An Imperfect Garden

Every summer our garden seems to go its own way. It never quiet confirms to the image of the perfect garden in our imagination.

Despite "falling short" and sustaining multiple deer attacks, it always manages to offer up patches of beauty. It's never the big beautiful manicured garden featured in magazines, but if you look closely, it is beautifully imperfect.

Green Houses

Riding the train browsing Pinterest and thinking about greenhouses.

Tiny Harvest

Our garden has suffered two major deer attacks this summer and I have basically given up on seeing anymore tomatoes this year. Sometimes I question the ratio between all the work we put in and what the garden actually produces.

Honestly with all the rain this year the garden has pretty much taken care of itself and I admire the resolve of the sunflowers which keep trying to flower after having their heads bitten off twice. Plants are tenacious.

And sometimes when everything goes right they are productive. Last night my little one harvested our first zucchini. We learned zucchini grow quickly. I was watching this one. The end of last week it was tiny, the size that might be served up on palate of baby vegetables in a restaurant. Last night when we picked it was big enough to serve two. We sliced it and sautéed it with some garlic and enjoyed our tiny harvest. Oh and we photographed it too! Proud gardener's that we were.

Favorite Summer Things: Black Eyed Susans

Our Black Eyed Susans rallied after a deer attack earlier this summer (not so our beautiful tomato plants). Now, they are blooming away and cheering us with their simple beauty. If all flowers have a certain character and mood to them, then Black Eyed Susans are straight forward and happy and a perfect reflection of a sunny summer day.

Deer Fight

The battle lines have been drawn. The deer went around the fence and chomped our sunflowers! It's an annual event and it's war.

I'm going to get out the heavy artillery, which basically means a nasty smelling powder. Unfortunately it repels humans as well. And I need to plant new sunflower seeds. It was all going to smoothly in the garden this spring. I should have known.

I want a... Bee Skep

Well, I love the way bee skeps look, but I'm not sure I'd actually encourage bees to nest in my garden. I'm glad when they stop by, but setting up house would probably be another thing. Plus, with my luck it would end  up a Yellow Jacket's nest. If I could put one in my garden without it becoming a hive I'd get one.

Sadly, the bees used to be killed to collect the honey in the skeps. Modern day wooden hives are not so charming looking, but they are much more bee friendly.

For an in depth look at skeps read here.

Proud New Owner of a Tree

Who knew it was so difficult to buy a tree? The right tree, that is. I have been looking for a weeping snow fountain cherry tree for about two years. I would shop around in early spring and all the trees were too large or scraggly or just not right. Summer would take over, and I would never get around to buying one.

This weekend, I was resolved to get a tree to put in the circle of daffodils I planted for it two years ago. It's amazing what someone will try and sell you when you ask for a dwarf cherry tree. Options offered included a cherry tree that would grow 15 to 20 feet, a weeping rain tree with yellow flowers, a mature apple tree that was so oddly shaped it warranted a discount, and finally what can only be described as a flowering bush. Buying a car would have been easier.

Finally, I found my tree. It is not the perfect tree I had in my mind, that's actually growing in my neighbors yard. But it is a good tree and will grow into our perfect tree. 

Weekend Plans

For several weeks, I've wished for a weekend with nothing to do. This weekend could come close, except that our sunflowers need to be planted. They are already knocking the roof off their little greenhouse planter, so I'll be putting on the gardening gloves tomorrow. I need to do some much needed clean up before the flower bed can be planted.

I'll also need to put the fencing, that I took down for the hurricane, back in place. This promises to be a real chore. Oh well, in a month or two, I'll be happy I didn't slack off. I would be thrilled if we managed to grow a really gigantic sunflower like the one above this year. How do people do it? 

Flower Power

Our Daffodils meet Andy Warhol's Flowers. Suddenly life is bright and warm.

Warhol print Flowers #67 available here.

Dream Garden

The British really know how to grow their gardens. I would love to walk out my back door and step into a garden like this one.

Late Bloomers

Hurrah for zinnias, marigolds, morning glories and all of the other late bloomers. Our garden is still producing these hardy blooms as well as nasturtium and herbs. A little bit of summer lingering as Fall sets in and the days get noticeably shorter.

While these late bloomers linger and the rest of the garden is shutting down, my plans for next year's garden are starting to form. Next year we are going to plant even more zinnias. They make such great cheerful little bouquets. And add moon flowers to the morning glories. Plant more varieties of marigolds and add other cutting flowers. It's easy to be ambitious now, we'll see what I'm up to in the Spring.

Time for Herb Gardening

I'm delighted to have a head start on growing fresh herbs this year. Thanks to the mild winter this year I already have fresh chives and tarragon in my garden.

The garden looks a complete wreck, but when I was cleaning up my pots, I found new growth under the old in one of my herb pots. The chives and tarragon never completely died and are already large enough for cutting.

Medieval Herb Garden at Rye Castle in Sussex England from the Virtual Tourist.

Country vs.Urban

Loving the space of this country garden and the ingenious incorporation of green gardens in this urban landscape . Hurray for gardeners everywhere. Which would you rather have a country or city garden?

Images via a well traveled woman.

A Jump on Spring

The unseasonably warm weather allowed me to clear the front garden. Just as well, the warm weather has given the plants a head start too. The oregano and our Miss Dot grass have already started growing into the dried out stalks from last year. I trimmed back the old growth and raked up a surprising amount of left over leaves from the fall. The leaf clean up revealed lots of spring buds and what's left of the tulips. I have a sneaking suspicion that our tulips are also being attacked from below. Are the chipmunk's pulling them right into their underground tunnels?

While I was bagging leaves and puzzling over our missing tulips, my little one was busy building a fairy house with her cousins. They made good use of the remains of Miss Dot and twigs from the yard. They were not a 100% happy with their fairy house, but I think it turned out first rate.

In the late afternoon, I took a walk in the back woods and came across some shed antlers and two tiny deer skulls, little victims of the winter or more likely a coyote. A strong reminder of the cyclical nature of things, which made me even happier that Spring is almost here.

Our First Crocus and the Call of the Garden

Our first little bulb popped out two days ago, a tiny white crocus looking very delicate amongst the remaining leaves that managed to escape fall clean up. It has yet to fully open and maybe regretting it's decisions the weather is cold again today.

Yesterday was so warm and sunny it could have been May. It got the planting bug going in me. Last year we got started too late and struggled to catch up all Summer. I'm not going to make that mistake again. Yesterday I bought seed packets and this weekend I'm going to get out and clear the beds and get some tiny fences up to protect the tulips. No deer candy this year.

Above are some images from Country Living that are serving as inspiration to get my hands dirty this weekend. You can see more images of this Connecticut garden here.

Green Dreams: A Garden Shed That's a Garden

This garden shed looks smart with these vertical planters from Woolly Pocket. The plants soften the clean lines and sleek color of the shed and the pockets provide extra growing space for urban gardeners or any green thumb with limited growing space.

There's lot's of other great examples of vertical gardens on the Woolly Pocket site.

Deer Attack

Despite fencing we had a serious deer attack yesterday in our garden which I'm already struggling with this year. I had just planted our tomato plants and thought the fencing I had jerry rigged would be enough to hold them back. Not so.

This weekend I need to find time to continue blockading our produce and try and catch the garden back up. Lucky for the deer they are so beautiful and relatives of Bambi. Otherwise...

Recession Fun # 14: Growing Basil

When it comes to gardening, it doesn't get easier or cheaper than growing Basil. A dollar to a dollar fifty for seeds, a nice long container or miscellaneous pots, potting soil and water. You literally just need to sprinkle the seeds, add a thin layer of soil and water. Voila! You're done.

No worrying if you've planted the seeds too deep or that a squirrel is going to dig them up for a snack like sunflower seeds. Our basil pot is full of tiny plants and thriving. I'm already looking forward to pesto.

Photo from Cooking Light and check out the tasty article "Use Your Basil Bounty". I want to try the Purple Basil Lemonade.

100 Sunflowers

My daughter told me she wants 100 sunflowers in our garden this year so we have been sowing away. We are off to a late start. All the rain has made working in the garden difficult but we are determined to get our garden up to speed.

We have been planting in green house trays a little at a time. We have planted Mammoth Organic, Sunny, Florenza and Lemon Queen varieties so far. We still have Teddy Bear, Citrus, and American Giants to go.

We are already well past 100 seeds. I'm hedging our bets, between the chipmunks and cutworms, I want to make sure my daughter has a hundred sunflowers this year.

Maybe by mid summer we will have an arrangement as beautiful as Van Gogh's painting above.

Spring Cheer

It's Monday and I didn't get to spend time in the garden this weekend as planned. I did manage to make it to Home Depot and purchase a bunch of gardening supplies. I'm looking forward to the chance to really dig in and "rebuild our garden". That's how my little one referred to it when she asked " Are we going to rebuild our garden?" Yes indeed.

We will post plenty of pictures this summer and record our progress. In the mean time, here are some photos above and a link to a nice DIY way to share Spring cheer with friends from Dos Family.