Missed it by THAT much!

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up, poured my coffee and walked outside. I looked on my walkway and there were several daylilly blooms that had been chopped off it's stalks. I kind of look at the severed pieces in denial. Who would do such a thing? About 1/4 of the stalks were removed by what looks like a stick that was swung. I waited 2 hours for my kids to wake up to ask them if they knew anything about it. They both seemed pretty innocent. My family knows how much joy my gardens bring me, so I can't see them doing it. Mystery unsolved.

All of us went outside and planted my latest purchases. Brian then added on to the misters and drip lines for all of the plants. We then start to clean up when WHAT???the tornado alarm goes off! We're used to hearing it the first Wednesday of the month for testing purposes, but have never heard it during the week. Evidently, there were tornadoes all around us! Plus, hail that was reported to being 1/2 inch to a full inch across! We rush downstairs in the basement coralling the animals, too, and sit for about 35 minutes until the tornado warning was supposively over.

When we come up from the basement, I was expecting damage of sorts from the winds, but nothing happened. We are so very lucky that this terrible storm just missed us! Later we find out that around 5 tornadoes were spotted within the Denver Metro area, with one that was only 15 minutes NW of us, heading due east!

I lived in tornado alley for 10 years and did NOT miss this type of excitement!

Oopsies in the garden...Part Deux

When planting my vegetable garden, I put plants that had already started, and then planted seeds, telling God a whole bunch of lies if only He'd make them grow. For several weeks...nothing. I figured God knew me too well and didn't believe my baloney.

However, with all of the rain that we received, the seeds took off. When I was watering, I just didn't water long enough for the soil to get wet...so those poor seeds were baking underneath. OH...you have to WATER the seeds to make them grow.

I'm a midwest girl that is used to putting things in the ground and they are full grown the next day. I'm not used to the coddling and sweet talking that needs to be done to these seeds. I just found out that a city nearby used to be the tomato capital of the world (or something like that) so I know it's not impossible to grow things out here. However, it takes a lot of conjoling to get 'er done.

I'll be happy if I get one pepper this season from 6 plants. Beans? I think I have two popping up. The carrots are going wild, but that could be because I just dumped the packet in a row. I know I'll have to eventually thin them out, but I'm just so damn happy something is green in that area. My cucumbers look like they've gone through WW3, which is sad because those were actually started for me.

I am sure that the problem is the soil, and that this is the first year...and I need to be patient. However, because I'm a woman that has a sign in her perennial garden that says, "Grow dammit!" you might see what the problem is.

The tried and true, and the new.

I've done it again. Couldn't stay away and bought some more flowers and shrubs. The conquest? A hardy hydrangea that isn't quite as picky about our alkaline soils. The purchase? A super hardy hydrangea that's called 'Limelight'.

Hardy to zone 3, this hydrangea can handle the sun. It also can handle heavy pruning which produces an abundance of flowers. What I love about it most, though, is the flowers are mostly white, but in the fall take a pinkish tone. I have yet to see a negative review about this hydrangea. The leaves aren't as big as the typical hydrangea, but the flower heads are around 8" across...so who's looking at the leaves?

I also am trying a native groundcover called Woadwaxen 'Golden Template'

After established, this beauty takes little to no water which is perfect for the front of my gardens that gets hot, western heat that is close to the sidewalk. It blooms in late spring to early summer. Only 8-10 inches tall, it spreads up to 2' wide. The blooms remind me of a golden broom.

I also grabbed a Verbascum 'Jackie in Pink'


It's a dwarf Mullein and goes well with my delphinium, and cottage garden look. It's also hardy to zone 5 which doesn't happen a lot with Mullein. It's a biennial, that only produces more flowers on bare soil, so I have to make sure I move my mulch out of the way. It's just gorgeous!!

The last purchase of note is the Lo and Behold 'Blue Chip' Buddleia, or butterfly bush.


This is a ground cover butterfly bush with beautiful blue/lavender blooms. 20" tall x 20" wide, it's the perfect spot in front of my blue garden that actually gets the full day sun. You don't have to deadhead it, and it's not supposed to seed which is the perfect low maintenance ground cover I need. It starts it's bloom time in early summer and goes until fall. I can't wait until I see it in action! Pictures can't do it justice!

As for the tried and true, I had to replace a gayfeather and I'm adding another iceplant in my rock garden. Delosperma Red Mountain.



It's an orangish color that I haven't seen before. I was going to grab the Lavender, but I sold out the day I was going to take it home. I'm hoping this variety is as hardy as the Delosperma Cooperi.

I also bought my Blue Mist spirea...a very small one. I've just decided to keep it small and hope for the best!! Now, off of the computer to get my son to dig holes!

Things of Importance..Relay for Life

RELAY FOR LIFE IN BRIGHTON---FRIDAY JULY 10, 2009

Lace up and start walking at 6:00 p.m. at the Brighton Recreation Center to honor cancer survivors and caregivers, pay tribute to those who have lost their battle with cancer and empower everyone to fight this disease!!

If interested, please call Dee Durland/chairperson at 303-289-1453 for more information...or to make a generous donation.



I will be walking this and would love some people to walk with! Call me if you're interested, and I'll set this up.

In honor of Connie Sutton, ovarian cancer survivor.

Things of Importance...Growing for Others

PLANT A ROW FOR THE HUNGRY

"A people helping-people-program to help feed the hungry in local neighborhoods and communities. Launched in 1995 by the Garden Writers Associaten, Plant A Row encourages gardeners to grow a little extra and donate the produce to local soup kitchens and food pantries serving the homelss and hungry."

What can Brighton Gardeners Do?

-Grow a little extra food this summer to donate to our local food banks. It doesn't have to be a whole row; it can be an extra tomato plant, a whiskey barrel full of lettuce, a pepper in a pot. Avoid using pesticides to ensure your food is safe and healthy.
-Take your fresh produce to the food banks at the times listed below, so they can distribute the food right away.
-Any and all fresh and healthy produce is appreciated, including herbs. As a general guideline; if you wouldn't offer it to your family, you proably shouldn't take it to the foodbank.
-Quantity is not important. If you only have three extra tomatoes this week and you're heading into town, the food bank will be happy to have them.

Local foodbank dropoff times:

Day
Sunday None are open
Monday None are open
Tuesday and Thursday 9-11 a.m. preferred (no later than 1:00 p.m) Brighton Food Pantry 129 S. 6th Avenue
Wednesday and Saturday 10:30-12:30 p.m. (no later than 1:00 p.m.) His Hands Ministries 99 N. 1st Avenue
2nd and 4th Wednesday 1:30-2:30 p.m. Calvary Chapel 161 E. Bridge Street
Friday None are open

The food bank hours of operatioin are not identical to the hours for dropping off fresh produce. they want to enusre the produce can be distributed the day it is received.

We are blessed with the opportunity to grow our own food. Let us share with those that are not as fortunate!!

It worked!

I currently have an almost blooming, 12'H, 6'W Mock Orange that looks like Cousin It right now because all of the rain that we have received. However, the key to the prior sentence is "almost blooming". It's taken three years to get it right, but the bush is COVERED in buds. I know that my Mock Orange is a monster compared to most (I'm guessing it's because it's really old, and the newer varieties are made to be smaller) but we'll take what we can get. From what I've read, the smell is very strong and citrus and I cannot wait until the buds pop!

For shrubs that grow new canes every year, you have to really cut down the shrub to replenish the growth. When we moved into our house, the shrub hadn't been cut down in who knows how long. We always cut it down in the very early spring, because that's when the huge leaves were off and it made for easier cleanup. However, since we had cut down at this time, we always cut off the emerging blooms.

The mock orange is not the only shrub that this happens. A lot of lilacs bloom on old wood. Most types of spring flowering shrubs you want to wait until right after it blooms before trimming. There are always exceptions to every rule (ie. butterfly bush), but this is something to remember.

If only I could share smell over the internet! :) I'm guessing one more week or less and the buds will have opened.

My new baby...

Oopsies in the garden...Part One

I was reading a delightful blog today by Stacy called Dirty Little Secrets and it got me thinking about things that happen in the garden we hope no one else notices, but yet want to share our misery with other fellow gardeners at our mistakes. I know this doesn't make a lot of sense, but sometimes, you just want to know you're not alone in your pain.

As she was talking of weeds, I was thinking of all of the mulch laid down and grateful that it wasn't weeds I was dealing with. However, with the mulch, and the rain...I have holes in a lot of my foliage...

In my Alcea...




My newly planted rose mallow



Also in my echinacea, rudbeckia, asters, and any seedlings that I put out this year. I spent 45 minutes squishing the damn things, and then come back and see another one eating it's carcass. Yum.

I then wanted to share what happens when you grow free plants without asking specifics about height. I wanted a pathway that had daylillies growing up on either side. I started out on one side one year, and then added the other side last year. I now have two different blooming times, two different heights and either side of my sidewalk. Oops.




Notice how these are so high and almost in bloom? Not sure how I'll fix this except to just dig up some from either side and transplant to mix. The colors are almost exactly the same...I guess I should be happy for longer blooming time?

My last oopsy to share would be the lovely urine spots left from my dog this winter in our lawn. I thought...for some unknown reason that if the grass was dormant, the urine couldn't hurt the lawn. I was wrong. The grass is slowly filling in, but a MAJOR oops...and I take full responsiblity for this.

Plant row is GONE, baby!

For several weeks, I've had a row of plants lined up, sitting so patiently to be planted. Every day I'd give them a drink, promising them that SOON I'd get them into the ground so they could spread and prosper. Every night I would apologize to them because I wasn't able to get to the planting.

Yesterday, I finally planted all of them but two. The lightening and thunder outside was a deterrent, so we quickly packed up everything and it called it a day. We also went to Home Depot to find a material to cover my vegetable gardens for those pesky hail storms that are so prevalant this month. Brian had constructed three hoops to go over the gardens made out of PVC pipe that he slipped into some cut off pvc pipe he attached to the raised bed. After doing some research, it looks like screen door material is the easiest to work with, and will still allow sun to come through when I can't roll the screen back. Since the gardens are on my east side, I really have to make sure the sun can get to the plants the full 7 hours of the day for optimum growth. Because of my planting, we were not able to finish this project yesterday, and I'm hoping the weather holds out!! First year veggie garden, please be nice with comments! ;)





I planted a newly released rose 'Julia Child' that is yellow with a sweet scent. I also planted coreopsis 'Moonbeam', a blue lupine, two different hibiscus plants ('Galaxy' and 'Fireball'), two types of Lobelia (one for the shade and one for a sunny spot), a perennial four o'clock, two more 'Rocky Mountain' penstemon, some California poppies and a new annual that seeds, the soon to be famous 'Lauren Springer Grape' poppy. I also planted two everbearing strawberry plants 'Ft. Laramie'. I'm not sure if I'll like the taste, but I know I'll love the color. Two more ornamental strawberries were planted by my 'Wine and Roses' Weigela that hasn't done much this year. I can't STAND holes in my gardens. After I plant my delphinium, all will be planted. I still would like to purchase a Blue Mist spirea, but as Brian has pointed out, we've run out of room. We'll see about that.



My idea of planting all shrubs in the back has quickly left the building. Brian and I aren't all that surprised. I just love color, and designing the backyard so I get optimal color all seasons. One plant that I have been going back and forth on is the Beautyberry so I get more winter interest. After doing a lot of research, it sounds like this shrub is iffy making it out here, but it is so gorgeous, I might order it online.

I know that Davey will be ordering more, which excites me and makes me filled with dread because I have to find more spots to plant. I do have room for more ground cover to hide all of my dying bulb foliage and am so happy with 'Snow in Summer' that I think I'll be adding more of that in my rock gardens and the other side of my front garden.

I am NOT happy with my hardy glads that I ordered from Breck's. They are small...PETITE even, and barely visible from my back patio. Bright pink, which you can see better because of my fence backdrop, but nothing to jump up and down with joy about.

I have to resist the temptation to pull out my burning bushes that I transferred last fall. They look pathetic and are such an eye sore. I promised myself that I'll give them one more year to rebound, and if they don't look better...they are GONE.

All in all, a very happy planting day! The daily changes in my gardens are wonderful, and as always I'm happy to walk them.

Mom update

I was told by several people that I haven't had any updates about mom written here. Well, it's because there's not a lot to update you with. I talked to her last night and she reports, "I still have leg pain, I still have neuropathy in my hands, and I'm still bald".

The leg pain gets bad in the evenings, and she's trying so hard not to use strong, prescribed medicine to get through it. Since she had fibromyalgia before her chemo, she isn't sure if it's that, or the taxol in her system. I'm guessing taxol, but that's only a guess.

As for her hair, I know it takes awhile for it to come back, but I'm really praying that it takes root soon...she's desperate for her hair to be back!

Her next Avastin treatment is the 10th, and she goes in for a womanly check-up today. She can't remember why she goes in for that since there's "nothing there anymore" but we'll find out today.

Her days are pretty good, but she still tries to take it easy since she gets tired so easily. All in all, things are the same.