This week in the garden & home…
This week in the garden I’m: continuing my work on the rockery, I’ve put out the sunflowers, cosmos and some new plants we picked up at various nurseries, still trying to kill the Japanese Knotweed which just. won’t. die., picking off hundreds of aphids and sawflies from the roses, monitoring the powdery mildew situation, patching bare spots in the lawn, tying the sweet peas, staking the perennials, gathering materials for propagating the roses, finishing the side of the house gravel patio and making plans to expand the pea gravel patio in the front garden.
Work continues in the interiors of our home, too. Recently I’ve: painted the whole living-room again (Farrow & Ball ‘All White’), painted the wainscoting in the bedroom, the fireplace bricks and our china cabinet (all Farrow & Ball ‘Cornforth White’) painted the front door (Farrow & Ball ‘Pink Ground’), refinished our dining room table top, tidied and organized our studio/office, dealt with a potentially nasty termite issue, hung curtains, got a new fireplace mantle and had it installed and had the old water heater replaced.
Did we have any idea this house was going to be such a fixer-upper? NOPE. But we’re making it work! I’m sorry I don’t have as many progress shots as I would like of all this work, but here are some photos I’ve snapped over the past couple of weeks. (If you’re on Instagram, you might have seen some of these already.) It’s going to be a beautiful May!
Japanese Knotweed is probably the worst thing to happen to our garden. It’s even worse than the 100 lbs of lavarock I shoveled up from the dirt (and am still finding everywhere!). I really, really wanted to have a pesticide free garden but I am probably going to be routinely filling the knotweed canes with roundup for the next few years or so to try to kill it off.
Elizabeth, I am feeling your pain! It’s hands down, the worst thing I’ve ever had to deal with in all my gardens. We live in a forested area, and I am seeing it pop up in random places on the mountain because, as you know, it spreads not only by runners but by seed. That totally bums me out. We have enough invasives choking out the lovely mountain laurels which were once here we don’t need another! The previous owner, who planted it and loved it, was referring to it as bamboo which I think it’s often confused with. We’ve tried digging it up but any little piece left in the ground becomes a new plant and we had a sizeable grove. Like you, I hate hate that I’ve had to resort to an herbicide, but we figured that outweighs the possibility that it will overun the property and neighboring forest. Im with you–it’s going to take years to undo this.
Amazing progress! Beautiful flowers! I love Alcott, and the Eight Cousins is one of my favorites, be still my heart!
Oh my gosh a fellow Alcott lover! I’ll admit I didn’t start reading her books until only a few years ago. This one, my husband found at a used bookstore. It’s dated 1906 and has the loveliest inscription written in an elegant hand: “To Elizabeth, a reward for good schoolwork.” 🙂
I think I love that there was a sequel so the story didn’t end. I always have trouble when the story ends, I fall in love with the characters and then the books over and their gone. I’m nosy, I have to know what happens after “the end”. 🙂 How darling of an inscription, I love old/antique books, and have quite the collection some of which I’ve never read I just like how fancy they are.
I’m the same way! I beeline for the antique book section at book sales all the time and I often purchase them just for their beautiful binding and typography. 😀
Glorious!!! Your garden is miles ahead mine so thanks for sharing all this loveliness!
We still have so much more to do….the photos don’t tell the whole story since I’m pretty handy with the crop feature. 😉