Garden of the Day: Serenity Now in Cobble Hill
[nggallery id=”21714″ template=galleryview] The garden contris keep trickling in…Our garden started out three years ago as an overgrown mess in the back half, and a broken-up concrete slab closer to the house. Had a small crew come in and haul away the concrete, then ordered up a bunch of gravel and bluestone, and got to…
[nggallery id=”21714″ template=galleryview]
The garden contris keep trickling in…Our garden started out three years ago as an overgrown mess in the back half, and a broken-up concrete slab closer to the house. Had a small crew come in and haul away the concrete, then ordered up a bunch of gravel and bluestone, and got to work! (with the help of a few friends). Ran the wiring for 7 low wattage lights which work well, and ran speaker wire to the rear sitting area too, but never really saw the need for speakers as it turns out, choosing to mellow out instead. Took about three 3-day weekends and a few weeknights to finish, but many nights at the computer planning beforehand, and several trips to stone suppliers to select materials.
We’ve added quite a few bulbs over the last two years, some blueberry bushes, and seeded grass. I need to trim back the Japanese Maple every year to keep enough sun coming in for everything else! Made two 5’x7′ areas for edible plantings – so far we’ve done well with basil, rosemary, chives, and strawberries in the herb garden, and tomatoes and purple potatoes in the vegetable area. Squirrels have stayed clear of the veggies so far, but they eat my darn tulips!
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Malibu is probably the brand of lights – they are the biggest – but I will say that I have both the low voltage and the solar ones (both by Malibu) and I find the solar ones better (if you get sun) because you can move them so easily.
Beautiful garden!
12:19 – “Serenity Now” is a Seinfeld reference, likely better known than the the nonprofit.
There was an episode where Frank Costanza had a relaxation tape that instructed him to say “Serenity now” when he got anxious. Kramer adopted the same saying, but it didn’t seem to work out for anyone, especially for George’s childhood nemesis, Lloyd Braun who claimed that the phrase drove him to a nut house.
“Serenity now, insanity later…”
@12:21 – can’t remember the brand, but bought it all at Lowe’s – I think each one is an 11watt halogen. So you run the single wire around underground, peeking up at each light location, and then the wire terminates at a little timer box with the power transformer where it plugs into any outlet. depending on how many lights you add, you get a larger or smaller transformer – I have 7 lights, so the 85watt transformer timer worked well… not so bright that any neighbors are being kept awake, and not so much wattage that I feel bad having the timer turn them on for 3-4 hours each evening. They have dozens of styles of the actual lights, so you can shine upwards, or just illuminate a tree, fence, path, or whatever.
Lovely–only thing I would’ve done differently is make the path curving, not rectilinear. Glad they decided not to use their speakers–gardens bring out the wisdom in people. Oh, I would add one other thing to make the space more serene–a shotgun for picking off the squirrels.
The surrounding walls of green/ivy are what, to me, make it feel so inviting and relaxing.
Beautiful space!
@12:42 – 12×12 Tumbled bluestone was $11 a piece if I remember. Some stone suppliers stock it, others have to order it from their suppliers which seem to be in Eastern PA. They’re cool for the dividers ’cause they have a consistent 2″ thickness, whereas the more affordable bluestone slabs for the horizontal parts were natural-split, so were varied in thickness, and even had variation on the 18″x18″ measurements, so it was a bit of a puzzle getting them to sit snug, arranging a row of slightly wider ones, and then a row of slightly narrower ones. If money was no object, you can get consistent thickness and H/W, and even a nice flame treated finish.
@1:02 – yard is 25×40. 6′ by chairs in back, about 12′ Patio area close to house, and about 22′ grass.
Love your garden!!!
I read that squirrels eat fruit and veggies when they’re thirsty. You could try putting out a little shallow tray of water on the ground for squirrels and birds. We do that plus diversion feeding and lost only two tulips this Spring despite having lots of squirrels around. Now we’ll see how we do keeping them away from tomatoes! To avoid mosquitos breeding in your water, dump, rinse and refill it frequently or get those floating things that kill mosquitos without harming other animals, and put it in the water.