Hanging planters on the porch

One of the great side effects of taking two weeks off work to heal after surgery was reading about a million magazines.  Mostly the content was green this and green that (kinda getting annoyed by it all as it basically feels like marketing ploys), but there were some good tidbits every now and then.

A great tip I found was to put a saucer (like you would put under a pot) inside your hanging basket to help retain water.

HUH???  Every year, I hang my coconut lined planters with flowers. I water them and the water just goes right through them.  So usually mid-summer, I slack off with the watering and everything gets crispy pretty quickly.  

This morning I set up my hanging baskets, but included a nice saucer (what do you call those things?  saucer's not quite right.) and I mixed in some SoilMoist.  Perhaps I'll go longer than a month or two before letting things dry up, especially since I won't be fighting an uphill battle.  I can't believe I never thought of the saucer idea.  Duh!

My basket this year is a combination of periwinkle and white petunias. My brother and I used to call each other Patunya and Buttercup, so I always have petunias somewhere in the yarden (yard/garden).

Mary Frances

I'm not sure why, but there is a big bee that loves to hang out on my back patio.  She likes to stay in helicopter mode right at my eye level. When she's not dive bombing me, that is. 

I have named her Mary Frances.  That was my grandmother's name, but  her nickname was Bea (Beasley).  You do the math.

I am not sure, but I think she's a carpenter bee.  I've seen holes in my fence in the past--perfectly round holes with a tiny pile of sawdust beneath.  So that's why I think the bee is not a traditional bumble bee.  Fortunately, they're not particularly aggressive.  The males don't sting, though the females can.

The problem is that when Mary Frances flies low, the dogs like to jump and try to snatch her right out of the air!  It's quite funny to watch, but I really don't want to have to deal with an emergency vet bill when the inside of their mouths get stung!

Ooops.  Mary Frances is a boy.  S/he has a patch of yellow on his/her head, which means male.  Females have all black faces.  Gotta love wikipedia.  Anyway, I'm still calling it Mary Frances, the tranny bee, and now I'm not going to worry as much if one of the dogs eats it.  Not that I'll encourage it.

Oh, another reason for the neighbors to think I'm insane:  when the bee dive bombs me, I usually mutter, "Damn it, Mary Frances!  Get away from me!"  Yeah, the white coats (or yellow and black striped coats) will be coming for me shortly!

Here's a short video clip of me and the bee, chillin' in the yard.

I love Spring!

Though it is a bit warm outside, the weather is otherwise gorgeous and I have spent most of today working on the yard.  Dabble a bit, come in and rest.  I've done that about 30 times so far today!  Well, maybe not that much.  I'm waiting for late afternoon until I mow the lawn, as it's a tad hot out there for me right now.

Things are really coming along out in the backyard.  I'm almost to the point where I wouldn't be humiliated if I had company over!  My grass in back had gone to seed.  Yikes!  So I got out there with my weed eater and hacked it down, then edged around the fence and the deck.  I'll go over the yard later with the mower, but at least now the tall grass shouldn't clog the mower.  Please!  I can't really yank the starter too many times.  Don't want my pork to protest.

My little veggie babies are also coming along well--I'm so pleased!  Then again, this is only the beginning of spring.  There's plenty of time for me to slack and let everyone dry out and weed up.  But I'm going to try to be really good this year and tend to my garden.  Then I'll have plenty of veggies to grill in a few month.  And what I don't eat, I'll share with friends at work.

I have seedlings for pretty much everything I planted seeds for:  cucumber, sugar snap peas, chives, basil, eggplant and cilantro.  Lots of cilantro.  Mmmmmmmm.  Now I just have to take care of my little babies so they'll grow up to be big yummy plants!

I need to wander off to find out how I can post several pictures here.  

Actually, the easiest thing for me is to link you to my personal website, where it's really easy to have photo albums.   You can go to Mareydenis.com for the opening page or go here to go straight to my photo albums.