#RandomActOfKindness

A customer brought this by our office today, just to say thank you.  It is absolutely wonderful to see people taking time out to be nice, just because.  It completely made my day...and now we have cake!

Seeds

I went into Fresh Market for bruschetta, and came out with these (and the bruschetta). I might have a problem.

But I've always wanted  to grow four o'clocks!

one sentence saturday: march 17th

Happy St. Patty's Day!

www.clemsongirl.com - go there, it's awesome

march bloom day

I feel like I'm bragging by showing off this photo.  But Carol's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is all about sharing what is blooming in your yard, and this picture is too good not to share.  It was taken with my iPhone on Tuesday and then filtered with "low-fi" on instagram. Nothing fancy, but it makes me happy, and I love it!  I'm thinking I will even have this picture printed on coasters.

It seems like every evening when I walk in my yard, I find something new! (If you are visiting my blog for the first time, this is my first year in my great grandmother's cottage house.)  This is great, because I'm on a tight budget with not much room for new plants.  My plan for this year is, with my grandmother's help, to document what is growing where, and see how much little sun I have once the trees fill out.  Then I can divide plants this fall, and start planning for next year.  I'm also trying to nurse a few plants back to health, and clear the very old and settled in ivy from around the house.

Now on to the surprises!!

The first surprise this month has been the blooming ground cover.  I have these wonderful wildflowers all in the moss and in the front yard, and it's just beautiful.  I also have vinca minor near the house and in the back yard.  I think it's so pretty near the trees, and I love the fact that it doesn't climb up them! My goal is for the yard to be as maintenance free as possible, and since there is little sun, I don't think that will be too hard.  I'm encouraging the moss to grow and spread, and I'm letting the vinca minor run free.  If I don't have to mow anything I will be one happy girl.

The other fun surprise this month has been how 'helpful' and friendly my neighbor's golden retriever, Brady, has been.  He thinks that my yard is his yard, and now that he knows I belong, he always comes to keep me company when I'm working in the yard, and even greets me when I come home.  All the benefits of a dog without the vet and dog food bills!!  In these pictures he's standing in the garden between our houses.  My forsythia is in the shade, so the blooms are a little behind the rest of the area.  Also, next to the forsythia is a similar drapey shrub, with white blossoms on the end.  It's on my list of things to look up soon :)

Since it has been so unseasonably warm, my dogwoods have started blooming and the first hostas are coming up!!  I feel like this means that spring is really here, and there is no chance that we'll see snow or even have another hard frost.  This is fine with me, bring on the sunshine and warm weather. :)

 

 

I have found violets in my yard, and also these silver leaved flowers starting to spread and bloom.  Another groundcover maybe?

 Even this morning on my way to work I found a new bloom, and had to snap a picture.  I believe this is a type of woodland iris.  If so, this is a kind of iris I can learn to love.  The foliage is a lot softer than the traditional, stiff leafed irises.  Edit: My mom has informed me this is a spiderwort.  I like it and it grows in the shade.  Perfect! My daffodils, or jonquils as my grandmother calls them, are still blooming too.  I like how someone planted the different varieties together.  Just as a few start to fade, new blooms appear. 

 And the best surprise I saved for last.  Tulips!  They are some of my favorite cut flowers to have in the house, and I've always wanted to have some.  I was THRILLED this Tuesday when two shots of red appeared in one of the gardens.  There is one more spot where I think more will appear, and I can't wait to see what color they are.

And that's it so far, I can't wait to see what comes up tomorrow!!

emily vs ivy

Since I've moved into my new house, I've posted a few pictures of my yard, but nothing that gives you a really great idea of how wonderful it is -- and how much work I have to do. This is where you say "But I thought you weren't going to do any planting the first year, just see what comes up?"  True.  Aside from planting veggies in an existing raised bed, I'm not doing much 'planting'.  OK, maybe a little in the rock garden I'm sure is bare, and a few containers, but that's it.

BUT, that doesn't mean there isn't work to do.  I have yellow boxwoods that are in desperate need of TLC.  I have a tree that needs to come down, and numerous bushes that need to be trimmed. And I have ivy.  Lots and lots of ivy. I have ivy on trees, I have ivy in the foundation of the house, I have ivy in the yard, I have ivy in the kitchen garden, I have had ivy in the rock garden.  I may not know what I want/will be able to plant yet, but I know the ivy has to go.

Invasive plants are a pain.  The thing about this ivy is that I'm convinced that some of it is older than I am - and since my great grandparents built the original house (well fishing cottage) in the 1920's, this is entirely possibly.  As I've worked my way around the back of the house into the sideyard and towards the woods (which are solidly covered in ivy) the vines have turned into chords, and I've discovered large nodes.  The chords are dense in this part of the yard, criss-crossing over each other like a game of pickup sticks, just  underground so you can't see the sticks to know which is on top.

I have declared war on the ivy, and I have a strategy to get rid of it. Working from the outside (the youngest vines with the smallest leaves) towards the center, has been the most thorough approach with respect to leaving no vine left behind.  I may have bled a little bit, and I might be sore, but I am making steady progress.  While I'm sure I'll be pulling ivy for many springs to come, I'm hoping that it will be less intense than this year, because the ivy is putting up a good fight.  This was expected though, after all, it's been living here since before I was born!

So far, I've cleared the rock garden, the most desperate of the boxwoods, the patio garden, and I'm working on the sideyard.  I have at least one, if not two more full weekends worth of work to do to get all of the ivy cleared from around the house.

That deserves a reward right?  A Julie Darling Donut Breakfast Sandwich at Foodworks perhaps?  I'll take that and a mimosa. WHO KNEW scrambled eggs and donuts are a match made in heaven!