Around The Garden

I can't believe it has been another week in the garden.  There have been lots of changes and not all for the better.  We had a huge storm early Wednesday morning and many of my plantings suffered damage from the heavy downpours.  I will be cutting all of my Carex back on the north side of the house because most of it got flattened.  The Persicaria on the south side also lost several large stems, bent to the ground.

The Centranthus in my alley garden is leaning heavily, but I hate to trim it back since it was in full flower.  I am thinking if I don't the cars will be rolling over it.  My shorter plantings seem to have come through the deluge much better.

Pretty Much Picasso

The vote is not in yet, but I am not sure Picasso would like his name on a flower that does not deserve the kudos that he normally expects.

This new introduction from Proven Winners has the color attributes that you would Ooh and Ah over but so far I am not seeing the performance.  I have placed it in three different planters around my garden and even though it is growing well, I am not sure what this flower really looks like.  It doesn't seem to open fully and some flowers split when trying to open. 

None of my specimens looks like the photo put out by Proven Winners, and one gardener per Garden Rant asked them if they photoshopped it.  Proven Winners denied that it was anything but the real thing.  It is touted as a vigorous grower supertunia but it won't matter if it does not have a distinguished flower.  The colors are wonderful, magenta with a lime green border - so the jury is still out.

What do you think?

Life In The Slow Lane

I don't mean to imply that it is a negative to live life in the slow lane, but it is certainly a change of pace for a Chicago girl to go to Wisconsin for Memorial Day weekend.  We usually go to our Lake Geneva home with my daughter and her family, mostly because my husband and son-in-law like to play golf while we sit around and wait for them to come home!  The children love it up there because my granddaughter rides horses and begs to go riding each and every visit.

I do have a garden in Wisconsin, but it is very waterwise with dianthus firewitch, coneflowers, daylilies, sedum, salvia, coreopsis, lavender and my lovely Knockout roses (which get eaten each year by the Japanese Beetles).  I will put in some Gaillardia Arizona Sun which seem to hold up throughout the summer without a lot of watering.  I know mulching will be part of our weekend as it was pretty sparse the last time we visited.  Also, they had tied up that fallen arborvitae, but it is not a permanent solution.

I have a beautiful Chanticleer Pear by the deck which seems to be the perfect spot for a smaller tree between two townhouses. 

We will probably go to Wall Mart, Home Depot and Target as these are the go to places in Lake Geneva.  The town is bustling and difficult even to get to on route 50 - we take a back road and avoid all of that confusion.  If you remember what I have mentioned before, it is music, motorcycles and cars all weekend.

The best thing about it is that no matter how old you are, you are always young when you visit Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!

Around The Garden

I have been watering like crazy this week (90 degree temperatures) because everything seems to be in distress.  It is supposed to be a little cooler for the weekend.

I have all my tomato plants put in including some sunflower seeds nasturtiums, cucumber and basil seeds.  There is that new circular tomato cage that I am trying and a lean-to cucumber structure.

I bought two new perennials for the south border (Shasta Broadway Lights) which I have had before without success.  I don't know why I am trying them again, but they do say zone 5, one more chance.  I also bought Lobelia Cardinalis for the shade area under the Pagoda Dogwood. 

The Knockout Roses look so much better in the back than in the front. I am beginning to believe that friend of mine that said it is bad feng shui to have thorns in the front of your home.

The Alley Connection

I began living on an alley as a child growing up in Chicago.  I probably walked the alley as much as I used the sidewalk outside my front door - it was a shortcut to the next block, it contained treasures you would never see out in front like soda bottles that I could  trade in for cash.  When you have an alley, the garage and driveway is usually in the back leaving the front to be total garden.

When I became an adult, I graduated to a home with a side driveway and no alley.  This was okay, I didn't miss the alley, but soon we moved into the old old house and guess what, I was back on the alley.  My young children loved the alley, it ended with my neighbor's house who didn't have a garage in the back.  So, they played out there endlessly, digging for artifacts under the 100 year old oak tree that was there before the house.  I disliked this alley a lot, not paved, could not navigate during the icy winters, good thing I had a driveway in the front.

My last house did not have a alley, but a long treacherous driveway when it snowed.  I think I would prefer the alley!  The house I am in now has an alley, finally paved and a community in itself.  We not only know the neighbors on each side of our block out in front, but we have that social connection with the neighbors on the block behind us.  We call the comings and goings up and down the alley our "alley people."  The children come to see our dog through the fence, I say hi to my older neighbor walking her dog down the alley, and I finally planted a xeric garden in the alley which this year has really popped.

This is not a city alley but a suburban alley in a very old suburb that used to be a go to destination for Chicagoans to spend their summers.  I always think of one of my favorite movies "Rear Window" when I look up and down my alley and wonder what's going on in that garden?