Stay Home / Hunker Down / Quarantine

Link | | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Let me just confess this right up front … I am not a big collector UNLESS it is roses, flowers and books about roses, flowers and gardening. And, I’ll confess to being a book stacker. I have stacks of books everywhere. Everywhere.

Every nook and cranny in the house. Then there’s the Potting Shed where the bulk of the books are. And did I mention we have a little Library Room and a book shelf on my garden porch and it just goes on.

I get so much from these books. I learn of course, but it is so much more than that. The books themselves make me feel attached to those who wrote them – even if they lived in another time period and they attach me to others that read these books too. In this time of social distancing, this is a huge blessing.

You can read how one rose and the book by the hybridizer has weaved its way into my garden experience in a marvelous way … HERE.

With time on my hands I even started counting my garden related books … when I got to more than I had roses, I stopped. I quickly moved to “who cares.”🤦‍♀️   Kind of like when I count roses for so long and then I stop because who cares about numbers anyway. 🤓 Am I right?  If I need to know for some sort of census or the like … I’ll have Mr. G count. He always seems to know how many roses I have. 😏😉 I stopped at 200 or so. 👩‍🌾 Who care indeed! 🌱👊🏻

So, what am I reading now? Here is my current stack. There’s never just one!

In March when we are so close to gardening time, many of my gardening books I read over and over and over – picking out my favorite parts to encourage me while I wait on true gardening days. Note: We have had so much rain and some snow too – enough that my garden has been flooded in some places and I don’t even want to walk on it. We NEED SUN and some warm days! 

Both Chasing Vines by Beth Moore (link) and Live in Grace/Walk in Love by Bob Goff (link) are my “dailies” and are invaluable to me during a season that contains words like pandemic and quarantine. These two books teach, inspire, comfort and love me on every page. If you don’t know about the NIV Gardener’s Bible (link), it is a treasury of garden related studies, essays and historical information weaved through scripture.

What books are you reading? Anything you think I need! LO

When you need a break from books, check out what we are talking about on the Rose Chat Podcast … these gardening greats inspire me too. (link)

POTTING SHED PUTTERINGS:

🌱Celebration! 🌱 My Steak Sandwich tomatoes have germinated along with some other things!

HAPPY DAY!

DIRT!!!

I also was able to get my hands in the dirt while potting up some barefoot roses for our societies fundraiser!

Friends, I pray you are surrounded by everything you need.

Please take every precaution and stay safe. We are so blessed that through all of this, we have more time at home and more time in the garden.

Mr. Rogers Does It Again and Again

Link | | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Today is day 2 of being home for our health and others and I am remembering a sweet song from Mr. Rogers… Let’s Think of Something to Do While We are Waiting…

LISTEN HERE…

 

MY SOMETHING

My SOMETHING to do this week is planting those cold crop veggies and flowers and starting seeds inside.

First, I’m getting seed packets organized (and I have a ton of them)…

A new flower I picked up at Renee’s Garden online that I am VERY excited about is this cutie…

I have white and blue but never this color! If you are interested, check it out here

Look at this stunner! Earl Grey Larkspur from Renee’s too. The name alone!! I soooo want this one to do well but I’ll admit that Larkspur often is tough one for me. There have been years where it self seeded with will abandon and years I can’t get a thing going even with the very best seeds and care.

Another one I am excited about is the Cupcakes Mix I picked up in the UK last summer.

My roses will love all their new garden companions!

… at 4′ high, these will be spectacular!

Seed starting station…

This picture does not tell the entire story. Before I could set up my new grow light… it took quite a while to find homes for all the plants that usually reside here in the winter. But they are happily in their new spots and we can get onto seed starting.

I bought a couple of new grow lights this year and they came with this simple but helpful stand. My old ones where way past their prime and this one was so easy to pick up at Lowes. I’ll let you know what I think.

BLOOM THYME THIS WEEK:

🌱Each day there is more and more green and I am grateful.

 

MY WISH FOR YOU…

Friends, I am wishing you a wonderful spring season that is sprinkled with beauty, love and an extra measure of health and safety while we deal with this horrible virus that has us all on edge.

The garden is a place of comfort and healing for me and I pray it will be for you too.

The National Garden Bureau shared this on Instagram… 

We learned with the release of the Mr. Rogers movie last year that his words have the power to speak to all of us regardless of our age. So, I’ll will say goodbye for today with more good words from Mr. Rogers…

GREEN!

Link | | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Green — the color of nature. And nature in Indiana is coming back!

Green is my favorite color! I have always known that green restores me and energizes me but it represents so much more. Color Wheel Pro’s See Color Theory in Action article says this …

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.

Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a ‘greenhorn’ is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.

Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote ‘green’ products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.

  • Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
  • Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
  • Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.

Read about other color meanings here.

Green and gardening are good for you! For more on the health benefits of gardening, read on here.

Our temps are in the 50s this week and green is popping up all over the garden. From the looks of the Tete-a-Tete Daffodils, I will be seeing yellow very soon too.

Green and Pink…

Green and pink … as the Hellebores makes their way back.

“March”ing into garden work…

March is a bit of a tease around here in Zone 5b. Giving us great weather – making us sooooo tempted to jump fully into spring work. However, I know how much winter loves to show up unexpectedly in March demanding I practice patience for outside work. I will be picking up debris, slowly cutting the perennials back … and walking around the garden, planning and plotting and refining all my “big” ideas into manageable goals! Oh, and visiting all the local garden centers constantly! Needless to say we are on a first name basis! 

Most of all, I intend to take time to enjoy the work of the real Master Gardener as he brings it all back — taking note of the “green” showing up every day!

Ahhhh Spring – the most wonderful time of the year! Soon the Bloom Thyme Cottage Garden will be filled with green and bursting with blooms! I can’t wait!

🌱🌷🌱🌸🌱🌼🌱

SIGNS OF THE BIG COMEBACK!

Link | | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

I love green!

GARDEN CENTERS

Garden Centers are starting to fill their shelves and bins with SPRING. This week it was seeds, seed starting supplies, garden decor and containers!

I’m finding Better Home and Gardens has so many new garden products I love!

Look at these pot saucers… They even have little feet on them! Three came home with me today.

And their Citronella game is strong! Candles and tabletop torches. I think I’m going with the white one on the top right.

So many fun things to see this time of year while we wait on plants!

POTTING SHED PUTTERINGS

I still have an over crowding problem in here, but I did manage to tidy the potting bench and make enough room for my computer so I could write this post! It inspires me to be with all the plants and the smell of dirt especially on a sunny day.

And, I bought more seeds from Renee’sGarden . . . 🌸🌸🌸

NEW PROJECT…

A section of our living privacy fence of mixed shrubs became overrun with Japanese Honeysuckle. The upside is that we now have the “opportunity” to redo a section. The removal project started last fall when I “borrowed” Mr. G’s recip saw and got busy. I love this kind of work. Mr. G saw where my excitement over the recip saw was going so he gifted me my own. This year I will no longer have to borrow. Watch out garden — I love power tools. Seriously, I think every gardener need one!

 

“Honeysuckle alters or destroys the native vegetation beneath it, diminishing the populations of birds and other animals that rely on the native plants.”

“Invasive honeysuckle vines grow rapidly and cover large areas. They shade out plants growing underneath them and can girdle or pull down trees.”

“Some bush honeysucklespecies also release chemicals into the soil to inhibit other plant growth, effectively poisoning the soil.”

Invasive Honeysuckle Information HERE.

Indiana Invasive plant guide HERE.

NOW ONTO THE GOOD STUFF!

This area has always included a potting table (made by Mr. G) but now will include a cold frame. Mr. G will make that too – my previous cold frame was taken down to make room for his grill and prep table.

This project is exciting and daunting at the same time as I am working around other existing plantings. Large shrubs and an ancient and huge unidentified locust tree – known better by my kids as the “thorn tree” as it has thorns that will change your life! 😬 The sole of a boot is no match! Of course it would be easy to fill it up with roses … and I just might! I am finding so many I can’t live without.

This week I ordered two more roses from Matt Douglas at High Country Roses. Nymphenburg and Banshee. Our most recent Rose Chat is with Matt as he shared all about Damask roses. As you listen to the podcast be prepared to be charmed and be prepared to add roses to your wish list. GOOD NEWS! If you order, you will get a Rose Chat 15% discount. Website HERE.

LISTEN ….

Be sure to subscribe to the Rose Chat Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode!

RoseChatPodcast.com will take you to our Podbean home page. There you will find additional info and links to specific information on each episode.

🌹🌹🌹

What big project(s) are you taking on this spring?