It’s the start of the first summer holiday weekend, so instead of a beauty product review. Here’s what I did last night.
I Bought This, Informational Link
Gardening Passion
I’m a gardening fanatic. I’ve been gardening since I was a kid. I think my first Girl Scout badge was the gardening badge. When we moved to our house in Beverly when I was 11, the first thing I did was plant flowers in our yard. My father loved marigolds, so I planted a marigold border.
Even when I lived in an apartment in New York City, I tried to garden. I bought a window box and put it on the outside window sill where the fire escape was so it wouldn’t fall and hit someone on the head. It was better than nothing!
When I moved into my new house in MA about 20 years ago, there were a few small shrubs in the front planted by the contractor. Now they’re huge, and the other shrubs I’ve added are huge too. With my new windows, I’ve been thinking of asking Jeff to cut down a couple of the shrubs that are blocking the windows and the other shrubs.
In the backyard, I had empty palette, so to speak, when I first moved in. I planted an annual border along the back wall of the house. And I planted a vegetable garden on the side of the yard. Both areas were full sun. The other side of the yard was and still is shady because my property include woods with tall pines, hemlocks, beeches, oaks, and American Hawthorne trees. I planted a couple of azaleas and rhododendrons as well as a mountain laurel along the border of the woods that hasn’t bloomed in years.
North Shore Horticultural Society Annual Auction
Because I didn’t have many friends in MA after living in NYC for decades, I joined the North Shore Horticultural Society to try to meet people with similar interests. I can’t say I’ve made many close friends at NSHS, but I’m made some nice acquaintances. And I’ve learned a lot more about gardening.
Every May, NSHS has an auction to raise money for the organization. The auctioneer is Fred Rice, our past president who moved away at least a decade ago to upstate New York where he renovated a neglected 20 room mansion and turned it into a beautiful, antique-filled bed and breakfast. He also created an amazing garden from scratch. Should you ever find yourself in Rome NY (near Union College) needing a place to stay, check out Oak and Ivy Bed & Breakfast. You won’t regret it.
Fred is very knowledgeable about plants, their growing conditions and their history. He has about a million anecdotes about each plant that’s up for auction. Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s fun to listen to Fred who comes back every year to run the auction.
The plants and gardening stuff that’s auctioned comes from members’ gardens and from donations from local nurseries and garden centers. This year’s auction was our first auction in three years. Because of COVID, we skipped the last two years. The crowd was a bit smaller than in past years, and there were fewer plants. Usually, Fred wouldn’t finish the auction till about 10:30pm or even later (we start the auction at 6:30), but tonight he finished around 9:30.
I brought two large pots full of perennial geraniums (Cranesbill) with pretty raspberry-pink flowers to be auctioned. I was amazed that each pot sold for $26, so I was pleased that the club made $52 on plants I was trying to get rid of. (The perennial geranium/Cranesbill is the plant with star-shaped leaves and small pink flowers.)
I left before I learned the fate of my smaller pot of Japanese fall blooming anemones.
My Winnings
My garden is quite crowded already. Over the years, I switched the annual border to a more sensible perennial border, and the former vegetable garden is no more. My next door neighbors put up a 6 foot fence right next to my veggie garden, and to make matters worse, they planted a trio of river birch trees right next to their fence. Both have limited the amount of sun my side garden gets. In addition, river birches often develop black spot disease where their leaves turn yellow with black spots and drop off. Unfortunately, the trees are now about 30-40 feet tall, and two of the birches hang over their fence shading my yard and dropping their diseased leaves onto my former veggie garden that now contains rose bushes and day lilies. The roses are highly susceptible to black spot. I am not happy. My neighbors, who seldom use the yard and never go to that part of the yard, don’t want to take down the sick trees. Thanks a bunch.
All of that background was just to say that I didn’t buy a lot of plants. I bought one small, pretty hosta with white-trimmed green leaves to go into the shady side of the yard. I also won two Chinese ginger plants with deep green fleshy leaves that love the shade. That was it for plants.
At the pre-sale, I picked up a fun solar light to replace one of my hummingbird color-changing solar lights that conked out a few weeks ago.
The light was $5 and it comes with 3 different plastic ornaments that the light shines through: a starburst, a hummingbird, and a flower. If you get bored with one, you an switch to another ornament.
Unfortunately, now I know why someone gave it away. The pole that goes into the ground on one end and into the solar chamber on the other end was slightly too wide to fit into the solar chamber. I forced it in, and the plastic around it broke on one side. Fortunately, I think it will still work.
When I arrived at the auction, I saw what I really wanted. A pair of vintage wire urns, each about 3.5-4 feet tall.
I patiently waited for them to come up for bid. Wouldn’t you know that Fred, the auctioneer and owner of the Victorian bed and breakfast, had his eye on them, too! I felt bad bidding against Fred, but when the price got to $45 for the pair (a bargain, I think), he bowed out. Fortunately, there was a vintage étagère that he also wanted, and he did win that.
So I didn’t spend a fortune, and I went home a happy gardener. Do you garden? Do you belong to a garden club or a horticultural society? If so, let me know!
hummingbird color-changing solar lights that conked out a few weeks ago —- Did you know that most of the solar light’s batteries can be replaced?
when I moved from my home to a apartment I had a yard full of all kinds of perennials. They were going to be tearing up the yard for a new build so I placed a ad in free paper FREE plants of all kinds you come dig! People showed up and dug up everything. They even took my yard art, benches and planters. I was so happy everything was taken. As for me no yard but I do have AERO garden and grow flowers in it.
As a matter of fact, Gloria, just before I saw your comment on my gardening post, lightning struck and I thought I should check to see if I can replace the batteries on the hummingbird light. And wouldn’t you know, it started working again. But last night, it conked out again, so I will try opening up the back. This one has two tiny Philips head screws, so I’ve gotta find my teeny eyeglass frame tools and see if I can open it. I hate to buy a new one if I can just replace the batteries. Wish I had been around for your “Buy Nothing” garden giveaway. I’m in the market for a garden bench 😉 Tell me what an AERO garden is! It sounds fascinating that you can garden in your apartment!
good luck finding your tiny screw driver those things hide. I think I have 3 set of them.
https://www.aerogarden.com/ They are the best they have several different sizes. Everything grows in water and it tells you when to add a liquid fertilizer . I grow petunia’s in mine they have all kinds of seed pods lots of different herbs, tomatoes, lettuces, flowers. Since you cook maybe you would like herbs in yours. Lights are on a timer. I love it and makes me happy to have fresh flowers in the house all the time.
What an amazing post, Allison! This is just what I needed amid so much bad news in the world right now! I share your passion for gardening!
Lola Seicento recently posted…NEW PURELL HAND SANITIZER FOAMS & PACKETS
My dad was the gardener in our family. I loved helping when I was young but my green thumb never developed. Luckily I had a neighbor when I lived in my house that was great. I paid her and her husband to transform my front garden. I love the way it looked. Your auction buy is great and I know you’ll enjoy them.
You were so lucky to have a neighbor who was a gardener who you could hire. But I’m so glad you have wonderful memories of working with your dad in the garden. I love men who garden!!
I got to thinking you said a garden bench. Have you ever sat in garden gliders? They are so relaxing ………….
You’ll laugh, Gloria, I get dizzy!!