hey Frenchies, say it “zi aol”, so you can hear the rhyme in the name !
Let me introduce you to my fake pet-owl :
 Albert the Owl - strike a pose It comes from the Emmaus charity sale I went to last week end.
I couldn’t believe my luck as it is the kind of feature that integrates perfectly into a garden. It was standing on a shelf amongst plates and cups and bowls in the crokery section, god knows why, but anyway I found it and grabbed it at once. It had to become part of my garden, and happily so for the modest sum of 1 euro.
Sometimes I put it on the stone bench by the ferns and the campanules, near what we call our woodland section, or it gets to stand on the terrace between 2 wooden pots so I can see it from inside the house.
Emmaus is like an ali baba cave for me – there I find second-hand items that get a new life in my garden : mirrors, vases, urns, candelabras, or in my house : fancy cups, bowls from another time, things that don’t get manufactured any more.
I call it my vintage provision, and I like mixing contemporary things with quaint dainty objects.
What about you, do you like staging your garden with recycled items and can you show me ?
 | May 17, 2012 |
fruiting…
 grapevine
 red current | May 16, 2012 |
If you’re looking for a shrub that will look stunning at this time of year, go for a paeonia. I have none in my garden, but this one I captured on a short visit at Hervé’s garden.
He got my interest by saying : ‘you’ve got to see my paeonia. Flowers spanning 27 cm !’. I gave him a lift back to his house, and grabbed my camera that was cunningly with me that day – I was hoping to catch something interesting going on at Lycée Horticole. But that’s another story…
Waoh ! Here they were, in his front garden, displaying their massive heads at the passers-by :
They’re very easy to grow, very hardy and with amazing flowers. Paeonia suffruticosa, is a bush that could reach 3.5 m.
Hey, I’m still looking for a bush to go on the side of the new trellis that was put up this week-end. Paeonia, you’ve got a deal ! Welcome (soon) at Botanic Bay !
 Mike Lucky Spade in his main role, last Sunday at Botanic Bay | May 14, 2012 |
Out the BBQ, in La Plancha !
 tried and tested for the best ! It all started last winter, when we thought how lovely it would be to have a brasero in our garden ; a sunken firepit, or a mexican stove…
We visited a few places over the past weeks, until we entered this new BBQ store in our city, where they display everything from the tiny metal BBQ to the immense gaz stove for the outside. Very friendly staff, young people with enthusiasm and knowledge. A big change from the over-bored staff from some other diy shops…
The section on firepits got all our attention. A metal BBQ – we already had, and made big use of ! but a fire-pit that could cook your food instantly in the La Plancha way that I love to have in restaurants, that had to be it.
So we inaugurated our two-in-one last night, after what seemed a decisive breakthrough of the sun over the clouds. The result is amazing, and I believe our metal BBQ could get dusty before we use it again. The meat was soft and tasty, and cooked so quickly !
In the meantime, le chat was being naughty, chasing out young birds that were taking flying lessons :
 fly away little chap ! Le chat is lurking and you're chirping too loudly !
As for us, we were sipping our glass of rosé in a state of semi bliss – an evening in the sun…
 but by the fire-pit !
| May 13, 2012 |
Some bold, some shy, some bright, some soft, some lone, some grouped…
They’re all there, and a lot more to come, attracting wildlife in my garden !
 gunera
 
 nemesia, pansies and co
 azalea and rhodo duet  tulip with a tangy centre
 bold head
 import from England
 shy verbena
 perfect for tea | May 10, 2012 |
my garden has a basic structure where pots and features are grafted for a short period of time.
They shift and whirl with the mood, and the content. Which face of the pot do I wish to see from the lounge bay window ? Which pot would look good in this location at that time of year ? And the buddha statue ? And the terracotta balls : 3, 5 or just 1 ?
Group, scatter, unite, mirror, complement, contrast – my key words for staging Botanic Bay.
 the garden is a stage - ball and acer
 the garden is a stage - colourful planting It’s bank holiday today in France, we’re celebrating the armistice from WWII. But not a day for enjoying some time in the garden I’m afraid – more rain, which is going to drive me to the cinema instead !
| May 8, 2012 |
 May 6th 2012
Mike Lucky Spade and I never chose to plant roses in Botanic Bay on the account that they are pricky items which show interest only a few months of the year and are prone to all sorts of pests and diseases so that they’re not worth the trouble.
But recently we purchased a standard ‘Louis de Funes’ rosebush, for its bright orange flowers as well as a bushrose ‘Christine Laborde’ for its genereous creamy white flowers edged with a hue of orange – I like orange.
Sorry no photos, they’re still young, recently planted, so not really merging with the surrounding elements, and not even yet blooming.
In the meantime, I adorned my dining-table centerpiece with these charming elegant creamy white roses, unfortunately non fragrant, but enlightening the dark wook of the table together with being a nice change from the usual cut flowers I get every week. That’s because my wild flowers havent flowered yet, but I’m hoping sometime in the summer I will be able to display them inside.
In the garden at the moment, tulips as being the stars of the show. Like these amazing specimens, unfolding gracefully in turn – they make the show while the alliums and the lillies are taking their time to open, but the firework of flowers is fully operational at the moment.
In my next post, I shall show you the staging I’ve made with my pots filled with flowering plants, in response to Alternative Eden blog asking what staging we had devised in our garden.
So long !
| May 6, 2012 |
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