Long time, no see!

Yep, I'm back. We were doing real swell last summer, and then we were swarmed by mad crazy mosquitoes. It was painful to go outside. We used mosquito coils, citronella candles, and a wide variety of sprays and lotions, but it was still insane to linger outside. Bummer. It was the first year in a while that the city didn't spray for mosquitoes, and boy, did they take advantage.

I'll have to post some pics on my next post of Tim's new project-a hot tub. Not content with just plopping it on the ground, or incorporating it into the deck, he's decided to enclose it. It's coming along very nicely. hehe now you'll have to stay tuned to see the pictures! His goal is to have it presentable by Sarah's birthday so she can have her friends in.

Of course, this will require some landscaping revisions, which is always fun. I never got around to posting pictures of the other side of the yard where the driveway and vegetable patch is, so I'll make sure to do before and afters before we get started. Fun, fun.

Paint!!

Every morning, I eat breakfast on the steps of the deck and look around the garden. Every morning, the white plastic chairs in the gazebo are whoopin' it up an' hollerin' out how cheap and plastic they are. Just look at them in my first post. Real loud, too, like they just hopped off the Greyhound from Alabama or somewhere. So I started looking around for replacements. Yikes! Nice chairs are pretty expensive, even at the current end-of-season prices. So I searched out some paint. Much cheaper. The kid at Home Depot who unlocked the paint jail(after asking to see my ID-I'm so flattered!) assured me a can of spray paint is good for like 3, maybe 4 chairs -HA! Do not believe the kid in Home Depot. It was barely one can per chair. But since each can was $4.97, it was still way less than even buying brand new cheap white chairs. I purchased RustOleum Hammered Paint for Plastic in Dark Bronze and sprayed till my finger ached. One chair done, 5 more to go! It wasn't long till I realized the white table wasn't going to do it with my newly refined chairs. So it was back to Home Depot for the regular ol' RustOleum Hammered Paint (2 cans @$5.97) for that. Paint is so cool. Now I sit on the steps with my cereal, and my chairs just give me a polite little nod hello. It's like I sent them to charm school.

This is not the first time Mr. RustOleum and I have crossed paths. The lovely terra cotta statue under the lilac? She's an imposter! When Tim brought her home, she was plain old cement white. She had a brief stint as an extra in P.S. 193's production of "Orpheus and the Underworld", where she was tarted up with some color, but after she came back home, I hosed her down with some TerraCotta Spray Paint and Voila! she no longer looks like some chick you'd find on the curb.

What's New

Some new photos this week:

A Daylily with Heuchera

Hydrangea and Phlox

Black Eyed Susans

Dan snapped a pic of this cool mantis

More Before Photos!

Gardening is not a rational act-Margaret Atwood

I disagree with Ms. Atwood mostly because I can rationalize anything if I want to do it bad enough. This is our house when we bought it in 1993. Again with the chain link fence... That's Tim's brother Jimmy unscrewing the door to get in. I can rationalize some gardening here big time. Note the garbage cans as lawn decor.

We painted the place as soon as we could. The pink rhododendron was there already, as was the azalea that is not in bloom in this picture. We added the weeping crabapple next to the stoop.

Now there's new windows, siding, and a new roof in progress. The lattice fence next to the pond is visible on the right. And there's Jimmy, still trying to get into the house ;-)

Here's a festive holiday shot with the picket fence in progress. Tim salvaged the bricks from a demolition on 65th Street, made the cement caps, and the fence. The house is still waiting for trim around the windows.

And here's a picture I took today (drum roll, please...)

The wisteria is about ten years old and every year we say we're going to take a picture when it's in bloom, and we always miss it. We originally planted one on each side-thank God the one on the right fizzled out-I trim the remaining one every month or so it grows so fast. The giant yellow lilies started off as one I'd picked up from Home Depot and forgot about. It started to grow and grow and grow-I've never seen a lily so tall before. It has a really nice scent at night. That's still the crabapple next to the stoop.

The other side of the fence

Here's a photo from the front garden-the other side of the lattice fence in the pond photo on June 20th. This area was so vexing for years. It was Goldilocks gardening: plants were too big, too small, too dead, too perfect somewhere else... I'm finally starting to like the current lineup. I purchased the yellowy leaved heuchera from White Flower Farm last year with the two ferns whose name escapes me and a climbing "New Dawn" rose that is not blooming right now alongside the pink rose to the left. The pink rose is an original flower carpet rose that's about 12 years old now. It looks nicer on the fence than on the ground. I added the darker heuchera behind the yellowy ones when we divided some from the front yard. It has wispy pink flowers that look really sweet next to the darker foliage. Behind the ferns is a nice shrub we got this spring at BBG, a ninebark (physocarpus opulifolius 'Minda'). I never heard of it before, but it's pretty. We'll see how it holds up.

We went away on vacation last week-it's cool when I haven't seen the garden in several days-so much has changed. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and share them.

Oh, almost forgot-one of the turtles is AWOL. Tim looked all over for him. We're hoping he's having happy turtle adventures...

The Story of Shiva

Shiva appeared on the curb in front of my friend Mary's house around the corner. Sarah and I were walking by and thought it odd that Mary would have him sitting on her little patch of grass facing her home. So we knocked on her door to get the scoop. Before Mary could answer, her next door neighbor poked her head out and asked us what was up with the statue. Apparently, she'd noticed it, too, and was on stakeout. So now Mary, her neighbor, Sarah and I are all on the stoop staring at Shiva. (I know his name is Shiva because I went to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum last year. They have a lovely Asian Art collection, and I read all the little tags next to displays, so there you go. There was also the biggest Buddha I've ever been in a room with there. I have a pretty good idea of the difference between Buddha and Shiva now.) Mary's wigging over her mystery visitor: Is it a gift? From whom? Is it an omen? Of what? Why is she the recipient of a Buddha? This can't be good. She wants it to go away, but is hesitant to even go near it.

Note: no one is even slightly interested that I know it's Shiva, not Buddha.

So, what should one do with an unwanted item on one's curb? Call Tim! He's the Mikey of the curb-shopping set. He skedaddled over, admired the lovely patina, serene expression, and suitability as a garden accessory, and instantly claimed Shiva as his own, saying "Oh, look, another Buddha for the yard". *sigh* He was obviously NOT reading the little tags in RISD. Shiva now chills on the rocks by the gazebo.

Before Photos!

As promised, before photos! I found these up in the attic. First, looking at the pond-to-be from where the deck will be. Some people just can't get enough of chain link fence.



This is the first version of the pond taken in 1999. We used a plastic liner that eventually deteriorated and got holes in it. We replaced the liner with a molded plastic pond-it's smaller than the original. Notice the red maple on the left. Tim found it in a pot next to a garbage pail on Clinton Street and brought it home for a second chance at life. The rocks came from train yards up in the Bronx. Apparently the Bronx is pretty rocky cause there was no shortage of 'em.



I took this pic from the dining room window, but now I think the above shot was from the second floor. Oh well. You can see the red maple has grown considerably. Tim's trying some bonsai techniques (see the ropes?) to train the branches a little more horizontal. He also cut back the red twig dogwood that's smashed against the bamboo fence yesterday. According to my handy BBG guide to Shrubs :"Shrubs such as red-twig dogwood, which are grown primarily for the decorative effect of young stems in winter, should be pruned hard in early spring to produce as many new shoots as possible"
Well, yesterday was technically still Spring (by the way, Happy Summer to you!) so we at least got the season right. Have to wait till winter to see our young stems' decorative effect!

Tune in next time for a found deity!