Category Archives: spring

April 1, 2012 · 2:53 am

YUMMY SPRING

I love the progression of Spring.

Each week brings some new spectacular blooms

The colors are so bright – so clear.

The weather allows me to spend hours in the garden

Soaking it all in.

Nothing renews me like the slow progression

of my garden emerging from the earth

or the cracks in the patio bricks.

Slow progression.

Not this year.

It’s as if John Phillip Sousa has come back to town

and is conducting a fast march through the season.

I was planning on writing about a single plant this week

Wisteria

Early in the week I was drooling over my wisteria.

Driving around town taking pictures of wisteria all over town.

Gay discovered this one in our neighborhood.

It’s at least 30 feet high and has attached itself to a tree row between 2 houses.

Then Debra’s gift of OSU tulips began to open as a nice buttery yellow

and ended the week a great orange.

Next the Parrot Tulip Blumex began to open

and open.

I can’t stop taking pictures of them.

It’s all happening way to fast.

After all it’s only the 31st of March.

Roses are budding

actually the first bloomed TODAY!

Iris are also on the fast track with lots of buds popping up.

But the most breathtaking gift of the day is my

Japanese Tree Peony

You may remember it from last year.

Bought it at least 10 years ago.

Tiny, expensive root it was.

Transplanted to two different gardens.

Accidentally sliced it in half at one point.

Waited patiently – most of the time.

This year it has 14 giant buds.

They open at night

So on a spring morning I am surprised .

This morning I was as my mother would say “flabbergasted”

SIX blooms the size of my hand

Absolutely yummy.

Since it’s so very warm I’ve put my green market umbrella over it

To give it shade.

Because the blooms don’t last long.

So…if you want to bask in its glory.

Better come tomorrow!

Gail

A Re-generating Tree

When we bought this house almost 8 years ago

The backyard had been the domain of one very large labrador retriever

He wasn’t much of a gardener.

More like a plant eater.

As a result there was very little here.

A few straggly bushes of unknown lineage.

Giant arbavidae hedges on the east edge

and dissecting the backyard.

All of these are now history.

But there was one mature Eastern Redbud.

It’s probably 50 – maybe 60 years old.

It’s tall and stately.

Providing shade near the garden house.

It is sadly nearing the end of it’s natural life.

Each spring for the past 3 or so years fewer and fewer branches leaf out.

Big chunks seem to die each winter.

It litters the ground with branches each time the wind blows.

Now, you need to know that we love Redbud trees.

John has planted 6 since we moved into this house.

Knowing that we will not likely see them reach maturity.

Much like whoever planted the original one.

But every spring when they bloom

John seems to find another spot just perfect for a Redbud.

There’s some history for this love in my family.

I remember my parent giving Redbud saplings

As an official gift since it is the official state tree.

They are native here and grow wild along creek and river beds.

Look as you travel the interstates and backroads over the next few weeks.

They are blooming wildly now.

So… back to my dying backyard Redbud.

Just as the big chunks began to die

We noticed a sucker coming from the base of the tree.

The next spring…a few more.

Now, they are almost as tall as I am

Recently I’ve noticed blossoms along the main branches

New life.

Imagine giving birth at 60!

We are coddling this new growth

In hopes that the intersection of death and new life

Will fill the void.

As is often the case this cycle repeats itself in nature

And in life.

Endings mark new beginnings.

And so it will be with our Redbud tree.

We hope.

Gail

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Filed under Garden House, Redbud Trees, spring, Uncategorized

December 2, 2011 · 2:11 am

Good Night Garden

We’ve come to the end of the season.

True, I’ll likely find a way to spend some hours puttering away over the next few months.

But for the most part gardening season is over.

There are a few end of the year tasks that create the ritual I call

“Putting the garden to bed.”

In the perfect garden universe

I would have time to do a complete weeding sweep through the garden.

Ha!

Next would come a car load of manure

15 or 20 bags.

I’d cover the crown of each and every rose bush.

Providing winter warmth and slow release fertilizer.

The reward is new spring growth from the roots.

Hydrangea, Hosta and Hardy Hibiscus all get a good dose as well.

Next comes a “blanket” of leaves.

Remember the leaf rule.

Never…never…never put them on the curb.

Instead of raking them up

Mow them up.

This chops them into a perfect winter mulch for

Everything!

John did this for me this fall as he mowed his fescue.

Makes sense

Fescue is a shade grass so the leaves fall …on the fescue.

What a gift this was.

Thank you John.

Cassidy & William helped too!

It’s also a good time for review.

I often make notes of what did and didn’t work.

What I’ve learned

How I’ll do it differently next time.

But this year the review feels more like

“What I learned during my 1st season of blogging.”

Technically, I’ve learned a lot – though I’ve got miles to go.

I think most of what I’ve learned is about myself.

For instance over Memorial Day I wrote of garden mentors.

About the “gumption” my mother gave me for gardening and for life.

What an incredible gift.

Courage to try everything.

She never read the instructions to anything.

I’m guilty of the same.

Just jump in and see where it takes you.

I’ve also learned that I have a low threshold for “weather whining”.

I know

This is an historically bad weather year in about 9 different categories.

But really, folks.

Get over it.

I couldn’t end this first season without thanking many people.

So many of you have been encouraging with your compliments.

I love life in a small town.

It suits me.

Running into you around town

Sharing stories of our gardens

And our lives.

It warms my soul.

You may recall that I began blogging at the suggestion of a friend.

Amy grew up next door.

I’ve known her almost her entire life.

Recently, she came to lunch.

No longer the child I’ve watched grow.

She is a woman…wife…mother.

We have much in common as women.

We had lunch in the garden house.

Sharing stories of our current lives

And memories of her mother, Patti.

Thanks Amy, for the idea

And the encouragement.

And the friendship.

So…this will wrap up the first season of “In My Garden…tales from deep in my soil.”

I’ll be back in late winter.

Till then know that I’ve all ready seen the hope of spring.

Larkspur is sprouting everywhere!

Take care,

Gail

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Filed under Compost, Garden House, Garden Planning, Gardening, Gardening Mentors, Hardy Hibiscus, Hosta, Hydrangea, Larkspur, roses, spring, Uncategorized

August 26, 2011 · 12:51 pm

PLANTING HOPE

Last week we talked tulips

Glorious tulips

Now lets see what else we can find to bury this fall.

Daffodils are just about the happiest flower there is.

They will often begin poking their noses out of the ground before Christmas.

Some years they even bloom by Valentines – more often in early March.

My favorite is a solid yellow called King Alfred.

It’s the traditional large cupped solid yellow.

There are hundreds of varieties, but I must confess to only planting this one kind.

Don’t let that stop you from finding your own favorite.

Daffodils are more perennial than tulips.

King Alfred edging the garden in late winter

Which is good since they cost more.

Another standard for me is Dutch Iris.

You might recognize them as a standard in florist bouquets.

Dutch Iris "Delft Blue"

They are a smaller bulb, don’t require much space and easy to plant.

One of my real favorites is the tiny bulb and bloom of the Grape Hyacinths.

They bloom early and long.

They are wonderful at edges.

I’ve lined much of the path of my garden with them.

Grape Hyacinths along the brick path

I’ve also scattered them on my one little “hill” and let them roll down to the edge.

Grape Hyacinths and vinca minor on the "hill".

And best of all they are pretty cheap!

The other bulbs I order this time of year are lilies.

Asiatic, Oriental and Trumpet

I love them all.

This year I’ve found a semi-shady place to add lots of Oriental lilies.

So I’m buying a mix of pinks and creams and whites.

Stargazer - a staple Oriental Lily

Mixes generally save you a little money, but you don’t get to pick the colors.

I’m also adding Oriental Lily Golden Star to the yellow Orientals I all ready have.

I’ve also found Trumpet Lily African Queen.

I saw this melon colored beauty in a magazine and tracked it down.

Now…no bulb order would be complete without Amaryllis.

You will know them as the fantastic flowers forced into bloom at Christmas.

My favorite is the Hybrid Dutch Amaryllis.

The pink and white Apple Blossom is glorious.

Apple Blossom Amaryllis

A fairly new Black Pearl is a most dramatic dark red.

Black Pearly Amaryllis

Actually, there isn’t a bad color of Amaryllis.

They are monster bulbs fitting snuggly into a 6 ” pot.

Forcing Amaryllis for Christmas in the garden house.

Where do these bulbs come from?

How many do you order?

How do you know a good bulb?

How do you plant all of this stuff?

We’ll save the last question till time to plant.

Which for me is in November.

Suffice it to say it’s good to have friends in November.

Let’s tackle the rest.

Where to get bulbs?

You’ll find them at garden centers, nurseries and stores that add seasonal greenhouses.

Along with all kinds of catalogs and websites.

I find them well…everywhere.

I will tell you though I don’t like the pre-packaged bags of bulbs.

Though my friend Debra literally grabbed a bunch of these last fall

Through them into the ground.

And had glorious bulbs.

But, I like to pick out each one to make sure that it is firm, has no sign of mold, and most importantly, big.

The bigger the bulb the bigger the bloom.

It’s just that simple.

Though I do my best to support local merchants I do have to confess to being a little picky about the colors I want.

So for that reason I do order from catalogs.

My long time favorite is a company called k. van Bourgondien.

I have found their selection to be very good – to the point it takes me a week to figure it all out.

I also think their quality is excellent and reliable.

Their prices are fair.

As for quantities.

Well…this is my weak point

I always over buy

But I always get them planted

With Megan’s help.

Here are a few guidelines

But remember – it’s just my own opinion

Which is worth exactly what you are paying for it here in the blogosphere!

With the exception of grape hyacinths and other tiny bulbs I never plant in rows.

I dig – rather Megan digs – big oval-shaped holes.

In them we plant odd numbers of bulbs

Daffodils & Dutch Iris – 5 or 7 or 9

Tulips – 9 or 11 or 15

Lily bulbs are bigger and need a bit more space 3 or 5 per hole.

So…that gives you a guideline.

You can measure and multiply and see how much trouble you can get into.

We’ll cover more planting information come fall.

This should get you in over your head.

But come spring you’ll be so glad you took the time to plan ahead

I think of it as planting hope!

Gail

Hope !

3 Comments

Filed under Amaryllis, Daffodils, Dutch Iris, Grape Hyacinths, Oriental Lilies, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips

August 19, 2011 · 9:20 pm

PLANNING AHEAD

One of the things I love about gardening is planning.

Thinking ahead.

OK…dreaming.

After all, the soul of gardening is that you always get another chance.

It’s forgiving.

There will be another new season.

Giving me a new beginning.

That’s where the planning comes in.

Late summer’s planning ritual is actually for spring.

Spring Flowering Bulbs!

What kind?

What colors?

Repeat last years?

Do something totally new?

Where to begin?

For me I begin with a review of last year.

And hopefully some notes I took on what worked and what didn’t.

But…not this year – not a single word about last spring can be found.

That leaves my memory – HA!

I do remember thinking I loved the mix of colors last year.

But I wanted the tulips in front to be an earlier blooming variety.

This is the only bed where I pant annuals for consistent summer color.

It’s a small bed so I’m OK with only annuals – otherwise I’m a perennial girl you know.

I want the tulips there to bloom early and be gone by mid April so I can get the annuals going.

Last year I planted a Darwin Hybrid Impression Mix that my friend Mary spotted in the catalog.

Darwin Hybrid Impression Tulip Mix

They have the great huge blooms I’ve love, but they lingered longer than I would like.

So this year I’m switching to a earlier blooming Triumph Tulip Mix for the front only.

I know the blooms will be smaller but I’m going to give it a try.

Since building the garden house I have focused my tulips in the back on the path leading up to it.

Tip toe through the tulips!

For years I planted what I called “the Easter Egg” tulips.

Pink Impression, Golden Impression, Menton, Ivory Floradale and Negrita.

Darwin Hybrids Impression Tulips Golden Apeldoorn, Pink Impression, Negrita, Ivory Floradale

Pink, Yellow, Salmon Pink, White and Purple.

Most of these are Darwin Hybrid Tulips.

More than 2 feet tall with huge blooms and clear solid colors.

But last year I strayed from this pattern.

I planted a mix of bi-colors and solids.

They also had staggered bloom times which meant they bloomed off and on for a month.

So this year I have ordered a few of each of the following tulips:

Pastel Mayflowering Mix, Scheeper’s Sports Mix, Lefeber Hybrid El Nino, Darwin Hybrid Jaap Groot, Ollioules and Pink Impression – in my opinion the best tulip God and Holland created!

I’m also trying a lime green Triumph Tulip called Evergreen.

And I always plant a few Parrot Tulips in another location.

They bloom later and their ruffled petals feel like leather.

Parrot Tulip Blumex - try a few

Different – dramatic – wonderful!

Why so much tulip talk?

They are after all in most places an annual.

They rot easily in beds that get watered all summer.

For me they are the good news.

Though Hellebores, Crocus and Daffodils all proceed them

Their appearance tells me that gardening season is on its way.

And that makes me happy – deep down inside happy.

If I’ve learned anything over these decades it’s to treat yourself to things that make you truly happy.

Family…friends…nature…good conversation…the ocean…tulips.

Next week we’ll cover the rest, but for now…dream tulips!

Gail

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Filed under Garden House, Gardening, spring, tulips, Uncategorized

April 3, 2011 · 10:55 pm

We’re off….

What a glorious weekend!

Clear skies – warm sunshine – a little breezy – couldn’t be better.

So…out to the garden I went.

It’s hard to know where to start at this time of year – there is so much I have been wanting to do.

It used to be that I made a list of what I wanted to accomplish in my garden each weekend.

I let my weekends be an extension of my week – making list – crossing things off – getting “the work” done.

But last year I tried to let go of that.

I would simply walk into my garden and do what I wanted – what spoke to me.

Now…I’m not saying I’m totally cured of the drive to “get it done”, but I’m getting better.

This is fun after all! Play if you will!

So what spoke to me first were my dreadful looking Belinda’s Dream roses.

I gathered my pruners, lopers, long rose gloves into my wheel barrow and headed out to the

fence to cut away all the dead.

Well, the wheel barrow was a dream.

I quickly returned to get the big poly cart that we have from the city.

They pick them up and compost everything in them.

So, I put things into these carts that I don’t want to compost at home.

Thorny things, sticks and weeds for the most part.

I’m proud of this little city on the prairie for composting our yard trash.

Anyway, I cut away all of the dead.

Winter kill on Belinda’s Dream Belinda after cutting away the dead canes.

You have to be careful when you do this making sure that you are not cutting away anything that is still alive.

But you can’t be timid, either.

Getting the dead off plants is a basic tenet of gardening.

Don’t ask the roots and plant to support non-productive grown – it will be, well, non-productive!

The whole weekend reminded me of the radio interview I heard last spring with author Elizabeth Murray.

Elizabeth was the first woman to garden at Giverney – Monet’s home, garden and inspiration for much of his painting.

She was entrusted with cutting back the roses that spring and if I remember correctly it hadn’t been done in a while.

She described the process ending in mountains of dead rose canes.

What courage!

A young woman – a foreigner no less – and we aren’t talking about just anyone’s backyard.

She’s at Monet’s house!

Well, my afternoon wasn’t quite that exciting but I did remove lots of dead wood.

Next I pulled back the winter protection of leaves and manure.

Then came the much awaited drink of Epsom salt water.

Add about a fistful to a gallon of water and pour it slowly over the crown – that’s the center of the plant.

The good news is that the new growth all seems to be coming from above the graph.

So it looks like I’ll still have pink roses rather than the red I feared.

Sorry Daddy.

It’s also tulip time around here.

So here’s a little photo journey around the neighborhood.

Beginning with the beginning….

Nov. 2010 Megandigging holes for this week’s delight!

This would be the week to drop by if you’re in town, Megan.

I’ve also included a picture of a field of canola in full bloom.

Though this is still wheat country more and more farmers are trying canola.

It supplies us with fields of “sunshine” this time of year.

Quarter sections of land daffodil yellow…..ah spring!

One last word.

It’s warm today and makes you want to plant annuals.

Try to restrain yourself.

Remember not only does the air have to warm up, but also the soil.

So if you must plant something plant things that love cold – not heat.

Things like more pansies or violas or alyssum.

Wait another week or so for the other annuals.

A little housekeeping.

Some have asked how to subscribe.

There’s a place at the top of this post to subscribe by filling in your email address.

You’ll then receive and email with a link to click on to confirm the subscription.

That should do it.

Also, I’m aware that the captions under the pictures are at best goofy.

I’m trying to figure that out – obviously with little success so far.

Enjoy the week and the wisdom that nature is waiting to give you.

Gail

3 Comments

Filed under Gardening, roses, spring, tulips

March 27, 2011 · 10:17 pm

False Starts and Tiny Pleasures

I have come to think of spring as a parade.

From the time the first crocus pops out of the ground it’s as if color is marching into town.

Hellebores, Daffodils, Forsythia, Quince, Hyacinths, Bradford Pear trees, Redbud trees, Flowering Crabapples, Tulips and on and on…….

Then there are days like Saturday.

It’s cold, it’s cloudy… IT’S MARCH ….I keep forgetting that!

And so the weekday evenings I spent picking up leaves and dreaming of the things I would do this weekend were well just that – dreams.

False starts – they can really mess with your head if you let them.

So, I’m writing this from inside my garden house looking out onto all that potential.

Reveling in the tiny pleasures.

Grape hyacinths

with pansies

and violas keeping them company along the path to the garden house.

The Red Bud and Crabapple trees in glorious bloom on Cleveland just north of the railroad tracks.
What I’m most concerned about this week are my Belinda’s Dream roses.

I have over a dozen of them strung throughout my backyard garden and along the fence on the east side of my yard.

With the exception of the three I planted new last year ALL are 90% dead to the ground I think.

I’ve not pulled the manure back – waiting for this last cold spell to pass – but it looks like the green is from the bottom of the plant.

So…I did what every good gardener does….call a fellow gardener.

Kelly – my neighbor and friend – lives just down the block.

Kelly knows roses. She’s taught me much of what I know on the subject.

She’s always a comfort at times like this….until today.

When I called and told my sad tale she said that she has one rose that has done the same thing.

Her question is…well…frightening.

If they come back from the root will they be my beloved Belinda’s Dream or the unknown rootstalk!

That thought had never occurred to me. I could have a garden of perish the thought RED roses!

Daddy must be laughing right now.

He always told me that RED was the only color of roses that God created.

The rest are an unfortunate intervention of human kind.

So now the great waiting game begins.

When the weather warms up I’ll cut off the dead – pull back the manure and give them that drink of epsom salts that I mentioned last week.

Then I’ll wait.

There’s a lesson in this somewhere.

I’m guessing it goes something like…..

You can fiddle with nature.

You can likely get away with it for sometime.

But in the end we are not in control.

It’s nature….God is not only in the details….he’s in control.

Much better hands than mine.

Be patient…Spring really is just around the corner.

Gail

1 Comment

Filed under patience, roses, spring

Category Archives: spring

YUMMY SPRING

A Re-generating Tree

Good Night Garden

PLANTING HOPE

PLANNING AHEAD

We’re off….

False Starts and Tiny Pleasures

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