I couldn't do without good helpers.
Hired Kirsten this spring. Experienced help, amazing.
Here her & DW doing some transplanting.
Greenhouses today.
APRIL 2015 - SHOWERS & FLOWERS
Newly planted strawberries.
Well........ grrrrrr! I didn't get the new plants in the ground yesterday, and today it looks like it's about to storm. And while I could pretend that I'll plant them after work this week, the reality is that's probably a fantasy.
If I water them and they get sun, they'll be okay in the containers until next weekend........ right? I just don't see how today is going to happen.
Yep, just water them and they'll be fine. If they can survive several weeks at the stores they'll be fine at home as long as you water frequently.
I need to take advantage of all the dirt I have sitting in cups on the table outside and plant my squash. Only one nanking cherry out of I don't know how many seeds came up.
I noticed my nanking cups were bare as well of all those seed cups I started last year.
Son came over and moved big stuff outside, decided to keep some of the bog stuff inside with the fish and turtles, did manage to get the dog run area cleaned out and ready to set up some lattice over the top and make a place to sit and watch birds and stuff.
When I retire I am going to volunteer to work at a greenhouse nursery somewhere..
Bernie, everything looking good, you are going to have a very bountiful Spring I think,.
Oh Pepper..... you will love ligularias i have several strains of them. So many different leaf shapes. I have been growing them for several years now. They are my favorite shade plants. They even get a bright yellow flower in the fall. You all seem to be very busy with the seedlings. Glad to see you all so happy about the veggies.
I have one ligularia that is in between some hostas that hopefully will thrive and look good there.
Glad I'm not the only one who didn't have luck with them. Maybe we should have Will grow them for us because he has good luck with them. lol
You should go volunteer with Bernie when you retire. :~)
For those in the St. Louis metro east area, SWIC Belleville Campus hort students are having a plant sale Fri. - Sun. April 24 - 26 from 8 am to 5 pm.
http://www.swic.edu/sw-blog.aspx?id=15379&blogid=1735
I'm going to try to make it early on Sat. I'll post pics if I find anything interesting. Good night.
Thanks pepper for the vote of confidence there. The Ligularias were in pots over the Winter, I haven't looked to see if they made it. At last look about 2 weeks ago they hadn't sprouted yet.
When they were in the ground they always came back ever since I got them from pepper in 2011. They are called 'Midnite Lady' Ligularia. Sure, I'd do that if you're talking about me pepper, Bernie has a nice operation there.
okay so what is a Ligularia?? *sigh*
Hi Debra, Ligularia is a shade loving big-leaved plant that is really cool! - http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ligularia+midnight+lady&id=80A8F4A10E471B8891254AA6202733E5ACB503D9&FORM=IQFRBA
Will
Yep!! Big impact like hostas but in purple and yellow.
Bernie,
Everything looks GREAT!
I love your strawberry set-up. How long to set the hoops up and cover them? How big IS the area you've planted? I see many many tables!
Dyan,
Smiling, it happens to all of us. I usually have things to plant too. They will be fine in the containers.
I covered the few Oriental lilies I have left and we got down to 32°. Same for tonight so I leave mine and my neighbor's covered. Thank goodness the winds have stopped. They were just crazy the last two days!
I have "The Rocket" ligularia. It's on the east side of the house, gets shade all day from the walnut tree. Is just off the deck so any ''clean'' dirty water I have get dumped on it and it still wilts in the heat, LOL! Nature of the beast. The blooms don't last too long, but I love it.
The two floors are done!!
Have a great day!
Yeah, it got pretty darned cold last night. So as it turned out, not getting the newbies planted as a good thing. I just pulled them inside where they'd be safe from any frost. If it's cold again tonight, they can stay put. :)
Very pretty cloors Billy. Yes, i love my ligularias all i do is cut them down in the fall. They are always the first ones to pop thier heads out in the spring. Mine are almost four inches high now. My clematis are coming out now too. Sure hope the freezing overnight do not hurt them.... Spring is so back and forth. I want my clematis. So beautiful every year they get more so.
Dyan,
I got up and it was 41°. A far cry from freezing and I am SO glad!
Ronna,
I need a clematis, but when I decide on a color, another color catches my eye. I really love the dark red, so someday, I think that is what I will plant. I have the pale blue one that was supposed to handle shade, but it hasn't done much of anything in all the years I've had it. I'm ready to let it go.
My youngest brother's B'day is today and he and Dad are bringing cake and ice cream up this morning. Later I need to uncover my neighbor's Lilies and then mine.
Yesterday, my DARLING husband helped weed in the flower beds. He ''might'' have done more than me since I was over at my neighbor's, checking her sheets to make sure all were still on, and having my walk over there. She has a lot of ground to cover!
We mostly concentrated on dandelions. DH usually digs as many as he can from the yard. I need to mow today and tomorrow we have the visitation and funeral. I counted. There are 10 deaths since January, 5 of which lived in town. 5 were family on both sides.
It's cloudy, but the rain is going to hold off till tonight and may possibly just vanish anyway.
Have a great Friday!!
Yep, it's definately better outside. I kept the newbies in last night just to be safe, but hauled them back out before I left for work. I figured we're past the danger zone, and they needed the fresh air and sun (even if it is cloudy). This weekend........ I'm definately planting them!
*thinks it over* Okay, I'll definately plant "some". LOL
Hey, your ligularia are very pretty! I love how huge those plants are.
me too, gee where do I find those things? thanks Will, for the link. Got the EE's out of their pots and into the ground, wills wandering jew is wandering all over the place in the front beds, I found some oxalis had wintered over outside somehow, and they are up too. Got all the brugs but one in ground, got a flower bed cleaned off and I have a wild raspberry bush I dug up a piece of three years ago, it is on the full sun fence and is LOADED now with berries. So happy.
Debra, Home Depot usually carries it. Up here we don't have it in yet that I've seen but pretty soon we will. It's usually part of the shipment that is more summer oriented. So check there. Otherwise Bluestone Perennials has them.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/genus/Ligularia.html
Your welcome. Debra, did the Wondering Jews from me stay outside for the winter? It is a hardy houseplant to about 25°. It says 20° here but I've left them outside to 20° before and it killed them everytime. - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/596/ In some locales it is a landscape plant, although here I don't even try it outside over the winter. Although, I could usually wait until Nov. to bring them inside.
The Ligularia is unique in that it never needs sun, at least it thrived here in the shade. I think it was Patricia's Nursery or something like that where pepper worked then, she sent me several plants, with the Ligularias, some I still have.
Will
This message was edited Apr 25, 2015 11:14 AM
Patricia's Foods, seasonal greenhouse for a couple months. lol. They quit putting it up when I left.
I am excited today!! My Carolina jessamine came back!! I looked at it today and the vines are getting some new growth on it. I wasn't sure if it would but it appears that it's a late up and comer.
Debra,
I ordered mine, most likely from Jungs. I seem to only order from them now because the price is right and their starts are pretty good sized.
I am still looking for a place to possibly put raspberries. Hard to do in town. I can't have them growing in the neighbor's yard.
Pepper,
Awesome that your Jasmine made it!
We finally got rain yesterday. It was intermittent with low grumbly thunder off and on. It was perfect. I wait for that thunder. This morning it's been raining pretty steady.
We have the visitation and funeral late this morning and tomorrow we have an 80th Birthday party for my Aunt in law. We just found out.
I haven't mowed yet!
Have a beautiful day all!
Oh, billy you will love a clematis. Mine gets the morning sun the some afternoon shade then an evening sun. It does perfect with that combo. I never do anything to mine. Mjst cut it down in the early spring like three months ago. Then it just grows every years. It depends on what group they are in if you cut them down or now.
Any way hereis a few spring flowers jn my yard now.
epimediums. With A small red flower under the leaves.
my new drumstick primrose. So beautiful. First spring in my yard.
Another sping fav my giant primroese.
my little sweet checkered tulips. They are so adorable.
Weeellll fudge! Turns out that I'm not feeding the cat that I meant to feed.
There's been a yellow and white cat hanging around for a couple of years. I was hoping that he was just a free-roaming pet, but I also figured that this was probably either a stray or feral. About a week ago, I got a good look at him and it wasn't positive. He was filthy, matted and his face looked swollen. It was obvious that no one was taking care of him.
I don't want another cat. Plus, he probably has all sorts of diseases that I don't want my cats exposed to. But more importantly, he won't let me any where near him. So I did the next best thing and started leaving fresh water out. Fresh water is hard to find for strays.
Then I decided to put out food. Yes, I know. "Don't feed a stray cat!" Yeah, well. If the worst thing that people say about me is that I fed stray animals, so be it. :) But I was never 100% sure if he was eating the food or if I was feeding the neighbor's dog or some other critter.
Turns out that I think I've been feeding some other critter. A black cat showed up today and I caught him chowing down on the food. I have NO idea who this cat is. He could be another stray that needs help or he could be a neighbor's cat that found the food.
The problem is that it's not the cat that I wanted to help!
LOL!!! We used to have 2 cats until they died last year. We fed them, neighbor's cats, roaming toms, raccoons, opossums, and birds. There is no way to just feed the one you want to feed when you leave food outside.
I know. It's just that I'd feel better if I knew that yellow and white cat was getting at least some of the food. I know that he knows where the water is because I saw him getting a drink earlier in the week, but I don't yet know if he's gotten any food.
Ronna,
Yes, the clematis I have now just needs half of it trimmed
We came home from the funeral and headed back over to my neighbor's to re-cover her lilies.
Lovely blooms!
DH brought bricks and handed them to me. It only took close rto an hour to cover all of them, but I am so going to enjoy her show this summer!
Dyan,
I am so sorry for the cat. With a swollen face he possibly has a broken tooth. I doubt he has long to live. Poor thing. We feed strays. Heck, we feed the neighbor's house cat and adopted their first one. The get them then decide to let them live outside.....
Pepper,
We fed the wild life too, till we decided to not leave food out after dark. Problem solved. The cats learn to come in the morning to eat.
Today we have my Aunt's 80th B'day party. We'll take Dad.
The sun is out and it's calm. I really need to mow now!
Gave a great day!
Yep! The sun is shinning! My goal today (garden-wise) is to plant at least a few of the newbie's that I've gathered the last two weekends. Yesterday, I stopped at the roadside plant stand that got me started last year. And I brought home some woolly thyme.
And maybe I'll finish laying the edging (that I started ........ um....... a month ago LOL).
Hey! As I was typing, I just saw the black cat again. He's definitely a pretty thing.
I need to weed my veggie bed and get veggies planted but it raine overnight again so gotta wait til later in the week.
Here are some new pics finally. Had to clean out my camera of pics in order to download new ones. It won't download only new ones and not old ones on this computer for some reason.
Now let's see if this site will work with me. I'm having issues for some reason with everything.
So much for that. Finally got a resizing tool on my computer to resize pics but now I can't upload anything. Buttons are there but it's not working. I need all my computer men (family) here. lol
This message was edited Apr 26, 2015 7:28 PM
SO much stuff going on. Billie, your place looks GREAT!
Boy, those flower blooms are awesome, I have never grown primrose like those..
My clematis bloomed, first time in a long time for me to have blooms let alone a clematis vine that lived.
I love feeding critters, glad I am not the only one. good heart, Dyan.
I have to show you all this tree I saw on the road to work, please id it for me?
Will, the jew did not over winter, just the oxalis, but your jew is everywhere now, I let it break off and leave it alone where it falls and !whala! a new plant loping around the flower bed.
The tree.. and ..my clematis on the north fence,
Dyan,
Laughing! So much to do all at once, but putting plants in is the most gratifying :o)
Pepper,
Our excuse was to wait till the weeds grew and then hoe all at the same time. Yep, and now that it's rained, they grew....
My camera download will only take the new pictures too. If I need a copy DH has to do it on his computer and mail it to me.
Debra,
I hope this is a nice quiet week so I can get back to work in the yard.
AWESOME TREE! I hope someone can ID it.
Yesterday I finally mowed, the short iris are coming out, the fern peony is almost out and I can't wait to walk the yard! It's dewy dewy right now!
Have a gorgeous day!!
WAIT, WHAT? WHAT IS A FERN PEONY?
A very expensive beautiful peony.
Planted potatoes yesterday. 200 lbs of red's & 200 lbs of white.
Started on onions yesterday, too. 7 rows done, which is about half of them.
That is a lot of potatoes and onions, Bernie!
Yes, the Fernleaf Peony is an expensive sort. Here at this Peony seller, it is the fourth down and the most expensive on the page. - http://finagardenspeonies.com/rockgarden.html
But it is pretty alright.
My tree peony blooming. Love this plant. Bought it at Spring Hill a few years ago and it's the best purchase I ever made from them. Only mistake I made was it's first year I didn't realize the woody stem was the peony and cut it back some. So it's taking longer to develop more wood to get more of the tree form it needs.
Here's my sunny bed. This one got the burn treatment at the beginning of the season. Had too many plants that weren't losing enough of the dead stuff even after trimming.
I've got yarrow, bear's breeches, lilies- both Asiatic and the like and daylilies, coneflowers, coreoptis, clematis, baptisa, Montauk daisies, monarda, catmint, a couple miniature roses and if they survived, some mums. Might be a few I'm missing. lol
nice, Amanda, I didn't know there was a tree peony.. I have a bucket of peonys on the poirch I dug up with a friend, have no clue what to do with them..
Debra,
Bernie has it. I was lucky to be given one a long time ago. They are truealy gorgeous.
Bernie,
I haven't been anywhere to get potatoes. We have been so busy. I need to!
Pepper,
You have me sold on Tree Peonies! That is asweome!
I love your sunny bed plants. We need blooming pictures now! I love Bear's Breeches but I think it's too cold for them here.
Hey! Your computer guys got your camera unloaded!
Debra,
Put them in a spot they are to stay and enjoy.
I still get excited waiting for the bud to open.
I got a good start on weeding another flower bed. DH worked on a different one. I am so thankful for his help. I have dishes and laundry caught up again so as soon as the grass dries, I'm out weeding.
Have a good day!
Man, oh man! Everyone's flower beds are simply beautiful!