Happening Right Now
What's happening right now in your yard?
Comments (21)
6 years agoYou have a beautiful garden, Kirstin. What is the geranium in the third pic? I am guessing Rozanne? I just love how it intermingles.
Here is my Rozanne with shasta daisy Tinkerbelle this morning:
Stokes aster peaking now and looking much like a thistle:
Bloomerang Korean lilac actually blooming again as advertised:
6 years agoRelated Discussions
What's Happening In Your Garden?
Comments (85)At our house, the harvest is hot and heavy right now. We have potatoes and onions curing everywhere, on every flat surface available. Today I'm going to start slicing and chopping onions to freeze for later use in cooking, and then the rest of the first batch of cured onions will go into tubular net bags for storage. The second onion batch needs to cure for at least another week and then they'll get the same treatment. I'm going to send 10 or 20 lbs. of onions and the same amount of potatoes to work with DS on the next day he works, which I think is Thursday, because I've promised his fire station chef a steady supply of fresh veggies. I am picking tomatoes about every other day, and we have more than we can handle at this point, which is a great problem to have. I don't think it will continue to be such a great tomato year for too many more weeks though, because our temperatures are well above the range at which flowers set fruit.) We need a cold spell here. By cold, I mean any weather with highs only in the low 90s and lows in the low 7os. We have enough tomato fruitset that I think we'll be harvesting all we can handle through mid-July but am not sure what we'll get after that. Yesterday we were down in the metroplex shopping for a few hours and we dropped off two Wal-Mart bags of tomatoes for DS's crew at the station which generated a lot of excitement among them, and saved me from having to do any canning yesterday. (I didn't have time.) On Sunday afternoon I put up 8 quart bags of green beans in the freezer, and I'm going outside in just a few minutes to pick beans again. I was hoping it would be nice and cool this morning, but our low temp for the night was 80, so we're starting out kind of warm already and the sun isn't even up yet. Yesterday morning we harvested the early sweet corn, which was the variety 'Early Sunglow'. We got about 75 good ears and a few bad ones that either had been 'sampled' by the raccoons, had poor fertilization because of the heat or something else that resulted in unusable ears. I gave the bad ears (less than a dozen total) to the chickens who were delighted with them, and put the rest in the refrigerator. We ate some fresh last night and will have more today, and I am going to blanch and freeze the rest this afternoon. Some years the raccoons get all the corn, and there's rarely a year in which we beat them to all of it, so I'm very happy with our harvest. I hope we're able to get as many ears from the mid-season corn and the late-season corn, but we'll be fighting both the coons and the corn earworms and European corn borers, so who knows what we'll get from them. Our garden is in the transition stage, where the last of the cool-season crops have just come out (I finally yanked the broccoli and cabbage because they just weren't doing anything at all) and have been replaced with hot-season crops so we'll have something to harvest in July and August. With highs in the upper 90s and lower 100s already and lows in the mid-70s throug low-80s, our weather here feels more like late July and August than June, so I am concerned about the effect of the heat on the garden---but there's nothing we can do about the heat except go with the flow. The bigger issue is the lack of rainfall. There's been no rain here for about 3 weeks our last rainfall was a half-inch on May 24t), and no good chance of rain anytime for us anytime in the foreseeable future. With 100-degree heat and no rainfall, everything here is rapidly drying out and turning brown, and we are starting to see grassfires. I'm already wrestling with the decision about whether to water or how much to water. We did run the soaker hoses to water the soil/foundation area yesterday, and I'm going to run a soaker hose in the garden today to water a couple of beds, but I am not doing a lot of watering. The problem with trying to keep a veggie garden green in this kind of heat is that the garden becomes an oasis that attracts tons of bugs when everything else is browning out, and we have a lot of wildlife (deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, rabbits, etc.) trying to get into the garden every day and every night. It is going to be a long summer. We have a surging spider mite and grasshopper population too, but also have lots of ladybugs so I'm not overly worried about the mites. The hoppers may be a problem, but only time will tell. Dawn...See MorePlaying in the snowy garden
Comments (9)On the other side of the country, I too am enjoying a snowy day. Today I am blessed that there is nowhere I have to go, no time clock to punch, no schedules or appointments. This morning I decided that even if the roads were cleared, I would not get in my car today. I went out with my dog several times. He is only a year old, and the snow excites him. He races through it with such joy that I by the end of the walk my face muscles ache from grinning. I love the way the snow changes the landscape, and forces me to see it with new eyes. I love the way the pace of life slows on a snowy day: fewer cars are on the road, and my neighborhood is unusually quiet. I've spent the day packaging a proposal to send off to a publisher. Print out the sample chapters, tweek the table of contents, label the slides, write the cover letter. Make a cup of tea and double check for typos. Address the envelope. It is winter, and I have the luxury of being able to work without watching the clock. C.L....See MoreWelcome to Stockton: foreclosure capital USA
Comments (40)Actually, I don't think Greenspan is the villain in this. I repeat - the Fed has very little control over the securitization of bundled mortgage loans. They are repackaged into equity deals and are collateralized by the RE. Yes, in some areas of the US that RE has fallen in value. But in most areas of the US it has not dropped drastically, and even a 25% decline eventually works itself out through the system. The US simply has too large and global an economy for it to be more than a big burp in the overall history. I do fault Greenspan for keeping rates low too long, but hindsight is always so much better than foresight. Why should he be any different than us folks at the forum - where are all those posters here who declared one could never lose money in RE? And the hysteria over banks is amusing. There is NO CASH CRUNCH. Banks are flush with money, as are most companies. There is a liquidity crunch, which is a thing entirely different. Wells Fargo had very little exposure to subprime loans; they securitize and sell most of their loans to other servicers. WaMu recently added to their loan loss reserve but their core business, checking and savings, is booming like gangbusters and they will have no trouble opening all the new branches they plan to start in 2007-2008. Actually, if I were investing in individual stocks, which I don't, I'd buy Goldman Sachs in a heartbeat. The liquidity messiness has really depressed its stock price and they are the premier deal-broker in the world. Now, when they start jumping out of their windows, then I'll worry! As for RE agents fleeing the field, most of those were part-time and newcomers anyway. It's always been a boom-and-bust business, and probably always will be. We saw the same thing happen in the 1990's. People have such short memories! The vast majority of Americans have pretty much the same amount in their checking and savings accounts as they had two months ago. The vast majority of American, Asian and European corporations can say the same. The only thing changed are people's perceptions, as fed by the media....See Moresjerin- here is what I found for adjustable beds...
Comments (3)I don't know what a platform mattress is either! No clue. I did have a GOOD pillowtop mattress/box - but because my back is so badly damaged, I can't lie flat- it causes horrible pain, and I literally can't get up for about 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Having an adjustable bed means all the world's difference- I have my head elevated- like sleeping in the recliner. Do you have any friends/relatives that would let you try their bed for a night? Some motels/hotels that are on/near big hospitals centers have some adjustable beds- there is a motel in Casper that has a couple-Maybe you have a place like that to try one. It would be nice to try one first to see if it would help you. Oh- at Mattress Land, you can buy an adjustable bed- you can try it for 30 days- if you don't like it you can return it for a full refund. You can try it for 60 days, and if you return it, then the money is credited towards another set....See More
6 years agoThe summer clematis are blooming enthusiastically now. This is a current favorite area, one that blooms much of the late spring and summer and I see every day from above from the kitchen window - mostly gold and blu-purple with periodic pops of orange. Japanese irises, Veronicastrium/Culver's root, Coreopsis 'Golden Gain' and Clematis Venosa Violacea, and off to the left a few Delphinium Blue Butterfly and Scabiosa.
- 6 years ago
6 years agoHere's a few angles of my biggest bed right now (the clematis that was meant to climb that trellis died to the ground, so I hope Bluestone honors its guarantee...)
And a few shots of my new-this-year corner bed...
(My seed grown thunbergia didn't have any issues with covering its trellis. But then, it's an annual.)
The little beds out front...
And a few visitors...
I am dealing with my first real infestation (japanese beetles) and have learned that I had some misinformation on plant heights that will require me to make some moves in fall. But definitely making slow progress. If I would just finish filling in the beds I have before digging more... Hm.
- 6 years ago
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It's Echinacea 'Sombrero Adobe Orange' which I didn't really expect to return after a bad experience with other echinacea hybrids, but it surprised me. Even moved it early this spring because it was too short for the middle of the border, and it's still looking good.
We did have a VERY mild winter with only one late snowstorm, however.
Here's a better look at it. Well, better if you ignore the weeds...
- 6 years ago
Jenn, the tall orange flower in the background of my photo is Asclepias tuberosa. It's about 4 years old now, and a really great performer in my yard. I have
Asclepias syriaca in a nearby bed as well. I get lots of Monarchs in my yard, and my son and I collect the eggs every year and raise them to butterflies - and, interestingly, we have never found an egg on the Asclepias tuberosa, only on the Asclepias syriaca. Here is a closer photo of the A. tuberosa. The Veronica in front of it gives you a good idea of the height.
- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
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6 years agoVery pretty gardens, everyone!
This week
Phlox is coming on
Astilbe
Daylily, South Seas, such pretty shades on this one
It's summer when you see a red Rose, Rudbeckia, Shasta Daisy 'Alaska', along with some Veronica and Geranium 'Roseanne'.
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago- 6 years ago
6 years agoThe garden here is waiting for the next flowering phase to begin - the hardy hibiscuses should be along shortly; the purple coneflowers have just started. 'White Moth' hydrangeas are a continuous backdrop in the front bed for July and part of August. These pictures were taken about 6:15 this evening and I was facing into the sun so there are funny spots on some of them :-)
The front bed from the road - you can see the Chinese wisteria on the left end and the Japanese one on the right end of the 'moat' bed. (The Japanese one was pruned at the end of last week and already needs to be pruned again! It is MUCH more vigorous than the Chinese one....)
I like how the flowers on the 'Elegans' hosta at the driveway end of the 'moat' bed mirror the shape of the 'White Moth' hydrangea behind it. It doesn't show that well in this picture though:
The view towards/through the arbour doesn't look much different now than the one I posted earlier in the month - except the weeds are taller on the path now! :-) Heat and rain gave them a big boost and it's been too hot for me to go out there and get rid of them :-(
The clematises growing on the north alley fence put on a nice show in July even when seen from a distance from the road I think....
6 years ago
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)