Tag Archives: elephant ears

July 28, 2024 · 9:34 am

Sunday 7-28-2024

Maria Rosa Bertoli-Pinterest

I love this drawing – and I’m NOT fond of mice.

We missed the hoped-for rain yesterday, and then next 10 days are supposed to be a ‘return-to-the-heat’ and dry. UGH.

Yesterday I checked for ripe tomatoes, but found none. I did find and replant some tomato suckers, though. As you can see here, only ONE of the suckers is doing really well. The rest are just hanging on. I’ll keep trying, though. I keep reminding myself that these are all ‘free’ tomato plants, and if just a couple do well, our chance for ripe tomatoes in an extended season increases.

The experiment of planting the elephant ear bulbs has been really interesting. I planted one large bulb in each of three brick planters. One planter in front of the garage has been a good place for several years. I planted the second bulb in a tall, shaded planter to one side of our front porch, hoping it would really spread out and take over the area. The third I planted in a planter at one end of the front yard, in a shaded, fairly protected place.

This is where I’ve planted elephant ears for several years. Usually I have three bulbs in this planter, but the ones I bought are huge, so I decided to see what one bulb in the middle would do. It seems to be happy here and very healthy.

The bulb in the planter to the side of the front porch is doing well, too, although the plant is not nearly as large as the other.

This is the bulb in the protected, shaded planter at one end of the front yard. It has struggled, but is finally gaining a foot hold. The plant is still very small.

Time got away from me yesterday, but I’ll try to get upstairs to my art room today and get started on a new wood burned sign. I’m really enjoying trying to do this. My dreams are full of what I’d like to do in the future, and all I’m learning daily, as far as techniques, what each of the different tips does, and more. Really FUN. :0)

I hope your Sunday is bright, shiny, and full of pleasure.

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December 4, 2023 · 9:26 am

Yard Project Progress

This is what used to be the iris planter. It’s now weeded and ready for tomatoes in the spring.

This is the second tomato planter.

And I’ll plant spinach and lettuce in this planter. All three are filled with Mel’s Mix.

This is where some of the iris plants ended up.

This is a tall planter beside the front porch.

And this one is in the front yard, to the other side of the front porch.

I also cut the elephant ear plants down as far as I could. I’m starting to cram as many leaves as I can get in that planter between now and the first real freeze, with all appendages crossed that it will be enough to protect them until they hopefully start shooting leaves up again in the spring.

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November 5, 2023 · 8:51 am

Beautiful Fall Sunday 11-5-2023

quhl – @quhl5 on X

It’s a beautiful fall day here in Arkansas. I’ve been whining and gritching about it being too hot or too cold, so I thought I would make a point of praising the weather today. Mother Nature’s head is ‘on straight,’ and her nose is ‘in joint,’ so the weather is truly nice. It’s 58 here right now and the high is supposed to be 77 this afternoon.

I’m trying to follow a new routine of doing something ‘significant’ outside each day, make progress on my glassware etching, do something significant in the house, and then spend time on the computer/reading/and/or listening to music – short sessions of each of these over and over throughout the day, plus do my yoga practice each afternoon in an effort to get off my rear, get things accomplished without hurting myself, and feel good about my progress each day.

Yesterday my outdoor project was to cut off the dead elephant ear stalks. I’m leaving what’s left now to dry out before cutting more. When I get them cut off at the soil level or just below, I’ll cram as many leaves as I can in the planter for the winter.

My outdoor project for today is cleaning up the raised bed square foot garden planters and covering them with tarps for the winter. I’ll at least get started with that today and see how it goes.

One of my pet peeves is rearing its head today – Daylight Savings Time. I just read a mishmash of ‘reasons’ we have it at all, and the fact that Congress can’t decide – IF they decide to stop having it – whether to keep Daylight Savings Time permanent or use Standard Time. (And we wonder why we’re in such a mess these days.) End of rant.

I hope that your day is beautiful and that you manage to cram as much fun into it as possible. :0)

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October 26, 2023 · 10:20 am

Rainy Thursday 10-26-2023

Maximillian R. – flickr.com

It’s dark, windy, and rainy here today, but not cold. It’s supposed to get up to 80 this afternoon! This looks like the last week we’ll have of the unseasonably warm weather. It may actually freeze here over the weekend, so I’ll get out and get last pictures of our elephant ears.

To give you an idea of size, the “leaf” in the middle lower row is above my head…

Gardening Know How

I need to get serious about starting to ‘put things away’ for the winter with final weeding, trimming, pruning, etc. I’ll cover my raised bed square foot garden planter boxes with tarps for the winter and unhook our watering system for it. I’m not absolutely sure I’ll have a garden out there this coming spring. I’ll make that decision later, but I’ll take care of what I have. We have two planters of the six that need to be rebuilt, but that still leaves four I could plant.

Rasulovs – Getty Images – iStockphoto

My body is having a pity party this morning because I was scheduled for a massage. My wonderful therapist Lynn Moody 479-629-7601 texted me, saying she had been exposed to Covid and wanting to know if I wanted to reschedule. After waffling for a bit, I decided I didn’t want to expose my husband to whatever I might bring home, so my massage is rescheduled to NEXT week. Even my BODY is having to undergo character-building exercises. :0(

My husband worked hard to change another of our fluorescent fixtures into ones that will accept the new LED tubes. This fixture was 8 feet long, out in the shop. It took him all afternoon to do it, because the gnomes that live with us decided to give him as much trouble as they could devise, but he got it done. I think he has two to go, but those can wait.

He complained of the bedroom being too warm the night before last, so I turned the a/c back on to cool things down before we went up. He took a nice shower and managed to sleep really well last night, catching up for several nights. He just came down, and it’s after 10am. :0)

Enjoy your day!

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October 1, 2023 · 10:02 am

One Thing Leads to Another

Our driveway detector went off while I was at the computer. We have TWO detectors. When one goes off, it’s probably a deer in the driveway or another critter. When one goes off followed quickly by the second, a vehicle is on its way up.

I got up to see if it was, in fact, a deer because the last few mornings, I’ve been treated to quite a view of them. Some run right off, but other stop and stare at me as I’m staring at them. It’s wonderful.

This morning I didn’t see anything, but on the way back to the house, noticed my elephant ears needed a bit of cleaning up. I took these pics –

It’s still a bit misty this morning, but this group of elephant ears is blooming the best I can remember. The leaves are way taller than I am. That’s really appreciated this year because my garden was essentially a bust due to the wonky weather we had. It’s good to know that some things really enjoy the highs and lows we’ve had, the storms, etc., and thrive anyway.

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June 29, 2023 · 11:21 am

The Great HOT Outdoors

We have three brick planters end to end between our front lawn and the driveway area. These are the 3 I’ve been trying to weed and get Bermuda grass out of.

My husband wrote them off, saying they were too far gone and that we’d just have to burn it all to get the Bermuda out.

I’m STILL saying, “Let’s talk about the planters” today, in celebration of how pleased he was that I managed to get things under good control.

Here’s another view of the planters from one end to the other.

And HERE is a happy surprise. I gave up on the elephant ears, thinking that they hadn’t made it through the winter. (Another planter to add to the weeding list)

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October 7, 2021 · 9:08 am

Thoughts on a Beautiful Thursday 10-7-2021

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It’s gorgeous this morning here in Arkansas. Most of the fog has already burned off, but I just snapped this pic –

When we first woke up, you couldn’t see we HAD a ridge line behind us. When we doing morning chores, it looked like someone had stretched rolls of wispy cotton between the hills in the valley. Cool, and simply gorgeous.

I walked around the yard briefly, enjoying the lushness surrounding me. I wanted to share how well the elephant ears are doing.

To give you an idea of their size, you can see a smaller leaf over a group of Impatiens in the center of the planter. That is at my eye level standing close to it.

I worked on the new mailbox decoration in the shop yesterday – Wonder Wart-Hog. I’m still laying in the basic color blocks on the first side. The piece is about 2-1/2 feet tall. I’m still feeling intimidated by all of the detail and difficult painting. My husband came in just before I broke for lunch and said, “You’ve made a lot of progress.” I hope I can do a good enough job on it that he is pleased.

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September 20, 2021 · 1:35 pm

Progress in the Yard 9-20-2021

I finished clearing out the tomato plants from the two brick planters and dumped the debris.

It’s almost 100 out there now, according to our thermometer in the SHADE on our deck, so I’m opting to wait to try to use the weed whacker until about 5:00 or so, when hopefully, it will be a bit cooler. :0)

In the meantime. I wanted to share how the elephant ears are doing!

They don’t have too much farther to go until you won’t be able to see the windows in the garage behind them. I’m thrilled.

They are truly happy in this pot, with enough sun, the irrigation system, and a bit of protection from the winds we get up here.

When the weather is such that the leaves are spent after freezing, I’m going to just cut them off level with the soil and then cover them thickly with mulch, hoping to get them through the winter and able to thrive again next year.

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November 26, 2019 · 10:24 am

Bowling and Bonuses

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We went bowling last night with our good friends, the Taylors, last night.

It doesn’t matter how well (or how badly) we bowl. We do it for the fun of it, the good exercise, the chance to catch up with our good friends, AND a trip to Braum’s afterwards for a scoop of ice cream.

BONUS # 1 – Last night was especially fun. There was a good-looking young man with 4 kids of varying ages bowling next to us. The children looked to be Asian and were great-looking children. The two boys looked to be in their teens. The girls were younger. As we bowled, I couldn’t help but melt into a puddle at the youngest girl. She had a gorgeous smile that appeared often. I clapped when she got a spare and she lit up like a Christmas tree. She would smile at me when I managed to throw a good ball, too. The man had taught the kids bowling etiquette, so it was a pleasure to be next to them.

After awhile, the man came over to us and said that he wanted us to know that his kids were impressed with our bowling. This was a shock because we really weren’t doing that well, although we had gotten a few strikes, and – more notably – picked up a few difficult spares.  He said the kids were always on their phones. He had taken them to the Grand Canyon, and couldn’t get them to even look out the window at the wonderful sight because they were glued to their devices. But they were impressed with us!

We told him that his kids – two of the four – and his niece and nephew – were beautiful children and we were impressed at how well behaved they were.  They were here for Thanksgiving, and he had taken them bowling to get them out of the house.  :0)  A total pleasure to bowl next to them and talk with them.

BONUS # 2 –  After a joyful trip to Braum’s for ice cream, we took our friends back to their home. They said they had something for us. They went inside and came back out with TWO gorgeous elephant ear plants for us to take home!

Elephant Ear 1

Elephant Ear 2

Laufrain told us to put them in the garage to winter over, but we elected to try to keep them alive in our dining area and then – if successful – we’ll put them on our front porch in the spring so they’ll be protected from too much wind.

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