Sunday, June 26, 2011

A Visitor in the Garden


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Hello everybody! I came home this past Tuesday to find a surprise waiting for me in the garden. I usually make a loop around the garden if it’s not terribly hot to see what going on in it. I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eye and as I turned to see what it was I was VERY surprised to find this guy.

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He’s about half grown and didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures of him at all. I was able to get within about five feet of him, but I didn’t dare to get any closer. I live in the middle of a large, heavily populated subdivision in the business district of my town. I also have a chain link fence all the way around the garden so I have no idea how this little rabbit found his way to my garden. I don’t know how long he plans to stay but I put out a bowl of water for him and scattered a few baby carrots. From all appearances though, he must be gone already.

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In other news we finally got some much needed rain and the grass is beginning to turn a nice green shade again. Unfortunately, I had another little episode with my back late Tuesday night and now I’m hesitant to get out there and cut the grass. I spent two days in bed and it seems to be well on its way to healing. It put a damper on my weekend plans, but I’m hoping to be back in the pink and pushing the lawn mower by the middle of the week. I had started a new exercise program twice a day and I’m afraid it may have been too much too soon. BTW I had just gone to my back surgeon that day and he released me because I was absolutely pain free. Ain’t that a kick in the pants? This not the same area where I had the surgery, it’s the disk below it. In the future I will know not to push myself so hard. Lesson learned… Hope you all have a good day, I see an afternoon nap in mine. I’m exhausted from dreaming all night long, but since it was about loved ones I’m not going to complain too much. I’m always amazed at how real dreams can feel, sometimes I wonder if we don’t actually meet spiritually in some other place rather than dream..

Monday, June 20, 2011

How Bout This Heat?


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The heat has been absolutely horrible lately here in central Alabama. I’ve been doing what I can to stay out of it. The lawn is burnt to a crisp and the garden isn’t fairing much better. I have a drip system installed, but it’s just no match for the 100° temps we’ve been having. With the water bill already in excess of a hundred dollars due to practically no rain I refuse to pour more water into the flower beds. If what I have isn’t strong enough to survive the summers here I will replace it with something stronger when it dies. Some of the Daylilies are hanging on by a meager thread. Dead foliage is mounding up around the base of the plants and some have just mere sprigs of living foliage. I started cleaning up the dead leaves around the base until it occurred to me it could be helping retain the moisture in the soil. So I decided to leave it for now, even though it doesn’t look very pretty. I should probably add more mulch to the garden, but right now I can’t seem to keep the squirrels from scratching it out of the beds. To the casual observer the garden looks fantastic, but I see all the things that need attention. Meanwhile, the ‘Kwanso’ daylilies are plugging right on along.

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This is our second summer of no rain and excessive heat in June. I lost a lot of plants last year. In an effort to stay cool and still be outdoors I’ve been traveling around and taking pictures in areas exposed to less sun. While it’s been so hot in the garden I’ve been turning my attention to my other blogs. If you haven’t visited, check them out. The links are in the upper left hand corner of the garden blog. The picture below was taken last week on my little excursion to the bamboo forest here in Prattville. The little frog is such a stereo type chilling on the lily pad. I hope this post finds you well and finding moments of refuge from the heat and the drought.

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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Blooming in the Garden 06/05/11


Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. Sorry I’m a little late with the post, but it seems like I’ve been running around like mad the past few months. I decided to stay home this weekend so I walked around the garden to snap a few pictures for you to enjoy. We were due a big rain last night according to the weather man, but it was a no show. The temperature here reached over 100° this week and its only June! The daylilies are stressed beyond belief and the foliage looks terrible, but they are still producing some really pretty blooms.

Mildred Mitchell



The balloon flowers are larger than they’ve ever been before and I can’t wait to see them next year. The patch should be about three times as wide.

Sentimental Blue



Strawberry Candy



So far this year I’ve only seen one humming bird around the salvia, but honestly I’ve been too busy to do much other than maintain the garden. I have a three day weekend so maybe I’ll have time to enjoy it a little today or tomorrow.

Double Decker



Lady Georgia



This photo doesn’t really do the Vitex justice. It’s such a brilliant blue right now and it’s really growing into a very large tree. I’ve just been limbing it up and allowing it to gain in height. This photo was taken in the afternoon so the light was horrible.

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Chicago Mist and Frances Faye



The Asiatics are smelling wonderful too. This particular one is ‘Coral Queen’. Okay folks, this post is short and sweet. I’ve got to get up from here and get started on a few things that need to be done. Have a good week.

Coral Queen