WAY TO GO, CHIRS!

WAY TO GO, CHRIS! Great blog. Thank you for sharing the insight as well as the fantastic photos. This is the sort of thing I like to see on the blog.

Don't want to seem like I'm trying to steal thunder - but I've been taking photos of my own flower patches for a couple-three weeks. I want to share them because I'm so inordinately proud of my flowers.
Before I go on, I want you-all to know that the flower bed on the east side of my front door was the only flower bed here when I first moved in and it was all overgrown with irises that hadn't been watered and hadn't flowered for who knows how long. In the back of the house there was a peace rose that desperately needed pruning (it was growing in under the siding), a clump of overgrown red tulips in desperate need of thinning, a dianthus and a pink creeping phlox. The east side of the house had nothing but dirt and weeds. There are still a lot of weeds but there's a lot of grass, too. Now for the photos.


My house from across the street. The original flower bed is the one to the left of the door as you're looking at it. The little tree on the left winter killed this past winter. It was an apricot we put in. I want to replace it with an Italian prune plum.
We dug out the grass on the west of the door and planted a lot of flowers last year. I've added a couple-three perennials this year. It's coming along very nicely.


We also dug out grass to make the iris bed on the east. You can't tell I love irises. I only wish I'd gotten a photo when the bed was in full bloom. It literally glowed!

This photo shows our two little apple trees we planted last year - as well as my iris bed and two rhubarb plants on the east of the house. If you looked on Google Earth it would show my home with absolutely nothing green back there. :) I'm very pleased with how well it's coming along - weeds or no weeds.
Now for the individual colors of iris in my garden. Oh, and by the way, Chris - I thought what I sent to you was all yellow iris but I've discovered there are some other absolutely lovely colors of iris out in my yellow bed so who knows what you ended up with. Check these out.
The black and orange irises on the left were absolutely stunning when they were in their prime. They were on their way out when I took this photo. The little irises were from Auntie's back yard in Jackson. The yellow, if you'll left click on it, is actually bi-colored. Very attractive.

So, Chris, you may have ended up with some of these maroon ones...or some of the purple and white...

or maybe a peach or white...

About the only thing you can count on not receiving would be a poppy

or one of the wildflowers from my red-white-and-blue corner (red celosia, white wild cranesbill (geranium) and who knows what the blue is - it came with the aspen tree we transplanted from the mountains. It's pretty though.


I have a few tips on turning a barren, dried-out area into a lush flower bed...water, water, and more water. Plenty of commercial fertilizer for the grass, and for the flowers, fruit trees and rhubarb, manure tea.
What's manure tea? Recipe: One 55-gallon galvanized garbage can. Add a couple shovel fulls of manure (I use goat simply because it's handy and free - there's a goat dairy about 5 miles from here and I cart it in by the pickup load for my veggie garden). Fill garbage can with water and let steep for a couple of weeks before using. When water is all gone, refill and use immediately since the manure will already be softened. One can use this over and over. Don't know how commercially packaged steer manure would work- I always use the pure, unadulterated stuff - but it might be ok if you can't find a dairy closeby. - And, by the way, I dip the tea out with an ice cream bucket. It takes time to water everything but the bucket works well.
I don't use manure tea on the flowers out front - it's too much work -but everything in the back gets plenty and loves it. Someone was trying to tell me, this spring, that manure tea would ruin my flowers but I haven't noticed. I used it on the iris, tulips, daffodils, roses, dianthus, phlox, delphenium, columbine and calendula as well as my apple and peach trees, rhubarb and raspberry plants, grape vine and everything in my veggie garden. I think these photos bear testimony that manure tea doesn't hurt a thing. If it did, I'd use it on the weeds. Dang! Maybe I need to discuss production of a weed-killer manure with those goats. Anyone got any formulas for that?

Seriously speaking, though, I can't overstress the importance of heavy watering (with regular water as well as the tea) - especially when you're trying to get plants established. Here in the intermountain west days get scorching hot and the wind blows almost constantly; horrendous drying combination, there. I try to moisten the soil surface in my gardens at least once a day - more often if the wind is really stiff. I water the grass deeply about three times a week. It's expensive but it's been worth it. I figure another summer and I'll have a pretty decent yard.

And that's all, folks. Need another posting from you, Chris. The one about your cacti was great! Can you possibly upload the photos concerning your stairwell? I'll tell the story if you're still so mad you don't think you should say anything - but I'm not sure how to upload the very funny photo you sent that idiotic inspector. I'd need your help.
Oh, and by the way, I can't find the photo of your looooong christmas cactus flower. Better see if you still have it. I hope you do. We'd like to see it, too.
Well - pardon the changes in font size - the program is screwing with my head.
Have a great week, everybody.

Check out what I've been doing!

Ok, first things first, I've been playing with a green thumb. Mom already knows that I have some Christmas Cacti, and she has seen some pictures of my successes with them, but here it is for everyone, now, and Mom, you can just back down, now, and quit barking at me about posting here! LOL

This first picture is of the plant that Pam has had for years. Since before I met her, it has been a sad droopy little plant, and for the last 10 years it's continued to be a sad droopy little plant. Most of this has been my fault - I have been operating under the assumption that it is a true cactus, and have been only watering it about once a month, if that often. I can't believe that I didn't know any better, seeing as how Mom almost always had at least one or two Christmas Cactus plants around, but the pathetic truth is that I was wrong, and I can't believe how long this poor plant hung in there, waiting for me to come around and grow a brain. At any rate, this past winter, while browsing my Spring Hill Nursery catalog, I decided to take a more active interest in this poor plant. I can't show you how it looked before, because I don't have any pictures of it, but trust me, it drooped and sagged like an ancient little old lady. Here's how it looks now - and there is more text and pictures after, so keep scrolling down...

I told Pam that I didn't think this plant had had that many blossoms on it at one time in the whole ten and a half years I have known her and her plant. She looked at it again and decided I was right. They don't all show, but there are 17 blossoms on this one right now, and this is only this half of the plant. The other half bloomed out about 3 weeks ago, with not quite as many blossoms, but close - I think it was 12 or 13. I am thinking that I might very well seperate these two halves into two pots and see what happens, as these are clearly well established. I'm keeping a close eye on it to see if it starts to show any other signs of being too root bound.

Next, there is the plant that Pam's Father sent home with me about 2 months ago. He told me he was going to donate all of his house plants to the Church Bazaar, and I asked him to let ME have the two Christmas Cacti, instead. He readily agreed, and I am so excited - check this out!

The first one I took home with me that night. It is another one just like the one Pam had, and, while it wasn't as droopy, still, it was getting there. Pam's Dad is getting older, and just doesn't have what it takes to keep up with his plants like he used to, and these were both showing it. I don't mean any offense, just offering it as explanation. I brought it into the house and gave it a home right next to the Pam's, and started treating it the same way. Will get into what I have done for it later in this post. This is the second Christmas Cactus in my house, being the one on the right, not hanging. Haven't gotten a hanger for it yet.

As you can see, there is one blossom on this second plant. I haven't figured this one out yet, unless it was just slow - the whole rest of the plant was covered in them about the same time the hanging one was, about 3 weeks ago or so. I took a picture of those blossoms and sent it to Mom, showing that each blossom was as long as my hand. I have never seen them that long or big before. Mom, if you will send that one back to me, I will include it here, or you can if you want. Will insert here, whoever does it.

This next picture I took to show the incredible growth going on on this second plant. Like I said, I will tell you about what I am treating these plants with later on. Take a look at all the little red leaves pushing out. These will, if the past 2 months or so are any indication, be full grown and green in about 2 weeks or a little less. This was the best I could get a picture to turn out, and it doesn't show nearly all of the new leaves!

On to the second of the two that Pam's Dad gave me. I didn't have room for both of them that night, so he brought the next one down to me about a week later when he came to visit. It was in SUCH rough shape that I was afraid it was all the way dead. Turns out I was wrong again, thankfully! I ended up taking this plant apart into 6 seperate pots, and am doing everything I can to con them all into growing. I know for a fact that 2 of them are taking root and growing very well, and am doting on the rest as though they were as precious as my little grand daughter, who most of you have seen pictures of, and I will post some of her another time. My point is that I have been checking these 6 plants at least 6 or 8 times a day, though if you ask Pam it's more like 20...

Here are a couple of pictures to show the 2 that I know are growing well. They were little snips off the bigger main plant, which I found out had dead roots. I am particularly excited about these little guys, as they are from a plant that had red blossoms instead of the traditional pink!!

Two little leaves pushing up from the first joint on the right. I noticed them about 3 days ago, and have been dancing a little jig every time I think about them - they are growing just as fast as the ones on the 2 big plants have been!

One big leaf pusing up out of this one, and it's been growing there for about 2 days longer than the other small guy. These are looking to be starting well!

Ok, Ok, what AM I feeding them? Hang on to your hats, folks - this is not one that you will hear about from Miracle Gro^®! I've been feeding them my day old coffee! Brew a little extra, then the next day add water to thin it WAAAAY down (if you don't, it'll burn your plants!), and water your house plants with it! I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it's been making! You see a little bit of it in these pictures, but the pictures don't do them justice, they just don't!

Now, I know you are all saying, "But we don't drink coffee!" Well, I came up with a solution. Folger's^® makes little tea bag like single cup coffee servings. If you were to brew ONE bag according to the directions, then add about 12 cups of COLD water, it would do the same thing. You want to be able to see through the brew when you use it on your plants. I don't drink my coffee that thin, which is why I water it down, but if you can see through it fairly well, it won't burn your plants. Make sure you keep the soil for your Christmas Cactus (or Cacti, if you have more than one, lol!) moist all the time, don't let it dry out at all. I have been having amazing results, here, so let's hear it for COFFEE!! lol

Chris

PS ~ Love you Mom! *grin*

the joys of fundraising OR preparing for the garage sale

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -- St. Paul, the Apostle

Parting with anything, be it paper scraps, ragged clothing, broken pencils or worn-out relationships has always been an insurmountable task for my daughter. She cannot put the memories behind her so she clings to everything. Because of it, when we moved into this house with its much-smaller bedrooms, there was no space for Lili to keep her memories around her. Much as I tried to get her to downsize, she would not. What couldn't be crammed into her bedroom was stored in the basement - in over 30 boxes.

With her Australia adventure rapidly approaching, she has finally decided it's time to de-junk a little and try to make money from some of the things she no longer cherishes as much as she did a couple of years ago. (Whoever said out of sight, out of mind was very wise!)

It started in her room where she discovered she had several large boxes of clothing that no longer fit or appealed. She was pleased - and so was I. While the pride of accomplishment was still fresh, I started hauling boxes up from the basement. Yesterday we had a marathon sorting session that nearly had my beloved daughter in tears but she now has an excellent start on a successful garage sale with 12 more boxes still to be sorted through.

I am very proud of Lili. I know just how difficult this has been for her. But she is becoming a young woman and has finally matured to the point where she is ready to de-junk a little.

De-junking isn't easy. There is always the paper parade that clutters up nearly every household these days...the postman brings it and, like old income tax returns that you really don't want around but which you know you will desperately need if you throw them away, you keep it. There are the gifts that really don't appeal but have been given by someone whose feelings you wouldn't hurt for anything in the world.

Perhaps one should de-junk one's job - strike out and DO what one has always dreamed of doing. Perhaps one needs to de-junk a habit that is outmoded and no longer useful. Perhaps what needs to be de-junked is a relationship that is something from which a person should move on but to which one clings because it meant something at one time.

There are plenty of things nearly every person could afford to de-junk if he/she were willing to cut him/herself loose...put away childish things, so to speak.

My daughter is putting away childish things as she ventures out into the world. Knowing this is being as difficult for her as it is for all of us, I am very pleased with the efforts she is making.

When she is finished, I think I need to follow her example.

Last October Lili's old high school had a dance they called MORP (prom spelled backward) where the kids could dress in whatever Halloween costumes they wanted to create.

Lili and a bunch of her friends decided to make a day of it. They held a picnic in the park near our home, then played on Lili's trampoline for a while before getting ready for the dance.

Left to right on the park photo (left click for a larger version) Jeremy, Josh, Elle, Hannah, Micah (in the red shirt), Steven, Lili, (don't remember this kid's name - he wasn't a regular at our house), and Nick (Blondie from last week's post). On the tramp is Steven bouncing Elle with Micah, Jeremy and the unknown boy watching. - Just for reference, Steven is over six feet tall. THat will give you an idea just how much air Elle was getting. - I'd post my photos of the kids in their costumes if I could find them but I've filed them away somewhere - or maybe lost them when we had to clean my hard drive last winter.

Oh well. So goes life.

I really do have a reason for discussing last year's MORP. Because I can't figure out how to make these photos upload the way I want, I've had to resort to two blogs, today, in order to get the photos in the right sequence. Even then it didn't turn out the way I wanted but at least you get the idea.

Today's MORP - and other tidbits

Nessa, Gabe, Julie, Larry, Lili and Josh

Gabe, Larry and Josh Today her new highschool had MORP. This time it was 'black and white'. Dress was casual but supposed to be something that would look cool under black lights.
Again Lili and some friends had a dinner. The girls had planned to have a picnic, again, but we got a spring squall just as they were finishing preparations so everybody ate in our kitchen. Dad and I retired to my sewing room where we could have some peace. :) The kids had a lot of fun without us.
Just before the kids were ready to leave for the dance Julie's mother called in a panic - she'd just seen some of the neighborhood kids leaving in tuxes and formal dresses with corsages and the works. Our kids must have misunderstood (our group was in jeans). I made a quick call to one of the boys I knew was on the planning committee and was reassured our kids were dressed appropriately.

I don't know where those other kids were headed. Maybe a Latino girl's 15th birthday bash. Who knows? We'd have been in trouble if our kids had had to have formal wear. I think Lili is the only girl who owns a fancy dress and Gabe was the only boy who had anything that even came close to evening wear.

Sometimes I look at my hair and marvel at how grey I'm getting! I think I just acquired another zillion white hairs today.

Lili, Julie and Nessa

In between everything else she had going today, Lili had a one hour meeting for her church youth group this morning and a two hour meeting for People to People this afternoon.

Today, after their People to People training session, the kids put together boxes of goodies to be sent to servicemen in Iraq...things the soldiers out in the toolies can't get - like small packs of Kleenex, hand sanitizer, gum, candy, playing cards, magazines, etc.

I was very glad the leader chose that as a service project. Other projects such as working at the aviary downtown and observing Earth Day by cleaning a hiking trail had been proposed by various parents. In my opinion People to People is about people and I felt the service project should be more people oriented. I was more than happy to contribute items to this project. Lili was, too. We even stayed late to help finish packing the boxes and load them in the leader's car.

Next month we'll be having a general fundraiser in the form of a flea market/bake sale where each family can have a table and sell items. Lili was already working on getting things ready for a garage sale so we'll just do this instead.

Before that day, however, Lili will take a snorkeling class so she can snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef. Some of the kids and one of the leaders will be scuba diving at the Reef but Lili won't be allowed to because she's asthmatic and it's against Australian law for asthmatics to scuba dive. Interesting law but it makes sense. It's much easier to rescue someone who's having an asthma attack if they're paddling around on the surface of the water rather than 50 feet down.

How come nobody else posts on this thing??? Hello! Lets get with the progam folks, and pull together as a family, even if we don't always see eye to eye!
Buzzy

Larry's birthday party

photo on right: Rich, Lori and Rick

photo on left: Left to right (back row) Blondie, Michael and Larry (middle row) Josh, Airk, Ashley, Vanessa and Julie
(front) Lili, Gabe and Nate
Because Larry's birthday is during the week next week and his friends from Job Corps could not be here, we held a surprise party for him after the completion of Lili's raffle drawing.
Most of the kids we'd invited were present for the drawing so afterwards, while the rest of us loaded Lili's things in my car, Airk Bennett took Larry with him to pick up Ashley. That gave the rest of us time to get everything ready at home.
Birthday time at our house is rather low key. We have a dinner - with whatever foods the birthday person chooses - and then everyone is free to hang out and do whatever they choose. Generally the birthday person knows when the party is happening. Larry and I had planned to have his party next weekend but when I spoke to the kids he wanted to invited, I found there as a conflict at Lili's school. So...at the last minute we threw it all together for after Lili's raffle drawing and Larry was one startled kid when he came home.
Attending Larry's party were his brother and sister-in-law, Rich and Lori, and his friends, Vanessa(with her fiance, Michael), Josh, Nick (can't remember his last name - we just call him Blondie), Airk (with his girlfriend, Ashley), Julie, Gabe(from Job Corps), Nate and, of course, Lili, Rick and me. We had a full house!
It's a very eclectic group of kids from a wide variety of backgrounds yet they sat in our living room last night and had the most fun. I couldn't help commenting to Rick how fortunate we were that these kids, raucous as they were, were having good clean fun. I can put up with the boisterousness any day. What I knew I wouldn't have to deal with was having to involve the police or an ambulance because one of the kids ODed or got stabbed or shot. I can't begin to express how grateful I am for that! Diverse as they are, these kids come to our house and hang out and have fun.
Julie was the first to leave. Since she lives around the corner from us, everyone walked home with her. You could hear the kids all the way to her house and all the way home - sometimes I wonder what the neighbors think of our noisy bunch. It was fun to listen to them, though. We'
ve had drive-by shootings just a few blocks from our subdivision lately. When Lili and Josh and Gabe were out selling tickets the other night some man started stalking Lili - not realizing she had someone with her. My kids weren't involved in anything I had to worry about as they walked Julie home. I have a lot to be thankful for.
And so Larry starts his third decade. He made the comment, the other day, that it didn't seem real. He thinks his life is on the downhill slide, now that he's no longer a teenager. I had to laugh. For me, the pinnacle was when I turned 18. I've been on the downhill slide for the past 40 years. Guess the ascent is pretty steep but the descent has been really gradual. I think he'll find his life is the same. I hope so, anyway.