Wednesday Workdays

One more project marked off the list this week.

Several years ago we added a second "pond".  This one had no fish, but we grew a variety of water lilies, water iris and other things over the years.  And there was at least one frog who lived there for several summers.  

You can clearly see the gunk!

But without a pump for circulation and filtering the water got pretty funky - can you say "yuck"?

I used an extra pump to empty the water and water the garden.  Not as rich as the water from the fish pond, but lots of decaying material to feed the perennials.

 So once I cleaned the fish pond, I decided to dump the lily pond and move on. 

About 36 inches in diameter and 24 inches deep in the center.  It took nearly four wheelbarrow loads to refill.  Luckily, I have plenty of compost for little jobs like this.

It wasn't all that difficult, but you know how heavy water is ... and dirt is just as bad.  It took me one weekend to take it out, a second to fill the hole and finally a third to find plants and get it ready to grow again. 

 

A variety of columbines should give me some filler for cut arrangements and one can never have too many Gerbera daisies!  Mission accomplished!

Flowers in the House

Jane's call to arms sent me out to the peony bed.  Despite heavy - and I do mean heavy! - rains and way too much wind over the past week, the peonies have just bloomed their little heads off!  Way too many blossoms have ended up on the ground, but I have been out cutting them as often as possible.

Even Mitchell noticed how good the house has been smelling. 

Am learning to cut them a little sooner than in previous years, and they seem to be doing well inside.  Today I added some native penstemon [penstemon digitalis] as well as agastache 'Ava' and some leaves from Solomon's seal.  There was one "odd" Dutch iris.  It's not one that I have ever planted, so must have been bird-planted or blown in, but I like it and it lasts longer in the vase than the rest that I have. 

 

There's one peony that I'm particularly interested in seeing "open".  It's the dark bud that looks a bit like a rose.  It has never bloomed before and so I don't know what it really looks like.  The bud is nearly as dark as the 'Scarlette O'Hara' peony that I love so much.  That one bloomed briefly, but got pounded by the rains and didn't make it to a photo shoot this year. 

Thanks to Jane at Small but Charming for hosting and organizing us!