A Year of Afternoon Gardens - December

I can't believe that a year has gone by, and this is the twelfth afternoon garden. I wanted to have Sadie in one of the photos and she and Tom finally made it today! She turned 10 in October, and though a little lame, she happily walks around outdoors and has a great appetite. Those of you who are longtime readers may recall that Sadie likes only four people, Tom and I, and Margaret and Michael. We all wondered how she would react to Margaret's baby - if she would think that Hazel Nina was an extension of her mother, but no. Sadie gets a look in her eye that is not at all friendly. Our solution is that she goes into the laundry room when we take care of Hazel. There's a really plush little rug that Tom's mum gave us, and we put on a fan to block noise, and she happily snoozes the hours away. When Hazel Nina naps upstairs in the crib, Sadie comes into the whole downstairs for that time. It has worked beautifully. We've always done this anyway when visitors come. All we say to her is 'quick, quick' and she heads right into the laundry room. She's so intelligent that I think she knows we are saving her from herself.

We had a little snow around Thanksgiving but nothing like the rest of the state had. Today was in the mid-thirties, and rather dark. But not dreary. There is no dreary weather now that we have our wonderful grandchildren.

Today Margaret and Hazel dropped in, and Hazel met the Santa that Tom's aunt gave us many years ago. She immediately started chattering away to him.

And then she 'helped' put the angel on the tree. It's not at all fancy - just something Tom and I picked up in a store a long time ago, but like so many familiar Christmas items, it is beloved by all of us. Michael and Margaret would alternate years of putting it on the tree. And now Hazel Nina and Campbell Walker can carry on the tradition.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - November

You may notice all the maple leaves. They have been here every single October for the 33 years we have lived in this house, and for the hundred + years before that. But next October they will not be on the lawn and patio anymore, for we had to have the big sugar maple cut down. A forester friend recommended a good person. He came and looked it over, made those ‘tut tut’ sounds that doctors are famous for, and said it was time. And so, on Saturday, October 18, it came down. Two young men did the cutting while a third did all the picking up and chipping of the small branches. Margaret had to work, but the rest of the family was here watching. It rained off and on, sometimes quite hard, but they kept on working. They came back the next day for the final cleanup. 

We actually feel lucky because we had the tree sixteen years longer than we thought possible. In August 1998, we had a very quick, very strong wind; not a tornado but a microburst. In five to ten minutes we lost trees all over our land. Our road was completely blocked. The tallest section of the maple came down in that storm, and we thought the tree would die, but it leafed out the next spring and every spring since then. That’s what made it hard to cut down. It still looked so good as far as the leaves were concerned. But in amongst the leaves were splits and rot. It wasn’t in good shape, and even a small storm could have taken off branches or sections and someone could have gotten hurt. 

Though we all felt a bit sad at heart, we know we did the right thing and are quite surprisingly happy with the result. The open view is wonderful. And we have more light in the house now. But still, but still there is an ache for what is gone. We have ten windows and a glass door that look out to the south, where the tree was. It was what we saw every minute we were in the house and of course outside. But as Joni Mitchell wrote, ‘something’s lost, but something’s gained in living every day.’ Hazel Nina and Campbell Walker will never know this tree but they will know a different landscape which will be their childhood memory. We have some trees on order for the spring - a rowan, and two hazelnuts. Perhaps we will plant them there, or maybe we’ll leave that open space for games of badminton and croquet. 

This maple tree was in my very first blog posting, and has been in many photographs since then. I thought I’d post a few more I took in the days before it was cut down, during the cut, and some that show how it looks now.

If you are wondering what the chunks of wood are on the patio, Estée had the great idea to make tabletops from the tree. Those in front will go to the kids, 

and Tom and I will have the smaller one. 

Can you see an owl's face? The tufts at the top, the two eyes, and the beak? I am delighted.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - October

It worked out wonderfully today that three dear girls and their babies were here to be in the monthly garden picture! Margaret and Hazel Nina; Estée and Campbell Walker; and Margaret's friend for over 30 years, Ana and Roman Henry. As you might imagine, I was in heaven all afternoon.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - September

The other day I told my sister-in-law that my iPhone camera is the best camera I've ever had (and she feels the same way), including the expensive one Tom gave me for my 60th birthday. It was not entirely satisfactory, and I wrote about giving it up and getting another one here. In a while, that one also stopped working well, and I got yet another camera, a Canon, which seemed pretty good. But I love my phone camera so much that I never use the 'real' camera anymore. However, I did decide in January to use it for my afternoon garden photos. I think they came out alright, until today. The sunlight is at a different angle and the house looked glary and garish. I took many pictures, trying for a good view with the same result. So I thought I'd try the iPhone. And what a difference! In addition to the quality of the photographs, I love the way I can snap picture after picture without pause.

September's garden with the Canon camera

And with the iPhone camera

Tom used the brush cutter today to clean up the flower gardens. And now comes the raking. I think I'll wait till spring to divide the day lilies, as I did this year. Before the cutting I harvested some catnip for the kitties. Raya had to have some every time I walked in with a new batch.

Other than rhubarb and chives, this catnip is the only thing we harvested this year. I haven't missed the vegetable garden. I've found everything I needed at my local Co-op store, and didn't even visit any farmers' markets. The other day I stood in the middle of all the local produce and just marveled that this bounty was available. I wrote about our decision to give up the veg garden in May.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - August

Oh, how beautiful the daylilies are! They are the stars all through July and into August.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - July

Mallow is the star of the patio garden this day! The first orange day lily opened just in time for the photo. There are lots of day lily buds all over, and I hope some will be open for August's afternoon garden. It is very hot (for us) today - high eighties, but there is a strong breeze which helps. Some people close all the windows to keep the cool air in on hot summer days, but not me. Every window in the house is open, and I have fans going in every room.

As I look at my blog archive I see I wrote only three times last month. I expect you know the reasons. Here is a picture of Estée and Campbell Walker today. He'll be two months old on Sunday.

And Margaret and Hazel Nina yesterday at the beach. She'll be seven months old on Saturday.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - June

Green!! We've finished the work on the patio gardens, at least for this year. We'll see how the plants all look when summer comes. As I mentioned in the May post, we removed a few day lilies from the left day lily garden, and you can see that there are still plenty left to fill out the space. I never make note of the colors so it is an annual surprise when they blossom. The garden by the wall now has chives, aquilegia, baptisia australis, orange day lilies, other day lilies, violets, mallow, catnip, bearded iris, and a little lilac bush.

We moved the phlox from one side of the fence to the other, where the day lilies used to be, to give it more room.

and planted a forsythia where the phlox were. I've never grown one before but this one is supposed to be very hardy for my zone, so I'm hoping. Those yellow flowers are just so cheerful in the spring. I'm thinking of planting some crocus beside it in the fall.

The day lily garden near the forsythia, is a new one we put in last September. We planted Hush Little Baby, in honor of the grandchildren who weren't even born when we planted them. My friend Judi gave me some orange day lilies that aren't the common ones, but a kind of frilled edge variety. I posted a picture of them seven years ago and you may see it here, the fourth photo down. And there are couple others that came free with the Hush Little Baby plants called Fulton's Ford, a 'peachy yellow' variety. I also planted another orange one called Primal Scream. So this should be a beautiful little area of color. I do so love day lilies.

The garden on the other side of the patio, the terrace garden is doing great. We thinned out the day lilies there, as well. Just now, the bleeding heart, lily-of-the-valley, violets, and lilacs are in bloom.

Meanwhile, in the flower garden formerly known as vegetable, there are now day lilies, Siberian iris, the six peony plants we put in a couple years ago, and the new Walker's Low catmint. This week we'll plant yellow beans along the bean pole, and we've decided that is the only vegetable we'll have in that garden. We had thought we'd do lettuce, but local lettuce is already in the store, and it just seems silly to bother.

Out back, the lupines and Siberian iris are growing like crazy. Both have spread over the years, and will be a beautiful display before long.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - May

First month without snow!! We dug out most of the orange day lilies from the front garden to make room for a wider variety of plants. Perhaps not surprisingly, we didn't start any seeds under lights as we planned. Our hearts and heads are too full of Hazel Nina, and the soon-to-arrive Campbell Walker! So, we'll buy plants and place them in the garden to bring more color to that spot. You may see some holes in the left garden. Yesterday we dug up a few day lilies and put some in the old vegetable garden beds, and brought some down to Margaret, adding to a bunch we gave her a few years ago. We'll fill in the holes, cover with cocoa shell mulch, and let the flowers have some breathing space. This is a bed filled with many different colored day lilies that bloom over the summer.

We have also made a decision about the vegetable garden. We are turning it into a flower garden except for garlic, lettuce, and yellow beans. Everything else we can buy at weekly farmers' markets, or at our local co-op store, or at farm stands. When we first moved up here 41 years ago, there was no source of organic food anywhere. There were a few farm stands, but no farmers' markets. And now, we can buy anything we want - both local and organic - so that we really do not need to keep up a vegetable garden. We've already turned two of the boxes into peony beds, and will fill the others as the spring goes on. I'm really quite excited about this. We've spent a lot of years working a vegetable garden, and I look forward to simply enjoying the flowers, and getting all our food without having to do any work. It comes at a good time in our lives when we are older, and want to spend more time with the grandchildren.

Just around the corner from the patio,

We dug out all the day lilies because they were shaded too much by the maple tree. They had been in there since Tom put in the patio, just a few months before I began writing the blog.

They grew and were beautiful but all the flowers tilted their faces toward the fence, as you see in this picture from August 2006. Again, some went to Margaret, and others are in the former vegetable garden. We're thinking we might move the prolific phlox which are on the other side of the fence into that spot.

And speaking of the fence, the sweet little picket fence has been up since 1999, and it looks its age. Instead of another picket, Tom has a scheme for a fence similar to this picture I found on Pinterest.

It will be cheaper to buy and easier to build. The plan is to do one section at a time. We'll put some chicken wire along the bottom to keep Sadie and any future Windy Poplars puppies from getting out. The thought is to have it go all the way out to the wood pile and then connect with the electric pasture fence. Tom is so happy to have retirement time to do all these things.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - April

Temps in the 50s, sunshine, melting snow, shopping with Margaret and Hazel - who could ask for a better day!

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - March

The afternoon garden doesn't look much different from February's, except for more snow. You can see on the left where Tom plowed it with the tractor. Snowy, the 'outside winter dog' is back in the cellar. We usually bring him out in December and leave him for a couple months, changing his Christmas hat to a wooly one in January. Our little bit of whimsy. 

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - February

This has been an interesting month, and winter in general. We’ve had lots of cold weather with strong winds, and some milder weather, but hardly any snow. Happily for snowboarders and skiers, and for the economy, it has been plenty cold so the mountains can make snow. There have been snowstorms in much of the state, but we’ve seen hardly anything in terms of precipitation.

As I mentioned, we have some thoughts about changing some of the gardens. The one straight ahead, behind the bench, has been orange day lilies for about ten years. 

They are beautiful, but they bloom early and then that’s it for the couple months left in the summer. Last year, we dug some out and put in a few iris and aquilegia and a couple different colored day lilies, but this year we want to do even more. I saw this on Pinterest, 

and thought this is just what I want there - a variety of flowers, in different colors. There are some other spaces where we want to try some flowers too, so I bought a variety of perennial seeds that will live in our zone 3 climate. I ordered from a new-to-me company, Swallowtail Garden Seeds, and we'll start them under the grow lights.

A Year of Afternoon Gardens - January

If you look on the sidebar under ‘letter topics’ you’ll see ‘a year of morning gardens.’ Back in 2006, I began taking monthly photos of the same spot, and when I had finished, I posted them all in a blog entry. I decided I’d do it again, (can it really be?) 8 years later. This time I’m going to take the photo in mid-afternoon on the first of each month and post it. There are flowers to the left of the patio, and behind the bench in front of the house. It’ll be fun to see the changes as the months go by. My 2006-2007 morning gardens are all the more meaningful to me as two of the dogs are now gone. But our Sadie is still here, and I’ll try and get her in a picture one of the months.