Around the Yard

Here's a little update on the grounds here at, wait,

what IS the name of this place??

We're thinking "Laurel Hill Farm" but not sure yet.

Anyway, here are a couple recent pictures from the yard. This first picture is looking from near the front door of the house over to the "new" garage. I LOVE this new garden area. It has been fun to try and fill up, though now I have some plants to MOVE.

Seems in my rush to fill things in, I planted several plants too closely together and in entirely the wrong places! For example, the 4 foot tall daisies that were gifted from my neighbor last Christmas, got stuck very near the front as I had dropped them in the ground to keep them protected then planned to move them in the early spring. Funny how that didn't happen. The next picture shows the garden next to the house. See, holes to fill in where plants got moved from. The Foxgloves did great this year, though. See their tall spikes?This next picture is of the field garden. Potatoes, corn and squash out there. Fenced off from the cow of course. Oh. My. Goodness. Are we going to have a ton of potatoes! The corn? Well, we'll see how it does. Big D planted a succession plan of three varieties. Still seems very small for the beginning of August. Though, it IS Washington. We'll have to wait and see if we get anything from it or not.

Next is a quick picture of what I brought inside from the garden. Why do daisies have to stink so badly?? They are such a cute flower and I think this arrangement makes the slight "aroma" worthwhile. Just don't get too close!

That's it for today! We are off to swimming lessons - all four kids and myself in the water at the same time. Maybe we'll hit the grocery store on the way home and I can implement the meal plan I made for the week. If not, same old story. Push it all back 'till I can go shopping.

Have a great day! Enjoy the sunshine, Washington!

Outdoor Clean-up

Oh, the magnificence of a teenager! We hired a couple teenagers to help us get our (not so) white fence cleaned so we (well, they...) could paint it.

Check out the progress just by cleaning!!

So it was a little green and gunky! Tell us something we didn't know!Big D has been replacing old, rotted posts this year and they will need to be painted. So we figured we better clean the rest of it (around the house people - not the entire five acres... yet!!!) So had cleaned on Tuesday and figured on painting on Friday, but this rain has really soaked the boards. We really had some good downpours last night (Wednesday). Don't think they will be dry by Friday.

Oh, and did I show you the other marvelous project we have coming up?? Yeah, a dump truck load of soil. I am so excited (for those teenagers) to get it in the new flowerbeds and (yet to be marked off) herb garden/patio area. Oh, to have a nice flower bed area again. Wait have I had on of those yet? Did I say nice? Well, at least to have one I can think about. Can't wait to get those garden/flower books out of the storage unit!! Arrgh.

OK, hope I can hang some laundry today!! :-)

How frustrating! (Garden rant)

So I am making a new perennial flower garden bed and I am looking up some additional plants online to fill in the gaps for the plants I already have. I am having no problem finding lots of flowers, but that is all they give me for a picture of the plant! Argh, is not the whole plant what you see in the garden? Is not the shape and form of the whole plant just as important as the shape and color of the flower?? What if the plant had purple leaves and you wanted light green? What if the plant was spiky and you wanted low and rounded?

Granted, I know enough about some plants to make a general guess as to its shape, but some I really don't know yet, and really can't tell anything about the leaf or plant structure from the picture or info.

This is also frustrating for me because all of my garden books (which have all this info) are packed away in the storage unit still. I can't wait to get rid of that storage unit! We don't have that much "extra stuff", but what was considered "extra" (like gardening books in winter) went to the unit when we were going to be moving and selling the house. We haven't brought the "stuff" back yet because we now are going to do a little remodel for a new family room where all this "stuff" will go back to (books, craft items, etc. - and if you don't think I miss that craft stuff...) I'm just ready to pile the boxes in our bedroom and walk around them for several months just to have my "stuff" back! (But I think D already nixxed that idea.)

My Newest (borrowed) Garden Idea

So I have been perusing a couple different garden blogs and found a lady (toni) who was implementing a "Birthmonth Garden." What a great idea. It was going to have the birthmonth flowers in it from their parents, their children and themselves.

Looking into this a bit more, I discovered "Memory Gardens" and the special meaning they can have for people as well, including remembering a passed loved one or a meaningful day such as an anniversary or event. Something else that comes to mind is a "Memorial Day" type garden that is red/white/blue commemerating our troops. Another idea here was to use plants with special names (instead of the flowers of the month) like a rose named 'Sweet Freedom' or Hosta 'Remember Me'. There is a list of these types of plants as well.

Or, what about using the birthstone color as a starting point for a garden?

If you're curious or can't remember them all, here is a list of the plants considered the birthplant of each month:

January - Carnation/Snowdrop
February - Violet/Primrose
March - Daffodil/Jonquil
April - Daisy/Sweet Pea
May - Lily of the Valley/Hawthorn
June - Rose/Honeysuckle
July - Larkspur/Water Lily
August - Gladiolas/Poppy
September - Aster/Morning Glory
October - Calendula/Cosmos
November - Chrysanthemum
December - Narcissus/Holly

They have meanings as well and can be found here.

So our immediate family garden would include:

Gladiolas/Poppy,
Chrysanthemum,
Violet/primrose,
Daisy/Sweet Pea,
Larkspur,
and eventually Calendula/Cosmos.

Hmmm, an interesting combination. I guess I will have to work on this. Good thing I have time. I'm off to refill the hummers food again.

I gave up.

I have given up. I couldn't stand it anymore and I bought some plants for the house... which house I'm not sure yet since they won't be going in the ground here. (You know, with the "future" move and all.) They are now in new pots (wow - it was sunny today and like over 60 deg.!!) and I am slowly taking a couple plants here and there out of the ground and replacing them with near-by not as desirable to take plants so as not to really show that something is "missing" just maybe moved around a bit.

You see, we had decided that it was futile to do anything with the garden/grounds this spring because of the upcoming move. Just a waste of time and money. But when it is in your blood you just can't not want to do SOMETHING!!! So I gave up. I had to do somthing!! I am now in a happier place. :-)

In case you are wondering, the new plants are one Catmint - good for butterflys (Nepeta 'Walker's Low' - 2007 Perenial of the Year) and 3 Lupines (Lupinus 'Gallery Pink') which actually have two good starts in each and I was able to divide one pack this time, and possibly the others next time (if they need a bigger pot, or will wait 'till next year) but didn't think they were strong enough to yank apart yet.

So had a great weekend and a great Mother's Day. Took Nana and Grandpa J with Uncle B and Aunt M from Sac down to Greenbank Farm for a walk around and the Master Gardener's Plant Sale (a little dissapointing but we were there two hours after it started so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that the "good" plants were already taken). On Sunday had a big "farm" breakfast at home and then the girls went to the Hummingbird Farm and Nursery and it was there that I got inspired (well, you know, it doesn't take much.) I had to buy something! Nana also purchased but she had been the previous recipiant of a gift certificate so she was not set back.

So now my deck is a miss-mash of containers of different sizes and colors and shapes and not looking great at all. I'm not sure how to arrange them to look better w/o buying MORE plants!! I guess I will just be praying that they will have a new home soon enough. Maybe that 20 acre farm... that would give them just enough room to spread out. Ha. Maybe I should seperate them into color groups or foliage forms or size of pots to make better arrangements in the corners? I haven't really done that much container gardening so I might have to look that up. Hopefully we won't be here all summer and I can get these plants in the ground --somewhere--!!

Garden Update

I thought that since this blog is supposed to be about fabrics and gardens and other items, I better put in something about the "gardens" here... or the unfortunate lack there of!
OK, so there isn't much of a flower garden here. We haven't been here long enough where I haven't been pregnant or with a new baby long enough to really do anything. Well, that is my excuse anyway!

Here is the one thing I had done earlier. Here is the one "before" picture I can find. Kind of rugged! Now look at the second one when I was part way through clearing it out... look at how tall that grass and weeds had gotten on the edge there and through the rocks! Yikes. Well, it all got planted that year (2006 I am sad to say) and looked nice, though bare. The bulbs have been coming up nicely, but has needed filling in.


So winter came again and so did the lack of attention and of course the weeds. I finally got out and weeded the ever growing collection of unnecessary plant species in the area (took two days of naptimes) . D will be spraying the grass in the rocks and on the gravel. I think it is looking nicer. Too bad I didn't get a picutre of the earlier tulips and daffs. They looked great this spring.
I imagine it growing with lush things like hostas and ferns, but there just isn't enough water - especially in the summer since I really don't water out there at all. You see this is a big maple tree that lets about zero summer rain through its huge leaf canopy. I put the periwinkle in for filler and some color and I know I will regret it at some point, but it looks nice right now. Maybe if I just keep up on it and keep it trimmed. I know I have already yanked it out of the previous house we had because it was so unruly! Ah, live and learn possibly.

If only I could have had time to do something with this patch under the evergreens. I'm sure the hostas and ferns would have grown under there, mixed with some rhodies, some lily of the valley... OK, you get the idea!