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.

Tuesday Treasures #15 - Ribbon Angel Post

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 December 2010 received the most page views - over 1000 and counting.  Interestingly enough it has had only one comment.  I imagine people trying to find how to make ribbon angels come across this blog, read it and then close it without commenting.

I'm linking it to Tuesday Treasures.

Ribbon Angels
(December 2010)

I purchased several of these ribbon angels at a craft show earlier this month. Sarah needed a craft to make with her students so I figured out how these were made.

Each angel has ribbon, with wire edge is good, a ribbon rose and a jingle bell head. I substituted with what I had to make one.

I folded a ribbon seven times tucking in the raw edge back into the folds then stapled near the top for the body.

The wings have 5 folds and a staple in the center.

I trimmed the body of the top edge just above the staple.

Then I hot glued the wings to the body.

I had a large pearl from a broken string to use as a head. I hot glued that in the center of the wings over the staple.

Instead of a rose I used a button. I didn't have a hanger but it sits on a branch of my tree just fine.

Milestone Missed

I passed 1000 blog posts and didn't even realize it.  This one becomes #1002.

I started blogging in July 2008.  Here's my very first post.

I was rather brief in my initial postings and had very few photos.  The learning curve was steep at first.

Here is a look back at some of those early posts.

On butterflies or lack thereof.

On deer that visit the garden.

On fighting ground hogs.

[When I first posted this I didn't know how to increase the size of the photos.  I have rectified that and you can see what the perennial garden looked like 8 years ago.]

As we prepare to move from this house I'm going to devote most of my blogging from now until move day, June 27th, to a look back.