flashback to springtime

July 22, 2009 – 12:31 pm

Gardening Gone Wild is hosting the Picture This Photo Contest for July. The theme is “flowering trees.” I perused my photos and settled on this one of the redbud tree east of the side porch.

front yard

When we moved into this house, there was one redbud tree. DH planted more and now we have twenty plus redbud trees blooming in our yard each spring. And with all the volunteers, we give a lot of them away each year, too! 🙂

The above photo is my contest entry, but, just for fun (and because the trees are so beautiful), here are a few other pictures of flowering trees and shrubs in our yard.

This photo shows the way the redbud blooms along the trunks and branches of the tree. The clumps of blossoms look somewhat odd, but I love the way the tree blooms so profusely.

redbud tree

Did you know the blossoms of the redbud tree are edible? Used most often in salads, or as a garnish, I’ve heard them described variously as nutty, pea like, fresh bean flavor, tangy, and/or slightly lemony. Next spring, try a few and see what you think. Caution: do not collect blossoms from any place where pesticides or insecticides may have been used.

redbud tree

Here you can see the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) and a few redbud trees…and DD enjoying the fresh spring air!

redbud trees

And the dogwoods were beautiful this spring.

dogwood tree

Spring is my favorite season of the year.

fenced garden

Not all blooming trees bloom in spring, though. Currently blooming in our woods are the volunteer mimosa trees. They have a large fluffy pink flowers. I captured this photo of one of the blossoms that had fallen onto a mimosa leaf.

mimosa fluff

The Southern Magnolia is also blooming right now.

Southern Magnolia

The magnolias large, pure white blooms have a wonderful fresh lemony scent.

Southern Magnolia

I’ve rather enjoyed combing through my spring photos. But I’m not ready to go there yet. Our summer has been so lovely with its cool temps and enough rain to keep everything lush and beautiful. I’m enjoying every minute of right now!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in our garden, spring | Tagged , , | Comments (8)

july garden weather that feels like october

July 21, 2009 – 8:54 pm

The air was damp and chilly today. Hard to believe that in July we would have the air conditioning turned off for days in a row. And who would believe we would need to close the windows against the chilly air. But we did! The garden has enjoyed all the rain we’ve had for the past few months.

center of the driveway

The black eyed Susans are a sea of color.

sea of orange

The tiger lilies are near the end of their bloom. A few last blossoms top the long lanky stems.

tiger lily

A helpful flickrite helped me ID this little green bug. I saw several of them on the tiger lilies. They are immature stink bugs. Never would have guessed that!

immature stink bug

After counting the new daylilies, we found we bought 14 new ones last weekend. Four or five of those were mini daylilies. Mini doesn’t necessarily mean a small plant. It refers to the size of the blossom. Miniature daylilies have blooms that are under three inches in diameter.

planting new daylilies

DH planted the mini daylilies in the fenced garden.

DH plants our new daylilies

Zak watched from the comfort of the birdbath.

Zak in the fenced garden birdbath

Near the edge of the woods, the garden phlox backs the last of the ditch lilies.

on the edge of the woods

I think I’ll get a blanket and watch one of my favorite shows…”Chopped.” I’ll see you in the garden tomorrow. 🙂 To visit other gardens (where it may be warmer!) click on over to Jean’s place for Bloomin’ Tuesday!

Bloomin' Tuesday

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in bloomin' tuesday, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged , | Comments (7)

bicycles in RAIN and a daylily garden in the rain

July 20, 2009 – 5:13 pm

We spent the past weekend in Indiana, where DH completed his best time for RAIN (Ride Across INdiana). The bicycle ride is 160 miles in one day, from Terre Haute to Richmond. DH finished in 9 hours and 46 minutes. The weather was perfection with a high around 70* and a nice tail wind that helped keep everyone going. Practically unheard of temps for the middle of July in this part of the country.

DH took a few pictures at the beginning of the ride and at rest stops along the way. It was his eighth year participating in RAIN.

ready to roll

RAIN rest stop

My BIL John rode RAIN for the first time this year and finished with a great time, as well. He finished at 11 hours and 41 minutes.

ready and waiting to start!

Done!! Yeah!!

DH finishes RAIN

On Sunday, DH and I drove to Hillsdale, Indiana, where we visited Windy Ridge Farm and Daylily Garden.

Windy Ridge Farm and Daylily Garden

More than 600 different kinds of daylilies. Heavenly! 🙂 While we were there, it poured rain, with a cold north wind. Bridget, the owner, had been digging our order, but she sat under the pavilion with us while it rained and we had a great chat. It’s always nice to talk to someone else who shares our love of and interest in daylilies. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit in spite of the cold rain. And we brought ten or so new daylilies home. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family, flowers | Tagged , | Comments (1)

i don’t think this is summertime…

July 17, 2009 – 11:44 pm

The weather this weekend is gorgeous. Not regular July weather at all. I think the high today was all of 76*. What’s with that?? We would expect it to be much warmer. But I’m not complaining! It was a beautiful day and Saturday is supposed to have a high of around 70*. Wow. As we drove through the country today, I took this picture of the fluffy clouds.

summer sky

Though the daylily season is on the downhill side, the yard is still full of lovely blossoms.

front yard

‘Dragon King’

'Dragon King'

‘Modern Love’

'Modern Love'

‘Cherry Cheeks’

'Cherry Cheeks'

‘Swelling Anthem’
I love the subtle blending of colors on this bloom. I’d like to collect more of Brother Charles Reckamp‘s daylilies. ‘Little Rainbow’ and ‘Techny Breeze’ are two of my favorites in our garden.

'Swelling Anthem'

Tiny blue butterfly.

tiny blue butterfly

Someone nearby must have bee hives. We see quite a few honeybees in our yard.

honey bee on phlox

I don’t know which hosta this is, but it’s looking very good this year.

unknown hosta

This is the most sun ‘Daybreak’ gets all day, yet it maintains its beautiful pale yellow green color and brightens this dark corner.

hosta 'Daybreak'

We’ve neglected our hostas this year and they seem to be thriving on the neglect. Or they are bouncing back from the hard freeze they
experienced two years ago. Anyway, they’re looking good!

‘Paradigm’

Hosta 'Paradigm'

Before you go, click on over to Tootsie’s place and visit other gardens to see what’s blooming there.

flaunt your flowers FRIDAY

Now get out there and enjoy the weekend!! ~~Rhonda 🙂

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

wednesday is garden day

July 15, 2009 – 11:11 pm

More than most other days of the week, Wednesdays tend to concentrate on the garden. DH is off work (other than spending much of the morning doing paperwork) and we often host plant sales on Wednesday afternoons, as DH is here to dig for our customers.

It’s cloudy today and only 75*, though humid. Sprinkled this morning, so everything is wet. Here’s a picture of just outside the back door. Most of this is shaded by a very large old oak tree, so we have a lot of hostas here.

just outside the back door

DH was home earlier than usual today, so he went out and worked in the garden pulling weeds. Our garden helper Eliot was working in the fenced garden which had become overgrown, so DH worked there, too. He dug lemon balm from the garden, inside and out. That pile in the lower left of the picture is all lemon balm.

pulling out lemon balm

And he pulled some miscellaneous weeds and small trees from this nearby garden under a redbud tree.

pulling weeds

We hire Eliot to pull weeds in the garden five hours a week. We couldn’t keep up with the chore without his cheerful help!

Eliot, our garden helper

The fenced garden looks great now. And you can walk through it without forcing the weeds aside. 🙂 We love this Rubbermaid wheelbarrow. What a work horse! We’ve used it for years and it just keeps going. A plus is that it carries water without leaking. All kinds of useful applications from hauling water to holding plants until they can be placed in the ground.

freshly weeded fenced garden

We went to the front fence to write plant sale times on the sign and I took this picture, looking back toward the house. I still need to do something about those upstairs window treatments. They look so stark. Didn’t show from the road until we took out two big pines last year, so I never noticed what those windows looked like from the yard before then.

front yard

front yard beds

The recent rain has done a number on the Russian sage.

front yard beds

This is one of our “unknown” daylilies. If you know the name, give me a shout!

Unknown daylily

Some of the hostas are still blooming.

hosta blossoms

Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ is one of my favorite grasses in the yard. It’s beautiful every season of the year.

Miscanthus 'Morning Light'

We had a plant sale this afternoon. All the monies we raise from plant sales goes into the mission fund at church.

plant sale time

Between customers, DH weeded around the redbud tree. We put two wagon loads of wood chips on the bed after DH finished pulling the weeds. He also dug out the irises and the daylilies that were growing here. They need to be moved to sunnier locations.

pulling weeds...never ending job

The tiger lilies always bloom in July and they are so pretty right now.

tiger lilies

If you enjoy being outside, you may like to see what others did outside today. Take a look at Outdoor Wednesday.

Outdoor Wednesday logo_thumb[2]

And to enjoy perusing what is blooming in others’ gardens, visit July 2009 Bloom Day. Lots to see there!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged , , | Comments (20)

unusual weather for july

July 14, 2009 – 10:29 pm

We’re enjoying this unusually cool weather. July tends to be hot and humid. Today, I think we had a high of 79* and the sun peeked out just once at the end of the day.

front porch

Most of the day, though, was cloudy in the garden.

east front yard

After all the rain we’ve had, the weeds are tall but very easy to pull. We get tons of redbud volunteers and the rain made pulling them easy, too, as DH shows.

6" of rain makes the trees easy to pull

Even though the daylily season is waning, there is still a lot of color in the garden. The purple cone flowers certainly help with that.

driveway

The daylily ‘Flasher’ is at its peak right now. You can see this one all the way across the yard! Great color!

Daylily 'Flasher'

Need a place to rest or somewhere to enjoy the view? There’s a bench waiting for you under the dogwood tree.

bench under the dogwood tree

Aren’t these colors yummy?

daylilies

Sometimes, daylilies will have four petals and four sepals rather than the usual three each. Blossoms like this are called polytepal. ‘Cosmic Pinwheel’ had two polytepal blossoms. A third blossom had one extra sepal.

Polytepal 'Cosmic Pinwheel'

In the fenced garden, another bench waits for you. This bench is usually a sunny place to sit, but not today.

fenced garden

The daylily ‘Frans Hals’ is at its peak right now, too. How pretty is that?

daylily 'Frans Hals'

The phlox makes a great splash of purple in the background. If you have the space, plant in drifts of color. So pretty!

east front yard

At the back of the garden, a bed of daylilies separates two entrances into the woods. Which way do you want to go?

entrance into the woods

Coming out of the woods, you can rest under the mulberry tree…just push that elderberry out of the way. It’s beginning to overshadow the bench. Time to get out the pruners.

bench under the mulberry

In the back yard, near the daylily propagation bed, the pure white of the Southern Magnolia blossom looks so beautiful against the dark glossy green leaves. And the scent as you walk by? Wonderful!

Southern Magnolia

The redbud tree by the wood chip pile was a volunteer. It sits at the end of the parking area and, at one time, was backed over by the car. But it bounced back. 🙂 I decided to leave it there as a guide to keep the wood chips from being dumped too close to the fenced garden

back by the woodchip pile

Coming back from the garden, I’m confronted by the kitties. “Where’s supper??” they want to know. Left to right: Happy, Zak and Zilli. Oreo is nearby. He’s waiting, too.

Where's supper??

I hope you enjoyed the garden this evening. If you would like to see other gardens, click on over to Jean’s place for Bloomin’ Tuesday. Enjoy!

Bloomin' Tuesday

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged , | Comments (4)

lots of rain for the garden

July 13, 2009 – 6:41 pm

We had a lot of rain both Saturday and Sunday. Three inches on Saturday, and probably at least two more inches between Saturday pm and Sunday afternoon. In the early evening, we went outside to catch a few shots via the light of the setting sun.

rain puddles

Another lake in the center of the driveway.

puddles

And lots of puddles.

puddle time

driveway

rain drops

The fragrance from the garden phlox is heavenly.

garden phlox

The ribbon grass adds great texture to the garden. This is so pretty in the fading evening light.

ribbon grass

Everything in the garden glistens with rain drops.

spruce

hosta flowers

unknown lily

The color of the purple cone flowers ties the garden beds together as the daylily color begins to decline. Purple cone flowers reseed themselves with great abandon and have spread across the garden. Not a bad thing, if you have room for them. Otherwise, just pull them out and pass them on to someone else. They are native to the prairie and are great plants that require little care and no watering.

purple cone flowers

We are asked about this a lot, so I’ll tell you (in case you’ve wondered) that we do not water our garden. We do water plants when first planted, but other than that, they have to fend for themselves. If they can’t survive without watering, they won’t be in our garden. Of course, that’s not an issue this year with all the rain we’ve had! We do put down a lot of mulch and that helps tremendously. The soil condition improves with the mulching and that helps hold moisture. We use wood chips as mulch. A friend has a tree trimming business and he keeps us well supplied. Thanks, Paul!!

ribbon grass

summer time

black eyed Susans

I can hear the barn swallows chattering like crazy on the front porch. Sounds like the babies are fledging!

barn swallows

I’ve worked on this post off and on all day. Now it’s after 6:00 and DH is on his way home from work. We’ll have a quick supper, then check on the barn swallows and take another walk around the yard. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden, summer | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

menu plan monday ~ july 13, 2009

July 13, 2009 – 1:46 pm

We said goodbye to DH and his family very early Saturday morning. I’m going to miss them all, but especially these little faces.

what a face big-eyed girl

::sigh::

But back to the subject at hand…the week’s menu.

Monday
Roast beef (leftovers from Sunday dinner)
homemade rolls
veggies / dip

Tuesday
tortellini
homemade rolls
green beans
cauliflower / broccoli / carrots
green salad

Wednesday
fridge food

Thursday
spaghetti
focaccia
corn
peas
tomatoes / cucumber

Friday
eat out

Saturday
fridge food

Sunday
chicken / rice
corn
asparagus
green salad

Not planning much for Monday, in the way of supper (leftovers) OR activities. Sometimes it’s nice to take time to smell the roses. Or any other available blossoms.

unknown lily

rain drops

garden phlox

You can find a lot of recipes and menu ideas for planning your own week’s menu at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

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rain, rain, go away…

July 12, 2009 – 4:43 pm

It continues to rain. Yesterday we had 3″. It rained again last night and poured this afternoon as we had dinner. The thunder is rumbling as I type.

driveway puddles

I took this picture from the front porch yesterday afternoon. The ground was too wet for traipsing through the garden.

birdbath bed

The tiger lilies are from DH’s family farm, which is about ten miles north of where we live. We’ve brought a lot of plants from there to our own garden. Tiger lilies, several varieties of daffodils, shrubs, old roses, Bouncing Bet, peonies, irises…

tiger lily

rain drops on hostas

The goldfinches are beginning to check out the purple cone flowers. The seeds are a favorite food for them. From now through autumn, as we turn into our driveway, we will see swarms of these beautiful little yellow and black birds fly up from the cone flowers.

gold finch

Yesterday, we enjoyed a break in the rain during the early afternoon. DH collected the mail, checked a few daylilies, and then went on a 27 mile bike ride. Next weekend, he will take his bicycle across Indiana, 160 miles, in one long day.

checking the mail

front yard

The rain has certainly given the gardens a lush full look! So lush that it hides the garden bench in front of the phlox in the fenced garden. At least from this view point. 🙂

fenced garden

The garden phlox was a gift from a local gardening friend, who found it too invasive for his garden. We have so much room in our yard that plants that spread are quite welcome. There is always a good place for them.

garden phlox

~~Rhonda

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

babies in the garden

July 11, 2009 – 1:52 pm

Next time the twins visit the garden, they will no longer be babies, so indulge me, please. They are still sort of babies… 🙂

garden stroll

garden girl

not crying!

“Grandma said we could pick all the flowers we wanted.”

Grandma said we could pick all the flowers we wanted

Grandma’s future gardeners…

grandma's future gardeners

They are headed back home today. Fourteen hours in the car (give or take, depending on the quality of cooperation from the above gardeners). We are basically slouching today. Got up at 4:30 to say goodbye, so we’re movin’ kind of slow. Company coming for dinner tomorrow after church, so I do need to bake a pie and make some homemade vanilla ice cream today. Not doing much else, though!

~~Rhonda

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