Tuesday Treasure #19 - A Posting in Four Parts

The big move day is getting closer - six days away.  As I count down to that I have been reflecting back on our time at this house by posting old blogs.  

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This one first appeared in May 2011.  I made a lot of changes in the garden from 2011 to present.  It's interesting to look back to see how it once looked and compare.

Linking to Tuesday Treasure.

A Posting in Four Parts

(May 3, 2011)

PART ONE - "GONE FISHIN'"

That's the sign the heron left on its nest this morning. I startled it as I walked through the perennial garden taking photos at 10 am. It must have been perched on my roof

and when I walked by it flapped it huge wings and took off. I tried to see if it landed on the north side of the house but it wasn't there. Then I thought of the goldfish in my pond.

Here are some of the goldfish some days ago.


I think I had between 25 and 30 of various sizes. Some of them were 5 years old and 6 inches long. I got them as 29 cent feeder goldfish. Notice I used past tense. Yep! No sign of them. This afternoon I did spot this tiny one but nothing else there.


The heron didn't fish for frogs or tadpoles. I'm sure the goldfish made it easy because they were probably attracted to those pinkish orange legs and all it had to do was keep snatching them up.


Goodbye goldfish. You'll be missed.

PART TWO - "I Don't Know, Honey If This is the Right House for Us."



The bluebirds have been in and out of the bluebird box today. I thought finally they're building a nest and so I took a peek. Nope, no nest. They can't make up their mind which house to use since I put up two more. They will miss their chance because the chickadees have moved into one already.

PART THREE - Faces in the Garden

The glen garden

A wooden rabbit - its really just a piece of scrap cedar.

The perennial garden looking east.

PART FOUR - The Pile is Gone!

I moved the last of the mulch today finishing the paths in the perennial garden, adding more around the new junipers on the north side and mulching the vegetable garden pathways. Glad to have that chore complete.

You can see the lavender showing green. I hope they fill out a lot more this year.

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2016 Footnote:  All those faces in the garden except the little girl angel statue are gone.  Sold in the auction!

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Tuesday Treasure #18 - Volunteers or The Benefits of Composting

As I prepare for the big move, I'm reflecting on my time at this house by looking back at popular blog posts.  I've scheduled one a week as I take a hiatus from blogging.

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This blog appeared in July 2009.  Another one of some popularity.  

Linking to Tuesday Treasure

Volunteers or The Benefits of Composting

(July 13, 2009)

As I wander through my garden I come across volunteer plants: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, maybe even melons. I have to decide whether to pull them out or leave them to grow. In the case of the new day lilies I planted, the tomato seedlings had to go. There were 5 or 6 around each plant. Others that have sprouted in the perennial beds have been given a chance and I hope to harvest something from them.

Below is a butternut squash volunteer. It has two fruits on it.


As you can see below this volunteer appeared in my planter. I can't pull it out now.
This climbing volunteer was thought to be a cucumber. Since it was grasping on to my lily next door I put up the trellis for it to climb. I'm not so sure its a cucumber. It may be a melon.

This butternut is growing amongst the columbine and foxglove seedlings.

The final volunteer is not from compost but from birds or squirrels. This lovely sunflower appeared in my front bed. My bird feeder is on the other side of the house. It has just bloomed and is quite the attraction for the bees. Are they honey bees?

Tuesday Treasures #17 - Hostas

As I prepare for my big move at the end of the month I'm reflecting back on our time at this house by posting old blogs.  I've scheduled one a week as I take a hiatus from blogging.
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This one entitled "Hostas" was also popular in page views.  I don't know why.  It was first posted on June 1, 2011.

Linking to Tuesday Treasures

Hostas

Hostas come in many shapes, sizes and colors. I know they all have names but I haven't maintained that bit of information to accompany this blog entry. I'll let them speak for themselves.

"We are the oldest hosta on the premises, a gift from friends and planted under the study window before there ever was a glen garden."

"I'm one of the newest hostas - a blue one. I was also a gift from a friend just last spring 2010."

"I'm even newer. I arrived last fall in October. I'm going to grow very large: 4-5 ft tall. I"m called an Empress Yu. There are three of us now."

"Sorry I'm nameless. I've already divided myself into two plants but I'm too young to be physically divided."

"I'm from the grocery store. An impulse purchase but I've loved growing in the shade of the glen garden."

"Here I am with two others of the same variety - all from the grocery store."

"We are divisions from other hostas enjoying the glen habitat."

"I'm probably one of the most common hostas you see. And I love to grow."

"We have enjoyed the shade along the glen edge and have spread well. We are content to just be green."

"I'm one of the big leaved variety of hostas. I'm not at my full growth since I've been moved several times and divided each time. I'll get to my full height and width in the next couple of years if I'm just left alone."

"I'm related to the one above but for some reason I didn't inherit the darken edges to my leaves. I'm still growing too so let me be!"

"We are of the tiny variety of hosta with a nice yellow hue to the edge of our leaves. We can't remember where we came from but this glen garden is a wonderful home for us especially here on the edge."

"Didn't you see our parent plants in the first photo? We love to expand and multiply."

"Just let me spread my huge leaves. I'll take over this spot before too long and there won't be room for those durn annuals under me either."

"Hey big leaf! Stop crowding me! I think I need to be moved out so my yellow leaves are shown to their full effect. Hear that gardener?"

"Our yellow big leaves are better than those ones under us. We'd be glad to have them moved out some because we need room to expand. After all hostas take up to 5-6 years to reach maturity and we're almost at that age. Give us the room we say."

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2016 Footnote:  The hosta have taken a beating from voles.  Some have not returned for 2016.

Only the one on the left looks to be of the right size of these three.

And the bed below is sparse with hosta this year.

Compare that with this photo from June 2013.  I guess I'm glad I'm not here much longer to rue this damage to the bed of hosta.

Tuesday Treasures #16 - Harvest Post and New Deck

While I prepare for my big move, I'm reflecting back on old posts on this blog.  I've scheduled one a week as I take a hiatus from blogging.
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This one first published in May 2012 received the second highest page views, though considerably lower than Ribbon Angels.

Joining Tuesday Treasure.

Here it is to read again with some edits.

Harvest Post and New Deck
(May 2012)

The snow peas are blooming so I'm so looking forward to picking those hopefully by week's end.  Check back at next Monday's harvest post to see if my prediction was correct.



As to this past week the harvests have been of salad greens (mesclun and freckled romaine), spinach and Chinese greens both baby bok choy and tatsoi.  The former is now done in fact the last harvest included the beginnings of flowers but we ate them any way steamed.  The latter is still going great and we enjoyed it twice in soup this past week.

 last of the baby bok choy

 tatsoi

 Sarah made Chinese pork dumplings

 Soup with leftover porkfilling that we poured over tatsoi below.

 

The other big news is our new deck.   Here are two before photos.

  
 I had to find a new spot for the grill away from the house so in thinking this through I came up with the idea of a stand alone deck that will also serve the purpose for gathering around a fire.  It's placed overlooking the pond aka raingarden.We haven't purchased the firepit and protective mat yet but we do have the benches that will sit on there.  One is on the deck already because it was by the pond.  The other three are on the other side of the house around a fire ring we never use.  The new location for fire will be more easily accessible and water is close by too.  Our deck builder took two days to get to this point.  He has to return to finish screwing down the composite decking, do some sanding of edges, and something else which I can't remember.  I will need to stain the pressure treated lumber edging to match the decking and of course landscape around it.

 View from the porch to the new deck.

 The surface is composite board.

I had to move some plants to make room for the deck but he worked around the ones I didn't want to have to move like a huge Siberian iris, a birch sapling from Arbor Day, and creeping phlox.

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Footnote:  Here is how that spot looked in 2015.  Now in 2016 after the auction the deck is bare.  Grill was purchased by neighbor at auction.  One bench went home with one daughter.  Other three purchased with fire pit at auction.