Blizzard 2010!!!

We survived the blizzard! School is still closed due to the side roads, sidewalks and bus stops. My son is loving it! I learned today that the snow is actually good for the gardens, keeping the temps at 32 degrees ~ definitely good news considering we got about 50". Even though I love the snow, I can't wait til spring gets here to get my hands dirty and be able relax on my patio, watching the birds and butterflies. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the little visitors from the inside! I love these little bird feeders ~ Gardenersupply.com!

Winter Wonderland ~ 2010!

Spring seems so far away ~ especially after this weekends 23" snowfall! It really is quite beautiful! Being snowed~in isn't so bad, it's kind of a break from the normal daily routine. It also forces you to get some fresh air and productive exercise ~ and good sleep too from that exercise! Living in the woods really does provide some amazing scenery when it snows. Everywhere you look, the dull-drums of winter are given a fresh new look. The birds really seemed to enjoy the snow too. Lucky for them, I remembered to fill the feeders before it started. My daughter's kitten enjoyed watching the birds almost as much as I did.

I guess I'll have to pick up more birdseed before the next storm in two days. They are only calling for 2" - 7" for that storm luckily. We'll probably have piles of snow clear into July this year. I'm anxious to see how it effects my flowers in the spring. Last year I lost quite a few because the winter was so dry ~ not a chance of that this year! I'll start planting seeds indoors in about 5 weeks or so. I hope I have better luck w/ that this year than I had last year too. If anyone has any tips on seed starting ~ I'd love to hear them. I've read alot about it on-line and in books, but nothing beats tips from other gardeners.

Have a great week!

Jeni

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! It's a great time to reflect on this past year and think about what you'd like to change in your life to make the new year better than the last! Mine is to continue w/ my gardening and trying not to spend more $ on new flowers but to propagate from the plants I have or add from friend's or family's gardens! I also am working on dropping a few lbs (as always!) God bless and happy new year!

It's SNOWING!!! I'm so excited the we're getting snow before Christmas this year! It is so beautiful and hides all the ugliness that winter brings. I hope you all have a wonderful and memorable holiday season. Take it all in ~ the snow, the music, the lights & decorations, the feeling of excitement in the air, the family gatherings, and most of all ~ remember the true meaning of Christmas! XXO

A beautiful weekend!

It was a gorgeous weekend! The temps were in the high 60's into the low 70's and the sun was shining! The photo was taken last evening as the sun was going down. If you look closely, you can see the silhouette of an old farm truck ~ kind of neat! I really wanted to spend yesterday hiking but it's been so wet that it probably would've been just a muddy mess and slippery too. So, I settled for working on cleaning up the yard. I brought in all my garden "decor", emptied out some of my flower pots, and washed them all. I also cleaned out my fountain and covered it for the winter. I hate how the yard looks this time of year. Everything is so bland ~ brown and dead. Although, silhouetted scenes like the photo above are quite lovely! I still have a few flowers blooming in the ground and in a few pots on the porch. I don't have the heart to cut them back or dump them yet. I'll be decorating for Christmas in a few weeks, by then they will be ready I'm sure. Hope you all have a great week!


Jeni

Fall clean-up time :(

Hope you all had a great Halloween! This is photo of my house ~ it's already been de-decorated and ready for the Christmas decorations to go up the day after Thanksgiving!

This is a beautiful time of year and also a tiring time of year. Living in the woods definitely has it's pros and cons. The pros are the beautiful colors of the leaves in the fall, the privacy, being close to nature, etc.. but the leaf clean up is EXHAUSTING! (to say the least) My son and I worked in the yard for about 5 hours today and only managed to get the leaves in the back of the house picked up. We filled up the cart attached to the 4 wheeler and Luke drove them down and dumped them across the road in the woods. It's been so rainy hear that the ground under the leaves is really muddy and quite slippery. Luckily there weren't any falls! I cut back more plants that died but didn't have the heart to cut back the plants that were still green. Those will have to wait . I did dig up my dahlia bulbs and will work on cleaning them up and preparing them for the winter during the week. I think I'll hit the sack early tonight and take a few advil too !

Have a great week!

Jeni

Climbing Shell Vine

Here are a few photos I just took of my Climbing Shell vine, as you can see it seems to be adapting very well to being indoors. It didn't get this many blooms when it was outside. I just can't get over it! The other plants in the first photo are an ornamental pepper plant (my mom picked up at Lowe's recently for $0.75 ~ I saw the same type of plant at Walmart last week for $5.00) and the other is shefflera plant ~ also known as an Umbrella plant. I was able to bring in my geraniums last weekend. I bagged about a dozen of them and have 6 of them still in their pots near a window in my dining room. We haven't had a full fledged frost yet so I still have quite a few flowers bloomng, but it won't be long. Has anyone else had success bringing in any special plants from their gardens? I brought in a fuscia plant last winter that did well. It got pretty scraggly looking during the winter but came back beautifully once I was able to move it back outside. Hopefully it will do well again this winter. I'd like to try to bring in some cuttings from my lantana. Has anyone tried to start lantana indoors? I've heard it's hard to grow from seed and that you need to do stem cuttings. Guess I'll give that a try before they freeze over. Lantana is my favorite annual. They are just so colorful and really attract the butterflies and hummingbirds.

Well, I guess this growing season is coming to an end. The trees are peeking around here ~ they are just so beautiful. I really enjoy the different seasons here in Maryland. It really was a great summer!

Have a great weekend!
Jeni