If I Just Close My Eyes

Winter Garden

"In winter's cold and sparkling snow,
The garden in my mind does grow.

I look outside to blinding white,
And see my tulips blooming bright.

And over there a sweet carnation,
Softly scents my imagination.

On this cold and freezing day,
The Russian sage does gently sway,

And miniature roses perfume the air,
I can see them blooming there.

Though days are short, my vision's clear.
And through the snow, the buds appear.

In my mind, clematis climbs,

And morning glories do entwine.

Woodland phlox and scarlet pinks,

Replace the frost, if I just blink.

My inner eye sees past the snow.
And in my mind, my garden grows."
-   Author, Cynthia Adams -
Poem used by permission of its author.
Thank you Cynthia!

 

 Happy Winter Gardening,
Lona

Garden Journaling or Logging

 

This week I finally got the chance to get my hands dirty.
It was time to get some seeds started for summer flowers and I was glad to get something, anything growing.

Petunias, Pelargonium's, Trailing  Snapdragons, Swan River Daisies and Heliotrope are all under the lights to start germinating. Also the Verbena seeds are in the dark to start their germination and I even have Viola seeds planted in containers which are setting in the refrigerator for their
three weeks of cool down before they are all set out under the lights or the one window which affords me a little sunlight.

I do not know about other gardeners but the facts are that I am getting older and with adding more flowers to the garden beds and even adding new beds was getting to be a bit confusing  for me at times. With over three hundred and counting different plants in the garden I was forgetting what and where I planted some of them. And that was not counting all of the different bulbs or rhizomes to try to keep track of so I would not dig into them when planting a new flower. The slaughter of  tulip bulbs and daffodils from the spade had me wanting to kick myself.
This all being said and my bad memory confessed to, I wanted to share how I have learned to keep track of my garden beds and the flowers in them. I have adapted a three ringed notebook to keep everything together,nothing fancy and even crude but it serves my purposes well.

One of the things I have is an alphabetical and numbered list of all of my flowers and bulbs. Also numbered spaces and names are left blank of my favorite plants of which I may want to add a new variety to later on such as phlox or echinacea,  all I have to do is add in their names.
I also add plant names for  those plants or shrubs I may not have any of now in the garden but I want or plan to  add later on, such as maybe a Joe Pye Weed or Astrantia of which I do not have now but want to add to the garden. Then if I purchase it all I have to do is add the variety names.

  You may think this is a lot of bother but it helps me immensely in keeping track and especially  when adding
those flowers to bed diagrams.
My garden bed diagrams are very crude and are just hand drawings of a bed. The plants are then written on the bed diagram sheet with their numbers and then the numbers are added to the bed diagram. When you get so many flowers , and you will, you will not have room to write all of the flowers into the bed diagram but you can add a lot of numbers to a diagram. This way I know where every flower or bulb is planted in that particular bed.

 

Also added to the journal is seed starting worksheets.
This is the worksheet of the seeds I started this week.
On the fact sheet, which you can print off from Martha Stewart, is the date I sowed the seeds, when I planted them
out and notes on which I jot down when the seeds started growing, if they were hard to germinate, or if they did not germinate and a date if I re-sowed some.
Some years I had trouble with seeds such as Lantana. I made a note to not to even try them again.LOL! Or the Stock seeds that took forever to get started and then took forever to bloom. You can add your own little notes.

 

I also keep the seed packs which have pictures of the
flower  on them. For those who come in plain packets or seeds from friends I get a picture out of a gardening catalog or use a picture off of the internet from the company I bought them from just for my own use and keep them in the journal. At least I want to see what that flower was suppose to look like. Even if the Zaraha Zinnia did not look like the picture it was advertised as. LOL! I keep the seed packets and all the seed bills in a plastic sleeve in the journal.

In the journal I have notebook dividers for bulbs, Perennials, Shade Perennials, Roses, Hydrangeas, Shrubs and vines, etc.

In each of these divided categories I have sheets on each plant or bulb in the garden with the name,variety, where purchased, the date I purchased it, how much it cost and where  it is planted. I also add a picture and the growing instructions to the sheet from catalogs.

 

Or you can add the plant tag to the sheet or scan a copy of the tag and add it to the garden sheet. This keeps all of your information at your finger tips.

You may even want to take a picture of your plant blooming and add it to the sheet.

Here again I have plastic  sleeves which contain the invoices or register slips of the plants I have bought. This has gotten
me replacement plants so many times because I had the customer number and order numbers and the dates to
give to those nurseries from which they were bought.

There are many blogs and sites online to get worksheets and logs for your Garden Journal or records.

Such as:

Seed Worksheet at Martha Stewart.
Garden Tracker has all sorts of fun garden worksheets.
The Urban Extension even has a cute one for Children’s first garden.
Hobby Farms

or even seed envelopes for those swaps:
Seed Envelope templates at Blossom Swap.
Garden Time Online

There are so many sites for free printable gardening helps.
Do your own online search there is bound to be something to your liking.
I hope you at least got a few tips  and you can make them your own to help you in your gardening journaling.
But then maybe you all have good memories and know the names and where everyone of your plants and bulbs are located.
I just know the older I get and the more I get,
the more I forget. ;-)
Happy Gardening,
Lona

Butterfly Wishes

 

 

Butterfly Wishes
Yesterday a butterfly
Came floating gently through the sky.
He soared up through the atmosphere
Then drifted close enough to hear

 
I said, "I'd love to fly with you
And sail around the way you do.
It looks like it would be such fun
To fly up toward the summer sun.

 

 
But I have not your graceful charm.
I haven't wings, just these two arms.
I've been designed to walk around.
My human feet must touch the ground.

 

Then magically he spoke to me
and told me what his wish would be.
He said, "What I'd love most to do
Is walk upon God's Earth with you,
To squish it's mud between my toes
Or touch my finger to my nose.

 
I'd love just once to walk around
With human feet to touch the ground,
But I have not two legs that swing,
I haven't arms, just these two wings."

And so we went our separate ways
In wonder and surprise.
For we'd both seen God's precious gifts
Through someone else's eyes.
Author Unknown

 Until Next Time,
Lona

Ohio Gardener Magazine

 

I received the first edition of the new “Ohio Gardener”
magazine last week and was well pleased with the
magazine.

 
I had to stop everything to look through it real fast.
I always do that with gardening magazines to see
what is in them then I go back and start reading
through them. I guess I am too anxious to
look at  all the articles and pictures first. LOL!

I have to say it is a was a very informative and interesting
read. What I really liked about the magazine also was
that it is printed on heavy paper and the pictures in the magazine are beautiful. I am going to enjoy reading this
local catalog on gardening.
Does your state have a Gardeners magazine?
To find out you can go to : http://www.statebystategardening.com

I am going to set up my lights up this week
so I can start on preparing some of the seeds
for germination. I want to start some of my
flowers early so they will be bigger when I
set them out into containers and the window
boxes this spring. I will gradually start others
to add to them over the next two months.

I am still waiting on some of my seeds to arrive
but they should be here this week.
I also could not resist picking up some Pacific
Giant Delphinium, Royal Carpet Alyssum and
Rose Queen Cleome seeds at the local Dollar General
store today. They also had some seed starting
mix so I grabbed some of that also.
So I am all set to dig in and get my hands dirty.

 Happy Gardening,
Lona

Summer’s Remembered

 

Today is a bitter and brutal day after a winter storm dumped six inches of new snow on us and the temperatures now just 5 degrees with a wind chill of 10 degrees below zero.
Today is just a reminder of why I have become a person that it just not into  winter.
But enough on this same old topic which everyone
has dwelled on lately.

Today I want to remember the warm days of summer
and brilliant flowers dripping in colors for Fertilizer
Friday sponsored by our friend Glenda at “Tootsie Time”.

I want to remember warm days and thoughts about  sunshine on Azalea blooms of  apricot and orange that
we saw on a trip to Amish Country.

Or the lavender blooms on the Chocolate Chip
Ajuga.

Of star shaped blooms that make up the round spheres
of the Allium.

I want to remember  the fragrance of vanilla from the Heliotrope in containers..

or the waves of Shasta Daisies grow in my  flower beds
In the heat of summer.

and remember the brilliant reds from verbena blooms.

I want to remember warm raindrops glistening on
the beautiful blues of the Bluebird Delphinium
against the backdrop of white Bellflowers.

or the feel  fuzzy leaves and blooms on the  Stachy’s
wooly Lamb’s Ear.

 
I want to remember my containers filled with Nicotiana,
Pelargonium's and waves of Petunias.

or the silver glow of the Japanese Painted ferns that
grow in the shade garden beside the pump fountain.

I remember  the Tipsy pots filled with Impatiens
and Lobelia.
  

and window boxes of pink and purple.

I remember the subtle colors in the Lavender
Simplicity Roses.


and the Silvermoon Clematis twining up the
trellis beside the garden shed.


I want to remember how beautiful the fluffy blooms of the Mimosa tree were as it bloomed the first time last summer.


or how the Rhododendrons were loaded with bloom
in the spring.

I want to remember the Bumble bees drunk from
pollen as they slept upon the roses.

 
I want to remember the surprises of finding new born
kittens hiding in the flower beds….

and most of all the fragrance of Lilacs that so many Butterflies just could not resist.

Happy Memories,
Lona