My Bargains

My usual place to go during my lunch breaks is the local Walmart store. And being a gardener I just had to make a quick jaunt to the garden center to see what was new. I'm so glad I did. Look what I bought. All of these bulbs were a $1 each. Reg price was $5 and the Bleeding Heart was regular $10. So you see why I was so excited. All of the bins were picked over real bad with many empty containers so I quickly grabbed all I could handle.

This plant I have never heard of but it looks very interesting. Liatris. Anyone ever seen it?


I just had a fit over this beautiful daylily. Night Beason.

And this one - Strawberry Fields Forever Daylily. I love the color of this one. It looks peach on the package.

This is the assortment. Bleeding Heart. Rudbekia, Phlox, Daylilies, Cannas.

Here are some plants I bought. I thought $2.25 was not a bad price for this size container. The rust color marigold is different. The small dahlia is pretty with its peach and orange blooms.

I couldn't let you go without sharing another picture of the gorgeous azalea. Still I haven't been able to find out what kind this is - but these beautiful blooms look like a rose. This bush has buds and flowers all over it.

Had to get another shot of the flower garden filling out some now. They are all full of buds after giving them some Bloom Burst this past weekend.

My little Buddy was just too tired for anymore work. He said he was busy all day guarding the place.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Many will be having some nice weather - but I heard that some may be experiencing snow and rain. Rain is expected here over the weekend so I'll be busy trying to dodge showers. Hope I can get this stuff planted this weekend. Oh and also put up some rig for the deer to stay out of garden areas.

What I Found in The Garden

I found the squash are doing remarkably well. They have grown at least 3" since I put them in the ground. That is a deer print to the left.



Doesn't this baby look good. Peas poking out to the sun. I love to see the baby just as it breaks the surface - and rolls the dirt back. It took 7 days for most to make show and I think that is pretty good.

The butter beans are popping up. All of the seeds that I planted on April 5th have broken the surface.

If you enlarge this photo you can clearly see the green popping out all over the garden. I expect next week I'll be showing the seeds that I planted this past weekend.

This is the row of yellow crook neck squash doing very well. My mouth is already watering for squash, green onion and butter. Hmmm

Yep this is the deer checking to see what may be coming up for dinner. I think the contraption that I am going to put together for the "fencing" will have to go up. I have in my head what I am going to do. After I get it up I'll post pictures and let you know how well it is working.

I counted 3 set of deer prints. I appeared to be a lightweight while the others were a medium and a large.

Hope you all have a nice day working in the gardens on this beautiful day and we'll look for the photos.

Lighthouses

I am fascinated by lighthouses. I have a collection of lighthouses in my home.

Despite the fact that Alabama has the shortest coastline of any Gulf Coast state, it has the largest Bay - Mobile Bay. Early on during the War of 1812 the United States took control of the bay. Work began at this point in 1819 building the fort known as Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay. The first lighthouse completed in 1822 cost $9,995. The lights were finally lit on Sept 29, 1822.

In 1864 at 7:30 in the morning a fleet of ships commanded by Admiral Farragut approached the entrance into Mobile Bay. The ship The Tecumseh sank. It was at this critical time that Admiral Farragut gave the famous command "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
The first lighthouse was destroyed during the war and another was built in it's place. It was at this time a new dwelling was built for the lighthouse keeper. The keepers complained about that the military was harrassing them. On one such conflict in 1887 the chief engineer in Mobile sent a letter to the fort's ordinance sargeant notifying him that the word was that the wife of the lighthouse keeper was living in the quarter at Fort Morgan. ( A little hanky panky goin on.) A new steel skeletal tower was built in 1963 after the other was torn down.

The Mobile Point Lightouse today. This lighthouse is currently located at Fort Morgan in downtown Mobile.

Captain John Grant at the age of 25 was known as the "Father of the Gulf Coast Transportation" and single handedly improved access to Mobile Bay by dredging the Bay. The channel was dredged to to a depth of 17 feet and made way for larger vessels to enter the Mobile Bay. This prompted the construction of another light house located in the middle of the Bay and thus became The Middle Bay lighthouse. The house was prefabricated in the north, this due to the high labor cost in post-Civil-War South era. The lighthouse arrived in 1885.

During World War 1 the Keeper and his wife had a baby at the lighthouse. The mother was unable to produce enough milk to nurse the infant. Instead of the mother and child being sent to shore a small coral was created on the lighthouse and a milk cow was transported to the lighthouse.

In 1967 the Coast Guard received permission to demolish the lighthouse. Several organizations rallied together to prevent this from happening. A major restoration project ensued. With a grant of $349,400 Thompson Engineering initiated the restoration of the Middle Bay Lighthouse. At the top of the lighthouse the red flashing light was replaced by a six foot pole with a solar powered red light.

It has been proposed that the lighthouse be moved to Battleship Park for visitors to tour. Battleship Park is home to the USS Alabama and the USS Drum which are already attractions and bring in about 300,000 visitors each year.

Middle Bay Lighthouse today.

Dauphin Island is home to the Sand Island Lighthouse. During the early 1800's when the structure was built in occupied 400 acres. Today it is down to less than an acre. In 1837 Congress allotted $10000 for improvements to the lighthouse. By 1848 it had become apparent the the island was losing ground. In 1863 John W. Glenn, a confederate leader, placed 70 tons of gun powder under the tower and lit the fuse. A temporary lighthouse was built and then 9 years later a permanent structure was built and put on operation in 1870. By 1888 only 10 feet of sand separated the lighthouse from the Gulf. Rather than abandon the lighthouse jetties were built in the gulf and 1600 tons of granite were placed around the tower. In 1906 a powerful hurricane hit the gulf coast and a telegram was sent describing the damage: "Sand Island light out. Island washed away. Dwelling gone. Keepers not to be found." Keepers were forced to live in the base of the tower until a new dwelling was built in 1925. In 1973 the structure burned down.

Due to regulations the ownership of the lighthouse had to be transferred from the federal government to Alabama Historical Commission. The Alabama Historical Comm regected an offer of the lighthouse saying that it would cost too much to restore. That is when the town of Dauphin Island stepped up to obtain ownership in 2003.

Sand Island lighthouse today.

I have not toured any of these lighthouses personally due to the fact they are only accessible by boat. That does not change my fascination with lighthouses.

Easter Weekend

Hope everyone had a great Easter and some nice weather. I ended up spending my Easter weekend in the veggie garden. Not much fun but I enjoyed it.

Have you seen a magnolia that looks like a shrub. Well I have about six magnolia's and they are all trees except this one. It doesn't even look like it wants to be a tree. It is getting ready to bloom - way before the magnolia trees.

The veggies are starting to pop up. This is butter beans planted by seeds on the 5th of April and they are looking good. It sure didn't take long for them to pop out.

I planted more seeds and plants this Easter weekend. I felt I needed to get everything into the ground before the 15th. I managed to get 65-70 hills from seed and plant this weekend alone.

This is what I have in my garden:

Butter beans, snap beans, peas, yellow and white squash, red yellow and green bell pepper, jalapeno, tomato, cucumber, eggplant, watermelon and cantalope. I probably left out something. I have a good variety.

This is all the flowers I have to show today. My new bed has taken a back seat to the veggie garden this week.

The weather here has turned out to be just beautiful. Plenty of sunshine. Everything around here is starting to pop out with the pleasant temps and rain and sun.

This time of year just makes you feel good.

Easter

I just love to open my mail box and find something in there for me that isn't a bill. My first gift from National Home Gardening Club and I was so excited. This has been on my list of things I must have real soon - so perfect timing. My old one was well used and was cheap so this is a very nice one. I will HAVE to use it this weekend to do the flower bed in the next photo. This weekend I will put out some bloom burst on these plants. It's is going to be beautiful and pleasant and a wonderful Easter.

Needs work.

The awesome azalea is still so full of buds. On every tip.

The fake snake scares off the birds from the peach trees. Look how nice the peaches are looking.

Can't wait to eat one.

The peach trees.

There are clusters of blueberries all over the bush. These will be good. Last year they were so sweet and made some delicious muffins, pancakes and cobbler. Oooohhhh so good.

It is a little more difficult to catch a good shot of the Bradford pear tree. It is taller and a little harder to photograph. Last year the tree was loaded with maturing pears, and of course the pears falling to the ground. The next morning while walking around outside I noticed the tree was bare and so was the ground. No sign of pear no where. I discovered that a honey bear had found the tree overnight and apparently shook the tree and left no crumbs anywhere - only the tracks.

You can see in the photo one pear. I had to look up to get this shot - all the babies are up above the leaves.

When I was a little girl I remember going to church with my Mamaw and Papa along with about 15-20 of my first cousins. On Easter Mamaw would try to get all 35 of us grandkids to church on the same day. She would always recieve the special flowers for having so many in church on a single Sunday. We all enjoyed it so much playing and hunting eggs. I am the third from the oldest of the grandkids so as I got older I came to be the helper. I sure miss my Mamaw and Papa. But I still have my beautiful mother. I am blessed this Easter.

Words for Wednesday

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. Galileo

It is not how much one makes but to what purpose one spends. John Ruskin

(I needed these words this morning-hope you enjoy them)

The Karate Kid

Ben gets his stripes. He is so proud.

I just had to share this one.

Weekend With The Grandchildren

I had a marvelous time with my Daughter and family. Could not have asked for better weather. As you can see from this photo it was beautiful. The time spent driving was good me time - to think about gardening and planning my next garden. Are we always thinking about the garden? I guess so - I think our minds are always in the dirt.

I know you can't see the sign that reads out of business for this big food broker company. Just a sign of the times in which we are living. It is sad isn't it.

This is a quaint little town. Florence Mississippi. I love old town. If we could just take a peek at the goings on in a little store. That is how people spread news of anything was to visit the local grocery or feed store.

If you enlarge this picture - you can see a swinging bridge. It is still in use today.

A nice place. I love water. That is what I always seem to gravitate to when I am painting.

Gavin, helped by his dad and little Luci. She wants to garden too. Here is my little gardener. I took Gavin some seeds that I have for my vegatable garden for him to plant. He was very appreciative and has quite a variety going in his containers here. He has about 6 of these yellow containers Dad brought from FedEx. He is very excited about producing some etables. This is smart boy too. He is such a smart kid. My daughter home schools these kids and all three of them are well above their average age student.

What a beautiful day to plant some seeds.

Luci loves her little dog Maw Maw bought her. She named "her" Daisy. All of the animals and dolls must have names you know.

Luci must dance for the camera. She is a ham.

Ben the new Karate Kid. Getting ready to show his stuff. He has just recently started karate and already has his yellow stripe - next the yellow belt. This has made a world of difference in his behaviour and his abilities in school. Being homeschooled has worked best for this one in particular. You can check out Aprils (my daugher) blog at Homeschool-Musings at blogspot dot com.

This is the scene coming home on Sunday. Drizzling and just plain yucky.

On Sunday after arriving home I immediatly headed for the garden to get my seeds in the ground. By the time I got home the skies turned to partly sunny and hot. Well, I'll shoot some photos after I have planted the remaining fruits and vegatables from plants purchased from Walmart or a local nursery.

This week I have plans to get the new flower garden set up. The plants I ordered from Springhill Nursery will be arriving in the next 10 days maybe.

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday.

After the Rain

Yesterday turned out very well for us weather wise. No extremely serious weather. Hail that kind of stuff - but it was over by the end of the afternoon. After the rain yesterday the color everywhere was green. Everything is greener after a rain. Today the flowers are reaching for the sun and popping up all over. That makes me feel good too all over.

Lots to do this weekend - plant all my vegetable seeds and some more vegetable and fruit plants from the Mart store. I also have got to get to work and this new flower bed I need. I have babies arriving next week from Springhill Nursery.

In addition to planting this weekend I am going to visit these three kids. Three of my favorite people - Gavin, Ben and Luci. They were sick last week so this week it is. Can't wait to see them.

Stormy Weather

The thunderstorms are rolling in this morning as predicted. We are expecting a day of severe weather as a warm front comes in from the Gulf and cool weather makes its way across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Just hoping no tornadoes. And hoping the gardens and flowers aren't washed away.

When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I Found After The Rain

We gardeners get excited when we see knew birth in our yards and I got excited yesterday upon checking my stuff.


This is an azalea which I do not know the name. This one blooms after the flowers have fallen from the other azalea bushes. The flower looks like a rose bloom. I have searched and haven't been able to identify it yet. Can anyone identify this azalea?





This bridal wreath is doing well. I cut on it last year and thought that I had cut too much. But it is doing OK.

I was beginning to think the Dahlia seeds I planted here was not going to make a show. But maybe they will bear a few flowers.

This begonia is doing pretty well in spite of being relocated this past weekend due to the heavy rains washing some of the bed last week.

I added more soil to repair the damage done to the bed from last weeks deluge of 12" of rain. Seems after yesterdays rain it faired pretty well.

Finally I got a picture of the little baby pears. This is a bradford pear tree. It is loaded with these little babies.

I made this compost container a couple of months ago. I need grass cuttings in it before adding more leaved and kitchen waste. The grass will be cut by the weekend.

We are expecting another round of heavy rain tomorrow and maybe it will be outta here. A good boating weekend might be in store. I need some sun on a sandbar up the Escatawpa River.