My mother’s garden’s end of summer

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gardens, postaday2016, spring

All of the plants in my mother’s garden have exploded, at least doubled in size since last year. I don’t think we are going to even bother trimming anything now, it would probably be best to allow the plants to store as much energy as possible for the winter months. My plan is to do some hard pruning come next spring, no plant will be spared. It has become a veritable jungle out there, Jack would feel at home poking in and around the shrubs and miniature trees, lol. This is nothing a sharp pair of pruners, some muscle and a few hours next spring can’t remedy. 

Creeping phlox and other signs of life

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postaday2016, spring

It took awhile, but finally my creeping phlox has blossomed into its customary carpet of pale purple, in between the quirky winter and Lulu and Stanley’s paws, I consider my garden lucky to have the phlox return in all of its glory. I didn’t envisage exactly how great of a “footprint” the two big dogs would impart on my flower beds, their presence has me rethinking each flower bed in terms of replanting or more specifically not replanting and allowing for their foot traffic to dictate the shape and scope of the beds instead. I suppose that’s the nature of gardening, you have to be flexible with the seasons, Mother Nature herself and of course any animal friends you introduce to your household.

I’m still not 100% back to my old self, so I am not going to be as aggressive with the flower beds this year as I would have been in the past. I’m taking everything one day at a time and so whatever I manage to accomplish in the garden will have to suffice, at least for myself and I’m the only one who would be pushing myself, I need to be mindful of that and take it easy on myself, no one else is going to expect a wholly manicured garden.

I was complaining about the sad condition of my azaleas and I found a red blossom on one of the two.

Goes to show, you can never count something down and out because you never know, nature finds a way to surprise you. I had forgotten that I had planted a cutting from my huge rose bush in my pond flower bed, it survived the dogs and the winter! It even has a pansy from last year cuddling up to it, all nice and pretty. It’s the little things like this that make gardening so delightful.

My poor Azaleas

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gardens, postaday2016, spring

I thought that with the mild winter, my plants, bushes and weeping flowering tree would have emerged unscathed, but I was wrong. My purple flowering azalea, which has been a stunning bloomer for over a decade, produced nothing, not a single blossom, I have new growth which I should be grateful for, but I miss seeing all of those purple flowers because it is truly a showstopper when it is completely covered in purple.

My two little azaleas that I had transplanted to a better location are barely alive, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, I suppose I’ll leave them alone and hope that they recover during the summer, they really look so pitiful right now.

My poor weeping tree looks frail, it’s leaves aren’t full and there are no blossoms whatsoever, I’m really disappointed because ordinarily this tree would be covered completely in deep pink blossoms and it is magnificent. I don’t know what happened, maybe the weather completely confused it, we did have warm weather followed by frost and perhaps that killed the blossoming process, I can’t say, but it is distressing.

Out of all of my trees, I was surprised that the old honeysuckle did fine because it has still to recover from the ice storm of 2008, but my honeysuckle is a trooper, the scent will be amazing when the flowers open, they smell so sweet, just like candy. I love walking past the honeysuckle, stopping and burying my nose in its small yet powerfully fragrant flowers, it’s heaven.

I did get a cool surprise, the purple grape hyacinth came from nowhere, I certainly didn’t plant it. I wonder who dropped it off, it could have been a bird, a chipmunk or a squirrel, whoever did it thank you, I really appreciate the added splash of color in my garden.

My gardens are filling up with color even with the hiccups of nature. I need to be grateful for what has survived and what is thriving, no complaining, it doesn’t do anything productive.

Beauty from my bedroom window

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lilac, postaday2016, spring

When I took these pictures from my bedroom window yesterday, I wanted so much to find a way to communicate how wonderful my bedroom smells with the breeze wafting in the lilac perfume right outside. I inherited the white lilac and the purple lilac right behind it from the previous owners, I couldn’t have picked a better bush to put right outside the house. It is something I look forward to every spring, smelling the delicious odor of the white lilac, you can’t purchase anything that smells as pure and clean, even though perfume manufacturer’s try really hard to mimic its scent.

My only complaint is that lilac blossoms leave too soon, I wish lilac bloomed all spring and summer long, but if that were the case, would I appreciate it as much? I think I would, unfortunately nature’s rules won’t allow for me to find out, I have to be happy with the short window of its beautiful blossom.

More springtime pictures from the backyard

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Gardening, postaday2016, spring

The lilac are just beginning to release their lovely scent, it is one of my favorite smells in the world, when the flowers are all open I like to bury my face and inhale deeply, lilac is as relaxing as lavender is in terms of aromatherapy in my opinion.  The bees have been circling all of my lilac bushes which is such a great sign considering all the literature has been warning us of the weakened state of bees worldwide. I used to be scared of bees, but since reading about the disastrous toll all the pesticides have taken on our bee population, I see bees as our life link to produce and without them we are in serious trouble. Bees are sacred to our existence and I hope more people become pesticide free, if only for our own good.

I am very excited that all of my blueberry bushes, planted last year, came back healthy and strong. My friend Tracy who has experience with both wild blueberries and regular blueberries told me that I have to wait at least 3 years before I get any fruit, it doesn’t take away my excitement over the fact that they survived the winter and the dogs. The three dogs love hanging out where I planted the blueberry bushes but they haven’t trampled them so I consider that lucky. Gardening is part patience and luck, you hope for plenty of both. 

I’m surprised the pansies came back from last year, they are a gorgeous deep purple, a great background color for the Russian Sage I planted right next to them last year which is coming back as well. All in all I’m happy with what is popping up in the back, I can’t complain.

Tulips of my own

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postaday2016, spring

I consider it really springtime when the tulips come out from their winter slumber.  As you can see, spring comes much later here in Blandford then it does in New York, I get two springtime awakenings by traveling back and forth from my house to my mother’s house, mine aren’t as grand as New York tulips but I doubt New York tulips have to deal with a horde of hungry chipmunks as mine do each year. I consider myself lucky to have these that faithfully come up year after year.

My vinca minor, they give off purple blooms, are prolific this spring, they didn’t have to contend with the usual harsh winter which in my mind must be the reason I see purple everywhere I have vinca minor. They almost act like weeds which is why I’m not as gentle with them nowadays as I used to be in the beginning when I first planted them here and there, they are now everywhere.

I’m excited to see the rest of my garden wake up, it happens every year, yet it never gets old and boring. I get just as excited even knowing what it is going to look like roughly. One of the reasons I love gardening so much, it is one of my passions.

Springtime in New York part 2

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postaday2016, spring

Herald Square just outside of Macy’s is where my mother and I spent a few hours doing the dutiful New Yorker thing, shopping. Actually my mother was the conscientious consumer, I kept my money in my pocket which I often prefer doing, better in my pocket than out into the hands of someone else, I know I am the worst consumer and negligent of my economic duties as a consumer in society, but my habit has been around for too long and I don’t see myself changing anytime soon. My mother does her duty very well, responsibly yet generously at times, she keeps this economy humming along quite nicely.

Afterwards we went to Park Avenue to walk towards Citarella a food shop to get items for tonight’s dinner, an omelette with potatoes and mushrooms.

 The cascading purple flowers whose name eludes me needed to be taken as a picture, they are gorgeous, they may be covering the townhouse’s window’s on both floors, but maybe the people would rather look at their flowers then the people, I don’t know. If I lived there (had the millions to live there) maybe I would be happier with the view of purple flowers, I can’t tell you. I don’t have millions.

The tulips I took today put yesterday’s tulip to shame, but I am partial to the lovely tulip from yesterday because it’s my mother’s.

Springtime in New York

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postaday2016, spring

Springtime in New York is magnificent! I have nothing even close to as beautiful near my house as of today, it will come but it isn’t for the immediate future I can tell you that. But as I remind myself, patience is a virtue and my plants are waking up one by one, so my turn will come never fear. What I love about springtime in New York is that it is so big and so bold as only New York can do it because New York is big and bold with everything, from spring to its own New York values, take that stupid Ted Cruz.

I love the lilac, the smell carried me away to the South of France for a brief second, it was a lovely side trip, if only it had happened to me in realtime. I wouldn’t have said no to that kind of trip

The Dogwood blew me away, it is so early for a Dogwood this huge to be completely in bloom, but that is what you get when weather is being crazy. I have one in my backyard, but it won’t even be ready to bloom until late June, I’m not complaining I am lucky to have two springs to enjoy.

Messy front beds filling up with color

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postaday2016, spring

   
    
 
I’m happy with the colors I see, hyacinths are some of my favorite early flowers because they look so perky and cheerful. I used to have dozens of them, but my arch enemies, the moles and the chipmunks, have had some memorable feasts at my expense. This year, the blue and pink bell flowers have taken over big time, I’m not sure what I want to do about it. This year I may let it go because I don’t have the energy necessary to do another massive overhaul of the side bed as I did about two years ago when I dug up and threw out all of the lily of the valley that were smothering my iris, tulips and hyacinths. It was a big undertaking and I don’t have it in me to do it this time around. My lack of energy is frustrating me, there is so much to do and I don’t have the energy to do any of it. Gardeners know how busy you can get this time of year, it is really all up to what you want your garden to look like for the summer. My gardens are going to be messy unless my husband gets our friend to help us out the way he did over the winter. That may well be the course of action, I know I’ll feel much better with Traci’s help, he and his guys do such a nice job. We’ll see, there is no point getting worked up over it now, it’s still too early to do any real work. Here in Blandford we don’t put a shovel to the earth until after Memorial Day because we can always get a serious frost. Words drilled into my head by my mother-in-law, she may have been annoying but she was right about this one thing at least.

My chive have come back

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postaday2016, spring

I’m not surprised that the chive have come back, they grow like weeds to be honest, but I forget how enjoyable it is to pop out of the kitchen with a pair of scissors and chop off as much as I need whenever I want and they never suffer from over harvesting, they seem to grow thicker and faster the more you use them. One of the many first signs of spring. 

    
 
  
Another sure sign of spring is the glorious deep shade of blue the sky offers us, no more pale blue, the harbinger of cold days and nights, this shade of blue means warm breezes and the promise of growing buds, tubers such as tulips, daffodils, lilac and irises.