Gardening

Gardening has become such a good thing in my life.  I have always loved digging in the dirt, from the early days of mud pies.  I have always, in the spring, loved to smell the wonderful aroma of freshly plowed or dug dirt.   This flower above is "Live Forever".  When I pulled this picture up, I wondered, who's house is that?  lol  That's my new (old) house with the nice new blue trim!  I like the blue trim and I like the Live Forever! 

 

This little beauty is an annual plant.  An annual is with us just for this year.  For the summer.  This little brown eyed susan vine took off and went rampant!  It has covered the clematis and the little Olla and the shed deck!  I hope the clematis comes back next spring!  Isn't this pretty, tho, with the sun shining through the leaves and the brown-eyed blossoms looking on?

This is the "cottage garden" and that tall plant with the red flower is a hollyhock.  I knew hollyhocks as a small child.  Maybe the memories of our parents and grandparents associated with flowers and trees is what brings many people to gardens and gardening.  As a little girl, I plucked the hollyhock blossoms and buds in my grandmother's yard.  Using a bud (a flower not yet opened) for the head and a bloom for the skirt, my sisters and cousins and I made dolls of the hollyhocks, using a nail or a stick.  Come on by next summer and I'll teach you how!  Hollyhocks are bienniels.  They grow the plant one year then come back the next year to bloom.  So to get started, you need to plant hollyhock seeds two years in a row. 

Then there are trees.  I have enjoyed many trees in my time but this honeysuckle tree is my all time favorite.  I love the shape of it.  I love the blooms, in late spring, early summer with the bees thick and noisy.  I love the fact that my grandchildren can get up in that tree all by themselves (or okay, maybe with a little help from Nana).  And now I love it more with the picket fence beyond and the Nana / Papa flowerbox.  This is such a pretty setting with the God of the Garden on the left and the birdbath fountain on the right. 

Our vegetable gardens have done better this year, way better than the last several.  In the past, we have had tomato blight and hardly a tomato.  Last year we got about two peppers from several pepper plants.  This year we have 6 pepper plants and have had a bushel of peppers.  And look at the size of this one!  They are still growing and producing this 25th day of October -- a record for us.  Also, I have finally managed, in my fall garden, to grow radishes.  Himself loves, loves, loves radishes and I have not been able to grow them since we were kids in Sioux City and Hubbard.  This fall, I started planting a few every 2 or 3 weeks and we are finally harvesting some.  I and Audri are still eating cherry tomatoes and there are big, regular tomatoes starting to ripen.  There are two volunteer cucumber vines I am babying and potatoes in the compost pile.

There!  that is far more than you needed and wanted to hear about my summer and fall gardens.  If you have read to this point, you have won a prize!  Comment and I'll send you your winnings!  love, Ma