Another Posting.....

I don’t remember the name of this zinnia.  I bought it to fill in a space in my rows. I really like it and I can’t imagine how they genetically created it. I have seen only two blooms of this kind so far but there is time for more of them to bloom.

Some of this clematis is vining onto a red twig dogwood branch.  I could see that I am to going to get off of there so I will just be glad it is vining and blooming. I like all the shadows in this photo of the   vines and leaves.

At the bottom of the stairs on the north side of the house I have added things the past two years creating an informal country garden. Recently I planted some Stella O Dora lily with I am hoping will set in during this summer.  I had never moved any of it and decided to just dig a small chunk of it on day when I was mowing up north. Another day lily was put in on the other side of this arrangement so it will keep growing. I never liked mowing there anyway so the plants save me from doing so.

I replaced a lot of the sand under the steps but I don’t have much of it washed into the cracks yet.  I am walking a lot of the sand around which is helping it to set the bricks in place. I will go back and work on them on another time.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Moving On.....

The grass looks green but it does have a brown cast showing that we need more rain.  My neighbor south mows his yard.  Usually the next day I mow my yard.  The third day the guy to the north then mows his yard.  There is a guy above him that mows his yard so short that he has dead grass.

The stairs to the deck really has improved the back side of our house. We only had a deck and the back view was not well designed.  The sunroom and deck seems to make the house be more pleasing with all the parts and shelter areas below it.

I had to water the moss rose as it seemed to be getting too much sun.  I have moved it to the shade since the photo was taken.

I think about how the rabbits would hid under the big leaves of the rhubarb. Last year it was a young bunny that would shoot out from under it when I would go by with the mower.

We keep adding to this shelf that was hung in the sunroom.  We tend to just move things around until we like it. I see there is a blank space on the top shelf that could use something more.

Thanks for stopping by today.

In the Gardens......

The large leaves of the rhubarb dominate the photo.  Also seen is hosta, Asiatic lily, and of course grass. The little guy at the end of the rain gutter is watching water come out of the end of it when it rains.

The dinner plate hibiscus is going to start to explode with blooms.  The real color is a lighter red  rather than the dark red that can be seen in the photo.

This yellow coneflower is weathered and probably underwater. I am hoping that it gets more established as it seems to be not very aggressive in growth as most coneflowers are.

This lily keeps putting out more blooms with all of its spots. It will probably increase with more stems next spring.

I will have larger tomatoes this year but it is apparently going to take time for them to ripen.

We had a light rain on Sunday evening a small amounts are better than none.  I will still water everything tomorrow really giving things a good soaking.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Summering on Sunday......

It is a nice wall. It is almost done but the guy has more things going on. It may be awhile before he cuts our curved top.

I don’t understand why the birds didn’t use the houses.  I guess they were moved when the carpenters were here working. They may have been in position too late for nesting purposes. Normally there was a sparrow in the weathered bird house.

I bought them in the same area of marigolds but they do look like daisies to me. It is a hotter day again today.  I guess it is summer so I shouldn’t be surprised.  I wish you all to have a great day today.

Checking in on Saturday......

This honey suckle is still blooming with these small little trumpets. The vine is a tough one that seems to not care about having a lot of moisture.

The blanket flower is also struggling even though I do water it. The sedums in the same area are really perking up and will bloom in a week or so.

The sad thing is that sedum is a fall blooming plant and I am not ready for summer to be over.

More blooms for the clematis.  I need to find something to plant next to it to shade its roots.  I have a host that could do the trick.
I mowed my yard yesterday and that is good as it is very hot today. I was two weeks long on the mowing as it just didn’t need to be mowed.

Thank you for stopping by today.

The Summer Day’s Worth.........

We had tomatoes for lunch today.  They are a sweet yellow tomato bigger than a cherry tomato.  They are good to snack on but then we wouldn’t have any for meals if I did that.

It does look red but it is a yellow orange. I am looking forward to more of the ripening and in a more rapid bit.

The  knock out roses are already starting to bloom again.

This is the smaller yellow day lily.  It still is dramatic against that new fence. It has  a lot of buds sow it will be blooming for a long time.

I worked at the old place today but didn’t have time to really dig any other plants.  I worked longer and harder than I had planned so I just locked up and crawled into my truck and are home.  We are warming up today a little more than yesterday.

This was a good plan.  I remember blogging about dutifully planting them in a straight row with good spacing.  It seemed silly at the time but it did work out well.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish everyone well. 

The Center of the Week.......

The hosta plants have put out a lot of great blooms this summer.  A couple of good rains really helped to establish strong foliage. Each hosta has its distinct set of blooms but I haven’t taken the time to figure it all out.  I have one hosta among the rocks and it really doesn’t like all of the heat. It is so pale and peaked that I am going to have to move it and fine one that won’t mind the heat.

I have been waiting for my canna to take off and grow.  It just stays the same and there is no flower spike.  I did notice yesterday it is shooting out new sprouts instead of blooming. I may see blooms from it in the fall but so far it has really not given me much of any show.

Our in the same area I have this flower just pop up and bloom.  I am guessing it is a phlox but I don’t have any memories of planing it there last year and I am sure glad I did weed out there very often.   I could have pulled it easily enough. I may move it so I can watch it and help it to grow bigger.

The brown eyed Susans don’t seem too thick this summer but it is a different kind of season for us.  I think the week of heat really was hard on them.

The memorial garden for Barney has a lopsided host planted in it among the hardy geraniums. I see that I have a new leaf developing.  The colors of the geraniums are so great with the two colors on them.  I see them being sold more now than the traditional red ones.  I have the variegated dogwood planted nearby that lets me know when it all needs to be watered.  The dogwood isn’t rooted in much yet so it does droop when it is dry.

I rescued this tiger lily from the old place two years ago.  I had planted it many years ago and really didn’t see it bloom much as it was under a tree.  When we moved and I returned to mow the yard, there it was in bloom.  I dug it in bloom and moved it to the new place.  It has now increased into two stems now.

This is the true variety of tiger lily as far as I am concerned. It is just like the one my grandmother had in her iris bed garden down in southern Iowa. I thought it was so fascinating to see as a kid.  It was of course probably 65 years ago but I still remember it.

This other lily that I bought is called a double petaled tiger lily. They both have those curved petals with all those spots. This too has increased  in number of stalks this spring.

I found some people on the net are calling this a tiger lily but the petals really don’t fit the category.  I can really see the similarities.

I have more work to do in the yard today.  I know the weed eater needs to be brought and used.  We are not mowing in our neighborhood as the grass has stopped growing for now.  It has been two weeks since we cut the grass and in the shade some grass is getting shaggy.  The rest has turned brown. We are having a cooler week though.  Thank you for checking in today.  I wish you all to have a good day.

The view from our hotel room in Chicago. I think they need to work on this a little to make it be more appealing.

Tuesday Things......

The winds did blow the pink hollyhocks down but they were shorter and I did get them to stand up again without any stakes. I did stake up the big white ones.  The needed three steel posts and lots of string to get them back up vertical.

This daylily is crowded up against the new cupola that I placed next to it.  I know that it will just spread the opposite direction and won’t be damaged.  I see I have another orange lily similar to this that I will bring down from the old place.

Another crowded flower is this phlox.  It has a bluish color to it.  It to is being crowded but by a day lily.  When it is t through blooming I will find a more open space for it.  I looks very challenged and yet it will live.

I planted in the garden today two more starts of my fern leaf peony from the old place. I still have two or there  plants up there so I have not robbed the garden up there. I also planted some meager looking starts of a Sella ODora lily.  They were hard to dig and I just wanted some off the side of the existing plant.  I can watch it to see it they took.

These were all bought from the marigold section of the nursery but they really don’t bloom like a marigold.  The row of them around my tomato patch has really grown in nicely.  The whole area is about two weeks later than last year.  I am getting sun drop small tomatoes now to eat.

I dug these from the old place. The parent plants are blooming just like these.  They get so tall and heavy weighted at the top that they almost lay down on the yard.  They are so hardy and they grow more stalks each season.

When you hold the new granddaughter, one has his picture taken too.  She is a special one as she follows two brothers. I have two nieces that do have girls but they are all in high school or college now.

Ella knows her big brother and smiles every time he comes around.  AJ was so excited once she was born and would present here like a show host, look we have a new girl. The three year old guy is closer in age and I bet Teddy will be a good brother when she gets older.

Teddy is more interested in playing on the floor with everything or running around the house bouncing and dancing around.

I spent some time in the garden today  getting things back into order.  I had to water things and pull a few weeds.  Our front planter is just not as showy this year but I bet by fall it will look great. The knock out roses are start to bud and bloom again.

We are having a second beautiful day today with really mild temperatures. It was almost too cool to mow yesterday but our morning today is just a perfect nice.  Things are growing in a good way and the heat didn’t leave any bad damage anywhere.  I do notice that the yards in our neighborhoods are extremely dry and they were turned brown during our very hot days.   Our temperature gage on the car was 100degrees on Saturday afternoon which we returned on the toll road back to Iowa.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Monday and On Schedule......

A really nice day with low temperatures and it still is sunny.  We will get hotter by late afternoon but I could mow this morning without getting overheated.

The zinnias have taken off and are growing rapidly.  They are the green luxh row right behind the red and white petunias.

The colors are limited with the kinds that are blooming right now but the orange one is big and  bold. I saw one Japanese beetle this past hour while I wa out  taking shots. They will eventually be too tall and cover up the back row of petunias.

This yellow daylily is a medium size and the color is almost a pale color.

This one is about a third larger than the one shown above.  The larger one doesn’t stay in bloom for a long and the medium sized variety.

I mowed at the old place today with the weather being so good.  I also took a truck load of sticks and limbs to the dump trailers that the city now provides. It was cooler so I worked linger and harder trying to keep up with all that grows.

The clematis is going to bloom this summer.  I should be watering more.  I was glad to see it again and do baby it a little to keep it growing.

The white reminds be of flocks of pelicans that I saw on the lake this morning.  They were at a far distance and they looked like a snow bank in the middle of the lake.  There is a lower spot in the lake and they pelicans like to feed in the shallows. I could drive over to where they were as I would of if it were possible. Their was a boater over by them and maybe he will post some photos for us all to see.

This is a day lily that I bought for my parents many years ago.  I moved some of it to the old place  and now it is at the new place. I like it with the cast rid circle design in the middle. I am waiting for one more lily to bloom at the old place to see if I want to move it.   I did dig section of o dora today and I brought another fern leaf peony down.  I think there are still three of them up at the old place.

I didn’t share a grand child picture today but there will be more of those to come.  I did get a lot of them taken the past two days.  I hope everyone is well out there.  Thanks for stopping by today.