How About Some Seeds With Your Gas?

Today we made a trip to Van Wert to pick up a few things we needed to complete some projects we're doing in the garden. We also stopped in to see the progress that's been made in the Smiley Park Children's Garden and WOW - it's really looking great!

Walmart is the only one-stop shopping place we have, so that's where we went to get some groceries, food and litter for the kitties, the supplies we needed for our projects, and oh yes, that refined black gold our car requires to get from one place to another.

Walmart's price for regular unleaded gas was $3.97 a gallon, but when you use a Walmart credit card or gift card to purchase it, you get three cents off, making it $3.94. On Thursday, it was $4.15 in Fort Wayne, so this seemed like somewhat of a bargain. Ha.

As we were checking out, Romie handed me a gift card for the checker to load with dollars we'd use to buy our gas. "Here," he said, "have some seeds."


Now this was pretty cool. They had two styles of cards where a small packet of seeds was attached. One had sunflowers pictured on the card with some sunflower seeds; the other pictured white baby's breath with a small packet of seeds for Gypsophilia elegans.

What a charming idea for spring!

Speaking of Lilacs...

As May draws to a close, so has the blooming season for lilacs here, and what a glorious season it was. Each time I walked by our neighbors' large lilac, which borders our property, and caught a whiff of its scent, I was reminded of what my grandma told me years ago. She said that people used to plant lilacs near their doors so when people came to visit, they could enjoy the scent too, as they entered the house.

Our own lilac history began with a white double one I received for my birthday in the early '90s from my friend Jane.


She knew I loved lilacs. When we chose a planting spot for the white lilac, we decided to put it in a place that had lain bare for a few years. There had been a white peony there, planted by the original owners of our house, but had strangely disappeared a few years before.

The white lilac grew and bloomed for many years, until one day, a few weeks after the lilac season was over, I was mowing the lawn and something white caught my eye as I went past the lilac bush. I got off the mower and walked over to it and couldn't believe what I saw. White peony flowers! That silly peony had come back to life! It was so enmeshed with the now well-established lilac bush, there was no way to separate the two. We dubbed it the "Peolac" and they continue to co-exist to this day, both giving us beautiful white blooms in their own seasons.

The "Peolac" - circa 2004

The second lilac we planted was a Syringa meyeri. It was planted near the trellis, which at that time didn't have a garden surrounding it. Only the honeysuckle clambered up and over it. The lilac grew and became a very nice small green shrub, but it never bloomed. I mentioned it to my mom one day, and she said it was likely not receiving enough sun, so we moved it, and sure enough, the next year we were rewarded with beautiful blooms. (Another reason a lilac might not bloom is if they're pruned in the fall or early spring. Lilacs bloom on old wood, so the best time to prune is right after the flowering season has ended. Like now.)


Then my grandma decided we needed a Japanese Maple. (Oh YEAH, baby!!) Where to put it? The perfect place for it was ... oh, dear ... where the meyeri lilac was. And the lilac was in bud, ready to bloom. Sometimes you just have to make choices that aren't fun to make. We moved the lilac and miraculously, it didn't show a single sign of transplant shock and gave us beautiful lavender blooms for the next few weeks. Then it promptly died.


Two years ago, we bought another lilac, Syringa vulgaris 'Sensation', which has beautiful deep purple blooms with white picotee edges. This year, I bought another. So now we're surrounded by beautiful lilacs and in early May, we're rewarded with heavenly scents when soft breezes blow.


Perhaps the most unusual lilac we have was purchased last year. It's a cut-leaf lilac (Syringa laciniata) and it has a very lacy open look.















The foliage is graceful and reminds me a bit of Corydalis foliage, and its blooms are petite and fragrant. This shrub gives a very different look and provides a more attractive foliage than the common lilacs when it's not in bloom.

Each kind of lilac has its own little bloom season, one overlapping the other. While this extends the lilac season a bit, it's over all too soon.

Here Comes the Bride!

All week, rain and wind and cold temperatures had been predicted for Saturday, May 17th, but when the day actually got here, only the wind decided to show up. It was nearly perfect for a spring afternoon wedding. Our younger daughter Jenna married her college sweetheart, Joe.

They'd become engaged in October 2006, so there was plenty of time for planning the wedding. Jenna planned the entire affair nearly single-handedly, arranging all the details down to a "t". We all were sure she hadn't allowed enough time for pictures, but we were proven wrong. (I'm sure we'll be reminded of this later. LOL)


The night before, we rehearsed the ceremony at the church, then traveled north a little ways to Lone Star, where Joe's parents hosted the rehearsal dinner. When we'd all filled our tummies and enjoyed the fellowship, we went our separate ways to get a good night's sleep for the big day ahead.



Two of Jenna's bridesmaids, as well as her sister Kara, who was her Matron of Honor, spent the night at our house, while several of Joe's groomsmen stayed with Joe at his apartment. In the morning, the girls headed out early, so they could get their hair and makeup done. We arrived at the church at noon, snacks in hand for the girls, and finished getting ready.

My mom was really worried the girls would spill food on their
dresses, so I provided bibs. LOL

We tried to get as much of the formal picture-taking completed as possible, including a four-generation photo with my grandma, who is 93 years old.


Finally, it was time for the main event. Jenna was escorted by her dad down the aisle to Canon in D as her sister stood teary-eyed, watching. I saw Joe wiping his eyes later, too. She truly was as beautiful as I've ever seen her.


After the ceremony, Jenna and Joe dismissed the guests by row, then came back into the sanctuary for more pictures. The wedding party left the church in a limo and traveled downtown to Freimann Square, where more pictures were taken.


Shortly after the wedding party arrived at the reception, toasts were made by the best man and the matron of honor. As Kara related stories about growing up with Jenna, she mentioned a time when Jenna was mad at her and was chasing her around the family room with a kitchen knife. (As Mom and Dad cringed in horror.) When Joe heard this, he scooted his chair back away from the table, looked at Jenna with shock, and promptly grabbed Jenna's knife and passed it down to the end of table. LOL.

Joe's mom gave the blessing after relating how we as parents had prayed for our children's spouses even before they were old enough to think about such things. She said while Joe believed he was going to Manchester College for education and to play football and Jenna was going there to become an athletic trainer and play golf, God's plans were for the two of them to meet. Amen!

I recounted how Jenna had always been her dad's shadow as she was growing up and that now she would likely be Joe's. But both sets of parents would always be behind them, supporting them and being available when they needed us.


As they prepared to cut the cake and Jenna grabbed the long-bladed knife, someone in the crowd yelled, "Joe! She's got a knife! RUN!" I have a feeling we won't ever forget the knife moments!

Much celebrating and dancing ensued. Even Nannie was coaxed onto the floor, and loved every second of it. When she left the party, she declared, "If I die tonight, I'll die happy." Her entire family was together in one place (minus one grandchild's husband) and she'd danced at her great-granddaughter's wedding.





























My shoes were quite popular with several people, to the point that I was afraid to take them off or they'd be stolen! (Just kidding!) I was asked what size they were, where did I get them, were they comfortable, did I want to sell them, etc., and more than once they were declared to be "hot". They really were great shoes!

Jenna and Joe left Sunday night for Indianapolis, from where they departed the next morning for Riviera Maya, on the Pacific side of Mexico, for their week-long honeymoon. I'll leave you with more photos from the wedding and reception...









Again, thank you to my mom, who did the flowers, as she had done for Kara and Adam's wedding. She's a true gardener in every way.

Other photos can be seen here and here, as well as on the wedding photographer's website (click on DeCraene Wedding).

Wedding Trivia

• The flower girl wore the same dress that Jenna wore in 1989 in her cousin's wedding.
  
  
• Jenna and Joe got married on the same date that Romie and I became engaged in 1974.
  
  
• Joe's mom and I were escorted down the aisle to The Carpenters' Sometimes. This is the same song that Romie's mom and my mom walked down the aisle to at our wedding in 1975, and Kara had it in her wedding as well.
  
  
• Jenna's Something Old was her great-great-grandmother's gold wedding band, Something New was her wedding dress, Something Borrowed was her sister's veil, Something Blue was my blue wedding garter, and she had a 1982 penny in her shoe (the year she was born).

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The pictures here are a collection of those taken by my Aunt Kay, Kara, Lisa Johnson and me.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day For May 2008 - A Little Late!

It's been a busy time here at Our Little Acre, both in the garden, with my running, and of course, the wedding of our younger daughter, Jenna. (I promise to post pictures of the wedding soon!)

The garden just seemed to explode as May came on the scene. It was as if it experienced a month's worth of growth overnight. Perhaps my memory of past springs is fuzzy, but this one has been one of the best I can remember. Things look so good!

Just look what's blooming!

I love Lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon), and added a couple more to the one
I already had in my garden. These are 'Sunset Strain'.


'Rainbow Mix'
They grow well in the rock garden on the west side of our house. My Lewisia probably don't count for actually blooming at this time of year, since they're new. The one I already had isn't even close. But they were so pretty, I wanted to show them off!


I also have many sedums in this same rock garden and they also
do very well. I'm not certain which one this is.

The pink Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis 'Rosea') is blooming right along with the white version, which is much more vigorous. It's amazing how the underground runners can wiggle their way under, around, and through things like brick patios. I'd never be without it, though. The scent is amazing.

I've got two pink Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) plants and I'm always charmed by their puffy hearts strung all in a row.


Mom gave me a start of these Buttercups (Ranunculus acris 'Flore Pleno') several years ago. I have to keep an eye on them because they can be invasive, but they're not too difficult to remove, as they spread by above-ground runners.


The perennial Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) is lush and strikingly white, especially at dusk.


The citronella-scented geranium (Pelargonium citrosum) that I bought at the Lilac Festival continues to bloom. We repotted it and it's absolutely HUGE!


Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris 'Clementine Salmon Rose')


English Daisy (Bellis perennis) I've got this red-tipped one, as well as a white one and a pink-tipped one, and the blooms are huge, as far as English daisies go. The ones I grew from seed last year, that were blooming in January, are also blooming now, with much tinier red blooms. In the end, only three of those plants survived the winter.


The Fern-leaf Peony (Paeonia tenuifolia 'Rubra Flora Plena') is opening. I posted a picture of the 'Sahohime' tree peony earlier, but with its 23 blooms nearly all open now, I'll post a photo of it in a future post. It's an amazing sight!

The Manchurian Violet (Viola mandshurica 'Fuji Dawn') surprised me by surviving the winter in its open wet location quite well, even though Bluestone Perennials lists it as only hardy to Zone 6. In fact, it was putting out blooms before I saw much foliage. It's looking better and better each day and I noticed new little sprouts all around it from last year's seeds that dropped.

11-23-07

Triumph Tulip 'Leen van der Mark' is one of the later tulips in our gardens. 'Elegant Lady' was a later one also, and in its first year here, I was disappointed in the paleness of its color. Just above a creamy yellow white with very subtle and sparse pink shading.


This unknown cultivar pink fringed tulip hangs heavy with rain.
It's one of my very favorites.


Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum 'Apricot Delight') has been a blooming machine, with its buds that appear in apricot hues, progressing to lavender as it opens.


I love the uniqueness of Primula vialli 'Miracle'.


Columbine (Aquilegia) has been growing here at Our Little Acre for as long as I can remember. This purple one is one of the originals. There's a white one, amauve one, and a pink one that have been here for a very long time, too.


Pulmonaria 'Trevi Fountain' got a little bit of a slow start due to the kitties using that flower bed as a litter box. (It kept getting buried.) But it's off and running now, and as soon as everything in that bed is large enough to fill the area with foliage, the kitties will stay out and I can remove the cloches, upside-down flower pots, stakes, rocks, etc. that I've got in there to keep them out.


Geum coccineum 'Cooky' is an early bloomer and has always performed well for me. It's one of the first things I planted in Max's Garden two years ago. It will bloom all summer long.


The Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) has grown to be quite large and I might have to do some moving of it or other things. It looks rather out of place where it is. I suspect it may be the larger variety (P. biflorum var. commutatum)


Heuchera sanguinea 'Firefly' is one of many cultivars here in the gardens, but is always the first one to bloom.


The Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Cardinal') is wearing its green twigs for summer, but will return to the brilliant red when fall's cooler temperatures are here. Now it's blooming big heads of white.


Others in bloom are:

• Alpine Rock Cress (Arabis alpina subsp. caucasica 'Snow Cap')
  
• Daffodils of various sorts (future post)
• Lilacs (future post)
• Epimedium
• Primula vulgaris
  
• White daisies (Don't ask me which ones, but they bloom early and they're small)
  
• Tall Bearded Iris 'Immortality' (a rebloomer)
• Tradescantia x andersoniana 'Sweet Kate'
• Anemone multifida
• Summer Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum)
• Ornithogalum nutans
• Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'
• Brunnera macrophylla (green)
• Vinca minor
• Coreopsis auriculata 'Nana'
  
• Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra')
• Ajuga reptans (not sure of the cultivar - maybe 'Bronze Beauty')
• Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa 'Honeoye')
• Ornamental Strawberry (Fragaria 'Lipstick')
• Spirea (Spiraea x vanhouttei)
• Doublefile Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum)

I'm sure I've forgotten a couple, and I didn't include the annuals blooming, but that's a subject for another post. But it's obvious that the gardening season in well upon us! (See me smiling?)

More Important Things Than the Garden and Blogging

Really? What could be more important than doing two of the things that I love most? I am obsessed with gardening and I love to write. I'm already late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for May, and my version of it is just going to have to wait a few days longer. Because, you see, tomorrow our baby girl is getting married. Our kids have always been more important than anything else in the world to us.

I'll return soon, with flowers in bloom and pictures of the new bride and groom, but until then, here's just one of what's in bloom at Our Little Acre:

Tree Peony
(Paeonia suffruticosa 'Sahohime')

Troy-Bilt Pro-Line FRT Garden Tiller - A Review

When Troy-Bilt contacted me about the possibility of testing one of their products, it couldn't have come at a better time. We'd literally run our old tiller into the ground. Just getting it to start wore Romie out and it had been repaired countless times. But it had served us well over the thirty years we'd had it.

We chose a mid-size tiller that had enough oomph to work its way through our horrendous clay. The one we'd chosen was out of stock, so Troy-Bilt suggested another model, the Pro-Line FRT. This is a real workhorse of a tiller, and we had some work for it to do.

In the last couple of years, we'd run out of garden space to plant all the vegetables we'd wanted to plant. Two years ago, we even 'borrowed' our neighbor's garden plot that he wasn't using, except for a couple of tomato plants. So this year, we decided to enlarge our own. Would the Pro-Line be up for it?

We weren't able to get started quite as soon as we'd liked, because when the tiller arrived, it had somehow been damaged in transit and was leaking oil. There were also a couple of parts missing - a lever knob and a keyed washer. It was several weeks before we finally were able to get the oil seal replaced and the missing parts we needed, but Heritage Farm Equipment came to our house, picked the tiller up, and delivered it back to us - repaired - the very next morning. Kudos to Heritage for such quick service! Troy-Bilt was also quite concerned about getting it taken care of, and because we'd had so much rain this spring, we weren't quite ready for the tiller anyway when it first got here.

Once we were able to use it for its intended purpose, we gave it a workout. Romie worked up the garden so we could get it planted and wow - the Pro-Line made quick work of it. A swipe across the garden just two times and the soil was wonderfully workable. With the old tiller, it would have taken more than a couple times across the garden, been harder to control, and taken much more time.

The Pro-Line, with its forward-rotating tines, can be guided with just one hand. While Romie is the one that does the tilling around here, I just had to try it to see if it really was as easy to guide as it looked. It was.

But how, I wondered, would it do when it came time to break new ground? Ideally, it would have been nice to have all the sod removed before trying to work up the ground, but this is a heavy-duty tiller and we felt that it should be able to dig right in and work up the ground anyway. So Romie moved on from the previously tilled garden to the edges, where we were enlarging.

It's a good thing I wasn't standing in the way of the tiller. As soon as the tines hit the sod, it was like the tiller had a mind of its own and it was getting the heck out of Dodge. It presented a pretty comical picture to see Romie trying to hang on and get it stopped before it reached the new flowering crab tree we'd just planted and tore it to smithereens.

He got it stopped and we looked at each other and started laughing. Okay, there must be a better way. After a discussion with my dad, we tried again, this time slowing the speed down as slow as it would go. There, that was better. It tore up the ground this time, although it didn't move with nearly the ease it had in the garden, of course. Our turf back there is pretty dense and is growing in clay, so that was some heavy duty groundbreaking it was being asked to do. Once we figured out better how to do it, the tiller rewarded us with new ground for gardening.

This is one powerful tiller. If you need to tear up new ground, this will do it. As far as the cultivating and tilling of a present garden, it handles that with no problems at all - and quickly.
It's got a power reverse feature, which makes it easier to handle when backing up. And surprisingly, this tiller is much quieter than our old one, which was a bit smaller. I thought it would be louder.

Romie was especially thrilled with how easily it started. When we were looking at the various tillers, we discussed getting one with an electric start, but we felt that it isn't worth the extra expense on the those models where it's available. One pull on this one and it started right up, every single time.

Troy-Bilt Pro-Line FRT Garden Tiller

Starting System	Recoil start
Transmission	Cast-iron transmission with bronze gear drive
Tine Direction	Forward-rotating
Frame Size	Medium frame - Accepts a variety of attachments
Speeds	1 forward with power reverse
Tilling Width	16"
Tines	12" diameter Bolo
Tilling Depth	Adjustable up to 8"
Attachments	Factory-installed protective front bumper included
PTO	N/A
Wheels	13" Ag
Side Shields	N/A
Warranty	Limited lifetime
Engine	160cc Honda OHV GX

Does it have any cons? For us, somewhat. At this point, we don't foresee tearing up any more new ground in the near or distant future. This tiller's strong point is the fact that it can do that if you need it to. But for working up present gardens, it's a bit of overkill and the size makes it a bit awkward to maneuver in non-standard shaped gardens with curvy edges or narrow spaces. It's doable, but a smaller tiller or cultivator would be better for us in this respect. Having both would be just the ticket.

Our overall experience with the Troy-Bilt company and this product wasn't perfect, but we felt that they were indeed concerned with making it the best possible and we were pleased to have the opportunity to test their product. They encouraged us to be absolutely forthcoming with all impressions, both good and bad, in an effort to help them make improvements, if necessary. The quality of the product can't be disputed and we wouldn't hesitate to consider Troy-Bilt in the future for any product the company makes.

Thanks, Mom

My mom paid me a really big compliment on Sunday. Everyone was here for Mother's Day - Grandma, Mom and Dad, Kara and Adam, and Jenna. Oh, and Bella. Boisterous Bouncing Bella. It was a rainy day, but we grabbed umbrellas and walked out through the gardens in the mist.

Mom has mentioned several times in the past that I have a gazillion plants. Well, yes I do. I have a big palette here to work with. And I'm like Jodi, I just can't resist a charming plant. There are worse things than plant addiction, aren't there?

As we walked up to the back door through the gardens that are closest to the house, Mom said, "Your yard and gardens just look gorgeous. I thought maybe it might be a jungle out here, but it's not. Everything looks so nice."

This, from a Master Gardener, a creative designer, and most importantly, my mother, from whom I've learned so much, not just about gardening. When I think back to how far I've come as a gardener since I started three years ago and the countless times I've sought Mom's advice, her saying what she did meant a lot. I mean, who doesn't love a mother's approval?

The Power of One

As I drove through historic West Central Neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this afternoon on the way to training, it was a beautiful sunny day. This was much appreciated after the cold, rainy Sunday we'd had.

The West Central area is charming , with its large old Victorian homes, many of them beautifully restored. There's a home and garden tour there each fall, and I've walked the tour a few times.

School had just let out and children were walking home. To my right, a small girl with long blonde hair, no older than five or six, was making her way down the sidewalk, backpack in tow. Just ahead of her, there was a walkway leading to the front door of one of the big old houses, lined with big yellow tulips on each side of it. They were in their prime, standing there like big yellow lollipops, glowing in the sun.

The little girl saw them, too. She walked a little ways past the walkway, then stopped. She quickly turned around, went back and plucked a single yellow tulip and went on her way. The temptation was just too much. I imagined what went through her mind in the course of just a few seconds...

"Ooooh, those flowers are pretty. I really would love to take one home. There are a lot of them. I bet they won't miss one."

Missed or not, the little act of a little girl wanting that flower just because its beauty was calling to her, brought a smile to my face. I don't know if the homeowner saw her take it nor do I know if they would care that she did. If it had been my tulips, it wouldn't have bothered me. It was only one.

I went on my way, too. The little girl was likely smiling as she walked home with her tulip, and I was smiling because I had witnessed her taking it. She probably didn't guess that perhaps when she got home and presented it to her mother, she'd have to account for how she came to have it. And that reminded me of a couple of days long ago in my own childhood.

I called my mom on my cell phone to share with her what I'd seen, and she giggled and said, "I remember a little girl that came home once with pockets full of peony buds." She'd remembered the same thing I had. More than forty years ago, my next-door-neighbor and I had taken all the ready-to-open peony buds off another neighbor's two peony bushes that were right in front of her house. She'd seen us do it and called our mothers.

I had to go and apologize and of course, I was embarrassed. But not half as embarrassed as my mother was the day a few years later when the same next-door-neighbor and I each brought home a beautiful bouquet of roses, daisies, mums, and who knows what else. My mom owned her own beauty shop and I walked in, pleased as punch with the flowers as I presented them to her, in front of several customers.

"Here, Mom! Look what I brought you!"

She looked at me funny - not nearly as excited or pleased as I'd expected, and she asked where I'd gotten them. (She likely was recalling the peony bud incident.) Kelly and I had been out riding bikes and we'd ridden to the cemetery. I don't need to tell you the rest, do I?

She gently told me that you shouldn't take flowers from a grave, something she never dreamed she would have to explain to me. In our young minds, they had served their purpose and they were just going to die out there anyway. I like to think that whomever the flowers were meant for was smiling down from heaven, knowing that yet another person was getting enjoyment from them.

All those memories brought back by a little blonde girl and a yellow tulip...



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Photo of yellow tulips from Flowerella.com

Otherworldly Offerings in Unlikely Places

Sometimes you find them in the places where you'd least expect them. And when you do find them, you're not quite sure what you've found. But there's something strangely compelling about them and before you know it, it's on its way to a new home - yours.

This week, while waiting to get my Medrol Dosepak prescription filled, I had to kill some time walking around one of our local Meijer stores. Meijer has a rather nice garden center and many of my plants have been purchased there, so of course I had to take a look. It was raining, windy and cold out there, so it was a very quick look, but I'd already seen what they had to offer last Saturday in Defiance, after attending The Lilac Festival.

Inside, however, it was warm and toasty so I browsed the houseplants, which are pretty nice, too. They've always got some beautiful orchids, many of them unusual varieties that I've not seen elsewhere. I resisted those, but a tiny little thing caught my eye and I walked over to it, not even sure if what I was seeing was a real live plant.