secret garden — Page 5

Day Eighty-Four

June 5, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

I mistakenly titled yesterdays’s post as Day Eighty-Four and then realized mid-afternoon that it was Day Eighty-Three so I edited the title. Just in case you’re confused. I guess the seemingly endless number of days in lockdown is taking its toll!

I took this photo this morning. It’s rainy and humid and we’re getting thunderstorms later on. I want to share this, my favorite time in the Secret Garden. The wildflowers (Dame’s Rocket) are blooming, and the wild roses have just emerged (the scent is heavenly.) This week or two when all is in bloom is just gorgeous.

We did next to nothing with this area for about ten of the almost-fifteen years we’ve lived here. Then, during a time Don was away, I gathered a bunch of old cinderblocks that were up in the woods and dragged them, one at a time, to make that little wall between the wild area and the grass. I did it because I was worried that the ‘wild’ might get closer and closer to the house. The next year, I bought those vintage pots from an antique dealer and came up with a choice of shade loving plants; coleus, vines, and little white flowers. This is the third year (I think) that we’ve had the pots. Then, later that summer, I bought the vintage furniture from the same antique dealer. I had already cleared a path to the crabapple tree that blooms in early Spring. This year, Don really expanded that path and cut back a lot more of the brambles and weeds. He put down some stepping stones and some bark, and that’s where we are today.

It’s one of my favorite places on the property. Don has been busy creating other paths and little clearings up in the woods. Eventually, we’d love to find old benches to put in each of the clearings and at the base of the crabapple tree in the Secret Garden. But that will have to wait until we have the freedom to shop and the money to spend.

I worked outside yesterday for about 3 hours; transplanting some ferns that were crowding other plants (fingers crossed that it works,) weeding the big garden bed, weed whacking, edging the big garden bed with large stones that Don found up in the woods, and then I mowed the lilac side of the front lawn. A lot of work, but it felt good – until I came in and sat down and crashed. But isn’t that always the way?

And I finished this. It’s so lovely, this intricate and beautiful piece of art by Mucha. Lush in the way that only Art Nouveau can be. If you don’t know French, these are the seasons: Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter.

I’ll leave it up until this afternoon when I’ll break it down and start another puzzle.

I’ve also got three Inspector Maigrets on deck.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Natural Beauty

June 8, 2019 at 9:59 am by Claudia

I have to tell you, this time of year – early June – is maybe the most spectacular on the property. It’s not that the garden beds are full of flowers, they’re not. No, it’s because wild phlox and fleabane and yarrow and, most of all, the wild roses are blooming everywhere.

I had nothing to do with any of it. It’s all nature’s handiwork.

This year, especially, the wild roses are outdoing themselves. Lots of rain, though a pain in the tush, does have its plusses. The lushness of all the wildflowers is one of them. When I decided to do something with the area behind the kitchen, a little valley that had been ignored by us for years, it started to have a purpose.

First, I added some stepping stones up to the back forty – that was about 4 or 5 years ago. When Don was out in La Jolla a few years ago, I started hauling cinder blocks that had been stashed in the woods by a previous owner to the secret garden. One by one, because they’re heavy! I simply wanted to start to define what was an overgrown area, to separate and stop the wild growth from sneaking onto the grass. When I ran out of cinder blocks, I bought some pavers to bring control to another part of the garden. I cleared a path to the crabapple tree that had been previously been hidden from view. When Don came back home later in the summer, he added pavers to make a path from the opening just outside the kitchen door to the soon-to-be-installed propane tank, allowing easier access to our propane guys. And, they looked pretty, giving further definition to what was becoming a specific green space.

Then, last year, I found the four large, vintage pots – two from England, two from France. I planted them with coleus and vines and little white flowers, set them on the cinder blocks, and suddenly there was my low-cost version of a balustrade topped by decorative pots. They made a huge difference.

Then came the addition of some vintage garden furniture.

That’s it.

The rest I can’t take credit for. I’m always thankful for that little space, but never as much as I am right now, with wild roses blooming everywhere, little pops of Dame’s Rocket (wild phlox,) and fleabane scattered here and there.

Yesterday, I grabbed the weed whacker and cleaned up the path to the back lawn and nailed a lot of poison ivy and weeds. Don mowed.

It looks so darned pretty back there!

I’m hoping some of the other peonies start to open today. One of the buds is just about there. And then, we’ll look forward to thousands of fragrant white blooms on the catalpa. This progression is so familiar to us now, after having lived here for nearly 14 years.

Grateful.

Happy Saturday.

Photography as Stress Reducer & Vintage Chairs

June 16, 2018 at 8:27 am by Claudia

When you wake up at 5 am for the second morning in a row, edgy once again, the best cure is a walk outside with your camera. I took a lot of pictures this morning as the sun started to bathe the landscape with light. So beautiful. I really do see the world differently after seeing it through my camera lens.

The oriental poppy seed pod is a work of art. I look forward to the pods almost as much as the flowers.

There are at least ten tall milkweed plants that have self-seeded right in front of the porch. There are three over on the edge of the big garden bed. That doesn’t count the milkweed that springs up at the edge of the woods. Happily, the plants in front of the porch have obscured my rose bush, which is seeing its last summer, I believe. I had to cut it way back because there was a lot of dead wood. I do see some leaves, so I’m not giving up the ghost yet.

Anyway. Milkweed = monarch butterflies. Win-win.

Early morning clematis.

I’ll share more tomorrow.

I went to Milne Antiques and Design yesterday. My plan was to buy one chair for either the Secret Garden or the Back Forty – or B40, as Don abbreviates it in a text. I rather like B40. I may adopt it.

I arrived at 10 and Rebekah drove me over to their warehouse, where the chairs were being housed.

I came back with this:

You’re rubbing your eyes, saying “I see three pieces of furniture here, Claudia.”

Yes. You do.

I had planned on buying the one on the left. But Rebekah pulled out another chair that I hadn’t seen when she sent me some pictures the day before. And then she remembered the table. This is not a set. They’re similar, of course, but they’re not match-matchy. Cause you know I don’t like match-matchy.

Since Don and I had had a conversation earlier in the day in which he said “We each get one more extravagance” or maybe he said indulgence – before we are back to our usual budget – I went for all three. Note: For us, an extravagance is still a very, very modest amount of money. We define it as something that doesn’t cost much, will make us happy, but isn’t absolutely essential. Don bought tennis shoes. Very, very nice tennis shoes. I told him that everyday shoes were a necessity, not an extravagance. The chairs and table, however, were only a necessity if you consider my current frame of mind and the need I have for visual beauty in the midst of stress. I can see them right outside the kitchen window. I can walk back there and be tucked away from the rest of the world. No one driving by can see me. I can read there. I can just be. They complete the little Secret Garden.

Here they are this morning, as the sun rises over the tops of the trees:

I tried all possible configurations because, though the ground looks flat, it isn’t. In fact, the only flat piece of ground on our property that I can think of is a little section of the B40. Everything else is slanted to some degree.

Vintage. Lovely. There were some green metal chairs at the warehouse that were very similar, but that would have been too much green. The garden needed a pop of white.

Now, we have three different seating areas; the porch, the funky patio, and the secret garden. Next year, I’ll add something to the B40, as well. We used to put the chairs that are now on the funky patio up on the B40.

It’s a gorgeous day out there. Monday, the day I travel to the city for two days, will have a high of 98 degrees. No, that is not a typo. 98 frigging degrees. I’m already thinking I should bring my porch plants inside before I leave. Not much I can do about the newer plants in the garden except water them heavily that morning. Yikes.

Happy Saturday.

Natural Beauty

Photography as Stress Reducer & Vintage Chairs

claudiahillsparks

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