Landscaping 101 (part 2)

Last Saturday and Sunday the front yard was completely redone. Everything with a stalk or bulb was dug up and either thrown away or repotted for later planting. The pavers and bird bath were moved. It was a major undertaking. My daughter and son-in-law did the vast majority of the work.

Sweet Pea Status Report

My sweet peas are doing much better than I thought they would, considering the large amounts of rain and cold we have been having.  They have been pretty much neglected since I first planted them.  But they are determined to grow, thankfully.

I have also bought some bush sweet pea seeds which are now soaking in paper cups. They will be planted in the strawberry jars on my deck. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Mythological Sunday Mardi Gras

Last night saw two ladies' organizations parading.  First was Neptune's Daughters, which paid tribute in their parade to Jimmy Buffet, calling their parade theme "One Particular Harbor."
This is probably a fitting theme, since Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.

The next group to parade was the Order of Isis. This group consists of former members of Neptune's Daughters and held their first ball in 2008. Interesting choice of name, Isis. According to Egyptian mythology, Isis was the goddess of fertility, which may explain why she was the wife and sister of Osiris. In addition, she was also a guardian of the dead, and had magical abilities. She is represented throughout history as wearing a headdress which included the moon.

The Evil Weed

If this thing ever gets in your yard you are in trouble.  After searching online for a while I finally located it. It is called Cobblers peg (Bidens pilosa).  I have wracked my brain trying to figure out how this pest found my yard and the only thing that I can think of is bird seed. For two years now I've used only sunflower seeds but this pesky devil reseeds each year.  The worst part of it is the actual seed itself. If you can't pull it up before it goes to seed it's a nightmare, because the seeds stick to everything they come in contact with. I actually had to discard a shirt because there were so many seeds attached to it. Some of these plants have gotten over three feet in height. The good thing is that their roots are shallow so they are easy to pull. The bad thing is that they grow and spread very quickly.

....Came summer, and along with it, the weeds.

Summer of 2008, and I was just managing to stay ahead of the weeds. The daylilies had really grown and were beautiful. But other unwelcome visitors were showing up and making it hard to keep that neat, manicured look.

By now I had found echinacea, coreopsis, and black-eyed-susans to throw into the mix, along with some butterfly weed.  I couldn't stick to my 'plan.' For you see, I was still determined to have a cottage garden. Since it was hot, the snaps had long ago faded and I wanted plenty of color. Things were spreading out, and although they don't show quite yet, the nasty weed, the bane of my existence, was planning its evil takeover of my garden.

Landscaping 101 (part 1)

  My daughter redesigned my front yard two years ago, because she knows how much I love flowers. When she and her husband had finished it was absolutely gorgeous.  We had snapdragons, sage, daylilies, a couple of butterfly bushes, agapanthus, iris, a few geraniums, and asters to begin with.  It was so pretty.

That was in the spring of 2008, when it was still cool. The bridal wreath was blooming along the fence, the mulch was scattered perfectly, the plants were placed with room to grow, and I couldn't have been more delighted!  Then the weather began to warm up, the grass turned green, and.....

A Mardi Gras Delicacy--The MoonPie!

What in the world, you may ask, is a MoonPie? Well, it's just about the most delicious edible snack thrown from a float at Mardi Gras that you may have to pick up off the ground after covering it with your foot to keep someone else from taking it, that's what!

I'm serious.  Before the MoonPies were thrown from the floats, maskers were throwing such things as boxes of Crackerjacks.  But due to the velocity with which they were thrown, some parade-goers were actually injured by the boxes.  So the poor Crackerjack was banned in 1972.

What to do?  In 1974 the Maids of Mirth introduced the MoonPie as an alternative to the dangerous Crackerjacks.  MoonPie is a trademarked name of a bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Other companies sell poor substitutes to the original MoonPie. There is really no comparison.

For an interesting excursion into the world of Moon Pies, take a look: http://www.moonpie.com/

My favorite way to eat a MoonPie is to wait until I'm home from the parade, and zap it in the microwave for about 10 seconds, or until the chocolate icing starts to melt.  Instant smores!!

Hey, but MoonPies don't just come in chocolate, although that's my favorite. They also come in banana, coconut, orange, vanilla, strawberry and apple. Usually they are in silver wrappers with the emblem of the parading organization on the outside.