PS, this thread is getting very long and difficult to load for those of us on dial-up...
My new garden or Stone Henge?
I have just enjoyed your update and photos of your "real life fairy tale" as I sip my first coffee on our Thanksgiving day. (Canada)
You and John are simply amazing. You sure have a touch with plants..your mandevilla is magnificent! Do you overwinter in the basement? Can't wait to see the potting shed done. Does John share your love of plants? He sure shows his love of you.
I am thankful you share it all with us.
Cheers to you both,
Carol
Hi, Carol - thanks for the nice comments - and happy Thanksgiving neighbor!
I just love my Mandevillas and yes, I overwinter them in my Father in Laws dark basement that stays dry and cool (about 55 degrees) all winter. It just breaks my heart to cut them down off these trellises each year when they are dripping with flowers - but I have to..I cut them down to 6-8" and put the pots and all in the basement. Just give them a few cups of water once a month or so. When I take them out in the Spring you would swear they are dead. Just brown, dry vines clinging to their winter pot trellis..and wakeup is slow..takes 3-4 weeks of light, warmth and half-strength feeding to bring them out of their sleep but then they take off. Usually start blooming here in CT around late July and go right to frost. The one pictured is the Alice du Pont most common variety. I have an identical trellis with Red Velvet (from Parks) which flowers dark pink in cool temps and dark, dark red when it is hot. Next year, I am after Pink Parfait - which has fully double pink flowers.
John does share in my love of plants and nature - the garden is the perfect venue for us to express and display our complimentary hobbies.
Darius - sorry about the "heavy" thread this is turning out to be with all the pics. I will break it off to a new one the next time I have to post pics. Unless, Terry or Dave see fit to split it now perhaps with the beginning of this update??
Diane
Diane...Thank you for your up-date! It is looking marvelous! What work you two have put into it!
Can't wait to see further progress! Pretty soon you will have winter to rest, like your garden does! Enjoy the rest too!
Margie
Beautiful Diane! Thank you so much for keeping us updated and letting us share in your progress!
Melissa
love mandevillas, too, diane. mine are still blooming, but it is gettig cooler here by the day...my EEs leaves are already dying. i should cook them up.
EEEK Anapet..cook them UP??? they are edible? the bulb or the leaves? all varieties?
Diane
=) many are edible and are quite yummy, bulb and leaves. the leaves are great sauteed and simmered in coconut milk (southeast asian thing). there are many recipes involving the bulbs, from soups to candies.
yours is beautiful. what kind is it?
Hi, Annapet - how interesting..
the green ones in my post last night from 7:00pm - are Alocasia macrorrhiza (upright elephant ears). I call them "UPEES" :-)
the black ones I am holding in my post from 7:02 are: Colcasia Esculenta (Black Magic Elephant Ear). I love these..they are much smaller - don't have a bulb but long thick roots and are quite hardy.
Diane
both edible varieties. when i was younger, i couldn't think of them being "ornamental". lol. your upees are quite majestic.
the colocasia esculenta leaves are better for eating, my mom says (since they are usually thinner than the upees). better somewhat wilted, too. the leaves are usually shredded into long strips or julienned and sauteed with prawns or pork in garlic, onions, ginger. then simmered in coconut milk and chilies (if you like spicy food).
in the provinces, taro leaves are used to wrap meat and fish, etc, in lieu of foil or parchment paper.
Diane,
Thanks for the info on how you overwinter your Mandevilla.
The photo of you with your Black ee is lovely..
Now you have me wanting one..I think I will look for one next season. I have only had the common green one.
Cheers,
Carol
Love your updates Dianne.......the progress is almost like a fairy tale. I am in awe of yours and John's dedication to such a huge undertaking. Your potting house plans are beautiful and will compliment the garden area and home. When all is finished, it definitely will be a sight to behold!
This is really pretty. I like the plans for the potting shed very much. I have a shed out back that is in excellent condition, so I am planning to turn that into a potting shed/office/craft room (it is a very large shed). My MIL is moving in next year, so I am planning a nice little refuge back there LOL.
I can't wait to see yours when it is finished!
Rachel
Diane , how do you overwinter your Alocasia macrorrhiza ?
TIA, shirley
Purple is sure your color, Diane. You look so great!! I am so into ears too. I just started learning about them and have already about 20. I am starting to get the huge ones now. They are calling to me. I can see them by your stone walls of your garden. What a setting!!
Annapet, no way am I eating mine. Too expensive. LOL
It is so incredible to follow the progress of your historic designation in the making - someday known thruout the land as The Krny Museum.
My favorite place to visit!
Scoot - the UPEES and actually, all the bulb EEs I overwinter this way. Just before frost hits, I cut down all the foliage (with a heavy, heavy heart) leaving only a stump about 3" above the soil. I pick up the whole pot and store it in the basement at my Father in laws next door (55 degrees and dark). I only gave them a few cups of water once or twice last year over 6 months in the basement). In the spring I took them out, removed them from the pot clearing away the old packed soil. Repotted with fresh soil, fertilizer and set them back out. Took at least 4 weeks to start sprouting, but then they go fast..
Kell - I love them too! Next year I'd love to get the Borneo Giant - the leaves can get 7ft long!
Pollygardening - it's funny you say the "Krny Museum" - Johns family came to the US about 1900 from Slovakia (then it was Czechloslovakia). In the old country, the family owned this large parcel of land way up a mountain side where they all settled and built houses as a group. At the edge of the land was a sign that read, "At Krnys" (in slovak). When we visited there 5 yrs ago we took pictures of the now open fields where there homes stood. The land where our house now sits belonged to John's grandfather and father and is where they settled once they left New York and came to Connecticut around 1920. I told John that I would like to put a slate sign at the end of our long driveway that enters the property that reads, "At Krnys" so all would know they had arrived at the old homestead in the new homeland.
Diane
What a wonderful story. I hope you get your slate sign.
It sounds perfect!
Only in 2005 with DG technology could we all be a part of this as it unfolds into a cherished homestead for generations to come.
(Remember "Little House On the Prairie"? That is loved from events in the past, but here we all have the chance to live your adventure with you!)
It is so exciting to be able to watch this work of art in progress. That garden shed LOL (looks like a guest house to me) is going to be fabulous. I can hardly wait to see it completed!
Hi Diane and everyone else reading this...wow, what a great labor of love! Thought I'd drop in to ask you your pot source...any favorite CT nurseries or garden centers for indoor or outdoor pots?
Your walled garden will be fantastic. I can see the espaliered fruit trees, flowers, personal oasis......best of luck from a fellow CT gardener....Linda
WOW Linda - I am always so excited to hear from a fellow CT gardener - especially one that wanders into or hangs out in the Brug forum - do you grow brugs? :-)
Wher is Quaker Hill?? You really ought to come on over sometime and take the live tour..LOL
hmm..source for pots...depends on your budget. I love Salem Gardens (in Salem) but they are high. I am really frugal (pronounced "cheap") when it comes to these things so I tour my local dump, go dumpster diving at local nurseries like Van Wilgens in Branford, beg to buy used pots at other nurseries or buy them on ebay. Once in a great while I will find something so unusual, I buy it outright at a garden center - but that's unusual.
Diane
Hi Diane - yes, I just started with the brugs this past summer. I've been thrilled to find out I can overwinter them in the basement. I won't need any special pots for them but I do have a Logees Ponderosa lemon that could be gussied up for the winter. And the begonias. Hoping to take pictures of my humble garden/plant world this next week while I am on vacation and post round and about DG.
Quaker Hill is a village in Waterford. Nice neighborhood. But we don't have the privacy that you have! Nice place. Yes, we are practically neighbors. You should definitely count yourselves lucky. I admire your apparent lifestyle. My DH is from Scotland and shows a lack of adventure when it comes to modifying the landscape. I am the one who can be found on the rocky beach surreptitiously loading stone into the van while the kids happily get mucked up looking for sea creatures LOL. Or I'm the crazy lady filling bags up with seaweed and transporting to my garden. I'm with you there when it comes to frugal gardening...
Did you realize Salem Country Gardens was sold to a national chain (agway or somebody)? That's sad because yes they were expensive but they had some unique stuff.
I almost see a business need here, a potential way out of the corporate world!! A huge garden design center...
Linda
I am updating this thread by starting a new one...
continue with me on my journey here:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/607499/
Diane