Category Archives: Arkansas

Garden Wrapped Up for the Night

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I just spent an hour in our raised bed, square foot garden,  weeding, pruning, and harvesting lettuce and some small bits of broccoli.

 

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These pics were taken before I started pruning. You can see some of the leaves that needed to be cut.

 

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This is mainly broccoli and cauliflower.

 

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This is a good pic to show the whole fall garden. I can’t tell you how much I love being able to take care of things without having to bend over double or get up and down on my hands and knees over and over.  I got the three planters covered with sheets before I left because it’s supposed to freeze tonight.

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I never thought I would describe cauliflower as “cute,” but I have the sweetest, teeny, tiny heads of cauliflower I’m trying to protect. The largest one is about 2-1/2 inches across.

 

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The lettuce is still producing, though I’m having to prune more and more leaves off, due to the incredible changes in temperature. (Example – 70 degrees this afternoon, and 32 degrees tomorrow morning…) If you look carefully, you can see a salad blend plant in this pic – toward the upper left hand corner – it’s burgundy.

 

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Here’s a difference kind of lettuce. It’s still looking pretty good.

 

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This is the ‘celery that could’ (like the little engine that could in the children’s story.) I planted it weeks ago. It’s still little bitty, but – as you can see – very healthy and green. I’m cheering it on, trying to protect it as much as possible. SWEET little celery plant…

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Beautiful Fall Rain – Ahhhhh!

S-Media-Cache-AKO.pinimg.com via Cathy Ruggiero

S-Media-Cache-AKO.pinimg.com via Cathy Ruggiero

We had a nice rain last night and into this morning. We saw lightning and heard thunder, and it was great sleeping weather. The rain has stopped for now, but I’m hoping for a bit more, if Mother Nature is in the mood.

It’s a bit too chilly for dancing in the rain today, but I’m celebrating, nonetheless.

Hope your weather is nice, too.

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Filed under Arkansas, Mother Nature

Leaf Mulching Day!

 

Alamy

Alamy

Recently I made enough leaf mulch to fill all the flower planters around the house. Now I’ve noticed that the mulch is packing down – as it should – so I need to make more. Happily, we’re awash in leaves everywhere!

 

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I plan to make enough mulch today to top off all the planters in the yard and then fill three more large leaf bags to store in the garage over the winter to be used in the spring.

 

 

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I’ll work awhile, then come in to drink lots of water and rest a bit before doing another session.

 

 

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I really have a nice system now for mulching – my WORX mulcher, a nice canvas collapsible barrel, big yellow ‘hands’ to scoop up the leaves, and a huge rake!

Lots of good exercise today in a sunny, crisp fall day!

 

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening

Beautiful Arkansas

Scott Cordell - AR Sunrises and Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Scott Cordell – AR Sunrises and Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Fingers (and all other appendages) Crossed for Rain

123RF.com

123RF.com

If the ‘weather weenies’ (as my husband calls them) are correct, we have a 60% chance of some rain this afternoon and evening.  I have all appendages (including my eyes) crossed.

Although we don’t have many wildfires happening in Arkansas right now, we are about 15 inches below normal and burn bans have been issued because the risk of wildfires is high. Since we turned off our irrigation systems for the winter, it’s a lot of trouble to water my fall garden, so it would be great if they get a good, long drink.  If we actually get some, I can then send any remaining moisture to my sister-in-law, Mary Lou, who IS suffering from wildfires in North Carolina.

I have lots of errands, plus a haircut, this afternoon, and if I drown while doing them, I promise you I’ll be smiling.

Clipart Kid

Clipart Kid

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Filed under Arkansas, Mother Nature

Just in Time

Dr. Dan's Garden Tips

Dr. Dan’s Garden Tips

I’m still making my way around the garden, trying to clean out our flower planters and add leaf mulch. Today I didn’t get out there until early afternoon. I managed to prune/cut back two 8 foot planters before it started to sprinkle hard enough I called it quits.

My husband and I started our ‘getting ready for winter’ list, too – which today consisted of turning off the irrigation system to the planters, draining the irrigation system, and bringing out the automatic and propane heaters in the well house. I won’t turn off the irrigation system to the vegetable garden until it looks like we might get a freeze.

It got quite  bit cooler today, with a high of 62 degrees F., so it was a glorious day to be out working in the yard without having to wear a sweat band!

It’s bowling with friends for us tonight. I hope you’ve had a good day, too. :0)

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening

Last of the Flowers (Maybe)

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As I was cleaning out and mulching flower beds today, I gathered some of our last flowers of the season so that we could enjoy them inside. I thought you might enjoy seeing them, too.  We have pink hydrangeas,

 

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twice blooming deep purple iris,

 

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various colors and types of zinnias,

 

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and some barely pink or white hydrangeas.

 

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening

Arkansas in the Fall

Arkansas Good Roads via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Arkansas Good Roads via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Money Well Spent

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When we were looking for land on which to build our home over 30 years ago, we wanted a lake, a nice creek, or a great view. We found that we couldn’t have all of them, so when we found this piece of land on top of a ridge line in Greenwood with a great view to the south, we jumped on it. When we were sitting on our porch several months ago, we were dismayed that we could no longer see down the hill into the valley due to a huge surge in growth of what we call, “weed trees.” They come up like a rocket and grow no matter what. They’ve particularly enjoyed the wet spring we had and the fairly mild summer.

We were also upset that we had lost our ‘fire break’ that might protect our home in the case of wild-fire.

We hired a man who works in Greenwood, handles several people’s lawns on the weekends, and agreed to take on the project of cutting our weed trees down. We agreed that he would come when he could and would pay him by the hour until the job was done.

He finished today and we’re delighted. This is our view taken while I’m sitting in a chair on the porch.

 

 

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Here’s another shot from another chair on the porch.

 

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Here’s a pic taken while sitting on the deck.

 

 

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This one was taken standing in the yard.

 

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And another. You can see that I still need to use the weed whacker to clean up the edges between the ‘civilized’ part of the back yard and the hill, but that won’t be too large a job.

 

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We’re delighted to have our view back, plus we now feel safer that we could protect our home in case of a wild-fire.

 

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Money well spent, indeed!  THANK YOU, Shane.

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Filed under Arkansas, Challenges, Mother Nature

A Gentle Rain….

The Law of Attraction Blog - Daily Dose of Inspiration

The Law of Attraction Blog – Daily Dose of Inspiration

I just spent the nicest hour or so. We had the doors open, enjoying a nice breeze. I heard the pitter-pat of raindrops, so I got a cup of coffee, and the latest Robert B. Parker book I’m re-reading in the Jesse Stone series, and went out on the deck. It was quite a bit cooler,  so I came back in for a hoodie. :0)

I put two chairs together so that I could really get comfortable. I had my book and my coffee, surrounded by the gentle rain. My cats, Abby and Smoke, came to keep me company, plus one of our dogs, Molly.  (Bambi had been snoring happily when I went out.)

I lay back, over and over, just to absorb the wonderful smell of the rain, and the calming sound of the drops hitting the deck cover…

It lasted about an hour, I guess, and I felt wonderful when I came back in, all the animals coming in with me.

We need a lot more rain for our lawn and plants, but what a gift I was given today!

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Filed under Arkansas, Mother Nature

We Did It!

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

To say we’re exhausted just doesn’t cut it.

We spent all afternoon putting up the last of the six raised bed planters. Part of the process went well. My husband had made the stakes come to a point on the lathe. The drilling on three of the four holes went well and the stakes went in pretty easily. It went down hill from there, though.

We had trouble getting the 4×4 template up off the stakes, bringing two of them back up in the process. We managed to pound them back in, and then brought out the metal legs and square box frame. We had trouble getting the frame at the right height, having to move vice grips one at a time and moving the legs from the inside of the frame to the outside, trying to get all to fit and be level.

We discovered that one part of the frame didn’t have a hole drilled in like it was supposed to. We had to rig to bring the drill out and do it in the garden. We got the legs cut off and the extra hole drilled and finally got the bolts in.

The last step was bringing the wooden box out and placing it into the frame. Except this time it was too big to go into the frame! My husband said he thought this frame was the first one he made. After this one, he decided to give an extra 1/8th of an inch or so on the frame dimensions to give us more slack. This time we had to use a chisel, pry bar, and a sledge-hammer to move down the edges and force the wooden box into the frame.

We finally prevailed, but the installation of this last box took us about four hours and completely exhausted us.  The next step is to install the sprinklers in the three planters on the north side of the garden and unite them with lengths of hoses, attaching them to the irrigation system for the garden.

Tomorrow I’ll put the Mel’s Mix into the planter. We also plan to remove the fabric shade from the garden now that the 90 degree + weather seems to be behind us. (The first year we had the garden, we had an ice storm. The weight of the ice pulled down one half of the garden completely. Usually we roll up the fabric shade and attach it to one side of the garden. This year we’ll take it down and dispose of it, putting up a new one for the spring planting.

Tomorrow I also plan to harvest lettuce and maybe some broccoli! I’ll take some pics of both the planters and the fall garden to share with you.

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Fall Garden – 10/9/2016

I enjoyed harvesting some lettuce and a batch of radishes today.

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We put up another raised bed planter recently. It’s the first of three on the north side of the garden.

 

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You can see that I’ll need to make more Mel’s Mix to fill this planter up. You can also see the template we use to figure out where to drill the holes for the planter legs standing up against the back fence of the garden.

 

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This picture shows the spot between the raised bed planter and the last on-the-ground square foot planter. I dug the Mel’s Mix out of the one in the middle, putting it into three trash cans, waiting for us to install the 2nd planter. That will leave just one more planter and our project will be finished and ready for next spring’s planting.

 

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Meanwhile, we’re really enjoying the fall garden in the raised bed planters on the south side of the garden. Here you can see the empty square where I harvested the batch of radishes. I’ll plant some more in the next day or two. The empty looking square next to the corner one has a piece of celery trying to grow.

 

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The other two planters have a bunch of healthy looking greenery from cauliflower and broccoli plants, but nothing that looks like veggies yet.

 

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This is a close up of the lettuce plants. Some are called ‘salad blend,’ and the bright green are head lettuce. (Please pretend you DON’T see the little weed in the bottom right hand corner…)  :0)

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Arkansas Sunrises & Sunsets

Angie Katzer Plumb - AR Sunrises & Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Angie Katzer Plumb – AR Sunrises & Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Tour of Remaining Flowers

At this time of the year, despite our irrigation system, the flowers are pretty well spent. It just gets too hot here for most to make it to frost. I cherish the few flowers that are strong enough to still be blooming and giving us such pleasure.

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Most of the hydrangea are gone now, and the greenery droops badly during the day, but we have a few blooms that looked particularly nice.

 

 

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I don’t know what the name of these pretty little blue flowers are, but they fill in the planter nicely under the tulip tree.

 

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Our Impatiens are not at their peak, but they continue to bloom in two pots on either side of our front door.

 

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Even my husband remarked on how he liked the color of the zinnias that are thriving right now. I sprinkled the seeds in the planter in-between our regular plants so that they would hopefully bloom when the weather made the other things stress out.

 

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Filed under Arkansas, Gardening

Good Morning!

Susan and Brad Whittle-AR Pics-via-Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Susan and Brad Whittle-AR Pics-via-Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography

6 Hummingbird Morning!

We’re having a slow start to our day since I’m feeling a bit under the weather.

We went in the dining area to take our pills a few minutes ago to find SIX hummingbirds dancing around the feeder! We didn’t catch a picture, but the one above gives you an idea of the delightful sight.

This season was a slow starter for the sweet hummingbirds. I don’t think they liked our cooler, MUCH wetter spring this year. We usually have three or four feeders hung up around the deck, but have only one this year. We’ve had up to 4 hummingbirds at a time for several weeks now, but haven’t seen this many. :0)

We sat at the table, motionless, trying to agree on how many we were seeing.

Something to raise your spirits for sure!!!

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Arkansas, Delightful Surprises

Arkansas Beauty

Charles Ross-Arkansas Pictures via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Charles Ross – Arkansas Pictures via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Beautiful Arkansas Sunset

Tammy Marshall Fulmer-AR Sunrises n Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Tammy Marshall Fulmer-AR Sunrises n Sunsets via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Paul Militaru Photography

Naked Ladies

 -Eureka Springs AR via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

“Naked Ladies” -Eureka Springs AR via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Filed under Arkansas, Awe-Inspiring Photography

A Heat Index of WHAT?

Our temperature this afternoon is supposed to reach at least 100 degrees. Our humidity is 61%. Just for giggles, I decided to look up the heat index (what it FEELS like) and it said 131 degrees F.   WHAT!

My husband and I have been going out about 8pm and doing what we can in the garden. Last night we got the metal support up for the 3rd raised garden bed box! Tonight we’ll try to put the wooden garden box into the support and fill it with Mel’s Mix. (At least we can put in the mix that I put in the trash cans. With all the asparagus roots I dug out of the garden, I didn’t come up with nearly as much Mel’s Mix to reuse.).  I may have to wait until Sunday evening to mix up enough to fill the new box. When we get it filled, I’ll take pics.  We also need to change the bulb in a yard light on the shop, if we can.

Meanwhile, if you’re in one of the dangerous or extreme heat areas today, please take care of yourself. Heat stroke is no laughing matter.

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Filed under Arkansas, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, weather

Arkansas Beauty

Jerry Boyer via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

Jerry Boyer via Cindy Bassnett Thurman

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Hunkering Down

"Storms Come and Go" - Eric Thomas -etinspires.com

“Storms Come and Go” – Eric Thomas -etinspires.com

We’re about to start a group of storms carrying high, gusty, damaging winds, rain, and probably hair balls. This morning my husband got out before breakfast to finish mowing the lawn. I’ve just come in from

  • gathering ripe tomatoes
  • weed whacking around our garden and shop, and
  • weed whacking the front yard

It was almost non-stop thunder when I finally called it quits. I really would have liked to weed whack in the back, too, but I decided to come in. It’s really DARK outside now and the trees are blowing around as I type. I got all the animals in and closed the garage door, and will hope for the best. We really need the rain, but it would be nicer if it were a gentle, soaking rain….

 

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Filed under Arkansas, weather