A Gardener's Dream

It's always so strange to be sick when there's gorgeous weather.

I have so much to do. I don't have time to be wonked out on the couch!!!

Since my mind is still pretty befuddetated, I am putting images and ideas in and letting them simmer for when I can put more logical thought behind them.

I know, I know .... life is so tough!

.... feet up on the couch in my pretty living room, looking out the window, doing a little bit of world travel through  the wires, looking at gardening books, dreaming a little (that part is actually a little bit beyond me at the moment), drinking cup after cup of tea ....

 .... Being in a cloud of these ....

 

Really, honestly, I am getting a bit stir crazy.

 

Since I have a bit of forced time on my hands, I thought that I would share with you one of our other projects slated for this summer.

I really think that I must be the luckiest girl in the world!

 

It's really a case of  we need to do this so that we can do that and, before we do that, we have to do this so that we can get to the really important thing that we have to do after all the rest is done and out of the way.

Did you catch that?

Have you guessed what the next upcoming project is?

after puppies, of course!

 

Oh, I am a lucky, lucky, blessed girl, indeedy!

After dreaming of  a garden shed for forever, one has landed in my lap.

Oompf!

 

This picture of the barn and milk house were taken when we first bought the house.

Our original plan was to turn the small building into a playhouse for the boys. We haven't been able to get into it for, at least, a year and a half because of a huge pit that we had to dig in front of it. (don't ask ....) This winter, Mr. Tom had the idea to turn this into a garden shed and to use some of the stacks of windows that we found in the barn to make a greenhouse.

The boys will be fine. They already have a ranger station in a little shack in the woods.

Do you get the idea that I just cannot believe this is happening?

A potting shed seems, to me, to be every gardeners dream.

 

The very first words in  The Potting shed book are,

"What I dream about is a proper potting shed."  ~Thomas C. Cooper

Well, there you are!

There is something very romantic in the thought of a garden shed.

No, not the soppy kind of romance - there's something intrinsically idyllic in the thought.

Photo by William P. Steele.

Why I think potting sheds are romantic

1.  Many of them look like little playhouses or cottages or cozy shacks.
2. They are usually located in or, on the verge of a garden. (Well, am I right or am I right?)
3. They are tres shabby chic!
4. They are an incredibly beautiful textural heaven.
5. Many wonderful and favorite novels (many of them children's books) have a garden shed.
6. They are like a secret hideaway.
7. They are full of gardeny/botanical type of things. Don't garden spades just droop with romance? (Hand trowels and forks and big metal watering cans, too!) I mean, the thought of Peter Rabbit in Mr. Mcgregor's garden is always floating somewhere in the back of my mind when I see one.
8. All of the huge and great gardens have them. 
9. I believe that they hold a secret but I don't know what it is yet, having never had one before.

 

Photo from Laura Ashley "Guide To Country Decorating"

Beyond all of this, though, ....

I really need a space to keep all of my gardening shtuff! Pots aren't little and I hate it when they get scattered and broken. Gardening tools are so awkward to store, too. There's twine and broken bits of pottery and gravel and peat moss and bamboo stakes and, oh, all sorts of stuff that need a home. It will all be centrally located and have a place where it's meant to be (and not in the way!)

Finally, a little, sheltered space  that I'm not afraid to get dirty when I plant my seeds.

A place that I can slosh water on the floor.

A place to organize.

 

Photo by Iain Kemp from The English Home August 2009

A place to shelter and dream and watch things grow.

I must be on the mend!

Love,

Katy Noelle

P.S. My vicious bunny's name is Flopsy. We've had a Pete and an angora puff ball named Mopsy. Flopsy was a prophetic naming of this cutie but I think it's a he - oops! Well, Flopsy works both ways and he has a nickname, too - Jeffrey. (It's kind of a long story.)

My Garden

 My garden ....

.... this is not.

This is a garden from Colonial Williamsburg which is in this inspirational book.

 

 

 This is my garden.

 Well, I am impressed that the daffodils survived the mole city that the John Deere tractor made out of the yard.

 You need to know that we moved two summers ago. This will be the third summer in our very own new home. Though, it is an incredibly beautiful home on many acres of land, the way that we were able to afford it was to roll up our sleeves and give it the loving care that it desperately needs ourselves. It is definitely a make do and mend kind of adventure. (You see, my husband really is the pastor of a small country church - not a banker.)

The first summer was when we actually moved. The agenda was to scrub, clean and paint what we could and to pack and then unpack.

Last summer, as my husband put it, was the year of the dirt!

My husband was the general contractor for building my Mother in law's house just up the hill from us. Also, he had to figure out how to divert the virtual flood that was funneling right down through our dooryard. He dug trenches and added electricity to the barns and we got a new septic system put in just before the snow flew in November.

Where there were once vast tracts of green and luscious grass, there is, now, DIRT!

 This year, it's

On to the gardens!

These huge stones were dug up out of a wall that was in the way of the septic lines.

They are going to turn into ....

 

 .... a small version of this.

 

Do not you love a pathway that is so beautiful that it builds your anticipation? Where does it lead? I love a good mystery. Is this a stairway to some sort of hidden heaven? 

This picture is from another extremely inspirational book.

 

 Here is another piece of my garden. Tom built the wall and corrected the too steep slant of the lawn, last year.

 

 I have lots of ideas for this space.  I think that a sea of blue salvia annuals will be a temporary measure for this year.

Possibly, the split rail fence will go back on the upper level and I can train some old fashioned roses along it and put a line of  blue delphinium behind it.

Like this!

 

 That's the general gist anyway.

Also, there is a pretty and shaded bank that is visible outside of my kitchen window.

 

 The land has a very lovely shape to it that I have found impossible to photograph. If you could only see, I bet that you would start visualizing plants there too.

 

 It's shady and somewhat secluded. I want it to be naturalized with violets and forget-me-nots, the blue hyndrangeas that appreciate the shade. Rhododendrons, ferns, bleeding hearts and spiderwort. They all will have plenty of space to take over and do their thing.

I want it to be restful and contemplative and I think that we will hide a bench back there.

 

 Now, I bet that a couple of you recognize this beautiful garden. I've seen it featured in several books and magazines but I first fell in love with it because of this book. (The photograph of the row of delphiniums is from this book too.)

 

 This is my all time favorite gardening book. It is so well rounded and insightful in the ideals of the garden!

I cannot express to you how strange it is to be in the third spring without a garden to pay attention to.

It almost doesn't feel quite like spring in some ways. I usually am out in the garden every day, seeing what is coming up and how things are progressing. I still have some plants at the parsonage that I will be moving. They have been carrying on without me for the past two years but we will be reunited soon.

In the meantime, I have been enjoying much more space for indoor gardening.

I cannot wait till these flower. One is a very pretty hibiscus (left) and the other (right) is a cana lily. Both are so stunning and exotic.

 Goodness! I just brutally trimmed and repotted this "blonde Creeping Charlie" at Christmas. It's a monster!

 

 All of my plants are so happy that the sun is coming back again.

 

 Recently, I saw an article from Martha Stewart on how to add patina to your clay pots. I thought, "ummm ....  just water your flowers and wait a bit?"  Why go through all of the hassle?

 The orchid forest.

I bought them for different places all over the house but they just love it right here! The orchid in the clay pot, I bought last March. It bloomed all the way until the end of January. Now it has buds coming again. For fifteen dollars, that was the longest lasting bouquet that I've ever bought!!!

 

 Well, last March, I started to feel desperate to garden in some way. With a lovely touch of serendipity, Tovah Martin, creative gardener extraordinaire, had a provocative new book published.

 

 Tovah Martin is a woman who's name I vaguely recognized several years back. Now, however, I realize what a huge impact she's had on my life. She contributed a lot to Victoria magazine and I think that I just constantly ingested her style and ideas until it became a part of me. She is the master of the botanical touch.

When I bought this book, it was "off to the races" for me.

 

 How inspiring!

 

 

 

 

 She's really helped me rethink through what I have as resources to use.

 

 

 

 Not only are terrariums fun because they're little tiny worlds of their own (Complete with their own ecosystem and all), but, they thrive in places that other plants simply will not. In other words, they're pretty easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 Well, I just thought that I should be straight forward with you about where my garden stands. I have decided that I will be honest about the whole thing - weeds and all!

Love,

Katy Noelle