Bloom from this summer

My aunt and garden mentor sent me home with some plant starts this summer. Among them was what she called a moon flower. I planted the starts and waited patiently. In September, it happened! A bloom and what a beautiful one!

From my research this seems to be a Datura Wrightii. Some common names include Moon flower, Jimson Weed and Thorn Apple.



It has some hallucinogenic qualities I hear and is considered poisonous. YIKES! I like it enough to keep it around, though.




We'll see if it decides to come back next year. Several of it's common names I found for it included the word weed, so it's likely that it will come back even stronger.

I don't remember seeing any of these seed pods, but they look pretty neat.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

My stockings are hung and so is the mistletoe.
The tree is bedazzled and so is my mantle.
Poinsettias are here and so are the cinnamon smelling pine cones.
Presents are wrapped and the cookies are baked.


Here's to a great weekend of holiday cheer!
(I'll be seeing the Polar Express tonight in 3-D!)

Bloom Day December 2008

Oh the weather outside is frightful, and nothing is growing in my garden. Inside, it's another story. I have houseplants galore--many of which are passalong plants or ones I've seen at the store and thought were interesting.

Surprisingly, many are blooming right now, which makes for a great bloom day post (the indoor edition).

This little gal is in my bedroom and it matches perfectly. The little white with pink stripe flower just appeared this week.

This is a passalong plant; I have no idea what it is. I gave some starts to my mom. Her plant is probably 4 foot in diameter. It develops these pods of tiny white flowers.

This is a bloom on a spider plant that I started from a co-workers plant.

This is the end of a Wandering Jew (I don't know the technical term). I bought a huge hanging plant of this from a gal at the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market this summer. It stayed under my sugar gum tree until fall and was then divided into 3 plants for me and 2 for my mom.


Finally, this Gerber Daisy was a hostess gift from Ginger that I received today. I hosted a new tradition in my new house: a holiday baking day (girl's only)!

A better way to view the garden

While I can't be outside right now (I think the high today is 28 degrees...brrrrr), a project that has now been completed does influence how I see the outside.

Earlier this week, this is what I looked through to see the front yard:

Single-pane, aluminum windows; original to the house, built in 1964...the epitome of energy efficient ;)

Now, THIS is what I look through (ta dah!):


Beautiful, double-pane, wood windows from Pella; tres chic; and the best thing...I have screens for my windows now! This means I can actually open them on fine spring days.

Yay for home improvement.

Do you see what I see?

It's not very often I am home when there is light outside these days.
Isn't winter great (<--sarcasm)!?! Today, however, I had to run home to accept the delivery of my new windows (WOOHOO! <-- not sarcasm). Looking outside of my patio door, I saw birds--lots and lots of birds.

Do you see them? They are the black dots.

What about in this picture? Do you see what I see?
I see a bunch of unfinished projects from this fall. I see the stack of pavers that I am using to edge my new vegetable garden beds. I see the old pieces of rotting wood that used to be the edges of my vegetable garden. I see crates up against the fence that will eventually be the "walls" of my compost bin. And I see the leaves that were going to be put in that bin to make wonderful compost for next year.

I see all of the projects that I can think about this winter while I am trapped inside, waiting for spring to come.