HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? CHAPTER 2

[Prissy]

I am excited to have a new water feature/fountain  behind the diving board.  I always wanted something special in this area and saw these huge fountain vase type urns at Whiz Q Stone.  The one I chose is medium blue with black and is 3 feet tall with a square twisted shape. 

We are not quite finished with the bottom of the feature.  We need to hide the liner and add river rocks, but I am excited to see the water bubbling out the top and over the sides!! 

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[fhmmany2]

 

I never could see the photos of Pepe's flowers - I did try Thea's suggestion, but no luck!

Mary - there is nothing iin the world as cute as a baby rabbit (until they start eating your garden! ) 

Prissy - beautiful caladums (one of my favotirites - I love all varieties!), and water lilly. The water lilly we have had for years has never bloomed. I think our tiny goldfish pond is too shallow, and the water gets too hot. I love your fountain - very pretty! 

Lewis is atttempting to grow some large pumpkins for the grandchildren, although there is not much hope in this heat. He does have a pot of "Jack Be Little" pumpkins that should do well. The pumpkins are the size of baseballs, and the grandchildren have always enjoyed them. They make so many that each of the grandchildren have taken enough for their entire classes to decorate in the past. Lewis bought a packet of seeds for giant pumpkins - supposedly from a grand champion pumpkin. The packet cost almost $5, and there were only three seeds inside!  He just planted them this week (if you plant pumpkins down here early, they will rot in the summer heat). At least all three seeds have already come up - hope we get at least a couple of big pumpkins!

[Mary]

Prissy, I love your fountain and caladiums. We would have to lift those plants every year so I didn't buy any because Norm lifts so many things in the fall as it is.

Momma rabitt was nursing her 7 little bunnies and I did take a picture.









Did you know that the babies nurse on their back? I didn't. It was cute seeing all their legs kicking with excitment.

[fhmmany2]

 

Thought I would post a couple of quick photos - the sunflowers are just beginning to bloom - they are about 10 feet high - and Sasha's hibiscus have been blooming all summer. She sent seeds for two different colors last year, but I think the bees have mixed them, and there is a third color! We meant to move the hibiscus this Spring so that the plants would not be so crowded, but with all of the storms, they got to big before we had a chance to move them - maybe next Spring!  Click to make bigger:

[Pepe]

PRISSY, wished I could come and visit your yard and see the whole thing at once.  I love it when people really enjoy their yards, oh by the way how is the pond coming?    I do think you should schedule the Pond Club Meeting in the fall at your house!!!

MARY,  love the baby animals, nothing more precious than babies!!!

FRANKIE, great pictures and am sure SASHA would love to see them.  Just got a pm from her today saying she was leaving today for Lake Tahoe, California for vacation.  Lucky her, wish we could all go!!!!  With the weather she has been having in MA she will not want to come home.

[fhmmany2]

 

Pepe - I heard from Sasha during the night, too - she is going to also visit San Jose - I told her that was Shirl's home before she moved into assisted living. She was supposed to send some of her rain down here before she left, but it hasn't gotten here yet! I hope it is sunny in California for her. She knows that hibiscus photos will be here when she gets back - with Kaitlyn here, I just did not have time to post them sooner!

[Prissy]

Good Afternoon!

Frankie,
Great pictures of the sunflowers;  they make me think of Debi.   That looks like a banana plant behind the sunflowers?  Beautiful hibiscus, too.  They look a lot like our Rose of Sharon/Althea plants.

Pepe,
We are scheduled to have the Pond Meeting at our place this coming September "come h*ll or high water!!"    The pond looks pretty good;  we'll just see if the filtration system and waterfall is working by that time!!

Mary,
I'm glad you enjoyed the caladium pictures.  We buy caladium bulbs by the bag full and plant them each year.  They are fairly reasonable when you buy the bulbs.  We are lucky in that our elephant ears come back each year.


I'm glad you all enjoyed seeing the fountain behind the diving board.  It is now complete.  Round stones are in the wood base where there is also  a liner. 



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Red feathery flowers



Pink "balloon" flowers

[Prissy]

I "rescued" a pot person from Whiz Q Stone.  She had some chips on her, but not that noticeable, and was sitting all alone!  I am calling her Chip and my other pot person Dale.    I put a tiny corsage on Chip, to cover her chipped shoulder and to show she's the girl!    I may have to add something to Dale, too.  Maybe he can be holding a flower!

They are now sitting on the bakers rack on the patio with my pots of impatience flowers that have stopped blooming! 

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[Pepe]

PRISSY, what a couple of cuties!!  I am sure Dale loves the company!!!!

[Mary]

Frankie, I love your sunflowers. Ours were about 7' tall and then the deer came through the yard and ate every last flower a few nights ago.

[fhmmany2]

 

Prissy - glad that Chip has come to live at your house!  Yes, those are banana trees behind the sunflowers. We have had the large banana trees for years, but they have never produced bananas.  During years when we have gotten lots of rain, they have grown to as much as 20 feet high - but this year they are only around 12-14 feet. They do multiply just as the pink banana trees do. The variegated leaf banana tree that I bought last year has also produced lots of other trees. It is very short, and so far there is no sign of bananas.

Mary - I am enjoying the sunflowers. There are lots of blooms now - I haven't checked to see if the seeds have matured, but I'm sure the birds will let me know when they are!

Pepe - In the Spring I always try to find different things for Lewis' garden - it is fun to see them grow and to try new vegetables. This year I found several varieties of tomatoes that we had not tried before. Here are two - I put them on a saucer for the photos so you could see the size:


This tomato is called "Golden Jubilee". The plant is very big - I am 5'5" tall, and it is taller than I am (Lewis just put a regular tomato cage around it at first, and had to add on!) I only bought one plant, and I bet it has produced at least 40 tomatoes so far (8 were picked this morning). The tomatoes are consistently about the size of a baseball, and it is a low acid tomato:



This tomato is called "Amish", and I wonder if it is  for Northern gardens. It was planted the same time as the Golden Jubilee, and this is the first tomato we have gotten off of it. You can't really tell, but the color is a very dark pink instead of red. We plan to taste test tonight! The plant is also very large.

[fhmmany2]

I was happily surprised, a few weeks back, when a pot person appeared in my mailbox!  As soon as I saw her, I knew for sure that her name was Priscilla P. Imatexan. Sadly, her hat was broken beyond repair (I have a large collection of different glues now if anyone needs them!), but I told her not to worry - I knew we could find some thing to replace her hat. Granddaughter Laney came, and we had lots of fun shopping for Priscilla:

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We found a straw doll's hat, and added ribbons, daisies, and a butterfly:



Her shoes were a tad too masculine, so we added bows:



Laney donated "bling" from her stash of crafts supplies for Priscilla's buttons and her bracelet and ring:





She is holding a daisy in her other hand, and another butterfly is perched on her shoulder:



And here is Priscilla so far - Laney and I are trying to decide if she needs a doll's wig or Louisiana moss for hair, or if she needs a face. I have drawn several faces, but may just leave her as is. She is going to live on one of the benches in the yard or on the swing. All of her decorations are just put on with a touch of hot glue, so she may change clothes in the Fall - I will leave that up to her 



Laney and I had a lot of fun dressing her - thank you again to the very kind person in Texas who sent her our way! 

[Prissy]

Frankie,

Your "Pot person" Priscilla is adorable.  I think  that my Chip is probably hoping she will have more than a corsage to adorn her!!   

I have an idea for hair:  raffia, like that used to give a natural look to packages.  I have some yellow raffia.  I am wondering about cutting strips, lining them up and then sewing it across one end or putting tape across one end.  I may even be able to make some pig tails with bows for Chip!  We'll see how this goes.  Maybe Dale will get some "bangs!" 


I'm afraid that Skip's upside down tomatoes did not work out.  No tomatoes for us this year, but my sister is keeping us supplied from her garden.

Yours look great!


Pepe,
I'm glad I got Chip to be a partner for Dale!  Now, I am tempted to add some small flowers, butterflies, etc., like Frankie did.  I still don't think I will add a face. 

[fhmmany2]

Prissy - the moss I am considering for "hair" is the Spanish moss that hangs from the trees here - not as common in our part of Louisiana as it is in the south part of the state, but you can still find it here - especially around the lake.

[fhmmany2]

I went back and found my photo of the flower pot people from Dollywood - they had faces and plants for hair instead of hats!  I would still like to try my hand at making these! (They were made from plastic pots instead of clay pots):

[Pepe]

FRANKIE, I would like to second that thank you to the very kind and thoughtful person who sent such a wonderful gift!!!  Jack sits in my kitchen so he can watch me cook and smell all the food smells.  He is a little pig!  Always say good morning to him as I walk in to the kitchen, yep I am one of those people that thinks everything has a heart and if something happens to one of my treasures I bawl like a baby, ask my hubby about that!!!!  I was lucky Jack's hat was broke in three places but they were clean breaks so hubby was able to glue in back and you can't even tell where it was broke.  What interesting tomatoes!!!!  Sure must be fun to get all that produce from the garden, my tomato plants are doing nothing, don't think anything wants to grow in night time temps of 45 degree .  Yep the heat is still running this morning.

PRISSY, Chip and Dale will be very happy together I am sure.  Has JoAnn named hers  yet???

[fhmmany2]

 

I have posted some photos of Glory's new home in the OCD - I'm posting a photo of the outside of the house here, too, because I know she has enjoyed working on the flower beds this Spring and Summer:

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[Sasha]

Frankie:  love the hiibiscus...... I probably wont get any flowers for a couple weeks.   Sunny again today 3 days in a row.  lol Love the sunflowers reminds me of Deb.  When i was in Cal. they had flieds of sunflowers they looked so pretty.  Love your pot persons.

Prissy:  love your water feature and love your pot persons to.

Glory:  you did a great job on your garden.

Sasha

[Mary]

Frankie, I think that last year you said that you were freezing green beans and I would like to know how long you boil them before freezing them. Mine are always soggy when I cook them again.

[fhmmany2]

Mary - If you like firmer green beans, just blanche them in hot water  instead of cooking them completely (you can tell when it's been long enough, because the color of the beans will change a little). It only takes a few  minutes.(3-4 in boiling water). I freeze everything in plastic freezer boxes, that I buy at Walmart in the freezing/canning section (they have a section for that every summer - I assume in all stores). When the beans are put into the boxes, I also put the water they were cooked in - enough to cover the beans so that they do not get freezer burned. If you blanche the beans you should be able to cook them as much as you want once defrosted.