Wordless water garden Wednesday

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Big Brother is watching!

I will every once in a while go on Google Maps or Live Maps and stalk clients gardens just for the heck of it. I think it's fun to see what season the satellite was over head or to see if the photo was snapped before or after the landscape was installed. I checked out one of my favorite projects in Portsmouth and I wasn't ready for what I saw...

See that red jeep in the driveway?? That's mine. See those two figures with the shadows in the garden in the backyard...that's me having a consultation with Kelly, my client. How freaky (and a little disturbing) is that!!

You never know when Big Brother is watching...



(oh and FYI, this was early spring and after the installation! LOL)

Window Box Wednesday

I do love creating this window box every season and then changing it out. I actually did put pansies in it early this spring. I think I was so over the glum and snowy winter we had here in New England and really felt the need to have some spring where I could see it. Our couch is on the other side of the window and I (and Lars) perch there a lot.

When we first moved into the house, the light exposure was way different than what is there now. I could plant full sun annuals and have them do well...but now? Not so much. Because of the large oak that is growing on the opposite side of the walkway and the house corner to the left of the box sits due south, this area is now solidly part sun/shade. The gardens in front of the house under the box have changed too and are still in a state of flux. Over the seasons the window box has had more and more shady annuals, starting with impatiens and coleus. Now's it's primary shady annuals with the same impatiens, large leave begonias (who are getting eaten by the impatiens,) Tri-color sweet potato vine and the two full sun annuals who are holding their own - eucalyptus and the diamond frost Euphorbia in the center of the box. I think this is a winning match for right now and I'll stick with it. I'll probably do some minor changes like in placement of the annuals and the colors for years to come...but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I think more people in gardening need to follow that mantra! :)

Bluesday Tuesday

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Oh yeah...about that grass.

Grass seed really likes 4+ inches of rain in little over week. This area was nothing but dust not too long ago. Now, it looks like Ireland back there. The turf gods apparently approve of agility land.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Since it's soggy today -

The only gripe I have about my new iphone is it doesn't seem to take good pics of the water lilies. It takes fantastic photos overall but for some reason it washes out the colors of the lilies. The lilies yield has been respectable. We've had numerous yellow ones (which is what is featured above) and peach ones. I have to say, the peach are my favorite! I need to get some pics of them soon. There is a white and baby pink lily out there which we've had very few flowers on. I wonder if the fish are messing with the root system like they have with some of the other lilies that have passed on.

I am very pleased at seeing inches of rain fall again in August. As of right now, we've had 3.8" of rain which the gardens and lawns have been drinking up. We put down grass seed in agility land last week right before the rains started...and we have grass back there...lots of it.

This was last Wednesday and you can see the hint of green which came to our surprise. Over the weekend, it continued to shoot up and now it's approaching lush. I'll have to take photos in a couple of days to show the progress. Granted it's not wicked sunny back there...but you can grow grass seed in the summer if you have the right amount of water and temperatures that aren't blistering. 

There is a lot of stuff I didn't talk about this season!

As with any garden, things are in flux all year round. Here, we (well...Eric) did some hardscape stuff which we've been toying with since we moved in here 7 years ago. True to his nickname at work - The Larsonist - Eric scored a ton of pavers and stone which was destined to the grinder at a gravel yard. Here was our crappy asphalt walkway before:

And this is what I came home to one night after work: 

 as you can see...this would most definitely qualify as an "Oh Crap" project! LOL It was fun trying to figure out with Eric how the walkway was going to work with a mix of materials. He had grabbed a bunch of Unilock pavers in tan and these beyond wonderful, large tan/gray/pink stones. Luckily the colors worked well with the pavers and the bluestone caps he had for the stairs. We decided to make the stones the featured part of the walkway and used the pavers as a border, more or less. Luckily as well, the old walkway's width worked beautifully with what we thought up:

The finished product ended up being stunning if I don't say so myself! I am so blessed I have a husband who can "do stuff."

Love it!!!

Considering it's something more than the spring crush...

That's kept me from posting on my blog on a regular basis. I've been grappling with a feeling I haven't been quite able to put my finger on this spring and summer. But I think these past two weeks I've identified what I haven't been wanting to admit. I'm suffering from burnout. There, I said it. This post isn't going to be about gardens and plants...it's going to be more cathartic of where I am in my place on this planet.

This spring and summer I have been running around like a complete lunatic and there were beyond numerous weeks where I wasn't home at night. Between meetings, the spring work load, nursery and landscape association stuff,  agility classes several times a week, me teaching dog training classes, and then working or dog showing weekends...I have no candle left because I burned it up months ago. I've made promises to clients I can't keep without killing myself this year in order to cinch projects. I haven't done newsletters for clients for two quarters now, and there's this general apathy that looms over me. That was the feeling I couldn't describe...the overall "Meh" feeling about my business, work, and my own gardens. Most of what I was doing felt like it was "one more freakin' thing I have to worry about." Then there was the anxiety I was feeling over what was supposed to be a fun hobby with Lars...we weren't progressing fast enough at the agility shows and we started to backslide in fact. It become something that wasn't fun anymore and there was one glaring moment in a class where I had an epiphany that ultimately lead me to putting my finger on what this post is about.

What it boils down to is "I do too much." and I am exhausted by it. 

Agility Land complete with newly sprouted grass!

It was about 5 years ago where I felt like I felt overwhelmed by life. Sure, I have felt times where my life is spinning out of control...but those were usually short lived for a couple of weeks. But this is the first time I've felt burned out. I stepped away from all of the agility classes I had been taking. I didn't realize how important it was for me to not have to go someplace every night. Eric and I have been working on in area in the waste land that is the foam finger that is a couple of weeks shy of officially becoming my own "agility land." I can train and practice at home now when I feel like it without an hour drive each way. I actually made this week in the office meeting free for the most part and it's made a big difference for my psyche. I've taken the time to work in my own yard a little bit at night and it feels really nice to have leisurely evenings.


I need to be way more honest with myself about what I feasibly can and what I can't do. I need to look at why am I doing things in my life both work and personally and who am I really doing this for. There's an inventory that needs to be taken and I have a feeling I need to really cut things that aren't working for me or my self care. I think being centered and content needs to win out over "look what I have accomplished." I need to simplify my life and start enjoying all of the aspects of it again.

The big guys, Chunk and Rorschach, snooping for munchies.