Thursday, September 22, 2011

Unintended Hydroponics


Found this growing under the dish drainer in the sink.  Huh.  Apparently I'm not much of a housekeeper, but I have a knack for growing things indoors...hydroponically....hmmmm.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Blooming Fall

Proof that dahlias do, indeed, grow from seed.  They are not the colors I would have chosen, and they are not five feet tall like my mom's, but here they are, bright and blooming, and I had to do was poke the seeds in the ground.  I'll do this again next year, plus overwintering the bulbs from these youngsters.

And here is proof that there are beautiful things as rampant as bindweed (or almost):
Below all the purple hyacinth bean is the little pergola I built last Thanksgiving out of limbs trimmed from the Bradford pear, as well as the garden gate.  I'd rather see the beans than the gate.

And finally, proof that a new coat of paint can work wonders:
We painted the back deck to match the front porch, and it looks so much better - it goes with the house now, in a way it didn't before.  I think we had attached a 1970's ranch-house style deck to our 1950's cape.  Just didn't work, and it seemed to hang awkwardly off the back door, not really a part of the house or the garden.  Now it looks like it belongs.

It is fall.  The temperature has fallen, and Noah has started school.  I am the mother of an elementary school child.  Seasons.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Two Good Hours

These days, what with the job and the kid and all, I count my garden time in precious hours, not chunks of day, as in: "Oh, I spent the morning in the garden."  Yesterday Noah and I arrived home from visiting my parents in Providence.  I hauled home in my carry on a dozen divisions of day lilies, the gorgeous ones from Kingston.  We walked in the door, I kissed Grant, handed him the parenting duties, and grabbed my gloves and a shovel.  It began to pour, and I spent a glorious hour in the front garden bed, grubbing out grass and putting in lilies.

This morning I sent my kiddo off to his first day of pre kindergarten.  After dropping him off, I was supposed to join the other parents for breakfast and chat...I tried, but the crowd of very friendly people freaked me out and I ran home to my garden, where I spent another hour in the rain, moving my 8 foot tall oriental lilies out of one bed and into another.

My personal gardening pendulum, the one that swings between my ornamental beds and my vegetable and fruit garden, seems to have taken a swing toward useless beauty.  I am again finding myself reading "The English Garden" and contemplating color combinations in my dreams.