Sunday, August 2, 2009

Beautiful Redheads and Beautiful Flowers


What I do when I'm not blogging. If you click on the pictures you can see the weeds. Clicking on the daylily pictures is waaaaaaaaay fun! Great way to see the intricate edges...

In order for my husband and I to be able to communicate when we discuss the property every area has a name. Hence we have the front yard, back yard, side yard, east lawn, the mound, croquet field, meditation garden, cutting garden, veggie garden, herb garden, the gully, and each of the seven daylily beds has a number. Behind the three or so acres that is planted is several acres of undeveloped area we call the DMZ
...

Update: I might add that we started about 10 years ago with nothing. Not one tree, shrub, flower, or blade of grass. There wasn't even a driveway. Just an unpainted box with a front and back deck and five acres of knapweed - the most noxious of all weeds. We did all this armed with only a garden fork and a shovel. I don't even own a rototiller. Only the driveway and the daylily beds were done with the help of "real" equipment.

We planted every tree, over 150 lilac bushes from starts acquired on an empty lot (with permission), and planted grass with Costco seed. Many of the trees came from Henry Fields and the rest wherever I could find a good deal. If my friends had a baby tree sprout up in their yard I took it off their hands. I picked up two rosa rugosa at a farmer's market and now have about 50 of these sweet smelling shrubs.

In the gully I sprayed diligently for weeds (still do), and collected seed in the autumn from farms across the area that had different types of grains and wheat growing to populate that area. All thinned iris, lambs ear, oregano, and mint go to the gully. Free is good! I learned that when I was about 5 years old and dragged home some iris from the trash pile behind a house in our neighborhood. Fifty nine years later I'm still dragging home orphan plants.



Welcome to the "little yellow box" - entry drive




Back yard. Poor St. Francis is buried in the flowers
More back yard with some of my 1500 or so feet of hose. It takes up to 500 feet just to get to the gully. I really should have bought stock in a hose company...



The back yard is filled with Stargazer and other Oriental lilies. The smell is delicious!



The gully - grass and wildflowers

Meditation garden with a lovely statue of Mary (and more hose) That cute little tractor is one of my prized possessions. It's a self-propelled sprinkler that we put on at night and it chugs along for 7 or 8 hours spewing water. It does an area of about 150 feet by 40 feet wide. Now if I just owned a full size tractor...
Even with the tractor going at night, when the weather is hot (like it is now), we have three spigots (two with splitters) going full blast 24/7

Outside the meditation garden looking toward the "croquet field"

A portion of the cutting garden -meditation garden in background. The house that is visible is actually about two acres away. The property slopes in the back giving the appearance in this photo that the house is very close.

One of my hiding places


One of four Siberian Iris beds - post bloom

East Lawn in front
One of the Spacecoast daylilies

Sunshine Splendor (and gosh - more hose) The white door leaning on the tool shed is going to be part of my new cold frame
One of the front daylily beds -
Outside the meditation garden - the mound

Seurat
Custard Candy
Ed Murray

Looking toward "croquet field"
Align CenterEruption
Ben Adams
Ed Brown





No, Stacy McCain's wife is not the only beautiful redhead in the world (but she is in the top ten). From another beautiful redhead, Blessings Each Day, comes this wonderful and uplifting Sunday reading. I "kid" you not....

17 comments:

Sarah - Kala said...

Gorgeous garden!!!!!

ABNPOPPA said...

Absolutely beautiful! Not much more can top those piks. It looks like a labor of love to me.
Thanks for sharing.

Pops

Austringer said...

Hi Adrienne,

I thought I'd take a look at your blog, now that I've made your acquaintance on Voice of the Vicar.

Fantastic gardens...do you sell your Siberian Iris and Daylilies mail order?

Mark D. said...

Good night -- your gardens are incredible. What a magnificent piece of property! Looks like heaven. Seriously, what a tribute to your ability to landscape and work with plants. Incredible...

Cheers!

Adrienne said...

Sarah - I forgive you the pincushion "incident". I'm just going to have to shop for a decent pin cushion. Isn't this moving week?

Pops - I really think it is a tiny slice of insanity actually. We call it our "model railroad" - it's never done! Speaking of which, I would almost give my left arm for a garden railroad but we're talking BIG bucks! Father Jay Toborowsky is a fabulous model railroader. Does the semi-full size ones. Builds them from scratch. He's listed in my sidebar. Go visit him.

Adrienne said...

Austie - Oh my - I'm honored! Now you know for sure I'm completely insane and not just a little wackie ;-) When are you going to start a blog?????????

Adrienne said...

Well Mark - It's not like you can't pop in for French Press coffee and take a stroll. Seriously!!! We need to get together.

Adrienne said...

Austie - sorry - yes I do sell online. I'm been mostly ebay but it has gotten very bad for the small seller so I'm working on my Etsy store. I do get an agricultural break on taxes so I always say I've made my first $1200.00 before digging my first daylily.

Adrienne said...

.....and - do you actually fly hawks?

Austringer said...

Hi Adrienne,

Yes, I do. I've been flying hawks since I was 16.

So -- do you have a list of available cultivars that you can send me somehow?

Austringer said...

Adrienne,

Yes, I do fly hawks! I'm amazed that you knew the meaning of the word "austringer".

Terry Nelson said...

Wow! What an estate! Gorgeous! (You and the gardens!)

Austringer said...

Hi Adrienne,

Sorry about the duplicate post there....I thought that I must have made a mistake when I didn't see the first show up.

But I really am interested in your daylilies (and do you sell Siberian iris too?), if you're set up to ship them to Minnesota. I'm trying to recall, though -- I think I've only ordered and planted daylilies in the spring. Is fall planting not a good idea?

Beautiful gardens, by the way.

Adrienne said...

Austie - you can plant daylilies at any time. It's almost impossible to kill a daylily - even in MN.

I only carry 4 high bred Siberians - Sally Kerlin, Percheron, Butter and Sugar, and my favorite and very, very hard to find, Cherry Lynn.

Perhaps you could email me - it might be easier.

adrienne at icehouse dot net is my "real" email

Your comment didn't show up because I have comment moderation on due to a troll who likes to call me the "c" word, uses other ugly words, and wishes for my death.

P.S. hubby and I are from MN (St. Paul and Mpls)

Austringer said...

Adrienne,
Remember: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you (Mt 5:11-12)". I'm pretty darn sure the obnoxious troll is very angry at the God he probably professes not to believe in -- you're just the unfortunate target of that rage. I pray the Rosary at an abortion clinic in a Minneapolis suburb (Robbinsdale) most Saturday mornings, and I'm always amazed to find that even when it's a below-zero frigid Minnesota winter morning, some people find the sight of people praying quietly so disturbing that they feel compelled to roll their car windows down in order to shout obscenities.

Of the Siberians you mentioned, I'm only familiar with Percheron and Butter and Sugar.

How long ago did you live in MN? What parishes did you belong to?

Adrienne said...

I'll post a picture of Cherry Lynne...

Grew up in Nativity parish and went to Nativity School. Attended Derham Hall when it was still located on the Campus of St. Catherine. Only about a 100 students total.

New Jersey troll hasn't been around in awhile. I think his computer access has been limited in the psyche ward. heh

ashley said...

Your garden is absolutely gorgeous, splendid, stunning, impressive, dazzling, awe-inspiring... I'm in awe (and a little envious). I too like to provide a good home for orphan plants. About half of those that I acquire from the Cathedral when they're about to be thrown out thrive with a little TLC.

P.S. I followed your instructions for cultivating geraniums earlier this year and now have four pink plants instead of the one. Thanks for the advice.