Plant Plans

So I think I have to dig up my dahlias and see if they are rotting. I have seen no hint of shoots yet, even moving the soil around just a little with my finger. I think they have just gotten so wet with all this rain and no sun to dry them out. I might have to put them under a little umbrella for awhile 'till this crazy late spring rain stops.

Also, the sweet peas aren't really going gangbusters for me yet. Must also be the warmth factor. I think they like it cooler, but a little something from the sunshine would be nice. Also, only about 1/2 of them germinated. I wonder if I soaked them too long, not long enough, etc.? We will see what colors come up - see if I am missing one type.

I am so sad that we haven't been able to get off our behinds and start that garden. We could have had spinach and lettuce by now if last year was any indication. I am heading out today to purchase a couple "salad bowl" planters for some lettuce on the deck. (I don't like the pink plants in that pot, but the bowl is what I'm thinking for the lettuce.)

Or, check out this funny salad/herb planter at this website. Not a real attractive design to me, but looks functional and you don't have to go hunting around all your pots to remember where you put the Oregano. (So we usually have this all in the garden, but of course we didn't plant the garden this year due to the impending move. - I should really post about that sometime. - A LONG story. - It may take a couple posts to cover. Probably a boring story unless you are living it. I'll see if I can get my thoughts together about it enough to write intelligently on it.)

Do you have a salad bowl planter? Send me your picture of it! What do you do with your herbs? I'm really liking them just planted around with the other flowers. Where are yours?

I Love Goo Gone!

After many years of having these containers I have finally removed all the previous plant labels. The pots (well, most of them in use) are now clean and label free. No more conspicuous white rectangle spots glowing on the pots of every picture I take. Just plain pots and beautiful plants... Well, the sun is working today on the plants, so hopefully they will be blooming and bursting beautiful soon! (It really warmed up here after 2:30 PM today, I was actually thinking about sunscreen!)

So the Goo Gone was the wonder product of the day able to completely take off even the oldest and sunbaked of labels on these pots. Gotta love a good product that actually does what it says it will! Thank you to the makers of Goo Gone.

When life gives you lemons, use lemon balm.

So the ugly container area I had of leftover pots and ungrown plants is now filling in. Life gave me "lemons" (problem pots) and also Lemon Balm!

So we found some more new plants to add to the container mish-mash this weekend. It is the lovely Lemon Balm. I have always loved herb plants and would love to make an herb garden at some point - whenever we get settled somewhere! But they are so beautiful on their own, as well as mixed in with perennial and annual flowers.

This Lemon Balm plant was on this property when we came and it has a lovely fragrance. Lemon of course, but also mint. (It is a member of the mint family.) I would love to try it as a tea, with honey as the article mentioned, but I read that pregnant and nursing women shouldn't have it. Bummer. It sounds so nice chopped and mixed into a lovely fresh fruit salad. I'll try to remember it for next summer.

It really needed to be divided. It looks like it was starting to die out in the center so I guess it was a good thing to move it. We divided it mainly because we didn't have a big enough pot for the entire plant, but I'm sure it will benefit from the division. I will add a picture soon. Raining again today after a lovely weekend which was entirely too hot for my northwest girl status (80 deg. F.)!

Containers on the move again

Containers on the move again... The neighbors probably drive by and think "What is that crazy woman up to now??" ;-)
Yes! The weather is as nice as they said it was going to be. It was 71 degrees here yesterday! Woo hoo! I had a great day yesterday accom- plishing lots of stuff (cleaning, returns, organizing toys, calendar planning, etc.) But more importantly I was able to rearrange the containers outside. I feel much better about their presentation now except for one little area. And, I was also able to plant some sweet pea seeds that will hopefully come up before we leave.

The sweet peas are at the bottom of the sticks you see (actually two archs now shaped together.)I was able to move everything around to make it look nice (I think, anyway) without re-potting anything. I also decided I needed more height in some areas so I used some of the terracotta pots and saucers that were just hanging out as "lifters" to stack the plants on. I'm not too sure how stable they are, but they are working for now!!


I can't believe how long it took me to make these moves. I just couldn't visualize without actually moving the stuff! It makes for more work, but in the end I am always happier.
I moved the Adirondack chair that D made years ago to the small deck off the master bedroom and I like the arrangement there both from outside and looking outside from the room. It seems nice and peaceful there. If only I would make time to go and sit there!
It could be like a bed and breakfast... a little coffee maker in the room, maybe a toaster. Hmmm... The one area I am not happy with is right in the middle of the outside area at the end of the big deck. It is probably because most of the plants aren't out or filled in yet. The peonies are only in their 2nd year so they probably won't even flower this year. And who knows how long it will take those dahlias to sprout in those black containers? Maybe I could dig some more plants up from the yard to mix in (yikes - that means more pots...) and make for some more green in there. Any thoughts?

Oh yes, and there will be more sweet peas in the long terracotta colored planter on the ground climbing up those stakes as well.

So, as you can see, I am in the "gardens" part of this "flowers and gardens" blog. Maybe some day I will be posting about fabric again. Maybe this fall. Or maybe not since that is when the baby is due!!

Picture Day!

I think this is the female Rufous Hummingbird. I don't see her as often; it is usually the male which you will see flashing by in the next photo chasing away the second variety which can't hang out long enough for me to determine what kind it is let alone get a picture of him. All I know is that he is green and has a darker head. The male Rufous really has that flaming red/orange throat. Very bright.

I also managed a couple pictures of the miss-mash of containers on my deck last night while the kids and D were out playing. See what I mean? Miss-Mash! There are dahlia bulbs in the black containers near the herbs. They were gifted to us, and we don't know what colors they are.












Also, I snapped one of the perennial bed by the front door. It is pretty sad. Must be in need of some 'miricle grow' or something. However, on a happier note, the gladiolous by the back deck stairs are multiplying nicely! Maybe they will make up for the miss-mash of containers above them!

I gave up.

I have given up. I couldn't stand it anymore and I bought some plants for the house... which house I'm not sure yet since they won't be going in the ground here. (You know, with the "future" move and all.) They are now in new pots (wow - it was sunny today and like over 60 deg.!!) and I am slowly taking a couple plants here and there out of the ground and replacing them with near-by not as desirable to take plants so as not to really show that something is "missing" just maybe moved around a bit.

You see, we had decided that it was futile to do anything with the garden/grounds this spring because of the upcoming move. Just a waste of time and money. But when it is in your blood you just can't not want to do SOMETHING!!! So I gave up. I had to do somthing!! I am now in a happier place. :-)

In case you are wondering, the new plants are one Catmint - good for butterflys (Nepeta 'Walker's Low' - 2007 Perenial of the Year) and 3 Lupines (Lupinus 'Gallery Pink') which actually have two good starts in each and I was able to divide one pack this time, and possibly the others next time (if they need a bigger pot, or will wait 'till next year) but didn't think they were strong enough to yank apart yet.

So had a great weekend and a great Mother's Day. Took Nana and Grandpa J with Uncle B and Aunt M from Sac down to Greenbank Farm for a walk around and the Master Gardener's Plant Sale (a little dissapointing but we were there two hours after it started so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that the "good" plants were already taken). On Sunday had a big "farm" breakfast at home and then the girls went to the Hummingbird Farm and Nursery and it was there that I got inspired (well, you know, it doesn't take much.) I had to buy something! Nana also purchased but she had been the previous recipiant of a gift certificate so she was not set back.

So now my deck is a miss-mash of containers of different sizes and colors and shapes and not looking great at all. I'm not sure how to arrange them to look better w/o buying MORE plants!! I guess I will just be praying that they will have a new home soon enough. Maybe that 20 acre farm... that would give them just enough room to spread out. Ha. Maybe I should seperate them into color groups or foliage forms or size of pots to make better arrangements in the corners? I haven't really done that much container gardening so I might have to look that up. Hopefully we won't be here all summer and I can get these plants in the ground --somewhere--!!