A Golden Cottage Garden Treasure

Guess what! Bryce found a fantastic treasure today in our garden. It is a beautiful golden butterfly chrysalis. Gardens hold all kinds of treasures!

A few weeks ago, a little wren built a nest in the wren house! I'm so excited! They have such a pretty little song and is music to my ears!

Hope you have found treasures in you garden or yard too! Let me know if you have!

Oh! The first day of summer is tomorrow! Enjoy!

Fall Decorations - Great Flowers and Cornshocks!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! We did and the weather was just about right!

Now that Halloween is past, let's take down those fun decorations and focus on the beauty of fall. Mums are so pretty right now and come in all colors and sizes. Many places have them on sale too, so you'll get some good deals and have fall color in your yards and on your porches for a few more days. Be sure to get them planted soon though so you'll have fall color next year too! ( You can keep them in a pot and they will survive...sorta. (Results not guaranteed) I have one little yellow potted mum from last year that was terribly neglected but with the rain and sporatic watering, somehow survived and is a cute little mum. Kinda reminds me of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree)

Post a comment and let me know your favorite fall mum colors! Mine has to be yellow! BUT, I found a new color this weekend and is a close second. It is pink with a pale yellow center. I'll get a picture posted soon!

One of my favorite fall flowers is the pansy. It can tolerate lots of cold weather, even snow. Pair it with the ornamental cabbages for a great cool weather display. When we lived in Texas, I was amazed to see all the pansy gardens in the landscapes all through the winter. They probably won't last as long here in Kansas but they do get along well in cooler weather.

Another new favorite is double-flowered stock!! It smells spicey, kinda like carnations and will tolerate cold temperatures as well. In 2005, I ordered several small plugs of stock and planted in the summer because I was afraid the frost would hurt them. They grew and grew but never bloomed during the summer. I just couldn't pull them up because they were so green and healthy looking, so left them. Amazingly, they lived through part of the winter and bloomed in December!!! What a great surprise and we had flowers for Christmas! Sometimes the best discoveries are accidents!!

Since we had sweet corn, we had lots of corn stalks too! One Saturday, everyone worked together and cut them down to make corn shocks. It was a lot of fun and they look so pretty lined up along the picket fence with mums in front of them! (Note-need to take fall pictures with the family!)

The kids and my husband couldn't believe I backed the truck into the front yard to unload the corn shocks!!! I even backed over some rose moss on it's way out and caught grief from my husband saying "If I would have done that...." (He was probably right and many of you have most likely experienced the weed eater or lawn mower plant tragedies at your house. Never good. I have one little rose that gets cut back or broken off to the ground every year...maybe that's a sign I need to weed more myself?!!)

Anyway, if you need corn shocks, let me know. They are $5 each and look really cute with mums and pumpkins...if your pumpkins survived Halloween and carving. You can go with one or group several together for a bigger display.

Enjoy the cooler fall days and pretty colors! Be sure to watch the weather for frost and cover your plants if you want to get a few more days out of them.

Oh, and check out all the beautiful fall leaves and trees with berries. Make note of what they are and maybe someday you can plant one in your yard!

Have fun, rake the leaves, jump in with the kids and enjoy fall!!

New Lot!!

Some of you may already know but if you don't, I bought a new lot late this spring to plant a bigger flower garden!! It is so exciting and plans have been swirling around in my head all summer long!

Hopes were to plant it this year but with all the bind weed and Bermuda grass, we decided to take care of these pests this year and plant next spring!

Ideas are to landscape the lot with a variety of annuals and perennials plus a vegetable and fruit garden too. I would like to add a small fish pond with fountain but we'll see how funds hold up for that little project.

The guys planted sweet corn and is now ready Labor Day weekend. Putting up corn was not exactly what I wanted to be doing this weekend but it will taste good this winter!!

Enjoy the cooler days and keep checking back on the progress of the "LOT"!

Little House Finches

Guess what? We have little house finches building a nest in a wreath on our front porch!! Here are a few pictures of their nest on day 3. Notice the little hearts they have intertwined with the twigs. They are leaves on a stem of wild flowers but I can't remember the plant's name. I'll post a pic of the plant and if anyone knows what it is, please let me know! It'll be fun to keep track of our new little family! I'll try to get video of them posted today too.

Flowers, Birds, and Weeds. Oh my!

I don't know about you but Spring is my favorite season of the year. All the drab greys, blacks, and browns of winter start to disappear and signs of new life start "springing" up everywhere.

From the first signs of daffodils peeking up through the leaves to the first robin to the warm, bright morning sun, it just adds a little extra "spring" in my step! (okay, enough of "spring"!) Even the song of the pretty, red cardinal singing is exciting to hear. Do you do the same as me and look up and around to try to spot him? Most of the time, it is easy to spot him in the leafless, black tree branches...kind like playing I Spy with the kids!! Sometimes I'll whistle back to him just for fun! Sometimes he answers or at least it seems like he does! I wonder what he's saying and what I'm whistling!!! Isn't it amazing all the sounds birds make and all the vibrant colors they can be?

One thing that does dampen my spirit though is WEEDS! But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lady once told me she had an out-of-state visitor who loved the bind weed vine and wanted to know where to get it!! Do you reckon a person could make money selling it! I've heard of a guy selling tumble weeds so why not? Hmmm...

Over the last few weeks, I've heard of a lot of people blogging, so I have decided to give it a try! Since I'm starting my cut flower business, Cottage Garden Treasure, up again after working with computer technology over the last 2 years, I thought it would be fun to write about the flowers and other fun treasures found and created from the garden!

This is my first blog and am sure there is lots to learn but I hope to write at least once a week about a fun, new treasure I find out in the garden...maybe even pictures. Let me know what treasures you find in your gardens too! Everyday brings something new, so let's have fun treasure hunting together!