A Perfect Day Gardening

 Although we had a chilly (for central Florida) start to the day on Friday, it warmed up and we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day.  I did a little work in the garden. 

It's a bit of a challenge trying not to grip anything with my right hand!  I did manage to transplant three walking Iris. I planted them in a shady area of the garden last year, then we had trees removed and the area became too sunny for the Iris. They were quite unhappy.

The Mister, after having dug up an area for the Iris, planted a Leyland cypress we had purchased quite some time ago.  I added a few baubles for the season.

As I puttered around the yard I came across some prettiness I had to share:

Gerbera Daisy

Tractor Seat Plant

Azalea

Our first Camellia bloom of the season

All of the blooms were on plants we planted over the past year.

Arkansas Travelers

Here's a catchy tune that I actually did learn to play on the hammered dulcimer. (My version wouldn't be quite as fluid, however!!!)



Here are some other Arkansas travelers....

Gail, At the Farm, sent them to me last spring.

They came all the way from Arkansas to Colorado.

There are more. I think. 

Somewhere!

What fun to share more than just our blog posts!

Flag Day

We enjoyed a sunny morning on Memorial Day. The flag came out to honor all of those who have served to protect our freedoms.

"Flags" of a different color also waved and nodded in the gentle wind. Although these aren't really "flag" iris, they are beautiful. But wait, what is the deep, dark purple iris doing in the middle of the yellow and white iris? We seem to have a rose among thorns!

This iris bed is one of several we have on the property. Since we moved in and began to water, the iris have proliferated. In 2014 I dug up this bed (and wrote about it). I exchanged iris tubers with Gail, "At the Farm". Is this one of her's? How strange to see this iris pop up amidst the existing yellow and white iris. Regardless, it is gorgeous. I will enjoy watching the blossoms over the next week. 

Awww Hail - Not Again

(Oh, and this flat was on the porch, next to the house!)

Sunny Sunday

At least it began that way!

Lovely poppies and iris, some that were mangled by Friday's hail

I love having horses here and heading down to the barn in the morning, even before my brain is in gear and my body has fully awoken. The birds' songs cheer me and make me smile.

I fill Malachi's tub; a scoop of oat bran, a scoop of Sr. feed, two measures of weight stuff, one measure of digestive stuff and a bit more beet pulp than yesterday.

Malachi humming, "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now"

I check on the progress of the baby pigeons whose mom chose to use the feed bin in the stall we use for storage as her nest. Lord knows, we don't need more, but they are God's creatures, too!

May 30 - just hatched

This morning - 8 days old

I have to bring Malachi out of the paddock, away from his herd. 

The herd, looking longingly at Malachi's food.

I don't tie Malachi anymore. When he has licked his tub clean he wanders off and works on mowing our yard. Until our spate of afternoon storms came I had been working on cleaning out the garage end of the barn while Malachi ate. But now, the truck is wedged in there to keep it safe from hail - and I'm too lazy to move it out and move it back. It seems like a good excuse not to tackle the mess in the garage!

We have been having wicked storms in the afternoon. On Friday I received four alerts on my cell phone about tornado warnings, suggesting I seek shelter immediately. The sirens from the town north of us wailed on and off most of the afternoon. I was sewing in the basement. I was sheltered. Gypsy sought to comfort me by burrowing under my feet. The pounding of the rain and hail was unsettling.

Hail from the first storm on Friday afternoon

Our reward after the storms were over.

Why is it that the pot of gold is never in our yard?!

Oh, wait...

it must be here somewhere.

Life is good!

April Showers Bring...

Saturday afternoon was just beautiful. I went out to weed, and transplant a few perennials, and was hijacked by a dwarf iris. My only purple iris (at least for now... stay tuned for an iris post later this spring!) was blooming. 

It was lovely. 

I took a few pictures of it, and Mr. Dreamy came out to take a few more pictures. I took pictures of a few tulips and daffodils. 

They were all lovely. 

I decided that I wanted to draw the iris, since that is one of the flowers that we drew in a recent online art class I've been taking. I've drawn iris from pictures, but never "in person". So, I gathered my paper and pencil and plopped myself down on the edge of the garden and began to sketch. Mr. Dreamy came out with my bag of colored pencils. I colored. 

It was a lovely afternoon.

Yup, the weeds will just have to wait!

Divide… and Conquer

or

"Go Forth and Multiply"

or

"One Iris, Two Iris… Two Hundred-Twenty Five!"

The iris I planted less than three years ago are thriving. 

I planted, at most, two dozen single rhizomes,

and they turned into this:

The iris are overtaking the tulip bed.

It is time to thin the ranks!

(Especially since I ordered tulip bulbs and will 

need access to the bed to dig up the old and plant the new.)

Since I had created a nice, fluffy bed for the iris previously,

(Which may be one of the reasons why they prospered!)

It wasn't all that difficult to get them out of the ground.

The clumps of rhizomes looked happy and healthy!

I separated them. Threw 'mother' rhizomes out,

and trimmed the leaves.

Voilà!

225 iris plants. I counted them!

Care for an iris or ten?

Watch out day lilies…

you are next!

OK…but which one?

You may recall that I love tulips. 

So do the deer…

This year our entire tulip bed was mowed down. We only had two or three bulbs (out of more than 100 bulbs) that managed to blossom, as they were smart enough to hide amongst the iris. You can see the row of iris on the left in this photo from a previous year. (Oh, and yeah, you can see the ugly wire I strung around the tulips to keep the pesky deer away… I neglected to put the "fence" up before we left for the winter this past year.)

We planted the tulip bed in the fall of 2011 and it provided two years of enjoyment. However, the showy tulips tend not to be true perennials. They don't do well year after year. So, I decided to buy more. But… how does one choose?

My catalog from Colorblends has 150 pages of incredible, knock-your-socks-off, breathtaking floral beauty. It was a daunting task, but I finally narrowed it down to one blend with 100 bulbs. I wish I could plant more, and have masses of tulips like I saw at Keukenhof Gardens, but as much as I think the deer are cute, I don't particularly care to feed them!

I will have my work cut out for me come November, when I thin the iris, dig up the old bulbs and replant the new. But, it will be worth it in the spring - I hope!