I don't believe it!

We received an inch of rain last night! Awesome. This means that some of my taller iris' will be laying on the ground and will need to be cut and placed in a vase to enjoy. I would prefer the color to stay in the garden , but I have no control over mother nature.
While out cutting the iris', which I guess, is an invitation for any Joe- smoe to stop in with his big old truck and give me a sales pitch about my roof and gutters. My driveway is narrow and the last thing I wanted was for this guy to back out and smash all kinds of stuff on his way out. When he was finished, I asked that he use the turn around in order to avoid that scenario.......Then I turned my back and I shouldn't have. I should have know that not everyone knows how to back up in a turn around and make their way without some kind of plane parking flags waving to guide them ....HELLO? Did you not see the 20 foot row of hostas in your mirror?? Not only did he run them over, he peeled out because they were wet! Did he know that he ran over all these hostas? Did he say anything?
I am heart broken. Crushed. I'm used to a hosta or two getting slighlty smashed because people insist they know how to back out. I just pull out the leaves and soon new ones will take it place, but this is so much damage!! It will take the rest of the summer, maybe!
I am officially depressed. I will try very hard not to think about it too much. I know the plants will be back next year. Just that their beauty was so short lived.

(that is not my snow fence) can we say ugly?

No Commentary, just photos.

*Baptisia australis -blue wild indigo







*Rhododendron albiflorum





*Two-tone Bearded Iris





*White bearded Iris




*I forgot what this is called. sad isn't it?




*More Iris'














White Columbine




*Heuchera

Bring on the rain!

I am amazed at how the garden just seems to glow and vibrate after a good thunderstorm






I have a dump truck coming today with 16 cubic yards of woodchips from the organic resource center. I'll have my work cut out for me for the next week.
I'm a huge fan of woodchips (not bagged or colored). It gives the garden a very natural look. Over the years I've purchased less and less woodchips as the garden expands and takes up the spaces between the plants. But this year I have another garden going in. We have a grassy ledge up in front of the house that is framed in with two feet of flagstone on three sides. I've always wanted to bring plants from the garden out front and place them on the ledge so I could see them from my window. Several layers of newspapers will go down first to kill the grass. Then 4-5 inches of woodchips. I can't wait to start planting this fall!!!






This purple Iris is from the Iris man down the street. I haven't seen his sign out yet. Maybe all the trash cans covered it up. I'll try to look for it again later today.




My friend Joe runs a Christmas tree farm and decided to start a nursery business in the off season. Lands once filled with trimmed Christmas trees, now have perennial plants, shrubs and trees.
I purchased three dwarf lilac bushes with high hopes that they would bloom for me. Getting the blooms all depends on how early the canopy comes in. Now last year, it came in a week or so early so there were no blooms. I think the cooler extended spring delayed the canopy this year and the lilacs were able to bloom. what a blessing.



I call this "The Well" garden. Two years ago, we went from a 2 inch water well to a 4 inch . As a bonus, we received one of those ugly, sticking out of the ground a whole 12 inches, blue and white capped pipes. "Oh please....we have to do something about this." So I went out and purchased one of those hollow rocks and slapped it in! This is a real pre-formed cement rock! Not one of those plastic ones. They look okay (from a distance) and are significantly cheaper but I needed the look and feel of the cement rock.



*Currently reading:
















*Things I hear at night when the windows are open:




~The pond frogs looking for the pond that dried up six years ago. Developers came in and damed up a nearby wetland to make a lake for condo dwellers. (Losers)

~ Raccoons screaming, more like mating or fighting over the cat food that I left outlast night. oops!

~ Some nocturnal bird I haven't Identified yet.

~ A very loud obnoxious motorcycle, that you could hear five miles before it came down your street, waking you up with your heart in your throat! Makes you want to pull the garden hose across the street as they pass by eh?

~ My dog Mackinaw. barking at anything that makes a noise outside and waking me up several times!

Man! I need a nap!

"Why garden? God knows." -Mirabel Osler

I can't get myself all worked up on remembering what everything is called in the gardens. I'm into gardening for the beauty not the naming and knowing. I am truly a gardener who buys a plant that she doesn't have already that fits the light requirements and I plug it in and say "good luck to ya and thanks for blooming for me this year."

The Iris guy down the street whom I get my Iris' from is a sweet, in his 80's old man. He has a couple acres of iris varieties galore! I look forward to going every year and getting a few more to add to my growing no-name collection. He never seems to remember me but knows every iris he has in the HIS garden. I will be looking to see if his sign is up in his front yard announcing that his garden is open and the iris' are ready. It will be a very sad year when I don't see that sign............




~Star of Bethlehem?

I'm a big believer of going along railroad tracks or on the roadside to dig up plants to bring them home. I do find myself wanting to save plants that will be destroyed because of developers tearing up the woodland and building. (trilliums, rue,bluebells, baneberry for instance) NO, I don't dig in people's yards at night in camouflage or dig up what the county has put out along the highways, Silly.

I have a woman's tool in my car at all times ( a small shovel) thanks to my mother-in-law. So, whenever I find a gem in the rough I'm there and ready! Friends find it strange my method of achieving plants, but half my garden wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this technique. Whenever I start the sentence " Hey, I saw these plants.....They'd say "Are you going on a plant caper?" (Mission impossible music playing)

One time I had a yard sale and a woman came down our driveway and told me she just dug up a bunch of hostas and put them out to the street for the trashman to pick up. "WHAT!?....WHAT?..... Where do you live?" I ended up with four very huge hosta's!! So huge that when I put the hatch door down on the van the leaves were sticking out all over! Several times this has happened over the years. Thanks to my husband's keen eye and abilities at trash picking, we have achieved most of the green and white hosta's in our garden due to people digging them up and tossing them out for the trashman!

We are the plant savers!!!! LOL!
sooooooooooooooo, reading the next sentence won't sound so weird maybe?

Okay, so I found these bulbs in the woods behind a bowling alley next to the railroad tracks.
They are interesting because they don't bloom until all the nice green grassy parts are starting to die back. I have several clumps of these and this is the first year all of them have bloomed.




My sister-in-law was moving and wanted some of the family members to take plants and save them for her so when she moved into her new home she could start her new garden and save money. I think this is part of the buttercup family. It is a very aggressive groundcover. The one small plant I received three years ago has turned into ten feet of golden blooms.
Not complaining!


Have a great day!

I had two whole days and looking forward to two more. Thank you beautiful weather!

*Blue Slate Pathway*




When we started building the treehouse, we were generously offered old barn beams and siding to get started. While loading up the wood and beams, I noticed a pile of blue slate that used to be part of this old barn's roof that was build in 1860. How cool would it be to have a slate roof on the tree house? Well, very cool but there wasn't enough and too many broken pieces. I kept the whole pieces of slate for a future 'creative' project and broke up the rest to use as a path in the garden. This slate has been the best source to use for a path. It looks good all the time except when it is fighting for the width between the sweet woodruff and pacasandra . Five years and looking good!


* A beautiful purple Iris*



I'm afraid I don't have the name of this Iris. Finding an Iris database hasn't been easy and I don't have time to run through Dave's Garden 507 choices to find it. "So hear is the first blooming Iris!!! "

Paul Simon - Outrageous

It's outrageous to line your pockets off the misery of the poor.
Outrageous the crime some human beings must endure.
It's a blessing to wash your face in the summer solstice rain.
It's outrageous a man like me stand here and complain.

But I'm tired, nine hundred sit-ups a day.
I'm painting my hair the colour of mud, mud, okay?
I'm tired, tired
Anybody care what I say? No!
I'm painting my hair the colour of mud.

Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Aw, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?

It's outrageous the food they try to serve in a public school.
Outrageous, the way they talk to you like you're some kind of clinical fool
It's a blessing to rest my head in the circle of your love.
It's outrageous I can't stop thinking about the things I'm thinking of.

And I'm tired, nine hundred sit-ups a day.
I'm painting my hair the colour of mud, mud, okay?
I'm tired, tired, anybody care what I say? No!
Painting my hair the colour of mud.

Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
Tell me, who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?

God will,
Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.
Take me, I'm an ordinary player in the key of C,
And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity

Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
God will,
Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?

Baneberry (white doll's eye's)





Reeves Spirea 'Double Bridal Wreath





CORYDALIS Yellow Bleeding Heart





'Samobor' Mourning -Widow (Geranium phaeum)

Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!
Sit and watch by her side an hour.
That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
She pluck'd that piece of geranium-flower,
Beginning to die too, in the glass;
Little has yet been changed, I think:
The shutters are shut, no light may pass
Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink."
-Robert Browning
(1812-1889)





I can not remember the name of this spring bulb. Any help?








The finch feeder for Mother's Day is paying off. what a handsome American Goldfinch.

Hummingbird Dreams

I saw my first Hummingbird of the season on Friday and felt the need to get the feeders up. As usual , I end up loosing those suction cup thingys for the window feeders and had to run out to find replacements.
.59 cents. I can handle that.

Every year my girls get me something for the garden for Mother's Day. This year was a squirrel proof bird feeder and three glass vials to make my own wire holder for a hummingbird feeder. Man, do they know me? What fun it was to make one. It was the perfect thing to do yesterday during the on and off rains we are still having. I'm now thinking of several different ways to make this nifty holder. Like I need one more thing to do right? I'll file that as a rainy day activity.

The rain has brought new life to the garden. The urgency to get out there and finish the work I started before the rains came nags at me. The plants that were small two weeks ago are now large and I am concerned about moving them now. I am now envisioning myself running out to the gardens between rain drops and digging up plants and moving them and then running back into the house before it starts raining again. It could happen!?!

everytime I go out there, I see so much work. Why should this be so worrisome?
I feel an urgency to get a certain amount of work done because the cool weather isn't going to last much longer. You know how spring has been in the past, cool with a good amount of rain and then BAM! Hot, humid and no rain! I don't work well outside in those hot, dry and humid conditions. So if the majority of the 'garden' work doesn't get done during the coolest of times, things get pushed or dismissed until next year. I still have some catching up to do from last year. If I just get my head into it, I could get all the work I would like to get done in five to six days. I hate to think how sore I'm going to be. :>D

A Mother's Day Prayer for you

~Photo by Alicia Bock


May We Celebrate What Unites Us


May we believe in, respect and promote the dignity, the worth and even the sacredness of every human person, including of course our own persons.

May we in all honesty search our minds and hearts to discover, to acknowledge and to free ourselves from biases, discrimination, oppressions, violence, and unenlightened and unanalyzed opinions and judgments.

May we admit in true humility that our strong assurances and convictions have their limitations. We are ever in search of the fullness of truth, the truth that is beyond simplistic answers to complicated issues.

May we not restrict ourselves to the limited and isolated visions of our own circles, especially the enclosed views of our religious organizations and ethnic and cultural affiliations.

May we welcome dialogue among ourselves in which we listen sincerely and speak honestly in an atmosphere of genuine freedom.

~ Father Virgil Cordano, O.F.M

Now this is what I call a rainy day activity.

While working out in the garden yesterday, I was mumbling under my breath how I needed some rainy days in order to get caught up on things inside the home. Funny thing is, the only "things" that got done were phone calls, IM-ing a few friends and family members and making arrangements for Mother's Day at my mother-in-laws. Not exactly what I had in mind. I do have the rest of the afternoon and evening to accomplish something significant (according to me). Oh yes, one load of laundry.

I transplanted and rearranged a few plants in the crescent garden. A few plants were pretty pissed off at me. Lucky we have days of slow trickling rain to make up for my late decision making. I find myself very overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to get done. I feel that all my worries would be lessened if I just had 6 cubic yards of woodchips. I prefer to lay out newpapers and pile on the wood chips in lieu of weeding. The downside to this method of course is the lack of seedling surviving those conditions. So , in the mean time my hamstring will have to survive..........


~

Man! My hands are rough!!!!!!

Mother's Day came early for me this year. We were able to yank out two overgrown yews to make room for this dogwood and added a kitchen herb garden. slowly, the ledge will be taken over with 3 cubic yards of woodchips and filled in with divisions made from the front garden.
I believe you can click on any of these photos to get a bigger look........








The photos below are all from one corner of the front garden to the north east facing south. This garden is 145 feet long north to south. I get eastern morning sun and a touch of late afternoon western sun with full canopy. My canopy consists mainly of red and white oaks, hickory trees, red & white maples and dogwoods.














This garden photo below started out as a fern garden with several varieties of ferns. Over the years I've added two different kinds of ginger, variegated Solomon seal and hepatica. I have one SO VERY dry spot in the back corner right up against the house were I store our vacation rocks. Last year I found this Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum) and thought it was the perfect fern to put in that corner. Sadly it never returned. I hope to try it in another spot again this year if I can find it locally..