A valediction from master landscaper and commentor Japa21:
This is a bittersweet post. I have shared our yard, garden and birds with you jackals a few times over the past several years. This will be the last time I will be doing this as, after 38 years we have finally made the decision to move. The house is too big and the work to maintain the yard and garden is getting to be too much for these old bones. So one final tour.
This little corner is one of Mrs. Japa’s favorite spots. (the other is sitting with me). From here she has a direct line of sight to the hummingbird feeder and a goodly portion of the yard. This bit of peacefulness is just one of the many things that will be missed.
In some respects, it almost seems like much of the garden knows we’re leaving and put on a special show this year. Our Rose of Sharon and hydrangea (which rarely bloomed at all until last year) were spectacular this year.
I love how the hydrangea changes colors towards the end of the summer.
Our star lilies seemed larger than ever.
As usual Mrs. Japa created some beautiful potted plantings. This mounded mandevilla and assorted coordinating plants was spectacular this year.
And then there was our standby canna lilies, grasses and sweet potato vine. We had a real treat a couple days ago watching a hummingbird enjoying the canna’s nectar.
Even our rhubarb was robust this year. Mrs. Japa makes a fantastic strawberry rhubarb coffee cake using freshly picked rhubarb.
And then there were a couple surprises. We always plant zinnias and try to keep them, except maybe for color, the same. Well one plant just had to show off this year.
And finally, we had a couple pots of petunias. Well, apparently the squirrels thought they were missing something and planted sunflower seeds.
And that is it. We will miss this place a lot. However, we have decided we are going to start a new chapter in our lives, with new adventures.
***********
I’m selfishly hoping that, wherever those new adventures take them, Mr. & Mrs. Japa21 have the space and inclination to create a potted tableau to share with us…
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Jeffery
My time in this house is coming to an end as well. I don’t want to leave. The garden is becoming more daunting every year. What was a very manageable space has become bigger every year. The energy to do it is fading. This autumns project is to get it to be more self sustaining by planting more perennials that hopefully will require less maintenance by me. We’ll see.
sab
We planted 6 potted tomatoes this year. We went for bigger varieties instead of the usual cherry tomatoes. We had 32 on the verge of ripeness. Then three days ago we looked out and there was momma dear and two large spotted fawns in the front yard nibbling the rose buds.
When we checked the tomatoes later, there was one left, hiding under a leaf.
Next year: fencing.
JPL
The pictures are lovely, and the porch chair looks so inviting. Good luck on your next adventure.
Wanderer
A lovely garden. I am sure you will miss it yet there is joy in change and flowers can make somewhere new feel familiar. Best wishes in your new home.
Baud
Good luck with the move. I’m sure whoever buys your place will appreciate your lovely garden.
Barbara
@Jeffery: The best garden investment I made was in self-propagating native perennials. Some are like weeds but that just means I can wack them without guilt when they get too invasive. I feel sometimes like my yard is always on the verge of being out of control, but I have also noticed a big uptick in insects. I still admire people whose yards look pristine and orderly, but I can’t maintain that kind of effort.
Barbara
@sab: I bought a mesh garden tent for my tomatoes and it definitely keeps out critters.
WereBear
@Barbara:
My years on Long Island cured me of that. Because those lawns were covered with signs warning you not to come near because of all the pesticides, herbicides, and other poisons they’d just laid down…
WereBear
Best of luck to the Japas on their new adventures. Under such constraints, I found going miniature roses in a terrarium worked very well when my garden was asleep in the winter.
raven
Great pics. My mobility issues combined with the Boss lady’s broken foot bring the garden issue to the fore for us. We’re not going anywhere because we’re in a reverse mortgage but it’s going to be interesting to see where we go with all this. We also own the house next door so the “yard” is even bigger.
Jeffery
@Barbara: I have a l number of invasive plants that are battling it out. Now I am trying to add more color that is low maintenance. For that I am trying perennial Heliopsis. I got seeds for burning heart and a plant of bleeding heart Heliopsis. Cutting can be made from both plants. Now I have a lot of both to dot around the garden and see what they do next year.
NeenerNeener
I’m at the same point as the Japa21s; it’s too big and I’m not able to take care of it anymore, but mine is a never ending battle with invasive honeysuckle. I’ve found that it really doesn’t like 45% white vinegar, but neither does anything else growing near it, like the ash trees I had treated for emerald ash borer again this year. Once I get done with sprucing up the inside it’s time to look for something with a much smaller yard.
Barbara
@WereBear: I don’t use any chemicals, which is one reason maintenence is so much effort. Chemicals usually don’t differentiate between the desirable and less desirable in garden life, whether insects or plants. You end up with a sterile space like those lawns.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara:
And your tomatoes get to feel like they’re camping!
delphinium
Lovely yard and gardens-those star lilies are gorgeous. Best wishes for your move.
Lapassionara
These are lovely photos. Thanks for posting. I have spent the summer fighting weeds, which took over when we took a vacation in April. I do have a showy cleome bed in the front of the house. They are getting too tall and unruly, but they are a wonderful colorful addition to the yard, so I keep them.
MomSense
The garden pictures are beautiful. Thank you for sharing the last gloriouss season with us. I hope to see some beautiful containers next year.
Kristine
Lovely garden! I know you’ll miss it, but you will also find opportunities at the new place. Plant lovers find a way. I feel the same, though. This yard is way too big for one person but I’ll still keep trying. Like others have mentioned, a bit messy. Actually, a lot messy in spots. Some things like the incredible expanding Solomon’s Seal patch need to be cut back.
We’ve had reasonable if not copious rains this summer in NE Illinois, so the garden has done well and there have been a few surprises along the way. My Rose of Sharon shrubs are past peak but still blooming. I saw a definite reduction in Japanese beetles this summer, which helped a lot. The goldenrod are gearing up, which means I’ll have a late season shot of color and the pollinators will have something to visit as the weather cools.
If I see something new, I let it grow to see what it is—if it’s native and pretty I usually keep it that’s how I wound up with three kinds of Solomon’s seal, wood anemones, and trout lilies in the shady side yard.
delphinium
@Lapassionara: Cleomes are such pretty and unusual flowers. They are annuals here in my hardiness zone and can be hard to find.
satby
What a lovely, peaceful spot to watch hummingbirds, japa21! I seldom get them, feeders or not, and I miss seeing them. And I have the same variety of hydrangea and the colors have been great this year. So far it’s been a pretty perfect August weather-wise: warm but not horribly hot days and cooler nights. Great for tomatoes and the color changing hydrangea 😊
I’m in the same boat house and yard wise: too big and losing the inclination to slave over keeping it all in order, which was never my strong suit anyway. But I’m here for the foreseeable future, and instead of trying to do it all I hired a young guy just starting his own landscape business, and he’s been worth every penny. By not doing it all myself I can keep up with the things I enjoy. He’s even getting my back weedbed cleared out a bit more each week 🎉
Immanentize
Japa21 — thank you so much for the pics! Lovely. I’m not sure where you lived, but it too all my efforts (and water) to keep my herb and veggie garden alive this year. The rest of my plants, all perennials, had to fend toff the heat and drought — a lot did not make it. But we are finally getting some rain. I can see the crusty brown dormant grass is already recovering.
satby
@Jeffery: be prepared for the heliopsis to grow very tall! I planted some last year and wasn’t, so now I have to find a new spot for them. Mine grew as tall as me this year (5′) and are too big for the stuff around them. I like them, the honeybees love them, and they do spread; so I’ll find them a better home.
Immanentize
@Jeffery: You, Japa and me. I am getting ready for new adventures. So much to do to get ready to move. 20 years of keeping too much (NOT hording!) has returned to remind me of the value of thrift.
satby
@Immanentize: some may come back! I went through that last year and was positive that I had lost every coneflower I had planted, but this year they came back and bigger*
*When will you move?
Barbara
@Jeffery: It’s really hard to get the balance between color and durability. One of the baristas at my local coffee shop started buying flowering plants for the shop because they cheered him up. One day I went in and he was fretting that the flowers had gone away — I had to explain that while humans think flowers are the part of the plant that matters most, for the plant, it’s just part of its life cycle. The things we do to maximize color usually make the plant less hardy or adaptive. So yeah, annuals do serve their purpose.
Barbara
@Immanentize: I once read a review of a book entitled “Death Cleaning,” I think by a Swedish author. I didn’t even have to read it — I have been on a years long quest to get rid of stuff I don’t use and most likely never will.
Thinking of you. Hope things are okay.
Immanentize
@satby: I am not sure when I will be able to get everything ready, here at my current house to sell. Realtor wants it ready in two weeks (yikes! and no way). But having it on the market while leaves are on the trees is good. But then I have to find an apartment in the area. Too much fast, but that makes it exciting. I recall after the tree fell, you were ready lickety split to move.
oldgold
—- Answering Al Michaels’ Inquiry —-
This morning I hobbled up though the briars and brambles of my canyon like yard, bordered on the South by Phil Anders’ knotty pine wall and on the North by by Neandra Tall’s stone wall, with a deep sense of foreboding, to my garden, West of Eden.
A garden that this year endured a draught so severe the local NRA chapter supported a limited ban on water pistols.
A garden that endured being entombed in coffee grounds that resulted in being being so WOKE! and caffeinated that East of Eden’s snails, in a woke fit of political correctness, demanded they be referred to as Escargot-Go!
A garden that this year endured on a single grim day the burial of countless carp infected with personpes, a smooth as cream reference to Jean-Paul Sartre and a very bad vowel movement Joke- Crape Diem!
Despite enduring these existential hardships, upon arriving at my tribute to piss-poor planning, procrastination, and entropy, I saw something that stunned me. So stunning:
That if e e cummings observed and wrote about it, he would have ended his description with an exclamation mark!
If Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche had observed it, he would have exclaimed, “That is really something.”
If James Bond had observed it, he would have been so shaken, he would have immediately ordered a martini and demanded it be stirred.
Yes, Al, I do believe in miracles, my hospice tomato has produced a red, round Holy of Holies.
sab
@Barbara: Thanks!
delphinium
@Barbara: I’ve moved about 30 times now, and you’d think that would have cured me of accumulating things, but nope.
Am currently getting rid of stuff no longer used/needed too in hopes that by the time I move again there will not be much left to pack up.
Barbara
@satby: I was so humbled when I hired a landscaping company. They did more work in half a day than we would have managed in two months of weekends. We had hired them for the day and they ran out of things to do after four hours.
satby
@Immanentize: well, I wasn’t but once they said the house was too structurally unsafe for the insurance adjuster to go inside to assess, I had to just get out. Six years ago this week in fact, and in the pell-mell scramble of everyone just throwing everything into boxes, I still haven’t sorted it all out. But I work a lot and am tired a lot, so this coming year of working far less I intend to finally finish moving 😂 🙏.
Barbara
@Immanentize: No doubt you have already considered this, but getting one of those local storage facilities can be helpful. Some of them will even come to your house and help you load stuff. When I had to move my daughter out of NYC in, basically, one day, I had rented a storage facility rather than a U-Haul to cart her stuff around. It made the whole exercise so much less stressful. We also ended up pitching a lot of stuff or giving it away.
Are you retiring as well?
satby
@Barbara: yeah, they’re so much more efficient because they’re there for one thing. In fact, I don’t hire by the day for the big clear outs, I tell them what I want done and they give me a price, and it never seems to take more than 2-3 hours, when I wouldn’t get it done in an entire day if I tried. Plus I don’t have to deal with poison ivy then either (my yard guys have all claimed to not be allergic).
satby
I really hesitate to ask because there’s been so much fundraising around here, but my rescue org is in a bit of a bind on heartworm treatment for three dogs we pulled from animal control and put in foster care. The grants that fund us are primarily for spay neuter activity, and we would lose the funding if we spend it on any other stuff. We’ve got a great discount from one of our partner vets and about 1/2 way to the goal for treatment of all three, so if anyone can spare some coin it would be deeply appreciated.
Immanentize
@Barbara: no retirement, I have tenure! Or, as has been said, “I was appointed for life and I intend to fulfill my appointment.” (Not really — maybe in about 7 years I will).
Yes to storage. Yeas to Pods. Yes to packing help. Also, I hired window cleaners! This place is going to be so nice I may not move out.
WaterGirl
Mrs. Japa does indeed have a knack for desiging beautiful pots!
Bittersweet to be leaving the beautiful garden behind. Just make sure you have room for some big pots so you can create a new peaceful corner with beautiful flowers.
Pete Mack
Rose of Sharon (cold-hardy hibiscus in photo #1) is *the* preferred shrub in my town in central NY. It blooms from August into November. Hydrangea is probably #2.
WaterGirl
@satby: It might be helpful to know what the current gap is that you are trying to fill.
Jeffery
@Barbara: The problem in this yard is there is lots of spring color from bulbs and over winter half hardy annuals that die in July and lots of things that flower in fall. The summer annuals never seem to do well for me. I am hoping the Heliopsis work then there will be some color in July and August.
satby
@WaterGirl: it’s right in the link to the fundraiser.
satby
@Jeffery: heliopsus, coneflower, daylillies, hardy hibiscus (aka rose mallow) all have been filling the gap for me. I don’t get quite full enough sun for rudibecka or Shasta daisy, but places around here that do have lush displays of both.
Ohio Mom
We aren’t much in the gardening department but we are also gearing up to move.
Hurt my feelings a bit when the real estate agent referred to my carefully curated objet d’arts as “clutter,” as in, “Once you get rid of this clutter, you may not want to move.” How many times a week does she say that to clients?
@Immanentize: I am in awe of your timeline. We are thinking in terms of six months to a year. I have already completed small amounts of culling, mainly in the bathrooms and bedrooms, and I can report that it is a liberating feeling to take bags and bags to Goodwill. Or in other cases, toss it in the trash.
WaterGirl
@satby: So just over $1,000. Good to know.
O. Felix Culpa
We just left our lovely garden behind and moved to a rental in the “big city” (big in New Mexico terms, that is). The house has a long, narrow side garden, which had been taken over by lemon balm. I pulled a bunch out and planted carrots and radishes, and also seeded lettuce, bok choy, and Swiss chard in containers. I’m not sure what to do with the backyard yet. It’s mostly lawn–maintained by the owner, thank goodness!–and a big tree, but the planting areas around the perimeter are bare. I’m researching shade to partial-shade plants that will thrive in the local southwestern microclimate. Suggestions are welcome.
ETA: I miss “my” hummingbirds the most so far. My old garden buzzed with those brilliant little dive-bombers. The garden here seems barren of bird life, maybe because there hasn’t been anything on offer for them. A floral and food resurrection might lure them in, I hope.
Gvg
I feel the years creeping up. I love gardening but I watched my grandmothers decline and my mother currently really should almost stop gardening but won’t. She starts things and can’t finish. And she can afford to hire help, I won’t be able to. So I moved into this house with the smaller than I am used to yard and an intent to retire in 10 years, now 7. I have been propagating like mad, trying to grow shrubs and perennials that will be easy care and look neat as I grow older. I currently grow out 100’s of seedlings for color and root cuttings constantly to fill in because that is what I love, plus it is cheap and colorful, but each year I plant a few mor shrubs and root more shrubs and fertilize them, plus multiply the perennials to replace the quick annuals. Tear out the things that don’t thrive here and replace. It is shaping up. The interior also is being improved for easy care and accessibility. I intended to use a lot of natives, but some of the old pass along plants are also just as tough. Avoiding super spreading and invasives like the plague. Some silly neighbor planted bamboo so I have to watch that. Hoping he sells and we can convince a new owner to get rid of it instead of all the neighbors on all sides having to keep killing runners.
japa21
Thank you all for the wonderful comments. I have mentioned before that every time in the past we have considered moving, we would look at our yard and gardens and say, “We can’t leave this.” It was our savior in 2020 when our movements were so limited. But time does move on and so must we. We are ready this time except for getting the house ready. 38 years in one place results in a lot of stuff.
satby
@japa21: good luck! My mother, never a gardener, enjoyed the wonderfully kept grounds in her condo association in Florida, and even took to growing a few potted plants on her balcony. I hope you also find a place where you can enjoy beautiful views without having to put in all the work of doing it yourself.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I too love Canna lilies. I have a half wine barrel with originally 2 plants in it – now the whole barrel is full and it is a jungle in there. The yellow cannas bloom all summer. Last time I watered (yesterday), I disturbed 2 tree frogs in the foliage, so the local critters like them too.
Kevin
Good luck in your next adventure. If it’s any consolation my parents left their house and gardens of 35 years last fall and could not be happier. They found just enough space in their backyard of the villa to put some key items in and tend to. Kinda minimalist gardening I suppose.
apieceofpeace
Your gorgeous garden pictures will be missed here. They inspired me. Thank you many times.