Garden Projects # 15

Patti I think your gardens are awesome!

I just had a work vacation, sorry ladies and still lots to do here. waiting until I can relax and make some more rock cairns and balances.

plant out the new beds - more mulch - and then the wall re-build - all while keeping up with the weeding.

Thanks all, but I am laying in bed with my computer and listening to my weeds growing way too much. A very painful sound, but I am not feeling up to working outside today. Plus the weeds are only going to get worse as we are leaving for a few days to get some "kulture" at Tanglewood.

On Thursday, July 11, we are hearing the orchestra and chorus of Boston-based Emmanuel Music perform John Harbison’s opera, The Great Gatsby and then on Sunday we are going back to hear conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos lead the BSO perform Stravinsky and then a Beethoven piece followed by Cellist Lynn Harrell who is performing Haydn. Then back to the jungle that has grown up in our absence. So it goes. But being able to do things and garden now that we are retired is wonderful, so let the weeds grow while we hear some great music. Nice balance. Patti

So, how about having a string quartet perform in the garden?

Rosemary, OMG, what a great idea. And we do have a dear friend who is a Harpist and as a favor to her we take care of her plants when she leaves for warmer climes every winter and sometimes we also store her beautiful harp for her, so maybe I can get her to come and play for a small garden party. Not likely this summer as she is so booked already. But I can start to plan it now. And maybe I can get my DS to come and do his magic in the kitchen. Having been a chef doing high end catering for a couple of years in NYC for the Michelin Three Star Chef Daniel Boulud, he could whip up a fantastic feed. We went to a large yard party yesterday with a blues band playing on the porch. They had a raw bar sent up on the lawn along with the bar, but I was so happy seeing old friends and listening to the music, I didn't even bother with a drink. It was a beautiful afternoon, but what to do if the weather was lousy? Too many people to fit into their house, so I would plan a smaller gathering so we could vacate to the house if necessary. Thanks for the idea. Patti

Wow....good idea, Rosemary! I would like to hear the Haydn, Tanglewood is a fun venue.....if the weather is good, & here's hoping it will be......

What an awesome idea!!!

And everyone can play Haydn seek!! ;)

Victor you are invited to be the biggest seeker. Patti

Thanks!

That was funny, Victor!

Now we all want to be invited! My thought for my yard if I can ever get it pretty and free of falling limbs would be to have a group perform, and put out a hat for donations for a good cause such as fine arts programs in the city, etc.

I have connections to some people in the Concord Symphany who are game to join any good event. Also, Suzuki teachers are always looking for performing venues for their students of all ages.

Course it would be easier to just go to Tanglewood :)

Your new wall looks great, Bill. Your could just replace your house with a stone house. :)

Your gardens look great, Patti. I love seeing pics of your place. Music in your garden would be grand. Too bad my mother wasn't still alive. She was a wonderful violinist. She played in the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra for awhile, and she and Dad used to do duets with him playing the piano.

I have been getting so much weeding done, and I have another week left to my vacation. Unfortunately this week we're expecting a heat wave. Hot and humid! Might be sticking to the shade gardens. I hate hot and humid. Hot not so much. Humid a lot. Anyhow, the gardens I've weeded are looking fantastic, and my daylilies are putting on their yearly show. The joint is jumping, I tell you!

Karen

Lovely growing up in house where music is played......no one played in my home, but my Dad was an opera buff, so the records were always playing.....

planted out the beds in front and in back of the new wall today as well as weeding a few beds and velco'ing the t- plants to the wires we have strung - still need some "show" rocks for these new beds only brought up 2 today. will try to get some pictures tomorrow.

That's all??

Amazing, Bill......this week will not be one for working outside, for sure......

I'll say. Bill is an exception. I did manage to get up early to weed. Now I can only think--siesta! It felt like an achievement considering it's a week since the whiplash injury from just sitting in a chair.

brought up a couple rock and "planted" them - planted two hechies from hd that I split into 6 :) then weeded the pond bed - pretty disgusting out there - went up to the annual mason hollow sale got a free hot dog and ice cream and came how with a couple hosta and conifers - planted them when we got home.

softball tonight

I looked at all that needs done in the garden then came back into the air conditioning

Oh, that we all had Bill's stamina.......Debi, I'm with you!

I went to Tanglewood today, so I did zippo in the way of garden work. Saw some lovely ancient trees and did make a pit stop at a nursery near Lenox Ma, but bought nothing to plant. Too hot. We enjoyed a wonderful concert, especially a piece by HAYDN - Cello Concerto No. 1 in C performed by Lynn Harrell who was brilliant and too boot, very funny. Not something you get in most classical performances, but he had us all laughing at the faces he was making towards the conductor. He got many standing ovations.

Glad Bill got some work done. Patti

I did get a little weeding done its cooling off

With help for DH got dwarf irises planted. I see place I had weeded in which I want to plant an iris needs it again. Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the road heading south, not far from Wha. Temperature outside is 93. Too hot to work in the garden, so missing nothing with this travel day. I did go into vt studio very early this morning until noon so I did get accomplish something today.

My mom is coming next week so I must get the garden in order. She hasn't been to Nantucket in the summer for maybe 20 years though she use to come often in the winter. I will a cleaning and weeding fool all week. After a few dsys in Nantucket then we are taking her up to vt for a couple of days then we are driving her up to her cottage north of Toronto for a week in the woods. She is staying up there longer than us and she will fly back to Tulsa alone. I hope that if I get to 98 that I will be game for a few flights and a 12 hour road trip.

Wow Patti, that's awesome!

It is awesome! What a wonderful life she has lived, to be so healthy at 98.....

that's great

Sounds great!!!

Amazing!

she is a wonder!

I want to be like her when I grow up. ^_^

Me, too!!

My Mom and Dad both played music while we were growing up. Dad played piano. Mom, when we were very young, played the accordion. Later she took up the violin, and she and Dad would play duets. They also had classical music playing on the radio all the time.

I got a lot of weeding and some mowing done yesterday. Started taking notes of things I need to do after the bloom season is done. Daylilies that need moving around, and such. Today, after taking a bunch of pictures of my daylilies, I came in and decided no work will get done out there today. That was after getting stung 3 times by paper wasps. I got into their nest that was hidden at the base of one of my daylily clumps while pulling out a few weeds so that I could get a better, unobstructed photo of the daylily clump. Damn, but did that hurt! Good thing I'm not allergic. Gonna have to pick up some wasp and hornet spray.

Patti, I can't imagine being so good at 98! Your mother is awesome!

Karen

Karen, sorry to hear of the stings! Yes, wasp stings hurt like heck.....I'm looking at my DL combos .....some need to be moved, but I don't know if it's this year's project.....

Finally some cool weather...got to weed the blue yellow and white garden

Karen, that happened to me last year, stuck my hand too close to a nest and ouch! Last weekend I got it again, but only 1 this time, and in a different part of the garden. Ouch again :-(

You're a DL expert-- how soon do you start moving them? When they stop blooming, or do you wait until September? Anyone? I didn't get to finish my plans this spring-- too cold, too wet, then suddenly too hot. And now, seeing how everything looks this summer, it's very clear what a difference a few more adjustments will make... So I'm really chomping at the bit.

Soooo glad it cooled off! Today it was actually chilly, how strange, and what a relief!! Only for a minute, though, but at least it's not going back up so high over the weekend.

My friend who gave me all my DL starts says early springtime is best for dividing and moving DLs but they are so hardy, I suspect it's whenever you can.

Wasps got me last year too. This year, the overrun garden meant I'm plagued with poison ivy. Just when one big whelt is gone I get another. Until now I always thought I was immune.

I like fall better, then if you damage the foliage while you're doing it (clumsy me!) they have forgotten it by spring. I did move my Kwanso in August in a heat wave one year and they recovered. I don't think you can kill them! But the hybrids may not be as tough. I guess I'll have to see how my time goes, and how badly I want to get it done.

DH claims they can be moved any time when they are not in bloom.

DL 'Pumpkin Time' has just started to bloom. by a Massachusetts hybridizer.