Lost and Found

Sorry, Judy, but the beautiful Japanese shears you gave me, that I adored, that went missing, that I feared had ended up in the compost pile...did end up in the compost pile. R.I.P.

 

On a happier note, I've located both the Felco pruners (in the bottom of a pile of boxwood clippings headed for the shredder) and the plain old scissors (lying on the ground). But I really miss those shears...

Partial Shade

I knew I had shady gardens, but it was not until I purchased the amazing SunCalc (you can have one too, just go to Lee Valley) that I discovered just exactly how shady they really are. So far, every area of the garden except for the side front garden (partial sun) gets partial shade. Here's their scale:

Full Sun - 6+ hours

Partial Sun - Less than 6 and more than 4 hours

Partial Shade - Less than 4 and more than 1 1/2 hours

Full Shade - Less than 1 1/2 hours

I almost invented it

The gardens get lots of shade, but it's mixed with shafts of morning and afternoon sun, so I could never decide whether I had partial shade, partial sun, or what. I had often thought that there must be a way to measure the amount of sunlight that falls, perhaps with sun-sensitive paper or some such. Well, it turns out that such a device exists, as I discovered in the Lee Valley catalog (thanks, Martha!). So far I have tried it in two spots - the new garden along the back of the house, and the narrow strip along the path-to-be along the side. Both came up as partial shade. Now I just have to understand what exactly they mean by that...