Heather's Garden

Containers -- Why I Have So Many

I get a lot of emails asking why I have so many containers.  Or where did I get the beautiful containers and why do I have so many?  I'll get to that, but first, let's follow my Sunday foray into the garden.  First up, a short visit to the patio garden:

Oh yes, that is the clematis blooming and it's gorgeous!  I'm afraid this is going to be the only bloom though:

The Siberian irises are blooming:

As is the lupine:

I bought this bag of red potatoes at Walmart last week and today I decided to plant some in the wooden box along the driveway.  The rest will go in the metal trashcans in the veggie garden (I'm hoping that SS2 will plant them one day this week while I'm at work):

Back to the containers.  I have so many spots where I can't plant in the ground because of tree roots or stumps.  I also think that the idea of starting a garden in our large space was daunting, but I could handle designing a container.  This is an easy one with golden oregano, chives and lavender that overwinter.  I just have to stick a basil in each year and it's done.  This year I threw in two purple basil seedlings (technically red basil, but you get the point):

I like growing perennials in containers.  They survive the winter just fine and I don't have to start over from scratch each year.  The grass, phlox, heuchera, and salvia come back each spring and here I've added some coleus and white petunias (not currently blooming):

I'm sticking to a green, white, and purple color scheme this year.  Coleus, variegated geranium (which blooms red, but I'll just clip off the buds), purple basil, large leaf Italian basil, white petunias, and a lovely lavender plant in the container in front:

A big phlox, now joined by a heuchera that I picked up cheap at the end of last season but never got around to potting up -- I'm glad it survived.  The big pot has purple sage, white petunia, creeping jenny, and a white & green coleus:

It took a few years, but the garlic chives are finally thriving.  I added a coleus and purple basil to the salvia in the big pot.  The other pot has a stunning geranium, white petunia, and large leaf Italian basil.  It may end up being my favorite this year:

I lost the Japanese maple in the frog pot so I replaced it with a coleus.  The sage is out of control and as soon as it finishes blooming I'm going to cut it back.  The pot on the right will hold a tomato plant.  A Lillian's Yellow again since it did so well here last year, but I'm not ready to plant the tomatoes quite yet:

In fact, you can see them all still sitting on the top rack on the shelves.  I'm not quite sure when I will get to it, maybe Memorial Day if I can still move.  You see Memorial Day weekend will be a work weekend for me so I really took it easy this weekend only working about 2 hours in the garden and not doing a whole lot:

I reached in to turn this decorative frog around in the pot and found this funky moth on the back:

I used the internet to identify it as a Walnut Sphinx moth:

It feels good to get out to the garden even if I'm not nearly done like I have been by this time in past years.  Where are you in your gardening this year -- ahead or behind?

Happy Mother's Day

You may not remember, but this blog came about because I needed a way to show my mom everything I was doing in the garden.  All these years later she still hasn't seen the garden in person!  She's the only one who bugs me when I don't post (which I haven't done much lately).  My Mother's Day was spent in the garden with my family -- it's amazing how much work 4 adults can get done in 4 hours -- and it was the best present ever!

SS2 weeded the raised beds by the patio plus the containers and together with SS1 picked up the furniture we that was still weighed down in preparation for Irene (6 months ago).  He then sucked up all the leaves that covered the patio:

He did an incredible job of weeding around the chives, oregano, sage, and tarragon -- and even more impressive he identified all of them to me in advance except the tarragon which was pretty tough to spot (upper left-hand corner):

Lee weeded the veggie garden while SS1 did his job and once they finished those tasks, they moved on to the patio garden.  I joined them there and did some of the fine work.  It's not perfect, but it's sooooo much better than it was before since we hadn't done a thing:

I love this lupine that's starting to bloom and the little pagoda in the background that my mom gave me:

I also love the Siberian irises and am so looking forward to them starting to bloom:

But I think I might be most excited about this clematis bloom.  I think I planted it 4 years ago (bare root) and I have no idea what it's going to look like!  There's only one bud though:

SS1 weeded the lounger area and the driveway like crazy while SS2 and I did some fun stuff like plant potatoes:

We had a rather unpleasant run-in with the neighbor on the other side of this fence post-Irene.  We all went a little nuts during the week without power.  It's his fence and he ordered us to take everything off it.  Clearly I haven't, but I'm also feeling a little weird about planting beans to climb up it, so I'm not sure yet if I'm going to plant beans between the potatoes this year.  I definitely need to go seed shopping though.

The driveway's looking pretty good thanks to SS2 weeding and SS1 helping me top off containers (what will be in them is yet to be determined.): 

I've got plenty of plants to get into pots (and the ground).  The floppy things at the bottom of the shelves are all the strawberries I dug out of the driveway:

It looks so much better already and I can't wait to get more stuff into planters:

Some spots are looking great already like the strawberry pots (some rearranging is necessary, but I was tired) and the herb pot above it.  I love this other pagoda from my mom:

Plants need to go into some of these containers, but it was fun to burn the old grass off and tug off bunches of ugly dried up phlox:

I found this as I was weeding.  I don't know what it was...maybe a walnut?  So I thought I'd stick it in a pot and see what develops:

Some things are growing just fine with little interference from us.  The hostas in the garden are huge this year.  You can barely see the azalea in the Mother's Day garden:

The herbs overwintered pretty well, but man, that variegated pineapple mint is just going gangbusters!  I might have to make some mint tea or something:

And the ferns, it must be the nice rainy weather we've been having:

We need to weed and mulch over here, but all the plants are just leaping -- I think we're in year 4 or 5 on these?  Beautiful whatever year it is:

So best Mother's Day ever for me.  How was yours?

There Will Be A Garden

There hasn't been a whole lot of gardening going on around here still formerly Hurricane Irene hit at the end of the summer.  We pretty much packed away the garden and didn't look back.  We were very lucky that we got to go down to Florida twice this winter -- the second time because I was laid off from my job at the end of February.  Not worry, I've already started a new position and I'm very happy.  Unfortunately it's a return to more traditional 9-5 office hours with a 45 minute commute each way, so I won't be at home as often as I used to be.  But I've been told summer is a lot quieter and we even get 6 half day Fridays, so we'll see.  I would have loved to get the garden in before I went back to work on May 1st, but the weather just didn't cooperate.  With the odd hot and cold spells we've been having, not to mention April showers in May, I was afraid to plant veggies too early.  Though some seem to have survived the stupid warm winter we had, like this kale:

Just pulling them out made a big difference:

This photo was actually taken a week ago.  Now the lupine's starting to bloom and the irises are even taller.  I must clean this bed up, it's just a mess:

Another side effect of our non-existent fall clean-up -- strawberries growing in the driveway.  I'm hoping I can salvage some of them, but they can't stay in the driveway:

Some things need absolutely nothing done, but as an aside, this cranesbill pink geranium is crazy big:

When I planted it almost exactly a year ago:

Another part of the garden that needs no work:

And the sage plant along the driveway was covered in blooms a week ago.  It's one of the first plants I bought when we started gardening and I love how it's flourishing:

Now to what I did on Saturday...my annual plant-buying outing.  Now that I have to squeeze these things in on Saturdays I feel a little more stressed.  It's amazing how much better our neglected garden and driveway looks with some hanging baskets of petunias:  

So much fun planting awaits:

I love the color combos I have here:

I hope this geranium will bloom pink, but I'm afraid it's going to be red.  No matter, I bought it for the variegated foliage:

Did you notice any difference in these photos from Saturday?  Taken with my new iPhone 4s.  I've read that they have great cameras, but I didn't really believe it.  I do now:

Seriously, look at that bee!  Not a great photo overall, composition, subject, etc., but it's crystal clear:

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I'm beyond excited to have my menfolk helping me in the garden.  I need to formulate a plan...what's going to be our priority?  Happy Mother's Day and happy gardening!

Happy New Year!

Will 2012 bring a renewed interest in posting for me?  Unknown, but I can share this year's calendar with you. As I began to review 2011's images an obvious theme emerged -- butterflies.  Well to be exact 10 butterflies, a moth, and a caterpillar.  The text from this year's message:

As I sat down to compile photos for this year’s calendar an obvious theme emerged.  Between the photos I took in early April on a spontaneous road-trip to Myrtle Beach (poor Lee stayed in the frozen north) and the photos I took in late July on a very much planned trip to Key West (Lee got to come along this time), and a few from my own garden, this year’s calendar just had to be butterflies.  Well, to be specific—one Luna moth, 10 butterflies, and a caterpillar that I very much hope made it to a new life as a swallowtail butterfly. 

The photos for January through June were snapped in the butterfly house at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC.  I spent a lovely day there with my friend Pat and her granddaughter.  It was a grand escape from the seemingly endless winter we experienced in CT this year.

The photos for July through October were captured at the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  Lee and I traveled down to Key West in late July to help my mom celebrate her 70^th birthday.  Amazingly it was actually hotter at home in Branford than it was in south Florida when we landed—2011 was the year of weather extremes in CT!  Mom and I went to the butterfly house the day after her birthday (just the two of us) and it was a magical experience with a cool present/souvenir for mom.

And how could we have a calendar featuring Heather’s Garden without photos of Heather’s Garden?  November’s swallowtail butterfly perched right on our butterfly bush.  And December is a caterpillar on the dill in my herb garden that may have transformed into a swallowtail butterfly, but we’ll never know.

Cover:

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Back cover:

Happy New Year!

I Swear I'm Okay

My mother has been begging me to post, "People are probably worried about you."  And I just got an email from an on-line friend asking if I was okay.  I am, but this fall took a lot out of me.  From Irene to Hogwarts to work, I really didn't have any free time during September and October.  The only gardening I did in October was to pot up some of my herbs and bring them to the Blackstone Library to create an herbology station (photo credit Tricia Bohan Photography):

Here is an incredible video of the kids portion of the Hogwarts fundraiser created by Jess Smith on assignment for our local paper The Sound: http://www.shorepublishing.com/article/20111101/MEDIA0109/111109946/0/media0109

And a few of her amazing photos:

The full slideshow of Jess' photos can be found here.

And if you've always wondering what I sound like you can find links to the TV appearances I did to promote the event on the press page of the Hogwarts event site: http://blackstonehalloween.org/Press.html

I really and truly don't remember the last time I walked into the garden.  It's certainly been warm enough to be out there working, and I imagine there are some plants that think it's spring.  Maybe I'll take a few minutes and wander out there tomorrow.