Garden Bits. .

Hey there. .

This little tiger eye sumac bush should grow to be fairly substantial in size. .about 4 feet tall by  6 feet wide. The other green bushes on the rock side of the fence are a raspberry bush transplanted from the old veggie garden; a rhubarb plant taken from my mom's last year, and a bush redbud tree (behind the largest boulder you see there)

I had taken a LOT of garden photos a couple weeks ago. .

And decided not to post them all at once. .

for the sheer sake of preventing boredom!!

So here. .

are the rest!

And I am amazed at how much the garden has changed since this round!

These photos are showing how we fixed the nasty, weedy border between the driveway and the memory garden, which is on the other side of the rustic fence!

My employer did some landscaping. .

and had a ton (or several tons hahaha) of leftover river rock. .

to be given away to good homes. .

or just to those who would show up and scoop it up and haul it off!!

4 trips to town with the little Kuboda tractor and flat trailer. .

And we had enough rock to clean up our little messes!! We moved some of our existing boulders around from other areas. .

To add a little interest to the long border. .

now full of rock!!

The hollyhocks are blooming their first season in the location and I LOVE their effect!

Granny brought me a couple old galvanized tubs. .

And I hope to fill them with soil. .

and add some tall sedum or other low maintanence solutions!

Eventually, I might like to add a few spots of tall grass there too. .

to break up the monotony of the stone!

The other major use of the stone. .

went to the corner garden . The first year we created it, it looked really good. .

and then not so much after that!!

This year found it with a few things that I had planted. .

and overrun with bare space and weeds!!

I was so taken with the cool landscape job that the hospital had done. .

that when Jeremy and I went to Wichita, we stopped at Hillside Nursery (which I loved) and bought some drought tolerant plants to put in it!!

The yellowish junipers will get fairly tall and wide and will contrast nicely with the lower blue juniper bushes. .

Hopefully the grasses will soften the effect. .

and some blooms will be added by butterfly weed, red salvia, and red texas yucca that we bought. .

in addition to the daylilies, mums, blue flax, Baptisia, coreopsis, and common milkweed that were already there.

Like my bike??

My mom's dad bought that for me shortly after we got married ago (hint, twenty years ago this month) at a garage sale. .

Thought I might like to ride it!

When we moved from our little homestead to this house. .

I forgot to take it with me. .

cause I never rode it and forgot I had it!

My father in law was asking me about it about a year ago. .

which caused me to remember the whole story. .

so we moved it from that place to the shop at this place. .

where it has sat ever since!

Walking by it a month ago. .

caused my little brain light to go on. .

and I hauled it out to my tree!

I rather liked the effect. .

and have gotten several comments about it from people driving in!

GREAT story!!

In front of it. .

Is a common milkweed. .

along with some bouncing betty's acquired from my friend on Sherlock Street.

Here is the vegetation on our west deck. .

It is SO hot on that deck. .

the summer sun on an afternoon is pretty brutal!!

So we spend more time on the other decks since the afternoon (late) and evenings are when we have time to sit. .

I have found that the succulents do amazingly well here!!

They don't get wind blown. .

And they don't suck down tons of water. .

Not to mention. .

That our cat population doesn't choose to sit in these pots or mess with them in any way!

Most of these succulents overwintered in my greenhouse. .

I just repotted them in the spring. .

And bought a few more varieties to add to my old egg basket. .

And some spiky ones to go into the blue enamel pail.

Finally. .

showcasing a couple things on our east patio. .

Is the pitcher pump water feature. .

It's a little hard to see. .

the old locker basket with a succulent garden planted into it (It's right behind the pump)

And I am ECSTATIC. .

to report. .

That for the first time. .

I am growing elephant ears. .

and they are surviving!!

This big plastic pot. .

has NO drain holes. .

and that. .

is the only thing keeping this moisture loving creature. .

alive in our HOT. .and DRY. .climate!!

I actually moved this little plant holder the other night. .

So it is no longer back in the corner. .

but more visible.

Jeremy built it for me a few months back.

I found the old spigots on ebay. .

and the little crystals hanging from them to portray water droplets. .

from an antique store. 

He welded them onto a square piece of pipe he found out in his shop. .

And because I needed something heavy to anchor the stand. .

 to hold up the pots that I intended to hang off of it. .

He welded it into this AWESOME old wheel that we took off of some old piece of junk sitting in the back 40. .

And VOILA. .

The coolest hanging plant stand I have EVER seen. .

Thank you Pinterest!!

 

We had a HUGE storm last night. .

that netted another 9/10 of an inch of rain. .

Tipped all my tomato cages over. .

And relocated our trampoline to the other side of the driveway. .

A good 50 feet from where it was. .

THANKFULLY. .

only knocking off a few of the legs. .

which were easily replaced onto it. .

A much better move than the last trampoline which caught in the breeze. .

and landed on the top of our outdoor wood burner!!

We are LOVING all the moisture!!

Hope you are all getting wet too!!

Have a BLESSED week!