E 'White Swan'

 

 

 

What a mess, I'm excited to get a generator, but I really want to have my backyard back.  Our house hits on a granite bony pad that was built up as basements were blasted out in the neighborhood.  Digging a simple trench turns into a big project.

 

 

There is no way I could have dug this 18" deep trench with these hugs rocks without the backhoe.  Nice having the tool, but half my backyard is torn up.

 

 

July 06, 2010

 

 

 

 

What would it look like to advertise a plant nursery at the Loudon NASCAR event?

 

 

 

 

 

 

H. 'Tiffney's Godzilla', bought this at First Look last year.  This is the first full growing year in my garden, this is going to get big.

 

 

Picture doens't do this new hosta justice, H. 'Kaleidochrome'

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to get work done in the gardens, it's a challenge when it's 90 degrees.   I need to dig a second trench for the power line going to the generator, the gas and the electrical line have to be in seperate trenches, but the gas line was put straight across where the electrical needs to go; should be fun working that out.  Want to get this work done, these big trenches are cutting across where I need to walk for the back gardens.

 

This little guy was trying to stay cool, sitting on my granite post, almost didn't see it sitting there.  My wife saw a frog carved from granite that she liked a couple of months ago, this frog looks like it is carved out of granite ;-)

 

 

 

Pretty nice color combo...

 

 

 

The marginal way trail, trying to beat the heat.

 

 

Went on a lobster boat and pulled up some traps, it was fun (and no, we didn't get to keep the lobster)

 

A boat garden ;-)

 

 

 

Butterfly weed, saw this at garden in the woods about 10 years ago and had to have it.  Every year I find a couple that have seeded in the garden somewhere and I pot them and give them away to people.

 

 

 

H. 'Allen C. Haskell'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took a few days off to enjoy the New Hampshire NASCAR races.   Garden work and orders are stacked up right now, so I'm going to have to make a big push in the next couple of days to make up for things.

Okay, how does this picture factor in a garden blog. Well, I am ripping up two gardens to get the gas line and electrical over to the generator.....it's a mess right now but the pipe fitter is here on Thursday and I have the gas line trench mostly done.

 

 

 

All gardeners need a break from time to time, hanging out at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  On the way to the race track we stopped by Atlas Fireworks in Laconia and I picked up the Hippo magazine that was on the news stand and found an interview I had done a while back on selling at farmers markets......pretty cool.

 

 

 

Ice Cream anyone (H. 'Ice Cream')

 

 

 

 

Gardens are in their prime right now

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if anyone ever notices this face casting in the back of one of my gardens.  I forgot to take it in last winter and it did fine staying outdoors.  It looked even scarier when just his eyes were above the snow surface.

 

 

Sometimes I get it right.....

 

 

 

Time, I don't have enough, below are some pictures from renovating the front gardens.  I'm about 3/4 of the way done, partially because the next section that I'm moving into was re-done four years ago so it will go faster.

 

 

Getting watered in

 

Just before the composted bark mulch does on

 

 

Moving and giving plants away

 

 

Plants starting to go in

 

Everything gets ripped out

 

 

 

 

I recently had a customer tell me that they weren't very good at moving and dividing plants.  Truth be known, I don't think many of us are. 

 

I spent two and a half hours this morning working on this one section of garden.  It was over grown and I really didn't want to thin it out, I kept trying to convince myself that it looked okay. 

 

Once you start thinning out a garden you realize it's the right thing to do, I actually found H. Fireworks under another plant, it was getting over-taken  and I had lost track that it was even there. 

 

I have another half hour to complete the garden in the picture below. I have to move the back row of hosta up about 6" to get them off the house and I have room to add a couple of small hosta in the front now. 

 

I pulled a big division off the giant green hosta in the picture below called H. 'Mister Big', it's $14 if someone wants it send me an email.

 

 

 

H. 'Spilt Milk' under a large H. 'Sum and Substance'

 

 

H. 'Thunderbolt'

 

H. 'Vim and Vigor'

 

H. 'First Frost'

 

 

 

A few photo's taken at Steve Greene's in Sudbury MA.

 

 

 

 

I'm facing such a classic challenge.  Some of my gardens are getting crowded and as a plant collector I have a hard time thinning out gardens to ensure the best plants get the space they need......because I like all of the plants.    I thinned out one garden this morning, it's not hard work, it's just that I get attached to my plants.

 

 

 

 

H 'Kinbotan', a mini hosta that forms nice mounds

 

 

 

This is what happens when a micro burst hits a pear tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fighting for space. 

 

 

Remember those who have served for us! 

 

Josh trying out the archery set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One section of the front garden, hosta are filling in nicely.

 

 

 

Hey, I do more than hosta and companion plants.....I just don't sell them.  Lupine are in full bloom.

 

 

 

The owls are in full bloom

 

 

 

This single yellow iris has been in this location for years, seems to come back every year and put on a show.

 

 

 

My gas plant is doing well, it took me three plants to get one to take, but this one has been steady and growing from year to year.  I have a yellow one that came back that sits just in front, it was giving to me from a neighbor.  These plants look really nice, but be careful, some people have a skin reaction to the oil on the leaves.  It doesn't bother me, never had an issue with it; even if I did I would have it in my garden.

 

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with my progress against the red thread that was in my lawn, mixing up my treatments, letting the grass grow much taller (doing a 3.5" cut), and fertilizing through the bad sections when they need it. 

 

 

 

I would say this is doing a nice job of living up to its name H. 'Niagara Falls'

 

 

 

This clematis is just looking for attention....

 

 

 

The not so mini H. 'Blue Mouse Ears'

 

 

 

 

H. 'Sea Lotus Leaf'

 

 

 

I picked up H. 'Dream Queen' at Lowes last year for $6, it was the only one they had and it was mixed in with a cluster of common hosta.  Just one year of growth...

 

 

 

I pulled a big mail order this morning to ship to the Cape and I had some nice visitors this weekend that were also from the Cape.  As a small nursery I still feel the pain of trying to locate everything quickly to fill a bigger order all at once.   For the most part I pull straight from the growing fields.  Potting plants for sale is easy, you stop when you get tired or need to do other things, mail order has to be pulled all at once and shipped the same day.  I'm hoping to get some pictures once this order get planted in their final home. 

 

H. 'Sea Octopus', what a fitting name.  Visitors always notice this little hosta in my garden, I have divided it many times now.  It is well behaved, it divides itself and I pull out new divisions as I can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The grass is soooo slow to come in, unless its on the end of one of the garden beds, then it seems to grow really quickly ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hosta 'June' doesn't require a lot of words....how about "wow" or "nice"

 

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot to post a picture of the new bird house.   It's not the best picture because you don't get a sense of scale or view of the garden that it is perched above.   It'a pretty big bird house, made by the Amish.   I have a new workflow getting pictures to the website, using the camera that is built into the DROID phone.  This greatly speeds things up because I don't have to attach a USB cable to a camera, that was so 2009.  On the flip side, taking a picture in birght light is hit or miss on the DROID.  I downscale everything to screen resolution for web performance so quality of the photo isn't an issue its more a matter of lining the photo up properly. 

 

Got some pictures from one of my two design sites, ideas flow slowly at first (I'm an introvert, so I require processing time), and then I get an idea that locks and I like it and throw it in the option list.  Many designers like to present a plan based off from what they hear the client asking for, it's a good way .it allows you to iterate.  I meet, I ask a ton of questions, I don't give much indication as to the options because I haven't formulated them yet, I think on it, a few thoughts are born, process some more.....then an idea comes forward, this idea is a maybe but it triggers a much better idea, throw some more thought threads out there on this new though.....iterate over and over until some things start to lock in.  I like to offer multiple good design options we could do this and it would improve this area quite a bit (I call that Sears Good}, but we could also trim this out in stone (Sears Better) and then we could tie it into the existing mail box and eveything flows together it draws you eye towards the entrance of the house.    I wonder how this process works for other designers, I wonder how an extrovery would do this assignment.

 

 

 

Starting to get plants potted up, I will be potting up 10 - 20 plants a day until I get a good inventory ready to sell.  Takes about an hour to pot what is in the picture below, once the soil is mixed up and I have the pots ready to go.  It's still a lot of work, but the assembly process is setup now. 

 

I have three big orders to pot up right now, plus building up an inventory to pull future orders.  Not enough time in the morning, even though I'm up early (very early).  I have to balance between potting, building out some of my new alpine garden, working on a new access road to the hosta field (putting stone dust down), and I have two design projects going on right now.  Oh, I also work a full time (plus) hi-tech job and I have a wife and 9 year old.   If time were for sale I would buy some.

 

 

We like more than just hosta, but we really like hosta.

 

 

Temptation.....

 

 

 

Can't keep up with the gardens this time of year, new plants explode out every day.  Its fun to walk the garden at the end of a long day to see what it happening.

 

Little Caesar, going in the ground soon....

 

 

 

I have been searching and searching for a Silberlocke since I saw one at Cady's Falls Nursery last year.  Why am I so excited about this tree, the bottom of the needles are silver and the needles curl, almost seemingly to show.  

 

 

 

This is going to be a big blog posting, a lot is happening in the garden.  Some nice pictures of the gardens.

 

American Halo, growing in the hosta fields

 

 

 

Picture of the hosta fields

 

 

Fire Island, getting ready to leaf out

 

 

Lakeside Ripples

 

 

T-Rex getting ready to leaf out

 

 

Eternal Flame

 

 

Leading Lady

 

 

 

 

First Frost....how nice is that?

 

Spilt Milk, leafing out

 

 

Pictures of the new Fransen's latest H. Snow Mouse (mini).  This is a sport of Blue Mouse

ears, thick leaf.  I'm told the center stays white through the entire season.

 

 

 

 

 

Arches were popular at the 2010 Boston Flower Show.  I like the top one, clean lines, lightening bolt shaped top arch.

 

 

 

 

Started a tray of hosta seed on Sunday.  Bought three packets of seeds, one packet was from Bluetonium, can't wait to see what I get.  I tried starting hosta from seed last year and my yields were not good.  I read about microwaving soil, and doing this and that.  I bought seed starting soil from Home Depot, we tend to use our micowave for food ;-)  So, we will see what happens, I will keep you posted.

 

 

 

Epimedium Sulf., impressive small flowers but look at the leaf color.  I offer these for sale now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Pinus sylvestris, great specimen, very bonsai in shaping.  Got this from my good friends at Mason Hollow Nursery.   It starts the framing in my son Joshua's garden.  Behind the new tree is the mounding that is being built for the latest garden which is our alpine garden.  Can wait to get the landscaping and planting around it completed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the grass seed is down, which completes the main phase of the backyard project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherish is getting close to popping

 

 

 

Golden Bar Berry, can't buy it in New Hampshire or Mass anymore, it's on the invasive list

 

 

Ligularia 'Little Rocket', this is going to get very big this year.

 

 

 

Most of the perennials have not emerged, but the bird houses always add interest.

 

 

 

Northern Exposure getting ready to pop

 

 

 

Almost, ALMOST done with the backyard hardscaping project, final grade is going in for the lawn and I'm starting to set the goshen stepping stones into the soil.  Grass seed goes down in the next week.

 

 

 

 

I have a second round bird house that I will be putting up soon, I think they add a lot of interest to a garden.

 

 

 

I'm really into conifers now, this is Parv. Glauca, Blue Japanese.  I always hear nurserys talking about not buying from big box stores, but this was only $49 at Home Depot.  I buy from a lot of sources including big box stores, I have had no problem with my big box store plants and trees.

 

 

 

I have three umbrella pine trees in my gardens, I bought them in gallon pots because they are pricey if they have any size to them (and I heard they don't transplant well).  It's a slow grower, this year my oldest umbrella really took off in height.  If you look carefully on the right hand side of the picture (centered) you can see a second one that is ~5 years old.    Now I need to decide if I need to move this back before it gets much bigger.  This tree would now cost ~$200, I paid $40 when I planted it 9 years ago.  

 

 

 

Sum and Substance, first to punch through the ground in our gardens.  It won't be long before these are fully leafed out.

 

 

 

Hellebores are in full bloom, earliest flower in our gardens.

 

 

 

In high-tech there is heuristic that says 90% of the time to complete a project is finishing the last 10%, I feel that way about my own home projects.   I made a big push last year to get the hardscaping project complete, and that is done.  To finish the overall backyard project I need to get the grass installed.  Seems simple, but we sit on a bed of fill and there isn't enough depth for good top soil, which means backhoe work and then removing material with a bucket and then replacing with topsoil.  I completed finish grade on about 80% of the area, which means I'm 80% complete on something that takes 90% of the project time.  I'm hoping to get grass seed down by the end of the upcoming weekend. 

 

 

The Lupine are up and collecting the water.   Several people that have toured the gardens have made comments that they have not had much luck with Lupine in their gardens.  There are a few secrets to growing Lupine, one is a numbers game......plant a lot of them, the second is don't move them once they are in the garden.   

 

Our Lupine are started them from seed, I soak the seeds in warm water (bad seeds float to the top) for about an hour and then put several in each small pot.  Put them in the garden as soon as they are ready.

 

 

 

It's time to start blogging again, pictures will start rolling in the next week.  So much clean up work in the gardens, spent the weekend cleaning up from storms, cleaning out gardens and putting mulch down.

 

 _______________________________________________________________________________

 

October 18, 2009

 

Fall color, snow.....it happens.  Hmmm....might want to get the driveway stakes out soon.  I did yard work this morning before the Nor' Easter started, moved about 5 yards of top soil to the upper landing with the tractor.  Yesterday I put some insulation in the bee hive and pulled out a frame to get some honey.  The hive looks healthy, I'm hopeful that they will over-winter.

 

 

 

October 11, 2009

 

More granite from the up north.  Got some nice pieces this time; bigger pieces, and thin pieces that I can use as steps as Josh wants me to build a small bridge.  I like the small round pieces.  I will put these in the ground sticking up somewhere.  These pieces were dumped to be used as landfill; I saved them!  Dropped about 5 miles to the gallon getting back.  Hard to see the scale but the combined weight was several hundred pounds.

 

 

October 5, 2009

 

Some of my hosta are dying back.... good thing it's time to get the Halloween props out ;-)

 

 

October 4, 2009

 

As my hosta gardens have increased in size I have learned the importance of adding trails for viewing and maintenance.  Below is a picture of my latest hosta garden from above our new patio.   Most of the hosta in the picture below came mail order (dry root) from a seller in the mid west.

 

 

October 3, 2009

 

Oh the color this time of year.....

 

 

October 2, 2009

 

My son's new garden.  We were averaging 3 stone placements a night for the border. Slow work but we kept at it and the border is done and we are  putting in soil and plants now. 

 

 

September 29, 2009

 

Hmmm....lavender flowers in late September.  We harvest the flowers for selling in July and we get a second crop of flowers in late September.  The second crop of flowers is always less than the first, but it's enough to do a second harvest.

 

September 28, 2009

 

Here's an order staged and ready to go to a customer.  This was the first time that a customer said: I want 10 mini's or small's pick the best things from your gardens.   This worked well because I have a lot of divisions from my gardens that aren't in my catalog and I picked from my entire collection not just from the catalog selection.

 

 

September 16, 2009

 

A new favorite mini of mine called Cherish, keeps a nice form, thick leaf, slugs don't seem to like it and doesn't melt down at the end of the season.  I have one division if someone wants it send me an email.

 

 

 

 

September 14, 2009

 

My house at sunset.  It took me 9 years to get this rich green grass, I have fought red thread and even with a rainy year I have won.  The grass looks like a river of green water flowing down the hill; you can barely see that there is a driveway cut into this lawn.  The house had to be sited way above the road.   I didn't want this much grass but it (after a lot of work) looks really good (and makes for a great sledding hill in the winter).  I will share a couple of secrets in taking care of red thread in future blogs.

 

 

 

 

 

September 13, 2009

 

We were in the clouds yesterday, view from my front step (clouds were just touching the hills across from us).  Not a very nice day, wanted to move a 20 yard load of loam but that didn't happen.  All the work is stacked up for today, got to mow the lawn and have to move 10 yards of soil.  Also have about 100 plants that didn't sell that need to be put back in the ground. 

 

 

September 12, 2009

 

Enjoy the summer before it's too late.  Picture taken last Saturday (September 5th), a great day on Lake Ossipee with my son.  $40 to rent the canoe for the day, they put it in the river for you and pick you up on the other side of the Ossipee when you are ready....money well spent.

 

 

 

 

Enjoying a sandbar on Lake Ossipee

 

September 11, 2009

 

 

September 10, 2009

 

Can you say giant?  The grass in the top picture is Miscanthus x giganteus.  It is now being considered as better biofuel source than the current sources being used (google Miscanthus and Science Daily).  Hey, biofuel is not really my gig but it looks great in the garden.  This is sited well, but it needs another ornamental grass sitting in front of it to hide the bottom (a project for next year).  Use this as a background plant and plant something in front of it.  I divided this last year and I had to my tree pruners to divide the roots (a friend of mine used a chainsaw). 

 

 

 

 

September 9, 2009

 

Color Performance.  Where you site a hosta matters a lot.  Hosta are hardy, siting them wrong doesn't (usually) mean they won't grow, but you won't get the best color performance.  Wheaton Blues are supposed to be....well, blue.  The hosta in the pictures below are both the Wheaton Blues, they are the same age, the top one was put in deep shade and the bottom on was put in bright light.    Nothing wrong with either plant, but the top one that was sited in shade is performing to its true color.

 

Gold Hosta that is sited in shade will turn green.  Streaked Hosta that gets full shade will not show their best streaking.  Blues want shade. 

 

Putting a hosta in the right place is really about getting the leaf to perform, not just the core plant.   I get it wrong a lot, that's why I move plants around so much.   Sometimes I site them to get the color I like best.  Sum and Substance can take a lot of sun, I think the one that I have in bright shade looks better than the one that gets sun.  In full sun it goes beyond gold and bleaches out, in bright shade it's a nice golden color.

 

 

 

 

 

September 8, 2009

 

What is a hosta field?  I have had customers stop by that have read about our hosta fields and they have a vision of open fields with hostas growing in rows.  That's pretty close to how we have our fields setup with the exception that these aren't open fields because the hosta do better with at least some shade.  Our hosta fields have a canopy of trees that provide shade. I recently went to a nursery and their hosta fields are out in full sun and their plants were doing really well, they water well and they have very rich soil.  We have organized our fields by the plants light requriements, it's not an exact science but the blues are in the deep shade and the golds are in the edges where there is more sun.  Sometimes I will move an entire row of plants because the leaf coloring isn't at it's best.  You can see this in the picture below, Pauls Glory in this view gets more sun and then in the upper right of the picture you can see the blues...the blue hosta love shade.

 

 

 

 

September 7, 2009

 

New trail that I put in over the last two weeks, this will divide one of my new large hosta beds for viewing and maintenance.  You can see a couple of the granite pieces that I acquired during my recent visit to Vermont.  I'm using them as small steps and it breaks up the new trail nicely. 

 

 

 

September 6, 2009

 

New to my garden, Andromeda 'Blue Ice'. I have it in bright sun, it really draws your attenting in the garden.  I'm probably going to put a small, gold hosta next to it for contrast.

 

 

 

September 5, 2009

 

 Here is a picture from this morning looking down on the new gardens and trail systems (and you can see the cacti garden in the middle of the new trail).  The trail that goes right in this picture is new, when I put really big gardens in I'm making access trails for maintenance and plant viewing.  The trail in this picture is really steep (don't really get that perspective in this picture), so I have installed drainage bars to handle water flow and we have had several rain storms since they were installed.  Josh's garden is on the right side of this picture, framed in standing stone.  I can average 3-4 stone placements a day (with all my other tasks mixed in), but you can build a garden wall three stones a day.

 

 

September 4, 2009

 

I took a couple of pictures from a friends garden last weekend, they gave me a bag full of cactus divisions from the plant in the picture below.  They got a small division of this a couple of years ago from one of my neighbors and look at how it grew in just a few years.  I will try to get a couple of pictures posted tomorrow of the completed cacti garden and the new trails that have been put in.  We are almost complete on Joshua new garden as well, a lot of hardscaping in place and the plants are just going in.

 

How do you plant a catus?  The catctus in the picture below looks harmless but it is filled with hair sized barbs that break off in your skin when you touch them (you can't see them when you look at the plant).  I have learned a couple of tricks from people that have these in their gardens: First, use kitchen tongs to do the planting (I have been using rubber gloves which don't work well).  Second, when you get these hair sized barbs in your skin, the best way to remove them is by using tape. 

 

 

 

 

September 3, 2009

 

How would you like this view?  Taken from a friends house in Haverhill NH, their back deck overlooks the River and they have expansive views into Vermont.  The trees in the bottom of the picture are at the rivers front and the fields are in Vermont, the mountains to the left are Haverhill and Center Haverhill NH and the mountains on the right are in Vermont. 

 

 

September 2, 2009

 

I'm pleased to say we will now be offering Epimediums 'Sulfureum' and Solomons Seal, Polygonatum 'Variegatum to our sale calalog in the next couple of days.  I recently purchase two large clumps Epimediums, which means customers who buy these from me will get nice sized plants for the price.  Keep an eye out, I will also be listing Hosta Paradigm, Sun Power, Toy Soldier and Striptease for sale as well.

 

 

September 1, 2009

 

Yes, it's true that someone elses trash is another persons treasure.  I couldn't help myself, I did another LONG drive to go back to Cady's Falls (Northern Vermont)to pick up some more great plants.  On the way back (my Mother and Son were with me) we toured the Ben and Jerry's factory and then we stopped by the Rock of Ages granite quarry near Barre (worth checking out, they do tours).  I know of some spots where really good granite is thrown out (the place I picked from was using it for fill).  Hard to see in the picture below (they are under all of my finds) but I got some nice polished strips that I will be using on my trail system and I got great wall stones as well.   My son also likes to pick around and find free things, so it was fun way to kill an hour (plus we were still killing off the sugar high from the Ben and Jerry's ice cream samples); I remember doing this when I was a kid because I grew up in this area.  This is a great way to spend a day touring through some of the nicest towns of Vermont,  seeing a nursery that has some of the best display garens that I have seen and finding stones for my gardens...perfect.  I had to leave some great stuff behind so I will be returning soon.

 

 

August 29, 2009

 

Here is a picture of my new potting shed, or maybe I should call it my potting shed project.  I bought this pre-assembled, for half the price because it was a sample shed sitting in a parking lot at a Home Depot.  It will get painted yellow with white trim to match the house and there are some minor repairs that need to be made to it.  Next year, I'm going to replace the shingles with a copper roof and I may replace the plastic with tinted glass.    

 

 

August 26, 2009

 

Trying to harvest all the fruit from the blue berry bushes.  I don't commonly see blue berry bushes in peoples landscapes, and I'm not sure why.  High bush look really nice, they are easy to take care of and they can produce a lot of fruit.  My mother has 6 high bush and last year she harvested ~130 pints.  Couple of key things, they need to be sited right, sun, good draining soil.  They like an acid rich soil so I put a layer of pine needles around the plants.  You need to cut the old growth back.  One of the key things is finding a variety that will ripen at different points in the season (very early, mid season, and very lates).  Depends on what you like, it's much easier to harvest large berries so we like these varieties better.

 

 

August 25, 2009 - Cady's Falls Nursery, Northern Vermont (Cady's Falls)

 

I really enjoyed taking a tour of Cady's Falls Nursery.  The owners and staff was knowledgable and helpful.  the gardens, paths, and diversity is top notch.  I spent way too much money there, but I got plants that are very hard to find.

 

 

 

August 24, 2009

 

It's all about the soil.  The first day I got the tractor (3 years ago) I decided to add a new garden area to the front of the house.  I bought the top soil from a source recommended from a friend and after moving it around I realized it contained a LOT of clay.  I was not pleased by this, but I have found soil quality varies greatly so I applied a couple of bags of gypsum to loosen up the soil and have been mixing the soil in with a new layer of mulch every year.   When new plants were put in I put in big holes and put mulch and good soil in place. Three years later and now it's hard to controls the plant growth, plants put in here seem to thrive now.    The front row is filled with a wild flowers that came from one of those big boxes of seeds that you can buy at the Christmas Tree shop.  We use these flowers for our cut arrangments that we sell at farmers market, and they have come back every year.  Shouldn't a grand victorian house style have more formal gardens, I've never been good at following someone elses design rules. 

 

 

August 18, 2009 - We don't pick blue berries by the pint we pick them by the boxes.  We have 60 high bush blue berries and they will easily produce 200 + pints of fruit.  We pick and flash freeze most the same day and will eat these all winter, we fill the freezer full.

 

 

August 15, 2009 - I have wanted a bog garden for a while, but I keep putting it off because there is a lot of prep work required.   I also don't know that much about the plants and have all of that to figure out.  When I was at Tiffnays Gardens in Londonderry

 they had several real bog gardens, but my fovorite was this little bog garden in a pot.  Great idea, I think I will make one of these, it's a great way to introduce me to bog gardening.

 

August 10, 2009 - Pictured below are two divisions of Fingerleaf Rogerseria, these are great companion plants to hosta.    I just split the one on the left and have put it in deeper shade to see how much the color will change in a different site, my guess is that it will go from gold to a deeper green.

 

 

August 9, 2009 - Here is my latest garden, a cactus garden (or cacti garden I should say).  I have been wanting to put in a rock garden for a while, I used Goshen to frame the new bed.  This is the first garden that I have built using stone.  Overall, I would say it was pretty easy, getting the stone to fit together was a matter of trying different stones and a little bit of chipping using a rock hammer.  For the soil I used a simple blend of 50% sand and 50% top soil, and then top coated it with a bag of pebble stone.   This is now part of the trail system going up to the hosta fields.  Now that I have finished building it I wish I had done it sooner.   

 

I'm building a new perennial garden for my son, it will be offset to the left of the garden in the picture below.  Pictures coming soon.    After that goes in a new garden that will feature Heathers and Heaths.

 

 

July 27, 2009 - The picture below was taken from a friends garden.  These metal and glass garden stakes were set back in one of their many gardens.  Often times I add small details to my gardens like this and I wonder if anyone notices.   When I was walking through their gardens I paused here to wonder if anyone else noticed this spot, and how much care was put into the placement of these stakes......I guess people notice. 

 

 

 

Below is a picture from the same garden as above.  One of the great things about their gardens is the fact that they have made small walking paths that allow you to get into the garden areas.  Access points that are slightly hidden by perennials but allow you to see what is set into these wide planting areas.  It also makes maintaining the gardens a lot easier.

 

 

July 26, 2009 - My son, taking time to watch the butterfly extract nectar from a cone flower.

 

 

July 25, 2009 - The new patio is done.  Only need to get the wall capped and the hardscaping project will be completed.  You can see that I have started to install a stone dust path behind the arch going to the hosta fields.  We have had our first fire already.

 

 

 

July 24, 2009 - Lighten-up!  The new plastic planting pots look great and they are light weight.  But if you fill them from top to bottom with soil or even fill the bottom with crushed stone they get pretty heavy fast.  Use high density packing foam at the bottom, put in some soil, add another layer (depending on the pot size) and then soil again and then put your plant in.  The elephant ear in the photo below will not over winter in New Hampshire without being taken in, this process makes lugging these big pots to the cold basement a much easier process. 

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2009 - A friend was nice enough to send along a picture of Love Spat (thanks Tony!), which is a sport of Love Pat (one of my favorites).  This plant is proof that collectors are still willing to spend a lot of money for a new variety, one just sold on the auction site for $1,000.

 

 

July 18, 2009 - Door sized patio stone still going down, you can see the granite steps that I installed behind the arch.  I will be putting down a purple stone dust on the trail behind the granite steps.  Project should wrap up this week.

 

 

July 17, 2009 - Great progress on the hardscaping project in our back yard, new picture below.  The firepit is in and the door size goshen is being set for the patio now.  You can start to see some of the hosta going into the new garden behind the new wall, great excuse to buy more hosta!

 

 

July 15, 2009 - Sorry, it has been a while since I blogged last, too busy planting :-)

I did a garden tour yesterday for some great folks from the New Hampshire Seacoast area.   It  was a perfect evening, warm (not hot), bright (not sunny).    They were nice enough to share some of their garden pictures and it was a challenge to pick just a couple to post on my blog today (Thanks Mary and Hyatt!).   I enjoy doing garden tours as people tell me they learn a lot during the tour, but I'm learning a lot in the process as well.  It's great so see how people respond to plants.  The reactions to the gardens have helped me evolve them to where they are today and the tours I do this year will help me evolve to where my gardens will be next year and in the future.

 

Beatrice and James, it was a pleasure having you on the tour, Beatrice was taking notes on little mini post-it notes most of the time.  I could tell she was generating lot of ideas and writing things down. Was it James's idea to get her the really small Post-It notes? ;-)  I'm pretty sure Beatrice is now a full fledged collector (welcome to the club).

 

 

 

 

 

July 7, 2009 - I have a customer that was nice enough to share pictures of his (big)mini display gardens, which he builds out of old sinks.   Not only do these look great, I'm guessing they are vole/mole proof ;-)  One of the other things I really like is the idea of using river stone to display the mini hosta name.  I think I will try some stone labels for my minis so that way I don't overwhelm the mini hosta with labels.  Great idea, thanks for sharing Mike!

 

 

 

 

 

July 5, 2009 - Walling is almost complete on our arch project, all new hosta gardens will be in beds behind the new wall.   Patio work should start by the end of the week.