Heather's Garden

WRITING THIS WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN

And I can't tell you how much I'm loving it!  It's been absolutely glorious here since Friday.  I'm starting to get tan!  More importantly, I have completed garden clean-up and I've got a nice blank canvas ready for planting:

 

And VPH mowed the lawn/marsh marigolds:

And cleaned up the patio (I cleared out the herb barrel saving any perennial herbs that survived the winter):

All the better to enjoy our awesome bulb border:

And the pretty marsh marigolds in bloom until the leaves on the trees fill in and they die:

I'm so loving the tulips (now appearing in yellow and orange):

That I can't stop photographing them:

I find it so peaceful sitting on the patio staring at this border, listening to the wind chimes, and watching the grasses move in the wind.  I wanted to share the experience with you, so I've uploaded a short video here.

Someone still has to weed this bed, though you can see that the hostas have come back, and the fence is down.  The reed fence we bought was too see-through and we won't be using it.  I think we're just going to have to deal with seeing the neighbors since we can already hear them:

In the perennial shade garden I've got bleeding hearts:

 

And fiddle-heads:

 

VPH has lots and lots of stuff to cut into small pieces for compost:

 

The grill is back in its proper location, but I can't get over how different the space feels without those 3 trees.  Granted, the leaves and brush haven't filled in yet and the marsh marigolds have yet to die:

 

But just compare it to what it used to look like:

Much bigger now, no? 

I just watched the weather for Tuesday, 80s at home, 90s at the office (62 miles north).  This is just odd for CT in April.  Then we're back down to the 60s (normal for this time of year) on Wednesday and hopefully then I won't feel so much like I'm behind on my gardening.

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE GARDEN

This month's Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop topic is Decks, Porches, and Patios.  Like that old question "If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?"...I ask, "If you have a garden and no where to sit and look at it...?"  Well you get the point.  That is why my patio is my favorite part of the garden.  We actually have two patios, one concrete and one gravel (which we seem to have named the "gravel pit"):

The concrete patio is the one that we refer to as our "patio" as it is the original (in my first post ever I wrote about how it came to be).  We spend a lot of time on it in nice weather -- and even sat through a 10-minute rain shower on it recently:

This is a view of the patio from the gravel pit (where the gazebo used to reside before it died in the December ice storm).  Note the herb garden on the bottom left of the photo.  It's one of my favorite subjects to photograph from the comfy chairs around the firepit table.  As an aside, I cannot figure out why the windows were placed in this configuration when they put the addition on the house:

The wildflower patch is another favorite photography subject from the patio:

This is our view as we walk around the corner of the house into the garden.  It's pretty obvious when I look at this that I designed the entire garden while sitting on the patio: 

 

This is the view from the chair I sit in most often.  Look how big those zucchini are getting:

I chose to plant the hydrangea on the left where I could see it from the patio, which is how it ended up in a not-so-great location that gets too much afternoon sun:

I can also stare straight at the wall o' plants from here.  Lest you think that all the plants are located for prime viewing from the patio, these are here because it's one of the only places they get a lot of sun and VPH doesn't have to move them every time he mows (and isn't his grass looking wonderful?): 

I can even see my lonely tiger lily at the back of the garden between the 2 trellises made from the corner supports of the deceased gazebo (using the zoom setting on my camera): 

I have one bone of contention re: the patio...we have an incredibly loud neighbor with small children (girls who scream all freaking day long, and parents who scream at each other all freaking night long).  They live on the other side of this oh so attractive bamboo fence which we installed (precariously) so we didn't have to stare at them although we're stuck listening to them:

So clearly the patio plays a huge role in my garden.  From hours spent plotting the next garden move to meals with friends, it's by far my favorite part of the garden.

R.I.P. GAZEBO

Do you think it's a problem that I tell a lot of stuff to R.I.P. here?  On Monday afternoon VPH and younger step-son (both home due to April school vacation) helped me to disassemble the gazebo.  If you're wondering why we would disassemble the gazebo you obviously missed this post. 

The table's wet because it was covered in rusty water and sludge, so VPH cleaned it off.  When the gazebo collapsed, it gouged the table pretty good.  I'm trying not to let it bother me:

I didn't win the pergola on Ebay, and I'm not sure what to do.  I think a large umbrella might do the trick, but I really want a pergola.  The guy in NJ selling the previous pergola just put another up for auction, so I emailed him and asked if he has more and would he be willing to sell me one directly.  We'll see what he says.  But the poor table and chairs look so lonely now and it's sure not a garden room anymore:

I was right, the top of the gazebo is a good size for throwing over the firepit table.  After it dries off I'll clean it up and seal the hole in the middle:

I spotted a flash of blue off in the distance while the men did the heavy labor:

I've never seen these out there before, but this is the first year that the yard hasn't been completely covered in leaves come spring.  Can one of you knowledgeable readers identify these flowers for me?  [The answer was scilla siberica.]

They're not too far away from the day lilies, which VPH has promised not to mow this year now that we know they're there.  I suspect this portion of the yard was once a pretty little garden:

And most exciting of all -- I've got hostas in the perennial shade garden:

Both are looking good so far:

I have to admit that I squealed in delight when I brushed away the leaves to find actual plants growing.  Tax Day will be all about finishing the garden clean-up and getting my seeds started.

Hardscaping Continues

After many weeks of estimates and redesigns back and forth we were both happy with the price and the design and John started work on the last day of April.  It was only going to be a 1 day job and boy was I sad when he pulled his bobcat into the back yard and started tearing up the sod that we had fretted over so last August.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the earth he was digging up was a beautiful dark color and full of worms.  On the south side of the house next to the patio where the wildflowers are located the earth is clay more than anything else.  On the west side of the house (by the grill and flagstone walkway) it's also clay mixed with more tree roots than I could previously imagine.  On the east side of the house it's really sandy.  But if I ever want to plant something in the ground in the middle of the yard, it would grow!

Our landlord came by to see the work on day 1.  She asked us to get John to put together an estimate for tearing up the old asphalt parking space and putting down gravel on the side of the house and in the front for the 3 parking spaces (2 of which were previously on bare earth or mud/ice all winter and mud/dirt all summer).  She must have liked the price he gave her because she told him to go ahead with the job.  John used the old asphalt and such to reshape the land around the side of the house and the entrance to the yard, scraping back the topsoil, burying the debris, and placing the top soil back on top.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the process because it really was fascinating.  I also wish I had a before picture so you could see what a difference it makes, but this should illustrate the phenomenal improvement...2 neighbors have come by and said, "Is this really 4 Blank Street?"  It's that different.  (Pardon the fake address, but you never know who's looking at stuff on the web.)

John finished the job on May 5th, we headed to a Yankee game, Clemens announced he was coming back, and we came home to the other happy news that the torn up areas of the yard had been seeded and covered in straw.  Have you ever sat and watched grass grow?  We had to water twice a day and not walk on any portion of the lawn that was slowly coming up.  We soon started walking all the way around the perimeter of the yard to get to the 2 sheds and the container vegetable garden that I planted somewhere around this week.  This is the reason I started this blog, I can't remember when I planted anything!  It was a very long 4 weeks of watering, avoiding the grass, and imagining what my conversation pit would look like once the gazebo and furniture were set up. 

Next up, actual plants will be incorporated into the garden!

Winter Scheming

I didn't spend that much time over the winter thinking about what to do with the yard (don't believe everything VPH says), but I had a few ideas.  I found out that we were getting a larger than expected tax refund in early March and my imagination went wild.  I love shopping on-line and I'm particularly fond of the W Mart site -- low prices without the unpleasant experience of walking into the store and fighting the teeming masses.  The only drawback to enjoying the patio in August/September had been the swarm of mosquitoes that attacked every evening.  If only there was something that would allow us to enjoy the outdoors but would keep us separate from the bugs. 

Sure there are those tent rooms with no floor that you zip your self into, but have you ever seen one that wasn't butt ugly?  I'm sure they're very functional and all, but I just couldn't see us in one, plus VPH, who usually goes with the flow, had vetoed this structure out of hand.  Something had to be done though and I mounted a concerted effort to find a solution. 

Then I found this on the W Mart site.  Isn't it lovely?  It's a gazebo/it's a screened in structure.  I love things that are atheistically pleasing and functional!  So it went on the must have list and as long as we're getting it, we really need some furniture to go in it.  Wait, where are we going to put it?  Remember the patio is awesome, but it's also already covered in furniture and I love my fire pit table and probably shouldn't use it under a canvas awning.  We need another level spot in the yard!

Initially my idea was to have the whole yard graded and re-seeded.  I started getting bids and again, way too much money for a rental.  I approached my landlord about possibly splitting the cost, but this time they weren't interested.  I started revising my idea to a smaller scale and working with the one contractor who was responsive, helpful, and reasonably priced, my pal John (I'm happy to share his company name and contact info if anyone has a project they need a guy and heavy duty equipment for).  Together we came up with the idea of a 15' x 15' gravel pit. 

I started calling it the conversation pit, but I was the only one who could see it.  My landlord has repeatedly said, you do what you want, but I don't think a big pile of rocks in the middle of the grass is going to look good.  To which I really wanted to say, you see any grass out there woman?  But I'm trying to be a nicer person.  Here's the sketch that I made for John.  Ironically, this is pretty much what we ended up with, but for some reason I didn't know where the spigot was located on the side of the house -- not where it is in my drawing -- and don't laugh at my horrible drawing ability or my sense of scale, or rather lack thereof.

The Beginning

In early July 2006 we purchased a new grill. I sent my very patient husband (VPH) out the side door to clean up a space for a few concrete pavers so we could keep the new grill reasonably level and clean while we figured out what to do next.  I'm embarrassed to say that the old grill was leveled courtesy of a cinder block (not too ghetto).  The whole yard was on an insane slope, more on that later.  VPH did as requested and came back inside 15 minutes later. 

"You have to come see what I found."  With visions of rat babies dancing in my head (did I mention how ghetto it was on the side of the house?), I followed him outside.  Under about 4-5 inches of dirt and tree roots he had uncovered a flagstone.  "Wow," I said, "I guess someone else had a grill out here at some point.  Hopefully it will be big enough for ours."

The next day I came home to find him hacking away at the tree roots with an axe and a few feet of a flagstone walkway cleared.  Several weeks later we had a flagstone walkway that ran from the parking area in front of the house to about 2/3 the length of the house where it suddenly turned under the foundation.  We knew that the back half of the house was an addition, so our theory is that when they added to the house they decided it wasn't worth saving the walkway (which probably led to a patio that's under the house now) and covered it up instead. 

VPH added the big stones on the border and I added in river pebbles to finish the look.

This was lovely, but it only served to remind me that the yard was unusable.  My step-sons were no longer interested in throwing a ball around with VPH (they were 16 and 20) and we really had no grass.  As you faced the yard from the back of the house it sloped from right to left about 10 feet over 30 feet -- I hope you're envisioning a yard without a single flat surface because that's what we had. 

We solicited bids for a concrete patio, but were appalled with what contractors were asking for a 15' x 15' patio with a sidewalk to where the flagstone walkway turned under the house (about 15 more feet).  One wanted $3,000!  I can be an idiot, but even I'm not dumb enough to spend that kind of money on a patio for a rental!  A friend's boyfriend had just started a landscaping business and came through with a very reasonable price for us and we went ahead with our landlord's permission.  They graciously ended up splitting the cost with us and paid to extend the concrete sidewalk and put in concrete steps to the side door which you can see at the bottom of the photo above/right.  I know, I know, it's a rental, but what we paid for the patio was less than what we pay a month for rent and it's been nearly a year now and we've used the patio almost every day for 9 out of the last 12 months.

Shortly after the patio was poured in early-August 2006 we installed sod around it (leaving an empty rectangle between the patio and the house for a future wildflower patch) and then left on vacation for a week in Stowe, VT (great vacation spot summer or winter).  Our upstairs neighbor, who never used the backyard before the great adventure and still doesn't, generously watered the sod for us twice a day for a whole week!  We came home to green grass and then a week later threw a picnic. 

Here's my first trial and error glaring error: in a rush to prep the patio for company we put down river rocks the length of the concrete walkway from the side door stairs to the end of the patio -- here's the kicker -- without putting landscape fabric beneath them.  Huge mistake.  VPH and eldest step-son spent a whole day this spring raking up all the rocks, separating them from the dirt and weeds and then putting them back in place -- on top of 2 layers of landscape fabric this time.  I made other mistakes along the way (and am sure I will continue to do so), but that was the worst so far. 

The picnic was great and we enjoyed our patio for the rest of the summer, fall, and incredibly warm winter.  I read a book and drank a glass of wine on the patio on Christmas day, but winter returned with a vengeance in February and by Easter (typical Christmas-time sleeting rain weather), we were ready for spring.  But the yard was still chock full of weeds and sloped incredibly.  I spent the entire winter plotting for the spring.  I think if VPH had known what the spring would bring, he might have run away during the winter.