Front Yard...

Well, I thought it was about time to pay the front yard a little attention. I had planned to do it next year, but I decided to go ahead and do it. I just expanded the front flower bed enough to accomidate a Dogwood tree. We had one in front of the other house, and now we have one here too.

Friday, L and I went to go get some more of that "local rock". We went early in the morning, as soon as this quary opened, and had to load the truck by hand. Lots of fun. My truck was loaded down once again.

Saturday morning, I went and got a load of dirt from Bobby. I was so scared I was not going to make it home! He put 2 1/2 scoops of dirt in my truck. My mud flaps were touching the ground! My truck was complaining the whole way home. But I made it home alright. So that was probably around 1700lbs of dirt. At 1500lbs my mud flaps are about an inch off the ground. He put way to much in there!

Saturday afternoon, J came over to take a piece of grass from where I am expanding. He needed it to fill in where S's basketball pole was. Since I was just going to kill the grass anyway... No problemo there. He was actually going to take all the grass from the area where I was going to expand, but after that first little piece... He decided, and I'm darn glad he did, that he didn't need all that grass anyway. LOL It was around 95F. Yucky!

He went home, and then I decided to move the dirt. But first I wanted the Junipers out of the bed. So I went back to J, who had just taken a shower, and told him to come get the Junipers! He was not happy with me. But that is okay. He picks on me enough that he had this coming. Once he had the four Junipers out, I got to work.

I put down some newspaper to kill the grass, and then loaded the dirt on top of it. Took me maybe 45 minutes to move those 1700lbs, in 90F I might add!

Then today, Cecil and I went off to lowes. The plan was to get a metal watering can, and make a homemade fountain. But when we got to lowes, I found that I could get a kit that came with everything I needed for $30. That was cheaper than the pump! So that is the route we took.

The kit I got is, an Antique water pump, that sits on the side of a whiskey half barrel. You see whiskey barrels all over at the stores here. Usually. But today, there was not a single one to be found!!! We called everywhere! Oh well!

So... I had two in the backyard. One is growing flowers, and the other was growing herbs. Herbs that we didn't really use. So I decided to empty that one for my little water feature. Well guess what?! A whole army of Fire Ants had moved into the barrel, unbeknownst to me! I am now sporting about 25 fire ant bites all over my arms and legs. :( Not fun.

I got the barrel cleaned out, and then Cecil helped me move it to the front. He put the liner in. L came over around then, and she and I ended up moving the barrel into place in the expanded flower bed.

Well, I had wanted some sort of statue in this bed too. When Cecil and I were at lowes, I saw that they had the little boy and girl statues on clearance, but this lowes was all out of them. Once we got home, I had Cecil call the other lowes, and they happened to have one left. So I ran up to New Bern, and got the one they had. It's a little boy and girl on a teeter totter. Very cute! I also got a metal booble headed bunny. He is sooooooooo cute! Also got a few plants. But this bed is still very empty.

I plan to move some of the smaller daylilies from the back yard to the front. But I'll have to wait until the end of August to do that. It's just to hot to move plants right now. The rest of the flowers, I will start from seed. But I did put the Dogwood tree in place.

I have got a lot of compliments on what has been done so far. So I am happy! I will post before and during pictures tomorrow. After pictures will have to wait until next year, once the bed is full of flowers.

In other news, I set some more daylily seeds to soak. 5 seeds from a pretty pink unknown cultivar. That brings me up to 45 seeds started, and lots more to go! Yeah!

Alien looking flowers

I was bored tonight, and decided to play with the camera's settings. This is what I came up with. Pretty wild looking!

More seeds...

Today I started some more seeds. Santa Barbara Daisies, Rose Campion, more Crazy Daisies, more Obedience Plant, and some Pansies. I put up two shelves in the garden area to hold all these things away from the kids and dogs. The pansies I kept inside because it's too darn hot outside for them. Plus they require darkness to germinate, so I have them covered up. I'll have to remember to check them every few days. But if all these work... I'll have a good start in filling up the new bed.

More about seeds...

This is for a friend... She wants to put more perennials in her yard, but doesn't want to spend a lot of money. I don't blame her! But you can start perennials from seed too. They just might not bloom the first year. I am starting quite a few perennials from seed now, so that they will bloom next year. The first picture below is of some hollyhocks. Starting them now, so that they will bloom next year. I'm also starting Crazy Daisies, and eventually (once the seeds get here) coneflowers, and I forget what else. We have enough time left in our growing season here that I can get away with it.

Hollyhock seedlings

These however, are Zinnia's that I directed sowed this spring. This is how I will be filling up the daylily bed in the spring. By direct sowing seeds.

I'm also going to try winter sowing this year. That's where you sow the seeds in late fall, so that the seeds will bloom in the spring. There are lots of types of flowers that require the cold to bloom. Delphiniums, larkspur's, sweet pea's, poppies, etc are a few that can be winter sowed. That is for my zone 8 climate anyway. Way up there in Canada... Haven't got a clue. But I do know it works all the way to Zone 0. So you just gotta do your research! :)

Today I harvested "Moonlight Rhapsody" seeds. I got 13 seeds. Then in another mini mauve pod, I had 14 seeds. So I have them soaking in peroxide and water to germinate, since that seemed to work better.

I also went to the dollar store and bought some cheapie wheeled carts and put the other seed cups on them. They are now sitting on the drive way. Hopefully with the seeds being in the weather now, I'll see some action. I just wanna see one seedling! I'm telling you, this patience stuff sucks. :)

So today, I decided to chance fate, and I pulled my largest seed pod before it was totally brown and cracked open. This is called green harvesting. I was lucky! I now have 10 seeds from Daring Dilemma planted in cups waiting to sprout. I also did this one a seed pod from an unknown daylily, that looked to be rotting. I managed to save 1 seed from it. That brings my total to 38 daylilies in cups waiting to sprout. All of which have yet to sprout. I was impatient this morning, and dug up a seed in one of the cups to see if there was any progress being made. Na-da. It sits there just like I put it. Which, I guess is a good thing considering the alternative. At least it is not rotten.

Now, in the baggie, where I am trying a different method of getting them to sprout, I have 1 seed that has sprouted, and 3 that have not. So we'll see. If this way works faster, then this is the method I will use from now on.

Off to deadhead

Yeah! Seeds!

Well, my first seed order arrived today! Yeah!!! I am so excited! You'd think I'd won the lottery or something exciting like that. 75% of these seeds have to wait until December to be sown. About 15% have to wait until the spring. And the rest I can play with now! Woohoo! I plant three cups of Crazy Daisy's. Two of Obedience Plant. One of Clarkia. And I direct sowed some more Cosmos. So now I just wait and see.

And just to remind myself, the seeds are in the right drawer of my desk.

I have no action on my daylily seeds as of yet. This waiting is soooooooooooo hard for me! But that is why I started this... To help teach me patience. I just suck at it!

More Pretties

A cool shot of a large Rubeckia

New to the yard yesterday - Texas Star Hibiscus

Morning Glory that came back from last year

One of my many, many visitors. During daylight hours, there is always tons of butterflies and bees in the yard. So cute!!

I had to take Cecil to exchange the cable modem this morning. We passed by the only flower nursery in Havelock. They had a going out of business sign up. :( I did not buy a whole lot from this lady, but she was helpful to me a few times. So that makes two nurseries going out of business in our area. Makes me very sad.

Something interesting...

I found these pictures while looking for something else. These were taken before much of anything had been done in the back yard. Wow... I can't believe the difference! And except for help putting up the garden fence, laying some of the sod, and moving the last pile of dirt, *I* did this all by myself!

Right side of yard

Left side of yard... Notice the tree stumps still in the ground. Bottom right corner you can see I planted the peach tree already. We've gotten peachs off of it this year, and last year!

Trying something new...

Well, today I started some more daylily seeds. Three more "Happy Returns", which if I include yesterdays, brings the total to 10. I think that's all I will do from that daylily. I also started 5 from "Mini Mauve". I'll do 5 more from her, and that will be it. I need the room for all the fancy seeds which have not matured as of yet. But probably by the end of the week, I'll need to go buy more shelving to hold all these suckers.

So, for something new and different, I'm trying to increase my plants by taking cuttings. I actually have two batches going. One that I'm trying to root in water. That seems to be working well. And today, I'm trying to root a cinnamon spice carnation, pink phlox, toad lily, and a red coneflower. I have no idea if what I'm doing will work, but that is part of the fun.

Also ordered 5 more daylilies from Gail. I am going to get her to hold shipping until the middle of September tho. It's too darn hot right now and I'd probably lose them to the heat. But this will bring my total to either 89 or 90, depending on whether or not I can save Strawberry Velvet. Wow. Teehee!!

The yard with rock...

A close up of the "rock"
Pond area

Right side of yard standing at patio door

View standing at right fence

View from white arbor, gate is to the front yard

Left view from patio door

View of the garden from the fire pit

Long view standing at left fence

My back is killing me!

What a day! This morning, after I got all my "must do's" done for the day, I sat down with Cecil, ready to spend some more serious buckage on the backyard. Rocks. Rock down here where there is none is big $$$$$. The rock around the pond was some serious buckage, and that was just a small bit. So you can imagine how impressed Cecil was when I told him I wanted to line ALL my flower beds in the back yard with rocks.

But being the loving husband that he is, he sat down and called the rock man for me. By the time he was off the phone, he was beaming! So here I am thinking that he got me some great deal or something like that. Well he did! FREE ROCKS!!! Only thing was, I had to load them, and take them home!

So Nick and I went to get the free rocks. Ugh. The "rocks" we have around here are called "local rocks", because they are not really rocks. They are hard like rocks, various sizes like rocks, but that's about all the similarity to a "normal rock". What a "local rock" is, well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what it is. I just checked google, and even they don't know what "local rock" is. LOL But basically it's petrified sand/clay/shells/little creatures/etc in the size of a "rock". But it is not smooth like a rock, it is pointy and sharp, and all weird shapes. Kinda like a hunk of contrete with sea shells poured into it. Very interesting stuff.

So, Nick and I pull up to the rock man's place of business, and we do not see any rocks of any shape or form. So I go in to talk to the guy. Very sweet man. He tells me that LAST YEAR, some guy bought to much of this stuff to fill in his ditch with, had extra, and called the rock man to come get the rest. The rock man just dumped in the back, where it sat waiting just for me to come and get it. Well, you can imagine what this pile of rock looked like. Green. Green with weeds, vines, poison ivy, you name it, it was growing all around the rocks. Soooooooo, first we had to pull the weeds to get to the lovely free rocks. And naturally, I could not get the truck close enough to load the rocks because of all the equipment parked near the rocks. We had to carry the rocks to the truck two to five at a time. IT WAS NOT FUN!!!

We had to make two loads to get all the rocks home. Should have made three trips really, but the third trip would not have been a whole load. My truck was struggling big time with that second load. The mud flaps of the back tires were not quite an inch off the ground! LOL

This evening, between rain showers, the girls and I got three whole beds lined. I think we'll only have enough rocks to finish up this forth bed. Leaving me 4 beds left to line. Where I'm going to get those rocks from.... I'll probably go steal them from peoples ditches a little at a time! LOL Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Newbies

A newbie I got yesterday - Condilla

Also new yesterday, Phlox "David"

New - "Clara"

Last bloom on "Moonlight Raphsody"

A nice pic of Wish Fulfillment

And now for the bad news... I noticed that night that there was hardly anything left of the daylily "Strawberry Velvet". On further inspection, I realized I'd been struck by the "Crown Rot" monster. So I dug up the fans that were left, cut away all the rot, and soaked what was left in a diluted bleach solution. Now I'll let them dry out for a few days, and then plant in wet peat moss. Hopefully I can save them, if not... :( What a bummer that will be. I dosed the rest of the daylilies with my special concoction, so hopefully they will be okay. It was probably all that rain we had, followed by over 100F temps. I'd probably rot out there too if I had to stay out there all the time!

Finally, a different sunflower. The only ones up until now had been red or yellow. I planted 5 different kinds. So there is 2 to 3 more yet to show up.

A Leaf Bug on our house

Red Passionflower finally bloomed too!

Well, tonight I got brave.... Down another street, there is a lady whose garden I just drool over. It is a cottage garden. Exactly the look I will eventually obtain in my back yard. Well, tonight she was out in her yard as C, L, and I were riding our bikes. We stopped and I introduced myself to her, and asked if I could meet with her tomorrow to walk through her garden and pick her brain. I am so excited, and soooooooo nervous. In my little world here, I am the one everyone comes to for flower advice. But this lady is leagues ahead of me. So I'm probably going to sound like a total moron. But that's okay! At least I will be learning something, which is always good. I'm bringing my notebook so I can write down everything she tells me. She seems really nice tho. Her name is Ellen, and she looks to be in her 60's or so. So if things work out well, perhaps I will finally have a gardening mentor that knows this area. Perhaps one day I will post a picture of her garden. It really is gorgeous.

Starting Daylily seeds

Well, the time has arrived. I've now been collecting the dried Daylily seeds. Yesterday, Cecil and I went to lowes to get seed starting soil. Only the best for these little babies! I planted 3 from "Red Candy", 6 from "Daring Dilemma", and today will plant 5 from "Ugly". I figure why not. Just because Mom is ugly, doesn't mean the kids will be. By the end of the week, I should have more pods ready.

While at lowes, we looked into shelving. I need space to put all these little babies while they are growing. Also, this shelving will be used as a make shift greenhouse in the winter. That is, if the kids don't fill it up with their crap before I get to this project.

The new bed is doing good. Been searching seed sites to figure out what I'm going to fill it up with next year. My goal is to start everything from seed. Be a lot cheaper that way.

The pathway got 6 more additions made. Just think, I only have 4000000000 more to go!

A branched type of Rubeckia

The red Hibiscus

The temp at not even noon!

Yarrow

More Rubeckia

The new bed more decorated

Another Hydrangea that can't make up it's mind.

A Bee coming in for a landy on the Bee Balm.

Gazania, so cute!

Ideal Affair

This Hibiscus blossom is NINE inches across. They are called dinner plate size, and I can clearly see why! I am thrilled with this flower because it came back from last year. I also have a red one, I'll try to capture the next flower on film. Also have a new one that I have yet to see bloom. Should bloom any day now tho. Teehee!!

Today has been a very exciting day for me! I harvested my first daylily seeds!! Six seeds from Daring Dilemma. Tomorrow I shall go get what I need to get them started. I can not wait to see what pretty flowers I get out of all these little seeds! Each one holds a surprise. It will be just like Christmas! Woohoo!

More of the new bed

Sand for drainage

Dirt = Top soil, triple ground mulch, and turkey manure!

Some plants in place.

A different view

Closer view of the chair. That is a Hydrangea in side there.

And, I thought this was pretty. The pink Cleome, and the white "Cat Whiskars"

This is my garage, after my going to a plant sale. The owner of one of my favorite greenhouses is going to retire, and is selling off all of his stock at 50% off or less. I've been there twice already today. The first time with J, and the second time with L. Both time between the 3 of us we had my truck loaded down. So! I have a good start to my new garden bed.

This is the start of the new garden bed. That's how I do things... Get the plants first (only cause they were on sale), and then build the bed. A little backwards, but what the heck.

Spiderwort

Double Cutie

Sing the Blues

Sixteen Candles

A well behaved variety of Wistera