Losing your Mind While Gardening

 

Don't say I haven't been trying! It's Spring, the birds are singing, the sun is shining... and we've had nothing but incredibly strong, gusting wind for three straight days. If you dare to step outside, the wind knocks your hat off, takes your breadth away and destroys any impetus to do whatever it was that you went out to do.

 Like rake leaves? Ha! Three times I piled the leaves on my tarp and three times a bloody blast from Hell swept them up and sent them spilling all over the lawn. Reminds me of the stories of the Mistrals of France, where violent winds drive people crazy. I have an entire arms-length list of projects that are entirely on hold.

 And then the lawn men descended next door. These human locusts propel themselves back and forth over our neighbor's lawn creating a deafening roar. Only problem is that the lawn hasn't even begun to grow and what with that aforementioned wind there are clouds of dirt and dust. It now looks like a scene from The Grapes of Wrath out there.

 And to add the proverbial icing to the metaphorical cake, the air has been heavily scented with diesel fumes as one of the neighbor's kids is now driving an ancient diesel powered truck. He conscientiously allows it to warm up for fifteen or twenty minutes before driving off in a plume of acrid smoke. Typically, this coincides with my feeding my poor horses who are by now suffering from black lung, covered in dust and losing their minds due to that wind.

I'm staying inside until next month. Bye!!! (*1)

(*1) Yes! The tulips were all brought inside; they're supposed to be for Bob's birthday, but they were a bit early. Now they're exploding and shattering all over the house. We have multiple vases of them.

Already Waiting for Spring

 

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for spring.The days have been getting shorter and darker, I'm still in a state of continual re-adjustment to the time change and suddenly it's cold. But tell that to the above primroses. These flowers are usually a tell-tale sign that spring has arrived; these crazy plants seem to bloom all year long. It's November, it's 23 degrees over night and they're like, "Perfect weather!" The kicker is that they came from Stop and Shop or Shop Rite- yes, I guess the variety is Super Market Mix. I buy them (marked down, of course!) in February so as to have color in the house and then plant them outdoors when spring finally arrives. Originally I thought we'd get a season's flowers and then they'd die but boy did I get a tremendous surprise when they came back, year after year. Truly perennial! 

I've got quite a few of them now. Last year, they were blooming in the snow so go figure: they must be some new mutant variety dreamed up in some horticulturist's perverse lab. But they're pretty and cheap so you gotta love them!

Okay but the main reason for my post is that I finally planted all the bulbs I bought:

As I've said before, bulbs are great; if you plant them and if they don't come up, no big deal! No one knows you wasted your time and money on them... not like some fancy-pants, over-priced perennial that looks swell at the nursery but immediately withers and dies when installed in your garden. So I planned on obtaining some bulbs. I have a spot where I plant tulips every year and then yank them to plant annuals. (Most tulips being not-too-perennial but soooooo lovely!) While bob and I were in Vermont recently, switching out his remarkable sculptures, I requested that we visit the Bennington Home Depot to see if they had marked down bulbs. Yes they did! And good colors! So for 50% off, I got Pink Impression and a beautiful mix called "Pride" (purples and pinks and reds). Also a bag of deep blue hyacinths for the Blue Garden.

I didn't stop there, however. Enthused by my luck and lured by the sales from nurseries that filled up my email in-box, I ordered petite miniature daffodils (Jack Sprite and Tete-a-Tete) and aliums (Bulgaricum and Christophii) and more tulips! Just you wait 'til next spring! Our gardens are going to be jumping! (*1)

(*1) I was fortunate that I encountered several warm sunny days to stagger around our vast estate, pushing a wheel barrow full of assorted bulbs, looking for spots to tuck them all in. It wouldn't have been fun had it been as cold as it was this morning!

Gardening Like There's No Tomorrow

So it's started: that mad scramble to buy, assemble and compose, feed, and plant. This part of Spring is so incredibly busy... that's MY excuse for not having posted sooner. I take my vocation as a "life style coach" VERY seriously and it's on me when I neglect my hungry followers. I apologize! But sometimes, living that heady, fast paced life style precludes the reporting on it.
So the picture at the top represents my initial foray into container planting. It's so much fun gathering all these colorful and seductive annuals and arranging for them to spend the summer together. Sometimes my head spins with the possibilities. Here's a shot of some of my raw material:

These are some of the plants I kept having to move out of my studio and back in every night when the weather was still chilly! It became quite the ordeal. Now I'm of the mindset that if we get a cold night- too bad! And that's only a fraction of what I've already planted.

Here's a shot of the amazing tulips that we obtained through our friend Hanneke who works at a tulip importer called ColorBlends. We can't say enough good things about their bulbs! Spectacular! So much better quality; the tulips and daffodils bloomed longer and were altogether bigger and more vibrant. Our Spring displays were amazing. Of course the irony is that few people got to see them as COVID 19 has put a cabosh on visitors!

Here's another tulip bed. These were inferior "Big Box" tulips and are already gone by. They also did not stand up well to the harsh weather and winds we experienced. I sound like an advertisement but boy there was a noticeable difference. I'm planting this bed in with cannas and zinnia linearis. That will be posted soon enough!

And Bob has been busy in the vegetable garden. We have been devouring salad after salad of wonderful delicate little greens.This is the same bed I featured in a previous posting. You can see how much these seedlings have grown. And take a look:

Bob meticulously transplants all those individual plants so they have room to grow. We eat the thinnings... I'm so lucky. Nothing I like better than tiny tender lettuce!
So forgive me if it's another few days before I post again; we're both busy in the great outdoors. We've also started grass seed in the horse field, mowed the lawn, Bob's planted his birthday present azalea (Delaware Valley White) and peonies (Festiva Maxima, Scarlett O'Hara and Do Tell) in a completely new display garden by the driveway. That way, when people pick up their metal plant supports (mostly peony rings!) they can see his work in action. It looks terrific! No wonder we're tired!

Not Ready For Cold Weather!!

Not very thrilling, huh? To you it may look simply like an empty plastic bucket, but to me it signals victory. I did it: I planted the three million daffodil and tulip bulbs I "accidentally" ordered!
The "accident" part is a somewhat amusing story of friends collaborating on an order and a few substitutions later, I wind up with a lot of bulbs. I had anticipated the spots I had marked in my Lilac Border would be sufficient for the thirty or so white daffodil bulbs I intended to plant. Believe me, I got varieties that I'm certain will be marvelous, but I had to dig quite a few more holes and prepare an entire new area. Suffice it to say that next year's garden is going to be spectacular. I am eagerly awaiting the vernal appearance of "Snowboard", "Frosty Snow", "Thalia", and "Starry Night"- and that's just the daffodils! (These, of course, are to compliment the "Ice Follies", "Mount Hood", "Thalia" and "Barrett Browning already in place!)
I was fortunate that despite a couple of rainy days (read downpours) that impeded my planting, (along with several art-related events that I was frantically preparing for) it was relatively mild and I was able to get everyone buried before the snows fly. Yes, it is expected to rain and then snow today, in direct contrast to yesterday's benevolent 60 degree weather. I'm for sure not prepared for that! It was nice to plant in reasonable temperatures; typically, I am a "cheap date" and I purchase my bulbs marked down at home improvement centers in late November and flirt with frostbite while planting in sleet and worse. The things we endure for next year's garden!
So here's a more fantastical scene:

That's my garden helper and all around shadow Robin the Good adorning our bedazzled stairway. She looked so sweet when I took the picture, but the carpet looked so dingy that I had to improve on it. Robin thoroughly enjoys helping in the garden and keeps me in good spirits when my energy flags. (Believe me, removing the sod from another area was not what I originally anticipated!) Robin is sneaky, though, and steals gloves, empty plastic perennial pots and generally anything not weighted down in the wheelbarrow. Some help!
Anyway, everybody's planted and I'm ready for some serious indoor activity. (My mosaic project is regrettably on hold until next spring as cement isn't happy in cold weather.) My studio awaits!

World's Tallest Amaryllis!

Just when I had despaired that our purchased amaryllis bulb had decided not to bloom (and we were stuck with figuring out what to do with a couple of strappy leaves and no flower) our friend Bob (one of many Bobs) gave us another bulb. This one was already promising to flower...
It's really out done itself. As you can see in the picture, it's a full 36" tall (that's a yard stick next to it) and has four large siren-like blossoms. AND it had another bud stalk rising form the pot!

It has made me so happy to see color and leaves as outside remains grey/tan/brown and bleak. It is a bit warmer (not over night!) and things are beginning to grow (not fast enough for me!). I guess Spring will officially arrive. I'm so eager to see how all those tulip and daffodil bulbs did.* And the lilacs! My infatuation with lilacs continues: I already have a short list of ones I need to find this year, like "Monge" and Charles Joly" and "Katherine Havermeyer". I guess this keeps me going when it still seems like warmth and flowers are so far away.

* I am a bit concerned as it's been so damned wet, and then we had a sheet of ice with water sort of trapped underneath. I'm afraid some of the bulbs may have rotted as they prefer a drier situation.

There's a Garden Under There Somewhere!

I started cleaning up the garden this afternoon. So late in the season! Sometimes, by the very beginning of March, all the beds are raked and expectant. However, this winter will not leave and it's late. I got two beds cleaned; perennials and tall grasses cut down, leaves removed... just a rough, first clean up. It was overcast and not especially warm, but I needed to be outside.

Here's the initial tarp filling up. That's the hard part, dragging it all away into the woods. Somethings can be composted, but this debris is full of sticks and grasses and tough oak leaves. they take a while to break down. It's better to just dispose of them in the woods.

Maggie looked unimpressed but Robin was eager to jump into the middle of my leaf piles and chew on twigs. Very helpful! It's hard to believe that we have had Robin the Good in our lives for a little over two years. She's still really hard to photograph; as I lift the camera thinking she looks particularly cute, she immediately moves her head...

And what's that white stuff? I am ignoring the right hand side of the garden. The glacier is receding  but there's still too much snow for my liking. I'm ignoring it! But wait! There's more!

It's going to be a while before I get to clean up the Long Border. It's still buried. But I have plenty to do on the left side of the yard. And there are tulips emerging! And daffodils! There will be a garden after all!.

So I'm Nuts

I am providing another picture of the silvery-toned front border because I spent the last two days digging, dividing, moving and installing another border. See? I told you I was nuts! I guess I'm of the mind that you can't have too many gardens...

And I always wanted an aster border. I love asters: they've got to be one of my all time top ten flowers (The other big one on my list is Delphinium. Also tulips. And I do like lilacs! The list goes on.) Last fall, if anyone can remember that far back, in a saner, safer world before The Orange Menace ascended to the throne... oops! I thought I'd avoid politics but I guess that nigh -on impossible. Where was I... Ah yes. Last fall I conceived of the idea of a border devoted almost entirely to asters. I searched high and low and found a few nice selections but a few interesting varieties eluded me. It seems few garden centers offer a wide range of asters and there many to be had. I sense that by fall, many gardeners are on to Chrysanthemums and cabbages and don't think about planting asters. And I know by a couple that bought, they don't always enjoy living in perennial pots all summer. I got two Aster Novi-belgii "Marie Ballard" that looked so awful that the woman at the nursery sold me them for half price. But they came up brilliantly this spring! (As an aside, the nomenclature has chnaged. Confusingly, what had previously been called Aster Novi-angliae and Aster Novi-belgii are now known as Symphyotrichum Novi-angliae and Symphyotrichum Novi-belgii. The horticultural powers that be seem to get antsy and rename things every once in a while. Whatever!)

This spring I resorted to ordering "Bressingham White", "September Ruby" and "Crimson Brocade". The first two arrived looking just swell; they were so well packaged and nice strapping plants; hats off to that supplier. The "Crimson Brocade", reputedly the reddest of the fall blooming asters came looking awfully sad: bare root and wimpy. I sure hope they revive.

Anyway, I dug and ripped roots out and yanked Virginia Creeper vines and broke sod. We should have a pretty spectacular aster border this late summer/early fall. I crammed a mess of asters in there including "Harrington's Pink" (which I've had for ages),  Aromatic Aster "October Skies", Calico asters, Aster Laevis and a few asters that produced their own cross-breeds in our garden. 

But here's a nice tulip photo that Bob took to provide color as those asters aren't going to bloom until autumn. They're being protected  from Robin's marauding hooves by one of Bob's peony rings:

Shrub Border Part II

And to reinforce just how much work (and fun!) I experience when creating a new border, here's a partial pile of the rocks I unearthed! Single-handedly wrenched from this stony, unforgiving New England soil. (Stirring images of doughty pioneer women...And I did get just a touch of poison ivy.)

Here's the pile of brambles I chopped, yanked, pulled and sawed down. I think I really needed to see my hard work documented...
And while I was busy hauling and planting and watering, all this other stuff was erupting:
                                                                            

Tulips! That transformed from yellow to orange and were simply super. (Sorry my picture placement is all wonky. As usual- because of that blasted Mercury retrograde or a virus, our computer is behaving oddly. Actually, I think it's still something to do with that upgrade to Windows 10...)

That's not the greatest picture but it looks really super in person... less empty space!  Robin is skulking away in the back ground; she probably stole something from me, like a perennial pot or a glove. Very sneaky! Tonight while I was planting the pansies a friend gave us (thank you Bob!), Robin stole my watering bottle, three (empty) annual packs and tried to wrestle the hose to the ground as if it were a giant Anaconda- she's very helpful!
Additionally, the sand cherry is blooming like never before and the Magnolia is still in bloom. It's really been a pretty spring. I am just beginning to feel a bit swamped (Jeremy Swamped that is) because I need to get started planting seeds and there are already weeds. No rest for the wicked!

A Fondness for Festivities

Never one to miss out on miscellaneous festivals (or to invent new ones when needed) I decided last Tuesday was as good a day as any for our First Annual Tulip Festival. We were never able to celebrate the blooming of tulips when we lived in our previous house as our carefully planted tulips were annually consumed by maurauding deer. Here, we have been lucky so far. I know that the day is not far away that the local deer will discover cultivated culitvars and practice a sort of scorched earth policy but until such time, let us now praise famous bulbs!
The red flowers (above) were dominate. I planted several clusters of the red and a smaller offering of white. We also had white tulips for indoor enjoymeny provided by the cut flower garden. The tulips all bloomed rather quickly once they sent up buds as the weather has been remarkably warm. But at least we got to admire them!
We had food color themed to reflect our flowers: salmon and strawberries and red wine and tomato salad. It was simple and delicious and after the week (or two) that we've had working and running around like maniacs, it was good to slow down and watch the flowers grow. Maybe there should be a festival a week; don't they celebrate various saint's days (or other excuses for a good time) in Europe? Sounds like a healthy idea to me!