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Blooming Beauty Around the Gardens and Yard | June 2018

June 25, 2018 By Laura 5 Comments

Just a short but lovely post, to share with you all the beauty of the flowers blooming all around us, that we have been enjoying every day around here. We have a long list of vegetables growing in the garden beds as well right now, that most likely we will show you at a later date. This early in the season, however, they all have much more growing and producing to do, and they are hardly worth photographing quite yet.

But oh, the flowers blooming!

As you will see, this year we went crazy with Superbell – Calibrachoa hybrids, by Proven Winner.  And we have to say, I think they are a favorite we’ll be sticking with, year after year, from here on out!  They are so easy to maintain! They are tolerant of the heat, the occasions we didn’t get to watering, and there is never any deadheading to be done!  We’ve got them in all kinds of colors, blooming all over the place, and couple of other kinds of flowers as well to let you take in, as well.
Let us show you!


This wooden bucket holds a bountiful spillage mix of Superbells in Plum and Chiffon, as well as some Snowstorm Giant Snowflake.  So in love with it.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Gardening, Re-Purposing, The Homestead Tagged With: beautiful-gardens, container-flowers, flowers, garden-container-flowers, gardens, Lantana, Proven-Winners, Superbell-Calibrachoa, superbells

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

Photos from Around the Homestead – May, June, July 2015

July 9, 2015 By Laura 6 Comments

*Hello Friends!  First, there are a whole bunch of photos to this post here, so you really need to NOT scroll, and just let them load for a minute. Therefore, you might as well just read this brief intro, if you are one who usually just looks at the pictures.  😉

About the title: I always use the term ‘homestead’. So just so you know, yes, we do understand that we do not technically live on a true homestead, by definition. But we still have taken to the word. We are simply referring to our home and the little tiny property we live on. We’re going to keep using it, because it works for us.

Lastly, it’s been quite an unusual spring and early summer for us all.  Kind of tough, but it’s all good. I am finally starting to get around on my own two feet, following my wicked broken ankle and torn ligaments in mid-April. That kept any usual projects and activity off the table. But God has taught me much through it all, as I knew He would. Things like patience, Psalm 46:10, and all of that good and hard stuff. I didn’t realize how much transforming I had to do but, um….I see it in full color now!

Anyway, the photos are probably loaded now. Just some brief descriptions from here on out. Hope you enjoy……
  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Gardening, Our Chickens, Photography, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: calibrachoa, chickens, family-life, flowers, geraniums, homestead-photography, pansies, photography, photos, verbenas

Flower Photography, and History Repeating

June 3, 2012 By Laura 6 Comments

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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

Mid-May to End of June 2010 | Front Yard Gardens

June 29, 2010 By Laura 12 Comments

03_-300x214

There is so much to catch you up on, where our front yard gardens and transformation goes, that I’m lost in my own thoughts, in trying to figure out where I tell you what we’ve gotten done, and where I tell you about where all of this work in progress is heading.  So, if it all seems a little mixed up at time, that’s pretty much where my head is at.

But to brief you, in case you are new around here;  Our front yard was basically just a big square sandy lot, with no purpose or beauty of it’s own, for all of the years we have owned our home.  We have had a side yard that we have utilized well, but the front yard, parallel to the (dead end) street we live on, was never safe enough for our very-young kids at the time, nor private enough to relax in.

But then early last spring, we decided to start a couple of gardens.  Once we got our feet wet, we fell in love with gardening, and the dream gardens and front yard transformation plans began to unfold, and take on a life of it’s own.  The big progressive goal, is to change our front yard, into a beautiful, charming semi-private garden wonderland of our own. We’ll be sharing the details of those plans as we go along in the posts like these.  We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way too!  But for this post, I’m going to show you the kick-off of our gardening work this second spring, and very soon I will be posting how things are looking right now.  The growing in the gardens change so much by the day, it’s hard to blog about!  By the time I take photos, and edit them, and get a post started, the gardens look completely different once again.  But I’m doing my best.

01_winter_rye

First, I just wanted to share this photo from the first day of May with you, because I never took a photo in the winter as I should have!  What I am showing you, is not the beautiful children I am happy to call my own, but the beautiful green winter rye, in the garden bed behind them.  When we had first built these garden beds, I was concerned about how ugly they would look in front of our house, in the dead of winter with no snow.   Then, it was recommended to us to plant winter rye, which would grow through the winter, and was good for the soil too.  In the spring, we were to till it into the soil to nourish it.  I can’t tell you how beautiful it looked all winter long, with this fresh green rye coming up through the white glistening snow. (We had lots more snow this year, than usual.)

About mid-May, we cut it all down and tilled it into the garden beds.   It was sad and a tad painful!  I couldn’t get planting fast enough, to add oomph to the drab looking place, after that.

02_ Here is a glimpse of the state of it all, before we got planting for the year.  If you recall , we expanded the front (grass-less) yard last year, by sacrificing some of the extra-wide rock driveway we didn’t really need.   That made more room for a 3rd bed across.

03_ Our trip to the local nursery gave us most all of the starter plants we needed, to get things going.  We got various vegetable plants, some we are growing again, and some new ones too, as well as helpful flowers that make our gardens prettier, keep some pesky things way, and also draw the right insects for much needed pollination.   We’ll have a closer look at all of these plantings very soon.   You also see some bags of compost, which I’ll be getting to in a moment.

04_ Our strawberry bed, here in mid May, was doing fabulously in it’s second season.  You have seen some strawberry posts since, of the berries it has given us.  It’s grown SO much since this photo, but we have tended it well, having learned much last year.

05_ Michael built a 4th garden bed, once we mulled over the layout that the whole transformation will ultimately be.  He was going to build a 5th too right away, but we never got to it, before early spring had gotten away.  That’s o.k. There is always next year!

06_ This is new compost we are trying, all recommended by the nursery we frequent.  We have mixed this stuff into all of our beds, and I can tell you, it’s doing some amazing stuff!

07_flowerscollage These are the flowers that we have planted along the inside edges of the beds.  They are all just baby plants here!  They have grown to ridiculous sizes since.  No doubt due to the new compost we added!

08_dahlias Dahlias.  Oh how I love dahlias.  Big, big, big plans for dahlias of all kinds, in time.  But for now, this pot of them sits on bench.   Michael really did not want to spend the money on them, so I am doing all I can to make sure it keeps growing and thriving and spewing beauty.  Because he loves to remind me, it was $12.99, and if it dies, I can tell you I will never hear the end of it, for as long as I live.

09_verbenas The verbenas have been thriving and growing, in 2 colors.   I love them.

10__digging On the other side of the strawberry bed here, Michael is working very hard, at a new and exciting addition to our gardens….

10_ ….our very own little pumpkin patch! <squeal!!>   If you all have been around in the autumn months here at OHOJN, you might know how much we love pumpkins around our home in autumn!  We go pumpkin crazy, and get pretty creative with them too.  It’s an expensive fetish, when you are paying by the pound.  So we decided to try growing our own!!

12_rest After all of the cutting out, digging and turning-over-of-earth for our pumpkin patch, Michael decided to take a little break.

13_dirtcollage About a week later, we had 5 yards of loam delivered.   A bit of it was for the 5th bed we never got to.  The rest was for the 4th bed Michael did build, and to add some healthy loam to our sandy pumpkin patch.

14_ Michael really built it up the patch, and NOW it’s looking real good.  Wait until you see, in our Pumpkin Patch post coming right up soon, too.

17_yardview So here is a view from the corner of our front lot.   I know…..it’s not looking all that pretty yet.  But you know what I see, when I look at this photo?  All it is GOING to be!   Honest to Pete, (….I’ve always wanted to know who Pete was….anyone know?….), you are not even going to recognize the place at all, when we are done.  Major, major make-over, by the time we are through with the renovations.   You know…years from now.  But won’t it be fun  for you, watching it all happen, little by little?  You don’t even have to work hard with us!  Well…..you could come over and help, if you really wanted.  But really….we’re not minding the hard work involved here.  It’s ever so rewarding!

So, as I said, we’ve got at least 2 posts right on the heels of this one, to show you all that is growing so beautifully, now that we are at the end of June!   We’ll also be sharing more and more of the details of of our garden/front yard transformation plans.  We can tell you, so far we’re pretty excited with where it is all going, and pretty happy with where we are at so far this year….

….which happens to be suddenly SUMMER!  And feeling like it, here in New England, I’ll tell you!  If you haven’t been to the Home Page, you may want to pay it a visit!  ; )

We’re kicking things off with this cheery little Give -Away…..

18_flag_giveaway ….Flying and flapping in the breeze, over our growing  gardens, is this happy summertime flag!  It really brings a smile to my face, to see it there, over all that is colorful and thriving.  It’s a bit of color in the air!  It’s a quality-made flag, and to me, it has the happiness of summer, all over it!

If you love it too, we’ve got one for you!

All you need to do, is leave a comment tot his post, and you are in the drawing for a summer flag of your own! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I’ll make an announcement when the comments are closing for the drawing.  Don’t have a pole?  Why not hang it as a banner on the side of your house? Or, you could even give it as a gift, to someone you care about.  Surely, it’ll make someone smile, as much as it does us.

Good luck, and HaPpY SumMeR!!

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Filed Under: Gardening, Giveaways, SPRING Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: flowers, front-yard-gardening, front-yard-transformation

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