Sunday, May 29, 2011

Before the Rains Came

The holiday weekend enabled me to get the gardens in before the rains came. This bed, one of five in the back yard, was made more colourful by adding the mum Marie bought me when I separated last fall, a new rose bush (Grenada), and some yellow and cream marigolds. The bush in the centre was thought to be a standard lilac, but turns out it is a standard hydrangea (no wonder it isn't blooming yet)! The chrysanthemum will bloom about the same colour as the ground phlox in the background.




The front gardens were planted on Monday. This one is the west curb bed, with the entryway bed showing in the background. Already blessed with sedum, echinacea, coral bells and this very cool tree 'sculpture', I added a buttercream daisy, a red geranium (behind tree part), some orange asiatic lilies and some gold day lilies, and a pretty gold mum (on the right.) The shade on this garden is courtesy the flowering crab apple tree that belongs to the city.


Speaking of the flowering crab, a few of its branches can be seen at the top of the photo below.

This is the east curb bed which came equipped with a Lady's Mantle, Liatrus, rambling rose (all on right), some echinacea, ground phlox, a toad house, and sedum. Last weekend's additions are the hosta at the front left, flanked by two harvest moon echinaceas, a gold day lily, and a red geranium (fleck of red in top corner).

I'm learning that at this age, four hours of gardening requires a nap of some sort afterwards. That really cuts into the knitting time!

Speaking of knitting, I now have a shrug and a ruffled scarf off the needles. The former needs blocking yet, and the latter just needs two ends woven in. This week I'll be working on knitting samples for the upcoming article in the Fall 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread.

And, speaking of A Needle Pulling Thread, the summer issue went to the printer's last week, and will be in the mail by the middle of June -- hopefully by then we'll be having sunnier days and be able to enjoy reading it on the back deck in a chaise longue with a cool drink on the side!

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