Thursday, May 13, 2010

HOME AND GARDEN


The end of the school year is winding up.  Tonight was the spring concert.  We used to have a Christmas concert and an Easter concert.  Now we are wayyy tooo politically correct.  No, I did not go see the kiddos.  I have seen so many of the darned things that I know the words by heart to every song… and the halls have echoed with them all week long.  I am such a humbug.

 
But its also time for me to detach emotionally.  I have been here 16 freaking years!  Most of the staff that I befriended have retired and gone on before me.  This was not a year that I enjoyed because of the budget cuts and changes to my schedule.  I made the best of it of course.  I take pride in what I do there.  But it is time for a change and I am eager to be gone.  I have decided… yes, C4C… I remember your warning about closure… to skip the pot luck at the end of the last day of school.  I would much rather leave with short personal good-byes, than stand up and give a speech that I would botch and blubber through.  I know… grow up!  Sorry, I’m in my second childhood now.  As Pop-eye says “I yam what I yam!”  Besides, I am out of there mentally!



I did have a rare treat today.  Out of the blue, one of my old co-workers called and asked to meet me for ice tea.  Cool beans.  Last week her husband subbed at my school… so naturally she had heard that I was leaving and needed to hear all the dirt!  We were hyper active talkers, but we had a great time… chatting like mad until we both had to pee and run off to our homes.  It was great to see her and surprise… she comes to Springfield once a month, so we are getting together there as soon as I move down.  How great is that?


Hard to believe that it is Thursday already, but here I am preparing to drive back down to my home again.  That’s it up there.  These are my “before” photos for you.  You can see the yard is in trouble.  I have been busy clearing dead wood out of the Japanese maples, fighting the weeds and even tore out a sickly tree by kicking it down.  Yeah, it was time for that one to go away.


  I have a general plan, but not a detailed one.  That brown stuff is not dead dirt, but bark chips that have weed fabric under them that has degraded... hence the rash of weeds.  The leafy things in the top photo are day lilies... I love day lilies.  I imagine they are the orange ones that grow everywhere here.  The other green stuff is vinca... or what I have always called periwinkle.  Not much color here... and I love hot colors.

Suggestions are more than welcome.  I know that I will put in black-eyed susies, shasta daisies and there has to be petunia and nicotina wherever I live.  All but one small purple rhodie will get the ax... I do not like them.  They are too messy for too little show. I want to put in a varigated dog wood tree too called wolf eyes.  But I want color... what do you like that is colorful?


20 comments:

  1. It the weather permits up there you can't go wrong with zinnias. Snubbed by most gardeners but reliable and color galore. When everything else fails in my garden, the zinnias pull through.
    Salvia. Red salvia.
    Mexican lavendar.
    Have fun.

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  2. Peggy-- Great suggestions. I remember Zinneas in the berg! I'll give them a try.

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  3. Hmm... I don't know color like you want I don't think. I'll think. Perennials or annuals?

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  4. Personally, I like tough plants that can take a little neglect. I'm in zone 6 - though a tough winter will make a mockery of that. Looks like you may be also? I like purples and oranges. I have a nice little patch of iris, the ubiquitous day-lily, pink roses, lilacs, some lily of the valley... not showy but smells wonderful in bloom, hostas and yuccas as fillers.

    One thing I would like to add is some butterfly bush. And maybe some hydrangeas, with plenty of aluminum sulfate to get them blue - I bet they'd do well for you with all the rain out there.

    And , for my money, I think it's hard to go wrong with rosebushes. Especially the little "sweetheart" ones.

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  5. p.s. - I stayed at a rental cottage where the owner had planted herbs among the flagstones on the patio, so you'd be walking along and- crunch- a nice whiff of oregano or something. I thought that was a pretty creative idea. Maybe something I'll try when the kids are bigger?

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  6. Pamela-- I prefer perennials because they often self-weed, but then some of the hottest colors are annuals. It will have to be both I'm afraid.

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  7. Cricket-- My last real house had all of those. Funny. I had not thought about hostas. A yucca would be wonderful too. They get nice and large.

    Randy has requested an herb garden and I promised to provide those herbs he likes to cook with for him. I like the path idea. I've also thought about a strawberry pot herb thing or even a little mini garden for the herbs. Still playing with that in my head. Ha.

    I bet your yard is lovely.

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  8. Animals and children love me, but plants hate me. I think they fear my black thumbs... yes, I have two of them, both bad.

    I'm afraid to give you advice just in case the plants talk to eachother which I suspect they do when humans aren't watching ;-)

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  9. Is it mostly sun? I love Gerbera daisies and snap dragons and Cone flowers and every kind of lily. I'm planting peonies in my partial shaded areas too. I love them,

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  10. Cube-- Hahaha... house plants feel that way about me, but outdoor plants love me!

    I think the problem with house plants is that I am short... and I forget to look up. The hanging plants just sort of vanish. Out of sight out of mind.

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  11. Churlita-- The house shadow falls across a fourth of the front yard in the afternoon. The portion closest to the road is shaded by a giant cherry tree and a huge something or other. So the mid yard has full sun all day, the others partial shade and the entire back yard is all sun all day.

    I will have to plant snap dragons... Squeaky used to wait for his to come up every year. Thanks for the reminder! Gerbas are wonderful too. Thanks.

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  12. Churlita-- My only problem with peonies is that they attract ants. I love the flowers, but we don't want ants if we can avoid them. I suppose away from the patio it would not be so bad. Hummmmm....

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  13. I am not at all garden-y, so I am lacking in advice. See, I look at that yard and just think - oh, how nice! haha! I can't help it. I'm just a philistine.

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  14. How neat that you'll have a friend visiting every month.

    Purple salvia and dianthus are both perennials with great color. Mexican primrose, too, and the stuff is super-hardy. In shade, impatiens are a nice annual to give you long-lasting vivid color. Petunias are another annual with good color, and more sun-tolerant.

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  15. laura b.-- I found out about 11 years back that gardening was the best stress reducer for me. I have missed it since I moved into the box on rocks and I am absolutely overjoyed to regain it. But I understand... we all have our individual escapes.

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  16. secret agent woman-- I like the hot pink wave petunias. I knew you would have wonderful suggestions! I will likely use those all.

    Yesterday T brought me a box of 57 blubs! Gladiolus, orcid glads, freesia, and liatris spcata.
    I love variety and as many diverse colors as I can fit in.

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  17. I would have never known that you would fix up a yard being as I saw your yard when I was there and it was a mess.

    Maybe you'll get over it, but it doesn't sound like he will care anyway.

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  18. Billy B.-- You were there so briefly that I am surprised you can recall it at all.

    No, I put no effort into my space at the mobile home park other than to keep the lawn mowed and potted plants out front. Anything you plant becomes the property of the park. I am not giving the owner free landscaping.

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  19. I wish I had some gardening suggestions for you Ananda girl, but me and Mrs. Shife are notorious plant killers so we hired someone to do the work for us and so far we have managed to keep most of them alive. Continued good luck with getting ready for the move, and I don't blame you about skipping the potluck. Your plan sounds good and I would stick with it. Take care.

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  20. Shife-- Ha! There seem to be a number of plant killers out there. A landscaper would be wonderful. But I truly do enjoy the work.

    I think I'm going to make it to the move, but every trip back to Dumb Potter's Hell gets harder to force myself to take. Oh well. Obligations come first.

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