A Blast from the Past

This morning my husband asked if he could take the camera to work. There's a Blue Angels air show today at the airport right by Don's office and he wants to take photos.

My mom suggested I go through some old photos and post those and as I was going through my files I came upon one titled 'Garden 2001'. These photos were the earliest digital photos I took. They were shot with an Olympus camedia that had a whopping 1.3 megapixels :-).

As I went through the photos it struck me how different my gardens look today and yet how similar too. The opening shot shows one of my favorite daylilies back then, 'Jeanne Fitton'. It still is a favorite which is amazing in the fast moving daylily world. Not planted in the same spot but still much adored. I have so much of that bluish leaved Sedum telephaeum 'Ruprectii', I need to move it near 'Jeanne Fitton' as they really play nicely together.

This Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba' is still in this spot although it's been divided at least once. The purple alliums are there too although I don't know their name.

Myosotis (Forget me nots) are not in this spot any longer and neither is the Cerastium tomentosum but they have both been reintroduced to my garden last year and now I need to plant them together again!

Another bleeding heart, this one is Dicentra eximia 'Aurora' and it has not survived in this dry root-bound area. Looking at this photo I'm filled with plant lust and must find this cultivar to put in my better shade garden.

A dwarf Platycodon (Balloon flower), not in that spot either now but I do believe it's in another spot along my pool patio.

This statue was photographed in Saratoga Springs New York and I wanted it more than anything I had ever seen before. Although I saw it for sale once thereafter, I did not purchase it as I realized that I'd also need to purchase a bridge. Both troll and bridge are still on my wish list....sigh...

A little vignette in front of my breezeway. This old patio is now covered with lovely stone pavers but all the elements in this photo are still here scattered around the garden. Even many of those stones are now in my sedum/succulent area.

Another incredibly beautiful daylily, 'Tune the Harp' has been divided often but still grows in my garden. As for the Campanula punctata in the back drop, I couldn't get rid of it if I wanted too. Good think I like it :-)

My daughters Lauren and Emily were quite serious about grooming daylilies to enter in the Long Island Daylily Society flower show. I still have them here (the girls) but they're not quite as into the garden as they were back then.

As a closing shot, this was my cottage garden and it made my heart leap with joy when I stood there and gazed upon it. This bed had to be removed when we did the masonry work in front of our house but I still can close my eyes and see the beauty that was there.

Until today I didn't realize that I rarely look at these older digital images.

How far back do your digital images go? Do you look at them often?

Veggie-tables

Do you grow vegetables in your garden? Today I plan on planting tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. The weather has not cooperated much for warm weather plants but has been perfect if you are growing a cool weather crop.

These photos were taken two weeks ago so I know things are much further along today. This is Paul's vegetable garden. Paul is my friend Kim's husband and he has really been bitten by the gardening bug in the last few years.

Last year they moved to a new home and garden. The property layout is stunning but there really was no place to put a vegetable garden. Then Paul had a fantastic idea. He found these amazing tables, potted up all his veggies and placed them along the nicely sheltered south side of the garage.

I'm most interested in watching Paul's potatoes grow. Kim told me yesterday that they've added 4 more inches of soil since these photos were taken and the plants are spilling out of the barrels.

How ingenious is this! I just love the idea of growing potatoes in large plastic garbage bins. They are high enough that you can pick off any munching creatures without bending over. The potatoes should be a breeze to harvest too.

By now the warm weather vegetables should be planted too so I need to drive over next week and take some more photos. I'll try to stop up the road at my friend Gianna's house too as her husband Richie has been planting his veggies in pots for years now.

Guess where I'm going to plant my tomatoes today. Yup, pots here for me too! I was hoping to get some photos this morning but it's been spritzing out there so that will have to wait a bit.

Off to get muddy...

And the winner is...

There are two Viburnum plicatum shrubs in my yard. One is planted in rich soil where it gets watered often. The other is in a tough spot, more shade, more tree competition (including Black Walnuts, Juglans nigra) and no water during dry spells.

This is how the Viburnum in the tough spot looks, it's just as amazingly beautiful as the one in the great spot. We put it over the spot our two kitties Olive and Muffin are buried.


When it comes to shrubs I'm no expert. I've only been really paying attention to them for 4 or 5 years now and haven't added too many to our gardens here. Unfortunately there weren't wonderful shrubs waiting here for us, just the usual array of poorly grown yews (Taxus baccata) and one bank of Rhododendrons in front of the house.

This is Viburnum burkwoodii 'Mohawk' which I find lovely. My only complaint might be that the catalog listed it as "more compact than burwoodii" and it is currently towering over 7 feet tall.


Here's a close up of those lovely blooms. This photo was taken last year on June 1st so I have a bit of a wait before I get to see this sight again.


Viburnum dilatum 'Erie' is the winner when it comes to shrub shape. It truly is compact, short and wide, perfect in the semi shade border.

When looking for these shrubs I considered light requirements, soil requirements (we have naturally acidic soil), blooms and highly important was berries to feed the wildlife. While I can't say I've seen enough berries to invite whole flocks of birds, I can say that I'm very happy with the choices I've made.

For those of you who were thinking that my title alluded to the local elections here, I'll just add this, apparently, like my Viburnums, I'm a winner.