The Finishing Touches on the Big Dig

Today, I finally FINALLY got the plants replaced along the new front walk!! Things weren't looking too optimistic initially - I had to dig up 6 peony divisions before I found two with eyes. I was a bit surprised that out of 6 plants, that few had eyes. It makes me wonder how many of the dozen or so pots sitting in the vegetable garden are worthless..... Anyhoo, once I got my peonies reinstated along the walk (I had replanted the roses a week ago), I then dug up the spiraeas and put them in. Last were 2 sedums, one on either side of the dogwood. One sedum is special - a cultivar called 'Carl' that I bought in honor of a very dear friend. I started buying plants named after family and friends the year after my mother died. For her, I bought a hardy lady's slipper called 'Hilda', which sadly didn't make it. Crocus 'Dorothy' for a "second mom" and narcissus 'Dottie's Dream' for an elderly relative followed. Hence, the appearance of 'Carl'. There are still many people who need to be represented in my garden, and in time to come I hope they will be. For the time being, my front walk is itself again (all save bulbs), and that feels good. Very good.

Death Before Lunch - Epilogue

There were good things and bad things about finishing up the replacement of the fountain pump. Before I went in to lunch, I loosely put the basin cover and the screen over the basin to try to keep the water clean. I came back out, removed the cover prior to putting in the new pump, and what do I see? Yep, you guessed it - one of the little buggers was scooting around the rim of the basin. Bad thing. I chased him/her out, then got back to work. Good thing: the new pump works exactly as it should, the mellow sound of gently splashing water is once again heard on the patio. Life is good. For now.

Death Before Lunch

This morning, I undertook a task that I've been putting off for too long. I knew weeks ago that the !@#$% voles were mucking about around my water feature on the patio. I have a large, cobalt-blue ginger jar urn that sits atop a basin holding a pump - this becomes a small fountain, very pleasant to sit and listen to while enjoying a glass of wine. The pump has never been what you'd call energetic, and this spring when I set things up, it was positively anemic. So I purchased a new pump, and this morning I began to dismantle the whole set-up.

Now, I knew going into it that I'd undoubtedly have to clean out the basin, because when the voles muck about, they literally muck about - there would be mud and small stones in the water. Oh, and they also seem to use it as a toilet. It's tons of fun. Anyway, I got the pavers out from around the edge, only to find a very flat, ossified vole. It had been dead for a bit. OK, fine. Then, I took the cover off the basin and started bailing out the bilge. When I was down to about 2 inches of water, what did I find? A bloated, dead baby vole floating around. Lovely. I quickly disposed of the corpses, finished cleaning out the basin, covered it up to try to keep the water clean, and then (amazingly) came in to eat lunch.

Now that lunch is over, I am preparing to go out and put everything back in place, with the sincere hope that the new pump will A) work and B) pump vigorously. I take this opportunity to announce that if neither of these hopes are realized, I will be officially honked off. That is all.

Farewell to Sweet Peas

Today began rather sadly - I finally made myself yank out what was left of the sweet peas. Now that the weather has cooled somewhat, I've been getting some sporadic flowers, but most of the vines were dry and brown. I cut the two flowers that were open and proceeded to yank. Once they were gone, and the pea fence removed, things did look better. Two rows in the back garden were now open, so I planted more lettuce. Pluses and minuses, as my husband likes to say.

On a really positive note, the Great Replanting along the new front walk has begun. After lunch, I went out and started transplanting the three rosebushes that I wanted placed there. First to go in was 'Gertrude Jekyll'. 'Gertrude' has spent the last two months out in a huge pot in the back garden, and my task now was to somehow maneuver her, first out of the fenced enclosure and into the wheelbarrow, then out to the walk. The first part of this didn't go quite as easily as I'd hoped. Recent rains made for a VERY heavy pot; heavier than I'd expected. Long story short, I was on the verge of caving in and begging my husband to help me out when I suddenly remembered that I had one of those Potlifter gadgets! I brought it out, slipped it over the pot - and after an inordinate amount of huffing, puffing and swearing got it into the wheelbarrow. The only casualty was my left knee, which sustained a good bruise, so on the whole I did all right. 'Tiffany' and 'Nancy Reagan' (yes, I was so taken with this rose that I temporarily abandoned my anti-Reagan scruples) followed quickly. They've promised rain tonight, and I'm devoutly hoping for it. After all, nature does a far better job of watering than I can do. Peonies will begin following the roses tomorrow. Onward!

Go, and Let Us Have Done With You!

Why won't they just go away?

I speak, of course, of the ubiquitous vole. Apparently they had a lot of hatchlings over the last few weeks, and now I'm running into the little buggers all over the bloody yard. Scurrying hither and yon, they duck under low-hanging plants and scuttle across my patio. They scoot under the downspout trays and they've worn a track in the grass along the raised bed out front. They are EVERYWHERE.

Of course, it doesn't help that I'm behind in my weeding in every area of the yard, thus affording them ample cover. I'm usually a staunch advocate of keeping cats indoors, but this is almost enough to make me wish for a few good barn cats - they'd make short work of the little critters. Come to think of it, so would some dogs. We had a dog when I was a teenager that was forever bringing dead moles up on the front porch. (My mother, like Queen Victoria, was not amused.) However, I lack any outdoor animals that could take them on. I guess that I'll just have to endure until I can finally get the beds cleaned up and then lay down a veritable snowfall of Shake Away granules. In the meantime, I can only echo the words of Oliver Cromwell: "Depart, I say. Let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Goin' to the Chapel.....

I just returned home from delivering the flowers I did for a wedding in Rochester, at the Colgate Divinity School. Wedding flowers are a hobby for me, something I just sort of fell into years ago. I started out doing silk flowers, then progressed to fresh after working for a florist for a couple years. I love working with fresh flowers; particularly coordinating shades and colors. The right combination of colors makes an arrangement simply sing!

Today's bride chose light and dark purple, with touches of blue and white. I made hand-tied bouquets with the two colors of lisianthus, light blue delphinium, small white asters, all centered around a large light blue hydrangea. The interplay of light and dark hues was striking, and of course, the hand-tied assembly gave the flowers the appearance of just having been picked from the garden. The bride was immensely pleased, so - job well done!

Corn Season

Well, it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy with a wedding I booked earlier this year. It takes place tomorrow afternoon, Friday the 13th. (When I asked the bride how many people had given her a ration because of the date, she replied that her fiance wanted a date that would make their anniversary easier to remember! Nice touch.) I've done the flowers for the wedding; in fact, putting those together is how I spent my day today. The results are, if I do say so myself, pleasing. However, working intensely like that means that I'm not much interested in cooking anything elaborate. And now that it's corn season, I don't need to! Herewith is one of my favorite corn recipes. It originally comes from the New York Wine and Culinary Center (I've streamlined it a bit), it's dead simple and it's delicious. You can make it year-round using BirdsEye Steamfresh corn - no need to thaw/cook first.

Roasted Corn

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut corn off the cob (as much as you need to supply your particular number of people). Put in a bowl, drizzle lightly with olive oil. Add ground thyme to taste, lightly salt and pepper. Stir to coat corn. Turn out onto a baking sheet and spread in a single layer. Bake at 375 for approximately 10 minutes.

Enjoy one of the best things about late summer!