Dry As A Bone

It is still dry as a bone here! The weather says there is a 40% chance of rain today, and rain is predicted through Thursday. I am crossing my fingers! We had a productive weekend around the house taking care off odds and ends. All of our outside faucets leaked, so after 5 trips to Lowe's we finally got them fixed! Then Saturday night our hot water heater started to leak, bad! So we had to turn it off, and then go back to Lowe's on Sunday and get the parts to fix it as well. Thank goodness we were at home when it started to leak, or else it would have been everywhere. I collect nutcrackers, I have a ton of them. My mom bought this one for me...how cute is he! I actually have a life size nutcracker that is taller than me! I will show him off at Christmas. Jacobean plant is finally blooming

Zinnia from seed. Last year by this time I had so many zinnia's, my plants were loaded with blooms. That hasn't been the case this year, the lack of water has really kept the plants from thriving.

former blue lacecap has now turned to pink

Hosta bloom, not sure which hosta this is

Gerbera Daisy. I can tell how dry it is by this bloom. This gerbera has bloomed about 5 times this year, this one being the 6th. Normally it is deep red (you can actually see this same gerbera on my side bar), now it is light pink...need some rain soon.

I left this off my junk post last week! Thought I would throw it in today. These are some old copper tins that I hung on the fence. Some of them were my moms, and the others my aunt picked up for me.

Here is a gerbera daisy from the front yard. It is doing great

another zinnia from seed

Gladiola

I love the color of this one

my old solar lights I had out front died, so we picked these up at one of our 1,000 trips to Lowe's this weekend!

They are solar LED lights. The water on top of them blows my mind! I have no idea where it came from, it appears to be much more than dew! The entire front lawn was wet with morning, but the back yard was dry! Strange. Could we have gotten a light rain this morning in the front yard only? I will have to ask the neighbors and see.

sorry the camera fogged up, the joy of having the camera inside, and bringing it outside....always fogs up! But here is another zinnia from seed. I really like this one, it looks different than the others

Saturday The Hunter comes in with this dragonfly on his finger! I was assuming it was dead, but it was alive. The Hunter is like Dr Doolittle, all animal love him! He said he had just walked out and saw it flying around and stick his finger out and it landed on him! Go figure! He had enough time to walk inside, find me, let me grab the camera and then walk back outside with it! As soon as I took the picture he flew off

Tide is doing great, Kiki however is not! I moved her belongings to the guest room, and until last night she had not come past the living room. She just sits in the hall and watched Tide. She finally ventured into the living room yesterday and looked around. Tide was asleep and she just creeped around him like he was going to attack her! She takes scaredy cat to a whole new level! This morning she came into the living room, and almost made it to the kitchen, when she scared herself by tripping over a shoe and ran back down the hall! The Hunter picked her up and brought her into the living room near Tide and let her watch him. She just hisses at him. I picked Tide up and sat him near her....bad mistake! I thought she was going to have a coronary! He lunged at him to bite him! She got down and ran back into the hall! Her safe place! Tide has yet to go into the hallway. He will not cross a threshold, clearly he is smart. I was hoping if I could get them close, she could smell him and see he was not going to hurt her, but that plan back fired! Maybe tonight she will come around!

Gazania Mania

Ok...so it will be a little more than Gazanias...sorry...this will be a long one...but I have to cover the entire weekend in one post. Remember the days that we were all trying to figure out what to post about because nothing was going on in the garden....yeh....well those days are over! So lets kick this Monday off.... The Hunter and I went to the Flea Market on Saturday, we got some fruit...watermelon, pineapple, and cantaloupe. I will admit that none of them were all that great. It is a bit early for watermelon...it was ok...but definitely not the best. The pineapple was too ripe, and the cantaloupe wasn't ripe enough....but we ate them up anyway!

We also bought this little gadget there...a water timer. Have ya'll used this before? I tested it yesterday and it is great. You hook it up to your faucet, then hook up the water hose. You set the timer based on how long you want to water, and it shuts itself off after the chosen time. This is great if you need to water and have to go somewhere. I am not blessed enough to have a sprinkler system, so this is as close as I am getting to one.

Here are the various time settings...After the purchase of my $15 sprinkler system...I finally got my garden cart! I have been wanting one of these for THREE years!!! Praise Mother Nature....I finally got one!!!! It will hold up to 700lbs...and no I don't plan on pulling that much...BUT if I want to...I can!!! I have managed to break every plastic cart I get...so it was time for the heavy artillery. I am so glad the dragonflies are out and about...I am addicted to dragonfly photos! They just sit and pose for the camera...they are very photogenic.

Moving on to random flowers photos from the weekend.....................

Hydrangea

Dusty Miller...I love this shot...it looks like some kind of sea coral (or maybe I am just weird)

Hibiscus about to bloom

Now Ginger.....I know you can totally appreciate this ....these spent bloom casings on the hibiscus...what do they remind you of?

I will give you a clue...see....more...

SEYMOUR!!! From Little Shop of Horrors.....does this remind ya'll of Seymour? I was waiting on it to start talking to me, or maybe I was delirious from the heat.

Darla.....look what I have...PLUMBAGO! It was only 3 or 4 limbs blooming...but soon it will be loaded.

my little beauty....gerbera daisy

Pentas

Coneflowers

Petunias in the tea kettle are doing great on the front porch

Now we have reached Gazania Mania.....all of the above was just a preview...

This is the first time I have ever planted Gazanias. I really like them, and will probably plant more next year. I planted these in April. They are full sun perennials and really take to the heat of the South.

The close up in the afternoon and night...which is pretty darn neat to me.

Then they open their pretty little faces during the day

This one is getting ready to close for the night

Mixed in with some verbena

At first when they started curling up...I thought they were dry, but then I realized that it was they do at night, they close. Every morning when I go outside, they are closed and just beginning to open. I just love the colors on them. The pink/purple ones are my favorites.

Well that is about it for my exciting life...didn't do much over the weekend. Just sat and watched flowers open and close...LOL!! No not really!

The Big Picture

After yesterdays post, some of you asked to see large shots of my garden, and where all my plants are blooming. After my wonderful visit with Marilyn yesterday...I came home to a freshly mowed lawn. The Hunter had cut the grass, trimmed the hedges, edged, and was in the process of power washing the back porch and cleaning out the shed. God Bless him!!! I tend to get a bit nervous when he cuts the grass...he does do it better than me, but I don't want him cutting the grass so that the mower flings the grass into the flower beds. I cut away from the beds, but he did too. He did an excellent job edging every bed for me. This made me VERY happy, and he even cooked dinner. While he did all of this, I perused around the garden to get some pics. Little fella taking a rest on the hibiscus leaf This is a new bloom on the hibiscus. They only bloom for one day and then fall off. The bush is loaded with blooms.

Here is a larger shot of it

Althea, it is also loaded with buds.

Gladiolas....isn't that shade just beautiful!

This is my favorite so far

And my prized beauty...the Dinner Plate Dahlia...she is opening up more and more everyday. I KNOW ya'll are probably getting tired of seeing shots of her everyday....OH WELL!!!! I like to see her unfurl!

Now onto the overall shots.....I am going to sound like a broken record to all of you who have been following me, but for the new followers (glad you are here), here is a little info on my garden.

August will be 4 years that we have lived here. I have only been gardening 3 of those. There were no flowers beds at all in the back yard when we moved in. The were 3 beds in the front yard, but they had nothing in them but boxwoods.

Here we are in the back yard...look at that grass, The Hunter did an excellent job!!! This bed (on the right) I just created in late September. The one of the left is a bit older....and raggedy!

Oh...where to start with this one....ugh!!! This bed needs help, I am VERY well aware of that. Yesterday Marilyn gave me impatiens and begonias, I am going to use the impatiens as a border and plant the begonias. Currently in this bed I have a Jacobean plant, Four O'clock, hostas (very tiny ones), Tibouchina and a hydrangea that you cannot see thanks to the Four O'clock. Major work needed here! I will work on this bed Saturday and then show you some photos. The old car tags came off cars from both of my grandpa's, and the hub cap....I like old weird stuff!

Here is a shot looking back the other way. That whole area on the fence to the left....that is another raggedy zone! I have lots of raggedy zones! LOL! ONE DAY I am going to rip those hideous shrubby trash trees down and make a raised bed (the area I am referring to is directly behind the little green cart). I can't plant anything here because the ground is like concrete, so I want to raise it and make it nice and neat. Those shrubs must go!

This is actually 2 beds. The bed on the left is raggedy as well.....do we see a trend here! Let's just say that shade areas are not my strong point! This is the bed where the circus piece resides...man I love that thing. If you don't know about my circus piece click here:

http://northmobilegardensociety.blogspot.com/2009/02/creative-minds.html

The playhouse bed....There is a fish pond under the playhouse...ONE DAY I will rip it down, refurbish the pond and make this area nice and neat. In this bed I have a hibiscus, gerbera daisies, bee balm, butterfly bush, miniature dahlia...yeh I know it doesn't look like it....but it is all there. The butterfly bush is just a mere babe.

Here is a bigger shot of the big bed behind the house. This is my favorite bed. In this bed I have (deep breathe)......front to back - Butterfly Ginger, Mexican Petunia, Glads, verbena, amaryllis, crinnum lily, daffodils, angel trumpets (2 very puny ones might I add), zinnia, cosmos, hollyhock (very small), lupine (small), Bee Balm, Butterfly Bush, Pagoda Bush, irises, daisies, Dinner Plate Dahlia, blueberries, climbing rose (on the arbor not shown), salvia, sapphire sage, coneflowers, and a few I am sure I am forgetting. The stepping stones are 12"x12" mosaic tiles.....clever huh! No I didn't buy them, they were FR$$!!

Here is another one...I recently enlarged this bed. In this bed I have - daylilies, sweet william, dianthus, dusty miller, irises, daffodils, verbena, amaryllis, crinnum lily, bee balm, lupine, hydrangea, clematis. The copper things on the fence were my moms, and my aunt bought me a few of them.

Moving on to the front yard

Looking from the driveway out into the yard

There are those wonderful boxwoods that I love so much...ugh! Hate them!!! The Hunter did trim them for me...still didn't help! They will be out ONE DAY. In this bed I have lantana, daylilies, sapphire sage, vinca, crepe myrtle, caladiums, irises, coleus, baby zinnias....there is no rhyme or reason to what or where I plant.

This bed is a disaster. Long story short...it was full of weeds, I dug it up, put down black garbage bags, filled it in, garbage bags make it a pain to plant in, so garbage bags are going to come out as well as everything in it, and I will start over in this bed for the 4th time!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, nothing blue. Old is the back part of the bed that was existing, new is the front part of the bed that I added on 2 months ago, borrowed is the satellite that The Hunter left on the front porch, and the blue part just sounded good. This bed is just a plethora of stuff, let me see if I can do it - Nandina, Glads, day lilies, fire spike, irises, shrimp plant, calladiums, daffodils, amaryllis, zinnia, cosmos, vinca, coleus, mexican heather, coneflowers. gloriosa lilies, climbing rose (you can't see it yet, I want it to grow up each column), dianthus...thats all I can think of right now.

This is the side bed...apparently. This was an ant kingdom when we moved in. The whole bed must have had 10 trillion ants in it...slowly but surely over the past 4 years I am running them outta there! I have been viciously attacked 100's of times by fire ants in this part of the yard. They seek me out and attack. In this bed we have, mexican petunia, wild ageratum, african daisy, morning glory tree, glads, althea, hibisucs, vinca, coleus, day lilies, zinnia, cosmos, and fire ants.

The LOVELY satellite courtesy of direct tv....concreted in my flower bed! That's ok Mr. Direct TV man....I've got this!!! I am hiding that hideousness of a dish with a morning glory tree, some mexican petunia and an african daisy...that's right...its an International cover up!!!

A little close up of the porch bed.

Well that does it for today...I am still painting...so I have to get to it! Hope you all enjoyed the tour of the Dirt Princess' low budget garden!!!! Have a great day!