Pagoda's on the Entrance of our Community Garden

There is a Pagoda on both ends of the Community Garden.  They are planted with purple grapes, which actually gave fruit last Summer.  You can see the low 4-foot fence, which does nothing to deter the thieves who constantly come over the fence to take the gardners veggies each Summer.  Most frustrating.

An Overview of the Community Garden

There are 42 garden plots in our Community Garden.  The ones that are along the fence are 8x20 feet, the inner plots are about 15x15 feet.  My garden is the one way down in the corner shown here.  My daughter's plot is the one just in the front of the fence plot as shown here.  Not everyone has fully planted their gardens yet. 



Thought you would enjoy seeing what this Community Garden is like.  This is only a small portion of the entire garden.

Blue Delphiniums

This is my daughter's blue delphinium blooming.  There are 3 young plants this year, so there will not be much bloom other than this.

Hollyhock

This is one of 10 Hollyhock plants I have across the back of my garden to hopefully form a fence type barrier.  The tubers were mixed colors so it will be a wait and see to see what I get.  You can see my delphiniums in the lower left corner of the picture.  The delphiniums are young plants and probably will not give me blooms this year. My Iowa friend  Gloria had given me seeds from her Black Hollyhock a couple years ago, they did not germinate.

New variety of Verbena called Lanai Purple Star

This is a Proven Winners plant, I absolutely love anything from Proven Winners, I always get the best results with their plants.  This Lanai Verbena is called Purple Star.  This is suppose to be a container plant, but I put it in an area of the garden where I needed some fill.  Isn't this pretty?

Plum Celosia Flower

I have some annual flowers of the plum type celosia flower, the red is particular pretty.  It rained pretty hard last night so all the flowers had some dirt kicked up on them.  I can see that there are some weeds in this picture, the weeding is never done!  I also see that the early leaves are sun burned, I will need to prune the leaves soon.

Scabiosa Flower - color blue

This is my 2nd year Scabiosa Flower.  I especially like this perennial as it is low growing, yet sends up a lot of blooms.  I purchased this as a started plant last year.  I do believe the flower is a darker blue than what shows in the picture, it was overcast today when the pictures were taken.

Seminole Blood Daylily trying to open

This is a picture of the Seminole Blood daylily trying to open this morning.  Tomorrow it will be fully open.

Talk about wanting to cry

I read this blog and it made me want to cry http://inkandpenstemon.tumblr.com/  Scroll down to her May 25th blog entry.  I am not going to give you any hints, except it does not involve dogs or babies.  I sure hope never to see this in my garden.  I will have to keep watching on her blog to see how she recovers.

No work, probably no garden today

This is my last day of my "mini vacation". I had hoped to spend it at the garden, but alas, today is not a good garden day. We are expecting some fierce thunder/lightening storms throughout the day, sure don't want to get stuck in one of them. Last night was some of the fiercest thunder storms I've heard in some time. Right now, it is humid and not raining and the sun is overcast. The rain last night was one of those that came in a straight downpour, all I could image was the beating some of the flowers were taking by the force of the downpour, but happy the garden was getting a good deep watering. I'm off to do some garden blog hopping. Happy day to all.

Ramblings

Today was an especially nice day to be in the Garden. We spent 3 hours there, visiting with other gardners, enjoying seeing each other after a long winter and discussing what we all are planting. Today's pictures from the garden are few, but what we do have are pretty. Enjoy the picture show.

Blue Delphinium

This is a blue delphinium in my daughter's garden. I especially love this picture.

This is my Trollis Globe Flower. I bought this plant the first year I had the Community Garden, in 2007. It never gave me more than 3 or 4 flowers and last year I came close to pulling it up. This year, it has a lot more blooms and even though it only blooms for about 2 weeks, the flowers are pretty.

Lupine is opening

I am so excited, my lupine is opening, it looks red, so pretty. Of course, there was no name, it was just a large plant I bought from Market Basket. They had the best looking perennial plants this year, the best I've seen anywhere. A lot of my new flowers came from Market Basket (which is a food store for those of you outside our area). See the post below just a couple of days ago to see the flower head before it opened.

First Daylily Bloom, Choctaw Brave

This Daylily is called Choctaw Brave. It is the first of over 45 Daylilies Diane purchased this year. This was a double fan and even though the picture itself is not spectular, the flower did not fully open, I wanted to share the moment with my blog viewers. In the background you can see one of her pink dianthus, sorry, don't know it's name. It is a 3-year old plant from Home Depot.

Diana Blueberry Dianthus

Two years ago my daughter planted from seed a dianthus called Diana Blueberry, from Park Seed. Last year it was just a small plant with no flowers. This year it has formed a hedge like plant that is at least 2 feet long. It is loaded with flower blooms that have yet to open, but a few have now opened. The flowers are HUGE, at least 2 inches across. When all the flowers open, this plant is going to be spectular viewing. Here is a picture of one of the flowers. Stay tuned for a picture of the plant when it is in full bloom.

Columbine Cut Back

Today I made the decision to drastically cut back my 4 year old columbine. It had tall stems that were starting to fade and they were so heavy that it was causing the plant to lean to one side, and even with a plant fence, it was still bending. This plant is in a part of the garden that when the wind blows, this plant was taking the blunt force of the winds. Every year I think about doing this, I just bite the bullet and cut it back. Here is a picture of it.

Neighbor's Tee Pee

I though you might like to see one of the neighbor's garden who does a tee pee for her cukes each summer. I love how it looks before the vines start to grow. She just put this up today.

Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy

This was a poor germination from seed last year. I only had this one plant come back from last year's seeding. It looks like a big healthy plant, looking forward to seeing the blooms. This picture also shows my new garden labels this year. I used the P-Touch clear lables on the tag, I've read about how reliable this plant tag will be to the weather conditions.

Goblin Gaillardia

I've not had much luck with gaillardia in my garden. I've heard that this variety called "Goblin" is a good performer. I am hoping for a good show of color and form from this flower this year.

Lollipop Gerbera

This is my "showpiece" plant this year. I had looked at this huge plant at Lowe's for 3 weeks, avoiding it due to the $29.99 price tag. Finally, I bought it for myself for Mother's Day and it has not disappointed in the Garden. This flower holds up to the pounding rain, cold nights and very hot sun. I believe this is the color called Mango.

Heuchera

I think this variety is called "Wedding Veil". This plant is from 2007 and has been moved twice, and then divided last year. I thought it would die when it was divided, it really sulked last year. This year, it has grown and grown and has the most glorious color. Just beautiful.

Lupine

This is the beginning of my first bloom on this year's Lupine. Look's like it is going to be either a pink or dark purple bloom. As soon as it starts, I will post a new picture.

Mini Rose Bushes-Love Em!

Perennial Geranium

This has to be my most favorite flower in the garden. I've had this plant since the first year of the Community Garden, 2007. It is a natural mounding plant, not too tall and just gives blooms all Summer long.

Peruvian Daffodil

I bought all these packages of bulbs this year at Lowe's. This package had 2 bulbs, both have grown, this is the first one to flower. Quite different, don't you think?

New Year, New Flowers

This beautiful pink perennial Poppy is growing in my neighbor's garden. When I say neighbor, I mean as in Community Garden. This plant is the most specticular plant in the entire Garden. Most of the gardners plant vegetables, but there are a few of us who only do flowers. It's too bad that these flowers don't bloom longer.

Introducing - Autumn

This is a picture of one of the kittens my daughter kept from the litter of kittens we raised. Isn't she pretty. She has the reverse of a white blaze and feet. Instead of white, she has a black blaze on her face, black lower legs (like a Siamese) and her ear tips are black. She looks like she has mascara around her eyes. She is 12 weeks old now.

Leo's identification mark

Can you see the little nick in his left ear at the top? He got this when he was still a stray, it is his very own ID mark. Nowadays, he is content to survery his use to be world from the safety of his perch.

New Picture of Leo

Isn't he just so beautiful. This is Leo taken yesterday.

He is laying on top of his favorite place to look out the window at his world (I call it his TV). He has his own fan club that regularly come by to talk with him. All the little kids in the neighborhood know his name now and they all talk to him. If he is not in the window, they will actually call out his name.

My daughter's flower garden

This is an overview of my daughter's flower garden. There are sweetpeas in the back, cosmos, different zinnias, and so many flowers I don't remember what they are. She grew them all from seed. A true labor of love in this garden. The sunflowers are in the garden next to her, the gardens in this community garden are 8x19 in size.

Cosmos

My daughter Diane also has a community garden, this is some of her Cosmos, the little red flowers in the front left are her Gompfrenia grown from see. All her were grown from seed this year.

Mystery Plants-Any idea what it is?

You probably can't see this plant good enough to identify it for me. I "thought" it was a Blue Aster plant, but it has grown so large, at least 3 feet tall, I'm wondering if I've been lovingly cultavating a WEED all Summer long. If it is an Aster, this corner of my little garden is going to be spectular when it blooms next month. I have my beloved Shasta Daisy in front of it. This plant overshadows my huge mums that are behind it.

Purple Coneflowers

This is my oh so beautiful purple coneflower, a 3-year old plant. The rain has really washed out the beautiful color of this HUGE plant. The corn is not in my garden, but is leaning into my garden from the garden next to me. I have TONS of little plants from this plant in the garden, they will bloom next year, I'm going to have to give them away, there is no room for as many plants as are growing.

Can you say yellow Daisy. This Award Winner daisy plant has outdone itself in the garden, I could not be happier with this particular plant.

You can see the purple Celosia behind the daisys. This daisy is ONE plant.

Purple Celosia

I do not know the variety of this particular Celosia. I bought it in a small pot from my local Stop & Shop, it did not have a stick in the pot to identify the variety. I promptly put this gem in my garden and all it has done is grow and grow and grow. This flower has been the mainstay of my Summer flower garden, quite a showpiece. If anyone knows the name, please do share with me.

Garden Pictures

Since my squash plants have all died from too much rain this Summer, I thought I would share some of my garden flowers with you. My good friend from Kansas sent me some flower seeds from her garden from an heirloom Celosia plant. The seeds germinated and have grown slowly but steadly and this is where the flowers are now. The flower heads are just now starting to grow, see the red on top of the flowers, that is the flower head which will get quite large, but here are a few pictures of the Celosia. The yellow flowers behind are my planted from seed Black Eyed Susans.

Here is another view of the flowers

Seeds from a friend

My friend Linda from Kansas sent me some seeds from a plant that her father grew over 25 years ago, he has been passed on for that long and she reports that for as long as she can remember he had this flower in his garden. It is a red celosia and I was so happy when the seeds she sent me sprouted. Here they are growing in the round pot and to the right you can see 13 of the little plants in the ground. Hoping for the most spectular plants from these seeds. To have such a heirloom plant growing is such a honor.

2008 Garden Pictures

Well, for the most part my community garden for 2008 is planted, here is the proof. I planted a lot of petunias, and anything that looks like a daisy. For vegetables I planted zuchinni, summer squash, eggplant, red onions, peppers and tomatoes. I have 20 different herbs. I have a lot of perennials that came back from last year, all of which are not blooming yet. There are red gladioula and sweet peas and zinnas growing in the back which can't be seen in this photo. The green between the bricks is not weeds, but an annual portulaca that came back from seeds strewn last year by the flowers. This stuff is like an invasive weed, can't kill it, but they do have pretty blooms. The huge black eye susan in the back was planted from seed by me last year, it is just beautiful this year. I will share more photos as the plants bloom.

New kitten pictures

Here are some new pictures of our 4 1/2 week old litter of rescue kittens. They are almost impossible to get a picture of as they are constantly moving around. They are going to be going to a no-kill shelter for adoption along with their mom. We have adopted all our cats from them and the people who work there are fantastic. I feel very fortunate we have been able to get on the waiting list with the kittens.

Anyone have a torn meniscus?

Well, I do and I'm having surgery next Wednesday. The ole knee has been giving me trouble for years now, but has reared it's ugly head in a big way over the past month. My surgery is going to be arthroscopic so it isn't suppose to be a bad recovery. If you've had it, please tell me your stories.

Little boys & their bikes

My grandson is 11 and is finally old enough to take his bike from the backyard. He has been riding it since mid-summer and having a ball. Well, yesterday, he came home and had to leave his bike outside chained to a lamp pole. WHY? do you ask. It seems he "accidentially" rode his bike through dog crap on the sidewalk. His landlady would not allow the bike in the hallway (and I don't blame her). Well, when I found this out this morning, he said he was just going to ride his bike until it all fell off. I immediately got him a bucket of water and a long handled brush and insisted he go out and clean the tires of his bike so it could be brought inside. He relunctly agreed to do this. My daughter and I were inside. She brought over her cupacoffee and we were peeking out the window to see if he would throw up!! HeeeeeeeeHeeeeeeeee, are we awful??? Nope, he did not, he was like a grown up boy, just cleaned off his bike, and then decided to wash the whole bike. Of course, I insisted he come inside for a clean bucket of water before he continued going from the wheels to the whole bike. Even though he insists he "accidentially" rode through the dog crap, you can be darn sure, that "accident" wont' happen again. Oh, how I love this little boy.