A Walk With Old Faithful

I have two cameras. My newest is the Sony DSC-H50/B and the second one is the great grandfather to the new one an old DSC-F717. I love my old camera and I only pull it out every now and then to take photos with it. The LCD screen is failing and it will no longer charge unless the battery is attached to an external battery charger. I decided to drag it out and walk around the garden a little while, just for old time’s sake. When I got the H50 nothing you could have ever said would have convinced me it could take the photos that its grandfather does, now I can look at the pictures and see a noticeable difference in the color. The H50 has better color, but it still can’t stop a bird in flight like the 717.

Jamie got the windowsill containers planted for the summer. We generally go for the bright colored flowers, but this year we decided to do something a little different. I think Jamie did a fantastic job and I think these will stand up to the full sun a little better.

My grandmother’s old rose bush seems to be happy where it is and it’s sporting its first bloom of the season. I have no idea how old this rose it, but my grandmother got it from her mother when she was married in 1931. When she passed and her house was sold I dug it up and moved it to my home.

This is a new Dahlia we added to the garden this year, ‘Sumatra’.

Variegated Solomon’s Seal

'Crimson Queen' and Bridal Wreath

'Miss Saigon'

This is a wonderful old Iris that I’m just tickled to have newly planted in our garden. It was given to us last fall by a very generous reader that wishes to remain anonymous. We planted them on both sides of the patio sidewalk; I get to enjoy them every morning. The color is even better than I thought and I just love it!

A Few Blooms From the Garden

We did indeed get the drip system finished for the garden and I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to know I’m not going to have to drag the hose for three hours a day in the hot Alabama heat this summer. Yay! Everything is set up for automatic watering, the beds, the planters, hanging baskets and even the birdbath fills itself. We had enough materials left over that I’m going to run another drip system for the trees and bed in the front yard and for the shrubs down the side of the house. We can leave for vacation this year and only need someone to check the system to be sure it comes on and goes off properly. If you still have to drag around a water hose in the summer I highly recommend you make this a top priority on you list of things to do. You will absolute be convinced that the small amount of money and time it takes is well worth it and anyone can do it.

We are really satisfied with the way the garden is coming back together. Although it bugs me tremendously that the neighbor’s houses are still visible. When planting the fence line I didn’t take into consideration that everything we planted was deciduous, so even when it grows up over the years in the winter months it will still be visible. I’m sort of at a loss for what to do at this point. There isn’t any room to put any evergreens on that fence line now with out packing everything in there tighter than sardines. Some of those pencil trees would work, but those things are really expensive. I’m really looking for suggestions here, so put on your thinking caps and help me out. A privacy fence is really not an option I want to consider, so we can strike that idea.

Okay, on with some pictures. Here are the things that are blooming in the garden right now. I'm sorry about the © at the bottom. I recently found almost all my pictures reposted online. As soon as I make up my mind about the font, it'll be a little less obvious. It isn't that I mind them being used, but the least they could do is give me credit or mention Creating Our Eden. Anyway, we will start off with the little rose we just purchased a couple of weeks ago. It’s a miniature that is considered a ground cover, but everything I’ve read about it so far suggest making a small climber out of it. The tag says it blooms from spring until frost.

'Red Cascade'

We still have daffodils blooming this late in the spring. The ‘Yellow Cheerfulness’ just started this week. The blooms are only about the size of quarter, or maybe even a little smaller.

'Yellow Cheerfulness'

We have put together a rather large daylily collection in the past couple of months. We currently have 40 different varieties. When this spring started we had three. Can you tell we went a little Daylily crazy? Anyway, get ready for lots of pictures of them to come.

'Sound of Silence'

'Daring Deception'

The Stellas are doing well this year.

'Stella De Oro'

Last winter Lowe’s had marked all their bulbs down to like twenty five cents a pack. I took full advantage of the savings. I think all together I bought over eight hundred bulbs. I’m glad I did, because had I not we would have almost nothing blooming this year. Unfortunately, some of the bulbs were packaged wrong, but I think I’ve managed to identify them. Here are some of the Dutch and Bearded Irises.

'Carmen'

'Casa Blanca'

'Sapphire Beauty'

'Telstar'

'Hello Darkness'

'Canned Heat'

This is an actual photo. When I took it there was all kinds of junk in the background like hoses, stepping stones and peeling paint on the storage room. So I spent all this time in Photo Shop removing all the visible clutter and now it looks like a beautiful print or post card. Later, a friend said, "I would have just hung a back drop." Duh! Leave it to me to over look the obvious. Oh well, I had fun working on the picture. I was feeling really Zen while doing it.

'In Your Dreams'

Jamie liked these Angelonia, so we got a couple of them, we bought some once before for a planter and they bloomed all summer. I hope these do as well.

'Serena White'

'Angelmist Orchid'