Those of you who read my Heritage View books know I love to garden. I've been mucking around in our real gardens today, which are never as tidy, beautiful or well planned as Gen's in my first book. A gal can dream.
Nothing particularly fun on the agenda today, to be honest, though a bad day in the garden . . . still better than a good day doing, well, many other less gratifying labors.
I have too much grass growing into my beds due to a lack of disciplined edge work last fall. You gardeners know that a good sharp edging tool and a four-inch deep wedge-shaped little trench is all it takes. But it is hard work and needs to be refreshed more than once a season to maintain it.
I slacked in this respect last fall and now I am bemoaning it and paying the price. Nobody to blame but myself, so out I went early this morning. Got enough done to feel I'm on my way to reclamation, so now I take a break.
The pink hydrangea is the 'Endless Summer' variety that is really my only option up north. It doesn't get as much acid as my others, so it stays a lovely clear pink. My blue ones stay blue by putting juniper clippings at their base after I prune our junipers. The clippings add acid to the soil as they decompose. Once a year, I'll dump some Holly-Tone on them when I feed my other acid-loving plants, but I'm not diligent about it.
I'm really going to date myself when I talk about the second picture above. My Chuckle Patch. Magic Garden reference, anyone? I know the Chuckle Patch looked more like daisies, but honestly, if you can get sun-loving daisies to grow at the base of a big shade-tree like they pretended to do in that show, then you really DO have a magic garden.
Anyway, my Chuckle Patch is Coreopsis. This variety, 'Zagreb,' does better in my garden than 'Moonbeam' so I grow it even though I'd truly prefer the lemony calm of the latter if I could get it to thrive.
Nothing particularly fun on the agenda today, to be honest, though a bad day in the garden . . . still better than a good day doing, well, many other less gratifying labors.
I have too much grass growing into my beds due to a lack of disciplined edge work last fall. You gardeners know that a good sharp edging tool and a four-inch deep wedge-shaped little trench is all it takes. But it is hard work and needs to be refreshed more than once a season to maintain it.
I slacked in this respect last fall and now I am bemoaning it and paying the price. Nobody to blame but myself, so out I went early this morning. Got enough done to feel I'm on my way to reclamation, so now I take a break.
The pink hydrangea is the 'Endless Summer' variety that is really my only option up north. It doesn't get as much acid as my others, so it stays a lovely clear pink. My blue ones stay blue by putting juniper clippings at their base after I prune our junipers. The clippings add acid to the soil as they decompose. Once a year, I'll dump some Holly-Tone on them when I feed my other acid-loving plants, but I'm not diligent about it.
I'm really going to date myself when I talk about the second picture above. My Chuckle Patch. Magic Garden reference, anyone? I know the Chuckle Patch looked more like daisies, but honestly, if you can get sun-loving daisies to grow at the base of a big shade-tree like they pretended to do in that show, then you really DO have a magic garden.
Anyway, my Chuckle Patch is Coreopsis. This variety, 'Zagreb,' does better in my garden than 'Moonbeam' so I grow it even though I'd truly prefer the lemony calm of the latter if I could get it to thrive.
Okay, this last one has our hummingbirds in raptures. It is Mondarda, a.k.a. bee balm, or (great piece of trivia) the ingredient for "Oswego tea" (look it up). It smells herbal and the color of mine is between red and fuschia. I believe it is 'Raspberry Wine' but I can't swear to it. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds adore it, they really do. Easy as pie to grow.
RSS Feed
