Thistlefink Gardens
BURIED!
Christmas bulb
Lots of snow!
Front path
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COLD AUGUST
Sister Judi and Mother Kitty
We had a lovely family gathering on 30 August. 25 family members from the Raplenovich, Leskovec and McGarvey family gathered to eat, play games, feast on the bounty of the garden and enjoy being family. BUT…. it was cold!!! – only 65 degrees [18 C] – my mother and sister were blanketed together with sweaters and coats – but fun was had by all – we are so very blessed with family who know how to have a good time
GARDEN ROOM
When we built our home 10 years ago we planned a screened porch on the back of the house, but because so many more important things needed to be built we decided to wait and build the porch later. Well later became 10 years later! We didn’t need a screened porch because our front porch serves as the summer dining room and we can look out onto the gardens. Besides that, the back of the house faces west and is hot, we live on top of a hill where there is always a breeze and we don’t need screens because there a no bugs. What to do with this space??? Last year we moved the hot-tub out into the porch area and enjoyed many evenings watching the sunset and the stars while relaxing our aching gardening muscles. So this year we have decided to build a garden room that will house the hot-tub for all year use, give me a place to grow plants in the winter and start seeds in the spring. In the summer when the room will be too hot we will just open the windows and let the breeze scare away all the hot air and it won’t matter because all the plants will by then be in the garden. So follow the process.
FINISHED!!!!!
Walking in from the house
Looking into the house
A cozy place for me to read
The finished outside in the sunset
WEEK 6…..
In Slovenia we have seen so many lovely interior spaces with natural wood and especially ceilings, so because this is also the hot tub room we designed a”north country spa” feel, with tongue and groove pine on the ceiling.
Tongue and groove pine
WEEK 5
Now the room is starting to look more like we imagined. The windows are in, the insulation is stuffed between the studs, the dry wall is covering the interior walls [and already a pretty green color], the spaces between the bricks on the floor have been filled with sand and the exterior is covered with tar paper. Bob has done most of this work alone. I have been able to help him some when I am not working with my mother, and our friend Michael helped with the windows, but single handed Bob has created a place for me to nurture and grow plants all year. I can’t wait!
Lots of windows for growing plants
Bob putting up dry wall
Sky lights, ceiling insulation and north wall drywall
WEEK 4
All by himself Bob laid the plywood on the roof, put the sky lights in the roof and carried all the asphalt shingles up the ladder. I helped cut the shingles and handed him tools and enjoyed a beautiful morning on the roof staring out over the valley.
Bob nailing shingles on the roof
WEEK 3
Lots of little things have happened in the past week. The plywood shell has been added to the exterior walls, roof rafters have been put in place with wells cut for the sky lights, and the new room has been attached to the house. All this took longer than anticipated because we had days of much needed rain. We had been without rain for more than a month so even though the weather slowed down the progress it gave Bob a much needed rest and our gardens a much needed drink.
Plywood shell on North wall
Sky light frames
Attaching the new room to the house
DAYS 8 – 9
Window headers, window frames, roof rafters and black plastic because of the threat of rain.
North wall and roof rafters
DAYS 6-7
I took my mother to Pennsylvania for 2 days and when I got back “Builder Bob” had the walls framed in.
The room will have 13 windows and 3 sky lights.
North and West wall
West wall
All the spaces are for the big windows. It will be a very cheerful room and the perfect place to have morning coffee looking out over the hillside.
Builder Bob resting after a long day
DAY 5
Day 5
“Kay the brick layer” – the pattern is a half basket weave laid on the sand – the 810 bricks are sand cast and are variegated in 4 colors. The bricks and sand will act as a heat sink and retain the solar heat.
finished brick floor
DAY 4
Sand delivered
1&3/4 tons of sand was delivered, spread and compacted over top of the insulation and landscape cloth. The insulation will keep the ground from drawing the heat into the earth, the landscape cloth holds the sand in place.
DAY 3
Day 3
5 tons of river stone were delivered and compacted.
Compacting
The floor bricks were delivered
DAY 2
Day 2
When Bob was scraping the mortar from between the bricks he lost his new chisel down in the the depths of the concrete blocks. He was awake in the night trying to figure out how to retrieve it to prevent it from becoming a sacrifice to the ghost of our house; who likes shiny metal things. Here was his solution [yes that is a bracket taped to a hockey stick] – make-shift tools are his specialty.
Tool detail
Day 2
New bricks were laid to replace the two vents that had to be removed and
insulation laid around the edges to create a vapor barrier to keep the
heat in.
DAY 1
Day 1
The foundation was laid 10 years ago when we built the house – the floor is gravel. The door leads to the little room where Kay made flower arrangements and stored vases and other flower “stuff”.
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2009 GARDEN
The new fence surrounding the gardens
It is the end of June and my garden is finally planted!!! The death of my father and the care of my mother has put the gardening in slow motion and the best laid plans are in seed packages in a box for next year. We did build a fence around the gardens [actually Bob did with his friends Mikey and Mike] and it is surprising how intimate the front yard feels. It is simply a matter of defining space, adding aesthetics and trying to keep the critters from eating all the vegetables. There are 2 rabbits [maybe more, but we only see 2 at a time] who visit us every evening around 7.00 [it is obvious by the nibbles on our plants that they come more often and uninvited]. They ate 2 plantings of broccoli before the fence so the fence was supposed to discourage them. No way Jose! Those little buggers are stimulated by the thrill of squeezing between the pickets and then freezing-still, hoping that we can’t see them devouring our cabbage, lettuce, beans and broccoli. I have named them Spot and Polka Dot so that I can run out there in my greatest Shakespearean voice and scream “OUT DAMN SPOT!!” The Polka Dot is, of course, in honor of our favorite dance and Bob’s music making.
Hosta and annuals
Lavender path
The garden has flowers and vegetables mixed and in future plantings there will be a more interesting design. This year the mantra was “build the fence so that I can plant the perennials I bought before they die”. We have rhubarb [old plants brought from my grandfather's garden] onions, tomatoes [Roma and sandwich slicing], peppers, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, peas, asparagus, potatoes [newly planted this year and volunteers from the plants the renters never harvested], cucumbers [that will climb up Aaron's metal sculpture], beans, herbs [basil, parsley, dill, oregano, rosemary, lemon verbena, cilantro, thyme and we have wild mint in the field], lettuce and strawberries. The French marigolds are planted to define the paths, but also to discourage the bugs. Along the fence are perennial flowers [peonies, black eyed Susans, phlox, Jacob's ladder, Shasta daisies, balloon flowers, bee balm]. In front of the house are hosta, Lilly of the valley, ginger, bleeding heart, Irises, I am already planning the flowers to plant next year and I will be able to do more companion planting and have greater variety.
Birdbath
In addition we have other critters who keep us entertained when we sit on the front porch, and the Great Blue Heron visits the pond often to remind me that the Spirit is with me always.
Out Damn Spot!
Spot and Polka Dot
Cardinal
Slovene rooster
The skeletons of last year clicked their bones in greeting when we arrived home. The sunflower heads, emptied of seeds during the winter by our families of birds, hello. Even the spiders spun little smiling hammocks catching the dew.
We delighted in the colors and scents of spring in Slovenia and now that we have returned to chilly Mid-Ohio we will be able to enjoy spring once again.
When we left Slovenia people said “Oh, but Slovenia is the most beautiful in the spring” – but isn’t everywhere the most beautiful in the spring?
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Thistlefink Gardens is located in mid-Ohio on five acres in Amish country.
The name Thistlefink comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch name for gold finches in honor of the flocks of golden birds who visit us every year.
We raise organic vegetables for home consumption and flowers to sell as personal bouquets and at farmers markets. All products are grown organically, yet we say things are raised naturally because we do not have organic certification.
The area of our gardens was originally a sheep farm owned by Henry Herr in the late 1800’s [and his ghost continually visits us locking doors, hiding keys, clanging metal and walking on the creaky hardwood floors]. After Henry, it was then a horse farm and it is now divided into 5 acre lots. We are fortunate to have Henry’s barn on our property and the creek fed by an underground aquifer. Some day when we stop traveling we hope to use the barn for more than storage and raise animals.
Bob and I built our home between May, 1999 and May 2000 along with the great assistance of our son Aaron, our nephew Scott Fischer, Matthew Stewart [www.matthewstewartglass@blogspot.com], Rich Convery [where are you Rich?] and many other friends and relatives. We designed the home ourselves with a lot of help from books, magazines, long hours of design discussions and complete ignorance. There was a time when Bob was afraid we shouldn’t do it without a professional architect or professional builder and I said “We are smart. We can learn. What makes modern Americans think that they have to pay some one else to do what people have been doing for themselves forever.” [The big question is why did he listen to me? I was right, but why in the world did he believe me?]. We built a traditional front porch farm house with a studio for teaching voice and small recitals as well as a parent’s suite that serves as a lovely guest room until a parent decides to come and stay.
Because our life is filled with travel right now the gardens are not as lovely as they once were. There are few people who would be as excited about weeding 3 hours every day as I am, so we grassed over many of the gardens to protect our renters from guilt. In 2009 we plan to return to the gardens in April and stay until September giving us an entire growing season to grow and sell the wonders of the land.
In the summer of 2008 we created a wildflower labyrinth behind the house. 13 year old Zachery George helped with the design, cutting the tall weeds with the cycle bar mower, trimming trees, building the fire pit, and sharing the magic. Paths lead in curvy patterns to the meditation grove, the fire circle and the flower mound. The labyrinth will continue to evolve each summer as a place of quiet, calm and beauty.
Zach and Carson and Kay working at the firepit
Enter in Peace
Thistlefink garden is a place of great wonder. A buck with a large rack greeted me the first year with a welcoming bow, the hummingbirds return every year and talk to me, but I have not yet learned to understand, the mother birds bring their fledglings to tell us goodbye, the blue heron reminds us of our spiritual connection, the ground hogs and the baby rabbits entertain us, and the trees sing to us in the morning light.
