A toad with a sense of humour!

A walk around my summer garden

I hate Grasshoppers!

I have large beds of Canna Lillies all around my house front and back, which usually put on quite the display all summer long.

The past few weeks they have been growing happily away and I have been terribly busy with work, home and visitors. So I had failed to really look at my canna's closely, until last week when I noticed the first blooms just never really happened at all. One day they were all standing proud, the next they looked 3 weeks old!!

So Thursday night I investigated more closely and found the 'Attack of the killer grasshoppers' had hit them with force. As I chopped away at the stripped flowerheads and ravaged leaves it was literally raining grasshoppers in all directions of all sizes. Two years ago I would have been seriously freaking out and shrieking, but now I am becoming a true Okie, I just got mad! So I got them tidied up and then sprayed them with 'Seven' and bingo the problem has disappeared.

So I am hoping to soon have my canna's back to their former glory, as pictured here two summers ago. Grasshoppers are now enemy #2 here, right behind snakes (thanks Michelle)!

This may be it for today folks!

I had a busy day ahead anyway and it started early with some things to be done in the next town. Then I had my hair appointment at 10:30am to get my colour touched up and a cut.

But the hair gods were not smiling on me or my poor hairdresser today! We decided to add a slightly darker colour to break up the blonde a bit. Well to cut a long story short (as I don't have time now) the red in it grabbed and I ended up with blonde and a very subtle but noticeable red/PINK tinge - not so bad if you're 22 and not 42! So she started again combing bleach onto the pink bits to get it out, well I ended up bright solid coppery blonde with no roots at all showing, ten times worse!

By this time my poor longterm hairdresser & I are both getting a little concerned. So she tests another colour with no visible red that's darker and then pulls it through the cap to fix the problem. Well it worked 90%, except I am now darker than I wanted to be and it's blonder in area's but it's at least ok to be seen out in public. We made another appointment Thursday to get it properly sorted out....but oh boy did I ever not need this today of all days - I was in there 5 hours!

Just spoke to my mum who is now packing at 10:45pm the night before her flight at noon tomorrow, because she decided to garden earlier, oh and watch the tennis!! Don't even get me started on that one and why she is therefore always so wiped out when she arrives, but still blames the journey?!?! [takes deep breath!]

So excuse me folks if I don't get the video or any other piccies up today, I will after she's here.

IN THE MEANTIME....I made myself look like a right 'numpty' today out of sheer determination to track down this gorgeous little shrub. You see it's planted right along the McDonalds drive-through line and so I had to walk past all the cars to take this picture! No doubt I got some very odd looks - so please somebody identify this shrub??


OK - off to finish tidying the house up as we leave early tomorrow!

Bounteous Blooms

I thought I would share the beautiful blooms my garden is currently overflowing with in all areas. As you can see I love roses and clematis like most Brit's, but also have a passion for Asiatic Lillies.

Except for 2 of the roses, these are all plants I have put in myself since early 2006. All the roses were bought from Cottage Farms Direct which is linked in my 'Cool Online Places' down on the right and they all had a 1yr guarantee.

The final 2 pictures are of my all time favourite flower Alstroemaria in 2 different colours, I planted these last year and am delighted they have taken so well.

Invaded by weeds?

Then you need one of these amazingly Back friendly and easy gadgets!

I visited a friend the other night to take her for a spin in the new motor and her yard was literally covered in weeds popped right out of the ground! She showed me her Garden Weasel Weed Popper and then demonstrated how well it works.

You just stick the tines in next to any kind of weed in your lawn or flowerbeds, step on the pedal and the weed just pops right out with its root. It works fabulously and we have been attacking the dandelions and crab-grass this evening, one popping and the other picking up. Yet another great way to bond with your partner, over the 'Invasion of the Dandelions'! ;-)

We bought ours from an Ace Hardware store, Walmart do not stock them, but the Garden Weasel website has a list of stockists. Ours was $24.99 plus tax.

More of the gardening....

This little bit of our garden, contrary to this picture, is in the shade almost all day just getting a little late afternoon sun. As a result the grass doesn't grow too well under the Maple tree and the Hubster wants to do away with it.

Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings recommended these, so I have planted 2 Japanese Kerria (either side) and a Diablo Ninebark in the middle. These are all shade loving shrubs that will mature to about 8' x 8' eventually and fill this space very effectively. The Japanese Kerria are very open shrubs with interestingly shaped bright green foliage and pretty yellow blooms in early summer. The Ninebark has gorgeous dark red/purple foliage and white blooms, together they will contrast beautifully.

So they might not look like much at the moment but a few years from now they will solve a problem area and look great.

Just because it's so pretty..

Columbine 'Nora Barlow'

More of our gardening handiwork

We've been so busy there'll probably be a post each day this week showing the development of our garden.

Today features what we call our 'Beach' area and we designed and put this in ourselves last summer. Previously it has been a very scruffy looking vegetable garden and not only was I too terrified of snakes to really work it, but it was plain butt ugly right opposite the patio!

Thanks to our extremely large Cottonwood Tree between it and the patio, it is also the only shady area in the garden that gets a breeze, as our patio is enclosed on 3 sides. So we put this in to give us a shady seating area and we love it and use it constantly.

Most of the planting was put in last year, but it's more mature now and I have added a few touches, although they are hard to spot yet!

Just in front of the central 2 pink flowering Dianthus, I have planted a perennial Black Mondo Grass (as below) on either side. They will eventually grow to about 18" high and 12-15" across and stay this unique deep black, which I think will look great against the river rock.

In the back far corner I have planted an Elephant Ear that will grow up to 5ft tall and I think they always look spectacular in any garden. There are also 3 new Nippon Grasses planted on both sides in the empty area's and these will grow tall and have pink flumes. The bed at the very back is filled with bright red Canna Lillies that grow taller than the fence and give the whole thing a colourful backdrop. The 2 rose bushes in the centre behind the table also bloom a vibrant red all summer long.

When we bought this house we basically inherited a 2 trees and 2 shrubs and 3 rose bushes. The rest was all just grass and there was no fence, so we were just open to our nighbours and the highway. The first spring and summer we (meaning the Hubster with a little help from moi) erected that fance around the whole yard. I think it's 58 x 8ft panels and a post every 4ft - so that kept us pretty busy!

Now we are trying to build a garden of perennials and shrubs that will give character and result in a pretty easily maintained garden for years to come. Good job I love gardening!

Here's what we've been up to....

For the past week the Hubster and I have been up to our elbows in dirt and mulch, so here are a few piccies of some of our work.

I will start off with our rear patio today...more tomorrow

Big gardening weekend....

Well this weekend is the one when we will be doing some major gardening, as the risk of frost should have passed by now. Having said that, typically we had to move a few things in tonight as there is a very slight risk!

The first thing I did in preparation was have a long phone chat today with the lovely Dee of Red Dirt Ramblings, who is my new gardening guru for OK and a recognised expert. She has kindly taken pity on my expat' status in an entirely new climate badly in need of help, on what the heck is good to grow and survives here. So I am now armed with a 2-page list of things to hunt up in our only local garden centre. Maybe I just dream't this, but I used to have 6 or more on my doorstep once upon a time far far away, and even had a loyalty card with one!

Then we will return home, map out our route and the Hubster will breakout the rota-tiller to do all the hard work, before planting commences. In the meantime I will tapping in 'U' thingies on my fence posts and threading fishing line to form a support grid for climbers.

I anticipate our yard work will continue in fits throughout the weekend, but it will all be worthwhile in a month from now :-)

And in the meantime......

I will leave you with a few shots from my re-awakening May garden, whilst I have a post Pre-K late start tomorrow....see y'all after my Friday snooze fest!

Here comes summer...

Last night at about 10:45pm summer officially arrived in our little corner of nw Okieland. Yep I had to turn on the Air-Con when it was still 78 degrees in the house and I was beginning to slowly steam!

Right now it is in the mid' 80's as you can see, with the hottest time of day not due until 5pm. So we have now officially made the switch from heat to air-con in our house.

But this is Oklahoma and it needs to keep us on our toes at all times....so tomorrow's predicted high is 50 - almost a forty degree drop overnight. Then we are bouncing right back up into the 70's on Friday and then back into the 80's over the weekend! I tell you the weather around here is totally POTTY!

Whilst I was out in the garden I also snapped a piccie of our Lilac Bush which is now in full blom and looking gorgeous. Now I am off to spray the darned hen-bit which is taking over large area's, re-pot my tomato plants and finally paint my toes....as sandal season is here!

Wacky OK weather latest!

YEEHAW.....finally we have some RAIN!

I know this might seem like a strange thing to celebrate if you're a Brit', but it's literally been weeks since the last drop of the stuff in these parts.

It's not alot (and it might already be over!) but at this point we are just grateful for any, as there have been a few too many wildfires the past month and our gardens are desperately dry.

With a bit of luck everything around here might start to bud, green up and generally grow now.

First success with seeds....

My Hubster eats 2 jars of Salsa a week - HE IS a Salsa Addict!

He started making his own fiery concoction but with the cost of tomatoes, it's cheaper to buy it at the rate he eats it. So we have decided we need to grow our own tomatoes to solve this problem and then we can do some bottling and have a year round supply! We already have 'his' perfect hot Salsa recipe good to go.

I have tried to grow them here before, but the year I tried we had a drought and hardly anyone around here got a crop, so I was slightly put off.

Anyway I bought some seeds and a little sprouting box and planted them a week ago. Yesterday we woke up to find tomato plants sprouting all over :-)

Next I have to give them a little sun and in a few days thin them out and then transfer them to individual pots to grow on. We did have some wonderful old tomato cages from the previous owner of our house, but last year I sold them after the previous failure!

If you have any good tomato plant tips, please share them so I can grow a healthy crop and keep the Hubster in Salsa!

Magnolia & Squirrel Care 101

Train your pets to help out around the garden, by keeping precious plants warm on days they are allowed out from the garage in winter....the plant that is!


This is my second attempt to grow a traditional Dutch Magnolia Tree here in windy Oklahoma. The first I planted straight into the garden and then we had a drought and it was a goner. So this time I have kept it in this tub of enriched garden soil for a year now and will leave it until summer 2009 to get well-established, before I plant it in the yard.

Since winter began we have kept it dormant in the garage and just rolled it our on sunny warm days and watered it. I am now being rewarded with new furry buds and things are looking hopeful.


We also have a tame neighbourhood Squirrel who has visited us all winter long for nourishment. His feeding box is on the Cottonwood tree opposite the kitchen window and he always makes me smile as he ducks in and out of the food.

But as you can see, my girls have also developed a certain fondness for our future Magnolia tree and our tame Squirrel and give them plenty of TLC and attention too!

My garden is awakening already!

With the warm weather we've had in the past few days, there are definite signs of life emerging around the garden and it's too soon! My roses are producing buds, my 2007 planted ornamental Pear tree's & Red Maple have new growth appearing and later this week we are due for snow again!

This is the trouble with transplanting yourself from one continent of the world to another vastly different one. You have to relearn all your acquired gardening skills and either change your ways or accommodate new ideas. I have tried to do a bit of both so far, resulting in some success and more failure. You don't see many people growing alot of roses up in our area but I refused to give up on the quintessential english plant.

My first spring in 2006 I planted 3 climbing roses around the porch and they all took and have done really well. So in 2007 I tried 3 bush roses also at the front, but in a different bed and they have all failed! Luckily they had a 1-year warranty, so I will order my replacements soon and try again I guess. Another success has been my clematis planted amongst the climbing roses and this really pleased me, as a few locals said it was impossible with the heat here. I successfully grew a wonderful Passion Fruit in the UK, which even produced fruit very much against the odds. Last year I searched high and low to find one to plant here as I now have great climate conditions for success, but could I find a plant...NO! In 2006 I planted a traditional Dutch Magnolia tree in the backyard, but it never survived the ensuing drought. So the replacement in 2007 has stayed in a barrel, been nursed gently and is currently only rolled out of the garage on sunny days. I hope by establishing it well for a couple of years in the barrel, it will then transplant successfully into the garden. (Front climbing roses & Canna beds - above)

I have learned to love the native Crepe Myrtle (left) that flowers all summer long and thrives in the heat, this year I plan on planting another four. I have also rapidly established a wonderful display of various Canna Lillies, with people even stopping to ask me for extra bulbs when I divide them. My big experiment in 2007 was Alstroemaria in a bed, this is my all time favourite flower and I am waiting to see if it has survived winter nervously.

Last year we made a good sized area of the garden into another seating area and planted roses, a blueberry bush, canna's and a few shrubs including Photinia. The previous year this area was a vegetable garden, but my fear of snakes got the better of me! This year we plan on developing the far corner of the garden (beneath the birdhouse visible in this picture), it won't be as large an area but will have more impact, being visible from our bay window.