You know that I love working puzzles.  All kinds of puzzles.  This picture is one of a bunch of butterfly online jigsaw puzzles.

 

I can't remember the name of the site, but if you are interested, I will look it up and post it.  Let me just do that right now...be right back.

 

I found it by going to the App Store for my device, and searched jigsaw puzzles.  There are a ton of them available, and a lot of them are free.  I only buy FREE apps. So if you love jigsaw puzzles, and pretty pictures, go to the App Store and download a few.  I hear it's good for your brain.

 

HAPPY WINTER STILL!!!

 

My tête-à-tête daffodils are blooming.  There are about twelve bunches just like this, that I can see from my kitchen window.

 

I love these daffodils.  We planted them about 10 years ago, and they just keep dividing, and blooming every year.  So sweet.

 

HAPPY MARCH!!!

 

Look how cute the crocuses are with Roxanne's gnome.  

 

Her garden is just starting to bloom.  We'll get to see lots more as Spring arrives.

 

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!!

 

 

 

I love dreaming about our upcoming garden.  These are my favorite seed catalogs.  They sell seeds AND they provide lots of good information about growing plants in your garden.  
 

Now is the best time to request seed catalogs, and start thinking about this year's garden.  
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Just to let you know that life here on the mountain is still good.  But I am out of ideas for a blog post.

 

Just give me a little time, and I'll come up with something cheerful to write about.  But for now, I'm going to take a little break.

 

Love to you all;  check back occasionally;  I'll be back!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

Have you noticed any rhododendrons sporting their flower buds?  These are the flower buds for next spring.  So don't get all busy and prune them.  

 

We lived in a condo community in Virginia Beach, and the grounds crew invariably chose to prune our azaleas and rhododendrons in JULY!!!  The plants had already set their flower buds, so they NEVER got to bloom.  

 

Don't make the same mistake.  The blooms are so beautiful; you don't want to deprive yourself of them.  

 

Go ahead and prune blueberries and fruit trees; they will thank you for doing it now.  But leave the Rhodies alone.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

What you're seeing is the last of the garden for the summer, except for a little arugula, which will last up til the first frost, which may be tonight.  Everything else is about done for the summer garden.  

 

I did plant some kale for a fall crop; I hope they survive, we'll see.  I also have leeks and garlic that actually like the cold.  

 

And I love that the hickory trees have offered all their leaves for mulch.  

 

OK, that's it for the garden.  Time for all of us to rest.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Being a gardener in the mountains is SO easy.  Everything we need is right here.

 

We just put our kitchen scraps in the compost bin, then add some leaves on top, and in a year or so we have soil for the garden.  

 

We have several bins.  One is for kitchen scraps, green matter, which adds nitrogen.  Next to that we have several bins full of dry leaves, brown matter, which adds carbon.  So every time we add something green to the compost bin, we put in a handful of leaves.  

 

There are just a few no-nos:  no meat or dairy, but everything else from the kitchen is fair game.  We recycle chicken bones, vegetable scraps, lemon rinds, avocado pits, eggshells, coffee grounds, teabags.  The list goes on and on.  You can even compost cotton, wool, and paper.  In time, it all breaks down and becomes soil for the garden.  This year we even made compost tea to water our plants.

 

This is a great time of year to start composting.  Instead of burning or throwing away all those leaves, put them to work making new soil.

 

I love knowing this cycle of life, how soil is made.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I am telling you, this year's garden has been amazing.  This is a single arugula plant that planted itself in the walk path.  

 

The arugula that I planted went to seed, and while I was waiting for the seeds to mature, some fell on the ground and sprouted.  The first crop is gone, but this crop has grown to be gigantic.  I definitely want to collect seeds from these plants.

 

I hope we have time before the frost.  We may just have to eat it all!!!  That's ok too.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Look!!!  Lee's Cleveland Pears and Dogwood trees are changing together.  This is on the corner of Five Forks and Beaconhill.  

 

Aren't they beautiful!!!  And what a gorgeous day!!!

 

HAPPY FALL!!!