From pickle jars to Pinterest

Field Day pickle sales yield loads of pickle jars. Spray painted lids, electric candles, several press on letters and we have a special interest area for the front porch.

Blue Salvia

Echinops Ritro - four feet tall and ready to bloom!

Planted near the top of the driveway border, this plant is Echinops Ritro. It promised to be a four feet tall plant with dark blue or purple globe shaped flowers. Last year this plant grew six inches tall and didn't do anything. This year... well, the catalog didn't lie. It has shot upwards and is loaded with buds. Exciting.

This was one of several hard to find plants that I treated myself with last year. If you are interested here is the link to Bluestone Perennials.

I got the bug - the growin' bug

 I am absolutely hooked on growing new plants to fill in my garden beds. I have been looking around the yard to see what else I could possible start. I am planning next fall to gather seed heads from the rudbeckia daisies, lusting after anything that needs to be pinched and will provide me more starts.

Recycled boost drink bottles are small enough to hold water and provide a stable base for the plants. This Blue Salvia was in the water for two weeks at the most. I am hooked!

New Rose Bed in the Water Garden

I have had cardboard and newspaper shielding and creating this new bed all winter. The junk you see in the grass is the rotting remains of the all the paper, plus some magnolia leaves as it is the time of the year that the magnolias loose all their old leaves, it is a mess. Top soil was added. Beds were churned and softened up, placement was checked. The final shot shows the new bed completed and tucked in with fresh pine straw. 

The new roses are a floribunda rose Burgundy Iceberg from Wayside Gardens. They start out white and quickly change to a dark maroon burgundy shade. If you are lucky they will go so deep they become purple. I am hopeful. Click on the link to their website below to see the image that sold me on trying this rose.

Burgundy Iceberg Floribunda Rose