25 Saturday Mar 2017
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Some days I like my tea green and my coffee black. Straight up, no fuss.
Green and black succulents, tea and coffee style.
Posted by Julia Monroe | Filed under gardening, home decor, photography, Uncategorized
26 Thursday Jan 2017
Posted in DIY, gardening, home decor, nature, On my Worktable, tutorial
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I made my first succulent garden! My mom gave me some of the succulents so long ago that they were starting to root into the paper towel on the plate. I got most of the others from Homewood Nursery.
The platter is actually a big, heavy plant saucer, 14″ in diameter. Since it was so shallow, I decided to build a little stone wall in order to build up the soil. The stones used for the wall were all gathered from my back yard. Since the edge of the saucer was curved, I had to hot-glue the stones to keep them from sliding in to the center of the plate. It only took a small amount of glue to hold them together. I planned on using a cement filler between the stones but ended up not using it.
Since the saucer has no drainage, I covered the bottom with more stones.
A layer of bonsai soil was spread over the stones. Not shown is a very thin scattering of charcoal to help with drainage.
A thicker layer of cactus/succulent soil was placed on top, with a little more bonsai soil mixed in. I also arranged and glued more rocks to make another wall on top of the soil, then built up more soil inside to give the arrangement height.
Not all the succulents got used.
I’m so happy with how this turned out since it the first time I planted succulents.
I got a container of “vase filler” from Target and sorted through to pull out all the black stones and light stones. The black stones were used on and near the elevated area in the center of the arrangement. The light stones were used everywhere else.
This dish is beautiful but I weighed it and it’s very heavy… 22 lbs! Wow! It’s definitely not a casual arrangement I will be moving often. But today, I’m really enjoying it on my dining room table.
13 Sunday Nov 2016
Posted in funny, gardening, nature, photography, Uncategorized
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All eyes are on succulents.
Today is a great day for #7 from the previous post. “Laughter can be The Best Medicine Ever. You’ve got to try it! Read humor, watch comedy, laugh with family and friends. Don’t just hope laughter might happen, deliberately make it happen.” – from 31 Wonderful Things Severe Pain Taught Me
Scruffy succulent.
We are gathered here together…
Sopranos, go for the high notes… Bass, pick up the volume…
Succulent solo.
Chirp, chirp.
Oooo, that’s scary!
15 Friday May 2015
Posted in All Sparkled Up, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, Inspirational, nature
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All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, inspiration, nature, New Dawn, roses, window
I can’t count the number of friends whose lives are really complicated right now. I’m included in that number. So many troubles are weighing heavy on our hearts. But through it all, God is still there and still in charge.
This year, he gave me a little surprise again. Several weeks ago, I noticed New Dawn rose buds in the window!
The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.
New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.
My kitchen window is on the second floor and I don’t have planters in the windows. The patio isn’t finished, the paint is peeling, lots of things are falling apart.
The patio is still unfinished.
Due to disability, I had to let a lot of things go, such as pruning and training the New Dawn rose bush. Just when it was getting to a good age to work with, my spine was collapsing so there were a half dozen years that disappeared.
The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.
Those were the thorn years. Lots of tangles and brambles.
We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.
Even then, good things keep growing. Never forget that… GOOD THINGS KEEP GROWING.
Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!
All the way up to my kitchen window, the rose bush reached.
The roses didn’t care that the paint was peeling.
Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?
Yes, God is aware. He knows what we need. And all those little buds lined up in my window to say Good Things Keep Growing.
The roses are blooming now. But the weight of them is pulling the vine over.
I put three nails and a loose wire up to hold the roses up so I can see them from the kitchen again.
Roses in the window!
And how fitting that the rose is called New Dawn. Even without a window box of nourishing dirt, 20 feet from the ground, never stopping, the roses are peeking in my window to remind me Good Things Keep Growing.
Good things keep growing.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Is 58:11
14 Tuesday Oct 2014
Posted in flowers, gardening, nature, photography, water
04 Thursday Sep 2014
It’s September 4th but I’m rejoicing in the summer cicadas, the sun’s heat on my skin, the tomatoes that are still trying.
Dragon Wing Begonia
Trailing Vinca
Out of four vigourously growing Heirloom tomatoes, only one bore fruit, much to our dismay. But the flavor was so spectacular that we will try again next year.
New growth is appearing at the base of one of the Heirloom tomatoes.
02 Friday May 2014
It was a very cold winter and since the trees were over five years old, it never occurred to me that they were sensitive to cold. I’m very sad we may have lost the fig trees. We were supposed to mulch them two feet deep before the deep frosts hit.
Everywhere there are signs of spring, except on the frost-damaged fig trees.
Strands of boring dust protrude from the trunks.
Tiny leaves form on a cane rising from roots of the dying fig tree.
The day we have to burn the fig trees, I will hang a porch swing here and drink wine.
19 Wednesday Feb 2014
Posted in flowers, home decor
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That is what the roses become when they wilt too much for a bouquet.
This rose is too far gone to revive.
The rose is wilting.
All the roses in this photo are from the same bouquet. The wilted roses in the vase on the right are the original length.
The roses on the left had the stems trimmed once and fresh water. The roses in the bowl were cut off the stems right under the calyx just as they started to bend over but before they wilted. Overnight in the bowl of water, they perked up. Amazing how all these roses were from the same bouquet.
All the roses are from the same bouquet but they received different treatment.
This photo was taken several years ago.
The roses are cut just under the calyx and placed in water in a bowl. The bottom of the short stem touches the bottom of the bowl and the roses are resting in the water.
Here are my Valentine roses from this year. They were grocery store roses and weren’t fresh to begin with. But yesterday they started to droop so I cut them short and placed them in water. Today several have revived and I removed the brown outer petals from the roses that never opened.
Bowl Roses. They still look nice days later.
These roses are exquisite, shaded in delicate shell and baby pink. I was surprised he remembered my favorite colors! So sweet. The Bowl Roses look beautiful on the work table.
15 Monday Jul 2013
The figs are juicy, sweet and huge this year!
We were really pleased that the netting kept the birds away.
We put the net over the tree too early though so some of the new tree growth went right through the net. We’ll have to either prune the tree or cut the net to get it off in the fall.
We haven’t hung the bug traps yet so we lost a few figs to beetles and bees.
But there are still so many green, healthy figs.
I hope the traps work for beetles. We didn’t have beetles last year.
It’s disturbing to see how they ravage a fig. But at least they stay on one fig until it is all used up without taking a single bite out of the neighboring fig.
Beetles ravage a ripe fig hanging on the tree.
The basket was heavy with plump figs.
This warm-from-the-tree fig fits my palm!
I remember our first harvest several years ago yielded just one tiny fig that didn’t even fit in a spoon. Look at the size of these. Luscious!
We weren’t sure if the figs were ripe or overripe. This was one of the yellower figs. I thought so much white pith might mean the fig wasn’t ripe. It still tasted delicious and juicy and sweet.
Here is a riper fig, with a darker brown skin next to the golden yellow skinned fig from the same tree for comparison.
When both figs were compared in flavor and texture, they were still almost identical. The riper fig had a slightly larger pink, seeded center. The seeded area should take up more of the fruit but this year the figs are dropping if left much longer on the tree. They still taste delicious.
Figs keep only a day or two and taste better at room temperature so these will sit on the counter for snacking. I cut and ate half of one immediately after picking then ate the other half several hours later. The flavor was better after the fig sat for a bit after picking. I’m not sure what caused it to be sweeter. We are still newbies at growing figs.
15 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in gardening, Uncategorized
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container gardening, gardening, hanging plants, nature, planters, plants, strawberries, strawberry planter, strawberry plants
Honestly though, I’m not optimistic. My husband brought home a box of 20 “Strawberry Plants” from a discount store. Inside were two plastic bags of dirt and not a green leaf in sight. It took me a while to figure out the mass of mulch-looking matter actually contained some roots. I had no idea how the tangled mass was 20 plants so I just played in the dirt a bit until 20 little “pony tails” fell out.
The strawberry plant roots were all tangled together in a mass
Strawberry plant… which end is which?
Good planting soil is shoveled into the hanging strawberry planter.
Here you can see the roots spread out over the soil and the “not root” end sticking out the hole.
A last layer of soil is added to the planter.
The planter is lifted up to the sturdy hook.
It’s not the prettiest addition to our deck, but it is promising.
All Sparkled Up 