A Gardener's Work is NEVER Done

58 bags of cedar mulch have finally been strewn throughout my garden beds. . . FINALLY.
To tell you the truth, I'm glad it was only 58 bags because traditionally it's been closer to 90 bags.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going all gangbusters getting the front beds finished. It took me three days of back breaking labor with all the trimming, moving and removing plants, planting new plants, fertilizing, and just all around maintenance.

Here's the result of the front yard:

front view--the hedges on the right were bears to clip as they are holly and barberry--no garden glove can keep those thorns from poking you!

Petunias around the maple tree, dianthus (carnation) and geraniums in front of the barberry bushes.

Side yard to the left of the front of the house. I ripped up about 40 surprise lilies and transplanted them to the back yard, and moved the hydrangea closer to the gate, plus the annual plantings of a different variety of coral dianthus, and I totally forgot what the purple stuff is called.

The next weekend I only managed to get half of the other beds in the back yard done, namely the back bed, the roses on the fence, and the entire bed by the pool.

This is what it looks like:

The phlox was beautiful this year, but it needed a little taming. This was the bed where I planted the surprise lilies. I'll be 'surprised' if they live because this bed is chocked full of gopher and mole tunnels. I'd rather they eat the bulbs instead of my roses.

Fireplace gardens are pretty quick and easy to fix.

Transplanted some grasses that had been growing into each other and whacked the ground rose and day lilies back. Of course, now I need to deadhead the peonies and iris . . . a gardener's job is never done, it just changes with the season.

My rose garden is on the fence, and hubs had to fixe the bubbler.

Different angle--other end of the pool. And ditto, time to deadhead the roses now since I took this picture about two weeks ago!

This bed really needs some color, but I'm at a loss as to what to put in here. The clematis is just getting started and the daylilies will follow.

I did buy a few roses to fill in a couple of spaces that I lost a couple of my roses.

Then, finally, with my hubby's help, I finished the pond garden, the strip along the deck, and the entire side yard.

I love my pond garden. I will confess that I chopped my toad lily back because by the time it blooms in August, it's unruly, so I'm fixing it before it starts to set blooms.

 

Different angle of pond.

Down the deck edge. We've had a time with moles and gophers, thus the bucket covering the mole trap because the dog would probably get her nose sliced off sniffing around it. Grass has also been difficult with the little critters constantly digging it up!

This is the side yard. It's still a bit of a work-in-progress. Some things I planted did well when they were first put in the ground, but with the tree growth from our oak and crepe myrtles AND the neighbor's bald cypress, well, many of them simply can't tolerate that much shade.

Side garden. Hubs built this new fence while I was working on the garden beds.

And that is how I've been spending most of my free time during the month of May . . . when it hasn't been raining!

Later, Peeps!

A Long, Relaxing Weekend

Today is the start of a long and relaxing weekend by the pool.

We pick kidlet up from camp this afternoon--don't worry, we'll hose her off before she's allowed to come into the house--the hubby's birthday is tomorrow and Father's Day is on Sunday. And on the 20th we'll celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary.

Time flies, doesn't it.

As the hubs and I were finishing the last bit of gardening, trimming, mulch fluffing, etc., I was thinking about marriage.

Why do some marriages stay together while others fall apart?

Why are some couples able to work together all day and yet still enjoy each other's company on their off time?

Why do some couples lose their identities during the child-rearing years and end up a divorce statistic when the kids are out of the house?

I don't have the answers, but I do know that my husband is my best friend. He makes me laugh, and I think I can return the favor. It's a big part of who we are.

We enjoy being together. We enjoy sharing the yard work. We enjoy each other's company. We enjoy doing things together.

Sometimes parents tend to get so involved with raising their children that they forget to nurture their own relationship. This is one of the wonderful things about sending the kidlet to camp. While she was at swim camp, I was at a loss with what to do with myself. But this last week, while she was at Girl Scout camp, my hubs and I enjoyed our alone time. We talked about everything, just like we did before we were married.

Though we are connected every day, we reconnected on a deeper level. It's nice to know we're still in sync.

I don't know what you have planned for the weekend, but enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Housecleaning or Gardening?

I missed my Weight Watcher's meeting yesterday as my hubs needed to take my car instead of his sportier version to a tank farm with all the gravel and dust . . . and yet, he complains that I don't wash my car enough . . . hmmm. . .

While on my regular four-mile walk yesterday, I realized I could have WALKED to my meeting as it's two miles away. The only problem with walking is the first mile a is two-lane road with no shoulder, no foot path and a steep decline into a drainage ditch. The second mile is along a sidewalk next to a busy six-lane road, which does double duty as a state highway.
Walking in this area is not on my list of things to do, though it is doable.

That said, I'm going to take a tangent about housecleaning. Trust me, I will make a full circle back to the topic of walking, also known as exercise. 

Last week, I interviewed Merry Maids for my mom. She's finally admitting that she can't keep her house as clean as she would like, or like she used to. Remember, the woman is 91 years old. Her spinal stenosis was causing some leg issues and she'd received a epidural cortisone shot a few months ago--which is working nicely--plus she was recently told that she is legally blind in one eye due to years of macular degeneration.

Age happens.

Not too surprising she can't see enough to keep the house clean.

Besides cleaning house isn't something a 90+ year old should have to worry about. And no, I'm not cleaning her house, I have my own house to clean, thank you very much.

Merry Maids is a bit on the pricy side, but this will be a busy year for her as many of my brothers and one of my sisters will be visiting, so we signed them up for an every other week cleaning. The nice thing about Merry Maids is that there is no contract, cancel at any time. And Mom can do the spot cleaning the rest of the time.

As I chatted with my bro about this, he wondered if we could change the every other week cleaning (yes, we can). But then we got into a discussion of how often we clean, and he admitted that they only cleaned their house three days prior to Thanksgiving when the family converges on their house.

Really? I never realized this as we've stopped by to drop something off and found their house was tidy, but I didn't do the white glove treatment to verify.

Which brings me back to how often we clean--EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. And we clean the house the day before we go on vacation, so we have a clean house to come home to .. . plus we have a dog. The house will be dusty and dog-furry even if we didn't clean prior to vacation! We clean the house top to bottom, plus we sometimes get sidetracked. . . this week I dusted the downstairs window blinds. Man, those things were filthy! Now, I need to clean the windows, too!

As I'm writing this the sun is coming through the window and onto my formal dining table--which has a layer of dust on it--I just cleaned this table FOUR DAYS AGO! Can you imagine how much dust would accumulate in a month?? *shuddering at the thought*

Though my bro said they only clean once a year, I bet you money they spot clean all the time.

And then on my writer's loop, the topic came up here. One writer friend said it had been years since they did a top to bottom clean. And another friend commented the same thing--that some rooms hadn't been touched in a year.

Wow. I never thought I'd be one of the weird ones who cleans house weekly.

And now, we travel to the backyard. If you've seen my pictures (sorry, can't find any current ones), you notice how neat and tidy our yard looks. The last couple of days, the hubs and I have been trimming, weeding and turning the mulch in the garden beds, resulting in two huge bags of green waste (no, I don't have or want a mulch pile), and the yard is only half done. This process needs to be done a couple times a year to keep the perennials under control.

So why am I telling you to clean your house and work in your garden?

Because you can earn Weight Watcher's ACTIVITY POINTS!

Look, you don't have to go to the gym, walk on a treadmill, or attend a Pilates class to get some exercise. Keep moving. Do a little cleaning. Weed the garden. Trim the plants. Pick up the dog poo. Every little bit DOES count!

Get moving, people!

Later, Peeps!
 

And it's still raining . . .

I've lost track, but this is day three or four of the rain.

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day."

Don't get me wrong, we desperately need the rain. The last two years have been drought-ridden with horrendously hot summers. We're talking desert 110 degrees hot.

Hm, this kind of looks like my face right now, all dry and yucky.

And this is exactly the type of rain we need: slow drizzle, over a few days, with low temperatures. Perfect to soak into the ground.

But it's wrecking havoc on my walking schedule . . . and my weight.

Normally, I don't mind walking in the rain, but I'm so tired of the cold that I can barely force myself to go outside.

I would never do well in the Pacific Northwest. Cold and gloom are not for me. I need the sunshine. Maybe that's the problem. I need to buy one of those special lights . . . come to think of it, I think I've complained about the gloom in a previous blog, probably this time of year a couple of years ago.

Sorry. But I tend to repeat myself sometimes. . . well, okay a lot.

Today is busy, non-writing stuff, of course. I'm taking my mom to the beauty shop. Her beautician was the same lady who gave me a head of God-awful curls when I was fourteen. Come to think of it, that was about the time I decided to go to Mr. Kenneth's Hair Salon. That woman can wield a can of hairspray like nobody else I know. All her customers have the same 'style'. . . and, come to think of it, she closely resembles the 'beautician' in my Goblin's Apprentice stories.

So, in case you wondered, yes, writers take people from real life and we tend to mold them into story characters.

Because who would believe those people existed if they weren't fiction, right?

It's supposed to stop raining today and warm up tomorrow. Maybe by the time the weekend rolls around, it will be dry enough for me to work in the garden beds. My babies need fertilizer, ironite and a heavy dose of mulch.

Later, Peeps!

Gardening 101 -- Nom, nom, nom

Today's blog will be a pictorial. A few weeks ago I mentioned that my Rose of Sharon bush had TONS of aphids, those life-sucking insectoids that can damage a plant even killing it.

Now, I have no problem with using pesticides, but it had been so windy that I didn't want to take the chance. Besides, I had discovered an endless supply of ladybugs on my walkies.

Every morning, ladybugs climbed to the tops of weeds, grasses and anything else they were near to 1) warm up, 2) drink dew, or 3) I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go along.

Anyhoo, all I need to do was collect them. So one Saturday I took a nylon bag thinking I would capture them and dance home with a bunch of voracious eaters. But I hadn't taken into account their inability to stay captured. In fact, they keep slipping out of the holes in the bag and I felt like I was herding cats.

 In hindsight, the leg of an unused pair of hose would have worked better! So I finished drinking my water and slipped the bag into the open mouth of my water bottle, covering the hole to keep them from escaping. Once home I placed the eight ladybugs on my plant. Two weeks later, the ladybugs are gone . . . and so are the aphids.

Even though my plant is aphid-free, it doesn't mean the buggers won't return. But with luck, the ladybugs got busy and worked on their circle of life.

And though their larvae are pug-ugly, they are also voracious eaters of aphids. So don't kill these ugly critters!

Later, Peeps!

Writing is like Gardening

This seems to be an odd statement, but a couple of days ago I had an epiphany.

"Lightbulb." (name the movie!)

As I've been posting some pictures of my backyard, I've come to realize how similar writing and gardening are.

When a writer first gets the germ of an idea, he lets it roll around in his head, thinking about all sorts of "what if's" before he puts his fingers on a keyboard.

When we first bought this house, the yard was sodded. No trees, no pool, no plants, no nothing, just grass. But as I found out when I mowed the yard, there were numerous 'microclimates' within the yard. There were stripes that were constantly green without the aid of above ground watering. Other areas were seriously hot from the western sun baking the earth. Some areas were very shady or only received morning sun. And so on and so forth.

The writer constructs an outline, deciding on characters and plot. The story picture is becoming a little more concrete. The writer has an idea of the beginning, the middle and the end. Perhaps the writer follows the three act structure or the snowflake method. But the story is beginning to take shape. This is the backbone of the story.

before

after new hardscape

The gardener plans the hardscape (the walkways, paths, stone), the location of trees (for shade, privacy, noise control), and the foundation plants (shrubs). This part of the work creates the backbone structure of the yard.

The writer writes the story, inserting dialogue, discovering subplots, works on characterization and adds emotion. The writer thinks about character arcs and overall story arc.

The gardener adds perennials, moves plants that aren't succeeding even though the "criteria" was appropriate when first planted. Remember, gardens grow, they aren't static. The gardener also thinks about seasonal flowering. You don't want the plants to only flower in the spring, that would make for a very boring summer and autumn.

Once the story is written, the work isn't finished. The writer will edit, delete scenes, words, rewriting entire sections of the story and rearrange story.

Trees grow, microclimates change, shrubs get too large. What used to be hours of sunlight, might now have reverted to only a few hours a day. The gardener will adjust his garden according to what he imagines as his final, albeit changing, garden.

During the last stage of writing, the writer will tweak sentences, find stronger words, and polish the final product for viewing.

The gardener adds colorful annuals--those plants that will only survive the season, but add bursts of happiness into a yard. The gardener will also weed, trim, deadhead and sculpt trees, shrubs and flowers.

A writer might tweak and change his story, but must eventually give up control if he wants to give readers the enjoyment of his words.

But the gardener is always able to tinker and change the look of his yard.

You might think that I'm exaggerating, but I feel that I've found a comparison that both writers and gardeners will understand.

What do you think?

Oh, the movie?

Despicable Me.

Minions RULE!!

Later, Peeps!

Gardening 101

Rule #1--

Gardens are NOT static.

This is the only rule you need to know.

March 12, 2012

April 12, 2012

This change occurred in one month. It's happening all over my yard. If I don't keep a close eye on it it could end up like this--

NOT my yard!

cinnamon stick fern

Just remember to look at the mature size of each plant you put into the ground. Yes, the little 9-inch shrub is so cute and tiny and needs friends, but if it is a 'fast grower', it will choke out your garden.

nandina

Some of these plants send out rhizomes or underground tubers: cinnamon stick fern (I'm still digging it up!), heavenly bamboo or nandina (see the junk at the bottom? those are offshoots from its rhizomes) , many varieties of sedum, and this Itea (sweetspire).

Keep everything trimmed and contained then it really isn't a problem. When the plant sends off its 'little friends', get out your trowel and HACK THEM OFF!

Itea (sweetspire) see all the 'stems'

Look out for the words "self-sowing" or "seed propagated". Yeah, it will spew its seeds EV-ER-Y-WHERE.  Erm, I found this out the hard way. :-)

And that, my peeps, is the end of Gardening 101.

Someday, I'll talk about microclimates, roses, water gardening, hostas, etc, etc!

Later, Peeps, and Happy Gardening!

Weighty Wednesday -- Gardening

1.6 pound weight gain this week. :-(

Bummer.

My only excuse is that I did fly to Atlanta to visit family and attend my niece's baby shower. While I imbibed in wine, beer and margaritas . . . and a few shots of Grand Marnier and Irish Whisky, I was also very naughty with the bite-sized lemon thingy's and pound cake, which gave me an overall weight gain despite walking a hilly terrain 3 out of 4 days for 40-50minutes.

*whew* That was a mouthful of a sentence!

I had fun, but now we are rolling down to the end of candy season with the final event--EASTER. Yeah, I just spent $54 on candy and stuffed bunnies for the Easter baskets.

So, now is the time to double time your exercise!

But this doesn't mean going to the smelly gym twice a day. . .

It means gardening!

Mini rose--Chasing Rainbows

I have 26 rose bushes (climbers, floribundas, minis and micro-minis) and this is the first rose of the season.

In February, I did all the basic spring cleaning gardening chores: cutting back perennials, roses, grasses and other plants that die all the way to the roots. I cleaned up the beds, weeded, fertilized and hubster mulched the beds.

When you do this, all you have to do is wander around the garden, admiring your beautiful plants, while picking the random weed or two.

Here are a few before (March 12) and after (April 3)pictures:

creeping phlox (blue)

creeping phlox (blue), hydrangea (corner). butterfly bush (rt-slightly trunked up), crepe myrtles (lft)

crepe myrtle tree, Batik iris, rose bush to far left and center (red tipped)

same pic, different angle.

Carpet rose is on left. Batik iris between sprinkler head and crepe myrtle, and the red tipped rose, Moonlight Scentsation (smells WONDERFUL) is on the right.

And the back corner under two Loblolly pine trees:

Daffodils are still in bloom

cloudy day, but you can see the phlox in bloom

It really doesn't take much time and effort to have a pretty yard or garden, BUT it does take due diligence. If you don't keep after it, then weeds and seeds will take hold and over run the place. A heavy application of mulch does more than make the garden look pretty, it helps keep the soil moist and provides a thick barrier which keeps weeds out.

Later, Peeps!

Rancunculus

Rancunculus (not mine)

Okay, I love that name. Ran-cun-cul-us. It's a fun name. And a beautiful flower. I love the rows and rows of petals.

For years, I've lusted after a rancunculus. I'd only seen them in the gardening catalogs, but I loved the the thickness and depth to the flower petals.

Last April, I finally found and bought five rancunculus at the local Lowes.

And then we had an incredibly hot summer and they died. I was totally bummed. But not too surprised. Many plants are annuals in Oklahoma, either because our winters are too cold, or our summers are too hot. Last summer was way too hot. Surprisingly I only lost one evergreen shrub.

rancunculus to the right of the fireplace

Anyhoo, in January, little green mounds popped up under our weeping blue atlas cedar tree next to our outdoor fireplace.

Rancunculus between spirea (left) and blue cedar atlas (right)

Of course, the yellow ones seem to be the most hardy . . . plus they don't seem to be as attractive to the fuzzy pup as the white one!

yellow rancunculus

And there they are--my rancunculus--Oklahoma perennials. I'm just excited that they decided to come back again . . . now to keep the dog from decapitating them  and playing with the flowers. *sigh*
I'll enjoy them while they bloom, happy to know they are Oklahoma perennials.

Later!

Oh, LOST LEPRECHAUN LOOT and TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME is still free on Amazon thru Sunday! Spread the word and the link! Thanks!

Pet Peeve--ME

I had hoped to say that I FINISHED WRITING MY STORY!

But, I can't. :-(

I started off the week really, really well by writing 2000 words on Monday. I finished up last week with just over 10,000 words and thought, 'Kewl, I can finish this puppy!'

My Monday was good, but when I came home from running errands on Tuesday I had an unexpected email--a request for Gnome. Now, don't get all excited on me, it was only a partial request (synopsis and 30 pages), including query letter. I had filled out an online form at this one agency (even forgetting when I actually filled it out since I stopped keeping records) and was expecting a NO answer. Remember, 99.2% of my stuff gets rejected. I'm used to it.

And, of course, I can NOT send something out without going over it again.

And it was a good thing I did. It wasn't big stuff, but a lot of little stuff can trip you up. And this was how I spent the rest of the day Tuesday. All three parts were shiny and pretty--with each section having it's very own personalized header (something I just learned to do), and with a pat on it's head, I pressed send.

Wednesday was my day to write up everyone's recap in my goals group for the last week. I actually love writing the recap--I can get very wacky and totally enjoyed it, plus I wrote recaps for five people who didn't even post theirs. Here's an example:

Recapper is a little later than anticipated as she was harvesting her virtual farm and had to field a question from a friend who offered her some real manure for her virtual farm. Recapper had to politely refuse due to the fact she was busy slinging enough shit around without those road apples getting in the way.
Recapper belatedly realized that threatening various non-recapping or late reporting members would result in more work for herself. Recapper is NOT known for her rapier synapses this week—she blames the pollen. We have legit recaps mixed in with the invented ones.
Challenge of the Day: Figure out which ones are fake!
Onward to the ‘real’ recap:
MARGARET had an outstanding week by writing 10026 words! Wowzers! Recapper is amazed at her tenacity to get over the 10K mark! Alas, she doubts if she will be able to do as well this week due to an unforeseen circumstance. Recapper discovers the reason for an impressive word count—she blew off working out AND gardening! She does plan to finish FF this week if it kills her or her family. Keep checking the obits and be ready to dial 911.

It was fun. I wrote stuff for 28 recaps, all personalize--none of this stinkin' cutting and pasting for me! No way! But 3250 words later, I had nuthin' left for my story.

On Thursday, I woke up early with the last plot point of my story figured out. I jotted it down and by the time I was able to write, I got nuthin'. I thought "Hmm, maybe I should finish looking Gnome over. Yanno, just in case the agent requests the full." I pull it up. I got nuthin'. I look outside and decide to do some gardening.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not in my prime anymore, but I'm not totally over the hill--that's when I turn fifty in a little over a year. :-) but my back can't handle too much of the bending, yanking, and digging that goes on with gardening, at least for very long stints of time. I came inside when I heard Aleve calling my name.

I have just under two hours before I have to pick the kidlet up from school. So what do I do? Do I edit Gnome or work on Faerie? No, I write tomorrow's blog.

Hopefully, on Friday I'll be able to . . .

Write On!

Summer Fun!

I knew when Rachel got out of school I could say good-bye to any writing time other than little short spurts.

I hate it when I'm right. Sometimes it is better to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised than too optimistic and disappointed.

This week I did manage to edit the same eleven pages that I edited last week. I deepened the scene a little, caught a couple of present tense boo-boos, caught an incorrect plural pronoun (they instead of we, since I changed point of view to first person). But it's slow progress. I hope once I progress into the story that it will speed up a little--but I have my doubts. See--there's that pessimistic side of me again.

The first couple of chapters are always the toughest: setting the stage, getting into the character without adding backstory that doesn't add to the story, plus I have to rewrite the first two chapters in a different POV. I had written the first two chapters in the mother's POV, while it can be done for a middle grade book, it really isn't acceptable since the story is about the kid and you are trying to get kids of the same age to relate. Bryn, the mom, is also privvy to certain circumstances that Rhee wouldn't be aware of--financial issues. Her emotions about the death of her husband are very different from the way an eleven year old would think about the death of her father.

So during the first two weeks of summer vacation, we did doctor's appointments, hair appointments (got mine cut yesterday and it's too cute--I NEED to update my photo!), dentist appointments. I planted three flats of impatiens, a flat of verbena, two hanging baskets, four pots for the front porch, swam and played in the pool, helped Rachel with her third grade workbook, etc.

Next week I will get down to the business of editing MOGG. Rachel is at an all day soccer camp so once I dump her off at Tulsa University, the day is mine until I have to fight traffic to pick her up. Until then, I'll plod along with my edits, tweak a query letter to send to Query Shark blog, and get my life tidied up for my writing stint next week.

Oh, and I need to start thinking about a plot for book #2 in my middle grade series.

Write on!

Before and After

This was the pond picture from a month ago.

And the one below was from two days ago.


I worked in the garden a little this weekend. I always enjoy shoving my hands in dirt. And if you are my Facebook friend, you will also know that I enjoy nature, especially having to rescue it from the pool. I didn't see Mr. Toad again, as he has since stayed out of the pool. I just don't want to go into baby bunny rescue. They usually don't make it and I'm not out there enough to catch them before they go in. Last year, I had two dead baby bunnies. One I tried to give mouth to mouth (he was still warm and soft). Don't "yuck" at me. It was a wittle baby bunny! You would have probably done the same!

Parts of my yard are low maintenance. . . Well, my goal is to have most of the yard low maintenance, but my roses will always take some TLC, though I refuse to buy hybrids since they take a lot of TLC. Anyhoo, I planted lots and lots of perennials and all I have to do is pull up the dead stuff in winter or whack them down to the ground and fertilize.

This little corner of paradise is where the air conditioning units sit, along with a pallet of bricks (don't ask). There's a hill here and grass wouldn't grow and the dirt was eroding from under the cement pads. So I suggested we just throw some plants back here. In the far back corner is a hydrangea, a variegated butterfly bush, phlox out the wazoo (3 colors--and I see some transplanting in my future), some sort to evergreen thingy, an Autumn fern and Gaillardia. Yeah, I don't do anything back here. Nutso growth!

I'm working on hubster to get rid of this little section of grass--he's starting to think my way. Maybe next year, this year we have to work on some drainage issues--the neighbor backwashes his pool into our yard. There really isn't any other place he can do it. Oh, well.

And last but not least, here is my Clematis. It's on a pyramid structure and every year it is beautiful!

Back to my gnome story!

Write on!