Friday, May 28

FREE Garden Art and Random Friday Photos

Check it out!  I am the proud scavenger recipient of some free garden art.  Behold, my brand new new-to-me gazing ball:




I trashpicked the base on my way home from work one night in early April.  The people who had put it out on the curb had a lovely light blue gazing ball on it for, oh, probably the last 10 years.  I'm not sure whether the glass finally cracked, or whether they just got tired of the base, but I couldn't find the ball on their treelawn in the dark.

No problem, because I found a replacement in someone else's trash on my evening walk with Coco on Wednesday:


Steve was with me, since we rode together to volleyball, and he very helpfully picked it up for me and carried it the rest of the way home.  (Sorry, babe--I know you were disappointed that I didn't let you roll it down the driveway!)  I have an awesome mosaic kit that I haven't yet dug into, so I plan to make it pretty on some random rainy day--and I'll also cement on a piece of rebar or something into the thumb hole, to slide into the base and keep it from falling off and breaking a (dog or human) bone.  I'm very excited!

Speaking of excitement, a few pretty things have joined the excitement in this corner of the garden:


The chartreuse of the 'All Gold' hakonechloa leaves and lady's mantle flowers is a nice jolt here.  But of course, they still aren't as beautiful (to me) as the honeysuckle flowers themselves:


Next door, the goatsbeard is just starting to shoot its white fireworks:


The dog, in one of her usual cool napping spots, opens a curious eye to see what I'm up to:


Since she's awake now, I'll give her a good "scritch."  These are essential, and oft-repeated, when the sled dog sheds her undercoat.  (Yes, ALL of it!)  'Tis the season:


I keep thinking that I need to move the hosta or the heuchera here... but I like them together so much that I've come to a compromise.  I'm just going to clip any low hosta leaves that try to bully out the coral bells:


They do seed all over, but I adore the way the fescue flowers look:


And the way their blue foliage cools down the hot dianthus flowers:

These are passalong dianthus from my Mom, and they seem to like where they are planted in the backyard.  So do the 'Chubby Fingers' sedum--together, they are bent on covering up some of my blue shelves that form the basis of my backyard path.  You have to look REALLY hard to even see the cobalt blue shelving here:


They all need to be torn away so the path can be revealed.  Ah, but that job will have to wait until after the dianthus are done blooming!  The gardener's assistant needs a walk, and the gardener needs a bath.  Hope that you all had a wonderful time playing in the garden to kick off this Memorial Day weekend!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

K - How cool to have comment from you over at my place! It's been ages since I've been out and about in blogworld (it seems) but with summer and great sunlight and a camera in hand, it stirs things up in a good way. I love looking at your garden and the way you grow it - honestly, our back garden areas are in total disarray with some new patio work and pavers and just general chaos. Meanwhile, the seeds languish still on the kitchen counter. Looks like Lowe's is gonna have to fill in our flower power once things get finished in the backyard. Sigh.
BTW, had to smile at the dog picture - getting a good scritch! And the bowling ball!

Lona said...

Are you sure you just didn't pinch that out of someones yard? LOL! It looks so good. I would love to find items like that left out for the trash.
Your beds are looking so pretty. I love your plant combination's. I love the airy blooms on the Goatsbeard. I may have to invest it that one. The never ending plant list. Ugh! LOL!
Have a great weekend.

Unknown said...

westcobich, I really have to get out and read more of my favorite blogs more often--I had a little extra time the other day and decided to check in to a few! And don't feel badly about the back garden... I just didn't SHOW any of the "total disarray" in my backyard, but it's definitely there. :)

Hocking Hills Gardener, I got the goatsbeard from Bluestone Perennials (they're the 'Zweiweltenkind' ones) and they're really too big for my little garden. I've managed to cull out 2 of them, but the other 4 just stick around.

(And I'm with you on the never-ending plant list! I think we all need several acres, in all zones, in order to satiate our plant desires! lol.)

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I am just green with envy that you can grow blue fescue and have to worry about where it seeds. For goodness sakes I can't get it to grow here. Can't imagine why. Coco is such a pretty dog. Luna also has a ton of fur coming off now. I put big clumps of it out in the garden for the birds to line their nests. It is such fun to find her fur in their nests. Your "picked" garden ornaments are great. I will look forward to seeing your mosaic ball in your garden.

chuck b. said...

A Berkeley designer is well known out here for popularizing the bowling ball as garden ornament. But I think she just makes small piles of them; that pedestal is just the thing. It's like a black crystal ball. Very Lord of the Rings. The mosaic version will be cool too.

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

I love this post. The bowling ball makes a better globe than a shining glass ball, in my opinion. The shiny things are so distracting in the background of photos.
Your shots of Coco & her fur brought back fond memories of my Coco and the shedding blade I used to get the dead undercoat out of her fur. She was such a mutt, it's possible she had some Husky in her.

garden girl said...

So many stunning combinations Kim. Your garden is lovely.

I can relate to the undercoat shedding - George is (finally) near the end of his spring molt. He's a lab mix, but still sheds his entire coat as labs do, a few times a year. In between the entire coat shed, he sheds all the time.

I lifted the Lawn Man's old bowling ball from the garbage a few months ago - he thought I was nuts, but I like it in the garden. I'm thinking about covering it with pennies - I saw that once - it was really cool. In the meantime, I like the 'face' the finger holes make.

Benjamin Vogt said...

Bowling for heuchera? Lawn bowling? Come on--use the ball!

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