This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Happy July everyone! Things have slowed down quite a bit here in the Portable Homestead garden.  The roses have finished their first round of blooms, and they're taking their time getting to a second. But the hostas, annuals and day lillies have taken over with theirs.  Slowly and surely the 'from seed' containers are beginning to bloom: Zinnias, marigolds, tomatoes, hyacinth bean climber, nasturtiums.  And the coneflowers are starting to bloom again in the raised bed.  The aphids have been formidable foes, as always, which means daily garden walks are taking longer than usual what with hosing them off the plants or spraying them with soapy water.  I hope to troll a few garden centers during this holiday weekend!  Rugosa and hostas are at the top of my list.  How are things growing where you are?  What's at the top of your gardening wish-list at this time of year! (For the week ending 7/2/15)

A sample of what's blooming & growing in the garden for the week ending Friday, 5/8/15. Cleanup around The Portable Homestread has been slow & steady over the past couple of weeks, and I'm happy with how everything is shaping up around the yard, in the garden, and on the front porch. Seeds I direct sowed last Sunday have already sprouted! I'm still holding out hope that at least one of my Julia Child floribunda roses makes it, but it's looking rather more likely that neither will.  The lettuce pictured above (7th from the top) is actually from last year! I direct sowed the seeds in the raised bed, but what seedlings weren't eaten by the resident rabbit were drowned in a flash flood from a severe thunderstorm. I can't believe the lettuces have returned this year after all that plus the stormy and ridiculously cold winter that just passed!  Also on the return after a year or two...

A sample of blooms for the week ending Thursday, 4/23/15. It has been a crazy week weather wise, from Summer warmth to flooding rain and thunderstorms to frost and freeze watches and warnings! Most everything seems to be doing alright, although, whatever was iffy before this crazy weather week (like my 2 Julia Child floribunda roses!) may be done for, despite 2 strait nights of covering them for protection against a freeze. But, we'll see. The Weeping Cherries have been putting on such a show this year, I cannot get enough! Photos upon photos, of course! What's blooming in your garden this week?

Forsythia, bush, perennial. Pansies, annual. English Daisies, perennial. Potting up perennials on the front porch, English Daisies (left), Violas (right). More English Daisy shots, back patio, perennial. Pansy, annual. Violas, perennial. Week Ending 4/16/15. What's blooming in your garden this week?

The name of my blog abode here has changed over the years, as so many of you know.  It started out as Just Diggin' Around, and then became Diggin' Around. Not that long ago, after much contemplation, I made a big change with renaming it The Portable Homestead. And that was the right thing for me at the time.  In recent weeks however, I've been rethinking the name again.  The Portable Homestead is where we live, where Hubbs is caretaker, and where I garden (mostly in containers), so that will continue to be a part of my blog, but (to me) it narrows the focus, or direction of you will, and I want my blog to have a name that's more encompassing of my life as a whole, vs just a specific area of it. Not that I have let the name (TPH) change what I write about, I still share as I always have, but a different name would help me to feel more comfortable about sharing in the same way - if that makes sense.  Earlier this month, I was writing a letter...

I am thankful for sunsets. Their changing beauty fills me with joy every time! These are the views from our front porch earlier this evening! (Almost late afternoon really with the sun setting before 5pm). 

Back on June 26th, I wrote about my decision to change the name of Diggin' Around to The Portable Homestead (click here ) to warn y'all changes were coming to this here blog!  Well, we've now reached phase 2 of the change, the new header is in place up at the top of the blog.  Soon, the actual address for my blog will change too, which will likely require you to re-follow me.  Because I've been Diggin' Around so long, I felt it only right to give fair warning before the final change comes. One can end up with so many 'loose ends' online.  I'm also working on tying up all of mine and bringing them home here to The Portable Homestead.

Off and on throughout recent years, I have debated about whether or not to change the name of this here blog.  To something that feels more... Me. Diggin' Around was originally Just Diggin' Around.  Because I didn't know what direction anything was going in at the time.  I dropped "Just" when I realized it seemed to diminish any seriousness behind topics or intentions.  (Like I was just messing around). After nearly kicking the ole bucket in 2010, I considered changing Diggin' Around to Upheaval Into Revival, because that certainly seemed to fit me at that time, but thought "revival" might have too much of a religious tone to it (giving a different impression of why I changed the name), so I kept that as a column title/category instead. Ever since I changed the name of my gardening memoir column, which appeared on Connect*Share*Grow , from Adventures In Gardening to The Portable Homestead earlier this year, (click here and scroll down to S...

We're heading into what's likely to be our first heat wave of Summer here at The Portable Homestead. At 8am this morning, it was 75* with 89% humidity, which is nothing new in our neck of the Jersey coast, but we're headed to the 90s today and y'all know I'm not much of a fan of the heat. (I am the equivalent of those who hate/complain about Winter!) So I headed out into the soupy air for a quick garden walk and found 'Mardi Gras' floribunda starting its' first round of blooms! I'm even more excited than usual to see Mardi blooming right now. Not only did I lose more than half of this rose due to Hurricane Sandy, but I accidentally pruned a large section of what was left back in May! (What I now refer to as the 'pruning oops or incident'). Add that I've been dealing with black spot to varying degrees in all of my roses this year before they had buds or blooms (a gardening first here at The Portable Homestead), I cried when I saw ...

'French Lace' floribunda. 'Pope John Paul II' hybrid tea. 'French Lace' florbunda. 'Mardi Gras' floribunda. Summer has arrived here at The Portable Homestead and with it, the second round of rose blooms. These are my favorite photos from today. Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

My gardening memoir column, Adventures In Gardening, is now known as The Portable Homestead!  For today's post, "Spring Cleaning Inside & Out," on Connect*Share*Grow, click here . You can find an Archive of all of my columns to date here on Diggin' Around by clicking here .