November Already!!!

This is a picture of our mum garden. They just bloomed and bloomed this year. I think it's because of all the wonderful rainshowers we received. I can't believe October is over. This week was just really busy and there's been little time for much of anything. I'm hoping things will slow down a bit after mid-month. Am looking forward to, believe it or not, doing a deep cleaning of my home prior to December--would also like to start decorating for Christmas. Our older son will have a birthday party next weekend with family coming to celebrate!! He will be in the double digits!! There are several blogs needing to be caught up on. I hope everyone has a great weekend--I apologize for the lack of posting! Blessings, Paula

We Are Very Fortunate!!

This is the view as we walk out our back garage door. The colors in the Maple tree are just glorious!! I can also see the Pine tree (to the left) and the Maple out of our kitchen window. We are very blessed to live where we live. Thinking about all of the individuals who are suffering now out on the West Coast who have lost everything and all of those who live in poverty having only the bare necessities makes me realize how fortunate we are to live where we do. There is color all over our yard, from the mum garden (I should post another picture now that all of the plants are in full bloom) to the small pumpkin patch to the trees. Please say a prayer for those who have been forced to evacuate in California that they are safe and may return to their homes soon. Blessings.

Fall Gardening Project

This has been one of my fall gardening projects. These gardening beds were full of weeds that were unmanageable. In order to make a nicer space for gardening, I pulled all the weeds and then put down landscaping cloth. And then, one by one, carried these retaining blocks in order to make an enclosed border. Before, the border consisted of old railroad ties and they were all rotting out. Instead of replacing the ties, we decided that the bricks would be much better with little maintenance required. Now, when next spring rolls around, we will be ready to go. Have a blessed day!!

Sedum

These are some of the last blooming flowers that we have in our garden--they are sedum. This variety of sedum has pretty white blooms that open in the late summer. We have so much of it, we need to cut it back. We also have some, I believe it's called, Autumn Joy sedum, more of a purplish red bloom that are also very beautiful. The only drawback to these flowers that I can think of is that they tend to attract a lot of bees. Sedum is a nice perennial that would make a great addition to any garden!!

Slag Glass

When we were at a garden center/feed store this past spring, I got out of the car and noticed these wonderful chunks of glass. My dear husband informed me it was called slag glass. They had all of these beautiful colors, so I picked up one in blue (shown above) and one in purple. When the sunlight shines upon these pieces of glass, they are absolutely stunning to look at. To this day, I wish I had bought more pieces of this glass to put in all kinds of spots around our garden. The pieces of glass do add a nice touch to the garden. Oh well, there is always next spring!! Have a blessed weekend!

Have a Happy Day!!

This morning, I was outside cleaning out the garden and picking the last remaining tomatoes and peppers. Then I brought them in and was cutting the peppers into rings and strips in order to freeze them. I sliced off the top portion of this pepper and looked down only to notice a little "smiley face" in the pepper. I did a double take and thought, oh, I need to post this on the blog. With that, may you all have a happy day and enjoy the fall season!!

Juncus Big Twister

This plant I found out Wal-mart a few weeks ago. I'd never seen anything like it, so decided that I would give it a try and plant it in our garden. It mentioned that it will survive to -10 degrees, so I'm not sure if it will survive winter. It has these long, green corkscrew type spindles--in other words, I'm not really sure what they are called (laughing)!! I tried to find out some information about this plant by doing an Internet search, but there was not much information out there. It sounds as if it doesn't necessarily do well as a houseplant, and does quite well in wet soil. We shall see if it comes back next spring.

First Pumpkin of the Season

This is the first pumpkin of the season from our garden--although he's a little leaky because I ended up pulling most of the top stem off!! We haven't planted pumpkins for a couple of years because there's not a lot of time to check them daily. We decided to plant a few hills this year because we love having them in the fall, but again this year there was just not enough time to check on them regularly. Imagine my surprise when I found this guy a few weeks ago--I figured we wouldn't have any pumpkins because they just didn't get regular care--i.e, we just planted them and let them go. He's not very big, and also noticed there are more pumpkins on their way--hooray!! Pumpkins take a lot of room to grow--if you have the room, try growing some--I did notice some of the pumkin vines were growing up into our pine trees. They are also just great for the kids in the fall!! Have a very blessed day!!

Mums Gone Wild!

Chrysanthemums, that is! We love mums! Last year I planted about 10 new mum plants in a relatively small garden area (I planted these in memory of my mother)--one didn't survive, but the rest really took off and grew quite large. Two of the mums bloomed this summer, and the light purple one shown above is now showing glorious color. Am patiently waiting for the others to start blooming. We did try and make sure to keep these watered frequently this spring and summer, plus we had some great rainfall that really helped. I also planted some mums last year on the south side of our house in direct sun--most of them did not come back, I think it was just too hot. If you love mums, now is the time to plant as you will find lots of them at your local garden center or nursery. These are also great for fall decorating. Have a blessed day!!

Miniature Roses

A few years ago, I was at a local nursery browsing all of the wonderful plants and flowers they had when I stumbled across some miniature roses--oh my, were they stunning!! Absolutely breathtaking!! I planted two other minature roses, one which has orange-pink petals and has already bloomed (I never took any pictures either--that will teach me!). Of course, you may have to wait until next spring or summer to find these at your local nursery. They are small and take up very little space. If you have a small spot in your garden and wish to add some gorgeous color, try these--I don't think you will be disappointed. Have a great weekend!!

Way Too Many Trees!!!

This is a very small portion of our back yard. As you can see it is quite overgrown. We had a tree service come yesterday to clear out 10 trees including 3 apple trees--we have many more trees to be cut down next spring also. I have every intention of laying down landscaping cloth in this area followed by mulch, and then adding some nice compact plants and shrubs and stepping stones to create a meandering path (sounds lovely, doesnt it??--ha!!). Follow along and we will see how much I can get accomplished with this area this fall before the first snowfall. Have a blessed day!!

Peppers

I found this rather large pepper (this photo was really close up!) in the garden a few weeks ago, along with other, not quite so large, peppers. The peppers this year had a late start because I let too many weeds grow around them--they really needed room to breathe, so to speak. Once I cleared the weeds away and allowed them to have lots of sunshine, they took off and grew. The nice thing about peppers is they do not take a tremendous amount of room to grow. Some peppers were sliced thin and others were chopped and put in the freezer. They are great for stir frys or other dishes where you want some additional taste and color. Or, in our case, we love them sauteed with onions and then fixed with brats! Yum!!

Hibiscus in the Garden

This is one of the most beautiful flowers we have in our garden. When I planted it a couple of years ago, it was a rather small plant. Little did I realize how large and beautiful it would become. It needs some room to grow and good, regular watering. The blooms are quite large, and this photo really doesn't do justice to how beautiful the blooms are. We also have one that has purple flowers on the plant, but because it was planted under our pine trees, the blooms are not producing that well. I've also seen another hibiscus plant in our area that has red blooms and is quite beautiful. This is one flower that you really can't go wrong with!!

Morning Glory

I snapped this photo the other day while working in the garden. We have lots of these morning glories. They are a very pretty blueish purple flower. This plant would be a good choice if you have an arbor or trellis as it seems to be a climber and has "taken over" some of our garden fence. As I was looking at this flower, I noticed a little green thing down in the middle of it, and then he decided to crawl out and make his presence known. I had never seen this type of spider before. If anyone has any idea what type of spider this is, please let me know.

Fading Days of Summer

The days of summer are slowly starting to fade away--the nights are getting shorter, the blooms are starting to dull, the children are heading back to school. Football is on people's minds. There is much work to be done in the garden in the coming weeks. We have a lot of weeding to do, and many tree branches and vines need to be trimmed. It's also about time to start thinking about any flowers you may want to plant for next year. Any local nursery or garden center has a variety of flowers or trees to choose from. Simply take a look around the outside of your home and envision what might look good in your garden!! You might be surprised!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Mexican Heather

This plant is called Mexican Heather. I planted it this spring when it was much smaller, but with the nice spring rains we had, and all the rain we have had lately, it is really growing. I'd never heard of this plant, but understand that it grows a into a nice compact size. It has small purple flowers which add a nice colorful touch to the garden.

Water Lily

I was looking out our kitchen window the other day and saw this very beautiful water lily in full bloom. Several years ago when we bought our home, it had four small ponds on the property. The ponds already had some water plants, but I wanted to put a hardy water lily plant in the pond. I started by simply putting the basic plant in a plastic pot (I believe I put potting soil around it) and then set it by the edge of the pond under water. Well, a few weeks later, the pot fell down deeper into the center of the pond, and it has produced these stunning pink blooms ever since. This one water lily that was planted has really taken over the majority of one of our ponds. It does provide some nice shade for our koi. I hope you had a blessed day!!

Tomatoes!

This year, I planted 8 tomato plants--not very many. They have, however, produced quite a few tomatoes. Three of the plants were of the roma variety, which have produced a lot of tomatoes. I have been canning them--it is wonderful to pull out a jar of tomatoes in the middle of winter for soups and stews. We received a lot of nice, spring rains which really helped the tomatoes. I have tried to water them every other day this summer. It has really been hot lately, but Wednesday we received a substantial downpour, so I may not need to water them for a while. We also like to slice them and pour French dressing over them. Yum!!