May 2013 - Page 2 of 2 - The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Like totally deep and serious thoughts while strolling through the garden this fine evening

Posted on May 15, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Uncategorized .

I’m digging the darker bloom color on Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ as compared to my ‘Tabernaemontana’:

I may just plant nothing but blue/purple flowers from here on out. Just THE best color, especially backlit by the sun in early evening:

I love Penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’ and its foliage color this time of year. I can actually do without the blooms and may remove them to maintain that foliage hue. Who’s with me? Also, I stared at this configuration of 5 for a long time wondering if I should move them around into a different type of grouping. I suck.:

Is there anything more reliable than Nepeta (Catmint)? ‘Walker’s Low’ is about to bloom and will soon lead to big time bee singing. Good times (except for my wimpy children who complain every day on our walk to the bus. Get over it already you brats):

Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’ … love it … but you know what I just learned? The common name “St. John’s Wort” comes from the fact that it was typically harvested on St John’s Day (June 24) which is a celebration of John the Baptist’s birth. Don’t say I never taught yous nothin:

Blooms aplenty

Posted on May 13, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Blooms .

I found myself busy with work, baseball, softball and life in general and didn’t even realize the following happened:

Viburnum ‘Shoshoni’ exploded in bloom and I’m loving it from every angle:

Amsonia ‘Tabernaemontana’ about to bloom:

Campanula ‘Joan Elliot’ blooming as well:

A new introduction to the ONG family, Geranium ‘Espresso’ showing first blooms since planted last year:

The peony buds literally formed overnight and I will be guarding them 24/7 from the soon to approach deer:

Iberis (Candytuft) ‘Snowflake’ flanked by Lamium (Dead Nettle) ‘Purple Dragon’:

And the Salvia ‘May Night’, Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’ keep on keepin on:

The garden design “game”

Posted on May 10, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Uncategorized .

Some of my greatest childhood memories are of staying home from school sick (some real, some … not so much … sorry Mom) and watching the Price is Right. If my memory serves me correctly, it came on every weekday for an hour at 11:00 A.M.on CBS.

I can remember watching the “Showcase Showdown” while eating my SpaghettiO’s and at the tender age of 8, yelling at the contestants for their weak efforts. I could have easily won both showcases with my vast knowledge of pricing Caribbean vacations or Hoover vacuums. I was that good.

One of the games that sticks in my memory bank more than others is the “Race Game”. The contestant had to place four price tags on various products and properly match the price tag to that product. When done, said contestant had to pull a giant lever to see how many he or she got right. You know what, let me stop you there … just watch this heavenly clip from circa 1980 and you’ll get the gist of the game:

Good stuff, right? Was Bob Barker so dreamy that he turned all women into insane jumpy groupies? Even as a kid this question gnawed at me. Who were these loonies?

What does all of this have to do with gardening? A whole hell of a lot actually and here’s why.

Like most gardeners, I like to “tinker” with where I locate my plants. OK, maybe tinker isn’t the right term. Maybe it is more like “annual overhaul”. I am not kidding. It is that bad.

Somewhere in the deep reaches of my gardening subconscious is this belief that there is a perfect garden plan that I am THIS close to discovering. Now I know that this isn’t attainable, but deep down there is a part of me who truly believes this garden “nirvana” exists. It is what drives to me to tinker day in and day out and keeps me up at night in deep thought.

As I move one shrub to a new locale and replace that one with three newly purchased perennials or dispose of other poorly performing perennials and move in some new ornamental grasses, I imagine pulling that giant lever and Bob Barker rewarding me with a brand new Datsun. On to the Big Wheel for me:

Of course the reality is that I never come close to winning and the crowd boos me off the stage. Even Don Pardo laughs at me as I bow my head in shame. Maybe Card Sharks is more my speed.

Quick interlude, if you’ve kept up with me so far, congratulations! That couldn’t have been easy and I appreciate the perseverance.

If you are OK with reading more of my rambling and watching me attempt to tie this all together, please read on as I share my recent inner thoughts when I tackled yet another mini overhaul:

“I’ve got spring color on both sides here with the Ajuga and Creeping Phlox. I need color that will last in the summer but also be left alone by the rabbits and the occassional deer. I also need foliage that will contrast well with the neighboring boxwood. No problem, out goes the Iris divisions that are constantly mowed down by the rabbits and in goes some Yarrow ‘Grapefruit’. God I hope the drainage will be sufficient. I could always move them if not.”

“I love me some Carex and they are solid performers but this is a spot begging for some color since they are surrounded by boxwoods so …”

“Let’s put in some ‘May Night’ Salvia. I’ll have to stay on top of the deadheading to keep the steady flow of blooms but I’m up for the challenge. Or am I? Will these look messy on their own without the foliage hidden as it breaks down in the summer?”

“I don’t like how the foundation planting looks here. I’ll be damned if I remember how I came up with this so-called plan. The boxwoods in the back aren’t lined up and just look out of whack. And that ‘El Dorado’ ornamental grass just isn’t working.”

“No problem. We’ll just move one of the boxwoods over a bit so they both anchor the foundation. Now, what to place in between now that we have such a large space to fill?”

“Wait a minute. Just look around the corner at that ‘Aurora’ Viburnum. She gets munched by the deer each Fall/Winter so there are so few blooms in Spring. But, if I place her against the foundation, she is safe from the deer. Plus, the blue/green foliage and larger leaves is a nice contrast with the boxwoods. And the sweet smelling blooms are more likely to make their way into the house.”

“Speaking of deer, this Euonymus at the corner of that same front porch also takes a beating from the deer and high winds so why not relocate this too while we’re at it.”

“This will work. I needed something to replace the Arborvitae at the base of the back deck that succombed to bagworm last summer. She looks a little weak but she’ll recover.”

“While we’re at it, this back deck area is in need of a serious overhaul. Hmmmm, I have an idea. One of the two Caryopteris ‘Sunshine Blue’ I have at the end of my driveway died so it looks silly now with only one at the entranceway to the backyard.”

“So she now has a new home by the back deck.”

“OK, I like where we are going with this back deck bed. But I need to tie both sides of the deck bed together without making them look exactly alike. I do like the Lady’s Mantle edging the one side, so …”

“Let’s do the same on the other side.”

“Alright, maybe we are on to something here. Although I’ve said that the past 5 years and each and every year I change this area completely. No time for pity, need to move on.”

“The other arborvitae at the base of the back deck bit the dust after Hurricane Sandy and it’s been sitting in limbo ever since. Today we move on from it.”

“That wonderful Dappled Willow …”

“Just needs to take a few steps back and were good to go.”

It’s not time to pull the lever to see if I got it right as there is much more to move around. We should have that all done in the next few weeks.

Then Bob Barker will tell me if I got it all right.

Until then …

John

Wordless Wednesday – Bloom time

Posted on May 8, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Blooms .

My new Nikon D5200 camera

Posted on May 6, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Blog stuff .

I took the leap this past week and finally purchased my first DSLR camera. I had been doing research for quite a while and settled on the Nikon D5200. Holy crap there is a lot to learn, but I am going to have a ton of fun playing around with it.

I had taken a camera lesson a little over a year ago with my homie Tony Granata, so I know enough about aperture and shutter speed to be dangerous, but now I am ready to put that knowledge to use. I have another lesson scheduled with Tony in the near future and I’m banking on him educating me even more on my camera’s capabilities. Good friggin times!

I did venture out a bit this weekend with the new camera and I’m happy with the results. I won’t lie, I mainly used the “auto” function with a bit of experimentation on the sports and landscape modes but soon enough I’ll be utulizing all of the options.

The camera came with an 18-105mm lens which already blows away what I had to work with on the old camera. Of course, I am already yearning for some other lenses so I can zoom in on my birds, but we’ll take it slow for now.

On to the pics:

The first chance to break out the new camera was at my daughter’s softball game and it couldn’t have been a nicer day:

The “sports” mode is fantastic and I didn’t have to adjust for lighting at all:

Next stop was my son’s baseball game but I ended up being too nervous to even take the camera out. Yes, I’m that annoying parent who takes it all too seriously.

Speaking of taking it seriously, my son was in the backyard after his game practicing his pitching (I swear I didn’t push him) so I had some time to take some photos of his form:

Back in the house and I used the “portrait” function on my favorite subject. I like the results a lot as the skin color is way better than what I would get on the old camera: