What's Growin'

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

i went on a little "mini-vacation" from may 10-15 and took a train to canada to see my cousin. she has a vacation house on georgian bay, which is a bay that is off of lake huron. she lives about a 5 minute walk from the beach. we drove to the blue mountains, which are part of the niagara falls escarpment. i wanted to reconnect with my cousin and the canadian part of my mom's family. it was just what i needed, as i just felt the love and acceptance that you get when you are part of a family. i walked along the water-line of the beach there and collected some stones and driftwood. i took off my shoes and socks and walked in the chilly water. it was peaceful and no one else was on the beach. this weekend is a canadian holiday, victoria day and my cousin said that's when the beach season officially starts there.

so i got home this morning and played with my dogs and watered my yard. my irises are blooming, some of them have 5-6 blooms on each stalk. the day i left, my rose bush had one rose on it, today it has about 3 dozen. the yellow neon allium i planted has come up but not bloomed yet. i can see the little buds on top. my echinacea's are twice as big this year, but they won't start sending up shoots until mid-summer. the peony is about to bloom one of the six flowers on it and i'm going to take a pic of it for my girlfriend because she gave it to me and it didn't bloom in her yard cause of the shade. the hydrangea's are getting little green buds on them and i don't know when those will bloom yet.

i feel relaxed and peaceful and happy that my yard is blooming.

i hope to be posting more pics soon!

...jeannie

[lor]

Can I come & see your yard and flowers?

[tic chick]

hey all !

took a few pics in my garden today...hope you enjoy!

rose bush, coral bells and irises.jpg

this is my rose bush, irises and coral bells...the rose bush is HUGE! i'm going to hav to move the coral bells forward.

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this is the peony my girlfriend gave me and it bloomed today!

jeannie

[dawnmn]

very pretty, jeanne. That rose brush is huge. Mine are really little ones.

[Buttons2]

Jeannie,I'm so glad you got away & had nice visit with family. thanks for sharing the pic's.

I got 2 iris plants on Sat. & yesterday they bloomed. dark purple with yellow middle. HM & I have gotten all the garden planted into water tanks & put chicken wire around top to HOPEFULLY keep doggie from jumping up & helping herself to food!

so far the green space men are keeping my flowers from being gobbled up by the deer. they look totally goofy of course. but I figure I'm a little old lady & can do what I please right? (well maybe not so little)

rhoddie is blooming & I cut a nice bouget for HM's daughter's headstone,her birthday would have been yesterday.

lilac is in full bloom. and sure getting tall!

HM got some mulch for me to spread & it sure does stink! chicken poop. kinda destroys the scent of the lilac & iris.

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

more pics from the garden today! remember, you can click on the pics to make them bigger and then use the backwards arrow in the upper left corner of the screen to get you back to the post .


this is a pic of my hot papaya echinacea's. they are about 3 and a half feet tall! they're not supposed to start flowering until mid to late summer, so this warm spell in march seems to have made everything bloom about 6 weeks early. i have 3 echinacea plants and each has about 8 flowers on them, so it's going to look really nice as i get blooms in various stages throughout the summer. yes, those are my rhododendrons behind them and the rhodo's are only half as high. i hope the rhodo's grow more this summer as i am fertilizing them twice a month.
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this is my big hydrangea bush that my girlfriend gave me. it's interesting how many different colors are on one bush. they start out purple and some turn pink. someone said to put coffee grounds around the base of the plant to make the soil more acidic and have the flowers bloom more bluish...any thoughts?
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this is the drumstick allium i planted. it's more of a periwinkle blue color than it shows in this pic, but i would still say it's purplish blue. i planted about 20 of these between the echinacea's and only ONE came up and bloomed! i am so bummed because it is so pretty and they would have looked so nice between the echinaceas. maybe next year some will find their way up?
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this is my purple sand cherry. i planted it just after i got home from canada, so about 3 weeks ago. it's in the corner of the yard and it will get about 8 ft. tall by 6 ft. wide and make a nice screen.
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i need to order more dirt and start levelling the rest of the yard, then i can start planting my hedge. this will be my summer project cause i think i'll be planting between 20-30 bushes.

hope you all are having nice weather. it's going to be a GREAT week in michigan, but that's why we live here !

,
jeannie

[Beader]

OK, that chicken poop remark gave me a good chuckle!

Jeannie, your plants are looking sooo fine! Very nice selection -- lots of unusual shapes & color combos. I want some! Some other color changes I've heard for hydrangeas include rusty nails & copper pennies. The copper should work like the color of copper sulfate, that deep blue with slightly greenish tinge.

Chris, where are your prize babies? We all want to see more successes!

Me, I have to go thru my recent camera shots to figure out what I have to show you all. The mint is growing like alien sludge, the mums are starting to bloom, and the yarrow, too. The dratted deer lurve my petunias & something else purple near my salvia gets its buds nipped off before I can remember what it looks like like.

I was sitting at the computer the other afternoon when I heard the distinctive sound of the wrought iron gate latch & then a woody sound. I looked up to spy an undear deer right outside my window 2 feet from the house & leaning over for lunch. Ooooo nooo you don't!!! I yelled & it took off down the other end & then I went outside to clap my hands & holler at the naughty thing. It had hopped over my gate & under the rounded arch rose bush trellis, wiggling the gate latch & kicking the wood planks of the gate, several of which have become curiously loose even after being nailed back on. I figured maybe it was the clumsy ex-BF, but it was a Bad Bambi invading my green space again. Curses! They are just not "cute" anymore.

Will post pix later.

Can somebody explain what I'm supposed to do to make my rhodies happier? The forest was chock full of wild rhodies this year, a couple hundred yards at a stretch. Awesome. But the cultivated varieties seem to barely survive & get brown curled-up leaf clusters. At least this year my solitary bush put out a few flower bunches, so YAY for that.

[Buttons2]

OK reminds me I have to remove all the rhoddie blooms. one reason I'm not fond of those. commercial ones need rhoddie food. just follow package instructions. one here was loaded with blooms this year.

thanks for sharing the pic's Jeannie.

I'm afriad to remove my green space men now! have petunias in the same planter & the geraniums are ready to bloom again. think I made a mistake planting sweet pea seeds all around the planter,I wanted them to droop over the edge-instead they are attaching themselves to all the other plants! DUH

we have spuds,peas,green beans & corn doing OK. can you believe the zuchinni died? tomatoes are blooming. everything needs sun of course!

something is eating leaves on hydrangea's but they are loaded with buds.

housemate weedwacked all my lucifer! and a fern.

I have 4 beautiful hanging baskets now hanging from the new roof beam! only one hummingbird has discovered them so far. and she came after ME yesterday when wearing a bright purple top!

I was advised to use Neen oil on the rose that has some type of creepy moldy thing. any thoughts on that?

Jeannie,I envy your hosta! mine has been chewed up by slugs.

mock orange is huge & loaded with buds-just needs some sun. they grow wild here in woods.

Chris,you started this thread so please catch us up on your garden,etc.

Sher,had deer here exploring also. first time ever noticed them staring in the window @ me! I caught the young buck eating HM's tree & let the dog give chase! opening a gate latch is being too smart a bambi by far.

[Beader]

Hahhaaha! Bad Bambi didn't exactly open the gate latch, it hopped over the gate & kicked it with its back legs as it landed on my front walkway, rattling the latch & popping the wood sections away from the crosspiece. Again. On the other hand, it could have used its front hoof to push the latch down and then managed to politely close the gate behind it before I caught a good look. It could happen...

[Buttons2]

Bambi's seem to be very curious critters. they don't pay any attention to the bunnie's. however the momma duck seems to be an oddity to them. my cat likes to watch the deer (from a high perch). dog chases the duck.

discovered something is eating the roots of the squash. all are dead now.

now have 2 hummer's.