13 Thursday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, columbines, doubles, flowers, garden, growing, harvested, moments, nature, plants, purple, weather, widow
the columbines are filled with buds and flowers…
I am particularly happy because the double flower one, which I purchased last year and harvested some of the seeds, is doing well…
in the fall, we sprinkled them alongside the house, near where the other columbines were…
the side garden is looking very pretty;-)…
12 Wednesday Jun 2024
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, food, garden, growing, happy, moments, nature, planters, plants, rain, squash, vegetables, weather, widow
this was the garden when I planted the seeds on May 14…
and here are photos from today…
the black planters are coming along very nicely… the tomatoes at each end have started to flower, the peas and beans are thinking about climbing the trellis, and the cucumbers have popped through the ground…
the vegetables in the gray planter are coming along, although the squash seed has not sprouted yet…
this is rather amazing, considering all the rain we’ve had…
07 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, columbine, cucumbers, cushions, flowers, garden, growing, hibiscus, moments, morning glories, nature, plants, pond, poppies, purple, reading, slips, walk, weather, widow
this morning I started my day with a wander around the gardens…
I started with the vegetable garden and checked on the two tomatoes, miriad of peas, beans, and the couple of cucumbers that appear to have made a go of it…
the cucumber and butternut squash seeds have yet to reach the surface…
the columbines are getting ready to flower and it appears that the ones with double petals are happy in their new location along the house…
the dahlias are growing taller every day and the ivy slips from the house are holding their own…
next I checked out the pond garden, where the irises are blooming and the poppies are raising their heads slowly to get set to open… I had to detour back around the deck so that I didn’t brush against any of them… the hanging baskets are filling with flowers as they recover from the hail storm…
the petunias around the deck look good, but I need to find a way to raise up the new planter boxes as they are just a tiny bit too narrow…
the begonia and orchid in the back shady area seem to be doing well and the pansies by the bathtub pond are growing nicely…
the hibiscus is still in the shade since coming outside recently and the begonias and verbena are happy… sadly the pansies in between them are not doing well…the strawberry pot and dahlia next to the back door look excellent as do the morning glories as they come up…
on the deck the mandevilla seems content in its new location and the clematis continues to wind its way up the obelisk… the lobelia and alyssum on the table are doing very well…
after that lovely stroll, I brought out all the cushions, uncovered the deck chairs, and sat with my tea and read some of my book as the birds sang their morning welcome;-)…
31 Friday May 2024
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaned up, garden, hiatus, house, Japanese Maple, mandevilla, moments, nature, plants, repotted, shade, weather, widow
this morning the mandevilla and Japanese Maple made their annual hiatus to the garden…
the mandevilla is probably four or five years old… it started out on the deck and has come in each fall and lived over the winter in the living room like any other houseplant… it has grown quite tall, but always loses a ton of leaves so I spent time pulling off many brown crispy dead bits, lol… it now has a very tall obelisk in the pot and most of the growth is at the top… looks good now that it is cleaned up…
the Japanese Maple travelled by car from Vancouver island about ten years ago, when it made the trip with the kids as they moved from Courtenay to Ottawa, with a short visit here on their way… it had done well over that time but hasn’t grown much… today I repotted it in a bigger container with some fresh soil… hope it likes it;-)…
they will be in the shade for a few days and then move to their summer locations…
30 Thursday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
admire, big girl pants, blessed, busy, flowers, garden, Hilda the Gardener, moments, mowed, nap, nature, planting, plants, purple, weather, widow
Wednesday, a ton of work took place in the garden…
Hilda, the Gardener, planted milkweed, beardstongue, and pansies in the garden…
weeds were dug out and she also planted up the pots at the front of the house so it looks great everywhere…
I am so blessed to have someone who can do the heavy lifting in the garden… she has made it look amazing over these last years;-)…
my grandson and I walked the irrigation line and fixed or replaced the tiny hoses that the bunnies find very tasty, lol…
we also worked on the pallet planter using landscape cloth to make bags for a few flowers to grow in…
clearly, I need to have company over to admire the space, lol…
and Wednesday is also the day that the grass gets mowed, whipper snipped, and blown clean…
busy day which meant there was no nap🤪…
26 Sunday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, flowers, fundraiser, garden, moments, nature, newbie, plants, protecting, sheets, shopping, Technology, towels, weather, widow
Wednesday was a plant pickup from a friend’s church fundraiser…
there was alyssum, lobelia, petunias, and silver falls…
transplanted some in two planters that afternoon, hoping that they wouldn’t have a problem with the 4°C temperature that was expected that night…
in the end I covered all the newbie plants with sheets…
they all made it through the night;-)…
24 Friday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
adventure buddy, big girl pants, blessed, buddy, flowers, garden, happy, moments, nature, planting, plants, purple, shopping, verbena, widow
Tuesday, started the day by planting a tomato and a couple of types of cucumbers, including the splinted ones…
then I went to LeClerc’s with my adventure buddy…
had fun;-)… found some purple petunias, a fuchsia, a white begonia, salvia, white and purple verbena, and parsley for the swallowtails…
then stopped by DJ Paterson’s and found some milkweed and a beautiful purple clematis…
was able to get the begonia and verbena planted…
still have some planting to do…
17 Friday May 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beaten, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, garden, hail, hailstorm, moments, nature, plants, rain, thunderstorm, weather, widow
yesterday we had a hailstorm… it started as a bit of rain, then a thunderstorm, and then it turned into this crazy pounding of pieces of hail that went from pea to marble sized…
it happened around five and there was still lots left at nine-thirty…
the garden seemed to get it much worse than the front yard…
the poor baskets took a real beating… fingers crossed that they all come back…
this morning I discovered that two of the cucumber plants had been nearly broken in half, so I created splints for them and we will see if they recover…
what a sight…
16 Thursday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beardstongue, big girl pants, blessed, butterfly bush, flowers, garden, moments, plants, pond, purple, Shelmerdine, shopping, weather, widow
yesterday we went to Shelmerdine…
I had called and they had a new shipment in, which included butterfly bush…
they are referred to as delicate perennials or hardy annuals, lol… that means you have to bring them in over the winter if you want them to survive… I managed to get one to survive one year, but it didn’t make it the following year…
I also picked up some beardstongue – which hummingbirds like, and has purple flowers…
finished up with cucumbers, dill, a tomato and a couple of waterplants…
the butterfly bushes went right into areas around the pond and the rest into the garage to harden off… likely the water plants will make it into the pond in the next few days…
14 Tuesday May 2024
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, flowers, garden, hanging baskets, happy, holler, moments, nature, petunias, plants, purple, shopping, treat, white, widow
for Mother’s Day I got four beautiful hanging baskets;-)… so far they have been going into the garage on cooler nights…
two are purple and white petunias…
the other two have white petunias and (maybe) lantana in them…
it is lovely to have flowers all over the garden…
and the morning glories are popping up;-)…
the garden is beginning to holler spring…
herbiggirlpants 