Choice Morsels

The Garden Pic for today is my purple Butterfly Bush! This one is a "dwarf," so it remains a compact mound   Other Garden Work: I've been working my way around the house, cleaning up various beds. This view is what I walk past out the front door. It has mounds of Asparagus Fern & is home for my house plants during summer. Before I took this picture, it was thick with pine-needles, Bay tree leaves & overgrown with wild blackberry's, which was interfering with the Asparagus Fern. It was a mess. So I cut off all the Asparagus Fern in order to rake it out, pull up blackberry stems and so on, put down newspaper over exposed soil, mulched the rakings with the mower and put that mulch down on the newspaper around the Asparagus Ferns.  So now the Fern can get a fresh start and it looks neater. The job took 2 or 3 hours one afternoon.

Two Garden Pics for you today: First, my Red Hardy Hibiscus is in full show right now!    Next: My Mango Calla "Mango" is it's color. This shot was it's first flower, but it has since put up a second. Gradually the yellow part turns green as it's actually a leaf and not the flower---the flower is inside. It's in my container garden out front. You'll notice it has polka-dot leaves. Not all Calla's have polka-dot leaves, but I chose this for it's leaves in particular, for visual interest, since the leaves remain all season to fall.   Other Things: I'm starting to work on  organizing stuff for a Salvation Army pick-up. I have some furnishings and plan on boxing up the majority of Dave's clothing. I can ask for a truck. I considered trying to sell some of his clothing, but what sells is rather picky and most of Dave's clothing is Walmart---so not that sellable. Plus it would involve me doing all the mailing---tired of that already with the

Today's Garden Pic is my backyard garden view in the evening as the sun slides toward setting---usually between 5:30 and 7 pm. I sit on the loveseat inside the house with a cup of coffee, just peacefully watching the sun slide over my garden while small birds visit the feeder and larger birds hop about hunting for bugs.   Other Things Going On: I joined the local 24 Workout gym that's located in the plaza close to where I live--maybe a mile and a half. It's only $19 a month. Just a equipment place; no classes. But it's actually really nice and part of a national chain that I'm now a member of and can use anywhere. I did recently added some new thank you card designs to my Zazzle store---first time in 7 months. Fortunately, sales have been ticking along even without me doing much of anything.  You can visit:  My "Say Thanks" Collection  here.

Today's pretty Garden Pic is this blue Hydrangea that's right opposite my front door. Mostly it's blue---though I have seen it bloom both blue and pink heads before. If the soil acidity gets low, it's blooms more pink. I just add Epsom salts around the base periodically to keep it blue.  The rain gutter re-do won't start until around the end of June. It will be nice to have gutters that actually work well. In the meantime, I'm working my way around the house, edging beds. Also still trying to get some annual flower seeds going. The Forget-Me-Knots I got from my sister while home for the Celebration of Life for our Mom, are sprouting. I collect blue flowers, so these are perfect. My sister had a pile of them on the table for people who attended the celebration to take home. Neat idea.