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Garden Pic Wednesday: Things Found

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Nature moves seeds around. Some, like burrs, stick to things and get moved around. Others can fly, like milkweed seeds that float on a wisp of fluff in the wind. Still others are moved around by squirrels or birds. Some simply move themselves by mysterious means. So todays Garden Pic highlight a few of such random finds: Baby Tomato growing in this small space just outside my front door.  Just found it this week. Surprise! I moved it to my raised garden today. I don't even know what sort of tomato it is----regular? cherry? red? yellow? I found this lone Calibrachoa (Million Bells) last year in the bed along the house where I have container blueberries and daylilies. Back then, it was just a single baby stem about 3 inches tall topped with one purple flower.  This photo is how it looks now. Thriving. I happen to love Million Bells and was delighted to find it, free. A good many years ago I found this Common Ajuga (Bugleweed) growing in a drainage ditch around the corner from me and
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Garden Pic Wednesday: Portuguese Squill

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Today, my Portuguese Squill is in season! The heads make the most interesting photo specimens as they first begin to bloom, the blossoms gradually unfurling a few at a time until it's one full, flat head of bluish-purple flowers! Easy to grow. It's a bulb you plant in the fall. Of the 5 original bulbs I planted 3 years ago, 4 survived and have doubled.  
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Garden Pic Wednesday: Purple Shamrocks

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  My Purple Shamrocks are making a good show this year!  They're a good investment; very prolific in light sun to shady areas. This weeks project: I bought six small castle blocks and used what scalloped blocks I had around. The ground without the blocks was too low for the hydrangea's I had planted there and they were struggling. Really, one died. But in digging the survivor up, I found I could split off a section to make it into two; one on either side, more to front. Easter lilies are there, plus in back, I planted a couple 4 O' clock seeds of a particular color and plan on transplanting Marigolds seedlings to plant on back side.  The back is closer to tree and front fuller, since this is near properly line. Hopefully the Hydrangea's will thrive. They're a pretty bluish-purple when they bloom.| Among Southern shrubs, I like Hydrangea's best because they are easy to care for, don't require hedging and bloom all from spring thru frost. Plus they come in blu
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Mama Kat Thursday: My Projects

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  The Mama Kat prompt I've chosen today is, "Share a Project You're Working On." I create artistic designs for Zazzle to sell, print & ship. This is what is called "on demand print," meaning Zazzle is able to print a single item & send it to you and I'm paid a fee for creating the art. Just recently Zazzle has introduced a "digital download" option for announcements & invitations type cards, such as shown below: (clickable to you an view more closely) So it was because of this,  my Current Project has been to update my selection of Graduation photo template announcements with a variety of new designs, many available for this new digital download. That Collection is shown below and is clickable. It includes Congrats cards & Grad thank you cards. But that's not the end. Zazzle has also introduced being able to add my own backgrounds to products, so my Secondary Project is working on adding backgrounds to a select cards. In th
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Garden Pic Wednesday: Snake Iris

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Today's featured garden picture is my Snake Iris I saw these in a garden catalog and ordered them about 3 years ago because they are so novel looking; citron green centers with dark purple, almost black, flag tips. They are a miniature iris with grass-like leaves. I planted them in this container because I read they multiply and spread readily---and they have! They've gone from 5 to about 15 to 20 blooms. They don't last long, but put on fine show about about 10 days. I think they're called "Snake Iris" because they vaguely look like a snake's open mouth.
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Garden Pic Wednesday: Garden Survivors

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 Today's pictures are all winter freeze survivors that thrived despite the temperatures. This clump of fall annuals:  I covered it with a plastic yard trash bag and two layers of towels during the 2 hard freezes this season in North Florida and it's quite happy now. Tall seems is a healthy looking Cosmos, plus lots of Chinese Forget-Me-Nots, Bachelor Button greenery and a Coreopsis plus a couple Easter Lilies that were already there are poking thru. My pot of Cilantro prefers Florida winter. I never even covered it. Time for Mexican cooking! My container of Green Onions Also not covered. Great for snipping fresh all winter long! My container of Valentine Sorrel You can see just a few outer leaves were effected by the freeze. Sorrel is edible perennial; sort of lemony. Can be used like an herb in salads, sauces, soups & casseroles. It's called Valentine because of the pretty red-veining. It's a member of the buckwheat family. 
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Garden Pic Wednesday: Signs of Spring

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I saw yesterday that one of my Azalea's had blooms along the bottom---a sure sign spring is on the way! They all bloom along the bottom first.    The temps hovering close to 20F for 3 days in December froze the leaves off my Winter Jasmine shrub---which actually proved helpful! With the leaves gone, I could see more easily exactly where to trim it back. 
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