Gardening in Eden

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

16 Mar '12 11:51 pm

Thanks for the responses. Inspiration is a funny thing. I wonder how much comes from creativity and how much from making less work. Inspiration struck as I was cleaning and sweeping the porch. I was grouping the potted plants together to see what I had and realized that I had all this blue and purple and if I put it over in the new garden I would have 14 less pots to move - sweep around - and rearrange. So viola in my efficient mind ( not ) it made perfect sense. This mental breakthrough could have absolutely nothing to do with the beautiful picture of Kreole's Agapanthus ringed garden that I had read about earlier in the week could it? Pretty, Pretty. I did get the garden planted in a hurry though. I have NEVER done one quite so fast, but since it has been so beautiful these last few weeks the kids have been playing outside a lot and I like to have something to do when I am outside with them. I had lots of little helping hands digging and splitting plants. Also I had already tilled and preped the ground about three weeks ago now. But my whole front yard is flat grass with lots of sun and I don't really have to deal with rocks or clay, Only sand and some roots. I always say its easier to add to the mix than to take anything out..

PS. The porch is still only halfway cleaned.....oops maybe later?!?

Yes, Moosey The Prince is a David Austin rose and it is one of the strongest sented roses I have. 3 years ago my husband asked me what I wanted for Valentines day and I said " Funny you should ask that sweetheart "..... I had recieved an email notification from this rose growers website, that I had signed onto the year before, about a huge rose sale!! I had been lusting after the beautiful roses that Austin developes and thinking about ways I could afford them. And then out of nowhere the universe alined and the perfect question was asked at the perfect time and SHABAM!! A slew of new beauty winged its way to me from England. Just thinking about it makes me want to weep with joy. This single cosmic event spurred the developement of wonderful new gardening areas at the side of the front yard. I wonder if my wonderful spouse later regretted the question since he now has to weed eat around this corner of the yard that he used to be able to mow?? Hmmmm that seems like a question never to ask!! Ignorance is bliss and all.

I have to get up and get going now because I'm taking the kids camping this weekend and need to get packed up while they are in school. We are going to camp with the Civil War reenactors and help out as they reenact The Battle of Manassas for the public. I went as a spectator a few years ago and loved it. As a group Southerns ( as we are called here ) love our history. Maybe sometimes a little too too much!!

[gordonf]

Re: Gardening in Eden

27 Mar '12 5:46 pm

Hi, there! Isn't it funny how great ideas come when most unexpected? Your purple and blue garden sounds great! BTW, I didn't know that David Austin shipped across the Atlantic (or did you mean that you got your rose from a U.S. supplier of them?)! Nobody around here seems to sell David Austin roses and I find that really frustrating.

Cheers!

gordonf

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

28 Mar '12 10:53 am

I got mine thru the David Austin website, but they were grown here in the U S. They also ship to Canada I believe. Type David Austin U S into your search engine. I looked recently at the Young Lycadias Rose that I want one more of and it had doubled in price from the regular price it was when I got it. I guess I really lucked out when I ordered mine at their sale. More Austin roses will have to be a dream for another day. I think I got on their email list when I filled out a request for a free catalog on their website. (That was how I got the sale email.) I can't help it i love looking at all the pretty rose picts.

PS. Thanks for all the hours of fun I got reading about your garden!!!

Have a Beautiful Spring,
Dawn

[gordonf]

Re: Gardening in Eden

28 Mar '12 11:49 am

Hi, Dawn, and thanks for the info about David Austin roses. I'll try what you suggested and see what I get!

I've loved reading your tales of gardening in your part of the South - Savannah is one place I've wanted to visit for a long time; maybe I actually will get there someday, but right now my priority is to sell this place and move to the new one and to begin a new garden there! I have such great plans for it, but if it turns out that it has been sold by the time I get rid of this one, well, I can always adapt my plan to somewhere else! That way, I won't be too disappointed!

Just now, while I was reading your post, I looked out my study window to see the neighbour's cat climbing up my little pergola to get at the chicadees feeding at the bird feeder. How he figured he'd get over the bamboo to reach the feeder, I don't know - it's too far to jump, I'm sure! Anyway, I sent Joey dog out to chase him off. You should have seen the dog, with his hair all fluffed out and tail straight up in the air!! Of course, the cat was gone long before Joey arrived on site, but old Joe huffed and puffed as he patrolled the pathways, his nose to the ground! I haven't seen him move so fast in months!

Which variety was that orangy rose that you posted a while ago? It looks just like my Climbing Westerland (still asleep after winter)! And is the lake you have there one of those that you mentioned were dug out by the sand companies? It sure looks good - does it dry up in summer?

Well, it's late in the afternoon and the sun finally came out, so I had better get out there and do SOMEthing today. Keep posting - it's great to hear from you!

Cheers,

gordonf

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

29 Mar '12 12:09 am

The lake is beautiful, and yes it was dug by one of the sand companies. The children and all of their friends love to get filthy and build sand castles right by the waters edge. ( And often even farther in ). We take bread out to the ducks and geese. Sometimes they come in flocks roaming the neighborhood for more food. They will come right up to my door, and the kids and I will feed them the bird feed we keep for the feeder. We sit on the steps and watch them come right up to our feet. If you are not wearing shoes then you have to sit on the top step or they will eat your toes!! The only problem with the lake is that it is really deep and silty. Not at all safe for swimming, And we have trouble keeping the young people in the neighborhood from going back there with no supervision. We don't want anyone getting hurt ( Or LITTERING )

The Orange rose is Pinata. I didn't think it had a plant tag, but the leaves and blooms were so dense they were hiding it. I found it this week!! Yea. Online I read that it is often compared to Joseph's Coat. I have one of these and it is the fastest growing rose that I have. I rooted it two years ago from Ms. Marie's garden and it's first summer it outgrew the large pot I had put it in. I wish I had a place to put it in the ground. The Pinata rose looks a little less thorny and the flowers seem to last a lot longer, but that could just be a faulty memory. The flowers fade to molted red and white. At first I didn't seem to like the older flowers too much, but there are so many blooming in bunches on such a small plant that now I think it is very pretty. I really, really, really hope it continues in the same way and it is not the magic of the greenhouse it was born in. Because I am not as good a gardener as the greenhouse professionals. For example when I root things or grow them from seed, they never never look as pretty as the trays and trays of pretty flowers that we are tempted with in the plant store.

This week I have made a discovery..... for all of my previous gardening attempts I first took off the top layer of ground. It was all crab grass and not the easist thing to remove. I did it in small sections because I would get tired. Then I would dig in and amend the soil by hand ( and shovel ) This was how I did it until the two circle gardens in the front yard. I got a great used tiller for Christmas. My husband looked at me and said " You want WHAT for Christmas? What is wrong with you?" ( I asked for dirt for Mother's Day and my birthday ) There is no guilt if it is a gift!!!!!!! Anyway, back from my wandering thoughts, I tilled these two gardens. The first one was planted last year with roses and all the blubs that I dug up from Mema's garden when she moved to Alaska. Thanks to Mema for all the beautiful Amarillis!! It did great except the grass growing thru it kept me busy ALL year. it was really hard to keep up!! And the other circle that only one blueberry survived in really got overrun and I retilled it this year to put in the smurf garden. It looked so pretty, all that fresh tilled dirt. But as they say...Beware still Waters....or in this case still dirt... Can anyone see where I am going with this?? Without further ado....My discovery is this.... when you till CRAB GRASS ( from now on to be known as make the gardener Crabby Grass ) all it does is break it into a million sections and implant them 8 ins. down in the ground where the live and spread and dig in roots that come up to plague you two or three weeks later!!!!!!!! I spent the entire weekend digging and weeding that awful stuff! But you know as with any gardening there is always a silver lining. I bet you my winter weary arm and shoulder muscles grew two sizes this weekend.

Now I will leave you all. All the children are off to school, and I must go forth and practice my bike riding so I don't embarrass myself when I take the Children on the 25 mile bike treck with my son's scout troop on Easter weekend. I had forgotten how sore your situpon can become when you have not used it to situpon the torture device known as a bike seat for over 20 yrs. This too shall pass and after two weeks of practice it really is getting better. But I haven't even gotten up to 10 miles a day yet!!! How will I ever do 25? Why do we do these things to ourselves? Delusions of youth and fitness??? Hmm... more riding and practice = stronger muscles. And then Stronger muscles = Easier Gardening! I WIN!! Cool Beans!!!
May you all have sunshine and mid 70's today,
Dawn

Tulips in bloom

I could have sworn the plant marker said red. I suspect small children playing musical plant tags. That happens alot around here.

Distant Drums

Pinata Rose

[Kerole]

Re: Gardening in Eden

29 Mar '12 7:47 am

What a lovely read. Your roses are looking incredibly fresh and healthy. i also learned the hard way about tilling the soil. A million weed seeds come to the surface and shout 'yippeeee' and sprout all at once. Now I till immediately before planting and mulching. I must confess to not ever really seeing a bright side to all the hard work!

A 25 mile bike ride would render my 'situpon' hospitalised! I commend you whole heartedly

We are indeed due for another sunny day (the 4th in a row) with temps likely to briefly hit 25C. Excellent gardening conditions if only I'd finish my coffee and get off my situpon!

[gordonf]

Re: Gardening in Eden

29 Mar '12 3:09 pm

What a great read! I wondered how long it would take you to discover the disadvantages of tillers when you have crabgrass or, as we used to call a similarly difficult-to-eradicate cousin in Quebec, Witchgrass! In my garden on the West Coast, my worst weeds are buttercups and a little, very pretty plant that is locally called, "Shotweed", as it shoots its seeds up to 3 feet away and has up to 4 or 5 crops per summer! To get rid of these, you just have to pull before they go to seed, then mulch like crazy! The second crop of this year is blooming now!!

I'm SO glad that I'm not the parent of school-age children!! The things parents go through for them these days! In MY day (before the Ice Age), parents didn't have to accompany their kids everywhere and we could just play in the fields and bush until supper time. Nobody worried as long as we checked in at the proper time (maybe because everyone within miles had an idea who we belonged to and WE knew any house was safe in a pinch). Ah, the "good old days", when dentists' drills were powered by belts on pulleys and people still died from polio! I really wouldn't go back to them at all!

Well, away from all that! I had a call from the local art gallery asking if I would put my garden in the local garden show again this year. It made me feel appreciated, but I had to turn them down as it's full of pots of plants ready to move! Oh, well - another time!!

Cheers!

-gordonf

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

17 Apr '12 1:55 am

I have been seeing all your pots and have to say, More power to you!! It is so hard to be in flux at different times in our lives. ? Will I sell this year and buy a new house? ? Do I need to put these in the ground or keep them in pots? ? Will having so many pots around make selling harder? ?I hope I don't make the original garden too holey for the new caretakers..... Am I spending too much time, effort, and money on the original garden when it will hopefully be someone elses soon? ? If I don't spend money on the old garden I will have more for a new house. How much of the old garden can I reasonabaly take with me? ? How much should I? You have my best wishes for the future and all the changes going on. I just know it will all work out and all the coming hours, days, weeks, months, and years will have huge brightly shining fields of joy. Life is such a beautiful thing!!

We are also hoping to move one day. As you have more children it is amazing how much your house seems smaller. I know eventually they will be grown and gone (Thank God not any time soon ), but I think we would all like a little more space in the mean time. We are not able to move anytime soon so I just keep my eyes open and wait for God to show me where he wants me to be next......

Today is the first free day I have had in weeks that I can go and play outside. I have been watering it as I can and dropping by the store to see what types of plants they have discounted this week. $ .50 seems like a great price to me!! Sometimes I'll even pay $1.00. So as I come in and take my breaks I'll work on posting some of the pics. I've taken in the last two weeks. Hope you enjoy seeing them as I enjoy sharing them with others.

Bargin bin red roses by the kitchen door. I don't know what they are but they are beautiful and have a wonderful scent.

close-up of same

Princess ( OR Lady ) Diana rose also in the kitchen garden

Princess Diana where the kitchen garden runs into the porch rail and steps

View of kitchen garden from porch

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

17 Apr '12 3:33 am

All Hail Moosey Queen of gardening Stamina!! I only made it an hour before I got chased in by the heat and decided to have an early lunch. At least I got 24 Easter Lillies planted!! I sure dosen't seem like a lot. Well here I am all rested again and I guess it's time to get off my sit-upon and back out there. But before I do here are some more pics. You know it feels very clammy to sit on the couch with wet and dirty knees from kneeling in the garden. Lately this seems to have become a cronic condition. I wonder if I should seek professional help??? Nope I think I'll try denial instead....More fun that way.

Rosemary Harkness on the porch

Midnight Blue

Midnight Blue 1st day

Midnight Blue 3rd day

Rosemary Harkness on poarch

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

17 Apr '12 4:48 am

It's only been another hour and I'm back inside for another break. This is just pitiful. It's not that hot for Savannah even if it is noonish. Sheesh!! it is only around 87 by my thermometer. I know, I know any excuse for another coffee break. I think it's because I'm working in full sun today. Well no time like the present to add more pics.

from in front of the porch

Amaryllis and verbena

The first sideyard garden ( behind the 2 circles

Young Lyciadias

a little closer

Mr. Lincoln

Queen of Sweden

Creme Abumdance