HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? CHAPTER 2

[fhmmany2]

Pepe - we would love for you and Jack to come visit!  Priscilla had her green dress when she got here - I just added the flower buttons.

[Prissy]

Frankie,
Priscilla looks very relaxed and at home on the butterfly bench!!   Love the mums near her, too.  My Chip and Dale are still on the bakers rack.  My flowers died in the ceramic pots on the baker's rack, but I have more flowers to put in them! 

Pepe,
All of our little pot people have the green bodies and hats, I believe.   Frankie's Priscilla's green hat was too broken, so now she wears the cute straw hat.

I am still tempted to add some "bling" to my pot people, too.    Of course, Chip still has her "corsage."

[Pepe]

PRISSY, with my monitor color going more and more everyday and the cute little colored buttons Frankie put on Priscilla her little dress looked different color than Jacks.  I know we may need to dress ours up for Christmas.   

[fhmmany2]

 

Pepe - What a good idea - since Prissy has two pot people, she can make Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus 

I don't know about other parts of the country, but down here, because it is so hot and (usually) wet, ferns very often grow up in the tops of trees. This limb fell down in a wind storm last week. We have been sprinkling the limb with the water hose whenever we water flowers, and the ferns look like they are going to live - Lewis moved the limb next to the patio. I took these just as it was getting dark tonight, and used the flash - thought someone might be interested, in case they've never seen this before:

[Pepe]

FRANKIE, how fascinating!!  Strange that straight across the limb the ferns are growing not just one or two.  That would have been a sight to have seen if the limb would have stayed up in the tree with the ferns growing.  Wonder how the fern spores got way up there in the tree?

[fhmmany2]

Pepe - My guess is they get blown into the trees by the wind, or birds carry them there - you usually only see them in very tall, older trees.

[Prissy]

Frankie,

Very unusual about the ferns growing on the tree limbs.  Skip loves ferns and would probably be thrilled to see ferns in our trees!


Here is our water feature "Willie's Dilemma," finally with water coming out of the fountain.  Willie is still trying to get a drink, but hard with that ice cream cone in his hand!!  I found a little dog statue to be with Willie.

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[Pepe]

PRISSY, love the fountain with the little boy!!!  Just precious!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I am waiting to see the purple water lily!!!

[Prissy]

Pepe,

We have had the Willie statue for years, but now he is a "working fountain" and we have placed him as a centerpiece in a bed by the fence.  The elephant ears around him we moved from near the pool.  These are the huge elephant ears that have grown for years.  Now that they have no canopy of trees to shade them, they were struggling.  So, we took a chance on transplanting them.  So far, so good! 

The water lily I hope will be put in the pond today.  It had three "bulbs" on it, so hopefully, it will have some blooms.  I think the flower I saw has closed up    but, hopefully, it will reopen again.


Prissy

[Prissy]

I am behind putting pictures in my photobucket. 

On July, 14, my youngest sister turned 50 and we had a birthday lunch at another sister's home.  This sister has a garden every summer, and this was some of the produce she had spread out in her breakfast room.

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[Pepe]

PRISSY nothing as beautiful as fresh produce from a garden, thanks for showing us what your sister got from her garden.  Was she letting all of you take some home with you?

[fhmmany2]

 

I haven't been here in a long time!

Prissy - I love your newest fountain, and your Sister has a great garden! With all of the rain this week, we hope our Fall garden will do well - I am really going to miss the tomatoes when they are gone..................

[Prissy]

Pepe,
My sister always has a big garden each year.  We did get lots of tomatoes from her.  She does make the best pickles with sweet purple onions!  Delicious!
I will take a picture of the purple water lily soon.  It is still in the big tub and not in the pond yet!   

Frankie,
This was what my sister had harvested that week, I believe.  She always has lots of vegetables.  We should try for a Fall garden.  We didn't do well with summer!!  The Willie fountain is a favorite!  Everyone at the Pond meeting really liked it.

[Prissy]

Here are a couple of pictures of the pond!  This is a project that is still ON GOING!!   

This is the right side of the pond.


This is the left side with the stack of rocks that make up the waterfall


And the bridge that goes across the one big pond that used to be two!!

[claydevotee]

Prissy, your yard is spectacular!!!!    Thanks for the photos!

[Pepe]

PRISSY, love the pond and how it is coming along.  It looks very natural.  How deep is it?  My son has a huge pond he put in but did not use a liner!!!!  He has had eagles fishing in his for the trout he put in .  I should take a picture he has had trouble with algae this year though.  The picture of Shadow and Sandy is just fabulous.  Such good dogs that mind so well and pose beautiful!

[fhmmany2]

Prissy - the pond is beautiful! I think it was worth the wait!  Tell Skip    and  Have you already put the Koi and goldfish back in? I forgot to ask what you did with them when you changed the pond from two small ponds to one large one. (When our neighbor did this several years ago he kept his fish outside in a large tank until his pond renovations were done). The water lillys look great, too! They have such beautiful blooms.

[Prissy]

Thanks, Pepe, Frankie, and Thea!
The pond is indeed an ongoing project for Skip!!


Sunday morning we walked around the backyard and I took some pictures.  The grass in the middle section of the backyard is new sod that we have not had mowed yet, so it is looking a little overgrown.

ALL PICTURES ARE CLICKABLE.


I now have three water features in the backyard.  The newest one is a blue/black ceramic ball with water spouting out the top.  It is about the size of a basketball and we put it in a planter on the deck!



Here is "Willie's Dilemma" again.  These elephant ears are the ones that we've had for years by the pool deck.  They were sweltering in the sun (no trees to shade them there anymore) and Skip took a chance on moving them.  We are very pleased that they survived and are thriving!!

   

My first water feature continues to give me so much enjoyment.  This is the one behind the diving board.  It is about 3 feet tall. (In the second picture, you can see the back of it and a little of the filter material and the pump.)

   

[Prissy]

Here are some flowers around the pond.

To the left of the pond, purple verbena with some yellow lantana



In front of the right side of the pond, these are purple/pink flowers that have really loved all the rain we've received.



Just behind the left side of the pond, pink rock rose with pink and yellow lantana behind it.  I wish the flowers were more distinct in the pictures.

   



More pictures from the backyard

A yellow canna that has started to bloom.  We have more grouped in this area.  We have orange ones by the star gate.



New elephant ears planted this spring in front of the shed and hiding some of the pond filter equiupment



Knockout roses that are blooming again this Fall.  The bed in front of the roses is my "Purple" bed that has become overgrown.  Some of the purple plants are 3 and 4 feet tall.  We will have to do some moving of plants out of this bed at some point.

[Prissy]

Some miscellaneous shots from the backyard.

Fall table cloth on one of the gazebo tables with the "fat red wooden birds" I found at Lowes!!  I have 8 of them to set on tables, counter, etc.



"Mosaic" vinyl table covering I ordered for my round concrete umbrella table.  I love it and it looks really good on the concrete table and blends in with the blue tile of the pool and the two blue water features!



On the fence by my "star" gate, I put some more Texas items I have had for a while!!  (The big lacy looking stars I found at Big Lots and the smaller stars and the round rings with Texas in them I got at KOHL'S several years ago.  They were with western type ornaments!!)