Free Plants!

A neighbor down the street had a big pile of shrubs out on their boulevard with a sign -
Free Plants Please Take.
How could I resist?
Despite the coming storm, I pulled down our compost pile (we had planned on moving it anyway), dug some holes, mixed up some fertilizer and water and transplanted these babies this morning.
At first I thought they were all this fringe-y shrub that I recognized from the neighbor's yard, but then I realized that 2 were lilacs.
I love lilacs and I have always wanted a big yard-full of them.
As a bonus, I found this lilac that I had assumed dead, budding and beginning to leaf in the middle of my compost pile. I threw it in there at least 18 months ago, but the benefit of not turning your compost seems to be that the outer layers insulate the inner ones.
Now, hopefully, in the summer I won't have to look at that not-too-attractive chain link fence.

Plants

Martha inspired me, and I went to get some indoor plants yesterday.
The idea of this group was to have a Victorian-inspired corner of the bookshelf.
It may also be the influence of Possession, which is chock-full of Victorian love of nature and collecting.
This planter is full of succulents, of which the Younger is particularly fond.
The Woodchuck, however, is for myself and the husband.
Have a lovely weekend!

Garden Overhaul

Hi!
I am feeling energized by the wonderful weather lately, and am finally motivated to do something about the lackluster gardening situation in my backyard.
We have 2 BIG trees in our backyard, which means that we get a lot of shade.
This is a great thing for the summertime when it's nice and cool on a hot day.
It's not such a great thing for growing grass.
We've tried and tried shade tolerant seed, and really it's been a losing battle for the 6 years we've been here.
A couple of years ago I bought a garden kit from Springhill Nursery which has made one side of our shady yard into a little oasis of lovely flowers.
I decided to try it myself without the kit on the other side of the yard.
I went to a couple of great small garden stores, got some advice about good shade plants, and went to work.
You can see that we really need a change in these before photos.
The first thing I did was move our swing which had been crammed between the tree and the flimsy fence.
The second thing I did was remove the flimsy fence.
Then I laid out the new garden plot, helped along by the tree roots that I encountered, and marked it off by some leftover stones that I had in a big pile, which took care of two problems at once.The Hubby suggested that we swing the hosta border around from in front of the car to follow the line of the garden, then the back and side gardens could be one long garden.
He told me that I'd thank him for the best suggestion in the world, and here I am to agree.
Great suggestion, My Love.It took a couple of years for our other garden to get established, so I will wait and see with cautious optimism how this one will work out.
Now I just have to deal with the vermin who insist on eating my crops.
While I was outside just now, there were 3 squirrels having some kind of squirrel Olympics in my yard and my neighbor's as well as in the wheel wells of my car. I think they were hopped up on the sugar that they got from Eating MY Strawberries.

Pie

We're not great gardeners.
In the spring and early summer we're pretty gung-ho with the planning and the digging and the plant purchasing, but we always stall out mid-August or so.
This leaves the garden to do what it will, and this year, for the first time ever, we got a pumpkin.
It never grew very big, and it ripened a little earlier than I anticipated.
Too early to be a Jack-o-Lantern, but really too small to be one anyway.
The Elder Hug-a-Bug requested some pumpkin pie this morning so that's what we did.
It was delicious. Thanks Garden.

Backyard Harvest Part II

Backyard Harvest

Blooming

Tra La

How do I love May!
The official start of the gardening season!

I decided that this was the year to take the only part of our yard that gets any sun and turn it into a veggie/herb/berry patch.

I spent most of the day moving the grass from here
(This Robin was pretty jazzed about all of the worms I was bringing up)
To here
This part of the yard is one of the shadier places, and we haven't had much luck with grass seed.
Most of the transplanted stuff is Creeping Charlie, or Charlie Creepers as the Hug-a-Bugs say, and I wonder if it will work better here than the seed. (I know, it's a weed, but I like it. No maintenance and there are pretty purple flowers)
If the transplant doesn't work we don't lose much since it was just a big patch of dirt before anyway.

Here is a before from last summer. And here is the after.Note that the Cozy Coupe is in the same 'time out' place, having caused one too many disagreements.

So far I have planted onions, tomatoes and some herbs.
I didn't do any veggies or herbs last year and I really missed running out to the garden for fresh thyme or basil.

I am off to read some gardening books,
I hope that you have had spectacular weather today too!
Jess

Beginnings

I am very happy to say that Spring seems to have arrived here in Saint Paul.
With Spring comes some lovely things, like knitting outsideunexpected bloomsand the beginnings of a gardenI am going to try to focus on these nice things rather than the fact that with Spring, we also have arrived at the beginning of motorcycle tinkering weather, which means that at all hours we will have a symphony of roaring engines from across the alley.

Enjoy the weather today!
Jess

Gardening Excitement

There has been a lot of activity in the yard the last few days.

It had come to my attention a couple of weeks ago that we should cut down our pussy willow tree.

There were four or five frost cracks, and the experts at the MN Landscape Arboretum told me that we should take the tree out before it falls on something or someone.

So, in preparation, I had to move a bunch of stuff out of the way.

On Friday, I moved two clematis vines, 6 snapdragons and a begonia.

I also bought two new lilac bushes, pictures to follow, the battery is recharging...

Saturday, we started chopping down our tree.

Chopping with an axe is sloooowww.

I think, beyond our inexperience, our main problem was that our axe was too dull.

So, after about 45 minutes of chopping, we decided on the Sawzall, not the best choice.

Finally, after my across the alley neighbor offered us the use of his chainsaw, we cut it down.

Now, there is a huge bare spot in the yard.

This is the before,

and here is the after with the stump

Well, I just needed a picture of something growing and vibrant, so here is my new salvia in the back garden. I managed to get one with a bee in flight.

We, the Hug-a-Bugs and myself, built a new fairy house this morning.

I dug all of these rocks up when I put in our new lilac bushes.

Chimneys courtesy of the younger Hug-a-Bug.

Note that in the first photo the oven is closed, and in the second the oven door is open. That was all the Elder Hug-a-Bug.

Get out there and garden!

Jess

Hoppy Birthday

I found out this evening that today is Beatrix Potter's birthday.

This was a little surprising to me, since this afternoon I had an uncontrollable urge to make a quilt using a panel meant to become a fabric book of Beatrix Potter artwork.

The urge was so strong that even though I am in the middle of a new sweater project,and have no need for a quilt, I had to finish putting the top together before I left for work at Treadle so I could pick out trim tonight.

I did find trim, and obviously the spirit of Beatrix was watching over me because the trim matches perfectly.

The sweater is Cottage Creations Babies and Bears for a friend who is expecting a new family member any day.

The yarn is Smart, and I don't know if I have quite enough, but, as the sweater is made from the cuffs inward, I have the option of making a contrasting stripe down the back.

I also have some garden news; The Elder Hug-a-Bug found a large piece of bark that had fallen off of our backyard Silver Maple, and we built a fairy house from it. She really wants to find something for a cradle, as we just read Thumbelina and she likes the idea of a tiny cradle with a rose-petal coverlet. As it is, we have stone beds with leaves for blankets.

So far, the squirrels have left the house alone, and so now we are just waiting to see some pixie dust.

Have a magical evening,

Jess

Naturalized Garden Update for July

Jus a brief post today

I have been doing some work in the garden the past two days and I am pleased to see my Naturalized Shade Garden is coming along.

I would be happier if there were not a chain-link fence behind it, c'est la vie.

As I was gone for 12 days to Germany the weeding of our garden took a backseat to other needs in our household, so I have been working on that for the last week.

Still not done...

I'm going back out there now,

Have a terrific Thursday!

Jess

Naturalized Garden Update

There has been some encouraging progress in the Naturalized Garden.

I think by the time we hit high summer I may have something to be really excited about.

Whew!

Have you ever had a day that felt like 5 days?

I had one of those today.

I woke up to a lovely breakfast with the Hubby and the Hug-a-Bugs.

Next, I finished the Mothers Day present that I made for my Mom, a felted Cardinal from the Wooly Birds Pattern by Marie Mayhew.

Then, the Elder Hug-a-Bug and I spent second breakfast with my Mom and Dad and Sister for a little Barden Mothers Day Fun. Then only thing missing was my little bro, he had his own family plans today.

When we came home, the Elder Hug-a-Bug and I weeded the garden and planted some plants that have been in their pots outside in the rain for the last few days.

After the gardening, during which the Elder Hug-a-Bug planted her first snap dragon plant without any help!,we went to the park and she played the girl who is being chased by stuff and the other girls at the park obliged her by being lions or wolves or whatever they thought might chase someone.

Still not done with the Mothers Day Festivities, I had a concert to sing this afternoon.

That's me on the right.

The Hubby did his best with the Hug-a-Bugs, but the Younger one just wanted to come up and say hi.

They made it through about 2 songs, and then they went home.

My Mom and Dad and Sister were able to keep from being too rowdy and they decided to stay to the end.

Tonight was our last concert of the season and I kept getting a little choked up in places.

One of our songs is Set Me as a Seal by Rene Clausen.

My Soprano buddy told us that Clausen wrote the piece for his wife after she had miscarried a pregnancy and it always gets me when we sing "For Love is strong as Death"

After the concert I came home and had a nice dinner with the fam, and we went on a walk to the DQ for dessert.

I always feel like it cancels out any poor eating that we may do at the Dairy Queen if we walk the 5 blocks there and then the 5 blocks back.

I can't think of a nicer way to spend my Mothers Day than doing all of the things that I love with the people that I love the most in this big ol' world.

I hope that next year can be as nice.

Happy Mothers Day Mom!

Jess