{Garden} Made with love – link party at Victoria’s

14 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Family, Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, House and Home, Renovating

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Victoria, over at Restoring our 1890 Victorian, really stumped with her Linky party theme, “Made with Love”. This isn’t because I haven’t put love into nearly everything I do, especially where family and friends are concerned, it’s that I wasn’t sure I had photographs that I could use to document this project “made with love”.

So at the risk of seeming to be in a landscape/garden rut, the most recent project that seemed viable to the topic, one that I knew I gave a lot of thought, energy and love to, was planning and planting the front yard of our youngest son, Kevin and his wife, Sarah.

I apologize for not taking “before” pictures of the jumble of ivy and juniper…the landscape was so grim it never occurred to me. This is the yard prior to the final removal of the odd shaped bushes and a struggling ornamental plum (the tree in this picture).

(above & below) the left side of the steps are a garden I planted late last year, we mirrored the style for the larger portion of the front yard. The Iceberg roses and Santa Barbara Daisies have doubled in size

The newlyweds recently purchased an older home. This older home had been owned by an elderly gentleman, whose wife had passed away some time before. When he passed, his children put the house on the market. The yard had been “maintained” by a mow, blow and go kind of guy. Salvageable shrubs had been hedged into misshapen boxes and other odd shapes not natural to the plant world. Many of the plants were overgrown beyond trimming to any effect.

(above) The plants with the white flowers are the Iceberg roses…they will put on a couple of feet of height over the summer. There will not be very much ground exposed once the grasses and other plants fill in.

(above) the green on the front of the house is the espaliered apple…it should be very happy in its new home.

The majority of the front yard is a slope that meets the sidewalk. It was covered in runaway ivy and low growing juniper and because the slope was neglected the two varieties married and intermingled into a mess, complete with spider webs and weeds.

(above) Sarah and her mom bought some slate stepping stones and we planted Thyme ground cover. Once that fills in she can cut thyme for cooking and enjoy a lush, green lawn of an herb that has a small purple flower, when in bloom.

Just before the wedding in December, Sarah’s mom paid her gardener to rip out the entire mess. I began planning for the new yard in February and with the help of Jose (my gardener extraordinaire) we installed the finished plant list in April.

Planning took some time since Sarah and Kevin wanted a California/Santa Barbara look. Translation: Olive trees, grasses, lavender, white Iceberg shrub roses, Penstemon and other perennials. The space at the front of the house was begging for something showy and structured. We selected an espaliered apple. We asked Jose to make sure the sprinklers were in good working order, since we didn’t want the hundreds of dollars in plant material to shrivel up in the upcoming warm weather. That ended up involving hours of work! He amended the soil and planted.

Next will be some work in the back yard, although we have worked on some areas already…Sarah recently re-planted the herb/vegetable garden we installed last year and the space under the trees has been an inviting respite from hot sun since they first moved in.

Any and all involvement has been made with love. ♥ Check out the linky party at Restoring our 1890 Victorian

I can guarantee, you will be entertained!

~and~ because this garden makes me happy I’m joining Ricki Jill at Art @ Home for her linky party ~and~ Fishtail Cottage for her Garden Party

{Garden} Progress update on New Year’s goals

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, Maintenance

≈ 31 Comments

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Gardening

HAPPY MAY DAY!

Sometime in early January I posted about my “goals” for the year. I used this word to avoid the utter sense of failure I experience when I’ve set the usual “resolutions” and then dropped the ball within the first month of the new year. This year I was determined to set realistic “goals” for myself and keep them in my thoughts to achieve some measure of success. How did that work out, you ask? Well, it’s only May 1st, but I would give myself a solid B for achieving 2 of the 3 goals so far.

If you’re interested in reading the post visit me HERE, otherwise, here is a bit of proof of my work towards accomplishing at least 1 of the 3 goals. Goal #2. Plans for the Garden :: As I explained in my previous post, I have regularly worked in my garden, but in recent years, only to maintain it. I had really dropped the ball where adding new “bones” to the space was concerned. The pictures I had taken for blog purposes revealed lots of bare spots and some much needed updating. {You really can see your yard, or rooms in your home, more objectively by taking a picture and looking at it}

Our house is stucco on all sides, except for the front where we had stone applied some years ago. I’m sure there are stucco walls that are smooth and somewhat attractive, that is not what we have in our 1968 Southern California tract house. Which is why I’ve have ivy growing on many of the walls. In our side yard there is a particularly large expanse of stucco and the wall happens to get full sun. I had always thought about planting something that could be espaliered. My trusty nursery suggested White Lady Banks rose so I’m giving it a go. Don’t judge Lady Banks just yet. I’ve only planted her this past weekend. But with time, I’ve been promised she’ll grow and will at least break up (figuratively) some of the stucco wall.

I’ve got a David Austin ‘Heritage’ and an Iceberg rose growing in front of Lady Banks, she should enjoy their company while she puts on growth.

Iceberg are so easy and provide the best white blooms nearly 9 months of the year around here.

The other roses in this area of the yard are French Lace

~and~

a Burgundy Simplicity rose. They both put their best face forward in spring, but perform well all summer long.

Last year I discovered that by planting my herbs in pots I could avoid the little slug holes that plagued all of my basil and flat leaf parsley.

The patio bed was revamped a couple of years ago, but even with the Iceberg roses and climbers, Cecile Brunner and Eden, the rest of the bed needed some interest. This spring I was able to buy foxglove in color packs (a smaller, 6-pack of starts). The ‘foxy’ variety will last most of the summer and could be coaxed into blooming again next spring if I could tolerate the stage where they look so sad. They are up and strong and about to burst into a full riot of beauty. (Please pardon the boxwood, they are transplants and have been over hedged. I’m hoping this summer they will recover and be lush and green once again).

The back corner of our yard is deep shade most of the time so in 2011 we decided to throw in the towel on trying to grow grass and instead had our gardener create a pea gravel patio. The corner plants never did much since the trees that create the shade sucked the nutrients from the soil and water was a problem since the soil was filled with roots and little else. We have moved 3 sizable concrete pots to that corner and my hope is to plant them with a Japanese maple, Annabelle hydrangea (Thanks, Keri! Ivy Clad posted the best information on this hydrangea) and possibly a Camellia japonica in white. This is a work in progress so I’ll have to follow up with a future post on my progress.

Under the kitchen bay window, on our patio, we have had 2 large concrete oval pots. Last year I planted white azalea ‘Alaska’ and white ivy geranium…

and this year, the ivy geranium won. The white azalea have been moved to a more suitable spot in the garden and the white ivy geranium are having a party.

The formal garden is still under renovation. It needs plants that can tolerate massive roots from our neighbor’s beautiful Alder tree. I love their tree but it does wreak havoc with the planting beds. I continue to amend the soil and hope for the best. The Sally Holmes climbing rose is happy on the fence and the roses in each of the boxwood framed openings seem fairly happy. I had to replace one of the hybrid teas with a Romantica ‘Bolero’ this past spring. I’m have frequent chats with the rose, encouraging it to grow up big and strong.

The last addition so far is a favorite for Mr. B. I bought and hung a bird feeder. We get a lot of really interesting birds in our yard and Mr. B loves to watch their antics. I hung it outside of our kitchen window and I must confess, it’s been fun to watch the variety of hungry birds.

Have you begun to work in your garden yet? Spring has sure taken its time arriving here in California.

I’m linked to: The Polohouse {Favorites on the First}~and~

Savvy Southern Style {Wow us Wednesdays}

~and~ Stone Gable {Tutorials Tips and Tidbits}

~and~ Ricki Jill at Art @ Home: My Happy List

In two weeks, May 15th, I’m hosting my very first Linky party. I’m celebrating all things SPRING! I hope you’ll join me with your favorite things about this season…your gardening tips and projects, the touches you add to your home as the weather warms and your favorite recipes, table settings and entertaining ideas for SPRING, or really just anything you’d like to post. I hope you’ll join me, I think we’ll have fun.

Thoughts of spring…really?

12 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening, Maintenance

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Gardening, plans

Note: My site has moved to a new server…it had crashed Monday and wonderful, Son #1 was able to fix it yesterday. I apologize for being unavailable. Thank you for coming by for a visit.

Any of my friends and family will tell you that I don’t especially love summer. Spring is wonderful if it’s not too hot, but generally speaking, I prefer cooler temps. I love sunshine but I want the temperature to remain in the mid-seventies as opposed to the baking hot temperatures that accompany most summer months.

Brabourne Farms image

I’d like to work on my garden bench and surrounds so that it more resembles this than the ‘catch-all’ that it is…{add it to the list}

I definitely want to add more hydrangea to my garden. I would like to add white and maybe blue, which will turn pink if you don’t add some additive to the soil (I purchase this from the garden shop but I have a friend that just put’s a couple of nails in the ground.

I have a little man-made (by me) dry river bed that could use some attention, maybe a few plants that thrive in and around rock.

The exception we experienced this year and last is that we had a very unseasonably cool summer followed by what I believe weather experts are declaring the wettest and possibly coldest late fall/winter for some time. Maybe that’s why my daydreaming has involved visions of what I’d like to do to the garden as soon as it’s warm enough.

Note: Some might consider us Southern California folks real wimps when it comes to weather, and we usually just want perfect weather! Is that really too much to ask?{smile}

I lost all of my lavender in the rains (my planting areas resembled small ponds during much of the time). So I am definitely going to plant more French lavender this coming spring.

I’d also like to take out a couple of rose bushes that aren’t holding their own and replace them with something great for cutting and bringing indoors. {Suggestions welcome!}

Besides wanting my yard to look good, my goal is to be able to do more harvesting of my own flowers and greens to make bouquets…

photo by Michael Kraus via Garden Design

There are step-by-step directions on how to create an arrangement similar to this HERE.

There are some wonderful mail order sources (probably more than I’m even aware of). Here are 5 unique sites as recommended by Garden Design:

Images except where indicated via Garden Design

So, is it just me? Are you tempted to have thoughts of spring gardens once Christmas is put away?

Fall gardening—growing peonies in Southern California

27 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening

≈ 9 Comments

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Gardening, Peony

One of my favorite flowers is the peony. I love their bold yet lacy beauty and the delicate to daring, colors they bloom in. Unfortunately I am in zone 18 (according to the Sunset magazine guide). We rarely get frost in my neighborhood (peonies like a chill in the winter) and we can warm up in the summer to the mid-to high eighties, even nineties, this is not an ideal climate for peonies. Until now?

Monrovia sells some very lovely peony however they can be expensive.

I just read that there is a variety of peony called ‘Itoh’—a cross between herbaceous and tree peonies—not sure what that means exactly…but if it means I might be able to cut a peony blossom from my yard occasionally I’m up for giving a 5-gallon plant a try.

There are some David Austin roses that remind me of peony blossoms; if all else fails I will plant a couple new DA roses.

According to Sunset you can plant the ‘Itoh’ peony in spring or fall. You want to make sure the rootball is level with the soil line—taking care not to disturb the tender feeder roots. The article even says you can plant them in containers if the container is larger than the container the plant came in from the nursery.

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to stroll into the yard, clippers in hand, and come in with a bouquet like this? Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Add plenty of compost mix to your planting soil. The plants should be watered regularly and you should feed them once when the plant starts to leaf using a low nitrogen fertilizer (5-10-10) and again after the last flower of the season fades. The article also said that as the plant ages there will be a noticeable increase in blossoms…especially after 3 years in the ground.

Ahhh, yellow, so sunny and happy!

I realize that most of the U.S. probably can grow peonies with ease, it’s just that here in Zone 18 of Southern California we miss out on lilacs and peonies, two of my favorites. We can grow hydrangea without much difficulty so that’s the consolation prize for living where it’s warm nearly every day! If any of you have grown these peonies successfully, please give me any and all advice you may have on how to do it.

Moving the fountain

08 Wednesday Sep 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Gardening, Maintenance, Outdoor living

≈ 4 Comments

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Gardening, maintenance

The other day I needed to do some cleanup work in the atrium (the fig ivy starts growing like it’s attempting an escape during the summer months). After fertilizing and hosing off everything I sat down for a rest and the little gray cells started working on an idea—this only happens every so often so I need to capitalize on it when it hits me.

This vine was perfectly happy in the atrium but I felt it could branch out and grow even larger (be happier) on the patio where our fountain sits.

We have a fountain on our patio that I had purchased many years ago. It’s been a bit of a disappointment due to the sound it makes when the stream hits the water bowl—it sounds like a little boy peeing in the pool. How do I know this sound? I raised sons. If any of you out there in blog land can tell me how to fix this and make the stream sound more like water drops gently landing on a pool I’d be eternally grateful.

The fountain was something I thought would add to our dining enjoyment when we ate on the patio---unfortunately it really took up more space than we had and the sound was not as relaxing as I'd hoped. I believe it will be much prettier in the atrium.

Anyway—the fountain and the 2 large pots I had on either side seemed to crowd the patio a bit and it dawned on me (the day I was working on the atrium) that the fountain might look better in the atrium. It would also stay cleaner since my gardener doesn’t work in the atrium so his blowing of dust and leaves wouldn’t be a factor.

One of the bower vines got a new home on the patio post with this angel doorknocker.

The birds in our yard actually use this birdbath (when it has water in it). I think one of the local sparrows has a crush on the iron bird that rests here.

I’ve moved the bower vines that book-ended the fountain—one is in the atrium and one is on the patio. The calliandra (‘red powder puff’) vine that had been in the atrium is probably going to be a lot happier on the patio—that’s the goal, keep those plants happy.

See, doesn't this vine look happier on the patio?

Now we can listen to the splash of water all through the house.

Have you rearranged any planted items or changed the look of your garden lately?

Small Yards – Making the cut

20 Tuesday Jul 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening, Maintenance

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Gardening, replacing plants

As you may have gathered, we live in a cottage. We love small spaces and it works for us. It certainly keeps us on top of the weeding out what we don’t use game. And because we have a small house we have a relatively small yard. I should mention that I know this isn’t the case in all regions of the U.S. but in California, where real estate is always at a premium, this is often the standard.

In small spaces some plants aren't able to hold their own year round.

So my dilemma has become…should I get rid of the few plants that haven’t been living up to their end of the bargain? I hate to be heartless and cruel but there are several plants in my yard that just don’t look very good and because of their close proximity to the house (i.e. small yard, etc.) they are highly visible.

This white bower vine was pretty last year. This spring, due to the rains we had, it looks like it doesn't have enough leaves.

I am going to replace them with a new player (as in sports team language). If a plant/team member isn’t doing what it takes to make a pretty yard/winning team then I’m forced to make a change!

This corner has struggled due to the shade. Tree trimming is necessary before next fall!

Am I being heartless? What do you do when a plant is struggling and you’ve nursed it and it still looks pitiful?

When there is limited space you want all of the plants to look good all of the time, is this too much to ask...probably!

I hope to plant a rosemary near this bed, the old one outgrew its location.

What do you do when plants begin to look like they aren’t happy where they are planted? Do you have a solution? I’d love to hear from you.

Work in the garden

30 Sunday May 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening, Maintenance

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Garden, Gardening

It’s Memorial Day weekend and I have big plans to work in the garden. My front yard needs some work since the roses are finished with their first bloom. I need to fertilize them and cut off the dead blossoms.

Iceberg and freshly planted impatiens

I redesigned the bedding area as you walk up to my front door earlier this Spring. I had my gardener remove some plants that weren’t holding up their end of the bargain (to thrive and bloom). We planted 3 white iceberg roses and I will be planting impatiens and lobelia in and around the boxwood bordered bed.

Lobelia & Impatiens - with any luck these will double in size over the next 6-8 weeks.

I’ve said it before, impatiens are simple to grow and perform without much work and that’s what I love about them. With a busy schedule that is what I’m looking for!

I'm counting on this little guy to keep an eye on my newly planted flowers.

I hope to get to the side and back yard for some maintenance chores but I’m taking it easy—something I have a difficult time doing so if I don’t get those areas finished this weekend I’ve been told the work will be there waiting for me next weekend!