Gardening starts early if you want good results. The first photo is from today, March 5th. And it is after I spent about an hour each of the past two days cutting dead stalks and flowers from last year. Ok, that’s not quite true because I got distracted today and decided that Claire needed a trim since her fur was so long it caught leaves when we were hiking and dragged on the ground. But we were out there for an hour each day and most of it was spent gardening!
The other two pictures are of the same flowerbed from June 14th of last year. What a transformation three months can make! Most of those plants are perennials, but don’t underestimate the work involved. There is still transplanting, splitting of plants, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, and mulching to be done. And did I mention the weeding, lol? During the summer I dead head and prune my roses about every two weeks. This seems to give the best results.
Our patio garden is completely fenced, so the dogs can come with me while I garden here. Otherwise, I would never get any work done. Cassius the greyhound naps on the patio furniture. The others usually lay on the cold flagstones in the shade, or under the Dawn Redwood. Although Claire is a busy girl and spends time watching the rock pile for chipmunks to chase. All of the dogs learn quickly to stay out of the flowerbeds. I will have to teach PeeWee, our newest addition, this skill. He learns quickly and I don’t anticipate a problem. He is only two and will almost certainly help Claire chase chipmunks.
The pictures of the beds in bloom almost make me ready for the flurry of gardening to come. But not quite. I am still resting. That’s why everything has its season.
This photo sums up a large part of the reason why I have been behind on posting my lists of books read. Watering, weeding, fertilizing, pruning and deadheading. That’s why. With this post I will be caught up. At least until the calendar flips at the end of the month. So follows my list of books read for July.
Forever and a Day-Jill Shalvis
Grace Brooks arrives in Lucky Harbor to figure out what will make her life happy. Answering an accidental call from Dr. Josh Scott, she agrees to be the dog walker and then temporary nanny to his five year old son. Grace takes care of the son Toby and paraplegic sister Anna. Grace is there for Josh too. Some families are built rather than born and they are worth the work.
2. Send a Ranger-Tom Habecker (Non-fiction)
A summary of a 32 year career as a ranger serving the National Parks system. From Washington D.C. to Gettysburg, then Yosemite to Glacier to Denali National Park, it was quite a career. The book covers day to day functions such as maintenance, law enforcement, and rescues. The author also shared the beauty and grandeur of the scenery and wildlife. It was interesting to hear what the life of a ranger is really like.
3. OMFG, Bees!-Matt Kracht (Non/fiction)
A hand-illustrated guide with everything you ever wanted to know about bees. The drawings are adorable and the information is presented in a lighthearted, funny way.
4. Ruby Spencer’s Whisky Year-Rochelle Bilow
Ruby quits her high-powered job and moves to Scotland for a year to write a cookbook. She rents a tiny cottage and helps with cooking at the adjacent local pub to help pay her rent. Ruby becomes part of the local community and feels that she has come home, especially after meeting a village Scotsman. It was fun being immersed in this bit of Scottish life.
5. The Café at Beach End-RaeAnne Thayer
Meredith Collins is trying to get her life in order after her ex-husband swindles many people out of their retirement savings. Most people feel she was involved even though she was as surprised as everyone else. Meredith moves from Chicago to a small beach cottage she inherited from her grandmother. It’s all she has left. Her estranged cousin Tori still lives nearby. Her undercover neighbor is looking for clues as to where Meredith’s ex-husband hid the money before he died in prison. Lots of storylines going on here. It made for an enjoyable read.
6. Subpar Parks-Amber Share (Non-fiction)
This book is humorous, informative, and has nice graphic art. Each of America’s National Parks has a chapter starting with the worst and most humorous review. Ie. Crater National Park,”Just something to look at and leave”. I think some people should just stay home. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot about our parks.
Magazines: Dogster, Cottages and Bungalows, The English Home, AARP, Country Living, Down East
Yesterday’s vegetables!
This picture also illustrates the comment about why I am behind with posting my book lists and posting in general. I gave about half of these away to my daughter and mother-in-law. This evening, we are having sweet and sour eggplant with peppers and a few green beans served on Jasmine rice for dinner.
I keep four different varieties of rice on hand. Jasmine, brown Basmati, long grain, and short grain. They all have a different taste and texture that makes them preferable for different dishes. Sometimes, I buy long grain and wild rice too. Not bad for a girl whose only exposure to rice growing up was the occasional Minute Rice for our canned La Choy “Chinese food”. My tastes have expanded from when I was growing up and our winter vegetables consisted of canned corn, peas, or green beans. I don’t think our family was all that unusual for the times. The variety of foods that we have now were not as readily available then. At least not where I lived. This may be part of the reason I enjoy growing and cooking such a wide range of things now.
My friends, I hope you are enjoying the bounty of summer as well. Until next time…Peace be with you.
It’s really starting to feel like spring. Everywhere I look I notice something in bloom that wasn’t there the last time I looked. This columbine has been so successful that I would like to get another one in a different color. Who knows, maybe I’ll even put it in my fancy decorative urn. Until this one, I have only ever had the traditional pale pink columbine that re-seed prolifically. I’m a big fan of these fancy bi-color cultivars.
Irises
My bearded irises are starting to bloom. I love their faint grape-like scent. These used to grow in a bed beside the house, but they didn’t like it there. I moved them into the walled garden where they call be in a bed that provides sun for a portion of the day, and they seem much happier. They are spreading and give us many blooms. We also have Siberian irises that will bloom as the bearded ones start to fade. Gardening is a fine dance to be planned out step by step. Most perennials bloom for a set amount of time and you don’t want them all to bloom at once and then be done. You want to plan it, so they peak in phases with something beautiful to behold at all times.
Clematis
The clematis are just getting started with their blooms for the year. When this one peaks, it has over 50 blossoms at a time. I have another smaller plant that I grew from a shoot off this one after I separated it last year. We also have a burgundy clematis that gives us beautiful blooms, but it is nowhere near the monster that the purple one is. This one also provides a second, if smaller, round of blooms later in the summer.
Have you noticed that I have a penchant for purple flowers? I also like pinks and apricots. Really any pastel flower. But then I think about the reds and the orange and yellow variegated ones and I love them too. I guess I like them all.
Lilies
This lily reminds me of popcorn because of its colors. I don’t know what kind of lily it is. My mother-in-law asked me if I wanted starts from the ones that she had and of course I said yes. I have these growing in several places. I always enjoy plants given to me by others the most. I get to be reminded of the thoughtful person that gave them to me in addition to the lovely plants.
Ferns
These ferns were growing as weeds along the edge of our driveway. I transplanted several of them to the shady corner of my rose garden and am quite happy with their performance. They had spread so much over the past few years that I had to dig some up and move them as they were beginning to encroach on other plants. I love ferns in general. They are so lush and green. They also provide greenery throughout much of the year when other plants are dormant.
We purchased the rhododendron and the St. John’s Wort in this garden bed. All the other plants have been transplanted from off shoots or re-seedings from plants that we already had. Astilbe, red coral bells, columbine, myrtle, and snapdragons are what grow here now.
Freshly mulched
My rose bed is ready to go for the season. It looks like a simple flower bed but I already have hours worth of work invested in it. All the roses needed to be trimmed back from their winter burns. I have weeded this bed two times already. I also grow most of my gladioi in this bed because it is the sunniest one we have and in my experience, the more sun glads have, the bigger they get and the more they flower. I spent two afternoons planting glad bulbs and mulching after that. Yesterday afternoon I did the fertilizing. It will be worth it. All the rose bushes are loaded with lots of blooms. I sprung for the good fertilizer for my roses. I get the stuff that has nutrients, and prevents Japanese beetles, and black spot. It prevents a lot of heartache.
Last summer I was dubbing myself the Japanese beetle queen. I suppose Japanese beetle slayer would have been closer to the truth. I have never seen as many of these beetles as we had last year. They were on most every plant we had. I would make the rounds with my jar of soapy water, knocking beetles in as I went. I probably got 100 with each round. We even put milky spore in the yard which is supposed to kill the larvae. Fingers crossed that this year is better.
New flowers!
Does this photo look like lots of pretty flowers? It does to me too. It also looks like days worth of work which it also is. There are a few perennials for our ever growing collection. And there are annuals for the concrete planters on top of the garden wall, some for my hanging baskets, with enough left over for other urns and filling in empty spots that need a little something.
It all sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But the rewards are worth it. I find that if I put in extra work early in the season, it gives more free time to relax later in the summer. Prevent those weeds and seeds now, and it will pay off big time later. I try never to get so involved in the prepping and maintaining of the garden that I don’t take time to enjoy it. For each time I do some gardening, I also make a little time for a cool drink and reading on the patio. The dogs also hang out with me in the garden which makes it more fun for all of us. They are all trained to stay out of the flower beds and know where they can go. They think the fountain is the world’s largest dog bowl! And so, it is.
Hello Readers! The typical fall flurry of activity has been keeping me busy. This is a transition season. Lots of clean-up chores from summer, that must be completed before winter hits. I dug up three paper grocery bags worth of gladioli bulbs. The bags are covered with bulbs one layer deep across the bottom. This is to prevent crowding and allow for proper air flow. If there are too many bulbs in one bag, they will rot from the moisture retention. I still have to dig up the begonia and dahlia corms. They were still blooming, so I let them go. It snowed the past two days, so I will dig them up during the next warm spell we get.
Most of our outdoor time the past few weeks has been spent raking and hauling leaves. Some of the leaves went into our new compost bin. My husband built us a large compost bin from lumber and chicken wire. We are composting leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps. Our first batch should be ready to add to the garden next year. I’ll let you know.
I was here by myself for a week in October while my husband and daughter went on a trip to New York and Massachusetts. I took a trip to the library the day they left, so I would have lots of reading material. I stayed home with the dogs and managed to have another foster dog by the time they returned from their vacation. Foster Puppy! Bodhi, Part I We had a fine time here at home! So, here are the books I read…
The Wind Through the Keyhole-Stephen King
This book is one from King’s gunslinger novels. It is the prequel to the original series. It is a tale that seems like a cross of a past land and a futuristic fantasy world. I am not a Stephen King fanatic, but I do like to read an occasional one of his works. I found myself becoming invested in the main characters and rooting for them. An enjoyable read.
2. Write for Your Life-Anna Quindlen (Non-fiction)
A book about the importance of seemingly common writing to our everyday lives, and to the world. Sometimes, common makes all the difference, and proves not to be common after all. Well worth the read.
3. Maggie Moves On-Lucy Score
House flipper & You Tuber Maggie Nichols takes on her next project in Kinship, Idaho. She discovers a landscaper with lots to offer and discovers that you can build a family with something besides blood bonds. The house they are working on has a history involving a stagecoach robbery and lost treasure. A fun read.
4. Growing Wonder, a Flower Farmer’s Guide to Roses-Felicia Alvarez (Non-fiction)
Good information on choosing, growing, and harvesting roses. There is always more information to be gleaned and I appreciated the info on pruning. Alvarez is a third-generation farmer and has a degree in agricultural science. Good information to be had. Living life on a beautiful flower and vegetable farm in California sounds like an idyllic life until I think about the amount of work involved.
5. English Country-Julie Fowler (Non-fiction)
An interior decorating book in the style of the English countryside. I enjoyed perusing the page and got a few ideas. Sit down with a good cup of tea while you read it.
6. Sugar and Salt-Susan Wiggs
Margot Salton started life as Margie Salinas. She made the change after suffering a rough start in life. She becomes a successful chef and has a new life, complete with a budding romance with Jerome Sugar who works in the bakery next door. Margot must deal with her past as it comes back to haunt her in her new life. Susan Wiggs books are always enjoyable.
7. The Secret Supper-Javier Sierra
The write up promises a historical thriller involving Leonardo da Vinci and the Catholic Church. After reading 125 pages, I decided to return this book to the library. It has too many details and little action, being told as a narrative by a friar years later. I cannot bring myself to contine reading.
8. Where Women Create-Jo Packham (Non-fiction)
I’ve had this book out of the library before and I love it! Has pictures of various women artists’ studios and creative spaces. I find it to be inspiring. I’m not sure how these artists pull off the creative, cluttered look and make it so appealing. My own area looks like someone just dumped a bunch of stuff and ran for it.
9. Hill House Living-Paula Sutton (Non-fiction)
This is a decorating and life style book. Hill House is in England. There are nice photographs and some cute ideas within.
Magazines-Cottages and Bungalows(2),Tuscan Home & Living, Forks Over Knives (2)
Fall has arrived and with it, time for an update on things around here.
With the cooler weather, we have resumed hiking! This makes for happy dogs. We have hiked four days so far this week for a total of 9.35 miles and 3.5 hours. It is good to be back on the trails. I was afraid that Baxter and Shelby would have trouble keeping up as our senior dogs at 13 and 12. They have done pretty well. I did keep Shelby home today as she was limping a little. Yesterday’s walk was on hard surface, and she does better on dirt or grass trails. She can go with us next time. I gave her a dental chew as we were leaving, and she seemed happy enough to see us when we came home.
Hiking on the trail.
There aren’t many people on the trails as we’ve been hiking before lunch time. The few people Zekie has seen have been from a distance and he hasn’t barked at them! Is his reactivity better? I don’t know if it’s because they aren’t that close or if he is doing better after being on Prozac for over a year. After our last trip to the veterinarian, we decided to increase Zekie’s Prozac by 50% because he still tries to chew his way out of his crate when we have to leave him at home to go away. The vet warned me that some dogs’ behavior gets worse with a higher dosage, not better. After six weeks of the higher dosage, I decided that Zekie was not doing as well as he had been before. He still tried to chew his way out of the crate, no change there. What I didn’t like was that he had a perpetually wide-eyed and upset look on his face. He appeared to be continually surprised or like he was waiting for something unpleasant to happen. Not the effect I was going for. So, Zekie is back to his original dose of Prozac and seems to be more comfortable. We also left Zekie (and the other dogs) in the car while we stopped to get apples at a local orchard today. He was only without us for five minutes and he didn’t seem to have a separation anxiety attack. We didn’t want to push our luck. Once we chose our apples, my husband went back to the car while I waited to pay.
Cassius getting warm.
Although the cool weather makes Cassius chipper and eager to hike, he does get cold when laying around the house. We cover him up and he seems pretty happy. Does he have us trained or what?
Lilly!
And in other news, we have a new dog in the extended family! My mother-in-law got a sheltie through a seniors for seniors program. She felt her other dog Paisley needed a companion. After a week of settling in, the two dogs have begun playing and having a good time. The new dog’s name is Lilly. We have been over to visit twice with all five our dogs and Lilly has adjusted to them too. She is an adaptable little thing.
Dahlia blooms!
It took long enough but we have dahlias! I was late in planting them, so the blooms are just coming on. We should be having our first frost in a couple weeks. I will throw a sheet over the plants for the night when frost is forecast, and they will be fine. We generally have a couple more weeks of good weather after that first frost.
I planted a small crop of cold weather vegetables on the far end of our garden. They are where our zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers were. Those plants are long gone. In their place, I planted mixed lettuce, beets, turnips, green onions, baby bok choy, and Chinese cabbage. All of these places should survive multiple frosts. There are just a few seeds of each. What I think we can eat before winter sets in.
The garden takes on a different feel in the autumn months. I know, it’s technically not fall yet, but you can definitely tell a difference. The light has a sharper feel and the path of the sun over the course of the day has changed. There are more shady places to sit on the patio throughout the day with the angle of the sun on the move. I see this as prime patio time. I can load up a tote bag of books and magazines, grab a beverage and the dogs, without worrying that the blazing sun will drive us back indoors.
In this shot of the garden, you can see Zekie photo bombing all the plants. Actually, it was a fortunate accident. Who wouldn’t want to see a photo of Zekie Bear? The other dogs were with me but laying in out of the way places.
First dahlia!
We finally have dahlias! We have two blooms so far. It is my fault that we are just now getting them. I was late in planting. I find that I’m rather glad about it. So many of the other plants are winding down. It is nice to have dahlia blossoms coming on to look forward to. I learned this year that you are supposed to pinch off the top of the main stalk when the dahlia plant is 12-18 inches high. This forces more branches to grow, and more branches means more blooms. Yay! If you want large blooms, you need to pinch off a few of the buds too. I also learned that dahlias are heavy feeders and need lots of fertilizer. I won’t claim to have kept up with fertilizing them like I should have, but I did do it a couple times.
The Leaning Tower of…Gladioli?
This is one of the last spray of gladioli blossoms for the year. They have been so reliable for me. I follow the routine of digging them up in the fall, planting them in the spring, and they never disappoint. These days, most of them get planted in my rose bed. That is the only place I have in the garden that remains sunny enough for their tastes.
Mandevilla
This is a mandevilla that I wintered over last year. The summer was half-way done before it produced many blossoms. Now it is putting on a show. The mandevilla is a Zone 10 plant. We live in Zone 5. During January we wondered if our upstairs hallway where the plant sat was even warm enough to keep it going, 55 degrees when it’s really cold out! Ah, the joys of an old farmhouse. It dropped a lot of leaves at the beginning of May, right before I moved it to the enclosed porch. I’m glad we toughed it out. It turned out to be worth it.
Butterfly bush
The butterfly bush is one of those plants that I wouldn’t grow just for the flowers. What makes it worth it, is the fact that it lives up to its name. Once it starts to bloom there are butterflies on it every day, throughout the day. The majority of butterflies we see are yellow swallowtails and monarchs, although many others visit too. Not to mention the hummingbirds and my personal favorite, the hummingbird moth. So many pollinators like this bush that it makes me wonder if bats feed on it at night? That would be awesome.
We bought a couple butterfly bushes many years ago and have not been without them since. They reseed prolifically. Ours prefer to grow in craggy, inopportune places. Between sandstones in the garden wall. Along the fence. In walkway screed. They are easy enough to move when small and always seem to survive. They are such good reproducers that we weed out lots each year. Definitely don’t let one take hold where you don’t want it. They develop massive roots that require my husband and the spud bar to remove them. We have had them in different locations over the years. The bushes bloom nicely for two or three years and then start to look straggly, and we take them out, wondering where the next generation will sprout.
Fall sedum or stone crop.
The sedum that we have, was transplanted from my husband’s grandmother’s house shortly before it was sold. I don’t find it to be a very showy flower. It has other merits. It is reliable and brings fond memories. Reason enough to grow any plant.
Cleome
The first year after we planted a four pack of cleomes, we were inundated. I was ripping them out by the handfuls for two years. It must have been 10 years ago that we planted the first generation. We are down to one this year. Will I plant them again? I just might. They have shallow roots and are easy to pull out. It probably depends on which plants the garden centers have to offer when I am shopping.
Canna lily
This plant has been a pleasant surprise. We purchased it for $5 at Walmart thinking it was worth a try. It has done well, growing to about three and a half feet tall and blooming several times over the summer. We save our canna lily bulbs and replant them in the spring. They never do as well as that first year. The leaves don’t get as big, and the flowers are tiny. If anyone knows what we are doing wrong, speak up! It may just be our climate. They are a tropical plant. I see huge ones growing at the nearby university each summer. Perhaps they throw them out and buy new ones each year?
Hanging basket
And last, I’ll leave you with our hanging basket on the grape pergola. I bought yet another basket and threw in leftover plants that we had purchased in multiples for various garden beds. They appear to like it there.
Incidentally, this is the first year that the grape leaves have provided enough shade that we can sit under them and escape from the sun. My husband did a heavy pruning on the grape vines in early spring, and they really grew after that. Incidentally, if you have dogs, I would not recommend planting grapes! Grapes are toxic to dogs in case you didn’t know. I did know that but did NOT know that grapes fall continually from the vines throughout their growing season (at least ours do) which seems to go on for months. Each time I want to sit on the patio with the dogs, I must pick up all the fallen grapes first and throw them over the fence. This gets old very quickly. Still, I do it religiously to keep my pups safe. I imagine you can guess which dog starts looking for grapes as soon as he gets out there. My problem child, Zekie, of course! Zekie the Wonder Dog
Our flowers and gardens are approaching their peak as the summer wears on. The hardy Amarillys is such a unique flower. The leaves come up early in the summer and are long and flat, similar to hyacinth leaves. I did not know about these flowers until I moved here twenty years ago and discovered them on the property. I thought they were not doing well or were not happy where they were planted. If you are familiar with this plant, you will know that part of its normal life cycle is that the leaves die back to the ground. Then after a week or so, you see a stalk sprouting in the center of where the leaves had been. And this stalk grows quickly. Within a few days it is over two feet tall and blooms with a few large trumpet shaped flowers!
I had to research on-line to discover that these flowers are the hardy Amarillys. They are also an interesting plant because they go by a couple of aliases. They are often referred to as Naked Ladies. Because they lose all their foliage before blooming. The flower stands alone.
Last month I discovered a third name for this flower when I was reading a fiction book, The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman. It was on my list of books read for last month. Books I Read in July 2022. Apparently, they are also called Surprise Lilies because you think the plant has died and then, surprise, you get the unexpected gift of a flower! I think this is my favorite name of all for them. A Surprise Lily sounds so magical.
Mandevilla
Many other flowers around the yard and gardens are taking off too. The red Mandevilla is one that I wintered over from last year. It took a long time to hit its stride after losing so many leaves over the winter but now it is in full bloom with more buds on the way. The root ball was large, and it has woody stalks, so I expect it to perform well for the rest of the season.
Hardy Hibiscus
Another hardy version of plant that I am happy with is the Hardy Hibiscus. This perennial is only in its second year at our house. We discovered that it does not grow back from its stalks. You should cut it to the ground, and it will come back from the ground up. Ours was the last to bloom in the area, but this doesn’t seem like a problem to me since it is a young plant. If you live in a northern zone and want your hibiscus to come back year after year, make sure you get a hardy hibiscus and not a tropical one. We have a tropical hibiscus also but realize that it is just an annual for us. I tried to winter a tropical hibiscus over in the house a couple years ago, but it did not survive.
And then there are my ever-faithful gladioli. I dig the bulbs up each fall after frost and store them in paper bags in the basement. And each fall I wonder, is it worth it? One year I dug up 80 bulbs! I plant them again in the month of May and then we wait. They start blooming in late July and peak in August. It is then that I decide it is worth it. Come October, we get a hard frost, and the entire cycle starts again. Most years I get more bulbs out of the ground than I put in. This is good because there are always a few that I slice in half with the shovel. Oops!
Glads growing in front of the patio fence.Rose of Sharon and Phlox
I’ll leave you with one last photo of some old standbys that you couldn’t get rid of if you wanted to. The pink phlox on the right seems to end up everywhere and tries to take over. It grows by runners underground. I pulled out a couple bushels of it from the flowerbed next to the house this spring. I do this every other year. If I don’t, it outcompetes the other plants and you end up with nothing but phlox. One bonus is the hummingbirds love phlox. Sometimes I am bent over weeding, and I hear the hum from the beating of their wings and when I look up, there they are. I often hear the hummingbirds before I see them. Occasionally we stare at each other eye to eye for a while before they flit away.
The pink flowered tree-like plant on the left is a Rose of Sharon. They reseed themselves everywhere. We frequently weed them out. There are so many that sprout, most often in inconvenient places. We have transplanted several and given a few away as well.
If all plants were as easy to grow as phlox and the Rose of Sharon, there would be little challenge in gardening!
Good morning, readers! This is my view as I write from the patio. I usually work outside in the gardens during the mornings when it is cool, but today I am doing something different. The patio is shaded in the morning and gets sunny after noon when the sun crests. This makes it hot and much harder to find a shady spot. So, the dogs and I are taking advantage of the beautiful morning.
Not only are the flowers a beautiful sight, they smell good too. With the humidity, the air is heavy and in addition to the usual roses, I smell the gardenias! We have a full-size gardenia, and a button gardenia which gets lots of small flowers. Their scent is heady and divine!
Zekie being a good sport.
I rarely spend time on the patio without the dogs. Above,Zekie is patient with my attempts to get a photo op. As long as he can be my constant companion, he is content. His separation anxiety and behavior are improving with the aid of Prozac. I spend a lot of time outdoors gardening and sometimes it is just too hot for the dogs to be outside. I have begun leaving the dogs loose in the house when I go out to work, going in to check on them every half hour or so. Zekie is getting used to it and handling it well. He lays on the landing at the top of the steps and watches me out the back door. Sometimes, I go out of sight, but he seems to be doing ok with it. He is always at the door to greet me when I open it and gives me a sniffing over to determine what I have been up to.
Being outside gives Baxter a big smile.
Baxter doesn’t like to have his picture taken. If he knows you are taking it, he turns his head to the side. It works best to zoom in from a distance and snap the photo. He has a great smile, so it is well worth the effort. He loves the futons but sometimes they get too hot for him. His second favorite place in the patio garden is under the dawn redwood tree where the cool soil is exposed. This makes a fine napping spot for a 13 year old dog.
Claire pauses to give a smile.
Taking pictures of Claire is rather like photographing toddlers. You have to take a lot of pictures to get one that is usable. About half of them are blurry because she is moving. Many of the rest result in her looking anywhere besides at the camera. She just has a very short attention span and is constantly turning to watch a bird or bee or running after a chipmunk. I am convinced she wouldn’t hurt them. Yesterday, she walked up within two feet of a wren that was getting a caterpillar from the ground. She stood there and watched the wren until it flew to the top of the fence, smacked its caterpillar on the fence a few times and then flew to its nest box on the opposite fence and fed its young. Claire has a busy mind. This is why she’s not the most obedient dog. She has too many other things to think about.
Cassius relaxing.
This is Cassius’ typical position when he is on the patio. He loves the futons. Greyhounds do like to relax. And who can blame them with those bony legs? Cassius comes to me for pets from time to time but mostly he lays around napping and watching life go by. Not a bad deal.
Shelby having a nap.
And this brings us to the matriarch of our pack. Shelby often joins us on the patio. She almost never goes out to the pasture with the other dogs, but she will deign to join us when we sit on the patio. Shelby doesn’t like to hang out with dogs. She will join us when we retire to the patio because I am always there too. And spending time with mom is life’s goal for her. She is a good companion and a true working partner. I can always count on her for therapy dog work and public events with our dog club such as volunteering at the county fair. Reliable is her middle name. She is 12 years old and slowing down. Now I direct her with hand signals to assist with her failing hearing. She is happy to respond, and we continue our work with these minor adjustments. That’s what teamwork is all about.
As I write this post, on the patio surrounded by our five dogs and many flowers, listening to the morning sounds of birds, I realize that I am blessed. I wish blessings to you also, my friends.
Hard work pays off! When I moved here in 2003, our current patio area was nothing but a side yard of grass. Shortly thereafter, my brother built me a small pond with a liner, some nice stones around the edge, and stocked it with goldfish. It was lovely. May you be blessed with such a brother. Some frogs moved in, and a blue heron occasionally stopped for a snack of goldfish (not the crackers!) before we could chase him off.
Fast forward 10 years. My husband changed the pond to photo number one above. It went through a few iterations before it got to this stage. At first, we had the fountain/pool, but it was not chlorinated. The water was a little green which the frogs were fine with. I would get in to cool off even with the frogs. We don’t have air conditioning and the frogs were willing to share. There was even one frog who became tame. He would sit on my shoulder as I walked around in the water. There were other frogs who would sit in my hand. I loved my frogs. I know, I’m a dang weirdo.
As the area was transitioning from grass to enclosed patio, my husband decided to start chlorinating the water, so it would be more hospitable to guests. Apparently, not everyone enjoys swimming with frogs. Any frogs that were left that spring were transitioned to our neighbor’s pond and our fountain/pool became a more maintained setting.
Baxter enjoying patio time this afternoon.
After the footers were poured, every year a new section of flagstone was installed by my husband to increase the patio area. New sandstone flowerbeds beds were added one by one. Sections of wall and fence went in over the years. I started spending significantly more time there the year the section of fence was added that made the enclosure complete. This meant that the dogs could join us and no longer had to stay in the house or their pasture. It’s true, everything’s better with dogs!
The pergola went up a few years ago, thanks to you know who. Thanks hubby! We are growing grapes on it in an attempt to provide some shade near the pool. People ask me whether this is a fountain or a pool or exactly what it is. I never know how to respond. It is a fountain. The centerpiece (designed, poured, and installed by my husband) splashes, mixes the water, prevents mosquitoes (which won’t hatch unless the water has been still for two weeks), and makes a nice noise. It is also a pool. The water is four feet deep. We get in and out via a ladder that we put in and take out when not in use. We swim. We have pool lounge chairs that we float around on. I drink iced tea and read books while I float around. I guess the only answer is, it is all of those things. It only depends what purpose we are using it for in the moment.
Last but not least, I will share a few flower photos that I took today when I was done swimming. Admittedly, I wasn’t actually swimming. I was standing the water while reading a book and cooling off. This was our first time in the water this year. I was so hot from running the mini tiller to weed the vegetable garden that I couldn’t resist. The water temperature was 75 degrees and it felt so refreshing after hauling the tiller around the garden.
Our patio and gardens have undergone a metamorphosis over the years as you can see from the two photos taken nine years apart. It is a labor of love, requiring dedication and hard work. We hope to be able to share it with more people as Covid slows down. It was an oasis for us during those rough times. I hope it can be an oasis for others as well.
White mandevillaFirst hibiscus bloom of the year!Two drift roses with lavendar in front.Urn with verbena and zinnia.
This post is full of photos that I took in our gardens last week. We have been so busy buying new plants, planting the new plants, and weeding and mulching that I am just now getting around to sharing.
The photo above is of my favorite weigelia. It is a variegated weigelia. I love all things variegated. I have also heard it called a Monet weigelia. I am going to use the Monet moniker for mine because it just sounds so cool! Who doesn’t want a Monet weigelia to make you think of a great artist with beautiful gardens? And the term really fits. The flowers are white and pastel pink and bright pink and dark rose. Not to mention the fact that the leaves are green and white with varying patterns. The complementary splashes of colors make for an impressive plant! I pruned it last year and the show it put on this year was my reward.
Clematis
I no longer remember what variety of clematis this is. We have two types and this one blooms first. It blooms heavily and for a long time. Then it rests a little while and gives another round of blooms. I recently learned that you are supposed to prune clematis. Before that I had no idea, so this one never had been. It is a monster in size, with roots growing up to a couple feet away from where the original roots where planted. I found one entirely new rootling and separated it to plant on my rose trellis since the rose is having an off year. I’m sure there are other rootlings in there to if I look for them amongst the jungle of stalks. I cut some dead stems from this plant late last fall. I don’t know that I will trim it anymore than that since this plant has always provided us hundreds of blooms. Why mess with a good thing?
Purple columbinePink columbine
We just got the fancy purple and white columbine this year. We hadn’t planned to buy one, but when we saw this at the box store, we had to have it. We have had the pink columbine for years. I don’t even know where it came from. It just showed up. Either the chipmunks brought the seed, or it was carried on the wind. And new seedlings continue to show up in unexpected places. Sometimes I leave them alone and just enjoy the flowers, like the one that planted itself in between a rock and some bricks at the base of my rose bed. It looks whimsical there. The pink columbine’s favorite place to reseed seems to be in the crack of the sidewalk leading up to our side door. These I gently pull out and transplant elsewhere. They are never happy the first year I move them, but they come back the following year in fine form. I’m sure they wouldn’t survive in the sidewalk with the dogs trampling them multiple times each day. This year I found one growing between the steps leading up to our side porch. It now resides in a flower bed beside some foxglove. I hope the new purple columbine reseeds as prolifically as the pink.
Lupine
This is another plant that is new to us this year. If I had realized the lupine was such a large, substantial plant, I would have gotten one years ago. The spike with the blooms must be 15 inches tall. A new row of little individual blossoms opens up every day or so. There are also two more flower stalks starting to show color. What an impressive plant! I read that they will reseed but revert to the natural blue color. If the flowers are half as big as this one, on reseeded specimens, I will be quite happy.
Irises
These purple irises had been growing on the far side of our house when I moved here. I had never seen them bloom. I think the pine tree on that side grew so big that there was too much shade. I moved a few puny root tubers a couple years ago and this is what we have now. I think they like the sunny end of this sandstone raised bed. In another year, I should be able to split them for even more irises.
Begonia
This pot of tuberous begonias was so impressive when we saw it at the store, we had to have it. It provides so much color that it is in a place of honor on one of the four corners of our patio fountain. We usually reserve those corners for hibiscus or mandevilla, but the begonia offered so much color, we decided to change it up and try something different. We will still do the tropical plants on the other corners.
Azalea
This little gem was my pick on the trip to a local nursery a few years ago. I couldn’t resist its beautiful pink, double blooms. I’m a sucker for anything that blooms in doubles. And it’s pink!
By now we have many more plants in bloom so I will have to do another garden post soon. We are still in the planting stage for the troughs on top of the enclosed garden wall and my hanging baskets that are suspended from the workshop porch. Also, my roses are ready to bloom! Unfortunately, the little red squirrels have decided that rosebuds are a tasty snack. Time for the live trap. I did not go to all the trimming, weeding, mulching, fertilizing, and transplanting to have no roses to show for it. Not to mention the scratches and holes in my fingers from the thorns.
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Sanctuary Acres 