Oriental Garden Update

The temperature today reached 87 degrees. It did not feel like Spring, rather like Summer. A week ago, I wore a light jacket, because it was a rainy week. The weather is unpredictable, especially this time of year. Still, it has been a glorious Spring. I have posted many photographs of flowers on my Instagram and Facebook accounts.

The oriental garden has been a focus of attention for some months now and I am pleased with how it is coming along. Andrew and I just finished a new project for the garden, and I have been looking forward to showing you.

At the top of the stone stairs, we have a circle planted with tree peonies – more about these later. In this circle, we discussed installing a feature to guide your eye and add interest. We thought of installing a statue, but most of those available are either concrete, or if not concrete too expensive. We talked about a sitting Buddha, but Andrew vetoed this, he likened it to the statues of Mary in a bathtub and the concrete Jesus statues. This was an eye opener for me, as many people place Buddha statues in their gardens and homes to represent tranquility, but if you grew up Buddhist, this has a different meaning – it is almost tacky. We finally hit on crafting a Japanese style garden lantern.

Using some scrap lumber I had in the garage and some lumber I took off the cull pile at Lowes, along with small pieces of plexiglass, we assembled the core of the lantern. Our friend John and Tim have bamboo groves. Earlier this year they were thinning them. They asked if I would like a few bamboo shoots. Never one to turn down anything that is free, I took them. These became our accent pieces for our lantern, giving it truly an Asian feel.

We may put a solar powered light in the lantern. Andrew acquiesced and said we could put a small buddha statue inside. It is large enough we could do both. A number of the bamboo pieces are still green. Over time they will change to a light tan color. The contrast with the red looks nice. Andrew chose the color. He said it reminded him of Buddhist monastery red. Another fun project complete.

The tree peonies had beautiful blossoms this year. The two surviving peonies in the circle, are too new to bloom, but the other peonies we planted in 2022 both had blossoms. Tree peonies, even though their blooms are short lived, are magical.

We have planted Itoh peonies and regular peonies, but these have not yet bloomed. In addition to peonies, we have planted many different types of iris. A number of these plants came from the Historic Iris Preservation Society. For the past weeks we have marveled at the new blossoms and the vibrant colors.

The iris apparently like the setting, as many were just planted last fall and they are already blooming. The simplicity of older iris is appealing. Newer hybrids are beautiful, but they are sometimes almost too much – too large, too frilly, and too intense. Of course, I have some of them planted elsewhere in the garden, as they can be irresistible.

When we have not been looking at the iris, we have been monitoring two bird nests in the garden.

Sadly, I checked this nest the next day, because I did not see the mother. The nest was empty. Because one of the eggs had not hatched, I believe something got to the nest. It was a pretty setting in the rhododendron bush.

This nest was in a better location away from a potential predator (a garter snake that usually lives by the garage). This nest is in a Green Giant arborvitae tree.

Spring has sprung and now we are melting into Summer. Next Wednesday, the pool guy will visit to open the pool for the season. The joys of living in Upstate NY continue to amaze me and make me want to think of more projects and plant more. There is no end to the possibilities.

Dream on it. Let your mind take you to places you would like to go, and then think about it and plan it and celebrate the possibilities. And don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t know how to dream. – Liza Minelli