Gingersnap

Here is Quickbeam's rose, finally opened up. :)

What's Blooming This Week 5/28/08

This is my Arabian Nights dahlia, planted just this spring. That's why I love bulbs, they're so easy that just about anyone can grow them.
This is my Pentestemon, planted last year and relocated to the back yard this year. It is covered in white blooms.
My mountain laurel has buds on it! I'm very excited because I haven't ever grown one of these before. They remind me of summer in Northern Virginia, because I used to see them all the time when I went running.

Elle is still blooming away. It's one of the most photogenic roses that I have ever grown. :)

The Peppermint clematis blooms are still there, believe it or not. Some are a little worse for the wear but are otherwise okay.

I Made It!!

I'm happy to report that the family visit is over and I've survived. We went up to Arkansas to visit my mother and sister. We got some nursery visits done and lots of baby snorgling. We had a family cookout and it went pretty well. We had an awesome hotel room with super comfy furniture, high speed internet, a hotel pool and fitness room and a huge shopping center next door. I am not saying that the visit was perfect, but there was no blood loss and no one was harmed in the filming of this vacation. I also got some material for my book, so I'm happy. :) Now for the long trip home tomorrow, I hope it goes as well as the trip out here did. See you on the other side!

The Watched Pot

Seed starting has never been a strong point of mine, but I saw the packet above in Target the other day and knew that it had to be mine. I like it because of its decorative value, but also because I have always wanted a passionflower vine. So I got them and a little peat pellet greenhouse and planted them. And started waiting. And waiting.....still waiting every day and checking them. I think it's a bad sign that mold is starting to pop up on top of the peat pellets, but I still hold out some hope. The package says germination can take up to 28 days and it's been...um who knows, like I wrote down the day I planted them *snort*. We'll see if my faith will get rewarded.

What's Blooming This Week 5/16/08

Angel Face is still plugging away, in spite of a bad case of black spot. If you look carefully at the 3 o' clock petal you'll notice a small white spider that is peeking out. Unfortunately I think I got it when I was spraying it down with fungicide.

The Peppermint clematis is still blooming away. I'm waiting for the pompom in the center to open up, but the petals have unfurled and it looks more like a clematis bloom now.

This is my new Little Duckling clematis that I got for Mother's Day. Isn't she a beaut?

This is the Butter and Sugar siberian iris that I got last summer. I've had a devil of a time getting a good picture, because the white reflects back so much on the pictures that you can hardly see the yellow.

Oddities

Sometimes I am attracted to plants because they are just odd. One of the first plants that I got when we got our new house was the Peppermint clematis pictured above. It had a green center and whitish petals, and looked very different. We put it in the first flower bed that we built. Then we moved that bed the next spring. It started to grow and even got a few flowers, but then it died back. I thought it was dead so I dug it up and replaced it with a jasmine plant. But rather than throwing it out I put it in a pot and left it on the patio over the winter. Lo and behold this spring it started growing like mad, so when we rearranged the beds in the backyard I planted it by a shephard's hook with a windchime on it. It put on lot of flower buds, one of which you see above. This brings me to my quandry. The flowers are fairly small and they aren't brightly colored. I bought another clematis, Little Duckling, thinking to replace it, but I haven't. There is something that still appeals to me about Peppermint, and so it lives on in my garden. I think I'll plant my Little Duckling clematis under my other shepherd's hook with the hummingbird feeder.

Veteran's Honor

Is that not the most absolutely perfect rose blossom that you've ever seen? Strategically captured with droplets of water from a passing rain storm? :) Thank you dear One Truth for the lovely present. It looks lighter in the picture than it actually does, in person it seems to be darker.

The Joseph's Coat rose is still going gangbusters. I can't believe the variety of different colors on the plant. We're going to get a trellis for it this weekend because it's starting to flop over now.

There was a line of powerful storms that tore through Mississippi and Alabama today. Thanks be to God that it wasn't worse than it was. Tornados were sighted right south of the airport, which is right across the street from where I work. So things could have gone much differently today.

Maintenance

Now that we have our beds set up and plants planted for the spring it is time to maintain it all. So when I got home from work tonight I strapped my trusty sidekick to my chest (Quickbeam in her Baby Bjorn carrier), took my pruners and headed out to the garden. I trimmed all of the old blooms off of my roses and cut them back some. They have some black spot issues so Mawavi treated them. We also cut the dead wood off of our poor crepe myrtle trees. For those not in the know, when we bought the house we had them trade out the old dead trees for some crepe myrtles. But a late spring freeze killed the tops of them. I thought they were gone, but they came back in the bottom part of the tree. Now they are looking like they were butchered while we are waiting for them to recover. We puttered around for a while and enjoyed being outside. It was perfect weather today and I want to soak it all in before the hot humid weather gets here. Here's my Veteran's Honor rose bush, getting ready to bloom.

What's Blooming This Week 5/3/08

Welcome Home Rose

Neptune Rose Elle Rose Joseph's Coat Rose Acadian Miss Louisiana Iris

Enough

Over the weekend we finally reached the point that was Enough. I thought that we had already reached Enough when we finished off the back yard garden. But when we put up the bird feeder that my dad made for me, it looked awfully bare. So I decided that we would put in one last big effort and do a bed around the base of it. I had a couple of plants left that were sitting on the concrete patio in the back, and on thinking of it decided that they would make great plants for birds, butterflies etc. So we made up a list before we headed to Lowe's of everything that we could possibly think of that we could possibly need. Because I know me and I know my husband I also added '1 plant' to the list. That way when I picked up an impulse buy and he made a snide comment on whether it was on the list I could say "Well yes, as a matter of fact it is on the list, right here, 1 plant". It didn't come down to that though, because look as I may I just wasn't interested in buying plants. Okay, I'll pause long enough for you to pick yourself off of the floor. :) I may still pick up a few plants here and there throughout the summer, but when you transplant after it starts getting warm outside the plants are really need and require a lot of attention through the season. Watering all the time, protection from some of the sun etc. So I think that I'm probably finished until this fall when I start up again. :)

Succulent Feeder

When I found out that my Dad was going to come for a visit I asked him to make a project for me. I had seen it in a gardening magazine, and it's a bird feeder that has a living roof that is covered with succulents. When I saw it I knew that I had to have one, and here is the one that he made for me. I got it planted with some plants and it's sitting under the back yard until the threat of rain passes. I'm going to try to keep it on the dry side until the plants get established and grow more roots that will hold the soil in place. Isn't she a beaut?

There isn't a lot of gardening news this week. We have the beds in place that we had planned for this year so now everything just needs to get settled. We might do one more under the bird feeder, because it looks kind of bare. I have some blackberry, blueberry and a couple of flowers that are still waiting for homes so they may go there. Here are some pictures of what's blooming today. The Butterscotch Jasmine pictured above was planted at the end of last year after the Peppermint Clematis looked like it keeled over. This seems to be doing very well and enjoying its new home.

The Angel Face rose is the first one out of the gate this year. Being moved a few weeks ago doesn't seem to have set it back much. Hopefully they will all get settled in and be happy.

The Pink Chintz thyme that is planted in the scree garden (the gravel around the paver stepping stones) seems to be right at home. Some of the scree transplants aren't too happy right now and I'm hoping that they'll recover. We'll see. :)

It's Like Peas & Carrots

Today I finally got around to trying to make a new dish. Quickbeam got baptized on the same day as another little girl in our church. This girl's family is from Tanzania, and after the ceremony they had a potluck featuring foods from their homeland. One of the dishes featured peas & carrots and had a haunting fruity taste. I spent the meal trying to figure out what was in it. This is my attempt at making it.

Tanzanian Peas & Carrots
2 Tbs. butter
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small thin pieces
½ onion, finely diced
2 c. chicken broth
½ c. dried apricots, very finely diced
2 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp turmeric
Salt & pepper to taste
2 c. frozen sweet peas

Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and sauté until they begin to soften. Add the stock, apricots and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about five minutes. Add the peas and continue to simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until peas are very done and the carrots are soft.

Froggy Bottoms

Before we left from North Carolina my best friend Mel gave me some stepping stones for our garden. She is very well aware of my frog obsession, and the stepping stones are pictured above. One of the best things about them is that they feature some..bottoms on the frogs. I didn't want to put them out just anywhere, it was important to me to wait until we had our backyard fenced in and a good place to put them. I know that there probably aren't people lurking around ready to steal stepping stones, but I'm clingy with my possessions. ;) So after we got our garden area finally finished I wanted to set them out, so here they are, finally at home. :) Thanks Mel!

Gardening

We were able to get out this weekend and work on finishing up our gardening efforts for the spring. It might seem that it's a bit early to be finishing up since it's only mid-April, but today's 80 degree weather is an indicator of what we'll be getting soon. We want to get the heavy lifting and work done now while it's still pleasant outside. Through the summer I'm sure I'll still be picking up plants here and there, but no major landscaping efforts.

We started out the day by going to Across the Pond and getting some fish for the little pond that we're putting in. We picked out two Sarassa Comets and two Calico Fantails. I picked up a couple more plants at the nursery by our house - some purple Sweet Alyssum and two more varities of thyme. One of the thyme is a light variegated one and the other is Elfin Thyme which has tiny little leaves. I also got the bigger plants that I got for around the pond put in. We have an Umbrella Palm, Dwarf Papyrus and some Horsetail Rushes. So the pond is basically finished for now, we just have to let it grow in.

Mawavi spent his time working on cleaning up the beds in front of the house. I had planted a lot of perennials there last year, but they just didn't look right. A lot of them tend to look a bit weedy, and it makes it look like we haven't been taking care of our yard. So we moved most of the perennials into the back yard flower beds and put down some new mulch in the front yard. Coincidentally while I was planting the perennials in the back flower bed I almost stepped on our backyard visitor pictured at the top and almost gave myself a heart attack. He didn't seem to be too concerned about me though. We also got a new trellis and moved my Betty Corning clematis back to grow on it. It had started totally dwarfing the little trellis that it was on and growing all in the rose bush. So now it has plenty of room to grow in. So overall the front of the house is looking much better now.

So that takes care of our major gardening efforts this spring. Now we get to have fun with the challenge of keeping them all alive this summer. :)

May Night

I was walking out the front door a few days ago and noticed a flower blooming, which is pictured above. I hate to say it but I had no idea what it was. I went in a frenzy of buying at the end of last summer and got the things planted out. I kept the plant tags out in the garage so I would be able to find them later. So I faced digging through the pile of plant tags to try and figure out what it was. Fortunately for me, when I was in Lowe's this afternoon I saw some of them. They are May Night salvia, and are really beautiful. Mystery solved. :)

We did some work on the back yard garden today, made a visit to the pond store and got the rest of what we needed to set it up. I got the water lily and iris potted and put in the water. Tomorrow I will add some salt to the water and get the quality settled down. We're supposed to have a couple of nights this week that dip down in the 30's, so I want to wait until it settles a bit before I put the fish in. As soon as we finish with the planting I'll get some new pictures up.

Flashback

Before I start on my flashback, here is my Mt. Ash a.k.a. Quickbeam tree. We planted them last week and the buds on it are already starting to open up. I can't wait until it gets leafed out. :)

One of my favorite shows to watch on TV is ‘Til Debt Do Us Part. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, it is a TV show that comes on here on ALN channel on cable. It features Gail Vaz-Oxlade the host who visits and helps a family a month and helps them to tackle their debt problems. I am constantly amazed by the situations that people get themselves in to. Mostly amazed I guess because Maw and I started out our marriage in that sort of problem, had a wake-up call and are mostly back on course.

I will freely admit that most of the problem in the financial arena came from me. I had no concept of saving or budgeting when I got out on my own and freely embraced credit. We had almost reached the breaking point in our relationship and our finances when we got our reality check. It took us a good part of ten years to get debt free, and aside from my student loans and a bit of credit we ran up during our move we’ve maintained it. Watching the show reminds me of where we don’t want to go back to, and is a reminder of how far we have come.

Tauren Chili

Today we invited the Gunny and his wife over to our house to celebrate Mawavi's birthday that was Thursday. We got up early this morning and went to the grocery store to go shopping and get the things that we needed. Maw and I love to eat and we love to cook so whenever we have these two over we always tend to go overboard cooking. I had a recipe that I wanted to try from the Food Network and Downhome with the Neely's. It is for Frozen Lemonade Pie and it turned out just amazing. I also found some ground buffalo meat at the grocery store and wanted to try it out in chili. I'm happy to report that it was really good, very lean meat and this was organic so no chemicals. I made coleslaw, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas at Maw's request because they are his favorites. He rolled some lumpia and grilled some pork on the BBQ.

After we ate the boys went in the back yard and christened the new fire pit with its first official fire. Apparently cardboard boxes, newspapers and the leaf blower were involved but I didn't want to ask. I stayed in the house to take care of our very attention needy baby girl. I'm hoping that it dries out some tomorrow, because I still have some irises that need to get planted tomorrow. The rowan trees are also starting to open up, and my jasmine vine has flowers on it now. So I'm ready to get outside and see some things, hopefully we'll get some sunshine!

Here's the chili that I made. It's pretty warm even though I cut the hot ingredients by half from the original. Tailor to your own taste. :)

Lythrum's Tauren Chili Verde (adapted from James Villas Stews, Bogs & Burgoos)

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 lb. ground buffalo meat
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tomato, diced
2 Tbs. ground dried hot peppers
1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1 Tbs. chili powder
3 c. stock
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped in small pieces

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the buffalo meat, onions and garlic and brown. You shouldn't need to drain it because the buffalo is very lean. Season the meat with salt and pepper as you cook it. Add the remaining ingredients into the pan and cook over low heat for 1/2 to 1 hour.

New Garden Update

Here's the latest update for the backyard garden. We got the gravel spread and some creepy crawly plants tucked into various corners around the pathway. This weekend we're hoping to get the fountain running on the pond and get the plants put in. The fish at Across the Pond are still in quarantine for a while so we're going to have to wait a bit for that. But that's okay because the pond probably needs to settle for a week or two before we add them.

We got the rest of the rose bushes planted out - so that brings up my total count to 8 now. We have Angel Face (lavender), Lady Bank's (pale yellow thornless climber) and Joseph's Coat (multi-colored climber that I've lusted after for years) in the back yard. In the front yard we now have Veteran's Honor (Thanks Mel!! Dark red), Welcome Home (yellow with gold centers), Gingersnap (coppery colored for Quickbeam), Neptune (lavender) and Elle (pink with yellowish centers). I got a strawberry pot that I planted some succulents in, and have a container to plant my strawberries (Tennessee Beauty) in.

So that takes care of most of our gardening for the spring. We have two clumps of decorative grass that got displaced for the roses that I need to find a home for in the back yard. I got in the box of irises that I ordered earlier this year that I need to get put out. I originally planned to put them along the dry streambed that we are going to do in the back, but we aren't going to get to that until next year. So I think I'll just plant them in the new flower beds above and divide them next year. After that I think I'm done for a while, I'll let things grow in and stop spending for a bit. :)

Lotus, Take II

Despite it's unassuming appearance, the picture above is my second attempt at lotus growing. If you recall, the very first post that I made on this blog included a picture of the lotus in my garden in North Carolina. Getting it to bloom was my biggest gardening achievement. So in my new back yard I wanted to grow another one. So I ordered a Chawan Basu bowl lotus this spring and have had it rooting out in the bathtub. The roots finally grew on it and now I've transplanted it into a container outside to grow in. I'm really hoping that it will make it. I bought this one from Bonnie's Plants, and it came in with three growing tips on it so it's a really good one. Time will tell. :)

Stage II

We've been working today on the garden and making pretty good progress. We had rain on and off throughout the day so we had to work around it. We got more done after the picture above was taken but it was too dark to take a picture. Not only did we work on this, but we got Mawavi a birthday present. I know that some of you will question my sanity, bu I agreed to get him a fire pit.


Hopefully the fire will stay inside the pit. :) I got the plants planted in with the pavers so we'll see how they do. They are going to get a trial by fire literally. They are going to be getting a lot of sunshine with no protection. So we'll see who makes it and who doesn't.

Progress

We have been making some progress in the back yard garden the last couple of days. We stopped by Lowe's on the way home last night and picked up more topsoil, gravel and paver stepping stones. We had gotten the beds placed over the weekend, and last night we laid down the landscape fabric, got the blocks placed around the pond, and got the pavers roughly positioned. We have to stop back by Lowe's and pick up another roll of landscape fabric, several more paver blocks and probably a couple more bags of topsoil. I planted out some tulip bulbs that have been laying around the house since last fall. I got them to put out but was late in my pregnancy by then and it just didn't happen. We'll see how much we can get done around the rain this weekend.

Hallelujiah!

This round of classes has been the hardest by far since I've started them. I had to start up again three weeks after a c-section. Having to do classwork, recover my health and take care of a new baby just was really difficult. There have been several points where I was just ready to throw in the towel and quit altogether. I think the only thing that has stopped me is the fact that I only have one more set of classes and I'll have my associate's degree. I'm going to take the summer off so I can get some mental energy back.

Today we got to work on the back garden area. I had to hold Quickbeam the whole time while Mawavi did the planting. She absolutely refused to settle, and had to be carried around so that she could see things. It's a change for me to have to be the one watching the gardening and not doing it. So we got the beds along the fence set up and plants moved. We need some more bags of topsoil to finish them off, and we need to get the pond installed. I still have a couple more items that I'm going to need to get to finish it off, but I'll be working on that through the course of the summer. Can't have all of the fun in one week. :) I'll get up some new pictures when it's done.

Interview with a Rabbi

I am taking a Religions of the World class and for our final project I had to talk to someone from a religion besides our own. I decided to visit one of the synagogues in town here for my paper. I went and spoke with the Rabbi and had a very interesting time. The congregation of Temple B’nai Sholom was established in 1876, and the temple was built in 1899. The temple is located in historic downtown Huntsville. It has a very distinct architectural style, and lovely stained glass windows. I enjoyed my visit there and learned a lot about Judaism. Finding out more about my neighbors makes me feel more like a permanent resident here than a visitor.

Bleh

The location above is what is going to be my new garden spot in the back yard. It's our project that we are going to work on this weekend. I have several new plants to put out that I have to keep alive until then. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend, since we didn't really have one this weekend. Quickbeam scratched her eyeball on Sunday so we took her to the Urgent Care clinic nearby. This was late-ish on Sunday afternoon. The doctor did a consultation with an on-call eye doctor who scheduled her in for an appointment the next morning. He prescribed for her to have some eye ointment (not eye drops). So we took the prescription to the pharmacy in the clinic, and they didn't have it. So then we took it to Publix, and they didn't have it. So the pharmacist there called all over and finally found one in the downtown area that did have it. We took her in to the doctor on Monday morning and the scratch had mostly healed up.

Then last night I got very sick. I was pretty much passed out hard and almost non-responsive, which really worried Mawavi. He finally got me woken up and I had to go be sick. My throat was very sore and I felt just terrible. So I was home again this morning and slept for most of the day. I am behind on my college assignments and have to get them turned in tonight. I'm going to be glad when this round is over. I've been kind of behind from the beginning, trying to recover from childbirth and take care of a kid at the same time, then starting back to work. Just one more round left and I'll have my degree finished. Then I'm taking a break over the summer and going to start for my Bachelor's in the fall. I can't wait for a little R&R.

Lady Bank's Rose

We ended up making it to Bennett’s after all yesterday. We went as soon as it stopped raining, and it was the perfect time to go. It wasn’t too humid, there weren’t any bugs out, and there also weren’t a lot of people out. I carried Quickbeam around in the Baby Bjorn and she enjoyed the walk too. She loves being outside, especially when there is a breeze blowing on her hair. I had a mission in that I was looking for succulents. I found plans for a bird house that has a roof that you plant succulents in. I talked to my dad and he’s going to build me the birdhouse, and I’m going to give him some succulents for his. So I needed to pick up some and then divide them out. I found several different kinds, some hen and chicks and a couple of different kinds of sedum. I also have some creeping thyme and a different kind of sedum that I’m going to use. So I got enough succulents for a good basic start, and I can add in a few others as the season progresses. I can’t wait to get up another bird feeder.

Mawavi and I also drew up plans for our rose garden that we want to start in the back yard. We’re going to have a small pond, and several roses. I also have my butterscotch jasmine that is on a trellis, and some plants in the front yard that I’d rather have in the back. This garden is also going to feature a rain garden at the end of the downspout, and this is where the new bird feeder is going to be. The rose that we got to be the crowning glory of this garden is Lady Banks and is the picture above. It is a climbing plant with no thorns on it. The flowers glow in the sunset and will look spectacular when it gets established. I can’t wait to see the garden when it is done.

Rain

Alabama has been in a drought status since las year, so I should be grateful for the rain. But how can I be when it made me miss out on a trip to Bennet's Nursery?We woke up this morning to pouring rain, thunder and lightening and hail in some places. The wind was gusting up to 40 mph. Alas, so much for planting things today. I did wait for a lull in the storm and ran outside to take some pictures.

In other news I have finally been able to attract the elusive garden gnome into my back yard. I've tried to carefully cultivate the proper habitat, but was unsuccessful. Imagine my surprise when I found this sturdy specimen under my rosebush.

Normally I am not much of one for garden ornamentation, but I've always liked the campiness of garden gnomes. My ultimate quest is to find one reading a book. Maybe if I left a few small tomes laying around in the back yard....

Alabama Snowstorm

Okay, it wasn't actually what most people would consider a snow storm, but in these parts it is. I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. I had to run outside in my PJs to get some pictures before it melted. I got up early this morning with Quickbeam so that D. could get some sleep, because I'm nice like that. So we snuggled on the couch under a quilt and drank hot chocolate. Okay, I drank hot chocolate and she got breastmilk, but we were both happy. :) I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.

And so it begins...

Here you see the re-establishment of my water gardening fetish. We've been here for about a year and a half now, and I haven't done anything about a pond. We barely got here and then I got pregnant and had the baby, and now is the first time I've been able to entertain the notion. I decided that I am going to keep the pond very low key this time, because I don't have the time or the money to do much else right now. So I decided to start with plants that I'll be able to divide later and grow my supply. My first wave is a lotus and a water iris. The lotus is Chawan Basu (dwarf, pink and cream color), and the iris is Iris Fulva (copper/red color). They came in today and are floating in my bathtub for a while, until the lotus sprouts roots and I get something to put them both in. The lotus isn't going in the pond, it will be in a seperate container.

My goal for the pond itself right now is rather modest. I plan on getting around a 40 gallon liner, having a dwarf water lily, an iris, one or two other plants and maybe two goldfish. I want to have some kind of water feature to give the running water sound, but it can't be too active because the moving water will disturb some of the plants. The lotus are a bit different, because they are grown in seperate containers, but I have to be reasonable about them too because they take a lot of watering in the summertime. So anyway, that's the latest gardening news, we'll see how green my thumb still is. :)