Address

1349 Gunbarrel Road, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37421

Monday, April 3, 2017

ELEVEN DAYS TO OPENING!!

Getting ever closer!!

Our first guests arrive April 14th, so we’re working non-stop to be ready to roll out the red carpet!  We’re making progress on bringing the rooms together although we’re also taking extra time to focus on each guest room’s detail.  We hope you will choose a room that best suits your style and personality during your stay at St Francis Cottage.

Sunflower - Testing Styles

Sunflower, 1st Floor Room in process.
Great Room Fireplace and a comfy sofa.

Bluebird, 2nd Floor

Bluebird, 2 Queen Beds
Another weekend endeavor was seeding and adding straw to another acre of land around SFC, just in time for Monday’s rain showers.

 East side of Cottage with landscaping mat and seed/straw mix.

 Almost half-acre of seed and straw.  Large mulch pile in background.

Sunday afternoon was a therapy session digging in the dirt in the 80-degree sun while Wallace designed our new Grateful Garden in a Celtic Cross design and also mowed both properties.  We found the centerpiece at an auction, which is a British chimney pot (remember Mary Poppins?) and used an extra vanity sink for the bird bath.  I found this garden design by River Valley Landscapes and Pools on Houzz several years ago and saved the inspiration photo as we dreamed about creating SFC.  The landscaping around the Grateful Garden will be a year-by-year work in progress, and I look forward to planting special flowers with GRANDdaughters Grace and Amelia when they visit from Winnipeg this summer.

Garden design by River Valley Landscapes and Pools on Houzz
Setting in the Birdbath after laying most of the pavers for the walkway of the Grateful Garden.
After last summer’s extreme drought conditions in our area, we were pleasantly surprised to find that about 50 strawberry plants survived, greeting us with new blossoms.  After weeding, I planted 50 more Jewel and Honeoye plants from Stark Bro’s Nursery along with Bristol Black Raspberry plants and two Stark® SweetHeart™ Apricot trees.  The Asian, Oriental and Kiefer pear trees are thriving and full of beautiful white blossoms.  We strolled over to the blueberry area to catch up with our awesome neighbors Wayne and Eileen and were pleased to find hundreds of local bees buzzing and very busy pollinating our 40 blueberry plants.  Check out this great blog on nurturing blueberry plants, by Keven Lee Jacobs!



Strawberry plants, new and old

Raspberry plants starting to spourt

Apricot trees beginning a new season of growth

Oriental pear trees in beautiful blossom

Blueberry blossoms with wonderful pollinators, of which there were many!
Another garden in sore need of weeding was the asparagus patch, and there’s nothing like eating a stalk of fresh asparagus right from the garden!  I  added ten Purple Passion Asparagus plants to the existing Jersey Knight variety, again purchased from Stark Bro’s.  The elephant garlic will be ready to harvest soon along with the new Silver Rose garlic planted last year. 

Asparagus spouts, third year

Elephant garlic in all its glory.

After this week’s final cold spell, Wallace will build a raised bed vegetable and herb garden off the back deck at SFC, and I will be ready to fill every square inch of it with a variety of seedlings.  We are excited about incorporating fresh berries, fruit and vegetables from our gardens into our breakfast recipes at St Francis Cottage.  We use no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or chemical fertilizers in our gardens, so your breakfast will be healthy and wholesome.  You will not walk away hungry at SFC!

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful! This house looks like a great place and the arrangements you have done inside the house are super amazing, I just love the creativity. Best place to live in.

    ReplyDelete