I found an article posted on Facebook I really enjoyed reading. A gardener/blogger by the name of Maggie Tran, recounts her visit to a private garden in the Loire region of France. Her descriptions of the land and its scents reminded me so much of early Spring. Look for the comment about what’s used to stake peonies. http://bit.ly/1EWSSFT

We Americans like to talk about “reduce and reuse: but as a culture it’s truly foreign to save and re-use stuff we’ve already used for something else. Why IS that? Speaking for myself, every year I’m scouting the stores trying to find the latest solution for top heavy plants. Maybe I need to look around at things marked for the tag sale this year. What a concept.

I greatly enjoyed Maggie’s descriptions. It reminds me of the side yard I hope to begin to address this year. When we left for a year in Greenville, SC in 2013, the masons had just finished the stone work, which created a real sense of permanance on our land. However, the entire yard next to the side entrance was dug up repeatedly for over two years during construction and stone work. I fear the weedy chaos waiting under the snow.

Since we moved here in 2009, I’ve been somewhat irresponsibly creating flower gardens where there weren’t any, gardens- that command a LOT of time. Last year, I started to realize that I’d better stop pretending I could just willy,nilly continue to create high maintenance spaces. Right.

The side yard garden concept began because we’d fallen in love with an Indonesian gate we then installed near the front door to close off the side yard. If you add extensive bamboo fencing to it, with the right layout and plantings, it will be a really special secret garden. You can just see the wooden Serenity statue under the Japanese maple.

The first assignment staring me in the face is to get the guys back that did the house drains to dig more drains through the yard so the land pitches away from the house and siphons off water that runs down the hill above us to the back yard. I’ve already been told this is an engineering project I have to inform- based on where I want beds and walks. Ha! Stay tuned- if I manage to get drainage in this year on top of the (secret) new dahlia bed tucked around the corner…I’ll be pleasantly surprised.. Wish me luck!

Hold On! A great song from a cool group from Alabama that my husband found called Alabama Shakes – with a wild woman at the helm. Maybe she will motivate all of us in the NE to get out of winter and into Spring! https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw

Stay tuned with us by subscribing. I can almost smell the daffodils! Check out our pillows, I don’t want to brag but we have truly re-created decorative pillows-into art made practical, and grown  in Litchfield, CT  here

If you like the band, you might find this article about them interesting too: http://nyti.ms/1Hgu3re

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