The Marvelosity Continues

No doubt my readers have spent many sleepless night waiting to behold the latest glorious update from My Marvelous Garden.  Wait no longer, the amazingness commences forthwith.

The weather here in CT has been pretty awful this past week, but there was time between the thunderstorms last Saturday for me to do a little garden-tending and snap a few pictures.  The big accomplishment on that day was me heading to the farm stand down the street and picking up a bunch of annuals for my various planters.  As I do every year, I bought many impatiens because I enjoy their variety of colors, their continuous stream of flowers, and the fact that they last well into the fall.

The above planter is on my front steps - Kathy bough me this pot from TJ Max a few years ago because she thought it would looke nice on the front steps.  Before that, I was using a lame plastic imitation terra-cotta planter.  There is a mix of white and dark pink impatiens in there, it should fill-out nicely.

Here, in addition to my dog's ample posterior, you can get a nice overview of what I'm trying to do in the front of the Residence of Reilly.  Near the stairs are a bunch of astrids, I have a couple of large hydrangeas, and I have three of those blue plants for early season accent.

The following two pictures also show the front of the place.  In the last one you can see my Rose of Sharon bush, which despite the Condo Association's landscapers who insist on trimming it, continues to thrive.

The one ongoing issue that I have with the front of the house is that I think the hydrangea bushes don't look quite as good as they should.  I've seen many houses where people have a real nice look with hydrangea bushes as the focal point of their front garden, and they always seem to look better than mine.  Something about my hydrangeas continues to look a little bit ragged.  I thought they would fill out a bit better as the years went on, but this will be the fourth summer with them there and its still not quite working.  Gardening is the one thing I have an ability to be somewhat patient about, so I'm willing to give them a little more time.  But my patience isn't limitless and if they don't improve I may have to think about getting something different in there.

Lastly, before we head around to the back of my domicile, a few quick shots of the progress of the new astilbe that is doing superb on the sunless north side of the building.

Now around the back of the house.  In addition to the impatiens I also like to pot some kind of droopy geranium.  You can make it out in the picture below.  Last year I did the same thing in the pot, but because I bought the plants on clearance and they were both pretty shriveled, I mixed in a purple and pink version of the plant.  This time, because the plant was supple and healthy, I decided to do just the purple with the expectation that it should branch out in no time.

If the above picture wasn't titilating enough, it also gives you a nice view of my dog Whitman's colossal head and a sneak-peak of the king of my garden, my strapping, succulent chive plant.




















The big space is intentional.  Its purpose is to give you a breather from the unrelenting stream of amazingness which you are beholding, because without a break the next picture might blow your mind.

What you are seeing in this picture is my new planter that my mother bought for me for Easter.  As should be apparent once, like Paul on the Road to Damascus, your vision returns after witnessing the divine nature of this picture, is a really nice mix of impatiens throughout the planter.  The top is a combination of plain white impatiens and an impatiens that has a red and white flower.  The bad-ass side compartments are a mix of the aforesaid white impatiens and some rich pink ones.  The following picture, in addition to perhaps searing your retinas with its sublimity, gives another view of the planter.

One other thing that I'd like to point out in the above picture is the patio, which I built myself.  I love the contrast between the inner brown pavers and the outer grey ones.  Unfortunately, because the wood that I used to trim the area around the patio warped a little bit due to weight of all the sand and what-not that they are holding, I haven't been able to completely finish putting in the outside stones.  I need to be able to cut the pavers so that they fit like I want them to.  I'm going to get my uncle's tile saw from him so I can finish that job.  I will most likely document it for this blog when I do so.

Back to the plants.  You can see the progress of my climbing hydrangea and the shasta dasies in this picture.  It's beginning to look like I'm not going to get any flowers on the hydrangea this year either, but even so, I will be able to start training the plant to grow along the lattice, and thus add to its amazingness, so I remain pumped about it.

Here is the garden area at the back of the house.  Its really doing quite well.  The astilbe, iris, and sedum are all progressing according to plan.  I'd like to perhaps add another plant in the gap between the astilbe and the tree, but to do so I need to find a decent looking plant that can thrive so close to the oak tree.

Here is the third garden in the back yard.  On the left is a hybrid tea rose which I hate and want to replace with a climbing rose.  I only ever bought the stupid thing because my fiancée though it looked pretty, but if it was up to me I'd attack that piece of sickly, high-maintenance garbage with a chainsaw tomorrow.  In the center of the picture is another astilbe.  To the right of that is another planter with a mix of pink and white impatiens in it.  To the far right is bleeding heart plant, which by this point in the year is just about past its prime.

To finish things up, here is a picture that gives a bit of a panoramic view of the backyard.  The Royal Botanical Garden is likely its only equal.

Actually, who am I kidding?  No post is complete without the imposing glory of my chive plant.

Welcome to post number two at the most marvelous garden blog on all the interwebs. I'm posting my second set of pictures that I took this past Saturday, the 1st of May. Since the last set of pictures the only big change that I've made is mulching all of my garden beds. The nice thing about this set is that I've taken more pictures and it's easer to get a sense of the entire yard.

This first picture is of the back of my backyard which is located almost exactly due east. This is the most recent bed that I've made because there is a big tree next to the bed that has made growing things there challenging. My strategy has been to basically throw a bunch of plants in the ground there and to see what lives.In this picture you can see the aforementioned tree on the extreme left. Working left to right I have a astilble that blooms pink, a group of purple irises, and sedum. I'm not hugely in love with any of these plants and I expect to make some changes back here as time goes on.

This next picture is of a bed that is immediately to the right of the one pictured above and runs at a perpendicular angle to it. It too is on the east side of the house, but since my neighbors fence is located on its south side, and because I'm north of the tropic so I don't get overhead sun, it is in shade almost all day long. In its center I have another astilbe. This is my favorite astilbe out of the ones I have because it has really nice dark red flowers. I recently found that rock next to the plant in the woods by my house I thought it would make a nice decorative accent.

This is the bleeding heart that I showed a picture of in my last post. It is located immediately to the right of the astilbe above picture. This is the time of year for this plant and it really looks nice. I was looking around at my local farm stand the other day and saw a bleeding heart with white flowers. I had never noticed that variety of the plant before and I am thinking about maybe getting one for the north side of my house where I get no sun.

The picture below is of the bed located across from the one pictured above. It contains my glorious climbing hydrangea, which has really filled out since the last picture of it. The shasta daisies next to it are also doing really well. The wet spot in the center of the picture is of a newly planted peony that I got on clearance at Ocean State Job Lot. Since I got it in the ground pretty late, I'm not expecting much from it this year, but it should look great in the years to come. It is a really interesting variety - Monsieur Jules Elie.

There is supposed to be a bunch of Black-Eyed Susans growing throughout the bed, but my neighbor's cat keeps eating the leaves as they come up. The plant is supposed to be poisonous for cats, so I have expect to find a cat corpse in the yard. It would probably thrill my dog Whitman, whose fat head is pictured, as he has been unsuccessfully trying to catch that cat for three years now. In the second view of the bed you can see the north side of the house in background.

This is the other end of this bed. I'm trying to get a mix of plants that bloom at different times of the year here, so I have an Arctic Fire for the early summer, the Black-Eyed Susans for the mid summer, and some Astrids that I transplanted from the front for the fall. Since this spot is sunny almost all day long (except late afternoon when I took this picture), I'm also thinking of putting lillies or hollyhocks here as well.

A glorious shot of my marvelous chive plant. When the gods get tired of eating ambrosia they come over and ask for some chives from this plant.

Now we're going to leave the back yard and progress around the house to the front garden. As I've mentioned the north side of the house faces due north and gets very little sun. The plant's I have growing there have to be full shade tolerant. There is a completely nondescript holly bush that is there just to take up space. I recently added a new astilbe plant there that I have high hopes for.

Here is a picture of the astilbe. Despite being another Job Lot clearance special, it's done really well and I'm pumped to see what color its foliage comes out. Ironically, I took this picture during just about the only time during the day when this spot gets any sun. You can see just how un-sunny the place is by the ample mildew on the siding that the condo association hasn't gotten around to cleaning yet.




Coming around to the front of the house, there is a Rose of Sharon and a couple of Hydrangea plants. I also recently added those blue flowers whose name I've forgotten. I plan to get a couple more of them to add more accent to the front. I think they really help bring more interest to this area early in the season because the front looks really plain before the hydrangeas fill out.

Welcome to My Marvelous Garden the amazing new gardening blog

Apparently I've become an old man before my time, because I've become obsessed with gardening around my townhouse in Glastonbury, CT. When I moved into this place in April 2006, the backyard to my building was a pile of dirt. Since that time, I've done a lot of work incrementally improving the backyard into something presentable - and as I've done so, I've inexorably become obsessed with my plants. This year, as part of my growing obsession, I decided to start taking pictures of my plantations in order to document their progress. Having taken these pictures, I now find that it isn't enough to have them, but that I want to use them to create some kind of journal. Viola, this blog is born, seeing that a blog is the most sensible format for creating a multimedia journal.

So without further ado, here is my first set of pictures. I took these back on April 11th when my plants were just beginning to emerge.

This bad boy here is my climbing hydrangea plant. Back when I had no clue what I was doing, I bought this plant for my mom's house for the north side where she doesn't get much sun. It didn't do anything for a couple of years, so I transplanted it here in the hopes that it would do better (little did I know at the time that climbing hydrangeas don't do anything the first couple of years they are in the ground). The plant is thriving in my place and I look forward to training it to grow along the lattice at the top of my fence.

Next to the hydrangea you can also see some shasta daisies that I planted last year.

This is my bleeding heart plant (technically, I guess, it belongs to my fiance Kathy since she picked it out) it grows in a shady bed in the corner and is actually the perfect plant for that spot since I don't think anything else would survive with so little sun.

This is an astilbe that I got for a few bucks at Ocean State Job Lot this year. I planted it on the north side of my place in a spot that only gets a few hours of sun a day). I had a azelea there, since they are supposed to be good in the shade too, but it was doing pretty poorly so I transplanted it. I'm really looking forward to seeing what color this astilbe winds up being. I hope its a white one because I already have red and pink in other places.

One last picture for the day. This is a chive plant that I've had for about 6 years - it was the first plant I ever put any effort in to growing. This is the third container I've had the plant in, each bigger than the last. It's a spectacular plant that taste's superb and continues to do well year after year. I'm absurdly emotionally invested in this plant. We have an annual Super Bowl party at my place, and one year I almost strangled someone when I saw them putting their cigarette butt out in the pot.

I took a new set of picture showing more of my yard yesterday, I'll try and get them up in the next few day. Until then I'll be staying marvelous, you try and do the same.