Tag: Farmer’s Almanac

Phlowers – Echinacea

On By TimelessladyIn Phlowers4 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week is a Single Flower. I chose this beautiful white Echinacea that grows in full sun near my patio. The identity of the seed source is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Since I planted the seeds indoors sometime in Spring of 2022, it took two years for the plant to flower outside. As soon as I finish writing this post, I will follow the link to Baker Creek and purchase another packet. I plan to start the echinacea seeds now, in late summer, and grow them to blooming size by Spring.

I had many unusual colors grow from this variety: peach, deep coral, the typical pink, and this white flower. If you love the sturdy stems and reliable bloom of Echinacea plants, try growing this unique mixture.

Echinacea Paradiso Mix

Paradiso Echinacea loaded down with blooms in late July.

(Later) I did purchase the seeds and they are already shipped. At this slower time of the growing season Baker Creek Seed company is very fast with order fulfillment. Baker Creek is definitely in the upper echelon of best heirloom seed companies.

The Farmer’s Almanac has an excellent article on how to grow echinacea.

Photograph – Six on Saturday/Snow Day

On By TimelessladyIn PhotographsLeave a comment

My area of Southern New Jersey went over 700 days without accumulating snowfall. Yesterday, we had a beautiful snowstorm throughout the day. What a lovely sense of peace the quiet flakes instill into the atmosphere. Early in the morning, I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and taking photos as I fed the birds.

Here are my choices for Six on Saturday.

  • A Junco, one of a large flock that visits my yard, seemed to wait patiently for me to scatter birdseed.
  • The Rose of Sharon pods were the perfect resting place for snowflakes. Looking closely, you can see a few of the sharp points of individual flakes.
  • The gourd birdhouse, crafted several years ago, looked lovely with a coating of snow.
  • The Japonica, colorful with new growth, wore a blanket of snowflakes.
  • English Ivy, indestructible, seemed impervious to the cold.
  • A stem of a zinnia, left in place as cover for birds, held a mound of crystal snowflakes…beautiful.

The flying pig who holds court over the sideyard couldn’t escape the snowfall. A natural monochromatic setting with the grey sky behind him and the bird bath pedestal beneath him seems a good choice for Skywatch Friday.

I love this quote from my Farmer’s Almanac Daily Calendar:

When oak trees bend with snow in January, good crops may be expected.

Farmer’s Almanac

Phloral Arrangement – IAVOM McCoy Vases

On By TimelessladyIn Phloral Arrangements32 Comments

The Farmer’s Almanac counts down how many days of winter are left. As of today, there are 63 days left until Spring. Whoo-hoo! I have some sprigs of daffodils showing above ground, and this week, when storms knocked over pots planted with tulip bulbs, I saw that beneath the soil, the bulbs had rooted and were beginning to send up shoots. I hope being overturned won’t stunt the growth.

I have no flowers or interesting dried-out sprigs left to display in a vase for Rambling in the Garden – IAVOM. Happily, I do have a few evergreen plants growing in the gardens. I have gathered sprigs of Nandina, English Ivy, Barberry, and Vinca vine inside today’s vase. I also added a dried-out tassels of a Bald Cypress. To add some interest, I plucked Wisteria pods off the bush and added those into the mix.

The bouquet is so-so, but the vase is a treasure I found this week. Searching for unique containers to craft into hanging planters, I stopped at the local Goodwill. Usually, I find junk, and a caution for other treasure hunters; I often have seen Dollar Store items in the Goodwill store marked at $1.99. To be blunt, this always annoys me. I am often tempted to point it out to the manager, but the earnings from Goodwill Industries go to non-profit groups. Many of the stores have very high rents to pay in the shopping centers they are located in. For this reason, I don’t say a word.

Back to the find in the Goodwill, though. I found treasure—two beautiful McCoy Swan Vases. One is pink, and the other is blue. I used the blue vase for today’s arrangement. I do not have an eye for antiques as some do, but I love McCoy pottery, and I am good at spotting that variety.

My beautiful McCoy vase twins are, Whatsoever is Lovely to me—a perfect choice for Xingfu Mama’s Week Two Challenge.

Planting – Ginger Rhizomes

On By TimelessladyIn Planting6 Comments

Gathering in the green is one way to crawl out of the brain sludge of dreary winter weather. By green, I mean plants, green dreams of gardens to come, and green thoughts of using what is usually thrown away.

Quite a few pieces of ginger you buy in the supermarket are sprayed with a sprouting inhibitor. I recently found, in Produce Junction, a large ginger rhizome with swollen joints. They looked like they wanted to grow. Of course, to me, the sight of that ginger was irresistible. I let it lay undisturbed in my basement, and the swelling grew larger.

Yesterday, I planted it in a large 10″ pot. I hope to see sprouting above the soil’s surface in just a few weeks. I will update on the progress.

Planting indoors in such a large pot might have created havoc with dirt and debris everywhere, but I recently read an excellent tip in Martha Stewart’s Very Good Things: use an under-the-bed storage bin for planting indoors. This tip worked great for me. So much easier to close the lid when I was through and roll it under my plant table until needed again.

The online Farmer’s Almanac has an in-depth article on growing ginger from supermarket rhizomes.

Photograph – Rainy Day Trio

On By TimelessladyIn Photographs7 Comments

I ventured out with my umbrella today for City Sonnet’s Umbrella Challenge. It also was the perfect opportunity to take photos for my first time posting on Dutch Goes the Photograph’s Tuesday Photo Challenge of Trio. Here’s my trio of trios for the challenge.

Wisteria Pods

Barberry Berries

Bald Cypress Cones

If the temperatures were colder we’d be covered in a blanket of snow. Locations a bit north of us might be getting their first snowfall today. In the Mid-Atlantic state of New Jersey, my home, we’ve had more rain in 2018 than I can ever remember.

“Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.
New Jerseyans have been humming that tune to no avail for what seems like all of 2018, a year that is poised to go down as one of the wettest in our state’s recorded history.”
~ Asbury Park Press

Too bad a challenge word today wasn’t ‘doozy,’ because that is exactly what the Farmer’s Almanac forecasts for New Jersey’s Winter of 2019. Oh my, considering the weather pattern of the last months I can easily believe the Almanac is right.