Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The last couple of days I have been working really hard in my flower beds trying to get them ready for flowers. With some of the flower beds I am pretty much working from scratch so its taking awhile (needless to say LOL) But I have got some hollyhocks and dahlias planted so that now I do have room on my kitchen table so that I can transplant more flowers and vegetables to bigger pots. So that's a good thing.

I was walking around the yard the other day and I couldn't help but show you some of the flowers that are growing in the yard.

Gotta love those pink tulips!


This is actually a yellow miniature rose, but for some reason the flash messed up the color *frown*

Thankfully this one didn't. But this is another miniature rose.

This is my Celtic skies clematis 'Vyvyan Pennell'. I never thought it would bloom this small, but I'm not complaining

This I believe is the Angelique tulip.

I really love the colors

This is my little bitty morning glory that is (hopefully) going to provide massive amounts of color to the front porch

More pictures of the fantastic Pink Wave Petunias

Optimistic Endeavor!

A couple of days ago I briefly mentioned that I had started cuttings. Well, here is the full story.

We live in a community where the houses are pretty close together. Now I don't mind this, but our yard is in the middle of like 6 other houses! And it just so happens that the butt of there yard is right up on our back yard. They do all have fences, so our backyard is kinda fenced in, but its definitely NOT pretty. Did I mention that people throw all there crap in there backyard?

One house has last years Christmas tree right up against our yard!

(the h is where the house is) See my problem??

It didn't take long for us to decide that we HAD to have something to add some privacy to our backyard our options were quite limited. We didn't have the money for a fence and really couldn't afford the $20- $50 price tag on the gallon hedges. (We would need 76 placing them 4 ft apart!)

Our neighbors have these great Leyland Cypress trees around there back yard. I have looked at that hedge since we moved here yearning for the privacy that it provided.

So when I came upon a book on propagation (I want to save money any way I can) I just had to have it that's when I found that the only way to start a cypress is to root the cuttings. That's when a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that I could start our hedge from there hedge!

That was a couple of months ago but since then I have been planning. And now finally I have been able to execute my plans!

1st of all asking for cuttings, I was so nervous that they would say no. I mean all this planning hinged on the cuttings! I had my husband ask (because I am chicken) and they had just happen to have two HUGE branches that had broke off and they were just going to throw away! But even if that didn't work they said I could take cuttings from there trees! They are the best neighbors a person could ask for!

See, its PERFECT!

Rooting hormone to ensure good rooting!

Used pots from last year!(see the red clearance tag? I am a sucker for a bargain!)

Of course the first step was to get good cuttings. To make sure that it had some new and old growth)

This is one of my cuttings measuring about 4-5"

I cut off the bottom inch or so of offshoots.

Then I notched it so that the water could soak in easier

Then I wet it and dipped the cutting in rooting hormone (tapping off the excess)

Then I just stuck it in the pot filled with sand.

I am not exactly sure how many are here, but my guess is a lot. Hopefully at least 76. LOL!

I still need to cover them with plastic to keep in the humidity, but all in all I am very optimistic about my future hedge!

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;

an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill

Just a quickie post.

This is just a quick post to show the plants that arrived yesterday. All of them are either bulbs or bare root. So they look like sticks with roots. (really exciting, right?)

These are the rose of Sharon's, the 2 hydrangea trees, and the fairy pink cushion rose.

Plants to Plant!

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny and in the 60s. Last night.. well, that is another story. It rained cats and dogs LOL.

Several really great things happened today (besides the beautiful weather). My plants came from direct gardening and I started my hedge cuttings.

Okay so first of all, my plants finally came. I didn't get any type of shipping notice it just said "Please allow 1-2 weeks for processing then it will be shipped according to availability and proper planting time for your area" Pretty vague, right? So when they arrived today needless to say I was kinda surprised.

I received 6 rose of Sharon's (for hedge) which is in the Hibiscus family.

50 glads

1 fairy pink cushion rose,

2 hydrangea trees (still not sure how to do this).

Plus bonus plants, 4 flowering shamrock bulbs,

Although this was free I have my reservations with anything that is even

remotely like a weed. Clover, for example.

3 peacock orchid bulbs??? It says exotic (idk??)

And to make things even better I actually got everything, but the bulbs planted. Of course I also planted a Queen Elizabeth rose and I have a candy stripe rose soaking so it can be planted tomorrow. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!

I did start my hedge cuttings, but that post will have to wait til another day. I am pooped!

Good Night and Happy Easter!

~One of the most delightful things about a garden

is the anticipation it provides.

~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show

Hallelujah! He is Risen!

Today it is Good Friday!






There are no words that can ever be spoken to honestly relay the true meaning of this sacred holiday. It means so much more that we could ever understand. There is no way that we could EVER understand the significance of such a day.


This is will be day of redemption, grace, sacrifice and absolute eternal love, not by us but by the one who gave himself for us.

Easter Means Eternal Life

A perfect God demands a perfect justice;

He cannot let us get away with sin.

We used God’s gift of our free will to trespass,

So heaven’s gates were closed; we couldn't get in.

Our sin required our blood, a sacrifice,

To atone for all the wrongs that we had done.

"But I love them!" cried our Father, filled with sorrow;

"I’ll send my only Son to be the one."

Good Friday marks the slaying of our Jesus,

The unblemished lamb, the perfect sacrifice.

He took our guilt and blame upon Himself,

So we could be with Him in paradise.

On Easter morning, he came back from death;

He vanished from the tomb, the empty grave.

His resurrection means eternal life

For us, the ones he came to earth to save.

This summarizes all the Easter story

And because of it, we’ll be with Him in glory.

By Joanna Fuchs

You will never be good enough on your own for Heaven. That's why we need Jesus.

Hallelujah ! He is RISEN! Praise God almighty He is Risen!

Blank canvas, no more.

I was looking though my photos stored on our computer the other day and I found some pictures that I would like to share with you.

We changed our counter tops last year so my honey bun built counters so our old counter tops could go in the garage!

He worked really hard!

And I painted it! (I'm no Monet but I thought it was cute) Now its a perfect potting/ work counter! I love it.

This is the tree I painted (see the apples) and the baby jars for holding screws and such.

This is the beautiful brick pathway my honey installed after finding the brick on craigslist! We had to load and unload all of it! But it was worth it!

We had a lot of chipped brick so honey chipped it up smaller, then we found some stepping stones on sale at Wal-mart. Wah-lah! A pathway.

The rest of the brick- patio for the pergola we are going to build later.

~When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed

and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground

easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

LOL

Just a windy day *frown*

The sun was shining in my window this morning when I woke up leading me to believe that I would be able to work out in the yard. So after getting the baby changed and putting him up in his room to play I went to feel the temperature outside. Unfortunately I was not able to actually go outside because the wind was blowing too hard. Yeah, no planting today. *frown* Yesterday I cleaned ALL DAY just so I wouldn't have anything to do today. Oh well.

On Saturday we went to Lowe's. *YAY!* I LOVE Lowe's! I was able to find my Wave Petunias! *but* They were $4 a piece!!!! Yuck. I couldn't afford that and even if I could I didn't want to pay that much. Needless to say I was very upset when we left Lowe's empty handed. Then on a whim while driving home We drove by Wal-mart. I love Wal-mart too! So I whipped that car into the parking lot, shocking my poor husband who thought we were going home. But I wanted to buy some plants! (stomping my feet right now) So we went into the garden center and BOOM there they were...my WAVE PETUNIAS!!! Nope they weren't $4 a piece either! They were $5.50 for 6!!!! YAY! Omg I was so HAPPY! *big smile* I was positively giddy. So when we got home I got to work planting my hanging baskets with my beautiful new pink wave Petunias!

You can't really see them yet, but hopefully soon they will be overflowing!

Like this one *pray*

Then I was able to get a lot of work done on Sunday. Of course not nearly all of it, but there's always tomorrow. I finally planted those Sweet peas on the trellis, the assylum behind the mailbox (need more seed!) and planted my balsam and zinnia seeds around the driveway. Mowed the yard (it really needed it since we just fertilized), planted pink geraniums in my newly painted pink pots.

Plus my honey bun tilled the compost and peat moss into the veggie garden! Did I mention he also built me a holder for my strawberry bags in the back yard? Hes the greatest.

Ps. I would have gotten better pictures but its so cold and windy!

~The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.

~Dorothy Frances Gurney, "Garden Thoughts"

Just WAIT! A post on patience.

These are my beautiful hanging baskets filled to the brim with morning Glory's. (photos from last year). Although they looked really beautiful I plan on planting wave petunias this year. I have not had a lot of luck when it comes to this new variety. I had two packets and only 9 germinated. Idk??? The packets were like $3.50 each so I wasn't very happy. But considering you can't buy the plants around here (Trinity, North Carolina) or so it says on the website, I guess that the 9 will have to do *frown*.

We have a front porch that extends the length of our home so I have a lot of places to hang baskets. I mean it looks so bare with nothing hanging up there right now. I so had wanted to buy some yesterday when they were on sale at Wal-mart, but considering that I already had baskets and flowers... I figured it wouldn't be a very economical solution. Oh well.

See I have 8 places to hang baskets! Rights by the door I have the double tier and I love them.

I try to do things differently that everyone else. You see the houses in our neighborhood look pretty much the same. There is 2 designs of houses in our area. Now granted some have different shutters, colors, or garage doors. But they are a lot alike. Now this presents a problem because the last thing I want to do is blend in to every other house. So how do you do that?? I don't really know. Hopefully the small things will set it apart, but we will see.

The previous owners used this as a "starter" home so they did absolutely NOTHING to the house or the yard. Our backyard was full of trees and not bushy pretty kinds either. There were so many trees that they had no room and they just grew up. So the first 50ft was trunk... yeah they weren't pretty at all. The brush was so thick I was honestly afraid to go back there. I mean snakes love that kinda mess. I wish I would have took pictures when we first moved in, but I didn't. *frown*

Now its 2 years later and this is what it looks like:

We call it the stump graveyard. Turns out cutting down trees is not as hard as getting rid of the stumps. My husband is to thank for this clear back yard. (he only left trees around the perimeter of the yard) Last fall we seeded and that's the grass you see. Its not exactly what I am envisioning for a backyard, but its definitely a start!

"Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.
Brian Adams "

Remind me of this...later. LOL

Plant nurse?

I bought this today Salvation army for $1.99 its called a "Plant nurse air machine". I have absolutely no idea how its works except to know that it is "supposed" to put air into the soil I guess kinda its kinda like an aerator. ??? idk. But I thought for $1.99 whats the harm in buying it? I was sure that I could google it and find out if it worked or not. Now I know that this is pretty old. Probably from the 70s at least. I looked up the name of it, the company name, even typed in air compressor for plants (yeah weird but that's what it is...) and NOTHING came up. Absolutely NADA, zilch. Now that's what is really weird because you can google ANYTHING and come up with some thing at least. idk maybe I am putting in the wrong thing.

And with it being that old you would think that it would be missing some parts, but no, its like brand new. The instruction booklet is even there. I'm going to try it and if it doesn't do anything oh well...

______________________________________

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf49967099.tip.html

This is my post at thrifty fun.com its about starting seeds cheaply. And as you can see my project takes up the entire kitchen table. (we never eat at it anyway) My husband is the best. He made these out of scrap wood and a florescent light. In the catalogs carts to start seeds with are really expensive. and plant lights, forgettabout it. use fluorescent.. its cheaper. I started everything out in the seed trays then graduated to the peat pots. they are the best! They are biodegradable, which mean they will just break down in the soil, plus the roots grow right through them. So not only are they very "green" they eliminate transplant shock because the entire thing is planted in the ground (or pot..)

I started out with one row which held three trays .. 72 cells each... I expanded to 2 trays... then 3 and wait... I have to start veggies...then 4. of course the only problem with this is you don't have room to upgrade the plants to bigger pots... (I didn't think of that *oops*). Now you see that where as the trays hold 72 the jiffy pots hold 18 for the exact same space so if you total that up it leaves 54... yeah.. where do I put those???

Now this is my first year starting seeds inside...well.. actually its pretty much my first attempt at gardening period. So I feel that its okay for me to have been a little greedy.

Next year I will remember this and not make this mistake again... Live and learn!

FYI.. annuals grow ALOT faster than perennials and biennials... yeah I didn't know that.

There's a second tier... and I put some in the middle. LOL

Now all I have to do is finish hardening them off and plant them babies! *yay!*