Oct 2011, Garden no 15

GARDEN 2011 N0 15
Rain stopped play today

Rain stopped play today. It was windy when I went out, that would have been OK, but then it poured with rain, so here I am back indoors with out finishing off in the garden.
I opened up the shed, took every thing out and then the rain came down, I was soaked putting every thing away and once wet………….I thought I may as well take a couple more photos.
This is my new garden bench, it’s my old fish tank stand covered with a slab of reclaimed marble. What a lucky coincidence, my son-in-law had this slab of marble sitting in his shed, he doesn’t even know where it originally came from, and it’s a perfect fit. It’s a totally recycled/ reclaimed piece of garden furniture, its too heavy for any one to take away, it doesn’t need to be put away at the end of the day and it's multifunctional. I can sit here, watch the world go by and take a break, or I can use it as a work bench. In the winter when I’m not likely to be out enjoying the view, it can be used to stand pots on to keep them off the ground. As a bonus………….its a dam good looking  garden feature.
This is my new corner garden. Maybe you remember I heaped all the turf that was removed to create the vegetable patch into an unused corner of the garden and covered it with garden membrane and plastic for a few months. It didn’t take long for the grass to die off and the soil to settle. I dug it over, removed what was left of the grass roots and planted it up with new lavender and  heather. I added all the old lavender that was scattered around the garden in pots or odd corners. In the past I've lost lavender over the winter because its feet become too wet in the pots. This is a well drained site and I’m hoping the lavender  thrives here.
The new flower bed along the side is more established now, it should really come into its own next year. I have honeysuckle, jasmine, hydrangea, and a couple of other purple/ pink shrubs that I can’t remember the names of right now.
And it’s too wet to go out to the garden and check.
I wanted to do three things today, I wanted to prune back all the fruit canes, remove the grass and unwanted weeds from the ‘wild flower’ bed and bring in my geraniums to take cuttings and re-pot for over wintering indoors. I still have a good show of colour with the geraniums but if I leave them much longer I risk losing the whole lot to frost. Rain stopped play and I achieved none of that. The geraniums are still out there. They must be my priority now, they need to come indoors urgently.
The water in the pond is looking good, its clear, I can see the bottom and the duck weed is doing a good job of covering the surface. I'm quietly confident, as they say, of being able to put tadpoles back in again next year.
Lastly…………..can any one identify this for me please? I planted it from a packet of mixed herb seeds; it’s a good looking delicate, woody stemmed, aromatic plant. It stands about 8 inches tall and I recognise the smell, I just can’t quite identify exactly what it is.

Tags: garden, garden2011, plants, pond

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delete reply mitchylr wrote on Oct 17, '11 Excellent piece of recycling!! And it loooks good too!! I really like that corner garden :-))

delete reply bernardv wrote on Oct 17, '11 It looks lovely. I'm afraid I'm dreadful at gardening.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Oct 17, '11 Have you tried looking online at a gardening site that has photos and descriptions of herbs?

delete reply kathyinozarks wrote on Oct 17, '11 Loved the garden tour--and I love that bench as well-yeh-love reuse for special items

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Oct 17, '11 LOVE LOVE LOVE the bench! and free is always a good thing, so well done! your new garden is looking very lovely. heather and lavender.....perfect! the border is looking great, everything looks quite healthy and happy. hopefully you will be able to tend to those geraniums. i just love them, too. the pond is looking really good and i sure do hope the frogs will come back and thrive for you. i honestly have no idea what that mystery plant is....it almost looks like a basil to me, but the leaves are quite different. pretty blossom....i will be curious to know if someone can identify it for you. happy Monday!

March 1, 2009, Multiply, Spring has arrived in the garden

Spring has arrived in my garden.

Today was the first day of the year when I spent a couple of hours out in the garden. Signs of spring are every where.
The snow drops are in flower, there are buds popping out all over the place and other spring bulbs are shooting up from the containers.
I have been so busy recently, all I seem to have done these last few weeks is work in my kitchen; but today…………….I spent time in the garden. It feels as if I’ve not been out there for ages but of course in reality it is just a few short months.
During my visit to the garden center I couldn’t resist a couple of additions to the garden. I went there to find plants for the kitchen and came away with plants for the kitchen AND beautiful yellow primroses for the garden, plus two varieties of honeysuckle.
I’ve recently had some work done on my shed, I managed to find someone willing to move the shed door to a much more convenient position, which is great……………..not so great is the large pile of builders rubble I seem to be left with.
Guess I’ll figure out a way of getting rid of all that rubbish, at the moment I’m just happy to have my shed door moved and very happy to be back outside in the garden. This is the first ‘garden blog’ of the year…………………..no doubt the first on many.

Tags: garden, plants

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delete reply sandycaar wrote on Mar 4, '09 glad you can enjoy spring in your garden,,keep us posted as to the progress of your plants and bushes and such,,so many ppl enjoy gardening,,i do enjoy when spring starts arriving and there are flower and tree blooms everywhere,,of course it plays havic on the sinuses

delete reply luckebabe wrote on Mar 3, '09 I love Spring time when all the bulbs start popping up and everything greens up. trees budding.

delete reply esoterika713 wrote on Mar 3, '09 Very pretty flowers. I wish it was spring here. :(

delete reply esoterika713 wrote on Mar 3, '09 Here in Canada we won't be getting any spring like weather until the end of March and that is if we are lucky enough to have March go out as a lion. March came in like a lion so it should go out as a lamb. Right now we are facing minus six with a wind chill that makes it feel more like minus twenty or more. I might have some snow drops but for sure we have crocus' and scilla and we also have tulips. I tried a year ago to get some more bulbs for the garden but our coordinator let the ball drop and I have not bugged him again for money. Perhaps, next fall I might ask because we could definitely use more.

delete reply acousticeagle wrote on Mar 2, '09 Yep, it's a good feeling when you know that's spring's in the air. But as for myself being an Australia, I'm far from that feeling. It's very windy in Tasmania, and Autumn's arriving fast. Those new plants look very hopeful. My first thought pre spring is 'what veg am I going to plant?' And as usual I choose something pretty hardy. The soil here is pretty uninteresting and needs lots of feeding.

delete reply pestep55 wrote on Mar 2, '09 Lucky you! Very nice. I am looking forward to spring /:-)

delete reply greenwytch wrote on Mar 2, '09 oh, isn't it a wonder to feel everything waking up again? congrats on the new plants!

delete reply veroniquemariquita wrote on Mar 2, '09 Spring is in the air for sure. Sounds like you welcomed it with open arms!

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Mar 2, '09 There are lots of signs here too. How I love honeysuckle! Can't wait to see some more of your garden.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Mar 1, '09 wow you guys are way ahead of us-we still have frozen earth and today it is raining like heck but that is good-but this week we will be in the single digits again and the Alps are still snowing.

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Mar 1, '09 It is minus 17C here, so my snowdrops that came up a week ago are being very brave but are chilly. Winter lasts a long time here. Most of my bulbs are still under a nice mulch of oak leaves. But isn't it wonderful to be able to be out in the garden?? I shall be there in a month or so. Enjoy your time!!

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Mar 1, '09 Isn't it just great. I know the feeling, the snowdrops, crocus and anemone windflowers are up and the hyacinths are flirting with the last of the snow. We have an area perfect for primrose and they are going to be planted in a month.

delete reply dianahopeless wrote on Mar 1, '09 How cool that you bought some honeysuckle. And I so love the primroses, but they don't do too well here in the heat and humidity of Houston. i grew them when I lived in the Pacific Northwest though. (In every color I could get my hands on! LOL) I have been out pulling all that dead foliage off my pots. Things are starting to grow and i have seedlings to transplant. Gardening is such a joy! BTW, that rubbish pile looks like it could easily be converted into a rock garden with succulents. ~giggles~