4.20.2013

Last week when we were at Country Boys, D and I couldn't help but notice they had a few Hosta varieties out. It reminded us of a time a few years ago when we visited a local Hosta nursery, Daylilies and Hosta Garden. D offered to take me back.... I wasn't going to say No, that's for sure! Today was a beautiful day for the trip, really sunny and on the coolish side of spring.

The Hosta were so pretty and the names are always amusing to read. I was hoping to see a Marilyn Monroe, I've wanted one in my collection for a while - her ruffles are so pretty - but they didn't have one.

The last Hosta I bought from here was one of the small varieties, called Abby. I've been very pleased with how it has done. We decided to get another small variety and selected Blue Mouse Ears.

The other variety I purchased on our last visit, sieboldiana samurai, has yet to come up this year. I hope it's okay and hasn't died because I really love its color variation. Which is why I picked my second selection, June. June has all three colors in her leaves - yellow, green and 'blue'. So if Samurai has died, I will at least have a similar look. June is supposed to have a long season, she doesn't die off mid-summer, and I'm looking forward to that.

On our way home we stopped by Lowes to pick up two more bags of mulch. They had some really gorgeous flowers there - I picked up some Gerberas that were a lovely coral color and Poppies that were nearly the same shade. I have never been able to grow Poppies for very long but I just love them, they're so elegant! They will be nice color in the Winged Friends garden until the Lilies have come out.

4.14.2013

The Upstate was so beautiful yesterday. D and I decided to visit CountryBoys nursery - they always have such nice herb and veggie starts. We did not have a garden last year - our yard has become too shady for decent vegetables but when they cleared the lot next to us for the Habitat house, they took several trees down, so we decided to give it another go.

 

The herb garden that we installed several years ago was in sad, sad shape. The terra cotta pots were deteriorating. The lips and outside layers were falling off. Dozens of baby trees had started growing from all the acorns the squirrels had buried. And the Rosemary, which was the only herb to really thrive, was out of control - it was larger than some of our shrubbery.

We priced replacement pots at the place that usually has the cheapest terra cotta - Walmart - because terra cotta is an eco-friendly, sustainable material. However, their plastic pots were half the price and so we deferred to our wallets.

Before

After

 

This year we are growing: Rosemary (of course), Oregano, Basil, Parsley, Cilantro, Tarragon, Peppermint and Lemongrass. We chose the herbs we use most in our recipes and then mint and lemongrass for tea. It was interesting deciding which herbs went into which color pot. D took the logical route - peppermint should be in a red pot because candy cane stripes are red - of course!

In our second large bed we have tomato varieties: Goliath, Parks Whopper and Carolina Gold along with cucumber plants on the right. Tomato cages and the Cuke Trellis will come later after they've grown a bit.  We also have some cherry tomatoes  in our hanging baskets: Sweet Million and Tumbling Tom (both red and yellow).

  

We planted zucchini in one of the smaller beds. D saved the second small bed for beans - we need to get some seeds.

Next up, the "Winged Friends" garden. It's definitely overgrown and it has a monster dandelion growing in it. But not today, I am finished! The absolute best thing about working in the garden beds is the shower afterwards! Definitely.

6.26.2010

Last week when we were over at D's grandparent's house, Granddaddy brought in a tomato, held it up for approval and said "First!" Which meant that even though we drove our tomato starts up from Florida, even though we've faithfully watered and tended to them, he still picked his first sandwich tomato before we did! Just goes to show, the man knows his plants.


We usually eat our first sandwich tomato on a tomato sandwich... but today we had it with breakfast, on the side of bacon-cheesey grits. Yum.

5.3.2010

The flowers in our gardens are so beautiful right now. I can tell that spring is here. The Lilies and the Coneflowers should have flower stalks up before too long. The dwarf Sunflowers and Nasturtiums that we brought back from FL should rebloom soon. They didn't fair so well the week we were in MD.

The Dianthus in our 'Winged Friends' garden is huge! I think it's seven years old now.


I believe our wisteria is about six years old. For kicks, I went back to find out when it bloomed last year and I blogged about it exactly one year ago today!


All of my hostas came back, which was very nice to see. I still have not forgiven the squirrels for killing my August Moon hosta. The stonecrop is just exploding. I love my Shade garden.

4.15.2010

Yesterday (4.14) D mentioned that he would like to see Ron Jon's. I had never been to Ron Jon's myself, even though I grew up in the area. So we drove over to Cocoa Beach.



It was very similar to South of the Border in South Carolina. They had a pressed penny machine and I just had to have one for my collection. My penny got stuck! Apparently it happens all the time because they have some ready in the back to give to people when it happens.



We found a manatee in a purple hoodie and knew that Mom would like it, so it came home with us.



After Ron Jon we decided to play miniature golf. We try to play everytime we go to the beach. We found Funtasia Fantasy Golf and they were just opening up. They let us play on the Zebra course because they were still working on the Elephant course.







I scored a hole-in-one on hole 7 so they gave me a coupon for a free game!



At one point my ball went into the water and the owner went and got me another one. They were so apologetic about working on the course while we were playing. It started to get really hot during the second game. I was ready for the air conditioning.

We had lunch at MASH Hoagies again and Allen brought out the shirts. He brought me seven or eight different colors to choose from. I surprised myself and picked the yellow one! I don't have any yellow in my wardrobe at all! Allen convinced me to have peppers on my sub. They were pretty tasty and I said so. Then he gave me his secret marinade for his peppers. He was a fun guy. I promised to visit the next time I'm down.



We unpacked a few boxes for Mom, including her books. Of course, books are my thing so Mom let me put them on her bookshelf for her.



Today (4.15) D and I rode over to Rockledge Gardens to check out their tomato plants. We figured we would take advantage of our trip to Florida to pick up some head-start veggies for our garden. We ended up with tomatoes, peppers and squash. Also, some sunflowers and nasturtiums for the "winged friends" garden.



They have a butterfly garden on the property. It was early in the morning and most of the butterflies still had dewy wings and they were not flying yet. The swallowtails were so pretty.


We got a call from LRL that BBL's mother was not doing well. We decided to cut our trip short so we celebrated Mom's birthday a day early. We had Hawaiian pizza for dinner and then it was time for the cake! Mom wanted a Red Velvet cake. We requested that the decorator make it with as much purple as possible! It was very good and it's going to be even better for breakfast!


We leave for Maryland in the morning. It's a 15 hour trip. I am so glad we brought the GPS along.

6.26.2009

Today was the last day for our Engineers at work. They made the rounds saying goodbye. I was particularly sad about DF leaving. He has always been 'the face' of CDI to me and I think management is making a huge mistake in laying him off. He gave me a big hug. I told him he should take another trip to Hawaii and that put a big smile on his face.

Earlier this week while I was messing around on the internet I happened upon a Daylily and Hosta nursery in S'ville. I had no idea we had a speciality garden so close. It's been over a year since I added to my Hosta garden so D took me there after work. They advertise over 200 varieties but it's late in the season and I think they only had maybe 100 displayed. I never knew before that D and I had such divergent tastes in Hosta! I guess because it's always been my shade garden that he hasn't been as vocal about it. But now that I've given him free reign to plant the backyard fringe as he wants, he's becoming more particular. Which is okay too.




Abby was the hosta that we both agreed on.






They had a decent price on August Moon so I got another one. This will the third one we've owned. The squirrels murdered the first one and I'm not sure exactly what happened to the second. Let's hope I can keep this one going because I don't plan on purchasing another.




I've read about Japanese hosta although I had never seen one in person before today. I chose Tokudama Aureonebulosa as my piece de resistance. The last one they had.


I was really hoping to see a Marilyn Monroe but they didn't have one. Other varieties that I liked were: Janet, Midwest Magic, Blue Mouse Ears, White Christmas, Bright Lights, Olive Branch and Titanic. I almost chose Midwest Magic over the Tok but I wanted a Japanese speciman. Titanic would have come home with us but they only had one left and it was not for sale. The lady we spoke with said they should have some next season.

Meanwhile, in our own Winged Friends garden, the Magnus echinacea is doing well. He likes the rain. I remember when we lived on Perry Street, Magnus would be covered in bees. You could even water with the garden hose and they would not budge from doing their pollen dance. I haven't seen a single bee on Magnus in at least two summers.


And our daylilies are so very beautiful right now.

6.16.2009

I just cannot get over this rain. I haven't seen this amount of water for a very long time. It's good for the garden though. We have picked (and consumed) our first fruits. Tumbling Tom never lets us down. I'm ready for his big brothers to be ripe. I cannot wait to have a tomato sandwich!


I usually don't care for grilled shrimp but tonight we fixed some that was so yummy. I've got a new favorite recipe.

Reading a new book called We'll Always Have Murder: A Humphrey Bogart mystery. Bogart is a character in it - Peter Lorre too. It's really interesting because they are themselves but the murder mystery around them is fictional. I'm really enjoying it.

4.16.2009

Yesterday was Mom's birthday. D and I called on our morning break and sang to her. Once again we are blessed by being able to work at the same facility or things like that would never happen.

D planted the herbs in the garden while I made dinner. Clockwise we have Chives, Rosemary, Sage, Basil, Thyme, Oregano and Dill. The Rosemary, Oregano and Thyme are returns from last year. We also have Parsley but it does better in the shady area by the door.


After dinner we watched The Day The Earth Stood Still. I'm such a sucker for anything with Keanu in it. And Jennifer Connelly too, she's so expressive and it looks effortless. The movie's got a pretty strong environmental message to it. I'm sure any tree-hugger like myself would like it. It reminded me of The Happening in one or two places.

Happy Easter!

Today at FBC felt very High Church with the (eight!) trumpet fanfare, baptism, choir anthem and the extra orchestral music. It was nice. I like High Church and I like ritual. I probably could have made a happy Catholic had I been raised that way. When we finally were able to leave the stage there wasn't much room to sit and D and I ended up on the last pew in the balcony. We felt like backrow Baptists.



Yesterday at Lowe's we picked up our starts for the garden.


Today after The Feast (where we had cheese!) we managed to get the tomatoes and marigolds in the ground. This year we are trying these new varieties: Goliath, Mountain Pride, Rutgers and Juliet. Returning varieties from last year: Tumbling Tom

Lazy Sunday

Both Mom and LRL told me today that they expected me to have blogged about our trip already but I haven't. I'm still decompressing. As much as I love traveling, it's nice to be home. I'll blog about our trip soon, I promise.

Didn't get out of bed until 10AM. Last night was the first night I've slept all the way through in almost two weeks and I felt fantastic when I woke up. Dreamed about Daddy, haven't done that in awhile. I was sitting outside of a church, swinging on a swing set with several younger girls. I was waiting for him to come outside. He was taking too long so I went inside to look for him. He was sitting on a pew just inside the door waiting for me.

D and I made pancakes for brunch. Yummy. Laid in the hammock for awhile. We harvested a ton of tomatoes from our garden! I just wish they would get a little bigger, more sandwich size. We've decided to make both pasta and mexican this week so we can use all of these up before they go bad.



LRL and BBL came by to give me back my phone. Missed 4 calls from JH while we were at Tybee. Should be interesting to see what he wanted when I see him tomorrow.

Called Mom. She let me know that E passed away last night. I hate that Mom has lost a good friend, but I'm also glad that E is at peace. I think Mom feels similarly.

1st Tomato sandwich of the season!

We harvested two Better Boys and had our first Tomato sandwiches of the season. Yum. This is the best part of summer!

Tonight we held our first choir practice in our new loft. It's very different from our current situation. Now I have a piano two inches from me. In the new loft the entire stage in front of me is open and I feel so exposed. I don't think the sound fellas had any choir in the monitors so I couldn't hear anybody but myself. And the lights! I feel like I'm on Broadway. Gonna take a lot of getting used to...

Feeling Better / Garden's Looking Great!

Missed a few days. I haven't felt very well this week.
Tuesday my left shoulder blade was troubling me as it does from time to time.
I watched The Sorrow and the Pity that evening and it put me out like a light (better than a sleeping pill). I think it was because of all the French. I have always had a fondness for men speaking French. It just relaxes me. Maybe that's why I took so many of Mssr. Whitney's classes in college - and only made average grades in them. Anyway, I fell asleep at an awkward angle on the sofa for several hours. I did move to the bed at some point during the night but Wednesday morning I woke up with a stiff neck. It's been bothering me ever since. I've been using a cool pack and Advil and taking it easy. I'm only just tonight starting to feel 'normal' again.

We ate Amy's Spinach and Feta pizza for dinner out on the patio and played a few rounds of Gin Rummy. D beat me every hand - proof that I'm not feeling well.

I finished The Unfree French and will start Resistance and Betrayal tomorrow.

Earworm tracking: Sunburn by Muse. It's not even one of my favorite songs but the piano riff stays in my head. It's so cathartic.

The garden is looking great! Everything but the melons has put on fruit.
Tomatoes - Jet Star, Mountain Fresh and Better Boy:




Tomatoes: Tumbling Tom and Sweet Million:



Zuchinni, Bell Pepper and Cucumber:



Exercise: walked 2 miles (incline 8)