garden wishes

we are literally (spoken in a british accent.. lit-tra-lee) only weeks from our garden being put to rest for the season and already i am dreaming next year.  for goodness sake we haven't even made it past christmas!  but not soon after the first of the year i will begin a garden plan for the new year that will include new seed orders (me.. quietly clapping).  i want natural bug repellent outside every door and pretty yellow bobs to dry and porch pots with chenille hot dogs hanging down!  I truly plan to stop at the garden up the street for the orange zinnia seeds and hope the gentleman is there.  otherwise i might be forced to steal... no, no, no.. let us say "help myself" to some of his orange zinnia seeds that were grown deliciously close to the road.  i can be cat-like quick and no one will be the wiser but me.  i've been known to help myself... see here.

i feel, since we were blessed with very little blood sucking, flying creatures called mosquitoes this summer, we will not be as fortunate next year.  apparently i have very sweet blood as i have sensed the beasts have flown for miles to attack me once hearing of my free blood buffet.  the kids at the day care fall serious victim also.  there will be a plant on my front steps at home, the porch at the day care and also one outside the shop so i can entertain our chicken, cotton bottom, and not get caught being an unwilling donor.  i will be rubbing this plant on all areas of exposed skin.

the chenille plant has always been a gaudy favorite although i have never owned one.  not only do i want one... i want two.  it appears they can only be purchased as a starter plant.  ok by me.  i feel they will lavish and love the comfort of my semi-shaded porch complete with proper waterings of course.

the saucy and small yellow buttons of the craspedia will be a new and most welcome addition to my floral concoctions both alive and dead.  rather not dead but in their dried state as i read they dry well and maintain their color.  i will certainly enjoy their billy ball shape in vases and elsewhere through the winter months.  they are the most precious!  if you don't believe me just look at this board!

ahhh my beloved pink cabbage rose.  tis but a dream.  if only i had an area or fence that wasn't properly doused with liquid poison by my husband several times annually... you would be mine.  perhaps when the greenhouse goes up i could have a section of split rail fence erected that would be deemed poison proof and safe for you to grow.  yet another dream to bring to fruition.

any plans for you and your 2015 garden just yet?  well get dreaming!  it will be here soon enough.

The Bellbuckle Zinnia Stealer

Every year a gang of crazy ladies, which is made up primarily of sisters, mothers, nieces, cousins and one nephew, gather early one Saturday morning mid-October, big shopping bags in tow and dressed with any and every expectation of weather in mind because they've been through it all, and head to Bellbuckle Tennessee to the annual Webb School Craft Fair Extravaganza. They've been members of this gang for as long as any of them can remember and the tradition has been held before some of them were even in existence. Ask any of these coo-coos where you can find the frog callers, student pottery, the favorite Aunt when she's got the hankering for white beans, turnip greens and cornbread, hidden port-o-johns

or where the beautiful corner house with the crazy and colorful array of gorgeously wild and landscaped flower beds is and they can tell you in an instant. Trust me, we were at this craft fair when ladies were tipsy with crazy over country blue in their kitchens with dusty rose hearts and white geese on a grapevine wreath. There are booths galore and antique shops to boot with food and music and collectible loot.

The house on the corner of this ever so small Tennessee town, of which the train still goes through severely often and also houses two of the sister's most favorite old general store antique dealer, had the most elegant display of flowers this particular October, most of which was still in bloom. Flower upon on flower were identified by many a passerby and nine out of ten of those good-eyed shoppers had their eye on the giant red zinnias, and of whom most called every name but zinnia. They would stop, point and stare and look in amazement wishing their flower garden had turned out as nice this past summer so they too could still have wonder and beauty abound around their own terrace. But to one's surprise no one thought to take a snip of a stem as a souvenir of the day or of the hard work that went into their gawking. I once thought that if I had been the owner of such a yard I would be out and proud and not "out of town" as the owner of this masterpiece would be. I would be selling seeds and taking votes as to which flower they adored the most.

It just so happens that there was a thievery this past Fall at the fest. Not to name any names, but while one Aunt and two nieces were resting on a street curb eating fresh kettle corn listening to YeeHaa every time a new batch was done and handed to the next person in line with their mouth watering, waiting for a sister and her friend to try on and decide on a new outfit in a booth straight ahead, someone reached out and plucked a handful of giant zinnia seeds right from the center of a dried out bloom and trust me this gal knew what she was doing. Someone with gleam and stardom in their eyes on which efforts may fetch the Robertson County Fair 2013 Flower Prize.