Recycling idea ~

Every years I buy different types of annual vines and they come with little mini trellis'. Last week as I was cleaning out my gardening supplies, I tossed a few of them into the recycling bin. In the back of my mind I thought ~ now just when they are gone, I will think of something to use them for. Luckily, I did saved a couple of them, because today I put them to good use. I hooked them together with zip ties and then used zip ties to attach them to my down spout,  for the clematis to stretch out on!  Now I just wish I still had the other ones to use!  

So many beautiful colors ~

The nice wet spring has led to many beautiful flowers in my garden, but lately the temperatures have been unbelievably HOT!  I finally had to break down and water my perennials.  I had been really lucky up to this point, thanks to Mother Nature.  I only had to worry about watering the flowers in my planters and flower pots.  The forcast looks better for this coming week, thank goodness. Here are just a few photos of some of the beautiful blooms in my gardens.

This Stargazer Lily is one of my favorites ~

my daughter actually had it tatooed (to my dismay) on her back.

Zinnia

Mix of Black-eyed Susans, Russian Sage, Yarrow, and Liatris,

 with a butterfly bush in the background.

acidantheras - Peacock lily

My first catelope of the season!

Gladiolia

Second blooming of Shasta daisies

A type of poppy I think ~ it was from a bag of mixed wildflower seeds.

Yellow Daylily

Lantana ~ my favorite annual!

A spider atop a globe thistle ~ talk about long legs ~ eek!

This little one was trying to keep cool by the fountain!

Pi nk Coneflowers

Thanks for visiting  =)

Spring bloomers ~2012

I have been so lax at keeping up with my blogs lately. I guess when the weather gets nice enough to be outside ~ that's where I spend most of my time, not inside on the computer. This spring has been unbelievable ! The weather has been beautiful and the rain seems to come often enough that I haven't had to do much watering at all! We had such a warm March that many plants decided to show themselves earlier than normal. Some of them suffered though, when the cold came back for a bit. Two of my hydrangeas got burned but have recovered and are blooming but quite a few of my spring bulbs didn't fair as well. Just as they were starting to really pop up, the frost hit again and killed them off. All in all ~ my gardens are doing very well. In May, my flowerbeds looked like they normally do in July. Here are some of my favorite photos so far this year ~

Peaches and cream Columbine

Trailing Petunias

Blue Iris

September Charm Verbascum

Red and White Columbine

Blue Columbine

Just couldn't get enough of these beautiful large blooms!

Peaches and Cream Columbine

Lewisia

Talk about recycling ~ this bowl was delivered to my office, filled with sandwiches.  Immediately, I requested to keep the bowl as I envisioned this solar fountain to use in my gardens!

Bachelors Button

Clematis

This little corn snack was hanging out in my garden ~ I trapped him in a critter keeper to observe for a few days before setting him free!

Butterfly Weed ~ in the milkweed family and a host plant for monarchs!

Lolypop lily

Shasta Daisy

Love this new one~  Passionflower Clematis

A bud for Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia

Day lilies

Dahlia

A bee drinking nectar from a pink Speedwell ~ you can see it's proboscis down inside the blossom!

Fuscia ~ one of my favorites!

Love this lily ~ not sure what variety it is yet, but it is striking!

Scarlet Passionflower

The end of one of my flowerbeds.  I recently purchased the Oriole feeder on the left side ~ still desperately trying to attract them to my yard.

This is another section of the same garden ~ the white butterfly house was a hand-me-down from a fellow gardener and dental hygienist!  The white sphere in the bird bath is a water wiggler ~ moving water attracts more birds than standing water.

Thanks for stopping by ~ hopefully it won't be months before I update again!

Get outside and enjoy some nature in your own back yard!

Spring is finally here!!!

No photos to add at this time of my gardens ~ just my cat~

Peaches has been following me around my gardens for the past few weeks keeping me company while I've been getting my gardens ready for spring!   The weather has been amazing lately and I have spring fever really bad.  I even set some of my plants outside  that I brought in over the winter.  The temperature have been in the 70's and 80's, so it was pretty safe up until today.  It is supposed to get down in the 30's tomorrow night, so I had to bring them back in.  The skies sent us some nice steady rain over the weekend as well ~ things are really starting to grow and turn green.  We even had to mow the grass already!

I have enjoyed being able to divide some of my plants and get out my garden decor already too.  Usually, I do all this in April ~ it's great to be ahead of schedule!

It's a lot of work but it feels so good to be outside again~

Thanks for stopping by ~ hopefully I will be able to update more frequently now that spring is here~  Have a great week~

Jeni

                           

Autumn is starting to settle in ~

With the cooler weather heading our way and the daylight disappearing earlier, my days in my garden are coming to an end.  Seems like summer just started and now it's time to clean up the yard and put things away for the winter.  It's time to get out and start dividing some of the plants that flourished this summer.  I have shasta daisies, yarrow, turtlehead, sedum, etc... that need to be spread around.  It's amazing how many plants you can end up with by dividing.  I think I started with two shasta daisies and I probably have gotten at least 50 new plants from them over the years.  Mother Nature has been busy spreading seeds from my annuals also!  I love how that works.  I went for a walk down my road today and notice many white turtlehead plants growing wildly through the woods.  I never noticed them before, so I'm guessing the two I planted were shared by Mother Nature too!  I'm starting my "fall chore" list.  This will include cutting back plants, taking some things indoors, some to the garage, covering up some with burlap, and collecting seeds for next year. It's important to cover up or take in your ceramic flower pots, if you get really cold winters.   I learned the hard way that they don't hold up well if left outside in the winter.  I had several large pots, crack from the freezing and thawing of the dirt/water in them last year.  I am aslo going to try to winterize some of my favorite plants in pots, including this next photo of a purple passion flower.

I just love the dimension of this blosom.  Everyday there is a new one opening to amaze me!  I have this in blue and red also!  The blue one is supposed to be hardy for my area, but I think I'll move it into the garage, just in case.

Lantana is a favorite of the butterflies and humming birds.  Here are 3 Monarch that I reared from eggs and released.  They hung out on the lantana for several hours before starting their long flight to Mexico for the winter!

Just another view of the purple passion flower!

Cleome ~ spider flower.

I have planted hundreds of seeds for these in my gardens every year but for some reason I only have one come up each year.

This little guy is one of MANY that have been digging holes in my flowerbeds this summer.  I don't really mind except for when they kick all the little rocks out into the mulch.

The monarchs found my butterfly weed in my flower beds!  YEAH!!!!

This is the Blue Passion flower vine that I love also! 

This is a gardeners best friend! 

 I had a nest of these hatch back in June but only came across a handful of them since.

Geraniums, Impatiens, and Creeping Jenny

Coral Nymph Salvia that has reseeded in my gardens for years now!

This unusual morning glory showed up with my tomatoes in July ~ I only ever saw one bloom, but it sure was beautiful!

Butterflies weed doesn't only attract monarchs !  This gray Hairstreak enjoys the nectar too!

I hope you all have had a wonderful summer and that you get out there and get dirty doing your fall chores!

Bye for now~