Posts Tagged ‘Yard’

Periwinkle in Our Yard

April 4, 2009

periwinkle09033001

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that our house is on the side of a hill with a lot of trees around.  And although there are lots of advantages to such a location there are also some disadvantages.  Two of the disadvantages are erosion and places where grass won’t grow.  In our case the two places often coincide, especially in the back and on the uphill side of the yard.

But three or four years ago we hit upon a solution to some of our problems.  The lot below ours is vacant and we noticed a lot of periwinkle growing in it.  So we transplanted some into one  of our problem areas.

It’s been slow, but the picture above shows how things looked earlier this week.  The periwinkle has spread to cover the area where the grass wouldn’t grow and to at least cover an area of erosion.

The pretty blue flowers of the periwinkle are a sign that spring has arrived.  And since it’s spreading I have a little less lawn to mow.  And believe me, at my age every little bit of hillside yard that doesn’t need to be mowed is an advantage!

periwinkle09033102We have several small areas of periwinkle that we are encouraging to spread.  In the meantime we enjoy the beauty they provide.

The picture at the right is a close up of the flowers of our periwinkle.

It Looks Like Spring

April 2, 2009

2009-garden

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day here on the Plateau.  After doing our weekly grocery shopping in the morning, both Betsy and I worked out in the yard during the afternoon.

It really is beginning to look and feel like Spring around the house.  It was almost too warm for a long-sleeved shirt.  The grass is now almost completely green (and needs mowing!), tulip buds are starting to show some color, and the roses are showing new growth.

But the stars of the yard yesterday were the daffodils.  We have several different varieties in bloom.  The collage above (which can be enlarged for better viewing) shows the daffodils we currently have in bloom.

Isn’t spring wonderful?

Thoughts of Spring

February 5, 2009
Rio Samba rose in our garden.

Rio Samba rose in our garden.

Betsy and I woke up Wednesday morning to snow and 13° temperatures.  As if that wasn’t bad enough I had to carry wood from the wood pile to the garage since we’ve been going through the wood so fast.

I’m happy to say that we both made it through the day, but I did get to thinking about Spring.  Warm weather . . . green grass . . . flowers!

When we think of flowers Betsy and I most often think of roses.  We’re both a little nuts when it comes to roses — we like them and are always looking for ways to fit just one more rose into our garden.

There are two main attributes of the roses we grow — fragrance and color.  Sometimes we can get both attributes in a single rose such as Double Delight.  At other times we have to settle for one attribute or the other.

Betsy tends to like red roses with large blossoms — Mister Lincoln and Veterans Honor are two of her favorites.  I tend to have many different ‘favorites’ — on any given day my favorite is the rose with the buds that just opened.

The rose above is Rio Samba.  It’s not very fragrant, but it does has some beautiful color.  We added this rose to our garden in 2006, and I can hardly wait to see it again in 2009.

The Roses Have Been Put to Bed

November 29, 2008
Sweet Freedom Rose, 2008.

Sweet Freedom Rose, 2008.

Today I finished putting the roses to bed for the winter.  We’ve had enough cold weather that they’ve gone dormant and I covered them to help them get through the winter.

To say that I cover the roses is not completely accurate.  What I do is mound compost over the crowns to keep them from freezing.  I have a compost pile on the edge of the rough behind our house to which I add grass clippings, leaves, and other organic material.

I know it’s just my imagination, but the days seem more dreary once the roses have been pruned and covered.  I guess that means that winter is almost here.

But hopefully when spring returns the roses will green up and start growing again.  I posted the rose above as a reminder that spring will return.  That rose is Sweet Freedom, a new rose for us in 2008.

The Easy Way to Pick Up Leaves

November 25, 2008
Picking up leaves on Druid Hills golf course.  November 24, 2008.

Picking up leaves on Druid Hills golf course. November 24, 2008.

Last week I mentioned a couple of times that Betsy and I were working hard to get the leaves out of our yard.  We really wanted to get the yard cleared before the weekend, but we didn’t quite make it.  We were, however, able to finish up Saturday and Sunday.

It turned out we got everything done in time.  It rained here in the Glade yesterday (Monday), but we were surprised to hear the noise of equipment getting louder and louder.  At first we thought it was something coming up the hill in front of the house, but when I looked the road was empty.  I then looked out back and saw the two tractors pictured above.

In spite of the rain the maintenance department was out picking up leaves from the golf course.  (I guess that made sense since there weren’t any golfers!)  And what we appreciated the most is that they picked up the leaves in the rough between our back yard and the fairway.  And since that is where we put many of the leaves from our yard, we were delighted.

I hasten to add that we aren’t being given special favors.  Having leaves we put in the rough picked up is a ‘perk’ of having a golf course home.  And we sure do appreciate that ‘perk’.  If only I could get them to come to the front of our house with their equipment!

Our Last Roses

November 9, 2008
Glowing Peace and Double Delight Roses.  November 7, 2008.

Glowing Peace and Double Delight Roses. November 7, 2008.

As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve had a cold front move through our area with temperatures down around freezing.  On Friday I brought in what will probably be our last roses of the season, which are shown in the picture above.  The rose on the left is called Glowing Peace, while the rose on the right is my personal favorite, Double Delight.

I think our roses did pretty well this year.  I’m still working on getting the rose beds fixed up properly, but we did have 33 different varieties bloom this year.

We had our first rose bloom on May 9 and that rose was, interestingly enough, Double Delight!  So I guess you could say that Double Delight began and ended our roses this year.  Since it is as fragrant as it is beautiful, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate beginning and ending for the roses this year.

If you would like to see all 33 varieties we had this year, click HERE.

Another Iris in Bloom

November 8, 2008
Flower Show Iris, Fairfield Glade, November 3, 2008.

Flower Show Iris, Fairfield Glade, November 3, 2008.

Will the iris above be the last we have to bloom this year?  This iris burst into bloom a couple of days ago, giving us some much-appreciated color in an otherwise drab flower garden.

There are a couple more iris flower stalks showing, but I’m not sure they will have a chance to bloom before they get nipped by frost.  A cold front moved through yesterday and lows are predicted to be near or at the freezing level for the next few days.  Lows like that are great for enjoying a roaring fire in the fireplace, but not for blooming flowers.

We were especially glad to see Floor Show bloom because it didn’t bloom this spring.  I guess it thought we would enjoy it more in the fall!

That’s Close Enough

November 3, 2008
A deer behind our house.  October 28, 2008.

A deer behind our house. October 28, 2008.

Betsy and I really like our home here in the Glade (as I’m sure you can tell).  We think it’s just perfect for us and we’ve done quite a bit of landscaping.

But there are some disadvantages to living in a wildlife preserve.  One of those disadvantages is shown in the picture above.  Deer love to wander — and eat!!!  Several years ago we realized we had a problem when we came back from a trip and found the flowers of all our lilies in a small bed in the front yard eaten away.  Once we started growing roses we quickly found that roses are a favored snack for deer.

Fences aren’t permitted in the Glade, so we had to find a way to keep the deer from eating flowers faster than they could grow.  Fortunately a friend told us about a product called Liquid Fence.  Liquid Fence stinks to high heaven, but it keeps  the deer away — most of the time.  We spray it at regular intervals and  it does a pretty good job of keeping the deer away.

We still enjoy seeing deer on the golf course or across the street.  Anyplace but our yard!!!

Autumn Has Arrived!

November 2, 2008
Fairfield Glade, Tennessee.  November 1, 2008.

Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. November 1, 2008.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that because of the drought we don’t have as much color this autumn as we’ve had in the past.  Many leaves simply went from green to dull brown.

We still are suffering from the drought, but we had a little rain last week and we’ve had cooler weather for the past week or so.  As a result, we’re finally starting to see some good autumn color.

The picture above was taken yesterday in our front yard.  Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day with a gorgeous blue sky.  We certainly live in a beautiful part of the country.  Stop by and enjoy it with us!

A Perfect Autumn Day

October 19, 2008
Our first fire of the season.  October 17, 2008.

Our first fire of the season. October 17, 2008.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous autumn day.  It started with our usual Saturday omelets, which we were able to enjoy in front of a fire in the fireplace.  The temperature has finally dropped and we had a fire Friday night (when the picture above was taken) and another Saturday morning.

Later in the morning I went out to work in the yard.  There was a slight breeze blowing and when I was in one part of the yard I could smell the wood smoke, but in another part I could smell the roses.  A day can’t get much better than that.

I was able to get some tulips planted in our big flower bed on the side of the house and even got some of our new wood stacked.  All in all it was a wonderful day.