Tuesday 4 ~ Your Garden

Oh! I wish this was my garden!!!
So lovely!

Your Garden

Its Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 once again and I thought it might be nice to talk about our gardens or house plants. After all, houseplants are indoor gardens and fish aquariums can be water gardens.

1. Do you have a garden indoors or outdoors? Houseplants count I think. If not, why don't you have them?

Funny you should ask.  Today I actually went outside and took some pictures in my "garden".  Sadly, my garden is rather laughable to even be classified as a garden.  After our long hot summer the weeds have taken over and the plants are rather tired and worn out. However, here are a few pictures I took today in my "garden". Judge for yourself!

I believe this is called a "Cape Honeysuckle", and it is really the only thing blooming much right now in my little butterfly garden.

I took this picture today as I sat outside on the swing, enjoying a rather pleasant breezy morning for a change, although it was still a bit humid and warmed up rather quickly...I enjoyed it while it lasted.

I finally got all the garden decorations put back outside after having put everything away for the hurricane a couple of weeks ago.

The only "casualty" of the storm was this lovely little teacup bird feeder/bath.  I had put it under the porch to keep it safe from harm, and then proceeded to put the other garden items like the shepherd hooks, etc. next to it. Apparently a metal rod bumped into the delicate teacup as I pushed it under the porch, and it broke into several pieces.  I tried my best to glue it back together to no avail, and then our son Scott came home and saw it sitting on the kitchen counter in pieces and took it upon himself to figure out how to glue it back together again. When I came home and saw it I was totally surprised. Although where it is glued together the water still leaks out a little around the cracks, so it really can't be used as a little tiny bird bath anymore, but it still looks pretty from a distance, so back into the garden it went this morning!! 

Here is a little visitor to the wildflowers along the shore of Still Waters Pond...

And this is the kind of flower I seem to grow best in my garden...a wildflower!  Not sure what this is called, but I will call it a butterfly plant because the flowers definitely look like little butterflies, don't you think?   I just found out from a reader that is is a St. Andrew's Cross wildflower plant. (Hypericum hypericoides)    Thank you, Mary B., for giving me this information! 

This was my view from the swing...

And here's the swing and the garden bench (which needs some work so isn't really safe to sit on right now).

I do not have much of a green thumb, so I just enjoy what God provides in His lovely garden along the shores of Still Waters Pond.

2. Have you visited Longwood Gardens or any of the large gardens and horticultural sites around the world or your state? Tell us about it.

Not really. There are plenty to visit if I wanted to, but I just haven't taken the time to do it. I know there is a lovely place near us called Ravine Gardens, and it is especially beautiful in the spring when the azaleas are blooming. I've been wanting to go there...so maybe next spring I will try a little harder to do so.

3. Most people really enjoy a little garden but I think we sometimes make too many excuses not to do things we really would enjoy. Too busy, not enough space, etc. But if we put our minds to it, anything is possible Do you believe that? 

Certainly anything is possible with God's help.  My biggest excuse has been not only the extreme heat here in the summertime, but also the past few years I have had a lot of back/shoulder/neck/arm issues, which make it really difficult to do any kind of gardening. When Scott lived here at home with us he would help me with planting things, etc., but now that he has moved away he really doesn't have much time when he comes home to help with too many projects.  My hubby really isn't in to gardening either, and we both have our physical limitations, so we just really don't feel up to doing much in the way of gardening.  It's all we can manage to keep up with the lawn maintenance.  That's why I am thankful for the natural beauty around us that God has provided for us to enjoy.

4. Ideally, what flowers, shrubs and trees do you want in your little garden real or imagined?

I would love to have some good rose bushes, preferably the climbing kind like in the picture above. My one little rose bush that bloomed in the Memorial Garden for special occasions seems to have lost its momentum this year. Plus I really never got around to fertilizing it like I should have.  I have enjoyed the little butterfly garden when it was blooming better in the spring and early summer, but the heat really wiped it out.  It may come back for a little while now that the weather is getting a tad cooler...we shall see what develops.  I tend to enjoy a more natural looking setting as opposed to a highly cultivated garden that requires so much maintenance.  Wildflowers always make me smile!

And the hollyberries are starting to ripen and turn red on the holly trees!  I do hope the squirrels will leave enough for the Robins and Cedar Waxwings to enjoy this year when they pass through!

So that about sums up my gardening expertise for this post! I hope some others will post their lovely gardens for us to enjoy. You can check them out over HERE.

Meanwhile, today we started our  Women's Bible Study back up after a summer hiatus.  We picked up where we left off in the Book of Acts:

It was great to get back with our church ladies and share what's been going on in our lives this summer, etc.  I've missed it!  Our Choir Practice will start back again Tuesday night as well. It will be nice to be singing again! So thus starts a busy season of activities...but it's all good.  Oh, the Men's Bible Study started back again today as well. My hubby is the leader for that group, and they are studying the book of Hebrews right now. 

Now here's a flashback to the past, the wonderful voice of Jim Reeves singing "In the Garden"...an appropriate favorite old hymn for today's post:

"I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

He speaks and the sound of His voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

I stayed in the garden with Him

Though the night all around me is falling

But He bids me go, through the voice of woe

His voice to me is calling

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known"