Gardening at The ToadShed

I try not to be so critical, sometimes I just can't help myself. I walked out today and all I could see was ugliness. My poor flowers, they looked so sad. I wanted to cry. My mother called, and she quickly decided I was just to ill to talk. She couldn't believe it when she learned that the cause of my "bad mood" was that my flowers were wilted and scorched from the brutal sun beaming down day after day with absolutely no rain at all. When she and the rest of the county get rain, I get none. It somehow dissipates before it reaches my garden. So yes I would say I was a little upset. I wanted to rip them all out by their little dried up roots and swear off gardening forever. Thankfully I refrained from doing so.

As I was driving in from work today I was debating with myself whether or not I should drop by Lowe's to see if anything had been added to the Clearence shelf. I just couldn't decide I was really tired and there was probably nothing new anyway, I am getting closer to the entrance, yet I still haven't decided. Well, here I am so I make a sharp right turn on two wheels. Boy! am I glad I did. Those racks were full, and I loaded up. I managed to get $75.00 worth of plants for 35 buckaroos!! I got Coneflower, Dead Nettle,Lysimachia,and several more of the Mona Lavender Swedish Ivy plants. I was so excited. When I arrived in Athens I decided to do a drive by at our local store, and the clearence shelves were loaded there as well, but I decided I had better get on home. In the morning I will head out to Lowe's once again. Ugh, that means I gotta get up early, oh well.

It's Monday, and after a lovely weekend it was really hard to go back to work. I went though, I just left early. I stopped off at a few nursery's on the way home and lucked up on some great bargains. I think my new favorite flower is Plectranthus, sounds prehistoric doesn't it? It is a beautiful plant with wonderful purple blooms that actually like the shade. I plan to put them under a tree along with Pachysandra, I wanted to get them in the ground today, but I have got to ammend the soil and after all, I did work half a day.

Yes, believe it or not, good insects do exist in the garden. I cringe when I hear folks say that their spaying for bugs in the garden. Don't get me wrong I, shamefully will admit that I too have grabbed for the insecticide in a moment of sheer desperation, but let me say that has been years ago, before I knew better. Now that I have done away with the sprays and retired my bug zappers I have seen a plethora of good bugs. I now have several orb spiders, I remember as a child seeing these in my grandparents garden. Usually when I find an insect that I can not identify, I will snap a picture then research it on the web. I thought I would share some of these with you. This is a Hummingbird Moth. It closely resembles a Bumblebee. This Is a Bumblebee. Swallowtail This is the bug that ate Susie. I still can not identify it. Some kind of weevil, I suppose a moth or butterfly I found this quite amusing . This moth reminds me of a B-52 stealth. This Hummingbird Moth seems to think he needed

As you can see I subscribe to too many magazine's, not to mention the ones that catch my attention while I am waiting in a long line at Wal-mart. I can't control myself! I leaf through the pages and if something catches my attention I must buy it. Have you noticed the price of magazine's these days? you can almost but a nice hardback for the price of one of these, well on Amazon you can. some of these do have an incredible amount of advertisements, however there are a few that have very little. I flip through the pages and dream of the garden that I have planned in my mind. I tell my hubby,sweet thing that he is, if he only had the interest and desire that I have we would have one heck of a garden. He does help wherever I need it but as far as the designing and actual planting he leaves it to me. I tend to think too much about where I want to plant something, I may wander around for hours on end, plant in hand trying to decide where it would be best suited. I am not the typ

Today was wonderful, the weather perfect. In the Tennessee Valley you never know what kind of weather you may get. In August it is usually hot and dry, so low humidity and cooler temps are welcome.I started a new bed today, along the south side of the fence. I don't know what it is about a fence but when I see one I want to plant something. I started digging up plants that I had put in a temporary bed, 10 years ago. I dug out Iris's, daylilies and spiderwort. The soil there is wonderful! It reminds me of the soil in my granddaddy’s garden, so I know it is good. I plan to put some tomatoes there for fall. I recently watched on TV, a man showing how to take cutting from summer tomatoes and place them in a bottle of water in a sunny location and in seven days your tomatoes will have roots and be ready to plant. I also took a few pictures of whats happening in the garden .

By George, I think I got him! The insect with the voracious appetite that has been indulging in my flowers, finally made an appearance. I can not identify it; I have searched the web and found nothing. I snapped a few photos and then I squished it, now I feel guilty. I thought of Schindler’s list and the scene where Schindler cleverly tries to persuade Amon Goeth not to kill a young boy; Oskar Schindler : Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't. Amon Goeth : You think that's power? Oskar Schindler : That's what the Emperor said. A man steals something, he's brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for his life, he knows he's going to die. And the Emperor... pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go. Amon Goeth : I think you are drunk. Oskar Schindler : That's power, Amon. That is power. Oh! I feel so awful. Anyway here are the photos.

Today was Dewayne's birthday, he is an Electrical Superintendent and he loves tools. I thought this would be easy enough, so off to Home Depot my Mom and I went. Easy! What was I thinking? First, I HAD to go through the garden center, I HAD to have several plants, then I had to get some organic spray for Susie and, of course, a gardening magazine. You would have thought it was my birthday! I then proceeded to the tool aisle and every tool I spotted, he has. I wandered around so long my mom finally left and went outside to wait. I settled on an assortment of things such as a tool bag,measuring tape,gloves and a level. I was looking for a big, long torpedo level. It wasn't until later that I learned the torpedo levels are the small ones. Hey! I'm a gardener, not an electrician, ok.

As I took a leisurely stroll in my garden, I was suddenly horrified at what stood before me. Susie; stripped of her beautiful green leaves. What could have done this? I immediately launched an investigation, going out at night, flashlight in hand, searching for the perpetrator. Still, I haven't found this evil that lurks in my garden. I could have taken the easy way out and purchased one of those pesticides, however,I may be sacrificing the beneficials that visit here, as well as the beautiful butterflies and dragonflies. No! I can't do it. I will continue to walk the garden paths at night searching for what hides in the darkness. just click play

Well, I have been quite busy in the garden this summer. I have been trying to amend the soil in all of the beds. I have even relocated several plants that were not thriving in the location that i originally chose for them. I try to do this when Dewayne isn’t looking, but somehow he always shows up at about the time I have finally managed to get the plant out of the ground and we (the plant and I) are on our way to it’s new home. I hate the disapproving look he gives me and the question that always follows. ” what are you doing?” o.k. I will admit it . I am a plant mover!There I said it. i firmly believe if a plant is not doing well in one spot move it to another. I have had much success with this practice. Some plants that I have moved this year are: blue star creeper, it was on the brink of death, I knew I had to act fast. I prepared another hole in what I hoped was a more sutible location. Shovel in hand I carefully removed the lifeless plant from it’s would be tomb and Med-Shoveled