Outside/Inside

My bigass 'Just Joey' rose for Valerie

A shout out to the raccoons and squirrels who left us TWO bunches of grapes

 These guys were the best tree cutters. Ever.(And neither of them had a big ass)

My new/old wine bottle lamp beckons me indoors...
there's a reno going on

Dear Hydrangea: I will plant you next year, 
I promise

Flowers

Just some flowers getting in their last gasp of glory before wet winter comes crashing down on us.

Neighbours-with-dahlias = a very good thing.

Greening

Well. 

Hasn't that been a summer. So summery, in fact, I'm almost weary of it and ready to move on to rainier pastures. There were roses, and more roses. And white fly, and black spot. 

Roses are funny, if you aren't confident around them this is what happens. They react as horses and dogs do—"if you are nervous we will give you a hard time. We will bite and kick… until you get your sh*t together and just calm down." 

Ok. That's better.

 Inherited a celadon grasshopper tile from the previous owner.
Thank you, Beth.

Beth also left blueprints for an unbuilt garden shed titled

"The Tangled Garden Utility Shed' The garden sure is tangled—a bit messy and blown. I'm working on reining in my tidy Heidi instincts and just rolling with it. 

Spring things…

…blooming in the cottage garden this week. Those sweet little bell-shaped blooms are Enkianthus, and the bottom pic needs no caption, you can almost smell them from there.
And beautiful rhubarb… some people call it pie plant. ♥ I have many recipe cards printed in meticulous tiny handwriting for rhubarb/pineapple this and that… my Aunt Rita had a thing for rhubarb.

Elizabeth

Happily wandering a field-tree nursery last week; and was stopped in my tracks by the vision of an allée of magnolias. The variety Elizabeth is a particularly beautiful creamy yellow. The urge to buy one is tempered, though, by reading Fine Gardening's list of woeful pests and diseases that afflict these beautiful trees.

Problems:  Bacterial leaf spot, spot anthracnose, canker, dieback, butt rot, powdery mildew, anthracnose, fungal spots, weevils, snails, scale insects, thrips, planthoppers.
Yikes. 

Firsts and last

It occurs to me that even though this garden we just bought (which also came with buildings)…is a harbinger of firsts and lasts. 

First garden with mature roses. First garden with rivers of anemones. Pulsatillas. Birch trees. Fritillaria.

And, after gardening at five previous homes; I know, that, at 60 years of age—this will probably be my last labour-intensive garden. It's stewardship, really. I'm taking it on and working it forward for whomever comes next. I just hope they like anemones.

Contrasts

It's been a week of strong contrasts: crazy clouds, lamp-black shadows, bright light.

The new place has an established spring garden: the likes of which I've never gardened before. As a young member at Horticultural Society meetings in Victoria, I was always a tad envious of the white haired veterans and their lush, mature gardens… so densely planted that in order to make room, they would regularly spade up chunks of plants to share. I guess that'll be me now. 

Red October

Home and garden reds this October… Ukrainian Women's Association cross stitch patterns, 1956.    

A wee red rose started by my sister-in-law, Lori, and finished by me, a nice crafty collaboration.

Lori holding our tiny crop of Quinault strawberries.

Tiny harvest

It's "Oh Hi!, July" around here again… everwhere you look something seems picture-worthy.

Edibles from the garden and eye-candy florals everywhere… I think I'm becoming obsessed with hollyhocks in my dotage. Also, hydrangeas, dahlias, echinacea and zinnias. And alliums. And Italian bitter greens. And arugula and scarlet runners.
I promise this is the last picture of those damn beans for this summer. :)

If Rachel Zoe were a gardener

It's that time of year… July yields so much going on in the garden;
I feel like Rachel Zoe—wandering plant to
plant, touching, looking and muttering "Ba-naan-as!"
…though it should be "Scarlet R-u-nners! 
C-u-cumbers! Ch-i-cory! Strawb-e-rries! Bego-o-nias! Zi-i-nnias!

That's me in the garden

 

What's that R.E.M. lyric? "that's me in the corner"? 

Swap out corner for garden and you've got me in May. Outdoors as much as possible. Walks at the arboretum. Strolling the Nootka rose and honeysuckle hedgerows. Scarlet runner beans to plant, baby mescluns to be sown, vines to be tended and peonies to be fed.

Lady gardener collage from the Norman Laliberté and Alex Mogelon book Silhouettes: Shadows and Cutouts

Wikipedia image