Garden Blogger's DEATH Day for September -beet fail

The end of the month is here, already, with the change in the weather upon us. I have been harvesting the veggies, and as I scrubbed my ENTIRE beet crop, I decided it would be the appropriate thing to share for Death Day.

Garden Blogger's Death Day was instituted by Kate and Crew at Gardening without Skills.

Don't miss the fun, head on over and see what's up (or not up).

You can see, not much there. Not total death, but the next puny thing to it.

And why, oh why, did the beets do so poorly?
Perhaps because they had to grow in the shadow of these volunteer cosmos?
Nah.. that couldn't be it.
Must be some other problem.
Every year I vow to be merciless to the volunteers (sunflowers, cosmos, dill weed) in my vegetable garden. Every year I fail.

Blotanical Nominations - for me?

Hey, I am a nominee for the 2009 blotanical awards!

New this year is an award for each state.

For example, Utah's is called 'Best Utah Blog'

To be honest, I don't think there are that many Utah gardening blogs registered with Blotanical.

But as I scrolled thru the nominees,

it was a pleasant surprise to see that I had been nominated!

So help me out, and head over to Blotanical

(where there are bloggers from all over the world listed)

and check it out (and hey, vote for me!)

There are 4 days left to vote.

I am messing with my 'look', and haven't crashed yet. Let me know what you think.

Talk like a Pirate Day- Ahoy, me hearties!

And let's be clear about this, we aren't talking Somalian pirates here,
just the fun, Pirates o' the Caribbean type pirates
(and did you hear about a Pirates 4 movie? Yipee!)

So tomorrow (Saturday, September 19th) is National Talk Like a Pirate day.

Shiver me timbers, these holidays can sneak up on you, can't they?

Frank and Ernest always know just what to say.

So grab your eyepatches and see if you can contract scurvy before tomorrow.

Practice your colorful 'aarrrrghs' and 'avasts'.

Maybe even walk a plank or two, just to be ready.

If you want to go the extra mile, there is a song for Talk Like a Pirate day, by Tom Smith.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day for September 2009

Mid month already, hard to believe. Be sure to head on over to Carol's May Dreams Gardens to see what else is blooming!

The last of the roses are finishing up. No frost here, yet, but they are dwindling down after a nice show the end of August/Labor day.

These asters are a new fave of mine! Don't you love the rich red color? I have some lavender ones, and these nice blue ones, too.

Another rose, I ended up with three 'Angel Face' plants somehow.
Hard not to like the color and ruffled edges, though.
Also blooming:
volunteer sunflowers,
hollyhocks,
and cosmos,
the last of the George Davidson crocosima (yellow!),
a few remaining mock orange blooms,
and a scraggly maroon - colored mum that was too sad to post.

These fall anemones are always a welcome sight, this time of the year.
Happy Bloom Day!

There's something about me

Kylee at Our Little Acre tagged me for a meme, and since I had fun answering her quiz, I've done my 7 things about me meme as a quiz. See how you do, and how much you know about me.

1-Where does the name 'Muum' come from?
A- My English heritage, of course!
B- I'm English, but I can't spell 'mum'.
C-A nickname given to me by a daughter who didn't like her nickname.
D-Muum IS my name, gosh!

answer- C, 'Muum' originated as revenge! Now it is the norm in our family.

2-What kind of plant do I have the most of in my garden (excluding weeds, of course)?

A-hollyhocks

B-sunflowers (eee! they are taking over the vegetable garden!)

C- weeds (tricky,no?)

D-irises

answer- D, I love irises!!

3-When I'm not gardening, what else do I like to do?

A- cook

B-sew

C-eat chocolate

D- all of the above!

answer- D

4-What makes ga

rdening in Utah SO challenging?

A- The soil is too fertile, and there are NO rocks.

B- It rains so much that the plants all drown.

C- The clouds are so thick that the plants don't get enough sunshine.

D- none of the above.

anwer- D, I should be so lucky to have # A as a problem.

5-As a child, what organization did I belong to?

A- 4-H

B- FFA

C- SDA (snappy dressers anonymous)

D- none of the above.

answer- A, I was in 4-H for ten years, with my grandmother and aunts as leaders. Good times.

6- What kind of chocolate is best?

A- milk chocolate

B- semi sweet chocolate chips

C- anything you can lay your hands on!

D- dark chocolate

answer- D- really, is there any other rational choice?

7- What is my BEST quality?

A- My great gardening skills.

B- My bow-staff skills

C- My humility

D- My statuesque beauty

answer- C, SOOOOOO obvious!

How did you do? Let me know in the comments.

Now, here are the meme rules:

-Link back to the person who gave you the meme (that would be me).
-Reveal seven things about yourself.
-Choose seven other blogs to nominate, and post a link to them.
-Let each of your choices know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.
-And finally, let the tagger know when your post is up.

Now, I'm tagging these folks:

Lynne at Lynne's Somewhat Invented Life,

Lindalou at Our Mush Push,

the Sass at The Sassy Lime, who I know will get question # 1right :),

SJ at Sarah, Student Midwife,

Gretchie-lou at Richard and Gretchen,

Either of the two 'peas' at Two Peas in a Pod,

Donna at Mamma Mia Days,

and

the Damsel at Old School (if you haven't attended 'class' with the damsel, you should check this out!)

AND...... anybody else who stops by and wants to. Have fun!

happy meme-ing.......... and don't feel compelled to do this if you HATE memes.

fail, fail, fail -Garden Blogger's Death Day

I know I'm late for Death day, but took these pics earlier to share.

In the spring, I cut up and planted some red potatoes I had grown last year.

I knew that we really are not supposed to do that, but thought I'd try it. I've only grown potatoes two or three times before, and don't consider myself an expert with them.

(neither will you, when you see my results!)

The first tuber was mushy.

ahem. 'maybe the others will be better', I thought.

No such luck. Everything was a rotten, mushy mess.

Maybe it was the re-used potatoes. Maybe there is verticillium wilt, etc built up in the soil. I try to rotate the tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, but the garden is not that big. Several of my tomatoes are showing evidence of some kind of blight/wilt problems.

yep, you can see the dwindly plant stalks and evidence of disease. I thought they were just done. I guess I'll try something different next year. I do have more potatoes to harvest. I'll let you know how they turn out.
ring out your dead. oh yeah.

Be sure to check out more death at Gardening without Skills!

Happy Mother's Day? or Isn't it ALL about ME?

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday, and thus, the anniversary of my becoming a Mom.

She let me reminisce about her birth

(doesn't everyone have a 'war story' for your children's births?) on her blog.

I know there are those who are still waiting for the opportunity to have children, as well as those who feel they are drowning in an ocean of parenthood, and I fervently wish

for those women on either side of motherhood that 'their wildest dreams may come true.' (sentiment via the wisdom of Napoleon Dynamite)

I won't hold forth on all the things I've learned as a mom,

except that I WILL say that I thought I was a patient person until those kids showed up!
Needless to say, being a parent is a challenging job. Sometimes just getting them here is tough.

Happy Birthday to my dear child!

Oh, the pic is my mother's ring, which my family gave me a few years ago. Lucky me.