| Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 09:47 pm: |   
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Thank goodness today was much better than yesterday. Friday and Saturday the temperatures were back up in the mid 90's and yesterday we had a hard east wind that blew from Friday evening through most of the night Saturday. That hot wind is so hard on the garden especially my new plants and newly transplanted. I spent most of the day Saturday watering everything that I've moved, planted or divided. I was cranky, wind just sets me on edge.
Today was nice but comfortable and no wind. I was able to get all of my new plants in the ground except for my weeping styrax. I know where it is going but it is part of a domino effect so I decided it would be too involved a project for late afternoon. I would have gotten it done if I hadn't gotten involved in changing a path. One of those little tweaks that I think will only take a few minutes and then one thing leads to another and next thing I know two hours have gone by. |
| Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2003 - 06:28 am: |
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Oct 2nd already, this has been a busy early week. Monday it was back to the bargain nursery for a few more plants and some grocery shopping and then home in time to do a little more planting , Tuesday met friends for lunch and a plant exchange then time for some garden cleanup and Wednesday I had garden visitors in the morning until around noon and then it was time to tackle the domino effect. I dug most of the plants from the folly bed put in the tree and small shrubs I wanted to add and then replanted the perennials. I finished one side of the bed and hopefully on Saturday I'll be able to finish the other side. It won't be such an involved process as there is less I want/need to do. I've been concentrating on one bed at a time but yesterday while I was walking around the garden with my visitors I realized how much fall clean up I have to do and felt a little overwhelmed.
I'm off to my real job today and tomorrow so won't see much of the garden again until Saturday, it is getting dark much too early now. I can't believe Marie and some of the others already have snow and such cold temperatures. brrrrrrrrrrr........ |
| Posted on Sunday, October 05, 2003 - 08:16 pm: |
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The last two days have been perfect for doing fall cleanup. Cool and misty. I've gotten several beds cut back and/or edited. It's such a good time to see what is too crowded, what isn't working etc. If I make notes or wait until spring, my notes won't make sense and I'll think that the cut back beds can't possibly be too crowded. Lots of interesting things in the garden in October, seed pods, seeds, seed heads, even the promise of flowers for spring. Nature is incredible.
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| Posted on Wednesday, October 08, 2003 - 07:55 pm: |
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A busy week, several more flower beds have been cleaned and edited and are ready for winter. I've got almost everything planted now except for the clematis, I wanted to wait to plant them until we'd had a little more rain. It has been raining for the last couple of days so hopefully this weekend I'll get them planted. I went back to my favorite bargain nursery today for a few more filler plants. It is such a great time to plant. I bought a couple of plants that I'd been wanting but didn't fit my budget, today at 50% off I decided I could indulge. After I got home I planted almost everything I bought. I feel so virtuous.  |
| Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 07:28 am: |
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Wow almost another week has flown by. I've gotten more editing done in between rainy days but that's okay, I'm happy to have the rain, our ground was so very dry. Yesterday was a wonderful fall day, warm enough to be comfortable but perfect for working in the garden. I got five clematis planted, planted the rest of my bargain plants and cleaned up another area. One of the beds I worked on was my deja vu area. I should have taken a picture then with all of the mess I created before I got it all put to rights again. It is raining this morning so I'm not sure when I'll be able to take a picture. I played with my photo editing during the weekend while it was raining, I wonder if there is ever a simple way to do things on the computer. I get so confused by the terminology etc. I keep trying though and hopefully the books I ordered from the library on Photoshop Elements 2 will help.
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| Posted on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 06:15 pm: |
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Today was a red letter day, I planted the last of the clematis that were ready to leave the comfort of their pots. I still have a few that need to hang out until at least spring before they will be ready to leave the nest. I also cut back a trailer load of perennials and changed the course of one of the paths. Sometimes it is easier to move the path than to move a shrub that is hanging too far into the path. I baked an apple pie before going into the garden. I won't take a picture of it though, mine never look like Monique's. 
The sunrise was really pretty this morning, a nice surprise as it was raining hard at 4:00 am.
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| Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 08:32 pm: |
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It is hard for me to imagine moving and leaving my garden but that is what a friend of mine is doing. She has/had a charming late 1800's house around which she had created a wonderful cottage garden but she wanted to move closer to her son. Earlier this summer I took cuttings from many of her roses, hydrangeas shrubs etc. and she's been busy potting up starts from her perennials and digging as many of her shrub roses as she could fit into two gallon pots. Today we loaded over three hundred two gallon pots of plants, trellises, tools, bird baths etc. etc. onto a u-haul truck to go to her new home. It was a big job but with all the help we had the truck loaded and on its way in a little over two hours. I wasn't there for the unloading but I'm sure it went much quicker than trying to fit everything into the truck. It will be a lot of hard work but she will make another beautiful garden. She is looking forward to a clean slate, very little is planted at her new home although it isn't a "new" house. She says she is planning to profit by the mistakes she made in her old garden. I'm pleased that she is happy with her decision to move, I'm sad she had to leave her wonderful victorian cottage garden and house. I'll miss it but I'm also looking forward to seeing how she designs her new garden around a 1950's style house. |
| Posted on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 09:35 pm: |
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The weather certainly is a constant garden topic. We went from one extreme to another in the last two weeks, first we had record breaking warm temperatures and then we had a very early killing frost in the mid 20's F. Last fall/winter we didn't get a killing frost until February. This has certainly been an unusual year. It was cold and icy this morning but the east wind had quit blowing and then the sun came out. It warmed up nicely and I was able to do some more cutting back of the perennials, my tallest joe pye was beginning to fall over so it was time to cut him down. He gets to be about twelve feet tall and is definitely easiest to deal with while he is still standing and not in a jumbled heap. The grasses are all blooming now and are really a lovely addition to the fall garden. I also raked leaves, not my favorite fall job and neither is picking up the zillion trillion black walnuts. I wish our ancestors had planted an English Walnut. The flavor of black walnuts are wonderful but it isn't worth the struggle to get them out of the shell.
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| Posted on Monday, November 10, 2003 - 02:18 pm: |
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Another week has flown by, the weather is back to the milder PNW temps so I was able to spend quite a lot of time in the garden. The main thing I accomplished was to cut down a honeysuckle that I had let get way out of hand. It took me three days and several trailer loads to haul it all away but it is cut clear to the ground and yesterday DH helped me put up a wire for it to climb. Now if I can just remember to keep it in control. This is the second time I have cut it to the ground, you'd think I'd have learned the first time wouldn't you? I'm totally amazed at how much area of the flower bed it took up. Everything looks so bare now. Today I moved one of the 'Diablo' ninebark plants that I grew from cuttings from my first plant. I looked at my original plant yesterday and "knew" I had to move this one as it was definitely going to outgrow its space in another year. I finished clearing out a large garden bed that I started working on yesterday but instead of the lovely sun we had yesterday it was raining today and when I got soaked through four layers of clothes decided it was time to call it a day and come in for a hot shower. I like working in the rain when it isn't real cold. I played around some more with the photo editing program but I'm beginning to think I'm too dense to figure out layers. I did make a collage, my way that I like though.
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| Posted on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 09:01 am: |
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Penny, totally an exciting experience! You've blessed me so! |
| Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 06:22 am: |
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What a strange fall this has been. Yesterday morning at 5:30 AM it was in the mid 50's F in less than two hours the temperature had dropped to the mid to low 30's and it started to snow. Before it was done we had about three inches of very wet heavy snow. At this time the only known damage is the top out of the sweet gum tree. But I'm afraid there is probably going to be more damage than that. We were without power for seven hours so I spent most of the day reading by the fire. I hope that will be our ONLY snow fall of the season. This morning it is freezing but no new snow, the snow is very crunchy to walk on.
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| Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2003 - 04:00 pm: |
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I was finally able to get back into the garden today. It seems like the weather or holiday preparation has kept me indoors for several days. This last week the only good days were the ones when I was working at the library. It felt good to get out into the fresh air and to get another flower bed completely cut back. It seems like everywhere I look I discover more damage from the snow, it makes me sad. Today I discovered that almost all the branches on one of my favorite viburnums were broken. By the time I took off all the broken limbs there wasn't much more than a trunk left. Hopefully it will survive. About three it began to blow and rain again so I had to give up and come inside but at least I feel like I accomplished a lot in a few hours. The hellebores are starting to get flower stems and the snow drops are poking through the ground. |
| Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 07:37 am: |
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After almost two weeks of rain, wind and then snow again we had a wonderful sunny day yesterday. Not overly warm but lovely to be able to spend several hours in the garden. I picked up five trailer loads of perennials that I had cut off as well as branches from the trees that were damaged by the snow and wind. Nice to get the mess cleaned up and so nice to be outside. The shortest day of the year is just around the corner, I'll be so glad when the days get longer again. It's exciting to see little hints of what's to come, bulb tips poking through the ground, clematis buds beginning to swell, so many things to look forward to but I enjoyed the winter garden yesterday. Much more subtle but the viburnums, winter blooming honeysuckle, mahonia and winter jasmine are blooming and even the bees were enjoying the sun. |
| Posted on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 06:18 pm: |
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Today was a glorious day, in the mid fifties and the sun was shining with a beautiful blue sky. It doesn't get much better than that. And Yippee I have reached my goal, all of the perennials and grasses have been trimmed before Christmas. I started cutting off last year's hellebores leaves and trimming off the old hydrangea flowers and just enjoyed being outside on the shortest day of the year. Now the days will get longer again. So many things are already showing signs of new growth. I'm always so ready for spring as soon as the holidays are over. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day but I guess I'd better get my gift wrapping done and everything ready to go north to share Christmas with the family. |
| Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 07:07 pm: |
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January 2, 2004, Wow how did that happen? Where did 2003 go?
We are having a "real" winter for the first time in several years. Lots of snow and cold temperatures. The first snow did a lot of damage to trees and shrubs and I was upset, now I'm not worrying about it and will just deal with the mess when it is over. It is pretty. I took these pictures yesterday, Jan 1.
It snowed almost all day with just a short break. I spent most of the day cleaning closets. I guess bad weather is good for something.
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| Posted on Wednesday, January 07, 2004 - 08:36 pm: |
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We finally have power again after over 24 hours without which also means no water. Ten inches of snow and then a thick coating of ice on everything. All of the trees, shrubs etc and power lines were coated with a thick 1/2-3/4 inch of ice. There is such a thick coating of ice that it is almost impossible to stand up on it even now although the ice on the trees and power lines melted in our area today. But before the thaw began many trees went down do to the weight of the ice taking power lines with them. I can't imagine being a lineman and coping with hard east winds and temps in the low to mid teens F. as they repair live downed lines day and night. What a mess, almost everything is shut down including the roads and streets except for emergencies. Hopefully the warming trend which started today will continue. I worry about the elderly who feel the cold so much more and who rely on meals on wheels. DH just went out and checked and says everything is still dripping so hopefully by morning we will be able to walk across the lawn again. Even the poor dogs and birds have had trouble standing up. |
| Posted on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 07:08 pm: |
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The weekend was nice or at least not raining and the sun did peek out a few times. I spent most of both days working in the garden. I cut back more of the hellebores, trimmed hydrangeas and just enjoyed being in the garden. Things are starting to pop, the witch hazels are in full glory and smell wonderful. The hellebores are starting to bloom and I found the first little snow drop in bloom. Lots of snowdrops and daffodils poking through. Spring is going to happen. Yippee!
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| Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 06:38 am: |
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It's almost the middle of February and all the clematis and roses are pruned and the clematis have been fed. I'm pleased to have that job behind me. I enjoy pruning the clematis but ouch those roses hurt. When I'm pruning them I think I have way too many and then when they are blooming, I wish I had more. What a glorious time of year, the winter blooming shrubs are lovely and the snow drops and crocus so pretty even though the critters have managed to get away with most of the crocus. Lots of snowdrops though, apparently they are not tasty. Yesterday I was reminded again how much I like the viburnums in the garden, 'Dawn' is in full bloom and is a lovely shade of pink.
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| Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 11:36 am: |
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Hmmm I wonder where March went? It is always such a busy month as I get the garden in shape for our only big neighborhood function on Easter. We always have sunrise service in the little church Mother/Millie built as a remembrance to her maternal grandparents who came to the farm in 1913 and then a coffee hour afterwards. It is a nice annual event but I always want the garden to be at its best as everyone who comes walks around the garden afterwards. There have been some mighty cold and wet Easters but this year it was glorious with temps in the 70's and so much blooming. The lilacs, crabapples, daphnes, and apples were in full glorious bloom and the fragrance was heavenly. After the neighbors left, my daughter Lisa and family came from Longview as did my brother and sister in law and my Mother. We spent the rest of the day sitting on the deck or wandering in the garden enjoying the weather and each other's company. It was a wonderful relaxing afternoon. Because the weather was so lovely I planned for us to eat at the picnic tables under the black walnut tree but it doesn't have any leaves yet and the sun was too warm so we all moved to the deck. Hard to imagine in April.
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