Good maintenance can transform an unwanted blob into a thing of beauty.
Category Archives: Plants
Municipal flower bed installation, France
Municipal flower beds are a big thing in France. Often, as one enters a town there is a sign proclaiming it to be a “ville fleuri” – a flower city. It seems that every city and town competes to see who can create the most original and extravagant flower beds. By July, these beds willContinue reading “Municipal flower bed installation, France”
Garden update, one year later
Quite a bit happens in a year. Some plants fail, either totally or partially. Others grow; some re-seed and fill in bare areas. Some decide to conquer their entire section of the garden and have to be dealt with.
Daffodils & bulb covers
These miniature daffodils grow on the South side of a mound facing the house, sprouting from low ground covers to bloom, grow and die down again until the next blooming season. The only care we give them is to scatter pet-safe snail bait, formulated with iron phosphate. Left alone, the snails will happily chew offContinue reading “Daffodils & bulb covers”
It’s man-eat-radish out there!
We just celebrated our first radish of the year. Initially very rashisy but mild, it finished rather hot, almost like horseradish. The arugula is coming along well, the chives have re-sprouted from their winter dormancy and the garlic chives are popping up, too. The artichoke is slowly putting forth new leaves, the lettuces are lettucingContinue reading “It’s man-eat-radish out there!”
Ready to plant!
After the irrigation and lighting systems are installed, it’s time to plant. Often nurseries don’t have all the required plants, so flags are used to mark the position of plants that will arrive later. All the plants are carried to their approximate position on site and placed, still in their pots. After walking around theContinue reading “Ready to plant!”
New Year Sunset
A colorful sunset highlights winter tree branch structure.
A bit of maintenance for the Deschampsia
Time for a haircut for the Tufted Hair Grass. Here’s how they look after trimming.
Frost-colored
Some plants almost seem to like cold weather. Their leaves change from green to deeper hues of red, orange, purple. When the weather warms again, their leaves will once again become green.
Frost-zapped!
Some plants ignore frost, others do interesting things, and others… you never know until you try. Climate zones are good enough indicators most of the time, but weather is fickle and doesn’t follow lines on maps.