The day began with a stop at the Basket Case to check out the new availability list. We pored over it page by page, although I do skip certain plants entirely. (Phormiums and Agaves. I know there is probably still an Agave fad but they do not call to me.)
perusing the list
Whatever shall we do when Fred and Nancy retire?
Nancy was planting the last of the baskets…
and had rigged up a board to keep the three poodles from leaving the back greenhouse.
Walter
We bought some Sanguisorbas, of which I never have enough. And some more grasses for Andersen’s Rv Park. There will be some excellent plants of all sorts (including another new-to-us Sanguisorba) arriving Friday.
And then, at last, we went to one of those four clients whose gardens we had not yet set foot in this year. At Steve’s garden, we got an unexpected greeting.
Last time I saw them they were babies!
They had gotten quite large.
I thought of the time my friend Sheila had been knocked down by a sheep…
QUITE large.
I was actually fascinated because I like animals, but I did wonder how they would behave because when they were younger, they would jump up on Steve when he fed them.
I have been doing Steve’s garden for a long time, going way back to when he owned the house that later became Laurie’s, and way back then two little goats used to nudge and butt me while I gardened. These two large goats would pack quite a wallop if they were in a nudging mood.
They were interested in everything. Allan later realized that they had peeled all the reflective tape off the back of the trailer.
I felt sheer delight when they let me pet them. The only truly disconcerting moment was when I opened the car door to get some plants. I had decided earlier that Steve’s garden should have some (deer candy) Sanguisorbas because his garden is never bothered by deer. I did not even have the plants all the way out when there were two goats next to me, standing on their hind legs with their front feet on top of the car, leaning on me and chewing the leaves off the plants. Ok, no Sanguisorbas then. Perhaps Steve could only have a Cistus. The deer on Discovery Heights do not bother assorted Cistus at all.
The goats followed us to the garden.
Down the slope by the garden I was thrilled to see someone else had weeded the raspberry patch and the blueberry patch! There are advantages to being late to the garden job.
fenced blueberry patch..usually thick with creeping sorrel
raspberry patch
The goats followed us to the garden and showed a great interest in the raspberry canes…and our lunchbox.
I think they could have figured out how to open it.
Allan planted the Cistus and we got down to weeding (befores and afters coming up, of course). Meanwhile, the goats wandered through the garden chowing down…on daylilies, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, a Buddliea…
They stood on hind legs, broke long branches off the variegated Buddleia (time to prune it anyway!), ate a few leaves from each, and moved on…soon discovering the new Cistus. Allan barely rescued it as they greedily began to consume it, so back in the car it went. It can live at Discovery Heights or Marilyn’s among the deer. I am not sure what we can plant to fill in empty spaces in Steve’s garden, because the only thing that seemed to be goat-proof were narcissi and (boring) rhododendron.
At lunchtime, Steve came home and put the goats away in their indoor-outdoor pen. (I told him I would have put them away myself if they had had sharp horns.) Allan pointed out to me later that (aside from my joy in petting them!), it was a good thing they were out, or we would have planted a bunch of nice new plants with no idea that they would soon be eaten.
And now, some garden photos. I have been doing this particular garden since creating it for Joanne. While I will always think of her there, and miss her gardening presence, I have finally segued into calling it Steve’s garden instead of Joanne’s garden.
Due to our late-season arrival the garden had gone all blurry with weeds.
before, looking south
before, looking west
before, looking north
before, the path by the stream
This garden has a wonderful layout with an upper pond with waterfall, created by Steve and Joanne and a backhoe, and then a long stream that runs under a bridge down to a small natural lake.
the streamside path after Allan’s weeding
On the other side from the path we have Siberian and Japanese irises in a planting inspired by a lovely photo in a book called The Stream Garden.
iris bed is on other side…very hard to keep the swamp grass out!
looking upstream
weeded pond bed at head of stream
The front bed was made by leveling the mound of soil left from digging out the pond.
Five and a half hours later…
across the pond; driftwood marks the waterfall
reflected iris
I wonder if there will be any flowers at all this year with those goats?
We still need to get back, do some edging, and weed the backside of the garden….and am not sure when that will be.
While I sorted out the billing, Allan took some photos of the lake from points that I never take time to walk to while working.
by the gazebo, looking south
the stream bridge
When Joanne was alive, she had taught horse riding and had developed a bridle trail all around the large acreage.
from the trail, looking northeast
Every now and then something jumps in the lake but we have never seen what it is!
and back across the very wet meadow toward the garden
The garden looks very small compared to the vastness of the property, but feels very large while we are weeding it. I am going to wait and see what happens with the goats before I worry about how the garden will survive their interest.
Tomorrow I hope to make the wake up call to another private garden. Or, should it rain, I will happily read back entries in Tootlepedal’s Blog. I had time today only for the most recent entry (excellent as always).
