All posts by Lillian Davis

Hi, my name is Lillian but everyone just calls me Lil. I’m an artist, organic gardener & plant junkie. I live in north central Illinois in a little house on the edge of the woods with my husband and two of my four grown children. In my spare time you can find me outside playing in the garden or taking lots of pictures of my flowers or the local wildlife for my blogs~ and for eight wonderful years I had my dream job of running the garden center at Blain’s Farm and Fleet...

Happier Than a Pig in ………

This is Steve, my hubby. He’s a John Deere mechanic. He loves to fix things. And being a mechanic who loves to fix things, he has acquired over the past 30 years quite an assortment of “fixer up” lawn mowers. He has a different lawn mower for every week of the month ( I even have my own lawn mower).
Now, here’s the dilemma he had. At our old house, we had a little tiny yard (most of it, ahem, garden) and it took about 5 whole minutes to cut the lawn.
You see, this mechanic also loves to cut grass. He loves it so much he would offer to cut the neighbors grass when he was done with our yard and then the vacant house’s grass across the street.
So when we moved into our new house, with it’s huge yard, well, you can probably imagine the joy he was feeling.
It now takes him over an hour on the rider to mow his lawn and swear I saw him grinning the whole time.
Happy Mowing Dear!
(…and after this shot, I looked out the window to see him cutting the neighbors strip of lawn across the street!)

Haircut Victim Recovering

 

Over the winter the deer decided they liked my variegated pink and green sedum I had growing in a little clay pot on my front porch. They ate it completely level with the dirt and were rolling it around trying to finish it off.
I stashed it away, between some bigger pots of dormant hostas by my back door to save it.
Well it lived, and thanks to it’s haircut, it’s growing quite vigorously.

Is it Really Spring This Time?

Painted Lady sipping breakfast from North Star cherry blossoms

The sun is shining, the air is warm, the grass is green and the Garden Center was Crazy Busy yesterday…
I think, I Hope…
YES! It’s finally here! Let the gardening begin!

Rising Waters

A little creek by my house that feeds into the Illinois River, usually not this high- They closed the road shortly after this shot.
We were fortunate. We were high enough above the Illinois river in our part of Morris. But for those in Marseilles, Seneca, and Ottawa who lost everything,  may God Bless them with strength and courage as they recover from their loses. And God bless the angels who donated their time and services to the flood victims. Your reward will be great!

Spring Sedum

Another surprise, I have one little sedum… I wonder if the deer know about this one? They seemed to really like the one I had growing in a pot this winter.

Deere Bolts

The other Deere are beginning to stir…

Inherited Irises

I have Irises! A whole bed of them in fact! A promise that there may be a spring yet!
I can’t wait to see what else pops up my my new yard!

Are We Sure it’s Spring?

The calendar says it’s spring. The weatherman keeps saying it’s spring. There are robins and turkey buzzards everywhere… so why did I freeze my butt off setting up the garden center today?
I don’t think it made it over 23 degrees today- and let’s not even mention the windchill!  And to think this time last year it was 80 degrees!
Okay Mother Nature, we get it. You are a master prankster. The best of the best! Now can we Please have our usual Spring?

While we are waiting, here’s a pretty Peony blossom from my old garden, in Warm Weather…

Deer Butt

My Yard was invaded this evening…

I think they were scoping out my future flower beds

Lotus Flower

On the Mississippi River…