One evening I was out in the garden and turned my head just as the fading light of the end of the day came through a hardy begonia leaf. I was happy to see it and to capture a photo of it. On the patio, I found these seedlings. I love that violas are seeding themselves in the cracks between the patio bricks. The other weeds? Not so much. I can usually get them out with the string trimmer, but I'm leaving these violas alone. I'm letting any viola seedlings that show up stay right … [Read more...] about What Makes Me Happy Today
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May Dreams Gardens
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2021
Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for July 2021. Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, mid-summer is bringing more clematis blooms, including these little flowers on Clematis x triternata 'Rubromarginata'. I think it's one of my favorites! It's going to have some competition soon from another clematis, Clematis heracleifolia 'Mrs. Robert Brydon'. Both of these clematis are what I call scampering vines. I've provided a support structure, of sorts, for both … [Read more...] about Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2021
Dried Flowers
A week or so ago I fell down into a little rabbit hole. Based on the title of this post and this first picture, you might assume I went down a rabbit hole of dried flowers. That is partially true. Dried flowers is where I ended up, but the first rabbit hole I fell into was for junk journals. And I was fascinated by what I saw. I watched all kinds of YouTube videos about how to make junk journals and decided that I should make one or two or who knows how many!? What are these junk … [Read more...] about Dried Flowers
New Videos!
I've started a new series of short videos to provide some previews to my next book, Digging and Delighted: Live Your Best Gardening Life. Each video is three minutes or less and covers one chapter. I started on July 1st with Chapter 1 and will continue until July 30th with the final chapter, Chapter 30. I'm trying to do something a little different each time, but it's just me, my iPhone, and the simple editing of iMovie so they are nothing fancy, believe you me. My hope is by the end … [Read more...] about New Videos!
Garden Fairies Lament the Lack of…
Garden fairies here! We are garden fairies and we barely have time to write this blog post, but we feel it is our duty and responsibility to make clear what we lament. What we lament is the lack of notice that there would be tree trimming going on in our garden. Now, we are not talking about the tree trimming that Carol does, which is rare, infrequent, and to us, inconsequential, except sometimes when she makes a boo-boo and saws off a limb she regrets cutting off. It is at those times … [Read more...] about Garden Fairies Lament the Lack of…
The Worst Gardening Job of the Season
Cutting the seed heads off my Amsonia is the worst gardening job of the season. And I did that job today. What makes this the worst gardening job of the season is the sap hidden in those branches. It looks like ordinary, white glue but its stickier than glue and leaves a stain on whatever it gets on. I know this from experience. So every year, I put on the same long pants and long-sleeved shirt that I wear for just this occasion. No sense ruining more gardening clothes with … [Read more...] about The Worst Gardening Job of the Season
