More Landscape Projects and Cottage Garden Update!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post...... 

 

 

 On Tuesday, I had been invited by Katherine, over at Katherine's Corner, to join her and other bloggers, participating in her By The Sea Decor on a Tray Blog Tour!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Click HERE if you missed that post.... 

 

 Because of this special post on Tuesday, I moved my Wednesday post to today, on Thursday.....

Today, I will be sharing 2 more landscape projects and an update on my Cottage Garden and flowers.....

 

But first, for a few Personal Notes...

 

 Food of the Week

 

This week's Reheat and Eat Dinners from the WB Scranton Pens Food Service.....

 

 Chicken Marsala w/ Creamy Risotto & Vegetable Medley

Joey and I each got one of these dinners and Joe passed as he did not care for any of the meals this week....

 

It was delicious.....

 

I made meatballs and pasta for dinner one night.....

I took this picture after Joey and Joe filled their plates....

 

This is always a hit and something everyone likes....

Today, we will be having a Sam's Club Rotisserie Chicken

Still the best buy for a mere $5 and still the same price as always!

I save the bones to make soup from too!!

Since I do not need this crock for my Kitchen Tree as it is put away until Fall, I moved it into the Den and filled it with a rose bush along with the greenery bush.....

I have started to do a little reading as I seem to have more time to do so in the Summer.....

Last year, our local Library held a drive thru sale where you were able to buy a mystery book bundle of 10 new paperback books for $10!!

I bought 4 bundles through out the Summer....

This is the first in The Magical Cats Mystery Series.....

I have 2 more books in this delightful series!!!

It is a charming murder mystery that involves 2 supposedly magical cats....

It is a light and easy read and I am enjoying it....

And I truly am not a Cat Lover....More of a Dog Lover......

 

 

 

 Today, June 23rd, is the 50th Anniversary of the biggest natural disaster in our area and other parts of the state of Pa...

The Agnes Flood of 1972

 

This is my collection of books on it along with a book on the Flood of 1936

 

My parent's home was not flooded by the Susquehanna River but the home by sister bought, a mere 3 months prior, was totally destroyed as were the homes of many of my Aunts and Uncles...

 

I spent that entire Summer babysitting my niece Lisa, 18 months old at the time, and my nephew John, 3 months old, in a trailer that was placed in front of my sister's home while she and my Dad, who was casted up to his thigh and on crutches from a construction accident, tore down the inside of her home....

 

I was 14 years old....

 

Many of the area hospitals were flooded including the one where my BIL worked...

 

The Mall across from where I live now became home to over hundred trailers for people to live in as did the now Mohegan Sun Casino race track......

It took years for the Valley and those in the state of Pa. to recover and some never did....

After seeing all the destruction, the heartache, sorrow and the despair, 5 years later when searching for a home to buy as Joe and I were getting married the next year, I vowed that I would NEVER EVER live in any of the flood areas in Wyoming Valley.....

I never wanted to intentionally put myself through that.....

Joe is not from this area so he did not understand why I was so adamant about that....

In 2011, when once again the river flooded areas not protected by the levee system built after the Agnes Flood and he had to later drive through those areas to get to his Mail Delivery route, he finally understood why I did not want to live in the Flood Area....

The levee system protected most of the Valley in 2011....barely!

But with Global Warming, it is only a matter of time before a flood of this magnitude happens again and the current levee system fails....

Because of that, I impressed upon my sons to do the same and never live in the Flood Area.....

 

So what happens....

My house is narrowly missed by a Tornado 4 years ago on the night of June 13th.....

The yellow X to the right of the picture is my row of townhouses.....

 

You can see how close the path the Tornado took is to our development....

Based on the damage the Tornado did to the shopping center next to our development.....

I do not think we would have survived a direct hit from a Tornado like that but a long time ago, I learned .....

It is already written in my Book......

I was beginning to think that Joe's lucky streak had ended , until yesterday....

He won $20 on a $2 scratch off so he used it to buy a $20 new scratch off ticket....

 

And he hit the Win All which was 20  $50....for a total of $1000!!

Oddly, he had just paid close to $800 in property and county taxes that morning....

After he had the taxes taken out of his Winnings, he brought home a little over $800......

Worked out well.....

He gives me money that I put in an emergency fund, $20 a week that I collect as a Christmas Club and spreads the wealth with our kids and our church.....

I guess his Lucky Streak is not over yet...

Joe goes to Valley Mart daily and ran into our son and DIL this morning....

They are off from work as Jim had a revision done on his other eye lid for ptosis ( drooping eyelid) over a week ago....

Thank God these revisions are FREE!!

They walk to Valley Mart every day which is part of their exercise regime....

Usually they take the pups but this morning, the pups went for hair cuts at Pet Smart so they had their car!!

Joe looked out after they left the store and saw them running across the parking lot.....

 

 

 

This elderly gentleman also comes into Valley Mart daily and stated that the gas peddle got stuck when backing up...... 

Jim and Danielle ran over to help him out of the car, making sure he was okay.....

 

 

When Joe showed me the pictures, at first glance, I thought it was our car!!!

 

You can tell Jim is my kid as he is wearing a sleeveless shirt while Danielle has a hoodie on!!

 

Jim has to still wear dark glasses because of his eye surgery....

George, the manager of Valley Mart and the elderly gentleman....

 Poor guy...it had to be towed out....

Jim and Danielle then drove the man to the garage where his car was towed to....

 

So PROUD of my kids for offering assistance!!!!

And glad that it was not my car!!!

 

Last year, I enlarged and landscaped the flower bed by our mail boxes at the entrance to our Court.....

Last Fall, the large arborvitae was removed as it was blocking the view of the road and making it impossible to see the cars coming down from the row of townhouses behind us.....

 

After they took the stump out......

I wanted to re-do this flower bed again after the tree was removed but I wasn't able to get around to it....

The original area of the flower bed was pretty much in full bloom....

After I finished the other landscaping jobs I wanted to do, I got to work where the tree was removed.....

 

 

I started with removing most of the weeds......

I pulled up the rocks in the rock border and graded the dirt, leveling things up a bit....

When we mulched the slope in front of the house next to me, I thinned out some hostas and transplanted a stray lamb's ear , planting them all into pots in the back yard....

I even transplanted a Rose of Sharon Tree shoot in a pot.....

To fill in where the large tree once was, I decided to transplant these into the flower bed by the mail boxes.....

The hosta and the lamb's ear....

Another clump of missouri primrose....

 

 

 

 I also planted the rose of sharon tree here.....

 

 

 

Then I started to put down the weed block fabric.....

I spread out 6 bags of mulch and replaced the rock border....... 

 

I also planted a small columbine plant in there.....

As I keep saying, it is amazing what a few bags of mulch will do.....

 

 

 I then pulled up the rock border around the original flower bed and put some fresh mulch down in the bare spots and replaced the rock border.....

So much better, don't you think????

I plan on also adding some asters that I have to thin out in the back yard....

And maybe more columbine that keeps reseeding itself on my slope.....

I am happy with how it came out.....

 

 It spruces up the entrance to our Court.....

 Last year, I also landscaped the slope of the house on the other side of me for my neighbor Khalid who lives on the end of our row of townhouses as he owns this house and rents it out...... 

This is what it looked like last year.....

The weeds were starting to take hold of this slope again this year so I decided that I would weed it as I do not want them spreading onto my slope.....

 

 

I raked the mulch from last year around.....

I also raked and freshened up the mulch at the top of the slope and the flower bed under the Living Room window.....

There is a small slope from my yard down to this neighboring yard and last year, I planted sedum on it, hoping it would spread.....

 And it is doing just that along with columbine reseeding itself!!

Looking down the small slope from my house.....

 

I will mention to Khalid that he may want to pick up a few bags of mulch to freshened it all up a bit......

I am now done with any landscaping projects for this Summer except for a bit of weeding and maybe transplanting some perennials....

I will keep you updated on how everything is growing......

 I do want to show you my Cottage Garden back yard now that the missouri primrose are in full bloom.....

 

 

 

 

 I let them spread and then bloom before I will thin them out after they are done blooming.....

 

 I had planted some marigold seeds and a few new plants were starting to pop up....

I transplanted a few between the petunias in the bird bath .....

 

 I wanted to make it fuller looking.....

 

 

 

 

 

 The Missouri primroses in the middle of the yard.....

 

 

 

 

 

 I have been anxiously waiting for this beauty to bloom....

 

 Finally, it did!!

It did not disappoint.....

There are 2 more blooms to open up.....

And on the other side of the walk way to the shed in the back of the yard......

I had some big empty pots in the back yard since I transplanted the hostas and other plants .....

 

 I told Joe to buy 5 flats of annuals at the same place I bought some in the beginning of the Season.....

 

They were $1.99 for a flat of 4 so I told him to get 5 different types of annuals.........

 

This is what he came home with for my $10! 

 

He came home with petunias, marigolds, celosia, coleus and salvia...

This is how I planted them.....

 

 I do have some marigolds coming up from seeds.....

 

 

 

 

 

In this large pot, I planted 2 coleus, 2 marigolds and a petunia.....

And in this vintage galvanized bucket, I planted a salvia, a celosia and 2 petunias....

 

 

 

 I planted one salvia and a marigold in this pot and will add another marigold grown from seeds.....

 

 

 

 In the back by the gate that we do not use.....

 

I planted 2 celosia and a marigold....

In this long flower box, I planted marigold seeds and there are some popping up....

I keep this covered as the chipmunks like to dig in it....

Over by the shed in the yellow crate....

 

I planted 2 coleus, 2 salvia and a petunia in this pot....

 

 And I want to share a visitor to the garden....

 

He was resting on this rock on the side of the shed....

At this point, Barna Landscaping is officially Retired ....

 

For this Season.....

 

We have a newly elected HOA Council and my neighbor Ann Marie is Treasurer.....

 

I told her to tell the Council at their first meeting that the landscaping of the flower bed by the mail boxes is my donation to the new Council....

 

At first she said yes and then said....

 

"Maybe I shouldn't because they will have you doing that on the other 5 Courts!!!"

Fat Chance!!!

 

So I hope you will stop by to visit again on Sunday when I return to my normal posting schedule!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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