Sunday, 9-Dec-12

Yard

• Planted three fuschias "Mme Cornellissen" in the bed at the end of the azaleas.
• And scattered in that bed, 15 mixed, double narcissus. Dumped leaves over this area after marking the fuschias.

Pots

• Planted 10 pansies that we bought at the Montemboeuf xmas market in two oblong pots. Thought we might hang those under the windows on the woodshed, but they might be in the way of opened doors.
• Planted a little olive tree in a pot. 
• Planted 3 heathers in a pot.
• Tidied up, a bit. Moved olive tree, another fuschia, and something else against the house so they can be easily covered if we have a severe freeze.

Salad garden

• Now that the woodshed is in place, this area has to be rethought and recombobbled. What to do with that yellow-flowered unnamed perennial that's spreading?

Entry

• Planted a Clematis 'Westerplatte" (Patens group) on the pergola in front. A bit late to be doing this, so we'll see how it goes. It should have pink/red flowers 8-10cm, blooming May-Aug.

Monday, 19-Nov-12

South Forty

Yesterday we bought six bare-root fruit trees on sale. Today we planted them in two rows of three (for easier mowing), spaced about four meters apart, between Ben and the big junipers. There are two pears, two apples, two plums, working left to right as you face the bottom of the South Forty.

2	4	6
1	3	5

It was a bit hard to tell exactly where the soil line was, but we did our best.

1. Pear Williams, aka Bartlett apparently. A bit of root broke off this guy, so we hope it turns out OK.
2. Pear Conference, the regular long-necked pear.
3. Apple Reine des Reinettes.
4. Apple Belle de Boskoop. A Dutch apple, of course.
5. Plum Reine Claude d'Oullins (although the flyer says Oullens), a yellow plum.
6. Plum Quetsch, a purple plum.

Saturday, 17-Nov-12

Yard

• Ed's laid the walk out in front of the shed and rehung the shed doors so that they clear the walk.

South Forty

• I planted Victor's bulbs in the parental grove. Planted the 10 Leucojum aestivum in a group near Dottie Dogwood. I mixed the 50 Chionodoxa lucilae and 100 Allium neapolitanum and planted them in groups of ten, more or less, throughout the area. The last bunch, I planted in the tops of molehills. Have a jolly big broken blister on my right palm where I pressed on the trowel to make holes.
  • Leucojum aestivum (summer snowflake, nievéole d'été): Plant  Sep-Dec, bloom Apr-May (white), height 25cm. Will naturalize.
  • Chinodoxa lucilae (glory of the snow): Plant Sep-Dec, bloom Feb-May (purple), height 15cm
  • Allium neapolitanum (daffodil garlic): Plant Sep-Dec, bloom Apr-May (white), height 25cm

Wednesday, 14-Nov-12

Yard

• The woodshed as been "painted" and is almost ready for the wood. Now need to think about how the garden around the umbrella tree should be arranged.

South Forty

• Planted Papa's pecan tree. (That's a chestnut tree with very yellow leaves on the left; the sun is going down behind the ridge near the center.)
  
  
  
  
  
• Here's Martha Sweetgum:
  
  
  
• Here's Gingko Ben:
  
  
  
  
• Here's Dottie Dogwood:
  
  
  

Potager

• Most things gone. Wild strawberry blooming.

Entry

• Have bought a pergola to go where the fioul tank was. Stones for rest of walk by the woodshed have been moved to the backyard, so the space is ready to go.

Friday, 28-Sep-12

Yard

• In the bottom left corner (south), removed the flowering currant (that had been moved from closer to the house) and planted a witch hazel (Hamamelis intermedia 'Ruby Glow'). 

Pots

• Put a new lemon thyme into a pot and discovered that the one I thought had died in the summer heat was growing back. Now we'll have two.

South Forty

• Planted Dottie today, Cornus florida rubra, and marked where Papa Clark should go.
  
  
• The flowering currant from the yard went along the bottom edge of the South Forty, in with the bird hedge. One day there might be a dense hedge, not too tall, along the edge, back a bit more from the road than the pittosporum that was planted down there before (and remains, but cut back on the road side).

Friday, 28-Sep-12 - Where we are now

Yard

• Grass starting to recover after we've had some rain. Terrace of gravel has been added. Area for foundation of new "woodshed" is prepared, waiting for help in laying foundation. Then we can build the pre-fab shed we bought and fill it with cut wood and sacks of pellets. On the back of the shed, I'm hoping for a work area, bench, shelves for storing pots and "stuff", space for contains for dirt, etc. underneath. All this means the space around the umbrella tree, including the salad garden, has to be recombobbled, but that won't hurt. One of these days...
• Before the terrace as laid, Ed moved the buddleia in the corner of the house to the South Forty, along the western edge, highish.

Pots

• Yes, there are lots.

Salad garden

• Only some cherry tomatoes here, volunteer from last year. Had some lettuce around the rosemary, but that's all gone.

South Forty

• A properly legal treatment area for the fosse septique has been added on the western side below the raspberries.
• Starting to green up after rain. 
• In the spring, along the bottom edge, we added some bird shrubs, two sets of these mail-ordered.
  
  
  
  
  
  They're planted in random order, four each of six species. All but one of the plants are doing well, and the odd one is growing from the base. The six plants are:
  • Virburnum opulus, Guelder rose (Fr: viornes obier). White flowers, red berries.
  • Symphoricarpos albus, snowberry (Fr: symphorine). This the the white-berried thing that I don't like very much and have never particularly noticed as attractive to birds.
  • Prunus spinosa, blackthorn or sloe (Fr: prunellier). Blue berries. Maybe we can make some gin?
  • Euonymus europaeus, spindle (Fr:f usains d'Europe). Orange fruit capsule opening with fuschia berries inside. Also have never noticed birds around these.
  • Cornus mas, Cornelian cherry or European cornel (Fr:cornus mas) . Dogwood family, red berries.
  • Amelanchier , serviceberry (Fr:amélanchier). White flowers, red berries. It has other names depending on species, but is known around here as the "rare tree". We found the name as a bird-friendly shrub/tree that fit where we need a small tree; ordered one to plant our Amstelveen yard; then discovered it was extremely common, used in masses in city planting. But it's lovely and the birds like the berries. We have one in the top part of the yard too.
• Ben and Martha both survived the winter cold and the summer heat and are doing well.

Potager

• Some tomatoes remaining. Zucchinis not doing much. One aubergine and three little beets to be picked on of these days. Some tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.

Entry

• Cleaned up a bit, the fioul tank is gone, but nothing has taken its place yet.