Flowers

Last of them except the pansies I need to plant around the mailbox and deck pots...

Asters.

 Balsams.

Last Daffodils and Good Deck Pots

The daffodils are fading.  This is from a week ago on their final days. 

Fortunately,  my cherry tomato pot has these survivors from last year.

The pansies are finally blooming better.  They just didn't do well over Winter.

Several different color combinations.  When I bought them in Fall, there were no blooms, so it was all random.

I like the purple ones.

I'm not sure if these are asters or tithonia.  Regardless, I will enjoy them.

These are Moonbeam Coreopsis.  They have been growing in that pot without much care for about 15-20 years now.  They might outlast me.

The star-gazer lilies are growing again.  They are about as old as the coreopsis.

I need to go off the deck and the pictures of the yard flowers...

The Other Deck Flowers

 Its not all just regular potted plants here.  I mentioned I bought some really cheap Mums at Walmart and the flowers all died.  So I snipped them clean, but didn't really expect much.  Well, hurray, they are sending out blossoms!

The buds are pale now, but will bloom orange.

And I have a real gem of a self-sowing annual in 2 pots...

It's called Tithonia and grows about 3' high.  Usually 5-6 flowers on a plant.  I am going to save the seedheads and scatter the seeds around in the meadow bed Late Winter.  If only a few grow, they might spread slowly.  

The meadow bed has not been very successful, but I keep trying.  I'll get in there with shears soon and snip around between where the meadow flowers are "supposed" to be (according to the labels and landscaping flags I stuck near them).  

If I find some, I will surround them with cardboard to reduce competition with the weeds.  And plant new ones next Spring.  It has to start working eventually!

Regular Deck Flowers

Late Spring, I planted Balsam, Marigolds, and Coleus.  They did well.  I am saving the Balsam seeds to scatter around next Spring.  You have to handle the seed pods carefully.  If you are familiar with them, the pods pop open when squeezed, LOL!   But they succumb to cool weather early.

So the Marigolds are showing up better now.

And the Coleus are doing nicely.  I thought they would be gone by now, but I hadn't grown them in years.  They are more hardy than I remembered.

And here is a trick I've recently figured out for hanging pots...

Have you ever had bungee cords that wore out?  Well, save the metal hooks.  They are often useful.  I discovered that if you thread the hook part through the hole in the end of a hanging bracket, the large spiral part works as well as a nut and bolt.  

But you still have to thread the hanging chains of a heavy pot onto the hook which is a couplke of feet over the edge of the deck.

WELL, I noticed a pack of metal shower curtain hangers at the DIY store (and I am very willing to re-purpose products).  Obviously, shower curtain hangers are waterproof.  So it occurred to me that I could thread the pot-hanging chains onto a metal shower hook on the deck conveniently, and then just hang the shower hook on the bungee cord hook.

I'm not sure how well you can see this.  But the saved bungee hook is set through the hanging bracket at the top, the metal shower hanger allowed the pot chains to be easily threaded onto it, and the wide shower hanger made it easy to hold while I reached out over the deck to hang the pot on the bungee hook.

😄

I love being resourceful and reusing old stuff!  There is something about "what else can I do with that", that just pleases me no end...

It's like when I saw a 10" wide plaster spreader and thought "hey I can scrape the cat litter boxes with that"!

New Camera And Deck Pots

Well, I finally started using the new camera and took some pics of the deck pots...

I went big on Balsams and Coleus this year.  Grew the Balsams from seeds and found really good cheap Coleus at Walmart.  And there are a few Marigolds in there, too.

I also bought some small cheap orange Mums at Walmart for the front steps around Halloween, but I'll wait until they grow bigger...

The new camera gets the colors right.  Yay!  😀

Unwanted Tree Saplings And Garden

I'm not as young as I used to be.  And parts of me don't work as well as they used to, either.  Between falling off the extension ladder and general aging problems with both knees, I get calf, thigh and rib cramps and finger clenches.  And sometimes lower back stiffness.  

Getting old isn't for sissies (as Mom often said).  So, these days I do what I can.  Aspercreme and Ibuprophen help.  As does sitting in the tub with hot shower water falling on me in the morning (to wake me up and get me more mobile).  I wish I was 60 again, LOL!

But I have gotten more active again lately.  I caught up on the veggie garden, though it has less than I used to grow.   Most of the crops I used to grow are now easy to find at the grocery store and at a decent price.  But there are still some things I can't get.  So I focus on growing them.

Heirloom tomatoes are still at the top of my list.  The grocery store does sell them (at $5 a pound) but the fools chill them for storage-life, and that kills the enzymes that produce the great flavor.  So buying those is pointless.  I have 14 heirloom tomatoes growing well.  They are behind schedule, but catching up rapidly in this warm weather and rain every few days.

Next is Italian flat beans.  I've never seen any in the grocery store or even a local farmer's market.  They have a better "deeper" taste than regular green beans.  I have 20 plants of those starting to climb the trellis.  I can find them canned sometimes, but they are very soft and usually highly-seasoned.

It is time to plant some Fall crops.  My favorite Spring and Fall crop is Snow Peas.  I've never seen those at the grocery store either.

I have trays of lettuces, celery, and bok choy on the deck.  You've never seen real red lettuce unless you grow it yourself.  And I grow red romaine lettuce too.  My green leaf lettuce is nearly lime-colored.  Makes an appealing salad.  

I grow bok choy and celery for the leaves (I don't get actual "stalks).  The bok choy leaves are great for making egg rolls.  They preventing the raw veggies inside from poking through the wrappers and add flavor.  Celery leaves are strong-tasting and add some "bite" to my salads.

But those are all planted now.

GOT to cut down all the unwanted saplings this weekend!  Job #1 now that the veggies (and flowers) are all planted.

Nothing much to see there yet, but "soon"...

Deck Flowers

I threw some cheap seedlings (marigolds and dianthus) into the deck pots this year.  I usually grow my own fancier ones, but things were busy.  Actually they have grown nicely and are flowering well.  Basically, color matters most and I have that, so I'm happy.

First Flowers Of The Year

Pictures of first flowers of the year:

Snow On The Mountain...

Don't recall the name...

Maltese Cross...

Tithonia...

Baptisia...

Stella D'Oro Lilies...

And I have 12 Butterfly Weed (that butterflies love) growing from last year's plantings.  I thought they failed to grow last year.  They take 2 years to flower.  This is the 2nd year are they are thriving!  

Deck Pots:  

Stargazer Lilies still blooming after 10+ years...

I went cheap this year on the deck pot annuals.  Lowe's (big box store) had a great sale and I bought "enough".

Celosia...

Pink Dianthus...

Red Dianthus...

Two pots of each of those dianthus.  And as a connecting theme, each has an orange Marigold in the center.  

I usually grow my own, but I got behind on the schedule again this year.  And Walmart was selling 6-packs of dianthus for $2 each.  Hard to beat that.  Still, I think they will look interesting in a month...

I'll try to get fancier next year, LOL!

Deck Mums And A Surprise Visitor

I didn't do too well with the planters hanging from the deck rails (usually Zinnias or Salvia) but the deck floor planter Mums are beginning to bloom...

The beds were mowed for renewal, but do you notice a small object near center top?

A bunny was visiting...

Marley and Ayla have mostly retired from hunting the bigger critters (mice are just fine these days) but Laz has an interest in rabbits and squirrels.  I mean, he was LOOKING at the backyard (see the top pic).

It was funny.  The rabbit was obvious to ME, but even when I picked up Laz and aimed his head to it, he didn't see it.  Because the rabbit wasn't moving.

I understand.  I'm shape/color/movement/far-sighted evolved and he is movement/sound/near-sighted evolved.  And sees yellow-blue best (which is why bunnies and i are brown, I suppose).

So I whistled suddenly and the bunny twitched its ears.  Wow did THAT get Laz's attention!  He was off like a shot (I have a wound to prove it) and went right after it.  No chance to catch it off course but he was enthusiastic.  Give a rabbit a headstart and no hope for a cat.

But it probably made his day.  He didn't need any food, but "the thrill of the chase" was good...