Choice Morsels

Today's Garden Pic is this unusual Fern: I bought a 2-root pack of Cinnamon Fern many years ago, but apparently one of the roots was not Cinnamon Fern, but...this instead. There are zillions of types of fern and this seems to have a fern-like structure. Regardless, it comes up faithfully every year and I like it. I might be Holly Fern. Some of the older leaf stems at the back look similar to photos of Holly Fern. Whatever it is, it's lovely.  

 Today's Garden Pics: I've been busy getting ready for a trip, so a little delay on getting garden pictures up, but there they are: My Raised Bed Veggies Garden: This is what my vegetable garden looks like right now. It includes a tomato, 2 bush zucchini, 2 bush spaghetti squash that bears a smaller size then regular, purple bush beans and pad chai. There are 2 lettuce flowering in far bed, so they'll seed themselves and hopefully give me an abundance of winter lettuce this fall! The space at the end of the closer bed will be planted with more purple bush beans when I get back. At least one more row. Perhaps more pad chai. And I have a spot for one more zucchini. I've been eating zucchini for meals this week. It has a cycle of fruiting, then growing, then fruiting, so it should be in a growth cycle while I'm gone this week. In the background you can see my neighbors fence, which is on higher ground then my yard, so I have a block retaining wall below it and a bed of...

  Today's garden photos are about what's growing: Numerous Flower Seeds in Seed Sprouting Tray: Rows of mostly various flowers, either purchased or saved seed, such as rubeckia, coneflower, dwarf marigolds & hardy hibiscus; a couple kinds of basil; some catnip and a few seeds I saved from last falls Bell Peppers.  What's Planted in the Raised Bed So Far: One tomato and 2 mounds, each with a different bush squash. (marked with red arrows.) One is a type of spaghetti squash and the other is Zucchini. Bush squash don't sprawl vines everywhere. Instead grow fruit from the center making them ideal for a small space garden. Left to Go to Seed: I left behind 2 heads of lettuce in the bed to flower and go-to-seed. This worked so successfully last spring, I thought I'd just let them do their thing again.

 Actually getting this written on Wednesday this week! Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar on Parsley: It's not been a good year for butterfly caterpillars over-all. I've seen numerous eggs and tiny infant caterpillars, only to find them completely gone. I think wasps or spiders or something pick them them. But I managed to save this one---I covered the container with fine netting to keep away insect predators.  He or she is full size now, so I removed the netting today. Soon he'll wish to depart to cocoon and I didn't want the net to interfere. I love the striped and spotted pattern. A Flower Mix Out Front: I thought the Purple Shamrock leaves mingled with the Dusty Miller, plus a Shamrock flower and the orange buds from the Hen & Chicks was really pretty.  The Dusty Miller and Shamrocks surround a strawberry terra cotta pot of Hen & Chicks.

  The Garden Pic today is my Mexican Milkweed.  Monarch's have tried leaving eggs several times, but something snatched all the baby caterpillars away--probably wasps or Assassin bugs. (Though Assassin bugs are beneficial garden insects, they catch and eat anything.) It also attracts aphids. A couple stems have them, though a heavy rain washes them off easily. But with aphids come Lady Bugs that love to dine on them! So I now I see Lady Bugs a bit more often in my garden. Milkweed also attracts Spicebush Swallowtails. I saw one of these today! I was very excited. They are common throughout the Southeastern U.S. They like Zinnias, too. They are black and blue, though the female is the bluest blue on the lower wings. So it was a female I saw. This is my young fall Garden: Just mulched it with newspaper and grass clippings this week.  4 Broccoli plants down the middle; Cabbage on either side, 3 each side.   In the naked dirt are 3 half rows of seeds: Pad Choi, Sp...

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.

This is the time of year when my Florida garden explodes into bloom---Easter lilies everywhere! Climbing Roses, Hydrangeas, Blue Agapanthus, Shasta Daisies, Gardenias---everything all at once! Today's Garden Pic is a shot of Climbing Red Roses, a 4 O'clock getting ready to bloom & a Easter Lily!   I was home to Indiana last week---where I still needed long sleeves & pants because May in Indiana is still pretty cool. I was able to see my sisters and my nephews & niece. We were gathered for a Celebration of Life for our Mom who died last October and we put her ash box in the mausoleum next to Dad's coffin.  It was a good visit.  It was nearly midnight when my friend dropped me off back at the house after the airport and I saw my Gardenia there by the driveway was thick with white blossoms and it's allspice-like fragrance hung heavy on the night air mingled with the fragrance of dozens of Easter lilies. It was nice to come home to.

I flew down and visited friends in Orlando a week ago. It was a nice getaway and got to know them a whole lot better. This week for Garden Pics, I'm featuring some "Blues." I collect flowers that bloom blue because they are uncommon. Bloomed earlier this spring: Portuguese Squill    Blooming now: Blue Clematis It's sort of a soft lavenderish-blue. I bought it for this color and because it's smaller stature for a clematis (5 feet), but my soil is acidy, so it was much more violet last year. So I watered it often last fall with water with baking soda and also added some lime--so this year, it's more the proper light blue color!

 Yesterday, I had lunch with an Air Force Chaplain who was really good friends with my husband. The Chaplain was deployed at the time Dave died, but has since returned and reached out for a lunch chat. He's reassigning in a couple weeks elsewhere, but gave me the number for a different Chaplain Dave and I had known quite well in the past, but had lost touch with. So, I'm glad to be reconnected with that Chaplain & his wife once more! I spent 2 hours at the local T-Mobile office which is close by now here where I live, because I was having HUGE problems with Sprint billing because T-Mobile owns Sprint. Unfortunately, they allow them to operate separately. Some bug in the Sprint system was rejecting every avenue I tried. I find T-Mobile oh-so-much more friendly & helpful. We resolved the problem by paying Sprint off and switching me to T-Mobile. It didn't cost anything to do and I ended up in a plan nearly like the one I'd had with Sprint that was, in fact, about ...

We had a hard freeze the past 2 nights, but I covered the tomatoes, lettuce and peppers and a few other things a day ahead, so they're okay.  I was surprised to see a sparkle of frost glittering on some plants in the front yard. Funny thing. The Vinca weren't effected. I guess it wasn't freeze enough for them.   T oday's garden pics: New Butterfly Weed: This butterfly weed is something I just planted this fall. I've already seen a few Monarch's visiting the flowers, but it's fall and they are really on their way migrating someplace else. So it was just a snack-stop. Tray of Basil for Drying: Knowing a freeze was expected Monday night, I scurried about collecting Basil to dry in my electric Presto dryer. Because the frost will kill the Basil. It's the only herb effected by frost. This is just one tray. I did 5 trays just like this.

  I was planting daylilies today. They were a replacement order. There were five in the first order, one being red, but it bloomed and showed itself to be pink. So I chatted with the online company and they re-sent the whole set of 5 daylillies. Hopefully, the red is red this time in this batch. Today's Garden Pics are a couple garden shots & freshly blooming Gerber Daisies! Sweet Potatoes: Container Patio Sweet Peas: Just taken today: A burst of bloom from one of my Gerbers out front! They actually like blooming this time of year in Florida.

Today's Garden Pictures: Pretty fall colors in a front bed where I have Pink Vi ncas and Large gold Marigolds decorating the space around a cable box and an electric pole!  Red Salvia and Golden Creeping Jenny in the container.  Just took this photo a few minutes before posting. The sun angle starts getting really pretty around 3pm here. My Cardinal Basil out by the mailbox: It's huge now. And top heavy. Beautiful. Loved by bees. I had to stick the metal stand I hang my plastic owl on out in front of it to tie it to, so it wouldn't fall over!

It's raining today. It's rains most days. Hubby's phone lists the weekly weather with the predicted percentage of rain daily. Today it was "17%." Tomorrow is 42%.  He said, "I wonder how they come up with these percentages?" I jokingly replied,"They use weather lottery balls with percentages on them." Today's Garden Pic are some lavender Hosta blossoms against the pretty background of spotted Calla leaves: These are in my front container garden. Hosta blossoms are either lavender or white. This particular Hosta is a miniature variegated type I got in a mixed Hosta bag 20 years ago. They are very prolific and I've split and planted them tons of places in my garden.

Watching the birds at the feeder and suet cage that hangs on the feeder is always amusing. The suet I buy is full of dried mealy worms and seeds. I bought it in particular for Bluebirds, since mealy worms are their favorite---but until just this month, not a Bluebird has been interested. Then suddenly, within the past 2 weeks, a pair of Bluebirds discovered it and they've now become regulars at the suet-bar. Woodpeckers and all the other birds love that suet, too!  The other day a Downy Woodpecker was hanging on the front of the suet cage and a Mrs. Bluebird was sitting on the top edge. Mr. Bluebird flew in and landed next to her. The Downy promptly pecked at him to shoo him off and Mr. Bluebird flew away. It was hilarious. The Woodpeckers are quite possessive of the suet. The Downy Woodpecker is actually the most tolerant of other birds sharing his suit and he's intimidated by the larger Woodpeckers. Both the Red-Headed and the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers fly in and land...

I was pleased last shopping trip to the base Commissary to finally buy some yeast. I bought a jar this time. I have a mini-seed nursery going on in a tray outside, sprouting full size Marigolds, Shasta Daisies & Hardy Hibiscus. The a good number of the Marigolds were ready to be transplanted, so I moved them various places yesterday.  Easter lilies are done, so I clicked stems back out by the front bed and realized that small area needed some adjusting, so I moved this and that around, planting more native daylilies and Vinca and Ajuga that will all do well in shade/morning sun. One thing I moved was a single Hot Poker lily I still have that wasn't thriving there, so I moved it to a very sunny location in back. The Shasta Daisies & Hardy Hibiscus remain in the "nursery," being too young to transplant. Today's photo is a first Calla Lily bloom: I've struggled with Callas, trying to get them to perform well. They didn't do well in the gr...

Yesterday we ate inside a local restaurant. We were so happy to enjoy indoor dining. It's a relatively new place that actually opened in March just prior to the big close down. Unlucky for them. We got take-out once and were out and about and decided to see if we could pick up lunch there, since. We were delighted to discover people insid e eating and we did, too. It's a counter service, where you order your food, then sit down. It's not a big place. Their beef is steamed, then served on a 8" hoagie roll with a choice of cheese. Also you can top it with roasted bell peppers. I prefer their Italian sausage, though also served on 8" hoagie roll thick with melted provolone cheese. Yum. They do great onion rings, so we had an order of those. I actually just ate the other half of my sausage sandwich today for lunch.  Salons/barbers were allowed to open here on May 11, too, so I quickly made a hair appointment!  Today's Garden Pic is a fully open Gardenia bl...

I have two pictures for today: one of my Oakland Holly and my backdoor view of my orange daylilies in the glow of sunset. My Oakland Holly Tree: Last spring, this tree shot up this 4 foot center spire and is working on filling in the space. It's hard to get an good angle on it so it shows well, but I cropped the photo from the tip of the spire to the base of the tree.  It's clearly decided it wants to be 9 feet tall. Good news about Oakland Hollies is they naturally keep a pyramid shape, no pruning is required and they aren't tall.   It's interesting watching it work on filling in.  The last rays of sun falling my on my orange daylilies: I like to have an after dinner cup of coffee and watch the birds at the feeder and the sun's last rays play over the lilies and patio containers. 

Today's Garden Pics: I saw this box turtle enjoying wading around this dish of water I have out for the birds a few days ago, at least until she saw me with the camera, then she froze. That eye is looking right at me! I took the picture and she crawled out of the desk shortly after. I recently caught this tree frog peeking out of my patio container reservoir hole. It has a couple inch space for water and the tree frogs like being in there and stick their heads out to catch passing insects. Raised Garden Bed Progress: First one is filled and yesterday I did some planting: a purchased tomato plant & bell pepper and some seeds: purple bush beans, zucchini, beets, butternut squash. It's important to space certain things out, so you don't get a ton of stuff all at once, so I'm just planting beans in quarter rows, a week apart.  Beets will need thinning out once they spout, so I left a blank row to move those two. I like them for greens. Th...

The Mama Kat prompt I've chosen today is to "Show Us Something Beautiful." My Dutch Iris have been extravagant this year! I have a vase of them in the house. Very cheery. It's the reason I grow flowers---to have a free vase of flowers in the house!  And My Favorite Azalea's This one Azalea in my back yard is the only one that bloomed profusely this year! I love the large these large fluffy single blooms!

Once upon at time I bought a couple bags of red lava rock for landscaping use. It's red pumice and readily available by the bag in most big box store garden centers. Over time I noticed moss liked growing on lava rocks located in shady areas---particularly on the north side of the house.  Then I figured out I could pick up a moss covered lava rock and move it to a shady teacup with succulents or other container and the moss would continue growing and spreading. In general, moss thrives in deep shade, but it also likes dappled sunlight. In nature, it prefers the North side of a tree or rock. Today's Wednesday Pic is a couple extremely pretty mossy lava rocks in a novelty container in my front garden.  Moss blooms, then makes seed pods. Those little green things are seed pods or  maybe spore pods. I don't think I've ever had a close look at them before taking this picture. There's 3 rocks in this container 2 years ago; just one had moss already when I put i...