Song of Chuck-Will's-Widow announces planting season arrival

Chuck-Will's-Widow

Whip-poor-will

Every night I can hear the song of the chuck-will's-widow singing.  For the longest time I thought it was a whip-poor-will, who got its name from the sound it makes.  I decided to share them both with you so you could hear the difference.  Who knows, one day your little grandchild might want to know this and you'll be just the person to know.  We know that our grand kids think we know EVERYTHING.  It's nice to be special.  Reminds me of getting those handfuls of daisies and dandelions from the kids and putting them in a vase with water on the kitchen counter so we could enjoy them for a few hours.  It was one of the lessons of sharing, giving and the joy of plants all wrapped up into a single, lovely package!
Best Planting Dates
A dear friend provided me with a great link to the old Almanac again.  Do you remember that thing?  I used to actually buy that every year for years and years and read it from cover to cover.  Just change the location to your own locale and it will show you the best dates for planting each type of seed.  It also includes very handy grow guides for each plant type with simple clicks.  This was really, really nice!  The plant categories include: vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, shrubs, and houseplants.
Vegetable Gardening Online.com has a very cool little tool.  It lets you plan your garden online using a drag and drop option.  You can drag the little veggies and plants into a grid whatever size you plan for your garden.  It even lets you plan your companion planting before you put them into the ground.  Because it makes noise, it's a fun little toy for adult and kids!  This could be used as a good learning tool as well.  I had a ton of fun playing.

When I watered the plants today, I was a little surprised at how big the beans are getting.  Just wait until Saturday, when I post the photos!  I also noticed that the sun is getting a LOT hotter as the beans in one section of the lanai were laying down on their sides they were so dried out.  This means that I'm going to need to make some big changes.  I didn't even look at the lavender because I ended up working until 7:00 tonight.  So, I'll need to peek at them during a break.  This is one reason it's REALLY GREAT to work from home.  I am able to water the plants on my break. The bad thing is that I work really late some days and I usually just grab a sandwich and eat at my desk for lunch.  I probably need to check on the hanging baskets in the front of the house because it's just hot, hot, hot full sun all day and they'll be burnt to a crisp.  They are fine for the winter since they are ivy, but during the summer I usually bring them into the lanai for a bit of shelter from the hot sun.