Ok I now realize that this crazy splurge on bulbs might not of been the smartest move I have made lately but oh well. As I mentioned I have ordered 60 bulbs from Brecks bulbs. All that remains for me to do now is receive the order divide the 100 bulbs in half with my co-worker from this order















Take full possesion of the bulbs for the red lily at the bottom right hand side




And figure out where to plant them all. I know where the red lilies are going and some of the other ones. But man I think I took a crazy pill that day.

Stay tuned for the trials and tribulations on the planting probably coming your way late September or early October.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 5:47 PM 5 comments

 

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:53 PM 0 comments

 

I can't believe it here we are rolling into September and I have just gotten a bloom on my poppy. There were about 30 seeds put into the ground in the same area and only two plants came up and one bloomed.


TA DA my poppy at long last. And my carnation is making a come back as well,those little red and white flowers on the left of the poppy.


Also on my just blooming list are the marigolds.

This is a picture of the same general area that was newly planted this year. I am really happy with how it grew. See my July 18 post More Pictures and Ideas for the before shot.

A temporary home for the birdbath.

Yarrow which was given to me this summer. I planted this in an area by the shed along the fence line as I work my way down creating the allusive side garden. There are four plants the other one in bloom is white.

A shot of my Russian sage that got buried under the sweet peas, there are lots of shoots from this so I will be transplanting a few in various areas, the first being in my corner of shame.

The Winnipeg Parks rose still blooming as well as all my other rose bushes.

A shot of the back corner with all sorts of blooming happening.
Nastrium









I am really quite amazed how well the gardens are doing despite my neglect,I have not been out there doing much, the weeds have slowed down so that I can now just enjoy the beauty and the grass is not growing quite so fast so it is only getting mowed once a week. My friend and I sat out in the back on Sunday and slightly sanded Ronnie the Rambling Ram and put a clear coat on varnish on him so he won't rot. When this started to dry we noticed different shades of color showing through, the prominent one being yellow.

A full body shot of him, pretty good looking for a chainsaw carving.


And a head shot showing some of the detail on him. I'm so glad my neighbor gave this to me.




I was also given a pile of sunflower seeds to plant by a client, he over heard me saying I can't grow them so he gave me some from his very healthy plants and swears they will grow. Tune in next summer LOL.

I split on an order of bulbs from Brecks bulbs with a co-worker so my share will be 50 plus the 10 red lily ones called Red carpet border lilies, described as a flowering carpet of fiery red Asiatic lilies. These grow to a height of 35-45cm. and if I can I will get the picture scanned and post it for all to see. Just in case I did not post enough tonight.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 6:13 PM 1 comments

 

Here I am back to the quiet life at least for two weeks until my out of town sisters arrive for the wedding. I have survived the dentist and even though I am on antibiotics for three weeks and am not to be out in the sun too long all is OK there.

The birthday party I threw for my other half on Saturday went really well and the clean up Sunday was not bad. The weather held out and my gardens were awed over. ( I take a bow) The only stressful part that evening was when someone let my dog Lucy out without a lease. I have no idea how long she was out before I discovered it but the search party went out in full force. Lucy the poor thing has never had the pleasure of a fenced yard where she can run, so once out and un-tethered, run she did. About twenty minutes after we discovered the great escape she came tearing through the back gate and dropped panting onto the grass, she was more than happy to go into the house with the air conditioner and cold water to drink.

We have been really lucky this year with the lack of mosquitoes however I have noticed quite a few grass hoppers. Yesterday morning I got into my car to go to work and sitting right in the middle of my dashboard was a big honking grass hopper. These do not concern me but I still wanted it out of the car. Hmmm how to do this without squishing him or having him jump into the back seat? I finally reached into my glove box real slow so as not to spook him, I don't know if they spook but just in case so he wouldn't go hopping into the back seat and got out a couple of napkins, armed as I was I approached him to knock him out of the car, poor thing was half dead I think, however after 3 or 4 swishes with the napkins he did go out the door.

Having been on the run since Friday morning getting everything ready for the party I have not really had time to sit and enjoy a good cup of coffee so first thing this morning I made a pot, turned on my computer and went straight to the blog sites to catch up on everything, fetched the mug of coffee and got all settled in to read the blogs. Ah all is good I am thinking as I go to take the first drink of this freshly brewed coffee. What? What the heck the cream cannot be bad I just got it. What it's moving!! A big damm moth had landed right in my coffee, struggled and then sort of fell apart in it. GROSS. After washing my mug I poured a second cup and enjoyed it while I caught up on my reading.

Many thanks to Sabine for the promised White Mallow seeds, they arrived here on Thursday when I needed them. I had just gotten home from the dentist with the frozen mouth so they were a pick me up. I can hardly wait to plant them.

The birdbath has not made it outside yet as I have to seal the paint and I haven't gotten that far yet. Oldroses I did worry about it blowing over but there is a lip on the bottom that I am going bury in the ground and will use the white rocks from the previous path to help weight it down. I'll keep you posted on the outcome. I am going to put this in where the Sunflower is since nothing wants to grow there.

And finally we have rain. Hopefully enough to compensate the lack of watering my gardens have had the last couple of days.



A picture my friend sent to me of a canyon in California.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:35 PM 5 comments

 

I am not a crafty person but I seen this idea in a recent magazine so I thought I'd give it a try.




Here is an inexpensive and easy to make Birdbath that I made last night.


This is simply two large pots one smaller than the other with the base of the largest one sitting on top. I glued the base just for security and used plastic pots instead of clay ones. My friend and I then decided to stencil just for fun and so that I could get the hang of it since that was my 1st try. I did the easy stuff on the bottom.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 6:10 AM 3 comments

 

I have been checking out all the blogs and I can't believe some of the yards. Yikes and I thought I had lots to do. There are so many plants, hints, and just plain craziness I love it.

I sent away for a catalog of bulbs at www.BrecksBulbs.ca which is a Canadian mail order company. This is like giving a child free rein in a candy store. There are so many choices and the prices are right. All of them are Dutch bulbs, there are lilies, iris, crocus, tulips of all sorts of colors and blooms,etc. I have my eye on a package which contains 103 assorted bulbs "The 120 day flowering sampler collection" for the low price of $49.99" I could plant them everywhere, the only thing is 1st I need to list the bulbs in the package and then go through the catalog to be sure they are all zone 3.

The other package that caught my eye is the one with 40 Giant Crocus for naturalizing which I would love to do in the front yard for $19.99.

What you guys don't think I can plant 143 bulbs?

I am really only thinking of the packages because I will never be able to decide what to get. Since it looks like we will be staying here I am thinking all these bulbs would sure get a good start on the side garden.The lots we were looking at are cheap but the cost to get septics, wells etc. is just plain insane.

Yesterday I went out back and while doing some weeding decided I made a big error last summer when I put down white rock to use as a path between two garden in order to weed. First off all I used under them were layers of newspaper which of course I learned this year makes worm lasagna, of course the weeds just kept coming and coming through all these and what a pain to weed since I had to keep moving them in order to get to the weeds. I had enough yesterday so I picked them all out of there, pulled all the weeds leveled the ground, placed thick plastic down and then the resin stepping stones.

The little path went from this; on the right side


To this, a much tidier area. The planter at the end is full of the stones so I am going to put down more plastic around the area on the left and put them there. I think.




This is a Scarlet Ruby Begonia


And the Cosmos gone wild coming up even through the steps. I pulled them all out once this summer.

And hidden in under all the Cosmos is what I believe is a Dahlia.

And finally my marigolds have started to bloom and the poppy is still growing but not blooming yet.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 8:56 PM 5 comments

 

Ohhhhhhhhhh I just can't seem to keep up. I spent all evening mowing and watering the gardens. Still on my list of things to do either tonight or in the morning is clean the inside of my house. This has to be done since I have someone coming to look at it and give me a price.

Oh yeah let me start from the start I have a mobile home in a mobile home park, I then got the brilliant idea that I should by a small lot just out of town in an area called Pinantan Lake which is only about 20 to 30 minutes of driving depending on the weather and move my mobile to the lot. It is a great idea the lot I am looking at is cheap and the payments would be the same as the pad rent. Well here is the killer the price to move the trailer is is $10,000. or more. I can buy a brand new one for $65,000 and then with the lot my mortgage payment is the same. Of course the dealer said he has buyers for one the size of mine. We'll see. Of course this means I would have to start my gardens all over again if we decide to do this. But just imagine a 1/2 acre of virgin un-planted dirt, and she dreams with stars in her eyes.

Next day Aug 4/05
On top of all this I have a stagette to go to on Friday night, a meeting with a fellow on Sat. to check out the lot to be sure it is not just swamp, and a baby shower on Sunday night. We are then back to the work week with a dentist appointment in there which requires my mouth to be frozen and then I am giving a birthday party next Saturday. I do get two weeks after that to prepare for the onslaught of relatives coming for my sisters wedding.

I just went out and took photos of some mystery plants so now that I have ranted on about how busy my life is at the moment I am ready to share these;











And here is my little dog Lucy, please note she is 7 and this is only the second picture I have managed to get of her with her face at the camera.


I know these are gentians they were planted late last summer and then I forgot I planted them.


Killer dragon fly.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 9:12 PM 4 comments