The Height of a Gardener’s Disappointment!

OK, this might not be the height, now that I think about worse things that my garden could succumb to, (leaf cuttter ants, grubs, mold, little white gnats, a digging dog, etc.) but still… this is pretty bad.  There is a flowerbed that surrounds a Queen Palm in the backyard that I was going to leave bare until late May.  I never got petunias in the ground this winter, only in my pots.  Down here in Phoenix, there is a distinct line drawn between winter and summer flowers.  And NONE cross the line.  Low and behold, the spot I was going to rest for a season was brimming with seeds from the previous year.  All these flowers came up on their own:  Lobelia, Sweet William, Marigolds, Petunias!  Sweet mercy!

Mixed in the beauties were these mystery plants that I couldn’t identify for the life of me.  There were four of them and they spouted the same time as all the others.  So I’ve been watering them and waiting impatiently to see what they are!  I suspected daisies.  Funny thing was, I visited my mother and she had the same little plants dug up from around her yard and was gingerly nursing them in two different pots.  She thought they were petunias, but no… I knew they weren’t because my petunias came up right next to them.  So we’ve been waiting for weeks for the healthy plants to reveal their flowery heads. 

Yesterday they opened.  Little white, fluffly, mini-dandelions.  They are weeds.  Really healthy weeds!  Weeds that I’ve been watering and actually weeding around.  Today I took this picture before I yanked them out of the rich soil, root and all.  My mother is visiting my sister in Washington, so I needed to let her know what she is growing in her pots!  HAHAHAHHA!  Not only have I been watering them at my house, but at my mother’s house as well!  I might save hers for her to see when she returns!

The 2nd Gerber Daisy has Raised its Sleep Head

Gerber daisies take FOREVER to bloom.  Seriously, it’s only about 4 to 5 weeks, but the anticipation of a burst of beauty makes it seem longer.  WAY longer.  Back in March, my first Gerber daisy bloomed and was taken down by a wet towel thrown by a child that I gave birth to.  Unbelievable.  Then a bud appeared…. the promise of life anew….weeks later she opened her drowsy eyes and lifted her hot pink head.  FINALLY!  (Yes, I dragged my son out there to witness the beauty and miracle of nature to increase his appreciation of God’s hand in our backyard. He didn’t actually thank me, but I felt the thankfulness emanating from his little heart.)

The exceedingly good news is that there is already another bud forming….. so in May, I’ll have continual hot pink yummy eye candy to behold.

April is so wonderfully warm and inviting in Phoenix…. leads to the illusion that summer might linger off in the distance a while longer!  Makes me want to sit in the backyard swing and forget the laundry, the homeshooled youngin’s, cooking, cleaning, carpooling, etc., etc., etc.

The name of the following flower is still a mystery.  Please share your wisdom in the comment section concerning the name of said purple flower.

That is all.  Hasta luego.

Muffled Beeps calling out to Me

For several months, Rick and I have heard an alarm sounding at two minutes past midnight.  We assumed it was our son’s alarm clock, as the sound was muffled and far from our room.  It didn’t wake up our son, so we didn’t think much of it.  When our house guests arrived this week, I decided I better turn off the alarm so it wouldn’t wake up anyone at 12:02 a.m.  I checked the digital offender, but the alarm LED light was not lit.  Strange.  Maybe our son finally figured it out and turned it off himself.

Two nights ago, I heard the faint beep beep…… beep beep….. and jumped out of bed to locate the noise’s source.  I stood motionless in the hallway, but realized it was coming from our own room.  Strange again.  By the time I dashed back in and listened intently, it was silently laughing at me.

Side note:  My husband borrowed a stopwatch from a fellow hockey coach to time the team during practice.  For more than 5 months, we had been using it during school because we do spelling for exactly five minutes per kid per day.  Somewhere along the homeschooling journey, we lost the stopwatch.  We have searched for it MANY different days with no success.  Hockey season is now close to ending and Rick called home from work to ask me and the kids to find the stopwatch once and for all, because he needed to return it.  We searched high and low… and everywhere in between (again.)  Finally, since our gold digging was unsuccessful, Rick went and bought a new stopwatch yesterday to replace the one we lost.  I told him not to stress about it.  Now we owned our own stopwatch….. we simply don’t know where it is.

Back to the muffled beeps.  Last night, promptly at 12:02 a.m. the sinister faint beeps called my name.  I flew out of bed and stood stealthily in the center of the bedroom straining my ears for directional clues.  The alarm was calling from Rick’s dresser.  I pulled out drawer after drawer, with head cocked sideways listening for the beeps.  I knew I only had 60 seconds until it was quiet, so I rapidly rummaged through the offending skivvy drawer, only to pull out the missing stopwatch…. still beeping at me.  Glancing at my husband with a smile crossing my face I chuckled, “Here’s OUR stopwatch.  Now we know where it is!”

How many times do we assume the little things that bug us are someone else’s fault, only to discover it’s of our own doing?  Sheesh.  Save me from myself.