Category Archives: My Homeplace

My Patio

Posted on August 14, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

Neon Rose Wave Petunias

Beautiful spring to fall

Wave Petunias are hardy and faithful bloomers all season. They will make a ground-hugging carpet of color, but I grew my Neon Rose petunias in a hanging basket.

faithful Bloomers spring to fall

Bright colorful plants drew butterflies and hummers to my patio all growing season.

I could have had this plant photo ready by removing the spent flowers, but this pink petunia has survived on it’s own with no additional fertilizer or attention, just water.

Wave petunias were introduced in 1995. They’ve been around, introducing wave after wave of vibrant colors and  easy care annuals for 15 years.

Wave petunias have their own website. If you are a fan of this flower, let Ball Horticulture know you want to Join The Fan Club.

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BALL HORTICULTUE

Thanks to BALL HORTICULTUE who provided  the petunias

to me to trial and  evaluate.

Wave petunia fill beds with color

“Easy Wave® Neon Rose:  hot pink petunia from the Easy Wave series of spreading petunias is new for 2011. It is more mounded and controlled, making it ideal for baskets and containers.”

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My Patio

Posted on August 1, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

summer long bloomer with lavender flowers

Superbena® Royale Chambray verbena

Superbena is self-cleaning, no deadheading necessary. Planted alone in pink tea cup containers, these Superbena® Royale Chambray verbena hybrids have bloomed all summer with very little attention or water.

Enjoy lavender flowers in full sun with minimum watering all season.

These pots have been in the sun on my humid, zone 6 patio and show no sign of pests or disease. These lavender flowers have remained bright and colorful the whole growing season. Superbena® Royale Chambray verbena is a good choice for container gardens, hanging baskets and low growing border plants.

photos by PBH

Superbenas are a vigorous Verbena series in pinks, rose and lavender colors.

These plants were sent to me by Proven Winners® for trial and evaluation. For plant combinations and design ideas go to Proven Winners webpage

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Wind Glove

Posted on July 27, 2010 by | 1 comment

garden art

More colorful than a wind sock.

Wind gloves and wind socks will flutter and keep birds from your ripe strawberries.

Light duty cotton gloves

The fluttering ribbons will keep the birds from my strawberry hanging basket.

This is a cute project that kids can make in a single project meeting. What mother wouldn’t love this as a Mother’s day gift ?

inexpensive buttons tack down ribbonsThis was a cute 4-H project at the fair. I asked the 4-H’er to make one for me.

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Alligator Tears and Goldilocks Rocks

Posted on July 26, 2010 by | Comments Off on Alligator Tears and Goldilocks Rocks

 Alligator Tears and Goldilocks Rocks

I like this combo of two Proven Winners annuals. For some reason, I was blessed with five pots of this coleus, aligator green foliage with a creamy-yellow tear drop center; and three Golidilocks Rocks™ – Bidens Ferulifolia


ColorBlaze® Alligator Tears™ Solenostemon scutellarioides Coleus is growing in three different place in the garden. I am attracted to the multi color coleus in reds and greens, so Alligator Tears had to win me over, and it did.

It requires less trimming to maintain it’s thick, full shape than most coleus.

This was one of the easiest, to care for containers on my patio. In fact, I have a pair of these containers. One container with two coleus and one Bidens, and another with one coleus and two Bidens.

Golidilocks Rocks™ – Bidens Ferulifolia is loaded with bright yellow blooms and has bloomed continously all summer. It has grown in containers with little care or attention. Goldilocks is a great choice for containers, withstood our record-breaking heat and has blended into a delightful container combination. This self cleaning trait – meaning no deadheading necessary – is another reason to include Golidilocks Rocks™ in container garden combinations.

Aligator Tears

Only two coleus in the concrete planter, they looked kind of lonely  when they were first planted. Out by the mail boxes, these Aligator Tears recieved no pruning or cutting back. They did not set seed until mid August. They nicely fill the container and kept a good shape. Imagine how well they would do with pinching back, generous water and fertilzer.

These plants were sent to me for trial and evaluation. Thanks to Proven Winners for the opportunity to grow the newest most exciting plants. For plant combinations and container ideas, go to Proven Winners.

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Calibrachoa and Coleus

Posted on July 25, 2010 by | Comments Off on Calibrachoa and Coleus

Excellent Container Choices Calibrachoa and Coleus

Superbells Coralberry Punch color Calibrachoa from Proven Winners. And Ball Horticulture Coleua “redhead”

Coralberry Punch Calibrachoa is a Superbells® Proven Winners Calibrachoa hybrid paired with Coleus Redhead a Ball Exclusive and a Simply Beautiful® selection. These two plants seem to bring out the best of red in each other. Colors do not fade and they are very drought tolerant.

Most coleus need regular pinching or pruning to keep it’s bushy shape, but I rarely trimmed or fed this combo. The Coleus Redhead, is a Ball Exclusive. It’s hard to find a fade resitant coleus this color. I will look for the Redhead next spring and add it to my hanging baskets or containers.

Calibrachoas are a new type of plant that looks like a dwarf  Petunia. These little flowers bloomed all summer, the containers are in full sun, and got irreglar watering. Great container choice for this drought tolerant plant that showed no sign of disease or insect damage.

Look for more varieties of this fade resitant full sun bloomer at Proven Winners. There are some great color combinations on Proven Winners site.

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Carbon tomato: big, juicy, rich flavor

Posted on July 27, 2009 by | 5 comments

Getting close to tomato taste test party time.

I was speechless when I discovered two of my first ready-to-pick tomatoes had been ravaged by a squirrel. It’s too painful to show you the gruesome sight of half eaten black tomatoes, so they are burried in the compost pile now.

I am on the verge of Tomato Abundance. I know it is time to pick the tomatoes because this morning a squirrel ate the very tomatoes I intended to pick today. These big black tomatoes are Carbon tomatoes.

I admit to holding off for another day because usually, the first tomato that I pick every year should have waited one more day to achieve sun ripened perfection.

As soon as I started grousing to cousin Bob about these darned tomato eating squirrels, he shot back this email:

“SHOOT THE SQUIRRELS AND HAVE SQUIRREL AN DUMPLINGS.”


Just my bad luck that I traded in my squirrel gun for an elephant gun this week at Bass Pro in Springfield. (Bass Pro really does have elephant guns – I’ve seen them. But they don’t take trade-ins) Admittedly, there is a very short safari season here in the swamps of Southeast Missouri. But, I digress.

Tomato Stuffed Squirrel may even be a healthy dish. Well, for me, not the squirrel. The squirrels around here have a healthy vegetarian, organic diet. This diet keeps the squirrels fit enough to outrun me. I tried not to cuss a blue streak in the garden since the tomatoes are already blushing.

Carbon tomato won a taste test of 10 heirloom tomato varieties at Cornell Research Farm. Black/Purple tomatoes are becoming more popular for the home gardener and at the farmers market. Every year I try a different black variety. The Carbon tomato is out producing last years Cherokee Purple in quantity and size of fruit.

This is one of the heirloom tomato plants from Abundant Acres. Since they grow more than 325 heirloom plant varieties, I’ll be writing to them requesting information on squirrel resistant tomatoes.

I also bought seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

 

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April, April, finally April

Posted on April 2, 2008 by | Comments Off on April, April, finally April
April, April, finally April!


National Poetry Month calls for a poem:

April
The roofs are shining from the rain, The sparrows twitter as they fly, And with a windy April grace The little clouds go by. Yet the back yards are bare and brown With only one unchanging tree– I could not be so sure of Spring Save that it sings in me.
by Sara Teasdale

 

My yard if full of daffodils! They appear randomly throughout the yard, testament to where there were gardens at one time on this old plantation estate. I’m relocating many of them to a newly designed area I call the sun garden. Some of these hardy hangers on look like antique or heritage varieties and some of the daffodils are the larger multicolored varieties.

If your flowers are blooming, it’s too late to add fertilizer. The best time to apply fertilizer to spring-flowering bulbs is when foliage emerges in the spring, not when they are flowering. Roots are most active when the foliage emerges from the soil.

Bulb roots actually begin to die at flowering, so fertilizing during bloom is a waste of fertilizer. An all-purpose fertilizer application when the plant begins to poke through the ground will provide nutrients for the bulbs to produce flowers next year. If your soil has plenty of phosphorus and potassium, and it probably does, fertilize with blood meal. This natural fertilizer promotes green leafy growth and is a fast acting source of nitrogen.

Deadhead the daffodils if you want, but leave the foliage until it dies back naturally. Energy from the foliage is transferred to the bulb, creating next year’s blooms. Leaving the foliage is the best investment you can make for next springs’ blooms.

The tulip foliage is emerging. Next, we will have tulips and then iris to enjoy.


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Leaves and lawn care

Posted on October 14, 2007 by | Comments Off on Leaves and lawn care


Black Gold

Don’t Bag It.
Fall Leaves have the same nutrients as the fertilizer you put on the ground this spring. Rake those leaves and compost them or, shred and mulch autumn leaves for some of the best product you can place around your trees and in your gardens.

This is the organic matter we talk about that will make your soil more friable. Use this mulch around your mums after the ground freezes. But first, cut mums to the ground. This will prevent the mums from heaving in the frozen ground. Heaving means the roots are pushed up above ground during freezing weather.

Mums can live for years if trimmed back in the fall.

http://preezo.com/view.php?key=8327e716df90fce639a5c7d7406560ee

 

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Oklahoma Gardening

Posted on October 10, 2007 by | Comments Off on Oklahoma Gardening


I bet you never really thought of Oklahoma as paradise. Well, I just got back for the Garden Writers Symposium in Oklahoma City and I enjoyed fabulous gardens, great hospitality and a wonderful little city.

Express Ranch
Window box/ garden bench

Red Rocket Crepe Myrtle


The largest city in the state, Oklahoma City is located at the crossroads of I-35, I-40 and I-44 in the heart of Oklahoma. The second largest city in the continental U.S. based on geographical size, more than 1.1 million people call the Metro Oklahoma City area home.

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Posted in Gardens (not mine), Go Away, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Traveling

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Teen Challenge

Posted on August 27, 2007 by | Comments Off on Teen Challenge


http://www.teenchallengemidamerica.com/
Vision Statement – Teen Challenge International of Mid-America
Our vision is to be a Christ-centered ministry setting the standards for excellence in helping those with destructive lifestyles, impacting our area of influence with programs that bring freedom from addictive behaviors through faith in Christ.

Nobody has worked harder and done a better quality job than the teen challenge workers. They have been asked to do hot, hard, heavy work in 100 degree weather. Everything is done to the highest standard. Good enough is not good enough. These young men set a higher standard – all work is done exactly as requested. They have a much higher work ethic than the folks working on my kitchen.

They have hauled rock, moved boulders, dug trenches, built flowerbeds, hauled horse manure, compost, gravel and sand. They tilled, mowed, edged, weed whacked, weeded, watered, dug out huge tree stumps, landscaped with only modest tools and minimal instruction.

All this when they weren’t pouring concrete and building driveways, sidewalks, a patio, carport, building stone retaining walls, removing brick walkways.

They are working for the Lord, at my place.

 

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