Pretty pots and purple in spots

Sorry no posty post yesterday. What a day! Still working for that new client that hired me to find houseplants for every spot in her house imagineable! Yesterday was the end of the really hard stuff. I've had three VERY arduous days there. My hands are sore and my back was bothering me all night last night. Better today, luckily.

So I arrived there yesterday with two more ivy topiaries and a large parlor palm that I had to plant in ceramics that we had already bought. We also had purchased a very large ceramic pot that turns out? Wasn't nearly large enough for this enormous monstrosity that we had mail ordered for this spot in her living room. This thing was HUGE, I tell ya! A 7 foot tall lady palm that was easily 2.5 feet around at the base and five feet wide in its foliage. HOLY tree!!

Needless to say, I had to go buy the biggest pot they had at Marblehead Garden Center (and you'll be proud to learn that I did not buy myself one thing on that trip there yesterday!), and then drive back and then commence grunting and groaning to get the ding dang thing into that huge pot. Luckily, the husband was home and was able to help me carry the thing into the house. GOOD LORD! What a job! Ridiculous!

So that was yesterday. I was SHOT by the end of the day. Done. Finis. Over. Bye, bye. So happy to stay home last night with the dogs, watch movies and go to bed early! Dead asleep by 10pm. That's unheard of for me!

On Wednesday I did a boatload of errands and also did some shopping for two jobs! Whee! My upstairs neighbor hires me to do her planter every year - spring, summer, fall and winter! Love her! So, I did up her fall planter on Wednesday:She had seen a planter I did up for a silent auction for a local charity and asked me to do one just like it for her! So, I did!

She also asked if I'd donate something to an upcoming fundraiser for a friend of hers who is gravely ill. So, of course, I obliged:I decided to do one similar to hers just for the sake of ease; and it's just pretty, you know! I love that blue planter its in - got that on sale for $18!! What a deal!

Now, of course, I couldn't redo her pot and make it all pretty and then just keep mine by our back door looking all sad and scraggly. So, I treated us to some new fall goodies:

There are a number of pretties in there; variegated sage, variegated curly juncus grass, variegated sweet potato vine, a curly kale and a purple aster. I adore asters. They are the very best thing about fall aside from hot apple cider and cider doughnuts. MAN, do I love a good, warm cider doughnut fresh from the orchard place! I'm hungry, can you tell?!!

Anyway, I also bought a couple asters for each garden plot I have next to the back door, as well, just to spruce things up:
I just adore the frilly foliage and flowers. And, of course, they're PURPLE!

A random nasturtium has seeded itself in one of those same plots:Those round leaves are so adorable!

My eggplant is coming along:


And, still getting pretty hydrangeas:

Next time we'll take a look at the jungle that is our house! I got two more pretty plants for us when shopping for my client (of course!)...

Bye for now from plant obsession central! : )

Wet Wednesday

We had some serious thunder rolling through here this morning. I did not sleep from about 6am onward because of the rumbly rumbleness going on outside! Good news is that it rained. And it looks like it rained a lot, which makes me happy, as we have just had the driest summer of all! All the plants are looking much happier today. I even watered yesterday, but there's just nothing like a good, hard, soaking rain, you know?

I have another eggplant on the way; several actually, but this one is looking like an actual eggplant:Exciting!

All the rest of the forming fruits are tiny right now. And I made a discovery - you probably all already knew this, but you know at the tippy bottom end of the eggplant or tomato, how there's that little speck of a thing that you have to cut off? That's where the flower was! I just figured that out today, as I was taking a picture of this eggplant! The flower was all dried up and still attached to the bottom! Huh. Learn something new every day, right?!!

Here is another eggplant flower blooming:
They are just so darn cute!

One of the king-of-hearts bleeding hearts is blooming again!
Pretty!

And, as promised, I had to go get two more echinacea to go on the other side of the side yard to balance out the two I put in last week!I just put them in yesterday!

I also just noticed that my perennial grass is blooming!I love those cute, frilly things that they send up at this time of year!

In other news, I'm crippled. Not for reals, but I'm totally spent from the heat and having to work out in the blazing sun all day yesterday. I was totally dreading it; as I knew I had at least 3 hours of really intense labor to do in two of my clients' yards. One of them is that lovely shade garden that I featured a while back. I don't ever mind going over there! It's so pretty and nice and on the easier side to maintain since I've been working there for 3 years now and have a handle on the weeds.

Then there's the other yard that I do. Ugh. The front yard is just in the blazing hot sun ALL.DANG.DAY. There is no escaping it. And, it's built up on on a big slope, so getting my footing is just about impossible. The back yard is just weed city and is always parched. The people who live there don't give a hoot about the poor plants and they are just always in such a sad state. It's the mother of the woman who lives there that pays me to go over and create some semblance of a nice yard! So strange! I cannot imagine not caring about these living things in my yard! It's beyond my realm of thinking!

SO that was my day yesterday...Not so fun. Today my hands hurt and I'm just weary all over! I have seventy-leven errands to run, so I will bid you adieu!

Have a fine day!

Reigning in Mongo

Friday afternoon I just couldn't stand it one more minute. The entire back half of the back yard had been completely taken over by Mongo. (Mongo is Gigantor's little brother butterfly bush in our back yard for anyone who is new here!)

The hydrangeas were covered, the fence was covered, even the bench was getting taken over by Mongo. Too big and too unruly looking. The dogs were even having trouble finding a way under the dang thing to get to the rest of the back yard! I had to do something!

Unfortuntately this was right before the dumb hurricane Earl (just sounds like a non-threat, right?) was to come through, so it was humid as all get-out and really uncomfortable outside. But, I persevered, and cut that thing like nobody's business! Of course, I was apologizing with every slice of my loppers! I feel terrible when I cut back a living thing! It has to hurt! Alas, it had to be done, so I did it...

Look at this pile of branches I took off:Enough to make an entirely new bush! These are currently in a big pile in the very back of the house; I just couldn't bring myself to do the chore of cutting them all up and then bagging them in the lawn and leaf bags...

Lucikly it started to rain just as I was finishing up, so I could justify not finishing the job! Here's the end result:
Not so Mongo anymore! Will have to find a new name!

Bonus was that the hydrangeas were actually doing quite well underneath all those branches - probably saving them from direct exposure to the never-ending sun and heat:
Of course Sadie had to come out and supervise!
Look how big those hydrangeas are! One of them is taller than I am now! Almost 6 feet tall and easily as wide!

While I was hacking away at Mongo, I also decided to neaten up Gigantor. Many of his branches had drooped down and were hiding the grill! So, now we have this:
You can actually see the grill! Bonus!

And, for those of you who were concerned (Hi Mom!) about the "hurricane" that we were being "threatened" about by the noodlehead meteorologists? Nada. Nothing. Zed. Zip. Zero. Zilch. This was the most hyped-up thing I have ever seen. They even managed to get me a little riled up with concern for boaty.

Well, if we got an inch of rain and maybe 20 mile-per-hour winds, I'd be surprised. I actually had to WATER MY PLANTS OUTSIDE the next day! How ridiculous is that, my friends? Man!

Ok...I'm done complaining for now! I must go forth and plant plants and water things and watch things grow!

Hope you all had a nice holiday!

Hasta la vista, baby!

Day of Labor

So, really? Shouldn't today be called Non-Labor Day or Rest Day or Day of Cookouts? Memorial Day - that makes sense. Patriot's Day - also makes sense. May Day - check! But this is the day where hardly any of us work, right? Oh, well...

I also realize I have not been posty posting here on this blog; it's been FAR too nice outside to be in here computing. We just got home from the boat! We spent all afternoon with some friends and their three year old boy. He was a cutie-patootie who found much joy in calling my husband a juggernaut! He thinks it's a bad word and he would giggle every time anyone said it! Lots of giggling!

We fished, we cruised, we sunned, we ate...It was a perfect Labor Day afternoon! Yesterday we were on the boat literally all day as well...The weather has become that perfect, crisp, sunny, warm weather that I've been craving all summer! We finally lost that nasty humidity and I could NOT be happier!

Friday was spent doing stuff in the back yard and then that evening we had some of my husband's family here for dinner. We ate terrible Thai food. Blech.

Saturday more boating in the afternoon and then cookout dinner with MORE of my husband's family, so I've had a busy schedule of boating and socializing! Tough stuff over here! Hard, hard work!! : ) hee hee!

I'll get back to posting more pictures tomorrow - will show you what I did to Mongo the butterfly bush! Not so mongo anymore!!

I'll leave you with one pretty photo I took on Friday when I uncovered the hydrangea bushes under Mongo:


Happy Day Off! Hasta manana!