Soooooo disappointed!!!!!!

Kk came running to me this morning, telling me all excited that "that flower bloomed!". She was so excited, but once I saw it, I just wanted to cry!!! The above flower, is the stupid freakin' Peony that I have waited three freakin' years for. That is not at all what I was expecting! And I know damn well, I did not buy a single white one! I am so disappointed. Ya'll just have no idea. :(

Here is the Japanese Maple in place - yet again. The one that got hit by the freeze, died. I kinda thought it would, so I went out and bought a replacement right away. I just planted it today, after waiting to see what the first one would do. Hopefully this little gomer will live to grow up big and strong.

And here are my two helpers. :)

Picture day!

Another Bearded Iris opened this morning

The bird house Kk painted for me - her paint project

Hollyhock Malva

Peony progress - Maybe this week!!!

Ntfrog's Daylily

Clematis progress - Wow is all I have to say!

Coreopsis blooming - look at all the buds!

Iowa's in front, and Cecil's behind

Pink Honeysuckle still going strong

And lastly, another Iris blooming by the pond

I am now starting to get lots of scapes in the back yard on the Daylilies! Teehee! I am so excited to see all those pretty faces again. In the front, I may get to see the first new one, planted last year, this week! Woohoo!

The bluebirds are up to four eggs! Perhaps 5 today, but it's not looking like it. A normal clutch is 4-6, so we'll see!

I have lots of little seeds up all over the place, from where I took my remaining winter sowing seeds, and just scattered them all over the yard. I am hoping that this year, the beds are jammed packed! LOL

Stupid me

Today, all the pain caught up with me. I thought I was doing good. Just doing some work here and there. Today I found out I was wrong. Every joint in my body aches. My muscles are sore. I just want to cry, cause there was a few things I wanted to do today. But here it is already 5:00p.m., and I've only managed to get half of the yard watered. :(

On a brighter note... I have the first bloom on a winter sowed baby! A bright blue bachelor button. So cute! The Coreposis also decided to pick today to bloom. And I found a few more Daylily scapes in the back yard.

Yesterday, my first (and only so far) Daylily ordered arrived. I soaked them for about an hour, and then planted them in the new bed. Hopefully, I will see blooms on them this year. On some that I planted last fall... I don't think I will. They came in huge and nice looking, and over the winter have turned into these tiny little shrimps, that are too small to bloom. So I guess we will wait and see.

Also, yesterday the Bluebirds were up to two eggs. I usually check when I water, and since I haven't watered that side of the yard yet, I don't know if we have three eggs or not. But I hope so!

I suppose I should get out there and do that now. Yuck.

Palamedes Swallowtail Butterfly

One of the kids in the neighborhood, found this butterfly lying on the road, and brought it over to me. Obviously it got nailed by a car. You can see the damage to it's wings in the first picture below. It can still fly, but only for very short distances. Just enough to fly from flower to flower. Kk and I looked at many butterflies online to figure out which one it is. We discovered that it is a Palamedes Swallowtail butterfly. Fortunately I have enough flowers in bloom to keep it fed in the front garden bed. But if it is still around tomorrow, I may bring it down to the creek, as that is where it's main food source is located. Poor little thing. Sure is beautiful tho.


Well, I got a lot done today. Mowed the lawn, spread the rest of the seeds, watered everything. Then N2 and I went to Salvation Army, and bought a bunch of flower vases. I saw this idea on a website somewhere, liked it, and $6. later, here is my new birdbath! I can't say that I love it, but I do think it is neat. Next time tho, I'll use all clear glass. I bought one to many vases tho, so I also made a mealworm feeder. But it is already out in the yard being used by the Bluebirds. I'll have to take pictures of it in place. I also chopped down a tree for the 4th or 5th time. Stupid thing keeps growing back from the stump. So I took the ax to it this time. Hopefully now it is dead. :) Also tidied up stuff, hung up some cool stuff I had sitting around the garage waiting to go out in the yard. So it was a good day. Tomorrow, the two N's and I will work at the other houses yard. That damn thing needs to hurry up and sell!!!!

Almost done planting

Well, yesterday I spent most of the day playing in the dirt. I got most of the milk jug seedlings planted. I also got a lovely sun burn. Not impressed with that, especially since I also put sun screen on. :( Around noon I noticed that I have a pair of Bluebirds building a nest in our BB house! So...

Last night, my baby and me went to Lowes to get bird seed and stuff for them. Lowes had their bulbs for 50% off. So I bought another 6 bags. :) More lilies, more anemone's, and some Freesia and Ranunculus. I could have got more, but I behaved.

Today was spent planting up the remaining jugs, bulbs, and direct sowing seeds. I have about 13 containers left to plant. But I want to give them about another week to grow. The seedlings are too tiny to handle yet.

Tomorrow, I plan to direct sow the remaining seeds I have. Mow the back yard again. Water everything. And then I think I will finally be done planting except for those few milk jugs. Oh, and the Daylilies that should come towards the end of next week. Only problem is, I have NO freakin' idea where I am going to put them!!! LOL I am to the point, where I have no more room for tall stuff. This is a good problem to have. However, I am in desperate need of shorter stuff. I suck at planning. I just want the pretty stuff, and forget to keep size in mind. You see, size does matter!! Oh well, I shall find somewhere to squeeze them in.

A link for you to check out...

I've heard a few times, I wish I could garden, but I don't know how. I don't know where to start. Well, I just found this link, and thought I'd post it so you wanna be Gardener's can take a look. Go here to learn lots of stuff.

Today, I didn't do much in the garden. Still too cool for my liking. But tomorrow I will get to play! Yeah! Should be in the 70's. I did however go ahead and feed half of my Roses. That's all the food I had for them. I'm still not convinced this stuff works, but a friend of mine swears by it. So we'll see if they are any better looking than last year.

Wow... Even more blooms!

I have no idea what this shrub is! I totally forget! Anyone know?

Clematis has started blooming

A Clematis close up

Flowering Maple

Well, I got all my purchased babies planted today. Now I just have to finish up the winter sowed milk jugs. I hope to do that on Saturday. It's too freakin' cold for me to go play out there for long. I've turned into such a whimp! As much as I hate it hot, I prefer it to being so cold. We didn't even get out of the 50's today. Tomorrow is supposed to be 65, and then the glorious 70's come back. From the 10 day forecast, it looks like they will be here to stay this time. Yeah!

More Blooms

Stella D Oro - Check out all those buds!

Ganzia in the front bed, I love this little flower!

New Iris I planted in the back Daylily bed

Yellow Iris now blooming in the front bed

Some new 'Tunia's I bought today

The tiny pond in the front bed... There is blooms surrounding this thing. Snap Dragons, Dianthus, etc, etc, etc.

Dang wind!

I went out after I wrote the below, with my old sony, since it has the equivalent of IS, and took these pics. Not that great because of the wind, but still good enough to post.

My first ever Iris. :) It is SO pretty in person.

This, and below, are the Coleus I just picked up. I love this stuff!

And this, is a Giant Marigold. This bloom is at least 4 inches across!

This is craziness! The rain has stopped. The sun is shining. But go outside, and your head might blow off! We are having 50 mph winds today. I am just waiting for something to fall down. I had plans to run to New Bern, but there is no way I'm going over the high rise bridge in this wind.

This has put me a really poopie mood, cause I wanted to go and plant all my new babies. No point in doing that, as they'd just get wind damage. Of course my first Iris picks today to bloom. Leaning sideways on the ground no less.

The wind is supposed to continue till tomorrow, but gradually lessen after 6:00pm tonight. I was looking at my garden pictures from last year. My roses were in the procress of their first flush this time last year. This year I only have buds, not a single bloom. This sure is crazy weather!!

Newbies and Rain

Hillbilly Heart

Rose Masterpiece

For your eyes only

Spacecoast Dragon Prince

These are the four new daylilies that will enter my garden this year. Each one has meaning behind it. Hillbilly heart is for me, cause I'm rednecked and proud of it! LOL I asked Lowa and NTFrog to pick out flowers for themselves, which I will grow for them. They are good friends, and I thought it'd be nice to have something growing for them. This way every time I see their flower blooming, I will think of them. Frog picked out Rose Masterpiece, and Lowa, For your eyes only.

SC Dragon Prince, is for my Honey. We'll be together for 19 years on May 10th (our meet in person anniversary), and he is definitely my Dragon Prince. :)

When you order Daylilies from this place, they almost always send a bonus plant. So I'm excited to see which other one I'll get to add to my collection. It is their choice. So we'll see. :)

We are finally getting rain! LOTS of it!! When I woke up this morning the yards were flooded, the ditches full to the top, and it was still coming down. We seem to be in a break right now, but looking at the radar there is more coming. I really expect the plants to take off once this clears out and the sun starts to shine.

Alrighty, this stupid thing will not let me add the rain pictures to the bottom, so you've already seen them up there. We got 4 inches of rain, according to my rain gauge. We desperately needed it all tho. You can see how flooded our yard is. In the second picture, you can not even see the sidewalk to the front door! The pond was half way empty before the rains. At one point this afternoon, the dang thing was overflowing! I hope that Kk's fish are okay. I have this feeling that I'll be adding a few anyway.

I want to clean out the pond when I pressure wash the house. When I did that last year, we lost 2 fishes. I transfer them from the large pond, to the small pond. They handled that part fine. But moving them back to the clean pond, even tho I waited several days, was too much for them. So we'll see. I may just leave it nasty out of sheer laziness. :)

Yard Sale = More new Babies!

Well, this morning was our yard sale. Best one ever! I made $137. Woohoo!! Usually we don't even make that much between the three (Cynth, L, and I) of us! So it was a good day. Then, instead of hauling what didn't sell back into the house to sit there and collect dust, Cynth and I took it all to Salvation Army.

After the yard sale, the girls and I went back to the plant sale to pick up a Lady Banks Rose. But they were all sold out. So we got a few of the things Kk wanted to take care of the butterflies. Then on the way home from there, we stopped at the plant farm, and picked up more short stuff for the front. So... The front is almost done. I just need to start some medium stuff from seed. I'll probably direct seed it, and see how that goes. And, I still have money left! Woohoo!

I got everything in the front planted. And moved all the rest of the plants back into the garage...

Tonight/tomorrow, we are supposed to have one doozie of a storm. 30-40mph winds, and over an inch of rain, which we desperately need.

I went scape hunting in the back yard this afternoon. Not a single one to be found. :( I just don't understand it. In the front, the Stella's are loaded and blooming. In the back, no sign of scapes. Go figure.

Oh! I got 3 new things today for the garden too. Cynth and I stopped at yard sales on the way home from Sally Ann's. I got a set of the metal shutters that I'm going to attach to the fence, and train a vine to grow up. And then I got a ceramic duck for free. And the one I am most excited about... You know those light up deer people put out at Christmas?? Well, I got one for $1. Cecil took the lights off, so it's now just the frame. I put it in the yard by the little pond, and planted two different sweet potato vines at each end. As they grow, I'll train it to cover the deer. :) Gonna be so cool!

It twere a good day. :)

Plant Sale

Woo Hoo!!! Yeah!!! Teehee!!! I gots me lots of new babies that have been on my wish list for a while now! And some things are even better than I thought.

To start with, I got a variegated Angel's Trumpet. It will have large, long, pink "trumpets" for flowers. The leaves are various shades of light green. It is SO pretty, but will get quite large, so I gotta make room for it somewhere safe. It is highly poisonous to the dogs, so it will have to go behind my fence.

Then I got a Rose Mallow, 3 different Holly Hocks, a Flowering Maple, Japanese Painted Fern, Rain Lily, New Bern Lily, Tiger Lily, Stokes Aster, two six packs of Dahlia's, variegated Sweet Potato Vine, a Bearded Iris, and lastly, Joe Pye Weed (Which is not a weed at all). Oh, and N2 wanted lettuce, so we got a six pack of lettuce for her salads.

Now, I just have to decide where all this stuff will go in the garden, and get it planted. But it will not be today. Still suffering from the stupid UTI. Plus, I am going to get my hairs cut this afternoon. Perhaps Sunday, since tomorrow is the yard sale.

But! I am very happy! I got new babies!! :)

Progress Pics

Whiskey half barrel in back yard... In the back is a Peace Rose

Close up of the pink flowers in above photo - I forget what they are called

What the majority of my daylilies look like after the frost :(

Some flowers in the front bed

More of the same

View of the Daylily bed - You can see how many are not happy

View of front bed

View of Veggie garden replanted

Another bed... Kohlrabi and Zucchini in this one - Yum!

Well, I have been forced into taking it easy. I have come down with yet another UTI. Doc said if I hadn't of been seen today, I'd have been in the hospital tomorrow. This is by far the worst one I've ever had. I even had to get a shot in the ass! How embarrassing.

I haven't done a whole lot in the garden this week, other than plant a few things here and there, start some more milk jugs, and water. We have not yet had a good soaking rain. It has been a month. When I mowed the lawn the other day, to chop down the weeds before they set seed, it was like being in a dust cloud. It is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo dry out there. I might actually have to break down and water the lawn. I never water the lawn, so that should tell ya something.

Tomorrow is the Tryon Palace Plant Sale. N2 and I are going to go bright and early to find some new babies. Hopefully we'll find some real beauties. But for now, I'm off to shower, and then to bed. Yeah!

More frost damage

Well, it froze again last night. A lot of the stuff that was damage, is even more damaged. Plus add to the list, all the Mums in the front garden bed. The peach tree now has some damage, on some of the branches. So hopefully we'll still get some peaches this year. Thankfully the Gardenias have come away untouched. So have the Peonies.

One more night of freezing temps on the way, and then we should be good to grow till Autumn. But this just really sucks.

I am off to the hardware store to see if I can replace any of the veggies. It is just a mile up the road. Beats driving all the way to Lowes. I will not plant them until tomorrow tho. They will just join the ever growing pile in the garage. See pics below.


Edited to add...

Well, today was a productive day. Got all the babies watered this morning. Cleaned up dog crap. Mowed the lawn in the back and the front, even tho 95% of it was also killed by the frost. Put up some more fencing to keep Miss Sophie out of my turkey dirt. Got rid of all the empty milk jugs we were using to cover plants with. And hung up two mirrors in the back yard. One in a corner, and one by the bird bath. I am curious to see if it scares the birds away, or if they actually use it, or totally ignore it.

I saw on the local weather, that we broke a record on Sunday morning with that frost. It had not been that cold in 57 years. We broke the record with 1 degree. They actually had snow in surrounding areas. Thank God we did not get any. We haven't had snow at all this year. Not a single flake.

So tomorrow, I will start planting out stuff. I've decided not to do the Tomatoes until later in the week, just to be safe tho. I was able to replace the Zukes, and yellow squash at Ace. Also got some Broccoli for Cecil. When I go to New Bern, I'll stop at Lowes and pick up the other stuff I lost.