these doll babies are at my house

04 25 09

Plus sister Lauren, and Daddy and Mommy. 🙂 Fun will be had by all! ~~Grandma 🙂

wednesday’s walk in the garden

We had a great plant sale today. The weather was wonderful and we had enough customers to fund a very nice donation to the mission team at church. You may not be able to make it out in this picture, but we set up the table under the redbud by the front porch, where I sat from 10-4! Enjoyed visiting with all our garden company. And afterward, DH took DD and me out to eat and to see “Ice Age” which we enjoyed a lot! 🙂

summer day

flower beds

'Big Smile'

Russian sage

2005 bed

And we had a special garden visitor today. Isn’t he cute?? I know he’s green, but he’s really a gray tree frog. DD would have liked to keep him, but she released him after a short visit. 🙂

froggie

froggie

To see how others spent their Wednesday, visit Outdoor Wednesday and follow the links. 🙂

Outdoor Wednesday logo_thumb[2]

~~Rhonda

not enough time in the garden

Between piano lessons this morning, the mower not starting this afternoon, and softball this evening, I missed a lot of garden time today. How sad is that??

I did get some pictures this evening, just as the sun was going down. Thanks to my nice camera and the great lens DH gave me for my birthday.

Shasta daisies

The purple cone flowers look great right now.

purple cone flowers

flowers, flowers everywhere

center of driveway

Daylily ‘American Revolution’

daisies and daylilies

front birdbath bed

Variegated ribbon grass ~ Phalaris arundinacea

ribbon grass

We don’t know the real name of this daylily, so call it “Paprika” as it is the color of dark rich paprika.

"Paprika" [GN]

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ and the daylily ‘Arctic Snow.’

daylily 'Artic Snow'

I don’t know the name of this lovely lily. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember the plant! It’s one of those “did I plant this here??” plants.

lily

The little daylily ‘Eenie Allegro’ is blooming happily, even though it’s in too much shade. We need to move these this year.

daylily 'Eenie Allegro'

Looking across the east front yard.

across the front yard

The garden is in full flower and so beautiful right now. We enjoy every minute we can be in it. Tomorrow we are having a plant sale and the weather is supposed to be great…high of 84*. Wonderful after the triple digits of the past few weeks.

If you want to enjoy other gardens and their blooms, visit Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday. You never know what kind of inspiration you might find!

Bloomin' Tuesday

~~Rhonda

a walk in the garden

Here are a few pictures from the garden this evening. Cooler temps made touring the garden much more pleasant than it has been for more than a week.

The daylilies are in peak bloom right now. Beautiful!

front birdbath bed

We’ve had this beautiful daylily for years. We don’t know the name of it so we call it “Paprika” as it is the color of dark rich paprika spice.

'Paprika' [GN]

Russian sage is a striking accent in the garden. It has a long bloom time and attracts a lot of attention from our garden visitors.

Russian sage

driveway center

We’re planning a plant sale for this Wednesday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. If you’re in the area, stop by!

And if you’d like to see other online gardens, visit Artie’s Share a Garden Sunday.

share a garden Sunday

~~Rhonda 🙂

menu plan monday ~ june 29

We have a big weekend coming up. DS#1 and his family will arrive Friday evening for a week of fun!! We are so looking forward to their visit! Just look at these three beautiful granddaughters!

06 22 09 e

06 22 09 b

06 22 09 d

06 22 09 c

The first big activity of the weekend (after unpacking the van, squeezing kidlets, and getting everyone to go to bed at a decent hour) will be the Fourth of July parade! Fun for all! Grandpa will pack a cooler of ice pops and water bottles, the kids will find bags for collecting candy thrown by the float riders, and mom and dad will try to contain all the excitement long enough to get everyone there in one piece. And Grandma (that would be me!) will take lots and lots of pictures. But then, nothing new there! 😀

Monday
hamburgers / homemade buns
fruit salad

Tuesday
tacos

Wednesday
pulled pork / buns
veggies / dip
grapes

Thursday
pizza

Friday
spaghetti / homemade sauce
focaccia
corn on the cob
peas

Saturday
lunch at the parade

supper
grilled shrimp / scallops
hotdogs / hamburgers
grilled corn on the cob
grilled veggies
fruit salad

Sunday
pork chop / potato casserole
spinach salad w/ strawberries
corn
steamed sugar snap peas

birthday cake ~ DS turns 30!
ice cream

Check out more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

06 22 09 a

~~Grandma 🙂

new daylily bed is in

The bed for our anniversary trip daylilies was prepared earlier this year. DH sprayed the grass with round up, then covered the bed with several layers of newspaper, and topped it with five or six inches of wood chips. Then it waited…and waited…and waited…until today. 🙂 First order of business was to take a picture of each flower, then lay the plants out in the order they were to be planted. Had to be sure we didn’t put two of a similar shade next to each other.

deciding what goes where...

DH planted and I made a map of the bed to keep in the daylily binder.

planting new daylilies

I also made plant tags for each plant.

making labels

Planted and tagged. After this picture was taken, we put a soaker hose on it to give them a good drink.

planting done!

Our thanks to Marty at Aussieker Daylily Farm for her lovely plants and generous bonuses!

~~Rhonda

happy anniversary to us!

Today DH and I celebrate 32 years of wedded bliss. 🙂 And, as we have the past five years, we celebrated by visiting a daylily farm! We went to Aussieker’s Daylily Farm near Richview, Illinois.

Prior to our trip, I spent some time on their website making a list of daylilies to look for. Oh, my! Such beautiful flowers! Decisions, decisions!

wonderful daylily farm

decisions, decisions...

It was 96* and super humid. Hot, hot, hot. But under the big tree in the yard, there was a lovely breeze and it felt much cooler. Very comfy place to sit and relax.

under the big tree at the daylily farm

We filled the trunk…I think we brought home 19 new daylilies! Happy Anniversary to us!! 😀

I think we came home with 19 new daylilies

Tomorrow we plant.

~~Rhonda 🙂

here and there, in the garden

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.

front yard

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

'Baja' and purple cone flowers

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

evening light

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

daylilies

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

Queen of the Prairie

And hostas are blossoming.

UNK hosta

Don’t the hydrangeas look great?

front steps

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

butterfly bush

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

gooseneck loosestrife

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

rain shower

behind the house

view from under the carport

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

swing under the "big oak"

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

Outdoor Wednesday logo_thumb[2]

~~Rhonda 🙂

gotta love it

The garden is in full bloom. Daylilies everywhere.

daylilies

‘Monterrey Jack’

'Monterrey Jack'

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

daylilies

purple cone flowers

The elderberries are blooming, too.

elderberry

daylilies and Russian sage

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.

summer blossoms

east front yard

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.

front yard

east of the house

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

menu plan monday ~ june 22, 2009

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.

DH's siblings and mom

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.

finally bought a house!

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!

east front yard

~~Rhonda