What's Growing?

When one of my plants dies, I die a little inside, too. ~Linda Solegato

Here's what's been growing in my garden the last couple of weeks , most of which I planted last fall.

I especially am excited about my clematis (I think it is "Dawn"), this is the third year and it has exceeded it's growth from last year already. It has four times more buds and it's still April!

The Rose Bed - Part 2

<-------- Aquilegia Colorado Violet & White I had a case of a Waltz in the Garden as Carol from May Dreams describes in her post. This picture doesn't do it justice, it's such a beautiful deep violet/purple color. This is planted in my "Rose Bed project".



"Before"
The pictures with the rock in it were taken about three weeks ago.




"After"
The picture below of the corner trellis is newly planted 'Abraham Darby'. Picture on the right is another view from the deck, oops the brick is a bit crooked.

Below the picture on the left is Altissimo in front of the trellis. I'm not sure about the shrub rose beside it, when in bloom it has tiny white flowers. Also planted by Altissimo is newly planted Aster 'Woods Blue' (another impulse buy). To the far left of Altissimo is 'Rose of Sharon' with pink blooms. The picture below that shows some more roses, I'm not sure what species the rose on the left side of the picture is, but when in bloom it looks like 'Rise-n-Shine' . The little guy next to it is newly planted 'Pat Austin'.

Another view of 'Abraham Darby' with lavender and a white blooming hydrangea in the corner , oops I see another out of place brick.

Everything is coming along and growing fast.

I can't wait to post pictures when all is in bloom!

Wild Turkey Anyone?

This particular whiskey is a "medium-bodied Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with a rich amber hue". No, I'm not indulging, nor have I ever had the pleasure (or dis-pleasure depending on your point of view) of consuming this particular whiskey. Notice I said particular? I won't lie, I have had a drink or two of whiskey in my younger days.

With drink concoctions containing Wild Turkey that have names of "Are you tough enough?", "I See Dead People", "Southern Death Cult" and "Deer Killer" just to name a few, I don't think I will be drinking it anytime soon.

So, what does this have to do with gardening ? Not a thing, but today is the start of "Turkey Hunting Season" in Indiana.

On Sunday Warren was cooking us a nice fine steak on the grill, mmmmm good, (sorry I'm digressing). He hollers at me (I use "holler" as he does, he was born and raised in Alabama), come here listen. I listen........ and hear..... "gobble, gobble". Yep, we have wild turkeys in our area.

I'm now on the look out for these rascals. I hear but don't see, until.......... I am on my way to work Monday, not too far from home and what do I see...............

The Rose Bed

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show



The not very good picture to the left (I desperately need a new camera, trust me it's not just me) is one of my roses from 2007.

I am creating this area to be a rose garden as I mentioned in my previous post. There are three roses I planted last year and of course I failed to keep record of their names on all but one of them. Altissimo Rose is one, and this will be it's first year to bloom (hopefully). It looks good so far this year and the little guy is starting to branch out. It's a climber and I love all things climby (is that a word?).

But anyway, here is a photo of Rose Altissimo that I found on photobucket.

Pretty huh?

The following roses to be planted here are:

Abraham Darby
Pat Austin

Crocus Rose

LD Braithwaite

As you may have noticed all of these are David Austin roses, they are my favorite . I will probably add more roses at a later date. I want to add some unique roses sometime in the future. I'm still working on this bed and will be adding some perennials. Yesterday I sowed some cosmos seed in between two of the rose's. I received the seed from a gardening magazine, so we will see if they take.

I can't wait to see them bloom! Don't you just love it!

"The Great Rock Moving Project"

A picture of one of the many daffodils I planted last fall.








I planted some violas that I purchased from a local nursery Cox's Plant Farm . They advertise as being the largest nursery in Indiana! I don't live far from it so it's hard not to go broke when you drive by it every day wanting to stop in to see what's new. (sigh)



I finally finished one of my major projects! Preparing "The Rose Bed". I plan on adding more roses and perennials with roses being the main focal point. But first I had to move the rock out of the bed. But where to put the rock? I finally decided to put it behind the mini barn in front of the compost bins. Now we won't have to mow that narrow strip.

I pooped out towards the end of my "great rock moving project" (ha, ha). I was on my last 2 feet of rock to move and I sat down in the flower bed, scooped the rock up and flung it into the wheelbarrow. My son (15 years) thought it was funny watching me struggle towards the end. He wasn't laughing anymore when I handed him the shovel.

I put down wet newspapers in front of and around the compost bins then dumped the rock on top of it. I think laying newspaper is easier than digging and it has always worked better than landscape fabric. I had several flower beds that I had to shovel through landscape fabric that the previous home owner had laid down (pretty thickly I might add) and it was a pain to plant in and around it. Newspapers are good for the soil too!

I plan on finishing the rose bed this week and will post when I have it complete. Here are some pictures of the "work in progress".

Internet Order Ranting!

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it. ~Author Unknown

I occasionally like to order plants and gardening supplies online. It's convenient, a time saver and you can find rare items.

Most of my garden projects are planned to be done over the weekend. With my full time job and my daughter's spring soccer starting up, I have limited time. I do have a timeline planned out for projects and I base it on when items ship or when my seeds I started.

Unfortunately it doesn't always work the way you want it to.

I received my order yesterday from DirectGardening.com. I was a bit annoyed that the order came without receiving notification of when it would ship and that the plants came packaged loose in a plastic bag. I found out (after the fact, of course) that this company has had negative reviews on The Garden Watchdog on Daves Garden website. Now, I'm not totally naive and knew ordering from this site might have been questionable (based on the low, low prices), but I went ahead, with the thought that I wouldn't be out much money if I had any problems.

Here's the list:

• Alaska Shasta Daisy
• Butterfly bush .....(one of which is dead!)ARGHHH!
• Grecian Windflower
• Pink Weigela
• Dwarf gaillardia
• Torch Lily


• **I received some free bulbs as well but they aren't marked as to what they are** uh duh!
  

My plan is to plant these along my fence line facing south just east of our mini barn. I have some butterfly bushes that I planted last year and I just love them. As I mentioned, the ground isn't ready yet (still grass) but I did manage to plant the shrubs. I dug the holes and surrounded the shrubs with newspapers and mulch in hopes that the newspaper will kill the grass. The rest of the bed I need to dig and till before planting.

Ok, I'm done ranting....I hope for sunshine this weekend and not rain.

Mystery Plant

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. ~H. Fred Ale

I started my seeds too early this year. Sweet pea, morning glory, nasturtium and alyssum need to be planted soon. African daisy and some different types of viola are still growing or germinating.

I've had bad luck with the nasturtium, maybe too much water? too rich of soil? These flowers like dry, poor soil. I have some seeds left that I will sow directly outdoors along with some sunflowers, marigolds and see if they do better. I imagine they probably will.

The caladium are starting to sprout. I have one that has a leaf getting ready to unfurl. I think these will be ready to plant outdoors by the time Indiana's last frost date (May 10).

My daughter (7 years) has a little garden of her own, so of course she wanted to start seeds as well. On her own she rummaged through the garage to find some pots and filled it with potting soil and planted some seeds I had. I have no idea what she planted, I have, or should I say had, several seed packets and can't remember what they all were. So we have some mystery plants. This may be interesting. Her favorite color is blue and every year she plants some blue flowers or plants in her garden. So if I were to guess I would bet this is something blue.

I guess we will have to wait and see.

First Bloom

Ahhh alas, my first bloom on March 29th, a bit late this year for the crocus. I'm late posting as well, I've been busy, busy mostly with my 8 to 5 job.

I did manage to get some work done in between rainy days. I finished the flower bed on the south side of the house. It was a little messy, over the winter the brick edging fell over in some spots.

I dug the brick edging line out about 6 inches more as well.

The orange daylily looks like it needs to be dug up and seperated, I hope to get to it this fall.


The main reason I started this blog was to create a journal of how my garden is doing each season. So... the plants on the south side of my house are as follows:

Tiger Lily or orange lily - lillium ancifolium (here when I moved in)

Hollyhock - alcea rosea (here when I moved in)

In the fall of 2007 I planted:
astillbe red fanal

carnation desmond - dianthus

daylily autumn red - hemerocalis

tenor tall phlox - paniculata

bee balm - monarda

allilium

iris

I hope to start the rose bed this weekend. The weather outlook is supposed to be sunny and warm. Let's hope! Rain, rain go away!