WHERE DID THAT PLANT COME FROM?

I love being surprised with a boquet of flowers. But the plant surprises that just show up in my yard are great too. We had a little shrub just sprang up a couple of years ago. It is so beautiful now. I still don't know what it is but it has these nice glossy leaves and a dark green color but no blooms yet. I think we might have brought the seed in with some old manure we added to our soil. I also had some purple heart just spring up after I planted some potted plants I bought at Lowes. I think birds spread seed around too. At any rate, it is always fun to see them.

Sometimes I know what they are and sometimes I have no idea. A pretty little plant is growing in my Lantana bed. It is just hiding up under all that foliage. It has these pretty little yellow flowers that look a lot like violets. I didn't plant it although I did plant some johnny jump ups earlier in the spring. This is much bigger though. Lantana springs up in the most surprising places. Herbs will spring up everywhere too. I have basil and thyme coming up all over the place and lemon balm is growing back where I pulled it out at the beginning of summer. That's good, because I really like it now but at the time I wanted the room for chives.

Another surprise I had this year was finding a vine with gorgeous little white flowers, blooming around my mailbox pole. We have a rural mailbox and I always planned on decorating it with flowers but never did. I hope it comes back next year. I am hoping for a new mailbox too. One the mailman will actually close shut. : )

RABBITS AND MELONS

Lovely painting is Benjamin's Garden
By Kimberly Hodge
We have a small plot of trees behind the house that I just let go wild for the birds and rabbits and other little animals who live there. I walked back there with the dogs when they were younger. Solo can no longer see too well, and I think he feels safer in the front where he knows his way around by the plants and buildings. I miss the walks though. My woods are full of birds right now. I seem to have a lot of red birds this year. Every time I stand on the back porch, I will see a flash of red. I hope I can get a picture of one.

Speaking of rabbit's, I love windows. Wait, I'll tie it together. In my home that was blown down by Katrina, I had this large picture window that looked out on the woods. I use to watch rabbits eat my plants from that window. I love rabbits though so I didn't mind. Until yesterday that is...Now I'm warning them, they better keep their little cotton picking mouths off my watermelon and cantaloupe. They actually are eating more than their share. Maybe they are looking for the cool juice since they have to be hot too with these temperatures. I didn't begrudge them a little, but they are just taking it too far now. There are perfectly good and juicy cukes they can have. We are no longer eating them. One or two a week is now enough for us for salads.

I think I will put a pot over a few of them. Not the rabbits, the melons. LOL Although that is a thought. Ummm rabbit stew. I'm kidding. I have heard the melons themselves, don't need the light, just the vines. It's worth a shot. We had cantaloupe for lunch today. It was decadent. We cut off the top of two of them and just ate right from nature's bowl with a spoon.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW PLANT

I had a friend whose Mother grew this evergreen shrub in her flower beds. I remember being fascinated by the name when I was a young teen and totally too romantic. The common name of Yesterday-Today-and Tomorrow comes from the quick change in the flower colors from purple to lavender to white. I've read that in partial shade the plant can reach 10 feet, but can be kept pruned to about 3 feet quite easily. Daisy Belle's Mother's plants were rather tall, and I think taller than 10 feet. Of course, I was shorter then so maybe they weren't. : )

Yesterday-today-and-tomorrow is known to contain poisonous alkaloids. The berries are especially toxic to dogs. You might know a cool plant like this would have drawbacks. I wouldn't take a chance on it around my animals but it sure is interesting. It reminds me of the Confederate Rose and how it changes from white, to pale pink to rose before the day is over. Now I have two of those but as far as I know, they are not poisonous.

ORDINARY MARIGOLDS

Sometime when I am looking for a nice pic from the garden, I overlook the obvious. These just looked so pretty today so I thought I would take a picture. They do not look ordinary at all when they are covered in blooms. They are quite beautiful.

History---It was well known to the old herbalists as a garden-flower and for use in cookery and medicine. Dodoens-Lyte (A New Herball, 1578) says:
'It hath pleasant, bright and shining yellow flowers, the which do close at the setting down of the sunne, and do spread and open again at the sunne rising.'

Since I am not up with the Sun, I don't know if this holds true, but I know it is always blooming when I see it. Faithful little thing. It does have a very pungent odor though so I don't use it much in arrangements. It just cheers me up to see the bright and beautiful colors of gold and orange in my veggie garden. I don't plant it for insect control, although I have heard it is good for that. I planted some of the pretty gold ones next to the purple and white eggplant this year and it was a great look. They did better than my eggplant, which was mediocre at best. They just never seem to reach their full potential.

It has been asserted that a Marigold flower, rubbed on the affected part, is an admirable remedy for the pain and swelling caused by the sting of a wasp or bee. A lotion made from the flowers is most useful for sprains and wounds, and a water distilled from them is good for inflamed and sore eyes. So the next time, a bee or wasp is chasing you, head in the direction of your marigolds. : )

CASHMERE BOUQUET

They say this flower was the inspiration for the first mass produced soap, put out by the Colgate Company. It does have a pretty smell but they may have been more inspired by the flower than the fragrance. The soap is still available today but the picture looks more like a rose. Down through the years they changed it and used other flowers in thier ads.

I love this but I've been told it can become a pest. We planted some of it in an old fiberglass bathtub to contain it but we couldn't resist putting one in this old plastic light globe. These globes were used to cover those big outside lights at our Coliseum. Billy asked me if I wanted one and then he brought home fifty! He works in contruction so people are always giving him things.
I think it makes a good pot for this plant. I put a hole for drainage in the bottom but the top already had a hole large enough to plant in. I like the way it looks. Anyone know what I can do with the other forty nine? LOL

BLUE FLOWERS ARE A STAND OUT

You can not have too much blue in the garden in my opinion. I love blue. I always like the various blue salvias and, of course, the blue Wave petunias. But one little plant that is just a stand out is the "blue daze" evolvulus. This little flower reminds me so much of the Canterbury bells we had all over the place when I was a child. It thrives in hot summers like we have here on the Coast. It is in the morning glory family and is almost the same beautiuful blue as the "heavenly blue" morning glory.I have one on an earlier post. Since it is only 12 inches high,,it will look good in the front of your bed with let's say, ,the gold zinnias..Pictue this: The icy light blue flowers with olive colored leaves in front of the gold zinnias,,,oh wait..You don't have to picture it...that is what is in the picture. Now isn't that dramatic?

HANGING BASKETS

Hanging basket containing a display of purple and white flowers including Diascia, Phlox, Verbena, Lobelia, Reinwardtia and ivy-leaved Pelargonium.

I love hanging baskets. I like to use a big, big basket it gets more attention and you have to water it less. Right now I don't have any planted,,they just hang there, making me feel guilty. I want to get out this weekend and see what kind of flowers I can find. I fully intended to plant a few but I got so involved with the veggie garden, I just didn't take the time.

I really like the mesh type baskets best because when you think about it, most baskets are seen from below and this way, you can poke holes and plants all around the sides. You can buy the natural mesh liners to line your pot. It looks better from below. You will have to line it with plastic to keep it from getting dry so fast, that's the only problem. With the plastic types, you won't need to do this. Insert you plants through the slits cut in both the natural liner and the plastic. Make it stiffer so it is easier to insert by wrapping in a piece of stiff paper.

When it gets dry, take it down and let it soak in a pan of water for a few hours, overnight is better. That way it will get thoroughly and evenly wet. Use slow release fertilizer in your soil. Primp them while you're at it, get rid of dead flowers, trim up the dry or dead foliage..check for disease or insects before you hang it back up. And use a strong support. Plants get really heavy when wet and need the support. I have had a few fall so I know. I messed up one of my favorites in a pot once, broke to smitherins.... And after all your hard work on them,,don't forget to enjoy them.

GARDENS, TREES, PLANTS, ALL GONE

When we returned home to Gulfport MS in early September 2005 after evacuating to Alabama in advance of Hurricane Katrina’s Aug. 29 landfall, I didn't know what to expect.

I was anxious about what we would find after learning from television news that the storm had devastated the whole Coast from Bay St. Louis to Ocean Springs for the most part.

The first thing I saw on television about Harrison County was complete devastation, nothing left on the beach side, the Bay St. Louis bridge and Highway 90 bridge both gone. But we lived a little further back from the beach so I was hopeful. Billy went back home without me to see how things were. We had lost our home but unlike a lot of people, we were still able to get a few things we needed out. We were alive and so was all the family, so all was well. We have learned by now, to leave when a Hurricane threatens so most of the family had evacuated.

They came later and picked up the pieces, memories piled in big trucks. Funny, but my thought as I watched them taking things away was, "Now, I don't have the closet, where my sweet little cat, Alley, had her kittens"...I kept all of them. We have three cats. Alley got killed by some of those same trucks, after the Hurricane. Her babies had just turned one year old. I miss her still.

Nothing could prepare you for the devastation, even though we had seen the news. It was really bad in Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Waveland. As we drove around, there was road after road of nothing, like someone had just cleared the table. This meant all the huge Oak trees, the beautiful plants, flower gardens,,,everything gone in addition to all the homes destroyed.

But nature has a way of filling the gap and new trees and plants are springing up everywhere,,,people are replanting their gardens. There are many places that are still empty spaces, but I am sure in time, there will be trees and flowers and plants everywhere again. It will never look the same,,a lot of history got lost along the way,,,but future generations will see the Coast in bloom again. Hurricane Katrina will only be a memory but I will always miss those lovely trees we lost. It takes a long time to grow a tree.

WINDOW BOXES

I love window boxes and every year I always plan on having one. Then before you know it, the Summer is over and I still haven't got around to that window box. These are very pretty ones here in this slide show. I am thinking I may get around to the Christmas one, since I can't get it together the rest of the year. I am most certainly going to have a Spring one next year. Absolutely!

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

TOO MUCH GARDEN BLING BLING?

Is this taking garden bling bling a little far? I love it but would I want it in my yard? If you click on this and look closely, you will find this is a false front, not a shed at all. Interesting!
Yes, we all like a little garden art here and there. For instance, statues, gazing ball, maybe a fountain. But when do you know you have gone over the line and your family is going to have you committed? There is a few little tips to help you know when you have crossed the line.

Do you have more junk than plants? Can you no longer mow the lawn but need to use a weed eater on the whole yard? When you stop and pick up things like stoves, an old sink, toilet, heater, scrap lumber, or bathtub with an eye to planting something in it...you may be over the line. When people think you are holding a garage sale and you're not, you may be over the line. When you pick up a brass bed, headboard and think it will be cute to make a "flower' bed with it...that may be the clue right there.


But take all the above with the purest of intentions. I cover bowling balls with pennies, marbles or paint them and call them garden balls and I made a huge pot-man once upon a time out of clay pots....so if it makes you happy - Seize the day, I say!