Garden Bling

Today I purchased a chandelier at a garage sale for $5.00 and I knew that it was going to go into the garden.

So for right now it is hanging from the greenhouse door jamb. It reminds of ice and sunlight and a beehive. I just love garden bling!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, hang in there, the heat wave is almost over!

Circle of Influence

I joined another online gardening community, out of a fondness for the writings of one of the members who was in another group I belong to, and as these members reveal more as I read their posts, they are a remarkable group of people. There was a post recently and it really touched me as it spoke about grandparents caring for ill children, and using tinctures and potions from yarbs (wild herbs and potion stuff) that grew out back, in the back hills of Tennesee or somewhere. It conveyed a quality of sentiment that was intertwined with the herbs and yarbs, and I felt a desire to lift up my herb area to a higher frequency for lack of a better word, and freshen up the soil and relocate those that were elsewhere into this common area, and add a few new herbs too.

So this is the bed with the addition of tree stakes segments that were cut with a saw from 6 to 9 inches and slightly buried for stability. They help define the area and convey a sense of intimacy and elevation for the new herb bed.

The green marble disks presented to me for taking over the care of my daughter's beta fish come in nicely to add some subtle bling to the area. The tour at Diane's yesterday crosses my mind and I smile and appreciate that I can be influenced by the sharing of gardeners. The green marbles are a reminder of that tour.

And I appreciate that perhaps I can influence too. The circle of influence circles on....and I excitedly await it's return.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Tie One On

Patti Kathlene, the country western karaoke signing seamstress friend of mine made me a couple of aprons after our antique excursion to Boulder City last week.

Everyone needs something with dingo balls on it in their wardrobe and this one is ridiculously cute! The other one is my alltime favorite and perfect to wear to bring in the fall weather and maybe wrestle with pumpkins or pie or both.

I say Tie One On! Thank you Patti Kathlene! Wanna go sing on Friday? The pizzas on me!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Carry On and Hurry Back!

Another Leap

Black Dirt is moving in. I just replaced the cannas with the stuff yesterday, and from the way I took the photo I'm lucky I got leaf in the photo. Habit is helpful sometimes.

I just started a new blog "Black Dirt Chronicles." It is located in Great Places to Visit down the sidebar and I am excited to share it with you. I hope you like it.

I promised I'd share the bird water bottle when finished. Clef notes begin with the bottom of, and the lid of a gatorade bottle with a hole in the lid which serves as a spacer to lift the grey water bottle lid up in order to have more water fill the base least it be extremely shallow. (Inhale)

Cut a hole in the lid of your chosen water vessel.

Glue the lids together, get a man to hold it for you, test complete. So now the water flows through and fills the base. (Bottom of grey lid not to exceed height of base wall.)

Then commence with latent jewelry making techniques using landscape wire. Play with it in it's slinky state until you become annoyed or bored then make little straps to make it stop doing that.

Then run out and hang it in a tree and then go play in the dirt....

Thanks for visiting. To all of my crafty gardening friends, Carry On!

Blazin Desert

Lilies are ablaze and they reign in the garden right now. There is also a new lily added to the lily bed. It's called Assorted Lily, just kidding but really. I read it twice.

It's the lovely deep purple with a green center. It would look great next to the surprise lily from the plant rescue which happens to be a deep rich yellow.

Chaste Trees have been added to the area behind the main bed, one on the left between the butterfly iris, slightly hidden from view and one just below the mountain. They are our equivalent to a lilac bush. They will become small trees and will shade the walking path, and also buffer some of the reflective heat. The directional sign in the distance is as follows:

A little garden art using a tree stake and palet planks with green, red and blue acrylic paint. Husband wanted to write our elevation on the back with a pencil. He headed out to scribe until I convinced him that our elevation should go with the next sign I intend to make, 'Hummingbird Trail'. We can't get our horizontals and verticals mixed up now can we?

Cannas have started to bloom. They are orange mottled, and also there are red ones that should follow soon and are a smaller variety. The wind has kicked back up and these two are slap happy, so no close ups, please.

Garage sailing :) I found these glass voltive holders for a dollar and thought they'd make great rain gauges in the cactus garden, still under construction.

Thanks for visiting! To all my gardening friends, Carry On!

New Iris for the Iris Bed

Here are the new iris for the iris bed from the show yesterday. It is nice to have a theme for a garden bed. This is a baking spot with afternoon shade but too hot for the shade loving plants.

The names and photographs of the iris were placed on placards, and was very clever. This one is Wild Wings and makes me look forward to next spring.

Symba likes this spot for the iris named Puccini already in bloom. Check out the amazing detail.

The orange catepillar is something that all 3 of the new iris have in common. My Hula Hands iris purchased last June bloomed this morning.

It is a kaleidoscope of color, and well worth the wait. Next there is this unknown one,

already showing excellent form and ready to bloom. We have the first bloom of the California Poppies that were sprinkled in a couple of the beds.

The bamboo poles and chopsticks have become permanent fixtures in a couple of beds. They are to keep Symba from scratching at the seedlings.

Adorning them with marbles makes them magical.

Black Mountain

This is a picture of Black Mountain from Lake Mead Blvd. down the hill from Lake Las Vegas. Black Mountain Garden is located in the middle of the 3 mountain ridges pictured above.

The red tulips are starting to bloom. The first 2 blossoms were cut short by what I suspect to be an adverse reaction to the amended soil that I worked into the top 2 inches of soil surrounding the plants in all of the beds. The leaves have been burned, and new growth is slightly curled and stunted. Here is a picture of the first tulip flower. Isn't the color amazing?

They are quite wild looking especially without any stems. This is the first time I have had tulips in Nevada. The bulbs were purchased on clearance and planted in January. I love the leaves and maybe next year they will have stems.

We are supposed to have a 30% chance of rain in a couple of days.