Ramblings. .

Howdy, howdy!!

School is in full force here. .

And so is summer, it seems!!

We have had more days near or over 100 this week then we have all summer!

The garden. .

And the gardener. .

don't like it!!

Thought I would take you on a little garden tour. .

These pictures were taken yesterday morning. .

In the still of the day. .

I probably didn't mention that the wind has been really bad again every day!

Grandpa Otts morning glory is one of my favorite plants!! The first year I grew it at our first little home. .

we had a REALLY late frost. .

and the blooms were beautiful until November!!

I was hooked!

Unfortunately. .

they have SO overtaken their space. .

That I will likely spend next summer pulling most of the seedlings!

They do a nice job of keeping out the weeds. .

But I keep pulling them off the plants that I DO want to see. .

for fear that they will suffocate them!

One really good thing about all the blooms though. .

is that I have seen LOTS of the big yellow and black bees working in the patch!

They are a lot easier to get along with than the hordes of stinging wasps that have accumulated too!

The pink flower in the center is a love lies bleeding that self seeded. .

The plants that came up are a little sturdier than the ones I started in my greenhouse last year to set out. In a couple of the holes, I started a few okra plants late in the season. .

I think we will get a few fruits off the plants before frost!

Here's a little different view of the love lies bleeding with the double echinacea plants in the background. .

That has been a blooming trooper this summer. .

I deadheaded last night and there was one that had already made seed. .

which I scattered around this plant, hoping it would get some new plants started.

My self watering planters didn't do my veggies any justice last summer. .

But they have worked phenomenally for flowers!!

I've NEVER been able to get a geranium to bloom the whole summer. .

EVER!

I love the red, purple and white combo.

I don't remember what the purple flowers are. .

But I like 'em!

The grasshoppers. .

which we are inundated with. .

Even eat the cattails!!

What a peaceful view!!

The fish are doing well. .

And we even have a frog population.

Devin and Cami went frog hunting last fall and brought back some really big ones. .

And some tiny ones.

Most often we can hear them as they jump into the pond.

BUT. .

yesterday I just had to laugh as I saw out of the corner of my eye. .

A big ole frog launch himself over the head of the chicken to get to a safer location!

The veggies have had a GREAT year to perform. .

But I thought that Grant summed it up pretty well in his 4-H horticulture story. .

"Next year, if we want veggies. .

We will have to put up a fence. .

or kill the chickens!"

(I always imagine that whoever judges his book. .

Always gets a smile at his candid writing nature!)

Those chickens have been a NUICANCE!

They ate every spaghetti squash and watermelon on the vines. .

They devoured cucumbers and the tomatoes they could reach. .

They killed the tiny raspberry bush and have even eaten some of the jalepenos!

They LOVE hostas. .

and perpetually stir up the mulch and kick it up over the new astibe and bleeding heart plants.

The rhubarb that I transplanted from the old veggie garden has finally surpassed the chickens. .

And I don't think they care for it much. .

Next year should be a great time for harvesting it!

We have picked a few tomatoes. .

But the chickens peck on the lower ones. .

and then the wasp crew takes over from there.

I did mention the wind?? Enough to blow over some of my cages. There is a cucumber vine between the two cages that fell over. .

Hopefully those little birds won't see it!

We've tried hiding them under weeds. .but they always seem to find them. .

So far, no one has messed with this one yet. .

There is probably some magical size they are waiting for ;-)

Here is something they haven't bothered yet. .

Eggplant.

I've never grown them before. .there are several small ones started.

The grasshoppers completely desimated the foliage in July, but it made an astounding comeback!!

This is another great accomplishment. .

FERNS!!

These have been alive since I planted them in the self watering containers in June. .

SCORE! I have the perfect place in my new sunroom addition to overwinter them!!

Did you notice our new babies??

We have had a population overload. .

Which is ok. .because generally. .

Nature triumphs around our little country home. .

And we never seem to have them around for all that long.

There are 5 babies that are colored like these two. .

And 3 black babies that are still well hidden. .

We saw them when they were tiny, but mama has moved them since then.

The kids have been working on their 4-H record books. .

I am recovering from a really wretched cold. .

Jeremy is beggin for the boys to go to the lake at 7:00 every morning before school since it is always way too windy in the afternoon. .

No biters on that one. .

And the younger two are dreading the pool closure on Monday!

It's so hard to believe that fall is just around the corner again!

Where DOES the time go!!

Enjoy your LAST week of August friends!

We Interrupt the Recipe Posts. .For Life!

Who is up for a little mish mash post??

Yeah. .

Me too!

We had about a week of regular scheduling after vacation and the fair. .

That allowed us a little fun time. .

And a chance to photograph the gardens!

My friend Tif owns her own art studio. .

I am NOT artistic especially. .

But I have discovered that I LOVE painting on canvas!!

I have painted a collection of different sized cross canvases. .

as well as a three canvas rainbow tree.

My last adventure. .

included birds. .

And I have gotten them hung up over our bed.

The window was from my great-grandparent's homestead place. .

My friend Missy drank some wine with me while we used her Cricket to cut out the letters.

I LOVE the way the whole conglomeration turned out!!

Granny got a little older last week. .

And we celebrated with a party!

Cami was glad to help her open all the gifts!

Everyone was back into work schedules. .

Cami had a dentist appointment way out of town that allowed us some water park and shopping time too. .

we are hoping that those 2 front teeth will show up by the next appointment in 6 months!

Kids are now enrolled for school which starts in about 11 days. .

Senior pictures have been scheduled. .

Some of us have celebrated a BIG anniversary. .

You'll have to stop back by to see what we did!

We had some dates with our beloved preacher and wife before they moved to their next mission field.

And we felt our first earthquake. .

Ya know. .

just routine things!!

Needless to say. .

the garden has been a little neglected. .

Praise GOD for the cooler temperatures and abundant rain he has provided!!

Aren't the yellow/purple daylilies LUSCIOUS?!?

Daylilies are my new big plan around here!! Hoping to plant a few more varieties!

I have loved these tremendously!!

There are plenty of weeds with the plenty of water. .

Seems to go hand in hand!

The Karly Rose grass that has been transplanted twice has taken off. .

I think that I will divide it this fall.

Also loving the black jack sedum in the front of it.

Another shot of the same grass. .

The tiger eye sumac is in the front and the yellow daylily can be seen in the far back with a cluster of morning glories. .

This little garden is taking off too.

I am liking the small seed heads on the tall grass in the back. .

Though I can't remember what it is called.

Also my salvia and goldenrod are doing well!

Wish I could get that salvia to spread like it did at its original home on Sherlock Street!

Just couldn't resist another photo of the coneflowers!

They look especially nice with the numerous Swallowtail butterflies that are humming around here!

Speaking of coneflower. .

Here is a double white one hiding among the moonflower foliage!

And a double purple. .

Razzmatazz variety I think!

My 99 cent canna bulbs are coming up. I LOVE this orange Mexican zinnia. .

I need to collect these seeds for sure!! Also the blue fescue is growing well. .

And it should make a reappearance next year!

I have joked since we moved here 16 years ago. .

That SOME day. .

I would have a huge fence to block the dead vehicle view. .

The dead car lot spells EYESORE. .

or SALARY. .

depending on WHOSE eyes you look through!

I have since decided that a living fence would be the way to go. .

You can see. .

That when I move from the back door down to reclining chairs on the patio. .

That I can almost NOT see all the non-functional cars and trucks!

And when I sink a little lower. .

It won't be long until it is all hidden from sight!!

Woo hoo!

The potatoes were all dug out of this nearest bed a few weeks ago..

They are YUMMY!!

The chickens are ravishing the rest of the beds!!

I think we will get to eat the tomatoes that are too high for them to reach. .

But the melons and spaghetti squash are hot items for the beaked creatures. .

And they are even picking off bell peppers and gnawing little holes in them too!!

They are gonna get left in the pens for a few days. .

In hopes that we can come up with a temporary fencing option that will keep them OUT!

Grr. .

Chicken soup. .Chicken dumplings. .FRIED chicken. .

Call ahead for the menu of the day :-)

So. .that is about it. .

All the family and garden news I have. .

We had over 2 inches of rain here over the last 24 hours. .

And the weather station promises UNBELIEVABLE temperatures in the 80's around here. .

We'll take that for the beginning of August!!

Hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!!

Be back soon!

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!

Memory Garden Displays. .

Hello, Hello!!

We have had the most spectacular June. .after all that miserable droughting!

I was a little worried the SECOND time we hit 100 degrees in early May. .

about how our summer would go.

But. .it has been great!

We even received another 3 inches of rain a couple nights ago!

WOO HOO!

I'm amazed at how well the plants are doing. .

and how many blooms we are getting.

For the first time. .

I was able to take some landscape views that looked nice. .

with big, green plants. .

complete with flowers!

Moonflowers are already blooming prolifically!! Though my mother in law has a great stand of these. .THIS bunch, actually came about from some shared seeds from Garden on Sherlock Street!!

All the photos today are taken of the Memory Garden. .

which I had started the fall before my dad died. .

and then proceeded to plant in. .

with horticulture gifts and plants that I bought from the generous memorial gifts given to me in his honor from family, friends, and neighbors.

The Blue Atlas Cedar at the far right (a few branches of it anyway) was put in during the fall of 2011.

And continues to anchor this garden with grace and blue beauty!

The lilies have just lit up their little section!

Here they are again in back of the miniature hollyhocks that have gone totally MAD in the back part of the garden!! The original couple plants came from my mom's garden at the farm!

The light pink flowers in the foreground (the hollyhock madness continues in the background) is a more drought tolerant Bee Balm or Monarda.

The hostess of the blog Gaia Garden. .

met this blogging girl in the parking lot of one of my favorite antique places a few years ago. .

and swapped garden plants. .

Oh for the LOVE of technology!!

And plants. .

And sweet people who aren't afraid of strangers!!

You can see. .

that it is doing well in my garden. .

and in the past, has been feeders to my favorite Swallowtail butterflies.

The daisies were purchased last summer. .

and there are both shorter ones as well as some taller ones.

The shorter ones have double petals. .

which I tend to prefer.

I was a little surprised to find this coneflower. .

Obviously it didn't bloom well last summer if at all. .

cause I didn't even remember seeing it. .

let alone planting it!!

I love the pom poms of petals on it!

Speaking of coneflowers. .

This bunch came from a few that I started from seed in the greenhouse several years ago.

I leave the seedheads on at the end of the season for finches to feed on. .

And this patch has mostly self-seeded and looks stunning in real life!!

Truly, the photos do it NO justice!!

You can get a little peek of goldenrod in the background. .

It blurs out the changes that we made to that bed last month!!

Will be bringing those photos soon!

But please don't judge my laziness. .

for putting up a bottle tree. .

without removing the labels from the bottles!!

I figured that they would come off sooner or later. .

really expecting them off SOONER. .

than later!!

Sigh!

Black eyed susans are another favorite of mine. .

which haven't done well in my garden until now!!

Sometimes, a mere change in location will fix the gardening issues. .

I have started all these by seed. .

But have had them in a location that they HATED. .

and subsequently died out in!

These lil guys are pretty tolerant. .

And so I hope. .

that they will flourish and be beautiful in their two new spots.

So far. .

So good!!

Though not officially part of the memory garden. .

My little veggie plot has moved locations and is now directly across the sidewalk from it.

There isn't a lot of room there. .

BUT. .

I have to walk by it multiple times daily now. .

and so the care has improved greatly!!

The three tubs up front hold herbs. .

Sage, chives, thyme, and dill. There is also lemon balm, rosemary, tarragon, and basil (along with some more dill plants) in the ground up front.

The guys built me 4 raised beds this spring to go with the one that we moved last fall and planted garlic in. .

The one to the left has potatoes, some onions and two eggplant bushes. The one on the right has cucumber bushes, several varieties of peppers, and a few more onions. In the back. .there is garlic, onions, spaghetti squash, more basil, and watermelon plants in one bed. .

Various types of tomatoes ranging from early tomatoes to grape tomatoes to heirloom tomatoes to yellow tomatoes. .as well as more watermelon, a few cucumber vines that the cats and chickens haven't ruined, some beets and snow peas.

 

Everything looks so much better than it has in the past. .

I'm sure it is because they are right under my nose. .

and watering is getting done with some regularity. .

The influx of GOD'S natural water. .

has likely helped as well!!

If you kept walking straight through this photo. .

you would walk right into the herb and kitchen garden. .

It's a GREAT view. .

from those two red lounge chairs in the distant background. .

FINALLY. .

I can sit. .

and relax. .

and enjoy the fruits of our labor!!

Until I notice those renegade weeds brought full on. .

by all the rain!!

BUT. .

you won't hear me complaining!!

Enjoy your week!