Bloomin' Tuesday

It's Bloomin Tuesday ya'll. So glad to see Jean getting us going this year with some lovely blooms. Especially good since so many of us have been enjoying an early spring.



http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/2012/03/its-bloomin-tuesday.html


Couldn't ask for a prettier weekend. Blue skies - temps around 80 - light breeze - low humidity - it was just right. Hope you had a nice weekend too. I couldn't help but to get outside and enjoy the weather and my gardens.

Mandevilla.

 Dianthus.

Verbena.

I love these tiny little triple blooms on the daffodils. This is the last of the daffs to bloom.

Spirea - we call it bridal wreath.

My favorite azalea. This one blooms after all the others have lost their flowers. The shrub is loaded with buds.

Worked on this bed a little more. Looks like a half a dog bone. Maybe I should keep the shape and call it Buddy's garden. LOL

This lonely little geranium. More will be joining this baby soon.

Moss Rose. Love these hardy little plants.

We bought a tangerine tree. It is named Dandy Tangerine. It is loaded with little fruit already.

This is what the weekend and today looks like. Beautiful and pleasant. This is why I like living on the Gulf Coast of Alabama.



Hope you all have a fabulous day.

PS My mother will be in surgery in the morning. Please keep her in your prayers.

This N That (and a prayer request)

We managed to get a lot more of the property cleared off around the edges of the property. I can actually see the property line now. This would be a good place for a bench a flowering tree and a shade garden. It will not happen anytime soon but is a work in progress. I have lots of areas to work on.

This is the same area and this is on the south side of the yard.

This is the west side of the shed and is also a work in progress.

I can't believe that it is Feb 1 and my parsley never died. We have had virtually no winter this year.

The daffodils are pretty even if they seem to be smaller plants this year. The blooms appear to be full size but the plants themselves are kinda small.

Too bad these are blurry.

And the skies were so pretty to greet me yesterday morning.

I knew the news wasn't good when I got a call last Friday from my mother calling from the doctors office telling me that she needs to tell us something and tell us together. She has lung cancer. The doctor told them that it is early and that he thinks he can operate and cut it out. Tomorrow she has an appt for a PET scan and then to the doctors office. My sister and I will be coming along on this visit to talk to the doctor with them. I am trying to not be too worried but it is looming over my head constantly. Keep my mom in your prayers please.

Storms on the Way

Yesterday it was mostly clouded and very windy but I managed to catch the sky looking south between some clouds. I love cirrus clouds. They are so wispy.

Today on the other hand is not looking so good. Lots of rain and winds are on the way and we are under a tornado watch. You can feel the disturbed weather. You can feel pockets of hot air blowing. Praying for our people up North AL to have to deal with this weather today after the destruction on Monday from tornadoes. I forgot the death toll but 4-6 people were killed. It is so sad that the same areas that were hit last April saw this stuff on Monday. Yikes. Over 400 homes were destroyed.

But look what I found blooming this morning. My first daffodil. The plants look so scrawny and small. I expect that they aren't going to do so well this year since we haven't had any winter to speak of. I expect that that would be the reason the hyancinths didn't have any size to them. Anyway it is pretty even if the photo is blurry. It is hard to get that low to the ground without shaking.

Take care and have a nice day. Hope everyone is safe today.

This N That

It is hard to believe we are in the last week of January and we are so warm and not expecting any cool weather any time soon. I managed to get out and enjoy some of the weekend outdoors. This is where I spent a little time while I was monitoring a project Saturday. I don't think I've shared pictures of my shed out back. Actually it's pretty big. There have been a few interesting things to come out of here. It is a great big ole mess right now and it is taking some time to get it cleaned out. It is snakey and I'm not going in here by myself because I am a scardy cat.

This little pooch is Molly, my friends rat terrier I gave him.

(On this side of the shed I plan to put some camellia's and something else undecided.)

It's just a dirty old shop. Big enough to hold six cars comfortably.

This is John's idea. He is a metalsmith and designed the stepping stone frame to make stones. The flower is his idea and he created the flower frame also. This is a sample he had set up for me to see.

Actually they turned out too thick and the cement wasn't quite right. May have bought the wrong kind. This mixture had a lot of rocks in it. They are about 2 to2-1/2" thick. Way too thick to walk on. I'm thinking garden art here. 

Buddy enjoyed being outside even if he had to be on his chain. He likes to visit neighbors and wants to cross the main road near me so this is what he gets.

I spent my time with my gloves and a shovel. It was time to work on the garden I planned on putting down. First I had to dig out the grass. I do this because I HATE to contend with grass in my gardens. I can pull weeds but grass is hard to keep out when it gets around the flowers. Plus I also back fill with new Miracle Gro Garden Soil.
(The area on this side of the shed is where I plan to put some roses and some flowering vines.)

I got this much done. I'm going to make it bigger but this is the beginning. The digging and loading the sod is easy enough but hauling my load down the hill to drop in some low spots kills me. I'll get there though and it will be a pretty spot.

Anyone know what this is and if I can expect a flower. I have a couple of them and don't if it was in some seeds I spread in the fall.

Daffodils will be in bloom soon. Actually I think it is early as is everything else this year.

What to do with these containers? Plants? Help. I need ideas. They do not have a bottom so they can easily be used them in the garden. 

Anybody throwing out seeds yet in their gardens? I'm thinking about doing just that with this warm weather. I'm thinking it will be an early spring and long hot summer.

Gotta run.  Have a great week.



In My Gardens This Week

Today I am linking up with Fishtail Cottage for Cottage Flora Thursdays and with Tootsie at Tootsie Time. You can go to their links here http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/cottage-flora-thursdays-12.html

and http://www.tootsietime.com/.

Things are popping here on the Gulf Coast as spring has arrived. The bridal wreath (spirea) is still putting on a show. I love their delicate blooms.

This is my twice a year blooming azalea. Soon they will be open all over the area.

Daffodils are slow to bloom and only giving a bloom at a time. Don't know why they aren't busting out like last year. But I'm loving the double bloom on this one. As you can see it is small.

 Nemesia.

Snaps are in their prime right now but they will be blooming all summer long and into the fall. They love it here.

Dianthus are putting on blooms but they are leggy. I didn't do the fertilizer yet so it is my fault. I'm lazy sometime - what can I say. But the Miracle Gro is on my counter in the kitchen.

Azaleas are so hard to photograph.

Purchased a few new additions to the gardens this past weekend. Loving this fire red here. So hard to photograph.

I fotgot the names of some of the plants I bought since I stupidly removed the ID tags. Shame on me.

This is a new dianthus. It will be different than the other I have. I'm looking forward to what these will look like.

This a very different verbena. Loving the soft colors. 

My Sarah Bernhardt peony is coming back and looking good. I'm so hoping for a bloom this year. I planted this two years ago and it hasn't bloomed yet. 

These shasta plants stayed green all winter long. I planted these last year from seeds I had done early in the year. They didn't bloom last year so I'm hoping for some blooms. If it doesn't do this year I'm pulling them out. 

My one and only hosta. Didn't do much last year so this year should be better. I would so love to have a hosta garden. Maybe soon.

Bought another Butterfly Bush. I'm looking forward to lots of butterflies this year and these awesome blooms.



I've got a lot to do today so I'm gonna keep this short.

Hoping you all have a wonderful day and a great weekend.