Tag Archives: black eyed susans

Lawn Update on Tired Tuesday

Posted on August 7, 2019 by mohawkvalleygirl

Tired Tuesday it is! I am sitting on my back deck, extremely grateful when the breeze blows, and hoping to make some semblance of a blog post. I took a few pictures a minute ago, thinking to do an update on the state of my yard. Spoiler alert: it isn’t that great.

I loves me my Black-Eyed Susans!

My Black-Eyed Susans finally bloomed, no thanks to me weeding them, which I did not.

I tried to get two good views.

The other day I did do some clearing out by my fence. Of course I did not take a before picture — who can be bothered by such things when enjoying a rare bout of ambition — but I seem to remember taking a picture of the area for some flowers that had grown there.

Here it is!

You can’t really see the fence.

NOW you can see the fence!

The expression, “I fought the lawn, and the lawn won,” comes to mind. But to end on a more positive note, our Brown-Eyed Susans are also starting to bloom.

Hey! You can see Steve’s feet!

These just magically appeared a few years ago, and this year there are quite a few of them.

Yay! They’re pretty!

Never mind how crappy the deck is starting to look!

So my lawn is not looking as bad as it could look, despite my colossal lack of effort this year. Then again, why am I so hard on myself? I have kept the grass in check, done some work around the edges, pruned the evergreen tree, in short, worked somewhat. One can almost always do more.

So I can sit on my deck and relax with a minimum of guilt. It doesn’t do me any good to shoulda-woulda-coulda anyways. I will just relax myself till the thunder I am hearing gets a little closer. Happy Tuesday, everyone!

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Pedestrian Post for Wuss-out Wednesday

Posted on July 25, 2019 by mohawkvalleygirl

Have I used that title before? I don’t care if I did. Without going into tiresome details, I am in a mood to wuss out. Come to think about it, I have pretty much been wussing out since June. Judge me if you would like to. It is immaterial to me.

Anyways, my husband Steven and I took a short walk earlier. I took my trusty Tablet in hopes of getting enough pictures for a blog post. First I tried to get a shot of the Lutheran Church on the corner of German and Henry. The bright sunlight hindered me.

I run by this church almost every day.

Hmm. Not well centered but at least it’s not backlit. I did not have any more photo-ops on the walk so tried to pad things out with some shots of the lawn. If only I had done more yard work (refer to earlier remark about wussing out all summer) (and no, computer, I do NOT mean “sussing”!).

The best bloom so far.

Our Black-Eyed Susans have had a lot of greenery but few blooms so far. I am seeing a lot of buds, though, so things may improve. That patch also has chives, some of which I put in a macaroni salad earlier (ooh, I could have done a cooking post!), and an unidentified plant which I just noticed today.

If they bloom I’ll take another picture.

Next I got a shot of our Rose of Sharon, also not blooming.

At least it’s too big to get mowed accidentally.

We planted another plant when we did the Rose of Sharon, but I do not know what it is called.

It turns red in the fall.

Then I noticed some purple flowers I had not seen before, amongst the sadly overgrown stuff near the fence.

Can you see the fence starting to fall? I’ve been meaning to fix that.

Also never planted by us are some Brown-Eyed Susans. They first showed up a few years ago and there seem to be a lot of them now.

Also not blooming yet.

Now I see that title really does not fit the post. And yet I cannot think of anything better. Oh well, sometimes I have elements of Non-Sequitur Thursday on Wuss-out Wednesday. It happens. I prefer to look on the bright side: I’m closing in on 400 words, after not feeling able to frame a sentence earlier. Can better blog posts be far behind? I hope you’ll stay tuned to see.

Sharon, Susan and a Swan

Posted on August 18, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Steven has been wanting to get a picture of our Rose of Sharon in the back yard. I finally got one today and thought, hey, let’s do a Backyard Picture Post.

One day, I think, “No blooms this year.” The next day, “Wow!”

My mom gave me a shoot of her Rose of Sharon some years ago. Hers is enormous and gorgeous by now. Ours got mowed down a few times as a wee sprout. However, it grew back each time, better than before. First it was big enough so Steven noticed it and didn’t mow it down. Then it was so big he couldn’t have mowed it down if he tried! According to Steven, the plant was saying, “Mow ME down, will you?”

While I was taking the picture of the Rose of Sharon, I noticed the swan in our neighbors’ pool which Steven has been envying (I have been envying the pool myself).

The picture is a little dark, but I wanted to share the swan.

I had also been wanting to take another picture of our Black-eyed Susans, which are looking better and better.

I don’t know if you can see that a little Queen Anne’s Lace has worked it way in.

We originally purchased the Black-eyed Susans at a sale to benefit the Herkimer County Humane Society, back in 2011 (are you impressed that I remember the actual year? I am). They have gotten bigger and spread. Now they are battling it out with the chives for control of that little patch. While I was admiring them, I noticed some little yellow flowers behind the garage.

The little blooms look better in person, but if you want to stop over and see them, please call first.

I really need to clean out behind the garage, cutting down a pricker bush that is expanding to tree-like proportions. We just never see that part when we are sitting on the deck, and, you know how it goes: out of sight, out of what’s left of my mind. Then I remembered the Brown-eyed Susans, which grew with no input on our part.

The green shoots are part of some irises which are done blooming now.

The Brown-eyed Susans are growing in two places in our yard, so I took two pictures.

The green stuff in the background is the beginning of some trees that I need to get out from under my deck.

Some years ago, I read the Rudbeckia is a good plant for bees. Imagine my surprise when a guy at a greenhouse told me that Rudbeckia is Brown-eyed Susans. It sounds so much fancier!

So this is how pretty my yard looks in mid-August. I wonder what September will bring. Will it be worth a blog post? We’ll see.

Woo Hoo! They Grew!

Posted on May 31, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am resorting to pictures for this week’s Tired Tuesday post, but I went outside and took a few of my backyard. My impetus for doing so is that the rhododendron is in full bloom and is lovely. I was worried it would not last another day so wanted to take a picture. Naturally I could not find the Tablet. Steven and I searched almost all of the house except for the dining room chair it was sitting on. Eventually I found it and was thankful it had not started raining again by that time.

An old boyfriend used to call me his “little rah-d’den-DRAHN”

The bush gets bigger every year and has since a few years ago when I broke off a couple dead branches. I suppose there’s a metaphor for life there, but I really do not feel like figuring out what to prune off myself for improvement. Having captured this picture, I moved on and snapped a few more shots.

That’s the neighbors’ pool and house in the background.

My mom gave me the Rose of Sharon in 2011. After Steven accidentally mowed it down a couple of times, it started to grow bigger. I’ll have to take another picture after it blooms. If it ever does. And speaking of wait till it blooms, here are a couple more shots of plants that are going to look better later.

I suppose I could have pulled some of the weeds first.

I got the Black-Eyed Susans from a sale at the Herkimer County Humane Society back in 2011. The chives are, I think, from Tripple’s Produce in Schuyler, NY. They were in my container garden some years ago (I forget when but prior to 2011). After the season, I put them in the garden to see what would happen. Woo-hoo, they grew! (Hey, that might be a good title for this post.)

Ooh, even more weeds over here.

The irises are from my Mom. She’s had irises in her yard for as long as I can remember. Periodically she thins out the bulbs. This is the first time I had a yard to put any in. There are more very year, so woo-hoo once again.

You can just about see all the other stuff in the background.

This last shot is another preview of coming attractions. These are the plants I purchased at T & J’s Fruits and Vegetables in Herkimer on Sunday. They will eventually be part of my container garden. I hope to share some pictures of that eventually. When I’m not too tired to put them in the containers. Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Mohawk Valley Girl