Bottle Wall, Day Six

Seems there is never enough time. The heat is already upon us. Today the fava beans and other plants in the garden were wilting in the heat. I Worked on the bottle wall and wilted also, so much to do. I feel as if I'm ever going to get this done I'm going to need help. Laying the bottles in one job in its self. Fetching and readying the bottles is another job. Then after you set the bottles the mortar needs dressed as it hardens up and then cleaned.

As you can see the darker mortar near the top is the progress I made today. The wall will be rolling up and down, the flower will have a mortar cap at the very top. The right side is close to being done, then the middle needs another flower.

 

Mid day the blue bottles were glowing in the sun, awesome. Even the concrete was blue for a while under the blue bottles. I was thinking of changing my name to Cobalt for a few minutes. I can't wait to see it without the 2 x 6 supports on the back. It'll be weeks before I have time to get back to it.

I did get a little nature in while working on it. I saw a 7-8 inch snapping turtle in the pond swimming, also lots of Eastern Painted Turtles. We see snappers only once or twice a year here, at breeding time. Also had two good butterfly sighting on the bolted kale flowers first a Hayhurst's Scallopwing and next a Henry's Elfin.

This is it, the last daffodil to open in our garden this year. It is ' Lieke ' and several are still opening. This is from Brent and Becky's own seedlings.  Pretty nice IMO.

This anemone is for Janet, We planted these very late in December or January. A lot of foliage came on and now we have 5-6 blooms like this right now. 

This is two hydrangea plants from the planter we purchased at Costco. The square planter contained 4 plants, this is have to $20 planter. Supposed to be hardy here. I looked online and the mail order nurseries get $24 a gallon pot and up for plants like this!

Here is a portion of our front garden by the driveway. Notice under spider guy the phlox is almost gone. The pansies are looking great, in a few weeks it will be pulled out, they just do not manage 90 degree days very well.  The blue iris was a house warming gift from Meg's sister. Sorry the water feature needs work, it is a mess.

The Blue Bottle Flower

Today I worked a bit on the blue bottle flower for the bottle wall. Here is a photo of after I started wiring it up. Seventeen bottles in all! The center will have a light green salad dressing bottle in it.

The plan is to hang this on a support over the bottle wall and start mortaring around it.  It weighs about 40-50 pounds right now. I will be adding welded wire around the outside to hold together the concrete band. Once I get the concrete done and set up I'll cut away the plywood band and the support structure.

 

Here is the bottle flower on Easter morning! I used some salvaged lumber to brace it in place, it took an hour to do this and the first try was exactly where I wanted it. On to making mortar and adding bottles so the support can be removed. Those are our Sugar Snap Peas in the background, should be flowering in days.

 Meg planted this mixed package of daffodils we bought on clearance at Home Depot last fall. Several of these came up, I really like it any one have a clue to what it might be?

When I moved in here 14 years ago I planted this honeysuckle. At one point it had hundreds of bloom clusters like this one. During the building of the addition  in 2008 it was left growing under the new deck and had been abused by all the building processes. In 2009 I moved it to a new location, the droughts have left it barely alive. This year it has 20 or so bloom clusters so it is making a comeback!! You know when I bought this I did not know the native coral(red) honeysuckle grew at the edge of our woods.

Bottle Wall, Day Five

 Seven hours working on the bottle wall today. It was warm and the butterflies were everywhere. We had our first dragonflies and damselflies of the year today also.

See above the taller right side of the bottle wall, that green is Meg's peas. That part it now at grade, the blue flower is next. Not exactly sure how I plan to do it, but I'd like to do 12 blue bottles in a wheel design. My thoughts are to do the top half on a board or brace them together with wood and freehand them with mortar, let dry then install.

This is a 6 year old garden bench that was falling apart. A customer of mine gave it to me. I sanded the varnish off the wood, replaced one board and painted it green. Remind me next time to never again by Behr paint, took forever to dry and it is still sticky. I use Sherwin Williams most of the time and it never is sticky for days like this.  Any way Meg's lovely daughter just bought a house and there is nothing to sit on in her lovely back yard. Tomorrow she's taking it home with her.

Here is Crocus vernus 'King of the Striped', to me it looks very much like the common 'Pickwick'.

This is supposed to be Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant' it does look a bit redder than the photo I took of it.

I have a question for you? Has anyone used Big Dipper Farm for hellebore purchases before? Had a little discussion with Meg last night about growing hellebores. The thought is to in the next 6-7 years I'll be near retirement and perhaps I could grow and sell hellebores, doubles especially. They seem to do great here. I don't have but one double and am thinking of purchasing 5-6 from Big Dipper Farm, most of the other places do not have any for sale right now. Hey if anyone has double hellebore babies I'd love to have some?

Bottle Wall, Day Four

Spring is here! Today while working in the yard I saw 6 species of butterflies. The butterflies were 1 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail,  4 Falcate Orangetips, 1 Sleepy Orange, 2 Spring Azures, 1 Anglewing sp and 1 Mourning Cloak.

The frogs are calling nearly non stop, mostly Spring Peepers, then Upland Chorus Frogs and new for the year today Pickerel Frogs calling. Tonight the peepers are a 5-6 on a scale of 10 for intensity.

Between my errands I had to do today, I worked on the installing bottles in the bottle wall. The first being underground I have to make sure they were capped. I found caps or corks for most of them, the rest I sealed with duct tape. My expensive duct tape (left over from a job) messed up and can not be used until I can fix it, never had this happen before. FYI when you lay the bottles point them down slightly towards the opening so it does not fill up is it does get wet.

 You can not see it, the bottom two  rows of bottles are green then clear. The photos makes those lower clear bottles look green. The plan is to bring the wall up to (grade) the top of those sunken in concrete blocks(the upper blocks are one of the cold frames). The two green bottles on ends at a 45 degree angle are the base of leaves. Those leaves will curl out and then down slightly. Between the leaves will be a big blue flower above grade so the light can shine though it. The top of the wall will likely roll up and down.

A bonus with the bottle wall is the reflection on the pond, I like it.

The mix I used for concrete was 3 shovels Portland Cement, 6 shovels #78 gravel and 9 shovels sand per wheelbarrow load. This portion of the wall took two wheel barrow loads.

Right now I'm hoping that using Portland cement  instead of type S mortar is going to be OK. Type S motar is Portland cement with lime added. Reading the bags type S is for 1/2 inch joints and concrete is for 2 inches deep and over. It all looks good, in the morning we'll see.

Now some of what is blooming in the garden!

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' just opened up yesterday, it is a stunner and new addition to our garden.

 This primrose we bought from Clifford Parks at Pine Knot Farms Hellebore Event last year. Glad to see it made it through our hot dry summer.

 Crocus vernus 'Jeanne d'Arc' in a small drift.

 American Plum blooms are at peak right now. The tree has been is sad shape for years, maybe 1/3 of the tree is blooming. The aroma right now on a warm day can be picked up more than 50 foot away! Butterfly magnet, yet today I saw no butterflies on it.

 Our Bleeding Heart, Meg pointed this out to me yesterday. It is a mini right now, hope it fills out like last year.

We have seen Valentine in the new bird feeder a few times, she scatters if you bring out a camera. Grumpy on the other hand has one-eye and he is very tame. No he won't catch any birds, just enjoying the view. I'm really surprised he climbed up there.

Bottle Wall, Day Three

Well I did not spend but a few hours today on the bottle wall design and cleaning bottles. Still we'll call it another day. I think I need to make the flower taller so it stands out more. Also the clear bottles between the left side leaves, I think square clear bottles would improve it. Please feel free to provide input.

The seeds I planted on Sunday last week, the Common Thyme is already up, that was fast. Speaking of already up,  found a peony 4 inches high today. Other things in the garden some Anemone blanda I forgot that I planted next to the rocks in the old water garden, one is blooming. This anemone likes sun and warmth to bloom so I'll waiting to get a photo.

Above and below are some primroses we bought last fall at Camellia Forest. Clifford Parks hybridizes primroses and I think these were culls. Both plants the flowers are close to the ground, hoping next year if they survive they will improve.

First thing in the morning I'm going to a beginner beekeeping class a little over an hour from here. The class is 4 days, this weekend and next weekend. Also one of the participants will win a complete bee hive with bees and a queen. Not bought the hive yet, maybe I'll win the hive! We have bees on order for around the first of May. Three pounds of bees, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 bees!

Bottle Wall, Day Two

 Been working pretty hard and have not had the time to do much towards the bottle wall. We had a much needed rain last night and are supposed to get more today so I stayed home. Tinkered cleaning bottles, they clean easier when wet from rain. I do have a lot of buckets to soak bottles in too.

Here is a design I made in the creative zone.

After placing bottles into the design.

 A close up of my blue flower. The pink eye is a flower vase I found in the recycling bins, there was also a red one. See the triangle shaped blue bottle? That brand of vodka now uses blue plactic bottles, this one must have been around for a while before someone recycled it.

 This pile of cleaned bottles was almost used up making the design in the sand. I need more clear bottles a lot more clear ones. This pile is a fraction of the pile behind my shed, I took a photo, you do not want to see, nor does Meg.

I have been working on a page here with our plant photos on them. If you like hellebores you really want to see this page, it is a work in progress.

I wanted to take a photo of our Swiss Card before we picked any of it. Meg made quiche (if I got the spelling right) pie with it last night. It was yummy! Not had chard in some time as the greens in the cold frame have been filling our greens needs now for about 6 weeks. Still hard to tell any chard was picked?

Here is our Rape starting to flower. I think it is what is also called Chinese Broccoli. The mustard greens are also going to flower. The Red Mustard we planted Sunday before last is already showing red and green.

 The hyacinths have started to open up. These news ones are supposed to be fragrant, nothing like I can remember in years past. 

Last note. On Sunday while it was raining I planted some seeds inside, 4 kinds of tomatoes( Rutgers, Jubilee, Big Rainbow and Roma), Genovese Italian Basil, Sweet Basil, Common Thyme and  Serrano Peppers. Still to early for sprouting, I am watching them.

Bottle Wall, Day One

Yesterday I went and picked up a yard of #78 gravel($32) and put together the cement mixer. Given the trailer was nearly over loaded I made another trip in my Scion and picked up rebar and 4 bags of cement($90). Expenses so far $192 on this project.

 Here is the site for the bottle wall. I marked in gray where it will be approximately. The lower right side will have a small deck just enough for two chairs to sit. The left side will have a treated lumber walkway at the bottom.

 I started digging the first footer, in 2 hours I had dug about 12 foot.

Started mixing concrete using this formula: 1 shovel Portland cement, 2 shovels sand and 3 shovels gravel. I tripled this formula and the mixer filled a wheelbarrow in no time. Around 2 gallons of rain water was added to make a soupy mix, just tilt the mixer into the wheelbarrow and go!
The cement mixer took all the work out of mixing, I'll say it was a really good $300 investment.

It took maybe 12 wheelbarrow loads to fill this. The footer is about 20 inches wide by around 10 inches deep. The wall will hold back some dirt so it needs to be strong.

 New crocus opened up Crocus sieberi 'Firefly', just 3 out of the 10 I planted, they just popped open without warning! Believe we'll really enjoy this one.

 Crocus 'Tricolor' continues as many of the others fade away.

Daffodil 'Barrett Browning' opened yesterday!

Creative Zone!

The big bottle wall is getting started, slowly. So far I have hauled in 2 yards of sand on my trailer ($60.34). I gathered scrap 2 x 8 s and made a 4ft x 12ft sand box to create our bottle designs in before we start building it. The sand box below has just under a yard of sand in it. For those of you that do not know what a yard is, it is 27 cubic foot. You can see one blue bottle in the lower right corner. Getting a yard of gravel tomorrow, then we'll be able to start the digging. Looking at the footer digging it should be a lot of work.

The creative zone (aka sandbox) should get three designs in it as the bottle wall should be that long.

I also have a electric cement mixer I bought in the back of my van. Not a very expensive one, it should mix 250 lbs of concrete or mortar at a time. Might save my back and shoulders a lot of aches and pains. I have a deck to build next week, I plan on doing the footers with it.

More news about our garden, we are going to start beekeeping. My friend Jan is going to help me get it started. I've a queen on order but we have one obstacle, bees need to be ordered in November, nobody has any. We are joining to local beekeeping club and going to the monthly meeting next week. Hoping somebody can help us out with bees.

Here is another photo of the driveway Flower Records and Pickwick crocuses. I keep wanting a good open flower photo, but the sun spoils the shot, when the sun goes away the flowers close.... We had a new light blue crocus bloom today, a total surprise as they just popped out of the ground with blooms. They might be tommies, I got them from Brent and Becky's late last fall.

 Camellia baby number 2! Those leaves are nickle sized. I do not know what variety of camellias my camellia seedlings are from.  I mixed all the seeds up, making it all a mystery we'll have for the next 3-5 years. We have one plant I took seeds from in our garden that has red in the leaves, hum.  Number 1 seedling has 4 quarter sized leaves already.

Baby Moon daffodil planted in the fall of 2009, these blooms are just over an inch. It is a miniature daffodil. Bloomed much later last year, I had a swallowtail butterfly nectaring on them.

The seeds we planted  two Sundays ago are coming up. The radishes, arugula and mizuna are what is sprouting thus far. Still eating all the lettuce, mustard greens and kale we can eat, have given a lot away to friends too.

Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens

Many of you that read this blog know we am planning on building a bottle wall in our garden. We hope to make it pretty cool. I have been collecting all kinds of bottles.

Working on a design concept to create the 'installation'. My thoughts on building it are as thus:


The concept as of right now is a half circle(arc) about 4-5 foot tall and maybe 10  foot long. This will be build down the embankment of the pond and I plan on fastening a small arced deck to sit on over the water on the pond. We will need steps down the the deck also. To the left of this will be another slightly curved retaining wall about 4 foot high and 15 foot long.  Good news is I'm getting ready to tear out and rebuild a deck into a custom screened porch for a customer and should have lots of 5 year old treated pine to build the deck with, recycle is the name of this project.

Build a sand box and set the bottles in it to figure out the design. Or build a 2 x 8 frame and cover it with fabric or chicken wire and cut holes to set the bottles in the design.

Next clean the bottles to be installed after the bottle design is set.

Then dig footers and hand mix my own concrete with re bars sticking up for strength.

Install some type of temporary guide system so the wall goes up where we want it. 

Then make my own mortar and start building the wall.

The bottles and mortar will need to scrubbed clean and smooth each day after building.

Here are some detail photos from Airlie Gardens  to give you an ideal of what we are aiming for. The design will be ours of course.

 Here is half the swallowtail design, the sun was too bright to show both sides of the wings. I don't have near as many blue bottles as this has or square clear bottles either. The red in the eyes are red glasses, not bottles.

Here is a close up of the wizard faces. I really don't know if they are wizards, I just think they look like wizards. See the clear bottle at the top center with the long thin neck, I have a bottle like that.

At the left of the doorway is a tree, it is lit up from the sun too. I doubt given the hieght of our wall we'll be able to do a tree, blueberry bush maybe.

This is a shrine inside the bottle chapel, I have a tall bottle like on the left.

The back side of the butterfly, lit by the sun.

Very cool huh?  I do not have any red glass at all, one amber/orange rectangle bottle is the closest thing I have to red.

Note all the bottles are pointed down this way no water gets inside them to freeze and break them.

I've several long blue bottles like these. I was at the recycling center yesterday and found 4 blue bottles. Was leaving with 3 blue bottles and this woman emptied her bin and I saw a long blue bottle making 4 for the day! Sometimes it is weeks before I find a single blue bottle.

See the water inside the big blue bottle, a hard freeze and it'll be broken.

Can you see why I want to build us a cool bottle wall?