Happy Smiling Viola Faces

Header image: Born in space: I’d rather not come down to Earth. geniusdevil

Sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin launched us into the era of human spaceflight. The Russian cosmonaut achieved a major milestone in the Space Race when he orbited the Earth in the Vostok 1 capsule. This amazing achievement came less than four years after the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1.

Is there anything more motivating to do your job better than some positive feedback? When we garden for you, our priority is to not only to provide the best solution, but also make you as happy as possible. So when you, dear customers, praise us in one way or another, we know that we’ll do our best over and over again.

Rumour that Bees are in terminal decline is not borne out in my garden this year. The Bees seem very happy on the blue flowers and I am happy as it gives me an excuse to show some more blue photographs (of flowers!).

Violas are more than just small pansies in fact Pansies are just over blown Violas. They are both in the family that also includes many species of Violets, Violas and Violettas.

A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.

Violas are perennial and grow best in well drained soil that has an open structure to encourage fibrous roots and promote many stems from the same root. They may get a bit leggy so cut back two or three times during the spring and summer to encourage new shoots and more flowers. Aid this by applying a liquid rose fertilizer or seaweed and keep watered.

Cool, dampish conditions ensure happy cyclamen plants from now until Christmas. Do not let them dry out in your centrally heated house. Nor should you put them in draft

One of my favorite fall gardening joys (I call them joys instead of chores) is planting pansies and violas. This is a yearly rite of passage for me that I have been enjoying since childhood. One of my first memories was helping plant pansies in my parent’s garden when I was about three years old.

A lot has happened this first year out: A Way to Garden grew, with its 200 posts and nearly 4500 comments (thank you very much), and also now with Andre. I started The Sister Project, which in its first two weeks of new life has had about 10,000 clicks and 300 comments.  Three weeks ago, I sold a book idea…and this week I am kicking off writing it with a few days of retreat (a funny thing for a woman who spends so much time alone already to say).I have filled in each quandrant of the mandala my friend Ken Smith created for me when I began this new life…we may have to subdivide!I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you to all of you visitors, old and new, who have encouraged me. You cannot imagine what it has meant to

ANDRE THE DOODLER IS ALLOWED TO PUT DOWN HIS PEN every now and again, and this is one of those weeks. If you can’t live without your weekly Andre fix, try browsing through the image-driven archive of every last doodle he’s created here in the last two years.

Birthdays require flowers. Make mine peonies, one of the best perks of a June birthday. I am currently overrun by them, and the house actually smells too sweet; I had to put several vases outside. I even had the first-ever tree peony blossoms of my garden career (above) to cheer me this time around. That’s ‘Yellow Crown,’ which produced its first two flowers this year. Tada! Looks like a cupcake with lots of frosting, doesn’t it?Birthdays require gifts, and Jack the Demon Cat took care of this one already. Yes, another weasel tail on the front doormat (above); making four in the last week. Wish he’d stick to chipmunk