More Garden Pictures

Virginia Blue Bells. Very short season. Once the blooms are spent, the plant will go dormant again until next year. It does spread but very slowly. One of the most beautiful of plants. I wait for this one every year.









Tahiti daffodil. Continually a nice double daffodil year after year.








Purple Leaf Cherry blossoms. This is the start of the season for this tree. When in full bloom, you will see only flowers. The rest of the summer it has these beautiful purple leaves that turn an even brighter purple in the fall. A lovely contrast to the bronze of the red oak and the yellow of the tulip poplar.





Leopard's Bane. A short lived perennial. I thought two years ago that this plant was done. Then this year, it appear out of nowhere in a different spot than it was and growing nicely. This is such a beautiful flower.

Dalsnaugh Daffidol. One of my favorite double daffidols. This one has a tendency to be rather finicky, looking like this only when the conditions are just right.

I've been busy in the garden, as usual this time of year, weeding and cleaning up all the gardens and getting them ready for mulch. It's been harder than usual as I was changing shifts last year and had to get adjusted to that. Hence I left the garden go. I have 8 beds ready for the mulch and 5 more to go. I've also been planting the little plants I bought this spring. All the roses are pruned, shaped and fed. Now to finish the beds and get them ready for mulch. If anyone wants to volunteer to help weed, let me know.

flowers

Flowering Quince










Flowering Almond








Cleveland Pear










Any questions?

Spring

It seems that spring has finally gotten here. It's been in the mid 70s for the past two days. The daffodils are blooming, the birds are building nests and the garden work is never ending.

However, today, I was able to get some things done. I had been pruning roses for the past two weeks. I was hoping to finish them today, but some errands got in that way and I'll be finishing the last half of the last bush tomorrow. Then to fertilize the last eight , seven of which I pruned to day and the one I will finish tomorrow. Then it's time to renew my personal relationship with the hoe.

The roses I pruned today were the 5 year old miniature monsters in my front yard -- Peaches & Cream. The bushes are big, but very thick and with a lot of dead in the middle. They were able to butcher up my arms pretty good until I got the bright idea to put on my extra long gloves that would protect me up to my elbows.

This evening I decided to start my last two garments for my spring/summer wardrobe. There is a fabric store going out of business here (a bad thing), but the fabric was on sale for a decent percentage off. I went nuts in there a while back and bought about $100 of fabric for a series of garments for my spring/summer wardrobe. These last two are a matching shell and skirt. It is a lovely black/white fabric with verticle bands of lace and bands of flowers and bands of pasley. Black/white fabric seems to be in this year. It shouldn't take me long to get these done. The skirt is almost together now, after an hour of sewing it. Finishing the seams seem to take up the most time. The shell will take a little longer since it has sleeves. It'll be pretty when it's done.

Saturday, April 14, 2007 (7:31pm)

What a beautiful day today. It was surely a surprise. I was expecting it to be somewhat stormy, cold and miserable as it has been for April so far. The forsythia are in bloom and the cooler temps are allowing them to stay in bloom so much longer that warmer years. That’s a good thing. I’ve spent as much time as possible out in the garden pruning and fertilizing the roses. Oh, they aren’t done yet, but I have more than 3/4 of them done. I need a part of one more day to finish them.

I’ve been enjoying my quiet time out in the garden. It’s where I want to be. I’m not all that interested in TV and I don’t listen to the radio much. I have my sewing for the inside times and of course the house to take care of. My most company these days are the pets. Both Shalimar and Bratley have been very good kids. It concerns me that Bratley keeps getting fatter and fatter. I’ve also noticed that his new bag of dog food seems to be vanishing a little to quickly. I’m thinking that Bob is over feeding him and there’s simply nothing I can say to him to make him understand that.

As I was out fertilizing what roses were ready before the heavy rains come in tonight, I was listening to the neighbors as they gathered next door. I felt very alone just then. A very familiar feeling but also depressing. It felt so sadly normal. I felt alone, like I would always be alone.

It is forecasted to rain pretty much all of next week. That’s OK. I will be able to finish my summer wardrobe and get it in my closet, get the house cleaned and rest.

Native Flowers in bloom

Bloodroot, a native wildflower that is difficult to start. This one seemed dormant for at least two years. I simply forgot that I had planted it, or thought it died. Then, last year, it appeared out of the blue with two flowers! This year it seems much better, much larger and it has also moved from where it was last year. It is about 5 inches due east. I didn't move it. It makes me curious, though, as to where I'll find it next year. I'm just glad that it has decided to finally strut it's stuff. It is a deep shade wild flower and seems to really like it in the very moist soil up against the house with the snakeroot. The snakeroot is only now starting to poke it's lovely deep purple leave above the soil.



The rarely seen flowers of the native spice bush. This is the first time this bush has blossomed for me. Right now it's not quite waste high but will mature at 10'x10'. When a bird planted a malberry tree right beside it, I asked at the environmental center which would they move. They told me to get rid of the malberry. Difficult to transplant, this bush was given to me as a tiny stick by my friend, Sandy who has them growing in her woods. It prefers a little more shade but will get it as the tulip poplar grows.

A Story

Last weekend I had my sister, Lori and her husband over for dinner. I had gotten an order of onion sets for the garden and as usual, I was actually sent two bunches. Instead of throwing one bunch away, I had made arrangements for her to take them off my hands and get dinner in the mix. It was a nice dinner. But, as the evening wore on, we ended up in my office where I was showing her the latest prizes of fabric I had acquired at a "Going Out of Business Sale" of a local fabric store. Then the more we talked, we ended up in the bedroom closet and I tried to get her to become the owner of some blouses I had hanging that I know I may never wear again. She did try them on and they fit her perfectly. But all she would say was "I can't take these, you made them."

I made a lot of clothes over the years.

I started sewing at the ripe age of 8 for the local 4-H chapter. I started with the usual hot pads, etc. and went from there. In high school, I took a home ec. course to fill in some time. The year's project was something that could be modeled and would be graded strictly. Mom took me to Lapp's Dry Goods where I found a lovely skirt pattern and a wonderful large checked wool fabric that would make a perfect skirt. The pattern had a nice waistband, zipper and hem, but nonetheless, it was still a skirt. The teacher knew that I would wipe that pattern out in one period and decided that it was time for me to learn something new. She showed me how to make the entire skirt, from beginning to end, with the handstitch used by the pilgrims. All seams had to be perfectly straight, the zipper had to be inserted according to the directions but with an exact ¼" back stitch as were all the seams of this garmet. Ms. Zepp, my teacher, told me that my project would be graded on the same scale as all the rest and it had to be perfect. I got an "A" on the project and got to model when the school had a modeling show. Then it was put in one of the display cases, with the discription of how it was made and it's grade to be displayed for the rest of the term. I was proud of that skirt and wore it into my college years.

This blouses fit Lori and she should have taken them. I'm now making a whole bunch more. I don't need the old ones anymore.