Planters of Jade

I needed something green, something to chase away the grey that is all I see out the window. It's still too soon to be seeing the trees turn green but I made myself a virtual landscape on my table to brighten up my days. I have to admit, putting succulents on the table is so much easier than having fresh cut flowers, changing out the water often deters my choice of floral arrangements.

Hopefully these will flourish in the pots I put them in. Remember them from back in the summer, I got them from the thrift store for .50 a piece. They don't have any drainage holes but I figure if I water sparingly, they might do just fine.

What do you think, should I also paint them the same white that the vases are painted? Now they look yellowish sitting next to the vases. 

Garden Peonies

One of my favorite flowers has bloomed at the perfect time. One. Being that I'm actually home to witness it. And two. The stormy weather has passed and they are intact.

So what do I do to them, cut them down of course. They smell too heavenly to pass up. Even with the ants and spiders that come as a package deal.

I love my perennials, I take the plunge one year and than every year after I have a bounty of flowers. I missed my lilly of the valley blooming this year but the leaves are still there and I can always put those in a vase for some life. Can't go wrong with free flowers.

Blooming Trees and bumblebees

I promised I would post something about the Botanic gardens and not just the antique show that happened  week ago, these are a few from the gardens. If you live in the area, it truly is a nice place to visit.

The japanese gardens are probably my favorite, they have little pagodas and mugo pines and a japanese style bridge along the paths.

These trees I named the crew cut trees but they are amazing, there is a path that is lined on both sides with theses trees and looking down the path it looks really cool. The photos you are able to take here are amazing the light is filtered and its full of color. Just fantastic.

There are also the inside gardens as I call them, but they are actually green houses with a different type of environment in each house. This one was gardenias and palms and venus flytraps, among others.

The palm trees in the green house.

This is the little bumblebee that came with us, matching his yellow shoes.

I hope you find my pics interesting enough to get you to go, if your ever in the Chicago area. It really is a great way to spend the day.

Imagine this!!!!!

Well that's one way of me trying to sell this idea to my husband. I know he would never go for it but its fun to think what we can get done. Since I don't see ourselves living in this house much longer, not that I don't love it but we need more space, but I don't want to do too much to the landscaping.

Yeah I'm sure the pergola is not gonna fly, its way too much to spend on a decorative object but I thought hey why the hell not, if I'm photoshopping some landscaping why not go all the way.

So you see we are going to get our siding done, we dont have much since the house is all brick its just that triangle up in front and the back, which you cant see from this angle, of the house which is the negative space of the triangle. Oh and the garage, which isnt much we are also planning on doing the soffits and fascia and gutter and I want to go a dark grey but Im not sure if we can do the same thing for the gutters and everything or if that needs to be special ordered. 

But on to the landscaping. We are replacing the cherry tree with a nishiro japanese willow and behind it will be pink and yellow scotch brooms that grow pretty fast. And then I want to add some sort of grass that is a perennial, like maybe pampas or some other ornamental grass to give it some height. Also there will be some mounding white flowers and to give the rock facade some more color, there will be overflowing ground cover that spills over the rocks. In the back, on the right side of the fence where it currently is dead now will be my autumn clematis, that grows green all summer long just to bloom in august when the rest of the flowers are done. Smells so pretty especially at night when the windows are open, I love that time of the year. 

I went yesterday and bought some of the items listed like the scotch brooms, in yellow and pink, although they are pretty small they grow really fast, and to pay $20 for a full grown one was ridiculous since the ones that are for $6 will grow in about a month to the other size and be fully grown by the middle of summer anyhow. 

Also for $5 a pot there was montana sandwort, never seen it before but it grows in clumps and its perennial. So I picked up 3 pots. 

It's not much but it does add up quickly, the most expensive thing will be the willow tree and the extra soil we will need to raise the bed up, which I'm figuring to need about a ton? So you see when I go to my husband and say "Imagine this" he's gonna ask me how much and do we really need a pergola?

Well no we don't need it, but it sure looks pretty. 

Oh and just to leave you with a pretty pic, this is our flowering crabapple that I picked up for $30!! It was being nursed back to health and no one wanted it, but I saw the potential and after 2 years its holding up pretty well. 

Wish me luck, and if any of you gardeners out there have any suggestions on anything that I have talked about please feel free to comment and give me any advice. I sometimes get lucky and pick the right type of planting but this is fairly new to me for front yard landscaping.

It's so hard to say goodbye to cherry tree

I know its corny, but I have to admit, it was hard to say goodbye to our purple sand cherry tree. When we bought our house 5 years ago the thing that drew me to the house was the full size cherry tree that was cascading over the property in front of the windows.

This was taken two years ago, but you can see the tree in the background, how big the trunk was.

From this angle you can see the branch that cascades over the front lawn.

Unfortunately I don't have a pic of the front of the house with the tree in bloom, never thought I wouldn't have the chance to take a pic.

Last year we noticed that the tree wasn't getting  leaves through some of the top branches, and I noticed some white stuff growing on the bark. I took a pic of the stuff and took it to our local nursery. They took a look and said it was lichen and that it was ok, its not going to harm the tree. Well in the spring we usually get beautiful pink flowers all over the tree not so much this year. I called an arborist out to the house and he said that there was nothing we can do to save the tree, it had gotten peach tree borers. It was 60% dead. 

Thats sad, I was hoping we can spray something on it but unfortunately this type of tree, which is a purple sand cherry doesn't live past 15 years, and its probably right at that marker. Plus our neighbor has the exact same tree and he got the peach borers also. So not only is my full grown tree going but so is theirs.

This is what it looked like before we cut it down, it wasn't really blooming, except for the lowest branch everything else was dead. Look how pitiful it looks, by this time it would have had a mound of pink flowers on it. 

But today after cutting it down, even the skies are sad, well not really I just took the photo later in the day.

It really is EMPTY now. We are planning on planting something in that spot and I thought of adding some other type of tall plants but thats going to take me a bit before I get the plan together. I really wasn't planning on replacing the tree at all and in the last two weeks I have had to come to the decision that curb appeal means a lot if you want to sell a house. I know that is what drew me to this house so we will have to do our best to liven up the curb appeal before we think about selling. 

Air plants still do require a green thumb

As I mentioned before I am a gardner. I love the changing of the seasons, especially living in Chicago, the coming of spring. So it no surprise that when the growing season is done for, I have inside a plethora of plants to keep me going until the next growing season. One such plant that has been in my home is an air plant or better know as tillandsia.

I got this plant originally 5 yrs ago, not this particular plant because THAT particular plant decided to die on me, rot is actually a better word. I'm not bad when it comes to gardening but for some reason the air plant was not surviving in my home for longer than a year. This particular plant that you see is the 5th, and so far surviving.  These air plants are exactly what they sound like they survive on air, and the water thats in the air. So I was told. But I think the real reason they survive at least in zone 5 is in how much sun they get. Not hot direct sun but filtered sunlight. 

I was having my humidifier running in the winter in the living room and after a few months noticed that the air plant was rotting from the inside so to the trash went #1, #2, #3 and #4. This last one was in my bedroom, in a fairly decent spot, it was getting late afternoon sun but through the shades, which I gather is enough. Also I soaked this sucker, like the rest of them, for a couple of hours in the bathroom sink.

I'm crossing my fingers, hopefully they will stay with me for a very long time. I love how beautiful they are. Their texture is something out of this world. The Tillandsia Xerographica has a texture like paper and the curly leaves twist around and under but for a plant so large its super light. 

I think I read somewhere that they do a wonderful job of cleaning the air of harmful VOC's. Bonus.

Oh and the container that I placed the air plant is made out of tree bark. Don't know which type of tree. Isn't it gorgeous? I love this container, I have two of them. It was given to me as a gift from a coworker, who is an awesome gardener in her own right.  

I wish I could get more of these but alas, she bought it at a yard sale YEARS ago, and for .25. Yes 25 CENTS each. I wonder if its hard to make? hmm project for another day?

If you have success in zone 5 with air plants, leave a comment on how in this world you get them to stay alive, and if you ever get them to bloom? Which I've heard they do.