Today I got an offer to do some actual landscape architecture work--autoCAD for a small firm in eastern Connecticut. Needless to say, I'm thrilled. It may not be very much at first but any design work at any level is a BIG step in the right direction. A great thing about this is that I will still be working at the garden center, so have the best of both worlds, working directly with plants and people (though the funny thing is the most heartfelt moments often come when I mention how much sculpture adds to the individual personality of a garden!) AND working with a professional with many years experience in landscape design.

Lucky me...

I fianlly managed the finish the stonework for the patio today--not the wall or fire pit or even the walkway, but the patio itself. Which is huge because it was irregular stone and took a lot of cutting (breaking) and fitting, so was a long job (started sometime last summer, after weeks of sifting stone out of the base layer of sand and small gravel. This photo was taken from the second story bedroom.

The patio measures about 20 feet from left to right by 16 feet top to bottom. The rectangle in the upper left will be an herb garden as will the obscured rectangle by the two white chairs. The cut-out to the upper right will be the fire pit. It is hard to see but there are natural rocks to the upper left and in the shadows to the right which will serve as anchors to the low wall which will curve around the back (upper edge) of the patio and serve as a setting wall/fire pit. That's the next thing to get done.

it's hard to believe it's been since Monday, but hot weather and work will do that to you. Tonight I have to name a whole bunch of photos I took of rhododendron foliage at work today (memorizing flower color in something that blooms at best three weeks a year isn't the wisest thing to do), but I'm hoping I can show some pics about digging out and dividing a Heuchera (no idea what variety--green leaves, coral flowers, and old-style plant) tomorrow. It's too humid to think, so I won't.

Today was a surprise rain storm which completely mixed up my plan to complete the patio stonework--though I started early so was able to get some more stone work done before I got rained out. So here are the Blueberry and the Bubble--the Bubble being named by Lucy's co-worker with whom she car pools and the Blueberry being too obvious for words. It's nice to have good good cars in the driveway.

My tangelfoot arrived and I've "painted" it on blue cups and when I walk around with the cup over my head the deer flies land on it and get stuck. So, it really works, but walking aroudn holding a sticky blue cup over my head isn't as exciting as it sounds! I've seen some photos where people taped the cup to their cap and that seems to work. I'll keep working on it. ideally I can figure out a trap that attracts them without me being the target. The problem is that they focus almost exclusively on motion (when we drive downt he driveway we'll have ten or more flying around the car!) so I need a trap that moves...

The things i have been thinking about for this blog are the Tradescantia and how they all are doing so well and the Grandprize Hosta, and blue cups covered with tanglefoot for deerfly control, but tonight we watched "A Secret Garden" which is based on Henry James (almost every thing is based on Henry James, even Greece and China, though they predated him so didn't know it--and, yes, I have to admit, I have laughed out loud at Henry James, which would seem impossible, unless one grew up in a house of just nine rooms, yet contained all of the British Isles, though favored the north, as well as a good smattering of the London Stage, and gave strong support to the American Revolution, Tories though we were) so now what I have to say is less about the plants themselves than the fact that, if each of us were to design our garden of Eden, then there would be 6-billion-plus gardens. And also, children's gardens have more paths that lead to and from than grownup gardens, for children, as a rule, are eager to see who will come to visit, and adults are scared to see... who will visit.

Though the world would be a better place, if each of us were allowed to build the gardens of our innocence (for I should say "innocence" rather than "youth" for so many have their youth robbed from them), with doors and dreams wide open.

Twice in the last two weeks I have been asked at the garden center when I first became interested in plants and the first time I said, "I have never known a time when I wasn't interested in plants," and the second time I simply said, "Before I learned to talk." In my garden of Eden, my grandfather would be standing by his climbing beans with my grandmother smilingly beside. And my Granddad's iris would be in bloom with my Grammy nearby, playing the piano. And my father would be amist his rhododendrons, flowering all, and my mother would kneeling by, and planting the marigolds I bought her, at the Flower Market, on Mother's Day, my birthday, with the money she had given me for cotton candy and a ride, and I, being a pudgy sort of kid, would have gotten the cotton candy, but skipped the ride, and spent my time with crystalizing pink candy sharp on my tongue, wandering all around the tables of the great big tent, where the flower market got its name, long before I was born.

In my garden no child would lose their innocence, before they learned to talk.

I have spent my adult life classifying that which is undefinable. In the end no tale is truely epic, unless it ends with magic. For the only part of who we are that gravity cannot pull back to earth is our imagination. There are no deer flies in our garden, sitting with the catalogs, by a January fire. Which is a mish-mash. Which is why the gray-haired woman purchasing the half-priced herb pot that has gone to seed, is as real, and as important to me, as the laced couple short on time, spending hundreds, even thousands, on plants they'll never see.

If we were all blessed equally, then each of us would have a secret grden, that would give us friends who'd show us paths we'd learned how not to see, and help us walk on legs we'd learned how not to trust, and bring our family home to us, or show us how to get from here to them, whoever they may be.

Mid-week

We've had well over an inch of rain in the past two days so everything is back to being well-watered, but the next few days look to be very hot so our sandy soil will dry out quickly. I did get some more work done on the patio, and remembered there is an exposed bolder at the house end of the low wall (it was covered by stone dust) so the wall will arise out of natural stone at both ends.

The Asiatic lilies have had their days and are now fading. Next year I'm going to see if I can't plant them in different places and maybe get them to bloom at different times, so we can have a longer display. The problem is they need to be in Fort Knox (our old dog kennel used to protect plants from deer) or they need to be sprayed or the deer will level them.

I tried some Soil Moist in pots in which I planted some of the tiniest divisions of the Grandprize Hosta and it weirds me out a little because it sweels so much it almost forces the dirt and plant out of the pot. Supposed to keep water in the pot and help promote even root growth so we'll see. I wonder what happens to it over time...

Off to work.

YAY! The car dilemma has been solved by the purchase of a 2010 blue Honda Fit which seems perfect for the needs of a small-time gardener. I'd thought about trucks but they really aren't that comfortable and the vast majority of my needs (potted plants, bags of compost, a couple of cinder blocks) can be accommodated by a roomy interior and the Fit has about 20 ways to make just the roomy interior I want.

So now I can spend tomorrow working on the patio.

This is where I am with it--most of the patio stone laid but the low wall and firepit still to be done. I'd love to finish the paving by the end of next week so I can get on with building the wall, but I suspect it'll take longer than that. The space is big enough to useful even now so that's a plus.

One of the great things about living where we do is all the little plants that pop up. for example down by the stream this small orchid, probably Platanthera (= Habenaria in Newcomb's Wildflower Guide) clavellata, is doing quite nicely. Not a rare plant, but still fun to have, and a reminder that land less tilled is more interesting land.

This is where it is (red circle) in relationship to the land and the stream.

Between the heat and work I sort of lost track of the days, existing mostly just to exist, but today was a little better--we actually had a bit of rain--and someone came in and bought a bunch of stuff right before the end of the day, so that was nice. Anyway, the above shot is of one of our annual benches on a nice day. It is a fun place to work.

I liked the statue but figured it would be expensive but then it turned out the boss just wanted to get rid of it so someone got it for $39, which I would have gladly paid. Oh well, there're other deals hovering around--I just need to remember to ask. I do find that adding human elements--sculptures, benches, planters, etc. is a really strong way to personalize a garden. There are far more human concepts of garden statuary than there are types of shrubs! Also, human elements create a tie between the natural and the human--a visual bridge between house and not-house.

This is a Kansas Kitten daylily--a nice dark lavender with purple center. I didn't do much other than water today, as we went near, if not over, 100 here today. What lawn we have is going to dry out, I'm sure. The sandy soil just can't keep grass going through a heat spell. Atleast it knocks down the mosquito populations (though not the deer flies).

Today Lucy and I had the day off together so we went to Putnam Connecticut to wander through antique shops and then to a state park for a swim. The park was small but not very crowded and though the swimming area was roped off, it was big enough that you didn't feel too constrained--the actual constraints were the motorboats!

There's no rain listed for the next five days and we're already dry so it's going to be a brown-lawn summer. I'm going to try to get some daylily pictures early tomorrow because they fade quickly in the sun. My asiatic lilies are in full swing--we've cut several for the house,though I've had to keep on top of the lily beetles--pretty but they will wipe out asiatic lilies (leave daylilies alone) .

George

Happy 4th!

Today is going to be a quiet day at home. Do some gardening and just relax. Supposed to be hot andyou can feel it in the air already. We were able to sit by the stream last night and have a fire--very relaxing. There were some small fireworks going on a round us but nothing we could see very well.

I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the new daylilies.

Got home late so only had time to water the beans, cucumbers and beets. I did get to see the kansas kitten daylily but not to photograph it. Everything needs watering--we've been more than a week without, but I was simply too tired. Tomorrow before work I'll try to get to some of the things. I've realized I can carry a watering can out when I get the paper in the morning to help with the wildflower bed and the new summer snowflake viburnums.


Yesterday I rearranged all the hostas at work so they made sense and spent some time this morning trying to recognize every type we sell (20!). I'd like to be better at knowing which variety is which, which can be hard as many of them look almost alike. But, if you start looking hard enough, the differences start to emerge. Like today I had an unmarked plant (one of the bains of my life) and was trying to figure out if it was a "Wide Brim" or a "Patriot" hosta--both have green leaves, but the Wide Brim is edged in creamy yellows and the Patriot is edged in creamy white. However, the white on the patriot continues down the leaf stem whereas the leaf stem of the Wide Brim is completely green. The unknown hosta 9with both creamy-white and creamy yellow edges on different leaves had the white edges extending down the leaf stem, so is a Patriot hosta. A simple win, but something I didn't know before.


I was also thinking today that a garden center has hundreds of different types of plants, all either in burlap or plastic pots, none of which are native to burlap or plastic pots. No wonder it's such a struggle to keep them looking good. There are some, like Lewesia, which I wish we didn't even bring in. It's too finicky, and rots out even on the dry table. If someone wants it we could almost always order it for them, but so far we've brough in six, killed four and have two still on the table. Why bother?

Now I need to get ready for sleep.

I said I'd try to organize some ideas regarding this blog so here goes. As far as the tenor of the blog, I want to keep it upbeat and positive. I can be negative elsewhere--here I want to just share the good stuff. Of course, that doesn't mean deer eating my Diervilla (lowbush honeysuckle genus) won't annoy me, it's just that I won't attribute it to religious, political, social, educational, or governmental causes...
(borrrrr-ing!).

Also, I intend at least at first to keep family out of it, names, thoughts, etc. They exist, but they have the right to exist without wondering what I'm saying about them now.

that's about as far as I've gotten.

The purpose of this blog is to give myself an organized platform to move forward with my garden designs for our property. Since I haven't gotten a landscape architecture job and am working at a garden center I have a perfect opportunity to advance my skills at basic garden design (to be a landscape architect you need to pass five (!) sparate tests AND work for a professional full-time for two years--there is no hope of that happening at the moment).

Therefore, I want the blog to be professional in tenor, but fun, and, I hope, interesting. It isn't a school project and it is our living space. Right now I'm in the midst of building a patio, and designing the large front yard. We live on a gravel bank by a stream, so have sand as soil (I'll take pictures soon). Much to think about and design in other words.

Oh, and I'm not big on "official" beginnings. Most things start before they're recognized as existing, and most things continue in some way after they end. Sure, there is a time and date when a marriage starts, or a child is born, but the relationship the marriage formalizes probably has had some fullness prior to the wedding and a child's birth is the result of many other events which tie together and overlap in a continum. I've been blogging, i guess, for years, mostly while driving. Nothing unique in that.