Monday, July 30, 2012

Garden Angel........


The statue was blessed with about of inch of rain on Saturday night.  Her little water basin that she holds was full of water on Sunday morning. We are getting pop up showers or scattered spot showers in the night which is helping us out a little.  I hope those rains headed toward the Ohio and Indiana way.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

A Pastel Visitor........


Among the tomatoes and the creeping blue bells a small rosebud emerges into the heat of the day.  It is getting water because is sits so close to the tomato plants.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Yellow Beauty............


A rose is a rose but a moss rose is a rose of a different kind.  The heart shaped petals of the flowers and the shiny green spiked foliage makes it a a flower of its own kind.  I am sure it must be a succulent type of plant as it is a different kind of plant that anything else out there.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Begonias...............


I water the flower box of hardy geraniums and I am keeping the begonias alive.  I planted them in there last year and they survived the winter inside in my window. They are again blooming.



Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Time of Reflection...........


Is it a photo of a tree or a container of water? I keep water in this pan outside for our big dog and also the neighbor cats who want a drink of water.  The granite pan is an old one found buried in the dirt on the farm.  A disposed item that really is a very useful one for me.  I planted flowers in it last year but this year I carry water to dying plants as well as refresh the animals.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

One more day of hot............


One more photo that I have taken of my redorange geranium.  It is just too easy to get a shot of it.  I have a very  pastel pink rose bud out there I may try to capture so I won't be over saturating you with bright intense color.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hot........



Two more days of the high heat and then on Thursday we will be around 90 degrees F., 32.2 C.  Everything is showing stress and this flower is one of the early bloomers.  I do have other coneflowers that are still in bloom as you can see in the background.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Hollyhock............


It is getting to the top so that it will soon be done blooming. It is my favorite color in the garden.  I have the white one and a few pink ones too.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Sunday's Blooms.......


My one lone white bloom has now been joined to create a great display.  The continue watering has kept them alive but the actual blooms are really stunted by the heat. I am so fortunate to have them.

Have a great, restful Sunday.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Marigold Developments............


An interesting close view of the planter gave me an almost abstract kind of photo. Maybe it is just a bad photo and I am making excuses.  I cropped the blurred foreground flower and really like it for what is there.   It can tell a story in some way which some pictures do tell a story. I am going to check out the   clover shapes to see what is happening there. I may develop one more cropped photo from this but not today.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Last Ditch.........Lily.


They struggled through the heat and dry soil.  The blooms were less this year than usual but it did give me some very nice blooms.  The ditch lily and all of the trimmings below it, they do tell the story of the kind of summer the plant has had.  The foliage is starting to die down or at least lay flat on the ground bowing to the hot days and warm nights.  It is summer in the heartland.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A small bunch............



This bush now stands above my head.  It is an aronia berry plant that was given to me by the neighbor lady.  She is part Native American and remembers having this fruit as a child.  She bought a few of the plants and gave me one just in case her bushes did not survive. I actually had three bunches of these berries.

I did watch a show about them on pbs and they are very sour.  They need to be mixed with a sweet fruit or they used honey.  My neighbors bushes are smaller than mine but all of her plants did survive.  The birds took her fruit already before she was able to pick them. I assume because it is so dry and they moisture in the berry was just the thing for them.  While looking up the spelling I see people in Iowa make wine from the fruit.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Green Apples......


This is the tree that didn't have a single bloom last year and no apples.  When it does have apples they are usually really bad.  I spray and nothing changes. They have a scab and are insect riddled.   So this year the tree is loaded with apples.  They are mostly clear and clean looking.  I can't figure it out.  I didn't take time to spray this year and  had given up on ever have apples that could be harvested for our use.  This year we will have pie.

I don't know the variety but one of the criteria when I order apple trees is the statement "they are good cooking apples and great for pie."

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Redbud Tree..........


I planted this redbud tree in front of a picture window so my father in law could see it bloom in the spring.  He lived with us for almost 7 years and he supervised the planting of three trees.  This was one of them. He also watched as I planted a chokecherry tree and a maple tree. He loved trees and had them  planted all around his house.

The tree in the photo  is growing so large that I will need to trim the lower branches. The tree blocks the view as we look out of the window.  I think that it is big enough that I can remove the bottom two layers of branches and it will still be a good shape.  The  golden privet that I planted under the tree are doing very well.

I like how it looks like a  Japanese garden with it's low branches and it's bonsi look. The Japanese gate does help to make that happen.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Pure White........


My white hardy geranium is slow to start with the heat and it being in a planter seems to be slowing it down. I may have to move the planter to a cooler spot on another porch.  I water it everyday and it still is just not progressing well.  As you can see I have a few buds to bloom now and it will look great.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sunday's Rose of the Day...........


A great rose with something eating on it's leaves.  I don't  have spray but maybe I can wash up the leaves with some soapy water.  I will trim it way back once the bloom fades and falls. The blue globe sits right next to this plant and makes a classy background.



Saturday, July 14, 2012

Abraham Lincoln.....


It was a cheap rose, low grade and it has never bloomed. It was planted a couple of years ago and just didn't do well even though the roses around it are doing well.  The rose is named Abraham Lincoln.  It has one stem and one bud.  This will be it for the year.



Friday, July 13, 2012

The Survivor..........


I mentioned a month or so back that this planter had a great fall.  The wind was strong from the west and pushed it off of it's shelf.  It landed on the sidewalk and was completely unpotted so to speak.  I was a bit concerned but put it all back together.  As you can see that it is coming back strong.  I didn't get a chance to prune it back because I was more worried about keeping it alive.



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Triple Blooms........


The rain encouraged these flowers a week ago and now we need another rain.  These are smaller daylilies than the average sized ones.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Phlox........


This phlox came to life and is doing well after our little rain.  It photographs a little darker than it really is but it is a good color.


This is closer to the true color of the flowers.  Cooler weather with wind makes Iowa a little more of a friendly place. We are headed back up to 90 degrees today.



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Tuesday's Frog...........


I have an older pond in my back yard that I don't maintain.  I am working at filling it in with dirt and turning it into a flower bed.  I add a few buckets of dirt to it each summer.  In the meantime the water is merky and in the natural. 

My frog is doing well in this pond as it has lots of mud and the water is  somewhat shallow.  There is one deep area which must make my frog happy.  I have never seen him with his whole body being green.  I suppose he not a true green frog.  Maybe someone out there is a frog expert and can tell my about my garden friend.

Monday, July 9, 2012

What a little rain can do.


Our short downpour gave this daylily a new burst of energy.  It is a smaller daylily that I brought home from my parents home.  I had bought it and given it to them but didn't have it myself until I brought home a section of it.


Here is a second shot of how well it performs with a good rain.  I really was surprised to see how well it was doing until I walked over to take a few shots. 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Barnabas on Gaurd Duty.........


I have always described Barney as my yellow border collie.  He actually is more identified in books as a tan border collie and there are actually small hits of the redbrown in his color.  He received a bath of oatmeal shampoo on Sunday of last week and then immediately went over to his viewing area and rolled in the dirt.  He has developed his skin allergy early this year. We treat him year round with dog food for skin and hair and to the most part it is nonexistent except  during the hot summer months. Laying on dried grass or in the dirt must bring it on for him.

He is on an allergy tablet but eventually nothing works.  He starts scratching at his belly to relieve some of his itching.  We are going to try to give  him a bath weekly, at least his belly and legs with the shampoo to help heal it. The vet says we need to rinse off whatever he is picking up from the yard that makes him have the allergy.

 I now brush him daily and sometime twice a day trying to get this skin back into good condition.  He doesn't have fleas as our little dog gets them immediately when he has them and eventually we get bit by the small dogs fleas. That has happened only once since we had Barney.  It just isn't a flea problem and I am glad.

In this photo he is barking at a reclining yellow and white cat in the neighbor's yard.  The cat really isn't impressed with his barking.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Stopping in at my blog.........and posting.


I have taken this shot  many times but the view keeps changing.  We had a rain in our area and it was over an inch of water.  The rain made all of the droopy hosta plants perk up.  My little angel guy is still a lot disgruntled or maybe just feeling indifferent  to the situation.


Friday, July 6, 2012

Coneflowers.......


We had a great downpour of rain on Thursday morning.  My buckets and  pails say that I got at least and inch of rain.  It was a strong wind storm with rain and everyone just had to stop work and watch the rare sight. It was  a special rain as the town south of us received not a drop. We still had a very hot day. 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Thursday's Pastels.........


This pot of petunias is looking better.  It has shade but endures the heat.  I have been really keeping up the watering schedule so that it doesn't dry out in this weather.   It was 98 degrees F. when I took this on the evening of the fourth.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Seeing Spots...........


I don't think it is a tiger lily but it does remind me of one.  The brown spots add to the look of the lily.  I have a large growth of these at the front drive garden.  The are going to be photographed a lot. Have a great day.



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Pink Flowers.....


This hardy geranium had bloomed in my window this winter and now it is blooming outside in 96 F. degree weather.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Keeping cool in the pool.......


At least the koi and goldfish know how to stay  cool during this hot season.  It was 90 degrees F.  while we were out giving Barney a bath.  I  took a few photos afterward.  I was almost thinking about turning the hose onto myself.



Sunday, July 1, 2012

Phlox......



In contrast to yesterday's bright red lily I will share the soft colors of phlox.  They are early this year also and were starting to bloom during the beginning of our heat wave.  I think the small showers have helped to keep it going.

Blurry Blue Cup Day.....

 It is Monday and I am a little blurry eyed today. It is fitting then my blue cup is blurred a little because it is in low light. I was too ...