

This is the beginning of a raised bed that is where the pine tree was.  This year I planted cucumbers, a large pumpkin, and some ornamental gourds that can sprawl over the brick wall.  Next year it will be a hillside raised bed. like the one across from it.  Still under progress, but I hope to put up the way it's all filled in in my next post.  That's all for now.

What a way to Prink the Back Yard!

After the Rains

Well, after 9 straight days of heavy rain, I have spent two mornings, pulling away the rotting bits from all my new plantings. Proud to say I only lost 2 plants so far. The others see like they will recover.  Thanks to Jimmy drilling extra drainage holes in all my planters. Some things that were newly planted actually seem to have benefited from the cool weather and saturation of water.  The sweet bud? trees we found road side on a steep mountain edge, had completely died off, and I was afraid I would be sorry for bringing it home. But, after all that rain there are definite signs that it is once again green into the very extreme ends of the stems. No signs of leafing as of yet, but it will be one thing that the dense rain would benefit from. Jimmy says his wee little wild rose is much taller as well. So that is at least 2 reasons to be proud of the floods.  My oak leaf hydrangea, is looking like it died back as well, but I continue to hope it will be another recipient of the blessings.

I took pics of everything around the house, just because I like to see its progress from newest planting to taking hold to full blown hardy. I will need to fertilize before Saturday when it is supposed to rain a some again. I am afraid the amount of rain may have washed the nutrients from the soil.  Of course, everything that had flowers, no longer has flowers, or they are brown or spotted or something indicitive of too much water. But the buds that are appearing on almost everything, gives me hope they will recover. The violets we rescued on the clearance table for $2, which I pinched and allowed to dry from overwatering, are also recovering nicely inside on my morning sun window seal. The 2 orchids we bought to make corsages from actually are putting on new orchids and new shoots.  So proud they will continue to be a joy on the ledge above my sink under constant flourescent light.

As I type this, sitting at the table on my deck, I can hear so many birds, but occasionally am treated to a Great Crested Flycatcher and his mate.  They seem to be staying around, perhaps to nest...I hope. A baby house finch, which is unable to fly very high at this point, landed on Jimmy's shirt. It might be wise that I watch carefully for the neighborhood cats till his little family is stronger. Something happened to the baby Carolina Wrens, but the Chickadee nest that is in the hole in the tree just above eye level from the deck, see to be faring well. I expect to see them fledged any day.  I have vines that are almost consuming some of my trees, and although they aren't good for the trees, they make excelent cover for the fledging birds.

We moved the container gardens around a bit to better suit the rising and setting of the sun and how the leaves have filled in on the trees. Most of my plants will accept shade, but those that need some sun must be placed where they will get the most. One tag said, "Morning sun only." So upon checking some of the others I discovered at least 3 that prefered morning sun. So they went to the morning sun end of the bed. Those requiring more sun to the afternoon end of the bed. Already, I can see a difference in their brightness.  The columbine, some of which I bought near the end of it's bloom, has seed pods galore. I hope that doesn't mean they are difficult to get to come up. But this morning I discovered a handful of dry pods, with rattling pods.  I picked them with delight to put in envelopes with my collection of other seeds.  It is definitely time to get some of them into the tented potting bed, and see if I can come up with some plants. I especially want gourds, and the two tomatos Jimmy had me keep from last year.  My little pie pumpkins whose flesh was as good as pudding, never mind the pies, would be wonderful to have succeed.

My last thought is to say how much I have fallen in love with Verbena. A variety called Superverbena by Proven Winners has me wanting to collect every color.  My purple from last year, wintered through ice and snow, and 20 degree temps, up on my deck in a raised container! Given it was near the house, I suppose it was protected a bit, but even the ends of the vines that were completely covered in ice are in full bloom now. What is great, it didn't die back, but instead bloomed directly from the long lush vines. I have a peach one growing in one of my deck rail planters in hopes that it will become as lush and full to be showy next year from the road. Every time I see a different color I want it, but alas I only have two. A day may come however, that all my deck rail planters have nothing other than showy colors of verbena. It doesn't seem to root from the vines however, so I will have to determine how to divide it, or multiply the colors for more plantings. If all else fails, I will buy the plants! Eventually. LOL

April Flowers

I don't come to this page as often as I should, but it is my favorite page to post the updates on gardens in the spring. This year my husband is retired. I have discovered that he really does like gardening, or at least how it looks when I do it. We had a surprise check come, and since I was disappointed that getting poison ivy rash cost us the whole of my flower budget, which we saved for, my husband wanted to spend the surprise ck instead. Last year I bought containers on sale, deciding, it had to be easier to maintain the flowers with less weeding in decent sized containers. I really didn't think I had so many, but by the time I cleaned out the old hanging baskets from last years annuals, and replanted the bannister baskets that showed signs that some things from last year survived, I almost had as much as last year, before I started on the new planters.

We bought 6's on sale; ie. 6 starter plants to a container for about a dollar or so each. That goes a long way if you buy just 30 dollars worth.  Then we bought certain 3' perinials so I don't have to buy it all again next year.  Then we found select plants to fill certain containers, all perinials, and all shade lovers except the Iris, and the foxglove. I planted like planters in similar colors or all alike.  4 new deck rail planters, deep and long. 6 new long planters to set around the large bed out back, and 6 large pedastal planters with unique shade lovers.  I put the pedastal ones inside the border and the long low ones outside the border. It was just enough. I moved two from last year, the lenten rose and a swamp lily to on either side of the long bed with the bench we restored last year between them.  I reoganized the children's area, where we feed birds, and added 2 small and 4 large long low planters, in terra cotta color, because I already had one huge long planter out there on the corner. I replanted the wire hanging baskets out there, and put dug up the clematis from the bed and put it in a concrete planter which has a tower on which it may climb.

We hung 3 new hanging baskets and the 3 old ones in the dogwoods on either end of the house, and finally found two large ferns to go with them. We really enjoyed having hanging baskets in the trees last year.  I plowed a matching bed on the opposite side of the driveway, down by the road on the mailbox side. Last year I transplanted lavendar shamrocks from the mailbox side into the peony bed on the opposite side. This year I will transplant peonies to the mailbox side so next year they will match. My precious grandson helped me dig away the grass, and plant the bear grass border, and I found Red peony roots to plant at the very back to begin a contrasting color in the backof the bed to provide a foil for the pink and lavender there. The shamrocks have done so well out there over the years. They fill in so thick and are full and beautiful in the sun. I planted a new perenial that really liked the sun into small pedastal planters, and as soon as they recover from replanting, I will place them out there in the border. I had planted dahliahs last year into planters that were too small, so I replanted them into large square planters that I will place at each level of the steps from the front yard onto the driveway level.  This step cut through goes under one of the dogwoods and save valuable steps when we are tired. The dahliahs are growing ever so slowly, I hope they will bloom this year after replanting.

Ajuga from a friend over 20 years ago has made itself known this year.

One day we happened upon a pulloff on a regular road, not private nor park grounds, and there were wild flowers galore springing up where as the ground hardened for summer, the cars would run over them. I am not ususally a person who removes wildflowers from their spots, but I couldn't see letting them just be destroyed, and I had a place at the back of the lot whose soil and leaf mulch/pine content was so similar to this spot. It also stays moist back there, too much to plant other things. So I rescued several wonderful little jewels. We brought them home and planted this garden immediately, and to our great joy, it seems to be surviving for now. Then one day in a cemetery we found 3 items we never saw before, and taking careful consideration not to take them from grave areas, but rather from roadside mowing areas, we added those jewels to proper habitats out back. As I cleaned away weeds and violets, I discovered items I had tried to propogate many years ago had finally taken hold, and a couple of things that I had brought from Moms before she died, now in their 3rd year, were blooming and had spread beyond my expectations. So we went on a transplanting spree. I took a few pots I had about and planted them with the various ajugas and some tiny blue ground covers. So far they are making wonderful plantings.

 We found male and female of a unique, heavily berried China holly with tiny leaves and placed it near the holly I had babied and saved from the mower more than once.  It is finally 2 feet tall and very full and tree shaped. Perhaps I can coax into a Christmas tree shape. We rescued some tiny 1 foot hollies from the house next door which has been abandoned and burned out for almost 2 1/2 years. I use the hollies at Christmas in arrangements and have needed my own bushes for years. I now have hopes of a constant supply.

 We transplanted an 6-8' mondo grass I planted years ago about a tree, that had been uprooted when we had septic work done. I hadn't noticed that it was springing up all over the back of the lot, I suppose because my husband always mows it down. But it appeared in places before he mowed that I was able to rescue it from, and re-established it near where it was, but used it to make borders for places I no longer want him to mow. The hostas from last year are humongous from the amount of rain we have gotten this spring, and they will need to be spread out. One more wonderful item to border the beds or provide a backdrop for lowgrowing ground covers.

 For the first time, I mixed mother's lily of the valley, a few plants Mrs Love gave me, and a few that continued to be trampled at the back of the lot (where everyone seemed to want to climb down into the creek, and never cared that I planted my little plants there for "safety.") But they seem to love it in this little corner up front, where they get glints of sun morning and evening, and the rain from the gutter that spills into their bed. For the first time in all the years I have tried to get them growing, I have blooms! Lily of the Valley ! A gift from God.

 A tiny blue ground cover is doing exactly that, and the only thing I am leary of is that it will cover ajugas and lily of the valley too. So I will need to bring its agressive little self into ck. The lavendar lilacs bloomed more this year than last. So we bought two lovely white Kimberlys.  Tiny blooms but already quite a few on a very small plant. Hope it continues to bloom so much. We attempted to give it more sun, and it was on a clearance rack.

Speaking of, about time I thought I had everything in the ground on in beds, we found this clearance. Several things I had already passed by because they were expensive were there for from 1 to 4 dollars.  I bought the 2 lilacs, 3 Rhodedendron, 2 mountain fire,  and a bright red blooming bronze leafed sedum. We planted it along side mother's which hasn't bloomed yet, and my lovely purple one which matured to draw in the butterflies last year.

 We unearthed on more wildflower that is popping up profusedly everywhere this year, and started it along side the ajuga that I have babied for 17 years out back. We discovered an old fern had come back from under the ivy and cleared a space for it in amazement, because we haven't seen it in several years. It is a very unique broad leafed, shiny fern. I thought I had lost it, and can not replace it. The Rex begonia with huge curly leaves is finally putting up shoots.  So when we found two more unique shapes and colors, we got one of each for the last of my planters to sit in empty stands already on the deck. We bought a mosquito plant to see if it works. and placed it on the floor of the deck.

 The swamp lilies we rescued from the burn property have multiplied profusely, I have several planters coming up full of them this year, and have given them to my neighbor and to my daughter, have prepared a pot for my son, and all the ones we threw away are standing a foot tall in the leaf mulch piled high into the limbs we piled to make and artificial bank between us and the creek.  They like sun or shade and last year they bloomed so profusely, that I fully intend to cut some this year.

The moss path that I started years ago is looking like a moss pass this year. I want to add more varieties of mosses to the yard, purhaps even making a couple of moss gardens, on damp, on dry.

So today we got every last thing planted, and established where the borders will be for me to transplant hostas, or mondo grass to stop Jimmy from cutting into the flowers. I sharpley trimmed the rose of Sharon, and cut one out completely recently, and was glad to see them rejuvenating really well.  I pruned the little bush of bells from Moms into a fountain shape and ripped out the honeysuckle that was strangling it. It is filling in well. I must find a trellis for the honeysuckle when it comes back out, because it surely will. The fig tree has spread. Hope it doesn't drop fruit like last year.  And we discovered a wild rose. It is tiny now. Will have to wait to see how it does.
So, it is now time to begin civilizing the growth along the creek bank, which has grown willy-nilly. We must get the pond in order again, and relevel the stones. And I want to do a couple of raised beds with food, herbs. Gourds, pumpkins squash perhaps. And somehow we must get the house painted.

We began a compost heap. It is breaking down nicely, and I hope to make my own dirt from one someday. But with some of that earth, I want to begin using all the pots I have saved from the plants I bought, and I want to propogate plants to share, or use in gardens to sell? Maybe. But most of all,  I want to make use of the enormous amount of ivy I have running up my trees to start making topiary shaped plantings. Something artistic that I have always wanted to do.  Well I will have to upload pictures later. But I love having this space to keep a record of this months work.

Late March and all of April, and these 6 days into May. And what a lot we have accomplished. May God bless it especially since he provided it as a surprise check.  How nice it has been to shop and work, and be free to enjoy the work and the results. And the company, which I never had before. And every lovely day, or slightly rainy day, that we could possibly get out and do this!

Awaitng Spring with Great Anticiption

It's been a while since I posted here.  Didn't have a lot of winter projects that weren't mondane. But I am getting excited about Spring.  We purchased planters on sale at the end of the season last year, and are looking for long lasting perenials to put in them. I want something I can count on for years to come.  I was able to buy enough of the same planters to  put them around my kidney shaped garden in the center of the back yard.  Long low ones with a taller one in between all the way around. With spacing of course.  We already have lenten rose and columbine growning.  The dahliah bulbs from last year did not get eaten by squirels since they are in pots, so things are looking up for not wasting my efforts. Plus I can move things if I choose. I am liking the concept of container gardening more and more.  I am seeing lots of wonderful ideas on Pinterest.. (my garden page)  Hope I can turn a few relics into garden wonders like I am seeing pictures of.  What a lovely thought that I actually have the time to do some things that will make my back yard more appealing.
I also plan to enlarge the gardens at the foot of my drive and begin to give them more of a year round appeal.  Finding flowers that like the winter weather is inspiring.  And who knew they were so beautiful..Lenten Rose is my favorite!

As we travel, I am taking pictures of lovely landscapes and although I can't grow everything I see in those climes, the effects will be what I am after.  Sometimes I am enfatuated with long rows of similar color, and sometimes the small corner packed with butterfly attracting wildness. But I am finding I stray farther and farther from structured gardens with the ususal anuals. I do still love pansies, but think adding some of the remarkable new colored kales just makes a winter planting more amazing.
I have so much ivy available, that I truly want to make some amazing topiaries.  I just have to find proper forms.  I have a couple of ideas, but I need long lasting structures to find it truly worth my time.  The April showers have begun early, so all I can do today is plan. but isn't that the best time to dream anyway?

Many people miss an opportunity to decorate their homes in a very simple way.  Arranging a few inexpensive plants from the grocery plant stand, or a local nursery, in a basket adds color, freshness to the air, and a little life in a dreary winter. Place them near a lamp which remains on through the day or all night, assures they have enough light, because the ones they sell for house plants are ususally low light plants anyway.  A second great easy is bulbs. Preplanted ones have done the best for me.  Leave them outside during their off season, and when they begin to sprout bring them in.  They will love the warmth, and bloom in the winter if you want them to.  These also make great gifts.
My son's mother-in-law always adorns our table at family dinners with a basket with several 4" blooming plants tucked inside. They sit low enough on the table to have a conversation over. And they sometimes come in colors difficult to get in floral arrangements.  Plus they last so much longer, often can be transplanted outside to bloom again and again, and they cost so much less than a florist made offering. 
So few of us have extra income these days, that it is a blessing to have something that can be purchased over a course of weeks.  An ivy this week, a pathos next, a bloomer next week.  Don't like baskets? Be creative. So many things hold plants.
 A key element for long life in most plants however is to keep them up out of standing water. To be certain the plants get the water they need and you don't overwater, raise them above the bottom of their liner with broken shells, gravel, stones, hard foam chunks, marbles, or other washable, reusable chunky bits of material.  Never water plants to a point that the water is above the level of the top of this material.  Allow dry out between waterings- super important. Only a few plants like to be moist all the time. Remaining dry will wilt plants but they will often survive it.  Overwatering kills, and causes funguses etc you don't want in your home.  To allow the plants access to the excess water that drains into the shells, stones or whatever, use any material that will absorb water, and make a narrow strip of it.  Lift the plant from its pot when the dirt is at its dryest point.  Insert the strand of material up through the drain hole in the pot and over the edge of the pot and replant the foliage with its roots and dirt as much in tact as possible.  Lay the end of the strip across the top of the dirt. The other end of the strip should be dangling from the hole in the bottom of the pot. Set the pot into the liner, arranging the stones or shells so that the wicking material can be on the bottom of the liner with  the drainage material arraganed over it. This will assure that any water the plants soil does not absorb, will drain into the drainage material, but will be wicked up as the plant needs it, keeping the available water accessible.  If however the plant is being overwatered a lot. and never allowed to dry between waterings, the plant will not live.  Draining water off is critical.
Some plants will want more water and some less.  It is an effective tool, if those which need less water don't have the wicking material.  Therefore they get less water. 
Periodically wash all the materials in a water and a capful of bleach. Use antibacterial hand cleaner when handling materials that have set for a while.  Or use gloves that keep hands dry. Bacteria can grow where water stands.  Another reason to allow drying.  Seems like work. Not really. Its easy if you don't keep it all too wet. 
Plants in glass or glazed ceramics are in the most danger of dying from overwatering.  They often don't allow for appropriate drainage and can't dry effectively.  A strong warning is given for  standing water in a deep glass container which turns red.  Dangerous bacteria is present.  Use caution when disposing of it, and cleaning the containers.  Also clean the areas where the water splashes or is poured out into.  Not down a sink! Toilett or outdoors disposal please. Did I scare you?  I hope I only convinced you to not overwater your plants and make a way that the water can evaporate or be used by the plant.  Do not ever water plants everyday.

Just for the fun of it, Jimmy planted seeds from one of our pumpkins.  It has been fun to watch it put on blooms, and see them unfurl.  It has produced huge leaves and a 9 foot vine, but so far no pumpkings.  Finally there came a white mildew from all the rain. It has infected a lot of the things growing in our gardens, and it covered those huge pumpkin leaves and wilted them away.  Much to our sorrow.  So I am so glad I took this picture.  Where in the world do you often find this gorgeous color. And check out natures color notes. Blue green looks good with a soft yellow green, with this lovely canteloupe color of the bloom.
 What is our project?
Well, we (Jimmy and I) are gathering seeds from our gourds, tomatoes, pumpkins, and whatever..and I pulled out some colorful envelopes from an old collection I had.  All of them were card envelopes from one company, all the same size. After saving them for all these years, I am finding they are the best for saving seeds in. Nothing fancy, I am writing what's inside with majic marker and holding the collection together with a large clip. Seed central, and I am storing it among the jars in my kitchen cabinet.  I am so looking forward to planting some of them and watching them next year!
In fact, I am already thinking what kind of junk I have that I can make a peice of art for them to cliimb on!  How cool is that?

I hadn't realized it had been so long since I posted here. This morning it is raining and I am so glad it is.  With the evening rains from yesterday and the morning rains from this morning, it is a relief from the heat and also the exercise of having to water my gardens.  But the extremes of heat this summer have done a lot to cause things to die back.  It is difficult to stay out and weed for long. An extreme wind storm took down a lot of limbs in the yard and cleaning that up has taken pecedence over what I wanted to do.  But I am happy to have a yard that needs my care. I hope Jesus is happy to have my life which is also in constant need of care. LOL
The rain will foster the weeds as well as the recovery of the wilting flowers. So I need to prepare to spend a few mornings with a hoe. And that may mean that I can't post again here for another great while. But, it is best. I need the sun and the exercise. Besides that, I have a lot of Prinking to do. Always something in need of dressing up a bit.
Lord, Please provide the means. In Jesus name, AMEN

Dolls in my Garden

Dolls in my garden, are mini china dolls, that are in memory of my precious grand-daughter who went on to live with Jesus on day prior to her birth.  But they also add a bit of whimsey tucked into gardens and hanging baskets.  They only cost a dollar at the dollar stores, and are way more beautiful than they cost.  They hold up especially well in the weather, and some have been used in her cemetery flowers already.  This is a great way to repurpose them, and also enjoy them while I wonder what adventures she and Jesus are having.