Shade Garden

 this is a look at the dry stream and the moss growing along its edges.  I will be clipping the variegated shrub and weeding the moss, leaving only the Welsh poppies growing  I am encouraging the ferns and other deep shade plants to grow under the deck. 

 this is a view of under the deck that shows you where the neighbors have destroyed the screening of the cedars, over the years... kids had their hockey net set up in front of this hedge and were forever chasing their balls through the hedge.. and last year they deliberately butchered the cedars even further.  The guy sits out there and smokes, whatever it is he smokes, right next to the property line.  So, I am trying to think of something that will screen this area under the deck and still look good from my side as well.  You see where the chair sits... I would like to make an nice sitting area under my deck, and screened from their view.  Maybe tall evergreen ferns?  Like the one that grows by the back of the garage.  It is at least 4 feet tall.

This is a view of the Japanese lantern, on its new stand, the Japanese Maple the Kalmia, some ferns along the dry stream.

 This is a look at the Lantern from the opposite side as the photo above.  This looks out from under the deck where I want to make my new sitting area, out towards the veggie garden.  I can see that this vista needs to have the white bags of compost moved.  Otherwise it looks quite green and nice.  You can see the moss beneath the Mountain Laurel  in the left bottom corner. 

 A view of the waterfall.

the waterfall, again from under the deck.  I can see that this vista needs to be cleaned up a bit.  May need to remove the white plastic pots that I store on the veggie garden area. Those irises in the foreground will soon be in bloom with lovely purple/gold very showy blooms.

So, the plans go on for the improvement of my space and your perception of my world.  Meanwhile, I have typed my private journal to record my GAWD Ahmighty! venting about what is happening in the news and on our block, even . . . none of which bears repetition here.

James Island is for sale for $75 million... damn.. I only have $54 million      GAWD ahmighty!  You see?  The difference between the rich and the ... moderately comfortable  is incredible.  The difference between the moderately comfortable and the poor is even more incredible.  Do you suppose it has always been so?

Irises

 Tall bearded Iris, Indian Chief

 there will be more varieties of tall bearded iris opening.

 Siberian Iris, Ceasar's Brother... weird name

 Siberian Iris, Perry's Blue

 I planted some new Dutch iris next to the tub in the woodland.  They were mixed colors.  I think there are four of them.  The other two buds look a lot like they might be the same as these two.

 The old Dutch Iris that was in the garden when we bought the place.  They are beside the garage with the Oriental poppies that were also in the garden when we bought the place.  They are a nice combination and bloom at the same time.  Very showy.

This is a yellow iris in the tub in the woodland.  Not an all star.  You can see my weird old neighbor's plastic crappy fence just behind this area of my woodland space.

I did not work in the garden today as I have a very sore shoulder.  Not sure what caused it, but resting it is helping it to go away.  The only thing I can think of that may have caused it was when I was pulling grass out of the  Siberian Iris bed the other day.   I did get out and water the back garden a bit.  The seeds I planted in the vegetable patch are actually coming up.  The radish seeds that I thought were too old have germinated.  So, it takes planting them deep enough and watering them.  The lupines are coming up in their pots on the deck.  I am so pleased with that.  I will have to revive the old cedar trough and put two of them into it so I can keep track of them.  ...  but what am I going to do with 20 of them if they all germinate?  I might have to start planting the wild park (deer pasture) across the street!

I have started my garden journal again.  I was reading over some of my old stuff and found the names of most of my irises.  I feel more grounded with the Journal being kept again.  The last time I had one was in 2005.. the same year I started my web page and did quite a lot of stuff on line.  I think it is time to get back to my own stuff, including the garden, reading, and my web page albums. 

I do wish I had not lost my Adsense account, but I guess there is no getting it back again.  I do not think I would win an appeal.  Dammitt.  My site meter is showing an average of hits in the high 90's per day.  Surprisingly most people are still using Explorer (Windows) as their browser.  Firefox is a close second and Google Chrome a bit behind in third place. 

Yesterday, I got my print called 'Survivor #2 framed and matted.  I took too long on deciding on the frame and matting and made us late for our appointment.  Pat was not impressed to say the least.  He hates being late.  Well, we have gotten over it now.  Sorry, Pat.

poppies

The Welsh poppies do so very well in the shade, and partial shade of the woodland area and under the deck.  They self seed readily and so I let them spread.  They are a delicate and graceful addition to the garden.  The oriental poppies are huge and showy with a great burst of color.  The Oriental ones are almost finished, but the Welsh ones will continue over the summer.  The pots of big pink carnation like poppies germinated too early and in the early spring they seemed to have  died of exposure.  I hope there were some seeds left that did not germinate.  Its always a pleasant surprise when these poppies pop up somewhere in the garden. 

I was over to Cannor Nursery to get 8 fish for the pond... one for the tub in the woodland.  The fish, elvis, lives in the deck tub.  Elvis must be a resident on my deck for 4 years now.  He keeps the mosquitoes under control and so does not need much food otherwise.  The little yellow miniature water lily in the deck tub is going to be really good this year, as it has lots of leaves.  The tub in the woodland has a yellow water iris in bloom.  .. more on irises next post.

We have had some cooler, damp weather, recently.  The rain gauge shows about a half inch of rain.  This is good as the garden certainly seems dry.  I have planted allysum and radishes in a trough by the side of the vegetable garden and they are germinated.  There are some of the other flowers coming up as well.  I also added 8 half price gladiolas to my veggie/cutting garden.  I might see half of them grow. 

The eagles seem to have produced a nestful of 3 young ones this year.  A couple of weeks ago we watched them taking their flight training lessons.  Then, yesterday, we watched the mature pair doing the mating dance and mating... almost.  It was a long stretch for our telescope, so I would never have been able to get a photo with the lenses I use.  It is good to see the eagle population growing.