summer forever

there's something really lovely about the overgrown greenness of late summer. everything is filled in and climbing everywhere...

my neighbor's climbing vines are coming over the wall (free plants!).  i think these are clematis? 

the climbing hydrangea is hanging in there, despite its scale infection. the polka-dots are so hardy and cute (and cheap). 

i'm growing a baby fiddle leaf fig. it's thriving! but i'm a little concerned about it transitioning to the indoors. i hear it's finicky. (not sure what that other gorgeous tropic thing is, but it'll have to come inside too.)

still willa's favorite corner. she spent hours sunning herself there this morning. 

julie brought me all these terra cotta pots. all lined up for the next planting season...

where i read the sunday paper and ponder an alternate career as a gardner. but first i put out the cushions, which i was too lazy to do for this photo.

summertime

this is what summertime looks like around here, at least on weekends. during the week, there's still construction in our neighbor's yard, so all the cushions get put away and it's pretty dusty out.  let's start with the patch of fake grass...

looks good, doesn't it? hhh had a lot of doubts, but he's a convert now. :)

this is the shady part of the yard. there are ferns, hydrangea, a rubber plant, and some ivy. 

a tall planter with coleus and korean feather grass.

all the furniture is from ikea. it's pretty beat-up but is definitely good value.

the climbing hydrangea is fighting a scale infestation in the corner. scale is really gross. :(

this is how the yard was arranged for hhh's birthday bbq a few weeks back. there some small pots of thyme and polka dots on the table.

another view of the picnic table area.

willa enjoys the fake grass too. she loves how warm it gets. 

grass!

i don't like lawns. maybe there has been too much written about the uselessness, wastefulness, and general horror that is lawn-ness for me to ignore. perhaps i was persuaded by this 2008 new yorker article, which laments that "the essential trouble with the american lawn is its estrangement from place: it is not a response to the landscape so much as an idea imposed upon it—all green, all the time, everywhere." or possibly: lawns epitomize the suburbs, which i enjoy visiting (such an exotic way of life!) but where i don't intend on ever putting down roots.

it might be weird to say, then, that i love grass. i recently acquired a carpet of astroturf, inspired by some i saw at the nyc home design show, and had also been eyeing the wild, colorful, feathery grasses that are so plentiful on the highline. so yes to fake grass and yes to ornamental grasses, but no to boring, over-fertilized expanses of sameness. 

they are green now but will develop flower plumes and turn white and pink.

after doing some research online, i deduced that the grasses i was drawn to are varieties of feather reed grass. these are non-invasive, clumping grasses with a lot of height and can thrive in full sun. they are also perennial in new york city, which is key since i don't want to buy the same plants over and over each year.

sedum cauticola 'lidakense'

in addition to the grasses, i got some lovely purple-y green sedum, another maple (it's tiny!), and dwarf japanese knotweed. sadly, the yard is currently a demo zone, so these plants have been living in their quart-pots since they arrived. it's not ideal, but they seem to be doing okay (although there is some yellow). 

the baby maple.

the dwarf japanese knotweed will have clusters of pink flowers in the summer. 

here's to keeping them alive!