A Weedin' and A Seedin'

I haven't thought about that phrase [That's how the cookie crumbles] in a really long time. Now that I do, I realize that you don't hear anybody use it anymore. At least I don't, do you? Not sure why really; I guess it just fizzled out. Sometimes I just get so darn discouraged when umpteen things go wrong at once. Tired. I have to remind myself that this life is supposed to be kind of... Well, Crummy (ha). If it wasn't, we wouldn't go looking for the Lord. At least I know I sure wouldn't have - are you kidding? I've got stubborn independence (to the power of stupid) goin' on up in here ;o) Some days I have to continuously remind myself that in Heaven there are no grouchy, mean, rude, obnoxious or sneaky people, no health problems, no junk mail, no eyeball-crossing kidney stones (thank you chemo), no spam, no leaky roofs (yep, we found it), no fire ants, no weeds, and NO icky invisible spider webs suspended at face level smack in the middle of your path (ACK!). I'll toss in the hailstorm we had last night (which was really scary). Thankfully, we all came through unscathed.

If you've never read (or listened to) Randy Alcorn's Heaven, (here) I highly recommend it. So very, very encouraging! We had a church bible study that I couldn't make, but my friend Lori loaned me her set of CDs to listen to in the car. It was so good I turned around and bought the set for my parents at Christmas. Actually, it's on my list of thing to get for myself as well (I'm pretty sure I need to listen to it at least once a month; maybe more ;o)
Photo: One of the Mini-Mums in the feed room flowerbed (I erased the background in Photoshop).

You know what I wish? I wish would learn not to say things out loud (this post). One day? One day I will actually learn this. Clearly, using the phrase "before it gets too hot" in a recent post was an egregious error on my part. I don't think we've broken any records for high temperatures thus far, but we've gotten pretty darn close around here. It's been absolutely awful outside (blech). Is it hot at your house? Now 88° is not a big deal around here, but it's usually straight up temps at the beginning of June. What caught me off guard was the "Real Feel" 104° heat index off to the right there (and small wonder I was sweating so profusely, er, delicately. Oh, I get it - and raspberries to that. Meh. :oP Part of the difficulty stems from the rapid temperature jumps. I would much rather sneak up slowly on my seasons thank you very much (wouldn't you?) I've almost finished with the flowerbeds (hooray!), and although I have a bit left to do I thought you might like a progress report.

I had some close supervision by a Mourning Dove going on while I worked on the back beds. I got a kick out of the "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" look (apparently there was concern I might mess it up ;o) I love what the morning sun and dew did to the grass in the background.

The Sweet Potato Vine is (obviously) quite happy and fabulously trailing away:

The Nasturtium that I started from seed (and was oh-so-happy over in this post) was decimated in short order by a horde of hungry cabbage moth caterpillars (aka Wretched Evil Beasties). They also almost killed off my lunchbox Alyssum (though it's on the mend, I think). I found some yellow Portulaca on the clearance cart at Lowe's for .50¢ each - and whoop! ;o) so we've started all over again in the wheelbarrow. Happily the Gerbra Daisy is doing well:

Had some additional trouble with another evil beastie in the front bed; a totally different kind of caterpillar that burrowed in the dirt at the base of the Coneflower. Look at the difference between the two plants. He'd almost polished the poor plant on the left completely off before I finally saw him and took him out (AHA! Gotcha, you little cretin! Mwa-ha-ha-ha ;o) In case anyone else needs to know, I found an organic 3-in-1 spray (this stuff) that should prevent future invasions/infestations. Hope springs eternal!

I've been blown away by the sheer volume of plants I've found on clearance carts (in a really, really good way ;o) The bulk of my plants have ranged from .17¢ to a whopping $3.00 with the majority costing $1.00. Exciting stuff when you're on a no-budget budget. *laugh* I ordered a few plants online, which I've never done before. Shipping is rather expensive, so the school nurse and I went in "halvsies" on an order from the Grower's Exchange (here) right before the end of school. I ordered a few more from Bluestone Perennials (here), and I have to say their plants arrived in much better condition (they also offered a much bigger selection). I will definitely order from them again if I can swing it.

The bird bath was given to us by an elderly neighbor who is moving away (and downsizing). This is the bed I'm going to call the "Recycling Plant" (haha). It's mostly done, though I do need to fill one more planter and finish the lugging of the lumber. Right now it only has a back side. The container painting was a pain, but I liked the monochromatic shades of brown on the [garbage] cans and [yard] carts; they provide a nice muted backdrop for the plants. I mixed in some terra cotta pots (because they're the cheapest), and even painted two wastebaskets (which were even cheaper) the same shade. I can hardly wait for everything to fill in. *squeeee* I'll have some additional interesting details for you next week (at least I think I will!)

I was tickled to find Cedric the Toad looking quite content in his new digs by the African Iris. I painted it years (and years) ago, and moved it from the front bed yesterday just for him. For those of you who do not follow us on Instagram (here), I found Sir Cedric lounging about in the tea kettle with my Purslane earlier this week; he had a definite air of superiority about him. I figured his interest in tea time must make him an import from "across the pond". Since I decided to bestow him with a "title", *snicker* I thought we'd just go the whole nine yards with it. Can you see him tucked away in there? I tried to get a closeup for you, but it was rather awkward:

If I had my druthers, (and for those of you scratching your heads, click here) I'd really prefer to get everything from local nurseries. It's a lot easier to get help for one thing, they actually know things about gardening in general, plus they are a lot more up front about native plants. More expensive, though. Lowe's has a nasty habit of selling really pretty things that don't grow here. WalMart does it, too. I found this cool two-toned Ixora on the clearance cart last time; but it isn't a perennial for our zone (a fact I forgot to double check before I snatched it up since it didn't have the informational tag on it and I was in a hurry - big V-8 to the forehead smack for Jen -  Grr). Since it was another clearance special, I won't cry if it dies though I will be quite disappointed ('cause it's neat ;o)

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of Herman the Hedgehog. He was one of those boot cleaner thingies, but all of his "prickles" fell off due to old age. I took him apart and decided to give him a coat of paint and a new lease on life as a plant stand. Herman is sporting some "Spicy Globe Basil" in a sparkly painted pot. I loved the vivid green leaves, and the mounding habit of the basil should be a fun look for him when it fills out. It's an annual though, so Herman will need a new wardrobe again next year.

Thank you for reading this far; because this post got really long! *wince* Have a wonderful weekend and a beautifully blessed week!

**A picture happy coffee and a donut post**

Back in the day, (Ha! I always wanted to say that) our county sanitation department would come around every so often and haul off any oversize unwanted stuff that didn't fit in the trash bins as part of our regular garbage service. Somewhere around the time Ms. Olivia (the mail lady) exchanged her personal vehicle for an honest-to-goodness mail truck, the county began charging a fee to haul off the "big stuff". A hefty fee. Personally, I would have appreciated some head's up because as soon as that happened, Freddy Frugality (DH) decided rather than paying any fee, we'd just hang onto our pile "for awhile". Ha. HaHaHA.

The pile grew over time, as things broke and were replaced. For awhile, it bothered me. Then I suddenly found myself enmeshed in the first of a series of medical misadventures: a surprising cancer diagnosis, followed by multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, and Herceptin treatments. After that, pending piles of junk and other such concerns were relegated to the back burner. I just couldn't care about it. Ultimately, I found myself at the point I could barely keep up with a full-time job and family; never mind the things that went with having a house (e.g. both indoor and outdoor things), so I did what I could to get by. I guess you could say I went into survival mode (except maybe it was more like survival of the UNfittest ;o)

As the state of my health declined, so did the state of the house. I kept working full-time, but had to let go of a LOT. The grass grew steadily over the sidewalk. My once pretty flowerbeds, suffering from abandonment issues, became home to a few tangled clumps of weeds. Left to their own devices, those clumps spread like wildfire and grew to alarming heights. Half the time I'd think our house looked like IT was abandoned with all those overgrown weeds. At some point I started narrowing my eyes to slits every time I pulled in the driveway so I couldn't see them anymore. By the time I was diagnosed with Polymyositis (a debilitating muscle disease) a couple of years later, I couldn't walk more than a few feet at a time and the inside of the house had become as badly neglected as the outside. Over the last couple of years as my health has started to improve, I've been working my way - albeit in fits and starts - through the inside. I managed to hit the "indoor floor" running this year (e.g. this post). I'm not finished by a long shot, but things are definitely looking less depressing. This year, I also decided I was finally able to start tackling the outside.
Photo Inset: One of my badly neglected flowerbeds. Embarrassing, but true. *sigh*

Now I may not be a big fan of the labor involved in gardening - I hate weeding [and thank you for your contribution to our struggles, Adam *blows raspberry*] - particularly when you have flowerbeds as neglected as mine, but oh how I do LOVE flowers! I love my flowers even more than DH loves his rustbucket and junk collection. The man actually calls it his yard art. Ha. Maybe he says that because he doesn't want to haul it all away. You think? Guess what, though: A few weeks ago, while deep in thought about what I wanted to accomplish in the yard, I found myself drumming my fingers on the desk as I contemplated a nifty little word on my computer screen than I hadn't thought about in awhile:

Repurpose /rēˈpərpəs/ A verb meaning to adapt for use in a different purpose.

I also learned that when you couple that particular word with, say, Pinterest, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. To wit: Junk, your days are numbered. Mwah-ha-ha-haaa...  That means anything old that isn't nailed down is now Fair Game. What if it is nailed down, you say? Well, then. That's what that little claw thingy on the other side of the hammer is for (and silly you ;o) Naturally, I didn't have a lot of the "desired" junk that came up, but I was willing to work with what we had; copious amounts of junk in general. The UNdesired kind. One thing we did have? A rusted old wheelbarrow with a broken handle. I splurged on the Gerbra; it's the same one from the earlier photo (isn't she pretty?) I bought some seeds, since they were pretty inexpensive. I learned about pre-sprouting, and started some Dwarf Nasturtium on my kitchen windowsill. It did well in little peat pots and [hopefully] it will flourish in the wheelbarrow. Weird note? Apparently Nasturtium grows much better in "poor" soil. Happily, I just happened to have some on hand... 
In spades. 
(ba-dump-bump).

I moved the seedlings outside under the patio roof, but in the sun, for about a week before planting them (photo right).

One thing I found fascinating?  I came across some information that recommended using egg shells instead of peat pots to start plants. I decided to see if it would make any difference and put the next pre-sprouted seed in an egg shell (photo right) instead of a pot (photo left). Looking at the base part of the stems in the two pictures below, I'd have to say that the calcium from the eggshell made a huge difference from the get-go. Look how much thicker it is! Even crazier, the plant on the right is actually a couple of weeks younger than the one on the left. Pretty neat, eh?

My Nasturtium seedlings are now in the wheelbarrow, and I'm waiting (ever so IMpatiently) for them to grow. Hopefully, it won't be too long before they "fill and spill" ;o)

Here's the first of three (count 'em - three) dead yard carts. DH has had about seven or eight years to find replacement wheels for them. *DING* Time's up! ;o) I hit this one with a coat of paint, planted it upside down at an angle, and filled it with the purple heart I rescued from the weeds. It'll look better once it fills in a little more, I hope. One end of DD's old crib provided an interesting background, and I painted it a light sage green. It also helps to hide the *cough* desirable (?) junk we have stashed behind it in the garage. *laugh* I'm hoping to get my hands on some Zebrina Wandering Jew to put in a rectangular planter in that doorway (should be a great color compliment for the purple heart). If and when I do, I'll be sure to take another picture for you! The "stepping stump" in front of the cart is a halved cypress log DD salvaged from a neighbor's trash pile years ago. I'm still working on this section.

The broken stepladder fit perfectly in the bed by the feed room; it's home to some Orange Mint. I found one of my favorite old clay planters hiding under a pile of stuff in the garage: 

DH even got into the spirit of things and made me this awesome super-sized step by the feed room "loading" door using an old poly-whatchamacallit pallet and some inexpensive dog ear fence boards. The plant you see in the foreground was a half-dead African Orchid I rescued from a garden center clearance pile at Wal-Mart for $2. It's amazing how many plants you can find on the cheap. More (lots) on that next time, though. A rusted out piece of [ancient] garden border seemed to work well there (super handy-dandy that rusty is so trendy, eh?) 

I thanked him by giving his old lunch cooler (the one he hasn't used in 20 years) a reason to live. It's now home to some Sweet Alyssum I found for $1 on the DNR cart at Lowe's. It was all brown and sadly shriveled when I brought it home, but it seems to be feeling a bit better. I didn't get the lunch box as centered/straight as I wanted. It was annoyingly awkward to affix *insert alliteration applause* but it doesn't look quite so bad from a bit farther away.

I think that's [more than] enough reading for one day. I'm still working away out there (and in here), and still have a quite a few photos left to share :o) Have a blessed week everyone!