Just A Bit of News

 It has been a bit of a blogging drought around here and I have been trying to catch up but haven't been able to quite fit everything in. 

As soon as I can I will get up to speed 

Lots of change and interesting things happening....and unfortunately my Mac bit the dust and I haven't had a chance to replace it, so many of my photos are in limbo right now 

But...all is good and fall is finally here with beautiful cool mornings and a chance to garden again after a scorcher of a summer

We have a new fountain in the parterre garden and the roses have all been moved to new locations because of the changing shade and sun from the large oak trees.  

 Each of the quadrants will have a large pot with a boxwood topiary and then underplanted with hydrangeas.  The surrounding hedges have filled in and seem to be loving the new shaded area.

The canopy has grown so thick that the roses were not all that happy.  A good problem for the oaks but the roses were really "leggy" and not thriving as they should.  Moving roses is not my favorite job but I think I only lost two out of about 30 plants.  I have one bed left to move but it will be easy now that the weather is cooler.

 We decided to add a small dining area in the main living room of the house.  It's small but cozy and I like the big gas station pennants above the old pine table.  

 Two great old chairs from a Maine cottage on the ends and a large Swedish pine bench and an antique plate rack above.

Some how the odd assortment of wicker seems to fit.  Lots of pillows and ticking are just right in this small intimate space.  

 Over the summer I worked on the rear perennial beds.  Sculpting and removing sod and adding more flowers and interesting foliage 

 Throughout the year the beds will have color and new plants and bulbs.

 Apart from the vegetable beds the perennial beds are my favorite part of this garden.  Lots of work but always great rewards.

The lavender acts as a nice backdrop to the new plants and adds height to the beds and I really enjoy the color and interest that the variety of plantings provide.  It is also a never ending supply of things for arranging in little vases.

I hope you are enjoying a lovely fall....my favorite time of the year !!!!

See you soon

xo

lavender

lavender season ended for the most part 

about a month ago
in mid July

the lavender garden was really quite beautiful and more importantly the bee's were in heaven....

 I am really considering getting some bee hive boxes for the orange orchard

most of my lavenders planted throughtout the property is the Grosso variety
which provides the essential oil for use in soaps, lotions etc

It is very tall and spikey with long narrow clusters of blue grey flowers

just walking through the lavender 

gives off that amazing earthy scent

if is wasn't so full of bumble bees it might be fun to have a chair in the middle of the plants! 

there are actually quite a few plants that we have that are suitable for drying
 and I tried a few things out earlier this summer

but the lavender is hands down the most fun to dry 

and I really love having it in little bowls in the house

we had some rather mild weather in July followed this month
by a really nasty heat wave...but the lavender is still holding up 

 this large bed is a huge drift of about 100 or so plants...

in the center of the bed are some old wine barrels

planted with geranium and willow tertuers

the geranium are just popping up above the spikey blue stems

this is what Grosso looks like dried

I wrap it with butchers twine and hang it for about a week or so 

lavender is really

wonderful to photograph too!

now on to the harvest

next post....ideas for using lavender to give as a gift

hope you are staying cool ; 0 )

kelley