Garden pix

New iris...
...6 year old rose...
..beautiful, feathery Astilbe, and "Apricot Ruffles" daylilly in foreground...
new extension of perennial bed beside the driveway...
and Idea I proudly stole from Laume's California garden...currently, statuary scares 3 year old KC, so this wee sprite is deeply nestled into the 2nd year hosta bed, and can only be seen from one angle...to KC's most earnest relief..."thank you my mommie for moving that scaaaaarie thing aways so KC won't have to see it anymore"!

Thursday, Last Day of the Heat Wave...

The dawn broke with the sky exactly this color, like everything was bathed in a quicksilver and pearl dust. It was so hot and ever so humid, which we ordinarily would expect, as it's summer, after all. But last week we nearly turned the heat on as it was in the upper 40's to low 50's each morning, and didn't warm much beyond that. To say we New Englanders are not yet acclimated to summer weather would be an understatement! But the light...oh goddess how I wish I could paint this!



The day passed with not terrible hot temperatures, but the humidity was terrible. It felt like one was breathing water. Yuck! We were all feeling draggy and drawn by suppertime, but we had a lovely dinner salad with vegetarian chicken that I quick-fried in olive oil and soy sauce, total yumminess. Decided to eat out on the deck for the first time this summer yay! I replaced boards there last week and painted it Monday when it was hot but not humid. Spent Tuesday getting the furniture out of the shed in the way back yard, rolling the glass-topped table carefully down the ramp, across the lawn, up through the bushes and up the steps to the deck. Today I got two basket planters of red, white, and blue petunia's from the grocery store of all places, but it was one less thing I needed to go, and I cannot go to the garden center and spend less than $100 at a shot.
After dinner, Lee and the boys headed up to the local playground, and I finished gathering things for camping this weekend. So much stuff for 2.5 days! The fun of a large-ish family, right? We might need a shoehorn to get everyone into the van but heck, we'll do it!
As I hung out my wash, noticed the clouds. The sun had set, the thunderstorms totally missed our area for a change (we've had a ton of Tstorms this spring, very unusual ) but we had these awesome clouds and the background clouds were all shades of pink...

with all these dark purple tones mixed in. And if I hadn't have been doing laundry, I would have missed the show completely!

Then, a short while ago, around 1030 pm, I went out to the cellar for the diaper wash and spied the nearly-full moon peering down amongst skudding clouds. I've been trying to play with settings on my digital camera as I know I'm not using it to it's full potential, and got this cool shot of the clouds breaking, frosted by moonglow, as She broke free of them for a moment.

It has been the best photo day I've ever had!

The Gnomes have had at me!

It all started rather innocuously at the end of May. I had to buy flowers for the cemetary plots for Memorial Day. But of course, I over-bought and had to put them in my garden. But then there weren't enough and my garden looked dorky. Can't have a dorky garden now, can we?? But I'd promised I would not go crazy at the garden center this year. Okay I can buy a few more flats. And then I went there. And they had these GORGEOUS tuberous begonia's. And they offset my mom's planter so well. I've managed to keep this planter intact for the last 11 years since Dad told me to take all her plants home with me. But this year it looks...spectacular. And there were so many colors that I added some to the window box on the side of my shed, which really brightens up an otherwise dingy corner.

After purchasing 3 giant hanging plants for the porch by the back door, and more flats for the garden underneath, I decided I needed to go back to the garden center, where the owner starts to salivate when he sees my van pulling into the parking lot. I needed more potting soil. And how could I resist some perennials. Look! They have a gold edged Hosta. Ooooh, I've always wanted a giant leaved, gold edged hosta! Oh, and a reverse hosta...it has white centers rather than green...and on it goes. Now I have added 5 planter boxes to go on the rail at the porch by the back door. They are between the hanging plants and the garden below, with some trailing ivy type plants to bridge downward, even as the airy plants below reach upwards...

Then I go to that big Orange Hardware Store. Yeah, I needed some eye bolts. Truly, I did. It wasn't my fault that there was an empty parking space in front of the Garden Center area.
Nu-uh. I don't know HOW that coreopsis got into the carriage, but I do remember putting in the giant purple iris, the pink and white margarites....

.....the sedum, the two catmints...oh there's more but I can't recall all of them just now. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I got so caught up with these wonderful perennial choices that I forgot the screw eyes and had to make a second trip. And there was a glorious pot of brown eyed susan's just begging to come home....

The Plot Thickens...

Here it is, the first Community Garden Plot we've had in over 20 years! Although I haven't gardened for veggies in all that time, other than the occasional planter of lettuce or tomato's, I've spent lots of time reading my "green bible"..the Rodale book of Gardening. Plus, my Aunt Nancy has gardened forever, and I used to help her in her garden when I was a teen; as my boys will tell you, that's about when dinosaurs roamed the earth....

Anyway, I chose to do raised beds...lots more work to prep the garden beds, but so worth it. The soil was pretty well tilled, so raking the dirt up wasn't horrendous. It took me 3 days to do all the beds in #13. Robbie helped me plant, as he had just finished a 2 session homeschooling class at our local Audubon sanctuary on veggie gardening; all the kids hoed, dug in manure from the sheep, and planted. I didn't make him hoe the beds up, but he was invaluable in planting most of the beds. This far, our raised beds have far fewer weeds than do our neighbors (brag, brag!). But when we were done planting, we had plenty of plants left over, but no more room in our 10X13 plot!

I noted that several of the plots were untilled, so I asked if I could have a 2nd plot...and after a week, I got one!

Plot 11 was originally going to be the "water depot"...so everyone threw their rocks into the space..erg! Yesterday I went up and started de-rocking and creating my beds. The boys really, really wanted watermelon and pumpkins, so I planted those in the center so they'd have room to spread.
With the plot comes a variety of veggies. With yesterdays fog/drizzle, I only had time for planting my leftover tomato's as well as the 2 flats that came with the plot...but here they are! Tomorrow, when the rain from TS Barry leaves New England, I hope to put in a bunch of peppers, some hot, some bell...I'll be canning for weeks and weeks and weeks....