Mid-June

California Trip

I recently made a trip out to Davis CA to visit my sister and her family.  Her youngest child was graduating from high school.
My sister recently finished the local Master Gardeners Class.  She has had an interest in vegetable gardening for many years.  I tend to go more toward flower and plant gardening, although I do have a small veggie garden.  when she asked what I'd like to do, I told her see local gardens and gardening centers.  So despite record heat, 102 degrees, we got in lots of beautiful places.  I have made up some slide shows and posted them on my YouTube channel.  Here are the links below.  Hope you enjoy seeing them.  Davis is in the Sacramento area.

The afternoon I got there, after lunch, we went to the Bumble Bee Sanctuary.  the street leading up to it is lined by olive trees.  There is a small air strip near there and the hives.

the next day we drove to Loomis CA and visited a garden center, gift shop and had lunch at their restaurant.  It got hot but we really enjoyed it.   Blogger doesn't want to uplaod the video so here's a link to High Hand Nursery
While we were at the nursery, a guy told us about a private garden near there that had recently opened for public viewing the past weekend.  He said in August there was going to be a Tomato Festival there.  While we had lunch the waitress gave us a map to the place.  So we struck out and found the place.  The gate was open so we drove in, found a place to park, got our cameras and started walking around amazed at the place.  Beautiful.  We noticed a groundkeeper kinda stayed near watering.  When we got home we looked the place up, wanting to know the history.  Well, they do give public tours-BY APPOINTMENT ONLY!  No wonder the guy stayed nearby.  Oh well we got a laugh out of it and saw a wonderful 30 year labor of love.  Blogger doesn't want to load it either so here is a link to Maple Rock.

I hope you enjoyed my slide shows.  They do not do justice to any of these places.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time there even tho it was record heat.

Linked in with Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings

Perfect to a T

Some t-shirts I prettied up while it rained today

The black one I stitched by hand, the purple one I used my sewing machine and the blue one I stitched through holes in the medallions.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your day is great!

Linked in with Amaze Me Monday  at Dwellings
Met. Monday at BNOTP

Work Done in the Garden Memorial Day and more on No Maintenance Gardening

Here is a video I made yesterday showing the work we did in the garden and some info. about no maintenance gardening.  Hope you enjoy it and thanks for watching!  OK, so blogger doesn't like my video so here's a link:  Click here. 
Here's a previous post on no maintenance gardening.

I am linked in with Amaze ME Mondays at Dwellings
Met. Monday at BNOTP 
The Scoop at Cedarhill Ranch
Outdoor Wednesday At A Southern Daydreamers
Stone Gable-Tutorials, tips and tid bits
Cottage Garden Party at Fishtail Cottage 
Fertilizer Friday at Toostie Time

The Garden in Late May

To see a short video on some of the sites in our garden click here.  You even get to hear my sweet southern redneck accent!  Gosh I hate hearing my own voice on a recording!  It's like nails on a blackboard to me.

Linked in With Amaze me Mondays at Dwellings 
Met  Monday at BNOTP

Table for the Back porch

I was wanting a small table for our back porch.  Just something to set cups of coffee and drinks on.  I remembered I had made this years ago.  It is stained glass for a stepping stone but I put it on plywood years ago.  Hubbie attached it to a plant stand and there you have it!  A table.

linked in with:
Met. Monday at BNOTP
Amaze me Monday at Dwellings 
The scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch

New bed in front--no maintenance gardening

There is a long flower bed that runs along the front walkway to our home.

It has full sun in the middle of the bed and shade on each end.  I decided to get the middle planted with sun loving perennials.  Here at Silverhill Ranch, we believe in no maintenance  garden beds.  I spend NO time pulling weeds and very little time watering.  Doing a little extra work when you are putting in your garden beds saves you lots of time and money in the long run.

Weed control fabric and pins, drip system

Drip system put on top of soil first

Buy a good, thick weed control fabric.  This came from Sam's Club and is very thick but water and fertilizer can still get through.  Thick layers of newspapers work well, too and also cardboard boxes cut to lie flat.  You can put it on top of the soil or if your bed is empty and you are going to have to add soil the fabric can go under the soil.  This bed already had soil so I put it on top.

Fabric and drip system held down with fabric pins from Lowe's

The irrigation system we use, we order on line from Berry Hill.  It is not expense and has never failed us.  We buy timers from Lowe's and have everything set to turn on automatically.  If we want to pick up and go out of town-no problem.

The plants I bought to go in were reduced at a local Houston garden center.  (yay)  Yellow,  Dallas red, silver and purple lantanas, Purple and white Mexican Heathers.  There are all sun lovers and will hopefully fill in this bed with time.

Elton helped me decide on placement of the plants

Just cut a hole big enough to dig a hole and pop the plant in-be sure to not cut the drip system.  It can be felt through the fabric.

After planting, I like to add a thick layer of Cypress mulch.  The ends of the drip system will be hooked into the rest of the system, probably after I get this whole bed planted.

I see someone got out of line.  Will have to fix her in the morning.
So there you have it.  No maintenance flower beds!  Makes gardening a pleasure!

Linked in with these Linky Parties:

Met Monday 
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Tutorial, Tips, and Tid-Bits 
Fertilizer Friday