Howdie Peeps

I am home today - sick. I slept pretty much most of the morning and early afternoon and now I am ensconsed on my couch with my puppy and my laptop. Not much going on here at Chez Paisley. It's really beautiful outside and I am so wishing for a deck and some comfy chairs to sit in the sun while I read or blog and sip iced tea.

So, in light of my medicine head state. I thought I would do a little link love - backyard style.

Our backyard is pretty large for a condo. It's somewhat private. Our buiding jogs so that, looking out to the back on the left we have building, on the right we have a privacy fence that wraps around to half of the back yard. It's not fully fenced so I can't let Mr. BJ out by himself.

In the corner of the fence we want to build a deck and I found a great blog post with a deck tutorial and reference to an easy to do deck system. All supplies right down to the stain for her 8 x 8 deck cost around $300. I like that price and our deck will probably be a similar size. Door 16 lives in Newburgh, NY and is remodeling her row house.

We are considering building a corner bench as well. That way will will just need a table and two more chairs. I like this table from Pottery Barn (shown is a set but you can buy the table seperately) and this umbrella. I'm kind of digging the cherry red color.

I would love to top our new deck with a pergola so I can train some climbing vines up on to it but I am not certain we can get away with that here at the condo. If you go on over to Just Beachy you can check out her completed pergola project.

I am growing both Clematis and tumpet vine in my yard and would love it to trail over the pergola.

Next up, we need to move our grill off the cement patio and on to some pavers. That will give us more room on the patio.

Since garage sale season is starting up I hope to be lucky enough to find two wicker or adirondack chairs for the patio. They don't need to match as I plan on painting them black and making some comfy seating out of a few pillows and old quilts or sari fabric I have.

I like how the chairs in the photo above don't match with the exception of their color. I love the green of the table lined and pillows!

As far as plantings, I have the beds pretty full but there is always room for more and seasonal color. I have some pots just waiting to have plants put in them.

Afternoon Indulgence & Patio Photos

I found myself with no one at home this Sunday afternoon. Perfect time to sit down with a favorite indulgent movie full or narcissism and southern eccentricity. Of course I turned on Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, made some iced tea and panko breaded shrimp to dip in Marmalade and settled down with the laptop to plan our anniversary trip for the coming weekend.

The hubs came home early and poured me a glass of red wine. How decadent is that on a Sunday afternoon?
Yesterday I got to dig in the dirt and planted all of the items I picked up at the nursery. Stopped at my mom's today and came home with a bunch of lilacs and another plant for my patio.

I have quite the green and white theme going on with a dash of purple leaf. My hostas are looking good and in a mtter of a couple weeks this will be overflowing.

Now ont o more weekend trip planning!

Good morning Sunshine - Uh Where Did You Go?

This morning I went with my MIL to one of the happiest places on earth for me, the local plant nursery. I filled my cart with intended items; potato vine (in green and purple leafed varieties), stock, impatiens, snap dragons (or as the hubs calls it - dragon snaps), basil, nasturtiums (chocolate colored flowers!), lobelia & pansies - you get the picture.

It's been raining off and on this morning and I do hope to plant it all today. Off to dig in the dirt!

In Bloom

Finally my Crocosmia has buds on it. For at least a month or so I have been seeing Crocosmia blooming all over the area and wondered what was wrong with mine. I separated it all out a few months ago. I had decided to buy one plant and keep it in a pot where I could move it to maximize its sun exposure then dig all of mine up and move it to the entrance to our parking lot at our condo complex.

I got home today and they are budding!

My Nicotiana is going strong but I bought more today causethe price was right and I have a planter to fill.

The Clematis I thought I ripped out this spring is doing nicely (sorry for the washed out photo).

In the shade of the corner of the yard my impatiens that I bought a couple months ago are still going strong.

They are in a blossom bag and I highly recommend them. My tomato in the topsy turvey has a few flowers but nothing much else happening there.

Yard Work

Today the hubs was super excited about doing yard work. Probably because we bought a new toy, an electric hedge trimmer. In just under an hour we trimmed the hedge in our backyard and got all the old dead plants out of the yard. Seven garbage bags, one bucket, two disposable hanging planter baskets and one trellis. I hope to actually rip out this hedge because I hate it. I want to plant bamboo instead. Our homeowners association (of which I am a board member) is pretty cool about things like this. I want to do it after the flaking paint on the outside of my neighbors unit is fixed. The bamboo poles on the ground in front of the hedge are going to be a super cool project from my 101 things list.


The grass is looking super mossy this year and I'm not certain why. We are lucky enough to have the largest back yard in the complex and our grass is usually pretty good except along the fence.

I decided to go with a much simpler gardening plan this year. I have crocosmia planted in the garden in front of our window. It was too wet out today but I need to dig it up and spread it out to fill up more of the front of the window. The photo below is them poking through the ground.

This plant looks like tall grass and ends up with an orange flower. I'm going to stick to this here and under a tree at the back of the yard. The orange flowers in this photo is what it will looks like later this summer.

I had some clematis growing on a trellis next to the patio which I ripped out because the trellis needs to be replaced. I may plant trumpet vine as well this year. Not certain yet.

The patio looks really cluttered in the photo below but that was before we took the garbage bags out and swept. I plan on growing some herbs along the fence and plant colorful flowers only in pots. We might even do a small deck off of our patio. So, even though this was not on my list of projects for the month I feel good about it. Now to the living room clutter.

Garden Update

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am looking for ideas for a couple planting beds at my condo complex. There is a courtyard near my office that has a wonderful dry creek bed look with evergreen plants. Its really peaceful and seems to be pretty low maintenance. It's got a really "Northwest" look to it too.


One of the beds is oval and large enough to accommodate the dry creek bed, a low ground cover, grasses, ferns and pachysandra which already exists on the property in the "moat".


I think we could add some other flowering plants to have some color spring through fall like this pink Aubrieta below.


I think if I try to incorporate this look with some flowering rock loving flowers and plants with some color or pattern to the leaves like hosta or coleus then I think it would be a success.

Fall Gardening

I have a dilemma. I told the president of our condo association I would get some plants in the ground on our property. I'm not a complete black thumb at gardening. My personal gardening philosophy is buy stuff I like for the environment I am planting (sun vs shade), stick it in the ground and see how it goes. If it flounders, move it somewhere where it thrives. I've been successful with this so far.

The area I need to plant is sort of weird. It's a bed about 1 1/2 feet deep by 12 feet wide. I and other homeowners would like a mixture of evergreen so it's not completely bare in the winter with great color so spring through fall is a treat to walk by and look at every day. I still don't think it too late to plant some spring bulbs. We might even get some use from mums at this late date.

The area in question sits under an oak tree and get's dappled sunlight. It get's its share of full on sun and shade and faces east.

Do any of you out there have suggestions on what I could plant? I love dahlias but am not certain if they would do well there and I would have to wait until the spring anyway. Plants that have done well there are daffodils and primroses. That is all that has been planted there by others so far.

Paula's "Secret Garden"

As promised here are shots of Paula's "Secret Garden". I only call it that because I always feel that way when I am in her backyard. Below is a photo of the path that leads from the back patio down the side of the house.


Paula's garden has evolved over the last twenty plus years she has lived in her house (which was really the original hotel in the town she lives in). It's evident in so many spaces. Brick under your feet turn in to cement and then stone. Just down the path is a place to sit and rest right near the gate to the hot tub.


Across the path is the Celtic knot work marking the door which leads to the Hawaiian room where hubby and I always stay when we are visiting. This is just off the sitting area pictured above.


Paula has tons of flowers and plants in her yard. Usually we visit in the summer and there is always Hollyhock, Gardenia, Peony, Clematis and Sunflowers blooming. One of my favorite spots in the garden is the outdoor eating area with this statue.

I want to give her a name but am not certain what that shall be. She seems really strong and at the same time very humble. One day I hope to have a garden like this.

Tourists In Our Own Town

Last weekend was the 35th anniversary of the death of Bruce Lee. We happen to live north of Seattle where Bruce (and his son Brandon) are buried. So, off we went to Lakeview cemetery.

The area where they are buried is right off the road and right next to a gentleman who was interred in 1895. There are several other gravestones of various ages around them with a bench directly across from their headstones. Lake Washington is the view to the East (not pictured).

Apparently that day we had just missed the History channel and there were still quite a few people there when we arrived. One guy had even set up a video camera and was reading a monologue in to it.

Next to the cemetery is Volunteer Park which houses a conservatory and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. I walked by people doing impromptu theater in the park as I made my way to the conservatory. I found Waldo inside.


This bell was in the "Waldo Room". I imagine it's from some ancient temple in Asia.

The orchid house is first as you walk in the door. I love Orchids but don't have the right space in my home for one. I tried to keep one but sadly she didn't make it.




















These photos were taken pretty close as there is wire mesh in front of them so you can't touch them. I stuck the lens of my camera between the bars.
























One day I do hope to have a greenhouse of my own. As far back as I can remember I have fantasized about having a glassed in conservatory attached to my home. A room where I can sit and read from a hammock and feel like I am in some tropical location. Maybe even have a few birds and fountain or afternoon tea.

Conservatories are one of the "romantic" Victorian things I have never let go of idealizing. It represents to me a different time and laid back more gentrified pace of life.



The movie Greencard with Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell perfectly describes the more modern use of a Greenhouse I would choose to adapt.
Andy's character moves in to an apartment in New York with a conservatory. The montage of scenes where she takes it from old and worn out to a beautiful oasis is the coolest part of the movie for me.






























Below is a photo of the ceiling in the entry. Most of the glass is clear with the exception of these pieces.

The conservatory has a carnivorous plant collection they feed every Saturday. One thing I learned about these type of plants. You can create a little lagoon area near your patio and plant these and they are just as good as citronella candles or bug lights. They will keep your patio bug free.

The size of some of the plants are huge! You almost feel you are in a tropical jungle at times. I don't remember what temperature they keep the different rooms in but there is definitely a mugginess to the air.




















If I lived in an area of the country that was warmer I would probably have some of these plants in my garden. I do have a trumpet vine and hope that it lasts the winter.

Christmas In July

I went to my local nursery today to pick up some plants for the yard. They did not have a couple things I was looking for but I came home with some other beautiful stuff.

I had planted some hostas under a tree in my backyard. I thought the space was pretty shaded, I know it had been in the past before the groundskeepers cut off a low growing tree limb. Anyway, even though these hostas were labeled as "sun tolerant" they clearly were not. I have moved them to a pot in a shadier part of the yard. Below is my "before" photos of them. I am hoping with more shade they will come back to life.


Today it was a red and green theme for buying plants. I replaced my hostas from above with a bunch of red and green colored plants. Most all of these are colorful without flowers which I used to hate.

Saturn Coleus

Kiwi Fern Coleus

Rhubarb

"Red Baron" Celosia (also known as Cockscomb)

Gold Spikemoss (groundcover)

I also bought some potato vine that I still need to get planted. But tonight hubby and I are headed to the drive in to see a double feature of The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Click the link here to find a drive in theater in your area!

PS. Last night (early this morning) I finished the first Firehouse glove!

Poppies...

Remember that scene in The Wizard of Oz where they are running through the Poppy fields and suddenly get really tired? As a kid I never understood why they got so tired and well, trippy running through a field of flowers.


As I got older and more knowing to the ways of the world I came to understand that you could get Opium from Poppies. That just blew my mind that a flower so pretty (and one of my favorites) could have narcotic properties. It all made sense that particular scene from a favorite childhood movie.

My poppies are starting to bloom. I had thought I bought something that would be a little more orange red but I am excited none the less.


Quite often I see a really great variety of red poppies growing in groups along the road near my house. It makes me want to keep a little trowel in my car so one afternoon I could just stop, jump out of my car, dig some up and bring them home to my garden. Maybe one day I will....

Garden Pics

A couple of my plants are coming in to bloom. A little late this year. Most of the flowering plants in my little garden are hues of orange and purple. The exception is this Nicotiana. It's a cool light green color.

I have a couple of these lilies but so far only one is blooming. It's nestled in my Crocosmia which bloom about the same color orange.

I had hoped my feathered tenants from last year would be back. This little bird made a nest in one of my hanging baskets last spring. I love how she is peeking out at me from behind the Potato Vine.

I plan to get some of the weeds out of my garden this weekend. Plant some tomatoes, basil and peppers, do some sewing and knitting and relax a bunch.