Our "Take" on an Alphabet Garden

Project Garden Marker

This photo was taken February 17, 2009.

I'd taken wide-mouth jar lids, nailed a hole near a "top edge," spray painted both sides with white enamel paint (two coats on each side), and kept them handy until grandchildren visited.

While I waited their arrival, I took wire clothes hangers and made hanging stakes. The photo below shows a few of them. A person can create two stakes from one wire hanger.

These next two photos were taken April 22, 2009.

I created some of the markers ahead of time... just waiting for the day of their completion! :-)

Our Omaha grandchildren were here for Mother's Day, so we were able to finish some of our markers! Here are photos of the painterly progress. Using acrylic paints, they painted the backs of the markers and wrote their names with the same paint marker I used to create the front design. Our grandson is 5 1/2 years old, so he painted the letters and flowers on the front. Grandma (me) helped with a few other details.

(Yes, we also painted piggy banks!)

After they dried, we took them outdoors and sprayed them with a clear, weatherproof, acrylic finish. Soon they were ready for the raised bed gardens!

Oh, Yeah! Looks good!
:-)

Pushing them in takes a little effort!
:-)

Ta-dah!

Now, when our Michigan family gets here, they can help finish the job. :-) It'll wait for them!
By Shady and Company!

Is It Raining Where You Are?

Perhaps you could use this as a means of entertainment! :-)

Wistful Wednesday?

Stately bearing
Straightly standing
Greatly, grandly
mid the
strands -

She stands.

I Got My Thrill...

Out My Windowsill!

(No Blueberry Hills here, sorry.)

A female Baltimore Oriole

This is the sunniest our front yard has EVER been at this time of the year!

If you click here, you'll see a post from last August that shows why.

Want to see another Mother's Day gift?
We need to approach the Sunny Corner Bed.

Isn't it a Beautiful Day????!!!

(I know there's a ring around my sister's tree, but our yard has such a slope!
The dirt was washing away from next to the tree,
so I put a double layer of rocks on the "down side," and
laid other rocks (the top ring) on the grass on the "top side.")

Nearer and nearer we get...

Yep! A bluebird house!
I told "Mr. Shady" that I didn't think we'd see a bluebird.
They prefer open spaces, right?
And besides, the wrens moved in around three seconds after the house
had been stabilized!
(Click on on the photo above to see Mr. Wren on top of the house.)

This past Sunday afternoon,
exactly one week after the bluebird house had been installed,
a real Bluebird peeked into the hole.
Noting that the house was already occupied,
he sat on the roof for a few seconds
(giving us a Great Show!)
before he flew away.


Forgive the photographer, I was getting tired of holding the camera in place!

And one last little video.
This one is extremely fuzzy, but I hope you can tell who it is!!!

This was a thrill and a half!

(Yep! A Scarlet Tanager!)

Nothing at all Shady today... except the yard that's near or under the trees, now that the leaves are in. ;-)

It's Bloom Day and ...

... it's Raining.

It rained a Lot yesterday,
again last night and, so far,
all day today!

It's been dependable, steady, and fairly gentle.
Enjoy the sound.
:-)



But it is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day,
brainchild of Carol of May Dreams Gardens!
And I couldn't miss the opportunity to participate.
Why don't you visit to see who else has posted?
And make sure you post sometime, too.

First of all, indoors...
(Is this #4 or #5 for these to bloom since coming indoors last October??)
The kalanchoe has never stopped blooming!
Cute unnamed violet beginning to bloom again.

The violet below USED to be what I named 'S. Blushing Raspberry Icee'
(click here to see photo of what she looked like
when I purchased her!)
Oh, well! Perhaps that's what happens when one takes credit
for something one didn't do! ;-)


Now, let's unfold that umbrella, cover the camera and head outdoors!

* In the Sunny Corner Bed *

Mother's Day Gifts for Grandma (me)
from my two visiting grandchildren!
Thanks L and A!
I love you, too! :-)

Last year's new coreopsis 'Nana'
Light yellow iris are standing despite the rain...

* In front of the house *
Dianthus

Sweet Woodruff and soon-to-be blooming sedum
* In the Raised Bed Gardens *
The chives are beginning to blossom.

Hurrah for Alliums!

We began our Alphabet Garden over Mother's Day!
(check out the sign!)
'Blue Spectacle' tulips planted last fall

Obedient Plant 'Vivid' is NOT obedient!
(Too late did I find out that the White Flowering variety IS!)
Want some?

* In the Backyard *
Heucherella 'Quicksilver'
Not really blooming, but it's getting ready! :-)
As is this astilbe... just getting ready!

I know, I know...
I have a love/hate relationship with ajuga (bugle weed).
The plant fulfills a purpose. If it gets "out of hand," you can
share it, dig it out of unwanted places,
or chop the runners so it can't spread.

I enjoyed the tour, as I haven't been able to be outdoors all week!! The reason??

I'm recovering from a heavy dose of the flu. "The family that cares, shares." Normally that's a good thing! ha! However... the flu... Now, that's a 'Shady' subject!!

The Inside Scoop on My "Garden Bed Trillium"

My husband enjoys working with prairie restoration, woodland planting and management, wildlife food plots, etc. on our few acres of land located several minutes' driving time from home.

Anyway, during the early Spring of 2007, I dug a couple of trillium there and brought them to our backyard woodland. (We didn't have any out there!)I found one especially interesting plant and put it in my backyard Center Garden. This mutant trillium sported five leaves and five petals on its flower!

I was determined to watch it grow the next Spring... to see if it remained a five-leafed trillium.

This was taken 4/17/08
Note: Four Leaves!

Already on 4/29/08, the appearance has changed somewhat.

This photo was taken this year (4/19/09)
of the same little plant...
Three Leaves!!

Getting a little taller...
(4/23/09)

And, as before, the appearance changed
as the blossom appeared.
(photo taken 5/04/09)

Oh! How I wish I'd taken a photo of the five-leaved plant! I cannot understand why I didn't. Perhaps I'll yet run across it, but for now - please take my word for it.

And what is your opinion as to whether this plant will remain three-leaved from now on, or follow what seems to be a pattern and return next year with only two leaves??

:-) Could be a "Shady Subject!"

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - May 1, 2009

If you would like to participate
in Muse Day, create your post on the first day of each month.
visit Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

"When April steps aside for May,
Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fresh violets open every day,
To some new bird each hour we listen."
--- Lucy Larcom

Dicentra Spectabilis
Bleeding Heart

Brunnera
'Jack Frost' Tiarella...

variety uncertain

Pulmonaria
'Majeste'

Pulmonaria

'Bubble Gum'

Fritilliari Meleagris,

mixed varieties

Pulmonaria
'Baby Blue' in front and
'Trevi Fountain' behind

Pulmonaria

'Trevi Fountain'

May, the month that takes our breath away!