Good Morning to all. I promised a gardening diary today to some members, so here it is although I am afraid with my present painful neck, I am going to have to make the intro short and sweet.
I am a lover of gardens of all kinds, flowers, vegs. fruit, container, etc. but presently only have room for a tiny veg. garden and dozens of container plants.
I don’t have a dig. camera so I have no glorious pics to post except some I have picked up on the internet, which I will post just to have something green on this page.
I have been doing a regular gardening diary, but now I would like to open it up to others to sign up for Sat. and I will then maybe do one once a month. So if you are interested please let me know.
Please bring you garden stories here and your pics and lets have a nice Garden Party. Everyone’s invited.
I do grow staghorn ferns and they are one of my favorite plants, this is not mine but mine look just like this.
Lantana, I have growing in 3 containers and I love it’s tiny purple flowers, wish I had a grand mass like this one:
Ok, that’s about the best I can do with an icepack on my neck as I type.
Please have fun at this garden party.
Just posted this diary, so get on over here to the garden party and have some fun. Bring pics.
hey diane..lovely antidote for such a whirling dervish of week here on the net. I’m still doing my free gardening for the apt. complex here as the owner just doesn’t or won’t have it taken care of besides having people mow the lawn once a week.(I’ve spent over a hundred hours now doing gardening that has helped save some bushes/plants etc-too bad I’m not getting paid)
I’m looking forward to lots of pictures from everyone with a camera who knows how to post pictures.
Afternoon, Diane. . .It’s a good thing you didn’t take my suggestion about the mushrooms diary. Good job for one so tired out as I know you are.
Thanks diane101! I already posted over at Frankenoid’s Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, as I’ve been doing since I first started my vegetable garden. She started a wonderful tradition.
So for anyone new to garden blogging, you’ll just have to jump in in the middle of my garden saga – here’s today’s report:
Y’all may remember that I let my dill get all out of control because I was trying to lure black swallowtails to the garden. Got some. Took the dill to the compost and then found another round of caterpillars on the parsley.
You can see why I think feeding them some dill or parsley is worth it, they’re beautiful. But this poor thing was trapped inside the bird netting over one of my tomatoes.Not such a great place to put your chrysalis. Don’t worry. I liberated it. Lovely to see it fly away.
Picked the last two squashes, and then dug up the squash plants. They put up a valiant fight against the squash vine borers – and we were able to pass along some squash to my daughter who requested them. A small reward to her for all the work she did on the tilling that made our garden possible. But you can see why they had to go – squash vine borers, hail, and then some kind of fungus on the leaves.
Now we have our path back on that side of the garden.
It’s too hot for tomatoes to set fruit down here in Texas anymore.
But there are lots of green ones, so we’ll be harvesting for a while. Now that we’ve managed to win the war with the birds. LOOK what I had to throw in the compost. It was sad.
They evidently were sneaking UNDER the edges of the bird netting. Got some tent stakes and nailed down the edges better, and so far, it seems to be keeping them out.
And the eggplant are finally setting fruit. Now that the squash are out of the way, maybe they’ll actually thrive.
Making more pickles today – we’re going to try dill this time. And trying freezing some tomatoes, too.
Thanks again, diane101 (I feel like I have to keeping adding the “101” since we have another diane). I’m wondering if your neck is hurting because you’ve been spending too much time at the computer welcoming folks. Much appreciated, but take care of yourself. Hope you feel better soon.
Hi Janet, so absolutely lovely to see your pics, makes me feel like I am right in the garden. I shall look at them over and over today. There is nothing more beautiful to me that plants, I am just a nut about them. I even like some weeds and am just now growing one in a continer. A sprout popped up and didn’t know what it was so I let it grow, and now I see it is a weed, but it has pretty little flowers and some tiny berries so I have to keep it.
I think you could say my neck problems are exacerbated by my long hours on the computer especially this week where I wrote more comments that I can believe.
Your garden is much father along than mine and mine was early. I have three tomatoes on vines, due to some pest problems and some yellow pear tomatoes that are doing good. We have been having big heat bursts on and off and container plants just go nuts and need watered 3 times a day at times.
I’ve been posting to Frankenoid’s diaries since we first dug the garden, so I have pics of it in all of its stages. I’ve been thinking I’d like to make a series showing how it grew, and since I haven’t posted to one of your garden diaries before, maybe this is a good place for it.
But not right now – I need to get some stuff done out in the real world. I have to do some serious yard work and cleaning at my other house (not anything as fun as “gardening,”) but if anyone is interested to see the series, maybe later tonight or next week.
And I could take over for you on a Saturday in July, I think. The summer school class I’m teaching is over at the end of June. Though I’m hoping to take a trip up to Oregon to visit a friend there before school starts, so we’d have to work around that. When I figure out if and when I’m really going.
Take care.
Janet, is that blue flower on the eggplant? I guess I’ve never seen an eggplant flower before. It’s gorgeous! How big would you say it is?
glad you stopped in. Yes, the blue flower is eggplant – and just for you, I went out and measured that very one (just took the pic this morning so it’s still blooming). It’s about 2 in. across. It’s kind of a purply blue.
The neat thing about veggie gardens is that not only do they give you good things to eat, they make pretty flowers too. Here’s Penny in the bean flowers last month. Needs a caption, don’t you think? But I haven’t been able to think of a good one.
Thank you! That’s both a pretty and a funny photo.
A caption? Hmm. Well, how about, “Eggplant?? She gives me eggplant again? Where’s my catnip?!”
I’m right here! lol
Great picture…as a play on that commercial..can you hear me now how bout ‘can you see me now? said of course in catsuperious sort of voice.
of my planter garden. Right now everything is in early stage. But I have some Iris in the yard and soon there will be masses of lilies all over my garden and all over town.
Here’s the first of 2 posts I put on dKos this AM. Diane, thanks for posting this here!
I love lilies of all types, even though I’m allergic to the more fragrant
ones… So below is what’s blooing in my front “yard” – click
pics for larger view. I did get some pics of the veggie garden,
just need to upload them.
This is the first year the day lilies are blooming. Have them in
light yellow and red/yellow. The red/yellow ones haven’t bloomed
yet. But I’m happy to see the light yellow ones.
I have more growing, they just haven’t bloomed yet.
http://www.art.com/asp/search/productsearch-asp/_/results.htm?search_string=Diego%20Rivera&RFID=
054402&S15529x001-Artist_Names&keyword=Diego%20Rivera
Lovely pictures. As I don’t know how to post pictures I will post this link to Diego Rivera’s paintings, many of which involved Calla Lilies(and I happen to have 3 of the prints in my apt.).
I love Diego Rivera! His works are so rich…
I have calla lilies in my garden as well, but they don’t seem to be blooming this year. 🙁 Not sure if they only bloom every other year or if they need some fertilizer.
Wow. The Calla Lillies.
What movie was it where Katherine Hepburn walked through French doors with a big bouquet of them in her hands, and she said, “The Calla Lillies are in bloom again.”
Is it not weird that that is about the only line I can ever remember from movies?
oh damn, a trivia question…my first guess would be ‘The Philidelphia Story’. Of which I happen to have a copy so I suppose I’m going to have to go through the movie to find the answer or this is going to bug the crap outa me.
“And thank you,” (she said, laughing).
I’m pretty sure you’re right though.
Hey Gardeners….Anyone has any ideas on what flowers won’t bring Bee’s into my backyard? I have a huge back yard…and had beautiful flowers all over it the past few months….It looked amazing…so colorful..the problem is..On Easter Afternoon…one of my 3 pups got bit by a bee…She had a horrible reaction and almost died…The vet in the ER said if I would have arrived 5 minutes later…she would not have made it..I was horrible..one of the worst experiences of my life…she lost all bodily functions, was limp and foaming at the mouth…Anyway, my little Brussels Griffon is doing great….she is back to normal, but I worry about planting new flowers and the bee’s that they will bring. My tiny long haired Chihuahua hasn’t gotten stung, although I don’t know if she is allergic to bee stings…anyway..any flower ideas are appreciated.
My dog got stung in her mouth 2 years ago and she couldn’t open it. We have to rush her to the vet hospital and they had to give her shots and she recovered. We were quite alarmed, a dog who cannot open her mouth, cannot pant.
She still goes after the bees tho, I see her snapping at them all the time.
I don’t know what flowers would keep bees away as that’s what they are attracted to, others may know.
Bit of warning, don’t wear brightly colored clothes in a bee area, especially yellow. I have a yellow and green flower skirt on one day and the bees would not leave it alone. Now I don’t wear that skirt into the garden.
to keep baby benedrill handy in case it happens again…at least that will hold her over until I get to the Animal hospital. Glad your dog survived the sting.
Squash or cukes. I’ve had to think calm, peacefully co-existing thoughts while working in my garden because I’m surrounded by bees.
I found this web page about how to attract bees – maybe you could read and do the opposite?
It says
so maybe . . . red? Red is good. Hummingbirds like red.
I can testify. . .bumblebees love my purple perennial salvia. They show no interest at all in my Navajo Red Salvia.
Very very off topic but Chamonix…I posted comment on ratings diary after diane emailed me…which I don’t believe you’ve seen..and yes that was a huge slip of the finger(heh) to have given you a 3…sooooooo sorry for the trouble it caused.
Hi Diane and all the new members. Just got back from Victoria B.C. Vancouver and Whistler. Buschart Gardens in Victoria were fabulous and I came back with a million ideas( although no energy).
Missed the dust-up OVER THERE-thankfully. So now I’m trying to catch up on 15 Welcome Wagon diaries. Wow.
I printed your instructions for posting pictures, Diane. Maybe by next gardening diary I can master it and send some Buschart photos. It was breathtaking.
If you want you could send to me and I will post for you, send to my email address. Otherwise Oui or Janet might be able to give you some easy instruction as I find it a little difficult to get the instruction to post right, without coming out as [image].
If I can be of any help let me know. Would love to see your pics. kind of like a vicarious journey through the world.
Aren’t those welcome wagon diaries something, did you ever post on one by the way?
I did post there. Long ago it seems.
http://www.butchartgardens.com/main.php
Even better, Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, and cheaper too.
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/parks/vandusen/website/
Yesterday I borrowed two pre-teen boys from my girlfriend Melisa and got some ground cleared. (They work for cookies!) I had a couple of trays of plants from Territorial Seeds that really needed to get in the ground and Melisa decided to take me in hand.
The boyz cleared out the beds in my herb garden, mostly, and I got in chamomile, oregano (fresh oregano–my favorite), lemon thyme, regular old thyme, two kinds of sage, and lemon balm. Melisa insisted on getting into the act so my tomato and pepper starts could get planted (yes it’s late, what’s your point?). So Melisa and I, mostly her really, cleared four of the 24 old triangular beds that were hopefully going to go away this year, she shoveled in some compost from the pile, and we got Brandywine, Heinz 263, Principese Borghese, Legend, Quali-T53 (I think), Sweet Million and Early Cherry tomatoes, and Early Jalapeno, Ancho 101 and Italian Pepperoncini peppers.
Half those tomatoes I didn’t order; Territorial ran out of the plants I ordered and substituted other varieties, so the Sweet Million, Quali-T and Legend tomatoes, we’ll see how they turn out. (Nifty thing about Territorial: They refunded the money for the plants I ordered that they ran out of, and gave me the substitutes for free. I highly recommend them. No financial relationship blah de blah, just a very long time customer.)
The fruit trees and berry vines I planted are doing all right; it looks like only two of the raspberry vines are really going to take off, but I’ll be able to propagate them fairly easily. The fruit trees (elderberry, pie cherry, plums and nectarine) are still alive, to my shock, considering how long they were out of the ground. They could use some pruning. Our existing old 4-in-1 apple tree is looking a little peaked and I don’t know how much longer it’ll be with us.
So now my attention turns to getting the hen house built, especially after Wednesday’s sadness: We had the chickens out in their temporary pen for a sunny day of eating grass, weeds and bugs when our ancient dog ripped out the (flimsy it turned out) staples on one side of the pen, chased three of the “girls” out, ate one, killed a second for fun and scared the third into hiding in the tall grass. Josie, my 7 year old, found the remains; the one that Kaila mostly ate was Josie’s favorite, a black araucana named Lucky that we were really looking forward to giving us eggs since araucanas lay blue, green or pink eggs. We’ll stick with the four remaining hens and if things go well we’ll get a few more chicks next spring. I really wanted to have extra eggs to sell, but with four hens we’ll get about 2 doz eggs which is enough for us to eat and have a few to give away but not enough to sell. And actually, I’m pretty worried that my favorite hen is actually a rooster. They’re still pretty young so it’s hard to tell, but s/he’s showing some signs. If Jumper does turn out to be a rooster, I can’t rename him Dinner as planned; I just like that chicken too much. Any of the others I wouldn’t have as much trouble. I think I have a friend in the country I could give Jumper to if it comes to that. (Countdown to eggs: T minus 60 days or so.)
After that, it’s removing all but 8 of the triangular beds; we’re leaving four under the apple tree where I’m going to plant mints, and the four with the pepper and tomato plants in them. Then we’ll dig long raised beds for summer/fall planting. The nice thing about being in Oregon is that we have four-season gardening if you manage it right, and this year we’re going to give it a real go.
And I’m still figuring out how to grow edible fish in my pond…
Oh man, wish I could get someone to work for cookies.
What kinda cookies?
Well, the kind I made the boyz was chocolate shortbread, made with spelt instead of wheat because my oldest is sensitive to wheat. Lots and lots of butter. I’m not 100% happy with the way they turned out; they were a little tough. I owe the boyz more cookies. When the goddamn chickens start laying eggs then I’ll be able to make different kinds of cookies; whenever I go to make cookies I’m inevitably out of eggs.
I’ve never even heard of chocolate shortbread before. It sounds yummy.
I brought this basket of strawberris, please have some.
Path to my patio door, laurel, heavenly bamboo, impatiens, baby tears fern
Container of Mexican orange blossom, petunias, diascia, rosemary in the background
Container of astilbe, baby tears, lemon-lime nicotania, bamboo in the background
Special thanks to Frankenoid at DKos because her diary got me back into miniature gardening and kick started me back into photography. Now, thanks to Diane101 for this opportunity!
Here is the LINK for more photos
Godess of the Garden (after Paul Klee)
Ohooo, I am so envious of your beautiful plants and all the other’s here as well. Now I don’t think mine look as good. The heat where I live can be so sufficating to plants and they require so much care. Over water, under water is my constant nightmare, really!!!
Sybil do you want to host the Garden diary next Sat. I would just like to do it once a month, but love seeing the stories and pics. and it is so refreshing on a Sat. morning to just sit back a little and dreams of gardens, the most glorious part of Mother Earth. Well one of them anyway.
I have some purple petunias that are doing really well, but then I just saw a collection of little black bugs on the leaves. what to do, anyone know a good organic spray. I have tried Neems oil but it is so hard to use. Also I use soapy water at times, but then it can curl the leaves.
Diane,
If Sybil can’t host the Garden Diary next Saturday, I can. Just let me know so I don’t do a duplicate.
Thanks again for being a wonderful host!
Hi, sure would be glad to have you do next week and then Sybil the next, then Janet maybe and then me again. Send me an email if you want to be able to contact me or whatever.
Any one else want to sign up for diaries, I will do a schedule in awhile and post it on the top part of the diary, so you can add this to your hot list and then it will be easy to find. We could use this diary for coordination.
Gee I am having the worst time with spelling and typing today, everything looks wrong when I type it, well maybe not everything, but a lot.
I think this will be fun to pass the diary around like this, just like the welcome wagon diaries.
Now we will have to schedule Sunday Sermons, since we have at least two Pastors, Dan and Lincoln. LOL
Diane:
Let me know when you want me to host.
I will have to insert photos of other peoples’
gardens since my garden is rather limited.
But I live in a garden city.
Please ask SusanHu for my personal email address.
thanks.
Great, that would be the 25th of june unless you and I think it was mlk… want to switch. Put this diary on hot list and then we can coordinate on this diary.
Sybil I think you live in France, is that correct.
Use whatever photos you want.
We could do ‘gardens around the world theme’for these diaries. I just love seeing all the beautiful pics from around the world, Makes you feel better against all the turmoil around the world you see every day. There really are plants and trees in other countries!!!!!!LOL
OK
I live in Canada, ‘the Malibu’ of Canada on Vancouver Island, right near the Butchard Gardens for tourists.
Oh am I slow today. Of course, I was using my way back machine and it apparently had a glitch.
I’m afraid I don’t have a garden – you guys with that opportunity have a great resource. Great pictures above too.
curly lives close to Central Park and the Conservancy Gardens – here’s an aerial photo on the left, and the Burnett Memorial Fountain (in the English Garden – left side in the aerial photo):
Below is the Untermyer Fountain in the French Garden (on the right in the aerial photo):
Nice backyard.
Just loverly ask, say do you want to sign up for a diary, you don’t have to be a gardener to host the party. Pics like the above from around where you live will be just fine. The joy is in the beauty of it all.
Just found out the temp was 72 here, in socal, you asked earlier.
You know – diane – I’m toying with the idea to gently convince curly to do it (it would be her first) – she’s interested in the topic. I’ll e-mail you when she’s back.
And when every I say that people make a face and say “you mean the stuff on the freeway?”
but in my garden.
Her nickname is Tutu, and she’s a baby Barn owl.
She’s beautiful!!
My oriental Poppies are magnificent this year because we have had such mild weather and so much rain. We don’t normally get much rain here in the high desert mountains.
This is what they look like, but I have a hundred or more in bloom right now. An old run of them, they were planted sometime in the mid 1940’s and have been spreading out ever since. I’ll take a picture tomorrow morning and post it.
.
In a spare moment – Click on link, thanks.
WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooTrib aka lost treasure of dKos
You all are really feeding my garden fantasies! I have so many gardening ideas and very little time. So I have an office window garden – with a staghorn fern, bromeliads, african violets; and our yard has a large pond, with water lilies, flag irises, rushes and all sorts of random wild foliage. A paradise for birds.