LOVELY GREENS….. by Tanya from The Isle of Man

This Week’s Ideas & Videos The Garden in May Eucalyptus Soap Recipe Birdies Beds Sale (USA) Birdies Beds Sale (UK & IOM) Hi Penny, if ever there were a month for starting a garden and expanding the one you have, it’s May. Though there’s plenty on the ole to-do list, the weather is getting more pleasant, and I, at least, am spending much more time outside. It’s more fun gardening when you’re not wet and battling the elements 😄 In this newsletter, I’m sharing what’s been happening in the garden, along with insect-repelling soap and tea light ideas, the RHS Malvern Spring Show, and a massive sale on the metal raised beds that we’ve just added to the garden.   NOTE:  it’s worth noting that we have followed Tanya for a very long time but in the last year she a moved her garden/allotment garden/farm to another location and so there has been an intermission in her communication. She did give all of us a “shout out.” It was a massive undertaking. We commend her, because ten years worth of vegetation and all her raised beds, gardening ephemera and plants had to be dug up and moved…while timing everything so that the growing seasons were not completely interrupted. I myself am making a move and all I have are potted plants, but I’m at such loose ends trying to pull a move together. I totally…..don’t know how she did this, but she is a gardener with exemplary dedication. I’d love to meet her so that some of her “earth gifts” would run off on me. Quite a lady!  Birdies Raised Beds But first, those beds… As you’ll see in my new video, we’ve been hard at work in the veg patch and have also created a new growing space outside the Polycrub. The new beds are Birdies Raised Beds which are recently available in the UK and Isle of Man. They were quick to put together and created instant vegetable beds on land that’s rock-hard with clay soil and rubble in-fill. As you can see in the photos, I already have two rows of salad greens and two rows of calendula popping up. That’s in just two weeks from building and filling them 😍 The beds I have are the 8-in-1 type in ‘Mist Green’. The 8-in-1 refers to the eight different ways you can screw them together – long and skinny, square, etc. You get to choose and it’s really simple to put them together. Birdies Raised Bed Sale Interest piqued? You’ll be pleased to know that there’s a massive sale on Birdies Raised Beds right now and until May 29th. It’s up to 30% off when you buy four and use my discount code LOVELYGREENS5  🚚 Plus, you get free shipping if you live in the USA, UK, and Isle of Man.  USA Birdies Raised Bed Sale UK & IOM Birdies Raised Bed Sale It’s a great deal, and one friend who bought them yesterday reckons it saved him over £200 over using wood sleepers to build four beds. Plus, the beds will last many more years and can be moved if you move house. The main discount is automatically added when you add four beds to the cart. Use my discount code LOVELYGREENS5 to get a further 5% off. I tell you more about my beds and the sale in this Instagram Reel. Eucalyptus Repels Mosquitoes Some years ago, I created a eucalyptus soap recipe using essential oil, and I’ve shared it with you before. The main idea behind the recipe was to create a refreshing soap that helps to open up airways and help boost energy during cold and flu season. However, I’ve just found a second potential purpose for it. It’s pretty exciting stuff 😍 With summer right around the corner, we all will deal with biting insects of some kind – the main one being mosquitoes. A new study has now shown that the main natural chemical in eucalyptus essential oil, eucalyptol, has been shown to be a very strong deterrent to these annoying and potentially sick-inducing insects. It may be one of the strongest essential oils we can use to keep mosquitoes away. Herbal Eucalyptus Soap Recipe Citronella Essential Oil Ideas So keep that in mind for insect-repelling formulas. I’m planning on making another batch of eucalyptus soap and seeing if it also has an effect on midges and horseflies, too. Let me know if you’ve noticed it working for you? Citronella is another essential oil that we can use to repel insects, and it’s an ingredient in this cucumber soap recipe and insect-repelling tea lights. And you know what? Citronella and eucalyptus work well together, scent-wise, so all the more reason to blend them together in products too. Watch the Garden in May The Garden in May The month of May is one that I almost completely dedicate to gardening. I make fewer products this month because there are just so many May Garden Jobs to get through. I admit I love this month more than any other and spend as much time outside as possible. May is a time of seed sowing but also planting out seedlings and young plants. In my new video, The Garden in May, I take you through some of the work I’ve done this month, including planting the peas grown in a gutter, the no-dig asparagus crowns I’ve just put in, and of course, the new Birdies Raised Beds. There will be a new video tomorrow, too, and I’ll be planting out sweet potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant (aubergines), and more in the Polycrub. Plus introducing you to a new olla watering system. Subscribe to the Lovely Greens YouTube channel to get a notification for when it’s out. Recent & Seasonal Ideas Lemon Balm Lip Balm Recipe Lemon Balm Lip Balm DIY Video Easy Rhubarb Gin Recipe Malvern Spring Show Even though this is a busy month in the garden, I also got the chance to visit the RHS Malvern Spring Show. If you’re not aware, the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) hosts many gardening shows at various points in the gardening year. Chelsea is the most famous and is happening next week. Malvern is like a taste of Chelsea with several show gardens and oodles of ideas and plants, but it’s more relaxed and with fewer celebrities. Malvern Spring Show I’ve shared photos and a video reel on Instagram, but I’ll post a few more just below. One big theme with the show gardens and stands was creating space in our gardens for wild animals and wild plants. In the two gold-winning gardens, nettles, grass, and other wild plants were even woven into the mix. It shows their importance to wildlife and how we can work with nature rather than trying to eliminate it from our gardens/yards. I absolutely loved that and feel so inspired to add even more water and wildlife features to our garden. The small pond has been filling in but there’s just so much more that we can do! I hope that you have a lovely weekend, Penny, see you again on social media or in your inbox in a couple of weeks. Tanya Anderson of Lovely Greens This newsletter comes to you every two weeks with new and seasonal content from Lovely Greens. To never miss one, please add tanya@lovelygreens.com to your email contact list. That way, emails will appear in your inbox. Lovely Greens Website  Instagram  YouTube  Facebook  Patreon Not yet subscribed? Subscribe to the free Lovely Greens newsletter Lovely Greens PO Box 31, Ramsey, Isle of Man, IM99 4QX, British Isles   SHARE TWEET FORWARD You received this email because you signed up on our website Unsubscribe

Gunston Rd, Spring Cleanup, New Client on the hill (REVISED) – Tuesday – 6/9/23 – 8 pm

Today we started a new client and a new spring project. Spring tidy is the plan and we will move one Hosta at our homeowners request, to create a border/anchor between our client and their neighbor. 

The left side bed is pretty low growing natives and the right side bed was just full of weeds, so we tidied the bed up leveled all the soil and filled a fairly large area in the corner with soil, once we removed a square brick area that had been placed in this bed, by a former owner to accommodate a grill. We took all that out today. Our homeowner wants shade tolerant and low maintenance plants in the bed toward the back and some slate and two chairs more towards the front. A little “oasis” for them to sit and visit and enjoy the new common ground area that has been recently created by the PFX crews. Three (3) hours today. 

We will be going back tomorrow to remove most of the slate and then see what kind of condition the soil is in under it. This will give us an indicator as to what kind of plants might be possible considering a lot of shade, the soils condition and low maintenance as our guide for success.

With the hope that the soil might be conducive to plants or shrubs, we will then visit the nursery on Sun morning to make a selection along with our client.

Now that it’s pretty much cleaned up, they have more of a feel for how much space they really have and after our digging up of some of the soil to see it’s condition, we will be better able to advise them on what to plant in the back one-third of this fairly nice sized bed. This area will hopefully become their “living” backdrop. 

Hours going forward are at present undetermined until after tomorrows digging excavation. We just aren’t clear yet on how planting is going to be, and certainly no point in further planning until we complete the work.

So we’ll report back tomorrow.

“Contessa” says…it’s all part of the fun of our project!

(REVSED) Tuesday – 5/9/34 – 8:00 pm

Oh look at what we have unearthed!

We were asked to dig to survey for good soil that might be suitable for planting.This is what we found. A stone patio, each three inches thick and closely and precisely positioned to create a very nice small patio.

A trusted neighbor two doors down told us that the prior owners had hired a company to build it. Unfortunately our community association had not approved it and creating patios in your front yard is prohibited. So they were told it must come out. But the homeowner instead, after so much work and expense, simply covered it with mulch. The next owner covered it with dirt about two inches thick. So today we unearthed it. Now the decision is what to do about it.

Our primary goal today was to determine if our new homeowner can plant some bushes in this bed. And the answer is yes. Because the back third of the bed is just soil. And in fact a steel embedded border is deeply placed at the back of the stone creation.

We had begun at the front of the bed removing stones to see if they were continuous. And indeed they were. Our client decided to have us clear the whole patio of all the dirt so we placed it in the back to create a nice bed for planting. And this soil is marvelous to use for just this purpose.

It is now up to the homeowner as to what they want to do.  Take all the stone out and sod the area, or plant the area or attempt to get an approval to keep the stone patio “as is.”

In the interim of decisions, we are meeting our client at the nursery on Sunday morning at 9:30 to select some shade tolerant flowering bushes, specifically for the back section.

Our client is excited about picking bushes and getting them planted, and we are happy to follow through on this part of their project, if indeed she finds what she wants.

About an hour ago we billed at 6 hours for the project, to this point. Let’s see what our next steps will be. We are here to follow it to conclusion, but into next week.  Because tomorrow through Friday we are booked on another project about four blocks away. We are pretty sure it will all come together. Please do come back and visit us….to see how we finish up.

“CONTESSA” says…..it’s all very good!

 

Spring Tidy for Valley Drive (REVISED) – 4/27 – Thursday

REVISED – MONDAY – 4/24

Tomorrow Tuesday, we will be back to complete this ten (10) hour job. So far we have six hours on the books. We will complete the final push to ready the beds for spring. Our condo crews are coming to trim the square large Boxwoods which creates a ton of leaf debris to tidy up and the perimeter bed which is quite large will be finally addressed to complete “neat and tidy.”  The beds inside the courtyard will be hand “tilled” to turn soil and our liquid fertilizer treatment will be sprayed once the tilling is complete.  Our Rose bush on the left-center-side is positioned on a sloping area in the bed so we are going to dig it up and fill that area of the bed with new soil to create a more level bed. We believe it’s positioned slightly low in the bed to do well. It’s a ”gardeners guess,” but generally our intuitions serve us and our customers well. We are going to “give it a go.”

We asked our good and gracious Lord for “rain” and on Saturday “HE” provided one full hour of moisture. Thank you dearest Lord.  We really needed it for successful gardens.  Your provision is accepted and we are so grateful.

We will provide a FINAL VIDEO, once our work is complete. Our technical issues are resolved and so we can post pics and video once again.  Thank you WordPress!

Our property today has a number of (7)Pencil Boxwoods. We spent part of today hand trimming them. Early spring and they are “fluffy” with new green growth. So much so, they are branching out. So we used a regular shears to trim them. This is the photo (above) before the trim.

And the (below) photo is after the trim. Last year they weren’t so green, so our fertilizer treatment for them really worked, combined with our proper hand trimming, rather than with an electric trimmer they are looking so healthy.    Hand manicuring makes all the difference. They are quite beautiful when given the proper care they “deserve.” These bushes are rare in residential neighborhoods and quite expensive, so keeping them in good shape is a high priority.

We were at this property for three (3) hours today and three last week. We have video to share once we can post it. Technical issues at the moment prevent our successful uploading.

Please visit us again soon. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow we are visiting the garden nursery and looking for  specific plants for this client. Things in his beds are coming in slowly, but we think we only lost two plants this winter. They are slowly coming into season.

So far this spring tidy has been six (6) hours for this client location.

We completed our deep edgings around the perimeter of the outside of this property and tomorrow when we return from the nursery we will yet again, do some weed pulling. We hope we can work again tomorrow, but we are expecting 90 degrees so we’ll have to see how it goes. A little early frankly for it to be so warm. We aren’t even to Mothers Day yet and in Virginia that is the signal that we can now buy flowering plants for our gardens as any fear of frost/freeze has passed. A strange year so far with NO snow at all and moisture levels at a critical stage.

WE SO NEED RAIN. Oh great creator of all living things we could use your heavens to open up and bring us some moisture. And we know that when your timing is right, you will send it. Thank you our father God, Oh’ thank you!

AMEN……

(REVISED) Tuesday – 4/25

Oh’ a change in schedule today. Could not he helped. We worked a very hard day yesterday and were fighting allergies. Eyes and pollen and wind and muscle aches. Oh my gosh! We had to reschedule our client to tomorrow. We could barely see when we arrived home last night. Eyes very swollen from the pollen count. Fortunately we were able to move tomorrows client to May 2nd. So it has all worked out. We’ve been resting today and trying to stay indoors as much as possible. It’s been a tough couple couple of weeks with allergies and everyone is asking us….”are they crazy that they can’t “see” from all the pollen in the air. No they are not crazy. It’s been exceptionally rough to see. The weather will hopefully provide us with some more rain this upcoming weekend to clear the dusty/green air. Ugh!  Can’t hardly wait for moisture. Regardless tomorrow we must press on. We are fortunate our customers get it. But….they are also suffering too. We all are. Such a really weird spring this year. Pretty of course, but totally off the charts with up and down temps, blooming like crazy flowering trees and plants, and wind to top it all off. Hang tight….one more rainy day and we should be good. I sure am optimistic. Never have we all wanted it to rain so much.

“CONTESSA ” is praying for buckets of RAIN!

(REVISED) – 4/27 – Thursday 

Final Video/Inner Courtyard. 

We need to possibly replace a couple items called Indian Pinks. At $30 each only two came back. And one is trying. The third is robust.  And our Pink Muhly grasses along the center back are taking their time to come round. We know  we need some filler items this year. But as this is our bachelor homeowners first year with an all perennial garden we will go slow, so get can choose his own filler-in-Ed’s. He is particular about his taste and so we are following his lead. We have recommended some bulbs be planted in the fall for next years spring blooming. And he liked the yellow Canna Lilies last year over by his Frank Lloyd Wright statuary, so  he wants more of those tucked in behind where the Pink Muhly grasses will return along back the brick wall of the house. We repositioned  a peachish colored Rose bush that seems to have lost it’s “vim.” But we moved it forward slightly, tended it’s roots and replanted it in new organic garden soil and raised and leveled the garden bed up just a bit. It was sitting in a low spot,  and we think it might have been sitting in a water collection area. So we’ll give it a go for this second season. If it doesn’t come round we’ll replace. But I never give up on a plant “one time around.” I mean I just don’t ever kill a plant. So….as a forever optimist gardener I’m not tossing it just yet. We’ll see how it comes back and if it comes back. It did bloom and was a beautiful pinkish/peach fluffy flower. It just seemed to hug the ground rather than branch out and upward. Upward being the key word here.

During this spring cleanup assignment we ran out of approved hours to revitalize the bed circling the perimeter of the property. As a PFX crew is coming to trim the English Boxwood very tall bushes soon, we will secure additional hours to clean up the perimeter outside area and in and under these notoriously messy leafed bushes post trimming. There will be tons of debris to clear up. They are beautiful but you really have to keep up with them so they don’t mess up your beds. Leaves that drop and are left behind make a real mess on the patio, so we must clean everything up.

Yesterday our clients was billed for ten hours, plus the cost of some organic soil to level out the bed with the rose bush that not performing.

It’s all about bringing the property to “spring ready.” We are close.

“CONTESSA”

Mt Eagle Client – Fourth Season (REVISED ) – 5/19/23 – 8:30 am Friday

We we usually take a BEFORE video, but this year we are here earlier than normal. Our huge trees in the community are in high frequency with pollen emission and “wings.”  Wings are pieces of nature that fall from the spring trees. To put it mildly they are everywhere right now. So as a result it’s too early to clean this properties bed just yet.

So we used out appt time to complete tidying the lawn in front, cutting back dead growth from winter and trimming any dead branches from all the bushes and extensive watering just because the Azaleas and all the plants were thirsting badly. We have had no rain to clear out the flying dirt, pollen and pre-leaf material that falls from the trees.

When we left the property certainly looked better but we need about until the 15th of May to schedule a proper tidy.  In the meantime we trimmed back the Boxwoods on the porch under the portico and raked the lawn. Everything is blooming except the daffodils which have finished their blooming cycle. When we return to complete the bed clean up we will need to knot the daffodils and lay them on the ground and cover with mulch. Our client said she thought they bloomed this year more than ever.

Still the property looks good. But our homeowner and great client had us come because she is anxious. But it really is  too soon to do very much today. The air is dirty, the soil is very hard and dry and so much “ spring” is flying around it’s just not productive to clean it up yet. Frankly “spring” this year is having serious growing pains. It is still doing it’s thing.

May is our busiest time for this reason. Typically we are still having very cool early mornings, but our daytime temps fluctuate between 60 to almost 80. It’s a “messy” time of spring. But….flowering trees and shrubs are plentiful and superbly beautiful. Spring in Virginia is amazingly gorgeous. How blessed we are…even in the messy.

We completed 2.5 hours today on this project.

REVISED 4/24

Video and Photos Feed is now restored!  Yeah!

Thank you for your patience……

“CONTESSA”

••••••••••

(REVISED) 5/17/23 – Wednesday – 11:30 am 

We came early in the spring and did a quick tidy. But all the daffodils were still bright green, starting to lay themselves down now, but with so many in the bed we decided a later complete cleanup would be needed. She agreed. At that time we cleaned up the beds some, cut back anything dead in the beds, applied Neem Oil to the Rose bushes, and the Butterfly bushes. Raked the dead grass from the yard and pulled a few weeds. Our project that day is seen above in this post.

So today we were invited by our homeowner to complete a proper spring cleanup which should get her to about mid summer. The reason is, she likes everything looking good and prefers not to wait until fall for her beds to receive continual upkeep and attention. So here is our video this morning as we arrive. As you can see it’s time to take the Pansies out and really do our magic……and we begin!

It’s now 5:11 pm. We are finished for today. Returning tomorrow to plant fresh “angel wing” Begonias in peach and yellow. We cleaned all the beds today of debris, pulled out all the very spent Pansies, applied Neem Oil to the Roses and Butterfly bushes. Aphids are messing with both. When you see tiny holes in the leaves that’s them. They are “buggars” for sure, but the Neem Oil spray which is a gardeners answer to Tylenol for plants, is ready to rescue. No real gardener is any good without Neem Oil. We encourage all our client to purchase two spray bottles of it each year.

Tomorrow we will plant the Begonia plants and mulch everything. We will present a Final Video tomorrow afternoon. Please check back in with us. Four (4) hours dedicated to this project today.

“Contessa”

••••••••••••••••

(REVISED) 5/19/23 – Friday – 8:30 am

Yesterday we completed our property on Mt Eagle Place fir our Doctor resident. Her double unit we must say is the nicest property on her whole lengthy and winding cul-de-sac. And she is religious about keep it looking good with our contributions. Everything has been de-bugged, deadheaded, trimmed as needed, beds are cleaned if all debris, and we planted new “angel-wing” Beginia’s in peachy/pink and bright yellow. Just enough color until her Peony pops and her Butterfly bush dies it’s thing. We’ve a light floating of mulch this year as nature provided tons of tiny dropping from their leaf creation so it acted like a sort of grinder mulch and once it dies away it will provide added protection for all her plants. The Azaleas are past bloom and still drying on her bushes and the lilac and daffodils are past bloom as well.

And so we present you with our completion. A total of seven (7) hours for this handsome project.

FINAL VIDEO

Our Beverley Drive “lady” – EA (REVISED ) Wed – 4/19 – 5:31 pm

BEVERLEY DRIVE

BEFORE VIDEO

Our lovely client on Beverley Drive, all on her own, went and picked out six new bushes for us to plant. Two white Butterfly Bushes, 3 Purple “Pugster” Butterfly Bushes, and one new Azalea. Together we established locations and we dug all the holes approximately 16” deep. Tomorrow we are at another location so we will return on Wednesday to complete all in progress work.

We will plant all the new bushes on Wednesday.  Today we completed most of her Spring Clean Up Project. Putting her property back into some shape from the winter season. Lots of weeds, border edging were pretty much non-existent and most plants needed to be cut back some. We began tidying the edgings. We are hopeful for some rain so that we can complete a deeper cut/edge to make everything look really fresh. We removed all the porch items from under the Portico and cleaned every thing up. Pansies took a hit but are monsters so today we watered an cleaned around them. On Wed we will cut back all their dead growth and further shape them. They give a lot to the cause, because we planted them in a October and still they are producing tons of blooms.

We need to tend the Hydrangea on Wed and cut back any dead stalks and apply our Acidifier fertilizer and finish tidying up that side flower bed. All the mulch stayed pretty well in the beds, but needs to be redistributed giving a more uniform look. And the Holly Tree that PFX planted when our lady moved in needed water badly. We have cleaned out all the dead and yellowing leaves. It is looking much better. It so needed water.  

Everything today was bone dry as over the weekend the rain we were supposed to receive just didn’t happen. So we watered each plant individually, for a good length of time. And we transplanted a White Anemone, one very small Gardenia and one purple Salvia.  We had to make these relocations as the six (6) new bushes required adequate space to balance out the appearance of the bed.

We will report back upon COB Wed, once everything is completed. Please do check back to view our Final Video.

Today we completed six (6)hours for this project from 9 am to 3 pm.

IN PROGRESS VIDEO

“Contessa” says….. it all very good!

(REVISED) Wed – 4/19 – 5:31pm 

Back today to complete our Beverley client. Four (4)  hours today.  All six bushes planted. All Pansies thinned out and deadheaded then gathered into clusters and outer lanky stems trimmed away. Frankly they now look like brand new plants. Deep perimeter “bed edging” completed. Redistribute mulch throughout the entire bed. Transplanted the White Anemone as it was being crowded by returning Daffodils. Fertilized the Hydrangea with Nutone Acidifier. Hosed down the front porch and used the leaf blower to tidy the entire property including all the sidewalks.

We will await instructions on how she wants to address the bed along the side of the house. And we need to purchase plants for her wire basket that sits on the top of her Etegere. Today she was visiting Ft Myers and may bring back Begonias that we usually plant in three or four planters for  the Etegere shelves. We think everything is looking very nice.

We have some good video to post, but still technical issues persist in uploading to the WordPress site.  We attempted to contact WordPress but all technicians are unavailable so once the issue is resolved we will post. Excuse!

We seem to be able to provide one photo of the Hydrangea and Pansy bed. Please check back on any updates and our additional work plus our Video.

Valley Drive – an early “Spring Tidy” (REVISED) 4/14

We are entering our second year with this client. We have been periodically checking in, as the temps allowed, just to see how the plant life was looking and growing. In late fall last year we left the Pink Muhly Grasses to cut down today. They were keeping the garden beds from looking completely bare as everything died back in late fall.

Our homeowner hired us last year to transition his garden beds from….all shades of green plant life, to perennial flowering plants. He selected plants with some of our input and he chose his own placement. We completed the installs.  We started out conservatively, to see how they filled in, and so this year, once things begins to grow back in and populate, we’ll see where new purchases will be needed, and take into account room for proper space and growth. Our goal this year is to intersperse some spacing/timing on plant blooms. Planning so that each month…. working up to fall, he will have blooms for “showing” the entire summer.  It’s fun and challenging, mainly because he has a “guys” take on color, variety and height. His taste is somewhat eclectic. We are very much enjoying the unfolding of the process. Even though he is not a gardener he does like to do plant research.

Our early spring tidy was simply that. No real gardening yet, but weeding a lot and trimming up dead growth on the surrounding bushes. We completed four (4) hours, but need a couple more to continue keeping up on the typical spring weed invasion. Our community is a highly wooded area and so with wind and seeds blowing all over, we do get our share of pretty invasive weed infestations. So it’s really important in late March and early April to keep up on the weeding. I will be dropping by occasionally up to the break in temps around May 1st to take care of this. 

We still need to complete a deep edging of all the beds, including the outer perimeter of the property. This unit is in the center of a strip of 6 townhomes.  It has been landscaped with some higher end English Boxwoods and has a small estate look about it. We have been working hard to encourage fill-in of the Boxwoods growth, after five years of some previous owner neglect. It’s really coming along nicely. 

This is probably one of the nicer properties in our community and we very much look forward to adding more color and unusual flowering plants this year. Our assignment and “our joy.”

”Contessa” says…… it’s a very good thing!

REVISED – 5/14

Our client requested a site visit today to complete a plant inventory of what he has in his garden and take a look at a couple things that did not come back. So since we are visiting Merrifield Garden Center on April 21, we completed  a short visit today to plan this years needs. While there, we completed another light patio cleanup and we re-painted the planters that the Lavender and Creeping Jenny were in. And we scraped back any mulch covering any new growth on everything that is popping up. We were there two hours today. So on the 20th we have scheduled a return visit to complete our fullest  “Seasonal Spring Tidy.”

Always great to connect with our clients and see how spring growth is coming along. We see weeds and trimming that are definitely needed and turning the soil in the beds is also on our menu for our visit on the 20th. And we’ll make our list of any new plantings he wants us to purchase when we go to the nursery.

It was a partly cloudy day so very nice to be outdoors with temps at 74 degrees and a head start on his project was a great way to finish our week.

Thanks for visiting us today!

“CONTESSA”

Lenten Study- Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Learn from the Master

Jesus was called to be a teacher, but he didn’t take advantage of his “connections” because he placed himself among the people who have to “learn.” The example of his life shows us that we do not need weapons, we don’t need to hide ourselves and we don’t need to play the games of being competitive with each other. If you want to be a true student of Jesus, don’t be afraid to show your weakness, allow yourself to be touched by the tender hand of the Teacher. If you share…in prayer with your Teacher, you will be able to be a real student.

Read: Mark 10:27-22

Prayer

Dear Jesus, I ask you to touch my heart in my new endeavors so that I may listen for your perfect way and follow you. I am facing new challenges, but I’m very sure they are your special challenges for me. My challenges seem  huge and somewhat overwhelming. I think you will ask me to make some sacrifices as I journey in my new direction, but I will speak with you often and listen for your ways to fine tune and develop my new learning. Please Jesus, give me your Grace to become a wise learner. Help me to study, learn and explore things I need to learn about my new creative adventure. I wish to humbly value your truth for  me in my learning adventure. I know you are calling me to stretch and to grow. Jesus, I will follow You. 

 

AMEN

Property and Gardening Prep for a Successful Open House

A new assignment and new relationship has transpired. We are working on a job for a realtor and his client/homeowner. And we were referred by one of our other very good clients. It’s good to know that this is how you build and grow your business. Helping others!

Our Day #1 – 3.0 hours.

Our property is going to be on the market very soon. Our homeowner has already relocated out of state. We were retained to clean things up, tidy the garden bed in front removing all crawling vines and trim anything growing out on to the sidewalk. Pansies were left for us to install. We did not have a water source, so limited tidying of the cement porch was all we could really accomplish. We planted the Pansies after cleaning everything up in the bed by the front door, tilled and leveled the garden bed and added one (1) 3 cu ft bag of shredded hardwood bark mulch. All porch items  were everywhere as we had placed them aside to clean. Many items will be tossed, but we left things “as is” for the homeowner to either give away or toss, once she comes to do some work inside the unit over the next weekend. Her contribution to the goal.

It definitely looks better, and she is replacing her front glass door next week, as well as having the Condo Association painters come to freshen the white paint on the brick background wall and the door frame. Little by little it’s coming along.

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Day #2 – 5.0 hours

Bed clean up in the back patio area, narrow side bed, full of left over fall leaf debris was removed. Many left behind patio items to work around and clean up. Left side bed rubber border removed as it was bulging out of the dirt along the whole length of the wood deck. Very unattractive so we pulled it out. We then deep edged that bed after cleanup and added fresh mulch. Creating a drainage recess so mulch and rain would not escape from the bed on to the deck.

Many of our PFX residents use large stones that they have collected to create borders. We really discourage this because when the community gardeners come to clean up they cannot possibly remove all the leaf debris and the weeds that bury themselves in these rock borders. It’s so much better to create deep edges on the beds, in terms of a clean and more tidy look. But the back yard has a ton of these stones that were most luckily laid by PFX maintenance team members and so clearing and cleaning it all out, took a great deal of time.

We had contracted to complete ten hours for this project,  but at the end of our five hour day, it became clear that more work needed to be completed. So we came back for day#3 and finished up the project at 12.5 hours.

Our homeowner was pleased. Our real estate professional was pleased and on the 26th of March the property “Open House” will take place.

We trust everything will go well. Additionally, as an add-on we agreed to come the morning of the Open House and do a sweep of the property just to make sure it’s “show worthy.”

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”Contessa” says…. It’s a very good thing!

THE GARDEN MUSEUM ….the U.K.

New Talk! InstaGarden: Social media’s impact on gardens and gardening Social media has made gardens, gardening, and gardeners more accessible than ever before. We are now able to visit gardens all over the world and learn from gardening experts all from the comfort of our smartphones. The ways in which we find and filter inspiration has changed but is the experience of visiting a garden in-person irreplaceable? What can those who share gardening content on social media tell us about its power and influence? We’ll be exploring this brave new world in a talk with garden designer Jo Thompson (@jothompsongarden), garden designer and writer Sean Pritchard (@sean_anthony_pritchard), and Iford Manor Head Gardener Steve Lannin (@stevelannin). Tues 14 March, 7pm £15 Standard, £10 Friends / Young Fronds £10 Livestream Book tickets Flowers From The Frontline Raffle Jewellery designer Phoebe Walsh is holding a fundraising raffle with the opportunity to win the some of the artworks and jewellery exhibited in Flowers From The Frontline. Winners will be drawn at a closing ceremony on 17 February, but attendance is not required to be eligible for the prizes. 100% of the sales from every raffle ticket will go towards Sunflowers For Peace and Artists Support Ukraine Foundation. Flowers From The Frontline was a collaboration between Phoebe and Kyivian artist Olga Morozova, who collected and pressed flowers from the new frontlines around her city. The flowers were sent to Phoebe, who encased them in miniature flower pressing books in recycled sterling silver. £10 per raffle ticket. One ticket enters you into a draw to win five original artworks and jewellery prizes. Enter the raffle Job Opportunity: Marketing Officer Come and work with us! We’re looking for a new part-time Marketing Officer: this exciting new role will provide marketing support across our programme of events and exhibitions, with a particular focus on festivals, fairs, and developing our local community audiences. Think this could be the job for you? We want to hear from you! Find out more Plant of the Week: Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’ By Matt Collins, Head Gardener The flowering of little reticulata irises in our courtyard pots is, for me, the kick-off for spring, however early into the new year they appear. There may be frosts still to come, and even the risk of snow later this month, regardless, their striking petals and magnetising falls are an irreversible vernal signal of winter losing its grip. So it feels the appropriate choice for the first ‘Plant of the Week’ of 2023. Trialling and testing bulb species and cultivars in containers — to complement the lush courtyard planting as it charges upwards once again — is one of my many joys gardening at the Museum. Typically, our big bulb period is mid-March through early May, as I tend to favour later-flowering options like ornithogalum, allium and species tulip. This means that our early reticulata irises flower somewhat isolated and alone (bar a few snowdrops), in 7-10 little pots dotted around the garden. But I wouldn’t be without this very beautiful February exception: the reticulatas have their energising moment, they break the winter gloom, and then disappear before the true spring rush. This year, Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’ has arrived yet earlier than our previous iris cultivars, which, following a season marked by spells of such fiercely bitter weather, is all the more appreciated. We pot up our bulbs in mid or late November but no sooner; too early only risks rot and unnecessary squirrel exposure. Under the courtyard walkway a mess is made of compost, grit and bark chips as we empty old containers and mix and prepare new soils for new bulbs, and those saved and stored from the previous spring. Planting combinations are only decided on the day: which bulbs will be paired for visual impact or seasonal succession; which will stand alone. It’s an exercise in creative and practical planning that I enjoy undertaking with each year’s Horticultural Trainee (this year, Caroline Cathcart, pictured), though of course spring results always vary; you never quite know with bulbs. Varieties most likely to invite Lambeth’s squirrel population over the wall — in particular, tulips and croci — are topped with stems of holly, which seems to offer enough protection when bolstered with an inch or two’s topping of grit (we remove the holly around now, once shoots have surfaced). The irises, however, develop under the additional precaution of a crate topped with perspex… they’re worth the extra trouble! We try out a different reticulata each year: most recently, ‘Painted Lady’ (2021— a light grey-violet), ‘Alida’ (2022 — soft blue) and now ‘Blue Note’ (deep blue to purple-violet). The three year succession points to a clear development of preference, namely an escalating intensity of colour — ‘Blue Note’ is without doubt my favourite yet: velvet tipped and honey centred; its white flush speckled like a guinea fowl feather. With their blooms comes an assurance of change and a lightness in the air. About our gardens Object of the Week: Photograph of Derek Jarman’s garden at Dungeness, by Howard Sooley This week marked Derek Jarman’s birthday, he would have turned 81 years old on Tuesday 31 January. Our 2020 exhibition My garden’s boundaries are the horizon explored his love of gardening, and the garden he created at Dungeness. Jarman acquired Prospect Cottage, a fisherman’s shack on the shingle, for £32,000, when he came across a ‘For Sale’ sign while filming on the beach with Tilda Swinton. Having been diagnosed with HIV in 1986, he resolved ‘to get as much out of life as possible’ and started creating a garden. A garden without a boundary, Jarman’s garden stands beside a nuclear power station: the shingles, wind and salt from the sea provide an extreme version of the ‘right plant, right place’ garden philosophy. It evokes an uplifting sense that if a garden can be made here, it can be made anywhere. Explore our Derek Jarman online exhibition Images: InstaGarden image (c) Sean Pritchard; Flowers from the Frontline image courtesy of Phoebe Walsh; Plant of the Week Iris reticulata ‘Blue Note’ (c) Matt Collins; Derek Jarman’s garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness (c) Howard Sooley Garden Museum 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB gardenmuseum.org.uk

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Our Wellington Client – Today’s Assignment

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Our client has been away since December 10th and today  we are making preparation for her arrival back home from Tennessee. Her back yards common area had never been cleared since she bought the property five years ago. So yesterday and today we finally completed this task. She had hired a contractor to build a lovely brick patio, which due to covenant rules in our  condo association, had to be removed. The center of the yard is now just dirt after a demo crew came and tore the patio out. So in anticipation of her being approved for a new “regulation” patio, we completed a serious clean up of her entire open area in the back. She has a number of patio pieces and we clustered them at one corner of her back wall area. When she returns we plan to tarp them and leave them there until the new patio construction is approved by our Condominium Board.

So while there today we cleaned up all her beds, deadheaded all her Pansies and hauled away four bags of debris including a good bit of the crumbled cement foundation of the first patio structure. It was quite a mess but it’s taking shape. Her small wooded common area has a rich and dense undergrowth that’s actually kind of native woodlands, so even though we cleaned up a goid bit of it, she still has some perimeter growth at the back of the property offering her location some very nice privacy.

We had secured permission to take care of this clean up and we think she is going to be very pleased with our progress.

Once cleaned up it provided an opportunity to see lots of  new spring flowering shoots coming up, which you couldn’t even see prior to our work. It’s looking very promising now.

Happily today it was 67 degrees here and quite lovely day outdoors for doing a yard work project like this one. We had a good time and feel accomplished. Gradually it will all come together we are certain.

We completed and billed our client for four (4) hours of work today.

“Contessa” says….. it’s all a very good thing!

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