Plants for Shade

My shade containers are finally coming together. Much more low maintenance, as they don't dry out too quickly. With a little planning you can have plenty of color, too.

Rainy day, time to thin the zinnias

My zinnia seeds are finally popping up, in the garden, and in the whiskey barrels. Of course, even though I tried to space them properly when I planted them, rain and wind and probably squirrels muddled them about. Now they are in clusters, which will fight each other for space. Today will be perfect for gently pulling them out and separating them. The trauma will be eased by the lack of hot sunlight, and the rain. In a few short weeks, they'll have shot up and started to bloom, can't wait.

Me vs. the Squirrels, Part 2

This morning I opened my front door to find an odd sort of debris on the walk, which I realized had come from the gutters. The squirrels must have gone foraging there for seeds and what not. I was briefly tempted to line peanuts up all along the gutters, but the little @#$% have become so bold, I don't want to encourage them to be too near the house. I'd like them to be 200 ft. from the house at all times. At least!

Me vs. the Squirrels

The squirrels are going nuts in the garden (ha ha). They're pulling plants out of pots, digging up seedlings and casting them aside, including the pumpkin seedling from the other day's post. They even dug up my tiny new blue hydrangea, which really got to me. This is a relatively new problem for me, as our old dog, a Rottie mix named Belle, struck terror in their little rodent hearts. But Belle moved on to the Happy Hunting Grounds, where she is probably chasing little squirrel angels. For some reason our current dog, Niles, doesn't have the same affect. Maybe its the clothes.

Another Heat Wave

Its not even Memorial Day yet, and the temperature is in the 90's, even now at 7:30ish. I hope we have a thunderstorm tonight, because I'm too lazy to water. I'm kind of an air conditioning snob, but right now I don't care too much about fresh air, if it would only be cooler in here. The pansies and violas are drying up, and I'm worried about the lobelia and Gerbera daisies, too. I guess perhaps I should log off and water, after all.

The First Pumpkin Seedling

I love starting plants from seed, and this is my second year growing pumpkins. My daughter Sarah has been throwing a pumpkin carving party in October for the last couple of years, and last year I was able to bring 6 or 8 pumpkins. Amazing, what comes from such a tiny start.

Turtle

The turtle is back.

I've lived in this house for about 23 years, and just about every May we see a turtle that comes to lay her eggs here in one of my gardens. This results in extra pool duty in mid August, to rescue the babies who fall/crawl into our pool. With vigilence, most can be saved.

I had been in and out of the fenced in area around the pool, so she must have gotten in when I was upstairs. She scared the heck out of poor Niles (my Chihauhau).