in the garden today...

quote for today:  "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul..." ~Emily Dickinson

for years and years, i've wanted to have a certain kind of garden.  i've dreamed and i've wished, i've plotted and schemed.

i spent a lot of time following the gardening of the fantastic Vanessa Valencia and wishing i could have gardens like her, not to mention her magical growing skills. 

with all the changes for me over the last year or two, i found myself really wanting to dive into the garden.  last autumn i wasn't able to do much clean up before the cold arrived and i just couldn't get out there.

so as things warmed up, my desire to be in the garden grew and grew.

i finally understand what VeeVala means when she talks about wanting to run to the garden the moment she wakes to see what has grown overnight.  😁

i have cleaned, weeded, moved, swept, moved again, repotted, planted, potted, dug, mulched, over and over for the last two months.  and i'm still not finished setting it up.

on every trip to the garden center, i've searched for the flowers i love the most.  snapdragons, zinnias, hollyhocks, foxglove, larkspur, and more.  i even managed to find a poppy and get it planted.  i hope it will come back and bloom next spring.

i added salvia for the hummingbirds, and i love watching them dip down between the plant and the feeders that i have out.  they are such amazingly beautiful creatures.

 

it's really just a start, getting a few plants in place.  i know they'll grow, self-seed and spread and that makes me very happy.  i'm still having to go in and dig out blackberry vines every couple of weeks.

i planted the hollyhocks along the fence since they grow so tall.  i've planted sunflowers there as well and really hope they'll grow.  i love sunflowers, they are such happy flowers.

and over in the veg bed, i have 8 san marzano tomato plants, rows of basil seeds in (plus a couple of plants from the farmers mkt).  i planted celery again this year, green and red bell pepper plants, a couple rows of carrots and a row of onions and radishes.  

i'm putting cucumbers in a big pot this year and still need to plant my pole beans and more onions.  

tomorrow i'm hoping to head off to the farmers market, as i believe peaches are in mmmmm... and i'm seriously craving fresh peaches.  plus, i need flowers for the planters in the front of the house.

just a little peak in my garden today.  it is a tiny little space, and i still dream of one day having a huge space to grow all kinds of things.  but for now, i will make the best of what i have and love every little bit of it.

are you growing anything?  do you have a garden space?  i'd love to hear/see about it.

until next time...

take care, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

and that's what's happening...

happy thursday, my lovelies.  i thought i'd come to you today with a small bit of gardening fun.  i'd hoped to get back to the ever-onward task of removing the beautiful yet invasive blackberry hedge that some lovely critter gifted me years ago in my flower bed.  but bad head days have kept me inside for most of the week.  i have been making a point to keep things watered and check on progress of what's been planted.  

my plan is to get ALL the blackberry vines out of the garden, but that will be a difficult task as it is a runner and sends out shoots so quickly and dig roots so deep it is hard to get them all.  i expect i'll be pulling these up for the rest of my time living here as i refuse to use herbicides.

i'd really like to dig some up and plant in the woods behind our property.  then i could just let them do their thing and also have the benefit of getting to pick blackberries in the summers.  oh well...

here are some images from my garden as of today...

the first peony bloomed and is lovely.  just before they bloom there is a hint of light pink on the outside of the petals that lead one to think it might be a pink bloom, then they open, and it is a lovely white.  i love peonies, they are such an old-fashioned flower.

the foxgloves are starting to bloom and have started spreading.  these two self-seeded from last year or maybe the year before.  as you can see the blackberries are really close, so i'll have to be careful when i work on them as i don't want to lose any of the flowers.

when i first saw this bloom (from a different angle) i thought my love-in-a-mist was starting to bloom. but no...it's just the first bloom of the the damn blackberry. ugh...

the only thing in the veg bed yet, is these two rows of more lettuce and two rows of celery.  i've really got to get my seeds in.  

there is a plant sale on sunday that i'm going to and will try to find a long list of things i want to grow.  i don't know where i'll put them, but i feel i need them.  so i'm hoping saturday is a good planting day as i need to get stuff planted and potted before bringing home too much more. 😎

i love this spiderwort, despite it growing in a spot that i don't want.  my neighbor dug it up a couple years ago and was going to toss it so i took it.  i just plopped it down as i was going to plant it somewhere else but was in a hurry and of course never got to it and it just rooted right there.  i plan to move at least some of it down to the new flower bed next spring as it starts coming up.  it will be much easier to deal with when small. one of the reasons i love it is because these plants were from some that were split from my Great Aunt Vera's home when she passed.  i like that i was able to bring some of her and my Great Uncle Milam home with me.  

will you look at how beautiful my David Austin Lady of Shallot is doing?!?  i've never seen so many blooms at one time.  i love it so much and the blooms have such a lovely scent.  it has at least 5 open blooms, 3 buds almost ready to open and a bunch more buds that are just starting to get big.  oh...my heart!!

oh those colors!!! i so wish i could send you the scent through the screen.  it is so fantastically lovely.

well...that's what's happening in my garden today.  it's just started raining and we may have a bit more tomorrow which is wonderful for the garden.

tomorrow i'm learning to make my mum's delicious spaghetti sauce after i run some errands in the am.  i'll try to take good pictures so i can share.  it's a recipe she's used longer than i've been alive and is my absolute favorite sauce for pasta, on buttered bread and even on rice or baked potatoes. 

i hope you are having a good week.  how are things in your neck of the garden of planet earth?

love & kisses & magical wishes, 

~*~

 

friday in the garden...

Just a few snippets from my garden today...

A blue-tailed skink climbing down the fence...

What I think are cicadas mating in the roses (they flew off right after I took the photo and were still attached)...

A cucumber almost ready for me to pick...

Million bells, salvia and zinnias in what I'm calling the Goddess Garden...

A few green beans, but the stalk has tons of flowers blooming so I'm hopeful there will be more...

A pretty green dragonfly that followed me around while I took photos...

One of the many hydrangea blossoms...

Some Roma tomatoes getting big, hoping they'll start to turn soon...

And today's harvest... pretty small as the blueberry bush is almost spent, and I could only find a few beans ready to be picked.  I'll add those to the few I picked a couple days ago and add them all to the mess I bought at the farmer's market on Wednesday.  

I also saw another black snake (not the same one from the last post as his/her face shape is different) but I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

It's been hot here this week.  I think we topped out today at 89F, but the heat index hit 100F.  The rest of the week was in the 90's.  I've been working on a big project in the heat for the last two weeks but I finally finished it up late this morning.  That heat really knocked me for a loop and took every bit of energy I had.  I've basically been a vegetable all afternoon.  :-)

Tell me, what's catching your attention in your garden this week?

Thanks for stopping in for a read...

love & blessings
~*~

 
 

 

 

just a regular ol' saturday...

I love September!  The cool air first thing in the morning, the way the light changes so very quickly, yarn, pumpkins...what's not to love?  I took a page from Mary and tried the little acorns.  They are so cute and yummy.  Click on her name and it will take you to the post in which they are referenced.  She has the most lovely displays that she does and the recipes are great.

A couple of days ago I was hunting through Ravelry for something to knit.  I'm wanting a very light weight shrug to wear as so many of the clothes out now just don't have enough sleeve for me.  I came across a pattern that I fell in love with and ended up ordering the book it was in.  It arrived today and I'll be hunkering down with it soon to decide what to knit first.  Everything in it is so pretty and cozy.  I looked at the pattern for the shrug and thought, oh my word...what was I thinking?  

Well, just like with anything else...practice, practice, practice.  This is something I find I am reminding myself of constantly.  No one is perfect at something the very first time.  Well, maybe a very few are, but I'm not one of them.  So, I'll keep doing things that make me happy and working on things over and over until I get them right.  

My neighbor was getting rid of her giant snake plant she'd had for thirty odd years.  She let me take what I wanted from it so I potted up a couple of the bulbs.  I've never had a snake plant so will need to do some research into how to care for it.  I'd been wanting something to put in that planter that my granddaddy made and now I have it.  Hopefully the plant will like it there.  For some reason I want to call her Marge.  I have NO idea why...

I am off to start dinner.  I'm cooking a pork tenderloin and making some rice, then I'm mixing some together with a few spices and stuffing one of those giant peppers I bought at the farmers market yesterday.  

I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday.  US Open and college football for me.  Are you doing anything special for the labor day weekend?  

thanks for stopping by, 
love & blessings
~*~

 

a walk through the garden...

Things are so hectic right now, days full of wrapping, packing, sorting and culling.  Plus the hunt is still on for my new home.  I'd found one I just loved and am hopeful it will work out, but am still looking just in case.

I'm trying to stroll through the garden every day at least once, to have a bit of connection with nature, to see what is growing and to say goodbye.  It will take a little time to bid adieu to my little cottage and gardens.  But I'm looking forward to my next adventure.

 The honeysuckle is blooming madly and smells so divine in the evenings...

 Mulberries are ripening and the birds are crazy for them...

 The peonies are just starting to open...bliss...

The squash is blooming, the cucumbers and beans are growing, and the tomatoes getting bigger... I hope that perhaps I'll have a chance to harvest a few cucumbers and beans, maybe a squash or two before moving day.  Hopefully the new owner will like the veggies I planted.

The foxglove...oh, the foxglove!  I love these flowers so so much and it thrills me so to see them in bloom.  I'd actually forgotten they were there and when they started to come up was thrilled!  

I plan to take several flowers with me, the foxgloves and peony for certain, as well as the lily of the valley, hellebore, the dahlias (if I can find them in the jungle!) and hopefully at least 1 of my hydrangeas (they were all three gifts from my step-mother so I'd like to have at least one of them with me).  I also hope to try to take my joe pye weed or at least harvest some of it before I go.  We will see when the time comes I guess. 

I'm off to pack a little bit more.  The head has been quite unbearable the past several days and I lost Tuesday to resting.  So much to do, I'd best push on.

See you soon!
blessings
~*~

make a wish...

Hi There.  It's been a few days so I thought I'd pop in and share a quick Hi.  It's been a pretty decent few days.  I've been able to keep myself moving along despite the headaches and am happy with my progress.  I've got the new raised bed ready to plant.  Planting of peppers and eggplants is on the agenda for tomorrow although I'm a tad afraid that my seedlings aren't quite as big as they should be before I put them out.  So far my tomatoes are not looking good (except for the Gardener's Delight Cherry toms - they seem to be hanging in).
Yesterday was market day and I picked up a big bucket of strawberries (I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all - I'm thinking Strawberry Bread though) and the below bouquet of flowers. 

I also went to a couple of garden centers and ended up with more flowers to plant than I'd planned.  I bought cosmos, bee balm, delphinium, salvia and a few others that I can't remember.  Six of the cosmos were planted yesterday in the front of the sunflower bed.  I am not quite certain where the rest will go, but I so love them.  Tomorrow will be a mowing and planting day for certain.  I also hope to get those pumpkin seeds in the ground.

So, today is really a do nothing but lounge day.  It was going to be a garden day but we had storms during the night and it was way too wet to do anything at 6:30 this morning.  The one day when I should sleep in, I'm wide awake early and raring to go.  Figures...  :-)

Today has been pretty good.  Several phone calls, an email from an old friend, a couple of cards and a surprise invitation to lunch (which was yummy and some how resulted in my buying two new pairs of shoes).  Why is this worth mentioning?  Well, because today, I turn 44 years old.  Yep, today is my birthday.  My birthdays are pretty much like every other day.  Nothing special, just a normal day.  And today was a tad bit different.  I'm not sure why, but it does feel different.  I feel different.

So anyway, last night I got this urge so I baked up this little cake for me to have on my birthday.  It's box cake mix, but I made the frosting from scratch.

A couple hours ago, I took my little leaning tower of cake, lit three candles -past, present, future - said a little spell and blew out the candles, sending wishes floating off like smoke.  I wonder if you would like to make a wish too?  It isn't too late.  My wish is floating out there and you can send yours to join it.  Wouldn't it be great if everyone made a wish and each persons wish built on the next?  I love magical thinking.  Heck, I love magic.  :-)

So, have a slice of cake - it's a magic cake so there is enough for everyone - make your wish and enjoy the rest of your day.  I'm going to.  In fact, I might have two pieces...  :-)

blessings
~*~

ps...you don't have to share your wish, just send it out to the universe and let the magic happen.   ♥

goodness blossoms

Not to jinx anything, but I sure have been feeling good lately. The past few weeks have gone very well. I've made it to work every day (except the one day after the beast came home and was not well). I've been able to keep up with things around the house and yard. I feel...renewed, somehow. I'm not certain what triggered the turn around, but I am enjoying every moment of it. I'm hoping that if I enjoy it, acknowledge it and focus on it, I'll create more of it. (See, Ren, I'm learning!)

The beast is doing pretty well. He did develop an infection at the site of one of his staples, but it is starting to heal and he seems to be doing well as far as his diabetes. That makes me very happy. He was also set free from the satellite dish. (Extreme Happiness ensued!)

I've had so much fun in the kitchen lately. I had forgotten how much I enjoy baking and cooking. This weekend was a kitchen frenzy! I made a delicious Squash Casserole for thanksgiving with my dad and family. I'd had this idea for cupcake that I wanted to try, so I experimented on Sunday.


Candy Kiss Cupcakes

They turned out pretty well, but there are a few little things I'll do different when I make them again. They seemed to be a big hit at work and I liked them very much.

This weekend I also made a chicken alfredo.



It was my first from scratch alfredo and was so easy and delicious. I can't wait to do it again. It just can't be too often since it has so many carbs. :(

Tomorrow is the last day of work this week. I'm hoping for an early release and if that comes through, I'll be sitting in the theater watching "New Moon". Most everyone I've heard from that has seen it loved it and have already seen it more than once. I'm hopeful that I will like it too. I hear they've already set the release date for "Eclipse". That was fast!

My mum's side of the family won't have our thanksgiving until Sunday so I have Thursday, Friday and Saturday all to myself. I'm already planning a few things I want to bake/cook and also want to get the house decorated for Yule. I'm hoping to put up a tree this year, if the finances can afford it.

Wow..it seems my new neighbors are in a band and practice in their garage. They are VERY loud. I can hear them as if I was sitting beside them even with windows closed and the TV pretty loud. Hmmm.. guess I'm an old fuddy duddy...but I really miss the quiet of the old neighbors. It's funny, because they had a band too, and practiced there, but it was never this loud. Sheesh...

Okay, enough with my old lady-ness... I'll leave you with a few photos...


flowers and pumpkin from the farmers market


a basket of blooms for thanksgiving (found on my doorstep when I arrived home today)

I hope you have a lovely holiday (if it is one you celebrate) and a wonderful night.

blessings
~*~

Green Thumb Sunday

For this episode of GTS, we have vegetable garden progress. First up, baby zucchini.


Second, baby squash. Yum...


Below we have cherry tomatoes. These are on a stem that had broken, but I tied them up and hope that they will survive. :-)



Here is a photo of the mint in my herb bed. I really need to get out there and harvest some. It is starting to try to take over.


And last but not least, is a what is this question. Can any of you wonderful gardeners tell me what this is? I hope it isn't what I think... (poison oak?)



One of the things I've noticed in reading the gardening blogs is that I love flowers. I see all these beautiful photos of wonderful flowers, but I don't have any of my favorites in my garden. So my plan for next year is, MORE FLOWERS!

Okay, I'm off to do laundry and get ready for the work week.

Blessings,
~*~