Keep Smiling

Keep Smiling

Friday, May 19, 2017

Wonderful May Weather



This week I have been enjoying  
the great outdoors.
Not on an adventure,
but around the yard :)



I lost half of my roses 
due to our cold hard winter.
So I've been nurturing the ones that made it
and replacing those that didn't.








I was delighted that my Bleeding Heart
made it through our freezing winter :)
I think they are so pretty.


 I purchased this plant this spring.
It had no name tag, but I thought it was a Peony. 


Now I'm thinking a Poppy.
Do any of you know?


The chives are already blooming.
I gave them a hair cut, after taking
this photo, LOL.


We planted the main garden with 
tomatoes and peppers.
We also installed drip-lines . . .
this truly put a smile on my face.
No more watering :)




36 Peppers



39 Tomatoes.
All from seed :)

I will be doing a lot of canning
and sharing with friends and neighbors.



The weather was so nice that I even
hung our sheets and quilts on the line. 
I love line dried bedding :)

Well, that was my week.

I hope that yours was as lovely.

Keep Smiling!

Your blogging sister,
Connie :)

62 comments:

  1. I think your flower is a Peony, and a very pretty one too!

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    1. It is beautiful isn't it . . . now that my sweet husband has installed drip-lines around the outside of the house, I can grow lovely flowers. We live in a desert area and without the help of irrigation we would be lost.

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  2. Your roses are all so pretty. No idea what thatone is, I'm no good at identifying things

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    1. We'll just call it extremely pretty, whatever it is, LOL.

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  3. Wow Connie, you certainly have a green thumb. I am in love with all your beautiful roses. I have a fondness for bleeding hearts too. Blessings to you and yours, xoxo, Susie

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    1. A couple of years ago I made a trip to SW Oregon and while I was there I purchased that Bleeding Heart and a Pink Dogwood tree. The tree didn't make it . . . It is the fourth one that i've tried growing in the last 40 years. None of them made it . . . I guess I'm a slow learner, LOL.

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  4. I love washing dried in the fresh air, smells so good! Beautiful roses, could do with some of that sunshine here xx

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    1. We have been getting the nicest weather . . . rain at night and then sunny or cloudy in the daytime and mellow temperatures. They are predicting several days in the 90's next week, so summer is on the way. The vegetables will love the heat :)

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  5. Your garden photos are so lovely, it's nice to see everything taking off again after your winter. I like the sound of the drip lines... I don't think you will have much time for watering by hand with all the preserving you will have to do!

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    1. I know! Steve and I just learned to can last summer and we are so excited about doing even more this year. It was so wonderful this last winter, being able to cook with home canned things from our garden.

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  6. What a lovely week you had. I enjoyed taking an adventure around your yard with you. I also like line drying my bedding, but I haven't been able to lift the sheets high enough to hang them on the line. I miss that smell.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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    1. There is nothing quite as sweet as crawling into a bed at night with line dried sheets. They just haven't truly been able to capture that wonderful aroma in a softener, have they?

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  7. Your roses are gorgeous! I don't have good luck with roses for some reason. It's good to see bedding on the line; few women hang out their laundry these days.

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    1. I only hang bedding and rugs on the line anymore. It's more work, but so worth it. The bedding smells heavenly when dried on the line and as for throw rugs, that rubber backing last so much longer if it never sees the inside of a dryer :)

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  8. Lovely signs of spring! Better than the snow I've been shoveling!

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    1. I'm so over the snow of last winter. We had more snow and colder temperatures than we have had for many years. That's the reason I lost so many of my roses. Not just me, but i've been hearing it from gardeners all over town. The nurseries are doing a big sell out on roses this spring.

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  9. Just look at all the blooms and buds on your Roses!! What DO you feed them to get results?

    Chives have such pretty flowers so what I did is I divided my plant and now I give one a "haircut" so I can use them, and let the other one bloom away.
    Happy weekend.

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    1. My chives are getting very thick, I should divide them, too. As for my roses I feed them Epsom Salts.

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  10. Enjoyed seeing all the work you've done come together in your garden.

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  11. Your flowers are beautiful and you should have a heap of tomatoes with all those. Hoping our David Austin rose bush we ordered comes soon and then I hope it lives! Ha We have some lovely days and now rain again but it sure was nice to have warmer weather. Enjoy your yard! Nancy

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    1. Around here rain is a blessing and we have been blessed more this spring (plus all the snow of last winter) than most years :) It won't be long before out rain stops and the heat starts. I am going to be so blessed by the drip-lines. It's a lot of work watering the gardens and being afraid to leave them for every long without them drying out.

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  12. Must be so wonderful to be outside in the sunshine smelling the roses and fresh bed linen!

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    1. I have been enjoying every minute spent outside . . . my poor house suffers from it, but it is the springtime trade off, LOL.

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  13. Your roses are beautiful, Connie. I'd like to get a Bleeding Heart for my backyard. . .lots of shade back there and I think this is a plant that would do well, plus they're not on the deer buffet list. Not sure about the mystery flowers, but poppy is a good guess. Have a nice weekend.

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    1. I purchased that Bleeding Heart at a nursery in Enterprise when I was there and we first met. We are always talking about how lovely it was camping in Joseph at the state park there. So, maybe someday after Steve retires we'll travel that route again. I love the meadows and all the lovely barns and farmland in the area. It's so Norman Rockwell and beautiful :) I had seen red and I had seen white but that was the first Bleeding Heart the I saw with the red and white combo. I'm delighted that it made it through our cold winter.

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  14. The flowers are beautiful and you are lucky with the weather. Our weather is still cold and we had a month with very little rain and then a month's worth in two days! Madness xxxxx

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    1. Hi Fran, I'm sorry to hear about your weather. Hopefully sunshine is on the way.

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  15. Your surviving roses are magnificent. I also have vegetable garden envy, although your large beds must require a lot of TLC. Bon week-end. Elizabeth

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    1. I'm looking forward to an easier garden time this year. Those drip-lines should take a huge about of the work out of it. That and all the grass clipping that I'm saving :) If you lived closer it would be a pleasure to share some of our garden vegetables with you :)

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  16. Your roses are beautiful and I am sorry to hear that you lost so many of them. That's pretty sad. My mother always had a huge patch of bleeding hearts- light pink ones/dark pink ones and white ones...and poppies. She loved poppies.

    Love the picture of clothes on the line- I love line dried bedding, too. Nothing in the world like crawling in to sheets that have been dried in the sun and fresh air.

    Have a wonderful weekend- xo Diana

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    1. Don't you have the sweetest dreams in a bed of line-dried sheets :)

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  17. Your gardens are so pretty...love roses. Love seeing that clothesline shot. So serene. Happy weekend.

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    1. Not many people use clotheslines anymore, but how could I have a country home without a clothesline in the yard. Nothing smells are sweet as crawling into a bed of line-dried sheets :)

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  18. You grow the most beautiful roses. Sorry that you lost some. All your plants look big and healthy. I do love a clothesline too. You make things so pretty.

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    1. Oh, I think that we have a lot in common and would be great friends . . . wish you lived closer :)

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  19. And a lovely week it looks like it has been, beautiful spring flowers, a planted garden (looks great!) and the fresh sent of sheets flapping in the breeze for your bed. Who could ask for more. Blessings Connie.

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  20. Your garden is enormous, Connie, and I am overwhelmed by the bounty you will harvest within a few months. Your friends will be lucky indeed!

    I'm glad your bleeding heart made it. Mine did too -- and I was so very worried.

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    1. It is big and you are only seeing about a third of it in this post. I also have garden boxes filled with zucchini squash, beans, carrots, beets, parsnips, cucumbers, onions, herbs, flowers, peas, spaghetti squash, raspberries and blackberries :) Just wait until canning season. I'm expecting to be very busy, LOL.

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  21. I love your roses, Connie ... esp. the red & yellow striped roses. Just beautiful! Thanks for sharing! God bless you!

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    1. Hi Carol, thanks for stopping by to say hello and to leave this sweet comment. :)

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  22. What a shame that you lost some of your roses, Connie. The bleeding heart is really pretty. Good thing it made it through the winter. When I look at the leaves I think it's a peony. I hope you'll have a good pepper and tomato harvest.

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    1. Hello Julia, I see a lot of canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and jars of salsa all lined up like little soldiers, on the shelves, to helps us through the winter :) Thanks for popping in to say Hi.

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  23. Oh Connie.. how wonderful to have drip lines in your garden! In the years when I was younger, I maintained 3 big huge gardens, when my kids were little! We watered all of them with hoses and sprinklers and sure took alot of time. I would like drip lines even if just on my flowers in the tubs. Your roses are beautiful and amazing you can grow them in such a hot climate. Do your drip lines cover those too and to you water them every day in the heat of summer? Funny I should ask... I had lots of them when I lived in Waitsburg, WA and they thrived there. So they must do better in the heat rather than damp and humid climates west of the mountains where I also lived. Roses never did very well there for some reason. I may attempt some here in Madras as it's so hot and dry, but sometimes they may not like the hot winds. And you have blackberries too? Did you tame them? In SW Washington they grew wild EVERYWHERE and if you didn't keep them in line by mowing them down, they would take over your entire pasture, barn, gardens, everything! I've thought of buying maybe two plants and putting them in my yard here, but I would have to bother with pruning them down alot.. so may stick to going picking out at the river. I found a huge patch of them on the Deschutes River north of town.. trouble is there are alot of rattlesnakes there! Hubby doesn't want me to go, but oh how I miss the blackberries on the wet side of the mountains (Washougal, Portland, Vancouver, etc.). I have some raspberries but they are young still.. but they are doing well here. Isn't gardening and canning fun??? but so much work too.. but the rewards are well worth it! I wish I lived closer too! Hugs.. Marilyn

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  24. I enjoyed your flower and garden photos. I especially love the Bleeding Heart......I have one that bloomed one year, and struggles to come back now. I must still have it in the wrong place...........I've already moved it once.

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    1. I did that with a fern once . . . I moved it all over the yard and for about three years it did nothing but survive. Then the next move must have been the right one because it grew, had baby plants and was beautiful. Don't give up :)

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  25. Hi Connie! It's been awhile. Your mystery flower does seem to be a peony. I have many pictures of them that I have taken, and it matches, especially the center. So you were right in the first place! Your roses and Bleeding Hearts are beautiful. You sure do have a green thumb. And a whole lot of energy! I didn't now chives had flowers like this!

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    1. Chive bloom if you don't cut them down often enough . . . They do better with regular hair cuts :)

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  26. Oh my your roses are just beautiful, we bought some bleeding hearts but never did get them planted, maybe next year :) Our roses have some kind of disease so not all of the roses are that pretty. Wow you have a lot of plants going there, you will have plenty to share around that's for sure :) How great to not have to water any more, that will make for less work

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    1. Oh, those drip lines are going to make gardening so much easier. It's going to be a great summer in the garden. I see bushels of tomatoes and peppers coming your way :)

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  27. Your garden is pristine and clean of weeds. Mine looks terrible. We've had so much rain, we can't get enough time to dry it up to till and plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash etc. Here, today, it looks like a dry day. Yay.

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    1. Here's wishing you a dry day to till and plant. I had to laugh when you said how clean and weed free my garden was . . . I don't photograph it when its a mess, LOL. Happy gardening :)

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  28. Everything is looking wonderful in your garden. Beautiful blooms.
    Nothing like the smell of clothes dried out on the line. All of my clothes get dried out side. I don't even own a dryer.

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    1. Sunshine and fresh air does a delightfully fragrant job on laundry :)

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  29. Connie, your garden is gorgeous! My roses are just in bud. Can't wait for that first bloom! Wow, what a garden!! I'm headed outside this morning to plant pots and cut back early spring perrenials. Looking at the leaves, I would say your pretty flower is a peony. Poppy leaves are generally a bit fuzzy.
    hugs,
    Jann

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    1. I always think of peonies as having a fragrance, these have no smell, but they are beautiful. I took one in the house to see how it would do in a bouquet and it is holding up wonderfully :)

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  30. Hi Connie ! What a fabulous veggie garden !

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  31. Oh your flowers are just lovely, such wonderful colours.

    All the best Jan

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  32. How did I miss this post? I love your house...just what I am looking for...a cute little bungalow/cottage! Your garden is awesome and the drip lines are too! Your flowers and pictures of them are truly gorgeous! Enjoy!

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    1. We have been living in our home for three years now and it is perfect for us. Just the right size, with country/cottage charm and the property is one acre and gives us plenty of room for gardening and spreading out without touching our neighbors :) We lived thirty three years in a home where our neighbors where touching on one side (duplex) and ten feet away on the other. Our new home is paradise and we count our blessing daily :)

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