Garden Muse Day and ABC Wednesday

Happy September to everyone! Although the calendar doesn't say so, the first of September always means fall to me, and the cool nights we've had this past week certainly suggest that autumn has arrived. The first of the month is always Garden Muse Day, and since tomorrow is ABC Wednesday, I thought I would combine the two memes into a two-for one today.

This week's letter G is for Green and Growing.

I'm not a farmer myself, so I don't keep track of these things, but it does seem as if the corn surrounding our house this year is as tall as I have ever seen it. In fact, it might even be taller "than an elephant's eye." According to Wikipedia, the average African Bush elephant is usually 9.8 to 11.5 feet tall, while an Asian elephant averages around 9 feet tall. Considering an elephant's eye is placed lower than his shoulder, I think we might just have to change the lyrics of this great song just a bit . . .



There's a bright golden haze on the meadow
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow.
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye,
And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky.

Oh, what a beautiful Mornin'
Oh, what a beautiful day.
And I got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's goin' my way . . .

from "Oklahoma," music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein


If you would like to hear the rest of the song, click on the video below . . . a little eye candy for the ladies as well:)

For other musings on this first of September, visit the hostess of Garden Muse Day, Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

And for other ABC posts, check out Mrs. Nesbitt or the ABC blog.

ABC Wednesday: Not X-actly X

This week we have reached the letter X, an extremely difficult letter . . .

. . . But I didn't want to think too hard-- it's summer, a time to relax and to watch

puffy white clouds or jet trails make a pattern in the blue sky.

Summer is also an exciting time in the garden as the garden teems with insect life and blooms like these of my favorite flower, the purple coneflower, fill the garden with color.



Or when exquisite creatures like these flit about searching for food. Note this is not the same dragonfly I pictured last week; I've had several varieties come to visit in the past week.


It can also be an exasperating time--the Japanese beetles have arrived!


Check out more ABC posts here.

And a note to garden bloggers, particularly those who attended Spring Fling: Sometime tomorrow I plan to post a review of the book A Garden of Invention. I hope you'll have time to stop by and read it sometime.

ABC Wednesday: V

This week's ABC Wednesday

is brought to you by the letter V . . .

. . . for Volunteer

When I retired from teaching two years ago, I planned to spend part of my time volunteering, something I had had little time for while raising a family and working full-time. But most projects I was interested in required a set time commitment, which was difficult to do with an irregular substitute teaching schedule. Or perhaps that was just an excuse . . . However, last summer Oldest Granddaughter, who wants to be a Veterinarian, expressed an interest in volunteering at the local Humane Society. I wanted to encourage her, and since she needed not only transportation but also an adult mentor, I agreed to help, and together we went through orientation for Junior Volunteers.

Granddaughter has always been an animal lover, so this "job" is a natural for her. We help out several hours a month and can choose our own schedule, so it's also the perfect opportunity for me to help out in a small way. Junior volunteers are given simple jobs; dog walking, for example, is limited to those who are at least 18. Instead, one of our main activities is to socialize with the animals. Playing with the kittens or puppies, cuddling them, or brushing them helps them to interact with different humans as well as giving them a much-needed break from the confinement of their cages.

I can attest to the fact that the animals at our local shelter are well-cared for: well-fed, litterboxes regularly cleaned, and all necessary medical attention given. But it has to be hard for them to spend most of the day in a cage. The luckiest animals, I think, are some of the more laid-back cats who are allowed to live together in their own room with names like "The Catnap Cafe." I don't remember how they are selected to live here, but 8-10 cats live in each room filled with all sorts of climbing towers, scratching posts, and comfy couches. They still love the human attention, though.

Recently, Grandson #2 has tagged along with us. Now that school is out, I asked if he would like to come along so that he didn't have to spend a few hours home alone. He eagerly agreed--I thought it was because of the offer of going out to lunch afterwards. But he has really enjoyed it and now wants to become an official Junior Volunteer himself.

Granddaughter chooses what we will do each week, but our first stop is always to check out the puppy cages. Puppies never stay long at the shelter; usually by the time we see a new one, it already has a blue sticker on its cage, meaning someone has applied to adopt it. Even so, these little guys need play time, of course, and we're more than happy to oblige.

Can you tell by the blurry tail that this little English pointer mix was having fun?

This little guy was such a sweetie that if I didn't already have Sophie, I would have seriously considered adopting him. And that is the main problem with volunteering here--I wish I could take so many of these animals home. Although the shelter is not technically a no-kill shelter, we were assured at orientation that no animals are euthanized if they are not adopted. The shelter seems to have a high rate of adoption, and alternative homes, such as rescue societies are sought in special cases for a few animals.

Volunteering isn't just playing with the animals, though. Folding laundry, mopping up the occasional puppy "accident" in the play room, or washing and sanitizing the mountains of pet dishes and toys are all part of the experience, too, and Granddaughter is more than willing to do whatever is needed.

Helping at the Humane Society wasn't one of the volunteer projects I had in mind two years ago. But it's been a rewarding experience for both of us, and it's given me a lot of quality time with my granddaughter who is quite a remarkable and mature young lady.

And I do think the animals appreciate our being there.

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt and the ABC team.

ABC Wednesday: Unfinished Business

For this week's ABC posting for the letter U, I am uninspired. I have had trouble coming up with anything unique or even one of my utterly ordinary posts. Frankly, I have been so busy working in the garden that I can't think of much else. Here it is the second week of June already, and despite the hours I've spent outside, my garden remains Unfinished.




My wise friend Cheryl once wrote "Is a Garden Ever Finished?" I would agree with her, and I have to remember that the fabulous Lurie Garden in Chicago pictured above did not look this way overnight. It took years for the enchanting "river of salvia" to get to this "finished" stage. My garden is on a much, much humbler scale, but I've resigned myself to the fact that there will always be something else that needs to be done in it.





One of the chores that was left unfinished this year was to transplant some of the many new coneflower seedlings. In early spring I did dig out a few, but more kept popping up, and I fully intended to thin them out. But time got away from me, and now it looks as though purple coneflowers will be ubiquitous in my garden this summer.

Two jobs that will continue all season are watering and weeding. This hydrangea bud looks pretty promising right now, but unless I water it soon, it won't look so good by the time it's ready to bloom. Wasn't I the one complaining about so much rain just a few weeks ago? That just proves that a gardener is never satisified. We've had either too much rain or not enough. Yesterday the skies--and the weather forecast--threatened storms all day, but they never materialized. Today I gave up on rain and started the process of dragging hoses around the garden. Depending on how our summer goes, this may be a daily chore all season. And then of course, there's the weeding. While I was away at Spring Fling, the weeds grew twice as much as the flowers. (You didn't expect me to show a picture of my weeds, did you? Of course, if you look closely enough at some of these photos, you'll no doubt spot a few.)

But the biggest chunk of my time this spring has been spent on planting. I have made a good dent in the "pot ghetto" in front of my garage door, but there are still a few homeless plants waiting to be put into the ground. One reason for my lateness is that I lost a few perennials over the winter and kept waiting and waiting for them to appear. When I realized my favorite gaillardias "Oranges and Lemons" didn't make it through the winter, I had trouble finding them in any nursery until this past week.

While I did lose several perennials this past winter, there have been a few unexpected surprises like this dianthus that has bloomed in the same pot now for three years. This is one reason I don't clean out my pots in the fall as I probably should; every once in awhile I have an annual that decides to come back for another year.

I've also spent a lot of time plant shopping this spring. I had no trouble finding the usual geraniums I use in a few containers. But Beckie and I commented on one of our plant expeditions this spring, that we found fewer unusual plants this year. We wondered if that might be due to the economy; perhaps nursery growers decided to stick more to the traditional plants this year rather than risk growing something that might not sell.

But garden centers and nurseries needn't worry about me. I have a serious case of plant-envy, and I find it hard to visit a garden center without buying something. Seeing a display of hostas on sale like this one at Rich's during Spring Fling usually makes me salivate and forget that there really isn't much more room in the shade garden for another hosta right now.

And while I was on a search for a few more Victoria Blue Salvia to fill in a space, I found something else, this Solenia Begonia "Dusty Rose," which I couldn't resist.

And this new-to-me flower, Lisanthus "Forever Blue." I still don't know where I'm going to plant this.

I never did find the needed salvia, but on the same shopping trip I found a new nursery that also had many garden accent pieces. This cast iron pot caught my eye, the price was right, and it already had a hole pre-drilled in the bottom. It quickly found its way into my car and is now filled with soil and seeds.

Not everything I buy, though, is an impulsive purchase. While hunting down my replacement gaillardia, I found this plant that I have wanted so badly since seeing it during Spring Fling. Do you recognize it? I'm sure you would if I showed it to you in full bloom . . .

. . . Yes, I am now the proud possessor of my very own Baptisia, "Purple Smoke," also known as False Indigo. I was thrilled to find it and hope that it is happy in its new home in my garden and one day looks as good as this one seen in the Lurie Garden.

Let's face it, as long as I keep visiting other gardens, whether in person or through blogging, my garden will never be "finished." There are always new ideas to try and more plants to be added. Last weekend I celebrated my un-birthday. (I coined this term last year--my theory is that if you don't acknowledge your birthday, it doesn't really count and you can subtract a year from your age rather than add one:) Doesn't that make sense?) Anyway, one of the gifts I received was a gift card to my favorite garden center, so I know there will more additions to the garden, if not this year, then next.

I already have another idea for next year's garden--I am definitely going to plant some alliums. I saw them everywhere in Chicago and realized they're a perfect in-between season perennial, not to mention their striking blooms. Thanks to Mr. McGregor's Daughter for sending me this photo. She and another blogger thought I must have purposely worn this purple top to color coordinate with the blooms of the allium:)

Finally, if I am spending all this time in the garden and it's still unfinished, you can imagine what my house looks like. Suffice it to say that during gardening season, the housework remains Undone!

Check out other ABC posts by clicking here.

ABC Wednesday: Special S's

Today's ABC Wednesday is brought to you by the letter S, which represents someone very special in my life . . .

. . . Sophie

Sophie is no longer a puppy, in appearance at least, having more than doubled in size since she came to live with us three months ago. She turns six months old on Saturday and just last week received her diploma for completing Level I of Puppy Training Class. I had hoped to take a nice picture of her with her diploma, but she was too entranced by a bumblebee flying over my garden. Fortunately, she wasn't able to catch it.


According to her diploma, Sophie has learned to "Sit, Stand, Walk on Lead, Stay, Off, Come, and Polite Manners." Well, at least she demonstrated that in class. At home, it's often another story. Because we have such a large yard, we've allowed her to walk off leash quite a bit until she suddenly discovered birds flying over the fields. On several occasions I've had to trudge through muddy fields in my ratty blue bathrobe trying to retrieve her. Nope, no picture here of that; I'm just hoping none of the neighbors have one either. Obviously, we need to work on the command "Come, girl," so I've signed us up for Level II of Puppy Training. Both Sophie and I could benefit from more training. For example . . .

. . . I need to learn not to leave a roll of toilet tissue within reach of Sophie.

But even this mess pales in comparison to the day she ate right through the cord of my brand new vacuum. Fortunately, it wasn't plugged in, and I now have a real appreciation for Sears' 30-day no-questions-asked replacement policy. Then, of course, there was the week I spent in Arizona, when she ate a 6-foot long strip out of my hallway carpet. That makes worry somewhat about leaving for four days this weekend . . .

At the same time, Sophie has learned to be a little more mannerly around the younger grandkids. Both 5-year-old granddaughter and 4-year-old grandson (above) love to play with her now that she will settle down for them. Youngest grandson, not-quite-two, is still a little wary of her rambunctious behavior, though; Sophie certainly didn't win any points with him either when she stole his bag of cookies last weekend.

But like the toddler that she is, she is an angel when she's asleep!

S is also for Sunshine. After complaining a week ago about all the rain we have had, we've now enjoyed a full week of welcome sunshine, enabling the farmers to get much of their crops planted. I've also planted a lot of seeds in the new butterfly garden and finally got the tomatoes and peppers into the vegetable garden. I've made a big dent in the "pot ghetto" in front of my garage, although more plants somehow keep appearing there:)

The rest of these are going to have to remain homeless for a few more days, because I am leaving Thursday for a long weekend in Chicago--the second annual Spring Fling. For those not familiar with this term, Spring Fling will be a gathering of over 50 garden bloggers from across the country. We'll be visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden, the famous Millenium Park, some private gardens, and, of course, enjoying some social time, discussing--what else but gardening and blogging!

I am so excited to finally meet some of my blogging friends! I have formed so many wonderful friendships through blogging, and all of you have encouraged me, given me helpful advice, and even sent me some seeds and plants (the subject of a later post). Of course, not all my blogging friends will be in attendance, and I hope this will be just the first of many meetings with all of you. I want to mention one friend across the pond in particular today--a big congratulations to Liz, who just found out she is going to be a grandmother for the first time!

And just to show how wonderful my blogging friends are . . .

. . . I received a Surprise in the mail today--an early birthday present from a dear UK friend. A lovely necklace, plant markers, and two books will certainly be put to good use. Hmmm, she must be psychic; I think I'd better read the top book immediately:) Thank you so much, Cheryl.

Four days at Spring Fling means I will be incommunicado for several days, but I will catch up with all of you when I return. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and thanks to Denise Nesbitt for sponsoring ABC Wednesdays.

ABC Wednesday . . . R

For the past few weeks the operative word around here for the letter R has been . . .

. . . Rain

A little over halfway through the month, we have already received our average quota of rainfall for the entire month of May. Most of the time we have had gently falling showers that were simply an annoyance to this gardener who was waiting for the garden to dry out, only to have it turned to mud by still another shower. But last Friday we had one of those gully-washers complete with high winds and threats of tornadoes that sent us and son's family (their house has only a crawlspace) down to our basement for the evening.

Saturday morning we had an eerie feeling of deja vu--fields, yards, and streets were flooded much like the downpour we had in early June of last year. The photo above was actually taken a year ago, since I wasn't energetic enough to get out and take photos this time. But looking across the road, I could see the same "lake" rippling behind the neighbor's as last year. This is actually a grassy area behind a small housing development and backing up to a baseball diamond near the water treatment plant. There is a small drainage ditch running through the center that normally has only a trickle of water running through it.

While I have been waiting for dry soil to plant the ever-growing accumulation of homeless plants, the farmers must really be worried. Last year's flood resulted in late plantings and thus a less than successful harvest. Not quite as dramatic a photo as the first one, this picture above shows the fields behind our house, with water accumulating even deeper near the subdivision to the left. If you are wondering about the alien-looking white things in the bottom of the photo, they are augers used to pour grain into a bin. My husband climbed up onto the top of our grain bin to take this photo. Before you think what a wonderful husband he is to risk life and limb for this blog post, he had no idea I was going to use this photo, but was taking them for himself to record some drainage issues here. Not saying he isn't a wonderful husband . . . (whew! good thing he doesn't read this!)

While few, if any, fields have been planted with the usual corn and soybeans--late in the season already--many of the fields are a sea of yellow. This strange-looking crop is actually a field of weeds and is a common sight throughout the area right now. There was some debate on a local radio talk show yesterday about what type of weed this is, but someone finally identified it correctly as a "yellow rocket."

The yellow rocket is a member of the mustard family and tends to appear in untilled soil. Most farmers today have abandoned the old methods of plowing the ground in the fall, thus reducing fuel costs and soil compaction, not to mention soil erosion. Instead, the fields are left untilled in the fall and worked up at the same time they are planted in the spring. I don't know if working the fields with a disk will eradicate these weeds, or if most farmers will have to apply a herbicide. Either way, I doubt most are too happy about these yellow "flowers" in their fields and are eager to get their real crops planted.

All the rain from the previous weeks has also made the flowers happy. Last Friday I posted the flowers that were blooming, saying I had lots of "almosts" in my garden. Just to prove my theory that the best blooms appear right after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, on Saturday the first clematis bloom appeared . . . and then another . . .and another. Above is just the bottom of my clematis; the top is smothered in blossoms, too.

The rains finally subsided on Sunday, and so far it's been a glorious week without a rainy day in the forecast. I'm hoping it lasts even longer--I have lots of gardening to do!

For more ABC posts check out the ABC blog here.

ABC Wednesday: Looking Up

Oh, it is Spring! Looking through my files of photos, I do have some O's for this week's ABC post.

First, we have Oleander. A common shrub across the world from the Mediteranean region to southern China, this particular plant was photographed in Arizona.

Oleander shrubs are seen everywhere in Arizona from home landscaping to highway plantings. They can even grow as trees as in the picture above. As beautiful and long-blooming as they are, I'm not sure I would want them in my own backyard. A member of the dogbane family, oleander is highly toxic.

I don't have to look beyond my yard, however, to find the next O--my grand old oak tree that I've determined is over 200 years old. I've used this tree before in several posts, including an ABC post last fall, using its botanical name Quercus Macrocarpa. This photo was taken last summer, however; it's just beginning to show the faint signs of green leaves right now.

While the majestic old oak is my favorite tree, in the spring I'm partial to the redbuds. I've discovered, though, that capturing the almost fluorescent lavender of its spring blooms is nearly impossible on a sunny day, and a cloudy day isn't much better.

After a beautiful but windy weekend, the clouds rolled in with rain for the past two days. You can see the redbud to the right in this picture. Yes, in the springtime it's my favorite tree . . .

. . . or maybe this pink flowering crabapple is my favorite. Once all the blooms open up, it's magnificent.

Of course, it's hard to choose between the pink crabapples and the red ones. (There's a sprig of redbud to the left that shows its color!)

But there's also something to be said for the white crabapple. Oh, it's so hard to choose--I just love them all!

This week, as April moves into May, is one of my favorite times of the year as all the flowering trees burst into bloom, and the long lane leading to our house looks like something out of a fairy tale. Sadly, though, this year the fairy tale didn't end happily ever after. I took all these photos on Saturday and Sunday, and by Monday I noticed many of the blooms had blown to the ground and no new ones were opening up. The red crabs bloomed for two days at the most, and the pink ones had only a few blooms. The white crabapple looks pretty good above, but it's at least a week earlier than last year and not nearly as full of blooms.

Last year this is what my driveway looked like on the first of May, with the white crabapple still waiting to blossom. Beckie and I were talking today about the lack of flowering crabapple blooms this year. Another local blogger, Joyce, commented last week that her crabapples had been hurt by the cold winter. It makes me sad to think this year I won't see the same view as above. But at the same time, Beckie commented how much better her plum tree looks this year, and I've noticed that all the magnolia trees seem to have blossomed earlier this year without the all too often damage from frost. I guess it just shows that Mother Nature can surprise us at any time.

Speaking of surprises, by far the biggest surprise this spring has been the two old apple trees--they are literally bursting with blooms. I have never seen them bloom like this; I wonder if that means if they will have even more apples this year? Actually, I hope not--I still have a freezer full of applesauce:)

What's even more surprising to me is that one of these apple trees is still standing. You can see the huge hollow area in its lower trunk; I'm worried that a strong storm one day might be the end of this apple tree. But then again, one never knows--Cheryl also posted about her beautiful old apple tree on Monday, complete with a similar hollow.

While I've spent sunny days lately looking downward, digging in the dirt and looking for new growth in the garden, it's good to look upward and see blooms sent from above.

To see more ABC posts, you can visit here.