Okay...the winged visitors just got weirder

Not that parrots are weird enough....now I have turkeys. What the hell is going on??? She was hanging out right by my office window yesterday. I thought Eric was yanking my chain when he yells into my office there's a female turkey in our yard. Wow....just wow.

Shout out for organic lawn care

Eric asked me to mention to my clients that he is starting to offer organic lawn care with All Island Landscape out of Portsmouth. He is their Turf supervisor and this is something he's wanted to do for some time. I really do think he's on to something here with the organics. So, if you are interested and live in the East Bay area and the Providence/Cranston/Warwick/East Greenwich/ North Kingstown areas, give him at shout. At this point, he's not servicing the western and northern parts of Rhode Island. He wants to as he hires fertilizing minions.

Eric Larson
All Island Landscape, Inc.
Portsmouth, Rhode Island
(401) 683-1588
http://www.allislandlandscape.com/home.html

Margaritaville, Rhode Island

The tropics seem to have taken over Garden Consultant HQ this week! Orchids in full bloom and parrots...yes parrots outside near Bird Central. I know I have mentioned the parrots that fly over our house at least a couple times a day. I'm usually met with looks of "Yeah, sure Cris...you have parrots flying over your house. Whatever." I have photographic evidence of said parrots now. They were camped out in the oak by my front door and then the oak where my bird feeders are. I have been trying since we moved here to get them to come down and feed. This was the closest they have been to the feeders. Maybe someday they will come and dine.

See, I'm not 10 pounds of crazy stuffed into a 5 pound bag. Those look an awful lot like parrots to me. :) After doing some research of them...I discovered they are called Monk Parrots (or Parakeets) and flocks have been seen in Providence, Riverside, and Warwick. That's pretty freakin' cool.

Inside tropical reports are of the orchids which have been blooming for a while!

My Walking Iris which I took the photo too soon. (Above)

Here's the latest update on the Pooch Front. We finally have some answers to Sam's extreme weight loss and a bunch of other odd things which have been going on with him for the past several months. He's got Cushings Disease and we've started treatment for it. Hopefully, we can help him out and make him more comfortable. He probably be on meds for the rest of his life but hey, if it makes him feel better...that's what we're going to do. Lars is growing like a weed (pun intended!) He's started puppy classes and is already showing glimmers of working dog greatness. Here's the monkey in an explosion of naughtiness!

Rhode Island Flower Show 2008!

Well, I survived the flower show again! LOL It was a long, crazy, and fun week! I had designed the RINLA exhibit for the third year in a row and I do believe this year's was the best and I was very pleased with it. The theme this year was "Fairy Tales" and I wanted to design up something that people could take ideas from and use in their landscape. So, I chose to design a garden that would attract fairies and elves. Most of the plants I used in the garden had some sort of use to the fairies. The guys started to build the hardscape of the garden on Sunday and I came on Monday to start placing plant material.

Tuesday the flowers came and we worked feverishly to get everything placed and basically finished. Wednesday, we tweaked things and had little detail things to do like placing moss around rocks and making sure that pots were hidden.

I am pleased to say that the judges liked the exhibit too! We placed second place in the non profit catagory! Hooray!!

Here are a bunch of photos of the completed garden -

For the fourth year in a row, I've also had my booth in the markplace part of the flower show. It was a good show despite the snowy weather on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were jammin' and I got to see a lot of clients of mine who I had met at previous shows. I met a ton of nice, new people who I may look forward in helping them achieve their landscaping wishes.

A glimmer of spring

Spring is coming eventhough it doesn't feel like it outside. My Witch Hazel 'Jelena' is in full flower as of last week! I love, love, LOVE, this tree and cannot wait for it to grow up. I think the copper flowes will look awesome up against the grey of the weathered shingles (when they weather) I've used this tree in a couple of different designs and I would like to get the yellow variety, 'Arnold's Promise' for the back 40.

Next week is the Rhode Island Flower Show!!! The dates are Thursday, February 21st through Sunday, February 24th. I'll be in my usual spot - Booth 311 in the Marketplace or at the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association's Exhibit. This is the third year in a row I have been the designer for their exhibit. If you're in the neighborhood of the RI Convention Center, stop on by.

The Ecological Landscaping Conference: "RE-VISIONING THE LANDSCAPE:

An Ecological Approach" is in Springfield, MA in March. URI is a co-sponsor.
You do not need to be an ELA member to attend. It's geared for organic landscapers and serious organic gardeners.

For info and registration, see http://www.ecolandscaping.org/conference.html.

Welcome Lars Larson, Intern

Here's a peek at the training Sam had to give Lars today to work in The Garden Consultant's office. Here Lars learns the ropes of Break Time.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, both 4 legged and 2 legged.

Welcome aboard to The Garden Consultant, little man.

3 More Sleeps....

until little Lars comes home! He'll be 8 weeks this coming Sunday and he's been cleared to come home. So, it looks like I'll have to make a new position in The Garden Consultant Customer Service Department. Sam's not looking to retire any time soon so I can't retire him just yet. Maybe Lars can be an intern for a while. :)

Probably the biggest day of my career

Here's a little known fact about The Garden Consultant...I'm a raging night owl! I'm getting ready to hit the sack but have to report this news from the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association's Annual Winter Meeting and Conference for 2008.

The first thing wasn't really a surprise as it's been on the discussion table for a while. But they voted me in as this year's Vice President. So....that's very cool. What's doubly cool about being the Veep is I'll become President of the organization in 2009. That's pretty big.

Secondly...for the second year in a row, The Garden Consultant has won first place for Landscape Design in RINLA's 2007 Excellence Awards. Once again, pretty cool accomplishment.

Now the thing that blew me away and I didn't see coming was that RINLA and the New England Nursery Association has named ME....yes ME the Young Nursery Professional of the Year for Rhode Island. I'm still all speechless about that. Wow....I think 2008 is going to be a great year!

Being Festive outside!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this past week and here's Sam wishing all a very Happy New Year!!!

The good news is the snow has melted enough I have gotten about 85% of my measuring for the winter finished. I think I have just 2 big jobs left and one small project to measure. PHEW! Once I get those done...it can snow all it wants. I think we're supposed to get some snow this evening which shouldn't accumulate too much. I think at this moment, it's projected to be about 2 - 4". That's A LOT better than the 4 - 7" they were forecasting last night.

I hadn't had a chance to post my window box all dressed up in its winter garb yet. I think this one blows away the one I had last year.

I thought it was so cool, it didn't even need a bow. I used some white pine roping that I took apart and some variegated boxwood, both of which I bought. The rest of the box came from my yard...I used Cedar, Norway Spruce, Eupatorium seed heads, Sedum, spent Hydrangea flowers, and the spent plumes from my Japanese Silver Feather Grass. The Ivy hanging down was left over from the summer box. I'm very curious to see if that actually makes it through the winter. I might run out there and take some cuttings to use around the yard.

The latest fish update from Lake Larson is everyone appears to be doing well! The ice melted and I can really see everything in there. They are swimming around(granted a little slower) like they normally do and I haven't seen any casulties. I did see two good sized mosquito fish swimming around. I have noticed that the hundreds of them we had as we went into the fall are missing. I bet the koi and goldfish have eaten them. That's okay, I was getting very concerned about their numbers. That's the circle of life, I suppose. I may take some photos of them today.

Let's see...Eric continues to get better. There's nothing big ro report on him which is a good thing. He's got about 2 more weeks before he can drive. Being house bound HAS to be driving him nuts.

Here's the news on the newest addition to Garden Consultant HQ I have been waiting to add. We're hoping to get a little male rottie in the next month or so. It's not for 100% certain yet because we need to make sure the litter's personality will match what I would like to do with him. But the lady who owns the mom told me she doesn't see any reason why the temperment wouldn't match my goals for obedience and working him. So, if all goes as planned - Deerwood's Larson Bravo Zulu; call name - Lars will join us the first weekend of February. Here's the link to the litter so you all can see!

http://www.esmondrott.com/deerwood_L.htm

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Don't get me wrong...I love snow. I'm probably one of the few people in Rhode Island who does like snow and hates a snowless winter. But, the timing is all wrong this year! Mother Nature was a little too eager for my work schedule.

Indoor Gardening takes over

I didn't want to make that last post an enormous one but I have some neat things happening indoors!

PAPERWHITES!!! Personally, I can't stand their scent. But this time of year, I'll tolerate it.

Here's the first of this year's orchid crop. **grin** I'll have to keep my eyes open for other buds coming.

The winter garden

Holy White Christmas Batman! I can't believe we've had this much snow this early! I don't remember EVER having this much in December this long. I'm kind of panicking because I don't have any of the measurements done for my winter projects. I normally do them all this month but I took a week off for the surgery and then it snowed the following week! UGH! It's starting to melt now and this rain tonight will really help. I should be able to head out this coming week and go out to do most of them. I feel like a complete grinch that I want the snow gone. After I get my measuring done, it can snow all it wants!

But I got some great frost photos of the yard the second week of December. I had gotten up early and had an opportunity to run outside with my camera:

(That fern photo above and the hens and chicks below are my favorites!)

Update on Eric

My last post I made a comment that Eric has going to go in for more back surgery. December 3rd, we went up to New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and he had his spinal fusion revision to remove a broken screw in his lowest level (L5-S1). Apparently he had an area in his first fusion that never fused completely after all of these years and that caused the screw to snap. All this time I thought it was doing crazy things like building Lake Larson which caused that screw to break. The surgeon said that it was the non-union in his fusion, nothing he did caused it to break, and that Eric will be close to 100% once this revision fuses.

So, he's going to be laid up for the next two and a half months and has to take it easy for the next year before he can carry on normally. But he's doing really well and getting stronger every day which is awesome! Thanks everyone who has wished him good luck and an excellent recovery.