Making our way home from Colorado involved three days of driving. I didn't want it to just be a rush home though with nothing to look forward to (as if being home wasn't enough) so I planned a few interesting stops. A hint:
You may remember over the summer when I salvaged "the rock" from my childhood yard and placed it in my front garden.
If you are one of the few who follows my garden persona (@inwig) on Instagram you've gotten a sneak peek, but my Pachypodium lamerei has started to bloom:
After a week in which we received somewhere around 6" (15cm) or more of rain here in St. Louis, I now have a gravel pile in my garden.
I'm whipping through my list of garden projects: first the trellis, now the path that runs next to that trellis. If you remember, this path is on the south side of the house and turns into a stream whenever it rains.
Yesterday I posted about an early-season visit to a local nursery: Sherwood's Forest. That trip on Saturday did not end after that, as there are two other nurseries within 5 minutes of Sherwood's.
Back in the garden this weekend after more than 10 days, and the cool weather inspired me to do some digging. As most of these projects go, we start with a quite boring "before" photo:
The south side of my house has always been a challenge to plant. Hard-packed clay soil, a fairly steep slope, sun-baked in summer but full shade in winter. With the addition of my cactus beds over the last two years though, it's become much better. Maybe even special.
The garden is getting to that point where most of the major work in some beds has been completed (even though there's much to do in other beds) and I can start looking at the details.
One of the things I like most about having a blog is that it introduces me to lots of like-minded people: experienced gardeners, beginners, plant-lovers, bamboo growers, and sometimes companies. Yes, marketing departments sometimes find me and request that I take a look at some product or another and post about it. My criteria for this type of "opportunity" is that it really must be something that I'm excited about and would actually use in my garden. If not, I politely decline the offer -- which is what almost always happens.
This past weekend was three days long for me, and I tackled a few projects -- some that I knew about previously (bamboo rhizome pruning), but one that I hadn't planned on.
When I was growing up, comic books were one of my main imagination triggers. I loved the Marvel comics (no DC for me!) and trips to the local drug or book stores so I could choose new issues were greatly anticipated.
As the interesting part of our August roadtrip vacation was coming to a close, we had a rare full day in the same camping spot -- no leaving during the day for the next destination! Enjoying the sunrise on this day that promised to be warmer than we had hoped for, we made our plans for the morning.
I'm back to posts that detail our August roadtrip. So far we've been to the North Dakota badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, and Devils Tower. At the halfway-point of our two weeks, we're technically on the way back home -- but there's so much more to see!
The evening bike ride really tired us out, but after a good night's sleep we were ready to break camp and see the tower up close with sufficient light.
I spend a lot of time focusing on the views of my own garden, but I can see my neighbor's yards through my windows too. What do they have to offer?
Actually, "rock" is probably not the most descriptive title for this post.
Yesterday I "finished" the walkway that I started earlier in the week. That first day I dug the walkway, filled with base rock, and laid most of the stones. There were a few holes to fill, but I just couldn't do any more and was out of daylight.
At some point this summer I decided that we needed a walkway going from the street to the front door. Our existing walkway goes from the front door to the driveway, and I've lived with that for 20 years or so. Why is 2012 the magic year for a walkway?
This Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Filicoides' was planted in 2006 when we had the trees taken down and I built the patio area. It was about 4' (1.2m) tall and looked like a nice accent plant for the spot. Labeled as a "slow grower" -- which I disagree with -- it's now a major focal point here.
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