Revisiting the potting bench and a year has come and gone!

Coming up for air, after not blogging since the end of May, has been a relief as well as frustrating to say the least...my blog anniversary would have been celebrated July 6, one year of pure pleasure and self discovery mostly....about the rewards and insights gained by connecting to a vast world of brilliant and talented, and extremely kind people, unknown to me prior to that date...the move from our home to commence renovations after many years of living in the same house has been over whelming...I have been packing, editing and sorting and distributing since January! We are now situated about fifteen minutes away, and darting back home to Jordan every day to water the gardens...the heat wave has hit here as well, to check up on the demolition which began last week....the entire first floor is gutted to the studs, kitchen, dining, living room, two baths and three bedrooms..the roof, windows, doors, interior and exterior, trim, and design layout reconfigured..a garden room is being added to one end of the house...new trim and doors are also being replaced through out and the entire house painted inside and out...a bit of a quick update! 

Making the right decisions is quite amazing and causing both my husband and I a great deal of angst!!

.....the real reason for this belated post, is in celebration of my blogging anniversary which I missed due to the move....we actually moved out July 6th!!

I don't check my stats often, but when I have over the past while, it seems that my Potting Benches post is the most viewed by visitors...so I have decided to repost it for those of you who are not familiar with it....

I made this potting bench, about twelve years ago as a work table for our wedding flowers in my shop, Acorn Lane....it became a well used and loved
piece, made of recycled windows, doors and anything else I felt would add to its function as well as beauty.
When I closed the store in 2008, I used it for potting plants outdoors in the garden, as well as arranging flowers for our wedding designs.  It has been invaluable to me.
You can see it is starting to acquire a lovely, mossy patina from being outdoors in the shade....

The zinc tub serves as a sink for conditioning flowers....the peonies are from this year's harvest from my garden, peony Sarah Bernhardt...

The window boxes which I have perched on the top shelf are vintage, and often filled
with maiden hair ferns....the wire forms of the geese, I use to grow creeping fig...
stuffed with moss, they are really interesting topiary forms when full grown....



The dimensions are really adequate, it is approximately eight feet long, and thirty inches deep, just like a counter top....

I prefer old garden tools, and rusted wire ware, it looks great with green and white....

 

 

This rather large zinc tub, which has been painted, is great for conditioning dozens of roses pior to arranging...



I added the two white wire window cages, to the back of the bench for holding ferns or other flowers to add a bit of green and colour.....

...you can still see the soft rose transfer on the front of the tub, faded after so many years of use.....

....it is interesting to me that this post, about an idea I brought to fruition several years ago, is still causing some interest out there....
I love to upcycle wonderful, old worn treasures, loved from another time and place...

'' I have a vision for living. It is about elements of style. It is about all the things that I love, that I believe in....I'm about things that you keep, that you own and cherish..."

....from the master designer himself, Ralph Lauren....

I have missed all my blogging friends, and hope to be able to visit all of you soon during this time of transition and change....

N.xo

Peony Fluff

Yesterday, our temperature soared to 36 degrees Celsius, here in Niagara....and in the course of less than 48 hours the peonies went from buds to blooms!
It was so hot and the humidity stifling, that I had to cut all the blooms at the risk of losing them overnight...

....our weather is continuing to be so unpredictable and by mid June I am fearful that the garden will be spent.....everything will have finished the growing cycle for the year....

....I was able to fill a large zinc bucket and another sap bucket full of the cut blooms....

....three plants growing in partial shade have still to bloom, so the peony parade isn't over as yet!

I was surprised, since our winter was very mild, the plants yielded bountiful bouquets.....

.....Perfect for a early June wedding......

....they look like fluffs of meringue.....

....a small delicate wisp of porcelain vine, adds just a touch of movement and interest....
.....could see this in a bridal bouquet, don't you think?

......such short lived beauty, but breathtaking......

....There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under Heaven....

Ecclesiaste 3:1-8

...the garden....a constant reminder of the cycle of life.....

....and lest you should think that everything around here is just perfect....far from it....the carriage house is being readied for the storage of boxes and boxes and boxes.....and the house is a shambles in preparation for the reno !!

N.xo

A Shade Palette

The blooms which I am enjoying in the garden at the moment, are primarily from the flowering shrubs and trees which predominate here, growing in the shade of the Carolinian forest surrounding us on the Niagara escarpment....

The Chinese peony,Chojwaku...is the tempermental princess in early Spring...

....she reigns over the garden for a very fleeting moment, it seems..... 

....here today, gone tomorrow, depending on the weather, humidity and rains and wind being her capricious instigation for what she will do next....

.....as soon as the roseum elegans rhododendrons, which border the woodland gardens appear, she disappears....

....at about the same time the Pink Cloud kolkwitzia tree and the white flowering deutzia shrubs bloom for a substantially longer period of time, adding to the soft, lavender and pink and white colour palette....

....you can see the roof of the carriage house peaking over the pale pink blossoms.....

....a misty morning view of the south border, with the laden down rhododendrons in full bloom.....

....I long for more options here, but the garden has a mind of its own, and I nudge it along, gently.....

...a singular rose bud, from the New Dawn on the arbour, just beginning to bud....

.....the peonies are still showing great promise....with the intense heat today, they should be blooming in all their glory very soon....

...the pale pink flowers of a wigelia given to me by my Mom, is always a steady performer here in the garden... 

....a section of the back stone steps as you round a hidden corner of the garden, laden with blossoms....
and ivy growing among the crevices in the rockery....

....the Duchesse of Edinburg clematis, just beginning to show off....

....more peony promise!

....I am often asked if I have help in the garden.....the "muscle men", as I call Joe and his crew, look after all the heavy grass cutting, trimming and leaf collection in early Spring and the massive fall clean up....
I spend every minute in the garden I can, tending the beds, terrace pots and border gardens, making it my mantra to fuss and pamper the plant material we have spent so much time and energy to cultivate and encourage to grow, and be happy here! There is always something to do.....but I don't consider it work...
I linger in the garden at dusk, the light filtering through the trees is magical then....

...all growing in the shade of a hardwood forest....more roses planted this Spring....which I shall post about soon....and the peonies....
in the meantime...content with what the shade endowes  us.....
.....a short garden tour for my very appreciated blogging friends...

N.xo 

Choosing....

This time of year, Spring wreaks havoc upon me.....daily routine tasks become like a life sentence for my soul....do I stay indoors and pluck... dawdle away..... at what needs to be done..... :(

laundry..... sewing....cleaning.... or other projects begun in earnest when the weather was
not optimum.... 

like, vintage organdy waiting to be stretched over lamp shades....


or...do I sneak outdoors every chance that comes my way, when the sun is shining
and the garden is luring me in..... :)

 

The bleeding heart, about twenty years old now, needs to be divided and moved....




....the " montana" clematis just needs to be enjoyed in full bloom! Right?

....and the Chinese peonies, so tempermental..... this year, just three blooms..... last year over twenty, are threatening for attention....

I have surrendered to them before....

So fragile and beautiful.....

Some newly planted white rhododendrons, have attracted my attention, with first year, pristine blooms.....so grateful, I am.....

....and old faithful standbys, just deliver every time.....

....the fragrance from the "lily" distracts me for a long moment.....

....it doesn't take much to distract me out here!

....this woodland fern, which seeded here of it's own accord, is just starting to take part in the scheme of things.....

....and what brings me back to a sudden reality..... is the picked stalks of rhubarb, about the only thing I can grow here, in the woodland garden, except a few herbs....waiting to be chopped up and made into something wonderful!

How do you choose between indoors and outdoors these days?

The only thing that might work for me, is the promise of some
Rhubarb Lunar Cake....

Go to Canadian Living Cooking....and Google for recipe....I am going back outdoors!

N.xo

The first two photos are archived Victoria Magazine....the rest are mine.