Today was the day to plant all of the flowers in pots. This grouping on the patio will get one more pot on top of an old birdbath pedestal but I'm sure you see that all of the flowers are red, or mostly anyway, because these are flowers to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
This is one of four coleus cauldrons I planted. This one lives on the patio and the other three are spaced across the front of the house. One of the front yard pots spent the winter tucked behind a shrub on the corner of the house so I grabbed it to plant along with the other two only to find a little gray mousie in there. Eek. No, I didn't say "eek," really I didn't, but I did tip the pot partway to see if it would scamper out but the mouse didn't get the hint so I tried to use my trowel to lift it out. Well, it didn't understand that either so I might have mortally wounded it in the process. Sorry, mousie, but that pot's for my coleus not tiny gray rodents.
I also got the buttercrunch lettuce and carrot seeds planted in the rectangles of soil on the ends of the bales, and I used my trowel to make little slits along the fence behind the asparagus to plant sunflower seeds in. Hopefully a few of the seeds won't be dug up and devoured by other mice or chipmunks before they can sprout and grow into big yellow flowers. I have never had luck getting sunflowers to grow big enough to make flowers, maybe this is my year.
Someone commented the other day when I was raving about how excited we are about straw bale gardening that she'd forget to water it and it would fail. Well. Here's why we won't forget to water and why we won't fail. It's a hose timer. It runs on 2 AAA batteries and you set the time, interval, and how long you want to water, put it between the hose and the spigot, and you're good. Twice a day for half an hour the bales and the blueberries get a nice drippy drink from the soaker hose and I don't have to remember.
Last night it was all I could do to flop on the couch and knit on the foot of Helical Sock SOCK #2. It's almost time to add the toe. I really like the brighter, redder color of this sock over the more muted, bluer first one but I'll wear them both, maybe even together, because they for sure don't match.
May 21--Islamic, Fatimid Period, The Game of Stick. Once all the freeze pops were eaten most of the kids wandered home to peel off their homemade armor, stow their weapons, and get cleaned up for supper. Will, Alby, and Samuel did not. They were so into it that none of them was willing to say down arms and retire from the battlefield. Samuel stalked across the backyard, in and out of patches of shade, eyes peeled for an opening to tag either Alby or Will with his vile concoction. He caught sight of Will's blond head peeking out from the lilac hedge so he sneaked up behind and let fly. The reeking purple liquid hit Will square in the back of the head making a long stain down his left side. Alby got it right in the face. He heard Will's shout and came running. Samuel was ready and aimed high. Alby fell back sputtering. Samuel whooped his victory yell as he danced out from his hiding place. The war was over. Will and Alby headed home to shower but the pokeberry stains and the Evening in Paris stench didn't wash out. Will's hair was stained purple and Alby had a purple splotch on his right cheek. Neither mother was sympathetic to the exciting story of the War of Harmon's Road.
I need to get out of these dirt smudged clothes and into something presentable because Durwood and I are going to go check out the new Meijer store that opened last Tuesday. We have to go, we need stuff for supper and I need more lunch fixings. Besides the milk's getting a little funky. Really.
--Barbara
1 comment:
That timer thing is a dandy invention. No way is your bale garden going to fail. When I first saw that picture of the trowel, I thought it was your attempt to remove mousie and you'd missed and killed her/him!! Glad it was only the first step in your sunflower quest. I so hope you get some to grow and bloom. That was my first gardening attempt along the fence in Wilmington but it was too windy out near the waterway for them to survive. Fingers crossed on your behalf.
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