leah's Blog

Entry for May 13, 2007
May 14, 2007 | 10:54 PM PST
Tags: cape daisy , mother's day , petunia , azalea , primrose , mailbox , vinca , mr k , beast , orchid , seeds

Mother's Day, slept through the alarm and just barely made it awake in time to get to church with my mother.  Snuck in just as the service was starting.  Was running so late I left the blueberry bushes and the card home, but it's not like I was dressed for planting anyway.  I'll go put them in the ground later this week.

By the time I got back home, after going to my grandparents' house with my mother to deliver a hanging basket overflowing with pink petunias, Mr K had been working out in the yard for a good long while, from the looks of things.  The mailbox area has now undergone a massive renovation.  He put one of the azaleas, both primroses, and a few of the leftover vincas from a prior trip out there.  What use to be about an 18" diameter circle around the mailbox is now nearly 10' long and 8' wide.  It still has some more room to plant things, but that's OK because we still have some more things to plant.  Of course the rest of the mulch was still in the back of the beast, so he was eagerly awaiting my return.

He's really been doing a lot out there this week.  But now we need to start concentrating on inside, because we're having company next Sunday, and we've been spending every waking minute on yard-related stuff, and that doesn't leave much time for keeping the inside tidy.  With 3 dogs and 2 cats running around, just the shed hair at this time of the year is overwhelming.

Gave Mr K's mom a pot of purple Cape Daisies for her birthday, and a hanging pot of vincas for Mother's Day.  Gave Sylvia an orchid.  I do believe that's the first time I've ever seen Cape Daisies before, and I'll be looking for seeds for next year.  They were neat looking.

Entry for May 12, 2007
May 14, 2007 | 10:40 PM PST
Tags: mr k , peppers , blueberry , azalea , primrose , sedum , corsican mint , horseradish , chives , variegated peppermint , bamboo windchimes , zen garden

So Mr K got home on Saturday and off we went to Peppers.  I *love* that place.  They don't accept plastic, and every time we go we end up spending every last dime we have on us, and sometimes we have to go to the grocery store a few miles down the road and get more.

This time we came home with 2 blueberry bushes (a Mother's Day gift for my mother), 2 magenta colored azaleas, 2 evening primroses, a black pine, 3 pots of Dragon's Blood sedum, a dozen pots of Corsican Mint, a pot of horseradish, two pots of chives, [to be edited when I get home and can look at the pile].  Oh, and a huge set of bamboo wind chimes.  I have a weakness for bamboo wind chimes.

He set to work planting things as soon as we got home, while I ran back out to Lowe's to fetch him some more cedar mulch.  I picked up 3 more trowels, too, since it seems like I'm always looking for one.

The black pine went in over where the Zen garden will be.  They're such slow growers, we figured we may as well go ahead and get it in now, with a nice healthy dose of compost, and get it growing.  His mother used to have two of them out in her front yard, but she didn't like the way they looked and chopped them down.  I haven't been over to see what else he put in over there, but when I dropped off the mulch, he had about a 6' diameter vaguely circle-ish area cleared of sod.

It's too bad he got home so late, we ran out of light not too long after we got home.

First mosquito bite of the season tonight.

 

Entry for May 11, 2007
May 12, 2007 | 12:03 AM PST
Tags: home depot , scottish broom , lowe's , sedum , relocating , new bed , aesthetics , photos , mr k

Went back to Home Depot today and bought the Scottish Broom I looked at yesterday. It was so beautiful I couldn't resist! Then back to Lowe's to pick up more cedar mulch, and more cedar chip bedding for the dog kennel. And some sedum, don't remember which cultivar, for the front yard, the bed around the crabapple tree.

We relocated a few plants, mostly oriental lillies, that were too close to the foundation out front. We're extending that bed, making it deeper, so the bigger plants will conceal them where they were. I mowed the grass while he did some planting, took the rest of the sod out by the front porch, and mulched all the new stuff.

One of the many ways our aesthetic tastes differ is that he *likes* the look of wide expanses of mulch. He didn't realize what the way I had him plant the sedum meant until he was almost done. He stood straight up and said, "ARE THESE THINGS GOING TO TAKE OVER THIS BED???" Too late now... I hope it doesn't take long for them to fill in. I love the way the ajuga has spread under the plum tree. If I'm remembering correctly, that started as a 6-pack, little tiny plants, planted evenly spaced around a circle about 15" from the trunk of the plum tree. It's filled in nicely on the side that gets the most shade. I guess I need to pick up something a little more sun tolerant for the other side.

Mr K works tomorrow morning, and hopefully I'll wake up around the time he gets home. We're going to Peppers tomorrow afternoon to pick up some more plants. :) I'm going to try not to spend too much money! I'd like to get the aforementioned groundcover for the other side of the plum tree, an azalea or two for the front of the house, a different groundcover for out front of the house, maybe more than one, and probably a few more perennials to fill in some empty spots.

I hope Lowe's hasn't changed their policy. The last few times I've been there they haven't had anything good on clearance, or anything at *all* on clearance. I'm still thinking about going back there and picking up a few more dwarf fruit trees, which I almost certainly won't find on clearance, but they're pretty reasonably priced, about $16-25, depending on the type.

I have been uploading more photos to the May album every few days. I would rather be gardening than working right now.

Entry for May 10, 2007
May 10, 2007 | 8:16 PM PST
Tags: burning bush , red twig dogwood , butterfly bush , red hot poker , mr k , spirea , lowe's , home depot , solar lights , low voltage lighting

Went to Lowe's and Home Depot today. Is it bad when the greenhouse staff greets you by name when you walk in? Lowe's does, but I guess I don't go to Home Depot enough. They recognize me but not by name. ;)

Home Depot has solar lights, boxes of 8 for $29.99. I've been wanting solar lights for years, but couldn't bring myself to spend the money--these seemed a lot more reasonable than any I'd looked at before. I saw them over the weekend and picked up a set then to try them out. Went back today and bought two more boxes, over the protests of Mr K. He's an electrician and considers it an insult to his profession. ;) He wants to put in low voltage lighting all over the place, but I think I like the solar lights. He can still supplement with low voltage lighting for uplights and accents.

Picked up 6 bags of sand to hopefully finish off the patio, a burning bush, a red spirea, a butterfly bush, and a red twig dogwood. Came home and went to bed, but Mr K came home from work and went straight to work on them. He's been working on a bed across the front of the house, and while I slept he took a couple of lilies out and replanted them closer to the front of the bed. He planted the burning bush and the spirea. And D sent some Red Hot Poker roots to work with B who gave them to Mr K who brought them home, so they went into the new bed too. Still need to fill it in with more plants, but it's a good start.

Entry for May 07, 2007
May 7, 2007 | 10:00 PM PST
Tags: puttering , planning , zen garden , plant sharing , fencing ideas , compost , bricks , rugosa rose , Mr K , pergola , moss

Woke up early today. Went and took care of my grandfather's lawn first.

Picked up a load of composted horse manure from D's house, only one front end loader scoop this time to leave extra room. Stopped by Delaware Brick and picked up another strap of bricks for the patio. The compost had slid everywhere, so I just backed up to the pile and loaded a strap that fell over who knows how long ago up by hand over the tailgate. The yard man's always friendly, and he gave me a hand, so it took no time. And now he doesn't have to wiggle the forklift around the fallen pile anymore.

Mr K worked on the patio all evening. I pruned the rugosa rose (ouch, see photo album for a look at the thorns) with remarkably little damage to my person compared to last time. Got the tomato cages in, and unloaded the compost--half in the new bed out front, half in one of the raised beds out back. I should've watered, but I was tired and windburnt, and it was getting dark.

Talked artistic vision briefly before we headed in to get cleaned up for dinner. There's a Zen garden in my head and I'd like to make it materialize. It's got to wait until our current batch of projects but I think he's on board. We've got a weeping willow we put in the first summer we bought the house, so it's getting pretty big. Maybe 30 ft away is a gingko we put in 2 summers ago. They're around a drainage/retention ditch that's about the size of a school bus, maybe 4 ft deep with a 40 degree slope at the end where the trees are, and gradually sloping up to ground level at the other end. We've lived there 4 years now and I've only seen it hold water once. One winter we had a massive thaw, it filled up and froze, and the next morning nothing was left but the frozen crust across the top--the water had all drained out from under it. I'm thinking a few more specimen trees, at least a Japanese red maple and a black pine, maybe a weeping cypress if I can find one hardy enough to not have to put it inside for the winter. A wide expanse of white sand, and a rake. A few different sizes of stone, both as borders and around the trees. Moss around the trees and on the rocks. Maybe a small grove of bamboo if I can find one I'm confident will not invade. And maybe some ornamental grasses as a transition back into the rest of the yard. And wide slate stepping stones, set into the slope, and down the middle of the sandy expanse. That, and some removable timber bridges that can be stowed out of sight will help with the raking, since the sandy expanse will probably be at least 30-40' wide.

Talked to my father, the resident expert in all things wood and woodworking related, over sushi after dark. Needed advice about the pergola which I'd like to start soon, and I'm also curious about bamboo reed fencing, which caught my attention during my wanderings online last night. His impression is favorable, so maybe I'll run it by the Mr. We have distinctly different aesthetic sensibilities in many areas. Talked a little about my Zen garden vision, and T says they've got tons of moss in several different varieties free for the taking.

I love plant sharing. They're so darn expensive to buy in the nursery or greenhouse, or even in the big box stores. And the ones that divide and multiply are no trouble to dig out. They barely even leave a hole when you take a few out. I've given some stuff to T before, and she gave me some lily of the valley. I'm not much for the through-the-mail exchanges some forums do, but I give stuff away in person all the time. I've got the address of one of my coworkers starred in my email right now so I can drop off a goodie box at her house one of these afternoons when I get a chance.