The Green Bean Thieves

This is why we don’t get to eat nearly as many green beans as we grow. Also Blogger is on my last nerve today!

Who Needs Curtains?

We live in an area where there’s not a ton of sunshine. We are surrounded by an old growth hardwood forest.

This means that there are a limited number of types of plants that will do well in our home. It also means that they need to be in or very close to a window in order to thrive.

My answer to this was to create a curtain of plants in each window.

It makes watering a snap and I really enjoy all my little window jungles.

Last Hurrah

My Thanksgiving cacti are blooming to beat the band! I finally got around to rearranging my plants to create a Thanksgiving cactus window.

Right now there’s one Easter cactus in the window but I'm pretty sure I’ll move it back to the bathroom window and put a pot with multiple colored Thanksgiving cacti in it in this window.

It should be gorgeous when they’re all blooming come Thanksgiving.

Early Blooms

My Easter Cactus is blooming. Last year I got a small cluster of blooms followed by a much bigger bloom. Hopefully this year will be the same.

This little bugger has been hard to convince to bloom so I moved it to my kitchen window. This window is going to end up being a Thanksgiving/Easter cactus window because they seem to bloom endlessly here.

The one true cactus in the window may get the boot to the downstairs bathroom.

First Flower! Peace on Earth!

This Peace Lily was given to me by one of my favorite patients. Over the years she taught me a lot about plants, though she never reformed my “Throw and Grow” tendencies.

She gave it to me for Christmas so it’s appropriate that it would bloom for the first time in December. It started out as two small healthy shoots and will need to be repotted in spring. It actually should have already been repotted but then there’s that throw and grow thing going on. 😝

Early Christmas Gift From Mother Nature

This little poinsettia was given to me by a patient years ago. Every spring I cut it back and enjoy watching it regrow its greenery while living on our upstairs porch.

As long as I bring it in before first frost and place it in a specific spot in my upstairs bathroom it blooms.

Most people would consider the pictured bloom to be flea bitten. I, on the other hand love it! It symbolizes the changes in light that the changing seasons bring about - the turning of the wheel. Simple things like this bring me more joy than any expensive, perfectly coifed plant could provide.

I can’t wait to see if the lower branches also flower.

They Couldn’t Wait Until Thanksgiving....

....so I guess we’ll enjoy them now.  I’m secretly hoping to get a second set of blooms when I rotate them later this winter.

Final Blooms of the Season

Daylily Seed Pods!

This morning I discovered a few seed pods on our daylily. Until today I didn’t know that a daylily can actually grow from seed. I noticed that our daylilies were particularly thick and the flowers in one area were more yellow than what I had planted. Hindsight I believe a plant must have grown from seed. Apparently they won’t necessarily resemble the plant that produced the seed.

I really hope the pods get to dry up before frost so I can plant them next year. Perennials don’t typically bloom the first year. I hope these bloom the second year because at my age you don’t want to be waiting too many years!

Purple Cone Flower

21 years ago I decided that I wanted an herb garden. My Great Grandmother and Grandmother has kitchen gardens and I wanted one too.

One of the plants I planted from seed was Purple Cone Flower and guess what? It’s still around after all these years. Go Throw&Grow Method!!

Now that I’m retired I’ve decided to harvest the seeds from these plants and see if I can grow some more clusters of them.

Here’s some additional info on this herb.

Description

Echinacea purpurea is a North American species of flowering plant in the sunflower family. It is native to eastern North America and present to some extent in the wild in much of the eastern, southeastern and midwestern United States as well as in the Canadian Province of Ontario. Wikipedia

Day Lilly Bulbs & The Throw And Grow Method of Gardening

I subscribe to the “Throw & Grow” Method of gardening. It’s an incredibly easy method. You throw the seeds on tilled ground or if you’re really ambitious, plant bulbs or a purchased plant and let them know that survival is more or less up to them.

I love watching them adapt and grow and, truth be told, I’m not above giving them an assist or moving them if they’re really struggling.

This is not the fast track to a showcase garden. It’s more a lesson on the attributes of your gardening area and how amazingly resilient plants can be.

So....These day Lily’s were planted over 20 years ago. I got them on clearance. Day Lily’s tend to do well in our area, but these struggled. Yet - here they are 20+ years later and totally thriving.

My plan is to plant more Day Lily varieties and see how they do. I’ll also see if I can split these and move some bulbs to another area.

You can probably make out some Lupine foliage too. There’s a story behind them but that’s for another time.