And all of a sudden it was June 24th, the garden tour day, and I panicked a little in the morning, wondering if I was actually ready, after spending so long preparing for it. Throughout the winter, I had been trawling flea markets and thrift shops for bits and pieces to use in the garden, and the car port looked like a junk yard with my collection. For over 4 months, I'd been toiling outside, at weekends and after work, cleaning up after the winter, building a vegetable garden, removing more grass to add additional native plants, copious amounts of weeding, lugging huge bags of soil and mulch, lots of painting, hauling large rocks and logs, plus watering every evening for weeks, which took 1 1/2 hours each night. I had taken a few days vacation time to complete some jobs, and was off the Thursday and Friday before the tour to finish last minute tasks, and check everything was in place. But nature decided that my watering hadn't been sufficient, and decided to storm heavily for those days, and indeed threaten the actual tour day itself with more rain.The spring had been cooler than usual, meaning with lower temperatures, the plants didn't want to grow, and were considerably less advanced than they were last year. I gave the plants a pep talk and lots of encouragement, and they did make some effort to grow, but as Chris, one of the Master Gardeners commented, all the gardens were in the same boat, so people knew what to expect.
This was how the front garden looked when I bought the house at the end of 2018. How boring, with not a single flower to be seen, and certainly no insect life at all.
The day was overcast and cool when Chris and her team of 4 volunteers turned up at 8am. She calmly took control, made the introductions, and gave us tasks. The gardens were open at 9am, but signs had to be erected, roads for parking on pointed out, and they wanted me to walk them around, explaining everything, so that they could help out when needed. I was a little nervous as despite all my planning for the garden, I hadn't considered for one moment what I would say to the visitors! I had stuck boards on wooden poles at a few points around the garden, explaining why I had planted native plants, and what I'd done in various areas. Elliott would be walking about with his camera, and had set another camera up in a window, for a time lapse. The photos of the tour, and the first half, of this blog are all thanks to Elliott.
I was grateful he took these , since I didn't have any opportunities to take photos myself.
There had been a hole in the driveway, which weeds constantly grew out of. I'd kill them off with boiling water, but they would defiantly reappear, and so the cycle went, until I got fed up with it and decided to cement the hole and then mosaic over the top. But due to the rain, I wasn't able to finish it, and so set it up as a roadwork, so folks wouldn't walk on it. Many found that amusing as they passed by. Elliott also took one of the 'ugly' part of the back garden, where I've covered the huge bed of hated liriope, an invasive non-native, with black plastic, which will kill it off over the summer. You can also see I hadn't finished the gateway, again thanks to the rain.
We had a few small lulls, but the visitors were quite constant. An old English friend popped round for a tour, as did the Woodward House twins, it was lovely to see them, but I felt guilty not being able to spend much time chatting, since I was needed on tours, or to answer questions. The day whirled by, people constantly coming up the driveway, with big smiles, all of them wanting to be led around, rather than wanting to walk around on their own, but many after the tour, walked around again on their own. One lady said she had to come because of the name, The Blue House, and on arriving, told me my house looked just like her mother's, with the blue roof and shutters. One chap pointed out a few aphids on the milkweed, and was interested to know that they should be left to nature, as very soon, the lady bugs would arrive to eat them. There was already one on duty. A lot of folk commented on the milkweed, and the scent was incredible, wafting across the garden.
These photos onwards are my iPhone photos, taken later that weekend, or a few days after the tour. The ones below are of the back garden, an L-shaped area, with a lovely covered porch. The first 2 are of the back when I bought the house. I had to remove a lot of liriope, ornamental grasses and ivy, and discovered the triangular bed in the corner, which I dug out and turned into a pond. Elliott cleared a lot of the ivy from the back fence, a monumental job. I left some controlled ivy around the pond as birds, spiders, snakes, frogs and lizards shelter in it.
Nearly all the plants back here are now natives. I left a small clump of the ornamental grass by the pond,and one bed has more tomatoes, basil and cilantro growing. Many people said it was a lovely, private retreat, and some even sat and had a rest back there, which made me happy. They sat and chatted about the plants, pointing out various parts. Elliott said a pair of ladies were sitting and incredulous about my metal rolling window shades that come down over the side windows. They'd never seen them before, and asked me later if they worked, which they do. Many inquired about the camper, and were very enthusiastic when I told them of our plan to turn it into a potting shed and lounge., with one lady even inviting herself over when it's done. I had a few pots of winter sown sea holly which were free for folks to take, and happily, they did. A lady had thought the blue had been sprayed on, it's so vibrant! There were also lots of compliments on the veggie garden and my gate, There were questions on how I constructed the beds, the soil I'd used, Shenandoah potting soil, compost and mulch, and I had a very interesting talk about watering. I've linked up a rain barrel to the gutter on the front of the house, but previously had been using tap water. A gentleman and I agreed the chemicals in that could have stumped the growth on my spaghetti squash and spinach. I mentioned that I often fill my watering cans with tap water, and then let them stand for a few days, with a saucer or plate over the top, to stop critters falling in and drowning.
There were so many ID requests on plants, so phone apps were extremely useful, as I couldn't remember all the plants I have. One lady couldn't believe how many native plants I had. Chris and I reckoned it was a 80:20 ratio.
The camper had to be repainted too. It was sealed now so I gave it 2 coats of blue paint and also painted the window rims black to match other windows and the door, forever banishing the previous hippy look, with it's multiple bright colors and huge LOVE letters on one side. It now matched the house and fitted the blue theme. I had picked up a lot of old gardening equipment over the winter, so used these as decorations. Surrounded by old cattle feeder troughs and pots, the camper, called The Bug Out, now fits in well with the garden. I've thrown a lot of rocks underneath it, and am on the lookout for more, as this would provide wonderful shelter for amphibians and snakes. We're hoping to start work on the interior in the fall. I have already found blue Tiffany style wall scones and ceiling lights for it, and want an insect theme inside, with rustic decor, work tops for potting plants, cabinets underneath for storage, a small retro fridge, a small electrical fire with flickering flames, and a couple of comfy chairs, with a book case and insect artwork on the walls.
I'm very proud of my veggie garden. I started building this in March, assembling the beds, numerous trips driving Stanley filled up with bags of soil, compost, and mulch, building the fence, trellis, and the gate. Elliott did a grand job of digging the gateposts over 2ft deep! There are peas, (these have nearly finished), pole and bush beans, parsnips, broccoli, beets, cabbages, carrots, squash, spinach, corn, peppers and tomatoes, as well as dill, rhubarb, sunflowers and borage. I haven't planted great quantities of each, since I've never had a proper vegetable garden before, so it's a huge learning process. Outside, along the fence, are lemon balm, dill,lavender, sunflowers, and deer resistant plants, most of these have fragrances which groundhogs abhor. Nearly all of these plants, apart from the few that I direct seeded, were my winter sown plants, that I'd started growing from seeds in old plastic water jugs in January. The blue boards used for edging are old cedar siding planks from a demolished house, built in the late 1800's. I have plenty left, which will be a wall covering in the camper. And the gate. I'm exceptionally chuffed to bits with this, my first adventure with woodwork. It took me 2 days to build since I had to work outside during the Canadian forest fire smoke invasion, so I was wearing a N95 mask all the time, which wasn't pleasant. But it opens, swings, and closes perfectly, and I love walking in and out of it! I posted a photo of it on a Facebook Gate Appreciation page 2 days ago, and as I write this I have over 2700 likes and hundreds of comments of praise. I'm elated, and this, plus the many wonderful compliments I received on the garden tour, has given me confidence to keep having a go at woodwork. I had actually put off making this gate for over a month as I was so scared of failure.
This is part of the 'wild' area, a bank along the side of the garden, which is largely undisturbed. There are cedars, dogwood, redbud and hawthorn growing here, with other volunteer trees popping up, which I will mostly leave. This natural habitat will be used by many creatures, with the old rocks and logs that are also stacked along here, but mainly, it's a sanctuary for lightning bugs, who spend 2 years of their lives as larvae underground before they emerge as the beautiful blinking insects we all love. But their numbers are dimminishing, thanks to pollution of pesticides and other chemicals used on lawns, and continuous grass cutting. I added the chicory and mullein just because I love them, and they seem happy here, since they are thriving. There was a lot of interest shown in this area by the visitors.
Nearly all of our guests started in the front garden, although there were 2 easy entrances to the back, and after a few people had been around, an actual 'route' was established.
The grass bank in the front garden has nearly been rid of grass, only a small area needs to be dug up, a task for the autumn, and the plants were dense and lush. The rain from the past few days had, unfortunately, ruined some blooms, mainly the roses and the prickly pear cacti, but they'll be back, and we have those gorgeous flowers to look forward to. There were still many others in flower, cone flowers, sea holly, yarrow, obedient plant, ox-eye sunflowers, baptista, monarda, blanket flower, and coreopsis, to name a few, plus plenty of annuals in pots and in the 2 canoes. There was plenty of evidence of plants budding and vines growing. The native honeysuckles had sent out tendrils along with the cardinal vines, and the luffa vine was halfway up its trellis. Butterflies flittered over the blooms and folks were impressed with the amount of bees. And there will be more as summer progresses and more plants flower with the warmer temperatures. The front steps looked pretty. It seemed so long ago when Elliott and I had used a jack hammer to remove the old broken steps and replaced them with new ones, now painted blue and decorated with handmade Mexican clay tiles. The bent and broken side fence was gone. I'd found 3 old doors over the past year, painted them blue, (of course), and made a new panel, with one of the doors becoming the new gate. I'm not liking the dark stain on the post though, so will paint over that soon.
And so the day had been a huge success. Chris told us that we received more visitors than the Heritage Center, also in town, which was incredible. The pond had bubbled merrily throughout the day, there was plenty of laughter and chatter, and everyone had everyone had left with waves and big smiles. I got a big kick from seeing so many people taking photos for ideas, and one guy is returning to help himself to milkweed seeds later on when they're ready, and even a volunteer plant if he wants. A few even said they'd like to swing by to see how the garden progresses, and of course, they're welcome. We had about 80 visitors on a day that had been threatened with storms. There was a slight squall, which soon blew over, and of course, there was the carport and porches to shelter under, so nobody got wet. The day ended at 4pm, and boy, was I tired. Elliott brought out a very welcome bottle of champagne which we drank with the volunteers, before they packed up their signs, and after many hugs drove home. And then we were left alone, apart from the comforting buzzing of insects and bees. It had definitely been a Grand Tour.
Here's the time lapse that Elliott made of the day. Note the rain shower in the middle, and the roads getting wet, then drying up.
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