Pathway--Start and End

Mike added to our concrete pathway. He uses a form to create it. He extended it to the pergola and joined the two flowerbeds together. I hope he will add a little more next year to meet up to the area by the backdoor patio. I think it will look finished because it will have a start and an end. "A garden is never so good as it will be next year."-- Thomas Cooper

One Idea Becomes Another!

What started as an idea to use Lorie’s old gazebo frame as a structure to support some triumph vines, took on a life of its. After putting it together we soon found out it would not be strong enough. I asked Mike to add some wood beams to the corners. That led to a top, a shelf and lattice to the back for some privacy to our little garden get-away. We now have a VERY NICE pergola. Didn’t Mike do an awesome job? Then I said we didn’t need the gazebo frame anymore. We will paint it all white next year giving the green treated wood time to dry. I did find another use for Lorie’s old gazebo frame. I took it apart and attached them to the fence and will plant some more triumph vine to give the fence some vertical interest.

All good work is done the way ants do things: Little by little. Lafcadio Hearn

Mom Enjoys her Garden

Her birthday gift just keeps giving and giving.

Mom's Birthday Gift

My brothers and I decided to add a pond to our Mothers backyard and improve on the flowerbed we did last year for her. Mike and I had to purchase a new cattle troft (that is where we winter over our pond fish in the basement) because it had a small leak in it. So we decided we would use that for the base of the pond and just add a pond liner to it. We also decided to take out the edging we did last year and replace it with stone. It is mush easier to cut the grass around the flowerbeds. After seeing the chocolate colored mulch I prefer in my garden my Mom decided she wanted that also, which made me very happy…. I hate that red stuff and the cocoa shells. It was a bitch getting rid of all the other stuff, but well with it when you see the results. The sound of water in a garden is a must. Mom always says she doesn’t want anything for her birthday…but who can’t use a pond and flowerbeds. It didn’t cost much money, just a lot of sweat and love. It’s a good home for all my divided perennials.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without
hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
- Seneca

The Big Tomato Experiment.

The Big Tomato Experiment.

I decided I was going to try something new with my tomatoe's this year. I am in the process of re-doing and adding a food-garden which will not be ready for use till late in the season. So I decided to grow some tomatoes in pots. I also know I have enough to water already, so I am going to water my tomato plants using a wicking method. I sure hope this works. I have enough 5 gallon pails left over from the studio remodel we did upstairs. This will be a good use for them all.

Items I used to make the planters:
5 Gallon pail with lid
A pot that fits nicely on top of the pail lid
100% cotton rope
Nuts and bolts
Drill
Scissors
Drill Bits
Wire Fencing

1. The first thing I did was attach the lid of the pail to the bottom of the pot. Drill two holes and secure with bolts and nuts.

2. Drill six holes around the lid/pot spaced evenly. I also drilled a hole on the side of pail towards the top that I will use to fill the pail with water as needed.

3. Cut three lengths of rope to thread into the holes so the ends are inside the pot, and to leave enough to hang inside of the pail.

4. Make a wire frame to fit inside of the pot.

Fill pail with water and make sure you get the rope wet that is inside the pot also. This is to make the wicking action start easier.

Place the wire frame inside the pot and hang the rope over the frame as far up the inside of the pot without pulling the length out of the bottom of pail.
I filled the pots with a potting mixture of compost, perlite and peat moss.Planted the tomato plants and gave them a light watering. The test begins

Memorial Day, is a day of remembrance.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. So between all your barbeque's and lemonades take a minute and remember why have this 3 day week-end.
This is my niece's little girl Hailey and her dog, Harley . They came over to buy my two old desk I know longer need now that my studio is all done. She is a great little helper.

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own. ~Seneca

Crap Apple Blooms and Trumpet Vine Rooting!

The trumpet vines that were a gift from another gardener (I call her the "naughty Ann", guess I will have to re-think that) is rooting nicely and showing signs of green growth. I am going to add this to my newly acquired gazebo. A wind storm tore the material cover off my sisters gazebo. She is going to buy a new one. I told her I would take the old one off her hands. I plan to place it were the swimming pool used to be. I am hoping the vines will take over the metal frame and make a good spot to place a hammock.
Our Crab Apple is blooming. I only wish these blossoms would last longer. It's so pretty. I cut some and added them to my vase that was filled with some fresh cut lilacs. My studio smells so good and Tater (our cat) can't get to them, see he is not allowed upstairs. I will be able to enjoy fresh cut flowers indoors once again.

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker

Early trip to the dump and day of clean up.

We went to the dump yesterday and seen they were grinding a fresh batch of compost, we had to go back today to fill up the trailer. For the price it can't be beat. It's FREE! It is the secret to my gardens success!

It was really nice today. I dug all the plants that I had saved in pots, out of their winter resting place today. Now Mike can give the flower bed another treatment of killer. There is still some of that ground cover coming up.

I placed all the plants on the patio, till i can get them planted again. I didn't lose to many. I started to give some away to new homes. Less I have to keep watered.

I weeded one flower bed today. It is already for some new mulch, but I want to wait till the neighbors maple tree drops it's awful seeds. I hate those trees...they are so messy and makes a gardener work twice as hard, trying to get them out of the flower beds before they start to grow a little forest.
This is my new wagon....I can leave it out and if it gets wet it will not rust like my old little red wagon did. I can hose this one off and let it air dry.

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. ~Lou Erickson

Bird House!

My brother made this for me today in about an hour. I have a old post from my Mom's front porch before they screened it in. I wanted it to look like it has been there for a long time . He did a great job. Now I just have to dig up the dead tree and sink the post into some cement.
Wait till you see what he going to make for me out of an old door, windows and shutters that I have been collectiong from thrift stores. He said to give him about a week and half. I can't wait to get it. Can you tell I am a little excited?

Goodwill Find

I got this at Goodwill today for only $19.99...it will look so good in the flower bed I am re-doing.

Spring Cleaning Up!

My pool boy getting the pond all cleaned out. It is a messy job. He cleans the inside I trim the plants.

All clean and ready to be filled for the year. Cross your fingers that we don't have a leak. First time cutting the grass. I love the smell of fresh cut grass. Just don't look at my flower beds...oh the work still to do.

First sign of spring!

My first Robin sits in my tree in the front yard. Can it be..this long cold winter if finally coming to an end. I can't wait to till up some soil and plant some flowers. So many projects planned for this year. Stay turned for more......

Let it SNOW

This morning we woke to a blanket of white snow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

"November comes

And November goes,

With the last red berries

And the first white snows.

With night coming early,

And dawn coming late,

And ice in the bucket

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn

And the kettles sing,

And earth sinks to rest

Until next spring."

- Clyde Watson

Catnapping 2some!

My boys taking a cat nap. Doesn't take much for either one of them to slip into this nap mode. I am so jealous, I wish I could take a cat nap like this.

FYI---"Catnapping" refers to the cats ability to become fully alert from a daytime doze, or from a cat feigning sleep to deceive its prey into moving so that the cat can continue the chase. These guys don't look like they are deceiving anyone.

Corpse Plant Blooms at MPM

Milwaukeeans already know the Big Gig. Now get ready for the Big Stink.
The city is about to get a snoot-full of its very own, very rare, very huge and very smelly "corpse flower," which is about to bloom at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
This titan arum blossoms only once every six years, and it has its tubers set on nothing less than becoming the biggest flower in the world. And if it does, Wisconsinites will be holding their noses all the way to Sheboygan.
The museum's corpse flower, which has never bloomed before, has its roots in Sumatra, and only about 140 of the plants are known to exist in the world, according to Neil Luebke, curator of botany at the museum and the stinky plant's guardian.
The museum's plant is the offspring of bloomin' celebrities. One of them is none other than Big Bucky, the 8-foot-tall floral super-stud that drew more than 20,000 sinus-challenged visitors when it flowered in Madison in 2005.
The titan arum's olive-size seeds were planted in 2002, products of a long-distance love-match between Big Bucky and Mr. Magnificent, an equally odiferous bloom from Florida. Luebke found the seedling a home in the museum's Butterfly Gardens, where the humidity and 80-degree temperatures suited the fussy plant just right.
Luebke gave the plant a special mixture of vitamins and water, patted it each day and, yes, talked to it. "But I'm not telling what I said to it, other than I encouraged it to grow."
And grow it did, at a rate of about an inch an hour in the last few days; it now stands at about 6 feet tall. Museum officials hope this beauty will grow to a height of about 10 feet, which would make it the biggest flower in the world. Titan arums are so rare that in their native rain forests, they must send out a signal to fellow plants in order to fertilize each other. They do this by raising a stench that travels for miles.
The foul nature of the odor has been described as everything from rotting poop to "rotting flesh, roadkill," Luebke says. If you like the smell of a dead mouse forgotten in a trap for a week, you'll love the corpse plant.

No one knows for sure exactly when the plant will bloom, But its stardom will be short-lived. It will stink for only about six hours, and then it will say hosta la vista, collapsing after a mere two days.

By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel

Neil Luebke is the curator of botany at the Milwaukee Museum and the namesake of Neilson, the museum's corpse flower. The flower's 7-foot spadix collapsed on Saturday, but the flower rallied to bloom on Monday.

I actually visited the MP Museum twice to see this flower. Once with hubby (Mike) and daughter (Amy) We got some great pictures of it, but no smell. Yes, that is Amy, looking like she is going to take a great big lick of the flower. It's just something she does at museums, I don't know why, I just capture the kodak moment. She takes after her fahter.

A close up picture of the bloom. The picture on the right is what it looks like if it is a plant and not a bloom.

The flower opened up on Monday, I took my Mom, sister and Amy on Tuesday to see it. We didn't get to see it open, but we did get to smell some of the odor that still lingered in the air. I am sure it will be the largest bloom I will ever see, open or no, it was something to see.

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