Wednesday......

 I have a secret garden on my property.  It is located behind the large blue spruce tree. No one sees it but me and also you when I photograph it.  The bench came from the old place being made from old bricks and a piece of flagstone that once was a part of the old kitchen's foundation.  The angel gets to be showered with rose petals naturally.  I did not put them there. The area is one of the place where you can look up and see the birdhouse on a pole.

The secret garden includes the antique, old rose bush that I harvested roots of from the old place.  It is an old traditional rose that people shared with neighbors back in the old days. At the time the rose was planted there was no such thing as a Plant Nursery.  My old house had three bushes along the kitchen's north side.  When I added an addition I dug them and moved most of them to the west side of the kitchen.  In the photo you can see it is too shaded for the iris that are planted there behind the bench.  I will move them both to a more sunny location. It was shaded when I planted the iris it just I planted things to make it shaded.

The front raised bed has flowers in bloom.  All of them will be taller and fuller with more blooms in time. The guy that lives just beside this sort of made fun of the man who put these it. It wa statement that the guy seemed to be an over achiever.  I like them brick work and think it makes our place unique. 

The penstemons flowers have taken over the area.  I will remove half of them out of the rock garden part of this planter. I may move the other half also to somewhere else.  I moved out a coneflower in that area two years ago and now these wild flowers took over the space. 

I moved these to the back last year and they seem to be not bothered by all the shifting.  I see this is crowding a hosta already. 

I need to mow the back yard but it was just too damp all morning.  The high humidity kept everything wet.  I did pull more weeds and water grass but working in the yard was limited.  We have less smoke today but the air quility is still bad.  We are cooler today compared to yesterday's 89 degrees F. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Second Day.....

 The hosta makes a great shelter for the turtle.  When he was placed there the plant was half this size. I may have to move the turtle if it is keeping the hosta from spreading.

The stair railing makes a great trellis for the climbing rose that peaks through the bars. 

I have roses on both sides of the stairs. I made boxed areas to plant them in to keep out the grass.  The hosta at the base of them  help me keep the grass down around them.

The rose opposite the yellow one is a shorter rose.  The flowers start out looking yellow but turn to this coral color.  It has been poven to be a good rose even though it did partially freeze down the past winter. 

I had a second young cardinal show up at the feeder this morning.  She was less jittery than the male that visited yesterday.  She did have a doubt about the cracked corn and she didn't quit think she should have to bite down hard on it.  I would be interested in knowing where the nest was. I can't even prove that they are hatched by the pair that was here at the feeder early spring. 

We are having a hot day again today.  We are warned not to be outside today as the smoke is heavy today from the Canadian wildfires.  I think the high humidity mixed with the smoke makes it harder to breath.  I was out in it this morning doing small jobs but I did wear out quickly.   

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday It Is....

 A genetic mishap took place with this old fashioned iris. I call them cemetery iris from old.  The two blooms are on one stem.  The are different colored. The all blue one is one that I don't have in the collection so I was surprised to see it there.  When I checked it out trying to find the host plant I realized it was coming off of the same branch in a V with the different color.  It may never happen again but I am glad I got to photograph it.  I went back today and all the iris are now spent. 

I forgot about this peony as I didn't plant it.  Arlyn the former owner planted it.  It is such a pitiful plant that has not multiplied in the six years that I have lived here. The clay soil needs to be built up with black top soil. The two years of drought probably cause it to have dead buds.  When I saw the perfect white bloom I was so pleased. It has only one stem coming off of the plant.  I have another white that came from the old place but it isn't perfectly white.  I am sure the guy bought this at a nursery.

The rains are necessary so I can't complain as to how it destroyed flowers.  They are coming back but hardy geraniums are slow to restore blooms. 

 

 This young male cardinal was hanging around for a short time.  We have seen him out and about.  He is just out of the nest and he flies around radically as if he doesn't have control.  I am glad we had a least one new hatched one.  I hope we see more of them from the nest.  

Using the wheel barrow I finally unloaded the truck of my buys from Ace of last week.  I had 3 bags of sand and two bags of mulch to carry down the hill to our back yard area.  These bricks I carried in the barrow two at a time. I had to get out my gloves for the brick.  I have a new creative idea for them but no solid design plan has been finished in my head. I am going to leave them lay there for a while and keep consulting my idea books. 

It is a very humid day today even though we aren't as hot as in the past.  It isn't too good to be outside.  The smoke smell is strong again today and adding it to the humidity one runs out of wind quickly.  I took lots of breaks between my seven trips wheel barrowing down the hill. 

Have a great Monday.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Summer Heat....

 The photo is larger than life but it shows the beauty of the yellow rose in my garden.  It is a climbing rose and it has now taken off with many buds and blooms too. 

The rose isn't a hybrid T but it has the roses that reminds me of them.  It over winters wonderfully and keeping it cut back is the best thing for it.  I had more dead canes this year from winter but I think that was more related to our drought.

The hosta loves the raised bed concept as they have spread all along the edges of the box. It was one of my ideas that I could grow them there rather than pull weeds all summer.  I still get some grass growing up but it is few and far between.

 

Penstemon

My former owner left me with flowers that I really would not have picked.  I called them my hippie garden flowers but I now know that they were trying for wildflower garden choices.  This one comes up in places that I don't like.  It is so tall that it blocks the view of the roses behind it. I have some right now that voluntarily grows in the rock garden area which I don't want.

Once the blooms are done I can pull it and maybe put some of it in my cottage garden area in the back.  The primrose was one that I do like but it was planted everywhere and really didn't fit with the garden plants around it. I have one more wild flower coming up and it has been here six years.  I have yet to see blooms on it and maybe I can identify it.  It too grows in three different locations.

I moved most of the primrose back here where it fits in nicely with the peonies and day lily. I had to live with the different new plants to me and make decisions that changed the former gardeners plans.  I don't know if it was the wife that did the flowers.  I do know the husband did many vegetables as my neighbor lady keeps telling me. 

It is another hot day today.  I will go out and water tomatoes to keep them growing.  I have some sunflowers growing up in the middle of the tomatoes.  I have a double headed one here as the rabbits had eaten off the top of it.  I let it grow and now I have this.  The wired fence has stopped the things from being eaten. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

From My House to Yours....

 It really isn't a pond but it is the best I can do at our new place. It was sold as a large flower pot but it would not have been that good looking for planting flowers. 

The challenge for the summer is to see how many photos that I can accomplish of the goldfish in the pool. They seem to be happier in the pool than than being in the clear glass aquarium.  They all gather together at the bottom to take a nap. Goldfish are carp so they do like that kind of behavior and environment.

My property sits on a former corn field with clay soil.  The pink peony was in the front of the house and it just didn't grow.  The former owner planted it and didn't include some black soil around.  After two seasons it has revived in this new location in the back yard.  I have bags of topsoil ready every time I plant something. 

My light blue flag iris is looking good but the rains did damage the blooms. The remaining buds are giing me good color.  The other two purple/blue flag iris that I have were almost closed down as they were further developed and the rains were heavy. 

The former owner was a vegetable gardener.  He had posts for a gate and fenced in the rest of the area to keep out the rabbits. I like the posts as garden decorations. 

When I planted the rose in this location I thought it could be a good place.  Now that it has been there a few years I am pleased to have it there.  It reminds me of how people on the farmsteads would grow plants up the sides of their houses.  

The  rain caused the branches to be heavy with flowers.  I need to tie up the stalks of flowers that are laying on the grass.  I mowed the front end of the house this morning.  It was already 78°F. by the time that I got started.  It makes it so much more work when you are walking in that kind of heat.  By the time I finished it was 81° F.  

The front of the house looks so good with all the "knock out" roses in bloom and the green, green grass.  The variagated leaf dogwood on the left is getting to be large.  We planted that there as a memory to our dog Barney three years ago. It is a beautiful specimen.  I would not to think of planting a locust tree anywhere but the former owner did and I really like it. It is unique with a great shape and great foliage. The branches hanging down look more like the mosses hanging from branches in the south. 

 

Thanks for stopping by on this very hot day.

Friday Frizzes Your Hair....

 I brought all of them inside before the big rain. It was time to have some inside bouquets but I just got too busy. This is a sample of the hybrids and the older cemetery iris. 

Give the vase a turn and you can see a couple flag iris in the bouquet.  I had to give the whole bunch a trim job to take away the spent blooms but they are continuing to bloom.

A candid shot of everyday life showing in the background.  The peonies will last a few days and then they will drop petals. 

A shot of the droop with the two and a half inch rain weighing down the blooms.  I did prop up some today but they will not ever be the same again.  Weather is always a factor that can be such a negative for flowers but we needed the moisture so badly. 

The third vase of flowers has roses in it along with some special peonies to balance thing out for display. 

I mowed in the back yard today.  I sharpened the blade a little and I didn't have to use the bagger today.  It was slow going as the grass was tall.  I was a couple of days behind on the job.  I was thinking I had enough energy to do the front yard also today but it was getting to be 83° F. by the time I had finished the back yard.  I had to wait until late morning to start as the 84% humidity was not letting the grass dry out for me to do the job. We are really now into a full summer mode with the heat and humidity. It is suppose to stay hot for days ahead.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Waterfall Happening....

 

 

 It is raining here and it is going to rain some more.  The flowers are not doing so well as you can see. It is reported that we have had two and a half inches of rain so far.  I had an inch and three quarters this morning but it has rained all afternoon.

I brought in flowers enough for three bouquets.  We needed the rain and everyone is just happy to see green grass again.  When it stops raining my grass will be five inches high.  It will be a mess but it is so much better than dry, dead grass. 

Thanks for stopping by today.