I See Green!

I peeked inside my under the bed storage bag, and I saw green!

This solo plant is Bells of Ireland. I love this flower! You have to be careful when cutting a flower because there are tiny thorns on the stem, and they HURT! Bells of Ireland are annuals that reseed very well.

The picture below are a few blanket flowers. They are a perennial that bloom their first year.

Here is what the flowers will look like:

The Bells of Ireland are in the middle of the picture, and the blanket flowers are the orange flowers near the bottom of the picture. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Stay tuned for more progress!

Flowers, Birds, and Mother Nature in St. Louis

 Spring has sprung at our house in the past few weeks. We have had unusually warm weather (actually hot - close to 90 degrees!). Our grass is green, the weeds are going full force, and plants are blooming. The first picture is my Clematis. I don't remember the name, but I do know that the tag said they were red. Since our front door is red, I planted this close to the front porch. Oh well, it sure is pretty!


 I believe this vine is a Vinca vine. It started in a hanging plant and now it's all over my beds. This one is under my Butterfly Bushes, so I am going to leave it. The others will meet their timely death with Round Up.

 I found this nest a few weeks ago. I was so happy to see that the birds planted a nest in my tree instead of my door wreath (baby bird poo is hard to clean up!). The eggs were really this color! Note I said "were".

A few days later, I wanted to see how the eggs/birds were doing and I found this. :(
I don't know if eggs can hatch/birds fly away this quickly, but I doubt it. It looks like Mother Nature had a plan for the eggs. Boo.
When the kids were little, we had a hanging basket by our front door. Every year a bird would lay their eggs and we watched as the eggs grew, birds hatched, and learned how to fly away. Since our front door had a glass insert, the kids could watch the entire cycle without disturbing the eggs (although they had to tolerate the door being opened to come and go).

Any guess as to what happened to the eggs?

Winter Sowing Seeds Are Up!

Spring has sprung and I'm getting all kinds of sprouts! This pictures is of my Bachelor Buttons. I planted:
Tomatoes (2 kinds)
Green Beans
Cucumbers
Zinnia's
Poppies
Blue Flax
Bachelor Buttons
Sunflowers
Alyssum

My sunflowers are about 3 inches tall already! I worked in the garden today trying to get the beds ready for the new plants. My veggie garden is all ready, but the older beds need lots of weed pulling.
Today I worked on digging a small trench to line my beds with. It's not the perfect solution, but it does help keep the grass out of the beds.

Fun With Flowers In St. Louis

One of my favorite things to do is walk around my garden and capture the beauty of my flowers! The above picture is one of my dwarf Iris's. I planted the bulbs 2 years ago and this is their first time blooming. I'm in love with blue flowers these have become my all time favorite!
I tucked this Hosta in my back bed 2 years ago. I had no idea is was going to get this big! I take pictures of my clogs next to the plant for comparison. It will be split this fall!
I plant most of my plants by seed and this Columbine too 3 years to bloom, but it was so worth the wait! The details are just amazing. I planted these as "extra's" since I had so many plants come up, and these are planted under my window boxes in the front of the house.
Another true blue Clematis! This one trails on our white banister in the back yard and blooms for a very long time!

Window Box Planting

I just love my window boxes! Our garage is a side entry and our windows face the street. This is the window box on the left side. Ignore the refections of our gardening tools that were out that day!
Window box on the right. In the front there is a Japanese Maple Tree, Holly bushes, and many, many, perennials. The Vinca that you can see hanging from the box reseeds in my garden every spring. I just cut off several pieces and stick them in the dirt!

A Stroll Around My St. Louis Gardens

The first picture is why I love to garden....flowers! I love to put them all over the house.
**My vase is filled with bright red Gladiola's, Rudbeckia's, and Blue Stokes Aster.
**The second picture is Bee Balm. The flower is really a true red and I love how they look next to my red house.
**Third picture is a Rudbeckia.
**Last picture is my Black Hollyhock!
ALL(except my Glads) my flowers were started by seed....by moi! They were all started using the Winter Sowing method. Winter Sowing involves starting the seeds outside during the winter. I make little green houses out of various containers to hold the seeds. Winter sowed plants are strong and healthy because they are exposed to the elements from day one. They bloom at the same time nursery plants bloom and because they don't have to "adapt", they last longer too.
The thrill for me is watching a plant grow from a seed and then bloom an amazing flower...I still get excited to see every single bloom open up in my yard!

St. Louis Summer

I'm having such a hard time with posting pictures and lining up the typed words, so I decided to list the flowers at the bottom.
Pictures starting at the top are: Sweet William, Salvia, Red Hot Pokers, Peony Poppy ready to pop, Speedwell, and Gallardia. All started by seed...by me!

First Time Trying Botanicals In Cold Process Soap!

A lightly scented soap with Sandalwood and Vanilla...yum!
This was my first time trying botanicals in my soap. I used Calendula petals.

Random pictures of my garden

Just some random pictures of my garden. Since I'm still in a walking boot, I haven't been able to do much gardening this year, but I do enjoy taking pictures!
Can you tell I love blue flowers?

A Walk Through the Yard.

Starting from the left are Forget Me Nots, Dames Rocket, and Candytuft.

Spring has sprung and I was able to hobble around the yard peeking at all the lovelies starting to bloom. The pictures shown here from last year. I haven't figured out how to carry a camera while walking on crutches. I can tell that we are about a week behind (regarding growth) compared to last year.
Ah...........Spring!!!

Is Spring Here Yet????????????

May I bore you with my excitement that Spring is almost here?? Since I'm stuck in a cast, and can't get around the yard yet, I'll just have to nourish my quest of flowers through my extensive albums of THOUSANDS of pictures of my garden!



Red Hot Poker...one of my favorite plants! They shoot out like fire crackers and are about 3 to 4 feet tall.



Blanket Flower...a beautiful plant that shows it's pretty face all summer long, and into the fall.



Johnny Jump Ups...a cheerful Hello in the spring. They are a great ground cover and I just love the blues, purples, and yellows!