Category Archives: The Gardens of Sonnystone…

Sunday Report 7-11-2021

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It’s been a challenging week here at the Acres…nothing Serious, just a lot of aggravations. Since retiring, I’m easily disoriented to date and time, so last week’s Holiday that wasn’t a Holiday just threw me off. Then I got obsessed with my hair, hating it etc. culminating in a Nightmare at the Beauty Shop. It’s fine now, just fine, but I’m still ranting in my mind.

I did get out to the track on Friday and won $13! It was a day for longshots, so that’s a good sign, isn’t it?

It’s rained fiercely and we’ve done a lot of propping back up in the gardens, running outside between rains, especially in the Peace&Birds Garden.

The Edibles are prolific.

The New Yorkers will be here before we know it, so it’s time to start planning for Camp Sonnystone 2021. We still are sans Theme Word. Ideas? Thoughts? We’ve already used Peace, Love, Joy, Dream, Family, Music, and Together. If we use your idea, you will be gifted a free Day at Camp…who could ask for more?

Hope you’re enjoying yourself and that your hair is better than fine…

Peace

Sunday Report 6-13-2021

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I suffered through another rainy, gloomy week and we’re now rewarded with sunny skies and oppressive humidity; it’s almost summer, finally, and as I sweat through my shirt I wonder why I longed for it.

Samantha went with us to the New Harmony Antiques Show yesterday.

I found some old sheet music, well-preserved, to buy and discovered we hadn’t brought cash with us, just enough for some drinks and treats. The prices at the show seemed very high, just like everything else lately, but I wonder how much they sold. It was a paltry showing of vendors, but the crowd was good.

The gardens have loved the rainy weather…

Peace

Midweek Missive

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Erin go bragh!

I ran into a little problem over at the Garden Blog: I’m out of storage for uploads (pictures and what-not). I have to either upgrade ($$) that site or go through ten years of posts and start deleting. As we prepare to leave town on Saturday, I don’t have time for either of those fixes, so I’ll decide later. For now, I present to you, the first Garden Journal entry of 2021.

The Edible Garden in Winter…

The garden is still covered with its winter mantle of leaf mulch, but we cleared enough over in the corner to plant some peas. I planted our tried-and-true Oregon Sugar Snap and added Little Marvel this year, just for fun.

I didn’t want to take up the space for potatoes, so we are trying out these 10-gallon growing bags with cool viewing window and sturdy handles.

They came in a pack of four, so we planted three red in one, three gold in another; now we’ll wait a month and plant the other two bags. It seems a lot easier than digging trenches and hilling, so I hope they produce! Keep on Growing!

We’ll celebrate the Arrival of Spring while driving south for our vacation at Walt Disney World. After our return, we’ll begin our seed starting and get serious…Plus I’ll figure out what to do about the other blog.

Wishing you All the Blessings you can handle, from the bottom of my Scots-Irish Heart…

Peace

Growing Every Season: The Movie

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It’s pretty much all over for the Edibles, though there are still a couple of rows of green beans. The butterflies and goldfinches are still hovering around the zinnias, too. Finally the Mums are in Full bloom. Though today it’s supposed to be 85 and sunny, we probably won’t see the 80s again until next year. Gloomy rainy days are on the way, but even then the trees try to shine out with their yellows and reds…

We’ve continued to pull in veggies: the broccoli never recovered from the onslaught of whatever-those-worms-were, though they made a brave stand; The limas, too, just lollygagged along until there’s no more time left. The last two stands of green beans are going okay, so we’re putting off picking the as long as we can.

We usually travel in September and October, so bring it all in right after Labor Day. In this strange year, we’ve stretched the season out and it’s been a Work of Wonder and Joy…

I made a video… With so many pictures of All of the gardens, I had to focus on just the two: The Edible and the Peace/Bird Garden… The music is one of my all-time faves from the Ozark Mt. Daredevils…

Enjoy!

Keep on Growing…

Growing Every Season

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I’ve been to an appointment with the eye doctor this morning. By the time I came out of the office the temperatures had dropped and there is a cold rain. Here at the Acres, we’ve got the fire burning and it’s cozy as a bug.

Busy all last week when it was sunshiney and warm, we finished putting the rock into the garden annex, giving it a more “finished” look. We still need soil, but that may wait until Spring.

I potted up the cilantro… I had thrown some seeds into the washtub planter about a month ago and there are eight nice plants. Basil, oregano, and thyme are all out on the porch now, too.

The mums are Finally opening…

We’re planning a day-trip up North to see some Fall colours.  Covid cases are surging througout our state and I still see too many people not-wearing masks, so we’ll be taking a picnic lunch.  I’m pretty impressed at how the safety precautions we have to take actually encourage a person to be more creative.  There’s always a Bright Side, if you look… 

Keep on Growing…

 

Growing Every Season

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Back on June 18, I wrote this in my Garden Journal:

This is milkweed, Asclepias spp., the Only plant that monarch butterfly larvae can eat.  It’s new this year, bought at the Zoo plant sale, and it might take a while to do its magnet thing.

Jo Mayne Casey, Garden Journal 6/18/2020

The Monarch butterflies had no problem finding it. For the last couple of weeks I have spotted monarchs munching on the zinnias and recently observed a couple of them feeding at the hummingbird feeder! When I checked the milkweek — Lo and Behold! monarch caterpillars have taken residence. So. Cool.

Slowly, but surely, the Edible Garden is being harvested.

The Birds are still wearing out the feeders, the migrants flocking in for baths, drinks, and grub. I’m watching the buds of the mums, which seem to be taking Forever to bloom…

Gardening involves quite a bit of waiting, but gives you plenty to do in the meantime. We’ve got the firewood brought up to the front porch and the outdoor furniture put in the cellar. The Fall Decorations are out. We’re eating well…

But I’m getting impatient, ready for the Proof of Autumn — mums in bloom..

Almost There…

Keep on Growing…

Growing Every Season

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I have spent hours watching the birds flock to the Bird/Peace garden.  Especially since they started migrating south, the feeders have been packed with a variety of species just passing by, joining our resident cardinals, sparrows, wrens, titmice, chickadees, woodpeckers.  The hummingbird feeder is being drained at record-pace.

I don’t think much about taking pictures when I’m bird-watching, but today I wanted to snap some shots for blogging and grabbed my Nikon with the long lens for the purpose.  Lo and Behold! there were pictures on the camera from Spring when the rose-breasted grosbeaks migrated through.

rose-breasted grosbeak
rose-breasted grosbeak

Photos below were taken this morning…

resident cardinal couple
resident cardinal couple

We finished the melon-and-pumpkin-bed Addition… I have to brag that this cost us $0, built with leftovers from past gardens…  It’s still a work-in-progress, of course, but I am very happy with it.

Last week…
This week…

It’s definitely fall here with high temps in the mid-sixties and plenty of sunshine.  Out in the Edible Garden, there’s a mess of green beans, about a dozen green tomatoes, and nearly as many bell peppers to bring in so I can take down the plants.  The broccoli and the late-sown beans are okay to stay for a while longer.

Keep on Growing…

Growing Every Season

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On the Equinox, we said a sad Farewell to Summer, 2020…one for the Memory Books now…and spoke a hopeful Welcome to Autumn…Batter Up!  As we move through the Seasons, we always stop to take stock of what we’ve accomplished, where we learned, what ideas we have to improve…

We’re going to expand the Edible Garden to make room to grow watermelons and pumpkins and sprawl-y vine-y such fruits.  With a little bit of tree-pruning, we’ll have an new 24 x 8 plenty-o’sun area for growing.  The bed will be 16 x 4 and we’ll rock the rest for containers and so carts can still get through.  It will, of course have to be fenced so the critters don’t trash it, but we happen to have Just Enough fencing to re-use and the same gate will be moved to the south end.  That sounds a bit confusing, but here’s the first of the “Vision” and I’ll keep you informed as it comes together.

We brought in two of the four remaining tomatoes, netting about a dozen small nearly-ripe fruits.  Otherwise, the Edible Garden hasn’t changed much in the past week.

It was perfect weather yesterday to divide the Rudbeckia in the Peace/Bird Garden.  We moved out all of the remaining daisies and shuffled the coneflowers around, too.  Remember how my original plan was to have all natives in this garden?  Well, as soon as the mums bloom and fade, we’ll remove them, leaving all Natives with space for more next spring…almost like I planned it that way, but we know better…

Before
After

Fall is in the air, all right, with Super weather for just Being Outside…I’m really digging it…

Keep on Growing…

 

Growing Every Season

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We’re in a bit of a holding pattern here at the gardens, just waiting for the plants to Finish Up.  There are almost a dozen peppers still maturing and it’s about time!  The tomatoes look spent, but there are a good ten fruits left to ripen.  The green beans have flowered, should be ready to pick in a week or so.  I think we Saved the broccoli – no more worms — but they need to do a little catch-up growing.  We cut down the cucumbers who had served us so well this summer.

I finally trimmed the rudbeckia in the Peace/Bird Garden, where the fall mums are almost ready to pop their buds.  The urn that was in the middle was moved to the porch…

Before

Have you met Larry Garcia?  I bought him at a rummage sale for $3.  To me, he looks like a mashup of Larry Caplan, our old County Ag agent who taught my Master Gardening class, and Jerry Garcia, you know, Grateful Dead Guy?  He gets moved around on a regular basis, not an easy task since he is stone(d).  Heavy, man..

I’m ready for fall weather and decorations, just waiting for the official First Day to drag out my Autumn stuff.  I can feel the change in the air already, though, as the sun dips and the air nips…

Keep on Growing…

 

 

Growing Every Season

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While out walking this morning, I tripped and fell, skinning both knees and my right hand…  I was being so careful, too, because the sidewalk in that area has numerous areas where tree roots have pushed it up.  >sigh<  Yes, yes, I applied ice and am now sitting here with my feet propped up.  So I’m not feeling very wordy today, but I’ve got some nice pictures for you…

The Edible Garden is just lovely…

Cabbage worms attacked the broccoli, so we dusted them with Seven; looks like confectioners sugar on the lacy leaves…

The morning glories finally bloomed!

Out in the Bird/Peace garden,, the coneflower and rudbeckia still attract the goldfinches, so I’m not cutting them back until the birds have had their fill.

Keep on Growing…