Succulent Bird Feeder, Take II

Last year, I posted about a bird feeder that I had seen in a magazine. It had a planter in the roof that you could plant succulents in. I thought it looked really neat, and my dad made me one. I got it planted with a variety of plants and got it put up. There was only one small thing that I overlooked...it rains in Alabama, and it rains a lot. All of the dirt washed out of it, leaving behind some sad looking succulents. I knew that I needed to do something but I was stumped, that is until I had a revelation.

Back about 10 years or so ago Martha Stewart had a succulent wreath featured in a magazine. You used a wreath form ad had soil wrapped with sheet moss, poked holes through it and planted the succulents. So I decided to pack sheet moss around the plants and see if that helps. I probably still need to bring it in if it's going to be a lot of rain, but we'll see how it works.

Now I can pretend like I am Aiyana and grow lots of succulents!

Various Notes

It just goes to show that no matter how hard I try they are never gone. I have been trying to weed out the primrose that I had planted in the front garden bed and I found this one (with a few friends) growing in the azalea. I am still weeding out some of the horsetail from around the pond too.

We also have some other guests in the front bed, courtesy of all of the rain that has been falling lately.

Poor Elle is still soldiering on in spite of my benign neglect this year. I have been so busy with work, school and trying to keep up with my baby that roses have had very little of my attention. That combined with all of the rain and dampness have given her a really bad case of black spot.

The 'Husker Red' pentestemon blooms have finally opened up.

And the coreopsis that I bought earlier this year is making after a rough start. It's a good thing that I've been buying tough plants. :)

A Crafting Interlude

Some explaination is necessary. My boss is a pretty flambouyant dresser with a fondness for leopardskin. Aside from that she's a pretty conservative gal which led our planner to make a joke about her being Amish. We started laughing, imagininh an Amish lady in a leopardsin bonnet. So when it came time for her birthday I decided to make her a teddy bear, complete with the aforementioned bonnet, complete with gold ric-rac trim.

We're going to surprise her with it, along with her real gift, an Amazon gift certificate to buy books for the Kindle she is supposed to be getting. It took me forever to make the bonnet and dress, because I had help from a 17 month old. ;) So finally I got it cranked out this weekend since her birthday is Friday. I hope that she enjoys it. ;)

Ego?

I'm trying to figure out if this is the Ego iris I planted last year. Too bad I lost the tag. ;)

Mother's Day

I have a new mother to feature or Mother's Day. Early this morning we were taking the Gnomeslayer out for a walk. I happened to glance over at the fence in the corner of the garden where the Lady Banks rose is and saw a robin sitting there. It finally fell into place for me that she has a nest in the corner where the fenceposts meet. She's been flying around this morning with worms and fretting around when we are back there. Here's where it is:

I tried to circle it but it's still hard to see it. It's where the top rails and fencepost meet. It's a pretty good spot since the rose will hide her nest from just about everything. The only problem is that today was a day that we planned to do some gardening, since it only barely misted. I don't think that most of you realize how small my garden is. It's probably about 20'X20' so wherever we are when we work in it is pretty close to her nest. I'd actually planned on moving some of the plants around there but we decided to minimize what we did around there today. Since it doesn't take that long for robin babies to grow up we're going to leave her alone.

Here is our other buddy living in the garden. I don't know if it's a him or a her, but GS and I see it frequently when we go out to check on the garden. I was able to get a real closeup yesterday, which I'm sure didn't please him.

In other news, here is my new Laura Bush rose that I got this spring. I tell you, living with my $50 plant budget this year hasn't been easy, but this was one exception that I made. It's a really lovely dark orange/salmon color and has a lovely fragrance. I'm still trying to figure out it's final placement, with all of our rearranging that we're doing.

And finally, the blue flax that I planted two years ago finally put on some blooms. It's nice that my garden is maturing a little so that things are blooming more.

Where's my Ark?

It rained yet again today and we had tornado warnings. I heard that a tornado actually touched down a couple of miles from where I work. We had to go hang out in the hallway for about 20 minutes while the storm went over. Definately not my favorite way to spend the day. So on a good note, the plants are still going nuts. The iris pictured above is the deepest purple color that I have seen. Unfortunately it doesn't come true in the picture and looks lighter.

The Peppermint clematis is covered in blooms and they are starting to open up.

And the mountain laurel buds have opened and it is so beautiful. Last year there were three buds total on it. I wouldn't volunteer to count them this year. ;)

Green Thumb Sunday 5-3-09

It's been raining here since about Wednesday, and it looks like no end in sight anytime soon. Yesterday I went outside in a lull and took the Gnomeslayer for a walk to burn off some of her energy. I found quite a few interesting things going on. My Betty Corning clematis, pictured above is putting on a lot of growth, as well as blooms.

I found this Acadian Miss louisiana iris blooming behind a hedge.

My mountain laurel is getting ready to explode with blooms.

And another gratuitous shot of Joseph's Coat. Yes, I have other roses but they aren't as convenient to take pictures of. ;)

Siberian Irises

Last year I bought a mixed collection of 25 Siberian Irises from Roots & Rhizomes. I picked out one special named variety but I can't remember what the name was. :( I planted them all around the house in various beds. I was disappointed last year because only one bloomed. I was worried that they would be a bust. And then when I was outside this weekend I noticed that there were buds all over them. They finally opened up yesterday and I got some pictures. I don't know which type any of them are, especially because I forgot where I planted the named one that I got. Maybe I'll be able to recognize the color on it. And maybe I'll start keeping better records. ;)

And last but not least, I had planted a baptisia a couple of years ago and it has languished around and never done anything. Until this spring that is. :)