I was kindly reminded by Mom that my blog still shows an old post when she visits my page. I'll take that as my cue to get back to it, and a high compliment.
I dragged out the camera early this morning to see if I could get some pics with different lighting. Most everything I've shared from our new place has been taken in the evening. The experiment was successful; I found some very pleasing vistas to share.
I enjoyed tromping through the dew laden grass in my flip flops, with only the sound of a few birds singing in the background. The weather here is quite awesome, 58 degrees with very low humidity.
Now, I sit curled up in my cozy office with a mug of hot chocolate, writing this, with my little boy playing Legos behind me. It's a happy morning.
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What I enjoy about looking out on our field in the morning is that almost half of it is in shade. The large trees in the front of our property cast long shadows across it until almost 9am.
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I spent some time rearranging the front porch plants this week and I came up with some great results. This lovely houseplant is now set off by one of my favorite red pots; a TJ Maxx find.
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A copper handled bin from Home Decorators makes a great place to stash outdoor toys. The ferns have really filled out the large Ikea pots nicely.
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An old crock finds new life as adornment for a peace lily. |
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I've read lots of gardening books about the importance of framing the view. I've never felt like I had a spot where this has really occurred. Who can argue that I've got it now? The side of the porch provides a fantastic natural frame for the vista beyond. |
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Last weekend, Eric and our dads (kudos to Eric's dad for the surgical-like precision of felling the tough spots) worked on taking this partially dead tree down. Eric rented a towable boom. We had no plant casualties, since I moved the hydrangeas before-hand. That is, of course, unless you count the wildflowers. There remains a few wild asters that haven't bloomed yet. Hopefully the last ones standing will go ahead and put on a show this fall.
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And here's what's left of the tree... |
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Once we get the wood cleaned up from the tree felling job, these nice snowflake viburnums will live in that spot. They supposedly bloom all summer, on new wood, and get 6' x 6' tall. To sweeten the deal, they were $8 a piece at Lowe's. Viburnums are very drought tolerant and most have great fall foliage.
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I've had this cool outdoor iron plant stand for a while now. In the past, I've tried cocoa liners filled with annuals and had partial season success. I was staring at it this week and thinking, I could probably just set a fern in there and let it cascade out. So that's what I did.
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It's hard to see, but the blackberry lilies are doing just fine, mostly gone to seed at this point. The catmint continues to put on a few flowers here and there. The daylilies are starting to wake up from their state of transplant shock.
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Our driveway is a circle with two steep sides. Oh, and did I mention it's all gravel? Needless to say, visitors and deliveries have a hard time getting out. This is the future home of a new, fairly level, straight driveway. We've got a handful of very nice trees that need to be relocated first. I can't bear to think of losing the nice Montmorency cherry tree and the special evergreens.
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I just like this pic. Everything is nice and tidy... a looong way from where I started. |
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Discover Card sent us a packet of cosmos seeds last year to promote home loans. I found it while unpacking this spring, so Tyler and I decided to give it a whirl. These beauties bloom constantly, and the flowers start out bright orange (as shown toward the top) and fade to a bright gold color as they age. What you're seeing is only two plants. I'm collecting seeds, in hopes that it will retain the genes of this hybridized version. I'm planning to fill the entire space with them next year. And a bonus, the swallowtail butterflies love them.
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This maiden grass looks pretty happy. Mom gave me two seedlings from her massive grass in the spring.
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This is the berm next to our road. It's a good dust blocker (for gravel dust) and wind break in the spring. It has quite a few open spots, so Eric suggested filling them with grasses. I thought it was a great idea, so I implemented the suggestion last weekend, adding 8 grasses of 3 varieties.
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My heron is still happy to call this spot home. His feet are now covered by Creeping Jenny, which I have been babying and weeding constantly over the summer. It's paid off. The knockout rose is starting an umpteenth flush of blooms, while the crape myrtle continues to celebrate August.
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This is a sedum I found peeking out of the mulch in the early spring. It was choking with weeds and I used tweezer type precision to get them out, without taking this out with them. I could tell it was going to be a really interesting sedum. Its round, blue foliage against the hot pink flowers makes you want to sit on the step and stare at it.
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We have three crape myrtles in the back of our house. They were overgrown, rubbing the siding, and spilling out into the walkway. A trip to Wine Country Gardens reminded me of the pruning techniques often used on these to give them a tree-like appearance. In the south, this is common, because they don't die back to the ground each year like they often do in this area. These get winter protection from our house, so I don't think they'll ever die back. I'm really pleased with my pruning efforts, and this also gives the little dark pink crape in the front of the photo some room to spread out.
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It's harvest time! My little stick of a fig will produce several handfuls of figs before the end of the season.
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The front garden is looking quite nice. Remember back in the spring, this was a big blank empty space. I'm sort of sad that it's filled up so fast. I want to keep planting! I do have plans for the little niche on the left of the photo. There is a shrub, some Japanese ferns, and a few clumps of Sum & Substance hostas that they left behind. I'm envisioning something a little more formal and edged with a tree in the middle. More to come.
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Another nicely framed view. |