wordless wednesday

everything comes back

Every March I seem to go through a couple of weeks of angst. The back yard varies from having a shimmering sheen of water to "get the boats out, the back yard is under water again." I wonder out loud if anything will come back. Maybe this year is the year that nothing comes back. Pat pats me on the head and reminds me that I go through this every year and every year the garden comes back. Once again the world’s smartest woman is right. Not only are plants popping up all over the garden, the pots we left untouched last fall are alive with plant life. It’s the miracle of spring. I finally got started dead heading last year’s flowers, or at least where I didn’t sink too deep into the muck. 

This hosta has to move. It gets crowded out by ferns, ligularia and other hosta. I can't get to it yet because I sink up to the ankles.

 This anemone is beautiful, if a little confused. it's a month too early.

The bottomless mud doesn't seem to deter bambi and family.

wordless wednesday

one thing leads to another

It starts with talking about gardening with a fellow teacher. I start trading plants and seeds, thinking “wow, this is fun.” I even casually said that I would help populate the school garden. Wait a minute, what school garden? We don’t have a school garden. Ah, the school garden I just volunteered to help start.

 

The space is approximately 25 feet by 75 feet. The picture shows the space at 2:30PM. The ground is a classic neglected urban sort of green space. It also has a missing man hole cover in the middle of it. The ground is a mixture of moss, weeds and bric-a-brac. We’ll need to rake this area out without destroying the moss. Did I mention, we have no budget. We are going to wing it. Luckly, the teacher who caught me in a time of weakness and took advantage and I both garden in the shade. I’m thinking that between the two of us, we can populate the space with extras from our yards. Ligularia, ferns, hosta, lilies of the valley, two kinds of vinca, chameleon plants, day lilies, and who knows what else can fill this space up. And how could I forget that spawn of the devil, pachysandra. Hey! it's a hardy groundcover. Any ideas are welcome.

wordless wednesday

another garden show

The Medina Garden Show was this weekend. You know there is no such thing as too many garden shows, so we decided not to go to the roller derby and toured the show instead. It was at the Medina County Fair Grounds which is about 30 minutes south of us.  The main sponsor was our favorite garden supply company, Smith Brothers, the purveyor of that greatest of all Ohio products, Sweet Peet.   The display garden was very nice. Once again, hosta and sun loving flowers lived in harmony. Since the show was so close and the weather unusually warm, we decided to take a chance and bought plants after the show closed.

I've been itching to get out in the yard, so ...

That's one bed that doesn't need edging anymore. We need to reedge all the beds before the sweet peet shows up. The bed at the bottom of the page still needs edging. And a fence. The deer have eaten everything, even the sedum. Now Pat says that driving the Aztec in the front yard chasing deer is OK.

outside a window at school

Amazing, simply amazing 

Pittsburgh

Pat and I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh. After 10 years in Cleveland, we thought that it was finally time to cross the border and venture into unexplored territory. Yeah, we had driven through PA on the way to DC and have gone to Pittsburgh’s airport, but that isn’t visiting. A John Prine concert is what drew us to Pittsburgh. The concert was great and we had front row seats. 

As I was driving and Pat was navigating through the maze of bridges and streets in Pittsburgh, we saw a sign that told me we were living right. The Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show was at the convention center. It was a block away from the hotel. That answered the question about what we were going to do on Saturday.  The show is a great reason to visit Pittsburgh, and as I am a garden show addict, I don’t need much of a push to add it on next year’s list.

We made sure to visit the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. We were in luck. There was something like a bazillion orchids in bloom. Add a train garden and water features and it was sensory overload.

 Their Chihuly is very cool.