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Category: Garden | Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 8:06 pm

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Dear Blog,

sorry to have left you hanging for so long, but I've been busy you see.

Last autumn I was busy building the Walls of Jericho border - no bugle allowed within 50 meters of the thing.

This is what I managed to do before the frost suddenly stopped me as early as mid-October:

Step one started:



Step one done:



Step two under way:



And this is what they look like now:





I've promised Lord Paint, four-legged Master of the house to hurry up and complete step three, and will do as soon as I get the time.

This spring started awfully late. We still had winter in mid-April, but then everything exploded. That includes my husband's energy level. He dug a hole, put a plastic water trough inside, and voila! a small pond:



The girls snuck some frog spawn home, so now we're trying to raise the tadpoles.

My husband's energy level didn't get any lower with that little success, so he's started to make a big water feature. I mean big! It looks like a mountain wall so I've nicknamed it Trollveggen, the Troll Wall, a spectacular mountain landscape near Åndalsnes. I wanted a big waterfeature, but I had thought of half the size and dug down, not built up:



The bamboo thingy to the left is a Japanese fountain thing said to scare away bad spirits. So far it's only scared away my energy. I can't find it anywhere. Oh, yes, this is what the top half looks like. It's nowhere near finished mind!



The bottom half looks exactly like this only the other way round. The rocks are supposed to hide hoses and the connection between the two halves. The spirit scarer pours water into the top half pond, then the water runs into the lower half underneath some rocks, and a pump brings the water back up to the spirit scarer which empties the water into the pond and... yes, well. Round and round and round it goes bar in winter when the pond will be empty.

My husband insists on me planting Sempervivum in the cracks. I can't imagine even Sempervivum living there so I think I'll just squeeze in some moss. We've got plenty of moss.

In case you're wondering, this is the real Trollveggen, or Troll Wall:



Then we can talk about my mother. My mother's always wanted a water feature with water lilies. She never managed to make herself one, but decided she'd have a water lily anyways. A yellow one at that. She bough one and planted it in one of our plastic whatchamacallits, just until the pond's done. Our pond. The one my husband's making. Mother's happy. She's got a water lily now, albeit it lives with me. She also wants a red water lily. I guess that will live with me too.

The borders are coming to life, and we're discovering what we've lost during the winter. We've lost a lot! Most of our decorative grasses, some Erythronium, Heuchera, a couple of Hellebores, Hostas, even primroses! A few of the no-shows were bought last year and we never got to see them bloom. But most of our babies survived. Here are a few:

Husband's Jerusalem artichokes survived in a trough:



The P. auricula survived, at least most of them:



Blooming decorative apple tree:



The Empress Wu managed to survive too:



The small Dicentras:



Harebell poppies and Rhododendron:



We've also managed to get the veggie patches ready but haven't planted everything in there yet:



Please note our creative cat deterring fence:



The pumpkins and red Brussels sprouts sprouts will go in in a week's time. Here are the red sprouts:



Well, that's it really. I don't know when I'll have time to update you again, dear Blog, so please hang in there.


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eileen wrote on Sat May 14, 2011 10:35 pm:

Oh my you lot have been busy haven't you?!! I love both water features but the big one has to be my favourite. It's going to look sooo good with water lilies in it - neither wonder your mum is happy.

What a pity you lost so much over winter Droopy. I can sympathise as I lost quite a bit too. However, I'm realy pleased that your Empress Wu came through and is doing well. Thankfully enough survived to give you lots of colour in your garden again this year.

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Netty wrote on Sat May 14, 2011 11:40 pm:

Looking good Droopy! Sorry so lost so many plants ... did you have an extra cold winter? I'm glad to see the Empress Wu survived. Your's is a year older than mine so I'm curious to see how big your Empress gets this year. Mine only has 2 shoots coming up...I had hoped for more.

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Frank wrote on Sun May 15, 2011 2:59 am:

Do you get trolls in your garden Droopy? Everything looks great. Does the bamboo scarer make noise?

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Droopy wrote on Sun May 15, 2011 7:24 am:

Thanks for the sympathy Eileen.

Netty, I don't think the Empress will grow very big this year either. The winter was very cold, but the worst about it was all the barefrost. Most plants can't handle frozen earth without a snow cover.

Frank, we've got a couple of trolls plus a hedgehog. :D The bamboo makes a soft click-clack-sound when it returns after having emptied itself in the pond. It's a pleasant sound.

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Sjoerd wrote on Sun May 15, 2011 5:32 pm:

What a great lot of fotos, Droopy! I liked every one.

That Jerico border really does look spiffy. I enjoyed seeing the progress series.

I really liked seeing the Trollveggen. I would like to see that in person! I wonder if I could rappel doen and take a few alpines out of the face to bring back home. hahaha.

The Hairbell poppies look good and the red Rhodi makes them stand out well.

Poor Empress Wu. I hopethat she will come right along. My one and only hosta has alreadt sent up bloom stems. GAD!

Those brassicas look a tad spindly--is it a light/temp question?

It is so cold here...I hope that it is much warmer there, or will warm-up soon. Burrrrrrrrr.

Thanks for this delightful blog posting.

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