Pondering the world

yard art

My yard art tends to be a little quirky.  I like to put unexpected things in unexpected places.  Here are a few examples:

And my personal favorite, the Yardbirds.  Wasn't that the name of a group in the 60's?

how does my garden grow?

Just a little update on the raised bed garden.  Here's the mixed squash and lemon cucumbers in one bed.  I now have a couple of little yellow crookneck squash about four inches long.  They grow so much every day that I'll have to watch them and pick them as soon as they're ready.  Otherwise, I'll have a bed full of baseball bats.  I like 'em young and tender. 

Then there are the tomatoes.  From right to left are grape tomatoes (which don't seem to be doing very well), Super Fantastic, San Marzano and Mr. Stripy, which is an heirloom tomato and spreading all over the place.  Maybe it's a good thing my peppers didn't make it--something ate the sprouts as soon as they came up.  There wouldn't be room for them in front of the tomatoes.

And finally, the okra and my new peppers.  I have no idea why about a foot of okra seeds didn't come up.  The nasturtiums didn't come up at all.  This is about my third attempt with them, so now I give up.  I bought four pepper plants yesterday that are about the same size as the peppers would have been if I'd grown them from seed.

Plan B is working pretty well

This canna called "Tropicanna Gold" looks good enough to eat--it reminds me of fresh pineapple and mango!

I took this photo in the morning when it was in shade so the color didn't get washed out, but when the sun hits it, the color is incredibly vibrant.

All of the cannas are doing well, and I should have more blooms soon.

Then I'll have to see how much of a pain it is in the fall when I have to dig up all the bulbs and store them carefully so they don't freeze. 

I've always said that anything that takes special care won't get planted in my yard.  Cannas may be the exception.

Plan B for cannas

While our daughter and son-in-law were here in April, she helped me pick out some cannas to put around the fountain in the corner. 

As you can see, once again I changed my mind and put them in big pots in the east courtyard instead.  I had some paradise trees that I had dug up as seedlings, but they were already outgrowing the pots and looking scruffy.  I needed something with a more upright habit that wouldn't sprawl all over the guests at breakfast outside.

They've just started blooming and they're lovely.

in love with delphinium

I'd never grown delphinium before we moved here.  It's one of the very few really blue flowers.  The first year we were here and our daughter worked as our housekeeper during summer break from college, we had gone to a nursery and she really loved the delphiniums, so I planted some.

They're in the planters that run along the front of our house.  To the left are the little purple blooms of nurembergia and even farther left are just a couple of pink blooms, the last of the Mexican primroses.

first lilies of the season

My oriental lilies in the courtyard started blooming on Thursday.  The photo is supposed to be of the flowers, but the fountain is also quite nice, and I get a lot of comments on it.

How did I make it?  It's much more interesting than what you can buy already made:

- a concrete planter with the holes filled in with plumber's putty and raised up on bricks
bricks inside to hold a "platform" just below the rim

- a pond pump in the bottom with clear tubing long enough to reach the top of the big rock

- the platform is stiff mesh wire used here with stucco, cut to fit just inside the planter, about 2" below the rim

- a big rock I found in the yard that has a good flat bottom

- a little "Indian pot" filled with a candle that I found in a souvenir store; I scraped out the candle and drilled a hole in the back

- a bag of lightweight decorative white rock on top of the mesh

- and finally, a $2,000 piece of Indian pottery that I got for free because it's cracked.

 

here's what I've learned about gardening

They say that with age comes wisdom.  Mostly, I think, it's years of experience and learning things the hard way.

I thought you might like to know a few things I've learned about gardening:

• A yard of anything delivered in your driveway is a lot.  A yard of topsoil takes quite some time to move, one wheelbarrow load at a time.  A yard of gravel is the path to insanity.

• Beware of anything described as an "aggressive spreader" or "invasive."  It will take over every square inch of land you own.

• You will move some plants perhaps as many as four or five times to find just the right spot that it likes.  Sometimes you end up moving it to someone else's yard.

• Don't even try to put a shrub that grows to 6 feet across in a 2-foot space.  Neither one of you will be happy.

• Snails don't like pecan shell mulch because it cuts their slimy little bodies.  Hooray!

• Plant flowers where they like it.  A sun-loving flower planted in the shade may grow, but it will refuse to bloom just to get even with you.

• If you plan a special occasion to take advantage of your lovely garden, nothing will be in bloom that day.  They bloomed last week, or they won't be blooming until next week.

• "A watched pot never boils."  Likewise, awaited blooms take forever to appear.

• Plants will often grow in spite of the care you give them.

flowers make good neighbors

When we first moved to Albuquerque, the planters and dirt areas in front of the two little buildings next door were full of weeds.  Clay and Jack, his dog, lived next to our bed & breakfast. 

I asked if I could plant flowers there.  At first Clay just didn't care, but then he grew to like the flowers there.  The building farther to the left is a studio, so they arrive in the morning, go to work, and never even look at what's outside.  When Tom's cactus acquired some kind of fungus and died, I dug it up and sank a pot in the ground.  (It's all sand there, so anything planted in the ground dies immediately).  The pot holds pansies in the winter and portulaca all summer.

Clay and Jack moved out, Marlene moved her studio in, and she appreciates having lovely flowers without having to care for them.

These neighbors are now very good about watching out for our property, collecting the mail and paper when we're on vacation, and doing small favors when asked.

Why do I keep my neighbors' front areas planted and tended?  Because if I don't, the weeds that would grow there spew seeds that the west wind carries directly into my yard and driveway.

A good offense is the best defense.

what's been blooming in my yard

Just thought you might like to see what's blooming in my yard lately.  This is a yellow Lady Banks rose.  The black bag in front is a thistle bag for the goldfinches.

This is my herb garden (parsley, chives, mint, and a few leftover pansies) with columbine in full bloom in the back.  On the ground to the right are cannas I hope to plant around the fountain in the corner to hide the school's ugly fence on the other side.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago.  Next up:  gorgeous purple irises, honeysuckle, impatiens, hollyhocks...