So Pretty!

I don't have much of a garden anymore, but what I do have is doing well.  The mandevilla lost all of its buds after I repotted it, but look at it now.  Such a glorious pink.

I just leaned the trellis up against the wall and put the pot in front so the vines can climb.  I have some low plants in the front of that pot plus two other containers beside it.  There is a pretty hanging basket right near it, also.  When I glance out my sliding door, I see this pretty little mass of flowers.  Good for the soul.
(Click to enlarge)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The flowers I planted several weeks ago are coming along nicely.  Notice the really old mailbox I have hanging on the fence - remember those?   I love old pieces like that.

The big pot I planted - it's really pretty.  Notice the little green plants growing at the edge of the patio in the rocks.  Those are the moonflower plants coming up from seeds of the plant that came up from seeds last year.  I am going to pot some of them and share them with my neighbor and also my daughter.  They are getting big enough to pot now. 

Just love this pretty blue lobelia growing in a hanging planter at the side of the house.  Usually don't have much luck with this sweet little plant - maybe this year will be different.

A closer look at some of the flowers in the big pot.  I'm a softie for blue flowers!  Aren't these pretty?  And the little petunias are wonderful.   (Click to enlarge)

My, How You've Grown

This, as I have shown before, is my mandevilla plant - freshly set out in my little garden space.

And here it is about a month ago - growing and blooming it's little heart out.

And this picture was taken yesterday evening - growing more every day and just beautiful. Tons of buds and sending out vines on a wire I put up to the right of it. You can see part of the moonflower plant that decided to come up from seed right beside of it. I had to cut part of that one away to get on my patio. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the stub of the branch that I lopped off the plant at the bottom of the picture. That one has been a very sturdy, serious grower!

A hanging basket planted earlier in my last macrame sling from my macrame days in the 70's.

and here it is last evening. Doing well. (The carpeting on my step to the little shed certainly is looking bad! Should have cropped the picture!)

I'll call this one "Free Portulaca in the Patio Crack" - you could never get one to grow there on purpose! It's blooming nicely and is partially watered from what drains out of the hanging basket. (Click to enlarge)

Tour my "Garden"

It's an absolutely beautiful day today - just perfect. It reminds me of what a neighbor said one time on a day such as this - "This is what heaven is like" - I had never heard that expression and it so aptly describes the day to perfection.
I haven't taken any pictures of my flowers since I planted them so here are a few photos of what is on my patio and the side of my house. Above is a kettle of flowers with a wave petunia, daisies, allysum and lobelia. The macrame hanger is the only one I have left of the many that I knotted back in the 70's. You could find such cool beads and all sorts of different rope, cord, etc. I loved the heavy white cord that looked like thick postal string. I think this one is a plastic as it has held up admirably over the years. Right now the geraniums in it are rather between blooms but there is some pretty allysum and some blue lobelia and pink begonias. It's kind of pretty.

I have several mandevilla and there is a pot of it on each side of the patio door. Gorgeous red. What looks like a green Christmas ornament is a little gazing ball. Then part of another hanging basket on the fence with a very ruffly petunia and some sweet little yellow daisies. One of the plants in this one died and I will see if I can find another to put in the little empty place. I don't think I picked some of the right flowers this time - I shouldn't have bought so many of the double petunias as I think they will be leggy. Oh, well, hopefully there is always another year.

Some gorgeous lobelia - I love the blue but sometimes in the past have had trouble growing it. This seems to be doing just fine. They are in the pot with the petunias and daisies. Next is my white mandevilla that is starting to climb the trellis propped against the side of the house. It is growing like a mad thing and is just lovely.

Closeup of the red mandevilla and another ruffly pink petunia. You have now toured most of my garden. There are a couple of pots out front that are doing fine but the deer stopped for a midnight snack a few weeks ago and it is recovering. Happy gardening! (Click to enlarge)

My Flowers are All In

This pretty little angel windchime came home with me from Joann's the other day. Earlier I had seen a big angel like her that I should have purchased. Will check again, but I think they are pretty well cleaned out of things now.

Here are two of my guardian pink flamingos - even though they are tacky, I love them so much. The little Austrian pines I put in a couple of years ago are doing so nicely. Maybe at Christmas I will put some little twinkle lights on them.

Another of my tacky little flamingos watching over the mandevilla I bought at Kroger. This one is white - doesn't look like the blossoms are as large as the pink one I had last year. However, it will still be gorgeous.

A mixed pot hanging at the corner of my house. Here are the bushy little delphiniums - I just love blue flowers. And my favorite allysum is here, too, and it will grow big and bushy and beautiful.

Just had to take this photo - in one of my hanging plants there is a cluster of cottonwood fluff caught up in the foliage. It is that time of year here when the white cotton is blown around on the breeze. So silky and pretty! So now, with the exception of one little old pot that sits on the old sewing machine base, I have my planting done. I will pick up a few little plants for that and call it another year. (Click to enlarge) P.S. The cottonwood fluff is just goregous when enlarged!

Working on my Planting

With the onset of some early hot weather, it has been really different trying to get my plants and get them in the pots. I do not do heat well - and I know I have said that before - and find it almost impossible to work in the hot sun. I would rather be all bundled up in a heavy sweatshirt. Since all my gardening is done mainly on my patio, it is in the sun all morning and lots of the afternoon, so, unless it is cool or cloudy or really early in the morning, I just don't do my planting until evening. (Early in the morning is another thing I am not good at! I don't sleep late, but I don't get serious until after ten o'clock, at least. Any appointments I make for anything are always in the afternoon. I am much more likeable then!) However, on Thursday I did go during the morning to three nurseries and picked up some plantings. Then yesterday it was on to K-Mart where I found more, plus two nice hanging basket mandevillas that were half price. I think those will go in the pots on each side of the patio door.
The mandevilla is above - it's a red one.

Thursday evening I planted the long pot I have on my front stoop. Left out the impatients this year since the deer loved those so much. They didn't touch the New Guinea impatients so I hope they have not developed a taste for those over the winter.


I bought a pretty hanging basket of NG impatients and planted them in the pot between the bushes under the window. Added some sweet allysum and a pretty star jasmine (I think) so that should be pretty. Used the Miracle Gro soil with the fertilizer in it and that should get them up and filling in shortly.
Last evening, I did some by the patio. This one hangs on the privacy fence. There were some great scented geraniums that I bought. Reminds me of the ones that my dad planted. I also found some bushy little delphiniums and have one here and a couple in the pot coming up. Sweet allysum is in this, also, and it should be pretty when things get growing. Right now it is pretty "green".
Another with a scented geranium, petunias, allysum and another trailing plant. Still have five or six pots to go and will work on them this evening. In addition to the heat, my knee has been acting up, the old back aches from bending over and I huff and puff sometimes. I guess it's true what they say - old age is not for sissies! But, I have been and still am very fortunate and at least I am able to get out and buy my pretty plants and get them planted even though not as quickly as I could some years ago. There's no hurry anyway! (Click to enlarge)

Too Hot for May

After I got my haircut late this morning, I decided to stop and start buying some flowers for my patio containers and also hanging baskets. There is this feeling that I am way late and really I'm not - most people don't plant here in Michigan until after Memorial Day. Even planting at that time, you still might have to cover everything up at least once. However, I doubt if anything is going to have to be covered around here at least in the immediate future! It is way too hot for May. And, as I probably have said before, I am not a fan of hot weather at all. I got so hot looking at the plants under the plastic roof that it was no fun! So I will have to make some more trips to get more plants and potting soil.

I found these gorgeous double cascade petunias that should be good for pots or hanging baskets. I also bought a flat of sweet allysum that I always love with it's dainty white flowers and two pots of pretty yellow daisy like flowers that I thought would be so pretty with the pink and/or purple. The rest of the purchase today was the beautiful big hanging basket of Hawaiian bridal veil shown first in the post that has such delicate little white flowers. I discovered years ago in Illinois that you can pinch off some of the stems, poke a hole in the wet soil of a pot or basket of flowers, put the stems in and firm the soil around them and they won't even wilt. They will take root and grow nicely over the side for a lovely, lacy piece of greenery with little white blooms.

Some Odds and Ends

Q2, our guild, is having it's annual show weekend after this and this year one of the features will be a blind auction. I will be donating this wallhanging for the auction. I don't think I have posted a picture of it so here it is. This is actually the second one I did like this and I'm sure most of you will recognize that it came from a book that was out a few years ago and which I can't remember who wrote it. Lovely book, though, and a fun quilt to do. This is all oriental prints which I love.

We also have a bazaar which is absolutely widely popular with our attendees. It has really done a lot to augment our bank account. Magazines, books and fabric are very well received. I spent a lot of the weekend in the basement going through my stash and bagging up some of it. Of course, I didn't make too much of a dent in what I have but at least will get some of it to a new home. If I have to use up all my fabric before I leave this earth, I should make it to at least 150!

I have also been finishing up two wallhangings that I started last year and will have in the show. When they are done, I will post their pictures. I am sewing the little button embellishments on Tisket A Tasket and finishing the quilting on the one with the bright appliqued flowers.

And isn't this absolutely gorgeous? The colors are electric and I love the oranges, pinks, hot pinks - sooooo pretty. I had a call from the local florist Monday morning saying they had a delivery for me and would I be home. I would be home - but it wasn't my birthday - no holiday - who would be sending me flowers? When they came they were from Bill and Ann, my son and his wife, with love for Mother's Day a little early. I called to let them know how gorgeous they were, but no one was home. Later, Bill called me. The reason they sent them early was they were close to being able to get free airline tickets and decided they would send the flowers to qualify for their tickets. I love it! And I love them, too. Took pictures of the bouquet and sent them one so they could see how pretty they are. Now you can enjoy seeing them, too.

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It's Just Beautiful

I just took my "garden tour" a few minutes ago - it doesn't take long nowadays - and I just had to take a picture of my Mandevilla vine. It is just loaded with blooms and is growing so tall and lush. The vines are loaded with buds - what a beauty.

A couple of other pictures - the fancy leaf begonia in the planter on my front stoop. How pretty it is also. The other is a picture of a hanging basket on the outside of my privacy fence with the geraniums, sweet allysum, another white lacey flower and a little pink flamingo. Some of the little begonias are not doing as well this summer as in the past - probably not enough hot weather. This old gal does better in the cooler weather, though! Temperaturewise, I have enjoyed this summer very much. (Click to enlarge)

Some Flowers - Inside and Out

My hoya plant has been blooming these past weeks - as many as nine blossoms. I took these pictures from beneath the flowers - the first one is getting ready to open and the other in full bloom. They are so pretty the way they hang.Outside my mandevilla (sp?) plant is blooming nicely and outgrowing the trellis. One of the pink flamingos looks over it. (Click to enlarge)

Summer Garden

Took a couple of pictures of my flowers the other day and thought I would post this one. My mandevillia (sp?) is really flourishing and filling in the trellis I had. What I thought was so neat about this picture is that you can see clear across the street to Andy's house and her beautiful pots of flowers on her front stoop. I am also enjoying looking at the ones around her patio, also.

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Leslie's Peter Rabbit Cutting Garden

Leslie, one of my friends in the quilt guild, sent these darling pictures of her Peter Rabbit cutting garden and I asked her if I could share them. How clever and cute can a garden be? Here are Peter's little shoes lying by the watering can that he hides in when he sees Mr. Macgregor. Here is his little blue dress jacket that he left in the garden The farmer's boots have flowering plants in them. I think that must be Peter right there in the foreground. Here is the farmer's old wheel hoe - just like the one that my dad used in his garden. Isn't Leslie's garden just about as cute as it gets?

What a Great Picture

I was looking at Blogs of Note and followed a link to one called Selvage and I found this picture. Be sure to click to enlarge to see it closer. The blog author had a cute post with it asking if someone would do her a favor and water her flowers while she was on vacation for three weeks. For those of us with just container gardens, this is the ultimate goal, don't you think? But how the heck would you get your watering done? I guess you would hope it rained every other day. And how would you hang all those pots on the wall? Fun stuff.

Planted the Berm

I live in a condo that is one of thirty-five units that are very comfortable and well cared for. Each year we have been planting flowers out on the berm in front and everyone enjoys seeing them coming in or going out of our place. So today Elaine, one of the very nicest people around, and I hit two of the nurseries and bought flowers for the berm. Then we spent time weeding and cultivating to get ready to plant. Not as easy as it used to be but, by golly, we got it done!

We found these gorgeous red dahlias - the geraniums were pretty much picked over - and some bright as butter marigolds. Also blue ageratum and sweet allysum....and, oh yes, some

ornamental kale. Lookin' good! Should be pretty this summer and fall. (Click to enlarge)