Christmas Notebook

here and there, in the garden

June 24, 2009 – 9:35 pm

Last evening, I took a few pictures as we documented “first flower out” on the daylilies. If you don’t know what that means…we keep a record of when the first flower appears on each daylily every year. That shows us this year, for instance, that the daylilies are blooming 5 to 7 days earlier than last year. Interesting to us, if not to anyone else! ;-D Anyhoo, here are a few pics from the yard.

I like the way the centers of the purple cone flowers pick up the color of the ‘Baja’ daylily blossoms.

We have clumps of daylilies that haven’t bloomed yet.

Can’t get enough of the garden when it’s daylily season.

There are other things to see in the yard besides the daylilies, though. Queen of the Prairie is blooming by the garage.

And hostas are blossoming.

Don’t the hydrangeas look great?

The butterfly bushes are attracting butterflies and all kinds of other insects.

A gaggle of gooseneck loosestrife…they are wonderful in bouquets, lasting weeks.

We had a little rain shower this afternoon. I took these pictures from under the carport.

Come by. We’ll sit in the swing and watch the butterflies flutter by. Iced tea or lemonade?

Enjoy others outdoor activities at Outdoor Wednesday. Check it out!

Outdoor Wednesday logo_thumb[2]

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged daylilies, garden | Comments (7)

gotta love it

June 23, 2009 – 10:50 am

The garden is in full bloom. Daylilies everywhere.

‘Monterrey Jack’

Coreopsis, daisies and purple cone flowers are adding to the riot of color.

The elderberries are blooming, too.

The new bed in the middle is waiting for the daylilies we plan to buy when we go nursery hopping to celebrate our 32nd anniversary.

I need to do something about those upstairs windows. Ever since we cut the two trees down in front of the house, the shades have bothered me. I guess they weren’t noticeable while the pines were covering the view.

The weather has been very hot and extremely humid which makes going out into the garden uncomfortable. But when it looks like it does now, I hate to miss it! Online is an easy way to tour the garden. 🙂 You can tour more gardens at Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday. Check it out!

bt2

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in bloomin' tuesday, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged garden 2009 | Comments (6)

menu plan monday ~ june 22, 2009

June 21, 2009 – 10:36 pm

We’ve had a busy week, with a lot of company. DH’s three siblings were all here. Their mom will be 92 this month. It was great they could all be together for the weekend. DH is in the green shirt.

We also managed a short afternoon/evening trip to visit DS#2 and DDIL. They closed on their house this week and are in the process of moving in. They moved from a rental to a this home in the same town. We are excited for them and all the plans they are making. I can’t wait to help them plan some flower and hosta beds.

Monday
fridge food

Tuesday
homemade pizzas

Wednesday
tacos

Thursday
chicken and rice
asparagus
spinach salad with strawberries
corn on the cob

Friday
eat out

Saturday
fridge food

Sunday
roast beef
cauliflower/broccoli/carrots steamed
corn
green salad
baby baked potatoes

For lots of menu ideas, recipes and recipe links, visit Menu Plan Monday.

I’ll leave you with one more picture. Our garden is a sea of color with the daylilies in bloom. I wish you could see it in person! If you are nearby, please stop for a visit!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu | Comments (0)

just before it rained…again…

June 19, 2009 – 4:47 pm

I managed to mow the front yard, in spite of the heat and the humidity. And now we’re getting a little thundershower. They pop up this time of day in the summer. Wet, but quick. And they cool the air a bit, so I’m not complaining. I *was* hoping to mow the back yard later, when the temps cooled down this evening, but it may be too wet now that it has rained.

Here are a few pics I took while mowing today. I love my “big” camera (takes wonderful pics!), but DH’s little Canon is great for tucking in my pocket for times when I don’t want to lug the heavier camera around. Like when I’m mowing in the heat/humidity. In case you’re wondering, the building in the background is an office building across the street from our house.

You can click on these pictures to see them on my flickr site, where they can be viewed larger for more detail. When you get to flickr, there should be an “All Sizes” button above the picture. These smaller pics don’t do the flowers much justice!

This shot looks toward the north west corner of our front yard. The red car is on the street in front of our house. People often tell us they drive by our house just to look at the flowers. And a lot of joggers/walkers in town tell us their routes are planned so they can come by the yard when the flowers are blooming. 🙂

We have some UNK (unknown) daylilies around the yard and this is one of them. Not our fault for losing a label or failing to map the flower bed this time. The lady from whom we bought this daylily couldn’t remember the name of it. We stopped by her house when we saw the “plants for sale” sign in the yard. She was 80 some years old and the yard was a mass of daylilies tangled with grass. She insisted on digging them herself. It was hot and I felt guilty about that, but she said “no one digs in my garden but me.” 🙂 We brought six daylilies home from her place and three of them were “unknowns.”

The flower is large, must be 6 or 7 inches across. And a beautiful melon-y orange blending into a bright yellow throat. Gorgeous!

Another one of those orange daylilies I had to have, even though I swore “no more orange ones.” Ha. Can’t resist!!

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged daylilies, garden 2009 | Comments (3)

riding lessons

June 18, 2009 – 10:50 am

We had a very hot and humid day for riding lessons. The thermometer said 94* and with the high humidity, the “feels like” temp was 102*. Yucky. But DD enjoyed her lesson, none the less.

I’m so glad she has this opportunity. She’s loving it and she’s learning an entirely new skill…something she hasn’t had any experience with previously. Though after the lesson in this hot and humid weather, she was soaked. She said, “I’m soaking wet. And it’s not a good wet.” 😀

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family | Tagged DD#3, horse riding lessons | Comments (2)

wednesday’s walk in the garden

June 17, 2009 – 10:48 pm

The daylilies are blooming all over the yard. It’s a real pleasure to stroll through the garden to see what has opened each day. And there are a lot more to bloom as you can see in this picture. The daylilies along the front of the bed haven’t blossomed yet.

‘Mary Todd’ is one of my favorite golden yellow daylilies.

The Russian sage is beginning to bloom. I love the light and airy look of this plant. Did you know you can lay a branch of this (still attached to the main plant) on the ground and cover it with a brick to get a new plant? In a couple of months there will be roots on the branch where it contacts the ground. Cut it from the parent plant and you’ve got another Russian sage. You can do the same thing with hydrangeas. 🙂

In the fenced garden, some of my favorite daylilies are beginning to bloom.

Between the back yard and the little woods at the back of our property, the “ditch lilies” are blooming…in the ditch.

At the back door, the ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis blossoms look like stars sprinkled around the bird bath.

Currently, we have 337 different daylilies in our yard. Tomorrow, when we check the garden, there will probably be 25 or 30 more “first flower out” blossoms to document. I’ll keep you posted. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged daylilies, garden, garden 2009, our yard | Comments (11)

love the garden right now

June 16, 2009 – 10:46 pm

The flower beds in the front yard are beginning to fill with color again. The daylilies are coming into their own.

The birdbath in the front yard is almost swallowed up by the flowers.

The hydrangeas by the front porch are pink to lavender. Just around the corner of the house, the hydrangeas in front of the addition are blue. Go figure!

We planted the hosta ‘Squash Casserole’ in front of the Japanese maple which sits just to the side of the hydrangea. The hosta will receive more sun in this space and should brighten up quite a bit, turning more yellow. I’m hoping that will be a nice contrast to the maple.

In the back yard, the bird bath bed by the kitchen has a pretty lavender plant coming into bloom. I need to check the lavender plant in the fenced garden to see if it’s blooming, too.

We’re having a plant sale tomorrow. All proceeds from plant sales go to the mission fund at church. We’ll do it again the first of July.

It’s always fun to have visitors in the garden. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. If you’re in the area, stop by! And if you can’t visit our garden, do stop by Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday to visit the gardens there!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged garden 2009 | Comments (5)

menu monday ~ june 15, 2009

June 15, 2009 – 4:23 pm

Daylily season is well underway. It’s a beautiful time in the garden and we like to spend as much time outside as we can. To “sandwich” the week’s menu, here are a few of our favorites from the past few days.

‘Bubbly’………………………………………………………’Little Fat Dazzler’

‘Tiger Track’……………………………………………….’Monterrey Jack’

Because I am still recovering from a cold/cough and am not feeling very well, the next few days of the menu are easy items.

Monday
ham sandwiches
mac and cheese
fruit salad

Tuesday
hamburgers / buns
coleslaw
corn on the cob

Wednesday
tacos

Wednesday evening, DH’s sister is coming for a week. We’re looking forward to her visit!

Thursday
chicken cordon bleu in the crock pot
rice
peas
spinach salad w/ strawberries

Friday
pork chops
baby baked potatoes
corn on the cob
green beans

Saturday
lunch / eat out

supper
grilled rosemary chicken
grilled scallops and BBQ shrimp
grilled corn on the cob
green salad
stir-fried sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes
crock pot apples over vanilla ice cream

Sunday
roast beef
scalloped potatoes with bacon
peas
corn
garden salad

You will find more menu ideas and recipes at Menu Plan Monday. Check it out!

A few more daylilies…

‘American Revolution’……………………………’Chicago Picotee Lace’

‘Night Beacon’…………………………………………..’Feisty’

I hope your week is a good one! And remember, planning the week’s menu helps make everything else go more smoothly!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu | Comments (5)

corners of our garden

June 13, 2009 – 2:53 pm

It’s easy to take pictures of individual flowers and I love to do that. The detail is beautiful and it’s fun to take closeups for even more detail. But sometimes I like to see the whole picture. I love to visit other blogs, to see what other people are doing in their own gardens. For me, it’s even more fun when I get to see the whole flower bed, not just the individual flowers, as awesome as they can be. To that end, here are a few pictures from different corners of our garden.

A long bed stretches across the front of the yard, near the sidewalk. This picture actually shows both beds…the one along the sidewalk in the background and the long bed in the lawn. It is just on the brink of an explosion of color. The daisies, daylilies, and coreopsis are going to look spectacular in a few days.

Walking back toward the house from the front yard takes us past quite a few beds. Right now, they are sporting lots of orange and melon yellows…the ditch lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) and the Stellas…bright and cheerful, a foretaste of what’s to come.

I don’t think the front birdbath bed can hold one more plant. Unless it’s a weed, of course. There always seems to be room for one more weed.

Our front yard used to be all grass. A big, blank, boring expanse of grass. Now it’s a maze of flower beds. One by one, they added up!

Volunteer hollyhocks come up here and there. These are along the east edge of the yard.

We’ve planted a lot of redbud trees in the yard. The small trees make pools of shade in the yard, adding interest and structure without blocking all the sun. They make great spots for hostas.

We’ve also placed quite a few benches throughout the yard. Perfect spots to stop and enjoy different corners of the garden.

Our garden is always open to visitors. Come over, claim a bench, and enjoy. 🙂 And then, stroll over to Share a Garden Sunday and visit the gardens there. Enjoy!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged flowers, garden 2009, our yard | Comments (3)

wednesday in the garden

June 11, 2009 – 3:40 pm

DH and I spent quite a bit of time in the garden yesterday. It was hot, but he likes to use the hot days as prep for his ride across Indiana in July. “Heat acclimation” he calls it. So I drove the tractor, pulling the wagon, and he shoveled mulch. We mulched quite a bit. Also had to replace a wheel on the wagon. The last replacement finally let go.

The front yard looks so lush. Must be all that rain we’ve been having. Every one of DD’s softball games has been cancelled so far, due to all the rain. The field is just too wet for games.

I like this clump of zebra grass. We’ve sold quite a bit of it at plant sales, so I guess others like it, too. 🙂

The purple coneflowers are starting to show up well.

The Southern Magnolia makes a great screen between us and the parking lot next door. At least the school buses are quiet neighbors. 🙂 And now that the magnolia is blooming, the sweet lemony scent of the blossoms makes that side of the yard smell SO good!