This months images of the garden

Bee Adventurous

 Try to image I was standing in the middle of my patio when all of a sudden I was surrounded by buzzing. A swarm of bees hundreds of the all around me. I froze and just watched as they drifted dances to the bushes in front of me. They began to clump there and once they settled I ran inside.

 I called every one in my family and excitedly showed the beginning of a hive to neighbors and then we had to decide what to do. The neighbors and I wanted to keep them and started looking into their care and to find a hive for them. Expensive and complicated we just didn't know enough so we called around. Most of the "companies" wanted to remove them by killing them!
Bees are protected species!
So I found this company called Home Town Honey and he agreed to come get them and give them a new home. Brian and his son came and got the bees. I was a little sad to see them go but I have a place to visit them and I also got all this info about beekeeper clubs and got to know two amazing people too!

Delusions of Cottage Style..

My garden is a little hap-hazard...I plant stuff and sometimes it comes up and sometimes it doesn't. I live with a thin layer of soil over a deep, deep bed of clay so everything I plant I have to create a planter/ container effect with some drainage. I thought we would start with planters and container gardens. I've been buying my seed trays at Big Lots mostly because they are the least expensive! If you are a beginner you can write me! I'll see if I can get you an answer! 

First! Start your seeds indoors now!
Two start prep work on your garden...digging and weeding where you want the plants to go. We just had a freeze with prayer I hope it's the last one for this year but be prepared! Some seeds can take a freeze but some can't! be ready to cover exposed plants! Sheets and reeds maybe needed. the reeds will stop the sheets from touching the plant. If you can't cover it consider planting later. This is the middle of March you can wait til end of April and that may be safer. When digging I prefer a spade and a fork. it helps to dig the weeds root and all and discard them. Tillers are easy but it spreads weed roots and they just pop back up. There is one of your assignments for the week/weekend!  The other is getting your containers, potting soil, garden dirt, small gravel and fertilizer!

It's that time of year!

It's that time of year where you walk around with bags of wet paper towels  and pruning shears looking for likely cuttings. Like a mad serial pruner you stalk your victims and then pot them up with rooting hormone! Rows of pots with little seedlings sit like trophies lined up on every surface and table! Spring! The gardeners call goes over the hills and pollen falls!

Grow Your Own!

Used to be everyone grew a few tomatoes and cucumbers for the summer. You get a big 5 gallon bucket and set it in the sun or on a porch. Every house had a few flowers to pick and bring in. Neighbors traded vegetables at weekends. Americans have become addicted to whats easy and fast. They don't even go to the trouble to know neighbors!  Our addiction to cell phones, television and video games has destroyed our need for other people.  We don't go to a ballgame we watch it from home and eat snacks! We don't pay attention to each other we'd rather LOL them on our phones If you go to a coffee house you'll notice it's silent now because people are too busy doing social media instead of being social! Now the Fourth of July is upon us I issue this challenge...
Here is a list of what you'll need...2 five gallon buckets, a bag of miracle grow garden soil, some gravel and a drill. Drill 5 holes in the bottom of the bucket put in about three inches of gravel. Then add the soil. Now go to and buy some of those big tomato and cucumber plants and out them into your buckets! Now put them out in the light and feel your life get better!

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Father's Day

I remember sitting in my third grade desk staring at the teacher who kept smiling at me...I think it was Ms. Haney. She hardly ever smiled. She would look at you through her bug eyed glasses and make you feel shivers down your spine. The class got quiet because we felt impending doom. She stood up and pointed at the door still staring at me and I thought "Oh no! What have I done!" I turned around and there was my father. Tall, handsome in his uniform he held his arms out to me and I all but burst out of that chair. He had been gone for 3 years to Vietnam. Fathers have flaws, they are people like any one else. They make mistakes and as we grow older we realize that we do too. Today I remember that little girl and how her father made her feel. Even though he is gone now I still remember that moment. I love you Daddy years don't change that.

Sappy until the end. (won't change, don't want to)

When J and I first decided to move into "our first apartment" not my apartment or his apartment but our apartment I took a cutting from the Gardenia bush that grew outside. It was four feet wide and almost as tall as me. We almost killed it a number of times in it's pot until years later we decided to plant it in "our back yard at our house. It bloomed today and looks better than it ever has. Love you J here's our first plant together thriving.

 

and now for this mornings blooms!