Gifts from My Garden

Returning home from our World Voyage at the end of May I realized that our patio garden would not be much this year.  I usually spend a lot of time in our garden weeding and planting in early spring.  I spend time deciding which annuals to plant in the planter.  Spring was just about over when we returned.  There was a lot to do as you can imagine after being gone for five months.  I looked longingly outside and realized that there would be slim pickings on our patio that I usually filled with pots of annuals.  Our brick planter showed no signs of anything popping up.  I must admit I was disappointed not seeing any signs of life.  The weather was quite warm and I felt it was too late to buy plants that would not have the advantage of early Spring growing. 

 Flowers are so nice to have about our home.  Grayden buys me inexpensive flowers when we go to the grocery store.  Lately we have been getting the minature carnations that seem to last weeks and weeks.  All you have to do is change the water frequently (adding floral food and recutting the stems).

One morning when we returned from our walk, we noticed small little plants of vinca popping up in our driveway.  This area had a hanging basket and several pots of vinca nearby last growing season.  This really showed promise to me and I decided to plant in late June!  I must admit I thought this was a crazy idea.  If you know our area, we have very hot and humid summers.  Not really conducive to late plantings.  I've used volunteers from my garden for many years, but never this late in the season.  Grayden encouraged me to give it a try. Planting one inch seedlings in the planter made me wonder what was I thinking.  But, you've probably guessed that they have done well!

 

Even this little pot of begonias was a volunteer from a past years garden.

This little shamrock plant is blooming as it spends its summers on the patio.  I find many plants love to sit on the patio with us.  It spends its winters inside our home.

Our geraniums are probably at least 15 years old.  They spend their winters in our basement under grow lux bulbs.  If you look to the left there is a tomato plant that I found growing in the compost.  Hopefully the green tomatoes will ripen soon. 

A new guest to our patio this year has been the Zebra Swallowtail.  

 

Oh me, this gardener has learned a lot this growing season.  It reminds me to always have hope.  I pray I will always have hope in all areas of my life.  What life lessons did you learn from your garden this year?  

Flowers in the Garden

Since returning home it's been so much fun seeing how everything fared while we were away.  Gardening is a huge passion for me.  Our grandson took care of everything beautifully.  He made sure pots received supplemental watering if the heavens failed to produce enough moisture.  It's so nice to return home after an extended time to find everything in order.  Thank you, Samuel! 

Like a mother that takes care of her babies, one of the first things I wanted to see was our garden, but it was dark.  I did notice while pulling into the driveway that the daylilies were blooming profusely.  Such a simple flower that does so well in our hot, humid summers.  They are easy plants that seems to be happy wherever you plant them.

Nature always shows hope to me.  Do you see the heart upon the petals? 

The planter around our patio is full of annual vinca that are filling in nicely.  I usually like a softer shade of pink or white but I was unable to find them this year.  Sadly, our favorite local nursery closed its doors this spring.  I really hate seeing long time businesses close.

If you look closely on the left at the curve is a volunteer vinca that reseeded itself.  That's the shade I really prefer.

You may remember our large white oakleaf hydrangea.  As the temperatures soar the petals that were once white turn a lovely shade of pink.  

I planted this urn in the spring with a pack of pink and purple petunias.  If you look to the right you see one of the plants is red.  I started to pull it out, but decided not to remove it as it appears happy.  Everything in my garden is far from perfect---just like life...

I brought in some simple marigolds to the kitchen to brighten the counter.

I also picked this pink hydrangea that was blue last year.  The soil must be more alkaline now to turn such a pink shade.  I hope you cut the flowers from your garden to brighten your home.  If you have hydrangea blooms, it's easy to have a lovely blossom for a while.  Cut your blossom stem  on an angle early in the morning and place in a container of water.  Once inside boil some water.  Smash the bottom of the stem and plunge the stem in the boiling water for 30 to 40 seconds.  Apparently a sap forms when the stem is cut that will seal the capillaries disallowing the stem to send water to the blossom.  The boiling water will open them back up.  Place your stem in a vase of room temperature water and flower preservative if you have it.  Make sure to remove leaves.

Our temperatures have been quite hot and the very steamy weather makes it hard to enjoy the patio and the garden.  Hopefully the oppressive heat will move on.  In the meantime I have been enjoying my afternoon tea iced. 

 " What dreadful hot weather we have!  It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."   Jane Austen

This sweet little robin looks as though he's had enough of the heat as well.  He needs to hop a little further along and go for a swim in the birdbath.  I've seen his family splashing about there and now it's his turn to cool off. 

I do hope you will join me soon as I post more about our trip to the Norwegian Fjords.  The weather was neither hot or dreadful there. 

August Days

August days in Virginia can be hot and humid.  This year is no different.  We have been blessed with plenty of rain and plenty of sunshine.  Along with the rain and sunshine the flowers as well as the weeds require a gardener to stay on top of things.  Working outdoors this morning only allowed me to weed for an hour.  Then it was back indoors where I could cool off in the air conditioning.  

In spite of my uncomfortable situation these elements make the flowers happy in my garden.

The Vinca in the patio planter is doing well.  After not being able to have impatiens here (because of downy mildew), I'm happy to have found another substitute. 

Mushrooms are quite abundant with all the rain we have received.

We have a lot of shade on our patio that makes a wonderful spot to enjoy on the less humid afternoons.  We often read, or chat or just enjoy the sights that surround us.

Female Ruby Throated Hummingbird

I hope you have a hummingbird feeder nearby to enjoy their antics.  They are getting ready to take a long journey to the south so it's important to continue feeding these hungry ones as some fly as far as South America for the winter.  Isn't nature amazing?

Male Ruby Throated Hummingbird

If you wish to make your own nectar for the hummingbirds it's quite easy.  I boil one cup of water with one quarter cup of sugar.  Do not substitute artificial sweetners or honey.  They need the sugar for nutritional needs and they can't digest honey.  It's not necessary to add red food coloring.  It may be harmful to them.  Believe me they will come.  Just be sure to replace the food as it can get moldy in the heat.

We mostly enjoy relaxing in the afternoons, but sometimes "I" notice jobs that need attending.  Our patio is concrete.  Since we are shady and have had such a wet summer it appeared to be quite dirty!  Grayden has a small pressure washer that he had used once.  He really was not pleased with it and so we hired a fellow to pressure wash our patio.  Unfortunately after he finished the job we had to replace the brick planter the following year!  Our patio has not been pressure washed since then.  Grayden, reluctantly agreed to try his pressure washer this time.  He and I were thrilled with the results.  I think he did a great job as you can see.  He was very careful with the planter.

I can't believe how dirty this concrete was!  Now in all fairness I need to tell you that I looked in my gardening journal and saw that it was last pressure washed in March of 1999!  He also pressure washed the dirty patio rug and the results were amazing.  Now maybe we'll not wait another 19 years to clean the patio!

The Heavenly Blue Morning Glory is covering the trellis.  Hopefully soon it will be blossoming.  I looked in my journal again and noticed that the blooms usually appear in late August.

The weather will be changing soon to less and less humidity and we will be able to enjoy our afternoons on our clean patio.