We do a veggie garden every year, but I haven't been flower gardening long at all luvs and I've not done many perrenials yet. I love my rhododendrons. I've heard other people have problems with them, but so far I haven't had any and they are so pretty. I also love hydrangeas. I think they are both in the azalea family. My hydrangeas are having a hard time. I've moved them a few times trying to find the right place for them.

I have a clematis that I have wrapping around a tall old birdcage that I'm just getting established too. Most of my plants are only a year old. When the back fence gets put in I'll be doing more there as well. Oh and I like my lilac bushes too. Smell so good, but only bloom once and gone for the summer. I can't wait to get some honeysuckle growing. My brother is going to give me some of his since they are about $40 for a starter one at the nursery. I also want a couple of hibiscus. Love those! My SIL's neighbor has a bright pink one that is soooo gorgeous.

I seem to do pretty well with roses since my grandmother was a big rose grower and showed me how to take care of them. The only problem I have is my mom cuts them too far back every year. I've asked her not to, but she cuts them almost down to the ground every spring. Then she wonders why everyone elses are so big and bushy. ha And this year my DH accidentally hit my front ones with weed killer and about killed them. I've been babying them back and they now have a few roses on them. We have a miniature rose that does really well outside and always has a ton of blooms on it.

I've seen several people on Gardenweb who grow those hyacinth beans and they look so pretty,but don't know where to get the seeds.
I want to try a gardenia here too. They smell sooo good.
I like big patches of shasta daisies too.
I have a few geraniums in pots, but need to get more and I like the cascading petunias too.

I planted peonys, but I can't remember where I put them. ha I think I see where a few of them may be coming up. I really need to start putting markers out.
I want to plant some lavender and sage too. Do you have any ornamental grasses? The ones I put in last year were not perrenial so I need to find some that are. I like them for bed fillers. I have planted zinnias and sunflower seeds. I know they aren't flowers, but I just planted my pumpkins and decorative gourd seeds yesterday. I hope they have time to come in. I like to have those to decorate with for Thanksgiving and Halloween and the pumpkin patch has gotten so expensive.

I am going to look for the fushia and the plumbago at the nursery this week. I don't remember ever seeing them, but I'll ask. I got sidetracked yesterday and never got to look to see if the fushia would do well here. I'm gonna do that now.
I hope this makes sense. My kids have interrupted me about 20 times while I'm trying to write this. If it reads a little unconnected then you'll know why. ha ~Anj

I envy you having room for a veggie garden. Nothing better than being able to walk out and pick some lettuce, green onions, radishes, and fresh tomatoes then go in and fix a nice fresh salad.

Sounds like you already have lots of pretty flowers. That clematis on the birdcage sounds so neat. I love lilacs, but only recently did they have a variety that would grow here--guess they need the cold winter. Mine is about three years old but not very big yet. Hope I'm still around here when it finally blooms since I have been waiting for it so long! LOL

I don't do well with hibiscus for some reason. At our last house, I had an L shaped planter that I filled with them. Ended up having to take them all out and put roses in it. The roses bloomed like crazy and got so bushy they looked like a rose hedge.

No peonys here either--used to love them when we had them in the midwest. They are so gorgeous. We had them all along the edge of the garden, and we had asparagas planted in between--after we had many meals of the veggie--then it would have the prettiest fern look against the green of the peonys. Boy, that was along time ago! LOL

Hope your pumpkins and gourds do well. Don't forget that you can dry the gourds and then paint them. That is if they are the smooth kind. The vines look nice growing on a garden fence too.

I'm curious to know if your area has the fuschia and plumbago. Out here you see the plumbago along several of the freeways. That tells you that it must be pretty hardy--because those plants don't usually get much maintenance.

Speaking of plants--got to trim some bushes and mow my yard today. LIke to do it the day before the trash pickup so it doesn't sit in the trash cans too long.

Still hoping to get a few strokes of paint on one of my projects too. Maybe I can at least get them basecoated. Have a good one.

Luvs

Our garden is pretty nice sized. We do tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, canteloupes, pumpkins and beans. I can hardly wait for fresh tomatoes. I eat them every day. I like them cut up with a little onion salt and ranch dressing. :) MMMMMM

I want to get another color of clematis to plant in between the one I have running up the bird cage to break up the dark purple some. I think it will look good with 2 colors. Probably a pretty pink.

The gourds I planted this year are the tiny ornies that are striped, white, yellow & green and the bumpy ones that the kids say have warts. ha Can you still dry those? I planted the birdhouse ones a few years ago and I cleaned most of them and ready to paint, but one of those things I've never gotten around to. ha Really want to make some of them into snowmen this year.

I'm working on my Americana Uncle Sam basket. It's coming along slowly since I keep getting interrupted. Maybe another day or 2 and I'll have it finished. Could never make up my mind on what to paint on the canisters yet.

I had to get up extra early to take DD for her root canal today. Sat in the endodontist office for 2+ hours and now I'm sooo drowsy. Think I'll pop in a dvd, turn on the cooler and see if the kids will take a nap with me. ha Sounds like a plan. ~A

So who is the gardener of the family. Is it a joint venture, or does one of you love to get out there and plant and hoe and water it more than the other?

I keep reading all these recipes for grilled veggies. I've done them in the oven with kosher salt and olive oil, but haven't tried the foil packet on the grill idea.

I love tomatoes too, usually have a few slices most every day. Hadn't tried the lemon pepper and ranch, I'll have to give that a try. My Dad used to like to sprinkle a little sugar on a slice at the end of the meal for his dessert! ;o)

I don't know much about growing or drying gourds. The ones I painted were grown by my sister. They sure were easy to paint, and I think they make great snowmen, santas, raggedys, etc. I have one or two left. An unfinished Santa, just got him based coated. I think the shape of the gourd sort of "tells" you what it should be. LOL

Sorry your DD had to have a root canal. Hope it went okay. Aren't afternoon naps great? Never got to do those much until now that I've retired. Some afternoons, DH and I and the two dogs will settle in on the sofa and loveseat, put up the recliner part, turn the tv to a music station, and just take a little nap. Sure has helped me to NOT fall asleep in the middle of a show after dinner now! Can't tell you how many endings I have missed! LOL

I did some basecoating yesterday--hoping to get back in there today to work some more on it. Hope you are making progress on your basket too. I'll chat with you later.

Luvs

You said lemon pepper on the tomato so I hope that's a typo! ha Not a fan of the lemon pepper. I do onion salt and ranch. Although I guess lemon pepper might not be bad if you like the flavor??

DH and I both love a veggie garden. Both of our parents had big gardens growing up. Half of our garden was peanuts though. mmmmm Being from the south you know we love us some boiled peanuts! Anyway, we've had one almost every year of our marriage. We both do the planting, watering (I'm only doing it now until he gets his watering system in again) and harvesting. We don't have any weeding since he put down weed block. Soooo nice. We used to do corn too, but we can buy it so cheap at the produce stand down the road that we haven't done it the last few years. I mostly wanted the stalks for fall decorating.
Do you get the free Kraft Food and Family magazine?? Oh, they have some good summer recipes in there. My SIL gave me a tomatoe pie recipe last year that I want to try too. As much as we grill, we've never grilled veggies. I should try it this year.

DD's root canal went great. Can't believe she had to have one so young, but she hasn't had a twinge from it. She gets weird cavities because of the shape of her teeth. We just changed dentists and he caught a few things the other dentist didn't.

I don't get many naps, but I told the kids it's good to take a little siesta during the day to recharge your body. They agreed we could all lay down for about 15 minutes every day when it's time for the 3yr olds nap. ha I may be getting more! I know what you mean. I love CSI and we have them on demand on our cable so we usually end up watching them at night after the kids are in bed and I always miss the end. ha I have usually figured out who done it before I'm snoozing so DH just has to give me a recap the morning after. ha

Well, I'm going to vacuum then I have to run to the store (kitty is out of food and he's giving me that look) and then I promised the kids I'd run them to the $1 store. Our new summer motto is: We clean before we have fun!, so everything is done already so I'll just have to run some laundry when I get home. Leaves me some time to paint in the afternoons!! It's only their 2nd day out of school so we'll see how long it lasts. ha Hopefully I'll be able to finish my basket today?? Have a great one! ~Anj

Hi Anj. Oops! Sorry about the lemon pepper--you did say onion salt. Don't know why the lemon pepper popped into my mind--but I do like it. ;o)

Sounds like you have a couple of good "rules" already in place to make the summer more enjoyable for everyone. I sort of like to use those two rules myself--with the exception of checking in here while I have my morning coffee. After I get off here, I get on with the cleaning stuff.

Wow, that is right. Using the weed block that is available now sure would cut down on the weeding and hoeing in a garden. Guess you can tell it has been a long time since I've planted one. My favorite thing to grow is zuchinni--that plant makes anyone think they are a gardener! Ha ha

I'm off to check the gallery. I almost finished one of my projects yesterday. Just need to do something with the back and then get it sprayed good.

I'll catch you later. Luvs