Progress Before Rain

Three days of crisp sunny weather saw much accomplished on the house project.

Walk-out/daylight basement framed and walls going up for main story.

Large windows will take advantage of light for the guest bedroom and family room which will be located in front. The rooms behind [bath, laundry, storage and sewing room] will depend on electric lights.

I walked one noon to the eastern fence line. The adjacent property is a working farm.

Old hickory and  oak trees frame the view into the meadow.

There is good farm land here at the top of the ridge, although individual farms are small.

A few stems of late frost asters and nubby clumps of ageratum lean against the weathered boards of the fence.

 Goldenrod has faded, no longer brilliant and glowing.

Jim turned the sod on a strip of ground below the barn--a place for the plants which spent the summer in pots ranged along the edge of the farmhouse side porch and on the cement landing below the walk. 

At the time I began rescuing favored perennials from the invasive mugwort and bindweed I had no clear idea how I might rework what had become an impossible garden.  With the sale of the farmhouse pending I decided to move these to our new location. 

This is a rough strip; I was able to fork over the soil, remove stones and rake it nearly level.  Ideally, the ground should have been tilled smooth, perhaps a bale of peat moss worked in. I would have needed Jim's help for that and he had no time to spare.

I labored for two afternoons, muscles protesting. It is late for transplanting, but each plant went into the ground surrounded by the soil mix in which new roots had developed over the past few months. I hope that this will lesson the shock of chilly coarse soil.

When I quit working on the second afternoon, the weather was deteriorating, chilly and damp.

I have one peony remaining to be situated, and some small lily bulbs. 

I think the lilies might fare best in a container. 

The dwarf daylilies can, I hope, remain safely in their metal tubs. 

I have a vigorous and bushy thyme which self-seeded into a pot last season and a rather frail lavender, survivor of the rain and humidity which slowly spoiled those in the herb plot.

Two of my three miniature roses revived when I transferred them to smaller pots with a coarser soil mix. I'm considering placing the small pots in larger containers with a loose mixture of soil and dry leaves layered round for insulation. 

I am especially pleased with these foxgloves, started from seed in April.

I think the variety is 'Camelot'--will check when I can locate seed packets in the spring.

The idea of designing foundation plantings for the new house is a bit daunting. 

Nursery catalogs will begin crowding the mailbox in a few weeks, and I will have the winter months to ponder and plan. I don't expect to be adventurous; my choices will likely be rather conventional--hardy shrubs under-planted with low-growing varieties for bloom and fragrance. 

I still hope for raised beds!

I can dream!