In the olden days – I love that expression, ‘olden days’ – they used to plant Lilacs around the old Long Drop. The outside toilet or the dunny – my favourite name. The lilacs were an olden day air freshener. Our gardens are heaving with the scents of lilac at this time off year but no outside dunny. .
Personally I think all toilets should be outside. I used to live in a lovely old house in New Zealand that had the toilet in its own room on the verandah outside, next to the Wash House (laundry). Even though it was a chilly dash in the winters and it was a flush toilet, it was so much better than having the smelly thing in the house. Almost all houses in New Zealand have the toilet in a separate room from the bathroom and the older houses often had a second toilet on the back porch that was accessed by an outside door for the smelly business ( or the farmer in boots) . Here the toilet is parked right next to the shower in the center of the house. Horrors.
But the lilacs are right outside the window and the scent floats by. I love Lilacs and the garden has many varieties. They surround the house and at this time of year when the windows are open the whole house is infused with the beady fragrance of Lilac. They don’t all flower at once either so we will have Lilac perfumed air for a little while yet. 
We have been transplanting the young lilacs that spring up around the base of many of the bushes. I told Ellie (my head gardener) that my goal is to hide the house completely in trees and big shrubs. And I want hundreds of lilacs. I guess you class Lilacs as shrubs though they can get as big as trees.
The Tween flock – still happy in their garden house.
Tima enjoying the hay field.
Saturday today. My volunteers have the weekend off so I march to my own drum on Saturdays and Sundays. The wind is blowing out of the North East – no-ones favourite wind at this time of year. It is chilly and runs straight through the piglet barn doors – they have to stand open so Molly and the piglets can go outside to the toilet in their own lilac scented garden. The piglets have a warm bed though. I have swapped out the middle sized piglet house for the big black one (the upside down water trough with the doorway cut in it) so they are able to get right down the back where it is totally sheltered and warm.
Their creep is enlarged now too so they have more space for their food and water and their playful growing bodies.
Though cooler it is good planting weather – no heat stress for the plants or the planters. But I look forward to some warm days – I do.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
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59 responses to “Lilacs for scent”
I like the idea of a toilet in it’s own closet outside with a sink to wash the hands before opening the door of course. I have never understood the toilet in a room with no wash basin. Separate from the shower is good too. My lilacs are just starting to bloom. I planted 3, one each for my mom and dad and one for my children’s father. Kind of a memory garden. I like the idea of surrounding the house with them. We had one beautiful sunny day, now it’s cold and wet again. Have a wonderfilled weekend.
I love lilacs also, but mine froze again this year. This is the fifth year of them freezing. Sure is sad.
You are having a cold spring – much colder than us I think
And am I ever tired of it. Sigh!
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We have a couple of lilacs in flower right now. They are young, so not very big yet. The perfume from our wisteria is taking over Casa Debbio at the moment and soon the lavender will start to get flowers…lovely spring.
Oh Wisteria – i Love it – so do bees! how wonderful
I so miss smelling and seeing the lilacs that I grew up with! Mom says those same lilac bushes are blooming nicely right now, and she has always said she can tell where outhouses have stood on their property by where the lilacs are. I wish I could grow them in Houston! Thank you for this beautiful post.
Is it too Hot is Houston for Lilacs?
I love lilacs, and I must get some to plant in my beds by the house. Tima looks happy 😊
I love opening the windows to the lilac scent.. Tima IS happy- naughty wee pig
Lilacs were my dear Mom’s absolute favourite and they are mine too! Sadly, we had to sacrifice a huge lilac tree when we added the kitchen addition, but I saved a couple of sprouts and replanted them, and now they are more than 3 metres tall! The one by the deck never flowered until I trimmed it back and this year will be the best year, at least two blooms on each twig, I can’t wait to cut a few and bring them into the house!
Tima looks so happy! I am so excited to meet your gang!
lilacs do respond to a good prune..
We have (sadly), a toilet in the bathroom, and then another one in the laundry for, as you put it, the smelly business. The laundry and garage and store-room are separated from the rest of the house, so it does the job, but sadly we are not beautifully perfumed by lilacs, which don’t grow well here because we don’t get cold enough. Lilac is one of those fragrances (like gardenia and freesia) which just cannot be accurately replicated as an artificial aroma. Sad, because they smell so wonderful…
Freesias – yes I love them and their fragrance – we grew heaps of those in NZ
Tima looks as cute as a bug in a rug! My enormous maple tree precludes having anything else, sad to say. So I take walks down alleys and steal sniffs of lilacs wherever I find them.
must be lovely to walk around chicago in the spring
“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed.” I miss the lilacs but will have them again I hope. I found there are some lovely small ones, Dwarf Korean lilacs which seem to be a bit more heat tolerant and bloom a bit later, they smell the same though. I’ve been thinking about buying one and having it in a big pot until we’re back in permanent quarters. Those piglets look so satiny and silky. We had a neighbor who used to have a tall hedge along their fence, when they sold the house the new people chopped the lilacs down (they said they were “dirty”) and planted ginkos. Ginkos are beautiful trees but the female ones drop these nasty seeds/nuts the outside of which smell like dog pooh and are very dirty. So now those people have to spend a good bit of time and effort to get rid of those noxious smelling seeds/nuts when they could’ve left the lilacs which weren’t dirty at all. There is a park in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Lilaciae Park where there are lots of different kinds and colors of lilacs, they have a festival every year which I haven’t been to but would like to at least once. We used to carry a lilac essential oil that was not synthetic and smelled exactly like lilacs blooming. I will have to see about getting some.
Hmm – maybe that essential oil might be nice in soap..
Or lilac blossom jelly? (FarmGal idea: )
I’m sure it would. I’ll see if I can contact the vendor we purchased from. We had a large selection of essential oils, incense and other metaphysical items. The lilac incense was disappointing no matter what brand.
Lilac is my absolute favorite – if i could grow them indoors I would!
I love Lilacs. They always showed up the end of May into June in Winnipeg. I would bring them into my mother and to school for my teacher. Burying my face into the soft blossoms. Nice memory.
that is a lovely memory
and I could never understand this modern trend of having an en suite……..who wants a toilet right next to where they sleep…ugh! I have a muddy boots toilet under the house and a separate room one as far from the rest of the house as it can get, ideal. but I do remember the dunny up the backyard, and my brother telling me if I went quickly, I’d beat the ‘night man’………he tricked me every time, because as soon as I sat, I’d hear the little door at the back open….horrors! Too hot for lilacs here, but I’d love some, yours look beautiful.
That is a pretty funny story netty – I read it out to the woofers! c
Lilac is one of my favourite smells. And hyacinths. I grew one from seed, and it is at least 8 years old now but in a pot. So never a flower yet. Time to get help and get her into the ground, I think?
If you ever plant a tree for me, I’d like it to be a lilac.
What a great idea – i will grow you one – it would be perfect in the fellowship forest!
That makes me very happy!
I love the smell of lilacs.
Me too!! c