Weather, minis, testing and wishes…

I’m sure that somewhere along the way this weather happened before.  I’m sure that we’ve have a wild spring that saw soaring heat and hard frost in the same month.  I’m sure that this cool wet spring isn’t a first.  I’m also sure that while I’m very grateful for the rain, I’d rather not get all we need in less than a month.

Today it’s waffling between sun and ominous clouds so I didn’t want to commit to do anything that might leave me in a lurch if it started pouring down rain.  I decided to plant up the mini hosta that I bought at the plant sale.  I’m making one planter my mouse collection I think I’ll even get a little mouse to decorate it with.  I had no idea that there were so many mini hosta varieties and it would be easy to become a collector of them.  I told my mom I think I’m now inflicted with hostaitis.

Blue Mouse Ears

Lemon Frost

I went through a time when I didn’t label my plants, then I went through a time when I did.  I liked having the names there, not sure why but I did.  My markers were metal and two things happened to them, they either rusted or got crushed by feet.  Now I can’t do anything about the crushing part but I want to label my plants, especially my natives.  I have a lot of markers left so I wasn’t going to buy new ones that wouldn’t rust, so I decided to test a theory.  I got some rustoleum spray paint and I’m painting the part that goes in the ground with it.  If it doesn’t rust I’ve solved my problem, if it still rusts, maybe I’ll get that incredible dip stuff to try  

While I was doing all of this I was thinking that if I had a garden shed with my very own workbench and a potting area outside of that I’d be so happy.  I could have easily spent the entire day in there puttering around.  Painting garden markers, painting and decorating planters, maybe even making a faerie garden.  Alas, at this time, it’s only a dream…

Plants, herons and pots…

It doesn’t look like much but one day…

I spent some time separating the hosta with the white and green leaves from the ragwort.  These hosta were planted along the other side of the path but I wanted to mix them in with the solid green hosta.  I have I think about 24 of the white and green ones and countless solid green as I found more of them the other day.  This is my first attempt at actually planning where I’m planting things.

The other morning I was sitting in the quiet enjoying my coffee when I saw something very large fly towards the house, as it made it’s was past the French doors my heart sank it was a blue heron.  Now our pond is not hunter friendly, the thing is almost 4 feet deep in the center.  The sides are not flat and I did this on purpose because I didn’t want anyone to be able to hunt my fish or frogs.  I have a Koi cave as well that looks like a log and if the fish hide in there you can’t see them.  On top of all of that I also have an aerator now and it does a great job of obscuring the view into the pond.  All those things are supposed to make it unfriendly to heron, yet there it was flying away and I didn’t know if it had a belly full of fish or not.  I quickly ordered a couple more Koi caves and a decoy heron.  Supposedly heron don’t like to share space with other heron and won’t come to a pond that is already occupied. I will move this guy around the pond all season, just to keep any heron that might be checking in thinking there is someone already here.

And then there were two..okay technically there are still 5 plants in pots left to be planted.  This dogwood and fringe tree, a yellow twig dogwood, a huge Turks Cap lily with some creeping fern and a Japanese rose.  All but the fringe tree require assistance in planting because they need big holes dug and the pots are heavy!  Ironic that I’m down to 5 and am about to hit a mega plant sale this weekend.  I will not however buy anything that I don’t have a place for!

Last but not least, my Sweet Tea finally made it into the ground!  I bought this at a plant sale years ago.  It was huge.  I brought it home and planted it in one of my shade beds and it slowly died away to just a few leaves in one season.  At first I thought it was transplant shock but the following season it did nothing.  So I dug up this pathetic little thing that barely had a leaf on it and planted it in a pot where I could keep an eye on it.  After 2 years in the pot it finally got big enough to try in the ground again, I’m hoping that this area is more to it’s liking because I love the colors on this one.  Oh and yes I planted it with these green hosta on purpose, funny, I’m gardening on purpose now!

Hounds & Hosta..

I can’t believe that it is almost June.  Things are growing so fast and I’m not just talking about the plants either!  When we brought Tucker home he was only 15 pounds, at last check in he was almost 23 pounds!

It is amazing how fast they grow and it makes life a little challenging when he isn’t keen on going down the porch steps to go out, my arms are getting some serious workouts.  We introduced him to his crate and it’s going remarkably well.  Except…

Ally is pretty sure that she is supposed to be in there!  It’s funny when she goes in because he will stand outside and bark at her, he will not set a foot in there at all.  Today we had him outside with us while we were doing yard work and he decided he’d had enough.  Randy said he walked around the house and up onto the porch.  He opened the door and he said Tucker went right to his crate and flopped down.  He stayed in there for about an hour and a half sleeping while we kept working.  It’s the first time we’ve ever had a puppy that liked his crate!
Cooper loves Tucker, I’ll admit I’m a little jealous!

He is so good with him and except for the occasional need to tell Cooper easy, they play so well together.  I look forward to Tucker being a little bigger and being able to run and play a little harder with Cooper.

They do a lot of mouth play which to some would seem scary, but it’s just a dog thing.  Dakota and Zoe did the same thing when they were puppies together.  Caught in the act though the look they gave me was priceless..


The house is scattered with dog toys and is pretty much a disaster zone, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!  Seeing them play together, having them both cuddled next to me on the sofa is just the best thing in the world.  Plus they are so stinking cute you can’t help but smile! <3
Needless to say the outside chores have fallen to the wayside.  So spending some time outside this weekend was pretty nice.  I got a lot of jewel weed pulled out of the bed at the deck.  What I love though is looking down and seeing hosta, real honest to goodness hosta, with leaves!

That one in the right corner is huge, I’m talking giant and it’s so cool to see!  I didn’t even know I had a hosta that big!

We spread the mulch that was left in the driveway today, some made it to this bed but I’ll need more to finish it off.  Randy decided he wanted to plant something in this bed.

I’ve had this Golden Shadows Pagoda Dogwood for several years, growing in this pot.  I couldn’t plant it because the deer ate it to nothing but sticks.  So I kept it on the deck where they couldn’t get to it.  Now that the fence is in place it’s time for it to find a home and he chose the spot between the two decks.  It doesn’t get much more than 8’ tall and the spread is minimal, so this will be a great spot for it. 

Sweet dreams…