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Posts from the ‘My Garden’ category

Where Is CadyLuckLeedy?

At the Trellis

At the Trellis

Hi! Garden fairies here. We are the fairies that live at The End Cottage, abode of CadyLuckNeedy, er Leedy! Ever since we returned from the UK, we have had to do most of the work in our garden! You see we think we are being punished, just a bit, because we pulled off a fast one! Last year we read all about her “English Garden Tour” on the blog, after Cady had made plans to tour gardens on the National Garden Scheme and the National Trust, in Kent and Sussex.  It sounded like so much fun and all those pictures of flowers, stately homes, and cottage gardens were fabulous! So this year when Cady planned another tour, this time to Cornwall, Kent and Sussex, we hid in the suitcases and went too! Boy, did it get hot and stuffy in there, not to mention all the movement! We were quite dizzy for a few days, but, it paid off when we got to Cornwall and met up with some of our garden fairy friends! What a blast we had! All those gardens with magical hiding places were just right for partying! We will add our own thoughts about the gardens if Cady doesn’t get a move on with the blog! Just what is her problem?

After we returned from the UK it has been guest after guest at the cottage! And Cady really ignored us and became the big entertainer of guests! First, it was the grandkids and all that talk about college, blah, blah, blah. Then it was “Aunt Jan.” Forget about helping us in the garden. Cady and Aunt Jan just sat on the sitting porch and yacked it up and laughed and laughed.

The Sitting Porch

The Sitting Porch

You could hear them from down the street!  Occasionally they looked over at the garden and as always after a big garden tour you knew there was going to be changes in ours! Gardeners just can’t help it, they are always changing things up! Their big idea of fun was to take the pictures of plants they liked and trot off to the nurseries looking for them!  They went to the nurseries (every day) and brought back more plants and work for us to do!  I think they got a pot fettish, because all the new plants were going in new big pots! Green ones, blue ones, purple ones!  

One of the Green Pots

One of the Green Pots

Everyday more pots would be brought in, not the plastic kind, oh no, they had to be big, and heavy, and frost proof too! Do you know how much time it took to get all those pots planted? We heaved and ho-ed, big bags full of Miracle Grow into those pots, not an easy task for the likes of us! Then we had to move the planted pots here and there to get just the right amount of light with their best side showing!

Plenty of BIG Pots

Plenty of BIG Pots

Voila! The Planted Pots with Snow and Summer Jasmine in the Front Cottage Garden

Voila! The Planted Pots with Snow and Summer Jasmine in the Front Cottage Garden

The Hidcote Blue Lavender

The Hidcote Blue Lavender

The New Foxtail Ferns

The New Foxtail Ferns

First Lady Speedwell

First Lady Speedwell (Planted in the Ground)

Jazz Hands Chinese Fringe Flower

Jazz Hands Chinese Fringe Flower

Chenille on the Sitting Porch

Chenille on the Sitting Porch

Dwarf Lime Spirea

Dwarf Lime Spirea

Snow and Summer Jasmine

Snow and Summer Jasmine

A fairy’s work is never done! We met up every night at dusk at the trellis. Minerva from the Woodland Garden and me from the Cottage Garden would decide what would be completed next. Plus we had all the weeding to do to make up being gone from the garden almost a month! In the meantime Cady and friends just sat on the sitting porch or the sleeping porch and ignored us, while admiring all our work! What about all those gardens in the UK? We want to read all about our new friends and see if you can spot us in the gardens! She needs to get a move on!

We may have to re-think going on a tour of the gardens again. We have been working every night and even in the day, (Yikes, we get so little rest now) and we are exhausted! But, we thought we should let you know what has been going on here and our big dilemma! Too Much Work! Hopefully Cady will read this and know we have found our way into the cottage (with the help of Bella, but don’t tell Cady or Bella may not get any more treats)

Bella

Bella

We now can post on her blog! That may get her moving!

Till next time! Posting has been daring and fun so we may try this again!

Minerva Woodland and Flora Cottage, fairies at The End Cottage.

 

IPhriday Photo Challenge: Pictures Please; The Changes on the Porch

The White Wicker Porch

The White Wicker Porch

The White Wicker Porch

The White Wicker Porch

The New Black Wicker Porch

The New Black Wicker Porch

I am always yapping! Sometimes when I look at blogger’s photos I think, I have that same so-and so! Then I just HAVE to tell the blogger, “hey I have the same thing!” Well that happened to me this week with some wicker porch furniture. The response is always the same. Pictures Please! Well I have not figured out how to send photos in a reply message. If anyone out there can tell me how to do this please let me know! So Lisa, here is the porch wicker set, just like yours! The white set went to my upper porch and the green is now on my lower porch. I think the white looks so romantic, but it was showing wear and tear, because we sit out on the porch so much, so upstairs it went!

Here is also one of my zinc galvanized buckets, which Lisa also collects, in my Woodland Garden. I have also used it to put a small Christmas tree in at Christmas time and brought it inside.

The Zinc Fern Pot in the Woodland Garden

The Zinc Fern Pot in My Woodland Garden

The Zinc Fern Pot in My Woodland Garden

The Zinc Fern Pot in My Woodland Garden

Now, I just have to show my teapot collection to the gal who wanted to see my teapots. AND my cookbook collection to the blogger who wanted to see my cookbooks. AND my poster that I carried all over Ireland to bring home to my poster collection, that was exactly the same poster as another bloggers! I will never be done! I think I’ll keep my mouth shut for awhile!

I hope you enjoyed my porch and garden today! Get out there and see what’s going on in your neighborhood and post it for the IPhriday Photo Challenge!  All photos were taken with my IPhone!

 

 

IPhriday Photo Challenge: My Cottage Garden

My Cottage Garden at End of April

My Cottage Garden at End of April

Today as I look at my garden I dream of an idea that I have seen and would love to do in my Woodland Garden! What do you think?

The Stone Circle

The Stone Circle

I hope you enjoyed our walk in the garden today! Get out there and see what’s going on in your neighborhood and post it for the IPhriday Photo Challenge!  All photos were done with my IPhone!

 

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Shamrock

 

Irish Shamrock Plant

Irish Shamrock Plant

You know the old saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Well so are the Shamrocks, so to speak! I love this green colored Irish Shamrock plant along my neighbors fence line. They remind me of the real deal Shamrock.

In my garden they look like this! I have the Purple Shamrock Plant!

My Purple Shamrock Plant

My Purple Shamrock Plant

Shamrock has been in the Crayola Collection since 1993. It is known as Circuit Board Green in the Techno Brite series and US Mint in the “Colors of Washington, DC” series.

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola ChallengeDay 93!

Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!

 

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Sea Green

Sea Green (Well Make that Porch Water Green)

Sea Green (Well Make that Porch Water Green)

These plants are called Corkscrews and I experimented with them, placing them in a container of water on my porch. They are meant to be in a pond or planted in very wet ground. I don’t have a pond and it gets so hot and humid here in the summer, all my plants probably need to be in a container of water! We have to have drip systems in our gardens (pop ups and underground) that water on a schedule or we would have nothing growing! Even grass!

I have a beautiful, large, contrary fountain in my Cottage Garden. So last year I got tired of babying it. I went to the garden center and bought more of the beautiful water plants. Then I turned off the bubbly section. Nothing could be simpler, just plop the water plants in the fountain water, container and all. Voila done! I had so many compliments on my new Water Garden, I will be doing the same this year!

Sea Green (Well Make that Fountain Green)

Sea Green (Well Make that Fountain Green)

 

More Fountain Greens

More Fountain Greens

Sea Green is the Crayola name that was given to the 1958 color, Light Green. In the “So Big” set it is known as Sea Serpent Green and it is Lady Liberty in the “State Color Collection” and represents New York.

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge!

We are entering the last month of the Challenge, I have enjoyed this so much! I have posted every color!

Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors the last 90 days!

 

 

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Screamin’ Green

Kiwi2

Francis Scott Kiwi

 

Screamin' Green Hosta

Screamin’ Green Hosta

Screamin’ Green, now there’s a color name for you! I love my Screamin’ Green hosta in my garden! That’s not their official name of course, but maybe it should be! I have many varieties of hosta in my Woodland Garden, but the chartreuse ones really stand out and get huge! They really pack a punch in the garden, don’t you think?

Did you notice we have been doing the Crayola Colors in alphabetical order?

We’re getting nearer to the 120th Color and TODAY is National Crayon Day!

Screamin’ Green is a fluorescent color also known as Ultra Green and as Francis Scott Kiwi, the color for Maryland in the “State Crayon Collection.”

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge

Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Salmon

The Cherry Blossom Tree

The Cherry Blossom Tree

 

The Cherry Blossom Tree Painted in Brushstroke App

The Cherry Blossom Tree Painted in Brushstroke App

 

Painted in Waterlogue

The Cherry Blossom Tree Painted in Waterlogue App

 

The Cherry Blossom Tree

Morning Breaking Over the Cherry Blossom Tree

Spring is my favorite season! I never said that until I lived in the South! In Spring, it is always so green here, it reminds me of Ireland! And then everyday there are new blooms!  The Cherry Blossom Tree, one of the first to burst into Spring, is filled with clusters of a tinted, pinky, salmony colored flowers! Enjoy!

Salmon has been part of the Crayola Collection since 1949. It is known as Cherry Blossom, the color for Washington, DC, in the “State Color Collection”.

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge

Check out some of the other 150+ challenge participants, it’s amazing what we have done with the Crayola colors!

 

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Radical Red

America Canna_

I used to have a lot of Radical Reds in my garden, like this brilliant America Radica Red canna, but as I have aged I find my garden leaning toward the passive purple colors! This year I will be adding more silver colored plants to blend in and bring out the purples! The silver plants will go with my hair color! You know the old saying, “the longer you are married the more you and your spouse look alike”? Well I think that applies to my garden too!

Radical Red is a fluorescent red color introduced to the Crayola Line in 1990.

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge 

Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola; Granny Smith Apple

My Spider Wort with Granny Smith Apple Green Foliage

My Spider Wort with Granny Smith Apple Green Foliage

Of all the plants in my Cottage Garden, this is the one I get asked about the most. Everyone loves the color! It was given to me by a friend and that makes it even more special!

Granny Smith Apple has been a part of the Crayola series since 1993. In the “Colors of Baltimore” series it is known as Francis Scott Key Lime and in the “State Crayon Collection,” it is known as Sacra-mint-o, the color for California.

I wanted to know who Granny Smith was and more about her apples, don’t you? Maria Ann Sherwood was born in 1799 in Peasmarsh, Sussex, England. She was the daughter of John Sherwood, a farm laborer, and his wife Hannah. Maria worked as a farm laborer and married a farm laborer, Thomas Smith. Both were illiterate. The Smiths lived is Sussex for the next nineteen years, before they migrated to New South Wales as free settlers, arriving in Sydney in 1838. Thomas found employment in the fruit-growing district near Ryde.  He and Maria remained in the district for the rest of their lives working on the 24 acres of land they had purchased for an orchard.

Maria also went to the market where she sold her homemade fruit pies, for which she was widely known.

In 1868, a wholesaler at the Sydney markets gave Maria a box of French crab apples, grown in Tasmania, to use in her pies. After using them, she discarded the remaining peels and seeds onto a compost heap near a creek on her farm. Some months later, she observed a pippin growing from the compost. She tended it carefully and it bore fruit. In 1876, following Maria and Thomas’ death, local orchardist Edward Gallard, bought part of the Smith Farm and developed the ‘Granny Smith’ seedling, planting a large number of these trees from which he marketed a crop annually until his death in 1914. The cultivar was named “Granny” Smith in honor of the old lady who had first cultivated it. I’m glad he named the apple after her!

This post is just one of many in the Color Your World: 120 Days of Crayola Challenge! Enjoy!

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