We are now settled into our new home with a brand new garden to create and WE HAVE CLAY! And if that isn't bad enough, the builder didn't give us any top soil when he created the beds. We have scraped garden beds covered with mulch! Trying digging into that when you try planting 6 new bushes... I think that they are called barberry and 6 lily plants.

So far we have lost one barberry bush but all of the rest are doing quite nicely. The trick is to not water too much. If the water gets underneath the plants, there is no where for it to go and they literally sit in water.

We had that problem in our last house... and yes we had clay there too!! What's the chances of moving to a new country and having clay again?? Pretty good it seems!!

Anyway, will keep you updated on my new flower beds and things that I learn along the way :)

 

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."
~ Willa Cather

Did you ever think to use a coffee filter to prevent the soil from coming out of the hole in the bottom of a flower pot. Works like a charm.

The Olympic Gardens... you won't believe your eyes...

8 Bugs Worth Keeping Around. I'm not a big lover of bugs by any means, but I'm rethinking that right now. Apparently they are pretty important when it comes to your garden.

How to plant a Heather Garden. I first saw heather in Cornwall, England. This is one gorgeous plant!

Sweet bird!  thy bow'r is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
thou has't no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.

-  John Logan

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. 

*James Douglas

 

Indoor Garden Tote Set

Today I'm going to take a good look at what needs transplanting, watering, feeding... you get the idea. It's been a while since I have paid enough of attention to my babies. Life kind of gets in the way, but then you notice that you have been neglectful and it makes you feel rather horrid... like my poor ficus who has a bad case of scale. My plants must be hating me at the moment. :(

 

I just finished moving my window boxes to my front steps. I love the look of the petunia filled boxes on the sills, but I could never reach them to water or deadhead them and constantly had to rely on other people. Well, not anymore. I asked my husband to move them to where I can take care of them. I think that they will do so much better now that I can  baby them!

If something is not working.. simply move or rearrange them.

Right after Christmas, I cut mine back as it was beginning to get straggly and it just burst out with new leaves. I set in front of the patio windows early spring and I had a nice bunch of leaves turn the most gorgeous shade of red. But as the days got longer, the red bracts of the poinsettia began to turn black. Apparently it does not like direct light. I have just moved it to another room so we shall see what happens!!

Go out and play in the snow. Would you believe that there is not one snowman on our street and we certainly have enough snow for more than a few! Get out there and build one, or two, or three ;)

Have no idea what is wrong with him... he seems to love the dark and then as the day progresses he seems to lose all of his "energy" and starts to droop. He's a freshly planted cutting so I'm hoping that this is natural.

I have a cactus with tons of babies on it  at the moment and I was thinking this morning that if you planted each of the babies, you would have cute little Christmas gifts to hand out next year. I might just be on to something. I have had so many comments on the mother cactus.