making me happy

The garden is in full swing and it makes me happy.
The echinacea are tireless. Pictures don't do justice to the orange centers, contrasted against purple petals...




In front, the hydrangeas are full-force, and you can see a little bit of the planter heaven that is now over in that part of the world.

And there's the "fence cover" flower box, which I'm really proud of myself for. It does a nice job of patching the "hole" where there are no vines in the fence, a little visual interest, and a nice mix of spiky upright stuff (I am loving the red pom pom guys), and then gazania and little daisy guys too.

window progress

Because my not-so-anonymous sister (Hi Liza!) is always bugging me about house progress, now that I have some to report, I thought I better post some pics.

Our future bedroom was once a kitchen. The windows were bricked up to counter height, and the project of the moment is to restore them to their original size. Our buddy and contractor Steve Creighton (aka Whippet) helped out, since we don't know what we're doing here.


We had to take out the old brick. That was fun. I even got to swing the rubber mallet.

And Whippet and his guy Ray took care of the brick that was falling out, sagging, and generally making the space the right size. Steve built the framing thingy, and I tried my best to stay out of the way. The garden needed to be weeded anyway.

Ta Da!

There's still waterproofing and finishing to do, and obviously we've got a lot of cleanup to do. But holy cow, what a difference.

Here's the new view from the bedroom window. This is what I'm going to wake up to!

neighbors being neighborly

This is long overdue.

A few weeks ago, a neighbor (in the loose sense of the word) found that post on the vandal who terrorized our stoop, and offered some planters she no longer needed. And people say that New Yorkers aren't generous. I jumped on the opportunity, and went out to Shannon Florist and gobbled up some annuals. The front yard is now amazing. I still think I need to reorganize a bit, and now even though I finally got batteries for the camera, the pictures didn't come out so great. But watch this space.

In other neighbor news, one of the women who lives next door gave Steve some cactii. And me some forget-me-not seeds, which I'll plant later for next spring.

I love Brooklyn.

tale of two hydrangeas

The flowers gracing the tables at our wedding were potted hydrangeas (blue).

Afterwards, we gave some to special guests, and planted the rest at home. The ones in the shade never came back, but the ones in the sun get bigger and better every year. Boy, do they like a lot of water.

In the front they're in a planter, and pink.

In the back, they're in the ground, and they're blue. Apparently this has to do with the acidity of the soil. I'm just happy that they're alive, and while I always thought I'd prefer them blue, the pink ones make me kind of happy too.

fence cover

How many times can I mention how much we hate the chain link fence? In 2006, the fence cover strategy, henceforth Fence Strategy One included clematis, which everyone said was a great climbing fence cover. I didn't get it until this week. Last year, it was nice, but kind of lackluster. All of a sudden this year, it's gotten thick and well, this week it bloomed. Guess it just needed to mature. Here it is, you can't even see the fence here behind the petunias bursting out of the Perch Bird Feeder. But if you look closely, you can still see some fence.


From a more "macro perspective", behold Fence Cover Strategy Two, which included akebia quinata, seeds from neighbor Debbie up the block, planted fall 2006. Akebia is a funny one. Didn't do much of anything in 2006. In 2007 shot up and it was fun to see. This year it's gotten vigorous. Grows so fast I see why it's invasive in some areas -- it's sent runners everywhere. But those little runners are easy to manipulate and send in strategic directions.


Still we need a Fence Cover Strategy Three. There is a huge gap between the flowering (or not-so-flowering) quince and the top of the fence where the clematis and akebia thrive. It's not that we don't love our neighboors and their above ground pool. Really it isn't.

Meanwhile, on another note -- borage. Argh. Last year I planted seeds, and it came up all huge and was kind of annoying snaking all over the peony bed, and then this year it came back with a vengeance. I left it there all spring since I didn't have any other plan, but now there it is with its big fat stems, totally taking over and creeping out into the "lawn". Somebody's getting pulled out soon. To be replaced with... ??? ... ???

early summer blooms

We're having a pretty intense little heat wave, all the more brutal because of a pretty chilly May. The flowers like it, when they aren't wilting. Witness Hibiscus, after looking pretty lackluster the past couple weeks, this morning it came out bright and happy.
And then there's the Astilbe. Last year it fried in the sun and the pretty flowers turned brown right away. This year it came back so bushy, I'm hoping for longer lasting blooms.
And the Icelandic Poppies? I don't think 95 degrees and humid is what they get much of in Iceland, but they decided to bloom just now. The Gerbera daisies limped in the sun, but then after a good watering and overnight rest, they popped back, uh, fresh as a daisy.

quick! peony!

Peony season doesn't last long. And our peonies are very pretty, but the as soon as the buds open, the blooms tip over, so they have to be picked immediately.