Kicking myself for not labeling more of last year's plantings. Look at this one!!
Still Laughing With Joy #6 Accessible Gardening
Even at end of day, the yellow is still outstanding.
13 Daylilies with open blooms today. :-)
LOL! IS THAT RED OR IS IT RED!
Mine still are'nt blooming. Lots of buds tho.I'll just have to injoy yours for now. I don't regret not knowing the names of mine. I love to be surprised.
I do sometimes. Have a Daylily that's been in the ground for five years. Don't remember where I got it or anything about it. Always puts up leaves, but has never, ever, evvvvvver bloomed. Until today and it's a beautiful dark red. Hopefully, it will still be in good shape when I get home so I can photograph it.
How can anyone not love daylilies. It is so dry the grass crunches underfoot, but the daylilies are blooming their little hearts out. Gotta love that.
Kay says if she doesn't know the name of a plant, it will be inevitable a visitor will ask, "What's that one called?" and point to the unknown plant. It's tough being a know-it-all. No one expects me to know the names of all of the plants here. I can simply enjoy....and point any questioners Kay's way. LOL. Having someone around with an obcessive need to know everything comes in handy. (Jim)
Pretend-to-know-nothing husbands come in handy too. You can claim any garden blunders were their idea and it does no harm to their reputation while it keeps your own pretend-to-know-it-all reputation intact. .
One of the greatest things about gardening is that you can NEVER know it all so it doesn't get boring. Curious visitors keep me reasonably humble and on my toes.
Do you still want a catalpa tree, Vickie, The one I cut down re-sprouted BIG TIME. It is already over 6' tall. I welcome its resurrection. I cut it down because it didn't look good. It is lush and happy now. I think I will leave it be and move the little bay tree I prematurely replaced it with. Much easier. The bay is only 2' tall. It would make more sense to have the bay tree in the herb garden anyway. I think there are some good transplant size off-shoots on the catalpa I will need to remove. I never imagined cutting it down to ground level would revive it. There is always something new and surprising in a garden. I'll askJim to take a pic so you can see if it is what you have in mind veing as there are different types of catalpa. k*
Kay, if it is a few days before Vickie responds, she is in Longview this week.
If that's Longview, Texas----SHE IS TOOOOOOOOO CLOSE. :)
Dug up a bunch of stuff today to ship to NY. Almost 100 this afternoon, got too hot. Feel like $%*&, but also feel pretty good that it is done. Some of the digging was Daylilies to ship and to share with my sister. Planted a couple of the new ones, an Agastache Black Adder, Echinacea Milkshake, Baptisia Australis, a Red Velvet Achillea, a Mexican Heather, and a couple of Marigolds (still have nearly a dozen each of Marigolds and Heathers in little pots waiting to be given away or put in containers). Watered a little. Only-voluntarily-supposed to water on Thursdays and Sundays, but snuck in some yesterday, so didn't have to do that much today. And I hear thunder outside. Small t-storm in my area maybe will rain on my...well, not parade, but maybe my flower beds. LOL
One of the guys from work came by and said he can grind out the stump in the back yard with a rental machine. Yea! [applause, applause] Can work on fixing up that area next year. Put in dog teeter-totters or sumpin. :-)
That would be it. LOL We are trying to meet up before she heads back. Missed each other in Greenville Friday, but betcha I could find her somewhere on I20 between here and there.
Vickie claims she's visiting relatives, but surely you know Vort that she is reconnoitering for the GrannyGoons. They are planning their next assault. High alert status is advised.
Debra, do you know the name of the orange and yellow daylily in that photo that looks like it has alternating petal colors? It really grabs the eye. (Jim)
Frans Hals. I like it, too. :-) Have a bunch, will send you one with the others in September.
Thanks seacanepain ---We laid low--She passed within 10 miles of here and she never knew it. :)
Close up, Frans Hals. The red seems to be more/less intense according to how much sun it gets.
Four-year old NOID Daylily, blooming for first time. Smells good, too. :-)
Thanks, Debra. That daylily would work well in a transition area. There is a spot where a working veggie garden done in traditional harvest colors, Nadine’s corner blazing with sunny yellow and my red, white & blue garden all meet. Nadine is right when she says there will eventually be a garden space here to fit every mood and taste, but getting different looks to flow together without being jarring is going to be a challenge. The repetition of certain plants keeps things flowing and evergreen breaks help, but when you can blend the color schemes somehow in the transition spaces, it rocks. The transition spaces become garden spaces in and of themselves. Not just places to pass through.
Just out of curiosity, I checked your red mystery daylily against the reds you sent Amargia’s way last year. (Apache Wardance’, Passion for Red’ and ‘Moses’ Fire’. It didn’t look like it matched any of those. Oh well, every garden needs a mystery. (Jim)
Sometimes, it's just serendipity that makes the transition spaces stopping places in their own right. The garden will tell you what it wants. (Trust me, I only hear voices when I'm out digging in the dirt!)
Yes, every one does. And, as my brain acquires a thicker Teflon coating each year so I can't remember squat without expensive drugs, the mysteries deepen. LOL
I've seen the Travelocity Traveling Gnome available and might just get one of his clones to help keep watch over the flow in my gardens. Think the Texas Summer is a bit much for the fairies. Need a whirligig, too. Really cool one in front of a quick lube, of all places. One day will remember to go in and ask where they got it. Or see if they will sell it to me. :-)
Moses' Fire. Seems lighter than last year when it was still in a container. But I like it this way, too.
Vortreker, Vickie is headed back to Arkansas in the next day or two. Watch out for low flying Granny Goons...
Happy Birthday, Vickie!!
Am back home. Flew over VORTS house and dropped a bunch of wet bear fur. Bear is shedding.
Wait till VORT starts a fire in his B-B-QUE.PHEW!!!! LOL
Saw a police helicopter. Think they might be getting wise to my speeding broom. Wonder if i can find a speeding rocket broom.
Wow! Cancun was AWESOME and we had the BEST time! I'm back home too.
This is DH and I at Chichen-Itza. Amazing....
No it's not.
Welcome home, Carrie! We missed you. More photos, please... :-)
Glad you're back also.definately more pictures.Did you learn any spanish? How many plants did you smuggle in? Did you have a taco salad? An American,Spanish dish thats oh so good. Did you find a real Mexican sarape to bring back? Or flower pot? Or anything? Tell us all.
Think the boss liked his early Father's Day present. He sent me this photo on his way home. :-)
Happy Father's Day to all the men and women who act as fathers to children, be they natural, adopted, or courtesy.
Is this your bossman's first daylily? Are you trying to make a hemerocallis addict of him too? :-)
You think maybe they locked Carrie up until she wrote an article? Kay is threatening to do just that to Nadine until she finishes an article she agreed to write for a gaming magazine. Nadi has always written for fun. This writing with a deadline doesn’t come naturally to her.
Since Nadine seems to need Kay’s work ethic and professionalism to get things done in a timely manner and Kay’s writing is often too dry and academic for the casual reader, they are talking about creating a pseudonym and collaborating. They’ve done it before minus the pseudonym and the result was better than anything either produces alone. They may be on to something, but really…Faye Amarante? Where did they come up with that name? Heaven help the world of SF and Fantasy. LOL.
It is raining again. (That’s good. We needed it. I’ve discovered something funny about Fenny though. Somewhere in her mongrel genes there must be some sort of herding dog. When it storming, Fenny tries to keep her herd… (Pack?)...together in an area where she can see us all. Evidently, she considers Kay, Nadine and I part of her herd as well as Tater-dog. She tries to keep Kay inside as long as there is thunder. (Kay has no problem with working in a drizzle because it is cooler.) If Nadine tries to go into the art room to work, Fenny drags her back into the room the rest of us are in. I’ve noticed she grumbles and whines and seems hyped up, in general, when there is thunder and lightning. I never realized what she was trying to do until today. I thought it was funny. When she finally had us all where she could keep an eye on us, she climbed into her bed, put her head down on her paws and gave a big, doggy sigh of contentment. (Jim
It is and, nah, he's a lot more likely to start looking for anything named "Awesome Bob" than he is going for Daylilies. He IS replanting his front flower beds, but his mom lives with him and the kids, and is supervising that job.
Debra, I know I would appreciate a grumpy boss. Thursday’s remain job hunting days, but no luck even at entry level jobs. Many retired people are going back to work so I find myself in competition with those who have 20 years or more of experience. The health insurance issue that was the one advantage of hiring young people is becoming a non-issue. If an employer can avoid paying for the higher medical cost that comes with older employees, they would rather hire the more experienced person. I’m told that is good in the larger scheme of things. As a country, we need to keep older people productive as long as possible because of their greater numbers. The 60-somethings don’t seem to be all that thrilled to be returning to entry level jobs after they had retired, however. This transition time is hard on everyone.
I love the look of ‘When Pigs Fly’, but I remember when PJ chewed MK out because she spent $75 on a kava-kava plant. Pigs ain’t flyin’ here anytime soon. Let me know if you see that one go on sale. I had a Miss Piggy hand puppet when I was little. She had a bad habit of sassing adults when she was on my hand. lol. I’m not much on hot pink though. I want a DL called ‘Miss Piggy’s Dress’. My beloved Miss Piggy had a long lavender dress and matching long gloves. She was a fashion Diva, wasn’t she? Lol.
Vickie, would you contribute your two cents worth to some writing research? MK and I need a writing project we can work together on. While I find writing a critique of the differences between games produced by Japanese, European and American game developers fascinating, the subject makes MK’s mind sort of glass over. We’ve decided to re-open the Different Shades of Green blog to polish Faye Amarante’s style. (BTW: Amarante means a flower that never fades in Japanese. I think MK just pulled Faye out of the air because it sounded cool.) I thought I would kick it off with an informative post on mosquitoes and the plants that are alleged to repel them. A very timely article now that rain has come. MK has most of them growing in the Fragrance Garden around the high deck. As a moveable mosquito feast, I’ve developed strong opinions about which ones actually help and which ones are interesting plants, but don’t do much to repel mosies. At least, they don’t work in our region.
I read somewhere the mosquitoes have to be desperate before they will bite someone with diabetes. But, MK says that is a half truth we don’t want to spread. She claims mosquitoes only avoid people who have UNTREATED diabetes. If you’re a diabetic and mosquitoes don’t bite you, it is a very bad sign. That is the real secret of vinegar sling. To a mosquito, it makes your skin chemically read like a diabetics and the biting mosquito doesn’t need your blood to preserve its own life, just to make little mosquitoes so it usually moves on to another victim. She went on about ketones and other medical stuff I didn’t really follow. The gist was that a diabetic who has their blood sugar under control is as likely to be bit as anyone else. What MK says sounds valid, but I can’t find much on the subject. Can you give me some firsthand input? You’re a diabetic, right? Have you ever noticed mosquitoes will be biting other people and not biting you?
Sheri, the glads I just moved don’t look so good. I’m sure they will come back from the bulbs next spring. I’ll send you some plants in fall unless you would rather work with bulbs. They evidently don’t like to be moved mid-season and go dormant the remainder of the year anyway.
Welcome home, Carrie. PJ misunderstood. MK just threatened to chain my writer’s muse to the keyboard. Writer’s muses do seem to be lazy and undisciplined creatures. :-) I hope music muses behave better. ~Nadine~
Nadene, When i was young,mosquitoes never bothered me. Now they drive me nutz.My blood sugar is semi under controll.I don't even check it much anymore,which makes my doctor mad. Then chiggers loved me and now not so much. So have'nt a clue. I am blood type A- and have wondered if that made a difference as blood types - and+ coagulates when mixed.Both girls were positive and we were watched carefully when they were born.But no reactions.
I don't know if there is much material out there but I'd love to know more about the dogs Native Americans had. also more detailed info about the methods used in gardening by Native Americans. Kudzu and why it's not used more.What all can it be used for?
Why can some people write the most descriptive and intresting things and others can't put a whole sentence together?
Would global warming or global cooling really be a catastrophe? Why?
Could anyone learn to love gardening. Is it something inate in our minds or something learned?
I never quit asking why. LOL
That sounds like a writer's mindset to me, Vickie. Have you considered your own blog? I can imagine "Vickie's Question of the Week"... or Month", if weekly is too taxing. You want it to stay fun and not become a chore.
I'm not a very good writer, but I keep plugging away at it everyday because I think it helps keep me mentally sharper as I age. And, who knows, maybe one day I will be a good writer with enough practice. I leave it to Nadine to keep Faye entertaining. What writing background I have is in technical writing wehre the goal was to be clear and precise. Instruction manuals don't have to be entertaining. Perhaps,, people would actually read them more often, if they were.
The wonderful thing about having an inquiring mind is in the process of digging up the answers to a certain question, you end up digging up a dozen more questions. That means there is always something to write about. :-) k*
Yes, they have locked me up until I finish this article (Is Buying Plants On EBay a Good Idea?) yes, and here's how.... plus a little tour of all the different ways to acquire plants on DG.
Mostly DH took pictures of me in bikinis and of birds and many of them are blurry. None of me with blurry birds!
Here, I think this is the two of us in front of Chichen-Itza.
Did I tell you about the snorkeling? We weren't sure I'd be able to snorkel - I lack a lot of normal coordination - and the snorkeling tours were kind of expensive (if it turned out I couldn't do it) so we picked a glass-bottom boat tour with optional snorkeling. They kept saying "Are you SURE you want this 2 pm tour? The visibility at 10 am is slightly better." But we kept saying no, no, we want the 2 pm tour. The chance of our getting to the Marina by 9:30 when we didn't even know where it was, and it tales us a while to get going in the morning ... anyway, they finally let us book a 2 pm cruise. Turns out we were the ONLY TWO PEOPLE ON THE BOAT! So we said we'd really like to try snorkeling but I don't know if I can do it or not. Fine, fine. So when we got out to the reef they have like these broad steps that lead down to the water, so I just bumped down on my butt (down is always easier, isn't it) and popped in the water. No problemo.
Then he (Diego the guide) showed us how to put the mask and flippers on, and then he had a life saver ring and we held onto that and he just towed us around. Oh yeah, we were wearing life jacket-type thingies. But I COULD do the breathing part, just breath in and out through your mouth and not through your nose. We got towed around for about 90 min.!
And The Most Amazing Part was after we got back in the boat, Pedro (the captain, who spoke more English than Diego) said we get 5 or 6 people in wheelchairs a week. You are the only one who has ever gone snorkeling!
Congrats carrie on the snorkeling---sounds like you guys had fun.
What a great story Carrie! Did the heat bother you much?
I enjoy heat until it makes it hard to think. That happens seldom enough at home, and I find heat relaxes a lot if the spasticity I'm fighting all the time. On the other hand, cold seems to CAUSE spasticity and stiffness. I'd rather have heat.
Thank you, Vortreker! We did have a splendid time! DH said "this makes up for all the walks on the beach we never got to take.
Carrie, that sounds like a wonderful adventure. I think walking on the beach is over-rated. Sand in the shoes and all that.
If heat helps and cold hurts why do you live in Maine? Comw down here and our summer heat will melt you.
hugs, katie
I don't live in Maine! I live in Massachusetts! LOL!! People can never tell the "M" states apart. How do you know I don't live in Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri or Montana? I guess those are all pretty cold except Missouri.
Katie, access to home health care. short and simple. We would have moved to N.C. earlier this year when DH got the job offer except for the fact that with our income and my disability, North Carolina thinks I should be in a nursing home and Massachusetts think I should be able to stay at home. I think when my mother dies (hopefully quite a while) and DH retires (2014) we may/will reconsider the where we live question altogether.
Adventure Woman Carrie! I am very glad you had the experience and that both you and your DH had a wonderful time. :-)
Hi Katie!
That sounds like it was a blast, Carrie. I want PJ to spend more time in the water when we camp out at the beach over Independence Day.
Have you read the book “This is Your Brain on Music?” I thought it was AWESOME and I'm not big on reading non-fiction.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/05/levitin
~Nadine~