The Grand Design

I've talked about it in pretty much all of the posts I've made before about the garden, but I haven't ever posted a picture of the design I'm seeing in my head. So today, I'm letting everyone in on the secret.

(BTW, I drew the outline based on the Google earth screenshot of my house, it's a little wonky but it's the right proportions)

It's a big picture, it's crowded with all kinds of little notes and circles. And then, it isn't fully complete either. In the backyard I'll have tons of two foot and smaller plants, most of which I didn't draw in. Even so, I look at and love it. I can't wait until we can finally take that first big trip to the nursery and start filling in the landscape. Sadly and happily, the contractors will soon be starting on the garage so we won't be able to do anything in the back for a while. But in the meantime, we'll start on the front, maybe this weekend! The only obstruction that will likely be there is the port-a-pottie... right where I want to plant a tree, sigh. It won't be much longer though, maybe a month and a half more of construction to get through and it'll all be done. By then, the rain will have started and it will be a great time for planting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Short Postscript

I know I only just posted a minute ago but having posted, I looked down at my previous one and thought it made me look like I kinda don't know anything about pruning.... heh. I had posted this picture of my newly dwarfed Hibiscus.

But while I still haven't found the time to get out my pruning saw and clean it up, you have to see the disgusting plant I was dealing with. (Why did I forget to take before pictures!)

Now that is a nightmare created by bad pruning. Also, possibly termites because I found some oddly light branches - over an inch thick but weighing less than a small newspaper. So that first picture is the result of a long hour going through that bush and carting away the bits. I'm quite decided now that I'll cut the old branches farther down but I'm going to wait until it has a few more leaves. When I stopped before, I was pretty much thinking that I didn't want to completely defoliate it (and I was so tired).

New Growth

Going out last night to take some pictures around the backyard, I found that two new plants were starting to bud up. These are two that came with the house, that we cut down to ground level just after the house was officially ours - so two months ago. Since then they've grown like crazy to about 2 1/2 feet high and 3 feet wide. Here's one of the many buds forming on the Salvia Leucantha.

This guy was just a tiny, scraggly little thing when we first got to it because of the towering oleander just next to it, depriving it of sunlight and any moisture in the ground. But since cutting all the pathetic little bits off it above ground and watering about 3 times a week for the past two months, it's become a beautiful, if flowerless, mass of shrub.

As to the Oleander next to it, this is a light pink double flowers one that looked just pathetic when we came round. I gave Patrick the okay to chop it down right away but when he gave up trying tot remove the large stump, I decided to try watering it, pretty sure that a shrub as vigorous as an oleander would be coming back.

I'm very happy with the way both of these have bounced back, much healthier than before. So much so that I also finally got the big loppers out and cut down the Hibiscus next to them. Ever since then though, I've been thinking each time I look at it that I should cut the old branches a bit closer to the ground. I'm so lazy. But I'm seeing new growth on it already regardless.

On to the back of the yard, the small bed that we dug out at the beginning of the month keeps getting bigger. The original plants have easily doubled in size and I transplanted a rose there about a month and a half ago, just before we moved in. As a result of which it dried up in its first few days and lost all its leaves after about three weeks. It was completely my fault so I, in shame, never mentioned it on the blog again. But in the past two weeks, it has started to come back to life so I'll no longer hide my pictures of it.

It really does have the most beautiful leaves of all the eleven roses we got with the house. I'm so glad I didn't kill it. Actually, even if I'd killed it, I have one more. We noticed also about two weeks ago that there was a sprout growing up out of the hole we left when we moved the rose. Somewhere down there a very persistent root decided to grow even though I never watered it. It's getting the water it wants now though and who knows, it might be true to its parent.

In addition, I already showed a picture of the place we moved the next rose transplant from, from in front of the garage to the back of the yard. Here's a picture of it, two days after the move. I trimmed of the wilty ends off the canes the night after the transplant and while the leaves still feel a bit like lettuce left out too long, I think this second night it looks a bit better. Or at least better than the other rose did after transplanting.

So that's on the left side of the planting bed, next to where we'll have a pergola eventually. On the right side, I have planted about 20 Tall Irises which I hear from our neighbor, might be blue. This weekend, I finally got to digging up and dividing the ton of Irises that had come under the fence into our yard over the past decade. After getting through the planting, it was so dark that I didn't take any pictures, but I swear, three days later, the new little blades have grown longer.

And yes, I am aware that I have planted them waaaay to close together, but that's just me, I'll dig them up again next spring when they're choking each other again and move them around the yard. I find that I always plant things too close together. Just take a look at a photo of the full planting bed.

The Coreopsis are taking over everything. The Geum is growing into the Coreopsis. The baby foxgloves will probably be slowly covered over by the Coreopsis. And once that sheared lavender comes back it will be pushing against the Agastache. But that's okay, for me, a crowded garden makes me happy. And I don't mind digging up the plants again and again to move them when they get to full size.

And while I'm showing you a full picture of this bed, take a look at this picture from July 26 - just a month and a half ago. Told you, they've doubled in size - at least.

The only other thing I can really talk about in our still very untended yard is our lemon tree. During the month before we moved into the house, we harvested just about all the healthy yellow citrus from the tree but I can now see tons of new lemons, already bigger than the lemons you get in the store and still green.

I finally bought a fruit picker this last weekend and did my best to get all the fruit that has been dive bombing the potted shade plants I put under the lemon tree. In the process I got a sack-full of good lemons and we made some lemonade. I think we're growing attached to this tree.

Grand Entrance

It's taken a bit longer than we originally thought, but finally our front porch is starting to look like a porch.

Our little house started with an understated and after nearly a hundred years, an unstable and leaning porch but now its nearly transformed into the grand entry our restored old beauty deserves. Not to brag but we took a close look up and down the street after we looked over the stairs and our house definitely has the best looking stairs on the street (will have the best looking front when Abel's finished). We actually had three people stop and talk in front of our house about the new stairs on Sunday. Oh, it made me giddy but I'm a naturally shy person so I sunk down on the couch so that they wouldn't see me and told Patrick about them. Of course, he then decides to go out and talk so I got the courage to go out too. The house is finally starting to look like it's inhabited and being cared for. Makes me so happy. So happy, I'll give you a few more pictures and even advertise for my contractor in one.

Anyway, once the men are finished with the porch, it should be safe for us to begin working on the front garden. I was so eager to start that when I went to Home Depot this weekend, I bought a couple of plants. I think we'll start at the concrete pad in the very front and put some of the larger landscaping stones from the backyard extending in a line out from the first step, marking out what will be the front bed and creating a tiny retaining wall. Then I'll plant the two new plants I bought around there (don't remember their names yet) along with my Fortnight Lily, Salvias, and Nemesias. Then from that first step we'll put in two paths to either side of the yard, in some kind of stepping stones. Anyway, I could write more, but it really needs pictures, so I 'll move on.

Also on Sunday, we prepared the area around the garage for the work that will start there probably next weekend. There were two roses in front of the fence, horribly placed and sure to get trampled so with Patrick's help, the healthier one was moved to the back yard.

As you can see, the fence didn't survive the move. It was quite amusing actually, Patrick literally lifted the fence panels out of the ground and they didn't resist in the least. Now Our backyard is open... but then again the little latch shouldn't have really deterred anyone. About the rose, I check on it yesterday night and of course, it was very wilted. But unlike with the last rose I moved (which is growing again, yay!), I gave this one a haircut, taking off all the wilty ends of the branches so hopefully, it will be able to hold onto some of its leaves while it settles in.

Doors, Flowers, and a Porch

So in the last few weeks, we've, mostly I, have made quite a bit of progress on the kitchen built-in refinishing... Phase 1: the doors. It may not look it, but the door below is finished and ready for painting, we have three such doors so far. Okay, actually we've only been working little by little, on the weekend.

We scraped and sanded, then added wood putty and sanded more. Then, actually, sanded again because I found that I was better at the finish sanding than Patrick. Finally, we were ready to start priming and pried open the paint can lid.... and found the paint completely separated... I guess paint shouldn't be an impulse buy that you get on clearance in Sears. Well, we shook and mixed it up as much as we could and put on a few coats. Here's a picture of the primed doors against the yet untouched cabinet.

I think no one will disagree with us about which looks better. I think since the primer was probably still not mixed thoroughly enough, the paint was a bit watery and the doors need another layer or two before we put on the semi-gloss finishing paint.

But once we finish these doors, we'll move onto the shelves we need to replace below:

I mean what the heck were they thinking? Why in the world did they cut out the original shelves and put in these chicken wire ones? And we know they cut out the original ones rather than properly removing them because these wire shelves are being held up by the wonky one inch remains of those shelves. Should be super easy to get new pieces of wood cut to replace these shelves. But when we get to that we'll also have to remember to ask our contractor to fix these holes:

See, there are four holes in the back of this cabinet section because of these screws that are kind of holding in our electric panel.... so it seems that the old plaster might be all that is securing the panel to the wall, but then, maybe not. Just have to remember to tell him, I completely forgot this past week.

Anyway, let's move on to more interesting and pretty pictures.

Here is that back planting bed that we carved out just before we moved into the house a month ago and the little plants are filling in very nicely. When these coreopsis plants were in their 5-inch clay pots they were wilting every couple days from my lack of a hose - watering cans just don't carry enough water (for me). But I haven't seen the slightest sign of wilting since.

My little seedling Agastache plants have been blooming now for nearly 3 weeks, looking weak at first, but adding more and more sideshoots and flowers everyday. They're not quite what I was expecting but they've grown on me now that they've gotten a bit bigger. The seed packet showed pink flowers, which would have probably looked better but then, purple is great too.

But just as a reminder of how much the yard is not finished, see this view from behind the flowers.

But nothing much will happen until the garage is finished - we wouldn't want the men to destroy all the work we do.

On a different subject, I wonder if anyone out there can answer a question for me. Take a look at this Coreopsis flower:

It's a bit hard to see, but there's a bug in there that I'd like to try and identify. Not the cucumber beetle, that one was easy enough and we do have a bit of a problem with them. They seem to be in just about every flower that I look into. But not them, there's a tiny nearly transparent little caterpillar or centipede creature. Does anyone know what that might be? The flower looks fine from a foot away but up really close it is actually a bit wonky... maybe that's because there is some kind of problem pest feeding on the bud? I have no clue and haven't had any luck researching it so I'm throwing it out to you.

Okay, last update to give, I talked last time about how the porch was finally getting started and after a week I can't quite step on it but it's looking good. As a reminder, we started at:

Then, we backstepped a bit to a nonexistent porch for a month and a half.

Then, this week, the carpenters started again and built the concrete forms on Monday.

Then, they poured the foundation and removed the forms.

And finally yesterday, we came home to something a bit more substantial, a bit more porch like.

We might have had a platform to stand from by now but Abel's given his men a full three days off for the holiday weekend so probably by the end of next week, I'll have pictures from that perspective. Can't wait.