Faerisweet's Garden Diary

25 Sep '07 5:01 am

I am SO happy to see you back, dear friend!! It seems you enjoy a lot your new garden!! That new flower border is going to be such a colourful creation! Such a variety of lovely bloomers in it!

And your butterflies!! It is the first time I saw these photos ( I was on holidays when you posted)!! They are "misty", but with the strong light and the butterfly forms in them, they become so special! It is a blessed moment when meeting with a butterly ! Full of mesmerising magic!

25 Sep '07 7:02 am

Your garden sounds wonderful, pregnant with anticipation, and your children real stars! Here is some more advice on getting hydrangeas blue, besides the vital one of adding aluminium sulphate - mulch them with an acid compost. If you can get hold of it (I have it by the ton being a pine farmer!) use pine needles and heap a thick layer around the base. It is another way of keeping the soil acidic. With my acid soil I have an easier task: all I need add is lime to get my pink hydrangeas to stay pink!

26 Sep '07 5:52 am

pics for now. A new camera just isn't in the budget at the moment. I have a car and a class ring to buy for my daughter. My parents were right kids are expensive, worth it tho. The ring she has picked is $440. and she even went with silver instead of gold, seems expensive but it has been a long time since I had to think about the price of a high school ring.
Dixie: Thanks for the advice on the hydrangea, I wanted it blue, I just love blue flowers. The pink is very pretty too tho and I am thinking maybe I will plant them as a foundation planting in the back of the house, it is shady and they would make the back door entrance much more attractive.
Faith: Here are a few pics of some of the plants, only cell phone so not very good quality, I'm afraid.
Liza: The butterfliy pics were taken with the cell phone camera so not great quality. I didn't want to run and get the camera, was afraid they'd be gone. I planted alot of zinnia and cosmos to fill in and keep the bare space covered (I had cleared it and plan to put roses in that spot) til I get the permanent plantings in. The butterflies seemed to love it and as it is right outside the dining room window, I enjoyed being able to watch them and the hummingbirds, who I could never catch a picture of.
Jack: Thanks for the info on hydrangeas. Like all parents, I tend to think my children are exceptional.

26 Sep '07 7:24 am

What a lovely array of flowers Faerisweet-very cottagey-looking.I do like your Joe's tastes of putting the blue phlox with the yellow lilies.In a floral-art magazine,I saw a line of deep blue hydrangeas,and in front small white flowers-I think they were white agapanthus or white flowering bulbs of some sort.Anyway they had been planned like that for a wedding,and it looked absolutely beautiful.I am thinking of the same colour scheme for my hydrangea area-at present I have campanula in front,which I like but another colour as well would make it brighter.
When is your daughter's graduation?
Sydney would be happy in my garden too !
Dixie.

26 Sep '07 6:21 pm

is not til next year, she is a junior or 11th grader, she has another full year. For some strange reason the kids get their class rings a year early. Maybe because whoever is in charge of these things at the school knows graduation and prom are going to cost enough without having the purchase of the ring at the same time.
I guess it is kind of a cottage look, not by design tho, just turned out that way. I have always liked old fashioned cottage type gardens, like the Thomas Kincaid (think that is the name) paintings.

27 Sep '07 2:23 am

Sorry I haven't posted here since you 'reappeared', but your garden's looking fab! Sounds like you're having the same thoughts as I am with regards to filling spaces - my garden's very much in its infancy and I'm just slowly filling in bit by bit, but you've got a lot further than me so keep it up!

I love your Sydney too - what with him and all of Dixie's fairy garden ornaments, etc, makes me want some kind of permanen friend in my garden too... Very Happy

27 Sep '07 6:26 pm

Plants can get expensive especially when your trying to fill so much space. I decided to set aside at least $20 a week for the garden, not alot, substituting a salad or something from home instead of a burger and fries for lunch, just a couple of times a week covers it. (probably a good idea anyway, health wise) I do go a little over now and then but not much. I just buy a couple of things a week and it is slowly filling up the garden. There is no nursery near us, but there is a Lowe's with a nice garden centre, they carry a larger variety of plants than most big garden centre's I have been to, so I usually shop there. One thing that has saved me alot of money is finding out that after the first flush of bloom is done, instead of trimming the plants, they just put it on clearance for up to 75% off. Alot of times I have found plants that just needed deadheading on clearance while the same exact plant, same size, in full bloom is sitting on another aisle for full price. Also they have a 1 year guarantee on all their plants, which is nice too.

27 Sep '07 6:34 pm

The bargain bin at the nursery is a real help! Particularly if you can be patient, and wait until the next flowering season. I've discovered that my local commercial nursery actually has a bargain 50% off table all the time now - oops! So naturally I've started popping in every week, hee hee!

Take care in your lovely garden.

28 Sep '07 5:13 am

I do love the bargain bin, and now because of it, even tho it is just really beginning the fall season here, I am excitedly waiting for spring. When all these bargain plants will really bloom for me for the first time. They start off so small and with just a few blooms the first season planted. I also look forward to getting more of the annuals that did well this season and phasing out the ones that don't seem to thrive here. Unfortunately one of my favorites, forget me nots, just do not seem to like it around here, perhaps the hot summer, maybe they will do better in spring.

28 Sep '07 1:49 pm

I'll bet you will be surprised at how much your garden will have filled in by next year. New gardens always look a little sparse, so we are tempted to keep packing in more things. Then when the plants really get their roots under them and take off, we end up having to start removing things that get crowded out. No matter how long we have been gardening, it seems we never learn to sit back and be patient. Things are looking great so far!

Faerisweet's Garden Diary

Your butterflies!

Hallo again!

sadly only cell phone

garden pics

Graduation

Hi Faerisweet

Thanks Bambi

anticipation

New gardens