My garden keeps blooming, May 15th

I hope you enjoyed my post yesterday.  I cannot believe how quickly flowers just start popping open all over the place when it gets sunny and warm this time of year. 

I have a few more photos to show you from my walk this morning and one from a few mornings ago, I had forgotten to share my Rhododendron that has not bloomed in 6 years and has this.

If you recall I mentioned having another color Iris that is scented deliciously like Grape Kool Aid and this is it.

It is even more powerful that the one I shared yesterday. 



I have them scattered throughout the garden so as you walk you can be delighted by their sweet perfume. (makes you wish this was ‘scratch and sniff’ doesn’t it)
This iris is rather understated with its dull yellow color but still a beauty.



If you stopped in yesterday I had shared a shot of my Purple Speckled Idaho Homestead iris, and behind it was a peach colored bud, well this morning she was open and ready to shine. You can see the speckled one behind now.



I attempted to get a good shot of the front garden today.



I know that ugly fire hydrant and snow pole is distracting but I work around them.  I have vines climb the pole to disguise it in summer and the Black eyed susans grow up taller than the hydrant so it is not as visible either later in the summer. 
 
Below is my Fire Witch dianthus, love this stuff, I keep saying I am going to get more and make an edging of it along my walkway.  It is so bright and cheerful and it blooms and blooms.



Now to my favorite Clematis…. Warsaw Nike.  Why is it my favorite???  Because it blooms not once but ALL summer long and it is a hearty soul here. 



It is climbing up my back deck rail and is nearly to the top.  I will have to attach a lattice above the rail to let it climb even higher soon.



Here is my parting shot for the day.  This is the front walk entrance from our upper driveway.  This iris along with my Bourban clematis steal the show right now.



Here's to sunny skies today! Tomorrow we are to have rain but the garden needs it so I will not begrudge a day or two for a good soaking rain.

 
ta!
Pamela

May 13th Garden Walk

I have started my morning garden walks, things are starting to pop open and though I still have tons of weeding to do (our last rain storm followed by pure warm sunshine has given the weeds a jump start) I ignore them and tour for blooms to photograph and share.

My Clematis are all starting to open up..I have several but I will start with the first two to open up.

Bourbon Clematis

This beauty shares the arbor over our front walkway with a Tess D'Urbervilles English Rose. 

Nelly Moser Clematis

This one is located just in front of my front porch rail. 

My Iris are getting started too, this one is a bi-colored iris, unfortunately I cannot remember the name.  I bought the majority of my iris corms for Schreiner’s. 

They ship only huge healthy corms, I have never lost a one and they reproduce like crazy. 

 

 

This is one of the old fashioned “Flags” they are scented, this one smells like Grape Kool-Aid. I have another color in my collection here that has the same scent and when you walk past it is soooo delightful.

This is the one my cousin  dug up in an old Idaho homestead’s forgotten garden.  Do you still have this one Brenda???

It is loaded with buds and the orange one behind it is getting ready to open.

Now to a couple roses…

Crown Princess Margareta English rose

Dream Weaver climbing rose

And my favorite of the moment,

Cecile Brunner

It is climbing my chicken house…

When the sun hits it you cannot even smell the chickens, the rose scent is so powerful it overrides the chicken doo, not THAT is powerful.

Enjoy the rest of your day….

 

Pamela

Woo Hoo 100 on Facebook.

I said I would giveaway one of these signs

when we reached 100 Likes, and today is the day.

And the winner is Melody Harmon.

Dear Melody, let me know which sign you want and I will get it out to you ASAP!

Congratulations!

Thanks everyone for your participation. 

Maybe we should do another for a 200 like goal!!!  What sign should I offer??? 

Come back tomorrow, I have some garden shots for you.

Pamela

Cheap and Easy Cedar Fence Board Planters

Have you got a bare spot you want to gussy up?
 
My back deck rails were less than pretty and I want to see cascading flowers when I look out my kitchen window.  (pretend the flowers are all filled in and cascading down hiding a good portion of the pickets and the view of the neighbors back roof)

My fix…. cheapo DIY planters made from cedar fence boards.

1.  Buy some cedar fence boards, I went with two 6 inch wide x 6 feet long and one 8 inch wide, and some scrap wood to make the ends.  (note: They are called 6 inch and 8 inch wide but in actuality they are 5.5 and 7.5 inches wide)

The 6 inch boards $2+ and the 8 inch were $3.50+

2. Square off the dog eared end and dry fit the boards.  Fence boards are willy nilly and do not always match in width or length.  So you have to make them match with your trusty tape measure and saw.



Or just line them up and then view and mark how much to cut off.



3. I put the end piece on first, used just scrap pieces of wood I had on hand.  I applied wood glue before nailing.  Actually this is a photo of me putting on the last side but it does show my end piece is just scrap and the generosity of Titebond glue.  

 I started out with my brad nailer but it jammed so I fell back on a good ol’ hammer and finish nails.  A wee bit slower but still quite effective.



4.  Screw to deck rail so the pesky raccoons will not knock your wonderfully roomy planter to the ground below.  Here I am letting the glue dry before filling.  Be sure to drill holds for proper drainage, I drilled mine towards the back of the planter where it hangs off the deck rail.



5.  I gave them 24 hours to dry then I had fun planting them up.  I left them unpainted or stained, I want these to weather naturally to a soft grey, that will not take long at all.

6. Mix up some coconut coir into your potting mix for added water retention.  It is natural, sustainable and easy to work with. You can purchase Coconut Coir in bales or bricks, a little goes a LOOOONG way as it is compressed. 



First I must soak the coconut coir for a good few hours, make sure you have plenty of room in your bucket, this stuff really expands as it soaks up the water.  I mix it maybe a quarter or third of coconut coir to 3/4 or 2/3 potting mix. 



7. Fill you fantabulous planters with the potting/coconut coir mix and plant all your cascading flowers, give them room to fill in. 



We have Purple Wave Petunias, Trailing Lobelia and a wee bit of white alyssum.   I will be sure to share once it is filled to overflowing with flowers. 

These were cheap and easy to make,  I had the wood glue and finish nails on hand, for a total on the rest of the supplies it may have ran me about $8 per planter and they are a good size to fit plenty of flowers, 6 feet long by 7.5 inches wide.  If you wanted you could also just slip in some 4 inch pots instead of putting the soil in the boxes.  The height of the sides is just right to hide the pots and you could easily change out the flowers is you wished.

So there you have it, quick and easy planters.

Now off to photo what is blooming this fine Monday morning in my garden.   I will share that tomorrow, I do hope.

Pamela

Custom Growth Chart

How is everyone this fine Monday morning.  We have awakened to a bit of rain after a unseasonably warm week for the month of May.

When I was not painting away on special orders in my studio (with the French doors flung wide to enjoy the fresh air) I was in the garden.  More on that in a moment.
We had a baby shower to attend this weekend, (wish I had gotten photos, the gals that put it on did a fantastic job) and I had to whip up a gift.  The parents wanted to wait until the baby was born to find out the gender so my present needed to be gender neutral.  I have had an idea for customizable growth charts knocking about my brain for a while now.

Ones that can hang on the wall, be move around or taken with you if you move.  And the above is what I came up with for a start.  Since we do not know the name or the birthdate of this child it is plain but when I add a line of growth charts to my website the customer can order plain stained wood like this or I can paint the background a color, names, birthdates and sayings can be added along with motifs.   A longer version will be available too. 

I already have a couple orders just from gals seeing this one at the baby shower so I think it will be a great addition to the website.

Now on to my garden.   I am slowly getting things cleaned up.  Here is my side yard complete with roses climbing the porch posts.  
 


I pegged many along the lattice to garnish as many blooms as I can, and these bushes are LOADED with rosebuds so soon this will be full of color.



This rose is already blooming away but it is always first.


  This is one of the mini roses you can pick up in Wal-Mart or grocery store in a little 4 inch pot. 

Since this one does so well for me I just picked up a red one in SaveMart when I spotted it.



I over winter this pink one every year in the greenhouse or on my side porch and it has just flourished and blooms thru the summer without let up. I have had this one for 7 years now and it just does not quit.



The Creeping Jenny is filling in the dry bare areas as I wished it to, now this can get out of hand for some people so be careful where you put it or of where you live, I can control it by not watering and since we have dry summers that works but if you live in an area that gets plentiful summer rain you might want to skip on this one. 



I have a few iris starting to bloom, this darker purple always goes first and is normally done by the time any others open but this year I have an early bird on another.




This white one with lavender edging is just opening up and it has stayed rather short, now sure why might be the spot it is in.



A carpet of lavender and pink creeping phlox, a shame this only blooms a few weeks. The dead clump of sticks there is really my Butterfly Bush.  It is just starting to bud out.  I have to cut it back hard each Fall or the snow breaks it down. 



I have about 6 of these Japanese Maples, I grew them from seed.  If you can believe it they are about 5 years old.  Slow growers to be sure.



See the plant snuggled up to the iris here, it is already taller than the iris.  Look at it just a month ago in the photo below.  How fast it shot up with a little warmth and sunshine. These are my Canterbury Bells and they bloom in lovely purple and pink.



It has been so warm that I braved it and put my tomato and basil plants out earlier than usual.



Normally we don’t put out frost tender plants until the third weekend in May.
Above is my basil planted in the straw bale raised bed.  Also if you look by the little overturned pot in the photo you will see the sprouting sugar snap peas. 

Speaking of raised straw bale beds, I am taking down the one in the side yard.



It was in the way of what I wanted to do here and it was starting to break down, it worked great as a hot bed last season and now it is already mostly fantastic compost.  I have been spreading it all around to heavily mulch my garden to help conserve water on what seems is going to be a very dry summer.  



My Pear tree.  Since we had a frost when it was in full bloom I did not expect to see any fruit but it is loaded with little Pears, now to keep them safe from marauding birds. The Robins have already been scouting around all my strawberry plants. 



And I have a lone little apricot on my tree.  Half of the tree has died and I am holding my breath that whatever is wrong has only effect those branches but it does not look good.

Only time will tell. 

I am off to paint in the studio.  A happy Monday to you all.

Pamela