Garden Tour

I love the way gardens look in late spring.  When everything has greened and awakened.  If you love blooms, you can check out some of my links and research the bloom times of your favorite plants and plant accordingly to be assured you will always have garden flowers.  Most of mine are for foliage because I love being surrounded with green and I am stuck with mostly shade so I have learned to adjust from poppies and roses to hostas and ferns.

2014MayYardGardenMisc 022Got the red, white and blue motif for my Memorial Day.

I hope you enjoy the garden tour.  Come back anytime.

Have a safe and blessed Memorial Day!

Adventures in Edging My Lawn!

Cool down means catching up on all the garden chores I have neglected.

2013JulyGardenMuffin 005I live on a residential street that just happens to be the major thoroughfare off three main streets and leads to 2 large strip malls due to the design of this subdivision .  Lucky me!  I moved here from a completely different area and had I known this, I would have never have taken the house.  With the three-way stop being directly in front of my home, the carbon monoxide never quits and the neighborhood is very near some large factories.  I also did not know that there was a website www.moving.com/real-estate/compare-cities/index.asp.  Gives you air quality information and this city is not much better than Los Angeles California.

We have just had large areas of the street replaced in which the cement had to be cut by saw for the expansion joints.  It was never washed over so the cement dust flies every time the vehicles drive by.  I was hoping my dust mask will protect my lungs since I used to suffer from chronic bronchitis and asthma years ago until I began avoiding the triggers and protecting my lungs from dust and smoke. 

The lawn service decided to come and spray next door so I came inside til they were done.  Don’t like the fact of overspray on a windy day, but as someone who is completely against chemicals, I find the idea of what they do offensive.  I believe that tolerance has it’s place but if more people don’t wake up fast, we will pass the point of no return.  Too little, too late cannot save the planet that will be taking us with it when it goes.  If you have children or grandchildren or care about what happens to life as we used to know it please see what you can do to be part of the solution.

More to come.  Also not able to add but two tags because of WordPress problems.

Green Living Hints & Tips

Most cities have mandatory recycling and every bit helps.  You can put things out to be picked up or you can reuse many things in new and unique ways.  You can also recycle by giving things away to those that may have a purpose for it, especially artists who create in mixed media.  Less landfill and sorting!  I love it when any friends or relatives contact me before they dispose of certain things.  Let people know if you have a need for something for your arts such as bottle caps, bottles, cans, etc.

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Contact your city to see if you can start a community garden if none exists in your area.  Keep in mind that you will need to be able to water during any dry spells. 

If you do not have a yard to garden, try pots or any containers, preferably outside, though I have been known to grow indoors with proper sun or grow lights.  I have recycled many containers such as gallon paint cans, washed and holes in the bottom for drainage.  You can use old tea kettles, garbage cans of any size or tubs I find at yard sales for a good price.  Just be sure you are able to make drainage holes or your plants could drown with too much rain.GreenHintsgreengarden08072011BdayFamily 002

Don’t allow smoking near your garden due to possible disease that is spread to tomatoes and other plants.  Smoking sucks anyway you look at it.  Very irritating and aging to the body and a waste of money. 

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My First Real Garden in The Burbs

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Standing in front of my first garden in the burbs.

How Green is Your Garden?

I am chemically sensitive and I have been for many years.  I know a lot of people that have the same problem and the numbers are growing.  Chemicals are big business and the only way this will change is if we stop using those products.  Less demand means less production, less money for advertisement to convince you that you need them, hence less pollution.  We use chemicals for cleaning, lawn care, health and beauty aids, even in our foods.  Now when did granny say, I’ll just add a little more MSG or cottonseed oil when she was cooking dinner?  There is simply no legitimate excuse for our dependence on these toxic additives to our foods especially. 

I understand that there can be a concern at times about a product’s ingredients becoming stale or unstable without their use, but if foods were received fresh and used as intended, the need for many of the additional additives would subside.  Insisting on fresher products may force our governments to allow us to consume products grown or produced in America, which in turn puts more Americans back to work.  Most of our products come from other countries and there is a longer time span from production or harvest to market due to all the import, export procedures and regulations.  Personally I fear any product that should only last a week, tops, lasting for months on a store shelf

Living green means living fresh and organic, as we were created to live.  We were certainly not created to constantly ingest man-made garbage.  There is so much talk about finding a cure for cancers, but I have yet to see the people responsible for this quest do anything remotely that will bring this about.  We certainly don’t need all the marching for donations, which is big business for some.  We need our world leaders and governmental agencies to do the right thing for a change and reduce the world’s pollution that is almost out of control now.  I don’t know about global warming, but I do know that toxic chemicals pollute and poison our air, water and earth daily.  Soon this may not be reversible.  This smog destroys people’s lungs and many inner city children show signs of asthma right away due to their tender membranes and tiny bodies.  Some don’t stand a chance.  Instead of trying to stop this madness, Doctors give these children more chemicals and toxins in their bodies to try to counteract the symptoms.

Most cancers are caused by irritations and the body’s homeostasis being altered allowing the cancers to grow.  I live near numerous factories and since moving here my lungs have become so much worse.  I don’t smoke and never go by smokers anymore due to the chronic bronchitis this causes me.  Gone are the days of drying laundry outdoors unless you live out in the boonies, and that air is still not really fresh anymore.  Our air circulates globally and China is a big polluter next to the U S.

I encourage you to write to your state and federal governments to see what ideas they are coming up with to improve our environment.  Please feel free to offer any suggestions to them that you think may help, just keep it “clean.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

One illuminated window in an old house in Toronto.
One illuminated window in an old house in Toronto.
Saw this illuminated cross on a garage when taking a walk.
Saw this illuminated cross on a garage when taking a walk.
Detroit at twilight.  You can see part of the Ambassador Bridge.
Detroit at twilight. You can see part of the Ambassador Bridge.
Tiny twinkling lights in the distance appear much larger in this garden shot.
Tiny twinkling lights in the distance appear much larger in this garden shot.

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

First of the Spud Harvest 2012

I am eating it while I type. That and some chicken drenched in “Sweet Baby Ray’s Award Winning barbecue Sauce!”

My potatoes are about the only things I have gotten out of my garden this year, says someone who normally has a very green thumb.  It was more varmints than the drought.  I had so many rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks this year, it was not funny.  It is my own fault because I have a deck, they can hide or live there.  I have lots of shrubs, trees and plants because I want to make my yard as much like nature as the city will let me get away with.  I also have a small fountain, bird bath and keep a small amount of water in a tub for the thirsty squirrels to keep them from climbing into the bird bath.

Found a stone fountain clearanced at Krogers to go with the rock theme of my yard. Always keeping my eyes open for a bargain.

My yard is now semi-private and when I do glance over to some of the other yards near me, I am reminded of a depressed neighborhood.  Some have a couple of plants or place one lone shrub at the far end of the yard.  Most have no landscaping what-so-ever and instead barren, dying grass.  Some of our neighbors have put out perennials in front of their yards with “free flower signs” after dividing, which is so nice.  I will be doing the same next year with hostas if I am still here.  I understand some don’t have the time or the money, but it is not very expensive to buy a few on sale and divide the next year or start them from seed.  I guess you are either a plant person or you are not.  I just love plants of all kinds and they help the environment in many ways.

I started my first garden years ago in the burbs with un-amended hard clay soil.  My plants were great.  I have no idea how some of the seeds ever took root, but they sure did.  The difference was I had no varmints there.  You never even saw one squirrel.  There were woods nearby and obviously the bigger varmints got the little ones before they became a problem.  Once in a while you saw, and smelled a skunk.

This year they got the green beans, both bush and pole, all squash, Spinach didn’t stand a chance, and most of the lettuce.  With some things, such as beets and carrots, either the germination was terrible, or the birds were eating the seeds as well, they got all the black and red raspberries this year.  I just happened to have a couple of left over Russet potatoes that were sprouting at the end of May so I threw them in the garden with the hopes of getting a few potatoes.  They are still there and I hilled them this year.  I will let you know how many I get from both plants in a later post.  The first one was sweet with tender skin and very good.

Hope the rest of you are able to enjoy your harvest this year.  God Bless!

Bunny Rabbit Blues

There used to be a song titled “Bunny Rabbit Blues” that our preschoolers danced to.  This bunny rabbit blues is different.  I stuck up a make-shift gate of chicken-wire to try and keep the baby bunny out of my garden, but it just burrows under anyway.  I keep watering once in a while, but with this drought, I am about to give up seeing as I am only feeding the wildlife in the area.

Took a bad video of one that got caught in the act and was trying to get out.  Usually it lets me lift up the fence so it can run away, but this time it ran out the other side using the hole it burrowed.

Music by a local Detroit Group called Mudpuppy entitled “Funky Stuff.”