Tag: #clematis

Posted in Musings

Monday Moments – Musings – May 6, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

The Garden

So much on my mind today that I would have to write a book to share it. Instead, I’m going to share a piece of it and that is my flower garden. Things are blooming and are beautiful! Not everything yet. Some perennials bloom later than others.

From left, top to bottom: Clematis, iris, peonies, rhododendron bush, iris

From left: Japanese painted fern, (not sure of variety of fern), hostas

More will bloom as May goes on!

The rhododendron is native to the area in which I live – the Daniel Boone National Forest in the U.S. The rest are perennials that I have added to my garden. The flower garden has a problem right now. It needs to be heavily fertilized with an organic fertilizer. It is raining so much here, almost daily, that I can’t use my fertilizer right now.

Later today, I am driving to an excellent vegetable market to pick up produce. I try to eat as healthy and natural as I can. That’s tough here in the winter, but spring has come and the vegetables are flooding into the local vegetable markets. Unfortunately, the closest market (25 miles) has not received their order yet. The next closest market is 50 miles away and we are making a trip there today. I try to buy fresh produce at least once a week. It’s a considerable drive regardless of what I’m shopping for.

If we make it to a local market today, I will take pictures of their wonderful offerings to share with all of you.

Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare – April 13, 2024

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Good morning and come on in! Join me for #weekendcoffeeshare #160! I”m so glad to be blogging again. I really enjoy the writing, but I also enjoy my interactions with all of you. Grab a cup of coffee and please join me for a catch-up.

Wild weather in my part of the world again this week. Terrible thunderstorms and wind. It’s spring here and the weather is always unsettled, but never quite as unsettled as it is this year.

The week started with the solar eclipse! We did not get totality here. We got about 96%. It was quite cloudy that day, but most of us still got a pretty good glimpse at the eclipse. I was surprised because it did not turn as dark as we expected. Quite an event! The University here has a space science division and very nice facilities including a large telescope. They invited the public to come take a glimpse and that was fascinating!

I’ve done a lot of work this week. A lot of writing. What is your current WP? I’m looking at ideas for two books. I don’t know, for sure, if I will pursue these ideas or not, but I like them both. It’s not about me, however, it is about the potential audience for my work. I have to undertake some market research to find out if there is a potential audience. I feel like I’m out of touch with what the public is reading for pleasure since, until recently, I was writing on contract in my field.

What do you feel the public likes now? I’d love your opinions!

I have some pics of my garden although Mother Nature seems determined to make this gardening year difficult. Our last frost date isn’t until May 15, so there is plenty of time left for her to kill it! I used to grow vegetables, but not now. Living in the forest does not let you have access to enough sunlight. There is also a tree here, the black oak, that drips sap that is poisonous to veggies. So, now it’s flowers for me!

Speaking of flowers, allow me to show you the progress of some of my favs in my flower garden! Here are the perennials just starting in my shade garden.

Siberian Bugloss (top) and fern (bottom)

Ajuga – a great shade groundcover

Coral Bells

Here are a few of my plants in another flower bed that get partial sun/partial shade.

From the front:

Hosta. Left of the hosta is a clematis. Immediately behind the hosta is two peonies. Behind the peonies and to the right, climbing, is another variety of clematis. Behind the peonies/clematis is an iris bed. The irises are slowly coming up. I have both Siberian Iris and Louisiana Iris.

Other flowering plants are in this bed that have not come up yet. It’s early spring here in the Kentucky mountains.

Thanks for having coffee with me and have a wonderful week!

Many thanks to Natalie the Explorer for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare!

Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare, Gardening, weekendcoffeeshare

Life – 6/4/2022 – #weekendcoffeeshare

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
#weekendcoffeeshare

Please, come in, and share a cup of coffee or tea with me! I have breakfast roast and several different types of teas including apricot. So glad that you’ve come to visit and have a cup of coffee this morning. If I were having coffee with you today, I’d want to start to get to know everyone I don’t already know since I’m new – or really ”old/new.” I blogged here from 2016 until I started writing full-time. I’ve been gone a couple of years, but now I’m back because I’ve retired. I’ve missed blogging here and all of you.

You know, retiring when you’ve worked all your life is a huge adjustment. I wish I could still work at least part-time, but all good things must come to an end and I guess I’ve entered another phase of my life. I’m trying to adjust. Have you experienced retirement yet?

I’m trying to define my day, set up a ”sort of” schedule, so I won’t feel so lost. One thing I’ve done this spring is gardening and I’d like to share some of it with you. I can’t grow vegetables where I live unfortunately. Living in the forest means gardening challenges and you are stuck with shade gardens. I have a small patch of ground in my backyard where I can grow a few plants that need more son. My gardening zone is 6b in the U.S. We have four distinct seasons and a temperate climate. Here are some of the plants in my backyard garden that bloom in early June:

Here are my beautiful rose begonias. My grandmother grew them and I find them to be so beautiful.

Rose Bush, early June

Here is my little rose bush and it’s beautiful right now. That’s mint growing at its base.

Purple clematis

Here is my purple clematis. It had been here for 22 years, but last winter killed it to the ground. It is just getting started again, but I hope it once again will be lush and beautiful. Do you see the green bulb in the coach light? Our state’s governor asked that we all burn a green light until the pandemic is over. I wonder if I’ll ever get to replace it?

Now for my shade garden which is in front of the house:

Hostas

The hostas are large and lush this spring!

I grow many types of ferns:

Ferns under the azaleas

This is just one of my ferns.

I’d love to see pictures of your garden! These are just snapshots I’ve made of a little bit of the garden in spring 2022. Gardening is one of my hobbies now that I’ve retired.

It’s been great to have you here for #weekendcoffeeshare! I look forward to reading your posts.

Copyright @Rosemary Carlson