1st Garden Bouquet Of The Season

I had promised to post pictures of the back garden but I've been so busy finishing up the school year and getting my bus cleaned there just hasn't been time.
Instead I offer you this. . .
My sister-in-law Leona celebrated her birthday this week and was able to drop by for coffee.
As birthdays and presents just seem to go together, I gifted her with the first bouquet to come out of the garden this season. . .

Happy Birthday Leona! May the Lord bless you with many more!

And I Call Myself A Master Gardener. . .

A while back, when Ev and I visited Hole's new Enjoy center for their opening, I bought an Elephant Ear bulb because I thought it would look cool by the pond. (Once Henry finishes building it. We are going into year three now. . .)
I was even lucky enough to talk to Jim Hole, one of the owners and he told me to plant it quick because I was already a bit late with it.
The bulb can be saved from year to year so it didn't bother me that it might be a bit small this year.
I planted the bulb and put it in the greenhouse with everything else and waited for something to happen.

I watered.
I waited.
I watered some more.
I waited some more.
And waited. . .
And waited. . .
Everything in the greenhouse had been planted and this is all I saw. . .

The time had come to empty the pot.
And this is what I saw. . .

I planted the bulb upside down!!!

Considering the price of the bulb I did what I could to remedy the situation.

I don't know if it's going to grow, but I'll keep you posted.

Just so you all don't think I'm a total dufus I'm going to post later tomorrow with pictures of the back garden now that it's stopped raining.

I really am a master gardener. . . !

Hidden Meanings?

So if your friends come over to visit and they say "Oh Rosa it looks great in here! It's so clean!" . . .

What do you think they mean???

The Rubarb Leaf Project

 Many years ago I watched a Martha Stewart episode which featured two men (Little and Lewis) in the Pacific Northwest who made concrete sculptures using giant gunnera leaves. It was quite mind blowing to see what they could do. They gave directions for a home project although, as gunnera can't be grown in many areas, they suggested rhubarb as an alternative.
I kept the directions in my project folder for years waiting for a chance to try it for myself.
Several years ago I tried it out with rhubarb and hosta leaves and while it worked reasonably well all the leaves broke fairly quickly.
Recently I was given rhubarb for my mom and was stunned by the size of some of the leaves.
Hmmmm. . . .
This time I called in the professionals.
Our friend Russ is in the stucco business and he was quite excited about trying something new and offered to come over with our other friend Bernie to help out.
It's raining today which meant they couldn't work so he phoned me up and said they were mixing up the concrete and heading over.
Here's what we did. . .

Russ added some black tinting to darken up the concrete. I did most of the sand shaping under the leaf and the guys did everything else. We used two 70 pound pails of concrete which means this leaf will weigh 140 pounds!
No need to worry about anyone walking off with this sculpture!
Now we cross our fingers for the next few weeks as the leaf cures.
I can hardly wait!

* Update. I just googled martha and concrete leaves and found the directions back for this project. First off they suggested hosta leaves not rhubarb, that was all my idea. Second the consistancy of the concrete they suggested is not what we used, although my sculpture will be much larger than they were thinking and third, I forgot to put plastic wrap between the edge of the leaf and the sand to keep the concrete edge clean. Sigh. . . Still keeping my fingers crossed. Pretty sure it won't look like the ones they feature on their site though. . .

The Front Garden In Early June

Disaster Strikes Again!

My poor basil bed has just lost another plant!
First I lose half of them to frost and then I lose another one to this guy. . .


Cut Worm

I will be out at dawn with a trowel,  flashlight and heavy boots for squishing.
Gardening is not for the faint of heart!

Disturbing Discovery

I spotted an old friend while driving home in the bus this afternoon.
I could see him looking at me thinking " Is that. . .Rosa? I think. . . maybe. . ."
I waved vigorously and smiled broadly when he realized that yes, it was Rosa!

 I made quite a disturbing discovery during this incident however.
While my hand was waving vigorously,  my underarm was jiggling just as vigorously!!!
Sigh. . .
Middle age.
The age of disturbing discoveries.

Sarah's Grad. And I Could Use Photography Lessons

As I mentioned yesterday Morgan's girlfriend Sarah had her grad on Friday.

I thought you might like to see how lovely she and Morgan looked.

Unfortunately while Sarah looks lovely, poor Morgan, due to the fact that I could use photography lessons, had the top of his head cut off and shiny white lights where his eyes should be!

And that was the good picture!!

Sigh. . .

Without further ado. . .

The lovely couple.

Still Not Done!

Last week I told Holly I was almost done planting and would begin to blog regularly again by Friday.
That obviously didn't happen!
The weather wasn't really cooperating and I was blessed with the opportunity to cook dinner for my sister Lisa, her husband, two daughters, one 'special friend' and a  couple of grand kids. Sarah also had her grad that day so I  tried to make a beautiful table setting for her, Morgan and their friend A who came up for the grad. Oh and of course mom and Crystal came as well.
I'd show you pictures but I was so busy getting the meal out that I totally forgot!
Saturday the weather wasn't great so I had no choice but to hang out inside reading, crocheting and snoozing.
It was a pretty tough day. . .
I really am nearly finished planting.
Unfortunately last week we had 2 nights close to freezing and one that dropped below zero taking me by surprise. I lost half my basil and 4 tomato plants.
So I moved the pots I had planted back into the greenhouse and held off on planting the last three.
Really if I put in a few hours I could have everything done. Which was the plan for tonight.
But then the thunder and rain started. . .
Which means no garden pictures either!
I have high hopes for tomorrow. . .
I'm sure I will finally get everything planted.
Of course if I keep bringing home new plants like I did today, (How can I pass up those beautiful Darvonda plants?) I will never get done!
Sigh.
Some days I think I may be just a little. . . well. . . crazy.
But in a good way. . .
Don't you think???