Floral therapy

Tags

drought, plants, postaday2016

Today I am burying my face, not in the sand, but in my flowers. We may be experiencing drought conditions in Western Massachusetts, but my longstanding buddies are standing tall. I’m pretty sure my shade trees are responsible for their healthy demeanor. This year’s drought is seriously harming our local farmers, their corn and tomato crops are suffering, I hope our rain situation turns around sometime soon, if only for their sakes.

Our backyard “lawn” hasn’t done as well, it has become an interesting beige color, between the sun and the dogs, it hasn’t had a prayer. I’m sure next year’s grass will come in ready to be green in spite of being tortured this summer. 

Purple and yellow theme

Tags

plants, postaday2016, seeds

I remember back in high school, a classmate of mine, an art student, told me that yellow and purple worked really well together. Back then I couldn’t see the combination working when it came to choosing outfits, but fast forward 30 odd years and I see how beautiful the two colors are together in my garden. I don’t think I purposely planted the purples and yellows side by side, some of the pairings came about by happenstance, a wind blown seed here or a critter burying a seed there.

The Black-eyed Susans that pop up where they feel like, which I don’t mind in the least,  seem to be drawn to my purple perennials. The wild flowers alternating between purple and yellow, depending where you look, seem to gravitate towards the yellow perennials if they are purple and vice-versa, a nice balance in the color schematic of Mother Nature’s palette.

Days away from my garden

Tags

plants, postaday2016

When we left early Monday, all of my plants in the pictures posted were still in the bud stage, it was very exciting to come home, enter the back yard and see new pretty flowers, surrounded by bees feeding off their precious nectar, I ran inside to grab my cellphone and walked around the back happily clicking away.

In the picture above, I have yarrow, Bishop’s Weed and pansies blooming, a colorful melange of texture and color. I have a tiny rose bush in there, it’s still too young to bloom, next year if it survives, I’m pretty sure it will give me my first bloom which is exciting to look forward to, another shade of pink to add to the mix.

The roses around the pool are out and about joining the other roses that I had written about last week. These roses are the old fashioned roses who only bloom once during the season, I think it’s why their scent is so sweet and so strong, they only have the one time to attract bees and butterflies so their scent has to pack a wallop. 

The weeds are calling

Tags

plants, postaday2016

The weeds are most definitely calling, as I was taking pictures of pretty flowers that have just made their appearance, I was tallying up all of the work that needs to be done. It is hot outside, 87 degrees and Blandford is without a mountain breeze today, not conditions conducive to weeding, at least the way I still feel.

I had just come back from the doctor’s, we are weaning me from my pain medication, I still have pain with swallowing, it’s better now, but I am still not 100%, I fatigue easily and the 2 hour round trip made me tired enough to tell myself weeding will wait for another day, it’s not as if the weeds will disappear, they’ll be there for me to pull when I feel up to it.

I took a few pictures of buds developing and maturing, signs that summer is coming, though I am not in a rush for summer, I’d like to enjoy spring to its fullest.

I was so happy to see my oregano make an appearance, I tried to keep the Rosemary alive this past winter, but I failed and all of my sage and thyme have died off as well, back to the drawing board for me and my dreams of perennial herbs.

 

My little bamboo forest

Tags

Gardening, plants, postaday2016

My little bamboo forest, which has been one of the banes of my gardening experience, has come back as healthy and vibrant as ever. I swear, if there is nothing else that I can count on in my garden, it is the bamboo coming back with a vengeance, no matter how many times I pull them up or dig them out. The bamboo in my garden self-propagate on two levels, by their insane root system and secondly with their seeds transmitted by their late summer flowers, it is a full-time job to stay ahead of their spreading everywhere. This year I am fatigued so the bamboo are being left to their own devices, I may end up regretting not doing anything this spring season, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I have to admit that if the forest stayed like this, young, tender and short, I may be inclined to not hate them as much, but they will rapidly grow out of control and annoy me, I can promise you that.

It’s mid February and I’m fooling around with plants.

Tags

garden, plants, postaday2016

  
Remember the beautiful orchid my son got me? It lasted quite a long while in bloom, I read that if you wanted to continue having blooms, you needed to transplant the orchid, once the original blooms started to fade.

With the warm weekend, I felt inspired this morning to transplant my orchid from its decorative pot to its permanent glass bowl, I hope I did it correctly, I followed the instructions on E-How to transplant my orchid. LOL I’ve never done this before, I’ve only tried to keep them alive, keeping them in their original pots and they have all died so I hope this time I am lucky. 

  
The Calla Lilies, next to my transplanted orchid, are going to need to be cared for until I can transplant them outside, they are perennials, so I’m sure I can find a nice little home for these guys come Spring; maybe I can fit them in with my new primroses that I have to keep alive as well.I have a small “nursery” at this point that I must nurture for a fairly long stretch that seems to get bigger each fall. LOL

  

Despite the bone chilling weather, it’s warm in the Nichols hearth

Tags

plants, postaday2016

  
It is crazy cold outside, tonight it’s going to get down to -16, but it is as warm and toasty inside the living room as a spring day, not only because my husband can make a fire like no other, but he can also shop like no other. He has spoiled me with gorgeous calla lilies and a beautiful bowl of succulents.

   
 

The stark beauty of Blandford

Tags

plants, postasay2015, trees

   
   
Yesterday I was right in the midst of beautiful New York City, but today I am right smack in the middle of the stark beauty of Blandford. Trees are structurally majestic in their nakedness, they stand like sentinels bearing witness to the passage of time through the course of Mother Nature’s changing seasons.

  
My tiny azaleas have turned very pretty colors, my lovely grass has turned all fluffy and the trees are gems of nature’s architectural simplicity. Isn’t nature grand?

   
   
   
 

   
 
 

New pathways in the garden

Tags

pathways, plants, postaday2015

   
 
   
   
All of these new pathways are  by grace of Lulu,  not from her own design,  she just follows Jack  everywhere he goes,  though Jack’s 14 lbs  don’t quite have the same effect as Lulu’s 45 lbs, hence the new pathways.

These new pathways are giving me ideas for a new configuration for my gardens because Stanley is following in Lulu’s footsteps and his 12 lbs will soon become a much heavier 100+ lbs  so these pathways will become permanent.

I have  my favorite lilies that will need saving, so I need to figure out where I can put them next year, safe from trampling pups. These pictures down below show what a difference chilly temperatures and big dogs can make in such a short time. 

   
   
On the other hand, Lulu has done a lot of “weeding” in the other garden where the hydrangea is flowering, she cleared an entire path of bishop’s weed that had gotten away from me while I was over in France and for that I am grateful. Lulu has actually given me an idea for that garden, I am thinking of putting flagstone, like the ones that make up the two tiers, along where she paces so that she has something sturdy to walk on and she won’t trek in as much mud when it’s wet. I think a stone walkway within the garden would look very pretty. Thanks Lulu, I might even repeat it elsewhere.

Summer is zipping by too quickly!

Tags

gardens, plants, postaday2015

   
   
The lilies have all but faded, the ones up top are the last ones standing, sniff, sniff. Thank goodness for the upright phlox and the coneflowers; they have pretty awesome staying power, their colors keep me smiling. I am still waiting for my hydrangea and my clematis to bloom, they don’t need to rush, I want August to squeak by as slowly as possible.

My vegetable garden has gotten so wild and riotous, it’s hard to tell where one plant starts and another finishes, it’s a big happy mess of flowers and vegetables. I have learned quite a bit for next year.

All in all I would say my vegetable garden experiment was a success and very worth while, having your own tomatoes and your cucumbers, your own salad makes such a difference, not just in the quality of what you put in your body, but also in your mindset. You see first hand how difficult it can be to grow your own food, while in some ways, how easy it is to provide healthy produce right in your backyard. It awakens an appreciation for the complex relationship between us, our environment, our climate and our committment to working and nurturing the garden beyond sowing seeds or transplanting seedlings. I think it’s a relationship that needs to be broadened to all aspects of society, get many back in touch with our roots, our land and our ecosystem.

I’m lucky, I have an innate love for all things dirt, plant life, growing and nurturing, my love affair with gardening is a no brainer, it comes naturally to me. I just didn’t know I had it in me for a long time, I am grateful I found it.