What I See Wednesday

My calla lilies are hanging on in spite of the rising heat.

Little legs getting longer by the day.

Mr. MoonCat's "man-cave" aka my herb drying room

My own pest control team.

Growing Greenery Update

We're seeing a lot of green around here - and reds, oranges, pinks etc.  I'm really happy that so many of our plants and flowers are coming back in full force.  I was worried that I'd lost a lot in the move and with the neglect I showered upon them while Mom was in the hospital.  But they must be made of sturdy stuff.

One of the reasons for my latest neglect of this blog is our Herculean task of finding homes for the majority of the babies from THIS post about the rescued plants.  It has been a trial attempting to identify some of them and we're definitely not done.  We found out that the nursery guy was notorious for potting and replanting plants in whatever pot or tray he could find and didn't care how things were labelled.  (Do ya think this could have been a clue as to why he went out of business??) 

Anyway, so far we have planted about 25 butterfly bushes here along with an unknown number of jasmine - Mr. MoonCat's favorite.  I was thrilled to find that in addition to a gorgeous rosemary plant we'd managed to salvage several bay tree babies.  I love using bay leaf in some of my recipes.  We also have some agapanthas, canna lilies, African irises, boxwoods, spirea, and mimosa trees.  Still working on it.

Everyone in our life is benefiting from this little escapade.  I sent about a dozen of the trees that we think are maples out to the ranch.  It was amazing how all of these poor neglected babies just took off with a bit of water and some TLC.  Our friends are getting used to finding plants in their vehicles when they leave from a visit here.  Good homes must be found by all! 

As the rescues continue to get healthier and start to thrive, I'll show you some updated pictures.  But for now, here are some of my other little pretties that are enjoying the sunshine.

Peas

Our wedding mums

Nasturtiums

Our experimental potato/tater box

Volunteers

Beans

Tomatoes/Tomaters

The Laptop Finally Bit the Dust...

Well, the rescued plants are mostly thriving - on the other hand, my laptop IS NOT.  It went kerplewey today after about the 20th dreaded "blue screen" notice.  I had pretty much copied most of my files onto DVD about two weeks ago, but that's still two weeks of work that I didn't have backed up as we thought the problem was fixed.

So I will be taking it to the repairman tomorrow with high hopes that he can retrieve at least some of the last few weeks of articles, photos, and stuff.  I'll probably be off the grid for a couple of days so bear with me!  (It's not like I can't keep busy repotting and trying to ID greenery!)

Enjoy your week my friends.

Rescued Plants Breathe a Sigh of Relief

This is a photo-intensive post.  Lots of plant pictures also at the bottom of the post.

We have had one busy week leading into the weekend at MoonCat Farms. A large, local nursery went out of business a bit ago. Apparently they were still seeding and planting while the court battle was being played out. When the water was shut off, the plants were just left to die.

  
A friend of ours contacted us and let us know that we were welcome to come in and see if we could use any of the plants or supplies that were basically abandoned on the 30+ acre nursery.

The photos are just some of what we've managed to salvage. There are thousands more dead and dying plants just left out there in the hot sun. I was almost in tears at the horrible waste. There are so many charities that could have benefited and so many senior centers and other public facilities that could have made use of the greenery.  Not to mention that I have a thing for plants and it just hurt to see all the plants gasping for water. 

But, that's a done deal and we have a lot of watering, re-potting and sorting to do.  Identification is one of the largest tasks as NOTHING was labeled.  I recognize many of them, but there are some mystery plants that I will probably be asking for help from all of you with. 

Some may laugh at me, but after spending over two hours that first night soaking each and every pathetic little plant and tree, I really do swear that they heaved a collective sigh of relief and thanks when I was finished.  I just sat outside on the bench amongst them all for a bit keeping them company while it got dark. 
I'm a sap, what can I say.. 

  

Sorry for the photos getting all cattywhompous(sp?), but I couldn't get them to behave & line up!