This week’s bouquet comes from the last flowers of my garden. The echinacea are having their second bloom of the season and their last hurray. They started blooming in July and I think the heat and dry summer was just too much for them, as the flowers were pale and scraggly.. This second flush of flowers is much more vibrant and beautiful. The deep jewel … Continue reading this week’s bouquet
We’ve had such an abnormally hot fall, I found it hard to bring out the fall decor when it still feels so much like summer. But then, we had our first real cold snap, and that was enough to cool off the attic where all the seasonal decorations are stored. I brought down all the bags of colorful fall decor, but the older I get, … Continue reading fall decorating
Sometimes it takes me awhile to get in the mood to decorate for a new season. Usually, it’s just a matter of being too busy. But, this Sunday afternoon, I felt like playing and fiddling with the cement urns that sit on each side of my garage. The urns held Boston ferns all summer, so I pulled them out, put them in black plastic pots, … Continue reading fall outdoor decorating
This week’s bouquet is a result of a need to do some serious cutting back. I needed to tie up the wayward new raspberry branches and to do that, I had to first remove the netting. But, I couldn’t even get near one side of the raspberry bed because of the verbena bonariensis. They had reseeded from last summer and become a gigantic patch of … Continue reading this week’s bouquet
I had no intention of baking until later this fall when the flowers were done and I was finished with “this week’s bouquet”. Plus, I’m just too busy right now to fit baking into my life. But my sister told me there was a new season and episode of “The Great British Baking Show” on Netflix. I had no intention of watching it until I … Continue reading this week’s bake
This week’s bouquet starts with some golden rod that I nabbed from my elderly neighbor’s yard. Usually it is only found along the road side or in a country field. No one purposely allows this weed to grow in their yard. This year, while she was away, her son’s chopped down every weed and flower growing in her yard, but fortunately they missed her golden … Continue reading this week’s bouquet
There is nothing I love more in a garden than pink flowers – any variety will do. But there is something about pink roses that just makes my heart sing. This is David Austin’s English shrub rose, “Mary Rose”. I bought her in early summer not having any idea where I was going to plant her, so she kept me company on the deck where … Continue reading a new rose garden
It’s been a long, hot, and dry summer here in Ohio. We’ve not had a significant rainfall that makes a difference since mid June. Most of the garden is stressed from heat and lack of rain, and just barely hanging on. I’m stressed from the promising storms on the weather radar app that continually come to nothing, and also imaging how expensive my water bill … Continue reading a shady garden
Thought I had better get back to making bouquets before the summer is over. The August garden is waning, especially from the heat and lack of rain, but there are a few beauties still going strong. I started this bouquet with just zinnias since they needed picking. Grown from a pack of seeds, a good majority of the zinnias ended up being magenta, and they … Continue reading this week’s bouquet
Last summer I cleared an area at the far back of my yard to start an echinacea garden. This is what it looked like at the end of the summer, promising, but bare. Fast forward after one year’s growth and it is a lush garden full of color. I’m not one to mix my oranges with my pinks, but I just love the riot of … Continue reading echinacea garden – 2nd summer
