Working on the Little Buildings

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.

Move Over Martha!

The ladies are coming! The ladies of the Bath Garden Club are coming to visit Oak Hill Gardens. My excitement is only slightly dampened by my determination to "get stuff done". You can imagine that Eric is also feeling my enthusiasm to "put on our Sunday Best"! But, it was not ME who decided to launch us off on yet another "side project". We were going to work on the greenhouse this past weekend when Eric noticed the leg of the potting bench he had made me back in the 80's and I had used for years at Raymond Ct., was beginning to cave. Of course, this was largely caused by the fact it was twenty plus years old, was made from an old print shop counter (not pressure treated wood), and the potting soil container we had installed had been collecting rainwater as the roof overhang was not sufficient to keep it dry. Eric announced that it was not up to par for the ladies to see my potting table in such a condition and that we needed to build a new one NOW on the back of the greenhouse where the garden tools were to find their home. We were able to implement some of the old pieces of the potting bench, like the soil container and its lid, the upper shelving with bins for peat moss and perlite, and the upper shelving unit. There is a weather tight roof and it will be enclosed with sides and doors; three of them to be precise. One will be for the shovel, rake, hoe and other garden tools on the right- and double doors for the bench area. Ooooh, la, la! Ladies - eat your heart out! Can't wait to pot up my fall mums!

Summer Gardens

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.

All Is Gray... and GREEN!

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.
The honeysuckle seems to hold up rather well much to the gratitude of the hummingbirds.

Can You Stay for a Spot of Tea

...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.

The Gardens of Blackwater Cove

Until the Lodge came along, I always played a game with Mother Nature as to what she would let me grow if I were not to prune her trees back to sharply. At Raymond Court, I loved the shaded yard given to me by the host of maples which grew abundantly in the side yard. But, that meant I was restricted plants that could tolerate or perhaps enjoy the shade like hosta, astilbe, daylilies, ferns and sedums. When we got the cottage, I was faced with the same plight. It is in the woods afterall, and we did not wish to change that. The front garden was a special challenge, as, when we bought, there was only "forest soil" a nutrient poor, combination of decomposed pine needles and sand that was hard pressed to hold any water. We fashioned stone walls to terrace off the embankment and brought in loads and loads of loam to backfill and create garden beds. Slowly, I learned which plants could live largely off just rainfall and tolerate the small amount of sunlight the garden was provided with each day. This photo shows that I am now in tune with this garden, though it has taken me years to achieve it. That is why Oak Hill is such a fun place to garden with its many areas of sun and shade, wet and dry, but tremendous soil everywhere!

Update on the Greenhouse

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!