Arlene Wright-Correll

Welcome to my gardens such as they are in my old age. I am in my 74th year and each fall I say this will be my last garden and then the spring comes and I find myself buying bulbs, seeds, shrubs and other good stuff such as rose bushes. However, the gardens like myself are declining as one can see from the links to different years. Mostly now I find I cannot stay out too long in the heat and hot sun. So I write about it and have many good gardening articles in my How to Do it Article page. Click here to see some of them. Also I have some good gardening books I have written and you can see them here and purchase either the hard copies or download them for a fraction of the book cost. Click here please. Many of my paintings are of the fruits and flowers that I have grown and you can bid on them at my auctions by clicking here now. All my personal royalties from my articles, books and art go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital so I thank you for your purchases.

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2004

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2005

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2006

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2007

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2008

Arlene’s Garden Diary 2009

 8/2/09

Here are the tall sunflowers growing through the waist high weeds.. I have not felt like doing much of anything lately including painting or gardening or even this newsletter.

And here he is with some of the zinnias thriving among the weeds.

7/1/098

Another bright, sunshining day. No rain for about 4 days now so I went out to water some things that needed watering and discovered 6 lovely cucumbers that we will have for our lunch today. The only vegetables I planted were a couple of tomato plants and some cucumbers.

I painted a picture of the cucumbers.

7/14/09

The Cleomes are blooming and the rest of the garden looks more like a jungle every day. I am feeling very lazy and just do what I have to do each day.

6/24/09

Tyler came to work today and got a lot done plus together we re-painted to stone horses out front and the mailbox which all had gotten shabby over the winter. I find it harder and harder to get into anything in this heat even with the a/c going. Getting old is rough!

6/23/09

Have Jackie working in the garden. She came in at 6 am and I will have her stop at noon. Too hot.

6/22/09

We had our 490 severe thunder storm watch at noon today and another one in the even. Both times big rains and the noon one had 60 mile an hour winds. The electric tried to go down a couple of times… We have all kinds of Gladioli all over the gardens ready to bloom, but today the first one blossomed out by the pond and before the day ended we had others open up. Also that old $2.95 Publix rose bought down in Vero Beach, Fl in 1999 is back again regardless of the many accidental cutting down. Regardless of how many times those primroses are ripped out of the stone walkways they always come back. We are starting to see some large zinnia.

6/16/09

Tyler got in 4 good hours of weeding in today and the gardens went crazy with weeds for the 12 days we were gone. Then the rains came, thunder lightening and a tornado over in nearby Mammoth Cave. Lots of rain, lightening and wind here for almost an hour.

 I got the Tiny Icon Asiatic Lilies planted.

6/15/09

Got some good 50% off plants from Lowes Garden Center today. 2 baskets of red, white and purple petunias. 2 Tiny Icon Asiatic Lilies and 1 nice Lantana.

6/12/09

We arrived home at 9 pm CT tonight coming from Donna’s via Lansing MI where we stopped at DelphiGlass. We discovered the white lilies waiting for us.

6/13/09

We are also seeing the red lilies on the wane..

We were greeted with other blooms today…Plus lots of weeds. Linda said lots of rain and thunder while we were gone.

Sun is shining and all is well in our world. Just came back from the doctors and I am good for another 90 days. They keep coming up with this heart murmur crap but after a battery of tests taken last year… zip.. I told the doctor I am just glad it does not have the life span of underwear!

Tyler was able to do 4 hours of good work in the gardens today…

Here are some garden pictures I took.

5/28/09

We have been watching the lilies grow and for the past few days the brillant orange/red ones are maturing and today the first ones popped out.

The lilies out front are now over 4 feet tall and loaded with buds, so we are watching them. Pictures soon to come. Also the lambs ear is getting ready to burst into bloom.

5/23/09

Another bright, blue sky day. I rarely paint the same thing twice as my mind is too eclectic or weird as some members of my family labels. However, a bright, blue sky day brought me out into my gardens early today when it was chilly and eventually my old friendly, faded gardening jacket got removed and hung up on the pole.

Upon turning around at one point in my weeding I noticed the jacket from a “different point of view” and it caused me to do two things. One was to create another painting of my gardening jacket and the second was to do some honest to good thinking about “different points of views”. Here is Arlene’s Gardening Jacket II and here is the article that was the result of that painting.

The gardens are really looking great thanks to Tyler and Jackie.

5/17/09

A great clear cool day and great for working. My young man came in and pruned all the roses in the pergola, the rose beds, and the arbor. He detailed the jeep in and out and weed whacked my “little forest” , plus cleared up all around the rose beds by the fence. He planted a replacement apple tree and then pulled out the dead bush where Glynis buried Paddy and planted a new flowering shrub I had purchased just for that. He then cleared out a whole section by the new studio and planted two new yellow shrub roses and then re-graveled another whole area. He put in a replacement azalea by the Garden cottage and then put in two new roses in another area, plus some flowering shrubs. And he was able to finally get a big old stump out that I have not been able to get out for 4 years. Plus he mulched all the new areas plus some old areas that needed it. What a guy!!!! All in 6 hours!!!

Our roses are all in bloom here and he came and asked if he could cut some and take some home to his girlfriend. He created a lovely little red and pink bouquet.

5/5/09

Very overcast today, but no rain and Carl is over helping George build the Mission Impossible Duex project. I took my wish list and went to Glasgow. It must have been a money day for me yesterday as in the mail was a $15.00 coupon from lowes and an $11.93 cents check from Staples so I was able to get some new post card stock at staples which I could use the coupon on a $12.98 purchase. Funny how little things make great joy in one’s old age. Then I wanted to replace an apple tree that did not make it through the winter and one big azalea shrub that the ice killed after being in the ground for 9 years. Apparently the plants in the garden center are not flying off the shelf so with the exception of the apple tree I got about $98.00 worth of flowering shrubs and a lovely rose bush for only $46.00.

Plus I was finally able to replace the fish pond water pump that went out early last summer after nine years. So thanks tons Don.

When I got back my morning hired girl had quite a lot done in the 3 hours I was gone and she unloaded the car for me. I hope my afternoon guy will get the shrubs all planted.

In the meantime I planted a whole bunch of my favorite annuals in the beds he weeded out yesterday. Sweet William, Tons of mammoth sunflowers for the birds, cosmos ( I love their gentle waving in the wind on their tall stalks) mixed poppies, shasta Alaska Daisy, Calendula, Dianthus, Dwarf marigold, California Giant Zinnia (my really, really favorite)Phlox, Mixed colors Larkspur, Asters and Gloriosa Daisy.

My old guy showed up at 3 pm and finished clearing out the big strawberry patch and hopefully we will get some strawberries again this year.

My young man arrived also about 3 pm and by 6 pm had all the shrubs and trees planted.(James Macfarlane Lilac, 2 Nico Red Azalea, 2 Deleware Valley White Azalea, 2 Fashion Azalea, A Lavender Azalea, Flowering Pink Almond, 3 P.M.JU. Rhododendron, 1 Knock Out Rose and 1 semi-dwarf Red Delicious Apple.

4/30/09

Well another month bit the dust. We are getting lots of rain again and now that I have ready, willing and able workers we cannot put them out in the rain.

4/29/09

Well, 3 of my 4 responses to my “gardening help needed” ad showed up today. One was a 20 year old girl who worked for 4 hours and did a good job. We had sprinkles of rain while she was here so she worked outside when it was not raining and in the greenhouse when it was. She got lots of work done and did it well. Hopefully she will be back..

Then an old fellow in his 60′s showed up at 2 pm and worked for 2 hours until he got wore out and went home with his check saying he would be back tomorrow. Hopefully so since he did a good job before he got tired.

At 4 pm a young high school student showed up and worked until 7 pm and did so much stuff for me, so well, that I paid him for 4 hours instead of 3! This place is starting to shape up. He will be back again this week.

4/20/00

The Dogwoods are showing off right now.

4/10/09

The lilacs are popping out and the forsythia are starting to lose their blooms. The Bradford Pears are in full blossom and the tulip trees are strutting their stuff.   

March 20, 2009

Another year and another year older. Just when we never thought winter would end spring arrived, more quickly in our village, than out in our rural area by about 8 to 10 days. At the beginning of March we saw rows and rows of daffodils and crocus curbside in the village and ours were just turning into yellowish green buds. The Cleveland and Bradford Pear trees were blossomed out in the village, in Bowling Green, just south of us and even in the city of Louisville, north of us because of the heat from the city buildings.

So this past week we saw our Cleveland and Bradford Pear trees blossom out along our driveway, our Forsythia are blooming, the lilac bushes are budding and leafing out, Hyathinths and crocus are producing and I even planted a new climbing rose bush today out at the end of the pergola.

Here are the photos taken today. As you can see there is a lot of winter cleanup to do in the garden this year and I am sure finding help this year is going to be as hard, if not harder, than last year.

View of the Bradford and Cleveland Pears down the driveway

Spring is popping out all over Home Farm

March 20, 2009 Spring comes to Home Farm

The bulbs are popping up.

As you can see the walkways need cleaning up and they have been added to my gardening to do list.

All ready it is the 2nd of April and the time has flown. The back garden is awash with violets and in the shade garden the Bleeding Hearts are perking up that whole area.

The Redbuds are popping out all over the place and it is the most pleasurable part of riding on I-65 right now.

I am still unable to find any help in the garden and so I will live with the weeds and do what I can. In the meantime, you can find my gardening books by clicking here.

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