Fall Sunday: Decorating the Garden

Using the apple green color from the trellis and metal chairs, I've added a punch of color to the dark federal parks green I painted these chairs for Handsome Son's graduation. That dark green was just too boring. This is a fun and easy way to jazz it up.

Using collected antique brick from the demolition of the antiquated chimney on the original village bank, I have dry-laid this short wall and corner pillars. Adding a capstone from Lowe's establishes a pedestal for a garden accent pot.

Solidago (goldenrod) 'Fireworks' and spireae 'Gold Mound' in the forefront soaking up the sunlight.

Hydrangea 'Quickfire' starts out white and very early, in June, and still looks nice on this last day of September.

Autumn colors of hazelnut and the rusty chair the squirrels used to dine on the stolen hazelnuts.

This Asiatic lily has yellowed, but in Piet Oudolf tradition, it looks good dead backing the 'Autumn Joy' sedum.

Aster 'October skies'

Aster 'Alma Potschke'

These are a few of my favorite fall bloomers. As you can see, I am moving along with the 2013 Garden Walk decorating. Although most of these plants carrying the show will only be supporting players in July, they add a lot to the garden now. They will green filler. The hazelnut will be green, but hopefully loaded down with light green clusters of nuts. The apple green should be just as significant a shot of green then as now. I've chosen this green apple a my accent color. I've painted plastic pots, trellis, the rims of clay pots, and those fun squiggles with it.

Rural Historic House Walk: Fact, Fiction, and Fancy

I took some time out from my frenetic dyslexic ant pace of working, gardening, and trying to preserve the harvest to tour the historic village of Rural.

The village of Rural got its name from its first settler James H. Jones, who named the area his Rural Holdings. The name stuck. Jones is a Welsh name. The village I live in was settled by the Welsh; Jones being a common name among the Welsh of this area, my house was built by a Jones as well. Actually when J.H. Jones got done founding Rural, he came over and was one of the first residents in my village as well. So visiting these historic homes 13 miles from mine, I am also looking to clues to the age of my house.

The entire village of Rural is on the National Historic Register. It is significant in that it illustrates what a mid-century Yankee community was like. The community, founded by a Welsh settler, it was built almost exclusively by Yankees from the eastern United States who could trace their heritage to Great Britain. In fact, one of the key buildings in this village was actually designed and built by my great-grandfather. The mill and the damning of the Crystal River and its spillways and such were designed and laid out by my ancestor, although it is no longer existent, nor was it in my memory.

This shot of the grand staircase and the next few pictures are all from the house pictured at the top. This is not the first house built in the village of Rural, although no doubt, it is the grandest.

It also has the most original architecture apparent. Many of the others have been remuddled in such ways to make the determination of original versus even historically accurate remodeling lack any sort of veracity.

For example, although I think the cove metal ceiling is fairly old, probably 1890 to 1920, the fact that it chops into the top of original framed windows tells me it is not original to first design concept of the house. I would never remove it, but a bit of research should have been done into when this pattern was made and where the ceiling may have come from. Another house (this as the second house built in Rural by this same family), or a different room? The ceilings were fairly high in these rooms, at least ten feet. Yet, in this room it is lower. Surely that is a mystery, which might help explain the metal ceiling.

These wallpaper samples are very much in keeping with a formal dining room. (I apologize. The second is upside down!)

I always question when beautiful maple floors show up in a house in this area. The nicest floors which can be verified authentic due to the diligent work of the current owners are like these maple floors in what was then the grandest house built in Rural. Seeing these floors in any other house not built in the same scale of grandness in the same time period (about 1890 to 1910) leaves me to question their authenticity.

Most people I am sure had floors similar to those uncovered in my own home, which were heart of pine and very similar to these. Certainly, any house built in the 1850s would have floors much more similar to these heart of pine floors displayed at the Halfway House, which was the first house/tavern built in Rural. My floors show grooves sealed with oakum, not nearly the nice craftmanship of these.

These are found objects found under a porch at the back of the house during a remodel and give a glimpse into the lives of the early settlers in a wonderful way.

I have a similar collection of items, much more mundane and lower level on the economic ladder.

Lastly, one house sported a porch with this bead board grooving, which would typically been painted a sky blue, a small fact not mentioned by any docent. Mine is painted the historically accurate sky blue, with no heed to the my house's pink paint, a bit lighter than the time worn and faded lead paint blue which can detected in chipped areas.

These were the best and most architecturally interesting pictures I took. And still, they give me very little to go on to accurately date my house, within less than 20 years.

Solidago 'Fireworks'

Hands down my favorite goldenrod is 'Fireworks'.

Just posting a nice fall-flowering perennial to let you all know I am alive and well. Been busy harvesting, teaching, canning, and in generally acting like a dyslexic ant!

More to come!

Sunday on the Lawn

I confess. I don't care if there is crab grass or clover in my small amount of lawn. I do weed out plantain and dandelions by hand. I'm not the only one. My 80-year-old neighbor does, too. Luckily, this is not a big deal. I have very little lawn. It serves more as paths for my garden borders and small vegetable garden I refer to as a potager.

The lawn is lush this time of year and since I water the garden beds the lawn is watered en route to that goal. Also, as the borders also provide privacy they tend to place the grass in dappled light through the heat of the day. Unlike, the lawns of most of the United States, my grass never went dormant.

I used to ignore my lawn. It was NOT the garden. There is something about a narrow path of grass with a nicely cut edge that sets off a border and pulls everything together, even in a small yard like mine. A couple corners widen out and provide a space to sit or work on projects, but the lawn grows smaller each year. I sometimes contemplate taking out the small amount of front yard remaining on the sunny side of the yard and plant strawberries as a ground cover.

Not yet, though. I still enjoy these small patches of grass.

Cinnamon, my Faithful Companion, approves.

It's Dead: Hot Water Bath Torture

Okay, why is she showing us DEAD plants? (Sorry, no pretty plant picks today!)

Because I want to help all my anti-herbicidal friends who occasionally want to commit planticide.

Particularly weedicide.

I have been doing a LOT of canning. Hey, it's tomato season! What's a woman to do?

I also have a lot of boiling hot water baths available when done. Instead of pouring this resource down the drain, I have been spot treating areas when I have just weeds and want them DEAD: the area between my manicured planting and the dirt alleyway, the weeds between my pavers, the grassy rhizomeous weeds coming up between my stone bed borders.

As you can see from the picture of the dead plantain and the grass around it, my delivery method is not too precise. I am pouring directly from my canner onto the weeds. I'll leave you to think through delivery methods. Maybe a spray bottle set on "stream". The important part is using the just used water as soon as possible after you finished canning, the closer to boiling the better. I have tried this with simply hot water, in the 140 to 160 range and it is only so-so as to effectiveness. Within five minutes of canning, it's about 100% pouring directly on the crown of the plants.

Have at!

Unexpected Dividends

This summer, I have seen a lot more honey bees in my yard than typical. Back in June at the beginning of the hot, dry days of summer, I started getting 3 to 4 dozen honey bees drinking from my bird bath at any given moment. My crisscross backyard neighbor has been managing a bee hive this summer.

Today, while I was mowing my yard with my electric mower, my neighbor stopped by with this section of honey for me. It was so wonderful and totally unexpected. And, in a way, it is the pollen of my garden in that block, and also wonderfully as I practice sustainable and organic methods for the most part (I did spot treat a small section of lawn for creeping Charlie, literally a foot by six feet that seems totally uncontrollable with Trimec late this fall. I did try to hand-pull and allow the grass to smother first to no avail.); this honey probably has very low levels of herbicides and pesticides in it.

Which when you think about it, is doubly wonderful!

Impatiens

This flower pot withstood the blistering heat and my not quite daily or when necessary waterings fairly well. I think I used 2 of the darker carmine ones and one of the lighter pink and a variegated Swedish ivy in a 12" plastic pot.

The Swedish ivy is just not very rambunctious and did not keep up with the growth of the impatiens. I potted this in May and it is still a respectable looking pot for my front steps.

'Tube' Clematis 'China Blue'

In my garden

In my garden

At Allen Centennial Garden

At Allen Centennial Garden

This clematis spreads by self-seeding. It will bloom the second year from germination. It does really well germinating from winter sowing. A beautiful navy blue with lots and lots of bloom, this clematis is good zone 3 - 8. It grows about 2 1/2' tall and tolerates a wide range of conditions.

The Allen Centennial Gardens grew it a couple years back with grasses and calamintha. I saw it then and realized how wonderful this easy clematis is and how underutilized. Find it! Grow it!

Great Perennial for Fall: Chelone lyonii - Turtlehead 'Hotlips'

This is a great perennial for fall. It has nice glossy leaves, responds to pinching or browsing by deer with the development of additional axial flower buds. It likes moisture, but once established can tolerate some drought. It grows well in sand, loam, or clay and will even bloom in some shade. It does best with full sun and adequate moisture with pinching 2-3 times in May and June.

It can be propagated from cutting taken mid-May through June, which if rooted may even bloom the same fall. It can also be divided. It is more difficult to grow from seed, although it can be done. Growing from seed is difficult because of the variable maturity of seed, sterility of seed, and late maturation of seed, and the need for stratification. Fertilized ovules and sterile seed look very similar. It is a good choice for winter sowing. My preferred method is tip cutting with rooting hormone in May because of the near 100% success rate.

The native which does not have the same glossy leaves as this selection, nor is it as clump forming or long blooming, seems even more sterile than the selected cultivar; however, it is just as easy to cultivate from cuttings.

Pepper 'Sweet Heat'

This year, I grew a variety of peppers looking for the best ones for our area conditions. Last year, the family garden yielded nary one red pepper and scant green ones, being inundated with rain and cool temperatures. This year we have exactly the opposite conditions.

Brother and Sister-in-law are not lovers of hot peppers, and while I like jalapenos, I only eat a few over the course of the year, mainly in my canned salsa and sliced on pizza. This year when I came across 'Sweet Heat'; a pepper with some heat, but not enough to earn it a Scoville heat index. It also has a short span of days to red maturity, so it got a spot on the list of peppers to try this year.

It has just a bit of a kick, not anything near a jalapeno, and a sweet red pepper taste. The pretty color and heat make it just the right pepper for a salsa, fajitas, or a roasted red pepper spread.

Sister-in-law and I have already made a salsa using a combination of this and 'Sheepnosee' pimento peppers and 'Olpaka' and 'Amana Orange' tomatoes. Sister-in-law confesses she really loves this salsa, which she has started using even before the different ingredients have had time to blend and develop. I would typically label her a non-salsa eater.

The plants are prolific and germinated easily. The peppers are approximately 4" long and 1 1/2" wide. From just a half dozen plants, we are easily going to harvest nearly a bushel of red peppers by the end of the season. From transplant, expect to wait at least 90 days from transplant to harvest.

We'll be growing this one again!

Pick a Peck of Pickled Peppers

This is an interesting pepper we have growing in the family garden. I saved seeds from a pepper I bought marketed as roasting peppers in bags in shades of yellow, orange, and red. The seed is available to commercial growers, labeled as a hybrid; however, the plant and peppers grown from saved seed seem very uniform. The heavy yield on each plant and the quick ripening make this a neat little pepper for the home gardener.

I saved seed from the obviously ripe red ones and from a couple orange ones. There were yellow peppers in the bags. I did not feel the yellow peppers necessarily had ripe seed and did not save seed from them. It is interesting to note seed germinated equally well from the orange and red peppers, yet the peppers all seem to mature in a similar manner. Yellow is NOT one of the color changes through which the peppers transition.

This whole maturation process begs whether the peppers, when grown commercially, are artificially ripened using some sort of fuming or chemical reactant.

They are not hot and have a slightly tough skin. I felt this would make them ideal pickling peppers. This first batch I have pickled in a vinegar and oil mix leaving them whole and hot water bath canning them. Although I trimmed back the stems, I should also have pierced each peppers so them would not float to the top of each quart jar.

They should make a tasty garnish for a sandwich or a salad.

Unfortunate Borrowed Views

This honeysuckle blooms almost all summer. This summer, as hot and dry as it was, did it no favors. I have trimmed it back and tied it up hoping that by next July it will send out as much growth as I trimmed off, hiding this peeling spot on my neighbor's house.

Also, one of the reasons I mounted my two newly green apple painted trellis high on the fence!

One of the things I noticed this summer on some of the garden walks I went on was a sort of property line myopia. The gardener would spend a lot of time thinking through plant combos only to have them backed by a neighbor'a trash cans, dog kennel, or clothesline.

Garden Angst: The Front Yard in Mid-July, 2012

I'm fairly happy with the front yard. There also a wide swath of pumpkin-colored daylilies in the hellstrip making it feel sort of like a three ring circus in mid-July.

In my front yard and typically the first impression visitors have of my garden is hostas. When the Master gardeners visited, their first comment was, "Oh, you're into hosta." To which I had to reply, that I really wasn't, but grass just doesn't grow there under the big white pine and in the shade of the houses on the north side of my house, in the sand.

Where I have a bit more sun I try and grow daylilies, because they will bloom in the sun, or shade; but really all of you reading this, you are short-changing the beauty of the daylilies by growing them in the shade. The corner with the 'Red Jade' crab is the farthest point from my hose connection. It is the hardest to water.

As my lot has street and alley on three sides, my gardening has always been about problem solving, defining the perimeter, and adding privacy.

This little spot looks a lot better in spring and fall. The color combos with sedum 'Matrona', the blue balllon flowers, coneflowers, filapendula, valerian, black Austrina pine just seems very dark. There's an apricot tree here, too, you can't see. I think the plants there probably aren't going anywhere, but there must be a way to "lighten it up". Anyone?

This is the long border, which I have been re-digging the last few days. As you can see the middle of July is definitely a down time for the long border. At one point, it had waves upon waves of bloom. Now the show is early spring and then late summer and early fall. I'm not sure what happened.

I painted the two trellis in this area green apple and have planted a lot more liatris as they bloom then. This just seems a sea of green and I am loath to plant out bedding annuals for a shot of color. It seems like I need some sort of broad, large leaved plant for some sort of focal point. I've thought of doing a swath of native beebalm and Jacob Kline mixed and have already divided and spread out a pale yellow daylily. (This is the area in my last post with the shovel stuck in it!)

Thoughts?

Help! 314 Days and Counting...

(What the garden needed more than anything else this summer was moisture.)

Next July 13 (2013), I am going to be a basket case. I know it. A couple Mondays ago, the county Master Gardeners (well,not all of them, a committee of them) "toured" my yard. Someone had dropped a bug in their ear about my tiny home garden. I don't suppose they said anything about how TINY it is, or that I have A DOG, or, WEEDS! Someone who typically sees my front yard, where I make a much bigger effort to keep up "appearances".

Irregardless of its (MY) shortcomings, their committee at large met and discussed among themselves and had their secretary or sunshine lady or whatever, maybe the "garden chairperson" send me a cute little note and thank you. Because I have so many unusual plants, fruits, tree, etc., "...our guests will enjoy learning of them," she wrote. "More info to come..."

Eek!

Time to put up, or shut up. I critiqued a lot of area gardens this summer, and didn't spend a lot of time in mine. Now the veggie garden, that's a thing of beauty.

My home garden?

I figure I need the whole 10 1/2 months to get this garden walk thing done.

Really?

Yes, REALLY!!!

You see I just don't accessorize. There are a dozen projects unfinished. My fence, I have been working on staining it for THREE years.

(No that's not where I have decided to plant the 'Golden Shadows' dogwood. It is just sitting there in its pot!)

It is only 120 feet long. AND the weeds!

This last spring for Handsome Son's graduation party, I simply mulched HEAVY. And then it rained for three days and pretty much everyone was inside anyway. That was nearly the last time it rained. So this year, because of the endless stretch of days over 95 and no rain, I stood with a hose and going around the yard with an automatic sprinkler.

I certainly didn't weed. I didn't even trim a lot of the shrubs back because I didn't want to stress them (ME) out.

And as I walk around the yard, I notice it is 102 on my outdoor thermometer. Still. Okay, granted it is on the south side of my house, and it is no where near as humid as it has been this summer; it is still hot.

Frankly, I have spent a lot of time at the family vegetable garden and with Baby Gardener and the Twins, teaching summer school, and getting Handsome Son ready for college this summer.

About two weeks ago,I actually walked around the yard thinking if all the summers to come are more like this, how do I dryscape this? Yes, I had green grass, but I also acquired a small patch of creeping Charlie, and even the gravel scree garden was having a hard time in the heat. The Annabelle hydrangeas on the east side of the house actually roasted out and burnt, regardless that I kept them watered.

Several patches of plantain and turkey foot and pigeon grass would like to crowd out the fescue.

Okay. I didn't like the federal park dark green I painted all my metal chairs right before graduation and have opted to do two over in this nice green apple.

And I do have a couple nice pots like this and an unusual planter (which I have never actually planted).

So all of you garden walking people, what do you like to see (or don't like to see) when you visit a garden featured on a garden walk?

You artsy folk out there, what are some of nicer and cleverer (cheap) ways to accessorize a garden?

I'd also like to incorporate a solar-powered water feature, too; nothing grand, just the calming sound and splash of gurgling water.

I'm taking suggestions on everything garden walk-related for the next 300 days or so, and unfortunately you are all going to be exposed to my garden angst as I throw out small sections of my garden for your critique.

Have at it!

Simple Sunday

A cheery bouquet of zinnias from the family garden.