How I turned a Green thumb to a black thumb and back to Green thumb again.
In my past as far as house plants go and gardens outside, I seem to have good luck at some of my houses and apartments and other residences not so good luck. I had some house plants and some seem to have had an early demise, others thrived in to a jungle. Thus I have a Green thumb and Black thumb.
I have not had a vegetable garden since the 1980's when I was able to at least have some tomatoes. My Dad took care of them and we all benefited from the plants. I had an acre and a half in the 1970s. It was a wonderful experience. I had a lot of pets [cats and dogs] over the years, and animals such as chickens, turkeys, rabbits, piggies, sheep, a cow, a horse and parakeets. Story about that soon!
Tomatoes are a favorite easy vegetable to grow
I moved in July to my new house that I share with my daughter and her husband and two teenage daughters.
My daughter and I love plants and Gardens. Her and her husband have had vegetable gardens in the past with some large lots of land.
This property has a nice suburban front yard with a lawn, some bushes and a lot of decorative low maintenance rocks, but only a postage stamp size back yard. There is one big tree in the front yard.
So we will have to use pots for all our gardening.
As you can see there is 24 inches of grass. The back step to the built in non gas BBQ grill and path to the fence.
Our neighbor the other side of that fence has a nice tree.
and then there are trees down the street.
See below for my one tree in the front yard.
We started off in October and got a lot of flowers in pots from the local nursery. We transferred them to nice pots.
Here are the flowers we got for the outside.
Outdoor Plants in Pots
It was my daughter's birthday in October. So for her birthday, I said: "Let us get some flower plants that will come back each year in pots." So she chose the orange flowers and I chose the purple ones. The orange ones are Asters.
Halloween time and Pumpkins with the flowers. She picked out the Brown eyed Susan's. Those are a favorite and were the flowers she used in her bridal bouquet 21 years ago with burgundy roses.
the purple and the orange flowers.
close-up of the other purple flowers and Brown eyed Susan's
flowers on our front porch, and you can see the rocks bordering the grassy areas.
flowers on our front porch
House Plants
October - Succulents in my bedroom
A succulent that flowers. This succulent did not have a name tag on it. I thought it was pretty like the idea that it flowers. The flowers lasted about six weeks after the plant in mid October.
I have always loved succulent plants. Most easy to take care of and supposedly "on the you cannot kill these plants" list. Wanna make a bet???
A variety of succulents that I also got the same day we got the flowers. I got to matching small planters and the large one photo above. I wanted something that would be rectangular to fit in the window ledge.
up close - we had so much to fit in the small planters, we put one small branch in the teacup in the living room.
December - the succulents in my bedroom
Two months later, these two planters have flourished, the one on the right lost it's leaves at the top, but got more leaves growing on the main stem.We water the succulents about once a week.
The flowers are gone this succulent plant, and I cut the dried flowers off.
Indoor Bulbs
Paperwhites first bloom Dec 10, 2015 - Our first bulbs to bloom
We both love Paperwhites, so I bought this kit that had the bulbs, the pot already to go. Just add water! It started growing very fast. We did not expect, the blooms until Christmas. So this started to bloom about December 5th.
Ten days later December 15, More flowers have bloomed!
Indoor Hibiscus October 15, 2015
She picked out this Indoor Hibiscus plant. We both love it!
Close up
The plant usually has two or three blooms. They open and last one or two days.
December 15, 2015 - Two months later and still blooming with more buds growing. We are very pleased with this plant.
Another house plant
she picked out this nice plant for the hallway.
I am sorry I do not remember the names of all the flowers or plants. I will add that in later.
A Dwarf Ming Aralia Bonsai
Photo as featured from Amazon where I purchased this mini tree.
I have wanted a Bonsai tree since my Mom had gotten one for her birthday from her sister when I was about 10 years old. I marveled at the tiny branches and leaves of the Cypress tree.
I wanted to get a Bonsai for myself. I wanted something different then a Cypress tree, so I saw this Dwarf Ming Aralia Bonsai and decided to get it.
There were no instructions on how to take care of it, other than watering it. Here are pictures of the Bonsai tree over the last six weeks. I have been worried because it seemed to have lost a lot of leaves.
November 20, 2015 looks pretty green.
Five days later after the plant arrived.
December 15th. Not as pretty as when I first got it. Perhaps this is normal for winter. I will see what happens.
Close up of Bonsai Dec 15, 2015. Poor thing only has a third of the leaves it had out of the box.
Bulbs we planted for spring
Both of our choice's, as the blooms looked pretty.
Both of our choice's, we both love tulips. We liked these pastell colors.
Both of our choice's, The first house I owned had yellow crocus as well as yellow Daffodils and Jonquils. The original owner loved yellow because she also had planted yellow honeysuckle on the fence. There was pear and apricot trees and walnuts. It was a great food producing property. I love that house. She even had it painted yellow.
My Choice. I love the Daffodils of all kinds. I jumped on these Giant bulbs.
Both of our choice. Neither one of us had any of these flowers in our previous gardens, it looked pretty so we choose it.
My Choice, I love Iris flowers and had not every had any yellow or white ones.
My Choice. My best friend's father from Italy had a great garden two doors up the street from us. He had these in the front yard and I always loved them but never had them in my garden. I am so excited to plant and see these bloom every year!
We will have a lot more pots and planters for vegetables such as Zucchini and Tomatoes. My son in law loves to garden with vegetables so we will no doubt have a great garden in 2016!
We will have a lot more pots and planters for vegetables such as Zucchini and Tomatoes. My son in law loves to garden with vegetables so we will no doubt have a great garden in 2016!
Front Yard Tree
Like I said, we only one tree in the front yard. Here is what the tree looks like from July to December.
July 2015 for my bedroom window, lawn is fairly green with auto timed sprinklers.
September 2015 Sunset through the leaves turning a pretty Burgundy red.
Our first snow - November 2015 most of the leaves are gone. The sprinklers are off before the first frost.
December the snow melted and Epic winds blew all the leaves off, as well, as one of the two birdhouses. Part of the fence went down. Major damage all over town and some were without power for two weeks! You can see the one red birdhouse in the tree.
So that is the gardening indoors and outdoors for property.
We look forward to the pretty bulbs blooming in Spring. I will have lots of photos. No doubt we will have more house plants as well. I want a Boston Fern. I also like Philodendron which I usually have good luck with that plant.
I would love to see photos and hear about your Garden and houseplants!
Please leave your link in the comments section.
I would be glad to feature your link the front page of my blog.
My favorite winter/Christmas flower is the Poinsettia
Marble Poinsettia from Wikipedia
Traditional red with link to
All four major colors Poinsettias
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
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