Ta-daa! The front bed is done. Oh, I know it doesn’t look like much now – I had to buy tiny bushes, due to financial considerations (welcome to the blue-collar garden), and the hosta and sedum were stressed by the transplanting. But, ah! imagination is a wonderful thing! Imagine with me now a bright and cheery winter scene, full of life: the green and white of the variegated boxwood, the purple of bugleweed, the peachy glow of an unnamed arborvita, along with the dark prickly green of dwarf alberta spruce, the spikey green of liliturf, and the dark glossy green of rhododendron, plus the glowing silver of lamb’s ear. Lovely! Then, in the spring, highlighting all these shades, happy daffodils will pop up, followed by purple spikes of bugleweed, pink dianthus, and lavender rhodies. In the summer, besides a sea of annuals, there will be stella d’oro daylilies and later, purple spikes of liriope and fragrant, lily-shaped hosta flowers. Come autumn, white montauk daisy, purple asters, and pink sedum turning burgundy will take us into the cool months, and back to the many shades of winter! All the while my bushes will grow larger, covering the ucky porch supports, and the bugleweed will fill out, providing a blanket of protection against grass and weeds and giving me a mosaic of year-round color. When the snow melted in April... Of course, I prefer NOT to imagine the likelihood of further disturbance from voles (I will be poisoning all winter! Argh!), the regrowth of grass I undoubtedly missed, and the probability that the sunnier side will grow larger than the shadier side, making my garden lopsided. No, I imagine the perfect garden – and that’s what gets me out there, month after month, year after year, the pursuit of the perfect garden. Good thing the joy is in the journey!
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Have any of you ever had a garden that was completely over-run, but was just too visible to mow down and give up on? As you may have read in Part 1 or Part 1 1/2, the front of our house is just such a garden. First, everything had to be pulled out (except the rhodies). I wanted to get ALL the roots of the grasses and the failed groundcover out, in order to start fresh. I had tried sweet woodruff, which I love – so pretty and fragrant, and it stays green until long into winter – but it simply is not dense enough to discourage weeds. In fact, they've gotten along quite famously. So out came my former ground cover attempts - the sweet woodruff, the black plastic, the large chunks of pine bark mulch - along with weeds - grass, galisonga, and greater celandine, among others. I dug up all the hosta, intending to return a portion of it and move the rest to another bed. I didn’t have the heart to trash my sickly azaleas, so I moved them to the north side of the house (the next garden that needs revisiting! But that will wait until spring). It took a lot of work to dig out all the roots (I’m sure we missed plenty,) and then extend the bed another two feet, pulling up the sod. I took my son’s advice; on paper a six foot wide garden looked great – it duplicated the dimensions of the porch very geometrically. But he noticed as I began to cut it out that it allowed for very little walking space before the hill sloped off. (Sometimes we need to be humble and accept the advice of chronic nay-sayers, because occasionally they’re right. It is also important to let the children have some say in the work they are forced to be involved with – it becomes more of their project that way, and they often end up enjoying themselves when Mom asks their advice and takes it.) It was actually fun digging up the sod, because we got a good system – one would use the shovel to cut along the base of the roots, and the other would roll it up like a carpet! They enjoyed that. (We then shook off the dirt so as to not waste good Bucks County soil.) The next step was to cut the edge for the edging and insert it. A wise old landscaper suggested I nail the edging into the dirt with really long nails, to prevent it from heaving with the frost. Good idea, and fun, too. Angela became the expert hammerer. So we had a bit of a system: Teresa and Christina got the ditch ready, I held the formerly tightly-rolled lining in the desired position, and Angela hammered. This took several hours’ work, so the actual planting had to wait for another day. When all this was done, everyone got a candy cane! (Yes, well, we hardly eat candy in our house, and a package of Christmas candy canes can last a few years! They are a treat indeed.) I received the nicest complement the other day! The president of our local garden club, whom I had not previously met, came to my house with her husband who was delivering mulch. She got out of the truck to ask me the names of a few plants, then exclaimed, "Look at your flowers! Except for the fallen leaves, it looks like spring!" Well, I was flattered, considering the source. It made me realize that I am still looking at my gardens for what they are missing, rather than appreciating what they have. I do think I have made some good decisions, and I am working on a few more to make the gardens even nicer, in every season. But I am happy with them. Yet, alas, the time of color is winding down, after two good frosts the last two nights. My patio gardens still look much as they do in these pictures, but I have lost some of the flowers I had intended to post as still hanging on late in autumn! So I ran out and collected what color was left, to enjoy a few last bouquets. They aren't perfect, and I do not claim to be an expert, but they are the last bouquets of the season, making them all the more precious to me! The theme for this little bouquet is old garden favorites, those that you might find in your grandmother's garden - old roses, lavender, salvia, and snapdragon, with a touch of dill and yellowing asparagus ferns for interest. I put it right next to the sofa so we can enjoy its last perfume! This is such a cheery little bouquet that the picture doesn't do it justice! The calendula came back with abandon when the cool weather returned, begging my forgiveness for being so rude and absent during the grueling summer. I forgive them. By evening they had all turned their repentant faces up to show us their cheery centers. And don't you love the little maple? It was growing where I would have pulled it anyway, so I added it to the bouquet. And finally, my 'kitchen sink' bouquet. This has everything else in it. It's much prettier in person, with each flower standing out and giving its last hurrah. One lonely cosmos, a lovely forget-me-not, and a monch aster snuggle in with dill, globe amaranth, calendula, silene, statice, blueberry branches, red wild amaranth, and another volunteer maple tree. If you look closely, in the right-hand calendula, you'll see a desperate honeybee that visited the bouquet within seconds of my setting it down! Well, all things must rest. "For everything there is a season." Although I do not like the cold, I have put in a number of plants that should give me at least a hint of color through the winter, to hold me until the spring colors return! Just a quick note to the nice visitors who comment - I love to hear from you! Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to easily respond! All I've figured out is to actually go to my site and comment on my own blog, then go back to my email and approve my own message! I've done it once or twice, but it's very time consuming. Hopefully the powers that be at weebly will either tell me an easier way, or improve their program. In the meantime, please keep commenting!
Dave at The Home Garden has a great project going: bloggers post pictures of autumn in their area, send him the link, and he posts them so people can see autumn all around the country - even the world! (northern hemisphere, anyway!) I think Southeastern Pennsylvania can hold its head high when it comes to autumn color. These pictures are from a couple weeks ago, before the peak - I've seen amazing views since, but I've been driving! Ah well, there's always next year! These shots are all around Lake Nockamixon. This is what I caught with my dinky little one-step, so imagine how much better it was in real life! As I drove around the last couple of weeks, running my children around and doing my errands, I swooned at many beautiful sights, wishing I had my camera. But one beautiful day last week, when I had a chance to work in the yard, I looked back behind my own house and saw beautiful scenes literally right in my own back yard! Funny how sometimes we look for beauty farther away, and forget to look close to home? I think there's a life lesson in this... Walk with me back through the yard and field as I pan around the tree line, focusing on a few spots and ending with a distant barn... I hope this wasn't too long! I enjoyed it so much that I am going to do another, with close-ups on the beautiful flowers autumn is still giving me in my gardens. (Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening just did this, and it was lovely!) It is a bittersweet season, since it ends in gray and cold, unlike spring which ends in green and warmth. But this project has helped me focus more on what this beautiful season offers than what it does not. Happy Autumn!
Just a little note to encourage people to check out my oldest daughter's blog! She is spending the semester in Rome, and has been posting some neat things. She is artistic and philosophical, and has a terrific writing style. Check out what she has to say about Rome, scorpions, and life at her blog, Art, Truth, Crime, and Me. Well, the gardens are not always wonder and awe for my children, because sometimes I have to conscript them to help me! This past week, when I started digging up the front gardens, I called the girls out to help me. Though none was thrilled with the idea, they all came out, but with differing levels of acceptance. "How long do we have to stay out here? What do you want me to do? Can I take a break? I have to get ready to go out soon! Look, now it’s going to take me so much longer because I’ll have to do my nails over! I don’t even know if I can get the dirt out from under them!" Most of the complaints came from the same indentured servant, after which I announced, "The more you complain, the longer you stay out here!" And I did it, too. The youngest wasn’t really able to do much, but she tried. (Why is it that the most willing are usually the ones least able to do much?) She got an early break. The next two were silent after my announcement and diligently completed some important jobs. They were dismissed after about an hour. The fourth stayed for a good hour longer, until she had gotten the point. I mean what I say. Help around the house. They have inside chores, but they need to help outside sometimes, too. All play and no work makes a spoiled child, and if my children act spoiled or whiney, they get more work. (If they complain about dinner, they get more dinner! They’ve learned not to complain…) We recently watched the absolutely beautiful and moving film, Captains Courageous, made in 1937 (Spencer Tracy got an Oscar). That was one spoiled boy in that movie! Good hard work is what turned him around, and the satisfaction of a job well done. This, too, is something that I want to teach my children. Not only will they experience awe and wonder at the beautiful world, but grow in maturity as well. We can learn great lessons from the soil. This is an embarrassing picture - ugh We have begun the renovation of the front of the house! I have struggled with this garden for twenty years. Pestered by a truly pernicious grass infestation, soil that is not acid enough for the azaleas and rhododendrons I planted years ago, old and broken concrete and an unattractive porch, and the fact that it does not point quite due east, so one side gets full sun and the other shade, has made this a most challenging garden. Not to mention the voles! Ugh! I hope I am not setting myself up for more disappointment, but I am trying again. This time I think I’ve learned enough over the years to get it right. I finally gave up on the garden on the hill this spring, pulling up all the plants that gave the voles cover and a 24-hour buffet. I have determined to put edging between the garden and the grass, to slow down its approach. Since I am overwhelmed with the lovely but excessively eager lamb’s ear in a different bed, I am transplanting some to either side of the steps down to the mailbox, and on the sides of the porch. I certainly won’t have to worry about weeds when that fills in! Which will be by next year! I’m tearing out the azalea that are so sick they are growing lichen. Boo hoo, they are so pretty when they bloom, but the rest of the year they look pretty terrible. I’m going to give the rhodies a little more time to prove themselves, since they’re not as bad. The monster-plant I will chop nearly to the ground! If it dies, I won’t mourn it, but I don’t think I will have such luck. Next year, as it comes back cheerfully (some might say spitefully) I will try to shape it to my will! And I have chosen some evergreen bushes of various shapes, daffodil bulbs (voles don’t like them) and several perennial flowers to fill in the front. It’ll be a good start. Over the winter I’ll evaluate for color in the different seasons, but at least it will be attractive during the winter. I want only no-fuss plants out front, since I never go out there and usually forget about it. I’ll keep you posted, and I hope it gives you some good ideas about your own garden! We have examined the nutrition in amaranth seed, but the leaf is also a highly nutritious alternative to domestic greens. As with trying to compare the nutrients in amaranth seed to other grains, I found many sources but few matched perfectly. Nonetheless, the evidence indicates that amaranth leaves are as nutritious as our most nutritious domestic greens, and more nutritious than most of what we eat. I compared the leaves of the lowly amaranth weed that grows in our gardens and along the roadsides to the cultivated spinach, swiss chard, kale, and romaine lettuce. Of the five, kale proved to be the real superfood, and romaine the distant loser, but amaranth leaves were superior to spinach and swiss chard in a number of areas. Comparing the numbers for the raw vegetables, amaranth has twice the calcium as spinach and three times as much as swiss chard. Iron, phosphorus, and B-6 are similar in all three, although spinach edges out slightly ahead in iron, but amaranth wins in the categories of potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin K. The only nutrient in which amaranth runs last is in vitamin A, but it still provides a full day’s supply. The numbers for the cooked greens show similar ratios to the raw, and who needs to read a million numbers? I think the point is clear. If we replaced some of our romaine in our salads with freshly picked amaranth leaves, we would be dramatically increasing the nutrients in our salads, and serving a mixture of spinach and amaranth would increase the nutrition of the greens. (But I must say, this research will have me serving more kale! I have had Russian kale volunteering itself all over my gardens since I first planted it years ago. I love it, as does my youngest, who rips it out of the garden and chomps on it like candy, but the rest of the family has mixed feelings about it. Yet it was significantly higher than the other greens in every nutrient I checked, except for B-6. So amaranth leaves and kale will be gracing our table more often!) primary source: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ Today's collection, still in the bucket The autumn garden is still providing lots of bouquets – smaller, perhaps, and every week there are fewer varieties, but one can still find plenty of blossoms. But, ask yourself, how do the gardens look? Vibrant and colorful, or sad and struggling? Well, I admit, most of mine are the latter. So, now is the best time to evaluate! Then we’ll have winter to research, and spring to plant. Here’s what I’m doing. First, I’m taking pictures of every garden. I already have garden maps, laid out on grid paper (which are particularly handy when I need to remember where I put dormant bulbs!), which will help me as I plan, but if you do not, now’s the time, before the plants disappear. I am also looking at gardens as I drive around. What looks good? What doesn’t? Not surprisingly, few people have particularly nice gardens. Most people just stuff some newly-purchased mums in a row like soldiers, and think that looks nice. Well, better than weeds, but I prefer a more natural look. Some people have nice BIG mums, which grew throughout the summer and are cascading onto the lawn and walk. Now THAT looks cool! (Nonetheless, mums should be cut back in the summer to control their growth and delay blooming until fall.) Some annuals still look nice, as well – impatiens, marigolds, alyssum… but few people have taken the time to really design beautiful autumn gardens. That’s what I hope to create. So, now I am beginning the research, which will continue into the winter. Some bushes I intend to remove this fall, and some I decided on over the summer will be put in. I WILL make the front of the house look nice this fall! But most of my new garden decisions will take place over the gray winter months, bringing color into my heart during a generally drab season. But for now, I still have flowers to play with! (Click on the pictures to see them larger.) These are the bouquets I made with today’s collection: with one I went with a cool color theme, and with the other I used warm shades. I am of the philosophy that, like a story or a poem, a bouquet should have a plan and purpose, but also an unexpected element. In the cool bouquet, I have added touches of red to create spark, and sprigs of the silver foliage of lavender. For the warm bouquet, several old sunflower seed heads add an unexpected twist. Flower arranging is so much fun!
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AuthorWelcome to Growing Goodness! This website is dedicated to growing good things, both plants and children. It's a gardening blog with maternal overtones, as I discuss the goodness and value of plants, both wild and domestic. In the process I hope to help you pass a love of nature on to your children. Happy Gardening! Archives
August 2011
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