Choice Morsels

I haven't blogged for a few weeks because I tripped and fell on my front sideway and was injured and that kept me off the computer for a few weeks. Thankfully, I've had the members of the Sunday Bible study group to flock to my aide and be of great assistance for anything I needed done. Today's Garden Pics: This is a nice shot of my front bed that's in a spot of land between the mailbox and the gravel parking spot. A nice display of leafy green basil, orange marigolds, then pink Vinca & Lantana at the back. Morning Glory: I found this in my back flower bed this week; a random Morning Glory seed found it's way there and took root. I've seen them around the area, growing wild in the brush along the roadways from time to time. But you can tell that's what it is by the shape of the leaves and it's blue color.

 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.

Today's Garden pics are a few shots of white & purple button chrysanthemums, dwarf marigolds and dusty miller I have planted along the walkway to the front door under my kitchen bay window along with a few pinecones for a fall feel.   

  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.

 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 ...

  Hello----I've been away from blogging for awhile, but I feel ready to at least blog about my garden and flowers. Things in life happen and daily life can be suddenly and radically altered. Mine was. Hubby died unexpectedly in December.  On the up side, my schedule is entirely my own now. I have plenty of uninterrupted time to work on my flower beds and garden. Being spring, I've begun working from bed to bed, weeding out the borders around each. I'm still working on the front beds and today I cleaned up one of the two beds with an unruly Pampas Grass. I trimmed off it's grass skirt around the bottom. Tomorrow or the next day, the other bed with an unruly Pampas gets trimmed. I also have a luncheon with my old friends from yoga class tomorrow at a favorite local Mexican restaurant. Todays Garden Pics are a couple of nice of late day shots of my yellow Flag Iris in the glowing rays of the setting sun:

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.

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.

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. 

Here's a little bright spot for the day: My first blooms of Clematis! I've never grown Clematis before. I just planted this one last spring and it bloomed, then during winter it was just brown stems on the trellis. I wasn't even certain it was still alive. I read it blooms on "old wood," meaning last years growth, so I didn't touch it. I decided to wait and see and, indeed, it did break out in fresh growth and blooms along last years stem at every joint. Plus a new vine has sprout from the roots. This particular Clematis is a compact breed that stays less then 5 feet, which is why I chose it. It naturally climbs. The blooms are lovely and I look forward to it filling the trellis eventually. Other Garden Tasks: Monday Hubby and I worked together to clean up the south side beds that are on either side of the front door. Mostly blowing out winter leaves, then raking out excess pine straw, mowing it, then I put those mowings back down where it was...

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...

This clump of Spring Snowflakes in my back garden bed are always a delightful sight in early spring! It's Snowdrops Southern cousin. There are both Spring & Summer Snowflakes and both have identical white flowers with the green dots, like little fancy skirts. The difference is height. Spring Snowflakes make a clump of greenery about 10 inches in height, while Summer Snowflakes have giant-size greenery, ranging 18 inches to 3 feet in height.  So, definitely mine are Spring Snowflakes.