Bougainvillea

August in the Garden

August is the time of year that the gardens begin to wind down. The Hyssop blooms a second time, never as nice or as full as the earlier blooming. Luckily, we have planted nearly 100 summer plox throughout the property. They all burst into bloom in mid July and carry me through to September.

The Potager Garden

The potager garden was a garden that I started to encourage my children to take an active part in the growing of the food we eat.
We grow a larger garden in the back property, but wanted to grow a garden with the vegetables we eat most often near the house.
In keeping with the theme of the other gardens I added herbs and a few flowers for color and scent.
My husband recently added the center arbor for the bittersweet to grow up.
We have grown both Chinese and American bittersweet on our property for years, to service my wholesale business. Since I sold my business this past year we are now growing it for Fall color. Finally, I can just let the bittersweet hang and enjoy the colors, without feeling like it must be cut and turned into wreaths.

Garden Paths

When you own twelve large breed dogs you must have spacious paths for them to run.
Of course I learned this the hard way. Having lost my share of Ostrich ferns, Hosta Lillies, and Coneflowers, I now make way for large open areas between gardens.
Oh, I still lose the occasional plant, most usually to the Old English Sheepdogs but that is to be expected. I lose just as many plants to my teenage boys chasing golf balls.

TURKEY

Our Toms pace back and forth waiting for the hens to come out. Three of our hens have went into the house and have refused to come out. All three have decided to go broody and sit on eggs at the same time, leaving our toms restless.
The hens collectively are sitting on 32 eggs. We will just have to wait and see what comes out of the house.
Narragansett turkey are the tamest of all turkey breeds. Similar to the silkie chicken ( which we also raise). The Narragansett Tom Turkey is so docile that he will eat out of your hand and allow you to carry him around. The toms also make excellent fathers, rarely harming a young poult.

LAVENDER

Lavender, is one of my favorite herbs. I love the scent and the color, but it has been a challenge to grow in Indiana.
We have harsh winters and heavy spring rains, making it difficult to grow and maintain healthy lavender.
Pictured is Lady Lavender it has proven to be the most generous of our lavender plants. We will have three cuttings per season, and the plants winter over very well. The spring rains are not an issue because we have added a lot of sand to the soil for drainage.

PottingShed

Originally, Frank (my husband) built the outhouse as a changing house for the kids after they would finish swimming in the lake. We then built the outside shower. I started storing garden tools pretty much from day one in the outhouse, and Ivy quickly swallowed the outside shower that I now use to water plants.
It is a very pretty site after a spring rain.