What's happening to my white roses?

 Has Alice been in my yard painting my white roses red? Cause this yard is Gnome land bitch, not Wonderland, please get out............ All jokes aside, why is this happening? I have noticed though that my white roses gone red are not alone. Is it a neighborhood thing? Something with the atmosphere? There are white rose bushes nearby in other yards and I have noticed they have the same red tint happening.......... Mystery solved by google, it's due to changing soil conditions or cooler springs or autumns and is common in iceberg roses which these indeed are.

Cherry Tomato plant/ Black & White-Up Close

Another hearty and what I consider to be fool proof plant. I have had this one for so long I really don't remember whether or not this came from a seed or a clone. At one point while transplanting from one container to another we accidentally broke off one of the larger stems. We then planted this stem and for about 3 years had 2 tomato plants and more cherry tomatoes during the summer then one person could wish for.
I became a fan of using cherry tomatoes for BLT's, of course salad's, by themselves, or by themselves with balsamic vinegar or with olive oil salt and pepper. Also good for dicing up and cooking with basil and garlic for a quick sauce. And they appeared on many a taco and in many a burrito or diced up on nachos.
I was told and have found to be true that tomato plants love water. However, this one has done ok being watered every other day or even every 3rd or 4th day.

Rosebud/White Rose Plant/Iceberg Rose

Loner Morning Glories

I honestly can not say that my boyfriend didn't warn me that we would end up with a plethora  of morning glories. He was right. They have taken over, and they do smell bad when pulled. Nonetheless, I love them and if you are out there and looking at this blog then you shall expect to see more of them.

Tiny flowers

 These little yellow cuties are the result of yet another cactus gone wild. Below is the result of "what happens when you bury an onion?"

Buddha and his Pagoda

 Even Gnome Land wouldn't be complete with out Buddha.  Yet another dollar store treasure!

Wildflowers or Weeds??

 Recently I purchased a box of wildflower seeds from the dollar store and planted them in 3 separate containers.  Alas, they are growing rapidly, it's just a mystery as to what exactly is growing. Stay tuned or venture a guess if you would like.

Thyme time

 This is Thyme that I actually grew from seeds. This must be the hardiest most easiest thing in the world to grow and maintain.

White Rose/Iceberg

Thank you Big Lots for offering what was essentially a rose plant in a bag. This particular rose bush has hung in there for around 3 years or so. I recently buried a banana peel in the soil because I heard that Potassium was good for roses. I also bury eggshells every few months.  I also have no idea what I am doing.

Cactus prerogative

 I'm always fascinated by cactus because I never really know wtf it's going to grow up to be. One day it looks like a bunch of cactus roses.












Then the next thing you know there is a part of it that just shoots forth like a complete rebel.........

..... And then, as if that wasn't weird and unexpected enough, this new rebel part then sprouts actual little flowers. So really Forest Gump could have said life was like a box of chocolates or a cactus, cause you never know wtf you are going to get.

Tree stump or plant stand?

We were driving past a business one day that had recently had some of the trees cut down from in front of the business. I must admit, I don't know if you are allowed to take part of a tree stump from private property or not. Just in case it was an "or not" situation we went back at night and made off with this bad boy. I would have taken more but I couldn't lift it at all and my boyfriend wasn't equally enthused enough to lift more than one. Needless to say, it's now a part of your landscape and I like that it adds height to things that otherwise might get knocked over if left directly on the ground.

So we buried an onion

        Ever had part of an onion that maybe stayed in the fridge for a little too long? And then from this partial onion something started to grow. And it wasn't mold. And you found yourself wondering what would happen if you planted this. Would you have an onion plant? Well that's what we did, we buried an onion and for a while these long green onion looking stalks grew and they smelled and tasted like green onions. Recently, one of those stalks became thicker and taller than all of the others and what looked like a bulb started to form at the top with almost like an onion skin around it. The onion skin has now cracked and what we have is perhaps a flower????                                             

Oregano gone wild

A couple weeks ago while watering my oregano plant I noticed what at first I thought was new growth coming from beneath the pot. Alas, now that the actual plant w/ pot has been relocated it's become clear that this is what I now consider wild Oregano and is growing  directly from the ground.

Herbs and Herbs and Herbs

 CURRY up top, OREGANO in the middle and GARLIC CHIVES on the bottom. There is something really satisfying about cooking with stuff that you grew........ Actually, in all 3 cases, these are things I have managed to keep alive. They were all purchased as small starter plants and have since tripled in size. 

Elephant food (large)

Portulacaria afra, purchased for less than $2 approximately 4 years ago. This has been transplanted 3 times and currently lives in a large container.

Elephant food (small)

 This is a cactus purchased for less than $2.  Formally named Portulacaria afra , aka Elephant food. 

Cactus flower

I want to call this one a Stargazer (?)

Another proud bulb purchase from the dollar store. I wasn't sure what to do once the flowers had bloomed and then gone away. Alas, this one never came back. Theme of my backyard, thank gawd a thing of beauty last's forever.

I have no idea what this is.....

One day my boyfriend brought home part of a plant with root intact. So we planted it in a container. For a while we had only the leaves you see until we transplanted it into the ground. And then one day a flower grew and it was beautiful. This has survived now for 2 years in the ground.

Couple of Tulips for you

It's an Artichokes life (or it was before the gophers ate it)

 This is actually 6 artichoke plants transplanted from a container into the ground. We thought we would beat the gophers by burying the plants in chain link. This worked for the first year. Recently, 2 of the plants began to grow again and almost started to flourish before attacked from beneath. But they were good while they lasted and such a beautiful plant. I also learned that pincher bugs are a fan of these. They also seemed to like a lot of water.

Cucumber plant

This is the cucumber plant before eaten by some mystery backyard creature/

Couple of flowers

 Above is how the morning glories started out. They now have 2 new homes in the yard plus they tend to spring up here and there now directly from the ground. You'll see them again, Below we have what I believe is an annual, this was actually a bulb purchased from the dollar store. This was the first year that it bloomed, that was almost 4 years ago and they still come back once a year and now take up 2 pots.  Although, this year, they really needed a larger home and because I didn't move them they sort of overcrowded and dried up.

What to do after your trim your tree......

                                                      Recycled tree branch bench!

Meet the Gnomes

 Mercutio ------------->
Gnome house made from branches from our
tree and a nail gun....Please notice cactus, this
was purchased for less than $2 and is now more than 4 times that size.

 <----------- Devora and  Cassius, mail order
Gnome Couple











Lorenzo