Make Me an Offer I Can't Refuse...

Complements of a friend who will remain anonymous, but who knows me well :-D

The Shade Garden

It has come to my attention that have yet to post anything about my shade garden!!

And I realized why:
Because it's my one success story!
There are no funny accident stories!

But hey, girl's gotta brag when she's got ONE sole thing to brag about!

April 2015 I ripped out yards and yards of vines, vinca (gag!) and hugely overgrown boxwoods and planted my dream: A Shade Garden!!

 I was kind of at a loss for what to grow back there until I started researching shade gardens and wow, did I fall in love!
So many beautiful things for shade areas!
All varieties of Hostas and Coral Bells, Bleeding Hearts and Lamb's Ears and on and on the list goes.
And we finally had a place for the adorable bird house hand-made by my Dad-in-law!
I was very pleased with how it came out!

(Here's the "before" shot from when we first toured the house if you really want to appreciate how far we've come!)

That fall, a friend who is actually a phenomenal gardener, was moving out of state. She wanted to "rescue" at least some of her gorgeous shade garden plants (so she gave them to me?! What was she thinking?!!)
She gave me Astible, a fern, more Hostas, Phlox and goodness I can't even remember what else. It was so exciting! I told her no guarantees they'd be alive when she moved back!
One incredible thing she gave me was Native Ginger...a groundcover that spreads fairly quickly, but doesn't put down horrible roots like so many others; very manageable. And it has these adorable little purple flowers in the spring and again in the summer!

Also that fall I planted my gorgeous Yuletide Camellia (which blooms gorgeous red flowers in December!) in the back corner in the hopes that it truly gets to the 8-10' tall that it promises and fills in that corner!

So here we are last spring when everything started coming back
(which in and of itself is a miracle for me!) ...

I have dozens (hundreds?) of beautiful stones that were underneath an old crushed shed we ripped out and so I started making a little cobblestone walkway...sooooo cute!



Things filled out really well; I was very pleased.
I also painted the bird feeder (also made by my Dad-in-law!) and it is such a cute pop of color (especially on a bleak winter or blah dreary day).

In the fall I moved Hostas around (the one by the white bird house had gotten way too enormous for that space!) and divided up / moved around a few others to fill in the gaps. I want a beautifully smooshed, wild-growing gloriousness in this bed!!

And so far this spring, glorious it is!!

 Bleeding hearts in bloom!

Have I mentioned how much I love Native Ginger?!

I even have mushrooms growing like a magical fairy land! ;-D









Like plants, I also can'at bring myself to throw away beautiful pots, even when they're broken. So they get a resting place in the shade garden!









And of course Google decides to take my photo and make it all "ooohhhh". Pretty crazy!

I rescued this rusted old watering can from its discarded state along
the side of the road while I was jogging at our apartment.
Husband thought I was nuts picking up trash along the side of the road,
but I had a vision! This would become a flower pot in a garden one day when
we bought a house! And lo and behold, over 5 years later it's perfect!

So yes, bask with me in my one success! 

I did have a few grasses that must not have gotten enough sun, so they didn't make it past the first year. And I have a Fuchsia bush who can't seem to get above 6" any given year (supposed to get 3-4' :-/). We took down and thinned out a few crowded trees in the backyard, so we'll see how much extra light that lets in this year.
All in all, though, it is going so well and I absolutely love it. It's a little stress-reliving paradise. Just need to design a bench, have husband build it, get some pillows out there with a book and iced drink and I'm not coming back in!

"Organic Gardening"

At the garden plot we have a hose hanger (is there a more official name for it...?!)

There are four unused holes that are supposed to have screws through them to hang on a wall. Ours is on a fence and so those holes aren't used.

Except that they are used ... by wasps :-/

Every year the wasps are so grateful that we've supplied a little home for them to nest in....aaaand every year we drive them out and fear for our lives.
I was trying to brainstorm with my garden plot partner about what we need to fill them with.

I get a photo while she was out there after work one day...

'Problem solved'

Bahahahahaha! Love it!

Hey, it's simple, cheap, addresses the problem and is so organic! :-D

Cilantro Everywhere!

NOT an exaggeration!

Soooooooo, for those who haven't been following the journey, let me catch you up....

I adore cilantro and can't grow it. I tried. I tried so much.

Then it accidentally seeded itself into my rose bush bed.

And proceeded to survive through intensest heat and coldest freezes and a 30" blizzard and now we're going into year 2 of this magical substance.

In the fall I let it go to seed to start the magic over.


And to seed it did.

EVERYWHERE!!!

Here is the wildflower bed across the sidewalk from where I've let the cilantro grow...

I came out in the spring to a carpet of mini cilantro seedlings.

Oh plants, why can't you grow this way when I want you to?!!


Aaaaand, here's the cilantro and Daylily jungle; the area that started the adventure (and helped inspire this blog!):

That was taken a bit back; it's actually worse now - so thick and tall with me having to pull off heads so we don't get more seeding!

But the great news is....

The cilantro transplants actually took in my edible garden last fall!!!!

This means, that I can harvest the forest of cilantro from the flower bed, make a crap-ton of guacamole and then, my little friends, you are gone!
It's been wonderful having you...you have been a light in the darkness - the reminder that accidents can be wonderful! You've been a constant source of deliciousness through all seasons, all weather, and in a myriad of dishes.
But now it's time to die.
Give the bed back to the flowers and for the love of weeding, please stop seeding yourself in any and every bed!!

The Seedlings

Realized I haven't given an update on the seedlings. Been a bit of a roller coaster since I planted them...

Within 2 weeks they started sprouting!!

A few days later and MORE! I can grow things! Woo hoo! Go me!!

A week later and there are more than just the starter leaves! I'm the best! I'm not a failure! I'm not that accidental!

Three days later and the zucchini has exploded!

But too big for its starter pod, I'd say! 

 So I re-pot it!

I also notice other plants haven't gotten any bigger in, well...weeks.

 So I up-pot them too...

And it worked! Within days they had already burst with more leaves!

Just wish I'd done it sooner!

Now it's time to plant and yet they're still rather weak; feel like I wasted weeks. How did I miss that yes, plants started as seedlings DO get up-potted!

Oh well.

That and the fact that probably about a third or more of what I planted never came up.

Remind me again why I was chosen to start the plants when I can't grow anything?!!


So I decided to start putting them outdoors a bit, which I've read is needed for a few weeks - just a few hours in the sun and wind to help strengthen them and acclimate them, etc.
So I put them out in the sun for a few hours before moving them into the shade. It was pretty breezy on Saturday so I watched their frail little leaves blowing in a frightening way. Yikes! But, hey, need to step back and let them test out their wings; every little fledgling needs to learn how to fly - it's hard to watch, but it's for their good - mommies have to let go.

However, there are those mommies who forget about them until laying in bed and in the middle of the night are awakened to thunderous downpouring that they didn't know was forecasted.
{Oh no! I forgot to bring the seedlings in!! Do I get them? No, that takes WAY too much work and listen to the rain! The tray will be soaked and then where do put them down in the house? Welp there goes my entire crop that actually grew! Weeks down the drain and I suck and weh, weh, weh... [etc. ... head grumbling and ... fuzziness and .... zzzzzzzzzzz....]}

They looked quite beaten down, but seemed to have survived, so we shall see how they fare!
 Setting up for real great successes here, my friends.

Garden Plot Update

Progress continues here at ole yonder garden plot...

In what was a beautiful joining of inspiration and "yeaaah, everything else is way too expensive", my gardening partner came up with this idea to spiff up the strawberry bed with little raised beds in the middle and how cute is this?!
We shared WAY too many WAY too girly moments admiring just how "cute" our progress was.

Down the middle will be a path of creeping thyme which takes light footfall. Again...how cute is that?!


Lettuce, peas and pac choi are planted and the pea trellising is up...climb, babies, climb!

Beautiful dirt with peanuts buried and waiting to emerge (and the pac choi leaves are about the size of a sunflower seed and just adorable in their perfect little row!)

Of course, they haven't turned the water on yet, so thank the gardening fairies that our plot is about as close to the wooded stream as possible!
I grab the bucket and watering can and head off to feel oh-so-pioneer-ish.
It only took two trips, thankfully, but that was my workout! (Suddenly it started making sense why we seem to be some of the earliest ones out there and already have early crops planted ... ooohhhh .... riiiight. They need water when it doesn't rain. Huh.)


And then there are the zombie raspberries. On our first visit they were horrible, sickly looking sticks that were starting to mold. Ewww! Figured they would be getting yanked out.

And then this latest visit, I hear partner exclaim, "Are those RASPBERRY leaves?!!!"
Why yes. Yes they are.

Haha! we can't win!
So while we did make incredible progress on the disaster of weeds, this was not an area we finished yet. Figure it'll be next before we suffocate our crazy, molding and growing (?!) raspberries! We'll see if they produce.

Oh well, it's coming. Little by little, it's coming!

An-ne-me-ne-mo-nee

Three years ago, husband and I raided the bulb section at the local Lowe's.
Along with the gladiolas and calle lilies (still going strong and producing more offspring every year), and the accidentally monster cannas, we bought some anemones.

No, not that kind.

Unfortunately they were a spring bloomer (so why they were for sale in the spring with the summer bloomers, I have no clue!)

Oh well, we figured they'd come up next year.

Mmmmhm.
You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?

So every year since then we've gotten some little greens that get buried further and further under the bushes up front and no flowers. None.

I'll find the bulbs while digging and extending and relocating, etc., etc....and, having no clue what they are, will pull them farther out from underneath the bush and wonder what they could be.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear this year?!!!

Anemone flowers!!!

They are so completely beautiful and I'm so excited!!
Totally worth the wait (especially when you'd forgotten about them, given up on them and had no thought that they'd appear).

The Spring Border

Sad news on the tulip (and other spring flowers) border front...

I mean, what is there is pretty, but they're just not wowing.

And it begs the question...is it me?

Because there is a chance that it was the psycho cold, hot, freezing, 80 degrees, repeat winter to spring transition we had this year. A chance.

I mean, they started in early February and then got slammed in early March...

If not that, then it was me messing around with the bulbs when I expanded the bed and tried to re-arrange the bulbs while not disturbing the perennials (and perennials I thought were annuals).
Soooo...I may play again this fall and try to more thoroughly dig bulbs out, move some of the perennials (now that I know some stay green!) and make sure no bulbs are planted too deep.

I'm sorely disappointed at the poor showing this year. Last year was spectacular! This year, less than half came back up and some types not at all.
[cue slow, sad violin concerto]

Time will tell, time will tell.

For now, I will enjoy the beautiful things that are coming...

I see you little hardy geranium getting ready!

And oh the craziness of the tulips coming up through the perennials; what a mess! But they sure are beautiful!