New Garden Blog

I've started a new garden blog over at www.mosaicqueen.typepad.com/mosaiccottagegardens
Come and visit me :-)
xoxo!!

Michelle

Excessive Heat Warning!

So, our temps have been hovering around 110 to 114 degrees for days now, with no rain in sight. Not a good time to plant anything. Most of my garden time is spent trying to save those plants that seem to be suffering the most. I did brave the heat and repaint the wall surrounding my pool area :-) This blue makes it feel a little bit cooler.

The Vinca in this pot couldn't even take this extreme heat. I can't believe the Sweet Potato Vine is still hanging in there.

I took a trip to the garden center at Lowe's. I actually went looking for some water plants. No luck with the water plants, but I did find this Obelisk trellis on clearance :-) Yay! I think I will try to train the pesky blackberry vine around this. I love the berries, but that vine gets out of control and the thorns are vicious!

Do you see the bee?? There are at least 50-60 of them in this area of my pond, but they don't hold still long enough to get a picture of them. Plus, I don't feel like holding still very long in the area to take a picture of them. Especially after my nasty bee sting in my armpit a couple of weeks ago while fishing with the hubby. Ouch! I think these bees are really thirsty due to our excessive heat and are drinking up as much water as they can. I can hardly blame them.

Ruellia. A plant that grows VERY well here in the desert. Although I like this plant, it can sometimes be a pain in the butt! One plant can turn into MANY all over your yard. For those of you who live here in the desert and have a tough spot in your yard that you just can't grow anything, plant one of these. I promise it will survive! I spend a lot of time pulling up little Ruellia's. I think I will start to replant them in pots and give them away to people in the neighborhood.

For instance, the ones above were not planted by me and they will soon be pulled up. I waited a little bit too long to get around to this, so I may need to use a shovel. I must admit that the flowers do make for a pretty walk down the path and the hummingbirds love them :-)

Sorry to have been away so long. I've been really busy in the studio.

Michelle

Where in the World is Bitsy - Chandler, AZ

Yes, I said Bitsy. You see, it started with "Where in the World is Bilbo", but then Bilbo got lost for awhile. So Bitsy had to take over his job of traveling to gardens all over the world and meeting their care takers. However, her job promotion was VERY short lived, as Bilbo has finally shown up at his intended destination which is Flower Garden Girl Garden.

As you can see, Bitsy enjoyed her short lived job promotion which brought her to Mosaic Cottage Gardens. She sipped lemonade and read People magazine and sunned herself next to the pool.

She was grateful to her hostess for supplying her with a swimsuit, sunglasses and a lounger that was just her size. This was a very relaxing vacation. She only wishes this job promotion could have lasted longer. She thinks Bilbo has it made!

She enjoyed all of the mosaic creations at the Mosaic Cottage Gardens and even hung out in the Mosaic Fairy House for a bit.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, so Bitsy will be headed back to her owner The Dirt Princess

where she will secretly hope that Bilbo gets lost again so that she may travel to another garden.

So head over to Flower Garden Girl's Garden and say hello to Bilbo and remind him that he had better be on top of things, as Bitsy is more than ready to take over his job responsibilities! :-)

Stretched thin.....

Stretched thin lately due to garden projects and maintenance, such as finishing up my picket fence project. I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had used long posts for my fence, as I had an idea of adding more to the fence. The addition would be the 2x4's placed across the top so that I could add decorative corner pieces to each side. I LOVE the way it turned out. The next thing I will do is add large screw hooks to the middle of each section, so that I can add hanging baskets. Of course, the hanging baskets will have to wait until it cools down a bit. The monsoon storms have been fierce this week!!! There has been a lot of tree damage in the area and several fires due to lightning strikes. However, the rain has been WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The hubby's contribution to my fence project was adding the gate for me. I'm still removing rock little by little. I'm hoping to get some Lantana in around the pool, as well as, a Pomegranate tree that I recently purchased. I know there are drip lines under those rocks, just need to find them and redo them. Now if the Scorpions would just find another yard to hang out in! They love the rocks.....another good reason to get rid of them!

And the other reason I've been stretched thin lately. Mosaic orders. The busy season is coming fast and I really hope that I can finish up most of my garden projects before I get too swamped.

Happy Gardening!!

Michelle

p.s. a little visitor arrived in the mail this week. Come back and visit me on my next post and maybe she will visit your garden next! :-)

I've been stretched thin lately between work

Yellow

Yellow Trumpet Bush

and a close-up of the trumpet flowers. Little black ants seem to like it. This bush loves the heat!

This very large Sunflower is saying enough of the heat already!

A couple of his buddies are still hanging in there.

If you look closely, you can see a little bee.

Squash. This may be the only one that makes it, as the heat is killing the plant. Must buy shade cloth today.

I am not sure what this flower is. It was in a mixed package of seeds I tossed out last Fall. Seems to be tolerating the heat just fine.

Lemons. Not yellow yet.

Bad picture due to the sun, but this is a Yellow Trumpet Tree. One of my faves!

Yellow Hibiscus. I had to move the pot from the front patio to a little more protected area as the heat was scorching it, although it is a heat lover too. Just not 113 degrees day after day.

This is a cucumber. I cannot remember what kind, but the package stated it was heat tolerant. It is the funniest shape. I have a regular cucumber plant also mixed in with this plant.

Yellow Koi. He was moving too fast to get a better picture of him.

I hope you enjoyed my Yellow :-)

Have a fabulous sunny (not HOT) day!!! :-)

Michelle

116 Degrees??

Well, it is supposed to be 116 degrees this coming weekend and I'm thinking about my poor garden. Most of the plantings in my garden are heat tolerant, but there are just a few left over from Spring that will say their goodbyes here soon. Of course, all plants that are in pots right now are needing a little extra attention (ie:water) as the dry heat sucks all of the moisture from everything. We are, however, in the midst of monsoon season and we are actually at about 35% humidity right now (Wow, huh??) I know....you people from back East are saying whoopty-doo!
A plant that I can count on in this high heat is the Lantana. It needs very little water and it thrives in hot temps. The pic above is a close-up of the pink and yellow flowered one in my front yard.

That is it below as well.

Here is a close up of a bright yellow one I have in the back yard.

This thing has gone crazy wild. It is in dire need of a good trimming and I am adding that to my to-do list today. Lantana's can handle a trim during these HOT temps. It had quite a few more flowers on it last month.

Here is a close-up one of my lavender Lantana.

It hangs out over a huge planter that I built. I love this one the best. It is very fragrant and the butterflies love it.

Here is a close up of the red and orange one I planted last year.

It is very happy where it is and has exploded in size these last few months. You can see blooms from the Bougainvillea also mixed in (pink)(another heat lover). I do not know why I planted the red Lantana next to the pink Bougainvillea. I should have planted the pink and yellow Lantana there. The color combo bothers me a bit, but I think I have an idea on how to make the best of it. Another project on my to-do list. :-)

Still working on the picket fence and I'm almost done. Maybe next post?? If not, I'll share some more heat loving plants with ya :-)

Stay cool!

Michelle

Just call me "Sweaty Betty"

Well, it has been a toasty 111 DEGREES this past weekend here in Phoenix, AZ! Hence my new name "Sweaty Betty". Yes, it is a dry heat here in Arizona, but Hot is Hot! As you can see by the above picture, I didn't let a "little" heat stop me from getting some things done around the yard. I painted a few picket fence sections that will be going up around my pool area.

The old pool fence was rusting and was just plain ugly, so we took it down...... over a YEAR AND HALF AGO! Geez! I finally just got around to digging up the old fence poles. This took a few days. I would like to speak to the person or persons who installed these poles. Did we really need to use 2 bags of cement per pole???? The ground here in Arizona can be like.....CEMENT and it was no easy task getting these poles out. I'm sure a few cuss words were heard throughout the neighborhood.

Next task. Dig new holes for new fence posts and move sprinkler to other side of where fence will be.

Here is a better picture of where I moved the new sprinkler. I cannot for the life of me, figure out why the original sprinkler was next to the pool. All it did was help rust the original fence.

Here's the old sprinkler capped off. :-)

I forgot to mention that I am also removing rock (lots of it) from around the pool area. The entire pool is surrounded by the stuff. It is sharp on the feet. Weeds try to make a life in it. It is almost impossible to remove fallen leaves from it without blowing them all into the pool. I could go on, but I won't. This job will have to be done in sections, as the rock is about 3-4 inches deep. I want to put pavers and plants in it's place. Yes! Plants! This is my total motivation. More areas to plant something pretty :-)

In my next post, I'll show you my picket fence work. It is turning out really pretty.

Michelle