MMGA - Make Me Great Again, Maybe...

 You'd think I would be able to take a decent selfie by now.  I think that I am lacking the motivation to improve my selfie taking capabilities. It has been so nice to just sit outside in the AM.  Well, I don't just sit, I walk every morning, weed some items out of the flower beds, water what needs to be watered, and then I sit my ass down.  Sometimes, I even write in this bloggy thingy. Last fall, I planted 2 false sunflower plants.  One of them is still just foliage, but the other finally got a flower.  I was worried I had put it in a less than favorable location as where it is gets just about 7 hours of sun.  Depending on the plant growth, I will probably move it in the fall.  The flowers look a little less vibrant than they would if I had them in better light. And as I sit here with the sun rising to my back (the big hat shades the monitor :) ), there are so many things that I could complain about.  However, the bad items are so amazingly...

Some of the new editions to the yard are coming along nicely.  The only reason to make this post was to put up a couple pictures. Both of the pictures above are bare root plants that I planted in the fall.  I had some good luck and bad with the mail-order root stock.  The top picture is Astilbe that I got from a friend and the bottom is a false sunflower experiment (Heliopsis helianthoides 'Bit of Honey'). On my very short walk this morning, I thought the hill looked pretty with all the fog. And for now, I'm good (MMGA) - JJ  

  Not gardening of course, just everything else.  I would complain about the state of things, however, what good does that do? So, instead I will plant things, test seed starting techniques, replant things that don't like being replanted, etc... Here are a couple pics, nothing great, I have to remind myself it is only June 9th - I mean everything else is rushed in our lives, enjoy the grow. The neglected rose bushes are doing well! The Virginia blue bells are coming in nicely.   This morning glory was started indoors (playing with bonsai, on atypical plants - I have a plan for the morning glory).  However, this is doing well considering its crazy growth pattern. I moved some thyme from its bed to a new garden I am working on (very slowly).   And just like that - I'm done and I'm good (MMGA) - JJ

 It is a gloomy raining morning, but the deck is covered, the air is warm enough, so I am outside!  It is funny that Sunday night of this week I was covering sensitive plants and two days later is was nearly 90 degrees.  Gotta love that upstate NY weather! Took some photos of the early flowers I got this picture of a bee just as it was going from chive bloom to chive bloom.  I just got lucky tapping the shutter. All in all spring gardening is going well, I a little behind, but still allows me to get my hands dirty and see things grow. For now, I'm good (MMGA) - JJ

So, I really would like everything to be fully grown and flowering, but what fun would that be?  The few things I started really early inside, like the chili peppers - which were growing well under a light have been happy and some displeased (cold evenings) with being moved outside. My easy to manage small gardens have begun to look pretty nice as perennials come back and annuals I started indoors get added in for the season.   The test of whether you can start and bloom a morning glory indoors was a success, now to build the perfect wire globe for a miniature indoor morning glory. I found this red leaved item just growing in the field/yard.  It could be wild rose which is why I dug it up and potted it, to find out.  I didn't want it getting mowed down if it ended up being something nice that found its way to our yard. Lastly, I ordered some bare root starters last fall and some of them are coming in nicely like the Virginia blue bells in the picture below. All in al...