Pond Life

Even though I haven't been posting, I promise I've been gardening. I have lots of catching up to do here, but I thought I'd do a post about my favorite part of all my gardens: My pond.
Colorado waterlily

Sitting by my pond, feeding the fish and watching the dragonflies and spiders, is the most relaxing thing in the world to me. I just love it.

The water is starting to clear up for the season. In a week or two, it should be completely clear (keeping fingers crossed).

This bridge is from my parents' pond. I'm painting it red. This is the before picture, obviously.

I so love my fish! They have such personality.
All my koi have names:

Leonardo da Vinci (Leo), King of the Koi
Zelda
Frida
Romeo (Juliet didn't make it)
Bou
Dottie
Modigliani
Pablo II
Dido
Salvador
Georgia
Blue Boy
Princess Buttercup
Vincent
Rossetti

Two new baby koi born in my pond:

Suzanne Valadon
Toulouse-Lautrec

I also named a Black Moor, Blackie #2, and a googly-eyed goldfish (which is obviously an offspring of Blackie #2), Mr. Limpet.

Phyllis Bide and Other Stuff

I received my Wayside order and got most of it planted. I planted the Rozanne geraniums in the Roadside Garden; the Orion geraniums and the blue malvas in the Fairy Garden; and the epimedium pubigerum, which is supposed to do well in dry shade, in the Under-the-Riverbirch Shade Garden (which I'm renaming the Dot Garden after my mother). Oh and I sprinkled some foxglove seeds in the shade garden too. They are so tiny! We'll see what happens with them.

I also planted one of the Vintage roses, Mme. Charles, in the back of the fairy garden.

I have to get my tomatoes planted today! I need to find a bag of lime in the garage. My daddy always told me to throw a handful of lime in a tomato plant hole. I also hope I have some compost.

I need to make a trip to garden center for a couple bags of mulch for fairy garden. Baby weeds are starting to sprout again like crazy along the border. I need to mulch that area to keep them at bay. I also want to get some kind of garden tool oil. I'm ashamed to say I have two pairs of rusty Felco pruners. I need to steel wool and oil them. I want to look for my favorite annual, angelonia, too. I'm going to plant lots of those this year. They're so beautiful and will bloom forever.

Here is the wonderful polyantha Phyllis Bide in my overgrown (I need to get to work on it!) Secret Garden. I think I planted this two years ago. I fell in love with it from a photo in the beautiful book Landscaping with Roses by Jeff Cox. I just love its raggedy goodness!

May Days

I've actually been doing a little gardening. Yay me.


The roses are just going crazy now. They are making me fall in love with them all over again. Of course, when the Japanese Beetles move in, I'll be swearing off roses forever again.

Oh, I recently reread Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden. That so puts me in the mood for gardening. I love gardening memoirs. I've also read From the Ground Up by Amy Stewart. I'd love to find more books like those.

A line I like from Mrs. Whaley: Everything we use in a garden either adds or takes away from its beauty.

I just got three roses in the mail from Vintage Gardens! My second Mme. Charles, Marie d'Orleans and McClinton tea. Now I have to decide where to plant.

OK, time for lovely photos.

My new favorite rose (this changes daily), Austin's Crown Princess Magareta

Clematis Will Goodwin

Iris to be identified later!

Clematis to be identified later!



Souvenir de Germain de St. Pierre

Mme. Laurette Messimy



Leonie Lamesch

Comtesse du Cayla

my other favorite rose, Clementina Carbonieri

William R. Smith


Teasing Georgia

Phyllis Bide

Mme. Charles

I think this is Polly Sunshine

Apricot Nectar
The amazing Marechal Niel