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Tiny cactus flowers in the garden
This potted succulent doesn’t Flower a lot but it does Flower regularly. The flowers appear suddenly. Here one moment and gone the next.
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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
We have been meaning to get a trellis for the Lady Bank’s Rose in the front garden for a long time, but it wasn’t growing very fast and we concentrated on other, more important tasks. That all changed this Winter and Spring, though. With the large amount of rain we had — along with the removal of a short fence that was blocking the sun — the rose added a lot of vigorous growth and bloomed quite nicely, even for a relatively small plant. You can see from the photos that it was big enough to cover most of the side of the trellis after we trimmed and tied the main stake to the newly built arbor.
We need to do a bit more staking to prevent any blow down during our windy days and you can see an ugly remaining fence post that we need to cut off as best we can. it is set in cement and littered with nails so I need to find a clear path through so I can use the hand saw to cut it down as low as possible.
Looking out the window after cleaning up from out work, Rosanne said “It looks like it has always been there” and indeed it does. it blends in well, while also adding a nice decorative touch.
If you are looking for an arbor for your garden, this “Athens” model is all vinyl and no maintenance, something I had to have when I went looking.
Assembly was easy and required nothing more than a power screwdriver to drive the self-tapping screws. I look forward to it being here for many years to come.
You can buy this arbor from Amazon, like we did, for $128.24 with Free Delivery. I might be purchasing a second for a clytostoma vine in the back garden. The trellis there came down years ago and could really use a replacement.
New England Arbors Athens 39″W x 81″H Vinyl Arbor
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A Minute in the Garden: A series from A Gardener’s Notebook
Brunfelsia (Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow) blooms right here in my own Los Angeles garden.
See all the videos in “A minute in the garden” series in this YouTube playlist
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This is a variation of the one-board birdhouse available at Lowes.com. Their plan did not allow for an easy clean-out so I modified the floor and a couple of the joints.
Learn more about building birdhouses with these books
* Audubon Birdhouse Book is available at the Los Angeles Public Library
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
An interesting link found among my daily reading
Brunfelsia/Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
These lovely plants are blooming like crazy after our rains. The common name comes from their flowers which change colors over the course of a few days — from blue to purple to white. I recently planted 2 more of these is a bare area of the garden.
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Another great set of books to start working through. I see at least 5 that I will be requesting from the library immediately, if possible. I highly recommend you check out your own local library, too! — Douglas
No matter what plants you want to grow, or style of garden you want to maintain, you’ll find at least one specialist book that can tell you everything you need to know. Are you considering basing your planting scheme around ornamental grasses? Then the book for you is Designing with Grasses by Neil Lucas; are you a chilli addict who wants to turn up the heat in the garden? Then Kay Maguire’s excellent RHS Red Hot Chilli Grower is the book for you; or perhaps you want to turn your rhubarb into fine wine, or grow apples for cider making, in which case may we dare to suggest that our own book Brew it Yourself contains all you need.
Read 10 best gardening books via The Independent
Some of the books mentioned in this article
An interesting link found among my daily reading
This article had me lusting for many of the weeding hoes listed. Yikes there are some nice ones and I can imagine using any of them in my garden. I have one at the moment and it is my favorite weeding tool, but a few more wouldn’t hurt, Right?
Which one is your favorite? Check out the article and let me know! –Douglas
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
An interesting link found among my daily reading
An interesting link found among my daily reading
Looking back over my photos, this plant blooms regularly every year around this time.
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