Thursday, July 1, 2021

Yard pictures and updated blog info

Hi friends!

(NOTE: You are receiving this post via Mail Chimp, my new notification service for my subscribers. If you ever want to go directly to my blog post and be able to see the sidebar images and lists, links, etc., then click on the BLUE title of my post at the very top of this email.)

Now to begin...........I just wanted to let you know that my blog is now updated to use Mail Chimp rather than Feedburner, for my subscribers to receive my blog posts in their email inbox! Thank you to Linda at Life and Linda.  She was such a great  help - or I should say, she did it all herself!!! THANK YOU Linda!

If you didn't know, Blogger is going to quit using Feedburner this month to direct Blogger posts to their subscribers. If you have already subscribed to my blog, then you will begin receiving this post and all subsequent posts of mine from Mail Chimp.

 
NOTE: If you HAVE previously subscribed, and maybe used an old email address that is no longer current, then I would ask that you re-subscribe by going directly to my blog and use the "sign up" link via Mail Chimp on the right sidebar. I was looking at some of the emails in my contact list, and some look like ones that are not current. Mail Chimp will continue emailing to the old email addresses, so PLEASE UPDATE YOUR EMAIL so you won't miss any future posts!


IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SUBSCRIBED AND WANT TO, then please go to the sign-up box on my right side bar and add your email address, (after you click the blue title at the top of this email which will take you directly to my blog). You will then be notified by Mail Chimp of my future posts.

It's been SO HOT here, as most of Oregon  has been this last week or so, that I haven't had much motivation to do outdoor things or work in my yard. I HAVE managed to water everything every day or twice a day, but the high temperatures (in the triple digits) have done a number on a few of my plants. I hope they come back! 

Saturday it was 110, Sunday 113, Tuesday 109 and Wednesday 107. Today, it was "only" 101! Funny how your perspective changes when it gets so HOT. Now 99 degrees seems downright cool!

My poor peonies just could not withstand the heat.... doesn't help that bugs have been chewing up the leaves too.

Even my vine maple, that is partly in the shade, has crinkly leaves. I water it religiously!

My poor raspberries really haven't done well in the heat, even though I water the roots and get the leaves wet twice a day. It was only this one section that was hurt and burned. The rest seem pretty good.

My peach roses haven't done so well.... this one in the middle is pretty nice and didn't burn, but most of the other blooms dried up right away. Last  year they were so gorgeous and a bright peach/orange color. This year they are so faded. 

Most of my bushes and shrubs are doing OK. Before this heat wave, I had just planted alot of new pots of annuals. I am fortunate that most have survived with my constant watering and moving them into the shade for the most part.

My lilac bush by the back "patio/gravel" area seems to be thriving in the heat!


These are some shrubs in my front yard that have grown so fast in the last 3 years. They were 50 cent plants that I bought 3 or 4  years ago when we had our last really bad heat wave. They were all wilted and almost dead. They have thrived in the front yard and make it seem like a little oasis under our quaking aspen tree. Love it!

A view of our front, the quaking aspen (trunk) and some recent annuals I planted in pots. Sorry about the hose.. I was too lazy to get up and move it in over 100 degree heat today! My petunias aren't loving the heat at all.

Front  yard to the left side by our rock wall - the Sumac has about overtaken that corner - see the new "baby" one coming up in the center? You have to pull them up quick or they will overtake an area in less than a year. Also.. the lower area has my wonderful Vine Maple tree that is finally settling in and loving its location. Vine Maple don't do very well in this hot and dry climate.

Here's the better side of my raspberries. They are doing well and full of green berries... I just hope the heat doesn't prevent them from ripening. I'm really babying them this year. Also.. see our peach tree front left? It is doing really well.


One pretty peach rose from our front yard.. a few look pretty good, but mostly they dry out before they mature. The fragrance is still there though! It's just wonderful.

One more thing I've planted this year (right before this hot spell).... is strawberries. I just LOVE fresh strawberries and I never seem to have much luck with them here. The gal at the nursery said in this cold winter climate, I shouldn't be planting them in raised containers (which I was doing) because the below zero temps can freeze the roots when they're above ground in a pot.

Last  year's strawberries were in a cedar planter, but they never wintered over and never came back this spring.

So I planted my new "babies" (that had been blown all over the nursery in a wind storm a few days before) in the ground in our "new" back flower bed. I got them for $1.00 each! I amended the soil quite abit... and they seem to love it there. I know they look small, but remember, they had been all blown off of the stand and had been scattered hither and yonder in a wind storm, so they were pretty puny when I bought them.

My strawberry bed.... behind it are 4 new blueberry plants I bought, plus a thornless blackberry. I'm going to plant the blueberries in huge pots (which we just received yesterday from Lowe's), and the blackberry will get planted over at the end of my raspberries, where I have another one I planted 2 years ago, that is doing quite well.

See all that green tufty stuff in the foreground (above)??? Well.. THAT, is supposed to be our back lawn! It is horrible again, even though I've weeded, feeded, raked, dug out weeds, watered, etc. etc. etc. It just will NOT grow grass! But the weeds do love it! I just throw up my hands in despair............ 


Blueberries - blackberry at the far right. I can hardly wait. Maybe next year we may reap the rewards (if the heat or winds don't kill them all).

I planted a "knock off" (or knock out?) rose in the new flower bed, next to the strawberries, and it surprisingly has done fairly well in this heat. These are some new blossoms. I keep it well watered.

I hope this new home for the strawberries works out. I had my first berry on June 29th! I'm really babying these too.. and I want to build a frame I can set over them if/when I get some berries, to keep the birds away. These are all mostly everbearing so I will get another crop late summer.

I think we are going to be seeing some cooler (if you consider 98 degrees cool) temperatures for the next 10 days and the nights will be cooler. We have been miserable at night, because our air conditioning does not reach to our bedroom much at the end of the house. We only have a wall air conditioner. The cooler nights will be a blessing, so I can open our bedroom window! Some nights have been 95 degrees at 10 p.m.!

That's the update for now. It's just a fight to keep things watered and wet. Our poor back lawn is a losing battle. I hate to put it all in gravel or bark dust, but we may have to do that at some point or just give up and let the weeds take over. 

Me and my hubby still have alot of work to do this summer in our yard. Still haven't had time for much "fun" or any fun outings. Had planned to go to the Oregon coast for my birthday, but we could see it was going to be so hot that we couldn't leave our kitties outside, so we cancelled until a later date. I think Oregon is going to have a super hot summer, at least central Oregon, so the coast trip may not happen until Fall. (sniff sniff).

I have been cleaning and reorganizing my craftroom.. trying to "destash" some items I don't really need or use, rearranging things, and added a new 4-tier shelf beside my work area to put the items on that I use the most. It's quite big and takes up alot of space, so I'll see how I like it before I rave too much!

I  hope everyone is doing well!  Until next time.........

~Marilyn~




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18 comments:

  1. Marilyn, Your garden areas are so pretty, in spite of the lack of rain. I haven't done anything about a new email service for my blog. I totally forgot!! Do you think it's too late?

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    1. Anne.. thank you! It's all pretty dry, even with all the watering! some surviving is better than none though. I don't think it's too late to do the switch to Mail chimp from Feedburner, if you use the Blogger platform. Contact her at her blog Life and Linda... she was so good to get back to me right away. It was very easy, as she did most of it!
      Marilyn

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  2. Your garden looks great. We have not had rain and then the past week every day we had lots and lots of rain. Glad Linda could help you transfer over. Have a great holiday weekend. xoxo Kris

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    1. Kris, I could use LOTS AND LOTS of rain! We had one rainfall a couple of weeks ago that lasted about 10 minutes.. that's about it around here. I thought we'd get way more, but it passed us over as it usually does. I hope you are feeling better after the stones! xox Marilyn

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  3. Marilyn, it looks like you are going to have a wonderful garden growing if it survives all the heat. I hope it can. We are supposed to get up to 102 by the end of the week. I tell you, I am really missing the ocean fog right about now and it takes a heck of a lot to make me say that..Stay cool..xxoJudy

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    1. Judy.. most of it really did survive. If it can survive that 114 degrees we had one day last week, then I hope it's all hardened up now! this week also going to be 100 to 104, but Thursday we are having a cool day.. only up to 88 degrees! Yay!!! I hope this isn't signs to come of a hotter than ever summer! And I agree.. I'm really missing the coast right now and want to go sooner than later!!! Marilyn

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  4. Me again: I got your message about receiving your post by MailChimp. I didn't get it Marilyn. I just had to go on my own to see your post. It wasn't in my spam folder either. So I signed up again, to see if that works. I am using the same gmail address that I have always used for my blog. We shall see..xxoJudy

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    1. Thank you Judy. I hope resigning up does the trick. When I post again, I'll let you know so you can see if you get a notice from Mail Chimp. Several others did get the post notice from Mail Chimp so that's a good start anyway..... Marilyn

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  5. We are in the same boat. Some of my plants are loving the heat and others are just cooking. My petunias cooked so today I bought a pack of six to replace them, but I could have been just wasting my money. This heat just zaps my energy and I didn't have that much to start with, LOL. Best to work in the early morning or late evening and stay inside during the midday. Last week my A/C quit on me, but luckily I only had three days of this heat before I could get someone to fix it. The first place I called had a waiting list and I would have been out two weeks minimum and then had to pay time and a half for an evening appointment. On top of that he found that my furnace had an element that was stuck on the on position. He had to disconnect my furnace and try to order the part that I will need for him to fix it later when it arrives. So not only was my A/C not working but my heater was on. What's a girl to do? I feel like he was being honest with me, so I don't feel cheated, but I know that there are people who will invent problems to jack-up their business. But, like I said I don't feel like he was like that and I usually have a pretty good intuition about people.
    I sure wish you lived closer, I would love to have you visit. Well, stay cool and do the best that you can in this heat. God bless you, Connie :)

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    1. Oh Connie! So sorry you lost your A/C for even two or three days! That's too much in this heat! Yes so so wish we lived closer together. Will be sending an email to you! Hugs.. Marilyn

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  6. So sorry Marilyn your plants have suffered in this heat. It has been overly hot and we even lost power for hours. Thank goodness for a generator. I hope the new planting area works out. Thank you so much for the shout out about me transferring you over to Mailchimp. Happy summer.

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    1. You are welcome Linda. Yes.. that super heat was just about too much. We have no generator so losing power would be hard to take! I'm enjoying following your blog! Marilyn

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  7. Glad to see that you and most of your garden have survived the terrible heat. We have been living with monsoons and my little garden needs sun. It's a crazy summer. xo Laura

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    1. Laura it is definitely a crazy summer. I feel like it's been here for months and months... well it has!! has been hot here it seems since January! No monsoons here, though we could use some rain.. I feel like I live in a desert. My yard is looking OK and most things surviving, though no really thriving. I ate my second strawberry yesterday though! xoxo Marilyn

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  8. I'm sorry you're having to deal with such drastically hot weather. I can see where you would be spending all your time just trying to keep your garden, plants and trees alive. However, most of what you have is doing very well, so I think you are doing a good job. It will be wonderful to have fresh strawberries. Strawberries and tomatoes are two things that always taste better when they're home grown. Have a good week and I hope you get some cooler weather. xx

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    1. Yes Nancy... fresh strawberries and tomatoes! Yum. I didn't grow tomatoes this year, though they seem to do really well in the heat, growing in a tub! Maybe next year. I just wasn't in the mood too much this year to plant veggies. I have two lemon cukes plants coming up and doing well. I love lemon cucumbers! My strawberries are doing great! They love the spot I picked for them, as is the new rose bush.. and I've even gotten to eat a few blueberries from my new bushes. All is not lost I guess.... xoxo Marilyn

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