mid century cutie

I'm kind of amped about this building. I love love love the front and the view from the balcony.







The inside is so so,


Kitchen has to be repainted at the very least but at least appliances come with the unit.


Bedrooms are nothing to write home about but there are some built ins inside. I am concerned that there was no mention of onsite washer and dryer which is a must. I wish there was laundry hookups inside the apartment. that would make it easier.
I give it a 4 out of 5. It's the first one I've gotten excited about besides the gorgeous art deco ones near the beach. Those are swoon worthy!

Finding Heucheras online

I'm a Heuchera, Heucherlla, Tiarella addict...er I mean collector.

Finding all the new colors and varieties has been a challenge. There are quite a few websites I've been ordering from.

Park Seeds Has an excellent selection of heucheras and a so so selection of tiarellas and heucherllas. I have ordered from there last fall and plants arrived healthy and in 4 inch pots. Also the customer service people are very helpful and friendly.

I just ordered from Sooner Plat Farm today. Their selection of of new heucheras are amazing although their availability wasn't so good. ( all sold out already) Also expensive shipping.
I just bought Beauty of Color


and Crow Feather Tiarella





I have yet to find an online seller that has all the new Terra Nova colors. I really want the Fire Cheif and Berry Smoothie.

Nature Hills has a pretty good selection but pretty expensive. Most are over $20 bucks.
When I discover more places I will post them.
Michigan Bulb has at least a few tiarellas

Gardening with pets in mind

I love my animals. I have two dogs and three cats, all very spoiled. So when it came to my garden I had to keep them in mind.

( Lucia and Yoshimmy enjoying some cool shade in the summer time.)


For about 4 years I gave up gardening. My mom had passed away and it left me severely depressed. Gardening was something she and I did together since I was a child. When I finally decided to start up on the garden again I noticed that the animals had made trails all around our yard. Instead of digging these trails up I let them become natural paths in the garden. They still use the paths and rarely trample on the flower beds themselves.

(Mika enjoying a stroll through the garden.)

Last winter there was a sever wind storm that knocked down a rather large tree. My dad cut most of the branchs off and was waiting to get his chainsaw blade sharrped before attacking the trunk. I noticed how much the cats loved the fallen tree. They would run and jump on it to evade pursuing pooches, lounge like leopards or use it to sharpen their claws. I decided to leave it and plant flowers around it for them.


( The cat lounging station )


( Phinnaeus taking a dirt bath  in the path they made through my mound garden...I did not plan it to have a path right down the center but they thought it would be a good idea. )

If you have pets and it doesn't look too horrible then do try to incorporate things in the garden that they can use. After all, they use the backyard more then we do anyway! :) 

Looking back at my Garden.

I finally downloaded a bunch of photos from my camera and was pretty shocked at the amount of change that has taken place in my garden in the past year.


March 2008 Before







April 2008 After










March 2009
It's going to take some work to get it back to summer/fall glory.





I love walking and seeing all the hostas and asiatic lilies nubs poking up out of the dirt. A few ferns and hostas didn't make it but pretty much all my perennials did survive the winter. I planted seeds on that mound but only a few are coming up. I guess I'll wait a few more weeks to see how they do and if not I'm going to plant more perennials in there.



I've added more sections to the garden too but, I'll post once I have the "after" shots. Right now it's just large patches of over turned earth.

More plants

Just ordered tons of more plants for the shade garden and a few for the sun garden.

Japanese Burgundy Painted Fern
Green Envy Coneflower
White Feather Hosta
Toad Lillies
Meadow Rue
Twilight Coneflower
Masterwort
Monkshood

love this floor treatment

The ebonizing solution is made with two common products: vinegar and steel wool. A plastic jar with a plastic lid is best to use because the lid won’t rust.
To make ebonizing solution put a coarse steel wool pad in the jar and pour in enough vinegar to cover it, loosely screw the lid on the jar. If the pad is not totally submersed rust will quickly form on the portion exposed to air. After about twenty-four hours pour the vinegar in another jar. Don’t squeeze the vinegar out of the pad or you may get bits of metal in the liquid, which will rust, then just brush the solution on the contoured project pieces you want ebonized.
taken from wood alley

fainting couch

When I get my apartment I'd love to put something like this in it.


It's from Urban Outfitters and I know their quality can be a bit iffy. But I really love the silver violet color. I'd love to put this by a nice arched window and use it for reading or people watching.

Dogwoods

I'm so excited about spring I just bought some flowering dogwoods online


Satomi Dogwood
Cornus kousa 'Satomi'


White Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida


Red Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida 'Cherokee Chief'


Pink Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida ruba

Art Orgy

Last night I was avoiding doing my autocad homework and I ended up buying a few prints from my favorite print makers, Lab Partners and Print Mafia. 

I love Lab Partners style. It's like illustrations from the 1950's/60's you'd find in old cook books and children's science books. 




Print Mafia




I Print Mafia for their cult movie, punk rock esthetic and humor. I like how they juxtapose kids drawings with disturbing imagery. The bottom three I bought last night.





p.s. I'm still avoiding the homework by writing this post!!

SPRING!!!

It's raining again but, the last couple of days really felt like spring for the first time. I'm so happy. I can garden again. I already went to a couple of my favorite nurseries to see what they have. I have big plans for the back yard this year. My dad bought me a beautiful Cinco De Mayo rose tree


I absolutely adore it's smokey purple and pink color. I can't wait to see it in person.

My Heuchera collection is growing by leaps and bounds. I just find them so amazing. The foliage is interesting all year round. I'm running out of space in my woodland garden to plant them. I just found the Terra Nova website that is only for wholesale dealers ( not fair!!) and they are coming out with some amazing colors for 2009...
Here are some of my favorites...

Heuchera 'Plum Royale'


Heuchera 'Electra'


Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie'


Heucherella 'Sweet Tea'