elfcroft

Not this grass!

Amber waves

Chair to Throne

Japanese Blood Grass

Fall foliage from the ground!

Love this new blog.

http://pimlaspondering.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/release-the-kraken/

When I googled “kraken”, I found out it was a mythical sea creature.

Fast forward to today, when I am wrestling with nine-year old perennial geraniums….ah ha these subterranean roots remind me of the images for “kraken”.

This was a matter of life and death.  After ten years of growth as feature plants in my largest perennial bed, my pair of Wine and Roses  Weigela looked very ragged this spring.  With instructions from Google search references, I trimmed them back only to have severe drought conditions thru July and into August.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6403914_prune-wine-rose-weigela.html

The great challenge in my case was to get positioned correctly to pull up volunteer trees growing up through the woody weigela branches.  (This is also a problem with butterfly bushes and lilacs.)  More trimming gave me better access.  Rain from Hurricane Isaac gave me better chances of pulling (the not so little) trees up.  I decided that if I could not remove the volunteer trees from the tangled branches, the weigela would need to go.

Digging required my super professional weed shovel, because the roots can be 12 inches deep!

Pro-weeder

Mission accomplished.  One bag full of volunteer trees and trimmings.  Weigela topped off with 1 cu ft enriched garden soil and 2 cu ft mulch each.

Weigela

7 watt lights

20 watt light

These photos do not do justice to the impact and presence of down lighting.

We had four different styles of low voltage lighting on the perimeter of foundation plantings….metal, plastic, spot and glowing….all replaced.  After 20 years, this is a modern look which lights the brick masonary and siding!  We bought the materials from Lowe’s for less than $200.

We have had perennial and annual herbs in the patio garden for years.  Aromas of lavender, oregano, basil, sage, etc are wonderful.  Unfortunately, the seasons change before I use the herbs for cooking.  I have tried drying them.  I’ve even done little gift bags of catnip at the holidays.

I am inspired by the idea of herbs chopped and frozen in ice-cube trays.  Last weekend, I froze a tray of basil.  Today, two trays of parsley.  Filling each cube with a tablespoon of herbs, it takes about two cups for a full tray.

http://www.simplycanning.com/freezing-herbs.html

I expect to use all of these cubes preparing soup through the winter.

Ahhh!  A lazy summer day.

This summer has been extraordinarily hot and dry.  Record breaking.  Corn and soybean crops lost.

That said, after a few inches of rain and cooler temperatures over the weekend, it was time to cut back the lilac by the driveway.  It is over 20 years old and had grown into the adjacent lilac, spruce and tulip tree.

Trailer full for green cycling

Featuring herbs tagged with ceramic labels by Kate Lally

http://katelally.com/

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