The weather has certainly cooled off and it should be around 40 degrees(F) here tonight. I took some time today to fill up my birdfeeders and to put a block of suet out for the birds. There have been alot of Chickadees and Cardinals lately. I also removed all the Moon Vine growth and harvested LOADS of seeds from them. I will be doing more bird watching I guess with very little growing in my gardens. The roses have really been blooming like crazy but beyond that....not much.

Red Spider Lily --Lycoris radiata
Not many flowers are blooming this time of year so this Red Spider Lily was a nice addition.

This is a pic of the iris that I got for my birthday in 2004. Normally it blooms around the end of April. Not sure what has happened with its internal clock this yr but it bloomed on Oct. 1st.

I harvested a good bit of the Moon Vine seed pods today. Now the next step is letting them dry out and finding homes for them. They would be really pretty over a trellis. :-)

This pic was taken about two weeks ago but I am just now uploading it. This plant was at least 7 ft tall. Really pretty wildflower.

This wildflower blooming lets me know fall is near.

This is a pic of one of the butterflies who were eating the grapes I had hanging from the birdfeeder.

This is the first bloom on my Moonflower Vine. I planted the seeds just this year. The blooms are beautiful

I finally got a chance to put some hurt on my herb bed. It doesn't have that much in it...but it had the roots from HELL. Well the weeds did anyway. :-) Far back left is oregano. To the right of the oregano is chives. The large greenery to the back left of the stone is Rosemary. To the right of the Rosemary is a clump of Varigated Monkey Grass(yes I know thats not the scientific name). Below the monkey grass is Lemon Thyme. Down and to the left is another bunch of chives. The Bush at the bottom of the pic is a small hydrangea which if it ever blooms will be pink.

This is the first bloom of the new cannas. The darker brown/wine foliage cannas with small red blooms I have had since '96. I believe they are known as Russian Red. I have some of the green foliage cannas with yellow bloom & red specks which I believe are Richard Wallace which I have also had since '96. They were hidden among the Russian Reds and didn't do much of anything until I seperated them about 3 yrs ago. This yr I bought two new varieties. The one shown here is Wyoming Canna. Also bought a green foliage canna that has the large red blooms and which is known as c. Indica var. Cherry Red. I will post the pics of that as soon as possible.

The cosmos before Dennis went thru. By the time the storm was over us it was only a tropical storm but it did manage to shred the cosmos some as they were tall and leggy with delicate flowers. Fortunately the plants themselves can take alot of abuse and easily grow back and seed themselves.

This Bee Balm is doing well this year. This is its 2nd yr in my garden however it is one of the plants that I moved from the garden by the 2nd drive when I did away with that bed. It is now in the bed which runs the full length of the porch.

I believe this flower is a Gloriosa Daisy. It really looks alot better in a cut flower presentation than it does merely growing in the garden. It tends to droop easily although recovery is quick. A variety of diff. blooms come from one plant and have 13 petals.

I'm really not sure what this flower is called. It reminds me a bit of Blanket flower and also is similiar to the Black-Eyed Susans and SunFlowers.

The Red Hot Poker seems to have taken me moving it very well and is doing great. I even have a bloom on one that I have not found a home for that is still in a pot.

My butterfly bush is blooming It's a beautiful shade of purple :-)

Most of the cosmos and zinnias I'd planted in the flower boxes got big enough to handle a thinning out so not wanting to waste the ones i did away with, I planted them in the front beds between the established plants. If they all survive will have flowers everywhere. I weeded the flowerbeds a bit today too which was an amazing accomplishment considering today is B's first day after finishing her homeschool program.

Honeysuckle is in bloom all along the edge of the back yard. Smells wonderful

Birds that I've seen visiting my yard or feeders

• American Crow


• American Goldfinch


• American Robin Adult


• Black-capped Chickadee


• Blue Jay


• Brown-headed Cowbird


• Brown Thrasher


• Eastern Bluebird Breeding Male


• House Finch


• Killdeer


• Northern Cardinal Breeding Male


• Purple Finch


• Red-winged Blackbird


• Ruby-throated Hummingbird


• Rose-breasted Grosbeak (saw my first one ever today)


• Tufted Titmouse

This Peony has done very well. It was one of three I purchased from Jung Seed Co. If I remember correctly they were on sale 3 for $5 or something like that. The catch was that you wouldn't know what color peony you were getting which was fine with me.

This is a picture of the Butterfly Bush that I got for my birthday. I planted it Thursday Morning and it rained Friday. It seems to be adjusting well so far. Hopefully it will attract alot of butterflies and hummingbirds :-)

Goldenfinch Thistleseed Bar

The above pic(taken in the fall of 2004) shows why I decided to do away with the flowerbed that was around the utility pole. It really got old having to clean out clutter after a heavy downpour. This can happen several times a month as our culverts cannot handle the amt of water we get off the mountain when there has been a heavy downpour. I hope that our Hanceville elected officials will do something about that.

Got a good deal of gardening and relaxing done today. I've been thinning out some of my plants so they will have more room to grow. Is nice to pass rootings and plants on to others. Am not getting rid of any plants but am giving away some rootings and dividing plants so that I can "spread the beauty". Got a Butterfly Bush for my birthday(today). It's been my dream plant for probably half my life so as you can imagine I am EXTREMELY excited about it :-)

I scattered some more zinnia and cosmos seeds today in the flowerbeds. If half of them come up the front of the house will be covered in flowers.

Got started setting my webpage up for this yrs flowers. See them at Marie's Garden 2005

Has been a pretty good week in my garden. This weekend--finally did away with the long flowerbed which was flooded each time it rained heavily in a short period of time. When the water would be too much for the culvert across the road to handle...it would flow over the road and into our yard :-( Now I won't have to worry about that bed and my beds along the front of the porch are full. I thought this meant I wouldn't have to buy anything and would be just pulling weeds but I somehow manage to make "work" for myself. Thinning plants and potting the extra. Have alot of oregano potted up and the black-eyed susan plants that I seperated from the main plant pretty much all survived. There were about 20 of them. Set out a few in the small bed along the drive. I sewed cosmos seeds a few weeks back and those are up about 3 inches. Planted the Canna bulbs and those are up too. The varieties I bought were a wine colored foliage with a large orange bloom and the green foliage with large red bloom. The Hostas are just now poking their head up. The azalea bushes were at their peak this weekend. They were beautiful. I have noticed that the gardenia bush is setting buds so won't be long to it blooms. Planted Brittany's Early Girl Tomato Plant today. The Peony buds are getting pretty huge. Can't wait til they bloom is exciting. The Canadian Lilac tree seems to have done pretty good. I don't know if it will bloom this yr or not. Is a fairly young tree so am not sure. The lilac hedge bush is also young too but looks in good condition. Would be great if both of them bloomed this yr. The next few weeks should be really exciting watching the plants. I hope to take some pics of birds this year as they are visitors to my garden. Won't be too long til the hummingbirds will be out in full force.

I thought the Birds of North America page was neat. You can listen to the songs that different birds sing. I chose most plants that I have because they attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Attracting other birds helps take care of some of the garden pests as well.

Fertilizers--The three main nutrients

The three numbers on packages of Fertilizers are there to tell you what percentage of the major nutrients are found in that particuliar Fertilizer.

Nitrogen(1st number)promotes plant growth. Lawn fertilizers have a higher concentration of nitrogen.

Phosphorus(2nd number)promotes root growth, blooming and production of fruit. When you are starting off plants you want to have a fertilizer high in Phosphorus so that the roots get a good start. Bloom Boosting fertilizers will also have a higher percentage of Phosphorus.

Potassium(3rd number)promotes hardiness in a plant. Percentage is higher in Winterizing fertilizers. Care should be taken as too much of this can "burn" plants.

Weather was nice today. Pruned back the crepe myrtles that are along the front of the house. Carried the limbs out to the road for the city to pick up and also picked up a bit of the limbs that washed in the yard the last time the yard flooded. It looks alot better. Won't be long until spring. I need to get the bird feeders cleaned out and refilled. I cut a bunch of rosemary from my herb garden. Put it in small vases and will use it for bath water. Has a wonderful smell and is refreshing--makes a great air freshener.