My first zinnia picture of 2015. 🙂
Last fall we visited Wildseed Farms on our way home from a trip to Fredericksburg. We picked up some zinnia seeds. We have a patch or two every year, but they always tend to be shades of fuschia, orange or yellow. Monte was looking for something more vibrant so he chose seed for red zinnias and planted them this spring.
They are just now coming up and are lovely. 
I got a bit of a late start, but I finally tended to my fenceline flowerbed. Plumbago, liriope, red salvia, autumn sage, gaillardia, may night salvia, tickseed, geranium, flowering sage, and a couple white annuals.
I’m looking forward to some color! 
Our friend, Doray, gave us a couple strawberry plants (thankyou!). One has a rosy red berry on it. We’ll pick it and eat it for dinner tonight. 🙂
Monte’s zinnias are starting to bloom. These are the first ones we’ve brought inside to enjoy.
Though we’re already a few days into Spring, a chill has been in the air from the latest cold front. Monte and I weeded the flower bed along the fence. It’s ready for some spring flower sets. I think I’ll wait another week. St. Francis will have to hold down the fort a little longer.
Whew, what a long week! After work I walked around our yard out back to see what I could see. My plumbago is thriving with little to no water, as usual.
The hardest working retiree has been busy this week. He spent an entire day cleaning the house (thanks sweetie!) and today he spent all day tilling and planting his garden out in the way back. Tomatoes, basil, chives, parsley, dill… and zinnies! Can’t wait.
Then I surveyed the trees out back. One day there’s no leaves. The next day they are covered in green.
At the base of this red oak I saw something I’ve never seen. Neon green golf ball sized balls growing on the branches. Very odd. Google tells me they are a sign of oak apple gall. Home to the apple gall wasp larvae till it hatches. Learn something new every day!
Enjoy your weekend!
Yay Friday! Made it through another week. Got a very early start.
Monte worked in the shop all day. After work we picked up Julie and went out for Indian.
I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I hope yours is, as well.
My cousin and Aunt will be visiting tomorrow morning. After that we’ll be headed to the lake.
Late tomorrow night, Saturday, August 11, and early morning Sunday, August 12, the Perseids Meteor shower hits its peak. In Austin the moon won’t rise until about 3AM, so I’m hoping we’ll have a great view and get to see some good burners. There’s supposed to be 30-50 meteors an hour. We’ll be watching from our boat, anchored up in a dark cove on the lake. 🙂 If you want to take a peek as well, here’s a link with more info on where and when to look.
The shot above is of yet another zinnia in the garden. Have a great weekend!
Austin recently relaxed the restrictions on watering that we have been under for over a year — moving from drought stage 2 to 1. That means that we can now water 2 days a week, as opposed to 1. Our days are Thursday and Sunday. We can only water before 5 AM or after 7PM on those days. We are trying to take advantage of both our scheduled days to give our trees and flowers water to thrive in this heat. It’s been a bit of a challenge since our automatic sprinkler system has been kaput for the last 2 years. So it means schlepping hoses.
This is a shot of one of the liriope plants on the front porch. I replanted these this spring because the ones that used to flank our front door were wiped out from either the drought or the freezes during the winter.
I’m trying to remember to water them. So far, so good. They’re rewarding me with lots of flower spikes. Very dainty.
The basil patch overfloweth. We’ve started handing out basil to our neighbors. Come and get some!
I saw these huge blooms on a plant near the marina. They look like Morning Glories, but the blooms are about 4 inches across! I’ve never seen one so large. This shot below shows the plant in its larger setting, to give you a better sense of its size.
I planted broccoli a few months ago. The plants have grown to about 2 feet high, and now the floret heads are getting big. I can’t wait for the harvest!
The rains have been sucked up by very thirsty trees, flowers and lawn. This is a shot of one of the zinnias in the garden — a pretty fiery orange one.
More zinnias from the garden.
We headed to the lake today to spend the night. Before going we spent time in the yard watering, trimming and tidying. This is one of 2 zinnias that Monte cut to bring in the house. These were the first ones to bloom. Many more to come.
Sheila365 