Derby – The Salem Garden

A Quick Derby Garden Update, With a Stop at West Beach

Here’s the Derby Garden when I blogged about it on March 26th.

Here it was on Sunday. It’s greened up beautifully. I’m sure that it’s at an even different stage now, a few days later.
I love these old chimneys. Maintaining them here on the waterfront is probably quite challenging. This was taken by my littlest girl. We girls were out for a ride. Aren’t these tulips great? Donna Seger at Streets of Salem posted a photo of them in bloom on May Day and I was sure that I was going to miss them. I was so happy to see that they were still going strong on Sunday. Beautiful peach columbine, coming into bloom.I’m not sure about this plant’s identity… does anyone know what it is? Let us know!
Before the garden we stopped at the beach for a few minutes. It was windy and cold but still a nice little break in the busy weekend. Sorry, no kid pictures… girls don’t always want to be photographed. That’s okay, neither do I.

I thought that the view might make you smile 🙂

Summer is coming~

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

A Spring Morning In The Derby Garden (thesalemgarden.com)

Militia, Daffodils, Ants and Sunsets

Here’s a little bit of my weekend, the part spent with camera in hand.

Our first stop was at the muster down on the common. We got there at the very end but still saw soldiers marching in formation. As the daughter of a career army master sergeant I get a thrill whenever I see this, which isn’t too often these days.
There were horses…The colonial militia men..And tanks that fired. What is it about boys and tanks? He loves this stuff, it’s just in him. Maybe it’s a piece of his grandfather.Of course we had to visit the playground for a minute. It was very cold and windy. My older kids played here every day when we lived a few doors down.We checked into the Derby garden and found that I was correct last week, this is indeed a daffodil! I thought so!Here’s the next mystery plant… I think this might be a tulip, believe it or not. I’ll check back soon.I spent a good twenty minutes on Saturday night photographing this ant. Perhaps I need to get a life, lol.They are fascinating creatures if you stop and look at them. I started this project in my quest to figure out where their coming into my kitchen from. I continuously look down to see an ant looking up at me. They are really driving us all a little bit crazy.Of course, by the end of the twenty minutes the ant was named Wilbur and had a framed portrait in sepia finish. I think I need help here 🙂Out on the deck last night my little guy took this photo of one of thousands of planes heading into Logan over our house. Their so close that we can see the landing gear come down.But to our left we were really enjoying this.I’m hoping that this helps anyone who’s still recovering from the ant photos.

Today it’s going to be in the sixties with less wind. I’m hoping/planning to get out and plant these!

Seed packets are buy one, get one free at Home Depot! It’s a great time to stock up on anything that you need.

Happy Monday!

Enjoy everything!

Michele

The Carpenter Ant: Insect or Alien? (theothersideof55.wordpress.com)

A Spring Morning In The Derby Garden

I had a chance to pop into the Derby garden this morning. This garden is really precious to me. Michael and I helped with it’s installation about 23 years ago. At that time I had an appreciation for gardens but no experience or knowledge. This is where gardening really started for me. The young couple who created it worked very hard to design it to represent a garden typical of this setting and the early 1700s time period. I should back up a bit and explain that it sits behind the home of the first American millionaire, Elias Haskett Derby, hence it’s name the Derby Garden.

At first glance over the fence it may look a bit barren and gray, but if you slow down and look closely you’ll see that the beds are about to spring to life.

I believe that these are the first few leaves of hollyhock.There are plenty of snowdrops.They really are one of the first signs of spring. These will be there for a few more days before it’s time to say goodbye till next year.I’m pretty sure that these are small daffodils. I’ll have to try to check back in a few days to confirm.Something from the allium family? Time will tell us exactly what.CrocusA beautiful carpet of green, maybe grape hyacinths?

This apple tree bears small, tough fruit but I’ve made a pie or two from here.

Here’s the view looking out toward the water. We lived in the blue building to the left when we were first married. It was a perfect honeymoon loft for us. We have lots of good memories from our days on Derby Street.

I loved thinking about how we were looking at the same view that the Derbys did when they lived there.

It has changed a bit but their spirit is here. I can feel it. Especially when I spend time in the garden and imagine what they might have grown and raised in the yard.

Enjoy Everything today!

Michele

Gardens to visit #001 (wearecultivate.wordpress.com)
The First Day of Spring and our Trip to the Spring Flower Show at Phipps! (pittsburghmommyblog.com)

Wow!! What squash can do!

Okay, maybe this is kind of a weird title, but it’s what came into my mind. I have to show you these photos that Blaire sent me a week or so ago. Blaire always has her eye out for great gardens in the downtown and she sends me these interesting finds. This is in the courtyard of the House of Seven Gables Settlement house on Derby Street. I believe that the building, which was used as an after school program, camp and pre-school for many years, is kind of “in transition”. It’s Caroline Emmerton‘s original settlement house and is owned by the Gables, as we Salemites refer to the House of Seven Gables. Michael and I were out for dinner and a walk on Saturday night and of course I had to go see this. The vines are loaded with butternut squash. It looks to me like a few squash fruits might have been left on the ground last year with the plants emerging on their own and taking over the whole yard this year. Or maybe someone planted them purposely? No squash borers here! Isn’t nature amazing?