We've added a new arbor to the garden. This one "anchors" the greenhouse into the garden scheme. It all started when I saw a photo of a potting shed with an attached trellis, lush vines sort of obscuring the lines of the building. Of course we couldn't attached anything our little plastic greenhouse...it had to be free standing. I wanted something for clematis and possibly a rose to climb...the idea being to blend the plastic greenhouse into the garden flora. Good idea, no?
I dug 2 postholes...the first on the right side was easy digging but I ran into a black plastic pipe about 8" down on the left side. Turned out it was the telephone company line (we discovered this after my under-gardener sniped one end of the pipe..."Oh look, there are wires coming out of it...oh drat, oh sh..t!). The next day, an appointment with the Century Link man, a much enlarged hole and some splicing cannisters and some paperwork declaring the line "abandoned," I had to move my posthole inboard about 1 foot, still allowing the greenhouse door to open fully. I did plant the clematis and rose and painted it "boxwood" green with Miller Storm, my garden paint of choice.
So I thought, (still not over my "bright ideas" phase), I'd paint the other arbor. Of course it has 2 clematis and a New Dawn rose fully grown on it...how hard could it be? Several puncture wounds later, I managed to get paint on most of it and most of me.
These little green gems are snap peas....the plants I grew "by accident." I went to the Grange without my specs and thought that I had picked out Green Arrow pole peas. Imagine my surprise when I discovered (shortly before planting) that I had grabbed the wrong thing! Since I couldn't be a plant murderer, I planted 'em. I went back to the Grange and got my regular peas, along with snow peas (the edible pod type). But these little morsels of pea-ness (oops, don't say that out loud...) have turned out to be the earliest variety and a nice addition to salads. You can eat the pod and the little peas raw or saute them quickly for about 1 minute and add them to other veggies.
May is clematis month here in the Rogue Valley. The garden arbor entrance sports 2 varieties, C. montana wilsonii (the little white ones) and a C. jackmannii (the big dark blue on the left). My garden theme is white, purple, blue and yellow with a few pink accents. One of those is the New Dawn rose growing up the right side post but not blooming just yet. The hanging basket repeats the color scheme. Yes, that's a goose on top of the arbor, though he is at rest this week after lots of wind last week. His wings go clack, clack when the wind picks up.
Here is a long shot of the veggie garden entrance. Bright green is the main color right now, as everything is madly growing. Some nice showers and mild temps have lessened plant stress after our week of record setting high temps in the low 90's in the valley and mid 80's up here in the foothills.
