Recuperating

It has been far too long since I last visited this space, and I miss it! We have survived the worst winter of our lives, and I think we are just now recuperating from it.

Around here lately

I have been horrendous at keeping this blog up to date. And then I sat down this evening and started to think about it, what a great diary it has been in terms of remembering when we did what in the yard, when we did what to the house, and so forth. So I have a bit of catching up to do for 2014.

Let's start here.

Three years later, purple iris.

I purchased these iris bulbs the year we moved in, and they were supposed to be sky blue. Two years went by and I had lovely leaves on them, but no buds. They were evidently saving their energy up for this year, because these suckers just took off. 

Not exactly sky blue, but lovely anyway.

Gorgeousness, right?

They were just breathtaking. Which is good, because someone (we all know who) ate my delphiniums down to nothing this year, with the exception of one stalk that managed to hide in the iris. And my roses aren't happy this year at all. I have to move that autumn clematis out of there and give everyone some space. That plant has taken over!

Another new addition to the other side of the fence is a new herb garden. 

I've got some lavender, lemonbalm, anise, oregano, cardinal flowers (which are doing diddly squat for me) and some basill in there. Maybe something else too, but I forget now. I need to make some nice markers to stick in there so I can remember what everything is called.

And in the front of the house along the driveway, I hauled out a bunch of dead grass and places that are just determined to be dirt to add in a new perennial garden.

Not the best photo of it, but I will work on others. It took me an entire day to do this, and I seriously tuckered myself out. But I've got a good variety of stuff in there and it makes me incredibly happy. There's portulaca (one of my favorite words), daisies, brown-eyed Susans, a couple kinds of sedums, lupine, sage, butterfly weed, chocolate clover, hopefully some poppies and hollyhocks that will do something next year, and some other stuff. Oh, a rosebush. That one isn't happy either. Not a good year for my roses for some reason! Josh picked up some rose food/disease ridder for me and I need to spray them all with it. Maybe that will appease the masses.

Autumn clematis, or snowflakes in September

A friend gave my Mum three autumn clematis, and mum passed one on to me. That was last year, and frankly, I didn't think it would do much. It was a tiny plant at the time... I guess 2013 was meant to be its power year! 

It has lovely little white flowers that remind me of snowflakes. This is the only kind of snow I am comfortable with in September. We already have a frost warning for tonight - I'm not thrilled. Am also not thrilled about the dead bumblebees I just found in the back yard. They did town wide mosquito spraying last night, and though I called to ask that they leave our area alone, it looks like there are still casualties. I can only imagine what we all got to inhale last night while we slept. 

Dreamy bouquet

I got these peonies and old orange blossoms from my aunt and uncle's garden - they are just amazing. A short post today, but I just wanted to share pics anyway. Beautiful flower clouds.

Memorial Day

I'm not sure that this post can seem like it's anything other than morbid. But it's not morbid to me. It's really related to gardening, in kind of a philosophical way.

When I was growing up, my Gram made it her duty at Memorial Day to put flowers on all of our family graves. (Granted, you should probably just be focusing on the graves of the veterans in your family, but always practical, she figured we'd just do them all and get it done.)

That tradition sort of faded away when Gram passed, which is unfortunate. To be honest, Memorial Day tends to surprise me every year. "Wait, what? It's here already? Didn't we just do Easter?"

For some reason, this year I was prepared. I have been thinking about loss lately. And about traditions. And why traditions can make loss a little bit easier.

So I informed my parents that I wanted to do flowers at the cemetery again this year. Armed with our best geraniums, we set out to find the family graves.

Now this is the part where you're going to say I'm morbid -- yes, I did take photos of the graves. I had two reasons for doing this: 1) I wanted to write about them. 2) I am considering posting them on ancestry.com for people who are looking to trace their family roots, etc. That kind of stuff can be helpful when you are from a family of immigrant Swedes!

I am also irritated with the quality of these pics. My iPad did not serve me well here.

We stopped to put a geranium on the grave of my great-aunt Winnifred's parents (Winnifred married Eskiel, my grandfather's brother.) Then we moved on to the graves of my great-grandparents and great aunt, followed by the grave of a family friend.


Great Aunt Ella, and my great-grandparents, John & Frederika Willamina (who I am sort of named for in a round-about way.)

 We then made our way over to our main family section, where I was working away at uncovering Uncle Charlie's stone that gets eaten up by grass every year. We also put a geranium on my great-uncle Alec's grave (along with his wife, Eleanor), and he was also a vet. (WWI, I think?)


Uncle Charlie, who is the main character in several colorful family stories. Also a veteran from WWII.

 And finally, I worked on my grandparent's grave, which was over run by weeds and leaves. (My uncle Ken, great-grandmother Nellie, great-aunt Fran and great-uncle Lynn are also buried here.) I replaced the weeds with geraniums and two dahlias, one orange and one yellow. I need to come back down and do some more stuff -- the other side could use some attention. Also, the bushes on either side of the stone absolutely have to be removed. We're thinking of replacing them with azaleas.


Ethel, John, Ken, Nellie, Fran & Lynnwood

 It was a long morning and a bit labor intense at times, but it felt good. It was a connection to family, both here and gone. And if you can create that through gardening, then all the better!

A new tactic

I'm trying a new tactic against you-know-who. And I think we all know who. He/she has four legs, a brown fuzzy butt, a voracious appetite for everything in our yard, and lives in the bat cave under the neighbors' shed.

So far, this stuff appears to work. For now. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Pocket full of kryptonite.

Let's hear it for the little guys

Words really cannot express how happy I am right now. My miniature irises are blooming! My aunt and uncle brought them down last summer from their garden, and I added them to my little flower bed. They didn't look too terribly happy when I transplanted them, but today I went out to find healthy leaves and darling little blooms. Good job guys!

Rah, rah, siss boom bah! 

Goooooo team!