Gardening tales, TV talk, and drunken tweeting

[stoney321]

I'll go in reverse order, because I'm all tricky and stuff.

Yesterday I went into the recording studio with a bunch of folks from Blood on the Highway and recorded the DVD commentary track. Holy wall of talking, folks. One, we all decided it would be more fun to do while drinking. Two, a few folks talked A LOT. About lots of things not related to the movie. It might sound like there was fighting. I think (think) that it was just hilarity. I know that I had a good time, regardless of people talking over me whenever I tried to mention my boobs. (lol.) The sucky part was that I was very very sober, even though I tried not to be. Woe.

And you can now PREORDER Blood on the Highway through Amazon. Cheers!

TV, specifically The Pacific.

The Pacific
Still hard to figure out who some of the back characters are, I thought the guy in the booby hatch was the guy with the friend back in Alabama, turns out it wasn't? Okay. Also, they are REALLY not doing a good job with this story. There are formulas, but that doesn't mean y'all can phone it in and expect us to care. The Pacific Theater was freaking BRUTAL and I'm really not getting it. Am I just going to need to watch it back to back to get any depth of story telling? Huh. I'm sticking with it, just so I can get an answer to that question. Also, I'm weirdly attracted to Lecky. Damn me and my love of lanky, troubled men.



So in between auditioning for pilot season (which, holy crap are there loads of film actors coming back to TV. Hey, quit stealing work from those of us that need it!) and raising kids and laundry (ha, I'm not doing those last two, come on) I've been retooling my garden out front. It's in the beginning stages, so it's not all lush and lovely yet, but you can see where it's going. And who doesn't like flowers? Communists and the fool hearty, that's who.



First, this post detailed my ripping up the front lawn and installing a flower garden and trees." And it's amazing to see how teensy my daughter was just two years ago. She's a giant now, we're all worried. Is it normal for a 12 year old to be 8 feet tall and six hundred pounds? Also, she has tentacles. I think there might be some chemicals in the water.

I put in a stone pathway, and it just wasn't right. Not wide enough, too close to the plants, blah blah. So I dug it up, moved all of the stones, perennials, ground covers, grasses, etc. out of the way, and widened the whole area by five feet.

So from this:



or a greener pic here:





To the border removed, the grass ripped up, and the crappy caliche soil exposed (that's the broken cement looking stuff. Worst soil to dig into, I swear.)




To the landscape being rewired (more on that later) and the stones put back in, all leveled and stable and lovely and some border plants in bloom:






A close up of those blooming plants (pink = creeping phlox, blue = chocolate chip ajuga, silver/fuzzy plant = lambs ears, black/grassy grass = black liriope - aka monkey grass, aka mondo grass)





I also moved the water feature so it wasn't so wonky looking from the back side (the street/side walk) and put in a few things that are just starting to bloom. Also, my little gargoyle needed a home. Darthanne gave me the stink eye the whole time I moved things around until I turned the water back on. It got her seal of approval in the end. Those flat stones are for her to recline on as she sups the flowing water, rinsing the Hasenpfeffer from her mouth.



(white blooms = candytuft, pink blossom = dianthus, silver sedum in front, wall of daylillies in the back biding their time)



A closer view of the bored gargoyle. In the water: dwarf papyrus in the back, water lily up front, I put some chicken wire around the pump to help keep leaves out of the works. The water lily will spread and block it from view in a few more weeks.




I'm hoping it starts looking lush and lovely in a few weeks. I have blooms on my roses getting ready to burst - but I also have black spot ONCE AGAIN. Bah. I'm going to have to suck it up and use a fungicide, my manual controls aren't working. Le sigh. Such is life.

Next up, rearranging the side shade bed. It's a yearly process - I figure out what works, what doesn't, what needs adding, etc. In maybe five years I'll be satisfied. :)

Comments

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

*pretty*

*green with envy, me*

I need to rip out my entry bed- always a problem area because Dad piled three layers of Canary Grass/Quack Grass sod there when doing site prep- and am probably not going to be able to do much of it by myself due to my unfortuate habit of whacking myself on the ground.

Julia, on the other hand, my lilacs are really going for it this year

[tinkerbell86ca.livejournal.com]

My back yard looks like someone planted a million large golf balls under the grass making our lawn all lumpy and ugly. My dad has tried to fix it for years . . no luck. We just want a flat lawn!

Your flowers are ever so lovely!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much!

You know, you can try and level the yard with compost? Just spread a load out, smooth it with a rake, and keep folks off of it for a week while the grass greens up? If you don't have something like Bermuda, you'll have to keep reapplying it until it levels.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Some MSMA carefully sprayed will kill that grass - won't touch the broadleafs.

[turnonmyheels.livejournal.com]

it's absolutely stunning

[tinkerbell86ca.livejournal.com]

*strokes my imagery lady beard* Well, we have lots of compost, might give that a spin when the weather gets warmer.

[gabzilla.livejournal.com]

The gardening pics are always a welcome sight :) Have you checked out Justified on FX? It's really good so far, and Timothy Olyphant is just eases into his role like nothing else. Smooth with a capital SMOO to quote Red Dwarf. :)

[gabzilla.livejournal.com]

dur. delete that is after Olyphant. English really are my first language.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

*puts on Master Gardener badge* You'd want to get that in there before it gets warmer, that way, as the grass begins to green up, the root systems form in the compost, so it sprouts nice and level. :)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I can't wait for it to fill in the bare spots.

(I just did dive bombers and needed a break. Oy.)

[a-mistletoe.livejournal.com]

That gargoyle. I have picture of me in same pose with same gargoyle only we're on Notre Dame in the pouring rain. So, less bored, more really ticked off. Love your colourful garden. My daffs are nearly out and when it stops raining I'm putting violas in. Of course that's been the plan for the last four days. Oh well.

Pacific starts over here tonight, but judging by people's comments I don't think I want to invest 10 weeks in it when the characters are so indistinguishable from each other. I'm with you on formula without soul. I mean I watched all of Roots 'cos the characters were worth investing in. This sounds less compelling, which is a shame considering the source material.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I'm glad I'm being too self-indulgent with my picspams. :D

I've not watched that yet - I've got some folks on my flist that seem to really like it. I'll have to wait for a time when I can watch it all at once, this is my busiest time of year = less TV time. :(

[turnonmyheels.livejournal.com]

I *HATE* dive bombers!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it works on the quack grass, bt I got a plant-sale plant infested with thread grass, and Canary Grass takes multiple applications over multiple years. The whole bed needs dug down 2-3 feet and reset, anyway, because the cattle knocked over the lower retaining wall and the bed has eroded onto the grass below it (there's about four feet of slope in eight feet of width, in sand, and that complicates everything else). On the other hand- sand. Easy, easy digging, and easy to retrieve shrubs and perennials without damaging their roots and crowns.

I'll probably end up hiring someone to do it, but not this year, as we accidentally got bumped into a higher tax bracket by a one-time payment of OK petroleum royalties and in any case my husband is looking at back surgery in the fall which will entail all sorts of incidental expenses.

So good that I can look at your tidy dooryard for inspiration, eh?

Julia, all overwhelmed with simple reality

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha to the gargoyle posing you did. Daffodils are already fading here, such is live further south. I don't even bother with tulips and daffodils anymore - too short a season for us in Texas. (I love seeing others pics, though!)

If I were you, I'd maybe wait to watch The Pacific when you can watch it in multi-ep chunks. I think it'll be better viewing that way.

But man, talk about source material not getting its fair shake...

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely glorious. Creeping phlox is one of my faves. That's a lot of work for someone who has also been auditioning and putting out water dishes and bowls of Chiclets for three younguns, too! *colored impressed*

I want my landscaping to look like yours, but I'll be honest, Laura, I just don't want to do the work. *cries* I LOVE cooking (and would rather do it than have someone else -- they might bring store bought dessert!) and I LOVE home remodeling/decorating and other "womanly arts" but damn, I hate to garden. Mainly because I don't know what I'm doing and I deeply dislike that feeling.

I keep thinking of driving up to a nursing home/assisted living facility and saying, "Okay, you come tell me how to get hydrangeas the size of melons and I will gladly listen to every story you have about the good ole days, your rotten kids and how your corns are aching. I will also provide lunch and chauffeuring to Target, Furrs Cafeteria or the drug store. We cool?" (Jonah and Braden and I did visit the assisted living facility last month and the boys were a hit! I passed them off and then sat and talked to a retired vocal music teacher for an hour. Good, indeed, times.)

Love the new lawn. Gorgeous.

[a-mistletoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah Sky may be thinking that because they're showing the first two episodes back to back and then repeating them every night this week so that they're ingrained. I'll keep them until it's all available.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Water dishes? CRAP. I knew I was forgetting something...

Eh, hire someone? Lol. Because it's so easy to just have the money to hire pro landscapers... (And you can get hydrangeas to grow pretty easily up there. Just gotta stick 'em in the ground and give them some mulch. And afternoon shade - so stick them on the eastish side of your house or if you have trees on the western side, that could work, too.)

I bet those folks looooooooooved having those sweet babies to coo over. <3 <3

[furikku.livejournal.com]

That is one sexy garden.

I gotta get me some of that black grass.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Your hard work is certainly paying off. The garden is looking fantastic.

Drunken DVD commentary? It could be hilarious, but BOO that people were stepping all over your boob commentary! How unprofessional!

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

Garden! We still have snow in the backyard. Front has melted and looks like shit. But I don't really care that much. *shrug*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

"But I don't really care that much." Which is why you living where you do is perfect. :)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Why thank you! And I was being sarcastic about the boob commentary (kinda, lol.) Eh, it is what it is, and will have some bright spots, let's hope. :D

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Shanks! I quite like how it's turning out.

Isn't that stuff great? ANd the nice thing is that is spreads really well, so you don't need a lot. Two 4" plants filled in a square foot in one year.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I will totes make you a comfy rock, tchuh, say the word. (Oh man, I want a big twin-sized bed platform that is suspended from the ceiling of my porch for afternoon napping. I've seen it in fancy Bali/Fiji hotel ads and WANTED.)

[furikku.livejournal.com]

Black plants are the best plants.

I got some phlox a little bit back. I'm hoping it'll make a small dent in our lawn so we don't have to mow as much. :3

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Up here there are some people who invest a lot of time and money into their gardens for their whopping 2.5- to 3-month (in a good summer) season. And those are the people who enjoy the time. The rest of us mow and leave it at that.

[tabaqui]

Nice nice nice. :) We have mint. And lots of it.

I am sending you a PM, just so you know....

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, anyone that has mint has lots of it, right? :D (And thank you!)

Got my eyes peeled...

[tabaqui]

I think it grew *overnight*. It was just little nubs and now it's like...a forest. Jayzus.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Your garden is looking fabulous. I have to start my clean-up - I should be out there right now, but I am being laaaazzzzyyyyy.

[scribll.livejournal.com]

That looks fabulous. What an inspiration. I've been waffeling for the last year on taking out a big swath of grass in the front.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I just came in from slipping a few more lilies in - poor dears were bursting out of their packaging at the garden center, I couldn't let them grow up to be orphans...

I love your garden pics, can't wait for y'all to dry up and warm up!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And you should, you should! Grass has to be watered and mown and fertilized every week, flowers don't! :D (I'm an enabler, you've been warned. Lol.)

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I've been looking at wholesaler sites for new varieties and oh, the drool. The wanting. The lusting.

It's a disease.

[zyrya]

I have ordered BotH on Amazon! Thank you so much for the link.

I love the new path! Of course, I spent just ages looking at the first two pics and trying to figure out what changes you'd made, because today I have some serious dumb.

My lamb's ears went to two feet tall this summer, two feet wide, like a soft silver hedge, and flowered for five months straight. They're still at it, although at a reduced pace. I'm worried they think they're annuals or geraniums.

I keep telling my gardener about your black liriope and she just looks at me and nods. HELLO LADY, I WANT SOME.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's so wonderful to hear!! I hope you laugh your butt off - it's the Blazing Saddles of the vampire-spoof world. ;)

Ahahaha, I could have put more of a transition in, of course. (I'm a true friend. Hee.)

OoooOOoooh, a hedge of lambs ears would be gorgeous. Mine don't get quite that tall, I think they top off at 18 inches, but they do love our hot weather, don't they? And take these pics to your garden lady and say GIVE ME BLACK LIRIOPE, WOMAN. (And it's stunning when paired with a variegated liriope, too. Or a variegated sedum? I'm all about the contrast.) I would like to see pics of your garden, too! Big or small, I love them all.