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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Dreadful Truth

If you like watching television offerings like  "The Jerry Springer Show" or "Hoarders", or simply can't look away when passing a car accident,  you'll most likely enjoy this post.  In the same way you  recoil in horror and wonder to yourself, "how did this happen and what kind of people would actually share this sort of thing?" when watching those shows, the same sort of visceral revulsion may be experienced when looking at the following images.  Don't say I didn't warn you!
 
 
The good news is that it's warm enough outside now to move the begonias out.  In fact, some are already out there.  This is the counter in our  butler's pantry.  There is now some space showing .
And a counter top in the kitchen near the windows.  Now we have a little more space as the begonias that were further along were moved outside.  We are so thankful to now have a 12 inch square of counter top!  The kalanchoe beharensis came home as a houseplant but is now outside as well.  I need some space to pot up all of those begonia luxurians cuttings as they have roots growing on them. (probably the glass room or even outside would work!   I cut back my plant and can't bear to throw anything away!
Another piece of good news is that all of the plants stored in the dark cool basement for the winter have finished their annual migration outside.
 
 
So, why aren't things moving faster, you may ask.  Well because there are plants sitting in just about every available space outside, in the glass room, etc.  Here's a view of a chair on the back porch.
Part of the side porch where the agaves spent the winter out of the rain.  The boxes came from various plant hunting trips.
The poor unfinished and sad looking glass room where some plants that needed a little more shelter and a tiny bit of heat spent the winter is still full.

Where in the garden were all of these plants last summer?

Why aren't they moving outside?
Because someone has spent way too much time finding fabulous plants to play with and far too little time working in his garden.

Somewhere in this jumble are evergreens that took the place of the brugmansias when they came in for the winter.  Now , where was it that I put those in the summer? 

Something weird is going on with a huge Hosta 'Sum and Substance'  behind the buddha head.  The hosta is usually fairly big by this time of the year, nearly obscures the buddha head, and covers the ugly white rim of the pot on the right.  Also somewhere under all of these plants is a bench.


Huge cacophony of pots.  Sort of like a tornado hit a nursery and threw some choice offerings in my back yard.
Why aren't more of these things in the ground?  Because someone has neglected his garden.  Under all of the Spanish bluebells and Valerian, both of which I thought I eliminated a few years back, is some space.  The buttercups were successfully removed but when they were there, the combination of blue and yellow was quite nice. Weedy but nice.

There is a path under the forget me nots.  Really there is.
I don't even try in this area any more.  Once the Spanish bluebells are finished blooming I rip the whoe business up and dig in pots of things that wintered inside.

Kerria japonica in the background is threatening to take over the world and is currently covering lots of interesting plants just waiting to be rescued.   The big pot contains Agave weberi, the saga of which you can read here.  Now that the agave is a smaller spiky thing, I'm considering planting pelargoniums with a red splotch on their leaves around it.  The red would go nicely with the blue of the agave but I'm not entirely sure what to do here.  How about a bunch of sempervivums which could be pulled  when the agave becomes huge again?  What would you do?  Pay no attention to all of the forget-me-nots and weeds growing between the pavers. 

This area is too awful for words.   What's worse is that I forgot to take a picture of the most heinous part of my garden.
So there you have it, a cautionary tale of what can happen if you spend too much time playing and blogging and not enough time with your hands in the dirt.  Lest you feel the need to call in the garden abuse  authrorities or stage an intervention, you should know that I spent the better part of the weekend past rectifying the most egregious of these sins but there is still a great deal to do before my garden looks it's best.  This happens once a year on July 15th at dusk and lasts for 15 minutes, the rest of the time the place is a mess.  

Doesn't that make you feel much better about your garden?!

26 comments:

  1. Oh dear, you Plant Hoarder! Glad to hear you're making some progress. I love the idea of planting pelargoniums with the Agave. I was going to do Portulaca with mine. It really doesn't look as bad as you think. So lush and colorful.

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    1. Portulaca would be wonderful with it's succulent leaves and cactus-looking flowers; a perfect desert match! Thanks for the kind words.

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  2. I love a full garden, so this all looks quite nice to me. Keep on hoarding!

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    1. I love a full garden too but the weeds have got to go and the pot-o-rama must be tamed.

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  3. Haha, Heather beat me to it, I think it still looks good...my motto is "not an inch of bare ground"!

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    1. I'm with you bro but it's still a good idea to have some space to walk without having pots snag your pants or fall on your head.

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  4. I'll be the "me too!" to Scott and Heather...it looks full and lush! (even inside the house!)

    My container collection has been liberated from the shade pavilion greenhouse and starting to make it up from the basement...they are all sitting on the patio in no semblance of order...chaos reigns!

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    1. But the scilla and Valerian, yikes! I see that the bulbs sell for about $150. for 500 of them. I'm seeing a new cottage industry...

      If Kaos is a problem, we'll have to call in Maxwell Smart and 99!

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  5. Michael gripes when I bring too many plants inside so I either take them to work or try to be minimal. I love that stained glass room!

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    1. Silly Michael! I'm lucky that Tom doesn't complain! He's so tolerant of my laziness. We have rooms upstairs that we never use and the plant starting business could take place in one of those but it would require my paying attention to watering whereas I'm in the kitchen every day so can keep a better eye on things. Making the stained glass was fun! You could do it too. Here is a before and after picture of it from the outside. http://outlawgarden.blogspot.com/search?q=a+pane+in+the+glass

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  6. Peter, you have fabulous garden, full of plants!
    My begonias are outside now, start blooming.
    Have nice gardening!

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    1. Nadezda, with your long days, it doesn't surprise me that your begonias are blooming! My family in Alaska just had more snow! I wish you nice gardening, too!

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  7. Hehe, another humorous post! We love your garden Peter, lush, lovely, and full of character. And definitely a plantsmans garden (which most of us are!) :)

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. It's not horrendous, just requires a month or so of constant work to pull it together.

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  8. I don't even get my garden in order for 15 minutes! I love how the forget-me-nots are growing in between the pavers. It's beautiful. When I first started gardening, my goal was to have a "perfect" garden. Thankfully, my taste has changed (or I've figure out that will never happen) and I think a bit of imperfection is much more beautiful. Besides, buying plants is just so much fun!

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    1. My garden isn't in order for 15 minutes, it just looks its best for that long. I never aspired to perfection, just a garden that isn't hazardous. Buying plants is one of my greatest joys and watching them die in their pots one of my greatest regrets. (Just joking, I'm pretty good at keeping things watered.)

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  9. Yes! I love it. I really do. It looks like quite the collection of things. The chaos of moving everything back out is half the fun.

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    1. Every year I swear that I won't get any more plants that require any sort of semi annual migration and yet each year more and more find themselves in my collection. I've decided that the upstairs room where the brugmansias used to winter will become the winter home of all of the agaves. Lots of light and warmth and quite a distance from a water source. Glad that you tink the chaos is fun. If you'd like to share in the joy, you're welcome to come on down and help me figure out where all of this stuff will fit!

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  10. So...you had to let the butler go? So sad. But now you need to hire a squadron of Oompa Loompas to help you make room for MORE PLANTS.

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    1. There's a sign in the kitchen that reads, "This is what happens when you fire all of the help." Our old house is from a time when many more people had help. I'm dreaming that some day a maid will magically appear to take up residence in the maid's room at the top of the back staircase but so far, nothing. So we live in a house that is filthy in the spring and fall. I'd rather be gardening. O.K. honestly, I'd rather be sitting in a comfortable lounge chair directing a team of Oompa Loompas to weed, cut down, spread muclh, carry the big pots up and down stairs, etc. I'd still dig and plant, prune, tie up stray branches, you know the really fun stuff.

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  11. Ok, so I do feel better. There you have it. Because my yard is a disaster. Utterly. I thought I had a lot of pots waiting to be planted, then Alison came today and doubled my inventory. DOUBLED!!! I'm thrilled to the gills of course to have awesome new plants, but I do need it to rain or cool down, or something. Something. Good Luck. Let's advance and meet July 15th with grit. Weeds be dammed. Cheers, Jenni

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    1. OMG! I saw your inventory of pots and thinkig of that number being doubled is scary! At least you have space to plant them when and if the weather ever cooperates! Can you believe that we silly gardners are never content with the weather?!

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  12. Oh Peter, what can I say. I love your garden, it has so many lovely foliage plants. It is the garden of a true gardener, a lover of plants, but not so much weeding, that's ok though. Enjoy your next trip to the nursery, have a great day. K.

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    1. Thanks Karen! I do like weeding but haven't had much time to play in the garden lately. I hope you and Benjamin (hope his paw is getting better!) have a great day too!

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  13. It's nice to know I'm not the only one. You're in very good company and I'm afraid this post didn't deter me at all. On the contrary, I want to see more. :)

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  14. it looks like you had a much more wonderful weekend break as compared to my very own! haya ha, i expended that studying with regard to finals. ughhh.
    attractive weblog, incidentally! runescape gold cheapest

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.