Loess Hills Flower Pictures 8 14 06

  I did a wonderful hike through the Loess Hills in Iowa Tuesday.  Many beautiful sites and lots of great flowers.  Enjoy.  Check out my other journals for more pictures.

My Photo Journey

Fruits of my labor.

          Just had to show these off.  The best tastiest sweetest little tomatoes  I have ever grown.  Aren't they lovely! 

           

A few special shots.

 

 

  The picture above is somewhat of a mystery.  I put my jade tree on the porch all summer and this year it had a petunia grow in it.   I haven't got any other petunia's like that pretty one.  They seem to be getting along.   The rest are just some pretty flowers that I took some pictures of.

     

    I am growing peppers for the first time in pots.   They are doing great and are fun to watch grow.  My tomatoes are doing good and we are eating them already in salads.  I am having trouble with bottom leaves turning yellow.  Hard to regulate the water when you grow them in pots.  They are also huge, over 6 feet tall and are trying to tip over.  I needed bigger cages.

More Flowers

 

New Camera

   My flowers are really looking great with my new camera.

   There are so many features on the camera yet I need to figure out and my sharpness or focus need to be better.  I also have to work on light but I think they pictures are wonderful.  Love my new camera.

Tomatoes this week

    The tomatoes are now taller then me in thier buckets and loaded with flowers.  The cherry tomato plant has gotten taller then the grape.  So far I can only find 2 tomatoes but there may be more hidden in there.  I can't wait until they are ready to eat.

    My porch plants are for the most part doing well.  The fuschia are dying though, not sure why.  I was washing down the porch so it looks terrible, but the flowers look great, maybe a little busy but I feel you can never have too many flowers plus my jade tree is outside.

   We get these wild Lili's all over so I transplanted some to the yard and around my tree in front.  They grow everywhere.

First Tomato

   I have been looking everyday but didn't see this yesterday.  The first tomato.

   Below are some thistles down by the river.  The color is so pretty for a weed

    

       

     

   They use blue mulch down by the river. Really makes these Roses stand out.

 

Tomato's are really getting huge

 

 

    I could probably take a picture everyday and you could see a difference as fast as these are growing.  They are loaded with flowers that will turn into tomatoes.  I can't wait.  I need bigger cages for them as they are past the top by quite a ways now.

   I remember when I had my husband put this old tire around the pole so I could plant strawberries in it.  I only got a few strawberries but the deer and rabbits loved them.  Since I put in poppies I get more enjoyment out of them.  Nothing ever eats poppies!

   My old pear tree looks like it is dying every year and one year it will.  But so far every year it is loaded with flowers and then pears.  They aren't the type you can eat but the deer, squirrel, rabbits and other critters just love them.  Even my dog will chew on some.  Love that old tree.

The poppies have bloome

      

    I love Poppies.  I had some beautiful Salmon colored ones but they died out.  These have such vibrant color.

                     

    

    I wanted a japanese iris so I got these last year.  They didn't bloom last but this year they did.  I had forgotten what color I got.  I thought is was the blue ones but these are pale yellow.

               

  I will get a better picture of this tomorrow but this is a flowering maple.  This scraggly indoor plant looked terrible so I decided to let it die, but it refused to.  All winter it sat on my basement landing.  Occasionally my husband or I would put some water on it.  I tried pruning it back so it would be more attractive but it just always looked scraggly.  This year it is blooming again and the flowers are so pretty.  So it wants to live.  I will get a new pretty pot for it and give it another chance.

   

    

  Look what a week has done for my tomatoes.  I want to get some pepper soon and plant them in some containers also.  Easier on my back.

More, you guessed it, Flowers!

                                             

 

              The peonies have bloomed and the smell, heavenly.

    

   

              Another new flower for me called Walkabout Sunset

    

       The next pictures are just to show how the flower boxes and planters have filled out since I planted.

   

 

  

Browallia

   This lovely flower is new to me.  It has a sweet blue flower.

             

         

   Below is a Calibrachoa and it is called Caribbean Sunset.  Just beautiful.

                                  

    Check out the color on this Petunia.  The color is true in the picture.  I have them planted with the blue Browallia and now wish I had added some white flower to them.

           

    Last for now are my tomatoes.  They are growing so fast because of the organic tomatoe food we get from Mosers nursery.

   

   3 week ago above,  I do container planting for my tomatoes,  The picture under this was done yesterday.

  

    I get so many tomatoes off these plants usually that it last all summer.