Friday, April 22, 2016

Projects. Projects. Projects.

      Dear Blog readers. Thank you for your attention and patience of waiting for new blog posts.
Talking honestly, I forgot it for some time. I keep myself very busy with studies and big projects in my garden. Now I will talk about main two projects that change garden face a little but for all time.
When we moved here in 2014 I thought that this property is big enough for all my needs and dreams. However, I get insufficiently of land. After some talks with neighbors we decided to fit all plants in our actual garden and do not worry about other needs. And we decided to get rid of iris circle project. That big round lawn part look really attractive and I can say this give some powerful effect to garden. But I need some more land for daylilies. My main project of hybridizing and selecting the best of what I can.
 I still keep idea of round shape and make reflecting beds. I keep all beds with irises and fill empty gaps with perennial plants. I have lost several varieties and couple seedlings of irises. So some extra place for miniature daylilies or other lovely perennials I like. Soil is bad. I have discussed about it several times before. And lawn is full of moss and weeds. So we simply decided to dig it all. Some part move to other project (I will talk about it a little bit later) and others go to compost. After that add some new top soil, form lawn grass path, also round in perimeter of iris circle now. And just for few steps wide. And then form beds for daylily seedlings, that I will be planting this June.
 I can honestly say, that time of digging grass in spring is very important. As soon we make this, the easier it will be. In early days of spring, lawn grass just start to grow. Roots are not so strong and get out of the soil easy. But later it is harder and harder.
 We take pieces of lawn upside down for some reasons. That keep grass out of light and start killing weeds, also, it help to dry them up and when we take some part of soil get back to place.
Here is way more than half done. Seriously hard when grass turn so big and green.


Our second project, or how we call - First. Because it was must for when we moved here. Woodshed renewing. But we decided to demolish it and start from scratch.

 Situation photos. It is pity to show them for you all. But only in this way I can show all the work. It is made out of lots of thing. Metal railway rails, wood, some other metals and other things people usually do not use for such building.
 After demolition all view look like this. Really empty. And lots of pieces of shed. Wood we cut and later will warm our house in fireplace or reuse for building new one.
 There is still some wood left. So we arrange them close to wall and later move to new one. And demolish this wall.

 And here it goes. It is smaller and build closer to other building. So we save lots of space around.
 In front of this picture you can see grass pieces from circle project. There soon will be shade garden and they form nice base layer. Give nutrients and compost and add layer of new soil.
Style of it will be the same as other, close to it. Same wood and later will be painted in green. I wanted for some grey colors, but green look nice too. For shade bed I place some logs for edge. So it will be easier to maintain this huge bed.


And here projects go one by one. Third big project for this year is hedge.
 This part of garden is close to house and it is like main entrance to garden where all the magic happens. So I wanted like entrance to garden and to cover neighbors distracting view. They used to sit outside very often and we felt uncomfortable with that. So our decision was to plant bigger hedge.
 We drive to my friend with rented trailer and get 20 Thuja occidentalis seedlings. Out of column type mother plant. Yes, I know that seedlings didn't look same as mother plant. But I wanted fast and not so expensive hedge. Later I can form it in any way I wish. And I have few ideas for that. So if I made it, will show you all. That is view from trailer. Packed close, but safe. And there is other nice plant to my garden - Calycanthus fertilis. It's wood smell very nice. A little spicy, but nice. Also have interesting blooms, that I saw in Italy few years ago. This is hardy enough for my garden. So take it without any worries.
 And here is main view from yesterday work. We dig them out, move and plant in the same day. So huge work done. But worth it all. From this picture you can see entrance to garden (gap of hedge) and lots of trees planted. That wood will be used to shed later. By the way this is other wall of it.
This area has other function, so I wanted to divide it from main garden too. There will not grow any perennials or other mixed things. Because there will go wood in future to shed or other handy works outside. But I try to keep this area as clean as possible for nice entrance to garden.
There you can see more clear what part of garden it is. In back is gates and entrance to property. So not the best view from garden. Maybe later this hedge grow big enough and I can make arch here for stronger focus point.

I presented all 3 projects of this year. So you all can understand what I do and why do not write here. Later will show some progress updates of projects and maybe soon they all will be done.
Going back to exam material at studies. Need to end the best before internship.

Edvinas

Winter vacation in Cyprus

  I was gone for awhile. Because I worked with my studies, projects and planned my trip to Cyprus. My biggest joy is travel and see as much as I can. Gardening and hybridizing is always number 1. But in winter I paint on silk or other medias and this winter get opportunity to see new lands. Cyprus is place to visit for each. Even we go in winter time and mostly of plants was still sleeping or just started to grow, I saw enough for first introduction.
Photo from flight Manchester NH - Detroit USA 2015

Our first stop from airport in Cyprus was Larnaca Salt Lake. To be clear, Cyprus doesn't have clear water. And no rivers, that have water all season. Have two salt lakes and we visited both. My main reason was to see famous black flamingo. I saw one, lonely black flamingo. As later I discover, there could be other species of flamingo. But I see no problem in that. I still had some fun in all.
 Center of Larnaca. Close to Mediterranean sea.
There is great mixture of older architecture and modern square. These banana looking benches are great example of post-modern type city square. And give some attraction and movement because they where arranged in different angles. So that is well designed for sitting and even laying and enjoy sunshine. Get my first burn on nose even after half of hour.


Chrysochou bay. One of the most special place to visit if you went to Cyprus. Clear crystal blue water there is almost every day. We went on windy day, so it wasn't that clear. So we went on tour by ourselves and explore nature. My main goal was to found as much different plants as I can and relax after studies. Perfect place for both. After interesting Aphrodite's Botanical garden and bath's of Aphrodite we headed to country road to look for beach. Some group members more prefer that kind of vacation. I didn't go fast with them and went in middle of road to beach and stay in rocky spot, where waves hit rocks and make wonderful and powerful show. There I have my lunch and best time with my camera. Play with different angles, settings and places. Here is one of the best pictures for you all.


We went to Cyprus in non-tourism time. So all famous locations where closed and mostly of souvenir shops where closed. Bars and other nice place to sit and have drink where far away from our hotel. So we simply went by beach and look what what we can see around. Perfect way to explore local living.

And some heavy rains where only in mountain area. We didn't get a drop. Those fancy palms cover all abandoned land. From this angle I get perfect and festive view with some blurred rainbow.

I do not want to show all, because this is off-topic from my stories of gardening. But I can show more single plants that bloomed in first days of February.

 Orchis collina
 Anchusa aegyptiaca
 Anemone coronaria
 Arisarum vulgare
 Bellevalia nivalis
 Cyclamen persicum
 Echinops spinosissimus subsp. bithynicus
 Mandragora officinarum
 Muscari inconstrictum
 Narcissus tazetta
 Oxalis pes-caprae
 Romulea tempskyana
 Tragopogon sinuatus
Trifolium subterraneum subsp. subterraneum

That is all from me now. Sorry for a long delay and no posts.
Done with winter vacation memories and already started to write post about 3 projects in my garden. But that will take a lot of time, as they are 3 and very different. And still in process.

Best wishes,
Edvinas