Winter Blooms

While the rest of the country is getting hit hard with some major winter weather, here in Southern California, we're getting our first bout of cool weather in the last few weeks.

 

Winter Blooms

I know a lot of our country is experiencing some crazy winter weather right now, but here in Southern California, we haven't had much of a winter.  In fact, up until last week, our temps were in the mid- 70s to mid-80s.  We ended up getting some much needed rain and clouds at the end of last week, but still pretty mild compared to other places.

I think with all the nice weather, it's been freaking out my plants.  My calla lilies are starting to bloom.

My gerber daisies surprised me by blooming 5 flowers!  They've never grown in that many at the same time.

And my snapdragons, which I thought were long gone, are making an appearance.

For those of you who have been stuck with some bad snow & icy weather, stay warm!

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY

Adventures in Gardening: Part 6

I have shared my hydrangea woes in the past.  A couple of years ago, I decided to tear out an ugly bottle brush bush (say that 5 times fast) and replace it with pink hydrangeas.

This is what they looked like when I first planted them.

It died after about a week, but then several months later, new leaves grew back, but no flowers.

Over the next two years, new leaves would come in - fuller and fuller each time, but never any new flowers.  I really thought that it was never going to bloom again.  I've read that depending on the hydrangea, new blooms can grow on "old wood" or "new wood" and this is dependent on how you prune them.  So, I figured that maybe I just pruned it at the wrong time.

I still check for blooms whenever leaves come in and each time, I expect nothing.  This is how it looked the other day.

As I took a closer look, I found these...

Oh YES!  New blooms are coming in.  And there are about 8 or 9 of them!  I'm so excited and surprised that they made a comeback.  Stay tuned for pictures from when they fully bloom...

P.S.  I mentioned in my Spring Has Sprung! post, I mentioned that my Dutch Iris was making it's first appearance since I first put them in.  Here is the first bloom that came in.

I'm hoping the others will come in soon.

My Gerbera Daisies came in nicely, except they are kind of pinched and squishy-faced.  Not sure if it's because of the way they are facing the sun, but this is the first time they've bloomed in a couple of years, so I'll take what I can get.  I love their coral coloring too.

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY

Spring Has Sprung!

It's officially Spring, but I've heard that a lot of people in different parts of the country are still having winter weather.  Here in Southern California, we've been having great weather in the high 60s/low 70s.  For awhile, we'd been having cold & rain (and even snow here in my town!) one week and then the next week it would be in the high 70s/low 80s.  It was like that off and on, but lately it's been very nice.  I wish it would stay this way forever - ahhhhh....

I took a peak around my front and back yards and you can definitely see signs of Spring showing up.
My pink & white Salvia is already sprouting lots of little flowers (so far, they are mostly just pink).  

All of my Calla Lilies are blooming - love these!

My neighbor's trees that overflow into my backyard are really pretty right now.

My Society Garlic bushes are just starting to bloom their little purple flowers.

My Hydrangea's leaves are coming in.  I wonder if this will be the year the flowers will come back?  Probably not. 

I don't know the name of this guy.  It blooms really pretty yellowy-orange flowers, but it (obviously) hasn't bloomed quite yet.  This one didn't show up until after I had been in the house for a few years, so it was a bit of a surprise.

My Sweet Gum tree is on it's way.  All of the old, dried & annoying, prickly seeds haven't even completely fallen off yet.

This looks like it's my last surviving Gerbera Daisy.  This particular one hasn't bloomed any flowers in a couple of years, but it has 3 buds coming in!  This little guy surprised me.  The other two Gerbera Daisies in the other planter haven't even started growing in leaves yet, so I think they're goners.  Poor guys - they tend to get lots of bugs eating them, so I'm surprised they bloomed and survived as long as they did.

This is one of my favorites.  It's my purple Delphinium (Larkspur).  They get really tall after the first couple of blooms.  I thought this was a goner too.  Last season, the last bloom started coming in and then one day all of the flower heads just disappeared like maybe something ate them (which is strange because where I live, we are pretty safe from critters eating any kind of blooms or garden veggies).  I was very happy to see that it's making a comeback.  It's really teeny tiny, but I'm glad to see that it's back.

These are my purple Dutch Irises.  They were actually the first ones to die and the first ones to make their return.  I wasn't sure if they would come back or not - I bought them last year and so it was their first go-around.  They started growing back in a couple of months ago and I've been patiently waiting to see if the actual flower would also make their return and it looks like they are (in the middle).  

I've noticed that bulb flowers do really well on my property, which is nice because I really like a lot of different flowers that happen to grow from bulbs.  Eventually when I re-do all of my landscaping, a lot of these plants will get torn out (hopefully, I can find new owners for them) - like the society garlic (I have a lot of these and they grow like crazy and spread), the pink & white salvia which also grows like crazy, and some of the other little trees growing around my property.  I don't have the best green thumb, so I'm going to try to stick with things that grow easily (like the bulbs) and that are easy to care for (I'm thinking, lots of succulents and also lots of Birds of Paradise, maybe some Banana trees, and tropical type of flowers & plants).  But, for now, I'll just enjoy watching these guys grow.

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY

Lawn Update

Hey there!  The painting-of-the-french doors project is on hold for now because I've been working on something else that I'm trying to get done before my big trip (more on both later).  So, today I'm going to share the progress of my backyard lawn.  A month ago, I shared this post about my poor, poor front and back lawns.

Here's my yard from 2 1/2 months ago (it looked pretty bad):

Here it is about 2 months ago (after I fertilized it using my Scott's Snap Spreader):

Here it is a month ago (getting better!):

And just yesterday:

The front yard is looking much better too.   The lawn fertilizer I used with my brand new Scott's Snap Spreader worked really well to whip my lawn back into shape.  As you can see, there's still some dead spots.  And I mean DEAD.  We've had a pretty crazy summer here in Southern California - really hot spells, mixed in with thunderstorms, rain and humidity and it wreaked havoc with my yards.  I'm planning to get a bag of seed soon and I'll seed these dead spots (and any other weak spots) and try to get them back to life.  I'm really pleased with how easy the Scott's Snap Spreader worked and that it worked pretty well too!

Adventures in Gardening: Part 5

Succulents are supposed to be easy to take care of, right?  Somehow, I'm not good with plants and flowers.  Seems like the only ones that do well at my home are the ones that were already here.  I figured that succulents would be the best plants for me - plus I really like how they look.  I had planned in my head, that when I eventually revamp my backyard, I'll mostly have succulents or tropical type flowers back there.

Sometimes if I'm at Home Depot or Ikea, I'll pick up a succulent for the house.  As seen in this post, I managed to kill off a trio of succulents.  Oops - forgot - make that 4 of 'em.  Heh.  Last year when I was at Ikea, I found a really nice jade plant that I liked, so decided to try it.  Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture, but it was very nice and full and I loved the shade of green it was.  And it looked really good in the white Ikea plant pot that I had.

After almost a year, it decides to start dying on me.  Not sure why, but it just happened all of a sudden.  It even still had some baby leaves growing in.  But, this is what it looks like now.

So, so sad.  It's possible that I over-watered it, however I don't think I ever really gave it too much water - maybe it was just too much for this plant, though.  :(   I'm determined to make these succulents last!  I really want them in my landscaping in the backyard, but if I keep killing them, there's no point.  But, seriously - these are supposed to be the hardest plants to kill, yet I keep killing them.  Plant killer.  Ugh!

Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Scotts Snap Spreader

About two months or so ago, I had the great luck to win a Scotts Snap Spreader from a giveaway by Beckie at Infarrantly Creative.  If you've never heard of it, check it out here on their website.   I usually don't enter giveaways unless it's a product that I really need and I sure needed something like this.  I had actually thought about buying a spreader because my yard was in dire need, but thought I'd try the giveaway first.  What luck!

When I first looked at my house before buying it, the yard was pretty brown and you could tell that there were specific spots in the yard that looked like they were problem spots.  The yard was seeded before I got the keys and it came back pretty nicely, but you could still tell where the problem spots were if the grass didn't get watered enough.  Anyways, long story short, there were issues with the timer and valves and my water didn't get watered for a few weeks before it was fixed.  It was looking pretty bad.  Here's a picture of the front yard...

And back yard...

My poor lawns.  I adjusted the timer and the valve was fixed, so I decided to put my brand new Scotts Snap Spreader to use.  It came with a bag of fertilizer, so that's what I used.  One bag was just enough for both my front and back yards (I probably could have used a bit more, but it worked out fine).   It was super easy to use too!  All you do is "snap" the bag in, lock it in place, and just start pushing the spreader where you want to use it and the stuff just comes right out!  There's no mess!  And if you don't need to use the whole bag, you just take it out of the spreader and the bag self seals.  Pretty awesome.  My new spreader even has it's own place on the garage wall.  :)

After just a couple of weeks, my yards were looking better.

 BEFORE (back yard)

AFTER

BEFORE (front yard)

AFTER

  

I know it's really hard to tell from the pictures above, but I can see the difference in person.  Most of the backyard was brown and now there's a lot more green.  And I can see within the brown patches that some of the green grass came back.  From what I understand, a good time to seed your lawn is in the early fall, so I'll be seeding these dead spots in another month to try to bring them back and my new Scotts Snap Spreader will make this job waaaay easier for me.
***Note:  This post was not sponsored by Scotts Snap Spreader.  This is just my own personal review of the product.

Thanks for stopping by!
Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Adventures in Gardening Part 4

Spring has sprung!

I have a couple of flower beds in my front yard.  One of them has been looking pretty bleak - only my Delphinium survived.  So, I thought it was time to get a couple of new flower plants to fill up the space.  Last week, I went to Home Depot and looked for some tall-ish flowers (the flower bed has a brick border around it, so you can't see shorter flowers unless you're right next to them).   I ended up choosing a Dutch Iris and Snapdragon and planted them this afternoon.

As I've mentioned, I don't have much of a green thumb, so hopefully these guys will do ok.  My Delphinium is making it's comeback again, though.  This flower has lasted me a couple of years so far.

It doesn't look like much right now, but this is how it ends up in full bloom.   I'm always amazed at how tall it gets.

There used to be 4 Gerbera Daisies in this flower bed.  3 of them didn't make it.  This one below really, really tries, but all it seems to do is sprout leaves and no new buds.  I thought I'd give it one more try before pulling it out.

In the other front flower bed are 2 more Gerbera Daisies.  At first, they didn't seem to do too well, but the leaves grow like crazy in there and the flowers always try to bloom.  I say "try" because there's some kind of bug that eats the petals off the flowers, so I don't get to enjoy them in full bloom.  The first picture shows a bud really trying to make it. The second picture is hard to see, but it has 4 buds trying to make their way.

So, we'll see how these new flowers do.  I'm hoping I can enjoy them for years to come. 

Adventures in Gardening Part 3

I have posted before that I don't have much of a green thumb.  So, I'm always excited when I see my plants and flowers growing like crazy.  We've been having a really mild winter (except for today!).  The weather has been really nice and I think my plants are being fooled into blooming a bit early.  I did a little bit of yard work and took some pictures yesterday.

I have a pretty Salvia bush - the purple flowers are amazing.  It typically blooms in the fall.

You can see how full the bush is.  Well, it's been all dead and dried up for about a month.  I finally took the time yesterday to prune it back and this is what it looks like now. 

It looks waaaaay better than before I trimmed all the dead stuff off.  It was a hot mess, I tell ya!  I was just surprised out how much has grown in already!  I even saw a few purple flowers growing in already.

Last year, I planted hydrangeas.  See those pretty pink ones below?  I had dug up an ugly bottle brush tree and replaced it with the hydrangeas.  

I was very lazy and took forever to prune it after the flowers died.   Plus, I don't think I pruned it correctly.  I thought I killed it.  And then a few months ago, it looked like this.

Not too bad!  See those fresh green leaves that came in?  (just pretend you don't see those brown ones, umkay?)  But, do you see what I mean when I say I don't think I pruned them correctly?  I think I cut them too low.  Hmmmm...
This is what it looks like as of yesterday.

Poor thing.  It's really trying!  I don't think its going to make it though.  We'll see.

Last year, I also discovered I had green onions growing.  And in a very inconvenient spot - right next the concrete walkway.  Makes them very hard to get them out of the ground.  Last year I pulled them all and poured weed killer because I didn't want them growing in that area.  Well, afterwards, I found them growing in a different spot which was also next to the concrete walkway.  Yesterday, I found them making a reappearance.  I'm going to let them grow a bit more and pull them.  Onions anyone?

Now, these...I just love.  Calla lilies.

I had this house for almost two years before they started growing in!  I didn't even know they were there.  The above picture is what they looked like early last year.
And here is what they look like as of yesterday.

It's like a jungle!  They have grown like crazy.  I need to get under there and prune back the dead leaves, but when I looked yesterday, there wasn't much.  I was so happy to see some new flowers growing in.  Love these guys! (in the top picture, you can barely even see the hydrangeas on the upper right.  It's just a tiny blip in the picture. Oh, poor thing!).

As you can see in the above three pictures, it was sunny out yesterday while I was doing my yard work.  Because of the wind, there weren't any clouds - just blue skies.  But here is what we got tonight.

That's my front & back yards.  Mind you, I live in Southern California.  I get snow maybe a few times a year because my town is at a bit of a higher elevation.  But, it was pretty warm this past weekend.  We've been having crazy weather lately - one minute it's cold and the next it's hot.  Rain was in the forecast for today and this is what we got.  So cool!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and had fun watching the Oscars.  Have a good week!