Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category

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Working in the Garden

March 20, 2010

Tulips in our garden in 2009.

We’ve had two days of sunshine and blue skies!  We were home yesterday (Friday) so I was able to work out in the yard.  It was wonderful to be able to get my hands dirty in the soil again.  The mail woman brought us some roses that needed to be planted and I was able to get four of them planted.  I have one more spot to fill, which hopefully I will do Saturday.

Our  crocus are now blooming very nicely now.  I took some pictures, but haven’t had a chance to do anything with them.  I’ll post some pictures in the next day or so.  In the meantime you can check out Betsy’s new header on her blog.

The daffodils and tulips are coming up although we don’t have any blooming yet.  For the time being we have to be content remembering our tulips from last year.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Today I’m grateful for the beauty of growing plants.

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Posted in Garden | 12 Comments »

Can It Be That Spring Is Coming?

March 13, 2010

Crocus in our side flower bed. March 12, 2010.

Yesterday (Friday) was dreary and rainy up here on the Plateau.  That wasn’t a bad thing since I had much to do after being gone for several days.

But in the late afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out for a while.  I took the opportunity to quickly walk the yard and was very pleasantly surprised to see a clump of crocuses about ready to open.  It seems as if it has been forever since we had any color in our yard.

I also noticed that hyacinths, daffodils and tulips have broken through the ground.  And what is even more exciting some of our roses are starting to show signs of life.  Can it be that Spring may actually get here?

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Today I’m grateful for the promise contained in spring flowers.

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Posted in Garden | 19 Comments »

No Trick — This is Definitely a Treat

October 31, 2009
RosePinkPromise09103001

Pink Promise Rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 30, 2009.

One nice thing about living in Tennessee is that the growing season lasts longer than it does in Ohio.  Even though it is the end of October we still have roses in bloom at the house.

I took the picture of this beauty, Pink Promise, yesterday (Friday).  We have buds and blossoms on several other roses as well.  I hope we can enjoy them  before we get our first frost.

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Posted in Garden | 12 Comments »

Our Lilies (5)

October 10, 2009

LiliesCollage0905

(This picture can be enlarged by clicking on it.)

We made another trip to Hendersonville yesterday to check up on my parents.  I’m happy to report that they had no plumbing problems this time and that they were both in good spirits and good health.  We had some interesting moments explaining the workings of Medicare Schedule D, but we even survived that.

Since I was away from my desktop most of the day, I’m simply sharing the last collage of this year’s lilies in our yard.  As I’ve mentioned before, lilies probably our second favorite garden flower after the roses.

Next year we should have even more lilies.  As both Betsy and I have mentioned we have a new sunny flower bed in the front of our house, and Friday night I got a shipping notice that some new lily bulbs will arrive next week.  So I guess I’ll have some things to keep me busy in the yard.

If you would like to see all the different lilies we had in our yard this year click HERE.

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Posted in Garden | 10 Comments »

Our Lilies (4)

September 26, 2009

LiliesCollage0904

(This picture can be enlarged by clicking on it.)

I thought I was going to be able to get a fair amount of work done in the yard yesterday, but after a sunny morning the rains returned.  We didn’t get a lot of rain, just enough to keep things wet and me inside.

One of the things that didn’t get done was planting some lily bulbs that came the other day.  The new flower bed we constructed in front of the house gets plenty of sunlight and we thought lilies would do well there.  Lilies are probably our second favorite flower after our roses.

We already have a quite a few lilies in our garden.  The collage above shows some of our lilies.  Other collages can be seen HERE, HERE and HERE.

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Posted in Garden | 11 Comments »

Our Lilies (3)

September 10, 2009

LiliesCollage0903

(This picture can be enlarged by clicking on it.)

I don’t know what happened to Wednesday.  I know the days are getting shorter, but yesterday was ridiculous.  We did our weekly grocery shopping and I planted some spring bulbs that came by UPS the other day, but that was about it.  Before I knew it, it was getting dark.

Since I didn’t have a chance to get out and take new pictures, I’m giving you another collage of the lilies we had in our garden this year.  Our lilies did very well this year and we thoroughly enjoyed each and every blossom.

Today (Thursday) we’re going to Hendersonville to check on my parents.  When I talked to them last night they were both in good spirits, but we will help them with some of the things they can’t do themselves anymore.  We’ll also run some errands for them and take them out for lunch.

I’ll be away from my computer most of the day today, but I’ll get around to visiting you as quickly as I can.

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Posted in Garden | 17 Comments »

You Shouldn’t Try to Fool Mother Nature

August 31, 2009
George looking up at About Face rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. August 27, 2009.

George looking up at About Face rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. August 27, 2009.

Roses need sunshine.  Roses love sunshine.  Since we have lots of trees around our house, finding enough sunshine for our roses has been somewhat of a problem.  We had to move our roses from the first bed we made because there was too much shade, but now we’ve got them in front of the house where they get as much sunshine as our yard can offer.

HOWEVER, one corner of one of the rose beds is shadier than the rest of the bed.  To keep the symmetry of the bed I wanted to keep a rose there.  I figured that the rose there would be okay.

A few weeks ago a new cane appeared on the rose.  It grew and grew and grew.  For a while I thought it might be a sucker from below the graft, but it looked like the other canes.  It kept growing and growing.  When I was about to give up on it, a bud appeared and then a blossom that belonged to the rose bush.

To put things in perspective in the photo above, I’m 6-foot four inches tall and am standing on the same level as the rose bush.  And I’m looking UP at the blossom.  That rose wanted sunshine and was going to get to it.

The picture below shows what this rose bush, About Face, looks like under more normal circumstances.

About Face rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 2, 2009.

About Face rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 2, 2009.

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Posted in Garden | 16 Comments »

Our Lilies

August 24, 2009
Lilies from our garden in 2009.

Lilies from our garden in 2009.

(This picture can be enlarged by clicking on it.)

We had a beautiful weekend here on the Plateau of Tennessee.  It actually felt more like autumn than summer, but I don’t want you to think that I’m complaining.  It was very nice working out in the yard and I tried to make the most of it.

Our lilies are all finished for the year.  The last ones bloomed several weeks ago, but I’ve been so far behind on my pictures that I haven’t done anything with them.  Yesterday I had a chance to work with my pictures and made several collages of the lilies that bloomed in our garden this year.  Five of our lilies are shown in the collage above.

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Posted in Garden | 14 Comments »

What a Way to Go

July 23, 2009
Sempervivum in bloom, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 2, 2009.

Sempervivum in bloom, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 2, 2009.

I’ve mentioned before that Betsy and I have planted sempervivum (hens and chicks) around the house.  Sempervivum are succulent evergreen perennials that produce low, compact, evergreen, flower-like rosettes of succulent leaves.  The plants send out numerous offsets, and spread in this manner to form a dense colony.  The parent rosettes are the hens, and the smaller rosettes that spring from them are the chicks.

The name Sempervivum has its origin in the Latin Semper — which means forever — and vivo — which means live.  Sempervivum are called ‘live forever‘ because this perennial plant keeps its leaves in winter even when the temperatures drop below freezing.

Although grown for its foilage, usually in rock gardens or containers, hens and chicks do flower.  Flower stems up to 18 inches develop from the hen and produce blossoms with color varying from rose to pink.

The hens will die after flowering, but by that time they will have produced numerous chicks to take their  place.

The picture above is of hens in bloom in one of our flower beds.  The stem will last for a couple of weeks before wilting away.  It’s a shame that the hens have to die, but what a way to go!!!

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Posted in Garden | 17 Comments »

A Hard-Luck Rose

July 20, 2009
Frederic Mistral Rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 17, 2009.

Frederic Mistral Rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. July 17, 2009.

The rose above is the newest rose in our garden, Frederic Mistral.  It is also the last of our roses to bloom.

Actually, this rose has had a hard life.  We ordered it this spring as a replacement for a rose that didn’t make it through the winter.  So it got a fairly late start in the garden.  About the time that it started to form buds, the deer decided to use it for a snack.

It recovered from that experience and again formed buds.  This time the Japanese beetles used it for a snack.  The beetles discovered the buds on a day we went to Hendersonville.  The amount of damage Japanese beetles can do in a few hours is amazing.

But the bush finally produced a bud that was able to open!  The color is a light pink, and the petals look like porcelain.  As if that is not enough, Frederic Mistral is one of the most fragrant roses there is.

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Posted in Garden | 15 Comments »

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