A Few Beauties from Renee’s Garden
Last year I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate from Renee’s Garden in their photo contest. It was really great to leaf through the catalog this spring and choose a few lovely things to grow in the garden. I chose mostly seeds for ornamental plants since I had already ordered my vegetable seeds. After planting them early this summer we had a big hailstorm and many washed away, but a few managed to survive. I was so happy to find some of them blooming when we got home from vacation.
Cardinal Climber Vine turned out to be quite a lovely vine. It’s vigorous and it’s tiny reddish pink blooms are like miniature morning glories. I wish they had started blooming earlier because the hummingbirds are supposed to love them, but they will all be migrating very shortly. I must start these indoors next spring to they bloom earlier. I planted them at the base of the gutters on my garage and on the side porch by the kitchen door. I’m hoping they set seed so I can save some to plant next year.
The Double Rose Bon Bon Cosmos are so fabulous, much more showy than the standard ones that spring up in my garden each year. They were a beautiful surprise in the lower new garden are when we returned home from vacation. I’ll be ordering more of these for sure. I won’t bother saving seed because they’ll probably revert back to standard zinnias if I try.
Sadly, I also planted seeds for Gulfwinds, Summer Peaches and Summer Romance Alyssum along with Shirley and Falling in Love Poppies and a few different kinds of larkspur of which all the seeds got washed away. I was really disappointed because I really love alyssum. I did get some marigolds that survived.
The Signet Starfire Marigolds did beautifully in both my new front garden and in one of the raised beds in the back. I must admit I usually am not a fan of marigolds but surprisingly I really love these little marigolds.
When I was getting the link for Renee’s I noticed they’re having a 40% off sale on their “packed for 2011” seeds. I think I’ll have to take a look at the list and choose a few more beauties for my garden next year, probably a few things I’ve never grown before. One of the things I really like about Renee’s Garden is that the packets don’t come with thousands of seeds in them. I like getting just enough for a home gardener like myself. The varieties they sell are tested for small home gardens. No doubt I’ll be sitting down here in the next few days with my seed box and figuring out what beauties I want to order for my garden next summer.
Did you plant any new beauties that you were especially fond of in your garden this year?
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On Being Prepared
Mr Chiots and I are campers, we love to tent camp and now we enjoy camping in our little camper. As we were traveling across the country we stayed in some campgrounds that were very nice with showers, laundry and swimming pools, but the majority of the time we were in campgrounds with pit toilets and some had no running water. We had no internet or cell phone service for most of our trip. We actually appreciate that part of camping, it’s a great way for us to take time off from our busy technology oriented life.
Camping is great preparation for those time when you’re without power because of a storm. You learn how to cook unconventionally, live on small amounts of water, and to live without electric, phone, TV, internet and refrigeration. You learn what supplies are necessary and which are not.
September is National Preparedness Month and I thought it was important to take some time to encourage any of you that haven’t to come up with an emergency plan and to get your emergency supplies in order. For an in depth post, head on over to Your Day to read up on Preparing for Emergencies. Head on over and share your emergency plans.
Are you a camper or do you prefer more plush accommodations when you travel?
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The Flag
Today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and no doubt we all have distinct memories from that time and the weeks following even though it was ten years ago. What I remember most was seeing American flags everywhere: on every house, on every lamp post, in every business. There was a deep sense of patriotism in the air and it was palatable.
I’ve always been a flag person, even when I was a little girl. When we lived in Colombia I made sure to hang the Colombian flag over the balcony for every holiday. Hanging a flag was one of the first things we did when we purchased our first home. I never let my flag get too tattered, replacing it every year or two. For most holidays I have a few other small flags that get put out in the flowerbeds as well. When my current flag needs replaced I plan on purchasing a nice one with stitched stripes and embroidered stars like this one from Valley Forge. I also need to get a small spotlight to shine on my flag at night, I’ve been wondering if a solar spotlight would shine all night long. (anyone have experience with these?) Mr Chiots is also requesting an Ohio State flag be flown here at Chiot’s Run.
In flying a flag at a private residence, all of the relevant guidelines in the Flag Code should be followed. It should be flown at night only if illuminated and in inclement weather only if made of all-weather material. The flag should be clean and without tears, rips or shredding. The flag may also be hung vertically from a window, roof eave, or other structural overhang. Traditionally flags are flown on homes on these special holidays.
New Year’s Day – January 1
Martin Luther King Day – Third Monday in January
Inauguration Day – January 20
Lincoln’s Birthday – February 12
Washington’s Birthday – Third Monday in February
Easter Sunday (date is variable)
Mother’s Day – Second Sunday in May
Peace Officers Memorial Day (half-staff) – May 15
Armed Forces Day – Third Saturday in May
Memorial Day (half-staff until noon) – Last Monday in May
Flag Day – June 14
Father’s Day – Third Sunday in June
Independence Day – July 4
National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day – July 27 (added January 6, 2009)
Labor Day — First Monday in September
Patriot Day (half-staff) September 11
Constitution Day – September 17
Gold Star Mothers Day – Last Sunday in September
Firefighters Memorial Day (half-staff) – Sunday before or on October 9th
Columbus Day – Second Monday in October
Navy Day – October 27
Election Day – First Tuesday in November
Veterans Day – November 11
Thanksgiving Day – Fourth Thursday in November
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (half-staff) – December 7
Christmas Day – December 25
State Birthdays
In case you’ve never read the standards of respect for the flag, I thought I’d list them here today.
STANDARDS of RESPECT
The Flag Code, which formalizes and unifies the traditional ways in which we give respect to the flag, also contains specific instructions on how the flag is not to be used. They are:
* The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal.
* The flag should not be used as a drapery, or for covering a speakers desk, draping a platform, or for any decoration in general. Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes. The blue stripe of the bunting should be on the top.
* The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use. Advertising signs should not be attached to the staff or halyard.
* The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, fireman, policeman and members of patriotic organizations.
* The flag should never have placed on it, or attached to it, any mark, insignia, letter, word, number, figure, or drawing of any kind.
* The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
* When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.
* The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary.
* When a flag is so worn it is no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our country, it should be destroyed by burning in a dignified manner.
You’ll find a flag flying on most days here at Chiot’s Run. We’re very proud of our wonderful country and flying a flag is how we try to display our patriotism. Some day I plan on having either pleated fan flags on my front porch or small 3 Finger Aluminum Bracket to display flags on each of my porch posts on the holidays listed above. Since I would love to see more flags flying not only in my town but in every town, I have two Valley Forge 2 1/2 x 4 foot Flag to give away. Comment below and I’ll choose a winner next Sunday.
Do you fly a flag in your garden or home?
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My Mom’s Garden
I’ve talked about how I share a large potager garden with my mom. She lives an hour away and each week I head over both for work and to work in the garden (and to chat with my mom). We usually spend a few hours weeding, planting, watering and tending the large garden we share. While I was gone on vacation, my garden at home grew up in weeds, but my mom kept on gardening without me so our garden is still looking very good. This year we added a nice gate, last year it was just a piece of fencing with a wire to keep it closed. Since we added a nice gate, we thought an arch of morning glories would be nice at the entrance. It’s just filling in and starting to bloom.
The tomatoes are coming on in full force. I harvested about a bushel of tomatoes last Saturday and another half bushel earlier this week.
The popcorn is doing well, it will be harvested in about a month when it dries out. I don’t know if the sweet corn will produce or not, we planted it late trying to time it so it wouldn’t come ripe while we were on vacation.
Our fall peas are doing well, the carrots look to be sizing up nicely and our kale it doing very well.
My mom and I were discussing this year’s garden and we said we felt bad for anyone who was growing an edible garden for the first time this year. It’s been a rough year here in NE Ohio. The spring was really wet and the peas did not like that. Then it got really hot fairly early, which the broccoli, cabbage, and other brassicas did not like. Our beet crop was washed away by rain and hail 3 different times after planting. At least it looks to be shaping up well for the fall garden.
How has your gardening year been so for? Any troubles with specific crops? What part of the country/world do you live in?
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Gardeners Should Not Go On Vacation
If you’re a gardener, you should not go on vacation for most of the month of August! It wasn’t that I particularly wanted to go on vacation in August, but it worked best for our schedule and our friends who met us in Seattle. I buttoned up the garden as best I could before we left, making sure to pull all weeds and water everything before we left. We set off and I hoped for the best. We paid the boys from the farm where we get our milk to come feed our cats and to water the potted plants. They did a great job, the cats were well fed and the potted plants were all thriving when we got home.
The edible gardens were also doing well, the tomato vines were heavy with ripe fruit. The boys picked tomatoes and peppers while we were gone to keep the plants from ceasing production (one of them is a salsa maker so he was happy with the different kinds of peppers I had in the garden). They gave me an in depth update about all the things they’d spotted in the garden while I was gone: pumpkins, watermelons, leeks, etc.
The weeds thrived while we were gone and the garden was overgrown when we arrived home. I’ve only had time to spend one evening in the garden weeding since we got home, I’ve been busy catching up on work (on of the bad parts of being self-employed). One evening I was able to spend 2 hours with Mr Chiots joining me for one of those hours.
Between us we pulled five wheelbarrow loads full of weeds from the new garden area up front (the asparagus bed lined with boxwood). Since this is a new garden area this year, it has more weeds than other areas of the garden that are more established. I have found in my few years of gardening that if you are diligent about pulling weeds in new garden areas, eventually you’ll exhaust a lot of the seed bank and you’ll have fewer and fewer weeds each year. My established beds only had a few weeds in them, the new garden areas were a mess!
Many of the weeds were starting to set seed, which is not a good thing. I always try to pull weeds before they produce seeds. There are still tons of weeds in the garden and the new edible garden on the new lot still needs weeded. No doubt it will take me a few weeks to get things back under control.
Do you have someone tend the garden while you’re away on vacation or do you leave it to it’s own devices?
