Happy Birthday America!

 
  It's going to be a very hot one and we are not cooking out today.  The town parade has been cancelled because of intense heat. We will probably just ride out and get a hamburger in the next small town.  I read where it will be 99 degrees at 3 p.m. with real feel 109 degrees and that goes to 112 degrees real feel at 4 p.m.  I have kept up watering my flowers twice a day and sometimes more.  I mostly keep watering buckets filled and put near plants on patio.  I will cover a few plants with dark mesh as the leaves on a few and especially tomatoes look burned from sun.

Our driveway flag

This teensy little portulaca I pinched from mother plant has tiny blooms

Looks so funny being so small with one bloom each.  They are growing. 

Sitting out two nights ago by moonlight

I love this arctic air.  I sit out and the cool mist feels so good with the fan.  I put ice cubes along with water into the tank for even colder cooling. 

I 

Granddaughter used it in garden area while pulling weeds.

I love this wreath from Hobby Lobby; I see the sparkle from our road. 

Took a drive to our local produce farm; there I purchased the sweetest cantaloup. I asked the young man there how to pick a good one and he showed me this one.  I didn't want one too ripe so he showed me the stem area was where it was just a little green but barely green around the area of the stem a few inches beyond which meant I had a few days to cut it before it was too ripe.  He said not to get one where around the bottom is half yellow and other half greenish.  I was told it was not ripened evenly.  This was juicy and just perfectly sweet and tender. 

Til next time

Happy 4th of July to all!  

Happy Wednesday

Happy Gorgeous Wednesday

My Glads are blooming in a drainage pipe I use for a planter

several tomatoes coming up in cells on deck.  I will see how these do for later tomatoes. 

I have volunteer petunias coming up in pots.

The pink ones are volunteers.  They seem to be a little more blush color than the mother plant from last year. 

I like the way this hydrangea bloom dried flat on my dryer top.  I may do several and frame them.  Will share when I do. 

I finished stripping my second bowl of lavender buds from their stalk.  I love doing this.  It's scents me and the whole porch.  Smells so fresh and clean.   I just need to sift them now to take out the dust. 

My rooted lavender cuttings sitting under my tomato plants.  

Now to decorate my front porch for the forth.  I seem to be the last to do so.  So many have and I waited too long to get decorations as the pickings are slim now at the stores.  I did manage to get a few from Hobby Lobby.  They had really nice ones.

Husband purchased this busy bee that flaps his wings with the wind

Need some flowers to finish this little area off in my front yard.  Maybe put some flagstone here also. 

One decoration I did get a picture of in the town.  These light up at night.  Will try to get more pics another day. 

I am now off to pull together ingredients for Lavender ice-cream. 

Will share a picture of that when I finish making it. 

Some barns and lavender

A short ride to areas around Warsaw County the other day.  Beautiful farmland and some great looking old barns.    Not too far down the way is a beach area with camping. I used to go there when kids were young, and they would play in the water and there were swing sets too.  We had a Coleman pop up camper and had a very good time cooking out and sleeping in it. 

I hope these fields stay fields of corn.   I have seen enough of solar panels ruining landscape in some areas of Va.   Virginia has some gorgeous countryside and I find it so relaxing to take a drive out and see some of it. 

Finished cutting the last of the little bit of lavender growing around my dogwood tree.  

I wish I knew the botanical name for this lavender.  I purchased it years ago and have been rooting cuttings ever since.  It was sold as Richmond Lavender.  It does grow very well in extreme cold and heat here in Virginia.  I would like to know the type though.  I am thinking something like a Provence Lavender, not sure

It's scraggly here.  

Some hard pruning done on Lavender today.  I made sure I did not prune into the woody stem as that would kill the plant. I pruned about 2 inches above the woody part.  There has to be some greenery left above the woody part. About two inches is what I left. 

A picture of what the individual stems look like.  Maybe I can take one to a greenhouse that sells lavender and they can tell me what type. 

While outside, I picked some Larkspur for drying.  

                                           

I will leave it in the bud base with the rose that husband purchased for me.  It's a real rose that is dried

I purchased a while back 4 Dahlia plants.  This one is a peach color.

The one below is kind of a plum color.  

I think I will over winter them in these pots in garage at end of season

I will take some seed heads and see if I can root some.

I have read that if the seed from the Dahlia is taken and rooted

that it will be a whole new plant.  Nothing like the one the seeds

were taken from.  Only division and eye of the tubers separated

will be just like the original plant.  Seeds will give a different color.

That is what I heard on a you tube video by a professional gardener about Dahlias, so I want to try it. 

I broke off some portulaca or Moss Rose as I call them and placed them around hydrangea.

Some have already rooted and the others will too. 

Will fill out around the pot nicely in a few weeks.  These plants grow fast. 

My patio tomato.  I hope I get it before the squirrels do.  I won't let them. 

bye for now

Getting hot and hotter

Still trucking along outside when I can.  Feeling better after surgery May 4, which threw me for a loop.  Gall bladder and large hernia.  Next appt. next Thurs. for I hope to hear all is fine and if I can lift more than four pounds. I need to get back to TKR exercises for that surgery I had in January.   I had no idea I had a hernia or gall bladder problems with ulcers until I couldn't swallow out of the blue and rushed to emergency.  Choked on chicken and I don't ever want another chicken in the foreseeable future.  Caused me to have pneumonia so I was put on some heavy antibiotic for that too. 

Back to outside and working in-between high 80-degree temp.  Muggy too.

I purchased some plants I said I wasn't going to do but did anyway.  I love coleus and petunias.  Can't go wrong in summer with them.  I did throw out zinnia seeds and they are coming up. 

I love coleus they grow way past fall for me

planted from seed two years ago

I decided the flowers in the pedestal pot were too small, so I switched to a larger pot.

I will move the smaller one somewhere else

My veggies on patio are doing very well.  I am so ready for a squirrel. 

They will pick the tomatoes off, take a bite and then drop them.  They are not my friend, and I won't tolerate them in my veggie planter. 

Lavender ready for harvesting around my dogwood tree and in some pots

I took some and made a wand, not with ribbon although I may do that too.

I will take the ones that I didn't ribbon wrap and just tie some mesh around it, then place in my closet or drawers. 

My porch is scented heavily with lavender. I will make some lavender ice cream

Looking out to the Lavender Cottage

Now to figure out what to put in these pots

Happy Week end