A thank you, heat-humidity, blooms

Good morning Friends

I want to say thank you to Cameron at Defining Your Home for the contest she held recently. I want to thank BHG also, for sponsoring and donating the 5 - 1 yr. subscriptions. I was one of the winners, randomly chosen. I have known Cameron for years via the web, we met a long time ago in a forum about Cottage Gardens. Her colorful gardens are always an inspiration to me.

I also want to thank Susan of Central Florida Gardener for the sweet post she did on my humble cottage gardens where I grow roses and other plants on a shoestring.

A thank you goes out to Meems of Hoe and Shovel for the ID on the unknown grass at the library, Fakahatchee grass.

What a bummer! We are most definitely into summer down here. Yesterday I was out moving potted plants, weeding, raking, hand watering from around 9-12 and that was almost too much. I couldn’t seem to stop until I did and was surprised at the time. I was sweating buckets too but remembered to drink water also. I've got some plum tomatoes growing in cement blocks, they seem to be doing well. These are from seeds of tomatoes from the veggie market. There are blooms so I hope we get to see some tomatoes soon. I screened the area off with old screens in our stash of 'stuff', to keep night critters out. Every time I've grown tomatoes something takes bites out of them and throws them on the ground. Grrr.

I've got basil growing from seeds I recieved from Sharon Lovejoy and Renee of Renee's Garden. for becoming a member of Sharon's Grimy Girls Hands Club. I have enjoyed Sharon's writings and artwork since I first found her in the first issue of Country Living Gardener in 1989.

I used some of the basil last night in homemade pizza sauce. Yummy! I hadn't made pizza in quite sometime and it is a favorite of ours. I love my bread machine for making the dough.

I also made a banana bread yesterday afternoon, using a 5 spice powder blend, different and good. Great with a cup of coffee this morning.

Our little restoration project, is going to be a stationary garden fixture, not a camper to go out on the road with.

We sure need the rain, and it is predicted for us to get some next week, we'll just have to wait and see.

I'm trying to group all container plants into a couple of areas to care for them easier, then try to handwater the garden areas and am hoping for the best.

The other day I was smelling a wonderful rose scent, and I thought where is that coming from, and then I spied an open bloom of Chrysler Imperial. Oh, oh, oh. There is just something about the rose scents that touches my very being.

Then I smelled another rose in a different area and it was Maman Cochet. This little shrub is from a cutting, that I used the Fish-it Fertilizer on and it has quite a few buds about to open. I didn't get a picture of this bloom.

A few weeks back we were driving in a different neighborhood, and DH spied something in a curbside pile, and this is what it was. It is made of iron.

We found this street side Monday as we were coming home from doing our errands. The chip will go to the back, of course, so shouldn't be noticeable.

These are So. African foxgloves, grown from seed.

Penelope roses again. They are so sweet.

Queen Crepe.

So far, I am really enjoying using Live Writer to write my blogs and upload them to Blogger.

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"The secret of improved plant breeding,

apart from scientific knowledge,

is love."

Luther Burbank, 1849-1926

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Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL