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Can't believe I haven't written a blog entry in two years
Posted: 21 Mar 2014 Posted: 19 Jan 2012 Posted: 04 Jul 2009 Posted: 16 Jun 2009 Posted: 27 Apr 2009 All Entries |
toni's Blog
New plans for the front yard
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:25 am Now I am getting excited about creating a garden in the front yard. For a couple of years I have felt the pressing need for doing something out there since all my efforts have been put into the backyard and the front yard has been looking really neglected. But nothing I have come up with has really sparked my desire....until this last week. Ideas have been boiling up in my mind, plans have been creating an overflowing froth like you get when the pot of potatoes is on a burner that is too high and the water and startchy foam flows over onto the stove top. Oh, geez, it's almost midnight and now I am getting hungry. I have been going over all the plants in the backyard that need to be divided and the seedlings that need a place to call their own and have realized that I probably don't need to buy new plants this year. I have mentioned this to Randy too and like I told him, if you remind me I said that I will deny it. The front of our house faces West, that means hot Texas summer sun from about 11a.m. until sundown. So my plans are..... on the north side of the driveway I have already planted some free Canna Tropicana that I received last August, there are two Oak saplings I received free from the local squirrels hiding a winter meal and forgetting where they put it and a Rosemary plant that outgrew it's pot last fall. In that area I will be transplanting, 3 Mexican Mint Marigolds, 3 Coreopsis, at least 3 of the Blue and Black Salvia that are trying to 'rule the world' from my backyard, some Lemon Balm that is the co-world ruler want to be, 2 Cardoon that are ready to leave their pots, a Maximillan Sunflower, the 2 Mystic Spires I bought at the grocery store and interspersed among them will be at least a dozen Gladiola bulbs. The spot for the new mailbox I picked up for free will hold a red Morning Glory vine and loads of Zinnias. In the main front yard,in addition to the shrub roses, two Hawthornes bushes, two squirrel planted Pecan tree saplings will also be ...... In front of the porch I want a 6 foot rectangular trellis with a potted Clematis (one named Celtic Skies that I ordered from Michigan Bulb) and loads of Zinnia to keep it's roots shaded. On the trellis hiding in the vine will be three birdhouse gourds that I made a couple of years ago. I want to make a raised bed, size yet to be determined, that will hold a few rose bushes. In the fall I will scatter bunches of wildflower seeds in the raised bed, those will grow and bloom before the Roses next spring and look wonderful. Have you ever seen the movie "Practical Magic"? It is one of my favorites, in fact the herb cabinet the Aunts have is what inspired the shelves Randy built me last month. Anyway, they have a fenced in herb garden that I love!!!! So, since I want to grow some herbs for teas and whatever, we are going to fence in, maybe an 8foot square area for the herbs using some picket fence panels and a gate. I have a Texas Lilac Vitex that will be planted on the south side of the front yard. And I want at least one Snowball Viburnum too. I am planning on closing off the front yard from street view with the use of flowering shrubs. Randy sprayed a soil sterilizer on the ground along the front foundation of the house to kill the old shrubs, St.Augustine grass and a patch of poison ivy. I will not be able to plant there until next year but I can put some planters along there for this year. Tomorrow I start digging up, dividing and potting up the plants in the back yard that will be moved and I will be taking pictures of the areas before and after the plantings. Oh, boy, I really hope this all turns out like the picture in my mind....otherwise I am going to be very ticked off. :) Last edited: Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:32 am This blog entry has been viewed 1491 times
Repotting seedlings and finding lost seeds
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:35 pm Yes, the lost seeds have been found. They hadn't run away together, nor had Pixies been playing games. It was just a simple matter of my starting to do one thing, getting sidetracked and then forgetting to finish the thing I started. Please, someone tell me that they have done the same thing, I don't want to feel I am alone with this affliction. I found the Cucumber and Moonflower Vine seeds along with the Roman Camomile and Alysum seeds that I had not yet noticed were missing, two jar lids to be used as watering trays under pots and a couple of styrofoam meat trays kept for the same purpose, all sitting on Randy's saw table in the back room. I was heading out to the bloom house with them last weekend when Randy was building my new shelves, he needed me to help and I just never got back to my original plan. Yesterday I did get some seedlings repotted, some are still too small and some are more than I need. The excess seedlings will be repotted next month and once I determine I have no need for them I will contact a lady at the community garden in the next town to see if they can use them. Cucumbers, Hyacinth Bean Vines, Red Bean vines, Grampa Ott Morning Glory. I decided that most of the Zinnias I had started would be put directly into a large planter out back when they are big enough. I bought some Bleeding Heart and Astilbe roots a couple of weeks ago, got those in pots. I have been told that neither one will do well here but that bit of info came from the same Master Gardener who couldn't ID some of the plants in his own yard at the lecture he gave, so I think I will try them and find out for myself...thank you very much. Also received two boxes of plants I ordered and got them potted. Maximillian Sunflowers, Red Valerian and 4 mini Roses - Green Ice, Lavender Lace, Hearts Afire and Stars and Stripes.....in other words, pale green, lavender, bright red and red/white stripe. When they and the pot of mini Roses Randy gave me for Valentines are ready they will be planted in the rustic wood doll bed I bought at a thrift store a while back to make a 'bed of roses'. 
I have a large galvanized tub that I filled with Crocosmia-Emily McKenzie bulbs, hopefully I will have a mass of red/yellow/orange blooms in a few weeks. I found that my Spiderwort had two 'plantlets' growing next to it, so I got one transplanted to it's own pot. The other one will be moved today. This blog entry has been viewed 1632 times
Musings from todays gardening with a muttering thrown in
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:50 pm I got some Hollyhocks in the ground this morning, don't know how good the quality is they were a bag of 7 from Home Depot. The two Double Red's I planted last fall stayed green thru the winter, even during the light snowfall and ice we had earlier this month. Now they are starting to put some height on. I got some Canna-Princess Di planted too. They are short ones about 30 inches tall and a peach cream color. I have them in the first bed with the big birdbath so I can see them from the door while doing laundry. I noticed that the White Coneflowers I planted last fall have broken the surface. The Black Magic Lilies and the Monte Negro Lilies are both on their way skyward, really looking forward to seeing those bloom. Two of the 4 Black Iris are coming up and in that bed are some Glads coming up that I really don't remember planting there. All of the Blue and Purple Bearded Iris are getting tall too. It shouldn't be too much longer until I can start my day by inhaling their 'popsicle' fragrance and remembering good times from my childhood. I took all the Tulip bulbs out of their pots and even tho there were only 5 blooms out of 52 bulbs, the bulbs themselves have been busy multiplying like crazy. I have them in a bucket and plan on covering them with soil, labeling the bucket and sticking them in the really shaded area under the Hackberry tree for the summer. If they survive then I will replant them in late fall. In their stead I planted Bachelor Buttons (cornflower) in one pot, Marigolds in one, transplanted some purple and red Zinnias to one, planted Calendula seeds in another. The last of the pots is a decorative planter with no drainage and very shallow, so I am going get another Water Lily and add it to my water garden. Put three Blanket Flowers in the ground. Only three of the cucumber seeds I planted have come up, I need 5-7 to produce enough cukes for the pickles I need to make. Went looking for the packet of cucumber seeds to plant more and cannot find it anywhere. It should be in the box with all the other seeds packets but it isn't. Okay, I have to buy more cucumber seeds. Also was looking for the Moonflower Vine seeds, the weather is warming up nicely so it is time to get them started.....they are nowhere to be found. Either I have pixies playing tricks on me like DevonPete or the Cukes and Moonflowers have run off together. Wanna bet that both packets will show up less than a week after I buy more?? Tomorrow will be 'repotting day' all the seedlings are ready for the next size pot. Some will have to stay potted while I work on the front yard. Oh, yeah, the front yard. Guess I will start cleaning out some area for moving Lemon Balm, Mint Marigold and a couple of small Malva Zebrina that have come up in the wrong place and several Coreopsis that I dug up last fall. This blog entry has been viewed 961 times
Now if even half of them sprout I will be happy
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:12 pm Yesterday was a warm one, 81 degrees for a high. But that wasn't reached until around 4pm and by then I was exhausted, happy and back in the house relaxing. The day began here of course, I always peruse the Stew when I first get up...that and a cup of coffee wake me up and start my day right. Randy and I went to breakfast and then to Home Depot. He was looking for something to seal the back window of his pickup truck, a minor item compared to what my mission there involved.....seeds and bulbs. Those are the nectar of life, the things for which gardeners live, the gold at the end of the rainbow...okay, I might be pushing the envelope with that last metaphor but I think you get my point. I came home with Zinnia's in three different shades of purple, MoonFlower, Poppy-Lady Bird, Cosmos in shades of pink and white. I might have mentioned at some point that I do not like pink in any form but I think the garden needs it for variety. And cucumber seeds for pickle making of course. I also bought two packages of 'roots' ... 7 assorted Hollyhocks and 5 assorted Astilbe. When we got home I changed into gardening clothes, picked thru the assorted packages of seeds that I have from last year and end of year sales last fall and started planting. The bloom house is now home to a couple of hundred potential plants. Added to the seeds I bought yesterday, I also planted... Red and Apricot colored Zinnia Two other color combos of Cosmos Scarlet Flame Zinnia Grampa Ott and Scarlett O'Hara Morning Glory Black Gem Cornflower Black Knight Sweet Scabious Butterfly Asclepias-Bright Wings Sublime Dark Blue Larkspur White Sage Calendula Marigolds Pear Tomatoes in yellow and red Last summer I had such fun watching the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly chow down on the two Fennel plants and then watching all those butterflies flitting around the yard that I decided more Fennel plants were in order this year so last fall I bought three Sweet Fennel and two Bronze Fennel plants and kept them in the warm bloom house. I transplanted them to larger pots and now have 6 of the Sweet Fennel and 4 Bronze Fennel, those things multiply like rabbits! Not a problem tho, I will plant some out back and some out front and really have butterflies all over the place. The Spring Snowflakes (Leucojum vernum) are blooming, at least some of them are, the others have been blooming in early summer. As sometimes happens I don't 'put two and two together' as quickly as some people and it just dawned on me that maybe I have two different kinds, Spring Snowflakes and Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum)...well that's cool. I have wondered why they bloomed at different times, they weren't labeled differently when I bought them. The tulips are coming up nicely, squirrels are eating some of the leaves so a few of them will look a little weird when the get larger. At least they aren't digging up the bulbs. Some of the Daffs are coming up, but way fewer than half of what I had last year. And the newest additions I planted last fall have not shown themselves yet. Durn, I planted 36 bulbs last fall, I would like to see at least a couple of them show up this spring. This blog entry has been viewed 940 times
I know FRED is under there somewhere
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:54 pm The cold spell we had starting Friday night brought three nights of below freezing temps and winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour. The freeze took down most of the perennials and all of the annuals. Time to do the cutting back so they don't look quite so sad and pull up the annuals. The Snapdragons are still blooming, there is one lonely Blackeyed Susan struggling to hang on and the Sedum Autumn Joy is really beginning to bloom. Surprisingly the Common Sage, the Curry plants and the third generation this year of some annuals that reseeded in the large planter came thru just fine. One of the Lavenders is mostly dead but there is new growth down at ground level. The Cyclamen, Fennel plants and two as yet unidentified plants spent the cold weekend in my newly lighted and warm bloom house. 
The high winds laid bare the pecan and hackberry trees, so FRED is under a good layer of leaves. Some are now in the compost barrel, I can rake up more as needed. It seems wintery weather is over for now, the days will be warming up into the 50's and 60's for at least the next two weeks. After christmas I think I will work off the stress of holiday shopping and preparations by cutting things down and digging some things up. I have two suffering Hawthorne bushes to move to a sunnier location too. I haven't been out in the garden much for the last two weeks, now after puttering around out there this morning I have this stressed out feeling of already being two months behind. Arrrrggghhhh, isn't gardening supposed to be relaxing, rejuvenating, invigorating. I really liked living under the delusion that everything was as it should be out there and it could get along without me for a few weeks. I need snow, about a foot of snow all over everything....a foot of snow that will hang around at least a month and a few hot toddies, I liked my delusion and wish to visit it again. The snow is difinitely right out, but I have the ingredients needed for a nice hot toddy or two or three :) Oh, have mercy, I haven't even started on plans for the front yard yet. So now I am 3 months behind already.....I have got to get those toddies made. This blog entry has been viewed 891 times
New Junque = Better Mood
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:53 pm Because my oldest daughter and her hubby recently chose to make their lives easier by selling their house and moving into a townhome and let someone else be responsible for lawncare and maintenence, she had some yard things for me. The month of August is usually hard on me, what with the heat making it impossible for me to work in the garden I have to leave it to fend for itself. Other than watering there is just nothing else I can do out there and that makes me very moody. Having new garden decor items to make plans for will help me make it thru until the weather cools. I have this nice deep wheelbarrow to plant in. I will need to line it with plastic since it has been used to mix cement and I don't want anything leeching into the soil. Haven't decided what yet, but being so deep I can put something good sized in it. 
These two tubs they had used to hold water for the dogs and bathing the dogs. I figure a few drainage holes along the lower part, fill with soil and plant away. 
The fire pit ring was in their shed when they bought the house, the rest of the fire pit was gone. Recently the Dallas news paper had a large article on planting fairy gardens in the large Bonsai planters. Instead of that I am going to place this on the ground on top of some black plastic for weed block and plant my fairy garden in it. 
This pile of bricks is only half of what was behind their shed, I have until the 31st to talk Randy into getting the rest of them. I want to make a nice sized wishing well planter. If I can't get the others then the wishing well will be as large as these bricks make. 
Randy's dad gave me this box, I need to put some sealer on it before the weather eats it up then figure out what to plant in it too. 
This birdbath isn't junque, it is new. We found it in the half price section of a farm supply store last week. It is die cast metal with green highlights. 
This blog entry has been viewed 1122 times
To the rescue!!!
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:34 pm I really hate to see good, useful things on the curb waiting for trash pickup. If I had the courage and a larger vehicle my yard would have more garden decor than plants. The people across the street evidently have been redecorating and remodeling. They put a couple of couches and mattresses (no I didn't want those) on the curb Sunday evening. And a door. I kept a watch on that door all day, but since they were home I was not going to go check it out (that is where the lack of courage comes in) but I kept telling myself that if it was taken by someone else before the conditions were ripe for us to get it then it wasn't meant to be mine. But I wanted that door. There are many people in our neighborhood who drive up and down streets on Tuesdays picking up scrap metal before trash day on Wednesday and many people who are brave enough to pickup other things that they can use. Tuesday morning it was still there but so was the lady of the house. I asked Randy if he could take a couple of minutes of his lunch time and help me bring it home. Luckily, the lady left as he was putting his shoes on. We scurried over and brought it home. It has a metal frame, the hinges and door knob will be removed. The glass is in perfect condition and the fake leading design around the edges is perfect too. Now, when the weather cools some I am going to paint flowers on it...probably like the ones I painted on the old kitchen cabinet doors. The area near our back bedroom window will be changed to a plant nursery this fall and the door will be attached to the side of the shed in that area. That's my Mom's old screen door behind it still waiting for it's garden decor debut. 
This blog entry has been viewed 899 times
Our Blueberry Day
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:20 pm We picked Lisa up around 7am, she had been sitting out on the front porch reading the Sunday paper since 6:30. Her family was still sleeping soundly, so she could make her escape without being noticed. First stop is for a coffee to take with us. It is about a two hour drive east of Dallas and as you get further east the trees become tall Pines and so much prettier than the city-scape we have left behind for the day. We noticed also that the further east we went the more cloud cover there was and we were hoping that it would still be with us when we got there. Just a few miles before the town of Edom, we drove thru a rain shower and hoped it would be over or at least down to a sprinkle when we got there. It was still very overcast and very comfortable the whole time we were out in the field picking berries. The berries this year were plentiful and large. Last year the drought was terrible on the crop, they could only stay open about 3 weeks and the berries, when you could find some were small. The picking time goes by pretty quickly because we are talking so much. After paying for our berries, we went into Edom to The Shed, a really good cafe. After lunch we wandered thru the shops then headed back home but on country roads instead of the highway. Planning on stopping and wandering thru whatever little shops we find but they were all closed, we usually go on Saturday and forgot they would probably be closed on Sunday. Back on the highway,in Terrell we stop for another coffee. We stopped at a couple of wonderful antique shops, they are huge and filled with garden decor goodies and stuff ranging from furniture and doodads to huge yard statuary....like a Triceratops and a T-Rex and a really old MIG that Randy kept trying to talk me into letting him put in the yard. No AC in any of the buildings so it was hot in there, but not hot enough to make us want to leave in a hurry. After I skim a sufficient amount off the grocery money for the next three months, we will be going out in the pickup truck to load up on goodies. They had piles of enamel pails and tubs, old rusty metal things, wood stuff and wire odds and ends...just the sort of things to give this Mistress of Garden Junque heart palpitations thinking of all the possibilities before me. By the time we got back to the cityscape, we were getting hungry so we stopped at one of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurants before taking Lisa home. This blog entry has been viewed 711 times
A guiltfree buying trip to Calloways nursery
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:56 pm This was a really fun trip, not that all the other trips to garden centers haven't been fun, but this one was almost free!! I had a coupon from Calloway's for 25% off one plant and the birthday money from Randy's folks. So the total cost of this trip was $3.50 When I checked out I asked the young man if I got to choose which plant the coupon was used on, most of the times coupons can only be used on the cheapest one, but he said yes so I chose the Spiderwort of course. Buying a rose bush had been my original plan for the birthday money, but they don't have the ones I want so I wandered around for a while. They had gotten a big shipment of plants since I was there last week too. Last week I had found this gorgeous succulent and planned on going back this weekend to get some, good thing I went back today because there were only three of them left....now they are mine. 
This is all three of the Aeonium hybrid 'Zwartkop', they are such a dark purple that they look black and the Tradescantia x 'Sweet Kate'..aka Spiderwort. You can barely see some of the blue flowers already open. 
This blog entry has been viewed 1840 times
It all starts with a list
Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 7:23 pm 1. Make a list of plants required for the beautification of specific areas of the garden. 2. Take list with you to the garden center. 3. Remove list from purse and read it to remind you of what you came to get. 4. Find have to have plant, put in cart 5. Read list again to remind you of your mission. 6,8 and 10 Repeat step 4 7 and 9. Repeat step 5 11. Accidently loose list while picking up the 5th must have plant that is not on the aforementioned list so what do you need that silly list for anyway. 12. Bring home plants, sneak them into backyard. Oh darn, I forgot that Randy reads my blog entries. Hi, honey. 13 and the funnest step of all....find new homes for the plants and dig in. Todays newest arrivals to my garden are.. 4 red Petunias....now planted in the wheelbarrow 4 Alchemilla vulgaris - Lady's Mantle...planted in front of the Iris that are in front of the picket fence. 2 Double Hollyhocks - Golden Yellow...planted in front of the Fig Tree. 2 Coronette Snapdragons - Solstice Gold tricolor..planted in front of the other three snapdragons. 1 Eustoma grandiflorum - Bluebell....planted in the faere dish garden with the clover that wintered over. 4 orange Cosmos that are going along one side of the bloom house 4 Fiber Optic Grass - Isolepis cernus....will be planted in front of the Cosmos 4 Ajuga - chocolate chip....haven't decided where they will go yet. This blog entry has been viewed 824 times
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