Workin for the weekend

I'm rushing through this because I still have to pack and run to catch a bus back to the farm for a family baby shower.  

Dormant plants are all coming back to life, spring bulbs are growing tall and the forsythia in the neighborhood are glowing that strong bright bright yellow!! 

I finished a spring cleaning at a garden in Greenwich Village this week.  It has been tough with construction happening on the building next door.  A brick wall next to our garden was removed causing lots of dust and brick pieces to fall into the beds... Not so bad though, the neighbors seem to be pretty respectful.  

This rhododendron is one of the most anticipated blooms this spring. Apparently, for many years this one hasn't had more than 2 or 3 blooms.  After a couple seasons of good pruning and a fertilization schedule we now have about 24 buds!  I am so excited to see how it does.
I have always loved how the climbing hydrangea can go from a gnarly wall of brown vines to a fluttering mass of bright green leaves.  

Daffodils and tulips with the horse and monkey.

Little kitty statue almost sitting on an early bulb, it could be a snowdrop... not quite sure.  

In the foreground there are european ginger starting to come back... they are so elegant and great in this shaded garden bed.

Now I have to pack for northern CT weather... lots of thermals, it's cold up on the mountain!

Wouldn't this be nice

I often stumble upon this image... It's my paradise.  It's not that far off from the gardens I make these days... just without the elephants, bronze statues and doric columns.   

"This hand-coloured engraving by the 16th-century Dutch artist Martin Heemskerck depicts the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. According to the tradition, the gardens did not hang, but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon.Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean king, is supposed to have had the gardens built in about 600 bc as a consolation to his Median wife, who missed the natural surroundings of her homeland"

Back to work...

Happy accidents

Brooklyn planting has been very active this past week.  It is so satisfying to remove the old winter blankets and see fresh green erupting out of the soil.  All the clean outs are going smoothly.  

I'm sort of excited to have a rain day tomorrow so I can do some design work and write a couple proposals.  

Plant wise in the office, I filled my window boxes with violas and french lavender.  

Buds are beginning to form on the climbing clematis.  

It's creating a buzz with the neighbors, who are starved for soft green on our block.  

My landlord even said "Thank god you're here," when I had asked him if he saw the window boxes.  

Once the clematis gets going I'll add a photo.

I also purchased a pincushion plant... which I LOVE.  It is sort of a sample for an indoor window sill plant collection I'm working on for a client in the neighborhood.  It's going to be fun and colorful. 

As for my terrariums, I had a little accident.  

I broke Persephone into three pieces.

But really, it looks kind of great.  I love the way she is laying under that succulent... the swooping arm from behind the rest of her body... yup, it's one of those good accidents.  

(sorry laura)

And the other day, I was cleaning out a garden when my friend, the bird, came around to hang for while.  He must have been there for a solid three hours.  

I used to see this brave little bird last fall when I was tucking the garden away for the winter. He ate a ton of my holly berries, probably to help get through the winter.  

I couldn't get over how interested he was with me. 

We were so close.

Bird whisperer.

And I quote

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt"  Maragret Atwood

So true.

Spring is in the air

It's the second week in March and already there are bright colors in my gardens!  These Pixie Irises grew through the winter insulating pine boughs.  

My task for the day was to remove the boughs, clean out the soil, add some early fertilizers and prep for the tulips that are just under the surface.

I think these are Poeticus Recurvus Daffodils... or they are the Strong Gold Tulips... I have to check my notes from last fall when I planted them.

I would give them another four weeks until these guys bloom.  

  

The biggest worry for this garden is squirrels.  I had noticed a few bulbs had been dug up, the leaves had been scratched away and there is a clean dirt hole.  

Squirrels are huge pests in ground level gardens and even one terrace of mine.  

They eat the buds off of the roses at a garden in the West Village.  Our defense is to put up a stick blockade which sort of blocks the view of the plant... but saves the blooms. Oh squirrels.

Manic Mondays

Well, not so manic... more like  "super productive mondays".

Right off the bat, I FINISHED MY TAXES!!!  Oh god it feels good.  

I should have done it all electronically, but I needed a hard copy for my files and just wasn't interested in paying money to send it via the internet...But I suppose with the amount of paper I used, plus ink, plus riding over to the post office to wait in line FOREVER and paying for postage, it may have worked out to be the same price.  

Well, now I know.
...

I also looked at a terrace today in Williamsburg... I think we are going to do a "masculine working garden" theme.  The client said he was learning to cook so this will be another fun addition to the kitchen... herbs and such.

There is a massive condo being built that will look directly into his apartment when it's done, so a plant screen of sorts will have to be incorporated.  

Exciting exciting!

...

And lastly, I had planted two lavender plants in one of my window boxes. 

A client from last summer had moved last week into a balcony-less apartment.  He asked me to take them off his hands and to make him a set of interior special plantings... (The interior planting is work-in-progress at the moment.)  

I have one more lavender to pick up from him.  I'm thinking it will be planted in the left window box next to my Blue Boy Clematis.  

I had a dream the other night about my two window boxes- a vision, sort of. White Cosmos flowers, white Ranunculus, (which will be short lived but gorgeous), the purple/silver lavender (which I just planted) the existing blue flowered Clematis and a couple Persian Shields.  

I do my best designing in my dreams. 

After planting the lavenders, I pruned up one them up because it had been bit by the winter a little harder than the others. 

I'm going to save these clippings because they smell so nice, maybe sew up a little satchel for them and make little scented gift pouches for my friends... oh the crafter in me can't stop!

Well, anyways, Mondays... they are just fine by me.

Off to organize the basement/make notes on the new terrace client/hit up the bank.

Enjoy the week!

Tax season!

I've started my taxes today.  As much as this seems like a dreaded task, I am finding that every year I feel so good after they are done.  

It's a great way to see how much I have put in and will get back from our splendid government.

 

So....

...And here's to starting fresh in 2008!

I guess it feels more like the new year for me now. 

The spring tasks are starting up next week!  

I saw a few orange crocus's in bloom two days ago over in Fort Green which made me concerned but also excited.  

This weather is getting a little confusing, so I checked my past three years of calendars, they all confirm that the second week in March is when I began uncovering the beds with crocus and allium bulbs. 

The Farmers Almanac also forecasts mild weather on the horizon!  Last frost around the last week of March!!

Yesterday I went through all my tools, cleaned them up, changed the blades to new sharp ones.  I took inventory on fertilizers and pesticides, soil amenities, pots and accessories.  I'm starting to take over a large section of my basement.  The Brooklyn Planting office is getting full.  

Maybe after this summer I will be ready for a larger office with a workshop!  

Now back to the taxes.  This was just a break.