Thursday In The Garden ~ Snug In My Indoor Garden

Our sun room has three sky lights that make this a bright and light room all year round. It makes a perfect indoor garden room too. For most of the years we've lived here ( over 2 decades ) I kept caged birds in this small room with our plants but we moved the parakeets into an outdoor aviary this past summer and I have to say, I do not miss cleaning up scattered bird seed and feathers every day . This past week I finally acted on some plans I've had for this room to make it a comfortable room to read and do needlework in natural light whilst being able to listen to the sound of rain pattering, splattering, and sometimes gushing on the over-head windows. Rain is my favorite music and now I've created a space in our home to be able to listen to my music comfortably. ( A cup of hot tea or good coffee completes the mood ! )

My African Violets thrive here. This is an African Violet I have shown in other posts, and it has just this month bloomed again. This violet has reproduced and is now 3 violet plants in one pot, but look how healthy and happy it is, and it is an old African Violet, at least 10 years old, maybe older . I think this is the third time this plant has bloomed this year.

The other side of the sun room. Some of the plants in this room are almost 40 years old, most at least 20 years old. The white baker's rack holds not only plants, but my garden magazines and plant books.

My collection of bird's nests are displayed here too, some in little glass bowls , some perched in the bigger plants. Bird's nests, plants, a comfortable chair and books to read make this room all I want it to be especially now the rain has returned in great abundance. This also makes it the favorite room of our cats, but I think they appreciated birds in here even more.

My indoor garden requires a bit of work every so often. The plants require water several times a week, in the summer they needed watering almost every day. When I changed this room around last week I moved an old bird cage outdoors giving me more room for my antique chair (over 100 year old) and ottoman. I spent a lot of time pruning and dead-heading the plants. I know most of these plants are seriously pot-bound and dread the chore of re-potting them , but I am going to wait until after Christmas before attempting that task. Summer's over, October's almost gone. Time to be snug indoors while November begins her cold wet ways . Snug in my indoor garden, my music room ~ listening to my music, the rain.

Sun Room Jungle ~ Thursday Garden Update

 It has been so hot outside and our area of the Pacific Northwest continues to break records for high temps and NO rainfall, almost unheard of for us. ( I am so missing the rain ! ) I decided to give an account of our indoor garden, our sun room jungle. The above picture is of an African Violet I have had for many years. She is blooming in a terrarium in the sun room.

 It really is an indoor jungle in our sun room. I spend a lot of time watering, dead-heading, and cleaning up after the plants growing in this room right off our dining room. It was originally designed and used as a closed-in porch entry and there is a door in this room to the front porch. I blocked the door with porch furniture outside and plants inside because after a few years of living with the door accessible to any and all we decided it was one door too many for us.

 My plants thrive here . The Dracaena Emarginata , the tallest plant in the room, was originally a gift to me from my pre-school class when I had our first son. It came in a small pot and now swoops over other plants and is a small tree. I told our oldest son he will receive this tree when we move or die... I hope he makes room for this plant that is as old as he is.

 Norfolk pines and Hoyas also thrive here and grow so large they are taking over the sun room.

 The sun room has windows in the roof and I know they are the reason the plants love and thrive in their home. The plant on the far left is a fig tree I seriously neglect. I know it is root-bound, yet it grows and grows. I have had it many years. It too is a small tree now.

 This Hoya is planted in a very small pot and has twined and tangled all around the sun room. It blooms all year round and sometimes I have to cut its strangling vines away from other plants in this room.

These are poinsettia plants from Christmases past that are also thriving and becoming bushes. My sun room is really a small jungle brimming with  plants reminding me of pleasant and precious times and providing a small room of living greenery for all seasons.

This is my Thursday In The Garden update. Thursday in my indoor garden !

Snippets

 Look at this flower blooming in an old bucket I hung over a chicken pen ! I planted bulbs in it 2 years ago and this is the first year it has bloomed. I can't remember the name of the vine but love the brilliant pink . There are even more blooms on it now and the blooms are lasting a long time.

 I also planted sedums and Kenilworth ivy in the bucket. Easy keepers and the bucket of green and blooms adds splashes of color that make me happy as I tend and watch my chickens.

 We have a pair of bullfrogs residing at pond's edge. They sun themselves in the same spots every day. When I go down to the pond the female ( shown here ) and the male leap into the pond , swim a few feet, then pop up to watch me. If I sit down and stay quiet both of them climb back to their original spots in the sun. This bullfrog is at least 12 inches from nose to back toes. I should give her a name, what do you think ?

 I have an African Violet that has been with me for years. I don't seem to be able to kill my African Violets and I attribute this to neglect. This AV is huge and doesn't look real because it is so huge. The picture doesn't do it justice for scale , but that is a large clay pot it is planted in. After many years the violet began moving itself out of the pot it came in and I relented and bought potting soil and a new pot just for this plant. Looks like I've been rewarded for my good deed.

 Our oldest granddaughter , daughter of our oldest son , was in Seattle singing with her high school choir at the Emerald City Choral Festival at St. Lukes Cathedral. Seattle is only about an hour or so away from Cedar Pond so we were able to see her there.What a treat to hear her sing with her high school choir and also hear amazing vocals from many other high school choirs , plus a few famous performers too. We only had minutes to visit with her as her choir hopped back in the bus and headed back home ( 5 hours away ) shortly after the performance. We loaded her down with chocolate chip cookies, flowers, hugs and kisses, before she got into the bus for home. I love this picture ( above ) of our granddaughter with my husband.

Mother's Day was so much fun for me. I got to go fishing , one of my favorite things to do , with our daughter. I only caught one fish but it was a big one. My husband caught his limit, but my fish was the biggest , so we all had a good time and I had freshly caught Rainbow trout cooked by my husband for dinner that night.

It's been a busy few weeks and any spare time is spent watering and tending our gardens. We also try to spend as much time as possible with our family and quickly growing up grandchildren. Seems lately when I sit down to read & write blogs I usually feel like my time would be better spent getting a good night's sleep ( really, when I find I have fallen asleep while blogging I know it is past bed time ! ). How about you ? Is this a busy time of the year for you ?

Geraniums For The Porch

This geranium is a few years old and I have 3 or 4 more that are as old or older than it. The geraniums are wintered over in our sun room and get as big as bushes and threaten to take over the sun room unless I prune them severely. The geraniums like our sun room so much they bloom frequently throughout the fall, winter and early spring. "Geraniums are one of the most reliable plants in the home garden." U of R.I. Green Share Fact Sheet Today was rainy and our false spring weather has given way to the true winter it is and indoor endeavors were the order of the day. I needed to top dress my many years old African Violets. They are blooming, or budding again,but their woody stems are wobbling and threaten to leave their pots in search of better soil. So I gave them a generous top dressing of African Violet potting soil. Since I had all the messy planting necessities spread out on the table I decided to propagate new geranium plants. It is very, very easy and can save a fair bit of money for your late spring and summer porch flower plantings.The slips are potted and I will place them in the sun room until late spring when all danger of frost has passed. "Additional plants can be started from stem cuttings, or 'slips'. Remove cuttings, 3 to 4 inches in length,from the tip of the stems. Shorter cuttings can be taken if necessary. Strip off the lower leaves to facilitate sticking the cuttings in root medium....place cuttings 1 inch deep in planting medium ( perlite or perlite / sand, perlite / soil mix) and water thoroughly. Place container in a north or east window until rooted. Rooting occurs best with soil temps. of 72 to 75 degrees F. This generally takes 3 to 4 weeks. Water sparingly during this rooting period---the trick to successful rooting is to keep the cuttings fairly dry." Univ. of R.I. Fact Sheet I went ahead and planted my geraniums directly into the pots I will add to my flower baskets for our front porch, and if I am pleased with the plants they too will winter in our sun room with their parent plants.A plant family reunion!

Here is a picture of my porch in late spring with some of my old geraniums gracing the steps to the front door. "Every flower must grow through dirt." AU

Blessings: blooms inside while threat of snow reigns outside, faithful plants, geraniums and African Violets