Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Garden

Back To The Garden?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Last Saturday I ended up in a speed tomato planting race against the incoming rain and thunderstorms. Weather hit a sunny 90 degrees on Friday and then dropped like a rock to 66 degrees with incoming rain the next morning.

Taking my time Saturday I checked the  Doppler radar at 9:38 a.m. and saw a blob of green, yellow and red moving my way. Tossed on my garden clothes and proceeded to weed, remove old potting soil, put in new potting soil, plant three tomato plants, add their cages, plus change the burned out garage light bulbs all before the storm hit. A quick fifty-five minutes flat. I did get misted on and a cool draft down my back.

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First tomato in, a favorite yellow pear. Planted two each. I use plastic painter buckets with three holes drilled in the bottom sides. They were pink, but they’ve faded in the sun. Yes, that is a purple tomato cage.   

 

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Normally I use Sweet Cherry 100s, but am trying this yellow cherry tomato hybrid since the Sweet 100s were not in sight in the store. Notice the yellow blooms in back? Yellow tomato cage to coordinate! 
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The mint is growing by leaps and bounds since I planted it. Love the aroma.
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Farmer Bun is already surrounded by blooms from the Fairy rose and blooms from a plant where I saw a hummingbird drink ing. You can rock it with a container garden.
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Of course Spec Ops Cat wanted to come outside and help me, but since he doesn’t do rain or mist he stayed inside and supervised. Smart cat!

Got a garden? Let’s grow!

 

Quest For The Perfect Garden Pot?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                       (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

My roses are blooming in April. Sweet sea biscuits! While we had hail, rain, sun and thunder over the weekend, I went on a quest last Friday to find the perfect large ceramic teal garden pot for the fairy rock garden. So far I feel like Goldilocks; close but not quite.

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Perfect color. Great shape. Too big. Rats!

Then I got sidetracked by the plants and flowers. Luckily I had an appointment or I could have wandered for hours.

 

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Look at these fun purple flowers.

Then I found this fabulous pink azalea in full bloom. Yummy!

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So, so pretty in pink.

Then a foxglove caught my eye and I had to take a very up close and personal picture.

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Fairies paint the insides of these blooms, I’m sure.

And then I came across this fabulous selection of water fountains I love but are way out of my price range. But maybe if I save my pennies over the winter…. What was I shopping for anyway?

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The big or the small blue one, either one will work. But I need electricity. Always something.

Taken a ramble in the garden center recently? Maybe I need to use spray paint on the current big pot. Another quest begins!

Got garden style?

Time To Dig In The Dirt?

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by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Surveying my backyard this past weekend I knew it was time to downsize my pot garden. Wait one. Before folks get the wrong impression, I mean my garden in pots. Just to be clear.  Since my soil is clay mixed with concrete when I try to dig it, all my plants except for two are in pots. (The camellia and the Fairy rose are in the ground. I do not know how they survive.)

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Farmer Bunny watching over the new mint plants. Ignore the weeds behind the pots.

 

In the interest of simplifying my garden, it’s time to not plant things I don’t eat or enjoy. So the carrots, strawberries (alias slug bait), and the dill are history. But I did use big pots to plant new peppermint and sweet mint plants on Sunday.

While I don’t really use the mint, I LOVE their smell when I water them during the summer. Same goes for the basil, rosemary and the carnations. The sniff test passes as using the plants in my book.

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Can you smell the peppermint? You’ve got to plant some. Even just to sniff it or make tea.

 

Of course before I could plant the mint plants I had to buy more potting soil. Little did I know the bags of potting soil were wet until I tried hefting them into my grocery cart last Friday. Seriously? Then they peed in the back of the Subaru while I was driving home. Luckily I have a plastic liner back there. Note to self, only dry potting soil goes in the car.

On the upside, didn’t have to do much watering since the potting soil was drenched. Filled up the pots with a gravel base, potting soil, then the mint plants. My favorite part is sticking the little plant sign in the dirt as the final touch. Ready to go.

The rest of the backyard is in complete disarray with weeds and grass growing around the pots, dried plants from  last year and the perpetual weeds. The pot downsizing has not started in earnest either.

I’ll get to that next weekend. Maybe. I hope so…. Got potting soil? Get mint!

 

 

How About A Private Camellia Show?

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When I motored over to my writer friend’s house April 2nd for writer support group, I arrived a little early and got to wander in her yard. It was a week before the “official” camellia show and I had a private viewing.

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How fabulous is this? He told me the name but I forgot, stunned by its beauty. 

 

These gorgeous flowers are award winners on many levels and they grow them all around their home. With the warm Spring weather and hot days, my friend’s husband was concerned they might not have the best buds for the show. Lucky for me I always have my camera.

Looking at some of the beauties in their yard, he told me about how much work went into making the different varieties and how he had been sought out by growers for plant starts. Seems camellia fanatics check out the winners of these shows and then hunt down the growers for stock, nationally and internationally. Who knew?

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This reminds me of candy. Maybe peppermint circles?

 

All too soon it was time to head off in our carpool to the writer’s group and leave the lovely blooms behind. The amazing symmetry, beauty and jaw dropping designs of these camellias are simply stunning.

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The petals on this camellia take my breath away. Certainly a show stopper!

 

In the backyard of my parent’s house is a gorgeous fuchsia pink camellia with a bright yellow center. I’ve grown up with that bush and it’s still there, blooming away. My friend and her husband have the same one in their yard besides all the other amazing varieties. I had no idea there were so many types. Their camellias are all truly award winners, official and unofficial.

Got camellias? It’s show time!

 

Are You Having Garden Daydreams?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

This past weekend I got caught in a rain storm, a thunder and lightning storm, sunshine and hail; all in the same two hours. Welcome to Oregon in the Spring! Between March Madness on the tv and political crazies everywhere, it seems the safest bet for mental health these days is to plan my garden.

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Found these gents hanging around in the garden center a few years ago. Okay, I had to draw the line somewhere with these three-foot tall dudes, so I took their picture. But they were on sale….. Back away from the gnomes!

 

I’m thinking about buying a very big blue pot to move either the fairy rose or the boxwood into. A focal piece. Then surround it with inspired fairies, gnomes and gorgeous rose quartz rocks I picked up at the Richardson’s Rock Ranch last Fall.

Downsizing the yard work and upping the fun factor is my mantra this year. Since I have clay soil the consistency of concrete, I keep everything in pots. From herbs to roses to strawberries and ferns, pots r us.

The Burpee seed catalog arrived before my tax packet from the accountant in early January. Now that the taxes are out of the house, I can focus on what plants to buy and how to rearrange all the pots. Thinking more color this year. The pots I mean, the flowers are always colorful.

So since we had more hail storms yesterday and 22 inches of snow on the mountain in the last two days, of course it’s supposed to be sunny and 65 degrees on Friday. Welcome to Spring!

Support a bunny, plant lettuce. Got garden plans?

 

Signs of Spring?

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by Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Spent part of Sunday dragging things out of the house into the garage between football games; some folks call it cleaning, I call it pile management. On one such trip I heard a chorus of birds that sounded like an invasion. Looking up I tried to find geese, but no birds.

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A reminder of one of my favorite roses, the Double Delight. These blooms will return right after Spring!  

 

Following the cacophony around to the front of the house, I spied a bird convention taking place across the street in a very large tree. Birds were packed in like sardines; which is an odd visual if you think about it.

Too dark outside to grab the camera, I fished the camcorder out and tried to focus and get the sound. Got a few clips, but still couldn’t tell which kind of birds. Maybe crows? Either way, it’s a sure sign of Spring when the birdies start to return and congregate.

I noticed the heads of daffodils peaking above the ground over at my Mom’s house on Saturday. Since she’s in a warmer area her daffodils always beat my daffodils out of the ground. Her yard maintenance folks had also trimmed the roses, which I wait to do until President’s Day. Yet another sign of Spring.

Since we were drowned in December with 17 inches of rain, any sign of the round yellow orb causes us to rush out of our homes like Meerkats and squint at the sky. Monday was a no rain day and I had to scramble to find my sunglasses. That sun thing is bright!

Of course, according to the retail world, Valentine’s Day shopping started two days after Christmas. I kid you not. I went to the store to find holiday bows and wrapping on sale.

The bows had vanished and the only gift wrapping paper left was the weird designs, you know the ones, grumpy Santa’s, odd elves and goth reindeer. I walked around the end of the holiday treats on markdown and smacked into the Valentine’s Day candy. Rows of it. On December 28th!

While I can’t wait for Spring, my favorite time of year, I think I’ll pay attention to nature’s calendar and ignore the retail buying calendar. On Jan. 4th we had snow and ice. This past weekend the retail ads had bikinis on sale. Stock up on flip flops now!

Got signs of Spring?