Wordless Wednesday - Daylilies

Playground for Grandkids

I have been busy building a playground for my 2 granddaughters.  I thought I would share it with you.  Here are the before and after photos of the project.

Before - I had been spraying Roundup on the grass to try and kill it before I started the project.  It didn't always look this bad.

This was really ugly.

BUT NOW it looks like this!!

I put down 3 yards of playground mulch and 1 yard of river rock.  I had several 1'x1' concrete pavers that I used to make a hard surface for the chairs and fire pit to sit on.

The potager is behind the playground.

Now the playground is tied into the deck that surrounds the pool.  What an improvement if I say so myself. 

Until next time,

Working in the Potager

I have a potager in my back yard.  A potager is a French kitchen garden that contains vegetables, herbs, fruits and/or flowers.  It usually is made up of small rectangular, square and triangle shaped beds separated by stone or brick path ways.  It is usually bordered by a clipped hedge.  My potager contains 10 rectangle shaped beds.  I used river rock in the pathways and the front of each row of beds is bordered with a boxwood hedge.  I designed and built this garden about 15 years ago, long before I knew it was called a potager. 

Today I worked in Bed 10 where I have squash planted.  First I had to weed the bed using my trusty hoe. 

Next I spread Preen to try to prevent some future weeding.  I am not an organic gardener.  I do not use insecticides but I do use herbicides.

Last year I had the soil tested in the potager.  My pH is too high and I had almost no nitrogen in the soil.  They recommended I use Ammonium Sulfate to lower the pH and raise the nitrogen.  I also add compost  when I have it on hand.

I am supposed to use this once a month during the growing season but rarely do I get it applied that often. You have to use this sparingly because a little goes a long way.  Better to use less otherwise you will have a lot of green leaves and very few vegetables.

Next I take the water hose and water directly on the center of each squash plant.  This makes the adult squash bugs run and I can pick them up with gloved hands and SQUISH 'em.

So that was my day working in the potager.  I am not advertising for Preen or Hi Yield but simply showing you what I use.  Hope you are enjoying your summer.  Have a good weekend.

Until next time,

Wordless Wednesday - Coreopsis in the Empty Nest Gardens

Daylilies in the June Garden

Blogger is working again....woohoo!!  I did learn that I can post to my blog from Flickr when Blogger is down. 

So back to the garden.  The Daylilies are blooming. They are one of my favorite flowers.

Cultivar - Joylene Nichole

Cultivar - Siloam Double Classic

Cultivar - ????

Another Joylene Nichole

Cultivar - Stella de Oro

And I have LOTS of old fashioned Tiger Lilies

And no this is not a daylily but I had to show it.  This is my water lily and it is blooming and it is beautiful. 

So until next time,

Blogger Outage

Tapioca Plant
Originally uploaded by kclily

Okay, I can't get into Blogger. I keep getting the message that Blogger is unavailable. So I am going to update my blog from flickr. If this works....well that is just pretty cool.

Kclily

Kansas City - Minneapolis Baseball

Last week my husband took me on our first baseball trip of the 2010 season.  We follow the Texas Rangers and they were playing in Kansas City then traveling to Minneapolis.  We love to drive and we had never been in Iowa or Minnesota so off we went to watch a little baseball and visit some new cities.

Our first stop was Kansas City, Missouri to watch the KC Royals play the TX Rangers.  We have been to this ballpark several times but they have remodeled it since we were there last and it is fantastic.

On to Des Moines, Iowa where we spent the night. 

They have a very fabulous State Capitol building that is landscaped beautifully. 

The next day we drove to see the Covered Bridges of Madison County, Iowa

Winterset just happens to be in Madison County where Fons & Porter's Quilt store is located.  So guess what?  I got to do a little shopping.

Next we drove to Minneapolis and visited the Mall of America.  This is the amusement park that is inside the Mall.   

And in the Mall of America there is an Aquarium.  My favorite parts were the sea horses and...

the Jelly Fish.  They have a spectacular Jelly Fish display. 

The next day we visited the Minnesota Zoo.   

That evening we went to the Target Field.  This is it's inaugural season.

We set on the club level behind home plate and this was the view of the evening skyline.

It was a 12 hour drive home from Minneapolis.  We drove straight through which isn't bad when you have 2 drivers.  I hope to blog about my garden and my quilting projects in the next few days.   

Thank you for taking time to visit my blog.  Until next time,