The Grass is Brown

Happy Independence Day

Antonio — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:27:50 +0000

Foto Phriday

Antonio — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:53:24 +0000

Usually my roadside orange daylilies (you know … the variety that’s more weed than flower) bloom in July. The daylilies on the west side of the house are still sending up their budded stalks, while the patch tucked under the air conditioner are beginning to put on quite a show.

They’re tucked in a corner that doesn’t particularly get the best sun, but they’re doing their thing (and in a more saturated orange than I remember from previous years). Perhaps they are jealous of all of the roses…

Foto Phriday

Antonio — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:31:30 +0000

Roses are one of those things that I can’t get tired of seeing. And this is a good thing, because aside from the clematis that are dropping their petals, the roses are the only thing in the garden that are blooming.

Scentimental Rain

It rained last night, which left everything all photogenic this morning. Scentimental, one of my new purchases this year, has just started to bloom, so this is her debut. She’s one of those roses that I saw last year on my shopping list (also known as Dirt Therapy).

Deux Roses: Christopher Marlowe and Rose Campion

I just love this one, the mix of colors and textures is amazing! The grays and greens just make the unusual salmon color of Christopher Marlowe pop!

Foto Phriday: The Rose Parade

Antonio — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:33:37 +0000

Ideally, for Foto Phriday I’d like to post just one picture. But the problem with this week’s photos is that the roses are starting to bloom, sending out their scentinels who are checking to see if it’s safe for the rest of the bush to bloom.

William Shakespeare, AUSRoyal

Crown Princess Margareta, AUSwinter

Angel Face

Don Juan

Worth the wait

Antonio — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:48:11 +0000

Last year, I purchased a sickly looking rose seedling. Or at least I thought it was sickly looking; after all, what do I know from rose seedlings? I planted it, prayed, cried, crossed my fingers, and saw it make a few horrid little blooms and then put on a significant amount of growth at the end of the season.

I present to you William Shakespeare! This one was definitely worth the wait, and it’s also the first of my roses to bloom…well, the first front-facing bloom at least. And to think, all the nasty things I called him last year…

I thought I killed you!

Antonio — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:01:16 +0000

It’s a blah blah morning here in my Zone 6 garden. Nevertheless, despite the chill and overcast skies, the garden is still developing.

I was out this morning taking photos of the rose buds which have started to swell with color. So far, Double Knockout is the only rose that has a bloom on it. Not as wonderful as one would expect, as it’s on the back side of the rose up against the fence and inches above the soil. I tried to seduce the other roses into blooming on their front or top sides, with the promise of more care and attention…so we’ll see what happens with this.

Meanwhile, I was taking pictures of my neighbors weigela when my nose was attacked by a particularly delightful scent.

This is a specimen growing in the way-back. The way-back used to be a vegetable garden, and if everything goes according to plan it will become one again this year. But it gets very weedy and very fast, so I usually stay on top of mowing and spraying it. Last year I sprayed everything early. The previous year, I sprayed everything early as well. So imagine my shock when I see a honeysuckle bush in partial bloom after two years of regular spraying with weed-b-gone.

Honeysuckle is one of those things that brings back so many childhood memories, and one of those things that I was determined to sneak into the garden this year. Joe is adamantly opposed to the idea of honeysuckle in my garden. One of the more rampant varieties of lonicera was growing up around the lilacs and he’s still traumatized by the work involved in eradicating it.

But it’s my garden. He objected to the idea of expanding the beds into the pool area. I did it anyway, and by the time he noticed there was less space for grass he had already fell in love with the outcome. He objected to me minimizing the mowable space in the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ – an area where, if left to it’s own devices, one can lose a rather large toddler or small adult. But he loved the spread out look of the hedge of day lilies lining the driveway.

Now, all I have to do is take some pruning sheers to the honeysuckle to cut away some of the dead branches that succumbed to the assault by weed-b-gone. And then I’ll work on acquiring some honeysuckle to line the other ugly chain link fence. This’ll be our little secret.

Foto Phriday

Antonio — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:52:33 +0000

I was strolling around the expanse of suburbia that I call my neighborhood with camera in tow. There’s one street that I find myself going down often – as it’s one of the less trafficy sidewalk-less streets. I know that there’s a huge rose thicket at the house on the corner of this block. I know that there’s a house with a row of peonies. I know that there’s another house with a beautiful Japanese Maple, as well as many houses with tons of azaleas. But I didn’t expect the viburnum.

It’s the smell of spring! Followed by the lilacs, the magnolias, daffodils and hyacinths there is the heady, almost overwhelmingly intoxicating fragrance of the viburnum.

Color Implosion

Antonio — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:27:36 +0000

Yesterday, while I was at work, some great things happened in the garden.

My bearded iris, the one I call Ruth’s Purple, bloomed. Last year, she did her thing rather later than she should have…a month behind schedule.

This year, she not only bloomed on schedule with other irises in the area, but instead of just one I’ve got four other irises that are sporting swelling buds. In addition to three more of Ruth’s Purples, I’ve got another iris that I rescued from my partner’s parents house. It was last October after his mother’s funeral and we stopped at the house in Long Island before heading to the apartment in the city for shiva. In the front of the house there is a patch of irises and one of them had become dislodged from the rest and was sitting on the cement path. I quickly picked it up and put it in a bag to try and rescue it. Despite not doing anything last year except turn brown, and spending most of the spring looking dormant, this one tuber has a bud on it that’s trying to put on a show. So I’m waiting to see what color it wants to be before I give it a name.

Additionally, Snow Queen is crowning the fence with two of her buds.

Even with a pretty decent camera, the flower is a little bit difficult to photograph on a cloudy day. The petals are nicely textured and veined, coursing through with various shades of white to a pale lavender.

In this photo a loyal subject has come to court. From what I’ve been told, in the past clematises have never done too well here. Snow Queen and the other clematises seem to be doing surprisingly well. Belle of Woking looks a little sparse, which was one of the clematises that seemed to die on the vine last year (as did Ville de Lyon). But Ville de Lyon, Fireworks, and Snow Queen look like they are going to put on nice shows this year. I almost feel bad for so hastily spade pruning Jackmanii and that other clematis whose name I can’t remember.

It’s like that game show

Antonio — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:30:46 +0000

Over the weekend I purchased, assembled, and started using a tumbling composter. I had an old trash can that I was formerly using to compost stuff. It was well worn and scraped at the bottom, which was probably providing decent oxygen in the beginning. But it was difficult to turn the compost and it seemed that nothing really got cooking. I’ve also got two cages of leaf debris made from ‘turkey wire’ – which is like chicken wire, but bigger – that I’d like to get all composted before the autumn leaf harvest.

Assembling the composter was the easy part. I had most of the tools required, except for the 3/4″ socket for the ratcheting wrench and the second adult (who was still sleeping at 7am on Saturday). I had my iPhone blasting Strauss’ Capriccio in my ear and was quite surprised that the overture was starting again as I was finishing up the assembly process. But it was all done, except for the part that involved the 3/4″ socket.

It wasn’t until Sunday evening, after getting home from work, that I finally tightened the final bolts with an improvised 3/4″ using something that fit and something else that also fit. I dumped the leaf debris and compostables from the trash can into the composter and gave it a spin. I felt like I should have been standing next to Drew Carey or Bob Barker, but instead of spinning for the closest to a dollar without going over, I was tumbling for black gold.

I’m a little new to composting, so I felt the need to do a little research. It’s complicated! Measuring so many parts this to so many parts of that is a lot of math for my feeble little brain. I’ve got leaf debris, egg shells, and spent coffee grinds, as well as various kitchen compostables, assorted non-weedy yard debris, and shredded paper. I added grass clippings to the mix yesterday for the first time, as well as some potting soil one of last years planters.

Now, it’s time for me to just cross my fingers and continue tumbling for no whammies! But the whammies were on a different game show, I think…

Foto Friday

Antonio — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:17:18 +0000

It rained almost non-stop since Sunday … nevermind that my garden is all greens and buds. But yesterday, it let up just enough for me to get this photo in.

three Snow Queen clematis buds

And then, whilst packing my camera bag to take some pictures at the Temple Ambler Campus gardens, I heard a clap of thunder followed by a mini-storm. Maybe I’ll get out with the camera today…