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Tropical Hibiscus and Blueberry Bush Blessings

July 20, 2016 By Laura 1 Comment

No one could have known how sad I have been this season, without my gardens to work in, and watch grow.
But I have been. Until I was blessed by surprise, with a Tropical Hibiscus and Blueberry Bush.

Hibiscus-and-blueberry-bush

We had decided to completely overhaul our garden area this year, in an effort and plan to re-plot and grow a lot more of our own food. Although I’ll be the first to admit, there’s been many plans made over the years, that never materialized. And considering we’re deep in July here now, with little accomplished still, I’m losing hope on this one, too.

But I’ve happened to get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of working in the soil and growing things in my gardens over the past years. Growing anything, beautiful or nutritional. This year, however, there has been nothing out there, but dirt.  Then, some gardening-related joy came my way. On two separate occasions, I was given these two very unexpected gifts:

A Tropical Hibiscus and a Blueberry Bush.

And oh, how they helped soothe my little gardenless-woes! I have been loving having them to tend to, and seeing them grow. But what makes them mean the most to me, is where they came from.  Let me tell you a bit about that.

The Tropical Hibiscus

Tropical Hibiscus

This is probably the kind of beautiful plant that I would always want to buy, but never buy for myself. And therefore, I would have probably never had something so bold and lovely.  But now I do.

And how is that? Because . . . . a very special and thoughtful young man in my oldest daughter’s life, surprised me with it. I think he got quite a surprise, himself, by [Read more…]

Filed Under: Faith, Gardening, Life In General, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: blooms, blueberries, blueberry-bush, buds, flower photography, flowers, Gardening, gardens, health-benefits-of-blueberries, tropical-hibiscus

Flower Photography, and History Repeating

June 3, 2012 By Laura 6 Comments

003_iris-flowers-150x150

I don’t know where time has gone, but I sure wish it would slow down some.  I’ve done the best I can all along, to cherish every moment of watching all of my children grow up, knowing it will all happen too fast. It’s yet another reason I school my kids myself. I don’t want to miss any of their fleeting childhood. Still, it seems like yesterday that my first baby girl, Alexis Grace, was born.  She grew up in the blink of an eye. Next thing I knew, she was in high school, and taller than me!  She’s athletic and strong, and it blows me away.

And now she has a real job! She’s been trying to figure out how to get one sooner for awhile now.  She has worked with both Michael and I in our businesses quite a bit, in the past few years, weeding and prepping truck lettering with Michael, and as my photographer’s assistant when I was doing a lot more portrait work. We’ve paid her of course.  Also, she’s actually been pretty creative at finding safe ways to make a little cash of her own, in the meantime, too. I’d venture to say she chooses to spend her time differently than typical girls her age. She’s a determined soul, who loves to research, earn her own way, and make things happen. If anyone is interested for their own young teen kids, I can share those ideas at another time. She’s always been diligent with every dollar she’s gotten.  Since she was little, she’s been strict with her own budget for spending and saving.  And now, she’ll be making a real pay check from someone else, other than us. There was a lot to consider, knowing she has a lot on her schedule, especially with schooling, and more upcoming heavy sport seasons. Not to mention of course, being such a young age still, at 14.  But she gets excellent grades, is self-disciplined with her daily responsibilities like clockwork, and has been really wise with her money. There was really no reason to not let her.  She was hired in a heart beat. We just had to get some extra paperwork signed off here and there, because of her age.

001_flower-nursery

She’ll be working at a nursery here in town, watering all of the flowers, helping customers, etc.  It’s a job we’re comfortable with as her parents, because we’ve known the owner for years.  He’s a good client of Michael’s, so we trust him to watch out for her, and he has a good staff. Also, it’s all outdoors, where Alexis loves to be.  It’ll be real hot some days this summer, when the humidity kicks in. But it’s still pretty ideal work for her.  I’m excited for her!

002_greenhouse-inside
The funny thing is, I used to work at a nursery and greenhouse for a couple of years in high school, right around the same age as she is. I have to admit, I was not all that interested in plants and flowers at that time. But I was working with my friend, so it wasn’t all that bad. I learned what I had to know, to take care of the plants and flowers, and help customers.  But it was just a job to me.  My second job, actually, working with a lot of plants and flowers. I started working when I was 9 years old, cleaning an older couple’s home and maintaining their impeccable landscaped yard on Saturdays, until I was about 14. I got paid well too!  But I was well into my married years, before I honestly took an interest in real gardening and such. However, when I fell in love with it all, I fell hard! I really love working in my gardens.

The funny thing is, my daughter is as passive as I was about gardening right now, as I was at her age. She’s not as into it as my younger daughter is. To her credit, she’ll volunteer to water the gardens on summer nights, which I always appreciate. But I have wished she would love gardening as much as I do.  So this job of hers, gives me hope. Already, she jumped in and helped plant some flowers the other night with me. It could very well be that all she learns at her job, will serve her well, years down the road. I think it’s a wonderful education to have. I know I was happy to have some agricultural knowledge and experience to draw on, once I decided to start gardens of my own.  I believe she’ll be a valued employee, because she is definitely a people-person, always smiling, loves to help people, takes pride in her work, and despite her supposed lack of interest, she really remembers the names of flower varieties!  I’m just so excited she’ll be working in this environment, in particular.  I mean, what a great first job on her own.

Well enough chatting. Yes? I’ve been having fun taking photos of the beautiful blooms around our home. Some are on the edge of neighbor’s property. I am always so happy with my camera in my hand.  So I thought I’d share with you some of my photos.


003_iris-flowers
An Iris.
–

004_geranium-flowers Geraniums.

005_chrysanthemum-flowers A Chrysanthemum.

006_azaleias-flowering-bush
Azaleias.

007_azaleias-flowering-bush
Azaleias.

008_foxglove-flowers
Foxglove.


009_foxglove-flowers
And more Foxglove.

I think this last shot is my favorite, tied with the Iris. What’s yours?

Also, I’d love to know how old you or your teens were when you got your first job, and what you did.  Scroll down and tell us about it.

So glad you came by. : )

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Filed Under: Gardening, Homeschooling, Life In General, Photography, Photography & Lettering, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: agriculture, azaleias, chrysanthemum, education, flower photography, flowers, foxglove, Gardening, gardens, geranium, greenhouse, homeschooling, iris, photography, plant-flower-nursery, yard-flowers

Garden Peek!> Early Summer 2011

July 20, 2011 By Laura 1 Comment

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-12

I believe we’ve been both gardening and blogging, for about 3 years.  Our life is filled with so many various passions, there is more than we are actually able to get to blogging.  I sure try to get it all in though!  But one area that is especially hard to keep you all updated with, is the gardening!  Good gosh. Things grow and change SO fast, by the time I photograph what I want, edit the photos, and start putting a post together (while you know, living my life and doing 1,000 other things in the midst of it all), the post report, explaining the photos I took, don’t seem very current by the time I get to typing it out! But my intent today, is really just to share with you all what we’ve got growing this year.

In that light, after the first photo, the photos in this post were taken in early July. As I type, it is the 20th of July. Still, while reporting with photos is unavoidably a little delayed, we like to try and give you the picture of the process as a whole, even if the photos are a little behind the 8-ball of the gardens in the moment.  I imagine it is all still relate-able for the interested gardeners (or wannabes) reading, and perhaps it opens a door for conversation, as you reflect back on the few weeks prior to your own gardening-status, and the subsequent changes.  So we’re going to roll with this delay-thing we have going on in the gardening blog-shares, and hope you all can too.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos

One thing we did differently this year, that we have not done in the past 2 years, is start our vegetable plants from seed!  Our experience with gardening has been that we learn a little more every year.  While we were somewhat successful in growing the plants from seed indoors, to transplant to the garden beds come Memorial Day weekend, I’m not sure our timing was right with everything. (?) For example, our pepper plants started out so tiny in the beds, that I couldn’t imagine them ever producing fruit this season!  But in sharing this with my Mother-in-law when she visited in early June, she mentioned those seeds probably should be planted in February or so.  She and my Father-in-law kept a beautiful yard full of gardens when they lived in this area. In the course of our conversation, I could not even remember the month we actually did start the seeds. But I was sure it was not that early!  The packaging of the seeds did not say, that I could tell, how long prior to replanting, that the seeds should be started. It only seemed to say how many weeks before they should bare their first fruits. So….I was winging it all. All of the seeds did sprout, grow plants, and were transplantable. In fact,  some grew too tall to keep the clear cover on, for the greenhouse effect.  What to do about that? And as I said, maybe different seeds should have started at different times. But when, for each variety, is my question. So, more researching to be done, and more lessons to be learned.  But as I have said all along, the learning as we go is half the fun!  Next year , also, I’ll keep a record of when the seeds were put in the soil. At least write the date on the containers!

Here is just a couple of other small points to note:  1)  As a reference, these photos were taken in early July. Things have grown and changed a lot since then.  So we plan to update you soon, but a little after the facts of course. : )  2) Please pay no mind to the very patchy crabgrass, in our sand-dirt, that needed mowing badly. It was done that evening.  But I am working on not procrastinating photos or a post, due to a likely irrelevant detail, so don’t call me out on that, or I may have a relapse with my self-therapy. ; )  Alrighty?

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-1

Here in Bed #1 we have little pepper plants on the far right, behind the Marigolds.There is Green Peppers, and Jalapenos.  Aside from the Marigolds, we also have Cosmos, and a sweet single Sunflower that {O} grew.  I plant the Marigolds and Cosmos in ever bed, to attract bees and butterflies, for assistance in pollination. But also, because I love bees and butterflies.  : )   On the far left, we have Cucumbers growing.


early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-2

In Bed #2, we are growing Yellow Summer Squash and Zucchini.  We were adamant about the squash varieties growing in another bed this summer, after last year’s devastation!  Some of you may recall the sudden and devastating death of our squash bed last year, and eventual discovery of the culprit!  More on our remedy for this in just a bit.  But also in this garden bed is something new we are trying to grow Sugar Snap Peas! We had no idea what we were doing there at first, but I researched it and learned quickly. They started out ‘thin’, in my Mother-in-law’s word. That was her nice way of saying ‘puny’ I think. Made me giggle. But they are looking GOOD now. A closer look on that in just a minute as well. All else we have here, is the Marigolds, Cosmos, and still sitting there is our now-virtually-famous Coke Bottle Box and Candy-Cane Striped Petunias. There’s also a few Snap Dragon in that box.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-3 Promising buds of  squash.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-4

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-5 Squash Flowers.  No, we have not prepared them as a recipe in any way yet. Fried? Stuffed? It just sounds strange to me.  We’ll see who can convince me.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-6 We were pretty excited to see these 2 pods!  I have fond memories of picking & gobbling peas in my aunt’s garden, when I was little.  I want our kids to be able to do the same.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-7

So as I implied earlier, I wasn’t sure starting out, how we would do producing Sugar Snap Peas this first year. But regardless, I have loved watching them climb our wooden frame, and zig-zagging twine.  The hornets are ‘having at’ that wood frame, by the way.  I’ve found myself watching & studying their activity intently, both fascinated & irked at the same time.  I hope the frame holds up through the season anyway. It’s easy enough for Michael to whip another one up next year.  As an update, the peas are doing wonderfully, and I’ll show you more on that next garden post.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-8 Garden #3 is the Strawberry Bed.

You are welcome to check out the post prior to this one, for lots of photos and chat on our Strawberries this year.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-9 Another new learning experiment this year.  Since last year we learned that we planted our Pumpkin Patch too soon, this year we thought we’d try using the bed as a Watermelon Patch first!  The kids planted the seeds into this bed themselves. You can hardly see them well in this early photo, but let me point them out among the Marigold plants.  The Watermelon plants are in the upper far left, the one in the middle-ish, and far center-right.  There were just a couple others that the squirrels pulled out, before we got to spraying a Deer-Off border.  So I planted a row of 6 new Watermelon seeds in the soil vertically on the far right side. Updated photos of the plants will be coming up too.  We’re not sure if we’ll actually get Watermelons this year either, as my Mother-In-Law said those should have been planted earlier too.  But the plants are spreading like mad now, and I did catch a glimpse of a flower. So there’s a small chance we’ll get at least 1 melon. Heyyyy, we can split it!

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-10 Lastly, in Bed #4 we have 4 Varieties of Tomatoes:  Cherry, Early Girl, Big Boy & Beefsteak.

This is the bed that was our Squash Bed last year! First, we screened all of the soil, looking for any Vine Borers that were hibernated down into the soil, pupating, after the devastation they do in the year prior, waiting to reak new havoc again this year!  We learned that’s what they tend to do!  We didn’t really seem to find any, but we used a new bed for the squash this year just in case.  Besides, we try to rotate the beds every year or 2, so the soil is not depleted of any nutrients from one particular plant variety.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-11 Some Cherry Tomatoes on the vine.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-13 Marigolds.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-14 Cosmos.

And lastly, a quick look at how our Mailbox Garden Tub has filled in….

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-15 I love how the Calibrachoa spill over.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-16 And I have always loved Snap Dragons.

early-flower-vegetable-garden-photos-17 THIS, is not a photo from early July, but a more recent photo after some picking, last weekend. We have been enjoying Yellow Summer Squash, Zucchini, and Cucumbers, so far.

And that my friends, is your Late Garden Report!  Stay tuned for more Late Reporting, right here in the The Homestead ~Home & Gardens section, of Our House Of Joyful Noise.  Meanwhile, I’m open to some sharing and garden chat in the comments!

 


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Filed Under: Gardening, Photography, The Homestead Tagged With: cosmos, cucumbers, early-gardening-season, flower photography, flower photos, garden beds, garden photography, garden photos, Gardening, gardens, green peppers, jalapenos, peppers, snapdragons, squash, strawberries, sugar-snap-peas, vegetable-plants, watermelon-patch, yellow-summer, zucchini

What’s growing around our house right now – Flower Photography

May 20, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

Not too much to say today really, but I did take some shots of what’s growing around our house at the moment, so I thought I’d share some of my flower photography with you.  I hope you enjoy them!

Pink Apple Blossoms of the apple tree. The petals are looking a little beat down from all of the rain,
but there is more buds to bloom, and I think they are beautiful none-the-less.

pink-apple-blossom

apple-blossom

Lilacs of the Lilac Tree. Still have lots of bud-opening to do as you can see. They put out such a lovely scent though – don’t they?

  lilacs

Purple Phlox. Such a pretty ground covering.

phlox
Bell Flowers
bell flowers

Pink Azaelias. This Azaelias bush was here when we bought the house.  I look forward to it’s blooming every year.
azaelias

I have to admit, of these photos, only the Azaelias are actually on our property.  The trees and other flowers are actually just on the other side of our property line.  But we manage that property, so it’s all as good as ours.  : )  We sure enjoy it all.

The hostas are in their full glory. The tulips I was so looking forward to had not been bloomed for 2 days before their heads just got chopped off in one bite at the upper stem. Decapitated, with their heads just laying there on the ground, to be clear. It’s happened in years passed (and makes me mad as the dickens!)  Who does it?  Is it the squirrels?  I’m not sure-but I suspect so.

That’s all for today!  Come back soon!

Filed Under: Nature Study, Photography, Photography & Lettering, The Homestead Tagged With: azaelias, bell-flowers-apple-blossoms, flower photography, flowers, lilacs, phlox

Spring and Budding Promise

April 13, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

hostas breaking ground

I know it doesn’t look like much.  Yet.  But it will soon enough!  These are the buds of my hostas and tulips.  Spring and budding promise. I wait for them, in such anticipation, every early spring.  New England weather is so crazy, and everyone knows how much I despise the COLD.  So when I see these buds, it’s proof to me that maybe, perhaps, spring may truly be here. Even if it’s not quite acting like it yet.

More than the hope they give, I know all that they will flourish to be.  I’ve seen it!  These little pathetic buds are full of promise.  I’ve soaked up the joy they give me at every glance, year after year. I have faith, that it will happen once again.

The hostas actually hold a little family history for us.  My mother-in-law gave us this cluster of hosta, probably over 11 years ago.  She had transplanted some, and didn’t have anywhere to put this one she had left. She had a beautifully gardened yard. The kind you see in Better Home and Gardens.  Just lovely. I loved visiting and seeing it.  But gardening, plants, flowers,…it all just wasn’t my thing.  Seemed like a lot of work to me! So I wasn’t all THAT excited about taking the orphaned hosta.  : ) But my husband was kind of excited.  He broke it up into 5 plants, and planted them around the big pine tree we had on the side of the driveway there.  They never did so well there, I would imagine because of the excessive shade they were in, and the acidity of the pine needles falling.

Eventually we cut that pine tree down, and they did better with more sun. But they looked pretty silly around a stump. And that was getting pulled out.  So since the hostas had grown on me some (no pun intended : ), we decided to move them over the short wall, overlooking our yard.  They did well there, and as they grew a little more each year, so had I.  I began to have a more appreciation for what I call “those domestic kind of things”.  I rather enjoyed looking at my hostas popping up through the ground every year, and flourishing into full green hardy plants.  They are just beautiful every year now.  One might even see me out there raking up around them, keeping their beds clean.

Don’t get me wrong.   My yard still does not look like my in-law’s did. (They have since moved.)  In fact, my yard is a sore sight at the moment.  Where we live, the earth is extremely sandy. We had some major home construction about 2 years ago, for an addition to help accomodate our suddenly-bigger family, and my little green yard has not been the same since.  I will never forget seeing that excavator climb up the hill of my Junipers from the driveway, and gracefully crawl across my yard, completely unearthing everything in it’s path.  I think my mouth just hung open. That was just the beginning, and well, the yard has been secondary to finishing the inside of our home ourselves. But the hostas and tulips are a beautiful distraction from the mess of the rest.

Speaking of, the destruction of construction brings me back to the story of my tulips. I had planted some tulip bulbs over by the tree, around the same time of my half-hearted domestic efforts, many years ago.  I always loved tulips, enough that the thought of having some in my yard gave me enough ambition to actually plant some.  To my surprise, they eventually came up! But in the process of our construction, and the need to relocate lots of sandy grassed-earth, formerly know as our yard, the sandpiles were dumped on the location of my tulip bulbs!  Looking at the pile that was several feet high, I thought “Well, that’s the end of my tulips!  They are buried for good now!”

I was so very wrong.  Amazingly, to me anyway, those tulips made their way all the way up from the ground, through several feet of sand, and broke free into the air, to grow and flourish once again.  Their leaves are a little more tattered, but I can appreciate what they have gone through; their long and difficult journey, to get where they wanted to be.  They truly make me reflect on us, as a family.  We have been through a lot in our family life. Just difficult circumstances and the kind of struggles we wondered if we would ever get through.  But with what faith in God we had, and, well I won’t say patience, but perseverance, we always did make it through.  Just like many people and families in this world, who got through the difficult events that are all part of God’s greater plan, we prevailed. We’ve come out stronger, feeling all the more blessed, and have a bit more clearer perspective on life, than before. Like the sprouts of the tulip bulbs buried many, many yards below the surface, we looked UP.  We reached for the Light, looked to God for some strength and determination.  We believed, and persevered.  And eventually, we reveled in the reward that was ours.  Feeling, and living, and reveling in the glory of God.

So there is beauty in those tattered and nubby buds.  Spring and budding promise. As the photos below from last year testify, just LOOK what we have to look forward to…..

hostas

yellow and orange tulips

yellow and orange tulips

tulip close-up with water droplets

yellow and orange tulips

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to usb] and persevere in running the race that lies before us 2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12; 1-2

 

Filed Under: Faith, Life In General, Photography, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: buds, Christian-faith, Faith, flower photography, flower photos, flowers, Hebrews-12;1-2, hostas, photography, seasons, spring, thoughts-on-life, tulips

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