Happy Thursday - Almost Friday

I got some rain!!! Did you see me jumping for joy? I did. It rained for 3 days and I guess I received about 5-6" of rain. The grass is greener and the flowers are happier. But you know what that means - WEEDS - again. I'll take the weeds over seeing the plants struggling any day.

Love the cannas. The plants get so big and the blooms are even bigger (or so it seems).

I am loving the Sun Cherry Zinnias. So far the plants are not too tall either - maybe 24-30" which is just right in my opinion.

I believe the seeds for this zinnia came from Lona. It would be Zinnia Starlight Rose.

This is a problem I have with zinnias every year. They fall over and a gust of wind comes up and over they go. I guess I could put the tomato baskets in the garden but I hate the wire cages in a flower garden. What do you do when yours fall over?

The tomato plants are loaded. Notice the extra amount of foliage on the tomato plants. The person who planted them decided that they needed a lot of tomato fertilizer. An entire bag, 1.5#, of tomato fertilizer was applied over 5 weeks. I actually thought they would die but it caused the stalks on the plants to be enormous.

Wind damage.

The cages are leaning now. Oh well we have more tomatos than will be eat at my house.

 On Saturday and Sunday it rained all day so I cooked up some good pasta salad and soup.

I added some cheese cubes to the salad and it was very good.

Cheeseburger Soup is so good. This is the first time I've made it and it won't be the last. I loved it.

Here is where I found the recipe.

http://thebetterbaker.blogspot.com/2011/03/slow-cooker-cheeseburger-soup.html

I used a little white pepper jack velveeta on the top for garnish and pickle relish and bacon. I did not cook the Weight Watchers version. I'm looking forward to this again.

Hope a nice weekend.

In the Pink Today

Linking to Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday.

http://www.tootsietime.com/

It's Friday and it couldn't get here soon enough. I've had a stressful week and am glad it's over. To top it off my coffee maker broke and wouldn't make coffee this morning. real bummer.

I'm still waiting on rain at my house. It has rained in the county several times over the past few weeks and just up the road from me but I am still dragging the garden hose around for 3-4 hours a day or every other day. It get old. Even though I'm watering they still suffer. Garden hose is not the same as rain.

I was so happy to see this zinnia blooming. I was afraid that the Sun Cherry Zinnia wasn't gonna make it this year but I guess I need to give zinnias more credit than that since zinnias will grow just about anywhere are very hardy. I ordered the seeds from Park Seed. Hopefully I'll get some seeds. 

I'm really liking the coneflowers. The blooms last a long time.

Dianthus.



I pruned and deadheaded last week and need to do it again. I have to let some go to seed though so hopefully I can share seeds. 

I hope you all have a nice weekend and the weather is cooporating with your plans.

What are you cooking this weekend? I found a recipe for BBQ Meatballs Moink-Balls. Check out the post. They are wrapped with bacon and grilled with a sweet sauce. Found the recipe here:

http://www.thecountrycook.net/2012/06/weekend-potluck-21.html

http://sunflowersupperclub.blogspot.com/2011/09/moink-balls.html

Pretty Blooms

Hey everybody - I'm still here. I know you wondered when I'd share some more of my pretty blooms. I have a few blooms to share today. I have to get a new memory card for the camera so I can take more pics. This time of year the gardens are busy. There is lots to do but we have been extremely dry lately. I run the sprinkler for 3-4 hours each day moving it around to each garden area. This is fine for a while but they really need water from the sky.

Someone must have given me seeds for this echinacea. I do not know where it came from. Last year I put out seeds but had no luck with them. This year they are doing really well. I did plant some echinacea pink parosol but the bloom on it has not opened yet. Is this Purpea?

Cosmos Happy Ring is doing well.

Foxglove

Endless Summer. Hope to get more blooms here. The flower is as big as the plant so I am hoping for some growth on the plant.

I'm sorry but I do not remember the name of this one. I believe it is suppose to be purple but it is like a strawberry color.

Love the huge blooms on the cannas.

I was lucky to get this little rain shower last Thur and Friday morning. However when I went out on Friday afternoon to do some weeding I discovered the ground to be extremely dry just below the wet surface. I need RAIN. Actually a tropical system would be nice. Not a storm but just the rain produced by a tropical system.



I am so ready to overhaul a couple of my gardens. This time of year I see the empty spaces and some overgrown plants in places where I would prefer a more tame or smaller plants. I was thinking of moving some plants such as shasta daisy's, salvia, mums and butterfly bush. Wish I could move the daffodils but I'm sure this is not the time. Do you feel this way when your plants are blooming and not doing exactly what you want them to do in the area they occupy? It's kinda like re-arranging furniture I suppose.... 

I'm going to go plant shopping again. I believe there are new arrivals calling my name. Can you hear it?

Friday Blooms

Just a few blooms here today....

Love the hydrangea's this time of year. They take a while to get a full bloom but they are gorgeous when they begin to open up.

I don't remember the name of this one.

This is the endless summer hydrangea.

Dianthus pretty happy this time of year. They are not fussy at all. I just clip off old blooms when I get around to it. Can you see the weeds. The gardens are needing my attention right now.

Salvia.

Don't remember the names of the Butterfly Bush.

I've been pretty busy lately. All I really want to do is to keep Momma's gardens going. It pleases her to sit out and look at the pretty blooms and that is what is important. She is doing OK. She has healed nicely from the surgery but she is not the same. I see changes. It's hard. I hang up the phone and cry or cry myself to sleep at night. I will not take her for granted. Today she wants to get out of the house and go shopping. I was so surprised when she asked me take her shopping and of course I changed my plans to accomodate her wishes.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Fertilizer Friday

Happy Mothers Day

Joining Glenda at Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday

http://www.tootsietime.com/2012/05/fertilizer-friday-flaunt-your-flowers_10.html

I love this verbena salvia -oops. It just keeps on performing and maintains the flowers for a long time. It spreads and grows taller and fuller every year. I will have to thin it out soon. I may come home with more flowers today since I am making a trip to Home Depot for lovely flowers for my mom.

Shasta Daisy

Dainthus

Begonia

More Begonia's. Thought the caladiums were history when I redid this garden bed.

Mandevilla

This was an unhappy hydrangea for the past 2 years so I moved it to a new bed and it is thriving now.

Endless Summer Hydrangea

Zinnia Green Envy

This one is a darker shade of green

Snapdragon

Strawberry dianthus

Butterfly Bush Budleia

Hibuscus

I want to collect some seeds this year. I have never tried collecting seeds till 2 years ago. I am learning.
I am wanting to collect seeds from this beautiful hibuscus but the entire bloom falls from the tiny shrub with every bloom as soon as the bloom is done. The blooms only last about a day. You can see in the photo below where the one from yesterday fell.

In this photo you can see the elbow I find on all of the blooms and this is where it breaks from. Any ideas how I can collect seeds from this plant. Is this normal?

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy Mothers Day

This N That

Hooking up with Jean for Bloomin Tuesday.





http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/2012/05/its-bloomin-tuesday.html


In case I haven't said it before, my friend is a metal smith and he is getting creative. When I found this old magazine rack in the shed someone had left a very long time ago I originally had planned to place some garden fabric in the bottom and plant flowers in it but now that he sanded it and painted I really don't want to fill it up with flowers. Isn't the lamp shade cute. Can you believe the lamp actually worked after being exposed to the elements for a long time. Tried placing a solar lamp in it but the holes in the shade aren't big enough to let out much light. Maybe I'll hang a small wind chime on it and place a container of flowers inside the basket. Makes a great outdoor table.

Oh no. I went to take photos of my plants and look what I found. At first it appeared that it was soil from the heavy rains we had earlier but upon further inspection it was not.

Due to the mild winter we had it has been mentioned that bugs, snakes and other little creatures would be running a plenty this year. Last week a city worker found a rattlesnake in the front ditch. Yikes!!!

Now I've never had much of problem with bugs messing with my flowers but this was different. These critters meant to eat up all my foliage and do it quickly mind you. I hate using pesticides but ya'll forgive me. I ran to get the stuff I already had mixed up (sorry I forgot the name of the product) to kill pests on the fruit trees. Nasty little creatures. I took care of them though.

Love the poppies but they only last a day or until it rains each day. Wish they would hang out a little longer.

We can't spend any time outdoors without Molly dropping the ball everywhere. Buddy he doesn't care and is content just laying in the grass near MY chair. Molly on the other hand must be ball hunting. If I'm digging the ball goes in the hole. If I'm standing the ball is at my feet or John's. So here we go... the ball is dropped... off she goes.

...and she waits...

And she goes from side to side waiting...

The ball is thrown and off she goes...

She gets the ball but she goes to sniff out everywhere the ball touched the ground before bringing it to be thrown again. She is a Rat Terrier so that nose of hers picks up every scent.

She is actually hiding behind the pole here. She will hide behind a tree or anything and wait to hear the ball go bouncing. Funny dog and very entertaining.

While we played ball I decided I needed to edge the garden since the grass is inching ever closer everyday. So out comes the shovel. Only meaning to tone up the areas and pulling the grass line out a few more inches. I often start off this way but I don't know about you but I always think I can eye the curves and lines. Well I should no by now that I can't but I never stop trying. While I started off small I didn't end up that way. I actally pulled it out about 15". But it looked horrible and the lines weren't even in the least.

Lots and lots of grass dug out. The hardest part is unloaded the grass. Love digging and lifting the grass out but placing it somewhere is lots more work.

I thought about something I could use to give me some defination. A bath towel would do the trick. I could shape it easily and really just needed to define the area and it worked great.

This area will be a work in progress for a while as we create a nice retreat area with chairs and tables etc.

I forgot to take a photo after potting up these plants for the area. So I rushed out last evening and mind you it is still early when the clouds came up quick and the bottom fell out.

And it rained for a while...

Hope you all have a fabulous day.