Now here's a garden idea....or four

I wish I had thought of this swimming pool idea when we were constructing our raised beds way back in the 90's at my old house. No digging required, and they look kinda cute. Of course there are way too many for a suburban back yard, but still if they were lined up at the back of the space and had a few items planted around them, no one would notice they were wading pools. No digging required, just fill and plant. Woowoo!

So as a comparison, here are some garden bed kits that are currently available. The least expensive one is from Sam's Club. And the most expensive and coolest looking is from White Flower Farm.

Can you really get carrots to grow at this depth? I think beets would work, definitely lettuces, green beans, zucchini, some peppers, radishes, cukes, if they were the bush variety, and definitely basil and other herbs. 

  It is not a good idea to place a box or boxes like these in the grass, as a weed wacker would have to be employed often, making a lot of noise and annoying the worms

OK everybody out of the pool!

I am just about finished putting in this year's garden. There are always those last minute deals that I cannot pass up, and so I am not saying it is the total end of planting, but sort of the grand finale week. And I am expecting a visit from my friend Rose (how appropriate a name) on Sunday, and we are going to have a spa week. That means lots of sitting in the hot tub getting pruny, gazing at the flowers from the deck and drinking margaritas, since Cinco de Mayo is coming up and then celebrating the 21st birthday of our cat Popeye (this is his last summer) and just having a very relaxing week.

I bought a bad plant

This is a water hyacinth, and it is an invasive species, but I promised to keep it under control in my little fish pond.
Wikipedia says: Water hyacinth is often problematic in man-made ponds if uncontrolled, but can also provide a food source for gold fish, keep water clean and help to provide oxygen to man-made ponds.
Which is why I did it. That and because I was at Home Depot's garden center yesterday and saw them for sale there. I never would have gone out of my way to find them, but fate put them in my path and I succumbed. 
I also succumbed to Algerian Ivy.
 No doubt this is invasive too. Darn.  I love the huge variegated leaves. I only bought three plants and for some reason this ivy likes the sun, so I will be looking for such a place in the yard today. Not such an easy thing to find.

I also bought two Marvelous Marbles Heuchera, and not because they were pretty. I had to rescue them. Have you ever been in this situation where you see plants hanging on for dear life in a nursery where non-plant lovers work? You know they are neglected and need love (and regular watering!). I had to bring them home, poor darlings.
Still left to plant are some fancy schmancy iris

which I am putting right next the ones I got as tubers in a bag from Walmart. I always go for the real high class garden stuff. Speaking of Walmart, they put their bags of bulbs section on half price and so 20 Stargazers came home with the groceries. I think I'll be in the dirt all day today. How could I resist?

and here is my new laptop. 

I am one happy girl.

While it was raining...


I made use of the time and finished this Heartbeat Sweater from justonemorerow.com. I have been dawdling with it all winter.Why? Too many other things on my plate is my excuse. The yarn is Kudos from Plymouth Yarns, a mix of cotton, silk and rayon. Nice drape and once I got used to the non-stretchiness of the yarn, very nice to work.

And thanks to Ellen Hartsfield, our knitting guild president, who did a presentation on short row heels for toe up socks (is that a long enough title?) I finally 'got' the concept. Here's her trick...just do what the directions say. Wha? Well, perhaps I was always impatient in the past attempts, but it really truly worked when I did just what the directions said. I used this pattern.







The rain stopped for a minute and I scrambled to take a look at the yard. What I really like about gardening is watching things change and develop, so daily walks around the 'estate' are essential. The pond is really high and in this picture the new red bud trees can be seen starting to leaf out.

And two of my tiarella are in bloom. Also known as foam flowers, they are valued more for their lovely leaf shapes. I am collecting varieties of these to compliment my huechera collection. Or some excuse like that.

A little plan that worked

We have this lovely air conditioning unit right smack dab in our yard, where if it is in use makes a big noise. Luckily we rarely have to use it, as the weather is mild up here. But there it sits with ugly written all over it. So we decided in June of 08 to surround it with burning bushes and liriope. The burning bushes were a bargain, at $6 each.
 Here they are now, only two seasons later, almost completely obscuring the ac unit. And of course now we also have a deck and hot tub, which ws not foreseen back then. Sometimes things work out just right. The liriope are spreading in this site too, but the surprise is the fern in the corner, which was supposed to be planted in the shade, and duh, I goofed and just put it in the sunniest, hottest spot. Seems to love it there.

We have been sans-sun for several days and yet the clematis is determined to open. Nelly Moser variety. My Jackmani is also opening, but I will wait to post it until it is fully opened. So glorious then. The pond is rising to the max, and continues to fill even after the rain stops as it collects the rain from the hills above.
Since I was looking for before pictures to compare our plantings, I discovered that we are about a month ahead of what was blooming two years ago. The rhododendrons bloomed in June of '08 and they are just starting to open now. Does this mean something good or dire? I have heard El Nino is back in action.

Note: I dropped my laptop the other day and while it still works, the keyboard is dead. I am using a plug in keyboard, placing it on the laptop and trying to blog anyway. A new laptop is coming by Thursday, and I can hardly wait. Arrghhh.

Splendid Spring

.WHAT 

What is the gardener's compulsion? For me it is hope fulfilled. When one plants something and then it returns the next year so enthusiastically, it erases the disappointments of those that don't make it.

Focusing on the perennials, the backbone of the garden, we have a joyous snowball bush in bloom.

It may be short in stature now, at five feet but specimens in our area get to be towering with hundreds of blooms. We can be patient and wait for that.

 Columbine, Biedermeier variety. Not my favorite kind. I prefer the single more woodland type, but this is not a complaint. I am happy to see it in bloom and hope it is staying forever despite its crowded conditions in amongst the daisy and lupin.
When we moved here it was a droughty year and we didn't know we had azaleas in the shade garden. They didn't do well, needing more water than they got, but after a very wet winter they have rebounded and are just delightful to see this spring, in full color.

Since these look so good, I took the leap of getting five more for the big bed in back. At only $3 a bush, they are less than the New Guinea impatiens I had there in the past years.

They thrive when watered often, so the current rain cycle we are in is perfect to get them acclimated.

In other news: Some before and after pictures of recent plantings. The idea this year was to use potted plants instead of making more new beds. I am already happier with these, because my hopes of preventing the vole problem are high.

 I decided to start simply with inexpensive but dependable plants. Snapdragons, petunia, alyssum, coleus and glowing blue lobelia. In the foreground purple pot is a so-far-hidden canna, which I have never tried but this year there are five total in the several spots. In the back left purple pot is my pitiful veggie department. Two varieties of parsley, a gypsy pepper and the bush cucumber.  I may move this pot if the sun doesn't hit it enough. So difficult to know when one starts this early.
 O yes, there is one lonely celosia in there too.

 The very happy Goliath tomato rounds out the potted veg, and in the center pot I planted a giant elephant ear which promises to become huge. We'll see.

Making a Filter ala The Empress of Dirt

My dear internet friend Melissa over at Empress of Dirt has been kind enough to make a tutorial on backyard pond construction. Just the help I needed to clear up my pond water and relieve me of daily decaying fish food removal.
A filter around my pump is the answer and she has a do it myself version that was perfect for me to try.
I was about to trek over to Ace to buy some hardware cloth but instead found some wire mesh courtesy of the unused chicken coop.
Then I found the wire snips in the potting shed, in Dave's ever so organized Wall of Tools. Luckily  Unfortunately he was out so I had to do this without interference  his help.
I used a small jewelry pliers to bend the cut ends inward and under the filter. Those are my adorable knees displaying the resulting cage.

The view of the intake side. I was careful to make the mesh some distance from the filter intake, so as not to make it work too hard. I also removed the fountain pipe so the clear water would just flow out softly. I adjusted the flow valve to medium low. This is a big pump for this size of this pond, methinks.

The perfect size piece of poly batt was snugged into the wires and held nicely as I place and removed and replaced and removed the pump in the water until I found the right spot to seat it properly.

 Pump and toes, and just the right amount of current, no splashing. I await the onset of scum build up on the batting.
It turns out that I need not feed fish pellets to my little darlings, that they are content to eat the gunk that congeals on the sides of the tub, and the concrete bricks holding up the potted plants. How convenient.
It rained nicely all night and this morning I found two frogs in the tub, trying desperately to get out. How do I know? I came back in an hour and they were still trying to grab onto the slippery edge. So I got my skimmer net and plucked them out to safety. I put them down on the adjacent mulch and they stood still, almost invisible on the woodchips. I am sure they needed a nap.
The water does look a lot better already and when and if the sun returns today I feel certain I will see much clearer water.
Yay Melissa!!! Thanks so much.

Earth Day 2010

Earth Day. Wow. Huge concept. I need to scale it down to something I can grasp. Like seeds and plants right here in my yard, and dirt right here under my nails. If one observes Nature at work, it is astounding how instructive, constructive and destructive it all is. 

I found this maple seedling in my flower bed and marvel that this tiny thing could become a towering tree like the one it fell from. If I let it...which is the crux of the issue.

Some days I feel like I will take control of my tiny environment and other days, I just feel lucky to be allowed to coexist with all the creatures/plants here before I invaded. Especially at 2am when the howling coyotes woke me up.

Recently we have had a few fires along the road, which has chased a turkey out of its environs. I have seen him three times,  pecking along the highway. Big and not all that attractive, but still he has his own beauty, and I feel a thrill knowing I am his neighbor. I don't know if the fires were set or a random cigarette tossed out the window, but it is pretty ugly  and depressing to see the burnt pines.

Back in our yard, I am trying again with delphiniums, since two of the four from last season have returned. This new blue one is robust and I found it at KMart of all places. I have a safe-from-voles spot to plant it.

I'm pretty excited to see my hosta returning bigger and better than ever. I move them around like I do furniture indoors. And since they seem to flourish here, I cannot help adding new specimens to the bed. Mostly I go for HUGE, but I just fell in love with this staying-tiny Blue Mouse Ears. If a plant can be adorable, this one is. Hosta do get flowers, but really, who cares. I love them for their vigor, dependabilty and that they love shade.

 I came home with 11 new goldfish yesterday. Cleaned out the new pond and removed a few furry dead fish from the water. eeeoouww. I am learning how to care for them, if it kills me. We may have made a mistake siting this pond under the redbuds, since their falling petals continue to clog up the water pump, and stopping its function. It's always something.

Rain is hoped for this weekend and I think it will make a major improvement on things. Hand watering only goes so far. A long shower makes everyone happy.

Pssst! If you are not into gardening, today might be a good day to declutter. I saw this link on my fave, the Empress of Dirt blog and think it bears sharing.

Update on the Tiny Garden

This photo was taken  April 9, 2009, just after all the plants were sited. Neat and under control, no?
A close-up of this hens and chicks shows the baby chicks on stems emanating from the mother.



Here is the same plant one year later. Nine babies developed from the mother and each of those has lots of babies on stems too. Not much is going on with the adjacent sedum specimen. OK, those of you with experience with hens and chicks, what should I do to help these nine new mothers have their own space? I have never split this plant up before. Is it chancey? Will I hurt it if I do it now?

The voles got at the Irish Moss and the other small leaved plant, but I have no fear that it will explode again shortly, but to be safe I added lobelia, alyssum, creeping jenny and coleus. I may have overdone it.
Also, notice how the house itself has faded from copper colored roof to gray. Now's my chance to redo it in Mexican Chalet colors. Ole!

Replacing the Microwave

This is the old microwave, taken when we just bought the house in July 2007. It was a pretty fancy schmancy convection/microwave combo. Black to match the half and half black stove and old black refrigerator and faux granite back splash. It had a push-in latch, which just stopped opening, with a bowl of soup stuck inside. Screwdrivers and four hands working together could not get it open. Three days with no microwave. EEEK. Today Dave disassembled the whole thing and then and only then could we get the stinkin' door open. 

After baseball on Sunday Dave and Mike bought a new one and today they installed it. It is sooooo clean and white. And of course the rest of the walls and counters are white too.

 I love a clean microwave, so let's keep it that way. I promise to wipe up the spills and keep a cover on the spaghetti sauce.

Potholder Swap

 I recently agreed to participate in a potholder swap organized by Malka over at A Stitch in Dye. 55 people are in this swap and we have a Flickr group here. My swap partner is getting these, despite her suggestion that she would like red and turquoise to go with her intended color scheme in her kitchen. I totally forgot she mentioned that. Duh. I just dove into my stash and came up with my usual 'All color all the time' colorway. There is some turquoise and red in there...
 For the reverse I just picked a nice nearly solid color and doodled with the quilting. Yellow rickrack trims the edge and is the loop to hang them. This was a fun diversion from being in the garden, which I returned to directly after finishing these.



Here's what's going on lately. Tiarella or Foam Flower is in bloom, which is laughable. Little pokey spikes of flower clusters about 8" tall. They disappear as quickly as they appear, but of course I love this little plant for its leaves which are nearly evergreen. It's a cousin of heuchera so it and its kin are happy in the morning sunlight together. Afternoon shade keeps them thriving.


Speaking of evergreen, this is a European Ginger which we transplanted from our old house in IL. Totally glossy always green leaves even in snow, makes me love this plant. Weeks ago it flowered, but you'd have to know it ahead of time and have really young knees to see the flowers. They are underneath the mound, totally hidden. My guess is that the plant does not reproduce from seed.
The voles have chewed at the roots and moved away from eating the whole thing, thankfully, and where they spat out the root, a new plant has broken the surface! At last something to thank the voles for their interference.
I was totally surprised to see this about to bloom Lily of the Valley nearby. Where did this come from? I didn't plant it and it has no other kin in the shade garden. I am thrilled to have it and hope it multiplies like a rabbit. Doncha just love their fragrance?


And the iris cristata are in full bloom now. I checked last year's blog entries and we are much further ahead than last year, where we got snow on April 7th. Phew! Dodged that bullet this year.