A Fight to the Finish
Dennis has seen the squirrels jump up into the pots
and some plants have been broken down.
Updates from May, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Noreen
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Noreen
It Was Just Sweet!
Spring on It’s Way – Photo by Dennis
Thinking on this last weekend the word “sweet” comes to mind. Saturday, as I walked the gardens, some of the Hosta that made it through the winter gave an indication that they would not mind being shared via the splitting process. The winter of 2012-2013 left many bare spots in the perennial gardens after layers of ice proved to be too much for survival of many Hosta. The garden season of 2013 had me recovering from shoulder surgery, allowing me to be content enjoying that which had made it through the brutal winter.
Now Saturday, that was a whole new me enjoying dirty fingernails. Left shoulder was new as of April 2013. Right shoulder was new as of January 2014. This was the beginning of the first painless shoulder gardening season since 2010. Yesterday from the depths of the potting shed came the spade, shovel, rake and Miracle Grow to be added to the bottom of new holes for newly split Hosta to be plunked into. I was in my element. Dennis assisted in supplying water for the new plantings and refilling my coffee cup as needed. At the end of the day Dennis and I enjoyed the back patio and deemed it a good day’s work as we began making plans to enjoy Sunday as a “road trip date.”
Sunday did see us putting quite a few miles on as well as several stops for refreshments. You can take the farmer off the farm but you can’t take the farmer out of either Dennis or me. Seeing the difference in spring planting from one area to another gave credence to the differing amounts of rain fall after the late winter snowfalls. The sunset Sunday night with us sitting on the back patio knowing we had the best of best days for all we had seen and who we had been blessed to greet and share time with. Life on Stauffer is sweet.
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Noreen
Sunday the 18th of May
This is the day the Lord hath made and I am rejoicing in it. Catch ya later.
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Noreen
A Mix of Glass, Iron and Copper
Garden art enjoyed by mixing glass and metals.
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Noreen
It’s Been a Successful Day
Tulips and the Fern Peony: perfect
pairing on Stauffer Avenue.This was an event-filled day on Stauffer. I checked Dennis into the hospital for his colonoscopy this morning and gave them my cell phone number so I could be reached when he was in recovery.
Twenty years ago I purchased a 10o percent rubber hose to bury from the water faucet on the north side of the house to the backyard. Dennis used a bracket that was bolted to the clothes line pole where the buried hose met a second hose that was wound and wrapped for the backyard use whether it was for a sprinkler or just to have water in the backyard. Carrying pails of water is not for the gardener in the 20th century. Each fall Dennis would blow out the buried hose as best he could.
This spring we noticed that the buried hose connection on the clothes line pole was weathered to the point that there was an ever so small leak. Taking a 50′ trek to turn the house faucet off and on when we needed water was not for us. Dennis and I both agreed it was time to pull up the buried hose and contend with a hose that would lie on top of the ground and we would put it in storage in the potting shed over the winters to come.
I knew Dennis was being well taken care of in the hospital and I made it my job for the morning to pull up the buried hose. I either had forgotten how deep I had buried it or the yard had filled in to a degree that made the project shovel worthy.
The end result for the day: the polyps are out of Dennis’ colon and the buried hose is out of the ground. Dennis came home and enjoyed a bowl of oatmeal as his first meal in 42 hours. A surprising side line: Dennis went out to Fleet and Farm and bought new end connections for the rubber hose that had been buried in the ground for twenty years and it is now a trust worthy hose that is on the south side of the house, wound, and on a bracket, ready for use. It really has been a successful day on Stauffer Avenue.
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Noreen
It’s a Funny Thing
When events happen to others that will eventually come home to roost, we don’t quite have the recollection of how those events unfolded for the other. I am speaking of hubby Dennis’ day of having nothing more than clear liquids today as the prep will soon begin for his Colonoscopy tomorrow. I had a Colonoscopy last year and Dennis had no recall of me not eating the day before. He also has no recall of me drinking the prep and being up all night as the prep worked its while. Bless his heart. I had to assure him that this was not a vendetta targeting just him. This is all about doing the right thing and it is a good thing.
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Noreen
Fleeting Thoughts:
Grandchildren Megan and Nicholas have always helped with garden art for our gardens in previous years during spring breaks or Easter vacation. This year with the super late cold spring I may have to write a job description for hubby Dennis to help out. The potting shed is so ready to be emptied of its treasures.
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Noreen
I Think I Can, I Think I Can and . . .
. . . I couldn’t. Just a week ago today we mowed our yards for the first time. Today the sun came out and we decided to do the yards before we got more rain. I use my push mower for our original lot (50′ x 260′). By the time the area of the house, garage, patios and gardens come out of that area it is very doable. Today, I could not push my mower through the thick tall grass in the front yard. I tried a half swat and still the mower bogged down and my heels were dug in and my butt cheeks were taut. Dennis came from the backyards with the rider and mowed the front lawn and I proceeded to rake it afterwards. This is what four inches of rain will do with cool weather. Gee, I hate to see what temps in the 60 degree range will bring about for mowing. Dennis said even in the backyards with the multi-blade rider it was impossible to take a full swat.
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Noreen
Spring Planting
Spring always feels good when you
can get your fingernails dirty.With additional rain this weekend that is now measuring more than 4 inches over the last week, planting can no longer wait. I so rely on the perennials to fill in areas in the gardens, but nothing beats annuals for color that continues all season.
In time past Johnny Hill’s Standard Gas Station on Highways 212 and 4 in Hector always had garden art items for sale. I had seen planters when Dennis and I were traveling through Pella, Iowa, in residential yards that really struck my fancy. They gave lot of color in a concentrated. Lo and behold Johnny carried the planters.When we decided to have a patio poured, the base of the Johnny Hill planter was worked into the original pour. We started out with Geraniums and as time went on if you did not pluck each and every spent bloom they would stop blooming. Actually, sometimes they took a break from blooming whenever they felt like it. At $3.99 to $4.99 per Geranium — and we needed thirteen pots for the planter — Dennis and I started looking for different plants. We took a chance on wax begonias that had the red leaves.
“No, no, they don’t like full sun.” Ha! They loved the full sun and we have stuck with them each year thereafter. They are reasonably priced. For approximately $2.00 a pot we have a full season of blooms. They may start out as plants that barely come to the top of the pot, but as time goes on it becomes a tower of beauty. My choice of potting soil is the Miracle Grow that has the moisture granules mixed in with the potting soil.The temps have been really cool for this time in the planting year, but today I had to get the pots started so they would be able to rest a bit before being plunked into the stand. By the time I was done with the 13 pots the temps had dropped even lower and I could see my breath. The pots will definitely stay in the garage for several days as the night temps are just not worth taking the chance of setting the plants back to the degree that it would take a long time for them to recover. It felt great to get the work area cleaned up and warm the hands. Now it is “hurry up and wait” for the plants to get some warm sun on them so they can grow and fill in the pots with blooms. Oh yes, I am happy, happy, happy.
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Noreen
Fleeting Thoughts:
Officially it was Mother’s Day today the 11th of May 2014. Every day is Mother’s Day in my world. It’s not possible for me to go through any portion of any day and not have my children in my thoughts and prayers. It’s a great investment of my time.
