Owner: Ilona's Garden Journal URL:http://ilonagarden.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:23:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Recording events of my garden season and its inspirations, while jotting down information on plants and gardentips. A garden journal that connects with other gardeners and shares the joy of the art and craft of creating a personal landscape. Site statistics:Click here
Wild And Windy 2008-05-03 03:37:00 No, not me, the weather. I am amazed at the bloom on my apple and crabapple trees this year, the frost did not seem to have affected them. Of course with the weather as it is I am mostly looking at them through the window.As a friend mentioned to me, when I asked her if she was in her garden lately, she is mostly trying to keep up with the grass. It is that time of year, the warming, yet still cool temperatures and spring rains spell fast growing grass. I am very remiss in mowing, but it is looking a little shaggy even for my tastes. I would have mowed the other day, but misplaced the keys to the tractor. I am always doing that, but this time I outsmarted myself. It seems like a game with me and my mind.... hiding things from each other. I am going to check my jeans pocket.... maybe I left Read more:Windy
It's Been A Hard Day's Work... 2008-05-06 17:07:00 And if I believed in such a thing, it was jinxed! I wrote a page on Kitchen gardens- which I hope to make into a series of two more pages and felt like making my own vegetable patch prettier this year. So I hilled up the broccoli beds a little more edged them with lettuces and started digging a straighter edge around the plot- which I will do something with- just not sure yet! Digging is always a little hard on me- I use my right leg, and it gets a bit overworked... but it was in weeding the side garden that I had the most trying time.I attempted to put up some planters on the trellis. Sounds easy right? Not with mine, couldn't figure out the hanger, then tripped when I stepped backwards (on the basket), slid -just barely breaking the fall, went inside to clean up the blood. Kept at things
In celebration of the spring rain 2008-05-08 09:27:00 Gentle rains fall to soften my garden beds. The very atmosphere seems pregnant, imparting everything with fecund potential. My heart and mind soar in such enveloping mists and soak in the droplets of the magnified clarity it gives to the light, filtered and diffused in the tenderest way possible. The purples and lavenders glow in this light, the greens deepen and become velveted, the whites glisten and then fade at the edges... nothing is harsh or disordered while the colors of the garden are washed into each other with rainbow gradations. I imagine my newly planted seeds welcomed in the moist womb of the garden's earth. Every petal of the blooming flowers is preserved in the momentary embrace of the sweet moisture, the prepared soils open and inviting to every growing thing and to my fe Read more:celebration
Making Moss 2008-05-09 09:14:00 mossgraffiti: "Moss Graffiti" is something I've tried before, but not with such an easy recipe. Time to try again. there are times you want to dress down your pond area and things like that.... gardeners like things like moss and lichens:)moss artThe basic recipe is as follows, with more detailed instructions here:1 can of beer1/2 teaspoon sugarSeveral clumps garden mossa plastic container (with lid),a blender and a paintbrush_________________________________________________To begin the recipe, first of all gather together several clumps of moss (moss can usually be found in moist, shady places) and crumble them into a blender. Then add the beer and sugar and blend just long enough to create a smooth, creamy consistency. Now pour the mixture into a plastic container.Find a suitable damp an
My Lilacs 2008-05-21 10:11:00 Lilacs, you either love them or despise them. Those who hold them in little regard usually complain about their dull leaves, lack of season interest, and short bloom while taking big space. Ah, but those that love them speak but one word with that glassy-eyed expression of infatuation: fragrance! The fragrance is evocative of old gardens, grandmothers, home dooryards, simpler times and simpler val
Garden Work Between the Raindrops 2008-05-21 09:12:00 That sums up my goals lately. When there are the few sunny, dry days I try to mow down the lushly grown grass, grub out the lusty weeds, make places for the new plantings and soak my tired bones at the end of the day. But then the rains come....and come.... On weeding: the ground after rain and when the sun first warms everything is usually nice and soft and good for quick weeding. I still bring m Read more:Garden
Mr Brown Thumb is back! ..and other gardenblog highlights 2008-05-27 13:16:00 Mr BrownThumb
: "Spring sprung without me" announces that Mr. Brown Thumb is back and filling us in on his life during the blogging absence. I was so happy to read a post by him- he is one of my personal favorites in garden blogging. I hope he thrives and prospers! (and survives those helpful "garden coaches"). Prayers for his mother, too.Carol of May Dreams is a garden blogger I follow on Twitter
The Busy Season 2008-05-27 09:21:00 That is how I think of this time of year: busy. The rare spring moments of enjoying tender sunny weather, with soft fragrant breezes and the shifting clouds pierced by shafts of light, while bearing the showers that keep ground moist and sprouts growing, is crowded by my race with the earth to gain mastery over my garden. Every year the earth wins.I make new strategies each year, while the challen Read more:Season
Does It Ever Stop "Being Busy"? 2008-05-31 07:06:00 I seem to remember times (ok, not in the spring) when I could sit and think, meander through the garden, putter around and do any number of things which seem impossible to find time for now. And that was when I had a passel of little kids to corral and care for. I am always in a hurry up and go mode nowadays. What happened to the old adage, "take time to smell the roses" ? I am beginning to think
Raised Beds 2008-05-30 19:11:00 After writing about Kitchen gardens, I put into action some temporary raised beds in my vegetable garden. I have had some permanent raised beds in my front garden since its inception. The driveway beds are also a type of permanent raised bed situation. I think there are pros and cons to the technique.The pros, of course, are that you have more control over the tilth and quality of the soil. There
Good Gardening Ideas Gone Bad 2008-06-01 07:04:00 It seemed like such a good idea at the time: loads of grass trimmings from mowing, and trees to mulch. Grass clippings ought to make good mulch. The trouble is that they often harbor grass seed and create an encroaching wave of grass in the coming seasons. Not so good for new trees.Or straw. Making a path behind the perennial bed, the straw seemed a perfectly good way to mulch and keep from packin
Pushing the Planting Envelope 2008-06-03 12:44:00 I can never resist those sales... and so I have some plants to still put into the few garden spaces ready. This is pushing the envelope on new transplants since we are already seeing hot temperatures guaranteed to stress out new plants.I watered this morning and then a shower came along to additionally drench everything. Watering time is always an opportunity to see what new thing is blooming and Read more:Envelope
, Pushing
Purple Sand Cherry 2008-06-05 09:58:00 I was warned. When in the midst of life (my late twenties, early thirties) and in full thrall of new garden planting, I had read that purple sand cherries were short lived shrubs. I planted a beautiful purple leaved sand cherry, anyway.For years it grew and flourished. I even planned a color scheme around it, but alas, it is no more. Not in any shape that I desire to prolong its life in the garden Read more:Purple
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No title 2008-06-04 13:51:00 One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds. -Dan BennettEach spring...a gardening instinct, sure as the sap rising in the trees, stirs within us. We look about and decide to tame another little bit of ground. ~Lewis GanttTechnorati Tags: sayings,
Early Spring Pictures 2008-06-05 10:26:00 The pathway edged with lamium maculatum. blooming thyme within one of the the driveway borders the 'Shasta' viburnum in full bloom Read more:Early
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Thoughts 2008-06-09 05:57:00 "Like a big mountain, a small garden stimulates, restores, and delights us, just as it poses challenges, promotes mastery, provides exercise and relieves monotony."~ The Power of Place, Winifred GallagherSummer has now thrown open her emerald doors. Every part of the landscape is profuse in leaves and flowers, and "green-robed senators of mighty woods" are clothed in their most elegant array. ~
Garden Update -June 08 2008-06-08 00:26:00 Beginning of June- all roses in bloom. Too much RL life garden work to record it all, but worth it. I got a pat on the back from my husband for the huge advance in garden renovation. I couldn't have done it without him and the kids. Still a long way to go, but several garden spaces look like gardens again.Failure with half of the broccoli. I don't know what went wrong- plants looked good initially Read more:Garden
, Update
Perfect Day in an Unpredictiable Season 2008-06-10 16:27:00 Today has been what I consider a perfect day: blue skies, puffy clouds, gentle breezes, happy plants. Warm, quiet, with the scent of roses and mock orange wafting through the air... with no discernible demands. I did a little weeding this morning and that was it.Unlike yesterday, where I worked myself into painful oblivion all day in sweltering heat. Dragged myself, like Igor, along with unending Read more:Perfect
, Season
Garden Photos 2008-06-14 14:04:00 Here are some pictures from the garden lately. A clematis which is supposed to be on a lattice, but I didn't get to painting it yet... it clambers among the mugho pine.Dortmund rose is finally settling in and blooms with deep cherry single flowers.Peony, Dames Rocket, and Hansa rose blooming together in neglected experimental bed.Therese Bugnet blooms her heart out in late May and early June. Time Read more:Garden
A Bit Of Garden Wisdom 2008-06-15 10:05:00 This is not the time of year to do all this pruning and moving, but insuch a tangled garden it must be done, and now is better than never. ~Katy's Garden Read more:Wisdom
Summer Poems 2008-06-16 12:24:00 In the meadow - what in the meadow?Bluebells, buttercups, meadowsweet,And fairy rings for the children's feetIn the meadow.In the garden - what in the garden?Jacob's-ladder and Solomon's-seal,And Love-lies-bleeding beside All-healIn the garden.The narrow bud opens her beauties toThe sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, andFlourish down the bright chee Read more:Summer
, Poems
Garden Renovation: Old Plant Friends Invited Back 2008-06-16 09:30:00 I've been renovating my garden for the past couple years... it had become forsaken and neglected during the press of family obligations. Even though one of the early garden blogging pioneers, my garden blog had languished, as well. But this year, 2008, both blog and garden have seen a flurry of effort from me, and the garden, anyway, is showing progress.Like gardening in general, I've seen fads an Read more:Garden
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Memories of June 2008-07-02 11:51:00 A few pictures before I go on a short July Fourth hiatus.My overgrown pond area. I let feverfew bloom unhindered and the iris made it through the winter and bloomed beautifully- it surprised me. The waterlilies need division, you can't really see the water. These pictures show my present attraction to purple cream and gold combinations. The purple leaf tree is Prairie fire crabapple with the coreo
Mowing and Weeding 2008-07-01 15:34:00 Sorry the pictures aren't up yet, I've kept too busy to blog properly, although I have tried to keep the facebook going.Mowing and weeding are all we are doing right now. Ohio has turned into a rain forest, it seems, the perennials are lush and the grass abundant. Unfortunately, the fields have flooded and the crops are under stress, portions have already died off from being drowned out. The bugs,
New Pictures Soon 2008-06-25 02:28:00 I finished using the memory card in my old camera taking some pictures of my garden and of a recent trip to Innis Gardens. I go there so often with my camera that I think I have quite a few views of different seasons from there. That is why it has its own label on this blog. One of these days I'm going to go somewhere different, not that I don't try...but I get outvoted due to those places being f Read more:Pictures
, New Pictures
5 Tips to Improve Clay Soil 2008-06-24 12:39:00 Every type of soil has its good and bad characteristics, and like every woman knows, it is a matter of playing up the good features that creates the beauty of the whole. Clay soil has some features that given the right treatment repay you with a garden to be envied.Treat it right. Try to preserve good tilth (crumbliness) by not compacting the soil with foot traffic. Use a board to distribute your Read more:Improve
A Japanese Beetle Plague 2008-07-16 11:28:00 Japanese beetles have struck my garden again. Out mowing, I noticed the Stella cherry tree was bronze with skeletonized leaves. Coming closer it was filled with the terrible metallic armored beetles munching away. It gives me the willies to mow underneath these infested trees because a rain of beetles comes down on me when I brush by the branches. As I moved about the yard... it was the amelanchie Read more:Japanese
, Beetle
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