Sunday, June 30, 2013

KItsche-y Garden Tour: Ground Zero

 
Grumpy Cat was there as welcome committee...
 Just to be clear, these images are not from the Outagamie Master Gardeners Garden Walk.  I hesitate to say on which group's garden walk these were taken.  Most of these vignettes were seen in two or three of the gardens on the thour, but all were ornamented in a similar style, so I started thinking there had to be a "Patient Zero" or ground zero from which this contagion spread.  A style arbitrator, of sorts, which sort of set the "standard", so to speak.  The last garden I visited that day, I felt was indeed that ground zero.  Horticulturally, they probably had the best grip on growing detail; obviously, not a lot of taste, though.  Since they were the area's expert in one dimension of gardening, they were able to spread not only their expertise in one area, but their non-expertise in another.

Of course there were gnomes!

Fly your freak flag!

Patroness Saint of wharf albatross and gulls (note the wire fence around the micro-bed)

Crafty (we aren't) glass something

Once upon a tree face

Can one poorly displayed worm spoil all the apples, I mean gardens?
Rasta pot boy?

Call me!
I turned blue hearing these called "Wax Wing" begonias. I know Dragon Wing begonias are a cross, but...

Didn't know badgers lived in bird houses; I learn something everyday!

Not sure why this is here at all

Styrofoam boat dock buoys adding a decorative touch

So faux, I just can't....

Prize for ornamentation outnumbering plants?
Hmm, garden in need of a theme?

..."and this is my imitation of the Scarecrow juggling thee flower pots, ...if I only had a brain..."

Gnome and Cow Mailbox at High Noon Stare-Down

What!
No sense removing that Christmas angel!

Young love...
 Surprisingly, there were NO flocks of pink flamingos!
Imagine!  A rock inscribed with your every thought...

There a few of these non-functional, "eco-invoking" windmills...

And the failed attempt at hide and seek with the sanitary sewer clean-outs

And oodles of shepherd hook hangers for yet another basket of annuals
In one garden alone there were 50 or so garden ornaments in a single view.  There were lots of plants just stuck in a spot in a lawn around which a "micro-bed" (Handsome Son coined this new garden style expression.) garden evolved. These micro-beds were enclosed with flimsy wire fence to denote the bed and to which one or more piece of garden "art" and a shepherd hook with a hanging basket were then added.

This garden walk made me want to run home and throw out every piece rusty iron, my front porch's bright pink chairs, and Chinese rabbit and frog statuary (one piece each) immediately.  Decidedly an inoculation against poor ornamentation in the garden,

it made me want to...
Dog vomit fungii

Saturday, June 29, 2013

More from the Outagamie Garden Walk 2013

A very innocuous entrance...
I posted some pictures from the Master gardeners Walk on the garden ornamentation and containers, but I didn't say much about the actual gardens on the walk.  Having my own garden scheduled to be part of a walk has been an eye opener and impetus to finally get my actual garden to look like the space I see in my head., rather than the ongoing project(s) it really is.  So, let me say, I give it up to anyone who has the stuff to put their garden out there, whether as part of a walk, garden conservancy days, or just for nickel tours.

This blogpost is solely pictures from one of the gardens, in my mind the most impressive.

The gardener is also an award winning quilter, and you can see this in her subtle blending of colors, shapes, and types of plants.  The park-like setting and size of her garden also made me drool a bit, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

...opened up to this...

and this,

and this.


I got the impression this back deck was a newer area; it wasn't as finely honed and integrated into the back yard as the yard itself.  There was a lot of space and as all gardeners want to do, she was busy filling it.  Her garden was a surprisingly four years old, but she conceded she had brought some good sized hostas with her from her previous garden.

As I mentioned, though plant selection for color and texture was where she excelled.


Hosta Gunther's Prize






She also, in my opinion, had the best garden ornamentation.



It was an amazing garden in many ways.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Necessity by Design



Four days ago...
Two days ago...
When I bought this house, one of the first things I did was make the neighbors an offer to move their garage--off my property.  Twelve feet of my property-- property I pay taxes on-- and a garage with a "right to maintain" that sits in my yard.

It seemed the garage would continue to be a visual affront.  I planted an Austrian black pine to screen the garage with peeling paint and unattractive aging roof, its two window giving a visual show of the plethora of trash piled within.

Thought-"ful" (-less?) Neighbor dragged his ice shanty over poor pine and across my property.

I built a fence.

Said neighbor would clean fish and throw the guts and scales over my fence into this back corner.

Okay...fertilizer?

Two rusty metal hangers were attached to my side and a collection of rusty iron rods and debris were "stored"on my side in my garden.

I planted barberries, blackberries, and the tall bushy echinecea nitidia.

Neighbor's dog would run between garage and my permanent (allowed) structure (fence) and poo in my yard.

I stacked brick.  Not permanent, but allowed-- unlike a fence running up to the garage.

And now, the garage has been sided and re-roofed,  The obnoxious windows not continued in this kinder, nicer garage.

Quite a bit of joy.  (The price? Maybe a couple quarts of trampled blackberries.)

I'm not sure I know how to act.  Strange thoughts have invaded my brain.

I could cut down the pine, which is not growing quite straight (although I have tried to make it do so), and which has been besieged by woodpeckers (often), and is starting to shade in a way I did not intend it to do.

I'm like the woman who paints her kitchen walls and realizes the linoleum has seen much better days and has to go.

Maybe not before the garden walk, but maybe the pine should go.  And now with the 100 year guaranteed siding, a actual piece of fence, not a pile of bricks?

Dangerous thoughts these...

Tuberous Begonias

Tuberous begonias are one of the most recent species with which I've become a bit entranced.  The leaves are nice.  The flowers whether single or double are nice, too.

I bought a mix of colors (all of which have bloomed a cream with coral sepals so far) and a red.

Begonias seem to withstand irregular watering and do well in any but the extremes (full sun or total shade).  They are forgiving.  All  of us need a bit of forgiveness for our time-rushed, erratic gardening methods these days!


With a fungal diseases spreading through impatiens, I predict the begonia genus will only become more popular with gardeners. This winter I will attempt to grow some from seed, hopefully collected from these.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

If You Like Pink, I've Got You Covered

I always wonder when people see this view, who they think lives here?


This clematis sure is cute.  Every rose has a "clematis buddy". 

Yeah, that forsythia still needs its topknot trimmed.

Not a lot of bare ground...


Sap suckers have been at that pine again, maybe the glass orbs will distract them.

Japanese cypress-- not supposed to grow here.