Our Entry Area

Be sure and check out Glenda's blog and all the other Fertilizer Friday Gardens - they are always great! http://www.tootsietime.com/

Also hooking up with favorite things Friday - check out all these great ideas.....so fun!http://thehillsarelivin.blogspot.com/

Linking up With Friday - FInding Beauty http://www.dipityroad.com/

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I love to do the pots in this area. Every year it is a different color combination.
Last year it was purple, pink and white so this year it is a total new look

Entry Theme - Oriental Garden Mostly Shade/Partial Shade/One Corner is Sun
Colors 2010 -Burgandy Lime Coral
Plants for Pots -Potato Vine - Lime, Lobelia - White, Ivy Geranium - Burgandy,
Coleous Red and Lime, Impatiens - Burgandy & Coral Pink, Begonia - Burgandy
Still need to get some Coral Diacsia (? on spelling on that one!)

I have 3 more pots to get some little plants for.
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This is the area from the front door looking out

I love watching things grow up and fill in here. This is the blue pot at the side of the above pix it needs some coral Diascia. I love this lime potato vine. It is amazing with the burgancy coleous and other flowers in this wonderful blue pot. Same area - looking in from the driveway entrance area. These are the cluster of pots at the base of the tree. There are a couple I still need to fill with plants.
To the left of this cluster is another pot with a begonia in it, just behind the lime bleeding heart. Don't you love the lime!
I will show pictures through the summer as these things grow. I love the lime, I have a couple of lime coral bells I am nursing back to life in this same area and I will show them when they are growing.
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This is the rain cloud that came and chased us indoors. I worked out a little in the sprinkling for about an hour, then it poured on us - it was perfect!
Thanks for stopping by,
Have a safe weekend!

Thank you to all the Veteran's - especially my dad. (Korean War - 1950 - 1952)
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I am thankful today for the smells of spring - the dirt, the flowers, the tomatoe plants, everything that is so full of wonder.

Our Apple Tree's - Aren't They Lovely!

There are three of our apple tree's in bloom right now - I am so glad they bloomed this week and not last or the snow and freezing temps would have killed them. (These tree's can go to 28* without damaging blossoms - it has been colder than that.

This is a picture of the transparent tree - it is loaded - this is the one year - lots of applesauce, pie filling, dried apples, etc. Here is a picture of the blossoms close up - our entire neighborhood smells so sweet!

Woodland Garden Progress May 27th

The Woodland Garden is really growing! It snowed the first of the week and I was concerned about plants breaking off, but they did really well through it.

This is the south side

Close up of the plants falling over the walk - I love it when they do this!

This area is about 4 years old - this year finally things are touching! I see all these magazine photo's of lush gardens and this one is finally doing it! WOO HOO

This is the same area on May 10.

Same south side May 10 - look how much things have grown!

Planting Peppers and Tomatoes

I love to plant peppers - they grow nicely here and we always get a wonderful harvest. I make salsa with them, freeze them and dry them for storage and cooking. The top corner is on the south east side. The wind blows from that side so I put a little wall up to help protect them from that. Here they are first planted:

I have found I also need to protect them from the sun after they are first planted. I put tomato cages in each corner and hook a small blanket or a sheet to them for the first couple of weeks. It warms up here quickly (Literally overnight) and the poor little plants can get fried quickly until they are used to the heat. Here are my tomatoes - I love the yellow and orange tomato cages! I am working on replacing my old ones with these bright colors - aren't they so cheery!?!?!?!

They are planted in tires because we fill up the edges of them with water. The daytime heat warms up the heat and when it cools down at night it keeps the plants nice and warm. OUr nigh time temps in the summers are in the 40's. We also add a milk carton upside down eith the bottom cut out. It is pushed into the ground. Then when we water, we fill them up so the water gradually goes into the tomatoes. They are planted against the fence - perfect protection from the wind. They get as tall as the fence and are covered in yummy tomatoes!

Blooming Tuesday!

Thanks for Jean for hosting this for us every week - be sure and check out the other gardeners all over the country - so fun to see what is growing in different zones.

http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/

http://www.anoregoncottage.com/

We live in zone 4 but some of our yard I can sneek in zone 5 plants because of mico climates. For for the past 3 days it has been snowing! We get snow sometimes in May but rarely this late.

My house is clean as per the sign above! Because of the snow and the cool temp's. Nothing has changed from last week and I didn't know what to share today. Then I remembered the plants hanging out in the car for protection.

I went to the nursery and bought bought the tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes we need for our garden. There weren't any people there - who could blame them - there was a blizzard outside! It was a perfect day to shop. The whole area got the storm from Montana down to south of Provo, Utah. (It is 100 miles to Yellowstone going north and 250 miles south to Provo + 350 miles that is a HUGE area.)

I realized then I could tell you about one of the four pot area's. I try to get what I need for them one area at a time, get them planted and then move onto the next one I used to buy it all at once and then I was overwelmed and didn't enjoy it - this is supposed to be fun! It is supposed to warm up the end of the week so I am ready to plant.

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The next post is filled with some garden art ideas - it was snowing on Saturday and I had planned to work outside - so I spent my time looking at others gardens - I mean I can only clean my house so much!!!

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I am adding to my posts what Darla does over at http://morefamilyandflowers-darla.blogspot.com/

Today I am thankful for the hope that sunshine brings!

LInks to Posts with Great Yard Art

Can you tell it is snowing - atually bllizzarding at my house - instead of digging in the dirt I am looking at others gardens!

This post will be added to as I find other links - it is a great way for me to keep track of projects I would like to do!

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All the instrucions to repaint your old plastic chairs are at sassy style blog - they havea a bunch of spray paint outdoor ideas - Totally cute!

This chair was done by Andrea and is found at Before and After - Chair Super post. Amazing!

Look at this fun plant in a frame! Lots of fun ideas on this post
What an adorable mailbox! _ there is a tutorial at this link - Jan has done a great job on this. Christy did these next two projects

Beaded Plant Hanger Beaded Plant Decor Beautiful Frosted Mason Jar Candle Holders for the Patio - I love these!

Look at the Blooms at My House!

Thanks to Glenda for hosting this~!

Be sure and check out her blog and all the other Fertilizer Friday Gardens - they are always great!

http://www.tootsietime.com/

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I am so excited to finally be able to share some blloms from my house. It is really windy today and raining off and on - but looking out through the window it is beautiful.

This is always my first Iris to bloom - it is a mini Iris. It is tiny and only about 10 inches tall - I always get so excited to see it - it is lovely!

Here are a few tulips that are blooming. The top two are from the flaming garden. That garden has only red, yellow and orange blooming all summer long.

Our fruit tree's are really putting on a show! Top left - apple tree, top right - crab apple tree, bottom left another apple tree, bottom right cherry tree's. We still have plum tree's, three other variety of apple tree's and cherry tree's to bloom.

This is a picture of the corner of the woodland that the following collage is taken from.

That's all for this week...things area really taking off here ...hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!
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Goals for this week:
Fertilize everything
Add iris and lily's to the pond area
Buy tomatoes, peppers and potatoes (warm weather crops) to plant in my garden
Plant my veggie garden
Yard upkeep this week - Back Yard

Herb Garden

Also linking up with Favorite Things Friday at http://thehillsarelivin.blogspot.com/ Lots of fun projects over there!

Thanks to Jean for Hosting "Blommin Tuesday"

You can look at all the other gardeners at

http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/
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One of my favorite things is my herb garden - nothing like being able to walk out the back door while I am cooking and snip off some fresh herbs to use!

Today I cleaned it out and got it ready for the summer! WOO HOO Here is the cullinary part of my herb garden. It is about 20 feet from the back door.

This is the plant marker - the idea is from the Martha Stewart website - it is from the ideas listed in the next post. It works great!
I have all the information I need for this plant. Here is our dog Sterling - he watches me work between naps! I also found a bunch of plant markers today and shared them in the next post.

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I just read this blog post from a garden party and would like to add the link here of cooking with herbs from Gatsby Gardens. http://gatsbysgardens.blogspot.com/

Plant Marker Ideas

These markers are made using the front of the seed packet and outdoor sealer - lots more ideas to use seed packet fronts here. I have been in my garden all week. I cleaned out my herb bed and all the markers I used last year are faded and I need some new longer lasting ideas. Here are a few ideas I found - each title is a lnk to the original post with instructions. ********************
This is from the Birds and Blooms site - put in plant markers in their search feature to pull up the instructions. Make your own marker on your computer Acyrlic Sleeves These are broken plates Made out of clayI love these engraved rocks Antique spoons with instructions Made out of vinyl blinds This website has several ideas - this pix is one of them Cute markers made from twigs This is from the Martha Stewart website - I like this one! Another website with pictures of engraved spoons In this post and pix are markers made from 3 different mediums