New Perennials

Tags

flowers, garden, spring flowers, summer flowers, yard work

Not all the perennials came back this year. I knew it would take a few tries to see what grows in weird WI weather. Some time in August last year I purchased two beautiful apricot blanket flowers – stunning. However, they are apparently not very hardy and did not return at all, much to my dismay. Our sun perennial garden, as a result, has been rather sparse and *someone* got crazy with weeding and accidentally pulled out some flowers. Ahem. Therefore, more had to be filled in to replace the ones that were lost. Here are the new additions:

Acapulco Orange Hyssop

 

Acapulco Orange Hyssop

 

Concorde Grape Spiderwort

Coneflower Pow-wow

Coneflower Pow-wow

 

Coneflower Sombrero

 

Coreopsis

 

Garden Phlox

 

Yarrow

 

 

 

Yarrow

 

Then, these are some that were put in about mid spring and have finally bloomed!

I think these are asters, but I really have no idea! Woops!

 

 

Anemone

 

Now my fingers are crossed that everything survives the winter! As much as I enjoy picking out new flowers, I just want everything to live, be fruitful and multiply! A big thank you as well must go to my mother-in-law who spent the weekend with us and weeded around our house and gardens!

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I can’t help it

Tags

fall time

Fall time evening light is gorgeous this year. Maybe it’s been gorgeous in other years, but forcing myself to walk outside and go get the mail or put the cat on the leash makes me really look at the colors and how the light hits them. As a result, I’m sharing more fall pictures.

 

 

Rhythm of the seasons

Tags

fall, fall cooking, yard work

I am starting to enjoy each of the seasonal changes now that I have a house to take care of. This is the third autumn at our little homestead in the nearly “backwoods” of WI. My husband and I have decided once a week (sometime between Thurs, Fri, or Sat) that it is “pick up as many buckets of walnuts as you can day.” I love everything about this time of year and I think my husband hates everything about it. Haha.

Why I love being outside in the fall:

1. 50 – 60 degree temps after mid 90s in summer = instantly more enjoyable

2. Looking up into the tallest branches of the walnut trees and seeing the sun shine through so the walnuts are black globs waiting to drop

3. Watching Twiggy hunt bugs among the leaves and dying garden foliage

4. Listening to geese fly over head

5. Smelling the piney/rotting scent of walnuts when they plop into the bucket

6. Listening to my husband shout, “oh god they’re EVERYWHERE!” every time he walks around and picks up walnuts

After a really hot hot spring in 2012, the 2013 spring seemed to take forever to arrive and then for the ground to warm and the plants to bloom. Summer, this year, was much better than last because the grass did not die and the plants survived and so did we – mostly. Fall is here again. I much prefer cooking in the fall winter because I love making soups, stews, and casseroles – not really ideal when the house is 80 degrees, but awesome when it is a cool 40 or 50 outside. Last night I made Campbell’s Butternut Squash Bisque soup (yep. I don’t have a food processor, so Campbell’s makes it for us) and added fresh acorn squash and made homemade croutons to put on top of it. It was excellent; the perfect Friday night fall time dinner. Tonight, since it will almost reach 60 today, dinner will be Polish sausage, sauerkraut pierogies, and onions all sauteed together. Hurray!!

Bedgown progress and a new garden

Tags

bedgown, gardening, perennial, sewing, yard remodels, yard work

First the bedgown. This is one of those projects that I because I’ve never made one before, I don’t know how much longer it will take me to finish. On my days off I try to sew as much as possible, but then I think, wait, I should be doing more or something else (like cleaning the kitchen table of all the junk that gets piled on it). Or like last time, I sew about 5 inches, realize I’m sewing the second sleeve the wrong way and I rip out all the stitches and then stop for the day because that completely exhausted my mental capacities. So now again on my day off when it is 90+ degrees, I’m sewing again. The second sleeve is nearly complete; I just have a teeny bit more to go on the underarm gusset. Then I sew the vertical waist part. There is some crazy pleating I’m supposed to do for the sides and that’s the part I could not figure out when I was making the mock-up 1.5 years ago. I want it to look tastefully and flare out and be gracefully feminine. But this is also just a “lying around camp” garment for when it’s too hot or the public has all left. I’m really happy I used the striped cotton – it looks super cute!

After I get the pleating on each side figured out, I’m just going to line the upper bodice area (back and two front pieces) and the lining will only go as far down as the top of the pleats. Reasons: 1) I don’t have the patience to line any more than that; 2) I realized if it’s completely lined, it may be too hot; and 3) this was supposed to be a fast garment to make.

Garden update. In the past two weeks, my husband finished the garden area that we started last summer. Previously, he had mowed the weeds in half of the “sun garden” area. Then we layered newspaper and grass clippings and staked off the area. We got dirt. Then the weeds kind of all came back as of this spring/early summer. So he chopped them all down again. Then we bought retaining wall bricks and he built a nice little walled/raised garden bed. I have to wait for the lilies to stretch over and grow up next to the wall so it does not look like the island is “floating”….though I suppose that’s what islands do. Anyway, it only took a few days to build the wall, then we topped it off with new rich topsoil and we finally bought perennials. I always love how I have these lists of “oh I want this perennial and that one” and then I think I only got one of them that was actually on the list. But there are dark purples, medium pinks, corals, whites, and bright yellows which I feel is a nice color selection. I’m trying out lavender again. I really want to dry it and make sachets!!

Larkspur, dianthus, lavender and lots more!

Here is the new perennial garden!

Flowers and man caves

Tags

cats, flowers, garden, house projects, man caves, yard

In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.

So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.

But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her  catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!

Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got  a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.

Spring time yard clean up

Tags

flowers, garden, house projects, new plants, yard

Last fall, I believe I wrote about how my husband and dad reroofed a section of the roof on the outbuilding that is now my crafting oasis. Well, they threw down a tarp on the grass and all of the old roofing materials plummeted to the ground. Then it sat there from the end of October to the end of April. The worms, centipedes, and snails had a nice little home all winter!!!! We finally rented a dumpster and picked it all up (I tried to save as many worms as possible much to my husband’s dismay because I wasn’t “picking up enough stuff fast enough”).

Here is the before and after:

Before

Empty dumpster

After

After

Then I was feeling ambitious so I picked up some flowers for the boxes on the deck. Last year we had coleus, zinnias, catnip, dusty miller, and something else I can’t remember in the boxes. The deck boxes are the “annual boxes” (except for the catnip) so I’ve decided to change it up each year just for the sake of variety.

Wisconsin has had a really wretched spring with way too much rain, cool temps, random snow flurries/sleet, so I’m hoping that I did not jinx the weather by putting in the new flowers already. I purchased pink, white, and purple asters and yellow pansies. The dusty miller was left from the previous owner and reseeded itself last spring so I left it, but it had a mildew on it this year and did not look like it had come back so out it came.

Pansies and Asters

Then I was even more ambitious and since my hands were already dirty, I decided to transplant hostas. We have some really nice ones around the base of the walnut tree. The clumps are humongous and definitely need to be thinned. I just hope I did it correctly and did not ruin the ones already there. Around the deck, right at the edge, no grass will grow. I have no idea why. I think someone sprayed too much weed killer and ruined everything. Who knows. But my mother-in-law suggested we put hostas around it. I think it a swell idea because they do provide wonderful coverage. I chunked off about 4 – 5 sections of hosta and plunked them in the ground. Finally, in between those, I put in muscari or blue hyacinth. I’ve never had hyacinth and I really like the name and the shape. Except, after I put it in the ground, I read online that you are supposed to plant bunches of them near each other to give it a full look. I did not so much accomplish this as I split up the bulbs. But I’m hoping the hostas will fill in nicely around them and then the blue hyacinth will poke up in between.

By the tulips on the west side of the house, I put in two pink hyacinths. Not sure if they will bloom at the same time as the red tulips, but that would look nice.

Hostas and Muscari

We still have some more landscaping projects once it gets much warmer. I have holly hocks and a bunch of other bulbs/roots that need to get in the ground pronto. Our yard gets prettier each year!!

A little bit of everything

I like Saturday’s where I can get a little bit of everything squeezed in. I woke up after 7 a.m. which is always nice after a long week of school. I enjoyed my coffee. Then I discovered a new sewing website. I embroidered — finished one piece and started another. I went outside to smell the bonfire of leaves; I made some wee lingon berry tarts. Kitty and I went for a walk around the yard. I graded. I washed clothes. I cooked dinner. I watched a movie. Yes. Productive? Quite. Now I just have to finish The Book Thief by Nov 6!!

New Roof

My parents visited this weekend and my dad and husband re-roofed the lower portion of the outbuilding that has now become my arts and crafts studio. It was painted a pinky-melon color this summer by me and my mom and I held off on further decorating/moving in items because I did not want any of my materials to get ruined by water. (Any one who crafts/sews knows how much time, money, and effort is invested into products). I “know” how to roof, but I’ve never actually done it. Nor will I ever. But my husband and I do not have the resources to pay someone for this project. Luckily, my dad has built several things as well as re-roofed several buildings. The two of them got it done in two days!! My mom and I took care of little projects around the house and more and more of the livings spaces are becoming efficiently organized.

I have a day off of school so everything part of my being screams “ORGANIZE YOUR ART STUDIO! DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF!” but as so many teachers know, a day off is heaven in the amount of grading that can be accomplished. As a result, here I am in my usual spot (couch), with a cup of cocoa and PBS documentaries playing. It’s quiet, sunny, and as soon as I finish writing here, I will attack a stack of rubrics. 

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Fridays in the fall

I did not zoom the camera. I just held it at head level and snapped the photo.

I love owning a home. Growing up with parents who appreciated and instilled in me a love of architecture, I could not wait for the day I started looking at homes to buy. My husband and I own a historic home and finally have our own little piece of land – the American Dream, yes. We purchased a 1.5 acre property because he grew up with land to mow, I did not. So he got the yard, I got the historic home. Good compromise. Well, our fabulous yard has about 20 walnut trees in various stages of maturation. We started picking up walnuts in late August. No problem. A few here, a few there….15 min later, the majority of the yard is picked up. Lately, school work took top priority and walnut duty moved to the bottom of the list. As a result, yesterday was designated “walnut day” after school. We filled six wheelbarrows full of walnuts/leaves/twigs. It was wonderful to be outside (after being in a windowless classroom for eight hours) on a brisk fall afternoon. The cat joined us and watched from a safe distance (as she has been hit by a walnut before) until she was bored and decided the birds in the back part of the yard were more intriguing. It was a cool 45 – 50 degrees and I figure this is good training for her so she can still go out in the winter for a few min each day. As long as it only happens once a year, I can handle picking up walnuts. It’s a good fall time tradition.