a weekend full of flowers

I´ve had an inspiring time in my household last weekend.... I was able 

to make a 30-minute walk at the same time tagging along my camera ( as usual)

 to the kiosk to get  the morning paper. 

 I could drive and get the morning paper in 10 minutes by car  as I told

 you before..... but  yeah, it´s a 30 minute  walk of excuse and   "dragging" 

my feet,   it´s healthy and is a good exercise...  

The field I´d like to present to you is not new, I had a blog on this last year...
It´s actually just a small area of the field near our home and it´s planted with 
gladiolas and sunflowers every summer.

Anyone would just have to pick or cut their own favorite colors..
You pay what you cut, the price for the flower quantity is 

written on a bulletin board and a coin box and cutters are provided on
 the spot. No cashiers, no guards...honesty is the best policy.

There are many of such fields in our district ... and because we
 are surrounded  by  wheatfields and  cornfields,  we´re
 blessed  that farmers initiated such project. So as to say,  we the locals
 get to enjoy the colors and the fun of picking our own flowers...

My weekend was full of cut flowers... after the walk,  I cut a few gladiolas 
with different colors buds of which were still close. After a day, 
all the buds on  stalks/stems begun to open like popping out of it´s shell..

The sunflowers are still coping with its own buds, normally  at this time, they 

should already be in full bloom...hmmm,  maybe in a couple of days,

 they would start showing up too!

Since I came back from my holiday, my dog´s yellow

 rosebush never ceases to  produce buds... 

That´s why whenever  new blooms were there,  I cut and make an
 arrangement like this...

My weekend at home was spent productively  & nicely...... 

thanks  to the flower inspirations!

Ako´s yellow roses....2014

The blooms are getting prettier every year and more buds are growing

 in each of the stems. I couldn´t  believe my eyes that a stem

 has around 30 buds or so this year...clusters of buds 

of Ako´s yellow roses. 

Hubby´s red roses in the vase pictured  below were simply

 added there to give contrast to the  rose vignette.

Named after our rottie, this is as old as he was (Ako the Rottie 1994-2007)... 
...this rose bush is now more than 2 decades.

Now the blooms are all so gorgeous as ever..

Enjoy the pics!

Happy Sunday!

I´m linking this to : 
Show & Tell Friday

the past week´s images from my garden

This past week before going onto my well-deserved holiday had been hectic.

  We had to prepare the house & the garden before the trip commences.... we intend to be away for a month.

My dog Ako´s yellow rose bush has actually more buds than the 

previous years and I hate to go not seeing them blooming.

I´ll be sharing with you more rose pics in the next blog after this. 

I´m not really a good gardener,  I plant according to my instincts... this Philadelphus shrub has been in my garden for almost 2 decades now. It always smells wonderfully that sometimes I think it causes nausea (for me).

I guess I´m allergic to fragrances, LOL!

I ´m not good in remembering plant names....my co blogger Lizette Geldenhuys Jonker who´s lecturing on plants at Garden Diva was kind enough to tell me its name..

The yellow honeysuckle always blooms in Spring...but the flowers aren´t really that scented compared to the pink one I have which only blooms in summer.

I also hate to go without seeing my potted lilies open-up.

The bulbs are actually in its 3rd year now and each bulb multiplies rapidly having so many new stalks. They were planted in a tight grey concrete block. You can see the previous year´s flowers here.

The potted lavender is also beginning to show its color now...

No matter how nice this creature can be...this ruins the leaves of plants,  they climb up  the conifer and stay there for a while until they fall off to the ground.. but I guess they are not that harmful as the slugs!!!

Another Philadelphus variety...

The geraniums are now blooming too.

Geranium buds, sooner they´ll become pinkish...

Shot was taken today after a heavy rain..

The snail on my apple tree..

I planted about 40 gladiola bulbs and distributed them around the open spaces in between the shrubs.... well, my garden backyard has a limited space and am eager now to see what the outcome will when they grow tall and start blooming.

Another shot of the philadelphus..they said, this is another variety.....am just wondering how many variety it has.

Yesterday, the mulch have been distributed all over the empty space...oh my,

 I had been on my knees, later had a big backache from the bendings.

 I hope the mulch would keep the soil moist until we come back..

Hope you enjoy the pics...

Keep on gardening!

xoxo,

Mercy

just a bit of dirt....

Honeysuckle

Today´s afternoon was spent for gardening..It had 

been raining the past  few days,

 so I thought this would be the perfect time to 

have dirty hands and plant a couple of new 

shrubs...

 Here, I´d like to share with you the small backyard of our row house with  

all the plants we have...I have an apple tree, the conifer hedges, a tamarisk 

tree, a rose bush, honeysuckle and many shrubs which

 I honestly do not know what the names are.

I just knew them by colors of their flowers,  LOL!

I´ve been trying to shape this shrub as topiary , the trunk is getting

 thicker as it gets older.

 Mind you, these 4 branches of forsythia  that I cut a week ago have been 

developing roots. Imagine, I just stuck these into the earth, 

didn´t do anything and they simply thrive and grow and grow...

One of the forsythia branches that I stuck on earth..

Tulips

Buxus

Hibiscus

Ternatas

And so , I planted a camelia and a peony. The peony is called 

"Pfingstrosen"in german, because they would normally 

flower when the  Pentecost is nearing and that is sometime in June.

Camelia

As some of you may have remembered , we have constructed the 

flooring with tiles to replace  the wooden slabs that got rotten

 from the constant change of  weather... 

Now we are a happy with our decision to have the 

tiled floor as the backyard is now almost maintenance free...

My apple tree... hopefully this would bear many fruits this season.

Spring onions - these were my cooking leftovers that I planted today in a pot. In a few days , new growth will dramatically be seen soon.

The shrubs of the peonies & lilies overshadow the salad greens.

The salad greens in a raised bed.

potted bell pepper 

Ivy

When gardening, I seldom wear gloves...

I just need to feel the dirt in my hands and that makes me smile!

 Hope you enjoy the pics. 

 Happy weekend!