Saturday, July 14, 2012

"It Pays to Shop Around"

O.k, sometimes she is right.......o.k. most of the time she is right!  We are getting the gardens here at Menagerie Manor in shape for my annual "Staff Party" that we have missed out having the last two years.    Several years ago MeMa returned from Hawaii with a new penchant for Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile.  So I being the adoring loving husband ordered three out of a nursery catalog.  They arrived in a few days, in little tube like containers.  MeMa did not believe me when I insisted they were her beloved Agapanthus.  A few days passed and they still did not look like much, I was out working in the garden when MeMa arrived home from a shopping trip with a very smug look on her face.  She proudly placed three of the largest pots of Agapanthus on the ground and then told me, "This is what Agapanthus look like," My paltry little weaklings cost me over forty dollars with shipping added in.  She paid nine dollars apiece for each five gallon container plants.  Actually my three little weaklings did not survive their first winter but MeMas are thriving and beautiful.  In getting ready for this party we decided to finish the bed off with two more clumps of Agapanthus so the search was on again.  I was willing to pay thirty dollars apiece at our back yard nursery but MeMa insisted I keep looking.  The next plants I found priced at 29.95 met with her disapproval as well.  Yesterday we were at a hardware store and happened to wander out to the garden department when MeMa spotted Agapanthus for $7.50 a pot....wait....oh yes, there was that smug look on her face again.

On the left is one of the first clumps just starting to bloom and on the right are the two new clumps.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Carefully Stored Tools?

As you may have guessed I take great pride in my collection of garden implements, and I have a large number of them. When used, I carefully clean and put them away and each one has its specific place. So when my heavy garden rake came up missing I was quite sure that some evil person had taken it or perhaps Lucy our resident ghost had decided that it would be great fun to start snatching things outdoors for a change of pace. The damn thing has been gone now for at least six months and Lucy never keeps things for more than a few weeks or a single month at the most.....so she is out of the equation....so back to thievery!
Oh not sooooo fast you blooming twit! Now in my defense I only have one useful eye and then there is the age thing going on here.......hmmmm. Click on the photo to enlarge if you like but just to the right of the bird house is the missing rake. Actually it would still have been missing except while out watering and feeding MeMa's Ladies.........
.........I heard a loud tapping noise only to look down at odd Gigi tapping out a tune on a wood pole thingy sticking out from behind the clematis growing on the chicken yard fabric. My garden rake is now firmly part of the chicken yard fencing, there really is no budging it. Anyone have a garden rake this old, half blind, absent minded gardener could borrow????

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sneaking Back

I could bore you all with tons of excuses as to why I have been absent but the plain and simple version is that life in general has been keeping me away. Nothing in particular just life, I'm quite sure you can all relate. I hope all of you out there in Blogger land are doing well. I did a quick walk through the garden this morning before heading off to work. So will post a few photo's and then be off.

Click on photos

I missed these Night Blooming Cyrus, but was grateful they hung on till morning

The greenhouse was filled with their perfume


.....and just outside the greenhouse door a nice clump of "Poor Man's Orchids" "Impatiens balfourii"

I planted these dwarf Hen's and Chicks last year and was quite pleased to see they bloomed a wonderful rose color. I think MeMas "ladies" enjoyed them as well.


Clematis Jackmanii, a vigorous bloomer



One of MeMa's favorite roses, "Mr. Lincoln"

One of my favorite roses,  "Mme Alfred Carriere". A very fragrant climber bred in  France in 1879 

Giant pumpkin seedlings will hopefully produce a winner for the annual Pumpkin Parade


I harvested these French Fingerling potatoes yesterday


We have had a very good year with these delicious sugar snap peas, this is the last of them.


We have frozen so many Raspberries, consumed many a breakfast feast and turned the "Little Terrorists" loose on them weekly in a grazing frenzy.



Hydrangea 'Sensation'