coming along

We worked on the front yard all day on Sunday.
We got all the ground cover planted, Purslane and Sedium. The Purslane is all shades of pink, orange and yellow, very bright and cheerfull. The Sedium is medium green and then we also planted Stonecrop, acid green and my favorite.
We put some square pavers in with the ground cover so the we'd have somewhere to step to weed the garden.

The front garden is growing wonderfully. I've got Coleus with GIANT leaves, one with the acid green and one with deep purple. My two favorite colors. And I've been able to root some cuttings so they will multiply!



and Bougainvillea, I planted this last year and it didn't do well at all. It got really leggy and the grasshoppers ate all the leaves. It's actually been able to bloom this year, but still really leggy and not many leaves. I've got to read up on it to see if it blooms on old or new wood. I'd like to cut it back so it bushes up more. I might have to just suffer if it's old wood.


and Flax Lilly; they've really done well for me and I plan on doing them all the way down the side of the driveway along with Daylillies. That's a project for next year, I'm just full of plans.



















and there's 3 or 4 bushes that I can't remember what they are called, but the butterflies just love them. They are pretty much carefree, just water, I almost never fertilize. Of course I do add a couple of bags of compost in the spring.




This year I added 1 mystery plant that Patrick brought over, someone had dug it up to be replaced from his office landscaping. They said the freeze got it. Looked all right just a little burned, we planted it and wowee! A gorgeous Hydrangea.
I planted another to go with it.






On the left we planted an Angels Trumpet or Datura. This one is deep purple and creamy white. It got it's first bloom about a month ago and it hasn't stopped since. It usually produces about 3-4 blooms at a time. They last about 3 days and every day they look different.
Now I want to get the peachey-pink one for the other corner.




The roses are still going strong, putting out new growth and flowers. I've got a pink Floribunda, I have no idea of the name, it's been there for a long time and struggled for many years. This year it's been given some loving attention and is thriving.


That's on one side of the arch and on the other is Don Juan climbing rose. This was just planted this spring and it's doing so-so. Really legging and lost some leaves to mildew. I've had this variety before with the same problem, so we shall see if it's a keeper. May just pull it up next year and plant Clematis there. On the corner there is a miniature Floribbunda, Fairy Rose, pink and in constant bloom. Gorgeous plant!
The Lavender has calmed down and is looking a little weak, I may try adding some compost there, but I think between the rain every day and the heat they are taking a beating.
I have 3 Society Garlic here among the Roses and Lavender, they are doing a great job of keeping the bugs away! I plan on getting more of these, attractive and useful. I have a bare spot to the left of the big pink rose bush where some annuals are past their prime, they will do nicely there.
Except for this guy, I HATE these guys!!!



















I've got 2 Blueberrie Bushes on the property line on the far side of the yard. We planted them this past spring and they produced well. Escpecially since they are less than a foot high. I want to see how they do for a whole year and if they make it I want to do a whole hedge down the side of the yard. They grow pretty big and bushy, about 4-5 feet tall and wide and covered in berries in the spring. Blueberries freeze well too. Couldn't get a good picture of these, they just look like a tiny little shrub in a sea of mulch.
Next weekend we're digging up the rest of the path in front of the rose garden and over to the gate to the vegetable garden in the side yard. Can't wait for all this grass to go!

Rainy days are gone, and the weekend is now

Baby tomato! This is Mr Stripey. When he grows up he is supposed to be red and chocolate striped. I've never grown this one before, so we shall see.

We got a ton of rain this week, officially 3.99 inches yesterday. My yard was a swamp and my driveway a river. The veggies loved it, the tomato plants look like they grew a couple of inches. The roses lost all their petals but overall look ok, but the impatients got all beat up.

I planted a Honeysuckle against the fence on the side yard; and strung up garden twine to give it something to cling to. It grows so fast I think if I stand there long enough I'll see it move.

On the crafty side:
I bought the equipment to make lampwork beads. Very fun! I get to use a torch!! woo-hoo!
so I've only tried it once so far and was not as difficult as I imagined. I did do one thing wrong: I set everything up outside. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, breezy and I was playing with fire.... so I set everything up on the table in the back yard. The blue part of the flame is the hottest so that's where you have to hold the glass. Well, in the sunlight or dappled shade you can't see the flame at all. All I could see was the wavy distortion in the air.
Problem two: nice and breezy. While that felt fantastic, you really don't want the wind blowing the flame around; it needs to be nice and steady.
In spite of that I made 5 beads. Not too bad for a first time:







I know that with practice I will get better, but now just to find the time to do it.
quilt
I have so many things I want to do this year.

I have 3 quilts in the planning stage and 1 a little less than half pieced.
I want to make the baby some clothes.
I want to work on layering in my art journal.
I want to go to the beach once per month.
I want to dance.
I want to continue to lose body mass.
I want to creatively landscape my yard and make it so nice we love to sit out there.

Here's one last pic:

this week in the garden

I finished the baby quilt, I'm sorry that the picture is so bad. Its a Double Irish Chain, the first I've ever made. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's machine pieced and machine quilted. It took me about 3 months to make it. It's the most complex and largest quilt I've made to date. It's about 50 x 65 inches. The borders are cut off in the picture, they are actually about 6 inches wide.

I've already given it to the expectant Mom and she really liked it.

The tomatoes aren't doing as well as I hoped. They are really leggy, and they have some die off on the bottom branches. I don't think they're getting enough sunshine, hence the legginess. I'm not sure whats up with the withering. Some kind of disease I suspect. But we have some fruit, this picture is of Lemon Boy.

Here's a picture of the entire garden. The Collards are growing beautifully. And they taste amazing! I've been picking a few leaves here and there to add to soup and they certainly don't taste like the Collards you buy at the store, they are so much better.

The Spinach has not done well. I planted 3 small rows and only half of 1 came up. It hasn't grown any either. So yesterday we went and bought some new plants to fill up that space. We got some beautiful Red Cabbage, Arugula, (yuk! I don't care for Arugula, but P loves it.) and some more Rosemary. P loves the Rosemary so much I'm thinking of doing an entire hedge down the side of the house. We planted some zuchinni also but you can't see it here.

We put some mulch around the outside of the bed, and I plan to put some more. I'd like to do a mulched path about 3 feet wide to try to cut down on some of the mud.

The rose has been producing steadily since the heat let up. I wish you could smell this, it's heaven.

Here is some lettuce I harvested for salad. It was delicious!!