A very productive week with redecorating the house

I worked really hard in all my free time last week and made a great deal of progress with the redecorating project.  There remains a lot to do but I'm at a good place for a little break now.  Want to see what I accomplished?

I spent much of my week sewing (or buying fabric for) throw pillows which all lead up to the "scary" job of covering two cushions for the wine barrel chairs Tad bought me some months ago. Scary because I'm not that much of a seamstress and the cushions involved circles AND zippers. I wasn't sure of my color scheme when I went fabric shopping.  My requirements were that it had to coordinate with the shade of gray used on the walls and it had to have at least a pop of color. When I found the 5 coordinating fabrics with the turquoise color I knew that I would go with them.  A while back I had painted our small bathroom a turquoise color and had used some of the extra paint on other projects, so it's obviously a color I like. The little dresser along the black wall in the entry/dining area was painted with a toned-down shade of that turquoise a few years ago.

Here's a picture of all (but one) of the throw pillows piled on one couch, staged especially for Levi because he wondered where people would sit if I kept making pillows. 😁 I made one of the yellow pillows and bought the other.  I picked up the solid turquoise pillow at a garage sale this summer and the cream-colored pillow is something I did quite a few years ago.

Before doing any sewing I had to take my machine to the shop and have a few adjustments made and buy a couple accessories.  I was relieved that it was all able to be done as I waited so that I could get right to my sewing.  The last time I tried sewing I had a disaster because the tension was all messed up and I had no clue how to fix it.  I guess I needed a new bobbin cartridge and I had been using bobbins that were the wrong shape for my machine.  Who knew?  I thought they were all the same! 

All that pillow sewing was helping me gather confidence for making the cushion covers. By the time I made them I had plenty of practice with zippers and I had found a couple tutorials on the internet on doing round cushions with boxed edges.  I was able to combine a couple techniques to come up with my covers.  Thankfully I took time to think it through and each one turned out on the first try!  I amazed myself and thought of how proud Mom would be of my work.  

And there's still room for people on the couches!  I really like my tulip painting on this wall because it can be seen from more of the house than when it was on the wall above the other couch. I need to decide what else will go on the wall but I'm trying to not rush into it.  The reason the picture isn't centered over the couch is that there is just one screw sunk into the wall and it is centered over the fireplace which I've placed the couch in front of.  I'll either decorate to the left of the picture to balance it or I will get a new hanger and move it over because leaving it the way it is will bother me. 

When I first started the redecorating I ordered a stencil for my bedroom.  I had not noticed that it was being shipped from Istanbul, Turkey so was a little surprised when it didn't show up within a week.  Eventually, I saw that it got stuck in Germany for a few days.  It finally arrived Friday afternoon and I got the wall done in about an hour and 45 minutes on Saturday morning.  I love how it turned out! Tad loved it too.   

I originally thought I might do the closet doors with the stencil but decided to do the wall so that if I get tired of it someday it will be the easier thing to cover up.  I'm kinda lazy that way.  That cool dresser belonged to my grandparents.  It was passed to me by my parents at some point.  A few years ago I sanded off the varnish (or whatever it was), stained the body of the dresser, painted and distressed the top, and then changed out the handles. It was in Cole's room for a few years and then I decided I wanted something different in my room so I took it last year.  I'm not gonna lie, the top of it is not usually this clean.  But after seeing how nice it looks in the picture I just might make it a goal to keep it cleaned off!  There is a little nightstand on Tad's side of the bed that needs to be painted to match the new decor.  Soon... 

Looking from the front door to the back of the house. You can see a snippet of the hallway wall.

Another project done last week was to paint the dresser on the left side of the above photo. The French White (light pink, which you can see if you look at the post from last week) just didn't go with the new color scheme and I had lots of paint left from that bathroom done years ago.  I purchased a sample pot of dark gray and mixed up 6 jars of chalk paint to get the job done.  I've been wanting to do the ombre look on this dresser for a while now.  What better time!  This is where we store cloth napkins (used daily), placemats (not so often), tablecloths (rarely) cards and dice (a winter staple), and a few odds & ends.

Looking from the living room toward the front door.

I must say that I just love how it's all turning out!  It feels very calm to me and for some reason seems to make the spaces feel larger.  Granted, I have gotten rid of some clutter (or at least moved it to the garage to be gone through.) 

For the first day in a few weeks, I don't have a decorating plan for today.  I think I'll take a day off and contemplate what needs to be done next.  Perhaps I'll inspect the walls for areas that need touching up. I know that I have a lot of trim to get painted but that's my least favorite so I think I will take a breather before I dive into it.  Eventually, most of the trim will be coming down to be replaced by more modern trim when we replace the doors throughout the house, but until then there are a couple areas that have the WRONG color and that's going to bug me. 

Maybe I will eventually post some before photos to have a record of what a dramatic difference this has made.  I just need to go "digging" through old photos to find each area.  

Cheers!   

Transforming the interior of the house

For the past week, I have been repainting the interior of our home. Totally changing the color scheme!  Making it cleaner (calmer), cohesive, and more modern. Once I finish the walls I will still have some trim to do because some rooms have the wrong color trim, though the eventual plan is to replace all the interior doors and trim. When we removed the carpet several years ago we were left with huge gaps between the bottoms of the doors and the beautiful hardwood floors. It's time to remedy that AND the current doors have so many coats of paint on them that I just can't stand the thought of painting them again because it just doesn't hold up well! I’ve learned though that I just need to move forward rather than wait until we have the doors done or I might never get around to changing the color! 

So far I've painted our bedroom, the hallway, living room, dining room, and kitchen. It's coming together. Sunday we removed the fireplace mantle (we haven’t used the fireplace more than 6 times in 29 years), I prefer the couch to be on that wall but it seemed weird with a mantle right above the couch. I like the absence of the mantle! I’ll have to come up with a new decorating style for Christmas though.  Need to decorate the wall and paint the rest of the bookshelves to be able to call the room done but I really wanted to get the furniture back in place 

Lest you get the (wrong) impression that I have it all together I'm sharing this photo of the other side of the same room. I've got a LOT of stuff to put away! 

I wanted to add a little element of fun to the hallway wall and I love how it turned out.  One thing always leads to another!  The doorbell (original from 1955) was brass and stood out like a sore thumb so I had to paint it to go with the new color scheme.  

I'm also really happy with the entry/dining room wall.  It's painted with chalkboard paint so that I can write messages on it but I'm a little hesitant to do that because I love the crisp black and once you chalk on a wall it loses that.  It has another few days to cure so we'll see...  Shown below with the front door open.  

Oh boy, that tan color HAS to go!  Once I got going I just couldn't wait to get the kitchen coordinated with the rest of the house.  I never really liked the tan color but it (sort of) worked with the floor and the other colors in the house. The truth is that about 8 years ago I chose what I thought was a fun sort of bright color for the kitchen.  The swatches looked good.  I painted the kitchen in the late evening and it didn't look too bad but it was a little more intense than I thought it would be.  The morning light made it look like a neon cantaloupe and I had that paint covered up within the next couple of days!  I just used the same color as one of the boys' bedrooms.  So glad to get it changed up this week. 

The boys' bedrooms, family room, and main bathroom will be done as I can. We need a new ceiling in the bathroom so it will likely be the last room. That will give me time to think about if I want to make other changes to the bathroom while we’re at it.   

Once I got started I haven't wanted to stop!  I love the transformation and I know myself too well.  I know that sometimes when I lose the momentum I don't end up finishing things.  THIS time will be different.  I WILL finish this project.  Last night I picked out some beautiful fabrics to cover the cushions on the wine barrel chairs (if you scroll back up you will see them in the messy picture, currently they are just wrapped with red table cloths to protect the foam cushions) and make pillows for the couches.  Need to pull out my sewing machine and get it to the shop for a tune-up because it quit working the last time I tried to sew something.  

I have never really thought that I enjoyed painting.  It's tedious work and there's so much room for making mistakes. What if I mess it up?  What if I spill and ruin something?  What if I don't like it when I'm finished? What if I don't get it perfect?  This time has been different! WHAT IF I really love the new look?  What if I mess something up and choose to redo it?  What if I decided that the imperfections give it a little more character.  What if I realize that this is an OLD house and is already full of imperfections and once I'm done with this job I won't really notice them anymore and it's likely that those who enter my house won't really notice them either.  What if I realize that perfect is an illusion?  So, I can actually say that I've really enjoyed all the work I've put in over this past week and I look forward to continuing on with it.  I've enjoyed the stillness of the house as I have worked while everyone is away.  I've had time to think, time to just be, time to listen to music.  

I've been so blessed that Tad has been on board with everything I've done so far even though each day is a surprise to him because I haven't shared any of the ideas with him before executing them.  One day he came home and our bedroom was 3/4 of the way painted in a color of my choosing.  One day he came home and the hallway was decorated.  Another day he came home to a black wall.  It's so different from anything we've ever had before and yet he has been so supportive and he even loves that black wall.  I'm glad he trusts me enough to let me just go with it.  

Today will be a light day of painting because it’s Cole’s 26th birthday and I have things I need to do and I've got to pack a lot into this day so we can celebrate with him tonight. 

I saw these lovely daffodils while walking on the first day of spring.

Mine are still poking their way up out of the ground.  

Welcome to my garden August 2017

Let's enter the backyard through the gate that we (mostly I) built this summer.

This is a long post, you might want to grab yourself a cup of tea or a cold drink and take your time.  Or maybe you'll just take a quick look at all the photos and ignore my rambling.  Either way, enjoy yourself!

For the first 25 years here we had a chain-link fence along the east side of the house.  It came with the house and I decided it had been here long enough!  The entrance gate used to be flush with the front of the garage and it latched over the downspout which really wasn't a good idea at all!  We installed the new gate at the back corner of the garage.  This gives the front a more open appearance and allows the meter reader access without having to come through a gate.  How thoughtful of me.

After walking along the east wall of the family room you will pass through the one chain-link gate that we left in place (for now.) You won't be able to miss the asparagus bed with the morning glory trellis on the north side.  For some reason the vine isn't as full of its glorious blooms at the time I took the photo as it was the day before. My apologies for the photo quality.  There  has been so much smoke in the air lately and it just messes with everything.  I also don't usually have hoses snaking all over the yard but we just returned from a five day trip during the hottest spell of the summer so I had to set up all sorts of automatic sprinklers and hire out the hand watering of all my potted plants!

Looking to the left of the asparagus bed you will see what I call Asparagus Alley.  The asparagus (on the right) is probably 7-8 feet tall now.  To the left is a beautiful Nelly Moser clematis that was absolutely covered in blooms most of the spring and now mostly has the fuzz balls that remind me of the Truffula trees from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  To the lower right is some sort of pink astilbe which was gifted to me by a dear gardening friend.  Beyond that are the Incrediball hydrangeas with the huge greenish-white blooms.  Too bad the bush has become so hidden by everything else. And beyond everything mentioned so far are my Porcupine (on the left) and Parkland Rave (right) dahlias reaching for the sky.  

We are now walking between the asparagus bed (left) and my four 4x4 raised vegetable, herb and flower beds (right) that sit in the spot that has previously housed a sand pit with playhouse, a 15' swimming pool after the boys were too old for the playhouse and then a fire pit for one season as I worked out my next plan for the area.  As the boys have grown up the yard has become more and more my territory to do with as I please.

The red grid (repurposed decor brought home from our store) and arbor (given to me by a neighbor when he had a new one built) lead into the chicken "compound" where my happy and beautiful hens spend most of their time.

We're just past the asparagus bed now and looking to where there once stood a huge evergreen tree that slowly got uglier and uglier until I decided that it no longer added anything of value to our backyard. I decided to trade in the shade for SUN so I would be able to grow more plants. Some of the plants that used to enjoy their shady spot remind me of their preference by wilting or displaying dry leaves but most of this garden is doing quite well.  Someday I might find the complainers a shadier spot elsewhere.  This bed is home to several hostas, a beautiful coral colored hardy fuchsia, astilbe, three different hydrangeas, some iris, bleeding heart, and a lot of others.  There are two evergreen clematises working their way up two trellis that I hope will one day block the view of our neighbor's camper trailer.

This little "island" bed is home to an amazing Venosa Violacea clematis that bloomed non-stop for weeks on end.  I built this bed in the fall of 2015 using the lasagna gardening method of covering up the existing grass with wet cardboard and newspaper and then layering on dry leaves, grass clippings and even past-its-prime produce from the grocery store.  It all sat and composted throughout the winter and then I planted it up in the spring.  Everything has grown like crazy in this bed.  The leaves in front are rhubarb which came from one tiny crown purchased on clearance in late spring 2016.  There is also a Cranesbill geranium at the lower left side with its pretty violet flowers.  The volunteer sunflower is bowing at the top left of the photo. I got a lot of entertainment from the little squirrel who came to snack on it daily.  He would balance up on the top and then lean over to get to the seeds.  The pink just to the left of center are some of the 120+ lily blooms that I have had summer.  I think there are 3 different varieties planted at the south end of this bed.  I do regret that their peak bloom time was while we were traveling.  I missed out on much of their heavenly scent.  

I couldn't stand to not have you see how beautiful the clematis was in full bloom.  These 3 photos of the clematis and the sunflower were taken on July 13, 2017.

So glad I let this volunteer do its thing!

Passing by the entrance to the chicken compound and heading west along the back of our yard.  The bright spot just to the right of the top center is a dead branch on our vine maple.  I need to get the ladder and pruner out and take that down.  I wish the lawn wasn't looking so dry but I just can't afford to water everything, nor do I have the time.  

A couple weeks ago I referred to this section as my "purple jungle" as there were quite a few purple flowers blooming.  Salvia, bee balm, Dianthus, lavender, Cranesbill geranium and many others that I can't even remember right now.

We built this new fence on the east side of the dog kennel last summer.  The idea was to make a more attractive fence than what we had previously and to provide a place for me to grow some grapes.  We planted 4 vines last year; two have survived our curious dog and the winter storm we had in December.  The vines are growing like crazy; I better read up on the proper pruning techniques so I can keep them going long enough to provide us with some table grapes someday.  The "small" tree on the left side of the photo is a plum tree I bought for Tad a couple years ago.  In order to allow it to develop its root system I let it grow only one plum this year; I think that next year it will be OK to let it just do its thing.  I planted several dahlias along the front of the fence, with two varieties planted at each stake.  Hollyhill Starburst,  and Raeann's Peach (which didn't do well this year) are shown in this photo.

The dahlias in this photo are Parkland Rave (I shopped at two different tuber sales and forgot that I already had this), Sorbet, Wildwood Marie (the coral one on near the right) and Bride to Be.  I'm really loving Wildwood Marie this year, just wish it would produce more blooms.

The "bedroom" garden, situated in front of the bedroom windows.  This area used to be piled up with all sorts of things that I didn't know where else to store.  While the stuff wasn't very visible from inside the house I eventually hated to see it when I was out in the yard so I did a major clean up and got this garden started Memorial Day weekend of 2015.  I hauled in a bunch of compost and then started planting it up.  Wow, things have really grown!  The dark red is a cardinal lobelia.  In front of it is some orange crocosmia of an unknown variety, the blooms of which are barely visible.

The same garden bed from a different angle.  The little red and white dots belong to Hot Lips salvia.  The daylily in the foreground is done blooming.  There are two Helianthus (perrenial sunflowers) in this bed.  It also contains a couple blueberry bushes, a forsythia and red twig dogwood bushes as well as some hardy verbena, grass, foxgloves, columbine, a mini rose and MORE.

I did a lasagna garden bed under the apple tree in the fall of 2015.  Most of the plants love it there.  They include several hostas, a hardy fuchsia (the pink blooms to the left of the tree), some Dianthus which is almost done blooming and two varieties of daisies, both of which are about done for the season.  I'll deadhead them and see if I can encourage another round of blooms.

Are you still with me?  This is a hazy view of the raised beds.  The taller bed to the left contained my garlic crop until I harvested it a few weeks ago.  I had a great yield and look forward to cooking with it in the coming months.  I built a trellis from retired wooden rake and garden tool handles on the north side of the taller bed and this year it has morning glory climbing all over it. We see this when we look out the family room windows.  The bed to the front right has a ginormous lupine plant, rhubarb, Pooh (a dahlia) and a few green bean plants. The bed to the back right of the photo has another dahlia I can't remember the name of, green beans and yellow beans, and a bit of dill and I think some basil.  The fourth raised bed has some volunteer tomatoes, a huge variegated sage, and a few basil plants.  

A view of the garlic-bed morning glory.  There are some potted plants, Mexican Orange, horseradish, lilies, and some annuals between the sidewalk and the north side of the raised beds.  The left third of this photo really shows the Mexican Orange with the tomato reaching for the sky at the left edge.

Looking back toward the chicken compound from the edge of the "island" garden bed.  The little tree is an Asian pear tree I picked up on clearance for $5.  Last year it looked like it had died after we had a heatwave but I just kept on watering it and I maybe even remembered to fertilize it so it looks healthy this year.

Close-ups of some of the lilies.  The color is way too warm due to the smoky air.

Chocolate cosmos in a sea of variegated sage.

I'm so glad you could spend some time with me in the garden.  I prefer to take close-up shots of the flowers but I know it's also important to take some wider range shots in order to have a good sense of the entire garden.  I look forward to someday being able to look back at these photos and compare it to the garden I have at that time.

I'll show you out through that gate I built earlier this year.  I think I forgot to mention that I built it of wood reclaimed from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's fence that they removed this year.  The horizontal piece over the gate was reclaimed from a remodel job at a neighbor's home 2 summers ago and I finally found a use for it.  The yellow frame has a little succulent garden growing in it.

See you again.  Thanks for dropping by.

June's Blooms

The garden is  pretty lush and the grass is still green, not yet succumbing to the heat of summer. Since I left my dahlia tubers in the ground last fall I already have blooms appearing which I like so much better than having to wait until late July or August for blooms.  I think from now on I will leave them in the ground come fall and just protect them with mulch and foil caps to keep them from drowning when their stalks fill with rainwater.   

Top: Venosa Violacea clematis blooming profusely with Valley Porcupine and Parkland Rave dahlias in the background.
Bottom:  Pooh dahlia

Top Left:  Oops, I've forgotten the name of this dahlia.  Perhaps when I find it again I will update.
Top Right:  Incrediball hydrangea (white) with Valley Porcupine dahlias
Bottom:  ? hydrangea and hosta

The hydrangea in the foreground is Cityline Paris.  Not sure if I still have a tag from the one in the background.

Top Left:  Wildwood Marie dahlia just opening up
Top Right: a pink honeysuckle that I struggle with every year.  First the aphids attack and then the heat.  This year I seem to have gotten rid of most of the aphids.
Bottom Left:  creeping Jenny blooming in a pot
Bottom Right:  unknown astilbe

Top:  Endless Summer hydrangea
Bottom:  Royal Candles Speedwell Veronica spicata with some Cranesbill geranium in the background

Top:  a hollyhock grown from seeds I harvested from a neighbor's yard.  Aren't the forming seed pods beautiful?
Bottom Left:  Sorbet dahlia
Bottom Right:  a large day-lily I picked up at a perennial plant sale.

So much color in late June!

(This post was backdated to keep my photos in chronological order.  I've been so busy gardening that I haven't been keeping up with the posting but I do want to be able to look back someday and have a lovely diary of my garden.)

Cookies, cookies, cookies!

I've been busier making cookies than gardening so far this week!

Monday my friend Tina came over to decorate cookies for our Bunco group's luau theme.  I wanted a chance to show her some techniques with royal icing because she has always done her cookies in butter cream.  It was really fun.  She did most of the flip flops,  I just showed her some techniques on the first 2.  I did the sunglasses and most of the margaritas.  They were fun.  I made up a tray of the little flower embellishments and Levi helped out by putting the little beads in the centers.  After they dried I packed them up for future use.

The party tray for our Bunco luau.

I did these cookies

Since I was going to invest the time (lots of time) to do the above cookies I thought I would just do a batch for my dentist and his staff while I was at it.

And while I'm on a cookie kick I thought I better make my brother-in-law his monthly plate of chocolate marshmallow cookies.  Part of his Christmas gift was a plate of chocolate marshmallow cookies every month for an entire year, plus the tin filled with them that he recieved on Christmas Eve.

Rich and chewy brownie-like cookies with marshmallow baked on and then topped with fudgy icing!

OK, enough cookies for right now.  This weekend I'll be making strawberry trifle for Father's Day and next Monday I better go on a major diet!

Sorry I couldn't share a bite of the cookies with you, I'm sure you would enjoy them.

Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you dropped by.

Garden Bloom Tour June 2015

Here we are already at the middle of June and soon we'll observe the longest day of the year.  I have been loving the extended daylight hours, though not thrilled by the chickens getting up earlier and "talking up a storm until I let them out of their coops."

Flowers are coming on quickly in the garden and some have gone their merry way already.  The last of the calla lilies are fading, I've been cutting down the daisies right and left and the last iris bloomed about a week ago and then faded quickly when we had a couple hot days in a row. 

It's been exciting to see some of my new plants blooming for the first time and to see others return with a beautiful show for this year.

Life has been busy with a capital B and it's only going to get more so this week.  School is out for the summer, for which Levi is quite grateful!  Before we know it I'm sure he'll have that look in his eyes that indicates he's ready to go back, ready to see all his friends in one place and have some structure to his days.  Until then we'll work at crossing things off his summer bucket list.  Things like:  burn school papers (boy will the marshmallows roasted over that fire taste extra sweet), sleep in the backyard, go inner-tubing behind the boat, take bike rides, build a fort, have sleep-overs with friends.  Cole's goal is to move to Texas by summer's end, until then he will continue working at the store.

Without any more rambling I will share some (lots) of photos of what's blooming in my garden now.  I HAVE to share lots now because I really don't have a strong summer garden and in the future there won't be such variety!
 
The tour will start in the backyard and then we'll come out front.  

Chai, one of my co-gardeners - she lays beautiful green eggs
(Update:  Chai died in the summer of 2016, as did Cinnamon and Cookie)

Let's Dance Starlight

This beautiful Bigleaf Hydrangea was blue on the tag.  I don't mind at all that it's blooming pink.

Astilbe

 I recently went on the Eugene Symphony Guild's garden tour. It was fun to see the 6 different gardens and their different styles.  I picked up a few pieces of garden art including the pink "flower" above.

Gartenmeister ? fuchsia

I bought this beautiful fuchsia for the pink foliage and wasn't even concerned with whether or not it would bloom.  I don't think this photo does the pink justice, it's much lovelier in person. The tag is in a "safe place" so until I find it I can't remember the rest of the name.  (I moved it and it bloomed again in 2016 but didn't return for 2017.)  

geranium from Aretha

These geraniums have such a lovely color.  Aretha tells me they won't take over the garden, but they will spread out.  Looking forward to seeing what they do.

A native bleeding heart, also from Aretha

This happy assortment of flowers is blooming well in the "window box" on the back fence.  Hopefully I will keep them happy and not let them dry out as summer goes on.

 These snapdragons are doing really well.  They were seedlings given to me last year by my friend Katie and they came back nice and strong.  I had others across the backyard but they got spots all over their leaves and looked quite unhealthy so I cut them back in hopes of not spreading something to nearby healthy plants. 

This hydrangea was a $3.50 rescue plant in a gallon pot from Home Depot a few summers ago.  It is thriving and loaded with blooms.  I got another rescue hydrangea at the same time but couldn't decide where to put it so didn't get it planted until about 10 months later and it is still fairly small and not yet in bloom.

Allium planted last fall

 I wonder just how many tiny flowers there are on this purple globe but I don't have the time to dismantle it and count them so I'll just let it go...

Morning glory from seeds sown this spring

Yesterday's morning glory bloom

The bud of tomorrow's morning glory.

This morning glory bud reminds me of hand spun candy.  Gorgeous!  From here we'll move to the front to see what's blooming out there.

To the left of the front sidewalk.

Just across the sidewalk from the above photo.

Fuchsia & lobelia basket

The daisies along the front sidewalk and driveway are finishing up so I am deadheading and or pulling them up as I can.  The coreopsis are in need of deadheading every couple days as well to keep them looking good.

I'm really pleased with my fuchsia baskets this year.  For the first time I joined in on one of the Fred Meyer planting days.  I got the starts for 5/$3 and then they planted them up in the pots and baskets I provided.  I bought additional starts and scared up a few more baskets and planted my own.  Three of the baskets are blooming strongly now, 2 others are just about to get started and one is coming along behind those.  I also got a bunch of geranium starts at the sale. Meeting a friend there made the waiting in line go fairly quickly and in the end it was all worth it.

Hebe in the driveway bed

Monarda Jacob Cline in the driveway bed

I've wanted a bee balm (Monarda) for quite awhile now.  I really want it in pink but when I saw this at the nursery I just couldn't pass up the $5 price for a gallon plant.  The flowers remind me of a jester's hat.

Gaura

 Last summer while Levi was having his teeth cleaned I took a walk through the neighborhood.  There were a couple ladies out gardening in the parking strip and I noticed these beautiful pink flowers.  I commented on them and the owner of the property invited me to just dig some up. We decided that since it was in the 90s that day I should come back later and that's just what I did when I had my appointment a month or so later.  I got 2 plants, one is growing big and covered with blooms, the other was planted in a different location and it's still on the small side with no blooms yet.  From reading about them I am aware that I should deadhead them to prevent having them reseed all over the place. 

Geranium

Daisies, Rose campion and the raspberry patch beyond

The geranium above was a "gift" from a friend many years ago. Unfortunately this IS one that grows by underground runners and it seems nearly impossible to get it out of the garden.  I think it's very pretty but I just wish it would behave itself better than it does!  If I offer you one of them please know that you've been warned!

The daisies came from Mom years ago, I'll always have them I'm sure. In part because they readily reseed themselves and come up by the "millions" and partly because it is something from her garden that is a wonderful reminder of her generous spirit.  Who knows where the rose campion came from.  A bird must have shared them with us years ago and I love the color so I let them stay.  The raspberries (from Dad and Mom several years ago) are going strong in this location and in fact this year I have been too busy to keep up with the picking! (Update:  The raspberries had a fair harvest in 2016 but really went downhill in 2017.  I plan to start over with a new berry patch where we used to park the boat before selling it in late 2016.) 

The passionflower is not thriving.  I have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out if it's getting too little water, too much water, not enough fertilizer or WHAT!  Last week it did have 44 blooms on one day, but many of the buds are just turning yellow and drying up. (Update:  The passionflower was fantastic in 2016 but died back in the winter and there was no sign of it in early spring of 2017.  Eventually some starts began appearing in the area of the pot that contained it and by early August of 2017 it was doing pretty well.  I don't expect any blooms until 2018 though.) 

I'm joining up with Carol of May Dreams Gardens for the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.  Go check out what's blooming in other gardens across the country and around the world. 

As always, I'd love to know you stopped by so please take time to leave a comment.  Happy Bloom Day!