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...

container gardening, flowers, Illinois

Container Gardening

June 12, 2011 Lillian Davis 2 Comments

As promised, here are some pics of my latest project.

I have been growing Herbs, Veggies and a few Perennials in a container for a few years now, and love it.

You’ll have to excuse the weeds. I’ve been very busy this year and have neglected my “home” garden

Left is Four Banana Peppers & Right is one Martino’s Roma Tomato (I love using galvanized buckets)

My Hens and Chicks Container with a little “Blue Spruce” Sedum tucked in the center….

Did you know Hens & Chicks flower? I’ve had a few flower on me before.

Here’s an update on the “White & Fuzzy” washtub in an earlier post.

flowers, garden, Illinois

Tigers & Lilacs

June 11, 2011 Lillian Davis 1 Comment

A rare visitor came to my Lilac tree this afternoon.

I don’t usually see these butterflies in my garden.

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly sipping Nectar from my Japanese Lilac Tree

Bleeding heart, flowers, garden

Violets, Bishops & Iced Tea

June 9, 2011 Lillian Davis Leave a comment

Temps still in the 90’s today

So here’s a few shady pictures for ya….

Violets and bishops weed in the shade of a white birch

Another clematis I forgot the name of that’s growing on the trellis on the shady side of my house. I really need to write down the name of the plants in a note book or something!

here’s another shot of my beard’s tongue

A self sown seedling of my white bleeding heart


My K-Mart climbing rose is still hanging on. It’s 15 years old now. I call it this because this is another one I don’t remember the name of……

Okay, I had to throw a few sunny ones in here too!

This is flowers from a Red Japanese Mustard I planted in the garden four years ago. I still to this day find stray seedlings in the strangest places. This one is in my hosta bed, 15 feet away from the garden!

Tick Seed Coreopsis with a tiny wasp

Okay, I’m sorry, but here’s another shot of my beard’s tongue in the sun. It’s really blooming now and I just love this plant!

Japanese Tree Lilac read to pop!

Really huge panicals on this one.

~~~~~~~~

Today was my first day off since spring began that it wasn’t raining, storming or just too cold~

so dispite the heat, I spent the day getting dirty and filling my planters with veggies, strawberries, herbs & flowers….

Of course by the time I finished it was time to start dinner so I didn’t get any pictures of the finished projects!

I will post them by the weekend…..

So to hold ya’ll til then,

here’s a glass of cold tea on a shady porch…..

there’s my strawberries I planted today in the back. The green tray is lettuce I started early that got out of control because I couldn’t get out to plant it, so we are just going to feed it to the house bunns. And my poor Aloe hates coming outside for the summer at first. It always turns brown until it gets used to the bright sunlight. Little pots are new starts of Swedish Ivy and plain ivy.

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Long, Long Ago & Far, Far Away……

June 7, 2011 Lillian Davis 1 Comment

Celebrating 27 Years Today

flowers, Illinois

Hot Weather and Yellow Roses!

June 4, 2011 Lillian Davis 1 Comment

Today summer came back and with a vengeance!

It was somewhere in the 90’s today with lots of humidity.

So, you would think after a long day of working out in this, the last thing I would want to do is be outside!

Nope, not me!

When I got home today, and after unloading my new bounty from the Garden Center (yes, it’s an addiction!)

I did a quick tour of my garden and saw my yellow climbing rose was blooming!

Yay!


Her name is Golden Sunset and she has a glorious honeysuckle like scent!

This is my favorite rose of all time~ and yes, she’s a mail order girl! Jung’s Seeds about six or seven years ago. She’s hardy to Zone 4 and disease resistant.

She gets around 12 feet tall but right now she’s a little sprawled out.

A few other things were blooming as well!

My Gift Peony

These were given to me by my neighbor who’s friend dug out a Peony hedge from her yard about ten years ago. Nobody knew the variety but oh do they have the sweetest scent!

My Huskers Red Penstemon finally boomed.

Pretty little flowers remind me of foxglove…..

and my little fern…

My Japanese painted fern has seen better days. It’s not as full this year. I might have to move it.

and my new D&J’s Fuchsia

I’m going to start him in a ceramic pot on the deck

and work my way up to a hanging basket

flowers, garden, organic

Itsy Bitsy Spider & forgotten Peony

June 1, 2011 Lillian Davis Leave a comment

I was taking pictures yesterday and saw this tiny little spider and her web in my Nine Bark.

If you look closely, she’s invited three gnats for dinner!

…and my Peony finally bloomed!

another one I planted years ago
and forgot the variety name of,

Sigh……

It has a really sweet scent!

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In Remembrance

May 30, 2011 Lillian Davis 1 Comment

To all those who have served,

To all those who are serving now

and to all those who will….

Thank you all

My Dad

United States Marines
T

Illinois

More Flooding On the Illinois & Fox Rivers

May 29, 2011 Lillian Davis Leave a comment

We’ve had a lot of rain to go along with
our long, cool spring and once again,
our rivers are rising!

( We got another 2 inches of rain right after these shots! )

Junction of Fox and Illinois Rivers, Looking East

Veterans Memorial Bridge (RT.23) connecting Ottawa’s North Side to Ottawa’s South Side.

Looking across the water to Allen Park in Ottawa, IL The water is halfway across the Park.


This years flooding is minor compared to what we had in 2008. This light post is the same light post in the picture below (it’s on the boat docks under the same bridge in the second picture ). Normally it stands above the water.


I think the water was a little deeper in 2008…. What do you think? I had to stand on a nearby hill to get this shot because of the height of the water!

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Ready to Bloom!

May 29, 2011 Lillian Davis Leave a comment

May is almost over and the weather can’t make up it’s mind if it wants to be hot or cold!

Today is cold and rainy, but regardless, everything in the garden continues to progress.

( I couldn’t wait until the blooms were fully open, so here’s a preview~

sometimes the buds themselves are just as interesting as the flowers!)

I just love this little shrub’s dainty flowers~

Purple Ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius Diablo

ready to pop!

leaf detail


I really do like the purple leaved plants! Here, my penstemon, Husker’s Red, is getting ready.

Fuzzy!

Okay, I cannot remember the name of this hosta and of course I lost the label! Sissy, help me out here! It was one of D&J’s last year or the year before!

The first bloom to pop open on my William Baffin- Canadian series shrub rose, ordered from Jung’s seeds catalouge about eight years ago. It’s a loose climber about 8 feet tall and closer to a wild rose. A bit of advice for anyone planting one~ while pretty, it can be a monster and needs plenty of room!


Here’s a clematis that I forgot the name of as well! I also forgot to cut this and all of my other clematis’ back this year- so there is a lot of dead brown vines tangled in with the new- but it’s really full this year and bloomed earlier as a result.