Meadow Walk

Yesterday afternoon, as the baby was napping, John and I took a walk up to the back field/meadow to see what there was to see up there. Everything is dry, dry, dry. You can see one of the paths my husband had cut through the meadow as a walking trail. He did this weeks ago, which was when we last mowed.

Here are some close-ups of the flowers we found on our walk.

A Thistle

This little purple-pink flower. It was the only one like it I could find.

Queen Anne's Lace

This is a picture of our neighbors adjoining field. They have different things blooming, goldenrod and what looks like a deep purple butterfly plant. I don't think they keep their field mowed as much as we do ours. But since we don't have a big tractor, we have to keep up with it or else it is impossible to take care of. Although the meadow look has it's merits, and we may end up keeping it more meadow-like, with some paths cut through for walking.

Just yesterday, Gail put a name to this bug for me. Yes, it's the Milk Weed Bug, on a Milk Weed Seed pod.

The sad, bird's eye view of my garden. It looks more like October than August.

One cosmos of just a few which have bloomed in my new wildflower area I was trying to establish this year. I'll work on it more next year.

Thanks for joining us on our walk. I hope you enjoyed it.

Ruellia - Mexican Petunia

This plant is one that my husband's Mom brought us from Florida several years ago. It's a Ruellia brittoniana Mexican Petunia. Ours is just starting to bloom this year, and I can see several buds forming. I really like the long, thin foliage, which is attractive without the blooms. The blooms seem to just last a day or so but it looks like there will be a steady stream of them once it starts blooming.

It's tag gives the following information: full sun, hardy to 32 degrees F., medium height, and flowers spring to fall. Care: Dark green foliage with attractive, funnel-shaped, petunia like flowers which bloom from spring to frost. A clump forming perennial to 18"-24" high. Heat tolerant and will tolerate heavy clay soils. Do not over water.

I have found it listed as an invasive plant in Florida. However in my Western PA garden, I keep it in a pot, which I overwinter in a sunny basement window. It is said to be a favorite of butterflies. I have also read that there are dwarf varieties available that may not be as invasive.

Coffee Bean, Rose, and more Volunteers!

Look at what I saw while walking around the garden (in between weeding, of course).

Remember the Coffee Blooms ? Here's the first bean I've found. I guess I'll be able to make a baby doll teacup sized coffee.



Here is a pretty pink rose in bloom, with several more buds. This poor rose was once the queen of this bed, but now the Coneflower has taken over and the rose often gets lost and overlooked - not today though!



And look at this brave sunflower. It grew in a pot with a young maple that is waiting to be planted. And it did grow out horizontally like this.



And here is a Cleome a.k.a. Spider flower. We had one last year and it self-seeded, yeah! I found two in the bed where it was last year and one growing in another bed. Here it is early in the day, and then in the evening.



And my last volunteer for today is this Oregano plant. When we first moved into this house, six years ago, I brought an oregano plant in a container from my apartment. Prior to living in a container on the apartment balcony, it lived in the ground at my old house, where I grew it from seed. The second or third year we lived here, I planted the oregano in the back of the vegetable garden where it grows quite nicely. Before it found that home, however, it dropped it's seed, here in the crack of a stairwell and it comes back year after year. How it ever grew to begin with, and how it comes back year after year, amazes me. You see, there is no dirt. Right now there are some dead leaves/grasses covering the base and I have to make sure it's watered almost every day, but somehow it survives and thrives here, just growing out of a crack in the stair.

Lacy Flowers

I have been thinking about Queen Anne's Lace lately, because it is blooming profusely here right now and it has always been a favorite of mine. When I was a child, it grew along our lane and we would pick it and put it in a glass of water with a couple drops of food coloring and the flower would change colors. This of course, was great fun. Besides that, it is such a pretty, delicate flower and the name is so fancy sounding.




When I was wondering through the garden the other day, I was noticing how lacy the Cilantro / coriander was looking. It's flowers reminded me of Queen Anne's Lace. The first year I tried to grow cilantro in the garden I thought it was a waste. The plant I had bought went to seed almost immediately and never got thick with leaves. Well, was I wrong. Every year since then I have had a whole section of cilantro the comes back from self-seeding. In the spring there are plenty of leaves for picking. And when you just walk by this area and you can smell the fresh cilantro. It's delicious.




And then there is the dill. I've posted this photo before but I like it so much I am going to post it again. It reminds me of fireworks. I can't wait for the dill seeds to form because I like to collect them to use in the kitchen. And if I ever get any green beans, maybe I'll make some dilly beans and use the dill heads in the canning jars.




What lacy flowers are growing in your garden ?

Coffee Blooms

Being that it is too wet to even walk in the swamp I call a vegetable garden, and the flower beds are pretty soaked as well, today I will write about one of our potted plants and our first coffee flowers. It's so very exciting. I didn't even think this plant would ever bloom, but would just be a nice foliage houseplant.

Let me introduce you to our coffee plant, formal name "Coffea arabica". We bought this plant at a local home store several years ago. At that time it was small enough that planted would fit very nicely into a styrofoam coffee cup. But how quickly it's grown. It doesn't like direct sunlight, especially outside. Some years we don't even bring it out in the summer, because even the slightest bit of direct sun causes the leaves to burn (as they are here) - and it's barely in the sun, just the tiniest bit of morning sun which can't be avoided as we don't have an awning over our deck.

The other morning John came to get me to show me something on the deck. Surprise! Flowers on the coffee plant. The flowers only last a couple of days and are lightly scented. I can't wait to see if we will get some beans, although I'm sure not enough for a cup of coffee.

Finished Planting - Finally !

Finally, I am finished planting. I thought I was finished a couple of days ago, then John reminded me that there was still one plant sitting on the sidewalk, still needing a home. And this morning, I found a spot for it. So now I am done.

I did a lot of planting the other day when I thought I was finishing up. But I actually didn't start out planting. I started out cleaning seashells. Yes, you read correctly, seashells. Almost two years ago now, we had gone on vacation to the North Carolina coast and took a day trip down to South Carolina where we went on a boat tour which included some shelling. Well John collected the mother lode of conch shells - which have been sitting in our basement, seemingly forgotten. But really not forgotten, I just hadn't figured out what to do with them. So I cleaned them up and now I have a little seashell garden area. They are where I can see them every day and remember what a great time we had on that trip.


Since I had cleaned up the flower bed to add the shells, I thought I might as well put those two remaining flowers in this bed as well, since there was room. I was going to just put them in pots to have on the deck but this is just as well. And hopefully they won't dry out as quickly as they would in pots.

Then I thought the only thing I had remaining was a monster of a Bleeding Heart that John's parents had dug out of their garden beds (the bed was overcrowded with it). Of course since I love Bleeding Heart we had to take it. I had actually been wanting to get a Bleeding Heart. Trying to find the right spot for this large specimen was the challenge. We decided to put half of it next to the Hellebore, where an azalea which didn't make it left a empty spot. The other, larger portion of the Bleeding Heart was to go where a Peony just wasn't performing. But that meant moving the Peony first. Which meant enlarging the Peony bed. You see, if it was just a matter of digging a hole, it would have been planted right away.

Well, I managed to get all that done, take pictures as I planned to post I was finished planting. It was then John informed me that there was still one lone plant on the sidewalk. But now, I can say, everything is planted.

Here is the Bleeding Heart, taking over the Peony's space.
And here is the Peony with the others, hopefully it will be happy here.

Queen Rose

Roses are blooming. I have to admit that my rose garden is not what it should be. Part of the problem is it is not in the right place. Where it is doesn't get enough sun and tends to be too wet. So the tea roses I have there don't tend to thrive. But I do get some nice blooms, I just know it could be better. And I would like to expand my rose collection but that isn't going to happen until we find a new place for the roses.

Here are two of the tea roses that are now blooming. We just had a nice morning rain and you can still see the raindrops on the blooms.

Here is a beautiful red rose that I can't take credit for planting (it was here when we bought the place), but my husband does keep it pruned so that it blooms so nice each year. In fact, he does the pruning on all the roses, so their beauty is largely due to his work on them. Back to the red rose - it's not with the tea roses but underneath a large honeysuckle plant that is just starting to bloom - it smells really nice over there.

And here is my unexpected rose. I was looking out from our family room and noticed a flower in the treed area between our house and our neighbors. It's not really an area that we cultivate, so when I saw something blooming bright there I had to investigate. It looks like a wild rose, I don't know how it got there and I don't remember it from previous years but I'll enjoy it just the same.

Beautiful Peonies !

Finally my peonies have bloomed. I don't know if it's because they are in the shade or because we live in Western Pa, but they never seem to bloom until we are into June. But the wait is well worth it. And I am very excited because the one plant which was given to me by my friend Peg, is blooming this year for the first time. She had gotten it from someone who had to dig up their peonies to widen a driveway or something. This was probably three years ago ! But finally this year it is blooming again.

The day that they actually did bloom (last Thursday, the 5th) I was afraid they were going to be ruined because that morning we had huge thunderstorms. But the blooms weathered it well and the scent is divine. As I was walking up the drive last night I could smell them. Oh how I love peonies, I think they are one of my favorite flowers.

Butterfly and Blooms

It has been a while since my last post because we have been working like crazy to get this yard and garden in order. Between the mowing, trimming, weeding, and planting there was no time for posting. Here is the first of many catch up posts.

While outside after a day of working, Lillian and I spotted this butterfly on the alliums. She stayed around long enough for us to get the camera and take several shots. Here are two of them.