Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Thoughts on the 26th rainy day.








These are photos looking out of my dining room window. We built this new home because, as many "empty nesters," our turn of the century city house, got to be more labor then love. We chose the site strictly on location. It was close to family and services. It was in a first phase of a new development, a subdivision of a thirty five year old development, to the back of us.
I could intellectualize about urban sprawl, but to actually be a part of it, in such a dramatically rapid fashion, is unsettling to say the least. The land across the way, is supposed to be a New York State wetlands, but a land company purchased it, and mulched all the trees before they got permission to do so. So in order to keep it from staying a wetland, they plow a portion of it on Sundays, piece by piece.
The engineers office of our town, gives us lip service about the issue. "Yes," they say about it not being developed because, it is wet lands.
The geese, hawks, killdeer (birds) bunnies, and cranes, will be moving on. Well maybe not the geese, they seem to be settling quite nicely in our parks.
The neighbors behind us said, thirty five years ago, they were told, the woods behind them would never be developed. My house stands on that very site. Sometimes I feel very much the enemy.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Food is beautiful


Sun flowers, tomatoes, beets (I like the tops better then the bottoms), onions, cucumbers, parsley, peppers, lettuce (leaf), beans, more lettuce (Romaine), a few peas (growing in the shadow of the towering tomatoes), and carrots (growing in the middle of the tomatoes), and more onions.
I took out the radishes to give the late cucumbers room to grow.
I need something for the giant slugs; they look like hunks of sliced sweet potatos (ugh!).



Sunday, July 12, 2009

More New Friends

These came with the bare root plants I purchased a while back. They were labeled
"Flowering Shamrocks"
Japanese Anemone (Anemmone x h. 'September Charm')
"Queen of the Prarie" Filipendula rubra, Venuta (Magnifica)

Friday, June 26, 2009

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Love Hate Relationship

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum), smallest species of the onion family 'Alleaceae.' The word "Chive" derived from the French word"cive," which was derived from the Latin word for onion "cepa." It is a herbaceous plant, and has insect repelling properties-Japanese beetle. It attracts bees, and contains vitamin C + A, and traces of calcium + iron.
Such a delicate color, balancing their little puff heads atop long pale green straw shaped stems.
I planted them next to the patio, so I could run out and snip them as I need them. I planted them in that bottomless container, in the hope that I will be able to keep them from traveling to far. I have delt with these darlings before, so I am prepared.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Veggie Update

In the veggie garden are: Sun flowers in the corners, Marigolds on the sides (just a few), sweet peas on the far left, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, beets, radishes (like crazy), cucumbers didn't work-some seed+ plants wilted, maybe too cold, scallions, red onions, leeks, pepper plants look almost as small as when I put them in. All plants were started as seeds, and I'm not sure I mixed the soil/fertilizer/peat, well enough.
As you can see in the top photo, there is a Maple tree shading some of the garden, right over head. We trimmed some branches this week end past. There is a large Maple as well, on the opposite side doing the same job. It's not on our lot, it's an empty lot, and I am very tempted to go over and trim it.
At the rate the veggies are growing, we will be having a Fall Harvest.
Please excuse the "text box" in the center photo.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Another Sunday Outing


Saw this interesting choice of outdoor decor at the Allen Town Art Festival this weekend. Allen Town is a historic and eclectic community on the west end of Buffalo, NY. People come from all over the country to sell their wares. Paintings, crafts, hand made jewelry, leather goods, ceramics, and garden decor, from wrought iron trellis, to bird baths, were some of the items displayed.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Meet my new friends

I don't know what happened, one minute I was just strolling along, and the next I knew, I was putting them in the car. I had to find good places for them, so I asked them to stand in two rows for identification. I then seperated them by sun and shade, a couple couldn't make up their minds. So here we are as follows, from left to right, back row first.

shade Deutschland Astilbe (Astilbe x arendsii) White
sun Coreopsis 'Full Moon'
sun Dwarf Russian Sage (Perovskia) 'Little Spike'
shade Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla)
sun Clematis 'Hagley Hybrid'

Front row:
pt.sun Charm pisifera 'Iceberg' Comefer
shade Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum hispiulum)
sun Oriental oregano 'Amethyst Falls'
pt.sun Foxglove (Digitalis x mertonensis)
sun Heather Allegro (Calluna valgaris)

Monday, June 8, 2009

It's been a week since my last post. I've been pouting. I was denied access to a garden blog site, but I don't remember submitting to it. They didn't say why, only the usual requirements. Is not my subject content garden-like enough? Should I be using Latin names for my plants? I took Latin in high school, I guess I could. Would it make my content more interesting? My language isn't colorful. Is my composition not interesting enough? Boring? Dull? Should I be posting exotic places I've traveled? I'd like to save those for the winter, we have a long winter. Are my graphics not pretty enough, to pretty? I don't know.....
Anyway, over the week end, we took some little people to the Penn Dixie quarry. It was named after the company that owned it. A dry millions of years old ocean bed, provides much fun for kids with axes and hammers. We took away plenty of dirt, and trilobite fossils. Click on the photo to see it better, if you feel the need.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Mail Order



This is how I received my mail order plants from DIRECTGARDENING.COM I ordered
2 Daylillies Purple D'Oro
2 Hosta.Regal Blue
2 Hydrangea Trees
2 Japanese Lily
10 Iris, Eye of Tiger Dutch
2 Monk's Cap Purple

Free:
1 Stella D'Oro Daylilly
4 Flowering Shamrock

I hope that "Instruction book" they included, has plenty of instructions, because I've never planted bare root plants before. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

In Living Color

Finely starting to see the fruits of my labor, or partly my labor, mostly it goes to the "scapers."
That's a blurry Weigela, and a Lupine "Gallery Blue"



Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Just a word of thanks.....


Just a word of thanks for all of your encouraging words, on my new house journey. I sooo miss my plantings at my old home, and I'm impatient to get back to an ample garden. I know it will take time, and I should take the time to enjoy the time in the doing, and I am. But, I miss my peonies, and my heirloom roses, I miss the forsythia, and the tulips of my old place. Plants will become familiar, and become old friends sooner then I think. I'm glad I have all of you to travel along with me. Keep blogging, even if you don't think anyone is watching, they are.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Window box

This is the view from my computer room. My husband built a beautiful window box, that expands across the front widow of my house. There are three plastic bins inside the box that are easy for me to remove for planting. He attached tiny hoses in holes of the removable bins, which drain into corresponding holes drilled into the bottom of the box. Under the box are three globe box woods. After our gray northern winter, in our new house, it's a colorful view. It's finely starting to feel like our home.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A drop in the perennial bucket

Today I went to the "candy store," oh you know what I mean, that garden center with the prettier, bigger, and more unusual plants ($$$). I bought 18 plants. I went to http://www.lockwoodsgreenhouses.com I got everybody into the ground. It looks like a drop in the bucket.
We even had time to get the deer fencing put up around the veggie bins. I attached tree branches every which way across the top, to try to keep the birds out. I saw it on a British blog.



Monday, May 18, 2009

Patio step


Now all I need is an awning, a grill, and some furniture, for this project anyway.


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Just an observation

Today I'm pretty pleased with myself. I've been a little under the weather, (no pun intended), but I am rallying. My newly planted trees are bug free, and blooming nicely. My little starter seeds are all in the ground and trying to recover from transplant shock. Those poor little Cosmos are actually getting their feet dug in. Nature is truly amazing.
My husband is working on what little lawn area I have left him, he's a lawn guy, married to a garden girl. Oh well.......