Our Hosta this year.  We love it.  Great plant for your shade garden:  perennial, drought tolerant, attractive to hummingbirds, and beautiful!!
 

On a trip to Asheville in 2004, I collected seeds from the hostas at The Balsam Mountain Inn.  I planted them when we got home, and they've been living in this spot ever since.  Of course, when they bloom we have to protect them from the deer.  They'll come right onto the deck and eat the flowers.  That's ok, we just set up a barrier every night, for as long as they bloom.  
 

We have a friend who is a retired Army Ranger, and he calls them "hostages."  Makes me laugh, but that's how he remembers the name.  And another old man friend who travelled a lot, calls them "hostels."  Whatever works, right?  
 

Anyway, hostas are lovely plants for those of us with shade gardens.  Most gardeners are happy to share when they divide theirs;  or just plant the seeds, it can't be any easier than that.   Let me share with you some of Momma's garden wisdom:  She said, "If you plant it, it might not grow.  But if you don't plant it, it surely won't grow."  So just give them a try.  You've got nothing to lose.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This year we added new soil from our compost bin to the garden.  And this sprouted, so I left it to see what it might turn out to be.  
 

Let's talk about composting.  We take vegetable scraps from the kitchen, and put them in a wire cage outside.  The cage is in the shade, fairly close to the kitchen for convenience.  Next to the compost bin is another wire cage filled with leaves raked up from the yard.  Every time I add scraps to the compost I add a layer of dry leaves on top.  That's the plan:  wet, dry, wet, dry.   And after a few years we have new soil to add to the garden.  And it's FREE!!!

 

Just a few rules:  No meat, no dairy, no weeds with seeds.  We put in eggshells, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, chicken bones (after we make stock), tea bags, the trash from cooking our Halloween pumpkins.  Hahaha!!!  That's where this beautiful pumpkin came from:  the compost bin!!!

 

I'm so glad it planted itself next to the post that holds up the cucumbers.  I don't know how much it weighs, but it's bigger than a basketball, and I'm guessing 10 - 15 pounds.  There are a couple more, still green.  This one has just started to turn orange.

 

This year's garden is making me SO happy.  We're growing things that we haven't grown in years!!!!  Wait til you see the...............

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

When I was taking pictures of Jim and Roxanne's lilies, I noticed their echinacea blooming.  They have purple ones from my garden, and some white ones that I think came from Betty James.  That's where I got mine.  
 

See that little flash of red?  That is echinacea too.  I thought the red ones were annual, but these come up every year.  
 

Their garden is always a delight.  Definitely worth the walk to see what's blooming.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!
 

 

 

 

These are the latest lilies to bloom in Roxanne's garden.  These are Star Gazer lilies, very popular and VERY fragrant  IMHO, (well, maybe not so humble, but) outside is the best place for them.  
 

Like all oriental lilies, Star Gazers grow from a bulb, and need to be planted in the fall in order to bloom the following spring and summer.  In our area, they are perennial, meaning they come back every year.  Lilies like full sun to partial shade.  These are in heavy shade, but they've been blooming here for years!!
 

I have a great bulb catalog from Gloucester, VA, and they also have an online catalog.  https://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/  This is the time of year to start thinking about ordering your bulbs for the fall.  Lilium bulbs ship in October, but you can start thinking about next year's garden now.  At least go check out their catalog.  You may get inspiration.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We went to see Patty and Bill the other night, and she took me down to see her garden.  When we got down there, she pointed out some holes in the side of the hill.  And this is one of them.  With a snakeskin just below it.   Hmmmm.  
 

My garden probably has snakes in it too;  just too many squash leaves to see them.  I think I like her 'out in the open' ones better.  
 

I'll step lightly through the jungle, though, just in case...

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

This year's garden is fabulous!  I can't remember the last time everything did this well.  We haven't been able to grow squashes in a few years.  This year they are taking over.  I love going out in the morning and seeing all this green, and the big yellow flowers promising fruit.  

 

These are winter squashes:  I planted seeds for acorn, butternut and Cushaw.  And of course, I planted zucchini.  These are acorn;  I'll show you pix of the fruit later, right now they're still little.  
 

Thanks for letting me share my garden pleasures with you.  It is SO exciting to see what's new everyday.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is what I see as I'm entering my garden:  Black eyed Susies,  Rudbeckia hirta.  You can see this native prairie biennial all over our mountains.  The first year they are just a rosette of fuzzy leaves, and then they bloom the second year.  The seeds disperse themselves everywhere, and keep the process going.  
 

There are lots of them all around, and these must have planted themselves last year, because this is the first year I've had them in this spot.  Couldn't have planned it any better.  What a lovely greeting!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Oh, look!!!  What a lovely way to start the day.

 

Go back to the article about the bluebirds, and click on the link:  One of the eggs has hatched!!

 

I hope your Friday is wonderful.  I know you'll find something wonderful in it.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I guess most people don't see lettuce as flowers, but lettuce does bloom.  When it's ready to make seeds, lettuce blooms.  The flowers look a lot like tiny dandelion flowers.  And, just like dandelions, they mature into those little fluffy fairies that fly around.  So I picked these lettuce heads before the flowers opened completely.  I love the fairy seeds outside, but not in my living room.  
 

We planted about 12 lettuce seedlings.  6 green Buttercrunch, and 6 red Romaine type.  We've been eating our own lettuce in salads since April.  Now that the lettuce  has bolted, the leaves are a little bitter, so I just let them go to seed.  We'll harvest the seeds when they are ripe, and save them to plant next spring.  If August isn't too hot, I may plant a fall crop.  I love not having to buy lettuce.  Besides, it is so pretty growing in the garden.  
 

And, don't they look great in Momma's cornucopia vase?  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We have finally found something the deer won't eat.  Well, they do nibble off a few flower heads, but not when they get this far along.  The flower centers are called cones, and are quite prickly.  These coneflowers are a favorite seed source in the fall for the finches.  So we leave them for the birds, until winter when they are picked clean.  
 

We planted these along the front of our house, going down the hill.  They have multiplied profusely, and fill up the whole space between the deck rails and the steps.  They even wrap around the corner.  When they are in full bloom, I'll take another picture to show you.  
 

If you have a good sunny spot, throw down a few seeds, and before you know it, you can be overrun with Echinacea too.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!