Garden's Planted...Whew!

I'm gonna need a rest after this weekend, too, I think!

We had some beautiful, albeit really windy weather on Saturday. I think it got pretty darn near close to 90!

Today is less windy and much more comfortable.

I wanted to get my flowers planted, but first I had to buy them! LOL

I spent a good portion of the late morning/early afternoon planting. I didn't get it all done, so I finished up this afternoon and I thought you might like to see this year's garden. 

Well, if you don't, at least I want a record of it!

*Ü*

I just finished this first part this afternoon.

In this first picture you see this water feature we've had for several years. I think it worked the first season we had it, then it didn't, but I don't remember why. All these years the rocks have eased away (or been plucked by certain children) from the black covering and the pail that would hook on the pump was confiscated by one of the girls when they were little bitties. Isn't this a lovely vignette? Oh and the straggly thing behind it? That's a holly bush that Steve likes. Directly under the bush had been a whiskey barrel. I'll explain in a minute.

This whiskey barrel needed some major sprucing up. The pansies you see came back from last year.

After some hefting and hauling, here's what it looks like now!

I asked Steve if it would be okay to snip the pump away from the tubing so I could move it. He didn't care at all what I did with it. So, I snipped and moved it over to this corner. I also dug out the receptacle that housed some really gross looking water. I filled the big hole up with rocks. You can't hardly tell it was there anymore. I'd have taken a picture, but a shot of rocks sounds really boring, so I didn't.

 I picked up a pail today, punched some holes in the bottom for drainage and planted a couple of wave petunias (crossing fingers and toes that it doesn't get taken over by little worms as previous petunias have in my gardening past).

Here's another shot of my whimsical pansy profusion.

I love, love, love pansies if you didn't know (or remember).

And that plant in the middle? That's a Curly Whirly! Thanks to my friend Heidi, who told me about it. I had to go and find me one. Her best description is it's a Dr. Seuss plant!

Isn't that completely true when you look at it?

Click on the picture to make it bigger if you want.

It grows all curly and corkscrewy like that. There may be some little flowers at some point, but even if there aren't, this is just too cool and fun the way it is.

It's an annual though. 

Darn.

The nursery where I got it also has little fairy gardens. Seriously cute. I thought about trying to make one on my own. Then I bought my flowers and blew my budget, so...maybe next year. That nursery was my first stop of the morning and I completely splurged on the Curly Whirly.

Here's the back corner all prettied up.

See that big whiskey barrel?  It used to be in the front under the holly bush.

I moved it. Omg...I had to shovel out as much dirt as I could into a wheel barrow which by the way was a total pain to get to. That white arbor is in front of a gate to the area behind the garage there. That's where the wheel barrow was. Um, the gate is falling off the hinges. Let's just say we had a fight and I won. eventually.

So, after I unloaded as much dirt as I could, I needed a bit of Steve's muscle to help me lift it onto a wagon so I could wheel it to the backyard. Then I heaved it to that spot and shoveled the dirt back into it.

Remember I told you it was hot out? Yeah, well, I worked up quite a sweat doing this! But it got done and I'm very happy with it in the backyard. Where I can actually plant flowers in it (and hope they live!)

I'm trying those petunias here, too. They are the wave kind. I'm using a different pot than last year and it looked a little sparse, so I added a couple of pansies.

One can never have too many pansies!

Here's what it looks like looking down from the chair with the petunias.

I'm completely excited that the clematis I planted last season survived and has already bloomed! See that flower next to the ground? Yep, it's a clematis. I wish I could remember the name of it. My blog buddy, Sarah, inspired me to plant it. I can't wait until it fills in!

Here's another shot of the corner. Can  you tell I'm just an eensy, weensy bit proud of it? LOL

I've got some dianthus that came back from last year in that front pot. I added a geranium.

The whiskey barrel has a geranium, some neat flowers that open up in the day and close up when it cools off. I added some pansies, too.

I've got gerbera daisies and nicatania in the other pots.

I added some plants along the fence, but the light was making the pictures look all wonky, so I'll have to try again another day.

I'm very pleased with how it looks and hope it flourishes.

Thanks for coming along a little tour. Hope you enjoyed it.

*Ü*

Have a great start to your week!

Different Kind of Dahlia

Here is the Dahlia Jessica and I really liked when we were at the nursery yesterday. Definitely not your typical  version. The color is just gorgeous, I think.

This is the tag that came with it. Mystic Desire. I joked that I hoped it would drop seeds and re-seed itself, but the guy told me it's a sterile hybrid. Oh well. At least I can enjoy it this season.

I haven't gotten any more weeding done yet today. I decided to check a couple of other places for the common lilac. I went to another nearby nursery and about had a heart attack when the guy told me they wanted $159 for a large potted one. Um...no thanks! Their smaller version, if they would have had it in stock, would be $44. Still a lot little high for my budget (since you see things things every where you go around here), so I just thanked him for his time. He also tried to sell me on a different version, but I wasn't interested.

There is a K-mart just a bit down the street from this nursery and a Hobby Lobby (*Ü*), so, on a whim, I stopped in. Lo and behold they HAD common lilacs! For $14.99. Much easier on my budget. LOL The only thing is, the color isn't specified and the picture on the tag has a white, pink and a purple lilac. So, I guess it will be a surprise whenever it blooms. I have a couple spots in mind for it, but want to see what Steve thinks before I plant it. I'm tickled to have one that blooms in the spring. I have a butterfly bush lilac and a Dark Knight version, but they don't bloom until July. I just may keep my eyes open for one that is specifically a purple lilac, but if I don't find it, there's always next year!

Because I was already out, I tried to find some other things I needed/wanted. One of my finds this weekend was two pairs of quad style roller skates (not inline) for $2 a pair (because they were half off)!! A pair for Amy and a pair for me (squeal). They do need new laces. Do you know that the stores around here don't sell any longer than 60 inches, and those are for hiking boots (ie not suited for skates). I measured and need 72 inch long laces. I might have to resort to an online shop. Who'd have thunk they wouldn't be readily available in stores (at least not in the shoe and sporting goods stores I've stopped into). I might check an ice or roller rink... (thinking out loud now) hmmmm...

That's it from me! Hope your Monday's been a good one!

I Need a Respite From the Weekend!

Because, boy, am I tired! LOL

Jessica's field trip came off without a hitch. There is always the possibility that they'll get sent out on a call, but it worked out great. The girls were there partially to give the firefighters boxes of cookies that were donated to our "hometown heroes."

I've never actually toured a firehouse before and found it quite fascinating. My batteries in my camera died as the guy was suiting up to show the girls what they look like with all their gear on. Usually I take spare batteries, but completely spaced it off. Darn. I still got some neat (to me) shots.

This was something I never even thought about. The girls were led up these stairs to the top of the tower (the parents didn't go up, not sure why, except maybe because it was a small space. Do you see that pole that is going up, up, up? The guys hang the hose from that so it can dry out. It makes perfect sense, now that I see it, but it never occurred to me that they would have to dry out the hose. 

I asked if they had a GPS device in the trucks to help them find the locations they are going to. Wanna see their GPS system?

I guess only the police have units in their cars. The firefighters have to do it the old fashioned way. I thought that was pretty funny.

Here the lieutenant is telling the girls how they use purified air, not oxygen (like I assumed) in their tanks. 

They also showed all the tools they keep in the firetrucks. Lots of hoses and adapters for sure, and all kinds of devices to lift heavy items/cars, etc. One was a rubberized balloon that is a flat square when deflated. Very interesting! I didn't get too many shots as my camera batteries were dying at this point. Jessica had a great time.

After this field trip we (Jess, Amy and I) headed out to a pirate themed birthday party given by my friend Susi. It was a lot of fun. She sure knows how to throw a great party! (no pictures, though)

Today the was shining and it was a perfect opportunity to tackle the weeds in the back yard. This is what I was facing. Arghhhhh...all the rain we've been having allowed these to have a real growth spurt!

All of those are what I call "runners" from the tree right behind the fence there. The dead woody stuff is the grape vine.

This is what it looks like now:

Buster loves it when I work outside...he enjoys the grass (which has since been mowed).

I also worked on removing all the dead stuff from my honeysuckles and clematis along the fence. I pulled up more smaller runners, too. But really, it's too big a job to get it all done in one afternoon. I finished the afternoon by planting a new Shasta Daisy plant (perennial) and an interesting looking Dahlia, which is an annual. I will have to take a picture of it tomorrow (if the one bloom is still good). Steve picked up the veggies he's going to plant at the nursery and that's where I found these two plants (it's a family event to get the veggies). I've been looking for a common purple lilac, the kind that I see every where I go around here, but no one seems to have it. They have a bunch of fancy named ones, but not the one I'm looking for (of course).

And just to let you know, it wasn't a totally craft-less weekend. I did find some time to crochet these:

Aren't they neat? I used DMC embroidery floss in a variegated color. I made them to give to Jessica's teacher (she looks really good in these types of colors). I'm going to stick them on the bear's ears. Tonight I'll work on the pair I will make for Amy's teacher to go on the frog. I thought it would be a neat surprise. I'd have Amy's done, except I needed to get another pair of hoops.

Anyway, that's probably way more than you wanted to know, but it is what I was up to this busy weekend! 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great start to your week!

Around the House...

Hello there! While I am hoping to get some crafty time today, I thought I'd show you a couple of this *growing* around the house these days.

While I guess I don't like spiders, I'm not freaked out by them. I can smoosh them with no problem. I'm always fascinated by the webs they create and we've been privvy to one rather large one being built by a persistent spider on our carport. He (she?) first built one in a different corner earlier in the week, but we had a gully washer of a thunderstorm and Steve was trying to clear out the gutters so the water would flow out better. In doing so, he managed to destroy the first web. This guy (gal?) wasn't to be deterred from building a web in the same general vicinity and got to work right away spinning another, even larger one. These are my attempts to capture what it looks like. You may have to click on the photos to make them larger to "see" it.

Pretty cool, huh? Well, I'm glad I got these anyway...

Here's a plant or two or three or four that Steve has grown. I might have mentioned a while ago there was this plant growing in a neighbor's front yard that Steve was very enamored with. He would try to get the seeds from the plant and grow them, no luck. He'd try to see if he could get a runner and start it that way. No luck. He put his computer searching skills to work and found the plant name online (I don't know what it is, sorry). To his delight, he actually found the plant last year. He planted it in a pot and nurtured it in the house over the winter. (which actually means, I watered it along with the other houseplants, but doesn't the description sound better?) When the weather warmed up this spring, he put the pot on our deck and waited to see what would happen. It apparently was pretty happy with the loving care (ie watering) it got over the winter and enjoyed the sunlight it received on the deck. We are starting to get blooms now and I thought I'd better capture one while I could. LOL It is rather pretty, don't you think. I think Steve gets a bigger kick out of the fact that the bloom is some sort of opiate or hallucenogenic I believe. LOL He has planted portions of this beauty all around, but the one in the pot has taken off the most.

Lots more blooms in the wings!
And this is a quick shot of my erm...garden. LOL I haven't spent much time out here keeping it in check, but I rather like the sort of wild look, too.

Thanks for stopping by. Breakfast is ready and I must go eat. LOL

Pretties For My Garden…

The girls and I went to Joann’s because I needed another skein of yarn for Jessica’s poncho. We lucked out and found one with the same dye lot! Whew…

We then went to the area where they are selling all the garden items and they are half off right now…

Look at the new pretties I picked up…I’m tickled!

What?  You can’t really see them that well? Oh, okay, here are some close-ups…just ignore the weeds, please…

Garden Angel because my other one was literally falling apart.

Birdhouse, because I love that butterfly…LOL

Butterfly wind-chime…need you ask why? It’s a butterfly, ‘nuff said! Of course, no birds may actually use the birdhouse because of the wind-chime, but who cares, it’s pretty! LOL

My purple clematis has started blooming…

And these are in a pot on my porch…they make me smile…

So do these…

I’d show the gerberas up close, but they are looking a little ragged right now.

The honeysuckle has some blooms, so I guess I didn’t kill this one!

I like that it has both white and yellow flowers. Very pretty.

It’s already pretty overcast here, so I’ll be keeping my eye on the sky and later the news…

 

Thanks for indulging me…hope you are having a happy day.

Jeanne