I have discovered a new place in my brain. I am calling it the Pit of Oblivion. It is the place where my "to do" thoughts go to. I'll be thinking of something that I just must get done. I mull it over a little, unable to figure out how or when I will get it done. Next thing I know, I can't remember what it was I was so intent on getting done, nor am I able to access the information. Kind of like working on something on word processing and forgetting to save the file. Well I never even named the file in the first place, let alone saved it!!
So it went to that place, no longer able to be accessed where all our "need to do" thoughts go so that we don't get stressed about not being able to do them.
AND, I am realizing, if it was that important, I would have done it in the first place!!
It's sort of like Maya Angelou's phrase, "You don't know how much you don't know."
I think of that phrase whenever I want to convey information to someone that they really don't need to hear from me, but would be better off learning it for themselves.
Like when my older daughter was pregnant with her first child, and thought that because she had gone through two miscarriages she knew exactly what it was going to be like to deliver a baby. Of course after she went through the first baby she did find out that she really had had no idea of what it would be like.
As a mother don't we want to be able to help our children through all of what we know they have to experience? So, I am sixty and finally getting the message that they have to do it in their own way and in their own time. But hey, wouldn't it be great to be able to help them through it a bit??!! LOL
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Another new path
Towards the end of the season a friend gave us some path stones. As there weren't enough to complete a path I was fortunate to be able to locate a granite company that was willing to let us take scrap granite to supplement the stone we were given. When we had renovated our home some years back we had a granite top installed on our kitchen island. The supplier let us take granite scraps with the proviso that we only use it on the wrong side outdoors. He had had a customer who used it shiny side up, slipped on it and sued him! So at that time we took scrap pieces and used them for paths in the gardens. This path is the one right by the front Butterfly Bush, which leads to our faucets. It has been in for several years and the granite pieces have settled in nicely amid bits of various ground covers. As this had worked out so well I decided to use this method in other areas.
And as my hubby had agreed it is time to downsize out lawn, I started working on the area next to our garage. It was a very easy decision for this to be the first area I worked on as our great Spice bush had always been overgrowing the lawn and it was a constant battle to keep hubby from pruning it back too much year after year. And besides, we never use that area for anything, so why not let the Spicebush have its way. Also, the planting in the area have always been growing into the lawn, so it was a natural choice to just let them all have their way and get rid of the obstacle of the lawn!!
I positioned the stones down through the area after removing the lawn, which I used as part of the sheet layering mulch in my front gardens. As you can see I extended the lawn removal beyond the side of the path to allow room for transplanting ground cover. As it was before the frost I was able to move some creeping Veronica to start getting it established. It is a wonderful groundcover, doing well in both sun and shade and filling in very quickly wherever I have used it around the gardens. It has a beautiful small blue flower in the early spring. This area has a lot of Violets growing in the lawn, so it will be an easy process to remove the lawn whenever I can get around to it next year. There is Myrtle, Spirea and Columbine growing along the border which will now be able to fill in the area over the years.
To the left of the path I removed all the lawn. The garden in that area has Forget-me-not as the ground cover. This also has been seeding into the lawn.
I filled in the area with more creeping Veronica and as I was able to just slice large sections of it from other areas, it took root immediately.
You can see how I used thin lengths of granite to border the other stone.
And when I ran out of that I just used granite for the rest of the length of it. It will lead directly into a new patio area which is also in the works.
Need to get moving along as Paula and I are working on getting Mia's bedroom repainted. Now that she is in high school she needs a room update. I've been working steadily on Christmas preparation, so haven't had as much time for the blog. Paula goes back to work this coming week, so I will be adding day care provider to my labels. My son in law has a promising job offer, so we are waiting on that. It has been two months that they have been struggling. It is good to finally see some end in sight for them. Hope all are well and enjoying this holiday preparation time.
And as my hubby had agreed it is time to downsize out lawn, I started working on the area next to our garage. It was a very easy decision for this to be the first area I worked on as our great Spice bush had always been overgrowing the lawn and it was a constant battle to keep hubby from pruning it back too much year after year. And besides, we never use that area for anything, so why not let the Spicebush have its way. Also, the planting in the area have always been growing into the lawn, so it was a natural choice to just let them all have their way and get rid of the obstacle of the lawn!!
I positioned the stones down through the area after removing the lawn, which I used as part of the sheet layering mulch in my front gardens. As you can see I extended the lawn removal beyond the side of the path to allow room for transplanting ground cover. As it was before the frost I was able to move some creeping Veronica to start getting it established. It is a wonderful groundcover, doing well in both sun and shade and filling in very quickly wherever I have used it around the gardens. It has a beautiful small blue flower in the early spring. This area has a lot of Violets growing in the lawn, so it will be an easy process to remove the lawn whenever I can get around to it next year. There is Myrtle, Spirea and Columbine growing along the border which will now be able to fill in the area over the years.
To the left of the path I removed all the lawn. The garden in that area has Forget-me-not as the ground cover. This also has been seeding into the lawn.
I filled in the area with more creeping Veronica and as I was able to just slice large sections of it from other areas, it took root immediately.
You can see how I used thin lengths of granite to border the other stone.
And when I ran out of that I just used granite for the rest of the length of it. It will lead directly into a new patio area which is also in the works.
Need to get moving along as Paula and I are working on getting Mia's bedroom repainted. Now that she is in high school she needs a room update. I've been working steadily on Christmas preparation, so haven't had as much time for the blog. Paula goes back to work this coming week, so I will be adding day care provider to my labels. My son in law has a promising job offer, so we are waiting on that. It has been two months that they have been struggling. It is good to finally see some end in sight for them. Hope all are well and enjoying this holiday preparation time.
Monday, December 1, 2008
DECEMBER IS HERE!!!!!
CANNOT believe that today is December 1st!!! How could it possibly be December already??!!
Working feverishly on Christmas presents. We try to make gifts for those close to us. It can be a challenge, but with my tow hands almost back to full working order, I am enjoying the creative process on a daily basis now. So, since I have not gardens to pour y soul into, during the off gardening season, I pour my soul into the things that I am able to create. Have been working on warmer curtains to help muffle the cold air around our windows, and mittens, hats, scarves, sweaters, and on and on for those I love to have under the Christmas tree this year. I'm finding it more difficult to find the extended time needed for research to complete my posts, as I am still working on getting the house ready for our expanded family once my daughter gets her house sold. This is a tough market for anyone to be stuck in, and we are all there together. We just have to move forward and do what needs to be done each day.
Some plants have been blooming much later than usual this year. These photos were taken 11-17, just the week before Thanksgiving, and they show the beautiful Clara Curtis Daisy still in bloom. And we're not talking just one flower here as has been the case with other still blooming perennials.
These plants have many blossoms which I found basking in the sunshine this particular morning.
This same day I was also heartened to see that this butterfly bush, which I had transplanted out of the Daylily bed onto the front lawn area, has new growth, even this late in the season. Initially right after being moved the whole bush seems to die down.
While its roots adjust to the move, the leaves all die and drop off. Then within just a few short weeks, it summons the energy to send out new growth all over signaling yet another successful transplant.
I have found it quite surprising to see all the plants still thriving at such a late date this season. Of course, since my brain has aged, I don't remember back as easily as I used to, so it all seems pretty new again. So isn't it wonderful that I will be experiencing this sense of seeing it for the first time for many years to come!!! So you all will have to bear with me as I chronicle all of this.
The Foxglove seem to really like this cool weather. Here is a great group which is monitoring the progress of the sheet mulching process.
I am wondering how many of these are just having their last hurrah before giving way to the new sprouts which will be taking their places. Foxglove, Digitalis, is a biennial, which means that those that bloomed this year will be dying off. Biennials set seed the first year, bloom the second, spread their seed and then die off. The successive years plants are continually replenished by the seeds each year. So if you have any biennials you need to let them go to seed or you will have no more plants to look forward to.
And this one has found a comfy nook, snuggled right up to the pool!!
Do you remember the trouble I was having with my Poppies in the early part of the season? Well, I had dug up several new shoots to give to other gardeners, and several of them did not transplant at all.
So imagine my joy when I found all these poppy sprouts coming up this fall! More to share in the spring!!
And here is my trusty Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima, which is sold as an annual. It is actually considered a tender perennial, as it doesn't survive our winters. But I have found it to be great at seeding itself from year to year. I just let it seed where it wants and then transplant the excess seedlings all over as it is a great mulching ground cover. It does tend to get leggy after a few months of growth, so that I shear it back to 2-3 inches and then it rebounds quickly and lasts beyond the first frost.
Working feverishly on Christmas presents. We try to make gifts for those close to us. It can be a challenge, but with my tow hands almost back to full working order, I am enjoying the creative process on a daily basis now. So, since I have not gardens to pour y soul into, during the off gardening season, I pour my soul into the things that I am able to create. Have been working on warmer curtains to help muffle the cold air around our windows, and mittens, hats, scarves, sweaters, and on and on for those I love to have under the Christmas tree this year. I'm finding it more difficult to find the extended time needed for research to complete my posts, as I am still working on getting the house ready for our expanded family once my daughter gets her house sold. This is a tough market for anyone to be stuck in, and we are all there together. We just have to move forward and do what needs to be done each day.
Some plants have been blooming much later than usual this year. These photos were taken 11-17, just the week before Thanksgiving, and they show the beautiful Clara Curtis Daisy still in bloom. And we're not talking just one flower here as has been the case with other still blooming perennials.
These plants have many blossoms which I found basking in the sunshine this particular morning.
This same day I was also heartened to see that this butterfly bush, which I had transplanted out of the Daylily bed onto the front lawn area, has new growth, even this late in the season. Initially right after being moved the whole bush seems to die down.
While its roots adjust to the move, the leaves all die and drop off. Then within just a few short weeks, it summons the energy to send out new growth all over signaling yet another successful transplant.
I have found it quite surprising to see all the plants still thriving at such a late date this season. Of course, since my brain has aged, I don't remember back as easily as I used to, so it all seems pretty new again. So isn't it wonderful that I will be experiencing this sense of seeing it for the first time for many years to come!!! So you all will have to bear with me as I chronicle all of this.
The Foxglove seem to really like this cool weather. Here is a great group which is monitoring the progress of the sheet mulching process.
I am wondering how many of these are just having their last hurrah before giving way to the new sprouts which will be taking their places. Foxglove, Digitalis, is a biennial, which means that those that bloomed this year will be dying off. Biennials set seed the first year, bloom the second, spread their seed and then die off. The successive years plants are continually replenished by the seeds each year. So if you have any biennials you need to let them go to seed or you will have no more plants to look forward to.
And this one has found a comfy nook, snuggled right up to the pool!!
Do you remember the trouble I was having with my Poppies in the early part of the season? Well, I had dug up several new shoots to give to other gardeners, and several of them did not transplant at all.
So imagine my joy when I found all these poppy sprouts coming up this fall! More to share in the spring!!
And here is my trusty Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima, which is sold as an annual. It is actually considered a tender perennial, as it doesn't survive our winters. But I have found it to be great at seeding itself from year to year. I just let it seed where it wants and then transplant the excess seedlings all over as it is a great mulching ground cover. It does tend to get leggy after a few months of growth, so that I shear it back to 2-3 inches and then it rebounds quickly and lasts beyond the first frost.
A chilly Prickly Pear
Eastern Prickly Pear, Opuntia humifusa is a contradictory plant here in New England. It is a cactus, which you normally think of as growing in the desert. Well this cactus has adapted to survive in our New England weather! There was a recent article in our local paper, the Sun Chronicle by Lee Reich, for the Associated Press, about these great plants. They are native only to the Americas, but are all over the world now. They bask in blazing sun, and are a great compliment to Sedum, Thyme and Lavender.I was especially glad that I caught this article as it prepared me for the sight I found walking around the gardens last week. This cactus has a definite reaction to the frosty weather up here in the Northeast. The flat pads of the plants begin to look piqued as they shrivel and discolor. As this is my first season with this great plant I might have thought the frost had killed if off had I not read this article. Instead I now know that this is typical behavior and that they will perk up again next spring!! Just don't let it get covered with leaves as it will rot.
Doesn't this guy look like he is completely done in?? The Indian Blanket, Gaillardia at its feet is in much better shape.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Photos to be added to posts
As I was browsing through photos for posts, I came upon these which I had been unable to locate at the time of writing the posts about them.
These are photos of Groundnut, Apios Americana, which I wrote about on 11-14. It gets quite viney, as you can see by how this one has grown right up the tall support pole for one of our bird houses.
Once you become familiar with it, it becomes quite easy to identify as it grows on top of other plants and has very distinct leaves.
This is the area under the Blue Spruce, which had been so overgrown that it was impossible to see what was trying to grow there. This is what it looked like before the pruning of the Spruce. The Lamb's Ears was totally overgrown by the heavy Spruce branches.
And this is what it became once the lower branches were pruned back. Now you can clearly see the group of Lamb's Ears, Stachys Byzantina, which had been coping with the crowded area.
The Lamb's Ears is now joined by its new neighbor, Heather, which was transplanted out from the entanglement of Bittersweet roots.
This Heather is due for a much better time in the spring when it will have the opportunity to grow free of the Bittersweet roots that it had been plagued with.
Interestingly I found several patches of Lamb's Ears seedlings getting ready to be moved on to new homes next year. It is the first time they have seeded themselves!!
These are photos of Groundnut, Apios Americana, which I wrote about on 11-14. It gets quite viney, as you can see by how this one has grown right up the tall support pole for one of our bird houses.
Once you become familiar with it, it becomes quite easy to identify as it grows on top of other plants and has very distinct leaves.
This is the area under the Blue Spruce, which had been so overgrown that it was impossible to see what was trying to grow there. This is what it looked like before the pruning of the Spruce. The Lamb's Ears was totally overgrown by the heavy Spruce branches.
And this is what it became once the lower branches were pruned back. Now you can clearly see the group of Lamb's Ears, Stachys Byzantina, which had been coping with the crowded area.
The Lamb's Ears is now joined by its new neighbor, Heather, which was transplanted out from the entanglement of Bittersweet roots.
This Heather is due for a much better time in the spring when it will have the opportunity to grow free of the Bittersweet roots that it had been plagued with.
Interestingly I found several patches of Lamb's Ears seedlings getting ready to be moved on to new homes next year. It is the first time they have seeded themselves!!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sara's view
I finally got these photos transferred correctly! Enjoy Sara's view!!
This is an email I got recently. Look at Sara's beautiful view.
Hi Marna,
I hope you are feeling better. I was looking through some pictures and found these of the pond behind my house. It is so beautiful in the Spring & Winter when the leaves on the trees are gone. This is why I want to cut a few of the smaller trees down to enjoy this view all year round.
-Sara
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving
At this time of thanksgiving, I want to thank all of you who made this past gardening season my best yet. I look forward to many more, sharing the gardens and all they provide with even more of you in the future.
I never imagined the joy you would bring to these gardens, in the form of your company, your friendship and your participation in all that transpired over the months. As we sit down for our Thanksgiving dinners, as is our tradition, we will be giving thanks and looking ahead to all that life will bring to us in the future.
May this feast day find you surrounded by your loved ones, basking in the glow that only love can bring.
I never imagined the joy you would bring to these gardens, in the form of your company, your friendship and your participation in all that transpired over the months. As we sit down for our Thanksgiving dinners, as is our tradition, we will be giving thanks and looking ahead to all that life will bring to us in the future.
May this feast day find you surrounded by your loved ones, basking in the glow that only love can bring.
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