Gardening, anyone?

as I have mentioned, everything is a surprise around here since I moved in on Auhudt of last year.

From bush to jar. Not fragrant. Viburnum?

thanks! I just made a mixed bouquet. There are flowers, ferns, herbs, and Jsoanese Maple cuttings.

The flowers are I think viburnum, rose, clematis, ferns, mint, and lavender.

I missed a page,... and gorgeous photo Jackbirdie. I would have said those are hydrangeas. Are they viburnum? Gorgeous bouquet, whatever we decide.

No I think you are correct. The leaves are not hydrangea.

JAZZY – beautiful irises, and what pretty colors on those
flowers I’ve never heard of!

TWOHOBBIES – love the color of that ground cover… Phlox, you
say?

DMM – See? You can “Introduce” your Creeping Phlox! Love,
love, love your azaleas!

JBEANS – I love the fragrance of flowers, but of course, DH
is allergic to everything…

SCOTTIE – Brown Fig Trees… I’ll have to look that up. I
think there are LOTS of changes in everyones’ gardens this year due to the wild
weather fluctuations we’ve had… Tree roots are an issue for us, too. I think I
am done planting… at least without a power auger. Or dynamite.

BALTHUS– gorgeous yard… so sorry to hear about DH; perhaps
he spent some time recuperating in your relaxing yard? Uh, World Naked
Gardening Day? I don’t think so! I already get bit by critters in places that
annoy me…

WREN – that really was a “grab bag”…. Lucky for you! My only
daffodils came from a tiny pot I got at Trader Joes, and on a whim, put them in
the ground. They bloom every year! As for container gardens, last year we
planted Encore Azaleas. My Landscape Designer said it was no use putting them
in the ground, as we could not control the environment (serious hardpan, clay,
alkaline soil) so I used giant cobalt pots, and amended the soil to what they
needed. Got a wonderful bloom this year!

JACKBIRDIE – such pretty bouquets! I used to make bouquets
from anything I had growing in my yard, so that we could take them to my MIL in
the nursing home every Sunday. Her favorites were my Lisianthus. I felt so happy knowing that everything came from my yard. You have an eye for beautiful arrangements!

~ ~ ~ ~

Well, we waited all day for the rain today, but it weenied out and
went around us. We sure could have used the water. We’re already on
restriction. Should be in the 90s by next week.

Last week we moved the azaleas to under the big corner redwood tree
(since the neighbor destroyed my shade garden) and since I have two extra
cobalt pots, I think I might try some African daisies in one. The drip hose is
still there… It will give the look of “Wave Petunias” that DH likes, but they
are perennials, so no replanting every year.

The neighbor is taking forever to gut his house and
yard, and I finally realized I won’t be able to plant MY trees til next fall.
So now we have to go out and paint all the trunks of our Japanese Maples with
something called “Tree Trunk White” to prevent them from burning. We are also
going to hang frost cloth from way high up in the branches to protect them from
damage. It will look really funky from the neighbor’s yard, but hey – he’s the
one that caused this problem in the first place.

And – we had all our Japanese Maples professionally pruned
for the first time in 8 years. They look great!

Will post pics soon, now that I’m using my iPhone and storing
them in the Cloud, instead of on stupid Windows 10.

Hope all of you in the dreadful weather’s path stay safe!!!

JACKBIRDIE - love the addition of maples to your arrangement!

Whenever I had a shortage of flowers in my garden to make up a vase for MIL in the nursing home, I would stick whatever greenery I could find in there. Most often it was leather fern, but many times it was lavender, or even rosemary. I think I might have even used some Redwood trimmings once or twice!

Use what ya got!

Teka- sorry for your snow glories, but what a dramatic photo it makes. Just striking!

Here's a perfect little bloom that no critters got to before my pruners did. Smells really nice. Happy weekend everyone! Hope you can manage to get outside for a deep breath of fresh air.

Lovely Bouquet Jackie. . .bought two more goof sized hydrangeas at Sam's Club today. They get them every mother's day and I have Dh buy them in lieu of overpriced roses that won't last. So we have 4 hydrangeas to plant next weekend along with my hostas and other haul from this coming Saturday's Master Gardner's sale.

Scottie

Surprise, surprise! After dinner, I looked outside, and it was raining! Doing the happy dance!

Also, I hope this shows up... it's dinner time at the bird feeder. All the little house finches are greedily jockeying for a good position, until a rather large visitor (a dove) showed up.

Anyone's vegetable gardens getting going? I have been harvesting asparagus, broccoli, kale, spinach and lettuce. Lots of seeds sprouting.

Monis.. Great job with your veggies.. I'm envious :-)

Sure looks good, Monis. All I see is chives here! I've been thinking about planting some lettuce varieties in a pot. I think it looks so pretty and I could keep it close to the house where the bunnies won't eat it.

I've also been thinking about putting a hydrangea in a pot too. I have three in the back that don't get enough sun. So my first thought is I could put one in a pot and move it where needed. But then I had the notion to buya blue one at the store for Mother's day and put in a container in hopes I may keep it blue. We do not have acid soil here so they turn pink but can I buy an acid soil for a container? Scottie could you send me some dirt? I know that good Georgia dirt would keep it beautiful blue. So that's one of my projects upcoming.

My cherry tree is near full bloom. If I get a good day I'll take a picture. We've had a lot of rain, clouds and cold.

We grow lettuce in the big clay saucers. We pick it pretty young and they have really shallow roots. I buy the mixed seeds.

Two Hobbies, They have special fertilizer for acid loving plants (blueberries for instance) and there's something you can dig into the soil to keep them blue. A garden nursery would know what.

how lovely! what are those purple flowers

Hi there- it is called a Blue Sennetti. I got it from my favorite nursery this week, never seen one before but love the color of the deep blue/purple flowers against the lime green leaves. It is stunning!

Blue Sennetti

Jazzy.. It's extremely striking..it looks terrific.!!

Katy.. Love your tin watch dog :-)