We have yet another visitor at the Lodge! We hope he stays around for a long time. Drew and Vanessa got to hear him when last they visited. After hearing him again this weekend, we decided to try to discover what he was. Lucky for us, his song is VERY distinctive, so we didn't need Ranger Rick to figure out who our new friend was. Another wonderful sound to hear in the night! Check out this video to see and more importantly hear how lucky we are! 
The summer of 2009 has broken every record for rainfall since the Weather Bureau has kept such records. The gardens of Oak Hill bear witness to this. Usually by the time September is upon us, the gardens have wilted back from the hot, dry month of August and the grass is more brown than green. Not so this year! The gardens are literally spilling over their beds and I have had to prune the shrubs three times already to curb all the new growth. There have been some negatives as well such as a formidible crop of slugs who have turned many a hosta leaf to lace; a nasty case of powdery mildew on my phlox, which luckily did not seem to affect their ability to bloom, and a curious blight which hit all the lower leaves of my tomatoes and asters. I find great humor in the fact that this was the year I was given an irrigation system for my garden for my birthday. Hmmmm, well I'll still have it next year.
Privacy is not something the Lodge was designed to provide. On the contrary, the reason for its existence is "togetherness". However, there are certain times when this becomes problematic. One of those times is trying to change clothes when members of the opposite sex are roaming about. The other is sleeping with extra doggies running around excited to be together, and adults snoring, and babies fussing, and grownups making their way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. 
Great progress was made this weekend on the greenhouse (Oak Hill Nursery) and the playhouse (Nutshell). We got the sides put on the potting shed, shingled and painted them. This merges the greenhouse area to the potting shed and looks fabulous! I will get to give it a trial run soon as it is almost time for fall mums! We have had the windows for Nutshell since last summer, but had not had the chance to get them in. It is amazing how it moved the little structure from a garden shed look to what it is meant to be, a playhouse. Now I can start working on the inside, whenever the opportunity arises. 
How exciting and rewarding to see the Gardens of Oak Hill reach their full potential. With all the rain that the summer of 2009 has been blessed with, the gardens are even more lush than usual. Granted there was a time in mid-July when I think even they were crying Uncle! The slugs outnumbered the blossoms and the fungal infections were running rampant, but now things have dried out a bit and the gardens are amazing. I am so happy as it gives me courage to keep learning, keep trying to correct the mistakes I made with landscape planning, or lack thereof.
Despite four days short of a month of rain, my faithful friends still wish to be outside with me! Guiness who used to hate the rain, now tolerates it rather well and McEwan, who is quite happy to be dripping actually had had enough yesterday when I found him sitting patiently by the Lodge door hoping and praying I would let him in so he could dry off. The gardens of June 2009 are quite lush, although somewhat flat from the pounding rains we have had. Anything not staked tends to provide a home for slugs, the great enemy of the passionate gardener.
...or perhaps a glass of wine? Looks like just the perfect place to partake of such things! We make slow but steady progress on the garden area to the back left side of the Lodge. The rain has definitely given the plantings a big boost this year. This past Friday, in a torrential downpour, I completed the brick walkway so that we are now ready for the affectinately called "Humpty Hump" bridge to go in over the drybed. If it ever stops raining, I will paint it a dark, lucious red, kind of the color of .... cabernet sauvingnon... now that I think of it.
PHASE 2 of the greenhouse construction meant doing the extensions for the two pieces of the roof and hanging the windows for the sides. We used the glass that my Dad had held onto for years hoping to one day build his own greenhouse. It had come from either J.J. Newberry store shelving, or possibly when Dyer's tore down one of their greenhouses, I can't recall. The side windows once hung in the Bath City Hall and were rescued by Eric when he saw them ripping them out and tossing them in a dumpster! We also finished the peak of the back wall and the two lower portions of the front. We came home armed with measurements to either find or build the two front windows and the double french doors thereby closing it in. Since I am usually the one to do the progress photos, I asked Eric to take a turn. He got very artsy, taking photos of the inside as well as the outside. I moved the bistro table into the space so next visit I think a glass of wine is in order!
This is the Gerald & Alice Allen Garden at the Lodge. It was the first garden put in and it has already undergone several transformations. I am beginning to understand that the term, "The Trial and Error Gardens of Pam Allen", is not a bad name, and that in fact, most gardeners, save the unadventurous, should name their gardens the same. What is deemed to be "invasive" and what is not, is quite bewildering. My Bee Balm (Monarda) for example, or Feverfew which were both planted in this garden started out as well behaved fine specimens who are now vying for virtually every square inch of unplanted (or planted for that matter) soil that they can find. I am to deduce that they escape the label "invasive" simply because they are easy to pull up unlike some of their weed friends with tap roots half way to China! So, my dilemna becomes, how much of these renagade plants do I want? Is it wise to transplant them to yet another garden where they will torment me with their prolific nature, or do I (contrary to my nature) ... pull & discard?
A photo from Muir Woods only begins to show the massive nature of the California Redwoods! A "tree hugger" and garden enthusiast, I really loved seeing these giant trees. Their bark is so beautiful with its rugged, craggy appearance and Casey told us that it contains chemicals which make it extremely resistant to the many forest fires which spontaneously break out in the dry heat of summer. The gift shop offered 6" seedlings which had been sterilized to insure no unwanted viruses would be transported with them, and we bought one to be shipped back to Maine. It must be raised in a pot for 3-5 years before being transplanted into the ground. Although I am not convinced it can withstand the Maine winters, I can just imagine this great tree joining the mighty oaks of Oak Hill.
Eric and I went on a big adventure, visiting Casey and Erica in San Francisco. They were amazing tour guides! We saw SO much of the Bay Area, including observing (cautiously) Elephant Seals mating ritual at Ana Nuevo, vineyard tours in Nappa and Sonoma, and visiting the great Redwoods of Muir Woods. Somehow, I am able to relate most everything to Oak Hill Lodge.... (well, except possibly the seals!). The barrels in which the fermenting wine was stored at Rombauer Vineyard were made of oak. We went on a tour of the wine caves and there were thousands of barrels. Our guide explained that they were made of French Oak rather than American Oak as it is 200+ years old vs. 50-100 years for American (although 4 times the price, the age adds much to the fermenting process).... so thankfully, I guess the oaks of Oak Hill are safe for a while! The wine was superb, the company the best... and I learned yet more about one of my favorite things!
