Tag Archive for: military

beautiful flower

White Onions

Isn’t this flower beautiful?

You may be surprised that a vegetable produced this flower.

This is the flower from a onion plant.

onion plant

You would expect that the onion plant that produced this flower would be equally impressive, like the one in the picture above.

But sadly, the onion that created the flower in the top photo looked more like this when I pulled it out…

White Onions

White Onions

Kind of disappointing, isn’t it?

This was the first time that I tried growing regular onions in the garden.  I have had a lot of success with green onions, but evidently, my white onions need some help.

While there are only about two onions worth eating, I can chop the greens of my ‘reject’ onions and use them in the same way one would use green onions (scallions).  They have a mild, oniony flavor.

Every time that I try some thing new in the garden, I learn something.

I have learned since then that many of my fellow area gardeners, have had similar disappointments when growing bulb onions.

However, there is one variety that many have told me they have had some good results growing.  It is called ‘Texas Sweet’.

So, next fall, I will be growing ‘Texas Sweet’ onions.

White Onions flowers

In the meantime, I will keep my remaining onions in the ground and enjoy their beautiful flowers.

**Check back soon for a fabulous giveaway that I will be doing where you can win a great TroyBilt tool that has many uses.  I have been having so much fun with mine.

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I haven’t mentioned how my daughter, Rachele, has been doing while in basic training for the Navy.

It has been much harder than she expected.  She has had some injuries to deal with and a cold that has been present much of her time in basic training.

She has been homesick, but as her time in basic training has progressed, we sense her toughness and determination to get through.

On the home front, the first few weeks were very hard because we missed her so much.  But, as time passed, we have adjusted to her absence although we miss her terribly.

What has been so hard is the fact that our main way of communicating with her is by letter. She only gets to send us one letter a week.

Phone calls are sporadic and you never know when they will come.  It has been 3 weeks since we last talked to her on the phone.

I cannot wait for her to graduate from basic training and will be flying out to Chicago soon to see her become a sailor.  We will have one day with her before she flies out to her ‘school’ where she will learn her specialty.

Please keep her in your prayers as she is going through her last tests that she must pass.

Thank you!

Spring for a horticulturist, is much the same as tax season for tax professional.

With the warming temperatures, I am very busy with landscape consults.  While I enjoy meeting and helping clients with their landscape needs, it does create the problem of less time to be able to do other things that need to get done.

But, in the case of writing – I have been able to get my work done, all with the help of a very special little lady…

Spring for  horticulturist

My granddaughter, Lily, loves to sit on my lap with her cup of Cheerios while I write.

We have come great conversations (mostly one-sided).  I talk to her about what I am writing and she does point to pictures of flowers.

Maybe someday, she’ll be inspired to grow her own garden?

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This week is a sad one for our family.  My second-oldest daughter, Rachele, is leaving for the Navy on Sunday.

Rachele, my mother, my oldest daughter (Brittney) and me visiting Las Vegas for her 21st birthday last January.

Rachele, my mother, my oldest daughter (Brittney) and me visiting Las Vegas for her 21st birthday last January.

While I am so proud of her and know that she will do very well – I am still going to miss her so much!

She will be in basic training (just outside of Chicago) for several weeks.  Then she will go to school to learn to become an equipment operator (a Navy SeaBee).

We had a ‘goodbye’ celebration for her yesterday at our house.  Over 100 people showed up.  It was so neat to see how much she means to so many different people.

This week, we are experiencing what I like to call “the last times”.  Today, it was going to a movie with the kids and Rachele.

I hope you’ll bear with me over the next couple of weeks, if I share parts of her military journey with you 🙂

Six Trees, a Boy Scout and a Horticulturist