Oh Those Hot Summer Flowers!

Look outside
It's a gorgeous day,
I think all the children
Should go out and play.

The sun is shining
It's so hot outside,
The metal monkey bars are burning
And so is the enormous slide.

From that stroll we just went on
I'm exhausted, I must go rest,
For those very tired feet of mine
I am sure that will be the best.

Now that the day is over the children still ask,
"Can we play with just one more toy?",
"Tomorrow is another day", I tell them
"Another day to enjoy."

The Veggie Garden

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?
Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
- Henry David Thoreau

Saturday the 2nd, I was looking forward to getting much accomplished in my garden. I'm pretty proud of myself , I started early this year with the mulching, weeding and transplanting, Time for the veggies... yum yum. I had been waiting three days for the ground to dry, we have had several spring showers. WJ had already tilled the garden , all I needed to do was plant to my hearts content. I walk towards the veggie plot, check that I have all my supplies ... ground looks dry. I step into the tilled dirt and my foot sank ...........up to my ankle. Oh NO!!

The tilled dirt and low ground made it the consistency of WET CEMENT. I have limited time for planting because the forecast calls for more rain on Wednesday! At this point I am in panic mode. What to do.... what to do? No problem... I'll add more top soil in the low spots and with a couple more days of sun it will dry out...... I hope.

It worked, but didn't dry until Tuesday afternoon....... as you can see above I finally finished. I worked frantically until 9:30 pm , rain was in the forecast not only Wednesday but Thursday, Friday. .. then more rain next week on Monday, Tuesday... well you get the idea.

Planted this year was white corn, okra, green beans, yellow squash, zucinni, jalepeno, bell pepper, and two varieties of tomatos 'parks whopper' and 'big boy'.


And above is a thornless blackberry bush I added to the mix this year.

A nice surprise to days end with day lily Stella D'ore the first bloom this year.

March Sprouts

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

The Stella D'Ora seeds are srpouting at least some of them. I know it's easier to divide, however, I wanted to try this little project of mine. These won't produce any flowers for 2 years. My next project will go underway this summer where I will be trying hybridizing daylily's.

Warm weather has finally arrived here in Indiana this week, some signs that our spring flowers are enjoying it as well.

Tulip

Daffodil

Tiger Lily

Daylily Seeds

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

Last fall I collected some daylily seeds from some Stella O'dora plants at work. I planted some and well........ I forgot about the others. I had the seeds tucked away in my frig and found them. The seeds were inside a ziplock bag and most all of them had roots!?

This is something very new to me so we shall see if nature will surprise me. The above picture you see a little sprout. So if even one of them survives I will be elated.

Propagating Daylily

'JESSICA LILIAN DAYLILY'

Starting daylily's from seed is new for me. I have collected a lot of seed from the huge amount of Stella De Oro daylily's where I work.

Below are pictures of where I planted the seeds along the border where this year the alyssum didn't do so well. I think it will be a pretty, we will see and I will keep my fingers crossed. There are different ways to propagate daylily's. I wanted to try my hand at seed and let nature takes it's course.


I plan on starting some of the seed indoors as well (just in case nature doesn't want to cooperate)

Wordless Wednesday - August 6, 2008

Daylily 'Pandora's Box'

Anticipation

My southside flower bed from March to July 2008.

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!

Signs of Spring - Finally!

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

It has been a rainy start for March. No complaints though, it's better than snow. It's just been difficult to get outside and get to work on some things.

One area of my yard is so wet that when I walked through my feet started to sink, and mind you, there wasn't any water standing, so it took me by surprise. I did manage to get some quick pictures (in between rain) of some plants sprouting in my garden.


Here is a tulip peeking through along the pathway to my front door. Believe it or not I'm not a big tulip fan as far as growing them. But they are beautiful in bloom. The tulips along this pathway are reds and pinks. Very pretty last year.








Another tulip sprout through the snow on the north side of my
home. The only place the snow hadn't melted a couple of days ago, but the snow is gone now. This tulip is under my tulip tree. It's a small or dwarf type tulip, I don't know what type it is, it came with the house. The colors are magenta looking and yellow. Unique and different than the tulips I am used to.

And here is a daylily I inherited as well. I believe

it is a Tiger Lily. These are on the south side of my house.

I think by the end of this week I'll see some more progress and hopefully a bloom or two. I bet the daffodils are (which I neglected to take a picture of) are really growing.

Bring on SPRING

Sunflower I planted last summer **** sigh****

February in Indiana is most un-predictable that it's predictable (if that makes sense). It's predictable in the way as to one day it's 50 degrees and the next it is 20 degrees. In my previous post I mentioned planning my garden, so that's what I have been up to this past month as I patiently (sarcasm) wait for warm weather maybe if I'm ambitious I'll add some new landscaping. I keep going over it in my mind and drawing it on paper, and of course keep changing it.

I have already started some sweet peas, morning glories and I'd have more flowers started if I could make up my mind on which plants I want where. Of course I will have some more sunflowers but I sow those directly outdoors in late spring or early
summer.

I ordered daylilly ’Stella de Oro’ for the border in front of my rose garden the other day from "Classy Groundcovers" I have never purchased anything from them, but they were highly recommended on Dave's Garden website. If you ever buy from catalogs or online stores for gardening supplies or plants, I would recommend checking out Dave's site. Recommendations come from real gardeners whom have purchased from these companies.

Tonight we are expecting more snow AND ice! I guess I will be stuck indoors for the weekend. But, there are always plant and gardening catalogs to thumb through. Maybe I'll find something unique to add to my garden this year.