the kitchen door garden...


click to enlarge


sow what you will...

perfect timing...
It just started pouring and I just finished planting some more flowers in the kitchen door garden. I finally finish painted the new siding I put on the bay window last year (yeah, I know, these things take time...). I dug out all the cactus under the window last year and it's been bare ever since, so today I planted a dozen seed grown Rocky Mountain Scarlet Geraniums, which are now about ten inches tall and were outgrowing their bedding pots. I also picked up three Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri', commonly known as Asparagus Fern and potted them in a twelve inch container that will work nicely to transfer them into the reading nook off the kitchen when the weather turns too cold for them in the fall. My Father's mom, "Nana Toot", had a huge three foot tall by about two foot wide Arts and Crafts urn on her sun porch with an Asparagus Fern that had taken on a fantastic proportion, it reached the ceiling and draped almost all the way down to the floor. It was in a windowed corner and served as a backdrop for a beautiful Arts and Crafts gaming table, with an inlaid chess board, on which we played marathons of checkers, cheating and laughing for hours. She and my Grandfather, "Pop", lived in a beautiful Craftsman bungalow about two blocks from the Raritan Bay front in Middletown, NJ. The front yard had two huge Black Spruce trees and the front grounds were covered with Irish Ivy, which, never until just now, I realize is exactly what grows in the front yard of Stately Sad Old Goth Manor. How about that. Their property was edged with nicely shaped hedges of privet, sheared traditionally, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Their side flower garden, which was built in a circular pattern, contained a tall lattice-work obelisk, on which grew the ever present Morning Glories, surrounded by Shasta Daisey's, many different varieties of Ferns, green and white variegated Hosta and the perimeter was surrounded by huge chunks of sharp-edged "rocks" of split glass, which were tailings my Grandfather mined from the banks of Delaware Bay in Cape May, NJ, where there used to be a glass factory in the 19th Century. They would dump the left over crucibles of molten glass into the water and it would solidify and fracture into strange and interesting shapes. The glass "rocks" were all shades of pink and green and blue and crystal clear and were a fantastic sight when struck by the sunlight. Their driveway was the typical "twenties" style, two strips of poured concrete, with a strip of grass between them, bordered on the side closest to the house by perennial gardens containing Lupine, Foxglove, Delphinium and the old style single Hollyhock. Around their feet grew a tangle of Nasturtium that would sometimes twine up around the flower stalks. Their back yard was dominated by a huge Weeping Willow, a Salix babylonica, it's pendulous branches sweeping the ground and affording a wonderfully dark and cool sitting area on hot summer days and nights. One of my most precious memories is sitting under that tree with them, watching a summer full moon rise into the clearest of night skies, smelling the drifting scent of the flowers mingled with a hint of salt water, carried on the barest of breezes off the bay, and mixing with the odor of the damp earth under the tree and the green smell of the leaves. No one spoke, the only sound was the shrill calling of the night-time insects and the swishing sound of the willow branches as they slowly moved in the zephyr... the only thing that could have made that scene more complete was someone strumming "Lazy Moon" slowly on a ukulele...
But I digress... and the sun has come back out to play, so I'm going to go tidy up some things and take some pictures for later.
Enjoy your day.


sow what you will...

Planting time...
Even though today had steady winds of 15 to 20 miles per hour, with higher gusts, I spent four hours planting all my annuals and herbs. One flat of orange Marigolds, to flats of deep Burgundy Petunias, three Lobelias, a few annual golden Sedum, a Citronella plant, some Moon flowers for the trellis, some Rosemary and a few more grape tomatoes. I converted the bed where the Day lilies were to a kitchen herb garden, lots of sun and it's up against a South facing wall, so they should do well, and I added a few rows of the Marigolds, just to try to keep the bunnies away.


Golden Sedum - click to enlarge...


The Iris are on the verge of flowering and the Rhododendron is starting to flower. I purchased it because the tag said it had white flowers, but they're the magenta variety. So be it, they're still pretty. No buds on my Azalea yet, though. Lots and lots of new growth, but no buds.
The perennial mums are growing like mad, I pinched them back this morning to start them growing into a mound before they get too tall. I hope I didn't wait too long to start doing that, they're shooting up like crazy.
The Rose Campion is doing well, I love their little rose pink flowers and interesting seed capsules, that look like little urns with frilly edges. They self seed well, they've been growing in the back door garden for about fifteen years. I have to move them sometimes, since they sprout up everywhere, but the suffer transplanting well and, being biennial, they grow into nice, fuzzy ground hugging rosettes, then the next year they send up flowering stalks. Very light and airy plants, the also hold up pretty good in the wind.


Rose Campion - click to enlarge...


Campion seed capsules - click to enlarge...




The rest of the evergreens in the foundation planting I did last year are doing good, the yews are almost twice the size as when I planted them.
I also did the first official mowing of the grounds yesterday, the past few times I just topped it, but this time I did a full scale cutting and it looks great. All the new grass I put in last year is nice and full. The area where the pool used to be is looking less like a crop circle than it did last year.
Well, it's time to get ready to go out to dinner over a friend's house for Mother's Day with Mrs. SOG.
Be well.


sow what you will...

it's Handy Goth..!
I was really hoping to be able to work in the yard today, but it's been raining off and on for past two days and will again tomorrow, so I whipped up this little compost sifter out of some old lumber I had in the shed and a piece of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth I had hanging around. The sifter part feet wide and three feet long and the outer frame fits nicely over my big wheelbarrow, but it can be made any size you want. Here's some pictures and a little demo movie.











I'm going to put a few coats of linseed oil on it tomorrow to protect it from moisture and when it dries, I'll rub the two rails the screen rides on the the bottom sides of the screen with a paraffin candle to make it slide easier, then it's ready to go.

Have a good one.




sow what you will...