Water Conservation on Rainy Days

It’s the start of several rainy days, beginning tonight.  I always watch the weather reports for rain, because that will signal me to turn off my front yard sprinkler system until the rain has subsided. My back yard does not have a sprinkler system – I still water by hand. My patio is also in the [...]

Alstromeria Re-Emerging

I have several alstromeria or Peruvian lily plants in my backyard garden. When their flowering season concludes, the plant’s many “branches” dry up, as shown in the photo. In autumn, the plant re-emerges, and because it is a tuber, many “plantlets” emerge in a wide swath around the original plant, as shown. It will eventually be very lush (see [...]

Yves Piaget Rose in My Autumn Garden

Oh, Yves Piaget, how you do it? This stunner -a hybrid tea rose, also known as a “romantica” rose, is a powerful combination of beauty, fragrance, and dependability. In recent weeks, more flower buds have emerged and flowers have “slowly” exploded, if that’s possible! It’s one of the earliest roses in my garden to re-emerge (after the first blooming, [...]

Japanese Aucuba: Roots from Cutting!

On September 27, I placed a cutting of my Japanese aucuba into a small bottle, in an attempt to propagate it (see my previous post). It’s been about 1-1/2 months later and I am happy to report that this cutting is very clearly rooting! Click on the photo for a better view of the very [...]

Four New Roses and Fuchsia Plant!

I just returned from a very successful trip from Lowe’s! I went to their gardening clearance rack and found four new rose plants, pictured from left to right: (1) an unknown dark pink, very fragrant hybrid tea, (2) Spartan floribunda – orange red rose, (3) Just Joey hybrid tea – orange rose, and (4) Proud [...]

Christmas Kalanchoe: New Flowers Forming!

My Christmas kalanchoe plants are showing the earliest forms of flowers. Yay! I have a few kalanchoe plants, all grown in containers, and each plant has a few ”branches.” Each branch has one of these bright pink flower clusters. Click on the photo to get a better view of this very cute flower cluster! I’m so [...]

Lawn from Sod, Freshly Mowed!

One of my favorite smells is that of a freshly mowed lawn. It’s an earthy, uncomplicated smell – so very good! I replaced my lawn with sod six years ago when it became overrun with weeds. It’s still in very good shape, mowed once a week. It’s watered three times per week, using an automatic sprinkler system, but during [...]

Spur-Throated Grasshopper and Gray Bird Grasshopper

Clinging to the side of one of my large containers was a spur-throated grasshopper nymph! Also known as Melanoplus sp. (nymph), the yellow-orange color of this grasshopper is particularly striking. Notably, this grasshopper appears to be missing its hind left leg, or perhaps it’s well hidden under its body, but that seems unlikely. I wonder [...]

Gardening in the Rain!

Moments after my last post, I went outside to clear out my defunct plants. It was drizzling off and on today. The air is clean – I love it. I’m sure that there are others out there who enjoy gardening in the rain! I had almost finished removing my last plant when it started to pour [...]

Container Gardening: Be Good to Your Back!

I’m almost done with my autumn garden clean-up duties. I’ll still need to remove a few remaining defunct tomato plants from their large containers to make way for planting vegetable seeds. Because of some back problems, it’s occasionally difficult for me to dig directly into the garden soil, whether to make a hole to place a new plant, [...]