Blooming at the Blue House

 We've had a perfect spring in Front Royal, gorgeous sunny days without the burning heat and humidity. We've also had a lot of rain but that's been great for the plants. Since spring of 2019, after buying the Blue House late 2018, I've been slogging in the garden, digging and planting to try and remove areas of lawn and create a paradise for pollinating insects. The front and back garden were originally just lawn with clumps of ornamental grasses, liriope, ( a ground covering plant which serves no purpose at all for the insect world), and swathes of English ivy covering the back fence and raised beds. I finally dug out the last of the grasses a week ago, replacing them with bee balm and butterfly weed, both of which are native plants. Elliott did an incredible job of removing most of the ivy from the back fence, and we now only have little clumps that attempt to resurface.

My dream for the Blue House is to convert the whole garden to a pollinator garden, creating our own little ecosystem for insects and bees. We've already seen a lot more buzzing activity in the past couple of summers, but I'll press forward until grass is not such a feature around the house, and native plants are the dominant growth. I registered the garden as a pollinator garden over a year ago as I'd already managed to provide many of the necessities for the wildlife. The pond I built soon after moving in is a vital water source, we're creating a 'living hedge' with piles of logs, branches and rocks along the side of the house where we've planted native trees and allowed the grass to grow, creating a haven for insects, small creatures, and most of the raised beds in the back garden are now free of weeds and ivy, replaced with native plants. There is still a small area of liriope in one bed and a lot of it on the ground, which will definitely be removed. The front garden has long grass banks, which has been my main project since moving in, to replace the turf with pollinator beds. We're getting there, but it takes a lot of time, effort and of course money.

But last week we finally got a driveway put in. When I bought the Blue House there was just the main driveway leading up to the house, but although it can hold 2 or 3 cars, it wasn't practical with mine and Elliott's different arrival and departure times, so now we've got the additional parking space and eliminated the 'musical chair' scenario and the need to park on the street.

I worked from home when the excavating team arrived so I would be on hand to answer questions, and more importantly, watch their progress.

I couldn't believe how quickly they got going. I barely had time to take in that this would be my last view of a grassy lawn before it was all torn up, like peeling a wrapper from a chocolate bar. And I didn't even see the gravel unloaded on to the driveway. Of course, I was trying to get some work of my own done, and no doutedly got absorbed in my own tasks, but these men worked fast.

And before I could say, "Cor blimey, mate!" they were done! They returned on Monday to have a last flatten of the new drive and take away the roller. But now Elliott has a proper parking space, and now we can also hunt for a cheap vintage camper, a little 12ft caravan, that will be parked across the end of the driveway and be converted into a little potting shed and lounge, with work benches and a couple of comfy armchairs, a fridge and vintage lamps and wall art. We'll have a canopy outside, and I'll be building a 'privacy' wall of sorts out of old windows, bedsteads, wrought iron pieces and bicycle wheels which will then have native vines growing over it and likely a few squash or tomato plants also. The fire pit can have a permanent place there and I'd like an old wooden pole next to the camper to feed the electrical wire to the camper and also be home for a couple of bat houses. Some galvanized metal planters around the back of the camper and that should just about do it.  

Another job we got completed was the steps to the front door of the house. These were original steps, from 1950, and of course had been constructed very well. But cracks had appeared and they were beginning to cave in. Elliott and I rented a jack hammer and over a couple of days took turns in demolishing and pulverizing the old steps into a pile of rubble. There were a few squabbles over whose turn it was, because it was great fun, even if it did nearly rattle your teeth out of your jaw.

The new concrete steps were delivered and we struggled a bit to get them into place, but finally managed to get them snug up against the wall and concreted securely to eliminate any wobbles. They just need a lick of paint, but that will be a job for later in the year when the days are cooler.

 Malcolm on the Left enjoys climbing over everything. While I was up on the wall, pulling and cutting ivy down from the fence and carport roof, he laid out on the roof and posed. He's fully aware that we take photos of him and often poses accordingly. As he did in the last shot. I was taking a break from planting prickly pear cacti, sitting under the shade of the weeping cherry tree, and he was doing the same, popping his head up when I called his name. For a couple of years I've been wanting to grow eastern prickly pears, which are native to these parts, but they're quite hard to find in nurseries, or can be really expensive, $30 a pot. So I was ecstatic to find 4 pots within 2 weeks, and only paid $30 total. They should love this spot on the sunny bank and we'll put in some stone steps to walk down past them, and add a few chickens and hens succulents to keep them company.

This sodden little chap got into the kitchen where Elliott trapped him in the sink. I got him outside and gave him some sugar water to replenish the energy he'd spent while trying to dry out. Carpenter bees are regarded as pests by many but are actually important pollinators. They do drill into wood but not as far as people think. This one, and another, have burrowed into the shelf on the back porch, which we don't have a problem with, apart from having to clean up the sawdust. I find them highly entertaining, as they never sting, and I love their loud buzzing and extreme inquisitiveness, constantly hovering around my head as I work in the garden. This  noisy 'nosey parker' survived and continues to hum his way around the garden.

 The plants in the canoe have taken off with all the rain. The Carolina rose has spurted up and will be spilling with blooms over the sides. I added zinnias again this year as the bees enjoyed them last year, but the lavender and other other pollinator plants will soon fill up those spaces and annuals won't be added in the future. The witch hazel behind the canoe is now 3 times it's original size and the sea holly in the bed to the right will soon be blooming. This plant will have swarms of bees and insects around its purple blue flowers. The hydrangeas on the left will bloom in a few weeks. These were the only flowers on the whole plot when I moved in, but now they're sharing their space with Virginia bluebells, violets, foxglove, wild daisies that grew from seed 2 years ago and an elderberry bush. A hawthorn tree, which has white blossoms in the spring and red berries in the fall, is now growing by the bicycle.

 

The garden arch that I found a couple of years ago now has 2 roses climbing up it, planted last year. This beautiful pink old-fashioned rose reminds me of home, where I had rows of old roses lining the footpath to the door, and one rose very much like this one. The rose climbing up on the other side didn't have a flower in bloom when I wanted one, but it's a light orange and yellow rose. The trumpet vine at the back is only 3 years old and will be covered in gorgeous orange blooms that the hummingbirds adore.

The back garden is now growing fast, native plants flourishing and spreading rapidly. There is cat mint, bee balm, a button bush, indigo and nasturtiums hanging down the wall. We have a few tomatoes, peppers, herbs and potatoes growing but the annual plants in pots aren't faring well. The ones we got were, I suspect, forced plants, and are flowering too soon in some cases. I may end up replacing some with cilantro and basil seeds, since I eat those all summer long. The cacti are thriving, except poor Elliott has to keep moving them under cover when we get rainy days and then back into the sun.

The pond is constantly busy, with birds and bees drinking or bathing in it, the water kept clear with watercress. The ferns that I planted last year have exploded, finally freed from the English ivy that was slowly blanketing them until a couple of weeks ago. And the biggest bed at the side of the house is now cleared of ivy and weeds. I planted about 7 native plants which will double their size next year, and still have a small area to dig up before I can put a last few plants in, which will be at autumn time. I also need to transfer a trumpet vine from the front of the house to this fence, along with a coral honeysuckle, which I haven't managed to find yet. The white iron swan was found very cheaply and couldn't be left behind in the shop, so it will go out the front now the driveway is done, along with a lot of other garden ornamentation that I have stacked up under the car port.

The kitchen side of the house has changed dramatically now all the grasses have been dug up. I'm so glad I'm done with that task! Now we have beds of natives, some blooming, while in front of the kitchen window we have a jungle growth heading skyward, which will soon erupt into a mass of sunflower and daisy like yellow blooms. I only planted this area last year so this year it's really taken off. We had clouds of buzzing flying critters out here last summer, it was a popular spot.

And then my biggest project, and where the most work was put in, at the front of the house.

 The whole stretch, from the pole in the background in the first photo, was just grass when I moved in. For over 3 years I've been digging up the grass, mixing in Shenandoah topsoil and then filling the new beds with native plants. This year, the older plants have gone nuts, so I've moved a few down or to the back garden. There are cone flowers, blanket flowers, golden rod, milkweeds, some self seeded, nine bark, aquilegia, sneezeweed, cat mint, tick weed, rattlesnake master, cardinal plants, baptista, asters, beauty berry, blazing star, mountain mint, black-eyed susan, and plenty of others I can't even remember. I dug another 3' x 10' patch to add a few more and I'll be digging yet another patch in the next few days as I have another 4 or 5 pots to go in the ground. And then it will be a rest until autumn when I will continue again. I'm hoping that by the end of next year I'll have the bank completely filled with native plants that will then blend into the wild bank as they meet up. This bank will be a blaze of color in a few weeks and hopefully, the summer will bring a host of insects, birds, bees and hummingbirds to our garden, and we're also expecting a grand show of fireflies from the wild bank on the side of the house. In a couple of years, and after a lot more work, and more lawn removed, I'd like the garden to be part of the Master Gardener's garden tour that they host every summer. I'm on a mission!