Bees!!!!

As some of you may well know, I love bees.  I am allergic, and if the bee is unwarrented in it's approach of me I get quite fussy, but in my garden, bees are the real deal.Bees are great and I love them and welcome them, and some day I really want to make a beehutch so I can gather honey and all that other great stuff.  Until then, the sunflower with its amazing draw to the bees will have to serve as my observation deck!

Four sunnies and 3 bees, I think I'm doing well so far!

Solar Flare

Put on your sunglassess folks!!!

These are the brightest sunflowers I've ever grown and I didn't even plant them. Second generations from last year's garden.  Beautiful.  These two blooms are off the biggest of the plants which has 3 more blooms waiting to come open.  The others are waiting to get big enough with only one bloom per plant.

 

 FEAST YOUR EYES!

So many pictures this week so I apologize for the spuradic spacing on these, still getting use to the new format.



These coleus have finally all arrived after multiple trips over several days to bring them all here.  The one on the left is the green coleus like the one's that nicky had in her garden last year, and the one below is the one that was suppose to be orange, however after thriving a little bit more its turned burgendy. A nice shade, but not orange.  They fit though and that's what matters, very pretty. There are I BELIEVE, five of these coleus.  Three green with stripey tongues, and two of the suppose to be oranges.  All of them are putting off their fancy blue tassles now and hopefully after harvest time I can grow some very cute orangish coleus next year!

And as I was watering the garden in the back I discovered this lively mud covered fellow, larking about in the begonia plant where there happen to be an abundance of muck.  The kids found him particularly adorable, but only Jonathan really wanted to get up close and touch him.  I dub this frog, King Frogger! He wasn't very happy when he was discovered and escaped under the neighbor's fence and we haven't seen him since.


And as promised I brought in a picture of the picasso petunias that have the green lips with purple pink insides.  They are very neat and we have them on a hanger we got. Quite a sturdy little thing considering the size of the hanger, 10 inch basket, and we aquired it for a small fee at the Deals.  For the record the very best things can be found at dollar stores and Deals is one of the better ones because they also carry thing in the range of three dollars, like pruners.  Might just have to invest in that one.  So many things to plant and to water that I honestly spend 45 minutes now just watering the front and back.  I love it!!!  Such fun getting to see the colors grow. God had an eye when he made petunias I have to say.

 That's all for today, but two days makes a big difference and next time! Tequila Sunrise Petunias, Sparklers, and Tomatos might make an appearance!!!

Picture-Palooza

So many things I would have to say, so instead I shall simply SHOW you the greatness.  We went, flower shoppping!

The garden:

The Dill. Sadly is getting quite sad but it still managed to show me its little yellow flowers before it took a turn for the worst!  I'm not sure why, but the whole bottom of it is yellowish and then the upper leaves are now turning to a sad sort of brown.  It began so bushy and stayed that way until I tookthe vacation, but the dill never really liked mom I guess.  Maybe we'll revive it yet!

This is a new addition since the last blog but still got planted recently where as the flowers we aquired last night are still in the ground.  Its very cute and is drought resistant.  I believe!!! this is my aunty's favorite kind of plant.  Only stands a mere 2 inches tall right now!

 This picture was just a quick shot toshow off our nicely growing dahlias which aren't saggy yet, and some brand new pots mom got over vacation of begonias! Not my favorite flower, but I like these because their leaves are as red as they are!

The above speak for themselves! BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

The shopping spree!!!!

No idea what they are called but I like these they are very purple and very nice.  We have been searching for something purple with some height that wasn't too derpy looking for some time.  Hopefully this is the match we've been looking for!!!

Mom's echinacea

below: MORE echinacea w/ a spiky celosia, a plant called sparklers, and a HUGE pot of petunias!

 Yes so many plants so little time. Not even pictured here is a new oregano, jade (nifty cactus thing), a second enormous petunia pot of purples, and red puffy plants like the yellow ones above. I just couldn't help myself and neither could mom. We love out plants! There's also five coleus not shown yet.  Can't wait to give more sneak peeks!!! Keep your eyes peeled.

Reporting In

So here I am in FL, and pleased to report, that the garden has a tender!  Mom is doing a wonderful job keeping the babies well tended and growing happy as clams.  The transplanted sunflowers have even made it passed a week of life now and I'm so happy!  There were three babies, but only two made it, but that's better than nothing!  She's even sent pictures to show us all how wonderful they were doing!  That picture is the weekend that I left, and the one on the right is as of last night! You can see the two tiny baby sunflowers in the bottom left corner!  The bud below is from the sunflower that towers over the shoulder of my momma now, and she reports it as a 2 inch in diameter, golfball shaped bud.  Hopefully it doesn't bloom until I get home on Sunday!

The elephant ear has grow exponentially! From the tiny bud in the last post, to a two pronged leaf baring beauty! Soon it might get taller and I simply can't wait. There are so many growing things that she has had to send over 9 pictures last night to cover all the bases!  And apparently last night she potted the picasso petunias, the tequila sunrise petunias, and weeded! The picasso's you can't really tell, but they have purply pink flowers, with lime green tips! They are beautiful! You never know what you might find! She added some other plants but I can't quite make out what they are but there's also some spikeys!

Its the neatest thing ever.  The dill, and the lavender are yet to be close uped, but I saw some yellowing on the dill's lower branches but mom said that was from a few days in between where she couldn't make it.  It will recover and hopefully get nice and strong and big! I love the dill, its so fluffy! And for those of you that keep up on the garden progress and knew the marigolds were just starting to recover right before I left... I have a picture for you!!!!!

WHOOT! WHOOT!  More to come!!!!

From your loving gardener in the forever spring!

-Tine!

P.S.

Guess who's growing! (Mom found him while culling at home!

The Elephant in the Room

Another good day today! Just another documentation of how big the sunflowers are getting. Mr. Bean is only just 4 years old, and it is now over his head. I can't wait until it gets bigger. This of course is the largest of the sunflowers and the others are rising slowly now that I've been watering for almost a half hour straight each day. It appears to be helping! There's some real progress in the garden, despite thinking they were getting a bit tired, they weren't! The sunnies are growing, the elephant ear emerged, and the marigolds are starting to make a whole new round of flowers now that they are coming back from the desert weekend. So exciting! With high hopes I say these just may make the summer!

The Upcoming Week

Plans! So as of Saturday my little Emma and myself are going to Florida, so there is some things to do in the gardens before I get on my way. Firstly, the potted garden on the stoop will be in the charge of mom and it is growing quite nicely. As thus. This one came back from a devastating event of some bratty kid kicking it over and having the flower snap off. Now its got tons of flowers and is getting more and more healthy by the day. Sooooo exciting! The lavender has also grown in very nice proportions. it use to be quite week appearing after getting trimmed and I wasn't certain that it was what was suppose to be done despite what I'd been told. Trimming at that age seemed bad, but NOW! Now we have a beautiful healthy plant, so its obvious it was good advice. This one is doing much better than the one at Chris and Kelly's. But for whatever reason it is probably something about soil that's causing the plants not to grow as well as I would have hoped. Nothing is really growing with much vigor there except for the sunflowers that are 2nd generation and planted themselves. As far as they go we'll have them watered and tended while I'm gone and hopefully this week I'll get the remaining trees rid of. Hopefully more to come!

Mantids, Mantids, Mantids

So ladies and gentlemen, today was Emma's 7th birthday. Happy birthday to my little sister and another great year of her pestering adorable self. It was a hectic but great day and in amidst the revelry there was another mantid sighting! I believe it is Zeus, however, there is a heavier green to this mantis than the last. It still has the same ye stripe that Zeus had though so until we see mutli-mantids at the same time. I knew I said I'd have flower pictures for you, but rather more mantids! The lavender I have to say has grown quite healthily and after viewing Nicky's garden and her happy little sprouts, I have to say that mine aren't doing too terrible. I think the growing season is quite overheated this year. Everything at Chris and Kelly's house has seemed to be stunted as well as everything here. The only thing that appears to be doing well is the potted lavender plant that has grown a huge and healthy proportions in the direction of up!

Over all it has been well and good and on Monday I will get the remaining things at work cleaned up and take some pictures of the rapidly growing sunflowers, despite the fact that all the sprouts failed to rise.

I also went out of my way to watch a documentary on bugs the other day that follows the life cycle of a caterpillar and a mantis. Its quite interesting and very factful! Great to watch. Its called the Fascinating life of Bugs! Narrated by the same woman that plays the elemental in the Chronicles of Riddick. It's a great watch that I recommend. Next research project! Onion propagation.

ZEUS!

Ladies and gentlemen! We have Mantids! For those of you who weren't reading beforehand, last summer we had three mantids come to our stoop. One was a rather hefty Ms. Mantis, who I might add, was a wonderful lime green shade and spend most her time eating insects of my plants. A grand thing to have. A few weeks after Ms. Mantis there were others! A boy, who was significantly smaller than she was though a matching green, and a small young boy mantis who was a flashy brown with green steamline marks. It appears that the brown mantis, hereby designated Ulysses, was the successor because his wee little one who was spotted for the first time today on our stoop, is BROWN!

He was discovered by Emma, who came into the room in a rush sputtering she'd found a baby. She thought at first glance that he was perhaps a baby mosquito, but that she was almost certain he was a mantis. I immediately grabbed my camera and came outside to discover him CAPTURED! He was on our stood by the nook one leg trapped in the spiders web. No spider to be seen I attempt to remove him when there was A SHOWDOWN!

We have named him Zeus! P.S. Our plants from the church fundrasier has come in! Proven Winners the lot. Planting will commence tomorrow. Tomorrow I will get Lavender, Sunflower, and Basil pictures so you can all see the progress they have made.

Solve for Happiness

I do love flowers, and this is why. Can you even stop looking away from these? Half open chives! And our butterfly friends!

Today we spent the day doing things good for us. I mean health wise! I started the day by weighing myself, already down to 154.3 which is grand. I am very pleased because I have been working quite hard. Emma and I went for a run this morning, followed by a second run and then that was followed by something that was even better. FLOWER SHOPPING! SOoo!!! I have gotten everything I need for going to garden tomorrow. It was fun. I mean I had a bunch of fun doing it because it was with my mom and I enjoy shopping with mom. We got a flat of marigolds, daisies, a sweet basil (which is going to be living on my front step), and mom got some bulbs of something for the edging. Anyway! Its very exciting because as of tomorrow I will be finally removing the stupid trees that have been occupying the side of the driveway. I'm also going to get the bush finished as well! Yup things are looking up. Thank goodness

Recovering

Alright! So today was not my best day, but that doesn't mean I can't think of something to make the day better and guess what... I have just the thing to do it. This morning was not one of my better moments and I think I have dishonored myself in the face of my employers for it, but hopefully, because they are such great people, they won't hold it against me. Either way, in an effort to drag myself from this ridiculous rut I decided that it was time I went to Nicky's and did some gardening. Her garden is less mine and more of just a relaxing place to sit while I planted sunflowers into the seed plugs she gave be for my birthday. 2 rows of Sunspots, 2 rows Dwarf Incredible, 2 rows Teddy Bears, AND 2 rows of Mammoth Russians. That's a lot more sunflowers than I should be allowed to even touch in one day, but I have already plugged them and as of tomorrow we will be on the look out for the babies so they can be put in the garden and Chris and Kelly's. I do love sunflowers. I wish I was one. I also trimmed the chives, which will soon go in the book! Found the lavender from last year has sprouted and begun making flowers, and transplanted basil and the mystery plant that I had in one of the seed plugs. Butterflies were making their appearance today as well. I think in an effort to feel better, tomorrow i will document all the photos down and make a photo entry to show how bright the world is. I have to say, he made everything beautiful. I just have to look out my window.

Excitement Ahoy!

More babies on the horizon! That's right guys, the seedplugs are sprouting!!!

Now first you have to understand, my eyes are not so great to begin with, so I'm pretty proud of myself when I get those tiny seeds all measured out into only 2 seeds per plug, but the chamomile seeds? Nono, those things were almost smaller than pinheads, so I merely got what I could in and was fairly certain only a few would come up since the seed packet was mildly old. This my friends... This means I was right mistaken. I now have over 20 chamomiles making residence in my 4 seed plugs. Well more babies for me! I have to do some research and find out how they grow with companion plants but it shouldn't bee too difficult. But in addition to those babies who have been up for approx. 2 days, I now have some thai basil making its appearance! YAY! Baby Basil is so exciting I have to say. Bijou, the lavender is also making a wonderful rebound form her purchase state and already has a few new sprigs coming up. Such a great start!

Oh yes, so many great things that these are only the things happening in MY house. The garden at work has been doing even better! The grape hyacinths are up and beside their bigger bolder cousins they look magnanimous! Its a great addition to the garden, however there have been some requests lately and it looks like I'm going to have to work extra hard now to get the front and back really nice. Not sure why, but hey!

ALSO! The Crumpacker/Lovell house is in full bloom now. Chives were so unruly they were in desperate need of a hair cut, which I of course am pleased to supply since I have adopted them as part of my herbal repertoire. They are so nice with their hair trimmed. Hopefully the buds will come up nice and strong this year and I will get to press a few of the flowers. I could put them in the book with the others! So exciting. On top of that, the lavender planted there last year, the one I couldn't keep because of his fuzziness giving mom allergy problems! He's got new sprigs as well!!! So proud of my baby!

This spring is going to be a grand thing. Already planning out the big box. So long as I keep my head up and above the water, I'm hoping it will last.

Bring it on Spring!

So I spent this week at home tending my sickie sister yet again. I have not seen my little people or the garden, but I can imagine its doing well. As of Thursday last week this is what the flowers looked like, hopefully tomorrow we will be completely updated on our possible hyacinth births! There is also the corner now that its free of rosebush!




Also I have been working on making windchimes! The last one was origami right? Well this time I made a flat windchime that rest against the wall and I made it of stones, an old watch, and a big butterfly ring.