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.

  Today's Garden Pic is a pretty Native Daylily sunlit by the last rays of the setting sun. In other news, I'm looking into replacing my rain gutters. The first company I called, the owner said " he'd shoot me a text before he came on Wednesday," but when 4 o'clock rolled around, I texted to ask if he was still planning on coming? His answer was to tell me about his daughter being sick and about having to stay home with his son and that he was super busy and said, I quote, "he didn't need me to be there to hold his hand while he looked at the gutters." I was like, "What?" I didn't quite know what to make of that. It seemed a little personal and not very professional. A professional reply would've been, "I've had some expected things come up today---can I reschedule?" I tried to be gracious, telling him I was sorry to hear all that; that I was just trying learn what to expect and that, being retired, I was generally...

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!