I am so in love with my chickens!


Lucinda, Magloria, Arlene, Clementine, Frida, AmieRuth


I read some Faulkner to them, but Frida obviously wasn't impressed! Maybe it was just the yucky Oprah sticker on my book.



Lucinda is my sweet girl.


amieruth's namesake and Godchicken. Isn't she beautiful?


Steppin' out!

This is a hard time of summer gardening for me. It's starting the really hot and humid season, and the weeds are trying to take over. I'd much rather be inside. I wandered around outside a little this morning and watered some, but now of course it's pouring rain. It always works out that way! I'll never complain about the rain though.











( daylilies, etc. )

After much research, I ordered six baby chicks today from My Pet Chicken.

I'm getting two Barred Plymouth Rocks


two Blue Cochins


two Buff Orpingtons


Aren't they beautiful?

Here's the design of the chicken coop we're building:


I've been doing lots of research about keeping chickens. Backyard Chickens is a great site, especially the forum.

I'm so excited!

p.s. I read online last night that chickens will eat Japanese beetles. That is just too good to be true. Could the chickens possibly save my roses from them? That would be amazing.

(photos from internet)

I have some updating to do here, obviously. There hasn't been much gardening going on for the past couple weeks due to the horrible heat. We've been in the high 90s. Record breaking for this early in summer. I do have some backtracking to do though. And I have so many things waiting to be planted.

This morning I went to my favorite nursery, Farmhouse Gardeners in Statesville, NC.





I purchased my holy grail of plants: Black Bamboo. I've wanted it for at least 10 years, when I first saw it at the NC Zoo. It's been elusive and more than I could afford. It's still more than I could afford really, but I had to have it. It's going by the pond.




The rest of my haul included varius coleus, an angel begonia, staghorn fern, birdnest fern, basil, bush cucumber, crookneck squash (I should have already planted vegetables, I know) and a 'Carolina Blue' chaste tree.


the goods

It's such a beautiful place. I could hang out there all day.

( so many more photos )

I had such a fun trip yesterday morning to buy new koi. We went to Marsha's Koi, which is about 45 minute drive away. It's such a beautiful place with beautiful ponds and fish, and the people are so so nice. I got to pet a cat, pet a dog, pet chickens, get my hand sucked on by koi and eat cherries. It was a great morning.








My new koi: Matisse, Calliope, Gauguin.


This reminded me of the cherry tree I had when I was little. I so loved it. These cherries were delicious. I need a cherry tree.



( follow the fishies for more )

Even though I haven't been posting, I promise I've been gardening. I have lots of catching up to do here, but I thought I'd do a post about my favorite part of all my gardens: My pond.


Colorado waterlily

Sitting by my pond, feeding the fish and watching the dragonflies and spiders, is the most relaxing thing in the world to me. I just love it.



The water is starting to clear up for the season. In a week or two, it should be completely clear (keeping fingers crossed).



This bridge is from my parents' pond. I'm painting it red. This is the before picture, obviously.





I so love my fish! They have such personality.
All my koi have names:

Leonardo da Vinci (Leo), King of the Koi
Zelda
Frida
Romeo (Juliet didn't make it)
Bou
Dottie
Modigliani
Pablo II
Dido
Salvador
Georgia
Blue Boy
Princess Buttercup
Vincent
Rossetti

Two new baby koi born in my pond:

Suzanne Valadon
Toulouse-Lautrec

I also named a Black Moor, Blackie #2, and a googly-eyed goldfish (which is obviously an offspring of Blackie #2), Mr. Limpet.





Everyone needs a pond.

I received my Wayside order and got most of it planted. I planted the Rozanne geraniums in the Roadside Garden; the Orion geraniums and the blue malvas in the Fairy Garden; and the epimedium pubigerum, which is supposed to do well in dry shade, in the Under-the-Riverbirch Shade Garden (which I'm renaming the Dot Garden after my mother). Oh and I sprinkled some foxglove seeds in the shade garden too. They are so tiny! We'll see what happens with them.

I also planted one of the Vintage roses, Mme. Charles, in the back of the fairy garden.

I have to get my tomatoes planted today! I need to find a bag of lime in the garage. My daddy always told me to throw a handful of lime in a tomato plant hole. I also hope I have some compost.

I need to make a trip to garden center for a couple bags of mulch for fairy garden. Baby weeds are starting to sprout again like crazy along the border. I need to mulch that area to keep them at bay. I also want to get some kind of garden tool oil. I'm ashamed to say I have two pairs of rusty Felco pruners. I need to steel wool and oil them. I want to look for my favorite annual, angelonia, too. I'm going to plant lots of those this year. They're so beautiful and will bloom forever.

Here is the wonderful polyantha Phyllis Bide in my overgrown (I need to get to work on it!) Secret Garden. I think I planted this two years ago. I fell in love with it from a photo in the beautiful book Landscaping with Roses by Jeff Cox. I just love its raggedy goodness!

I've actually been doing a little gardening. Yay me.



The roses are just going crazy now. They are making me fall in love with them all over again. Of course, when the Japanese Beetles move in, I'll be swearing off roses forever again.

Oh, I recently reread Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden. That so puts me in the mood for gardening. I love gardening memoirs. I've also read From the Ground Up by Amy Stewart. I'd love to find more books like those.

A line I like from Mrs. Whaley: Everything we use in a garden either adds or takes away from its beauty.

I just got three roses in the mail from Vintage Gardens! My second Mme. Charles, Marie d'Orleans and McClinton tea. Now I have to decide where to plant.

OK, time for lovely photos.

( click me )

More weeding today. I almost have fairy garden all cleaned up. Then I have a zillion new things to plant there.

Today's lovelies:




Mutabilis I love this China so much that I'm ordering another one. It blooms forever and just cheers me up to see.


I love how these limbs of this redbud are growing.



Mons. Tillier

I did no gardening yesterday or today. Yesterday I had an excuse: It was raining. Today was just pure-t laziness.

Here is photo I took today of the China rose Mme. Laurette Messimy.

This rose has grown so much in two years. This will really be first year to see it big and full of blooms. I think this one is beautiful, but the photos I've seen of it online aren't that attractive. Looks like it fades fast. We'll see.

All my roses are just full of buds, waiting to explode. I can't wait.

I did do lots of plant ordering/buying the past two days.
Daylilies from ebay (ebay photos):

Edge of Darkness


Mildred Mitchell (which I've wanted for several years)

I also bought from ebay peony Gay Paree and echinacea Twilight. I'm bidding on another peony Bowl of Beauty, which I love love love. I'm going to plant one of the peonies in front of the roses in my Front Porch Garden (gotta come up with better name!). The other I'll maybe put in Fairy Garden, which is also in front yard. I have a white peony there that I'd rather have in the back, but it's so big and established now that I don't dare move it.

I ordered three tea roses (!) from Vintage Gardens:
Mmme. Charles (My second. Such a great tea.)
Marie d'Orleans
McClinton Tea

My Wayside Gardens order (I know a lot of people don't like Wayside, but I've never really had any problems):
Qty 4 Mazus reptans
Qty 3 Malva sylvestris Blue
Qty 3 Geranium 'Rozanne'
Qty 1 Epimedium pubigerum
Qty 3 Geranium hybrid 'Orion'

Stay tuned for actual gardening tomorrow!

I'm really going to make an effort to keep this journal updated again. I neglected my gardens all last year after my mother's death, but my gardening obsession is back full force. Yesterday I planted coneflowers (echinacea), After Midnight and Summer Sky, in my front (fairy) garden. I've been working hard to get all the weeds pulled there. It's in not great shape after a whole year of neglect. All the lamb's ear there from my mother's house died. It had thrived for years. So strange. Anyway, I'm going to add lots more perrenials. I even bought some seeds to try. I've never had much luck with direct sowing but maybe this time.

I have roses blooming!
( honk if you love flowers )

The most gardening I've done lately is pulling a few weeds to take this photo! I'm deeply ashamed.

This is the first bloom from my little Precious Dream by Ralph Moore, purchased from The Uncommon Rose. It's so pretty.

Also blooming today is the bodaciously beautiful bourbon, Souvenir de la Malmaison.

My garden isn't doing a lot yet, but here are some things.



( lots more )

OK, it's BEEN gardening time, but I am just now starting to get motivated again.

I bought new Felco pruners this morning (#6 for all you in the Felco know) and was all ready to start pruning my 80+ roses, and then it started raining! *sigh*

Is this a sign that I should just give up on the gardening here?

Vinca likes the heat.

I all but abandoned my gardens during these past weeks. It's just been so hot. I've tried to keep things watered, but that's been about the extent of it. The weeds have taken over!

I decided to get back to things after the boys started back to school this morning. I weeded my new roadside garden (I'm not going into the split pants incident here!). It was full of crabgrass and other assorted junk. I also planted a few more things there: a daylily 'Matisse', a TB iris from Zebra Iris, 'Gazellegant' (bought from their ebay store), and three 'Hidcote' lavender plants (my favorite lavender).

Not much is blooming right now. Just a few rose blooms and the butterfly bushes. I probably should plant more annuals to get through this part of summer. September should bring another big rose bloom and some reblooming daylilies and irises. I wonder is it too late now to feed my roses once more? I must look into that.



A baby Austin rose, 'Christopher Marlowe'.

I'm going to try to take one area a day (or a few days for some) and get everything weeded. I still have roses to plant! I've been waiting for other things that have to done in that planting area first. Isn't that always the way? What I really need to do is update my planting maps (I probably said that last post) to reflect the irises and daylilies I've planted. If I don't, I'll never remember what is what next year.

Rose 'Souvenir de Germain de st. Pierre' Ain't that some name?

I planted this rose and one called Second Street Tea this evening in a new garden area we'll call the Front Porch Garden (I'm so creative!). I grew up on Second Street, so how could I resist? And after reading this description of Souv. de Blah Blah in Vintage's catalog, I had to have it:

An absolutely delightful rose of the Duchess de Brabant style, particularly similar to that rose in its large, globular flowers of bright cherry pink, yellow at the petal bases, blooms opening rather helter-skelter, flamed with white, rather like old parrot tulips in appearance.

Doesn't that sound beautiful? It arrived full of these glorious blooms. I think I have a photo.


Here's another of its blooms:


I don't have a photo of Second Street Tea yet. It's still really small.

I have 3 or 4 more roses to plant in that area. I need to dig up some grass first really. That is so much work. Maybe in the morning I can get started on it. I've got to get those dwarf irises planted.

That's all for today.

Waterlily 'Colorado'

I don't know where to begin updating. I've done lots of gardening. I have kept up with most of it in my written journal. I'll just have to try to catch up.

I've acquired more roses.

From Vintage:
Thomasville Old Gold
Souv. de Germain de St. Pierre
Second st. Tea
Sunshine
Paul Crampel
Leonie Lamesch

From Roses Unlimited:
Eugene de Beauharnais
Duchesse de Brabant
Polly Sunshine
Borderer

And another Christopher Marlowe from J&P.

I finally got Pat to rip out the Golden Thread and rest of juniper from the roadside bed. I replanted with the roses, Comtesse du Cayla and Leonie Lamesch; the daylilies, Strawberry Candy, Happy Returns and Lake Norman Sunset; TB yellow iris; IB purple reblooming iris; May Night salvia. It doesn't look like much yet but hopefully will fill out and look good.

Daylily "Lake Norman Sunset"


I replanted part of my Secret Garden. The area with the angel statue had a horrible looking Abraham Darby rose that I dug up. I moved a post with birdhouse on top and planted Phyllis Bide to train up it. Also planted two other polyanthas there, Polly Sunshine and Borderer, the china Eugene de Beauharnais, and the gallica Cardinal de Richelieu. I will take photos soon. Oh, here is one of Borderer.

Borderer. Such a sweet, little rose.

Pat got biofilter built for pond. The water has cleared up a little. It's supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks. It's been 2. I can't wait for clear water.

I went daylily shopping at place called Stacked Rock Gardens. Pat was with me, so I didn't go overboard. I bought:
Lake Norman Sunset
Lake Norman Spider
Pink Monday
House of Orange
Little Zinger - bonus
Spanish Masquerade - bonus

Oh, I also got daylilies I bought from ebay:
Spanish Masquerade
Cloth of Glory
Velvet Rose
Eye Catcher - bonus

Today I got SDB irises I bought from ebay:
Jillaroo
Muse
Cops
Ingenuity
Yipee
Widow's Veil - bonus
Lore - bonus
Skyray - bonus
Sea Monster - bonus
Lots of bonuses!

Enough for now! I will update more tomorrow. I'm planning/planting new garden in front.