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This spring is really beautiful. There is more color year by year, not enough yet, but it’s getting there!
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Spring Color
Month: March 2019
Street-side
Here’s a street-side view around the property, that is, from the street looking in – north/west around the U shape to the south/west. (The rear of the garden does not border the street.)
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2014 Miscellany
Roses
I am still trying to figure out which roses will do well here, and how to make them happy. Truth be told, I think I’m just a bit negligent and/or the roses are a bit persnickety.
I bought hardy, one 3-4, shrub roses only. So if these babies don’t make it here – I don’t know who will.
Here’s some pictures of some of the better bloomers. I always seem to miss the best shot; the garden looks spectacular and then I go, I’ll get a picture tomorrow – and well, you know how that goes.
Paint
Yes, house paint DOES have something to do with a garden. If the house is ugly, it takes away from the beauty of the garden.
I have disliked the paint on my house since the day we moved in. It did not look anything like the paint sample we choose at the builder, and when I said that, they said it was too late, they would not repaint the house for us. So I’ve been waiting and hoping for the first paint job to fail so we could finally repaint in colors I liked.
We painted the bay window purple. The HOA had a fit, and we had to repaint it to match the house body color. Soo upsetting. I am continually amazed by how boring most people are. But the two tone paint with the sage green dividing trim really helps to break up the huge expanse of boringness on the south wall. The same is true of the North wall and fence.
You might have also noticed that we installed roof solar panels this year also. We refinanced the house to pay for them – really expensive. But we felt like we needed to do our part to save energy and reduce our resource usage, especially since this is such a big house. Our power bill is $19.19/month. That is all state and federal fees and taxes, no actual power usage.
The funnest part is that every month we get a statement from the solar company telling us how many trees we saved. Yea!
And YES! I’m tooting my own horn, cause it was quite an investment.
Here there be dragons!
I’ve always had an affinity for dragons, movies about dragons, books about dragons, art with dragons, statues . . . . Dragons are magical, mystical creatures. 
Most say there’s no such thing as dragons – but I know different.
There has been dragon mythology in many cultures throughout the centuries:
the Ekheket of Egypt, Drakon KohlKikos from Georgia, the Druk from Bhutan, Fafnir from Scandinavia, Kukulcan from MesoAmerica, Kur from Summeria, the Python from Greece, the Stoor Worm of Scotland, Vritra from India, and many more. That many people can’t all be imagining things!
I have seen some fantastic dragon sculptures in expensive gardens and in magazines. I’ve been keeping an eye out for some to put in my garden.
I purchased the heavy concrete dragon heads at Echter’s Gardens (www.echters.com). They were sitting there on the floor with the rest of the statuary, just 4 of them, and I needed 4 of them. So I stood there guarding them for almost 15 minutes when a lady walked up and started looking at one of them. They’re sold I said. She looked up at me with dismay, but i gave her the look – you know what look I’m talkin about. I will Kill you if you even think about walking off with one of MY dragons!
Finally a clerk came by who could help me secure them and get them on a cart. No one was going to walk away with one of them while I was running around trying to find a cart. They are MINE! They sat around in the garage for a few months before I figured out what I was going to do with them.
I found these extra large planters at Home Depot, this year. I was admiring them, wondering what on earth I would put in them, and then I noticed that one of them was sitting there upside down – that’s it!
These are not pots, these are going to be plinths. So I bought 6 of them, actually, I bought 8 of them – when I brought the first 4 home, I broke 2 of them just getting them out of the back of the truck. They’re surprisingly strong sitting upright, but on their sides, they burst into a dozen pieces. Luckily, Home Depot was kind enough to give me free replacements.
My dear friend D jumped at the chance to paint them for me: They are painted in the traditional magical colors of the elements. I did the painting on the dragon heads to match the plinths.
The black/grey/silver plinth with the water can on top represents the feminine energy of the Goddess. She stands at the North entrance into the Dragon Garden.
The Red/yellow/ gold plinth with the fire pot on top represents the masculine energy of the God. He stands on the south side of the entrance.
The dragons are situated in according to the directions on the compass, east, south, west and north, with the entrance on the east side, between the God and Goddess. There’s a 6′ diameter sunburst in concrete in the very center of the space, and the dragons are anchored in the corners in square flower beds edged with hyssop herb. (I’m intending to prune the hyssop like a short hedge.)
So, yes – HERE, there be Dragons!!!
A little help
The best soil in the garden is in the herb garden. But from time to time I need to dig out the used up soil and add 3-6″ of new, nutrient rich soil. This is a big job and would typically take me a full week of back breaking work. But thanks to some community volunteers, we got it completely done in about 6 hours.
First we pulled out all the dead plants and weeds from over the winter;
then we dig out the old used up dirt and haul it to the dirt pile out back to be blended in with compost later in the year;
during the process Miss Bear was sitting beside the garden at the table preparing early season herbs that were being harvested. Here she is sorting and tying comfrey leaf so it can be hung to dry;
finally, new garden soil is brought in from the giant pile out back, and some is also sprinkled on top of the existing perennials, taking care to shake it down between the stems all the way to the base of the plant.
A Long day, but soo worth it. Thank you everyone! Happy happy herb garden.
Bridges
I’ve always been enamored with bridges in the garden. Usually you see them built across a water feature, or from one level to another level in the garden. I asked my husband, Brian, to build me a couple of bridges to help people get from one side of the dry river bed to the other.
I spent quite a lot of time digging through the boulder pile at the rock yard looking for wide flat river stones to put in the river bed to act as stepping stones. I leveled the ground under the bed in these places set the stones and tucked the smaller stones up around the larger ones. viola! Easy passage from one side to the next.
(You can see the flatish stones I pulled out when we put the bridge in, sitting to the left end of the bridge in the picture above.)
But no, people still had a difficult time getting across the stones. I have learned that not everyone is as sure on their feet as I am, and a couple people stumbled trying to maneuver the stepping stones, and then another person was temporarily on crutches and the stepping stones were impossible for him, trying to place the crutch securely between the river stones.
So after we had spent time and money building the large vegetable garden, we needed to spend more time and money installing bridges. But it’s important to me that my friends and visitors to the garden have easy access, so the bridges went in.
It’s also easier for Brian to get the mower from one side of the yard to the other, without having to worry about nicking a blade on a stone.
I have debated whether to install railings on the bridges or not. Part of me wants to find something interesting and decorative, and part of me thinks it will just be too visually busy.
I have to admit, I like the garden better WITH bridges.
got Crabs?
After the long, white and brown winter, the crab apples explode into bloom. I need to get me some more!
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Helianthus Maximiliana!
In 1990, while I was living in my little house in Aurora, a box arrived in the mail. Oh! A present from my Mother! I wonder what it is?
I opened the box to find a mess of tangled, completely dried out roots, that looked dead. what in the world? She’s crazy! She’s no doubt killed whatever this poor flower used to be. I called her up on the phone: “Mom, I got your present” . . . . long exhale.
“Oh great!” she says. “Now don’t worry, I know they look dead.”
“They ARE dead Mom.”
“Just divide the roots into equal piles and plant them in the ground, about 4″ down. doesn’t matter what direction, just horizontally not vertically. They need lots of sun and water to get going.”
“No Mom, they’re dead.”
“No they’re not, trust me, just plant them.”
So I did as she said, cause she has been gardening longer than me after all, and she’s my Mom. Then Lo and behold! the angel came down from the heavens and threw golden yellow all around my yard! They grew. And they grew, and then I divided them, and they grew some more, and over the 15 years I lived in that house, I divided them several times and gave away cuttings to everyone I could convince to take some.
OF course, I divided them one last time and took them with me to our new house in Brighton and spread them around everywhere. They are truly a weed – yet they are truly beautiful. They are the last thing blooming in the garden well into the fall, such a joy!
