Great Weekend!

Country Girl and I spent the weekend in Buffalo for Garden Walk and we had a great time despite the fact that she was tired and I was cranky. We got to meet Jim and his wife, Elizabeth and her husband, Susan, Michele and lots of very friendly gardeners. We really think Garden Walk would be a great place for a big bloggers meet up.

We started off Saturday morning at Jim's and he has the most unusual planting that we've seen to date. He has an espalier of fruit trees and of course I forgot to take a picture because I was too busy talking, but take at look at his blog.

The weather was a bit iffy Saturday afternoon and we thought that would cut down on the crowds and we could have the gardens all to ourselves. Everyone else had umbrellas too.


For the most part the walkers are polite but there were a couple of incidents that made me wonder if some of the gardeners will say "never again"! I don't know how this lawn held up. When we were there people were swarming all over it even though you could easily see this gorgeous bed easily from the sidewalk. Maybe I'm just cranky because I couldn't get a good picture without any backsides.

Several gardens had areas that looked trampled and there was no need for it. People were in a hurry and couldn't be bothered waiting to use the garden paths, sidewalks and driveways. One house sat on a teeny tiny lot quite close to the sidewalk and still had an incredible number and variety of flowers. We were appalled as an older couple boldly walked up to the house and started looking in windows! We're fairly certain someone was home. It would have made our day if the homeowner had opened the door just as the couple was trying to look in!

This fountain made us think of Annie in Austin.

A buffalo in Buffalo!

While my sister was engrossed in beautiful plantings I kept distracting her by making her look at various architectural details. What's not to love about this house? It was the chimney that held my attention.

Buffalo is full of churches.
The sun really washed out the dark stone facade.

This house didn't have a garden
but look at the harlequin design.

I would love to have a porch. Country Girl has a small one.
I loved most of the ones we saw but especially several rounded ones.

Over the next few days we'll share some of the garden and flower pictures we took.

Visiting in the Garden

The summer seems to be flying by. Over a week ago Country Girl and I had the opportunity to meet Martha in person. Her daughter was at a camp not too terribly far from us so she and her son were able to stop for a couple of hours one afternoon.

We had an enjoyable afternoon visiting in the back yard. Martha is just as pleasant and down to earth in person as she is on her blog. Maybe we will be able to get together again next year.

This past week I went back to work as they were short handed. The hours aren't bad but it has certainly thrown off my schedule. Country Girl is still working long hours but hopefully that will change soon.

Better Late Than Never

My peonies finished their blooms some time ago but I am finally finding a little time to post and thought it was better late than never to show them. All were gifts from the prior owners, a couple that loved to garden.

I love the yellow in the center of the hot pink one (notice I have no clue as to it's real name.) I'm not sure what happened but this one started coming up in the middle of the pink bush. I had a bush of the dual color but this year, there were only a few blooms. I think I dug some up for someone and didn't realize how much of it I dug up. Hopefully it spreads again.


The wild daisys just
grew by the peonies.
I liked them together
so I let them stay.

We're Ready for Garden Walk

We have our hotel room booked and are looking forward to a weekend away. There will be over 300 gardens open at Garden Walk Buffalo this year but we plan to take things at a more leisurely pace than we did last year!

I've been having a lot of fun playing with Wordle. Maybe we'll wear matching t-shirts, then again maybe not.

Blooms Galore

There is so much blooming right now! The weather has been perfect the last few days and I have been enjoying my time outside. My vacation has been cut short, I go back to driving on Monday so I'm going to enjoy the next few days.

A Mini Makeover of a Blah Area

I struggled with what to do with this bed at the front of my house for some time. This is a photo from last year. All I could think of was that shutters would help and stalled on the garden end of it. You can see how blah it looked. The other side of the front is blah as well but there is a cement path that needs to come out before I can tackle that so back to the bed at hand. I decided I had to do something this year, even if it was minor. I had a hosta I could split so I brought the bed out a bit.

I realize it was a rather simple change but I feel I'm making progress and it's an improvement. Sometimes it's baby steps that get us there. I have color from the hostas when the bleeding hearts and phlox are done blooming. I added a baptisia there on the right side next to the steps. I got it at an end of year sale last fall but it's not very happy. I may give it another year and see what it does before moving it.

There are a few foxglove Apple gave me that should bloom next year. She gave me five starters that I put toward the back of the bed. I also found some toad-lilys on clearance that came back and will hopefully bloom this year.

I would like to line the bed with stones but I think I may make it bigger so I think I will wait and contemplate a bit. I can't wait to remove the walk on the right side in front of the porch area. We plan to put in a curved sidewalk in someday where two people can walk side by side and then have a garden area from the curve of the walk to the porch. When that happens, it may make sense to bring out this bed even more. If anyone has suggestions, I am always looking for advice from other gardeners. You can probably tell but the area gets shade most of the year.

Yippee!!!!!!

I won the garden cart! I can't wait to put my old wheel barrow out of it's misery.

My grateful thanks to Elizabeth Licata, Garden Rant and Troy-Bilt!

Maybe I should go out and buy lottery tickets.........

Nah, that would be pushing my luck I think.

Congratulations to the other winners, Gina at My Skinny Garden, Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening, Tamra at Eat Seasonally and Vivian at This is the place.

Red Storm Border Lilies

Remember the "mutant lilies" I wrote about back in May? They're blooming like crazy now but if I didn't know better I'd still swear they were to different varieties.

I bought them from Michigan Bulb and this is some of what their catalog says:

Botanical Name: Lilium 'Red Carpet' (Asiatic)

Height/Habit: 14 - 18"

Unique Characteristics: Border lilies are referred to as the 'garden charmer'. Extremely suitable for planting in containers or front position in a border.

After reading this I planted them at the front of the border on both sides of the walkway through the butterfly garden. The ones on the garage side, the ones that looked funny in May, are just as promised with a couple taller than I'd like, a little over 2', but OK. I have them planted with dwarf shasta daisies and behind them are bright yellow coreopsis.


The ones on the other side are 3 1/2' tall! I can't make up my mind if I'm unhappy with this or not. They flank a butterfly bush. Right now there is a small patch of sundrops and violets that really look terrible. Also there are some tiny dahlias and a mum to the left and sweet william to the right. I have no idea what this area will eventually look like and I may decide I have too much red here but the dark red of the lilies is gorgeous and I don't want them to be hidden behind something else.

Which brings me to the color difference.
The taller ones are a very dark red.

The shorter ones are a lighter shade
and the petals roll back a bit.

Of course if I move the taller ones to the back of the border someplace they will undoubtedly decide to grow just 2' tall and be lighter in color. I've had some other hilarious mistakes where plants I thought would stay short were planted at the front edge of the border but I'll save them for another time.

My Mystery Garden

Well it's not much of a mystery anymore but that's what I've been calling this little garden.

Ron dug up this area sometime last summer. My kitchen table sits by the double windows that overlook the area. I love water features and thought how wonderful it would be to have a garden with a fountain below the window. I could relax at the table and enjoy the flowers along with the sound of trickling water (last summer I made Apple crazy with my hunt for just the right fountain but I digress...) Unfortunately things got busy and I didn't have many extra plants so the area sat there for awhile but the weeds were happy.

I found my fountain and it makes the nicest little trickle sound as a fountain should. Apple gave me a yellow lily and some liatrice from her garden. A friend gave me a hosta and some Giant Solomon's Seal. I found the blue salvia at the farmers market and had to try it after seeing it at Cornell Plantations. I also bought some Russian sage and a pink coreopsis that is now blooming.

I had seven plants I could identify. The rest were mysteries by the time I planted the garden. Apple and I went to visit Kerri of Colors of the Garden last year and she sent me home with some treasures. We also had a plant swap at the Garden Club at the end of the year and I am always getting pass-a-longs from friends. Life was crazy so everything ended up in this area which was really a holding bed, not a garden. I of course didn't label anything and couldn't remember what I had been given. This spring I dug everything up and rearranged it. Apple suggested I mark my path BEFORE planting which worked out well. Sometimes the obvious isn't so obvious for some of us. LOL. I'm so glad I have a sister with good advice! Since I couldn't remember what was what, I just plunked things here and there and figured I would move things as they bloomed if they didn't fit.

Now some of the mysteries are solved. There are shasta daisies and gloriosa daisies from Kerri - Thank you again Kerri! Some phlox, two iris', coral bells, and I suppose, a few more mysteries yet to be revealed....

I'm sure I will add to this space and move things over time. I also want to add a chair so I can sit and enjoy the sound of the fountain and read a book. I'm not sure about the "stepping stones". Maybe it's because I know they are old tiles a friend gave me but they will work for now.

Mystery Color Revealed

The Asiatic lily that I picked up on sale last year has bloomed and it's a pretty one! I was certain that it would be orange or yellow, neither are favorite colors of mine. I've read that Asiatics don't have much of a scent but this one is very nice - if you get down on your knees. It's only 12" tall!


I don't have much any experience with lilies but the foliage on this one is different than any others I've seen. And I thought it would be much taller.


From where I sit to have my morning coffee it's hard to see. After it is done blooming I'll be moving someplace where it will be able to show off a bit more.