More Pictures from My Garden






I've been traveling a lot in recent years, so I've put more effort into container plants on the deck than into borders.  I've always had a fondness for woody plants and interesting foliage -- not just flowers.

The back part of my yard borders a big field, and I let it grow wild: no grass to cut, just wild violets and plants that grow naturally.  It does need to be weed-whacked in the middle of the growing season, but it's very low maintenance, since I'm gone a lot in the summer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Problem with Black Walnuts

Image
First Published in The Landscape Contractor magazine “What You Don’t Know About Walnuts Can Hurt Your Plants” By Becke Davis How many times have you planted perfectly healthy trees or shrubs into an existing landscape, only to have them die for no apparent reason? When that happens, do you call in a specialist from the County Extension Service you diagnose the cause of death? Do you have an arborist check out the remains of the plant? Or do you just bite the bullet and resign yourself to the inevitable loss of a few trees and shrubs? Nine times out of ten, you’d be safe to do that, but the 10th time you could be letting yourself in for a repeat performance. There are a number of reasons why a relatively new plant can die -- planting too deeply (although that usually causes a slower death), herbicide contamination, insufficient watering, root burn from over-fertilization, rootballs sitting in water that won’t drain, and so on. When you are running down a checklist of possible reasons fo...
Read more

The Superior Scribbler Award

Image
A big thanks to Ryan, author of the cool Wordsmithonia blog, for giving me the Superior Scribbler Award! You can click the title to see Ryan's blog. Ryan is also a regular at Barnes & Noble's Mystery Book Club -- stop by there and chat with us both sometime! Here is how the Superior Scribbler award works (and isn't that the cutest icon ever?): Here are the rules for this award: 1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends. 2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award. 3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award. 4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor! 5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her...
Read more

When We Were Very Young

Image
My kids and I were reminiscing about the books we remembered reading (or having read to us) when we were young. My daughter came up with The Lonely Doll, When the Sun Rose, We Like Kindergarten, Jessica (Kevin Henkes)and The Story of Holly and Ivy. Those were her "young 'un" favorites; these were from her pre-teen/teen years: Alice in Rapture, Sort of (the Alice series -- Phyllis Reynolds Naylor), Just As Long As We're Together (Judy Blume), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Judy Blume), Stacey's Book (Baby-sitter's Club -- Ann M. Martin), California Diaries series (Ann M. Martin), Daughters of Eve (Lois Duncan) andGirl Goddess #9 (Francesca Lia Block). My son liked all of Marilyn Sadler's Alistair books, but his favorite was Alistair Underwater. He also remembers the Boxcar Children books, Grover (from Sesame Street) in The Monster at the End of the Book, and a book he thinks was called "How to Make Money." I didn't recall that one,...
Read more