Why walking the dog makes my head spin

Let's start out with a little math today:

365 (days in a year) - 21 (average # of days away from home each year) = 344
344 x 2.5 (average # of times I take the dog out each day) = 860
860 x 5 (average # of minutes spent outside with said dog) = 4300
4300/60 = 71.66 hours spent outside with the dog each year (and that only includes bathroom trips)

What is the point of this tedious mathematical equation? Glad you asked.

When properly rounded, that is 72 hours (or 3 days) spent each year just critiquing my front garden beds while walking the dog. As much as I love Casey, (a Labrador Retriever who will be 13 in July), I am in full-on garden evaluation mode while I am outdoors with her. This is true winter, spring, summer or fall. It's joy and torture all rolled into one. Think of it as "paralysis by analysis". Maybe I should have mixed it up and taken her to other parts of the yard, but the damage is already done.

Recently, on a cold and windy evening, as I stood outside with my dog, I was at it again. I was getting myself all worked up over a number of seemingly unimportant plant/gardening issues. This is supposed to be relaxing and fun, right? Not always for me.

As a means of therapy, and clearing my conscience and to also help others who are suffering from the same draining and painful affliction, I decided I would share my inner most thoughts with you all. It isn't always pretty and it may sour your love of gardening, so consider yourself warned.

This is a 'Mt Hood' daffodil that is supposed to be all white after a brief yellow trumpet period. I don't like them yellow at all so why don't I just replace them with an "all white, all the time" option? Does that even exist?:


This is the angle I typically view these same daffodils each day and night. If they are all going to lean forward and seek out the sun, what is the point?:

F'n daylillies! Their new spring foliage always looks so clean and vibrant yet I know I'll hate them in early summer after they bloom. Yes, I can shear them at that time but who wants to do that at that time of year? Are they even worth it?:

Speaking of newly emerging foliage, this 'Little Elf' spirea looks good early in the season but you know that great yellow hue will be washed out as the temps get warmer and warmer. Again, is it all worth it? Especially in a prominent place near my front entrance?:

What bulbs did I even plant here? I have no memory of planting them this past fall. I've got nothing in front of them to hide their decaying foliage and we all know how important it is to let the foliage die out on its own. One year and then trash these, whatever the hell they are?:  

Like a champ, I managed to kill off about ten Lamium plants last summer and this is the sole survivor. But what the hell do you do with one groundcover? Do I ditch it? Buy more to go with it? But I killed a bunch already. Maybe that was because they received too much sun? Or were planted to deep into the summer? Who thinks about a Lamium this much?:

I guess my blog name continues to represent my gardening philosophy.

I do have my relaxed moments and enjoy everything that plants throw my way.

Maybe I just need to bring a book outside with me when I walk the dog?

Have a great weekend!


John  

Wordless Wednesday - Photos and a video

In this video, I try to identify a bizarre bird noise and need your help:

Weekend in New England

Yeah, you read that right. 

This blog post title is a reference to Barry Manilow. I've been waiting for over two years to find the right time to throw "Mr Copacabana" into the mix. And here it is.    

But I digress.

We really did spend this past weekend in New England (Connecticut actually) with family and had an awesome time. I no longer had to ask myself "When will this strong yearning end?"; I was actually there and loving every minute of it (Sorry, that is the last Manilow reference). The time in New England really did take me away (Seriously, no more mentions of Barry).

We drove up from New Jersey super early on Saturday morning and miraculously encountered no traffic on 95. As we approached our destination, I made a quick and violent turn when I saw the word "Orchard" on a small sign. It was as if I was pulled by powers beyond my control. Even though the kids had to pee real bad, this was something that couldn't be missed. After about a mile drive, I pulled to the side of the road and took out the camera. It was too scenic not to be captured on film:         

Childrens' bladders be damned, I'm glad we found this gem.

We eventually located the market/store on the property and let the kids take care of business. Well, two last pics of the daffodils before we went in:  

The kids were good to go and we were ready to descend upon our hosts:

After we got settled in and caught up on life, we herded all of the kids out to a "dinosaur park". "Park" may be a bit of an exaggeration. It was more like a dinosaur "nook" and our hosts were a bit embarrassed but we all loved it:  

Check out this footprint:

Their minds were riveted, albeit briefly, by the thoughts of dinosaurs roaming the area but like most kids, they found climbing to be the real joy:

The idea of wearing out the children so the parents could start drinking earlier in the evening was on all of our minds so we immediately swept them off to the local playground:

And if you thought that plan was genius, how about shuffling the already exhausted kids off into the hot tub for a "cool down":

Operation "Good night children" complete ...

Ironically, it turns out the parents couldn't make it much past 9:00 PM and the kids were still sneaking around the house at that time. Oh well.

The next day was a nice lazy "hang". Delicious breakfast and unlimited coffee. We were all chilling when I was asked if I wanted some cuttings of a hydrangea that dates back to the 1970's. I couldn't mouth the words "hell yeah" fast enough.

Turns out this hydrangea was originally planted in Staten Island, NY by my wife's great grandfather. This man was a well known gardener in the city and we have a number of old newspaper clippings that display his work. A man cut from the same cloth as me. A hero I never actually met but have heard such warm stories about.

After he passed, the shrub made it's way to Acton, MA up until the early 2000's. At that point, it was moved to the locale below:

Our gracious hosts gave me two cuttings after getting drenched in the pouring rain. I was proud to be part of carrying on the legacy.

That afternoon, we said our goodbyes after having a fantastic time. We promised each other that we would do this again soon. Even their dog was sad to see us go:    

We arrived back home in early evening and after unpacking, I grabbed the camera to capture some actual blooms that emerged while we were gone:

But most importantly, I planted my new hydrangea cuttings and can now watch them take off:

Hopefully some day I can give my kids cuttings from this same shrub.

A good damn weekend.

"Looks like we made it".


John

Announcing the winner of the Santa Rosa $100 giveaway

THE

WINNER

IS

THE

ONE

AND

ONLY



... Janet, The Queen of Seaford!!!!!

Congrats and thank you all for playing!

John

Santa Rosa Gardens $100 giveaway

**REMINDER**

My $100 giveaway to Santa Rosa Gardens ends this Sunday night.

Leave a comment on the original post to enter.

John

A shout-out to "insignificant flowers"

We can't all be superstars.

Because then our superstars would no longer be superstars.

And if our superstars are then no longer superstars, we were never superstars in the first place.  

Simple, right?

I'm a deep guy (as evidenced by my preceding well conceived hypothesis) and I carry that deepness out into the garden. While all of you get all sorts of pumped up for the tulips or daffodils to bloom, I'm on my hands and knees appreciating the more subtle and less valued signs of spring.

Exhibit A - Boxwood 'Green Mountain' blooms:    

 
Read any description of a boxwood and in small fine print at the end of the paragraph you'll find the term "insignificant flowers". Really? Don't you think they worked hard to produce those flowers? They are filled with nectar and pollen; so what if the bees aren't around to find it. That's their loss.

Exhibit B - Carex (cultivar unknown - damn nursery and their lack of labeling) and it's brown/tan flowers:  

I cut these back just a week ago and boom, just like that they produced these flowers. Again, their flowers are labeled as "insignificant". I like them. They're unique. Sorry they're not all yellow or red or blue. Brown is a color last time I checked.

Listen, I love big showy flowers as much as the next guy. I geek out on the developing Viburnum blooms like the one below:

Anxiously awaiting for them to transform to this:

But I got love for all flowers and you should too.

Who's with me?


John

Wordless Wednesday - Birds, Buds and Spider Art

Santa Rosa Gardens $100 giveaway

Yeah, you read that right.

I am going to give one lucky reader a $100 gift card to THE Santa Rosa Gardens online nursery.

I have ordered a large number of ornamental grasses from Santa Rosa Gardens in the past and they are always sent in perfect shape and thrive after they have been planted. An awesome selection and are always sold at a reasonable price.

But they are way more than just ornamental grasses, check out their selection of perennial plants and drool a little bit.        

So how do you enter this contest you ask?

• Leave a comment on this post indicating what one plant you would like more than any other from Santa Rosa Gardens. 
• Include your email address in the same comment.
• Contest is only for those in the United States (excluding Hawaii and Arizona).
• Contest will run until Sunday, March 25 at 8:00 PM.
• Winner will be chosen at random and announced right after the deadline.
• Winner will receive the gift card via email directly from Santa Rosa Gardens.

Best of luck my friends!


John    

Just me and my camera

OK, so I'm getting a bit obsessive with the camera, specifically, the "shutter speed" function. I constantly make the kids perform all sorts of acrobatic acts just so I can try and snap them in action. 

My son will never be confused with Evil Knievel (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) but I actually convinced him to jump off our swings as I took his picture from numerous angles. Here's one of the better ones:     

With out a chance to rest, I got out our baseball gloves and threw him ball after ball as I tried to take a photo with my free hand. It was a great test of my hand/eye coordination and I struggled a bit at first but eventually came around:  

The kids ran for cover inside the house when I got distracted with all of the bird activity:

Fine, if they don't want to participate, me and my trusty camera will hang and walk around the yard on our own.

The weather was in the high 60's all weekend long and the plant growth continues to continue at a super rapid pace. Our zone 6 winter has been more like a zone 8 winter and that is fine with me.

All of the hydrangeas are beginning to leaf out:

The daffodils are weeks ahead of where they were last year:

And my precious Sedum 'Red Carpet' exploded over night:

But most of all, I am eagerly anticipating the blooms of the Winterberry 'Autumn Brilliance':

I am starting to worry that my current camera won't cut it as I learn more and more about the available advanced settings and some of the limitations. I might have to sell off some of the kids valuables to purchase a new one.

Some day they'll understand why after I become a world famous nature photographer and I leave them with a hefty trust fund.


John