August 2011 - First day of school

I was looking back through some photos from this Summer and found this; photos taken while waiting for the bus on the first day of school. I love how excited my boy is about it. And the garden doesn't look half bad either.

In an earlier post, I talked about weigela - I had just gotten a sport of Wine and Roses, which just left me wanting more. I bought the one below, think it's French Lace, as well as a dwarf variety; my Monet. I placed my Monet next to Midnight wine, another dwarf. French Lace is no dwarf. The photo below gives a sense of its size. In the photo, my daughter is about 40". I swear the plant in its second season is 6' at its longest and growing. Weigela bloom on old wood and this season they were amazing.

In the foreground there is a cleome that I got at a Mother's day $2/per 6-pack of annuals sale at the local Market Basket. It was 5 feet tall and it leaning into D. Clearly, worth the $$. The daylily at right was a bonus plant, 'Persian Market', included for free in an Oakes daylily order. Love them - see the color in bloom at right. Rounding out the left of the frame is a plantain lily I got from my sister (now on its 3rd split).

419 Bulbs (give or take)

So after the freak October 30th snowstorm came through, I was freaked out almost more than the snow (I mean this is New England) by the possibility that I had missed the opportunity to plant bulbs.

I had a small representation of narcissus from the White Flower Farm (The works) and had been planning on doing it up this year. Hubbs had asked about color aka tulips, so I was determined.

After finding motivation, I went out and snagged end of season sale bulbs from Super Walmart, up the street in Amherst NH - Tax free. I figure bulbs are bulbs, but time will tell I suppose.

I put the tulips in 3 places. On the right of the house near the neighbor's driveway, I put a pastel mix, blending into a mix of bright yellow and bright red. Now that I type it, I'm not sure that's a great combination, but we shall see. In the 3' strip against the walk (which is begging to be lengthened, but that's another blog) I added 45 orange red blend tulips. Up by the porch corner garden I added a low border of white tulips, followed by a hot pink/purple double early called margarita (see a stock photo below) and in the back, a white and hot pink/purple blended variety. I also bulked up the narcissus area with 24 white daffodils. All in all, a lot of flowers. I can't wait for Spring and its just November 6th.

So then energized by how good the raked gardens were looking, I tackled cutting back the grasses, which had been squashed flat by the storm's 12" of heavy cement-like snow. It was very sad, the grasses are mature 6' varieties of witches broom, a varigated miscanthus, and a zebra grass. They were in full 'bloom' with large seed tails which is when they are most interesting. So fun...sigh.

Planted near porch:

48 white tulips 12" tall

36 Dk Pink 'Margarita' Tulips 18-20"

38 Pink and White Tulips 20-22" tall

24 Narcissus

Planted near daisies:

45 orange red 20-22"

Planted near neighbor's drive:

76 pastel blend 20-22"

76 yellow 18-20"

76 red 20-22"