Blogger Bloom Day

Two miniature rose bushes are just beginning to bloom.

African Daisies in a container. I have really enjoyed these bright sunny blooms.
I don't really care for the lamb's ear blooms but they are interesting and pretty in an unusual sort of way.
In this container I have petunias, verbena, yellow and purple African daisies.

I'm not sure why I bought a mixed color package of impatiens seeds, I like the pink color best. I don't care for the red at all, but the white is pretty.
The fading blooms on the new azalea. I wish I had gotten it earlier in the season to enjoy the blooms longer.
Superbells on the front porch.

One bloom today on the clematis at the mailbox. I'm so glad there was at least on bloom to share.

The pansy is still going strong.

Lantana on the patio.

Here is my bloom list:

Petunia

Impatiens - Busy Lizzie and New Guinea

African Daisy

Verbena

Lantana

Coleus

Dianthus - Cheddar pinks and Firewitch

Purple Sage- salvia

Creeping phlox

Violas -Johnny jump-ups

Miniature roses

Azalea

Clematis

Superbells

Purple sweet potato vine (I wasn't expecting this to bloom)

About to bloom:

Purple coneflowers

Daisy

Peony

Luna Moth

Last evening while we were walking I stopped by by neighbors house to chat for a few minutes. This Luna moth was on her front porch. I have seen these before but I have never noticed the markings on the wings. This is a very beautiful and unusual creature. Click to enlarge.

Here are some interesting facts about the luna moth. They only fly at night, hence the name luna which is Latin for moon. They don't eat, they don't even have a mouth or stomach. From cocoon to death they only live for about a week and their sole purpose is to reproduce.

Saturday Evening Post

The petunias that I grew from seed are doing well and most of them are blooming now. We are very pleased with the wall around the patio; I wish we had thought to do it sooner. It gives it more of a enclosed feeling and with the evergreens and container plantings we have more privacy.

There is nothing quite like spring in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when all of the azaleas are in bloom. I don't see many azaleas here, and that is what I miss the most from my garden back home. It makes me very homesick every spring when my mom tells me how pretty her azaleas are, especially while we are still getting snow. I have been seeing these beautiful azaleas lately and decided that I had to have one for my garden here. My soil is probably too alkaline but I hope that I can keep it alive with some Miracid or something similar.

Tiny Blooms

Miniature rose bud

Cheddar Pinks

Dianthus

Feeding and Weeding

This is Nell on her 81st birthday which was April 28

I went to the nursing home today to feed my mother-in-law, Nell. We try to do this two or three times a week as she has Alzheimer's and cannot feed herself well anymore, (this is such a sad disease). While I was out it rained pretty hard. I'm so glad I didn't have to water this evening. Since the ground was moist I decided to do some much needed and much dreaded weeding and got quite a bit accomplished. I weeded just about all of the back right side. This is my worst area for weeds. My raised beds are no big deal to weed because the grass stays out pretty well, but the back area isn't edged so the grass and weeds spread like crazy. I hope to do some kind of edging later; that may be a project for the fall or next spring. After weeding this bed I mulched it. I planted the lilac shrub and two burning bushes. I also finished removing all of the grass/weeds from the side bed, I spread some newspaper and added top soil and manure to the part that was already edged. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish adding the few remaining blocks, add the soil, manure and peat and then plant my seeds for my cutting flower garden. It was nice to get a few of those messes cleaned up today. I don't plan on going anywhere tomorrow so hopefully I can spend more time outside completing some of these projects.