Gardening Life Archives - Page 8 of 15

Bzzzz September 12th, 2010

Here it is September 12. The air conditioner is off and the windows are open—at least when it’s not too chilly anyway. I spent the afternoon rotating out the summer clothes and bringing out the sweaters and long pants. Where did summer go?

My blog here at Bumblebee has been quiet. That’s not because I’m not growing food and flowers and herbs. It’s because at some point I have to make a choice between living my life or writing about it. With my consulting job, little dogs, chickens, cat, garden, house plants—not to say anything about the husband and son home from college—I felt pulled to so many directions. I have been falling into bed at night thinking of everything that didn’t get done.

So, consider this a little bit of a catch-up post with just a few photos that I neglected to share until now.

In one of the beds leading to the front door I planted a variety of coleus and nestled a birdbath planted with succulents. At first the coleus looked a bit sparse, with a lot of mulch showing. I pinched it back and before long it was so bushy and tall that the birdbath was lost in the dark burgundy, black and green foliage of the coleus.

The birdbath has these little orangish flowers that open in the sunlight, creating a beautiful display. I have to admit that I was inspired by Debra Lee Baldwin’s Succulent Container Gardens, which I received as a review copy and drooled over but neglected to write about until now. Buy the book. You will love it.

I have decided that succulents have a big future in my garden, since watering takes a great deal of time and the succulents can fend for themselves.

After two bad tomato years due to fusarium wilt and late blight, we have finally had a good tomato year. I had to dig new beds in a whole new area of the yard as well as plant some hybrids in an attempt to foil the fusarium wilt. I am considering solarizing a large area of the potager next year. I don’t look forward to the ugliness of plastic on the ground or having so much area out of production, but it may come to that.

In the meantime, we had a good year for strawberries, lettuces, cucumbers, the most adorable and sweet tigger melons and herbs. Herbs galore! Our needs here are fairly simple, so I continued to focus on ornamentation in the potager as well as production. But pots do need watering, don’t they. *sigh*

I have some fun news to share about the chickens, but that must wait for another day.

Posted In: Gardening, Gardening Life

11 Comments

Bzzzz July 24th, 2010

One of the real dilemmas for me as a gardener is that I want to travel and visit gardens during the summer—but I also want to be home working in my own garden. So unless work carries me to a place where I can visit gardens in my down time, I’m on an official vacation or a garden is fairly close by, it’s hard to pry me away from home to go garden hopping.

But the Garden Bloggers Buffa10 was an event I wouldn’t miss. This is the third year that garden bloggers have staged a meet-up, organized and hosted by volunteer garden bloggers. The Austin, Texas, gardeners kicked off the idea and spread out a wonderful welcome mat. Gardeners in Chicago hosted last year. This year Elizabeth Licata (Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant) and Jim Charlier (Art of Gardening) put together four days of fabulousness in Buffalo. I had heard from Elizabeth about the hotbed of gardening activity in Buffalo, but I had no idea Buffalo was such a charming city.

As you can see, we were able to wander into the private sanctuaries of Buffalo homeowners, many of whom had gussied up their yards in preparation for Garden Walk Buffalo. Most of the gardens we visited are small, lush gardens in cozy neighborhoods.

Frankly, I found myself drooling over the tidy homes, well-maintained gardens and the idea that it was all so compact and bountiful.

These gardeners have invested some time and love in creating their outdoor havens.

These were not just show houses though. It was clear that people lived in and enjoyed these gardens. There were pets, areas for dining, tools and whimsical artwork.

If you’re a garden blogger—or are looking for another reason to become one—this event should convince you that there are some definite perks to sharing your garden stories. What you don’t see here, but can see from many of my fellow bloggers’ blogs, is the great group of people who came together for the event. Many of us are old friends from previous years. We were happy to add new friends to our crowd. It was a beautiful and bountiful event on many levels.

Posted In: Gardening Life, Travel

7 Comments

Scenes from Summer

Bountiful and Beautiful Buffalo