Thursday, September 4, 2014
Apologies
I'm not sure why my photos are not publishing in my blog, but I will try to figure it out and add them soon!
End of Summer - Well Not Really
In most areas of the country, September brings the end of summer, but to us in South Louisiana, we know we are in for more of the same...heat indexes above 100 degrees F, humidity, and sometimes the appearance of our worst enemy of all, the hurricane. This year, so far, we have been lucky not to see a tropical system off of our shores. I stress, so far... September is the height of our hurricane season, so we really don't breathe a sigh of relief until after the first weeks of October have passed and we get that first cool front.
We've had some stormy weather in the last few days, and the rains it has brought have been a welcome sight to the gardens here at home. We had been in slight drought conditions, and my plant friends were suffering, as were the lawn and trees. Everything has greened up again and the flowers are putting on their last big show of summer. We have much work to do when the weather cools off a bit to allow us to get out and get busy. My husband is helping me redesign our pool garden area this fall. The plans are done and supplies are ready to order whenever we get the first break in the sweltering heat. This time of year it is just too hot and humid to work outside beyond 7:30 a.m...
There will be much more to come on this garden renovation, with lots of pictures that I hope you will enjoy! We will be installing new pathways, planting beds, and hardscape around our pool and deck area. This is something that has been haphazardly done in the past, and I plan to have a place where visitors can stroll to view the plants in both shaded and sunny areas around our 1/2 acre side yard where our pool is located. Selecting the plant material has been fun, and we are going with mostly native plants and lots of pine bark mulch to minimize maintenance, as this will be a rather large project. The idea is to have a garden that spills over pea gravel pathways, with blooms at all times of the year. We will be experimenting with some new plants to our yard, but with more than 90% being native, we expect to have great success!
More to come on that later... Today, I noticed a rare sight when I was strolling the gardens. There is an old fashioned purple azalea, which normally only blooms in spring, full of blooms here at the beginning of September! A rare treat that I want to share with you. I have no idea what possessed this beauty to give us another show, because it is not one of the "reblooming" cultivars.
Here it is and I hope you enjoy your day in the garden!
Sherri
We've had some stormy weather in the last few days, and the rains it has brought have been a welcome sight to the gardens here at home. We had been in slight drought conditions, and my plant friends were suffering, as were the lawn and trees. Everything has greened up again and the flowers are putting on their last big show of summer. We have much work to do when the weather cools off a bit to allow us to get out and get busy. My husband is helping me redesign our pool garden area this fall. The plans are done and supplies are ready to order whenever we get the first break in the sweltering heat. This time of year it is just too hot and humid to work outside beyond 7:30 a.m...
There will be much more to come on this garden renovation, with lots of pictures that I hope you will enjoy! We will be installing new pathways, planting beds, and hardscape around our pool and deck area. This is something that has been haphazardly done in the past, and I plan to have a place where visitors can stroll to view the plants in both shaded and sunny areas around our 1/2 acre side yard where our pool is located. Selecting the plant material has been fun, and we are going with mostly native plants and lots of pine bark mulch to minimize maintenance, as this will be a rather large project. The idea is to have a garden that spills over pea gravel pathways, with blooms at all times of the year. We will be experimenting with some new plants to our yard, but with more than 90% being native, we expect to have great success!
More to come on that later... Today, I noticed a rare sight when I was strolling the gardens. There is an old fashioned purple azalea, which normally only blooms in spring, full of blooms here at the beginning of September! A rare treat that I want to share with you. I have no idea what possessed this beauty to give us another show, because it is not one of the "reblooming" cultivars.
Here it is and I hope you enjoy your day in the garden!
Sherri
Sunday, August 31, 2014
A Long Year Passed
I just reviewed my blog and saw that it's been a year since I've published my blog. An illness took over my life, but I'm happy to say that I am healthier now and able to get back to what I love, which is my garden. It suffered quite a bit, right along with me! However, the summer has been good to me and I've been busy getting both myself and my garden back to health.
It is August in South Louisiana again. We've had continuous rain today and we need it! The weather has been hot, humid, and without rain for weeks and weeks. My mornings and evenings have been spent trying to save my plant friends by extra watering and feeding to keep them at their best.
So much is blooming now that it would be difficult to list in the short time I have for this post. However, my favorites this year have been coleus 'Sedona', Hardy Hibiscus, Wild Blue Indigo, a new heat/humidity resistant lobelia (beautifully blue), and vinca (white & fushia). I've also enjoyed many different colors of verbena, but my favorite is a white & pink variety that is called "Lanai Twister Pink". It has been a consistent performer all year. One other plant that I would like to mention is the new "Sun Parasol - crimson" that has been absolutely fantastic, covering an arbor with beautiful true red trumpet shaped flowers all season, even in this weather!
I just finished planting the fall/winter vegetables in the raised planter beds. Hopefully I will have lots of mustard greens, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, gourds, and leeks to show you in the near future!
I will be updating more frequently and posting pictures of the garden in days to come.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy your day in the garden!
Sherri
Butterfly ginger is absolutely gorgeous and the fragrance is intoxicating!
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It is August in South Louisiana again. We've had continuous rain today and we need it! The weather has been hot, humid, and without rain for weeks and weeks. My mornings and evenings have been spent trying to save my plant friends by extra watering and feeding to keep them at their best.
So much is blooming now that it would be difficult to list in the short time I have for this post. However, my favorites this year have been coleus 'Sedona', Hardy Hibiscus, Wild Blue Indigo, a new heat/humidity resistant lobelia (beautifully blue), and vinca (white & fushia). I've also enjoyed many different colors of verbena, but my favorite is a white & pink variety that is called "Lanai Twister Pink". It has been a consistent performer all year. One other plant that I would like to mention is the new "Sun Parasol - crimson" that has been absolutely fantastic, covering an arbor with beautiful true red trumpet shaped flowers all season, even in this weather!
I just finished planting the fall/winter vegetables in the raised planter beds. Hopefully I will have lots of mustard greens, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, gourds, and leeks to show you in the near future!
I will be updating more frequently and posting pictures of the garden in days to come.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy your day in the garden!
Sherri
Butterfly ginger is absolutely gorgeous and the fragrance is intoxicating!
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