The Cross, a Bible, and Jesus.

I seen something today that I wanted to share with you. I posted this morning, but this is pretty great so I want to share now. LOL

Today I went to visit and have lunch with my mom at work. She is a manager at Salvation Army. I am a HUGE thrift store lover so its really great that she works there! I was looking for some clothes to wear to church. I mean who wants to wear the same thing every Sunday?? Not me. And amazingly I actually found something!! I couldn't believe. I have the hardest time finding clothes anywhere much less at thrift store, then its almost impossible! But I did! I found a really great red and black blouse to go with my one pair of black dress pants. It fit perfect and I LOVE IT! But the real find of the day was this beautiful dark gray pant set from Sag Harbor!! It looked so good when I tried it on, I almost cried. God knew I needed clothes and he provided them, for $11 no less! That's a pretty huge God moment. I was really overwhelmed with gratitude.

We had a really great time, having lunch and talking. Sometimes it feels like we are more sisters than mother and daughter. As you may know, my father died in the middle of January. So she is really having a hard time. They were married 27 years. And although he is in Heaven now and out of pain. I know it still kills her to go to bed alone every night, and come home to find him not there. I know its killing her. But thankfully I also know God. The will of God will never take you were the grace of God won't keep you. Although sometimes its hard to remember that when the emotional pain is so hard to bear. Please keep her in your prayers.

On the way home, on the side of the road, there was a man. A young man with a life size wood cross that said Jesus and a Bible in his hand. He had this huge cheesy grin on his face, but it was beautiful. Because he was doing something that was just absolutely amazing. He was on the busiest road in the entire city and he wasn't ashamed. That's beautiful. I was astounded by the simplicity of his message. A bible, a cross, and Jesus. I loved it that he didn't see a reason to wear a sandwich board with a bible verse (although there is nothing wrong with that!) or a message of condemnation! It was absolutely amazing. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it.

But it made me wonder.

Would I be willing to do that? On the busiest road? I doubt it. I don't even know if I would be willing to do that in my small neighborhood, much less the busiest road in town!
Then my next thought was, why? Was I ashamed? No. Was I too concerned that people may look at me like a freak? Maybe. Or was it that I was too concerned with myself to worry about someone else's salvation? I hope not, I seriously hope not. I know that I wasn't the only person that man effected. I know that I wasn't the only person amazed at his courage. I know that I am not the only one asking the question. "would I do that?"

All he had was a cross, a Bible and Jesus, but I think that's all he needed.


Theres only one song that can be here.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

....continued


That Sunday we woke up and we got ready. I was so so nervous. I kept rushing everybody along and trying to get there early. We did end up getting there early. 20 minutes too early. lol. We drove into the parking lot and there was an older man who was sitting in his car, waiting on the time to go in I guess. (we were only going to preaching) So we waited and waited and waited. It felt like forever. But 10:45 did eventually arrive and we got out of the car. Where did we go?? The front door, the side door? We didn't know. I ,of course thought well that's easy go in the front door. Yeah not that easy. See on there website they had two services for there 11 o'clock service, one traditional, one contemporary. Which was one of the reasons I had thought this church was a good option. I didn't mind traditional , that was how I grew up. We didn't have contemporary services. I mean we were BAPTIST! Drums? umm.. no. that would surely send you to hell. A song that wasn't wrote back in 1755? nope.. obviously these young whipper snappers who write these songs today are led by some young radical God that we don't know! The God back then, can't be the same God as now! Okay, so maybe that was a drastic example, but still.
As I said, there was a traditional service and a contemporary service at 11 o'clock. We walked up to a side door and heard music so my husband, the logical non nervous one , led us there. I was having a hard time trusting him, I wanted to blend in! Act like we had been going there forever and it wasn't a big deal. I didn't want to ask for directions! Just go in the front door! Anyways, thankfully I just followed him and shut my big mouth. He went in and there was a young woman singing with a band made of teenagers! It was pretty cool, seeing these young kids being the band.

There was a large wood box thing on the back wall, when we walked in. (where they run the equipment) There was a guy there so honey asked him. And he said the contemporary service was held there and the traditional was held in the sanctuary. So we just say down and stayed in there. We sat in the back , of course, blending in and so we had a quick escape route! The service started with singing. It was pretty great, I knew the songs. I felt confident. I was praising the Lord and it felt great! I was were I needed to be! I was so happy!

The associate pastor got up on the platform and made some announcements. One made me pause. He said "next week we have something special planned for you. The preacher will be preaching live over here and I will be preaching live in the sanctuary. The preacher has asked me to preach a sermon about my vision for the church.." Okay did you catch that? Live, we will be preaching live? I already had a pretty good idea what he meant. But I was still hoping it wasn't true. It was putting A LOT of emphasis on it being LIVE. But I was like okay cool no big deal. I just assumed that the associate pastor would be the one preaching the sermon in this service. It made sense. I mean he seemed like a very easy going, friendly guy. I was still optimistic.

But then.. the associate pastor sat down on a chair in the corner of the platform and the projector was turned on. oh my. And the next thing I see in the preacher.. on the screen... preaching.

This next part may seem overly critical. It may seem like I am judging him. I'm not. What went on is between him and God.. and his congregation. I am only an observer honestly seeking a God-fearing, people loving church.

He started with a loud, orators voice. You know what I'm talking about. There voice goes up and down and up and down. It was like a roller coaster. But no big deal. as I said I'm baptist. Baptists probably invented that move! Next he introduces the topic for the sermon. Tithing. Now before you draw conclusions. I know that we are to tithe. Its a basic biblical principle. I also believe it should be taught in love.. and compassion and understanding. It wasn't, at all.
One of the first things he says, " I hate television evangelists..."

Umm.. Billy Graham, Joyce Meyer?? umm.. Charles Stanley? Are you serious? umm.. serious doubts are coming up now. Very serious doubts. Later on in the message he says, " you give money to TV evangelists?? Then next time you get sick call THEM and ask them to visit you when your sick!" ummm.. okay.. shifting in my seat.. very uncomfortable. You mean that's why we tithe?? To pay the preacher to come see us when we are sick.. hmm.. well, I didn't know that. I thought we did it in obedience to God and you visited out of love.. yeah crazy concept.

Then he talks about if you pay your tithes that God will bless you. God will provide all your needs and then he kept repeating, "Blessings don't mean bucks, blessings don't mean bucks." umm.. I understand that to a point, but if we are serving the same God. Then God def does give money as blessings, IF you can handle it. If its in his will. He just kept repeating it. Then he says "God will provide your needs not your wants." WHOA! What?? are you talking about GOD? Because in my experience God has provided a million of my wants, some of them even before I want it! God is constantly proving that HE is a giver of needs and WANTS. I could right now, at this very moment give you a list of the wants he has provided in the past month!

In the bible it says, "speak the truth in love." "without love you are as a clanging cymbal!"

I am by nature (human nature) a critical person. I know that. I pray about it and I'm honestly trying to work on it. That's why when we got out of church (running) and into the car (with the windows rolled up) and out of the parking lot (in case they could read lips) We discussed it.
My husband agreed with me. He seen the same thing I did. It seemed like the preacher was the controlling element of the church, nothing happened that he didn't want. Like maybe letting the associate pastor preach to the contemporary service. I can only imagine the battle that went into trying to get the contemporary service! And the drums to play in the service! I honestly can't imagine.

We prayed about it, seriously discussed it, and we decided later than evening, that we would not be going back to that church. I was extremely discouraged. I just didn't understand why God didn't bless our search and let us find the right church the first time! Then my husband said something that put it all in to prospective. "We did what we were supposed to do. we obeyed God." And that's when I realized that, that was the real reason for going.

Joyce Meyer has a sermon she teaches about mountains. Mountains being problems. When we have a mountain there is a lesson to learn every time. You learn the lesson, the mountain moves, you don't learn the lesson, the mountain stays and you just keep going around it. In this case my mountain was just obeying God. Do the right thing. Why do I know that? Because the next week.. that mountain was GONE!


...stay tuned for Part three, the final conclusion to our family church search!

I am the bride of Christ!

I am a christian, in case you didn't notice. : ) I am not perfect, I have a million flaws, but thankfully through Jesus I am without shame or guilt. He's still working on me, making me what I ought to be. I sang those words when I was younger, not understanding what they really meant, but in the past couple of weeks I have really started to cling to those words.

Since Alex has been born we have went not went to church, hardly at all. I have been really convicted and I know that I can't be what God wants me to be without it. I have struggled and come up the excuses, and I have struggled with my own insecurities. But I had finely decided that I needed to put those excuses away and go, for Alex's sake. I don't want him to go through life and not understand Jesus, not have Jesus. He is always watching Veggietales and I am always singing about Jesus and talking about Jesus, but that's not enough. I knew that we had to do something. One of the excuses was I didn't have anything to wear, I didn't. I did consider wearing jeans and a nice shirt and I knew that if the entire congregation frowned upon that , I would probably say, nah. not for us. I didn't want that pressure, I was nervous enough. I wanted to blend in, not stand out.

So I told God that if he would find me a shirt the next day (it was Saturday) we would go to church. I knew that God would help me. He always does.

We went to Carolina thrift in search for something to wear. I have not lost the baby weight from Alex, if anything I have gained, so its not a small task to find me something to wear. I found several things but they didn't look like they fit, and the others I found didn't match anything I had. So back to square one. I knew as I stood there that God would provide. He's constantly providing and surprising me with his generosity and love.

I decided that I could get away with my black dress pants, but what about a shirt? We went to Wal-mart next to get groceries. I found this really great Norma Kamali Blouse for $5!!! I absolutely love it!

Some of you may say that God doesn't work like that, but I disagree. I know that God knows all my needs and amazingly he understood my battle, he understood the way I felt and he said, "its okay, I'll take care of it."

Part 1 church battle was over. Clothes, check.

The next part of the battle was whether to take Alex to the first service. I wanted to, I really did, but the logical side said that it would be easier to try to out before we get into the whole nursery thing. I mean what of the church we went to were wackos? (Trust me, there out there!)

And not to mention hes never had to stay with anyone that wasn't family! So my husband called his mom and it was set up for him to stay with her during our adventure. (by now, that's what it was!)

Part 2 church battle was over. Alex, check.

I had already found the church I wanted to go to, it was Baptist. We where set. I was so nervous! I hate going to new places like that! But that night we prayed and I had been telling God about my battle, he understood. Because that night after me and my husband had had read the Bible and prayed about it, I laid down and tried to think about it logically.

Why was I going to church? To worship God and be obedient to him.

That was the bottom line. I wasn't going to do anything more than that. I didn't have to worry about people not liking me or not thinking I was dressed appropriately. That didn't matter!

And that's when God showed me the perfect illustration to get me through it!

Preparing for our wedding was kind of a nightmare. If it wasn't one thing to worry about it was the other. The church, the bridesmaids, the honeymoon, hectic, craziness! I was stressed out a lot of the time, We pretty much done it on our own. But even in all the craziness, when I walked through those church doors and laid my eyes on my beloved, none of it mattered. I didn't care if people were swinging from the chandeliers. All that matted was that I was marrying the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with!

And that's when the light bulb came on! As long as I kept my eyes one my beloved, nothing else mattered! I was his bride! I could handle this! Its amazing that God used that illustration to show me what it was all about, because in the bible, the church is the bridegroom of Christ! I am part of the church. I am saved and sanctified and every other thing that goes along with being the church!

Stayed tuned for part 2 of the Church search!

Hope everyone has a great day : )

Eclectic, thats me.

So I haven't blogged in a while and now I am back. : ) I was getting frustrated with coming up with only blog posts about my garden, since this is pretty much the first year of my garden. There really wasn't that much going on. Plus, I have hobby A.D.D. , meaning that after a week or two of doing something I need something new. Its aggravating and its frustrating. I see these people who are constantly blogging about there gardens and that's pretty much all they blog about. I am trying to be like you! But I can't. I am just too extremely eclectic. I am interested in everything! I have a million different ideas, plans, and interests. I want to start one thing and stick to it, but I can't!
For example, my husband found this really great (FREE) online game for us to play. No I am not a gamer, but in this situation, I was, BIG TIME! It took us a month and a half and we got to level 50. I was devoting way too much time to it, it took time away from things that were much more important, so I slowed down. And that was the death of the obsession. I haven't played in over a week and can't say that I will be again for awhile. Yup, A.D.D.
My current obsession is knitting! I found some really great Knifty Knitter looms and wah-lah. Obsession begins. Within a day of realizing that not only did I love it, but I could make Christmas gifts with it! So I started the project of knitting wonderful knit hats for everybody in my husbands family! Yeah, my family? another story all together. It took me a week and a half to knit 16 hats! When I get obsessed with something I go all out! LOL!
So the entire point of this rambling about my eclectic obsessions is that I now understand that I have to embrace the way God made me. Things always work out better that way anyways.
Now I will blog about anything, and everything. Well, except politics.

Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. ~Author Unknown

I want to start this post by thanking everyone who commented about my last post. I really appreciate your comments. Thank you : )

If you have been following me this year or if you have looked at past posts then you will know that I started this garden from scratch this year and it has taken off! But as you can see from the bottom right corner that is where the down spout is, so the mulch has washed away. My honey is in the process of creating a french drain so we will not have that problem again.

This is the cockscomb I started from seed this year. I really need to divide them... Plus this is the only flower that honey has liked. ( the red one)



This is the limelight hydrangea before I cut the blooms off to use as cut flowers again. I can't believe they have bloomed again this soon!

This is one of the three Lisianthus's I bought on clearance at Wal-mart. This is the only survivor. : (

This is more cockscomb that needs dividing. I really love the fluffy blooms!

This is the frosty cherry hydrangea I planted last fall

I just love this watering can/planter. It has orange Ice geraniums planted in it.

LOOK! My $1 hibiscus tree bloomed! I LOVE IT!

Remember those really tacky* decorations from home interiors that EVERYONE owned?? Well, I found some at Salvation Army and just knew that they would be great as garden decor. Well, after I painted them of course.

*- tacky is a matter of opinion please do not be offended if you have some hanging in your house.

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway. ~Mary Kay Ash

I haven't posted in awhile so I have a lot of pictures I want to share with, but I don't want to bore you with all of them in one post. So stay tuned : )

This is from the "Limelight" Hydrangea that my honey bought me for Mother's Day! I love using these blooms for cut flowers!


This is a cloche I got at Salvation Army for $1.99 and I couldn't resist after seeing everyone Else's vignettes with cloches. (sorry if I didn't spell that right) So here is mine that I filled with cherry Magellan zinnias.

This is a crappy picture, but these are the Zinnias near the driveway. They are great cut flowers!

This is the wall of morning Glory's.

I really didn't think it would ever get this full!

Here is the cherry Magellan zinnia.

I had to put the cherry zinnias with the marigolds since the all the seeds for the zinnias didn't germinate!! I think it looks happy : )

This has turned out to be my very favorite part of the yard. When I walk out the smell is intoxicating along with the butterfly's and bees that are constant visitors. Which was the entire point of the garden.

My husband thinks we should line the driveway with the balsam next year. What do you think?
The balsam is on the left side of the steps.

I trimmed down the Snapdragons that were in the front of the zinnias and they are currently sitting in the garage so I can steal the seeds : ) YAY! Hopefully they will re bloom in the fall!




I hope you have a great day and Happy Gardening!

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~Author Unknown

I haven't had much time to post lately, but I will soon. This is just a collage that I created and I wanted to share with you. You can click on the image to enlarge it. Enjoy : )

Hope everyone has a great day!

"Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world." ~ Joyce Meyer

Just wanted to show some of the things we have been working on. We as in me and my honey, who helps cutting wood and other manly stuff. LOL not really I'm just scared of the skill saw!

That's me!

I think maybe this should of said "beware of the snap dragons" but alas. no more room. : )



My favorite quote from Joyce Meyer!

Anyone want any weeds?!

That is my fantastic husband staining the boards for our raised bed shade garden.

Now I'm just bragging. My husband built this fold down work bench for the garage because he was sick of me using his work space, now we have separate areas. Now if only I can convince him to paint it....

Its amazing what a coat of paint will do

The trellis my honey made me!!! But what do I put on it?? Clematis or climbing Roses???

The bed with the snapdragon sign...for obvious reasons : )



I hope everyone has a great day and Happy Gardening!

PS. We need a rain dance too!

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~Eartha Kitt

Its been pretty hot lately so needless to say I haven't been out working in the yard. The flowers seem to be doing okay. Right now it feels like I'm kinda trial and error with the flowers. Like I'm really hating that I got plain impatiens instead of trying to find the double impatiens seeds. I am also regretting starting a lot of annuals instead of focusing on perennials. But what can you do? besides store it away and remember it next year.

These are the impatiens that I wish I would have done as double impatiens.


This is the Balsam I started from seed (direct sow!!) and they are doing remarkably well. Even the heat and humidity they keep on trucking without even wilting!

Okay so this a complete mystery. I planted morning glory's along the entire length of the trellis and only one side decided to germinate. ??? idk.

I have NO IDEA what happened with this rose?? Its so... pathetic.

This is the Blue Girl rose I had ordered from... Gurneys??? or Michigan Bulb?? I don't remember. Either way its not doing very good. I mean the entire rose garden seems to be suffering, but this one is REALLY REALLY BAD! Any ideas as to what's wrong??

This is the direct sow cut flower garden. I have been working to weed it and thin the seedlings out, but as you can see I am only half done. : ) I am waiting on some rain to make the job a little easier.

Yay! My little Limelight hydrangea bloomed. But I do have to get some kind of hoop to hold those heavy blooms up.

Just a pretty little Dahlia. Such a happy little flower : )

Well look at that! My little clearance Hibiscus tree is leafing out! YAY!

These are the little Daisy tree with some Alyssum threw in. (not the best combination : ( )
Behind it is the Mock orange that is growing so FAST!




So thats pretty much all thats going on here.

Hope everyone has a great day and Happy Gardening!

The North Carolina Zoo Since 1974

I love the zoo. I had been waiting to go since my husbands company Christmas party where we won 4 free tickets. Its not expensive, but it gives me a reason to go, even when we have no money : ) I have been trying to get there since the first of May, but our weather has been awfully unpredictable. raining or too hot. So finally my husband just took a vacation day and this past Monday we went! And boy were we in for a SHOW!

Here is some information about the North Carolina Zoo.


~Located just south of Asheboro, the North Carolina Zoo is seated on a 1,500 tract of land in the Uwharrie Mountains. Approximately 500 acres of this property have been developed into one of the largest "natural habitat" zoos in the United States. You won't find cages made of steel and concrete here! Our animals are given enclosures that mimic their natural habitats to include trees, ponds, rocks, grass and dirt.~

This was taken in the Pavilion from the video above.


They have a lot of Orchids!

The pink is my favorite.

I don't know what this is.






One of the Seals!

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I want one!

This is the desert Pavilion. Its HUGE!



The Flamingos are my favorite, well along with the Puffins, that I could not get a picture of!

Hibiscus!

I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures from our Zoo trip. If any of you live anywhere close to The Piedmont of North Carolina you should make a trip. Its a really great experience and its fairly cheap!

Hope everyone has a GREAT day and Happy Gardening!

"Money grows on the tree of patience." - Proverb

As you may know, I am a Stay at home mom. My husband has a good job,but when supporting three people and a mortgage it can get tough. That is why I try to be a very thrifty plant shopper. Out of necessity and out of greed probably. I just want more for my money. But there are some things that I have picked up in the small amount of time I have been gardening that I want to share with the rest of you.



1~ As you may know. The biggest tip is to find the clearance section in your gardening center. Mine mostly being Lowe's and Wal-mart. Sometimes however I do get lucky enough to find moderately (notice I didn't say cheap : ) priced plants in nurseries. The clearance section is usually the ones that have been over watered or been in the sun when it need shade or vice-versa. They usually look like crap , but a lot of times they do have hidden potential you just have to find it. Plus, when its $.50 I mean why does it really matter? : )

Take this weekend for example. We went to Lowes (like we do every weekend) and of course we DID NOT have extra money, so I headed first to the clearance section. I was in luck upon walking up there were already people surrounding the carts of clearance plants. The one that was getting the most attention were the annuals in peat pots for $.10. People were going CRAZY! They were all excited and giggly. But being the somewhat greedy gardener I am. I went in search of the Perennial clearance plants. I really didn't feel like planting anymore marigolds or impatiens anyways. That's when I spotted the Calla lilies for $. 50! They didn't have any blooms and to say I know nothing of Calla lilies is putting it mildly. But it just so happened that the weekend before I was at my neighbors admiring her one Calla Lily that she didn't even know she had! So it proved to me that it was hardy in zone 7 and that was all the incentive I needed.
So I ended up with 3 of the small Calla Lilies and 1 big pot calla Lily (that retailed for $17 for $1!!) So all in all I ended up with-

2- Pillow Talk Calla Lillies (red bi-color)
1- Amethyst Calla Lily (purple)
1- (big one!) Crystal Blush (white)
1- Park Princess Dahlia (pink, of course!)
1- nearly dead Strawberry Sunset Hibiscus tree (with a braided trunk!) Oh I hope I can keep this alive!
1- Double wave Petunia (for $.50)

2~ PATIENCE. A hard word, but in the end its just smarter. Whenever I see a plant, I want it in the smalled size possible. (aka. the cheapest) it may take a while to get to the size you want, but that's half the fun right? Patience inspires appreciation. Right now I have 7 hydrangeas that are not even a foot tall that I planted last fall. I paid probably between 5 and 8 dollars a piece from Michigan Bulb. Where as had I went to Lowe's or even a nursery it would have cost twice maybe even three times that! Now they may be small, but they are there and I didn't go bankrupt trying to buy them. Plus it left me money to buy more plants : )

3- I know that all of you gardeners know this one. DIVIDE and SHARE. There are so many Perennials that you can divide and split up and scatter them in other places of your garden. Like the Iris's that were beside our house. I dug them things up divided them and now they are all over the yard!

Plus you can dig them up and Share with someone else. You never know maybe they will have something that they can share with you!

4~ One of the things that many of us thrifty gardeners have to learn the hard way is that saving money is not always the thrifty way. For example. I have clay soil and it is horrible. I have to amend the crap out of it by adding peat moss and manure to help it drain. Well, at first I didn't want to spend the money to buy the amendments. (trying to save money) but in the end it ended up not being the thrifty way because my plants suffered and some died. So the forth tip is to going ahead and spend the money and take care of those plants. That's the thrifty way!

5~ My favorite thrifty tip, EVER is this. SEEDS!!! Even if only half the pack germinates your still only out the price of a plant and you get so many more plants! Seeds are trial and error. Some germinate easier and faster than others and some just aren't really worth the time. Which leads us to the 6th tip.

6~ Knowledge is Power. The thrifty girl knows all about googling and reading up on the plants she tends. She knows that when your planting that knowledge can make a world of difference.

For example. My hydrangeas. The Greek root "hydr" is a reference to water, like hydrate. So it needs A LOT of water. I didn't know this last year, but I guess it wouldn't really matter since we were going through a drought! Get a library card, use the Internet for something other than Myspace : ), Magazines are a great source of information. and of course read blogs. Get other peoples experience with their garden!

7~ Buy self-sowing annuals/biennials such as Marigolds and Hollyhocks. One years cost, many years of pleasure. But be diligent about thinning them out. They could be a good thing eventually turning very bad!

Thats all I can think of right now. I by no means think I know everything about gardening, these are just some of the ways that I save money and I hope that it can help you too!

Hope everyone has a Great day and Happy Gardening!

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”~ Martin Luther

Yesterday I got out again and took some more pictures! I couldn't resist, it was SO beautiful!
As you can see everything seems to be loving the very unusual wet weather we have been having and we have been saving a lot of money, not having to water the crap out of the plants! LOL : )

Ahhh... snapdragons. every time I go outside I see these and I can't help but stop and notice all the different colors!

You just have to love them with a name like snapdragon.

So many colors on one bloom!


This is one of our five Endless Summer Hydrangeas. Why is it white??? IDK! Its not Blushing Bride either. Its just white. I would complain, but I do love it!

This is the climbing Joseph's coat rose blooming. Another bloom with multiple colors.

Limelight Hydrangea about to bloom!!

When I took the picture of this Dahlia, I didn't really pay attention to the water hose, but I think it turned out pretty good with the yellow center matching the yellow hose.

This is another Dahlia

Of course..another Dahlia : ) They are great those big fluffy blossoms.

As you can tell I have several Unwin Dahlia's and for that is we started them from seed. Another reason why I LOVE seeds! For the price of one plant you get an entire garden full of plants.

I have more, but I will save them for another day!

I hope everyone has a Great day and Happy Gardening!




PS. If at anytime you want to enlarge it.. Just click the picture : )

"An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life."

Finally, I'm back! Every time I decided to go out and take some pictures, I couldn't find my camera! And the back yard had to be mowed, I mean what is a rose picture, when the grass is taller that the roses?! LOL Well, finally yesterday when it cooled off enough that we wouldn't pass out from heat exhaustion, I grabbed my miracle grow and my camera and honey grabbed the lawn mower! So as he mowed the back yard I miracle growed and took pictures.

This is the well that my honey made out of scrap wood. He is pretty new to wood working but I think he did pretty darn good! We both realized that the roof was out of proportion when it went up, but its not really that big a deal. The middle has a planted so I can put flowers in it.

We decided that we wanted it to have a barn look to it, but after painting it I thought it would be a good idea to make it a patriotic planter. Of course later I plan on putting a flower bed around it.

This is the area on the side of the house with clematis and morning Glory's. As you can tell it has A LOT of weeds! I hate crabgrass!!!

Here is another clearance Lantana I got at Wal-mart. Its purple!


I am extremely proud of these Petunias. They are the Dolcissima Flambe Petunias. And the reason that I am SO proud of these are because I started them from seed and they are blooming! To some of the more advanced gardeners this may seem trivial, but to me it is simply amazing.





Another Dahlia... from seed!!!! And its...blooming!! So exciting!

Three of the six herb containers! This is German chamomile (left) Lemon basil (middle) and cilantro (end). I don't cook with herbs, but I love the smell!

No I am not showing off my pretty little car LOL.

Thumbalina Zinnia. The first bloom!




Snapdragon...from SEED!!

So there's not really that much going on in my garden. It seems like every ones having trouble adjusting to the heat!

I hope everyone has a great day and Happy Gardening!

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~Author Unknown

Once again I was unable to move the photos .... still driving me crazy, but here are my photos in a very random order. Sorry : (

This is the daisy tree from direct gardening. I think I'm suppose to prune it in to a tree.

Here are my tipsy pots you can tell that they have been really busy growing.

LOL. Random HUH? This is our veggie garden. Well,, veggies and some others.
we have tomato's, cucumbers, veggie squash, (you can use the inside like pasta) birdhouse gourds (YAY!) I can't wait to paint them suckers! cantaloupes, corn, ornamental corn (for Fall of course) with Sunflowers and Nasturtiums threw in for good measure.



This is the brick pathway with the very little hydrangeas (Annabelle and raspberry parfait (tech. harlequin)

This is the clematis blooming! YAY! Clematis Viticella "Royal Velvet" from Michigan Bulb.

I LOVE this Lantana.

Columbine "Swan blue and white"

Endless summer Hydrangea. I am going gray waiting for this thing to bloom!! What is going on??!!

Another random shot. Starting seeds. Once again. A test in patience. I am ready to plant them!

LOL! Another shot of the daisy tree! That is going to need some serious pruning for it to be a tree!

For love of country they accepted death... ~James A. Garfield

I have been trying to post this all day! I don't know whats going on with blogger, but its driving me CRAZY!! I couldn't move my pictures around on my blog like I usually do so its kinda random. But to keep it simple I stuck with roses so it doesn't look so jumbled.






I have NO idea what rose this is. I don't remember buying anything that looks even similar to this ??? So my guess is that it was mislabeled. Oh well, I think the mistake turned out pretty great. I LOVE IT! It reminds me of an English rose (my fav) and it smells delicious!

Those miniature roses are blooming like crazy! I have never seen anything that was so... bloomy : ) LOL


This is a close up shot of the mystery rose.

This is the Liv Tyler rose that has finally bloomed. I don't think it looks like the picture so I'm kinda worried. It smells really good, but I am kinda confused.

I think this is another shot of the Tropicana rose.

Another shot of the mystery rose. I do love it!

Yeah... you guessed it. Mystery rose.

I know everyone has to be sick of looking at my roses by now. But I will post other pictures (not roses) later : )

If only I could get this blogger figured out.

And I think our new computer could have something to do with the mumbo jumbo. We have Vista now : (

It looks fancy, but everything is a lot harder to do! Why can't anything be simple??

Anyways no more complaining!

I hope everyone has a great Memorial day Weekend! Be safe!

And while you are eating your hot dogs and hamburgers between taking dips in the pool remember the men and women that made that simple pleasure possible.

And I'm proud to be an American,

where at least I know I'm free,

And I WON'T forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me!

Lee Greenwood