Christmas Notebook

wednesday’s walk in the garden

July 1, 2009 – 10:50 pm

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! 🙂

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. 🙂

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

~~Rhonda

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

not enough time in the garden

June 30, 2009 – 10:07 pm

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.

The purple cone flowers look great right now.

Daylily ‘American Revolution’

Variegated ribbon grass ~ Phalaris arundinacea

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

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

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

Looking across the east 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!

~~Rhonda

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

a walk in the garden

June 28, 2009 – 10:48 pm

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!

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.

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.

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.

~~Rhonda 🙂

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

menu plan monday ~ june 29

June 28, 2009 – 5:10 pm

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!

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.

~~Grandma 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu, menu plan monday | Comments (1)

new daylily bed is in

June 26, 2009 – 3:53 pm

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.

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

I also made plant tags for each plant.

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

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

~~Rhonda

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

happy anniversary to us!

June 25, 2009 – 10:10 pm

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!

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.

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

Tomorrow we plant.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in flowers, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged anniversary, daylilies, daylily farm | Comments (1)

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)

Christmas Notebook

wednesday’s walk in the garden

not enough time in the garden

a walk in the garden

menu plan monday ~ june 29

new daylily bed is in

happy anniversary to us!

here and there, in the garden

gotta love it

menu plan monday ~ june 22, 2009

just before it rained…again…

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