Alrighty Then

Okay, I got nothing......
Today is Fertilizer Friday sponsored by our great hostess
from Tootsie Time and for those of you who still have
flowers, of whom I am very jealous of, it is time to "Flaunt
Your Flowers" before it is too late.

A couple of days this week when the sun was shining
so bright was spent in the final clean up. That is it I
have had it with the mulching of leaves and cleaning off
the beds. I refuse to mow another leaf! For pity sakes I
live near a State Forest I am tired of leaves. They are no
longer gorgeous or decked in colors, but a yucky old brown
piles upon the ground.
You all know I am fibbing don't ya? ;-)
The oak leaves will find a way to my front porch
and into the little pond.They just lay in wait for a
good wind upon this hill to come sailing in.
Oh well, leaves will happen.

Now lets see what I have found with some
little color around here.



Of course the Purple Carpet Alyssum is still going.
Is everyone tired of seeing it?
I surely am but hey I am desperate here.



And this little sprig of blue Lobelia has a few blooms.
All the others are done and pulled up.



And surprise ! I found this pink mum in with my
burgundy one. Just don't ask me where it came from.
Maybe it is a Clara Curtis that slipped in when I wasn't
looking. It is a pretty little bloom though.

I found two old petunia blooms. You can tell their old by the
cobwebs. Well maybe not, it may be a spider web.
Can you tell I have gone from nostalgia to silly this week?



This little beauty is still blooming and the bees
are still taking advantage of them in the sun.





But even the mums now are looking like their
end is coming near. Poor sad looking bloom.

And this is the Nikko Hydrangea that waited too
late to finally set on a bloom. All my hydrangeas this
summer were a disappointment of no blooms at all.



Sadly enough it does look pretty against the burgundy
of its Fall leaves.





The Streptocarpus Roulett Red and Inkspot got their
new pots this week and are doing well.




And then there is the tale of the Amaryllis on steroids.



This Cocktail amaryllis took off full speed ahead.
This picture was taken a few days ago so it is even
bigger now.
I was going to stagger the setting of the bulbs so
that they would bloom at different times, but
since I have not tried them before I thought what
the heck do it now.I do not think I had anything
to fear about their blooming all at once.....



because the Picotee and Ragtime are just starting
to grow. Maybe the Cocktail amaryllis just takes
less time to start. Do you amaryllis growers
know or the plant tag might be my first move.




The foxgloves are growing very nicely and should
give me some pretty blooms next summer.
Tatyana I hope the seeds you gave me does as good.
The pressure is on girl.

To all of the Dirt Princess Seed Swap Gang the seeds are in
the mail!!

Well that's it. All she wrote.No more.
Nada, I am done. ;-)

Happy FF Everyone
& Have A Great Weekend!

Welcome September

September

"The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook,

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.

T'is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget."


- Helen Hunt Jackson -

It has felt like Autumn here in the hill's the last
two mornings although it may be a few weeks off yet.
We've have to turn on the heat to rid the house
of a morning chill. While others have sweltered
this summer we have had a cool summer.
It has been just right though for working on
the old garden beds and getting new ones ready
for new blooms next spring and summer.
We gardeners are a hopeful bunch always planning
and planting for the future in the hope of a tomorrow.




Happy Gardening Everyone!

Honey Locust Trees

The Honey Locust trees around the house in the woods
are blooming now and they are just gorgeous.
They are so full of long white blooms that fill the
trees and surround the yard with their fragrance.



Against the blue skies the white blooms look so pretty.



The chains of blooms remind me of Wisteria blooms.

I just happen to catch this Bumblebee heading for the blooms.
The bees and hummingbirds are loving them and the noise of
buzzing fills the air.



My, now eleven year old, Wisteria is starting to get leaves now.
Will it bloom this year for the first time? Or not?
I am about to get rid of the thing and chalk it up as a lost cause.
After moving it into more sun, and trimming severely, and whacking it,
and talking to it, at times very roughly, such as "bloom or your gone", I
am going to dig it up and replace it if it does not bloom.
Wouldn't you say I have tried with it long enough?

The Sun Came Out & So Did The Phlox

Thank heaven the sun finally came out after four days
of rain and then cool gloom. It was good for the grass seed
that was planted in the back yard so though I was not happy
with it the flowers and trees are drinking it up.
It warmed up nicely today so I had to run out and check
all of the flower beds and get some new pictures of what
was growing and blooming now.
The ground phlox is starting to get pretty now with all
of its tiny blooms and the bees are coming to it so they are
happy to see the sun and blooms also.
I have two colors of ground phlox around the house in areas
that are hard to grow anything which includes a section along
one side of the garage.

Strange Behavior For Honey Bees !!

This is a picture of my bird feeder that hangs upon our
Sugar Maple tree.
One day I noticed what I thought was big bugs flying
around and into it. Getting closer and
investigating further it turned out to be Honey Bees!

The little bees were digging in the birdseed and scattering
it out of the feeder and some had managed to even get
up inside of the feeder.
I have had bird feeders for years but had never seen so
many Honey Bees around the feeder or in the birdseed
before except for an occasional stray one maybe.

I kept watching them as closely as possible without
disturbing them and I could not really see them taking
away any of the seed but they were digging in the seed
for some reason. They kept up this behavior until they
they had emptied all of the seed from the feeder onto the
ground below where other bees were continuing their search.
They worked at this for several hours. I was just hoping they
were not looking to make a home of the bird feeder.

Bee keepers probably knew right off why they were
acting in this manner but it was a new experience for me.
So, I had to investigate this behavior to see if there was a
simple explanation.
Doing a search on Google came up with a match at
the Hilton Pond Center
which had an article entitled "Busy as a Winter Bee".
In the article Susan Hilton had had the same experience
at her bird feeder and did a similar investigation.
She learned that in the absence of energy rich flower
nectar that the bees look for other protein rich sources.
The corn though having starch does have some protein
in the kernels so the worker bees were doing their best
to collect the dust from the crushed corn kernels to
get protein to take back to the hive for the larvae and
the Queen Bee.
The collecting of this dust is in fact a common event.
I guess to me what was strange behavior was just bees
being bees. It was a very interesting experience to watch
them and the birds cleaned up the scattered seed from
the ground.

Mimosa Seed Pods

My Mimosa Tree has so many Seed Pods this Fall.

Details on Mimosa Tree are as follows:

Mimosa ( Albizia julibrissin Durazz. L.) silk tree

Mimosa was introduced into the United States as an ornamental from
Asia and Africa. It has escaped into fields and waste areas and
its distribution in the United States is from the mid-Atlantic states
south and as far west as Indiana. It is a flat-topped, thornless,
deciduous tree which reaches 35' in height.
This fast-growing, deciduous tree has a low branching, open,
spreading habit and delicate, lacy, almost fern-like foliage. Fragrant,
silky, pink puffy pompom blooms, two inches in diameter, appear
from late April to early July creating a spectacular sight.

Light requirement: tree grows in full sun
Soil tolerances: clay; loam; sand; acidic; alkaline; extended flooding;
well-drained
Drought tolerance: high
Aerosol salt tolerance: moderate

Hummingbird's, Bee's and Butterflies love my Mimosa tree's and its
pink, airy blooms in the Summer. I also love it that when the sun
goes down in the evening the leaves on the tree fold up. It is amazing
to watch.

I have to tell you that it is considered invasive, because
many small trees can come up from the seeds. I have found a
few in my yard but they are easily pulled up, others were left to
transplant in other areas of the yard because of their beauty and
to draw in more Hummingbird's, Bee's, and Butterflies.

Make sure also that they are not planted near your sidewalks,
swimming pools, etc. because the falling flowers and seed pods
can be messy. This was learn from experience when I planted
one beside the garage. The spent flowers and seed pods collected
on the roof, eaves and the sidewalk and had to be cleaned off.
I did not want the mess so it was cut down. So plan before you
plant them, preferably in an open area, unless you do not
mind the clean up. Consider the nearness to your
neighbors yards also.
Of the two that have grown to maturity it takes about
seven years before the blooms appear. In my Zone 5 area
it starts blooming near the end of June.

Since there are so many seed pods this Fall and after the
descriptions of pros and cons on the tree, if there is anyone
who would like some seeds for SASE please feel free
to contact me Ldawns1@hocking.net and I will get back with
you on the details.

From seed it is a long process that includes storing the seed
for 6 months to simulate dormancy.

The Bee's Knees

No, I am not talking 1920's flapper era slang such as the
"Bee's Knees" or the "Cat's Pajamas".
I am not sure, but I really wonder if Bee's have knees.
That might be a question to ask Tom at the
"Ohio Nature Blog".
If they do have knees they are awfully small indeed.
The phrase "Bee's knees" stands for excellent, of highest
quality or small.
They may be small of size but they live up to excellence
in nature for the job they have been given to accomplish.
What would we gardener's do without them?
They are marvelously created, and a reminder that all
things, even small, are dependent upon one another to
keep the cycle of life continuing.

These little fella's have been working hard collecting
pollen into the sacs on their little legs from the remaining
flowers in the beds.
No doubt they are sensing the change of seasons and the
nearing of a time when all of the flowers will be gone.