Leavey Homestead Farm

01/03/2024

Let’s all keep an eye out for this young lady! Does anyone know if she was on foot or driving a car?

12/31/2023

Today a family I know is gathered in an icu waiting room, their sister has pneumonia, and is unconscious. Her name is Joanne. I’m asking, as you end this year, if all my prayer warrior friends could please take a moment today and pray for her and her family, as they watch and pray as well.

07/01/2023

In our day the cake was an animal cake made from a tiny little book that had clever ways to cut up rectangle and round cakes, and it was passed around the neighborhood and church.

And that was a hell of a party 🤣🤣🤣

05/19/2023

05/15/2023

This is one of my favorite daylilies, I really like the ones with ruffled edges!

05/12/2023

One of my favorite hibiscus! It’s a Hollywood hybrid, but I don’t know the name!

10/22/2022

These would be my suggestions for the most worry free and easy houseplants!!!

10/15/2022

These cooler days are prompting all our flowers to bloom more often, these are a couple of hibiscus that are blooming on our garden. The one on the right is a Cajun hibiscus, I can’t remember the name, the other is a double peach.

10/14/2022

After a long hot summer and lots of babying, My pink plumeria finally bloomed! We are finally home and I’ll get back into fall plants and preparations this next week!

09/30/2022

For those with a Farmhouse style home, think about mixing mums, and grasses in a mixed planter like these! Purple fountain grass is great, crotons, even yellow, orange and red lantana! There are also some great coneflowers out at some of the big box stores, now. In our area, we are really lucky that a lot of our summer flowers will bloom way into fall! Stay tuned, tomorrow we are going to discuss dividing mums!

Sharing last years Fall porch because my porch still has ferns, geraniums and all the flowers I got in the Spring still thriving! What do you do with your ferns? Keep them all year? I know when winter comes around I will not want to go out in the shop to water them so I think it may be a waste for me to do that but I’m interested if anyone ever has?!

#ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ

09/28/2022

Another porch showcasing fall color, look at the dark colored coleus on the left. Stacked pumpkins, and lots of pops of color in mums! They blend with so many fall plants. Croton is another great fall plant, lots of color with no blooms!

09/28/2022

What a beautifully decorated front porch, look at all the beautiful mums!

09/27/2022

What a beautiful gardening day we have today in Freeport, it’s bright and there’s a breeze, not too many mosquitoes, and the temps are in the 80’s, pure bliss for gardeners! Today we started adding mums to our front landscape, they just add so much seasonal color, and blend in well for so many types of landscapes! Later in the season, but before the first freeze, we will take cuttings, from them and propagate them. There are two easy ways to propagate mums, by taking cuttings and growing in either water or soil, and by division. Today we are going to discuss cuttings.

Cuttings in soil
I usually wait until I get a second flush in the fall to take cuttings, you want a healthy shoot, 4-6 inches long. Clip them 1/2” or so below a leaf node, where a set of leaves are, being careful not to damage the node, then carefully pinch off any blooms and all leaves that will be below the water or soil line, so that they don’t rot! I pot my mums up in 6 in pots, usually 4/6 to a potin soil made of one part organic peat moss, 1/2 part sharp sand, like play sand, NOT beach sand, and 1/2 vermiculite, you want a rich but easily draining soil. Moisten the soil all the way through, plant your cuttings with at least one node below the surface of the soil, on some varieties, leaf nodes will be close together, I’d reccomrmd at least 1 1/2-2 inches in the soil, making sure you have stripped off all leaves. Tamp the soil down around them and place in a shaded but warm area outside, or on a windowsill with indirect or med light inside. Cuttings will burn if they are subjected to too much sun. Keep evenly moist, and in one to two weeks you should see roots start to appear, I usually transplant after a month or so into individual containers.

Water propagation
For water propagation, I prepare cuttings the same way as I do for soil, strip off any buds or flowers, and any leaves that will be below the water line. Juice glasses work well for this, as well as cups, small vases, etc. pour an inch to an inch and a half of water into your container and set in a somewhat shaded window sill, roots usually begin in the first week or two, I change the water every other day, making sure to keep the same water line.
Hopefully we will be able to do a demonstration of this later this week! Well I hope you get to spend some time in the garden today, digging in the dirt feeds my soul!!!

09/26/2022

Absolutely!!!

Lol

09/25/2022

This week we are going to discuss a fall favorite, Mums. A prolific bloomer, Chrysanthemums are part of the family Asteraceae, one of the larger families of blooming plants. They are a staple of spring and fall gardening, and in our area will over weather easily, if planted in the ground. They do well in pots as well but must be protected from freezing weather. They like a well drained soil, and require consistent watering, although they don’t like wet feet, follow along as we talk more about transplanting and pruning, and all things mum, this week!

09/24/2022

Welcome to my new gardening and homesteading page. Follow along as I share tips on gardening, upcycling and homesteading!