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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Only the Strong Survive

The last time my garden saw any rain was around Memorial Day, which would be 36 days! 36 days without rain....we desperately need some! I have been watering 2 or 3 times a week, some plants are doing fine, others are not. You win some, and you lose some.
I have decided to start another collection. This week I have gotten 3 plaques, so I thought I would start picking them up, and then hang them on the fence.
Ya'll remember this one from my friend
My mom brought me this one yesterday
And my Aunt gave me this one....so there are the first 3. I think they would be neat hanging on the fence
This is the wall that divides mine and my neighbor's driveways. It has a small gap that I plant flowers in. I have been testing which plants work the best. I planted 3 small petunias on the one end, and they are doing great. I think next year I am going to take that other plant out, and only plant petunias.
This is a Prairie Coneflower, it is very heat/drought tolerant. I got it from one of the ladies in the Garden Club. It gets extremely tall....like 10ft +. It is just now beginning to bloom. The flowers gets pretty large once the plant matures.
I have quite a few zinnia's that are beginning to come around. As a mentioned earlier in the week, this time last year I had LOADS of zinnias. I had tons of cut flowers, but that isn't the case this year due to the lack of rain.
this zinnia lost it petals!
Gerbera Daisy ...the backside
same Gerbera Daisy plant, it has 4 blooms on it!
Zinnia and buds
more zinnia buds

back yard zinnia
zinnia bud
another petal-less zinnia
and another bud (I am excited about all these little buds)
This one is doing great! This is one of the zinnias that re-seeded itself!
Back yard zinnia, another view
The phlox is now 2 different shades...purple & pink. I think this is from the lack of rain. But it is still pretty

another baby zinnia getting ready to show off!
Hopefully if I water good all weekend all those zinnia buds will be in bloom and I can show them off Monday!
Onto more exciting news....I FINALLY hit 100 followers! Whoo hoo! I still can't believe that ya'll even read my blog, so I am truly honored to have 100 of you!!!! My 100th follower is Stephanie @ Steph's Green Space! Stephanie lives in Malaysia! How cool is that, my 100th follower is from Malaysia! So I have a special give-a-way for Stephanie for being the 100th! This is my first give-a-way! I need to do more of them. Steph I will be working on your surprise and will send it your way as soon as I am done with it! I am glad to have you here, and glad to have all 99 of the rest of ya'll!!!! Ya'll are great!

26 comments:

Darla said...

the plaques are very nice. Your flowers look good actually. Do you save your zinnia seed? If not, you should. Gerberas are beautiful. I can see the bottom of that wall cascading with petunias!

Ellie Mae's Cottage said...

Congrats on 100 followers! How exciting! I love the pictures of zinnias. :) -Jackie

Dirt Princess said...

Darla I save the seeds off of EVERYTHING!! I have 20 or so jars that I keep them in! Every zinnia I have growing is from my zinnia's last year! It is fun doing it that way, and save $$$$!!!

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Lovely zinnias... is it normal for zinnia to drop petals.?... Our zinnias still has petals intact even though they are now drying up...

~ bangchik

Stephanie said...

Dirt Princess! After I read your message, I was surprised that I am your 100th follower. I felt so important suddenly ha ha ha... I hope you get to reply me via email now :-) PS: I can see that your plants really need the rain... pray hard!

NatureStop said...

Your zinnias still look lovely inspite of there being no rain.We hardly get any rain here throughout the year.Miss home and the rains.

Susan said...

So sorry to hear about your lack of rain. That makes it tough to keep a garden going through the summer. Your flowers look like they're doing well with sprinkler water. Hope you get some rain soon.

Victoria Williams said...

Your zinnias and gerberas are looking great.

Excuse me for being so ignorant....rain is really an issue for you isn't it? We're so accustomed to having zero rain during the summer months that it's odd to hear that even watering manually (as we do) doesn't help your gardens. Is it the humidity issue? (which we don't have) We've been in the 90's all week and that's typical, but we'll survive with weekly waterings.

Dirt Princess said...

B&K I don't why some don't have petals??? Its a mystery to me! They look pretty neat anyway

Nature Stop it is unusual for us to have a drought here

Victoria Mobile is the rainiest city in the USA. We battle it out with Seattle every year for most rain. So we gardeners get very spoiled with our rain, when we don't get it once a week we panic....which is what we are all doing! You won't run into one person in Mobile that won't say "We sure do need some rain". That is the topic of every conversation these days

Darla said...

I save seeds too! when I posted about watering 3 or 4 times a day, remember? We don't have a water bill BUT it takes electricity to pump the water out of the ground. We received our electric bill today!! My husband said, "The electric bill is high and will be higher next month. It's the a/c, pool and ahem, watering." I said, "Okay." Only the strong will survive! LOL

Dirt Princess said...

Darla I was just telling my husband that I wanted a well (which I do), and he said its costs money to run the pump...so we can have a high water bill or a high power bill! We have flat rate billing, so the power bill is the same price every month.

Darla said...

I do think that the well costs less in the long run. That's my redneck two cents worth! We may have to compare our seeds in the fall. I was part of a seed exchange this last fall and it was great!!!

Anonymous said...

Our neighbor just put in a well.The machine shook the whole neighborhood. I think it makes good sense when I see how many thousand of gallons of water go into watering the lawn with automatic sprinklers. Your flowers are beautiful as usual and i love your plaques.. I am taken with the wall between you and your neighbor. Is it painted brick? I so want one because we get traffic noise on one side of our property and I think this would be the answer. I would imagine that it would be pretty costly to build.

Dirt Princess said...

Darla dear you are FAR from a redneck, which btw there is nothing wrong with rednecks!

Florida Sue that wall is HUGE! it is about 7' high! It is painted white brick. It runs around their entire yard. They actually have a well, and I told them I am going to take all of my houses and theirs and hook my sprinklers up to their well!! LOL!! They didn't care if I did! THey are great

Becca's Dirt said...

Congrats on the 100th follower. You still have some pretties. Darla needs to come to Mobile and do her rain dance. It's going to take a lot of watering.

Cathy S. said...

You still have lovely zinnias, have a great 4th!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I love seeing all of your zinnias and buds. Ours are a long way off still. I hope you get the rain you need. I notice lack of rain even after a week of it, although I hate to complain much around here. I like the petunias in the gap near the wall, it adds lots of color.

Susie said...

I really like your new plaque. I think they will look great on that wall. Like your new background too!

Darla said...

You have no idea how red my neck can be! LOL

Jessica said...

I love your plaques~ they are just as sweet as they can be. We haven't had any rain ( other than a sprinkle ) since April. It was real dark & cloudy with thunder & lightning last night. I put out the rain gauge and it started to sprinkle, I squealed with delight and then it stopped...lol.

All your blooms are looking great!

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Congrats on your 100th follower. I got mine this week also---but didn't realize it...

Sorry about your lack of rain--but your flowers still look gorgeous. The Zinnias look fabulous now. Love your plaques also.

Hugs,
Betsy

Sue Swift said...

You have some amazing shades of pink there. Those Gerberas - wow.

Tootsie said...

in spite of the rain..it all looks quite good! I have to say, I hope you get rain soon...we finally got an inch the other night. thank goodness!!! I like the new collection too!!!

Jean said...

Princess...love the Patriotic look to your blog..and the music.

Jesikarena said...

I knew it was only a matter of time until you had a 100 followers : )
Congrats and I hope you get some rain soon : (

Jan said...

OMG, I just realized I got my 100th follower...but I didn't pay attention as to when! Love your blog template for the fourth of July...it adds a nice touch. Our water sprinkler is turning on much less than last year, after such high bills. I'm also a lot more concerned about our overall 'lack of water' and heeding the county's advice to water less. Luckily we've had quite a bit of rain, in fact, almost too much for my liking! Hope you get some soon!!

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