Showing posts with label gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardens. Show all posts

Friday, June 17, 2011

Rooftop Pot Garden

Quote of the Day:  The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. --Ernest Hemingway (from bro-in-law KC)



I am not much of a gardener.  My mom has a garden the size of a small field.  I must have had my fill of gardening, weeding, and canning, growing up on the farm, so I use pots to grow my tomatoes, peppers, and flowers.


My bro-in-law KC has a rooftop pot garden.  I've invited him to write a guest post.



My sister-in-law, Mary, has asked me to write a little this week about my pot garden, where I don't grow pot mostly because it is illegal, but also because I entered college later in life.



The problem with writing about my non-pot pot garden where I don't grow pot for my sister-in-law, Mary, is I don't consider it a pot garden at all, but a bucket garden.


Pot, to me, sounds far too dainty and ephemeral in either usage: the curved lines of a decorative container or the curled wisps of smoke and patchouli rising from someone's confusion. A bucket is more substantial, the workhorse of the container world. It's more straight-forward. A bucket is something you can sing to Liza about, even if she's just going to tell you to fix it.


So anyway, I think you could probably grow weed in a bucket just as well as a pot, provided you knock some holes in it for drainage, but I only think that because weeds seem to grow anywhere and everywhere you let them, at least in my experience.


I, however, don't recommend letting a weed grow. Instead, make a bucket list. Mine includes radishes, carrots, white and yellow onions, beets, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, and various spices, not including pot.


Three varieties of tomatoes:
Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil.



Inventive use for wheelbarrows, minus the wheels.



The Radish



And, a little weed.

Journaling Prompt:  How does your garden grow?




Saturday, July 3, 2010

A New Look

Quote of the Day:  Philippians 4:8 (The Message)
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.



The Rose Gardens in Portland, OR give pleasure to all the senses.
 

They inspire creativity and offer moments of rest and peace, a place to breathe in beauty.


In the Shakespeare Garden, the woman in the background has her easel set up and is capturing this sight.



 
Walk slowly, breathe deeply, inhale the beauty all around you. It is our glimpse of Heaven.



Journaling Prompt: Describe something (or someone) beautiful in your life.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Bloomin' Tuesday!

Today is Bloomin' Tuesday and I have a two part blog that I will share half this week and then half next week. I had the pleasure of visiting the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, CO last week and I was in HEAVEN. If you haven't had a chance to go visit the mountains in the summer, please do so! The wildflowers were in abundance, the weather perfect and the gardens were divine! Here are just a few shots that I took of the Alpine Gardens. Thanks to Jean for providing a chance to share some amazing flower pics! Go to Jean's site to check out what's blooming across the world.
















Next week are some shots that I took at 10,500 ft up on Vail Pass!

Monday, July 27, 2009

The return

Brian and I returned from vacation on Friday, and yesterday I had major clean-up in my gardens. It looked like a jungle due to the heavy winds and rain we received the previous week! My hollyhocks were sideways, my russian sage had split down the middle and were lying flat. Time to get the twine and pray! This is the year where I had to see how everything grew together, and next spring is the year to fix everything. I know there are a lot of people that do dividing in the fall, but I've never had a lot of luck with that here in Colorado. I'm not sure if it's because I wait too long and then the roots don't have enough time to establish or what, but a lot of things die over the winter time. Color combinations and size of plants are the main obstacles right now. I planted some crazy daisies and some daylillies right by my sidewalk walkway and everything was too huge to walk through. I had no idea the crazy daisies would flop as much as they have and have to move them pronto. They flopped so much I just cut them down and didn't even get to enjoy the flowers!

Moving on to my veggie garden...I have little grape tomatoes EVERWHERE, and I have to restake all of my tomatoes because they have outgrown what I previously had. I have peppers that are very close to harvesting, and saw our first cukes and beans coming along strong. FINALLY the heat has come through and things are growing with gusto.

My backyard is missing summer color so I will be dividing like crazy and bringing new color to it next spring. It's hard to know for sure what will bloom because when you buy things new, they don't necessarily bloom the same time the first year. I have two types of hibiscus that should be blooming now but haven't yet...and my Limelight Hydrangea is about to pop. Other than some daisies, foxglove and columbine blooming, that's the only color besides green that I really have in the back.

All of my trees are doing very well. I was surprised they don't have any signs of stress from the heat. This week should be a bit cooler to give them a much needed break.

All in all, it's been a pretty successful summer in my gardens. I have one side trained to only need water once a week, which is great. If I could stop planting on the other side, I could get that down to twice a week waterings, I think. Saving water is the plan...

Monday, May 18, 2009

Browsing my gardens


My baby, Emerald Arrow Bosnian Pine. To the left is the Emerald Carousel, to the right is the Autumn Magic Chokeberry.

Side border with my forsythia that I had to cut way down...hardy glads, tulips, Karl Rosenfield paeonia, and Coppertina Ninebark

Various iris that I dug up from my mother-in-laws home and that Lisa from my work gave me.

May Night salvia, Centranthus Ruber or Jupiter's Beard

My two veggie gardens just built along with major cleanup that needs to happen. Yikes! The barrel is for my raspberries...

I love sticking pots in my gardens until they get the height they will be in several years...

One of the many containers I potted up. I just LOVE this ruby red geranium!

Claire de Lune clematis. I really need to find a spot for this. It is just breathtaking.

My front garden...year three. The huge bush is actually a mock orange. I've never seen one this big. This is the first year we haven't cut it down. We're hoping for the citrus-smelling flowers in June. I think you have to actually click on the pic to see it!

Other front garden, year two.

Malva Zebrina. I came back this evening to take more pictures and something is eating it all up! :(

This is one of my favorite views. I'm in love with aspens. Thank goodness I live in Colorado!

A random purple iris. I love it that I never know what will show up each year!

Pasque flower, gone to seed. I can't decide if I love this plant with the flowers, or this way.

My first attempt at a "Steppable". It's quite taller than I thought. I can't get myself to step on it...

Linum perenne or Blue flax. My hubby's favorite!! It reseeds nicely and is quite manageable. The truest blue I can find.

Closeup of yellow iris. I'm addicted to these flowers. So graceful and elegant.

Queen of the Night tulip. I hated to see the blooms fall. I can't wait until this beauty multiplies. I received the bulbs in the mail too late in the fall and wasn't able to plant all of them.

This is a new one!

Just had someone stop by and say, "I always thought the person that lived here was old...they're the only people that have enough time to keep a garden looking this pretty!"

Um. Yeah. I guess I understand the sentiment, although I think when I'm "old" this might offend me... didn't know "old" people had so much time on their hands!!

I swear to post pics today...