HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!.....

Irene and Lee took their toll on my gardens.
I decided to transplant 24 of the big zinnia plants that were scattered all over the yard.
The sunflowers were bending over almost to the ground and the little stinker squirrels bit off every one of the heads!
I made a Fall display with my homegrown corn fodder and two of the three pumpkins from the garden.
Pansies and mums always help the gardens to stay nice until heavy frost takes it's toll.

The day I transplanted the zinnia plants it was 90 degrees! They have settled in nicely and the vegetable garden looks so much better! They were not at their peak anymore but I couldn't bear to toss them out
when the birds and bees could still enjoy them. We have had a steady parade of goldfinches, monarch
butterflies and hummingbirds who seem to love the zinnias as much as I do!

BIRDBATH GARDEN IN JULY.....

Thanks to daily watering the gardens are doing very well. I now have over 20 "clumps" of black-eyed-susans and after a few plantings of seeds the zinnias are blooming and are hands down my favorites!

Here is my new "garden buddy". He has little fear and seems to enjoy a wide variety of greens in the yard from the grasses, weeds and the leaves of some flowers and vegetables. I saw his "twin" with him yesterday. I hope the neighborhood cats who roam through our yard leave them alone!

JUNE IN THE GARDEN.....

We had zuchinni for dinner last night. Can't beat fresh from the garden! I have another volunteer sunflower which has really shot up in the last couple weeks with all the heat we had. I planted my peppers closer together than usual after I dug in a couple bags of sand. Hope they do OK.

I planted sunflowers again in the low spot after I added the potting soil from 32 pots from last years plants
and 4 or 5 bags of topsoil. I added a couple rows of three sizes of zinnias in front. The back daylily garden is in full swing and loaded with blossoms.

While in Kmart this fella jumped in my cart! He has a green solar light and I just couldn't resist!

HOW TO BUILD-A-BUSH.....

Here is a photo of my arborvitae nearly cut down to a five foot stump.

It was really difficult to see it go. It was home to many generations of birds and a playground for the squirrels.

I had carefully pulled out the euonymous vines that had grown up through it nearly 15 feet and wrapped them around the "stump". It was a cold March day and I didn't waste any time making it "pretty" I just
wanted to save the vines that took years to grow so long and NOT have to dig out the stump!

TA DA!!! This is what I had in mind. On a nice WARM day in May I finally finished my project. I cut back
a good bit of euonymous that had taken over some of the garden. Then I carefully "sculpted" the bush
leaving only three branches from the euonymous growing on the left as the base of the bush which
you can clearly see. I think they look like tenacles---but that's just me. I am just tickled that I was able to
keep part of the arborvitae and the very long branches of the euonymous creating a living sculpture!

BEFORE & AFTER.....

Ok, I cut down the VERY brown branches but what to do now with the stump?! It is surrounded with perennials so digging it up would be difficult. Since I had carefully pulled down the arborvitae vines
that had grown up through the shrub I decided to use them to create an "instant" shrub! The vines
came from multiple places on either side of the stump.

Ta Da!...... I carefully wrapped the vines and tucked them into the branches of the stump and tied them where necessary. The birds began coming after a few day and can often be seen sitting there waiting their
turn at the birdbath or feeder. Some grackles have even gone "inside" and may be building a nest. As I
said earlier I think I "killed the shrub with kindness" because when I knocked down all that snow and ice
it compacted down at the base and stayed there for quite a while most likely rotting the branches. I was
able to break off many of the branches by hand. I think this explains why the shrub died off.
The arborvitae vines were 10' to 15' long so they covered the stump really well. Over the summer months
they will fill out even more. This way the perennials are undisturbed and the birds still have some place
to hang out and I don't have to dig out the stump! OK......eventually the stump will decay but it will be
interesting to see if the vines grow enough to maintain the basic shape of a bush. We will see.........

THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA.....

With the forecast for rain I knew that it would be a while before I could cut up the branches and tie them
into bundles. If I left them on the ground they would kill the grass so I piled them up on the picnic table
until I could get out there and take care of them.

By the next morning I could hear the sparrows chirpping away inside and on top of the branches! They refuse to move out of their "condo"! I feel so badly taking away what had been their "family" shelter for
so many years! They don't care that the shrub is dead and relocated! Now what do I do?!.

ARBORVITAE NEARLY GONE...

Naturally my loppers broke as I started the project of cutting down the arborvitae! I was determined to "get
her done" so I used what I had---a small pruning saw. As you can see there were LOTS of branches! I left
the two center branches to take down the next day. I was sure that the birds were watching me in horror
that their "condominium" was being taken down!

GOODBYE ARBORVITE.....

Here I am after last years first blizzard trying to "save" my aborvite from the ice an snow that was weighing
it down. Little did I know I was "killing it with kindness"! Last summer I began to see it losing its color and
beginning to die. I couldn't find any pest infestation or disease so I just kept it watered through the heat
of summer and feed it along with all the plants in the garden and hoped that it would survive. It has to be
at least 25 years old. I remember carrying it in my lap on the trip home from the garden center (obviously
Bob was driving!) At least 3 species of birds take turns nesting in it. The grackles were especially territorial
when nesting and were VERY vocal about my working in the garden around the bush! From my kitchen
window I could watch the many chickadees who sun themselves each day on the edges of the bush and
wait their turns at the birdfeeder. Many times a hawk has swooped through the shrub trying to snag some
lunch and come out empty handed but recently he got one of my beautiful cardinals. I knew I would have
to cut down the arborvite before the birds began their Spring nest building so last Friday I reluctantly started chopping away.

CARDINALS VS BLUEJAYS....

Cardinals and Bluejays are very territorial. Here you see the bluejay saying "It's my turn!"

The two bluejays swoop in and force out the cardinal.

This scene is repeated from morning to dusk. I am trying to get a shot of all the birds and squirrels together. It is amazing to me how many variety of birds stop by the feeder. More photos to come!

IS IT SPRING YET?!.....

I happen to love snow. I still get excited as when I was a kid when it is in the forecast BUT.....
my mind keeps drifting to thoughts of how I will plant the gardens this year.....how nice it
would be to be working out in the yard with the WARM sun beating down on me......how much
work is out there to be done before I can even think of planting anything.....how much I didn't
get done before winter set in.
OK.....maybe winter can stay a LITTLE longer!

MY MIRACLE GERBER......

I don't think it is a coinsidence that the top photo looks "mystical" because this is my miracle gerber! I have had it in my garden for three years. It wintered over in my basement under a grow light, but appeared barely alive last Spring when it was time to move it outside. It wasn't long before it produced 6 blossoms!!
From what I am told they do not do well indoors and it is truely amazing that it is not only surviving but
thriving! It is in front of my bedroom window which gets great Southern exposure. One of my favorite
geraniums from last summer is its neighbor and is doing really well too. I pressed this blossom and framed
it.