No this is not a field of flowers, this is a shot of the garden off my deck and if you look close enough you'll be able to spot the Casa Blanca lily in bloom. When I came home Monday night I went out on the deck with my dog while she did her thing after being cooped up for 8 hours. The first thing that hit me was a wonderful scent drifting to me on a nice gentle evening breeze (I get home around 11:15pm) Of course being pretty dark I did not realize that the fragrance was coming from the lilies. Here is a better picture of them taken yesterday of the ones planted in the side garden.











Here is what I have been doing since my last blog. The area around my three rose bushes looked nice with the bushes in bloom and the baby breaths planted between and around them, however the grass that I had cut away was ragged looking and very uneven, so I re-defined the edges and gave it all a good weeding, while I was in the shed getting the right tools I spotted some dollar store fencing I had bought 3 years ago to use in the front garden so I put it to use. Because it was cheap some of the pieces would not snap together so I used white twist tags to hold it together in some spots. Here is the final outcome of almost two days of work. I am going to try and take some cutting from my lavender bush and plant it between the rose bushes.






Being on a roll and a glutton for punishment I went on to the area where my climbing rose bush is. I did not like the way I set up the two trellis's as they kept wavering in the wind and look kind of cheap. I pulled up one and put it against the 1st trellis to form a corner using twist tags once again to hold them snug together, cleaned up the edges and moved some bricks over to tidy up the other two sides,transplanted a few pansies around the base, which died quickly I guess it was too hot to try that. Anyways here is a picture.










Now I know you are all thinking that I would of stopped there. Not one your life I was in my glory at the outcome of these two areas so I went on to do one more. Here I did not have to use any twist tags LOL I moved the bricks out and weeded the area good making the garden roughly 6-8" wider and dug up the wooly thyme which I placed in the side garden where it begins. I dug up some other plants to transplant into this garden to help fill in some bare spots. Notice the area behind it? I am using the plastic stepping stones to form a small path between the two gardens and the black edging which I have a ton of I am going to use to make a path in the back garden as well.






Since this blog could become very large I am going to end it with this and do another one later today. My girlfriend Marlene and I are bad or good depending on your view of things, about calling each other about good deals we see while shopping. Marlene gave me a call on Monday morning to tell me about a bench with an attached arbor on sale at Walmart for $60.00. You know I had to have it. After about 2 hours I finally got it together. It was not that difficult but it is heavy and really should of been a two person job and once again no twist tags. Are you ready? Here it is.










My two favorite tools in the world are twist tags and a glue gun.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:14 AM 6 comments

 

Ok why didn't someone remind me that I am not 19 any more. I spent 3 hours in the yard yesterday before work and a good 7 today. Now the only thing reminding me that I am not 19 are my poor screaming muscles. Oh well I did get a lot done, all the trimming around the edges was done by hand shears which means of course I had to really weed all the back gardens since I was so low to the ground I couldn't bear not to. After I finished all that I redefined some of the edges and enlarged one a bit. This meant simply moving some rocks and bricks, which I was doing anyways to get the grass and weeds from underneath them. I then went on to plant two white carpet roses that I bought at Walmart the other day on a clearance, they were $3.00 each, and move a Thyme plant.

After this I was pretty much done, not the work just no more energy. While I was cleaning up the tools and pulled weeds I caught a wonderful scent. This is what was causing it.



The first of my Oriental lilies to bloom.






Surprises in the back garden as well. The balloon plant and the white feverfew also are in bloom.










I was fooling around with my camera last night when I got home because the moon was cresting over a mountain these are the two best shots I thought I would share the first it the moon coming over and the second is the moon in all its glory. I wish I had thought about zoom when I took the first one though.









The last photo is the Apricot tree, the fruit is starting to ripen, Yum I can hardly wait.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:15 PM 4 comments

 

Wednesday I thought I was back to work and as I was getting ready it dawned on me that I might have another day off so after checking my day planner I realized that yes indeed I did have one more day of holidays. Not that I was complaining it was just a very nice surprise. Oh joy! So quickly changing into my gardening clothes I went outside and finished cutting the grass and then started working on the side garden, with dark clouds looming in the sky and a nice cool breeze I felt like I was in heaven. It started to thunder and I felt a few drops of rain, however not to be deterred I finished the section that I had left the other day and started on another area. The weather of course had a mind of it's own and when it started to spit lightning I decided that was enough and put away the garden tools. My neighbor was picking Saskatoon berries so I started helping her, plus it gave us chance to visit since she also works nights, the rain then started coming down in big drops which we ignored until it turned into hail at which time we both ran for cover. It poured hard and steady for about 3 hours with thunder, lightning and a high wind. Here are a couple of pictures of the sky later in the evening.








If you look close enough at the first picture you can just see one of the moonlights to the left.


Yesterday I went downtown and into a garden & antique store that I had never been in and found an antique birdbath at a very good price of $139.00 today I am thinking of going back and buying it. Now I need to decide if, although it is not that much I really should put the money elsewhere.

Also yesterday I had to go back to work and after being there for about an hour I was told that I had won the door prize last Thursday for the Canada Day celebration they had at work. I seldom win anything so this was pretty cool. The door prize included a folding camping chair, a holder for salt,pepper mustard and ketchup in the shape of a BBQ as well as a cooler full of goodies. Of course you know I took pictures to share. After I emptied the cooler to show all the goodies that were in it, it reminded me of a picture from the Chrisco Christmas Hamper magazine. There are even two martini glasses and a beach ball.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:17 AM 7 comments

 

Here I am back from my camping trip. It was great and I do not believe we stopped eating or drinking the entire time. The weather was great and of course being up in the mountains and by a lake we escaped the searing heat here in town, I know it was at least 97f if not hotter.

These are the critters that kept the dogs amused and as you can see this dog was almost in the hole after the gopher.











J doing what all good campers do while the women folk rustle up dinner.










And of course what are camping trips without at least one picture of the fire?




Speaking of fires we have two forest fires going in the area and the air is heavy with the smell of burning wood. Here are a couple of pictures I took last night of the smoke against the setting sun.












Today I spent most of the day outside trying to get my yard under control, the grass is high and my lawn mower is broken so I was using the neighbor's mower which for some reason is very difficult to start but I did manage to start it and then half way through it ran out of gas and after filling it up it would not start again. So not discouraged I went and worked in the side gardens and got 97% of it weeded but had to stop around 4:30 as my hands would not work any more. I did get a nice area of it cleaned up and finally got some mulch down. Pictures tomorrow hopefully, I am going to go and rest my sore body on the couch and watch a movie.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 8:18 PM 2 comments