Pansies for Papa

 

One year ago today Papa said “Good-bye family and hello Jesus”. It is hard to believe that it has been a year; time is passing too quickly.

 

It was a gorgeous day today; perfect cool temperature and no wind, which is a blessing when you live in West Texas. I decided to spend the morning planting pansies in Papa’s little garden. Me, digging in the dirt, and thinking about Papa. It was a glorious day.

This year I chose pansies. A flat of Pansy Matrix-Ruby Mix,

 a flat of Pansy Colossus-Rose Medley,

with a few burgundy violas stuck here and there.

 

 

I stuck half a dozen little cabbage plants in there as well.


 

I also splurged on a flat of orange sorbet and black viola cornuta to plant around my Pistol Pete pendant and flag.

Hope Papa is smiling his approval!

Beauty in the Midst of all our Rain

We had more rain in North Central Texas during the month of May than we did all last year total.  I've been afraid of losing a lot of the plants in the garden but there have been some bright spots to cheer things up.  

 

Especially the Calla Lilies.

They cam back twice as big and multiplied

The Easter Lilies had about 3 new little offshoots come up as well

So far, the Calla Lilies have been the queen of the garden.  They are still blooming and have been going strong for almost two months.

Signs of Spring

 Spring is finally here.  The Snowbells are up and blooming

As is the Forsythia.  This is the first year for this new forsythia to bloom.  I look forward to watching it grow and become more and more beautiful each year.  The yellow flowers didn't last long.  They have already been replace by tender green leaves.

Miniature daffodil "Quail" has always been a favorite of mine.

Butterflies - The Monarch

One of the pleasantries I have while working in the garden are beautiful visitors like this one.

He kept me company all morning.

I love butterflies but the Monarch has always held a special place in my heart.  Ever since I was in elementary school.

When I was growing up in Tulsa, OK and in the fourth grade I was walking to Paul Revere School on a cool Autumn morning with my sister Melody and her friend (probably Molly).  They had recently decided that it was cool to not wear anklets with their shoes and I'm sure became fashion trend setters.  I on the other hand loved my anklets and was not about to leave them behind.  Being the mean big sister that she was at the time, Melody made me walk at least 10 paces behind them.

I was OK with that; I could entertain myself.  We were walking north on Atlanta Place, one street over from ours.  Atlanta was lined with huge old trees.  Out of nowhere hundreds and hundreds of Monarchs are flying strait toward me.  I stopped, put my head back and my arms thrown up as to welcome them and laughed and laughed.  It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen and felt.  They went all around me and some would land just for a nano second.  Then they were gone.  It was magical and I've never forgotten it.

The Summer Garden is Winding Down

The blooms of Summer are beginning to wane and look a little puny.


 

Yet more zinnias are popping up.  This pretty thing used to be a seed from a zinnia head I nicked from Stonewall Jackson's home garden in Lexington, Virginia last Fall.

Seed nicking from gardens has long been an obsession of mine.  Does that make me a bad person?


 

Looks like I will be able to enjoy the zinnias for awhile indoors.  Orange bouquets are brought in on Saturdays for my OSU Cowboys football games!





I don't have too many Fall blooming plants in my garden.  But the few I do have I love.  This is Sedum "Autumn Joy"

 The Liriope start showing off their pale purple flowers about this time of year.

 The coleus are feeling the cooler weather too and they are going into survival mode by wanting to flower and set seed.

They've actually been flowering for awhile now but I've been pinching them off the minute I see the flowers.


 

The flowers of the coleus are really pretty but once they start going to seed the plant itself starts to thin out and get really spindly looking; and not attractive at all.  I've been pinching the flowers out to stretch out the life of the plants.

I can feel a full day of Fall garden clean-up coming on.  Such is the change of seasons in the garden.

The Accidental Pumpkins

Aside from totally disrupting the planting structure of my front flower bed, the accidental pumpkin patch has produced a fine crop.  These are the first two; harvested the first week of August.

They're a nice size, around 9 to 10 inches across.  I don't know if they are good for cooking but I'll find out.  I plan to roast them and make soup.



There have been 10 to 11 pumpkins from this one plant.


The bees did their job well in pollinating.


The transition from green to orange has been interesting to watch.  I placed folded up newspaper underneath each young fruit to keep them from rotting on the ground (you can learn all sorts of things from YouTube)

I am amazed at how beautifully smooth and round these pumpkins have been.

I've noticed that the last few pumpkins that developed are getting smaller and smaller.

The plant can produce only so many fruit.

Evey visited week before last and we found a female flower that we self pollinated.  I'll be keeping track of that pumpkin for her.  It will most likely be a very small pumpkin as one of the last that the plant produces.

Watermelon Update

The watermelons have proved to be disappointing.  Granted, they were not planted at the right time so they have been trying to produce in this extreme heat.

This little guy grew to the size of a ping pong ball and then one night, when I was too lazy to spray the deer/rabbit repellent, it was a snack for a deer.  The plants haven't produced a female flower since.

So much for the first try at growing watermelons.  Lesson learned....plant in March!