Resident Groundhog

I saw my little buddy this morning. I had been concerned he was no longer around until I spotted him a few days ago. Today he came ambling down the hill to the ditch and scurried along. Looking a lot like a miniture bear as his short little legs carried him along. I was watching for him to get closer but he disappeared. I have a French drain that runs across my back yard and in a couple of places where there are walkways concrete slabs cover the drain and in a couple of places I have placed decorative wrought iron covers that help keep trash out of the drain and prevent someone from stepping in it. Well this drain is the perfect underground highway for Mr. Groundhog, especially the covered area. After he disappeared I continued to watch for him and then I spotted him. Wish I could have gotten a picture but I was too slow, or he was too quick, whichever I missed a great picture. He had his head poked up between one of the iron grates and the concrete slap that crosses the drain. I must admit he was quite silly looking and worth a good laugh.

Not Garden Related but...

With temps in the 90s I've kinda moved inside to work for a few days. Saturday I did some more work on my sunporch. Got half the windows painted and the lower half of one wall. About a week ago the contractor finished cleaning and rechinking the log wall portion and I got the insulation and wood up under all the windows so I had to get going on the paint. It's going to be one of my favorite places to spend time. The view of my gardens and woods is great and when it rains on the metal roof it's such a wonderful place to relax. Hopefully, this afternoon I can finish painting the windows and then there is an old cabinet I want to remove. The ceiling is going to be a real pain to paint beause it hasn't been done in years.

"Wigglies"

Just one of my many wiggly friends. I have found nightcrawlers that make this little guy look tiny. Nevertheless they are both welcome in my gardens.

Lilies and More

Lilies are Blooming! This one is my favorite.

It's been in the family for many years. Someone gave my mother a "start" many (probably more than 50) years ago. Now my sister and I both have a pot of them. I have no clue as to what type they are. The kettle on the right was one my grandmother kept on her wood burning kitchen stove to have hot water.

This White one was bloomed yesterday afternoon.

Pink, Pink and

More pink. It had a bloom open this morning. Not a stargazer!

This peachy one was given to me by one of my daughter-in-law a few years ago. I now have more than one clump.

Gardening Versus House Cleaning

I worked in the garden for several hours Saturday afternoon. The temperature was near ninety. YUCK! I dragged out the tiller and prepared some of the walks to put in flowers along the edge. Tilled up a couple of beds and put in clomes in one of them and purple coneflowers in another. Hopefully, this afternoon I can get the liriope in along the walk. I haven't been outside since coming to the office earlier but they tell me it's hot and muggy and feels like rain. If it's too nasty outside I will be working inside on my sun porch. On second thought, that may very well be what I do this afternoon instead of gardening.

The guys are suppose to be coming sometime this week to take down a couple of trees in my front yard and I have the contractor coming to do some work on the house either this week or next. Life is never dull at my place although my pocket is often empty.

Banana Peels for Roses

This morning I fed my roses. Yep, gave 'em banana peels. I've read all kinds of things about feeding banana peels to your roses. Chop, bake, puree, make an emulsion, burry the thing, but all you really need to do is toss the peel close to the bush and stand back. Sometimes I think people just want to make work for themselves. The peels decompose quickly and my roses really love the potassium. The entire flower garden will benefit from peels and if you use a lot of bananas as I do they are a cheap fertlizer.

Wandering about the Yard

Let's wander around my yard for a bit. Maybe something will be of interest.


This stump was a huge catalpa tree beside the walk from my driveway. The center was totally gone when the tree was cut and now with dirt in the center it makes for a great "holding pot".

If you look closely on the left side of this picture you will see my birdbath which I may have rambled about before. This is one of my most unique pieces. Made from concrete the bowl is about 2 inches thick with an outside that resembles the bark of a tree and it sits on what appears to be a concrete tree log. Another intersesting tidbit is that the bowl has a 1 inch diameter hole directly in the bottom. You plug up the hole and it holds water. I will try to post a full picture of it maybe.

This is the start of my shade garden. There was nothing growing here when I arrived except several years worth of leaves and layers of hickory nuts. Yes, I have an Old House - built in the mid-eighteen hundreds, mostly from hickory and ash logs from trees that grew on or near the site of the house and that were hewn with a broad ax -maybe I will write more about the house at a later date. Pretty neat.

The perfect front porch on which to while away the hours on a lazy afternoon. There is a swing, not seen in the picture, where my grand daughter loves to spend her time.

The cinder block has been moved.

Interesting reading.

I stumbled onto this website by way of several different blogs but this guy is great. It was his The 10 Tenets of Renegade Gardening that caught my attention but then I found lots of stuff of interest.