Happy Halloween!

Have a Happy Halloween Everybody!

  I  put together a display in the kitchen window.  I found these tins with candles in them from T.J.Maxx...I reused some items I had shown once before....

The wind down....

Just can't help but take more pictures....It's been a great season and this fall has been beautiful...these are the last of the pretty colors around here...

I received an e-mail from a local bird supply store...I thought this was some great writing and worth sharing...this is an except from it that I liked...

Tom Ford, Wild Birds Unlimited's Naturalist, shares his thoughts on nature happenings in our area this month.

"A chevron of geese honk their way across a blustery gray sky. They pull behind them the imaginary curtain that closes the autumn act and when the curtain reopens, we find a new season"

Watch out for the Witches!

I saw this metal pumpkin at T.J. Maxx a month ago and decided I was going to build on top of it.... soooo.... off I went to Michael's for some  products....

So what I did was I got a large cube of styrofoam and spray painted it a bright orange....

Then I stuffed moss around the sides and a little in the front near the mouth.....

I saw this witch on the Lenox website and decided she would work for this project too....she lights up...see the little twinkle there....

The artificial branches were another item from Michaels....I cut them shorter and played a bit with the branches...

I also added a black raven and a skeleton head

(which has a holder for a candle so he lights up-it was actually a yard stake)

BOOH!!

Come on over!

Hello everyone...come on over to my 2nd blog: http://sitwithmeinmygarden.blogspot.com 

It's devoted to my gardens and gardening....

 

Contrasts....

It's been a wonderful year in my gardens...this is the view in the spring and in the fall .... quite the contrast...

A nice quiet morning in the spring, listening to the birds singing, watching them feed from the bird feeders...thrilled to see life emerging and ready for the summer ahead...

 

Here we are these many months later with everything winding down and ready for it's dormancy....  

Putting the garden to sleep...

I've begun the process of putting the  flower pots away for the season....we've been hit with frosts and things are dying off...

I still had some healthy looking plants, but I also had some that had been hit hard and were all shriveled up...I always find it very difficult to do this, but I know from experience that in no time we will be getting the cool rainy weather which then leads in the the "S" word...

 No one told these impatiens how cold it's been!  This little corner near the fountain is well protected...

 Turned the fountain off today too...now we battle leaves for a little while longer...

 My Endless Summer Hydrangeas are still blooming!  It's been a crazy year for me with these plants...I've sure enjoyed them!  I highly recommend this hydrangea if you've ever had trouble growing them, this one will not disappoint!

Small Impacts

I never was sure where I was going to put the topiary that I created, but I finally landed it here along with the new frames I had in another spot...I think they work well together and create a romantic look...

On the backside I have my elephant greeting you to the room....

Mums and Scarecrows!

I found these Gorgeous Mums and a then I had a Scarecrow attack!

I popped out my annual flowers from my tall planters by the garage and planted these beautiful mums.....

The gardens are winding down...we've had a frost that hit some of the plants...kind of messy right now with all the leaves falling, but you can see all the hostas are yellowing and ready to go to sleep for the season....

Gardening and Fairies

Well I got a bun on this year to put in a fairy garden. I dedicated a spot under a large maple tree. I used pre-formed blocks to frame it, and loaded it with some rich garden soil. I used miniature hostas which I just discovered and fell in love with for my greenery and a large accent stone that I had from our old pond area. I picked up a cute pagoda style gazebo which seemed to start me onto a trend. I later found a pagoda style door for an accent. I'm waiting for my bridge that I think looked like it would pick up on the same kind of Japanese feeling.

The stones I used are some pink quartz that we picked up out west back in the 90's. I bought bags of it and had it accenting the base of a water fountain for a long time. I'm thinking about changing the stones though because it's not quite the look I really wanted. Always something to do!

I found some solar powered miniature garden lights to give it some night time lighting! Dan cut the posts shorter so I could fit them in nicely. It's kind of cute at night, but so far I haven't been able to photograph it. Need to do a long time exposure to get it! There is also a gazing ball in the center of the gazebo which also has a solar light absorbing quality and glows at night, for a while. I put some of the fairies inside to look like they are staring at it in wonderment!

So far the fairies seem to be keeping the squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits away from eating everything!

I'm debating on a fairy house or two. I would love to find something like that on a traveling/trip to bring to it. It would be fun that way!

This is the new fairy door, it fit in the spot like it was made for it!

These fairies are from the Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairy Collection.

Gardening and Goals

(This is a posting I transferred from my other blog from earlier this summer)

This year (2010) I Promised myself to get out and have fun with my backyard garden and to make changes....I've added lots of hostas, relocated some, planted new hydrangeas and lilies. I also added a climbing rose and a clematis to the arbor along with a seasonal dose of morning glories!

My goal was to be thoroughly satisfied with myself for accomplishing what I set out to do and to keep that spirit through the long winter months that will be ahead!

This is looking back at the house...

I moved these pedestals to the entry of the fountain area. The potted impatiens have done really well this year.

Side view from the backyard of the fountain area... I put red impatiens around this year so it would stand out nicely (last year I used soft pink, but they didn't catch your eye as well)...the hostas were all split up and placed around the perimeter last year from plants I already had.

New this year, a goal of mine to successfully grow roses, this is my new Queen Elizabeth (Grandiflora) Rose. I couldn't be happier with it. Not too fussy and produced beautiful flowers!

Creeping Jenny spreads out nicely, fills in all the cracks and the underneath of other plants, but can easily be removed.

I am totally in love with Limelight Hydrangeas...they produce such attractive long lasting flowers..I planted three of these along the edge of my side path that goes out to the birdfeeder.

These morning glories are making a beautiful display...very nice to see every morning! I have had so many great flowers this year with the lilies, peonies, tulips, iris and the annuals I have planted, I am very satisfied with my goals being met in the gardens!

Everyday I go out to see if there is anything new, anything to take care of and to consider anything I should do differently and make changes to. I always have goals, I'm rarely satisfied to leave things alone for long!

Garden Continues to Delight

(This is a posting from September from my other blog)

This weekend while having my morning coffee I was staring out at my garden area, I suddenly realized I should get out there and take a few pictures.... the morning sun was glimmering through the trees and creating a magical affect....

This has been an outstanding year for my gardens...up north here we never know what kind of summer we will have, but while the south seemed to be blistering with heat we were enjoying a warm and delightful summer season...

Addicted to Hydrangeas

This year I have gone overboard on Hydrangeas! A few years ago I was afraid of them and avoided them. After owning a Nikko Blue Hydrangea for many years and it only bloomed a few times I had gotten turned off about them. I got turned back onto them with the variety known as Endless Summer Hydrangeas and my confidence was renewed!

This is how the flower starts out, which is even very pretty at this stage...

Then it plumps right out and looks like this....and as you can see it's a generous size.....The colors vary pinks and blues...I fertilized with Espoma, Holly Tone

My new favorite is the Limelight Hydrangea....this one is 3 years old and I am so delighted as to how well it is growing and blooming....If you notice the lime green tinge to the newer flowers and then it gets whiter, but still has some green, eventually it gets a reddish tone to it....they stay on through the winter....I planted 3 more of them along a path that leads to my bird feeders....

I recently acquired a PeeGee Hydrangea Tree and I am so looking forward to watching it grow. I am told to be aggressive in the spring and cut it back so that the new growth will have the long shoots that will bend over nicely....This picture shows it planted along my pathway, it replaced a Crabapple Tree that wasn't so great looking anymore....

This is closer view of the same PeeGee Hydrangea Tree.....there is some very soft pink in there too but it's visible in this picture. Did you know they create these Hydrangea trees by trimming the shrub as it grows to create the tree form. This is not a grafted tree.... (The blue flower is a morning glory that's growing on my arbor and managed to get in the picture!)

My next newcomer is this Pinky Winky Hydrangea (what a fun name).......

It's has very large panicles- up to 16" I've read. My shrub is not very large, but by next year I expect to see it develop nicely!

This picture is a close up of two levels of the flowers growth...the white is how it starts, then it goes to the pink color...they have firm stalks and paper like feel when they get to the pink stage.

Another newcomber is this Paris, from the Cityline series, a dwarf Hydrangea.

I also have one called a Forever & Ever, Red Hydrangea- soil ph is not supposed to affect it...it's a red flower/fades to purple...mine is not blooming, but here is a stock photo from the internet...