Garlic garden

Three summers here, lots of gardening, trial and learning, moving plants around and I have deduced the best location for a successful vegetable garden is the north side along side the chain link fence. BUT first I had to wait it out, wait it out for the Morning Glories to expire.

That happened a few weeks ago, earlier then I expected, but anxious to follow through with the garlic plot plan. Bittersweet. Frost killed the Blue Morning Glories, morning glorious ALL DAY LONG. A little thing I learned this summer, BLUE flowering Morning Glories remain open All.Day.Long. You can see the purple flowers curling up and tucking in for the day and the blue ones fully open, inhaling all the daylight has to offer.

Quickly and quietly, they died. We were left with brown, wet vines and dead flowers. I chopped and cut the vines, tore and pulled them off of their perches and out of the ground. East of the hydrangea, I dug and turned the soil, readying it for planting.  8" inches apart, and a few cm under, we pushed the little cloves down, 13 in all. Dusting the soil and dead leaves from my hands, but not able to shake off the stench, a cornucopia of Autumn smells, and not the good kind. A mixture of garlic finger tips, composted manure pile palms, and something nasty on the bottom of my shoes. But the garlic bed is planted, grass cut and leaves mulched. An old bag of white tulips found and tucked under the soil.

Yeah, the leaf covering will blow away before the snow falls, but for now, its working. The rest of the garden will be planted in the spring. Tomato's are our long time favourite. And will try a few blueberry bushes.

Garden, new vantage point

I bought a couple hammocks in Costa Rica. Finally. Tied one of them up on two fence poles, under a tree. An entirely new perspective on my yard.

And the Cosmos

Itsy bitsy orchids

Behind the Orchid Coffee Shop there is a beautiful Orchid Garden. Winding concrete and stone paths, lush vegetation, a huge variety of miniscule orchids and a greenhouse for the ones that prefer a drier climate.

It is not just any kind of orchid garden, it has the tiniest orchid in the world. These orchids live on leaves and one needs a tour guide and magnifying glass to see them.

At first we just wanted to go for a walk along the rambling paths, but we had to hit the reception area first. And pay. But a few minutes with our guide, I was happy that it worked out this way. Lucy loved looking through the magnifying glass and seeing how things were enlarged. I enjoyed learning about the tiny orchids and taking in the aroma of the white ones (only the white ones have a scent)  

 

Metal tags w/ partial latin names hang near the orchid flowers. Partial names because they are so long.  In the picture below you can see the yellow flower orchid.  Some orchid flowers only last for a day. Wouldn't you love a back garden like this!

After the walk, we returned to the cafe to pick up our stuff.

A hip girl posing in Orchid Coffee and Tea House, Santa Elena, Costa Rica

Close up orchid flowers

Outdoor inspiration

I like how this farmer used pots and jugs from around the house as outdoor planters for his succulents and other plants, simply hanging off of nails on a post.

Location: Monteverde, Costa Rica 7/2013

In the night garden

This post is about the really, cool solar lantern I just got. And once I figured out how to get it ON (a few days after the solar panels had soaked up daylight and a switch), I was shocked at the shining globe coming from my garden. A picture was in order (taking pictures of your garden, in the rain, at night is fun.) And a tripod is also in order.  Standing still for a minute is hard and I failed. 

This is what happens when you get bored of standing still and walk away from your position:

And the solar lantern in the day time. The light bulb is tinier then a seed but casts off so much light. I got mine at tchibo, a small coffee store that also sales random things. Here is a similar one.

A New York minute?

For those not in the know, New York State is more then just "The City",.. we are made up of lots of cities. The "New York Minute" city reference aptly applies to weather in another city in CNY.  (When I first landed here 14 + years ago I wasn't in the know. When people referred to the city, I naturally thought they referred to the city next to the suburb or farmland they were in.  Some experience under my belt and now in the know,  Oh, "The City", roll eyes...

Anyhow, we, in another city in NY, have been experiencing New York minutes ... and for a minute we had a Spring day; the Tulips up and now long gone, the Bridal Wreath Spirea at its best.

Another minute of spring and I was able to plant the rest of the garden (a couple of Lavender plants surrounded by other purple ones and some a yellow. And a couple of happy-go-lucky Gerbera Daisy's that don't really fit in with the rest, but were too irresistible not to include here. We even had a minute to lay in the small bit of shade that the Japanese maple formed.

And then that minute was gone. So long Spring, until next week, I hope.

Weatherproofing, bean fence and the bridal wreath

A little rain to test out the newly stained and weatherproofed balcony! (completed yesterday, just before the night showers, phew). Looks like the weatherproofing is working. Make that almost completed, I still need a ladder or something to stand on to reach the middles section of the vertical end pieces. Or wait for it to dry, to reach through and around.

Some rain for the bean fence. Apparently the outdoor cats prefer organic soil as a kitty litter,  a few stakes laid horizontally, in hopes of diverting them.

New sunglasses to weatherproof her precious eyes. Sadly our favourite pair fell off in a quarry and were never to be found. These ones seem to work.

 The tulips blew away last week or perhaps a deer ate them, but now my favourite shrub, Bridal Wreath Spirea, has bloomed.

Happy Friday

My week long fence dismantling task I assigned myself turned into a 3 hour gig w/ one little craigslist posting. More on that next week.

Happy weekend!

Creating a home

I wander to different projects, not actually completing one before starting the next.   Working in circles so it seems, moving from one project to the next as each one poses a road block. Naturally, these half done projects pile up.

Remember the slipcover I was making? Half done. One side sewn the other side left at the basting stage. (I put the project aside to do other things) Chair is in use. Good enough.

And my room? A pile of pictures on the floor, intended for a gallery wall. And I still have to paint the frame around the window. (Ho hum, when will I return to this)

And the tall stairway wall? Yeah, still debating the raisin paint colour. (Not really. Now that I know what I want it can wait until I'm in the mood to deal with it.)

In regular fashion, I start something else, the backyard. Hey, the sun came out, I had to. Worked on it more yesterday, digging up a garden preparing it for plants.  I move on, walk past the very last pile of leaves that need to be stuffed in a bag and put out front but instead of doing that I end up in between the two garages. An interesting, laborious task; cutting bad trees, tearing old vines off the building, raking out the leaves and dealing with rocks.

Neatly piling the rocks for use later on, until I am exasperated and wondering why this area is filled with rocks. A dumping station? Some kind of water irrigation system?  So I start tossing the rocks out and in front. But there are way to many rocks and I just don't want to move the issue from one place to another without a better idea of what to do later on.

Giving up on the rock space, I haphazardly start pulling vines off the back of the garage. Sticky little grippers, paint and all.

Until I discover this. A birds nest.  I'm so sorry bird. I hate disrupting life (although I think it was vacated and unused). (It was really high up, so when I went to photograph it, my arm up stretched as high as it can go, taking a chance on auto focus. Got the leaf and vine in stead. ha)

Saddened by disturbing the nest and perplexed by all the rocks, (yet somewhat impressed by the progress) I quit for the day.

When I return to gardening this morning, I stepped over the pea gravel edging fix up job I had started yesterday, (edging that was left half done a year ago because I ran out of narrow thick rocks, but luckily found some in the newly dug out rock pile).

Walk past the garden table and take note that I could squeeze a bunch of those rocks in to the patio I started last year but never finished (because I just didn't like how it was turning out).

But in the meantime, I really need to dig up another garden out front. Why? Because all I ever do to this area is mow over bumpy lumpy ground covered in weeds. It's a nuisance (my normal motivation for doing some kind of yard work in an effort to make life easier) so get rid of the problem and extend the front garden.

This time I manage to finish a task!  Almost. Still need the plants. And now I have found three areas to spread some of those rocks around and then hopefully I can clear out the rest of the ally. And another day too finish off the other half done projects. Perhaps not as long at it will take the birdie to build a new home ... that takes time.