The Endless Annual

4 or 5 years ago, I bought a petunia from a local florist. She had pictures of the plant, and it look great in a planter. It was called “Laura Bush” petunia. I was curious about the name of the petunia so I “Googled” it that evening. Sure enough there it was, a fairly new petunia developed in Texas.You can read about it here http://www.texasgardener.com/pastissues/marapr02/laurabush.html .

My plant did very well that first year and I was very impressed. It really was drought resistant and just kept getting bigger  until it was killed by frost.
But…… that isn’t what I like best about it. The best thing is , I haven’t had to buy this plant again. It is a  extremely proficient reseeder. (spell check is telling me this isn’t a word)
This is a picture of a few of this years plants.

This picture doesn’t show the beautiful color, but you can see how big  it gets. This is 3 plants,they came up in one spot , or I move two . Now they completely cover my path. We haven’t had any rain for over a week , and I don’t give them any extra water.


I usually see them about mid June , but they do keep showing up all summer. The above plant came up in the middle of a gravel path  few weeks ago and I didn’t have the heart to pull it out .

In this wider shot, you can see more starting.



A co-worker gave me a few amaranthus plants. Fellow gardeners tell me , that I have to careful with this one . They have so many seeds , I could be soon over run.





They certainly got big, if I do have seedlings next year , I plan to use them for a border.The dead stalks behind the furthest amaranthus were my hollyhocks. I had a picture in a previous blog, they had seeded themselves. You can also see the same 3 petunias plants from this angle.

Till next time,
God Bless,
Lynda

RANDOM GARDEN SHOTS

Volunteer Hollyhocks





Brake rotor totem and coreopsis.


Pretty much Picasso petunias, my favorite.


Coralberry Punch superbells


Joey  with  wire vine


Bandana red lantana with Swedish ivy


Delphiniums


Peonies, these picture were taken June 6th.




Gas plant

Hope you enjoyed your Sunday. I enjoyed mine, after church I weeded and cut the glass.
My dad always says  we are not suppose to work on Sunday. My answer to him is " this isn't work , it's playing in my garden , how can it be anything else when I love it so much !!

Second blooming

for my gerbera daisies.  Such pretty flowers. My sister bought me a planter with these flowers in April. They were blooming then, but the flowers had much taller stems and larger blooms the second time around.


This picture was taken when they were 1/2 their height. They were just amazing , unfortunately I didn’t get a picture at their full height.The yellow plant had over 8 blooms.  Now they are getting ready to bloom for the third time. I  really tried hard this year to remember to water daily , some days twice. I watered from the bottom  and they seemed to like that better. 


I am going to show you what I think is the most amazing self seeding annual in my next post!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Almost forgot what day it was, I was checking on some blogs this noon and  noticed the date. I ran out to take some quick shots.  The temp is 67 and it just started to rain. Our spring has been really slow in coming this year . The bad thing about that is, the flowers bloom later but the good thing is, the blooms last longer .   My first peony  is opening today……….



The peonies are really nice this year ,loads of blooms.


The poppies are also blooming …



My cat mint low walker always does well, I just keep dividing it, and now  I have it all over the garden where ever I need  a  place filled .  I started with one small plant from Shopko years ago. Of course I also have to pull out a lot cause it really seeds itself profusely.





More random pics of  blooms today ….




I bought this blue bottle at a garage sale for a $1.00. A hole was drilled in the side for a string of lights. I removed the lights and connected a water pump . Love it !!





I am linking  to May Dream Gardens for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day,  thanks Carol for hosting. Hope everyone is enjoying their gardens as must I enjoy mine. God Bless.

A mistake made right again…….

Furniture Feature Friday
Many years ago when I was a lot  younger I made a big mistake. My grandmother gave me a small round table . I thought it was ok , but wasn’t  too impressed. I was young and foolish!
I thought it would look much better painted. I was at a stage when I was painting , then antiquing everything with black. Like the current trend but not  with a natural time worn look.
I started by painting the table orange and my plan was to antique with black. Well that was in the 70s and I never did finish it.  I used it as work table in my craft room , spilling paint and what not on the top. For the last 30 years or so, it had been in the attic.
I often thought about it but didn’t have the heart to look at it, because the truth hit me , WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!! 
I finally got up enough courage this winter to take it out of the attic and restore it. I didn’t take a picture of it before I started because I was too embarrassed to show anyone what I had done to it. I stripped the orange paint off and sanded the top. My husband spray painted the top with clear urethane. There was a lot of sanding between coats , but now the top is well protected.


Here it is  …………….


I had covered this beautiful inlaid with paint!!!!!!!!!!!


I searched I web for a table like it and found one almost the same , but with white legs. It didn’t have white legs originally but I like  it better this way .I’m sure grandma wouldn’t mind,seeing the top is restored.

Here’s another table I painted at the same time.




I will be distressing it more before I wax it.




The table and legs after they were striped. Yup, I painted this table in the 70s also.



Love the claw feet.
I think my grandmother would be proud the I restored her beautiful table.   What do you think?
I am linking up with Kathleen at  Faded Charm for White Wednesday. and Miss Mustand Seed for Furniture Feature Friday.

It’s finally spring

I am in the process of making new beds.I planted tulips in the fall, 
and am so pleased to see  how well they have done. 
The above tulips are from value pack of mixed blubs.


Lucky Strike (M&G Holland)  there were 14 blubs in the package 
and  wonder of wonders, there are 14 blooms.






Negrita  ( M& G Holland)


Purissima (M&G Holland)
As you can see, it time for me to weed the grass out of the new beds!
I am lovin’ it, even weeding is fun this year , just being in garden . 
It was such a long winter.

Fresh Snow

 Gardening Bloggers Bloom Day January 2011. Thank You Carol,  (May Dreams Gardens) for hosting.
I might not have any blooms but I think the Winter Garden is still beautiful.


I visited a beautiful blog this morning  from Darla at More Family and Flowers. It really gave me a case of spring fever, way to early for that, in this next of the woods…  But it did inspire me to take some pictures of my garden this morning.




4 inches of the soft fluffy snow fell over night.  At least it’s easy to shovel , light as a feather.




Guess the birds won’t be drinking out of this bird bath any time soon.





or this one !!!





They might take shelter in here .













You can see how soft this snow is , you can just blow it away. That’s because it was only 9 degrees this morning when I was taking these pics. My fingers were freezing even with gloves . Guess it’s an age thing, circulation slows down to the extremities when you get older ……….





Well,I  guess the kids are hungry ,they think whenever I’m out side , it’s to feed them .





They certainly don’t look like they need to eat. Check out those fat bellies.





That’s little Alice behind the snowman. My granddaughter named her after a character in “ Twilight”. Her brother is Emmet. That’s Nat behind her. We also have Starbright, Hunter, Daisy, Zoey and Willy.  The snowman is on a timer so we have light when we need to feed the goats in the dark.





Hope everyone has a great weekend.
God Bless,
Lynda

Crocheted Dress

I’m linking to  Kathleen’s White Wednesday with this crocheted dress. My mom crocheted this dress  for me 60 years ago. Guess that tells you how old I am, I was about 2 years old at the time. I called her tonight and asked how long it took her, and she said about  a month. Wow sure looks like it would have taken longer.

I should have staged the picture better but I wanted to show the detail.

As you can see, the skirt is huge. I hope to have a picture soon to post with me wearing the dress. The old pictures are  slides and my brother is in the process of converting them to a computer disc.

The bodice is very delicate. My mom made a blue taffeta   slip to wear underneath.


The back as the original pearls buttons. Notice the bottom button was replaced at some time . I suppose I could find a matching button but I kind like it the way it is,

I thought others would appreciate the delicate work my mom did on this dress. I also have many doilies she has crocheted over the years. She once told me I should take the bodice off the dress and use the skirt as a doily. No way would I ever destroy this beautiful dress that way. Mom doesn’t do much crocheting any longer but she hasn’t stopped with other needle work. Now she is embroidering flour sack towels . When ever she needs a gift she has “Days of Week” sets  in abundance.
Thanks Kathleen for allowing me to share this very special dress.