As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for information

I’ll have to replace my Oriental Lilies

by

Join Green Thumb Sunday
Join

orientallily1

Our Oriental lilies didn’t come up this year. Well, there might have been a tiny sprout or two but they didn’t grow. Of course we didn’t winterize our garden last fall. We are in zone 5b and it was a mild winter so I would have thought that the lily bulbs would have been ok, but something happened.

We had our Oriental Lilies for about five years and this was the first year that they didn’t bloom or grow. Does anyone know if oriental lilies only live for a certain length of time?

Do you grow Oriental Lilies? Their scent is heavenly and as you can see from this photo they are absolutely gorgeous.

Well if I’m going to replace them and perhaps purchase other spring and early summer bulbs for the garden now is the time. Home stores and nurseries should be selling bulbs now. Of course, I could always wait and order them from one of the many nursery catalogs that I get through the late autumn and early winter months.

Have you purchased tulip, daffodil, lilies or any other type of bulb for your garden yet?

Green Thumb Sunday News:

I just wanted to add a little shout out here for MsGreen “Thumb” Jean. Jean was kind enough to help out by going through our long list of GTS bloggers. She made a list for me of all the blogs that either hadn’t posted anything at all for months or hadn’t made a Green Thumb post for two+ months. I just finished going through that list and it was correct so those blogs have been removed and the bloggers notified.

If you notice that a listed blog hasn’t posted a GTS post for at least two months I’d love it if you’d let me know.

The preference, of course, is that everyone make a GTS post every week, but I know life gets in the way sometimes. Therefore I’d like to say that GTS members should be making GTS posts at least once every two weeks, once a month at the bare minimum (that’s iffy). Stretches of longer than a month are not good and those bloggers will risk being removed from the list for non participation.

Thanks!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.






You don’t have to haul out that cumbersome ironing board anymore!

by

If you read this site regularly you know that I don’t have a very big house or a very big garden, but I make the most of the space that I have. In fact I think I’ve become quite skilled at adapting small spaces to suit our needs. Even the apartment we lived in before we purchased our house was a junior one bedroom. I think it was only about 450 square feet!

wallmountironingboard.jpg Considering that I’m always looking for ways to make my small space more efficient I’m sure you can imagine how thrilled I was when I happened to visit http://www.betterlifestyleproducts.com/ and saw the smallest, most efficient ironing board that I’ve ever seen.

The ironing board is called the Lifestyle Fold-Away Wall Mounted Ironing Board.What a big name for such a compact ironing board.

This ironing board folds away into a small box or cupboard that’s mounted on the wall.

In fact, when folded away, the fold-away wall mounted iron has a profile of only 4 1/2 inches. You can deploy or fold away the ironing board in mere seconds. Oh did I mention that it’s also easy to install?

I’ve been managing to use a standard sized ironing board in our house. We store it in the basement and I tend to do our ironing down there (in the dungeon) while standing between the washer, dryer and furnace. Talk about tight spaces!

Think that’s bad? It was worse in our tiny apartment!

I kept our regular sized ironing board in the bedroom closet and when I wanted to iron something I’d either set up the ironing board in the hallway between the bedroom, bathroom and living room or I’d bring it into our tiny kitchen and iron between the fridge and a small table.

What I wouldn’t have given to have had one of these small fold-away ironing boards when I lived in the apartment!  unfoldingironingboard.jpg

Just look at the photos I’ve liberated from the Lifestyle Fold-Away Wall Mounted Ironing Board description page. You can see for yourself how small it is when it folds away and how easily it folds out when you want to use it.

Just think of what else you could store in the space that you’re using for your standard sized ironing board now if you got one of these instead! Certainly if you live in a small space, like I do, a fold away ironing board would make a lot of sense.

The ironing board, when fully deployed, is a full sized board with a ventilated steel surface. It doesn’t require any extra supports when extended. It’s very durable. Also, the wall cover is detachable and paintable so you can make sure it matches your wall coloring if you’d like to.

I must confess that I don’t really enjoy ironing, but I do think part of my dislike of ironing has been struggling with the ironing board. I think if I had one of these Fold Away wall mounted Ironing Boards I’d find the task much easier, less time consuming and dare I say perhaps even more enjoyable?

ironingboard.jpg

This lady certainly looks like she doesn’t mind ironing!

If you live in a small space visit the betterlifestyleproducts.com website and read all the information about this fantastic little ironing board. Actually, even if you don’t live in a small space this might make a great Christmas gift for someone that does. Oh and if you visit the site take a look at their product catalog. They have some very handy items.

It’s a hot one!

by

Oh my gosh. I’m just in from being in the garden for about an hour. I went outside to take some photos of flowers that have already been blooming for a week or two. You know how it is, if you don’t get the photos while they are blooming they’re gone! I already missed a few flowers that don’t re-bloom due to my lack of being in the garden much this year.

It is soooooooo hot outside! It’s apparently only 30 Celsius, but as always it’s pretty humid here and when you factor in the humidity it’s 39 c! That’s 102.2 F! I also happen to have a fever, as usual, so I’m sure my body wasn’t handling the heat and humidity as well as it should have.

When I came in I was literally soaked as if I’d been out there in the rain. Yuck. You can bet I hopped into the shower pretty quickly. I still feel overheated though.

I’m so thankful that we have air-conditioning. I know that I’ve said we have a fairly green lifestyle, but when it gets this hot here in the summer I don’t think I can easily give up my air conditioning. Hopefully all the rest of the stuff we do makes up for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that some more photos will be on their way shortly.

Hey let me ask you a question.

Do you like it when I post facts about the plants I photograph such as their hardiness, bloom times, whether they are drought tolerant and or like shade or sunlight?

I figure it helps those that are just getting started gardening. Plus if you haven’t tried growing a particular plant at least you’d know by reading the information that I post about each plant I photograph if it would do well in your area.

Meta