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Post by Siren on May 26, 2008 23:16:01 GMT -6
I vote with you, Gams, that summer begins when school is out. My nieces have been out for about a week now.
Begonias in orange? Oooo, lucky you!
Lol! I can just see that lady hauling all those plants in that Camry. Might be the same person who was trash-picking on "big trash day" in my neighborhood - that tiny car was pack with stuff, and even had treasures tied to the top. The open hatch door was bobbing up and down over the items that were sticking out the back. Some people's ambitions are bigger than their vehicles!
Gams, my dad made an offer that will warm your "never-throw-it-away" heart; he's going to put wheels back on a rusted-out old wagon from my childhood. He thought I might like to put plants in it. What a guy!
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Post by Phalon on May 27, 2008 6:00:47 GMT -6
The orange begonias are not wax begonias, Siren. They're tuberous begonias, and the big flowers remind me of peony blossoms. They can't take the sun like wax begonias, but are able to withstand the heat and drought as do the waxy kind. They're perfect for my shady front porch.
Cool about your day fixing your wagon to use as a planter. Years ago, I picked up a rusty wheel-barrow someone was throwing out for the same purpose. Hubs drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, painted it cherry red, and I filled it with marigolds. The last couple of summers though, it's been used for its original purpose of hauling stuff around the yard. This spring though, Hubs bought a new wheel-barrow, so it'll be resigned to a planter again. And if I were a wheel-barrow, I wouldn't complain - I think it'd be much nicer to be filled with flowers than yard waste.
I saw a really cool use for an old wagon in a magazine recently; I tore out the page for future reference, (never know when I'll come by one sitting by the side of the road). I'll tell you about it later....right now I've got to get to work.
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Post by Phalon on May 29, 2008 3:50:27 GMT -6
Here's the idea for re-purposing an old wagon into a hanging shelving unit; I saw it in "Country Home" magazine.
Remove the wheels and axles. Drill through the sides of the wagon where you want shelves to be. Use pieces of scrap wood for the shelves, lining them up with the holes. Then attach the shelves with screws. To keep goods from slipping off the shelves, old screen door springs can be attached at the front of each shelf. If you can't find old springs, try a dowel or rod placed into drilled holes. Hang wagon directly on the wall.
The woman who came up with the idea used it as an organizer in her potting shed, but I think it has a mulitude of possibilites. It's cute; I want one.
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Post by Phalon on Jun 7, 2008 4:39:59 GMT -6
Spring's last hurrah..... The girls and I went biking on the trail this past week. Late spring flowers mixed with early summer bloom along the way. We saw Jack-in-the-Pulpit, False Solomon's Seal, ox-eye daisies, buttercup, and an abundance of big viburnums; I love viburnums and mine at home look great this year. An entire hillside was covered in pink, purple, and white woodland phlox. I've got that some of that at home too, and am excited about it - seeds must have blown in from somewhere; it's not something I planted, but along with the gobs of tiny blue forget-me-nots, is welcome along the fence in the backyard. My bridal veil spirea bloomed too. I dislike the hedge - it looks icky most of the time, is a Japanese Beetle magnet, and in July a moving cloud of iridescence rises from it as the insatiable plant-hungry beetles emerge from the ground. I'd rip the whole thing out if it weren't holding the sidewalk from falling down the short, but steep bank, and into the ravine. That, and for one or two weeks in late spring it redeems itself with cascading branches of white, rolling over the bank like waves about to crash onto the garden below. This was taken just last week right after the flowers opened. The blooms were short-lived this year. We went from our extended cool weather spring to instant heat overnight - sixties and seventies during the day, to the high eighties. The white cascade is now brown, and again I contemplate how important is that sidewalk really?
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Post by Phalon on Mar 19, 2009 6:43:18 GMT -6
Here we are again on the brink of spring. Tomorrow is the vernal equinox, and then it's official.
The weather here leading up to it has been really nice, but shoot, it's changed again. It's barely above freezing now, with a heavy frost turning everything white. After having just a taste of those sixties, I'm ready for it to stay warm.
I got in one last blast of warm weather fun yesterday; my friend and I did some beach combing. She has a little house in the woods across the street from Lake Michigan; "her" beach is about three miles south of here, and because it isn't groomed like the main public beaches are, it makes for some interesting finds. Her house and yard are filled with things she's dragged home - jars of colored beach glass with the sharp edges worn blunt from the waves and sand; lots of driftwood, and rocks; and an unusual collection of fishing lures. We added to that last collection yesterday, when I found another for her.
I collected driftwood, zebra mussel shells, and rocks....all for that garden project I'm getting underway. My eyes were bigger than my muscles though, and the bucket was left in the sand mid-way down the beach to be picked up on our return walk. Then we resorted to pockets, and by the time we headed up the dune, I'm sure I was a hundred pounds heavier than when I made the trip down.
Marquetta proved she's a lab through and through....but by the time we were done, I wasn't quite sure what kind. In and out of the water, rolling in the sand, she looked more like a yellow lab than a black one.
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Post by stepper on Mar 19, 2009 22:12:32 GMT -6
Spring - Phase II. Phase I was the live oak. I don't really know how many leaves a live oak hase, but a 25 year old live oak has exactly enough leaves to bury my front yard. I'm sure it's not really 6' deep, but it feels that way. For the second time this spring I've overloaded the yard trash bags with leaves. And now comes phase II. The live oak pollinates in the spring. A lot. A whole lot. And it's green. Anything lucky enough to be near the house, or in the neighborhood, is going to have a green film for the next week or two. Sometime near the end of the week it sends out a signal to the nearest live oak which, having received the signal, will take its turn pollinating. I love spring. For fun, lets all go out in the green air and dig a garden.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 20, 2009 5:59:00 GMT -6
We got our leaves raked last weekend, Stepper....or what was left of last fall's leaves. I had spend hours raking the yard in early November in a rush to get them to the curb in time for the leave-sucker trucks. The streets were lined with piles of leaves when everyone did the same; it was like driving through a mountain pass, only the mountains were made of leaves. The leave-suckers never made their November run though; we got snow before they had a chance.
Raking these piles was the easiest raking I've ever done. They came up in clods; the leaves underneath the top layer were still frozen together. A couple of kicks to loosen a clump, throw it in the wheelbarrow and dump it down the ravine in the new garden for mulch...which I didn't do last year because I didn't want them blowing all over the yard throughout winter, only to have to rake them again in spring. And darn it! The leave-suckers came by Monday to suck up what they didn't suck last fall.
We don't have live oaks here, (but neither are our oaks dead). I think they're a southern tree. But the maples....they go through that same cover-everything-in-pollen phase. It'll be a few weeks, then it'll all be yellow here - yellow so thick it you can't even see through the windshield, and all it does it smear when you try to wash it off.
And that's when my fun begins. I feel a sneezing attack coming on just thinking about it.
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Post by stepper on Mar 21, 2009 19:37:22 GMT -6
You know Phalon, you can't really call it spring if you are raking frozen leaf clods. That's enduring winter and wishing it was already spring because the temperature got up to 40 one day. You don't find during any season other than winter.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 22, 2009 6:15:45 GMT -6
Oh, no, no, no, Stepper....I coulda sworn when I looked at the calendar the other day, it said it was the first day of spring. And then I looked at the thermometer.
It read 21 degrees.
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Post by stepper on Mar 22, 2009 20:42:57 GMT -6
LOL! Calendars lie! The one I have insists that I'm older than I really am. You just can't trust the suckers! Considering the temp, I'd be more interested in burning those leaves instead of having the trucks come by to suck 'em up.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 23, 2009 8:15:22 GMT -6
I know, I know - my calendar does the same thing, insisting that I'm older than I am. Pfft. Not only do they lie like that, they also insist on throwing in a Monday each week. We oughta revolt against the calendar tyranny which enslaves us.
Our motto: "It's Monday, and I'm revolting." I've called to have the buttons and bumper-stickers printed. They'll be ready next week; I've marked it on my calendar.
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Post by Siren on Mar 24, 2009 23:22:31 GMT -6
We had some first-class thunderstorms last night, and got over an inch of badly-needed rain here. A friend about an hour west said he got 2 1/2 inches. We are grateful for every drop.
They say we could get snow this weekend. Yes, really!
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Post by Phalon on Mar 25, 2009 5:58:52 GMT -6
It rained here too last night, but not the thunderstorm that was predicted, (I didn't hear it anyway). There wasn't as much rain as was predicted for Chicago yesterday either; we only drove through a brief shower along the way. It was a gray day though, which made the drive through some of the most depressing scenery I've seen in a long time all the more dreary. The smoke-stacks, steel-yards, and boarded up or run-down houses along the highway near Gary, Indiana was a stark contrast to the farmland we'd driven through earlier.
And yes, I can believe there's snow in the forecast for the weekend! We're supposed to get it too....right before I go back to work at the nursery!
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 25, 2009 17:24:02 GMT -6
There were a few claps of thunder here, so I got offline and unplugged everything. No more thunder after that. Why does it always do that to me? It plays with me like that all the time. Sometimes I'll get on & offline several times within a few hours because the thunder roars when I online, but not when I'm off.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 26, 2009 6:04:52 GMT -6
It knows when you are sleeping, It knows when you're awake. It knows when you're online or not, So you'd better unplug for goodness sake.
Oh, wait.....wrong season; wrong object in the sky.
We've got flowers! Yesterday, driving BP to school, we passed a house with a front yard almost entirely colored purple. There must be thousands of crocus blooming; I can't imagine how long it took to plant all those tiny bulbs.
Later in the day, while I was riding my bike, I passed another yard with snowdrops. It shouldn't be long now, until the daffodils start opening.
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Post by Siren on Mar 26, 2009 21:02:58 GMT -6
Glad y'all are already seeing signs of spring, Gams. It's been a long winter, and y'all deserve a break.
Meanwhile, they're predicting 2-3 foot drifts in the Oklahoma panhandle before this storm's done. No snow here yet, but we shall see.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 28, 2009 7:56:15 GMT -6
Brrrrrr! It turned cold here again yesterday evening. The girls, their friends, and the neighbor kids and their friends started a game of neighborhood flashlight hide-n-seek; there must have been close to twenty kids playing. It was fairly warm when the game started, but half-way through, a herd of them came inside to raid our supply of extra jackets, hats, and gloves. I'm sure I'll never see half of them again - no worries though; half of them weren't ours to begin with. Winter clothing has a way of migrating from one kid's house to another's, but unlike migrating birds, it seldom finds its way back home.
Hubs went fishing this morning - he heard the steelhead started running up-river. Not quite sure exactly what a steelhead is - he says trout family; I thought salmon. We decided it's in the Really Big Fish Family. He left about twenty minutes ago - I give him fifteen more before he pulls in the driveway. It's not even above freezing yet! Standing out in the cold, waiting for a Really Big Fish to bite is not my idea of fun. But then again, I'm not the one standing out in the cold, waiting for a really big fish, am I?
To each his own form of torture, I suppose. I'm going roller-skiing here in a bit.
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Post by Siren on Mar 28, 2009 8:21:41 GMT -6
Lol! Yes, there are times when we should all have our sanity questioned when pursuing our hobbies. I've sat at the OU softball field in wind so cold, my face chapped, and in sun so blazing, the part in my hair sunburned. I bought a slicker so I could sit in pouring rain and watch a Sooner soccer game. And we had several thousand fans at an outdoor country music festival in weather so hot, ambulances hauled sunstroke victims away. Oh, and there's the weekend we drove 12 hours on Saturday, watched a concert in Colorado that night, crashed on Lola's couch, and drove 12 hours back home on Sunday. The funny thing is, if your boss made you endure these conditions at work, you'd protest.
The weatherman's predictions for a big snow here were off the mark. We got a bit more than a dusting, and have a raw, cold wind today. But in the panhandle they had true blizzard conditions (which would've been cool to witness), and are left with drifts that are literally even with the roofs of houses. Imagine that, in Oklahoma! It crossed my mind to drive up there, just so I could see it. But then, that behavior would belong in the previous paragraph.
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Post by stepper on Mar 28, 2009 21:36:24 GMT -6
But Siren, you make it sound like so much fun! I guess it's all relative. I can't imagine sitting in rain or cold or excessive heat to watch someone else play, but I'll do all of those on my motorcycle.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 8, 2009 7:05:15 GMT -6
BOLL! I'd never brave those kinds of elements to watch a sporting event....or on a motorcycle either, Stepper....but I endure them at work!
My first week and a half back to work at the nursery has been spent in miserable weather. Yesterday it was so horrible, the women's crew told the boss it was too cold and windy to work outside; he agreed and let them go home! Unheard of this time of year, when we have so much to do. The office personnel stuck it out, and I got a lot done outside...because we only had one customer to interrupt me all day. Remind me again that I always say I love my job. Hurry please and say it, before I forget.
Today is my day off though, and (yay, yay, yay!!!), it looks beautiful!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 8, 2009 22:02:18 GMT -6
It's kinda funny.....the earliest spring flowers are blooming here: the crocus, snowdrops, and chionadoxa - also called glory-in-the-snow. The forsythia is showing hints of yellow, and my daffodils look like they want to open, but seem to be holding out for nicer weather.
But today I saw a patch of tiny, purple violets blooming in the yard, and I wonder how something so small and delicate can survive without withering in the cold.
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Post by stepper on Apr 11, 2009 0:56:54 GMT -6
We've been having extremes in temps again. A couple days ago we had nearly freezing temps, Thursday it was 99, today was 20 degrees cooler, and now the weather guessers are saying Saturday night through Sunday afternoon we'll be having thunderstorms. Sunrise services are moving inside this year just in case they guessed correctly. The rosebed has kicked in early this year. We trim them all back on Valentines Day, but some of the bushes are 3' and full of blooms already. My favorite is the red velvet, but Mr. Lincoln is good too. But there's this little purple flower, I have no idea what is it, but it's this tiny flower with a yellow center. It pops up in the spring around here. It must have miniscule seeds - if seed sizes are any indication of the resulting plant - but I've always liked finding these things. Maybe I like them because they seem to be a harbinger of spring - or maybe it's because they pop up in unlikely places and that makes them a nice surprise. I never really thought about it all that much.
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Post by Siren on Apr 13, 2009 21:17:05 GMT -6
I wish I had cut my roses back, Stepper, but I didn't. They have several buds on them. But I bet they'd have more if I had cut them back. What do you think, Gams? To lop or not to lop? That is the question. And if you do recommend cutting them back, Gams, when should this be done?
I have a lavender iris in bloom - just one blossom, but it is a beauty. I love irises. If only their blooms lasted longer.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 15, 2009 5:57:33 GMT -6
It sounds like you're describing chionodoxa, Stepper - although I'm not sure if they grow that far south. I know they'd surely melt in 99 degree heat - they're also known as glory-of-the-snow. Their colors range from blues to purple. Mine are blooming now; here's a photo - If I was forced to pick something I like about this cold, wet time of year, it'd be the tiny discoveries of the earth coming back to life that sometimes you just happen to notice when you're not expecting it. Siren mentioned her iris. I came across this little iris blooming a few weeks ago. I never planted it - it just sprung up in a garden bed about three years ago. It's strange, the garden used to be a barren weedy part of the yard that was never cultivated until I made a garden there about the second year we lived here, because the sloped area was impossible to mow. Every year since I noticed this tiny, little iris - and there's always just one bloom - I've searched for it. It blooms earlier than anything else - even before the crocus. It really depends on which kind of rose, Siren, whether to lop or not to lop. Hybrid teas, like Stepper's Mr. Lincoln, should be lopped - fall is preferrable, but some spring pruning could be done to cut off any winter die-back. Actually, the same could be applied to any type of rose, but tea roses benefit most. I'm a horrible rose pruner - I tend to just do it when mine get out of control and threaten to take over the garden....like they are now. I'd better get busy.
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Post by quettalee on Apr 15, 2009 11:55:19 GMT -6
I want to share, too!! Something that continues to bring a smile to my heart...(in spite of me)... I have very little inside sunlight. The morning sun gets blocked by the neighbor's ginormous tree and the evening sun gets blocked by the garage and my patio roof (maybe I should lose that thing--it leaks so bad the back porch never stays dry with more than a drizzle). Anyway, until just now and a 15-minute drill, I didn't realize there even was an "Easter Cacti"...and I didn't know that it's normal for my pictured Thanksgiving cacti to be blooming between March and May. According to this site...and the type of blooms I am seeing, it's completely normal and wouldn't be cause for such glee except this particular plant came from a single "cutting" of my mom's less than a year ago and it's the first time I have ever had one bloom for me! The Rosemary started out the same. Mary picked them up at the farmer's market as little tiny sprigs at the end of the summer last year. It was one of the last things for which she seemed to have a passion. I never expected them to live--and thrive--throughout the winter because they need lots of direct sunlight to do well--and humidity. (My house was so cold and dry this winter.) I did end up losing two plants, but they were a different variety (and both the same). Anyway, I just wanted to share. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray, love, remember. ~Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet [/i][/b]
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Post by Phalon on Apr 15, 2009 22:26:06 GMT -6
Beautiful, TG! I've never seen anything like that Thanksgiving/Easter cactus. Lookit how big those blooms are! Xena-Sis would be so jealous. LMAO. She has a spot in her kitchen - a corner bordered by two full-morning sun windows - where she grows the most gorgeous Christmas cactus that bloom at odd times of the year, and African violets that grow so big, she's continually dividing them.
My plants inside the house are just pitiful. I've got the same problem as you - little light, and where I do have a sunny window, the heat vent underneath blasts all humidity from the air. The two that somehow survived the winter inside, (the purple-leaved shamrock is actually blooming), are bedraggled, and clinging to life until the weather grows warmer and they can breathe the fresh outside air again.
I love rosemary. Do you snip it off to use fresh in your cooking? I don't think I've ever cooked with fresh rosemary; I just like the scent of the plant. When we have it in the greenhouse at the nursery, it's one of those things I can't walk by without running my hands across - it just smells so wonderful, I can't resist.
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Post by Siren on Apr 16, 2009 7:43:10 GMT -6
Those are gorgeous, TG! Some people just have a way with cacti like that, and you do. My mother does, as well. She has taken cacti that shriveled and nearly died under my care, and brought them to glorious, blooming life.
What a lovely rosemary plant, and a lovely remembrance.
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Post by stepper on Apr 18, 2009 1:41:03 GMT -6
That's the right color Phalon, but what I'm finding down here is very low to the ground - almost like the blooms are on runners instead of stalks. We have something like that here. Blue Bonnets and Indian Red Paints. They pop up all along the interstates and side roads, and can make red and blue oceans out of the rolling hills. People come from miles to take pictures of themselves and pets plopped down in the middle of all the color. I have to agree with the concept that it's fun finding the color of the flowers after a cold, drab, winter. All of mine are hybrid teas. I have the best luck if I wait until they've been dormant which means waiting for winter here, and then trimming them back a little before the spring thaw. They require different levels of care even if they are all hybrids. There's a green one that isn't especially vigorous, and requires an especially acidic soil for it to come up properly, but it's so novel I can't help but work on it. Wow TG! That's really nice! Out of kindness to the cacti I protect them from my black thumb. I do okay with other plants, but the cacti seem to confuse my house with a funeral parlor.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 19, 2009 7:15:29 GMT -6
Oh! I've seen pictures of those. Absolutely gorgeous!
Hybrid teas aren't very hardy here - the grafts tend to fail over the winter, and often what you're left with is a very hardy rose of a completely different variety growing from the rootstock.
Bluebonnets, Indian Red Paints, and hybrid teas....I always think it's interesting how the myriad of plants and flowers that grow well, or don't grow at all, differs from one region to another.
Most things still look dormant here unless you get close enough to see little heads starting to poke out of the ground, or tiny leaves just beginning to open. The exception is the early bulbs, magnolias and forsythias - they are all in full bloom. We've had two really nice days strung together.....driving home from work yesterday, it seemed some things in the woods along the highway just popped overnight. A light misty green appeared where just the day before there was gray.
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Post by quettalee on Apr 19, 2009 10:24:01 GMT -6
Lol. That's me, Stepper. Mom has always had a green thumb and huge, bountiful gardens my whole life. Of course, that's what poor country people in the south do...and we raised everything (I can even remember churning butter). But's let us not venture too far down Tobacco Road...
I have been trying to grow cuttings from her cactus my whole adult life. This is the first time one has ever bloomed. I have kept them alive for years at a time, but never had flowers before. This one is special, I know. I guess because mom had to finally go into a nursing home this past year and is no longer able to grow anything. I wasn't able to be there when the home sold and all her plants and flowers were "dispersed", so this is all I have left of her passion for growing things.
I believe in my heart it will always bloom!
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