Greenery Green (and other Colors)

I took a little time away from blogging for the week of the 4th of July and posted without commenting anywhere.

Instead of my usual deep, philosophical posts, I’m back with a lighter topic today.

Do you like flowers? Do you grow any?

When we lived in Florida, gardening was the last thing on our minds. We struggled with even growing grass. We lived inland, and still, the soil there was more like sand. A lot of homes closer to the coast used landscaping stones in place of a lawn. Not that growing grass couldn’t be done, it was just more difficult.

When we moved back home to the Midwest, my husband wanted to try his hand at gardening in real soil like he used to when he grew up in Indiana.

I stay away from his yearly garden. He always does a great job growing my favorite veggies.

I never had luck with indoor plants, so I have no idea why I decided to grow any outdoors. I’m too green! No, not a green thumb. A novice.

One of my favorites are begonias. Our first couple years back home, I planted them along the house. Unfortunately my hands are riddled with arthritis now. I started with arthritis pain in my thirties. The pain is severe now that I’m older.

But I’m not typing this to complain. I just can’t dig in the soil anymore. Instead, I’ve been buying the flowers, planting them in bigger pots and then lining them up next to my hostas.

Something strange happened to my white begonia below.

It looked like there were weeds growing in the pot and choking out the flowers. At closer look, we realized they weren’t weeds at all. There were two grape-tomato plants growing there! How in the world did that happen?

Could the soil I used to re-pot the begonias been leftover from last year’s crop? 🤷‍♀️ Not sure how I might’ve gotten his gardening soil in there, but it’s the only explanation we could come up with.

The hubs took out the tomatoes and they are now growing in his garden. The begonias were left as you see in the picture. They are struggling to come back, but I think they’ll eventually make it.

We also found sunflowers peeking out of the soil where we used to keep a bird feeder. They grow tall, and we needed to remove them. The hubs saved a couple and planted them in a pot.

Like I said. Tall. 👉

Ahem. I’m embarrassed to admit that I killed one. I was spraying bug spray around there and got a lot of it on the second flower. 😕

But the one is thriving. It also has several other buds getting ready to open. You can see two in the pic below.

The yellow is striking against the blue sky. Aside from the bunches of ants that love this plant, the bees love them, too. Can you see the bee below? The bee’s color blends in.

We also tried another new plant. We read a sign at the nursery that said they keep away mosquitos, so we grabbed two without ever reading what they were. We just love how beautifully they flower.

Neither of us are good with the names of plants. I searched (a lot) on the internet and learned they are a Citrus Chrysanthemums. The leaves smell like lemon and the flowers are vivid purple.

We planted one new plant in the front yard. We didn’t check to see what it was when we bought it. Does anyone out there know? I think it’s a hydrangea but I’ve never seen them in this rich pink color before.

Okay, just one more to tell you about. My herbs! I use a lot of basil and oregano when I cook. Below you can see I cut some leaves off. I placed the bowls next to the wrong plant. The larger leaves are the basil.

We dehydrate them, and I use them in my cooking.

Hmm. 🤔 Which one is which? Thank God I mark the lids. Although I’d likely be able to tell by their smells.

With the way the world is going, food resources may become more and more scarce. Does anyone know what veggies are good for growing in the winter? Maybe we should put up a greenhouse tent.

Do you grow anything in the summer? If so, what? Have you ever tried to grow anything in winter?

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