Peony Seedlings Grown Outdoors

While walking along the side of our house in the grass I noticed some miniature burgundy red leaves splashed here and there in the green gass along the borders. I let these single pink peonies go to seed in the summer and then come looking for the seedlings early spring. I do collect some seeds, too, but, they are still in a package unplanted. Nature does a fabulous job sprouting your seeds all by itself while we keep warm inside.

I had to go back to the shed and get a shovel to collect the "gold" that I had found. Go deep about 5-inches under the seedlings. The seedlings are only about 2-inches tall now. I premixed some plastic pots (recycled) with compost and loamy soil and sat the whole shovelful on top adding more soil around the edges. These little seedlings don't like to sit in water so I just drizzled a little on sparingly to settle the soil.

You might remember that I mentioned about dreaming of having fields of peonies. Dreams do not fall in your lap. You have to work toward them and I am at least 20 plants closer to that dream.

Growing and Feeding Topiary

Let the snow fall. We will garden indoors with an outdoor attitude! We garden in our imagination, in our waking hours and in our sleep. We garden on paper and canvas, we garden on cupcakes! It is a passion. Even our westie dog has caught the gardening fever.

Topiary standards are little living green works of whimsy. They are fairly easy to grown and maintain. If you don't have a green thumb you could always have a moss covered topiary form instead. I like the real living plant myself.

I would love to have a stainless steel covered table like the one above for gardening. Wood tables are okay, but I guess it European-ish to have one like this. Even in the kitchen. Say like the kitchen in Julia and Julia where Julia Child's in this stainless steel kitchen in Paris. Cook like a pro and garden like a pro.

My yew shrubs that I bought last year are extremely hardy and still in their pots outside. I have not yet figured out how I want to shape them. They are a wonderful deep forest green. The mercedes and bentley's of hedges and garden topiaries.

The title of this painting is "I Heart Gardening" and is for sale on ebay now.