Choice Morsels

Today's Garden Pic is:  My Plumbago: This shot is just part of my rather sprawling Plumbago I liked because of how the sun was highlighting it! I learned in my Garden Club recently that the proper time to cut it back is in early spring. (Here in Florida that is early March)  It's a common Southern landscape shrub, but I particularly like it because the flowers are baby blue and I try to collect "blue" flowers in my garden. Here's a closer shot of one of the flower heads. Blooms form at the tip of the stems, so to get more blooms, a couple months ago I did a quick snipping of just of tips of branches to encourage it into putting out a quantity of blooms and now, that is starting to happen! These blooms along the bottom are just the beginning!  

When the bad tree-cutter cut down pine trees and let them fall on every adjacent fence, many branches on my Maple tree were torn down as well---but the upside is that loss of those branches on that side is allowing so much more sunlight in! Plus the neighbors pines are all gone, which makes things less shady and more light as well! My Plumbago shrub, which is planted in the vicinity of that Maple, is blooming more now then it ever has--because it is getting more sun! Plumbago flowers are naturally baby blue in color. It's a popular landscape shrub here in Florida. I got this one from a favorite local nursery that is now out of business, so I'm fond of it for that reason. Between the Plumbago and the Maple tree is this Raspberry colored Hydrangea.   It's been there for years, but this year it is blooming a bit more then it has up to now, because it is enjoying more light! This area is a few feet in front of the Maple, still fairly shady, but I view it from m y sliding glass ...

Greetings! Today I was working on a set of wooden shelves that I had stained some years ago, but had never finished the project. So, I decided to finish them.They needed a second going over with walnut stain  and I sanded down their edges to give them a slightly worn look. Tomorrow I'll but the Tung Oil on to give them a nice polish. While I was out in the garage with door open working on that, the garage company guy showed up to look over our garage door opening, which is the first step to getting a new one. Our existing garage door is in desperately needs replacing! But things have changed a lot about installing garage doors since we replaced ours 12 years ago. Insurance requirements have changed considerably. Since I live in Florida, garage doors have to be wind resilient. The interior frame for mounting it will be re-done.  Every piece of hardware, including the spring coil has to be replaced. And the price includes a costly little permit t...