What They Didn't See

I heard voices and didn't think anything of it. I hear all kinds of things from passing cars, trucks and motorcycles. Then the building contractor said, "Did you see the women up in the vegetable garden?" No I did not.

I wandered up to find four women huddled in the sunny utility meadow, some with cameras, hovering over the Gooseneck Loosestrife.

Hello?

Margie said it was ok if we looked at the garden.

Alright then, you have been given permission. I had wet mortar going and went back to work. They looked innocent enough. I didn't see any shovels.

This is what draws them in.



Dozens and dozens of red dots down in the meadow drew them further in.



Once you are down there all kinds of things become visible.



So who were they? Were they ladies from the church landscape committee? At lunch time we were told they were from Tampa and just driving by and saw Bulbarella out in her garden and asked if they could see it.

But they only saw a part of the wild cultivated garden. There is always more.

The first of the native Turk's Cap Lilies, Lilium superbum have begun to bloom in the ridge top garden.



Pink astilbe festoons the garden from one end to the other.



In the sunniest spot, a wild assortment clamours for attention.



Some of the hostas compete for showiness with the astilbe.



The purple spikes of liatris add to a familiar summer theme.



Stokesia in two colors mingles with others. This is the wild cultivated look at its prime.



Even though it is out by the road, the Miscanthus and Echinops combo is still mostly hidden by the gargantuan Chicory and not likely to be noticed. Now that I am finished dividing the grass, everything should size out more evenly next year. I am hoping the Chicory might be just a wee bit more subdued next year as well. The Iron Weed is shorter and fuller this year after last years eight foot reach.



Some of these neglected roadside weeds are a bit jolted by a good heaping of wood chip mulch. It takes them some time to adjust and re-size themselves back to normal.

Contact

The sewer line has finally made it all the way to the turdbox. Hallelujah!!

The water line from the well was stubbed out inside the cabin and the last of that trench covered. Lots of details were attended to. This weekend the i's will be dotted and the t's crossed. On Monday there will be a call for inspection. Hallelujah!!



The long arm of the block wall had the cap stones glued on. Some mortaring will be done around the stovepipe sewer line where it goes through the wall. Then those cap stones can be glued on. The beginnings of another dry stack wall is taking shape. It really won't amount to much more than a stone edging to help hold the soil in place and define the shape of the future perennial bed.



How long did these walls take? I'll have to go back on the blog and look. I like the cap stones much more from above than the line it creates from below. No matter though. Much of this beautiful new wall combo will be under the stairs and what is left will be fluffed with greenery.



This week has seen the sweet corn tassel and the ears silk out and I've been sexing the corn every time I pass through. So far no sign of Mr. Raccoon. The flock of about 25 turkeys that has been around all week has shown no interest in the roadside vegetable garden, thank goodness. The do however like to dig in freshly planted soil and have mucked up a few newly planted things. The wood chip mulch must be more than they can handle. They can easily cause all kinds of disturbance in the natural leaf litter of the forest.



Perhaps next year all my spare time will be spent in a new wild cultivated garden that overlaps and blends into the one that exists here now. The floral extravaganza high on a mountaintop in North Carolina will continue to expand.



All the stone hauling and bucket toting of dirt and gravel will seem worth it



When the dirt scars on the land become totally green and are covered in a shifting tapestry of texture and seasonal blooms.

Late Bloom Day - Part 2

Yes there are times even for gardeners when it is important to stop .... and smell the roses. But these were Knockout Roses and they didn't have any smell. They look much better than mine though which bloomed once this spring and have just sat there since, not growing at all.



We were in the neighborhood and decided to stop by the Grove Park Inn and have a look around. I have no recollection of ever being here before, but the resident gardeners recall taking their young brood here for lunch one day many moons ago.

This is just one side of the main inn. Scaffolding encased the main entry of the Great Hall and large parts of the rear of the inn. The building is getting a new roof and restoration work done for its upcoming 100th birthday.



Check out the boulders above the windows. Click on the picture for a better look at the rough stone face of this building. This is totally 3-D stone work



This must be some cultivar of the Oakleaf Hydrangea. It is much more striking than the regular type.



Big pots on a big patio.



My friend Deb checks out the view on a terrace below the inn and above the spa which was added to the resort in the last decade.



Downtown Asheville peaks up through the tree tops. This haze is typical of warm summer days.



Is the stone used in the new spa real or fake? It is hard to tell. Could that single stone arch over the spa entry possibly be one piece of stone? They did stay with the theme of the original inn, but this stone work is decidedly different from the 3-D rock of the original.



Looking down at the spa complex.



Looking up towards the main inn. The building in the back ground is one of two new wings added to the original inn.

The gardens in the central courtyard created by the two new wings and above the spa were a bit lacking I thought. It seemed to be planted in the New American style with native perennials like Iron Weed, Joe Pye, grasses and small trees and a few shrubs. I did not really look close enough to take it all in. There were huge areas of bare mulch and next to nothing blooming. Perhaps this garden is still relatively new from all the construction that went on.

But let me tell you there is absolutely no reason a meadow type garden should be so devoid of bloom at this time of year in North Carolina. Someone needs to speak to their head horticulturalist.



Chuck B was contemplating a sculpture for a problem spot in his garden and I thought of him when I saw these kinetic sculptures on a small lawn in the parking area.



Next stop was downtown and the Vortex Cabaret at the Boiler Room. Sorry no pics. Produced by the Rev. Johnny Lemuria, Holy man, absurdist radical, and host of the Pleasure Saucer, it truly had to be seen to be believed. Two musical acts that were just noise, but watching the odd physical aspects of the musicians themselves was amusing, a puppeteer, a comedian and one burlesque performance. Different and enjoyable in an absurdest sort of way.

And that was my Bloom Day in Asheville. Now back to you Carol.

Late Bloom Day - Part 1

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out what I was doing on Bloom Day. Let's just say it has been making me a little restless, irritable and discontent. I thought it would be a good idea to make a date and go away.



An evening in Asheville was planned with a good friend. We met at the Botanical Gardens at Asheville for an evening stroll to start off our night on the town. Blooms for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day headquartered in a place called May Dreams were going to be found for this month's post in Asheville.

The Botanical Garden is a strictly native plant garden tended solely by volunteers. It also functions quite well as an urban park adjacent to the campus of UNCA. What would be blooming here in mid July?

Phlox and Monarda.



Rudbeckia



A late blooming azalea with a wonderful honeysuckle scent.



Liatris and Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium.



Cup Plant, Silphium perfoliatum. The large opposite leaves of this aster relative join and completely surround the stem.



New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae. This looks like the variety Frances recently gave me on my visit to Faire Garden Tennessee. It is shorter in stature and a much earlier bloomer than the giant thing here I call New England Aster. Aster confusion reigns.



And one water lily in a small formal pond.



Then it was time for dinner at a nice Thai restaurant where I had to be sure and order medium spicy which was like regular mild spicy in Hawaii. If you don't ask they serve it mild, as in bland for American palates which I discovered the first time I ate there. Who ever heard of bland Thai cooking?

Bloom Day - Part 2 coming up next. Our evening in Asheville continues.

Bloom Day Delay

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day at Outside Clyde will be a day late. Please pardon the inconvenience.

27 Feet

That is about how far the peach tree is from the blueberry patch. They should be ready very soon.



And that is how much closer we got to the inlet of the turdbox.



Then we stopped. The gasket the septic installer left us that goes around the sewer line as it enters the box is for a four inch pipe and we are using three inch pipe. We need a three inch gasket and before we cut a hole into the plastic turdbox we want to be sure we have all our ducks in a row.

Even with all that store bought block wall, we still ended up with very little actual coverage of the sewer line, like between six and ten inches. I added another course of block and will be extending the end of the wall a bit further.



The top course of block on the short arm of the wall parallel to the cabin needs two pieces of block cut to fit to finish that. Some of the cap stones we will be using can be seen sitting on the wall. They will be glued on for stability.

And to help keep the soil on top of the sewer line, another very short in height, thirty five foot in length, rock podge stone wall will be laid between the sewer line and the turdbox.



Another little problem we are having is that the drain line leaving the box rises an inch up to a coupling before it descends again. I think the entire box settled over the winter and tweaked the drain line a bit. So I am digging out around the drain line so I can try to wiggle the kink out and get the pipe to settle down another inch as well.



The plan for the landscaping is to have a perennial bed over the sewer line exiting the cabin between the block wall and the short stone edging wall. The turdbox itself will be covered in gravel and visually become part of the gravel driveway and parking area. Most likely a new Stonehenge type of event will be set up to stop cars from parking on top of the box and to hide the perfectly located cleanout pipe.

I am a landscaper. My job is to make things pretty and to hide the defects. One day the troubles with the turbox will not be noticeable. It will all be lush landscape.



One day too, my only concern might be how good will the sunset be.



And will the peaches taste good? The blueberries sure do.

Ode To The Turdbox

Without a doubt the septic system and drain field has caused the most consternation in the construction of the cozy cabin. On a regular basis I drive by herds of cows grazing in or at the edge of streams. They just do their business wherever with out a single concern or regulation governing their poo.

In my case, a herd of one, an entire system of separation and disposal is required. Then the soil has to be just right and the hillside of saprolite where the cozy cabin sits was rejected as substandard. The drain field had to be moved to the other side of the sunny utility valley where I was fortunate to have acceptable soil.



When the turdbox that will collect my poo and send the effluent off to the drain field was installed it ended up being a foot higher than was anticipated. A retaining wall was needed to be able to bury the sewer line on it journey from the cabin to the box. So I shovel buckets of dirt from the basement patio floor to use as back fill behind the new block wall. That works out fine because I did need to lower the patio floor to get a proper base under a future stone floor and maintain the 6' 9" head clearance under the main girder of the cabin that I wanted.

It's all about adjusting. A single word in a comment on the previous post, Stonehenge, changed things. The previous patio sculpture #1 unwrapped and lined out. It is a shorter segment of the similar boulder lines I had on my Maui lawn.



All this digging has allowed me to act on ideas I held in reserve for the basement patio. Half of the pot belly of an old furnace that was discovered in Fort Collins Colorado in 1981 was laid next to patio sculpture #2. This new juxtaposition of metal, stone and cement has more appeal and is cause for more thought. It moves me more than the stone alone. Now this hunk of metal has a home.



The nice round basin and rectangular stone backing is reminiscent of something, almost fountain or pond like. Maybe I could add water to this somehow in the future.



But something else comes to mind. It also has the feel of a chair, even a throne.
Deep thoughts.



In the midst of shoveling buckets of dirt to make a turdbox that is too high for comfort work with the flow of gravity, time for contemplation is found. A little satisfaction is wrested from an uncomfortable situation. Patio sculpture #2 is properly christened just like the cows do. All lines lead to the throne.

Wiggled In To Place

Stone sculpture #2 for the patio was wiggled into place with a 2x4, other stones as leverage, brute force and determination.



It's ok, but I am not deeply moved. The larger stone is close to impossible to move so this needs to grow on me. And how does it work with the other stone sculpture that will move just a step to the right. Is it possible for a person to OD on stone?



Maybe it just needs a new position or another element. Tomorrow I will play with adding the old metal stove parts and see what happens. The tiniest little adjustments can make a world of difference.



And that is my world, one tiny adjustment after another that eventually add up to cause rubber neckers to slow down, turn around and come back, stop, backup, come in and contemplate pulling down the drive, but backing out instead and heading off down the road. What were they up to?

This picture doesn't really do justice to the floral bonanza that the roadside vegetable garden is right now after miles of dense shady forest. All of a sudden the trees open up, the sun comes through and thousands of blooming flowers assault the senses of passerby. What were they up to?



The Veronica spicata will need some minor adjustments too. I need more, a bunch more, like a whole river of it. It can be the second wave after the earlier blooming Salvia nemerosa and Lupine.



One small adjustment to the roadside vegetable garden this year was the planting of sunflowers.



Just for fun.