I Enjoy Year 'Round Blooms

Carol, of May Dreams Gardens, hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day the 15th of each month.  She has quoted Elizabeth Lawrence, who said, "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year."  Well, I may not have any outdoor blooms right now, but I do have some flowers from summer that I can enjoy, because I dried them.  I also have a few indoor blooms, and lots of flowers on items around the house.

I didn't keep up with harvesting the lavender this year, but did get some hung.

Here's a wider view of where the lavender is hung, along with some yarrow.  I love the ad from I think, the 1940s.  I have had fun finding the towels from the ad to display.  The words on top say, "Even a man can do a good job with Martex Dry me Dry."  The ad also states the towels are from 25 to 50 cents each.  I paid more than that for them.  Here's a link to other posts I've done on some of my collections.
 

Here is another way I enjoy flowers year around.  I like to change these out from time to time.

In the past, I've posted a number of the blooms I have on the walls.  Some, just lean.

 I almost took a different photo of this, but decided to be willing to show I sometimes have some clutter. I think these hydrangeas are from 2010, because I don't think I got any dried this year.

 Here are some blooms from this year.

I didn't dry as many straw flowers this year, because I liked how they looked outside.  Still, I am glad I got some.

Another source of winter blooms are the lovely books on gardening, of which a tiny part of my collection is shown here.

 This begonia did not bloom this summer.  I'm glad it is now.  It's a nice touch of color in what is now the grandsons' toy room.

I have 3 holiday cactus plants that are about finished blooming.  Still, they are nice and colorful.

The other two are in the garden window in our dining room that we put in what used to be a bedroom.  It looks like I need to do some cleaning in here.

I have had 'Naomi' the longest, and can remember the name, maybe because it is the name of a person.

It's January, and I'm always happy when the days are getting longer.  I hope the rest of winter goes by quickly.  In a couple months there may even be some outdoor blooms.  In the meantime, the seedheads are fun to look at, and seeds are available for the birds to eat.  Already, some of you in warmer zones are getting some hellebore blooms, so the countdown to spring is under way!

'Black Jack' sedum:

Ironweed:

I love the look of the empty pods of the hibiscus with the blue sky in the background.

Joe Pye Weed:

Wild Quinine:

The strawflowers I didn't get dried, in the shadow of my legs:

I hope this finds you well.  There are lots of colds and such going on around here. 

Is it Winter? What's with this Squirrel? Blogging

Our weather has been more like spring than winter lately.  I felt guilty about having the photo of our house in the snow as my header, so I took some photos today to show what it really looks like.  I also took some photos of plants that look like they think it's spring.

Since I used a new knife instead of my herb scissors cutting rosemary a week ago, and cut a little of the skin on a finger and part of the nail, I haven't been able to do anything involving lifting or pulling.  It is supposed to be in the 60s tomorrow.  I may try to pull out the tomato plants that are still out there, but will need to be careful not to bump my cut.  The few times I have bumped it were very painful.  I am tempted to plant some lettuce.  I normally try to get some in in February.  I figure it will come up when the soil is warm enough.  The soil is probably warm enough now, though.  Still, it doesn't cost that much for seeds, and takes no effort to plant a few short rows.

Here are the daffodils on the south side of the house.  I don't remember when they usually appear, but I'm thinking not this early.

These crocuses are also on the south side of the house.

I'm thinking it is normal for the larkspur seedlings to come up in the fall, and stay small over the winter.  These are from the plants I transplanted from the vegetable garden last summer.  There are lots of smaller ones in the upper part of the photo.

The phlox 'Pilosa' is nice and green, and safe from the rabbits that are still around and grazing.  I just planted some this year, and hope they do well next summer.

The snapdragons have such resistance to the cold!

I can't remember what this is, maybe an iris of some kind.   It looks like the rabbits have been chewing on the shoots.

The hellebores have new growth.

This is a different plant.  It sure looks happy.  I had planned on moving it so I can put plants in the planter in front of the house that can handle dry sun.

I will need to protect this woodland phlox from the rabbits soon.

Larry and I noticed this squirrel with missing hair earlier today.  I was glad it was still around so I could get some photos.  I did a search and found there can be different causes for this.  

It moved after a couple photos.  It looks healthy, other than the hair loss.

I took these photos earlier in the day.  In looking closer, I saw that this is the same squirrel.  So far, the only birds we are seeing are sparrows.  I hope other kinds we normally have come around soon. 

This obviously, is a different one.  I would like them to be more afraid of us.

 Oh, I just remembered that Catherine, of A Gardener in Progress recently posted on her 3rd blogging anniversary, which reminded me that mine was in October.  My memory isn't good, so I checked to see if I mentioned it in October, and I didn't.  Like Catherine, I am thankful for all of the people I have met, and things I have learned from them.  I've probably mentioned this before, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed because I cannot physically keep up with all of the blogs I like to read, and I am not able to reply to each comment you leave.  I do try to return the visit, though.  I am thankful for all the nice people I met on Blotanical, but I haven't been taking the time to go there, either.  I miss it.  Maybe there will be a time I can go back to picking posts.  I don't seem to be posting as often either.   Still, I do not have plans to quit.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and will have a blessed 2012. 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Last Harvest of Season

I haven't posted for awhile, and wanted to wish you God's blessings as we celebrate Christmas and the New Year.  When I was looking for something on my desktop, I noticed I had exported photos of the last vegetable harvest October 20th, that I never got posted.  I'll share some of those photos here.

The peppers were late producing, but gave me enough to chop several bags worth for the freezer.  I have been enjoying them in soups and chili.  Some of these, I ended up freezing whole.  I forgot about that until I came across them today.  I almost tossed them, but decided I would try to get them used.  I'll have to partially thaw them before trying to cut them.

My onion harvest was not as good as usual this year.  A number of them bolted before getting a decent size.  These were purchased from a farmer's market.

Oh, these were from the farmer's market, too.  I didn't even grow any potatoes this year because I wanted to give the soil a break.

The sweet potatoes were from my garden!  We still have a few of them.  I cut the small ones into strips, put them in a bowl with a little olive oil and I think, Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy seasoning, and roasted them in the oven.  They were pretty good.  Guess where I got the squash?  I can't grow squash, because of vine borers.

 Some of the tomatoes spoiled before we got them eaten.  I ate the last one just a couple weeks ago, though.

When we had our kitchen remodeled to make it more functional a year and a half ago, we had this cupboard put in.  I sure am enjoying it!

This is the open shelving that I requested above the cupboard.  I must have brought the houseplants in the same day I got the last harvest.

I enjoyed eating pole beans this year.  I don't recall growing them successfully before.  I got enough for a few meals from just 2 or 3 plants.

For some reason, I didn't get the photos of the carrots exported.  Grandson and I picked some from across the street around this time.  Oh, and I got a very nice harvest of garlic that we have been using in our cooking.  There should be a good harvest next year, too, as I got some cloves replanted at the right time.

I hope to get some blogs visited over the next couple of weeks.  I also need to get some organizing done around here.  I think I'm almost over the bug that caused me to not have much energy over the last week.  I hope all is well with all you bloggers out there.