Weed Control!

We have been putting this project off for quite a while. We needed to get this side of the deck taken care of. Today was the day.

Believe it or not there are Iris's in this mess.

Chris dug all the weeds out. I sat on the ground on a piece of plywood and went through everything he dug out. I separated all the Iris's from the weeds and put them in a bucket.

Doesn't it look nice? We are going to put weed control paper down and get a load of top soil. Then I can plant all the flowers that we took out of the front garden and put them here.

Here is one bucket of Iris's we dug out. Mom took a bucket of them home with her today.

In the box is another kind of Iris. I was so surprised when I started going through them. I didn't think that I had so many. We didn't get many blooms this year, so it was really time to dig them up and separate them.

This is Lady's-Mantle. It was also in the weeds. There is a girl at work that wanted some. I will take these to her on Monday.

Chris also made me a small garden for my birdbath that he and mom gave me for my birthday. We had enough paper for this garden. It is ready for the dirt.

We got a lot done today. We are both happy it is finally done. We think it looks much better already. We are sure the neighbors were happy to see that we finally did something with the mess.

Wild Roses!

These are some pictures that we took while on a walk one night. We were glad we had our camera with us (like we ever leave home without it:) because the blooms sure don't last very long.

The pink wild roses even look fragile. There is only one layer of petals and they smell so good.

Hope you all had a great day.

Enjoy the weekend.

P.S. We came to visit a lot of your blogs last night and couldn't leave comments for some reason. Was anyone else having this problem???

Glowing Sky!

We took these sunset pictures last Saturday night after we went for ice cream at the "Shack". Click HERE to check out that post if you missed it. We left The Shack and noticed how orange the sky looked, so we drove around Chautauqua Lake and snapped a few pictures. You kind of forget how beautiful a sunset over a lake can be when you don't see one for a while.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Not Very Happy!

I received a very sad e~mail a couple days ago. It said...

Hi...I have joyfully been in business now for 7 years and have had a wonderful time crafting and getting to know all of you. I am very thankful for all of you who have been dedicated customers over this time span. Without all of you I would not have been able to stay in business for as long as I have. Regretfully I need to inform you that the Sunflower House will be closing its doors to storefront retail business. I will although be running a retail business from my web page of which you will be seeing many changes soon. I will be running many sales over the next 2 months to liquidate the inventory that I have, sales will begin July 9th, 2007. Please take advantage of this and stock up on supplies while the shop is still here.

Click HERE to visit the Sunflower House web site. Chris is very sad about this also. He would go and buy stocking stuffers for me there. I guess we will have to take more trips to Erie now.

Field Trip!!!

Bear with me, this is going to be a long post. I want you to see everything that mom and I did today. So sit back and enjoy our day with us.

Mom picked me up at 9:00 am.

We started at this nursery.

His plants seemed really high in price.

We didn't buy anything here, but it was fun to look. (and take pictures!)

Then we went to Sandy's...

Sandy's really isn't a greenhouse. She has acres of land and she will go into the fields with you and dig out any flowers that you want. Most are $2.00 a shovel.

We were a little upset because Sandy wasn't there today. We couldn't buy anything :(

Then we ran into this nursery by accident so we had to stop.

We finally bought something here. We both got a Purple Astilbe. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it opens. Mom also bought a new fern that we have never seen before.

Then it was off to Roberts.

They have small pots of perennials for $2.59 we both bought a few things here.

Can you see mom in this picture?

Here is the greenhouse that we love to go to. It is a bit of a drive but we both enjoy it.

It is at the owners house. So she lets you walk through all of her gardens. It is so pretty.

She has three greenhouses. We didn't see a lot of new plants this year, but it was still fun to look.

She has a really neat pond. I didn't buy anything but Mom bought a few things.

Tate's

This greenhouse is also at a couples house. They are both retired. I used to work with the wife at walmart.

They have very good quality plants that are well loved and well taken care of.

The have fields with buckets of plants. You can just walk around and pick out what ever you want.

Mom bought quite a bit here.

We both decided it was time to go home. Neither one of us does very well in the heat. We chose one of the hottest days of the year so far to go to all of these greenhouses. Who knew back in May that it would be this warm in June. It has to be at least 90 and very humid. I am sitting in the air conditioning now and that is were I am staying. We had a very nice day together. We got back to my house at 3:00 pm. Oh, by the way, we did stop and have lunch too.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to one of the strongest women I know. Not only are you a great mom, you are a wonderful mother~in~law and an even better grandmother.

If any of us has a problem or needs someone to talk to, who do we call? Mom. You are always there for all of us. You treat your son~in~law and daughter~in~law as if they were your own.

One of the biggest joys in her life is to see her kids happy. The biggest joy of all was when Baby J. was born. She stole all of our hearts.

We all want to wish you a very Happy Birthday!!

You were always there for us when we were growing up. You raised us on your own and worked hard to do it. Family was and is always first to you. Thanks for everything mom.

I took Tuesday off to spend the day with Mom. Wait until you see what we are doing together. I think everyone needs to spend a special day with their mom.

Stop by and wish Mom a Happy Birthday by clicking HERE.

Green Thumb Sunday!

To visit other participants in Green Thumb Sunday, click on the blogroll in our sidebar.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Rose Campion comes in a few different colors, and grows best in zones 4-8 with full sun. The vibrant flowers are a striking contrast to the woolly, silvery-gray foliage. We have 2 colors white and magenta-pink.

Dianthus is a perennial that grows best in zones 3-8 with mounds of blue/green foliage that is evergreen in mild climates. This variety is "Cheddar Pink". It has fragrant, fringed pink flowers with dark pink accents and a red ring around the throat. It will bloom from Spring to Autumn.

Spireas are deciduous shrubs with abundant clusters of tiny rose-like flowers. The flowers grow along the entire length of their stems in the spring, and at the tips of their branches in the summer. The small white or pink flowers have 5 petals and a spray of stamens at the center. They grow best in zones 3-8. We have 2 of these growing in the front of our house.

Lady's-Mantle carpets the ground with large cupped leaves that are silvery on the underside. It grows clusters of tiny greenish flowers that rise above the foliage. The young leaves can be tossed with salads, added to tea or used as a green dye. It was traditionally used in herbal remedies. It is hardy in zones 3-8.

Astilbe is a perennial that is ideal for moist shade gardens. The feathery plumes grow above mounds of graceful, deep green to bronze fernlike foliage and make Astilbe an ideal filler in shady borders or for use as a background accent. It is hardy in zones 3-8 and blooms from late June - August.

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Happy Gardening.

Yummy!

For two people who try to stay home on the weekends, we have had a busy Saturday.

Chris took me out for ice cream tonight.

We went to The Ice Cream Shack. The line was short tonight. Most of the time it is at least double the people. My friend Kim works there and is always giving me a hard time that we never come and see her. Well guess what? She wasn't there tonight.

Chris had a SMALL.. Fireball.

I had a SMALL..

Rocky Mountain Raspberry.

Quick Trip!

Laurie and I took a short trip to Erie today to pick up a few things that we needed.

Our first stop was at A.C. Moore. Laurie was still waiting on one of her birthday presents from me.

I "bought" her a new cartridge for her Cricut for her birthday. (I meant to buy it, but no one around here had it in stock so she just got a picture of it and an I.O.U.) A.C. Moore got some in on Friday so we decided to go pick one up.

Not sure what a Cricut is???

Click HERE to find out.

After a few short stops we had to go to our "second home" for a few things. We bought knobs for the kitchen cabinets and drawers and a few other odds & ends.

We stopped on our way home to take some pictures of the lake. It was a beautiful day out today. It was 75 and sunny with a nice breeze coming off of the lake. It was nice to get away for a few hours so we enjoyed our trip.