The Ugly Truth About Gardening!!!

Good Morning Sunshine the gardener is still under the weather with Bronchitis-ugh. But now I have real presciption drugs to fight my battle for me.

The Truth I'm talking about is "Weeds" no mater if your out of your garden for one day or 21/2 weeks the weeds are there to greet you when you come back. And mine have grown with leaps and bounds. Didn't realize I had so many weeds. I think I'm pretty good about taking care of these guys when I do a new bed and I even use layers of newspaper and mulch to amend the gardens each year!! I don't like to use chemicals of parts of the gardens because of run-off to the bay and I don't want my animals to get sick. Plus I love the birds and butterflies that visit my gardens.

 With that said, moving on to the garden walk this morning. So many flowers are just busting at the seems and I have alot of shifting all of a sudden. I guess my gardens are coming full circle when it comes to space. So I really need to get out there and dig and move. Usually by this time of year I'm pretty much done moving everything I've wanted. I haven't even put in annuals yet-ugh. If I'm up to shopping for plants I think I might go out this Holiday weekend and catch some sells maybe!!

I did go out and take some pictures of what's blooming this week in the garden. I have a "Mystery Plant" coming back that I guess I put in a couple of years ago when I made  this bed ,but it's never bloomed so I don't know what it is. I know it's not glads. don't put those in. So I'm waiting to see if it will bloom this year. Don't you just love surprises and gifts in your garden, I do!!

 The First Asiatic Lilies are up (yellow) so pretty! The pink and orange/black ones aren't blooming yet.

And while I've been inside sorting seeds and writing in my journal I've managed to plant up a couple of plastic Salad containers of seeds that I punched holes in and now I'll wait to see if I get anything. Here is the pick of one:

I also managed to squeeze out a new card for the Friday nite Card Club here it is---

Have a blessed day and remember amend, amend, amend!!!! Peace Out

The Garderner Is Sick!!!

Oh Goodness what a week without being in the garden. I'm finally feeling a little better so I thought I would get up and walk outside with the dogs to see some green life outside of the bedroom walls. This week I have downed 2 1/2 gallons of Orange Juice, Water, Hot tea, and Some Homemade Chicken Soup. And have lived on Dayquil and Nyquil. In and out of sleep. Oh how I hate laying around doing NOTHING it drives me crazy!!!!!!

I was finally able to walk about without being dizzy today  so went out to see what has bloomed and what I've missed. This week thankfully has been overcast and rainy so I haven't felt so bad being inside! Bless Mother Nature for taking care of my plants while I've been down. Haven't had a cold like this forever. Anyway,

I brought the dogs back in and I went back outside and saved a couple of the peonies from the rain. My friend gave me this really beautiful Pottery Flower Pin Frog(kenzan) so I used it to bring in some flowers from my room to look at. The big white Peony is "Shirley Temple" :) And the little red one I can't remember because it was bought when I was a young gardener and didn't keep track of what I bought. Now I'm kinda "Anal" about saving everything and keeping records of the gardens every year for my own enjoyment.

Yesterday in the mail my new garden flag arrived that Jerry ordered for me, he knows I like a little whisical in the garden. It's a "Fantasia Flamingo Flag" kinda silly but cute.

Here are a couple of photos of some flowers blooming this past week. The rain has beat down the irises and the peonies but still some nice color. The Blue and White Salvia (love this plant it blooms forever) the columbines are blooming and the Yellow Water Iries and the shasta daisies and the coral bells, the blue and the white spiderwort, ferns are going crazy and I know I'm going to have to rescue the hostas in the bed later.

So I'm off to rest a little, don't what to burn myself out on the first day of feeling better. So will have more later to talk about and I just want to say "Hello and Good-bye" to my garden friends and wish everybody peace in their gardens and lives........Peace Out

What's going on In the Garden

Hello Again it's been a while since I've been here. I took a little reading break since my books I wanted to read were plying up. This gave me a little more time to rethink some of the plants that needs to be moved and painting and dodging a "A Big Black Snake" around the garden. I call him the "Resident Evil" even tho he eats the field mice. Personally I think he is too close for comfort and my birds think so too!!!

Well,I headed  to "HD" and brought my paint for my little garden Shed. I choose "Victorian Purple, and Rainforest Fern" both are awesome colors. I have only painted the trim so far  and I have to go out and buy the wooden gingerbread molding to paint the fern green. I'm not in a hurry so in time this will be done.
After I finished painting the trim I still had paint on my brush and was wondering what to do with it so a really cool limb fell from the nearby tree (kinda looks like an old fashioned water stick) so I beat the rest of the paint from the brush on that and liked what I saw so finished painting it purple. Then I stuck a old glass hummingbird feeder that never worked right on top and "Voila" Garden Art :)

After I painted the shed I noticed that the nearby Clematis was blooming and it was the same color purple, wow what a treat, the two look beautiful together. The Clematis name is "Comtesse de Bouchard" kinda fancy name. But she is just gorgeous. I will try and figure out how to get more. In the middle of the side garden last year I put in a birdbath with paver bricks around it so I could plant some "Catmint" around the base since it is blue for contrast. Garden is always a work in progress. But it looks pretty their in the middle. The bath is too deep so I put a rock in it for the birds to bath and only keep about an 1"or 2" or water so the birds don't drown.

This past Saturday I went glassing with my friends it was a beautiful day to go to the beach and pick up glass. I found some very nice frosted, rounded pieces for my collections and I even came home with alot of rocks for my gardens. ALWAYS have more rocks and shells then glass sometimes :)

Sunday when I got up to take the pooches out I walked the around the different garden areas and was just amazed at all the flowers that were in bloom, Iris, Peonies, Perennial Geranium's, Spider wort, Climbing roses, and the list goes on. I think alot of the flowers are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule for flowering. I think it's because of the 80degree temps we have been having. I hope we get some rain soon. I'm trying to hold out from watering everything. And theres no rain in the rain barrels.

Today (Thurs) I cleaned the pond (100 gallon) only,what a mess, I have green water so I took out about 1/3 of the water and replaced it. I now only have 2 fish left!!  The water Irises are just gorgeous. I love Iries anyway. I have alot of different ones. I will post again about just my iries later.

Oh yeah, and I picked up a first for me, a beautiful "Highland Rhododendron called "Purple Passion" I think I'm going to plant this over by the garden shed in dappled shade, I think this will be OK. It says it only gets 6 X 5. So I'm looking forward to taking care of this one!!! I had a Red one a looooong time ago and lost it so I was hesitant on buying another.

I really happy today walking around and the all the different ferns are just beautiful and the corral bells and well just everything. There is a older area under the deck that I have to thin out very bad so that will probably be my next project.

So if you lasted this long I appreciate you stopping by my little ramblings about me and my gardens and garden friends. So have a great garden day and pray for RAIN for me.

Peace Out from me and my Four Leggers!!!!!