Childrens Gardening Update...

I am having so much fun working on this project for the Reading Council and the Mater Gardeners. I just hope the weather holds so the kids will be outside all day going from reading station to reading station, enjoying all the books and their big painted story boards. I got another story board finished the other night on Starting Seeds.
I really wanted something to give out to the kids about seeds, but this time of the year you don't find many flower seed packs out, then it came to me about the Grass Head People... I don't know weather you can read this or not when you click on the picture to enlarge it you might... They are really easy to make and the kids just love to watch their hair grow and give them a hair cut!!!

I started a few yesterday and sit them on tip this lamp so they will get lots of light for the next few days. In hopes the grass will grow before next weekend...

They are just made out of knee high pantyhose, you put 3 tsp. of grass seed down in the toe, add about 1 1/2 cups of potting soil. Then tie a knot to secure. Turn it right side up and Glue on a face with buttons. Sit it on top a small cup with water in it, the hose will suck up the water and keep it damp so the grass will grow. Sit it in a sunny window... and watch them grow...

We are going to make up 100 small baggies with grass seed in them with the directions on how to make their own Grass Head Person...


My daughter and I went to the craft store on Thur night and got some stuff to make a wreath for my mother, I think it turned out ok. She is going to her 65th Class Reunion this Saturday night. I am going to take it to the place where they are having it and sit it on her table for a surprise... I hope she likes it!!! I can't imagine my 65th reunion. I hope she takes pictures!!!

Have A Good One,

Lynn

Childrens Gardening...

I have my paint brushes back out and working on a really great project! Our local county Reading Council is having a Children's Story Walk Festival. They will walk around our downtown area, where story boards will be up all over and people will be reading books to children . They will be given a map that tell what books are where, as they go to each one they will be given a sticker to add to their map. At the end they will put their maps in a box to win prizes. There will be book characters dressed up walking around. Performances , snack, special prize drawings and even a book signing... It sounds like so much fun for the kids. My booth will be on gardening for kids. We are going to decorate with pumpkins, mums, corn stalks and sitting on straw bales to read our many books on gardening to the kids... I finished the first board this evening, hopefully I will start another one tomorrow night... I hope to use these for many more master gardener events, I really think kids need to get involved with gardening, they can learn so much!!!

I hope I have more to show you in the days to come... the walk is on Oct. 3rd...

Have a good one,

Lynn

This was taken from a wonderful book "Kids Gardening"

A Kids' Guide to Messing Around in the Dirt...

Time to collect those seeds...

It is that time of the year again when I am collecting seeds off of anything I can get a hold of!!! Latterly... My youngest daughter called me the other night on my way home from work and ask what I was doing... I told her I was dead heading some flowers in a parking lot on my way home... SO, they needed dead headed!!! And I needed the seeds. She told me I was crazy and I needed help!!! But she won't say that when I take her a flat of them in the spring...They are called Melampodium " "Melanie". One of my new favorites, so next summer they are getting planted everywhere. At the Veterans Square, both of my daughters and prob my moms... They are resistant to just about everything, even deer!!! And you don't need to dead head. The are still blooming now like crazy... Click on the name link and go check them out!!!

I picked tons of seeds off the Impatients and made sure I put all the different colors in separate envelopes according to color. Last year I picked seeds off someone else's plants and put them all in the same envelope, they weren't blooming when I planted them so I had a big mix of colors.

I have a big basket of envelopes with all kinds of seeds for next year, I usually start in Feb with some of them that take longer to germinate, so by mid May most of hem are ready to plant... I grow almost all my annuals from seed anymore...

I took some of my plants out of their pots and repotted them to take to school for the winter. I call them my mother plants. All the different leafed geraniums will get propagated in early Feb. so I have plenty to plant in the beds. All my different coleus will do the same, I think I want one whole bed done in coleus next year, they last so long and make the bed so colorful... So it has been a busy weekend cleaning and repotting things and picking seeds...

This is one of my favorite sites on seeds it's called "The Seed Site" it tells you everything you need to know, from where to find the seed on a particular plant to how long it takes to germinate, and what the seeds look like!!! Check it out! Here is a sample of one page, I love it...

Hope you all have a great week,

Lynn

Fall Wreath...

I love this time of the year when you can make a wreath out of the old stuff from the garden you would normally pitch or plow under... this is just made out of the big leaves off the corn stalks, a few tossels off the tops and a couple corn husks... with some berries off one of the bushes...

But I am not ready for fall yet and it "IS" coming!!!

Have a good one,

Lynn

Friends...

FRIENDS...
What can be better than spending the day with a bunch of your best friends? We have run around together for 36 years now. We all had babies together and raised our families together. All of our children think we are all a little crazy, but we have a great time together. Here some of the kids are taking pictures of us together. Another child got married this weekend and we were all there. It seems we are always there for each other. In good times and bad, that is what friends are for. They had a hard time getting us to quit laughing and talking while they were snapping shots of us... When we are together by the end of the night our cheeks hurt we have laughed so much...

Here we go finally a good shot of us...

They had a dance with all the married couples... They ask all the ones married less than a year to step off the floor. They kept going 5 years,10 years,20 years... We just told them to keep going..

From left to right: Parents of the groom, Mike and Mary married 36 years, Dave and Paulette, married 34 years, Lynn and Tom married 35 years, Donna and Doug married 38 years and the winner of the contest!!! and Nick and Patty married 36 years... Only one couple was missing from this picture, they were out of town... their daughter received her white coat, she is going to be a Dr.
Between us all we have 14 children... and some are starting to have children of their own... How can that be I remember when they were all so little playing together in the pool, at one of our 4th of July parties...
I'm sure we will have plenty of weddings and new babies along with all our late night Dominoes parties... It is just so much fun to be together!!!

Have a good one,

Lynn

I have totally been out of the blogging mood with the first couple weeks of school. I am so tired when I get home... I haven't even taken very many pictures. Here are my two tiny babies watching me water flowers. In their favorite window, they even have their own pillow to sleep on in this window... The morning sun really warms them up... Watering things is getting old, but when they still look like my Mona Lavender I guess it is worth it. This one was given to me by a dear friend a few years ago and it has just been beautiful. It goes to school with me every winter. It is really going to get cut back this winter and it is really easy to propagate new ones!

Lot and lots of blooms with such pretty little faces, I love it!!!

The ornamental cabbages are doing great, they are just about ready to change colors, I took this picture about a week ago. The nice thing is they will stay all winter and keep their color. I planted about 75 seeds this summer so they are everywhere... But I am having some trouble keeping the slugs at bay! But I keep feeding them with my secret food... ( at least that is how I like to think of it!)

I can't wait until the White Crane ornamental kale are up and blooming. They are so different and make great cut flowers... This is my first year for either of these so I am excited to see how they turn out!!! Check out both the links I posted to see how they will look when they are blooming...

Another really busy weekend,

Have a Good one,

Lynn

My daughter...

Our daughter bought her first house this week. I am so proud of her! Here she is signing all the papers for her new home...

She is finding out what it is like to own a home, she is already in remodel mode!!! The new roof is already on and the new windows will be ordered this week. She's refinishing floors, and the attic room upstairs... She has already gotten all the drywall riped down in the attic and almost ready to put up new... the amazing thing is she is single and doing this mostly by herself. Working all day and coming home in the evenings and working on the house. Then crashing early.... But she is doing it!!! That's how you do it when you are young, I think I remember those days! LOL

"CONGRATULATIONS COLLEEN"

BEGONIA...


This is my second year for this plant. Last year when I planted the tuber I expected just another begonia. It has been magnificent, I had no idea this plant had a male and female flower on it... You can see both in this picture... When I saw the blooms last year I went straight to Dave's Garden research it, and sure enough there it was !!! How cool is that... Here is the female...

and here is the male....

What a bloom this is, I just got done watering and all the water droplets look beautiful. It is so big and stunningly magnificent!!! I wish it would last all winter. It will come inside but it will mostly die back....

Have a good one,

Lynn

Good Old Bluegrass Music

I went to a Bluegrass concert tonight at an outdoor theater. It was a great concert, one to cheer you up for sure!! You just can't help but tap your feet and clap to the tune while watching this band. They are called the Hillbilly Gypsies. Click on the link to watch them play a little for you! The place was packed all the seats were filled and everyone just sitting in the grass on the hill watching. Kids dancing in front of the stage and everyone just having a great time...I hope you enjoy the music... And the nice part is it was all FREE!!!

Have a great holiday weekend,

Lynn