What is it that draws us in and obsesses many?  Is it the lure of the flowers, their beauty, their fragrance?  Is it purely the personal enjoyment~a hobby?  Is it getting our hands dirty or feeling the soil as we work?   

Do we actually like to sweat while standing out side with the gnats swarming us?  Maybe we like muscle pains and back aches?  Or is it the feeling of accomplishment when you stand back after a long day of swatting bugs and getting sunburned to take in the bounty of your hard work?  

Having a purpose for being outdoors breathing the fresh air, growing flowers that fill our yards and vases for sheer pleasure or being one with the earth while taking in mother nature’s gifts could some it up for many.    Some garden to get food, pure and simple.  Others may like the challenge of putting order and beauty where it hadn’t existed, making  something out of nothing. Perhaps it is to see the amazing beauty and colors that Mother Nature can produce at our own hand, making us part of the grand scheme of life in tangible ways.   

 Perhaps we garden for all of the above in some shape or form but mostly I like to think that people garden because it simply makes them happy~ for whatever the reason.

  So as each of us gardeners long for springtime to arrive, and we wait for sunny, warm days that don’t last long enough to do everything we hope to in the garden that day, we can ponder why  do we do it. 

 The truth is most of us would probably say it’s just… because.

  “We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.”~ unknown

 Amaryllis are the easiest of flowering bulbs to bloom.  It’s botanical name is Hippastrume and it is now a popular Christmas time flower that originated in South American tropical regions.  They are not winter hardy bulbs but they are fun to force in the wintertime to have holiday blooms.  They always seem like a Christmas flower to me.  It’s the red ones that I love.  

~”  At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.”~Thomas Tusser

   ]]> http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/red-amarylis/feed/ 2 http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/yellow/ http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/yellow/#comments Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:53:48 +0000 Teresa http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/?p=8126 ~”When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.”  ~Chinese Proverb

]]> http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/yellow/feed/ 9 http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/full-moon/ http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/index.php/full-moon/#comments Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:15:03 +0000 Teresa http://blog.gardenshoesonline.com/?p=2468  Gardening by the moon is an age old practice.  Since the moon controls ocean tides, it is believed that it influences the groundwater tables beneath our feet and the movement of fluids in plants.  This is why planting at a certain phase and harvesting at a certain phase is supposedly beneficial.  These photos I took of the moon by no means do it justice but they remind me just how amazing the moon is. 

    The size of the moon when it first appears on the horizon is enormous. It appears like that because our brains perceive a low moon to be larger than one that’s high in the sky.  They actually have a name for this ~Moon Illusion. The moon also can appear warmer or reddish on the horizon.  This is caused by moonlight passing through a larger amount of atmospheric particles than when the moon is overhead, this scatters the bluish part of moonlight (which is really white light reflecting from the sun), but it lets in the red parts of the light which travel a straighter path to our eyes.

 The Harvest moon is actually the full moon closest to the fall equinox.  It usually occurs in late September or early October.  It was called that because it’s brightness made it possible for farmers to harvest after dark.

  After doing a little reading I found out the November full moon which is also referred to as the Beaver moon which lets you know it is time to set your beaver traps before the swamps freeze. This info ensures a supply of warm winter furs for a trapper. So if you are a trapper, get to work soon.  If you’re not you can do other things when the full moon is out like dance by the light of the moon, or howl at the moon, or turn into a werewolf…

It all sounds like lunacy to me.�  

Men should take their knowledge from the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Nothing new in my garden this week, just the typical fall flowers, like sedum and mums,

 but there’s plenty of fall colors like the nasturtium and marigolds with their bright orange color.

And speaking of color,

we took a drive and the Leaves seem to have turned over night into the blazing oranges, reds and yellows of autumn.

 There may not be many new blooms,

 but these  Leaves and their colors can certainly brightened anyone’s day. 

~”Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”  ~Albert Camus                         

Although many of my plants are giving a wonderful dose of color to the garden,

 I can’t help but enjoy a few of my pots that are bursting with color also.  

I have had a few casualties due to the heat this summer, but most have not only survived, but also thrived in the heat. 

Container gardening can be very rewarding with many kinds of plants. 

The trick is to choose plants that share similar requirements such as light, water and sunshine, and put them in to quality soil that has very good drainage. 

 Keep them watered, give adequate amounts of sun, fertilize occasionally and they should reward you with wonderful flowers and lush greenery until the end of the summer. 

 Speaking of that, I couldn’t believe I saw mums in the store already, 

I am not quite ready for that, 

not yet anyway.

~”Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
-   William Shakespeare 

Here are a few blooms from my garden this week!

  There is so much color everywhere it’s hard to choose which  one I like the most. 

What do you think?

~”I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.”
-   L. M. Montgomery

Visit bloomin tuesday  at MsGreen”thumb”Jean

Visit A Southern Daydreamer

~Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers?  ~Maurice Maeterlinck
visit lisa’s chaos for Macro Monday