In Which We Address Daffodils..

A friend recently waxed that daffodils were the ugliest flower on Facebook and he was immediately reprimanded for having made such a statement.  I being of sound mind did not comment on the comment as I am, as you know fond of all flowers and really don’t know that I’ve ever seen an ‘ugly’ one.  Strange, odd, unusual and even garish but never ugly.  After reading his comments I went out into the garden to stroll and look at my collection of daffodils to see why he thought them ugly.
 

 
Daffodils are heralds of Spring that burst from the ground and explode in an array of blooms and colors.  They are tough and ask for little in the way of care requiring but a sprinkle of bulb food every season.  They are impervious to deer and rabbits which in my location is a bonus beyond measure and they return faithfully each year with no pruning, prodding or fussing needed.  For me, daffodils are many things but ugly isn’t one of them…

Compost Happens..Project 2

So I filled you in on one of the big projects yes there are others in the planning stage.  I however have a much smaller (and easier) project that will be arriving in the next few weeks that I’m very excited about!  I’ve always wanted to do Vermicomposting, which is a fancy way to say, Worm Composting!  I love compost but gosh do I have the worst time with it my compost piles just never seen to get enough heat generated in them to really work.  They do eventually break down but it takes a long time.  Well here’s where those wonderful worms come in!  See I compost all my kitchen scraps and now that we are doing the CSA (Farm Share Program) and eating more fruits and vegetables I have even more kitchen scraps and guess what the worms like to eat!  So I placed my order today for my Worm Factory 3 Tier Composter

And…
My big old box of Red Worms!  I can’t wait to get these guys and get this all set up.  Instead of dumping my kitchen scraps into the compost bin outside I’m going to be feeding these little guys all that goodness and in return, they are going to make some nutrient rich compost for me!  When I have everything I’ll take pictures of the set up and share, because I know you are all just dying to see this!
Happy Composting!

A Million Miles A Moment… Project 1

It’s that time of year at least for me when the plans, ideas and design dreams abound.  I’ve got more going on in my mind about things I want to do, need to do and dream of doing than there are hours in the day.
The pond is going to be the first big scale project this season it’s in need of some TLC for sure.
The rocks here and around each of the sides of the skimmer section have sunk, they are after all just dry stacked.  The goal is to take them ALL away, get some larger stones and gravel make a good sturdy base and start over, back filling the right way.  I also want to turn the front section,
Here into a nice alpine style planting area.  It gets a lot of sun and I think a selection of alpines will soften the look of the rocks, maybe make it look a bit more natural.  I’ve been reading up on the stacking of rocks to make planting pockets, so I’ve got a better idea of how to make this really work…I think.
Now over here,
I’m putting in a nice bog garden.  I’ll be moving back the rocks from all along this side, including those at the edge of the pond.  I’m going to dig out this area several inches and put a piece of liner with a few drainage holes in it.  Then filling it up with a mix of our lovely clay, some compost and a lot of peat.  I’m going to put a section of soaker hose in there as well so that if it starts to dry out it will be easy enough to water.  I’m lucky in the sense that it won’t get too much sun which means hopefully it won’t dry out as much.  I really want this area for my bull frogs, here’s hoping that it wasn’t one of the giants that Randy found in the skimmer last fall
Finally, the waterfall, it’s in dire need of a rebuild.   It’s green and isn’t flowing as well as it should.  We actually had a pond renovator come out and talk to us about fixing it but the cost was insane.  I’ve ordered several books on the subject and we are in the planning stage of either moving it way back and creating a stream or just moving it back a few feet and widening the area and altering the slope with dirt.   If we move it way back it will be back behind that stump, personally I’m not sure that the scale of a stream leading to our pond would be right.  So I’m leaning more towards the moving it back a little and making it wider, but only some rope and vision will make that decision.  Hopefully, we will get a warm and not over booked weekend here soon to start working!

Past and Present…

So here is a glimpse into the past..ready, put on your winter parka and take a peek.

This first picture was President’s Day weekend back in 2003!  Of course that paled in comparison to this snow, back in March of 2010! 


Today though, today it looks like Spring to me, it sounds like Spring and it even smells like Spring.

Apparently even this girl thinks Spring has sprung and I can’t say I blame her, it’s a balmy 60 degrees.  It makes me want to do yard clean up and leave mulching and planting planning!

Like how lovely the gazebo will be once we get the roof on it this spring and I’ve been giving the green light to decorate it however I want!  Oh does he know what he said lol..
Instead, I took pictures of my Hellebores in all their glory just to share with you!

All ruffles and lacey Winter Jewels double flowering variety.

This dark nodding lovely is Winter Jewels in single form.

This diva, dark, mysterious is London Fog.

This happy face is Mellow Yellow!  Doesn’t it just make you smile!
Of course no early spring post is complete without…

Snowdrops in full bloom and all around them Daffodils standing tall, ready to make buds for beautiful spring flowers.

For now though, the crocus are bursting out of the leaves and I’m going to leave them alone for the time being, Spring will be here for real soon enough and my garden list is endless!  Till next time!

Gazebo

So as you know a while back (like the end of May) we got the deck for the gazebo over by the pond built.  A few weeks ago, with the help of some friends (one intentional, 2 by accident) the bases for the gazebo were finally carried across the yard and placed on the deck!



This past weekend Randy decided it was time to work on the gazebo.  He thought it was going to be easy since he had numbered all the pieces previously, however that wasn’t the case.  I guess from sitting out on the ground, exposed to the elements (unassembled) the wood twisted and absorbed quite a bit of moisture.  It was quite a feat for him to get the pieces to line up like they were supposed to.  After several unsuccessful attempts he came up with the idea to use a come along to pull the base pieces together…and it worked!
After that it was all about putting the post, rails and top sections on.  With a little help from me (very little all I did was hold upper sections and put some screws in) he was well on his way to having it ready for a roof!

The roof sections will have to have the old roof cedar shakes stripped off and the new roof shakes put on before they are installed.  
Of course, standing up on the gazebo (and seeing the GIANT bullfrogs) really made me want to put a large bog garden in behind the pond, but THAT is another project….

Beautiful July

What a beautiful blessing the last few days have been!  Normally in July, it’s blazing hot and the humidity hovers in the 85 and ups.  However the last few days have literally been a breath of fresh air, blue skies, temperatures in the mid 80’s and a lovely breeze.  I spent some time in the quiet cool of this morning surveying the gardens, staking plants and pulling weeds.  I had a surprise visitor try to sneak up on me while I was weeding.

That reminded me to refill my Haveaheart Deer Repellers and I’ve got to admit so far they’ve worked to protect everything but the hydrangeas, I guess those were just doomed to be eaten once they were ‘discovered.
Lucky for me (and the pollinators) there are still plenty of blooms around!

The black eyed Susan’s and bee balm make a cool color combination and the fringed loosestrife is putting on an amazing show of dainty yellow blossoms!

I have some parsley and oregano plants out front that I let flower and the bees are quite happy with that.

This is just one of the beautiful, cheery volunteer sunflowers that have grown up in the pollinator garden.  The best part is they all face my porch and bedroom window, so I see sunny sunflowers when I look out!

Isn’t that lovely!  My mom gave me a pot of Gerber daisies last year and I over wintered them.  This is one of the first blooms from those and isn’t it appropriate for me that it would be red! I mean I am a Caps fan after all!

Even the flower boxes that I planted in early spring are still prolific with blooms and little busy pollinators, I love that.


The spring and summer mason bees have been busy making homes in this nest box.  After the spring season there were 4 tubes filled, so I’m extremely excited to see that the summer bees are using it too!  I’m going to need another one of these for Christmas I think!

I adore spiders!  They work hard to keep the bug populations in control and orb weavers are always beautiful and just down right cool!  This is by far the best spider and web picture I’ve ever taken!  Isn’t she beautiful!
Till next time!

Mid June Ramblings…

No, that’s not a shot of my yard in the fall, that’s from right now today.  It’s painfully dry and so the poplars are doing what they always do, they are dropping their leaves early.  Now usually early is August, I can’t ever remember seeing them coming down in June.
There are a lot of things that are ‘off’ this year.  For example my beautiful swap milkweeds, the pink and white failed to grow this year.  They started out well, but then something odd happened, the tops turned brown and wilted.  At first I thought it was because of too much rain as the bed that they were planted in was very wet this year for a long time.  Oddly though even the milkweeds in other places where it is drier did the same thing.  I saw no signs of fungus or insects.  I guess it’s back to seed starting for me.  That’s over 9 plants that will need to be replaced, so sad.  My butterfly weed, the standard milkweed and the tropical that I buy each year are all doing well though, so all is not lost for the butterflies!  The next off thing are the deer, usually their browsing and dinning doesn’t start till late summer to mid fall, this year however they are awful and are eating everything that I don’t put that stinky repellant on.

Here they’ve eaten not only my hosta (lower right front) but my heuchera plumb pudding (middle) and even the common violets (far left) to nothing but stems.

This was a surprise, the large old fashioned white hydrangea that has never so much as been nibbled was chowed up over night. 
I’ve since sprayed everything that was left and have been rewarded with blooms on some of my hosta and this beauty!

I ‘think’ it’s the American Revolution, that and several others were planted in an area that was continually being devoured so I moved it to the front of the bed in the center of my driveway.  I’ve been working in this bed trying to pull out some of the violets and make room for more plants that can thrive in the dry sort of sunny spot.
Remember my pollinator project? Well take a look at it this year! 
Boy has it ever filled in, I’ve got volunteers of sunflowers, cosmos, agastache and even bee balm!

I’ve got most of the milkweed growing in the back now, I’d be happy if it filled in more and just stayed in the back, but the bees and butterflies sure do love it. The fringed loosestrife (not the purple invasive stuff) that I transplanted from around back were my beehive is now, has gotten to about 4’ and is covered with beautiful yellow flowers.   I don’t know if I’ll be able to leave it where it is, I wasn’t expecting it to get this tall, it might need to go to the back with the milkweed.  I’m happy though, lots of pollinators, lots of blooms all the time.
Happy Summer!