A Success

Finally!!!

Magnus Coneflower

I have long been familiar with Echinacea and thought it was a pretty cool plant, but it was when discovered it under a different name “Magnus” that we fell in love with it.

Last september we were pretty settled into our new home in Mississippi and I found this plant at the hardwood store on clearance. I have wanted to try this plant in my garden for a while but just never got around to it, so I picked it up and took it home. Magnus needed this plant after all.

I dug a hole for it and wondered if it would grow here. You see our house and yard is built on sand. Not wanting to go get any dirt I just planted it and hoped for the best. Within a month the flowers were dead and the plant look just about dead as well. I shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

About February, I think, I noticed that it was coming back. And just this week the first of about 12 buds is fully opened.

Hurray!!

Since that first planting I have tried a variety of other flowers in the sand. Some have lasted longer than others but so far this is the only one I’d call a success. It actually came back the next year!

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Sigh…

 

Believe it or not this looks 100 times better that it did just a few minutes before. I just didn’t have the heart to take a picture my new garden in such a mess. Those sad little plants were all over the yard, and there is still one missing. I guess our new housemate ate it. I swept, raked, and gathered the dirt as best I could but I think I lost about half of what I put in. Sigh… I should have known better than to plant a garden in her favorite digging spot. Sigh… I haven’t given up, my garden will win in the end, but I’m just not sure of my strategy yet. Any suggestions for keeping your dog from digging in a certain spot?

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Monday

Flower garden made and planted. (I love early spring around here)

 

No shoes at the park.

 

Unbrushed hair. (Yes, I did take her to the hardwood store without brushing her hair today. Hopefully we don’t have too many tangles tomorrow.)

 

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New Header Image

I did end up getting a couple of my beloved red tulips this year. I thought they were going to be pink but I was wrong. I just love the painted inside. Today this one was wide open taking in the sun. The very center of the flower is so bright it almost hurts my eyes to look at it. I find myself squinting as if I were looking at the sun.

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Tulips

The tulips are finally out. These are my favorite spring flower and I’m glad mine are finally here. While living in Ohio someone told me that if you want to protect your tulips from the squirrels than you should plant some daffodils along with them. I did this and it seems that the squirrels here in Washington prefer the daffodils over the tulips. It seems I have all my tulips plus more and only my one daffodil. 

Do Tulips change color? This is my third season of tulips. The first season there was only one pink and a lot of yellow and a beautiful red one. I don’t remember what colors I had last year, but this year with the exception of a couple of yellows they are all pink. Some are darker pink than others but pink none the less. I can’t explain it.

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Belated birthday, sun, rocks, a pod, and some knitting.

I know almost a month is a bit late but I wanted to let you all know that Bronwyn has turned two. She enjoyed opening her presents much more than I would have ever guessed. Being uninterested in the presents at Christmas, I suspected at just a month later, her birthday would be the same. Boy was I wrong. I was also surprised that she knew how to blow out the candles. I was all prepared to blow them for her. It took her a few times but she knew just what to do. 

Today was the first day Bron and I have spend any time in the backyard this winter. Pretty sad, I know. I couldn’t hide in the house any longer. The long awaited warmth and sun was calling. Bron got right to work filling her basket with rocks, then plopped herself down in the sun to examine them.

Along with a ton of dead branches on the ground I found this interesting seedpod. I don’t know the species but it sure makes cute pods.

I’ve had few requests to finish up this rabbit pattern. This last weekend I had some free time, so I bought some yarn and got to work knitting one up. I decided to change the legs a bit, and the arms completely. I finished the knitting and pressing of one, but haven’t had a chance to sew him together yet. 

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They Got Another Ear

The came back for another one. I guess they couldn’t get it off so they just opened it up and ate as much as the could. I find this all interesting so I think I will sacrifice the rest of this one and my one remaining ear. Maybe I’ll catch them in the act.

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Someone Stole An Ear

I went to check on the garden and pick tomatoes when I noticed that someone had stolen and ear of corn. Due to the way it was torn off I will guess it wasn’t human. I had given up on eating the corn from my garden a while ago but I thought it might make nice decorations for fall. Oh well, I do still have two left and if they are still there in the morning I will probably harvest them.

Here was my harvest of juliets today, along with my only jalapeno and my first roma.

 

I had Magnus with me and we decided to go ahead and harvest the red potatoes as well. I didn’t get as many as with the russets but check out the range in size.

The middle three are about the normal size you would see at the grocery store. Magnus was thrilled when we found the cute babies and also the big daddy one.

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Potatoes

After one of my potato plants died back I started digging and found all these.

They are all pretty small for russet potatoes but I’ll give them a go anyway at the table. This is my first attempt at growing potatoes so I am happy to have any at all. I still have one other potato plant but it doesn’t look like it’ll be ready any time soon.

Peas – I thought I had about 20-30 or so pods but most of them have disappeared. Birds? The others that have remained have turned brown. I dont know much about peas but I dont think that is a good sign.  Oh well.

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I Wish….

I wish I knew more about each of the plants I was growing in my garden. This is pretty much my whole green bean crop. I’m waiting on a few more but this is pretty much it.

I had envisioned at least enough for our whole family to have a serving or two at dinner a couple of times, but I think there might be enough for me and maybe one of my kiddies. It’s kind of sad.  I will have plenty of tomatoes however but my onions are sad, I have one carrot growing, I don’t have any peppers yet at all. ( I did see a flower on one however so I do have my fingers crossed) My corn seems to be doing ok but I only have 3 stalks so I won’t be having any excess corn either. My garden is all in all pretty sad. 

Oh wait, I do have some peas growing. I dont know how to tell if they are done but I see about 20-30 pods so my peas might be doing ok. Oh Oh I do have patatoes too. I have no Idea how there doing, the plant seems fine but I have no way of knowing what’s going on under the soil. I’ll just have to wait and see.

I do plan on doing my homework before I plant next year.

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The First Harvest of the Season

I have never grown garlic before and had no idea how to know when they were done. The plant died back and so I pulled it out to keep the garden looking nice and out these guys came. I got on the internet (something I should have done when I planted them)and I guess they are ready. I made two mistakes though. I didn’t let them cure in the air and I washed them. They are small but I opened one up and it seems just fine. When my other plant is ready I will handle it better though. Another thing, the other garlic plant has gone to seed. Is that a bad thing? What can I do with the seeds? Should I handle that plant any different than the others? Maybe it going to seed is why it is not ready to be harvested at the same time. I couldn’t find any info on the internet.

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