Flower pics

Sorry guys....I don't have a garden blog. Bet you wish I did!
:-)
Four pictures of my purple coneflowers in bloom. I just love them!

Salvia.

Then the guessing game on the next two. Anyone?

Of course there was a huge end of the season sale today on flowers....so that meant I had to get more. Which also meant I had to dig a bed for some sun perennials, because most of my darn yard is shade thanks to the 13 plus trees that I have. So I have a really really really sore back, 6 blisters and a tiny tiny tiny patch of dug up yard that will get at least 6 hours of sun! Yeah!
Oh and does anyone have a good homemade recipe on how to kill a black ant hill??????

If it's not one thing......

My refrigerator broke! YUP! BROKE! It started making a nice buzzing sound. Hmmm that's not good I said. So we defrosted it and now everything stays all warm inside. Of course it's 4 1/2 years old and we can't find the receipt since the move and we will have to pay everything to get it fixed....nice huh? At least we have an old refrigerator in the basement to put things. Even though it means 25 trips up and down the stairs for supper.
And the repair guy can't come until sometime after the 4th of July..........Must be a lot of broken down fridges out there.

Window progress

I know people often wonder if we actually work on the house. Well I tell you it's hard sometimes. I will try not to make too many excuses, but it's hard.
Well this weekend I have progress to show you!
Paint actual paint on windows!
Can you believe it?
Will wonders never cease?
How nice to do they look?
Then we have the back overhang. Man is that thing a monster to strip. We didn't strip what wasn't peeling. We probably should have and we probably will regret it. But that thing is a mess to strip.
Well, we still have about 17 windows, not including the basement ones to strip. And they all kinda look like this. We can't pry the storm window out of this piano window. The storm window was sealed in there probably 15 years ago. I don't know how to get it out. That is the original storm and the original window and glass. I don't want to break either. Any suggestions would be appreciated. My daughter's room is over the porch roof. I don't know how we're going to get the storms off of her windows either. Those things are in there tight.

Yup more garden pictures

Ok so with my back out I didn't get much accomplished, but here are some more of my garden pictures. I do love our backyard. Another unknown weed/plant.A baby bleeding heart. A neighbor gave me a root she couldn't grow, so I didn't have much hope for it, but I must have found the right shady spot for it. I don't know what the ground cover is though.....
An unknown climber that is planted at the base of a couple of trees. It has nice bright purple flowers.
Another unknown bush. I know they are popular around here though. I just don't know their proper name.

Plants Plants Plants

Well because I can't sleep, I'm going to post some plants pics....how's that?
Ok the funky tree has a name cutleaf stagehorn sumac...thank you Neil!

So let's start with the unknown ones. This one is another one that has been bugging me. I live in zone 4 remember. I swear it is bamboo. So does my neighbor, so I'm not nuts!

Ok then's this plant/weed.

And then this one I finally identified! Virginia Waterleaf, thank you very much! Of course now mine in not in bloom, but it has the most delicate little lavender flowers on it.

Last one, another unknown, I'm pretty sure they're a flower, just don't know which ones.

Thank you

Thank you dear husband for fixing the a/c. (I only had to threaten once to call the Standard Heating and A/C guy.) Now the upstairs is only a few degrees off instead, oh lets says 10-15. Man that was not fun. Summer in WI sucks. Winter in WI sucks. The only good seasons are spring and fall and they each last a month. :-)
15 years baby and we're moving. :-)
Thank you dear hubby! The children do not have to sleep neeked tonight!

Funky Tree

I'm not the most garden savy gal around...shocker, I know. So when we came upon this tree last fall I was stumped. (Heck the big ol' maple stumped but hey yea that's me.)
Anyway, it's really different.
Anyone??
Please?

Windows!

As most of you know stripping paint sucks. Lead paint really sucks. However it's a task that needed to be done. So dear hubby and rolled up our sleeves and tackled part of the windows. First we had to remove the storms. See the P.O.s had replaced the original windows in the 1980s I think. With what appears to be mail order Sears windows....nice.
They then realized the windows did not keep out the Wisconsin winters, so they put the storms back on. Actually they SEALED the storms back on. So we had to pry the storms off the windows first. (I almost fell out of our second story bedroom window.) We then realized we couldn't get all the windows done in 3 days. Especially the windows in my daughter's room. I have no idea how we are going to pry the storms off....but that's another post.
Anyway we got the storms off of 6 windows. Above is a before pic of the kitchen windows facing the back yard after the storm was removed.
So what did we use? Peel Away 1. Above is an after pic. We have neutralized twice and will touch up sand with a Hepa sander soon. Then we will paint!
Yippee!!!

Gardening Issues

Ok this weekend was not my best weekend. So what did I turn to, my garden. I re-arranged it about 5 times. It rained on and off so I wasn't able to take pics, because when it wasn't raining I was either up to my elbows in dirt or at the gardenfest.
But I am at a loss. Half of the things popping up I don't know what the heck they are. Are they weeds? Are they plants? Should I just let them all bloom? I dunno. Unless it's ragweed, burning nettle, dandelions, or thistles, man I'm stumped.
Next weekend hopefully it won't rain and dear hubby and I can take on the start of the window paint stripping project. That means these monstrous rose bushes I have on south side of the house will have to be trimmed way back. That should be fun.