Category Archives: Uncategorized

October 4, 2015 · 11:48 pm

NEW DAHLIAS

I remember the exact moment I discovered Dahlias.

It was at the wedding of a friend’s daughter

About this time of year.

The arrangements at the backyard reception

Were breathtaking.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

For years I’ve bought from the same supplier.

Mostly solid colors

Mostly dinner plate Dahlias.

Aptly named for their gigantic blooms.

But this year.

When the Redbud tree died

Late in the spring

Creating a new sunny space.

I decided to branch out

And try some new varieties.

Sometimes wandering away from old friends

Is difficult.

Chancy really.

But I’m so glad I did.

I ordered from Swan Island Dahlias.

Found them at that great gardening place…Google!

They have an open house in September

When their fields are in full bloom.

Must put attending on my bucket list.

So here are a few of my new friends.

Swan’s Sunset

Freckle Face

Gabriele Marie

Excentric

Bahama Mama

Coco spent the days

Of this glorious weekend

Looking for a bunny.

This dog allegedly has a great nose.

But not this weekend.

No bunny catch so far.

Thankfully.

Gail

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September 28, 2015 · 12:27 am

NURTURING

Nurturing is an important part of gardening.

It begins with soil.

Adding things that it might be missing.

Making it a rich home for what’s to come.

Once planted

A garden needs continual nurturing.

Making sure that there is ample

Sun, shade and water.

So when I traveled this past week to “twin sit”

I knew I was in for some serious nurturing.

Keeping up with 14 month old twins

Is well…fun…exhausting…intriguing

And so much more.

They too need ample food and water.

A little sun

Sprinkled with shade.

Having never been around twins before.

I’m fascinated with their interaction

Not to mention their constant motion.

So this week nurturing took a different form.

One I enjoy even more than gardening.

We hurried home at the end of the week.

To attend Andrew and Katie’s wedding.

Turns out they too were busy nurturing.

The dozens of children attending their wedding.

Each child gave them a heart

To string for their Christmas tree

Creating memories for decades to come.

Nurturing

Important for the garden.

Even more important in life.

It was a wonderful week.

Gail

A little blog housekeeping. Last weekend I was doing a little “tidying up” and thought I deleted pictures from the media library of my blog. What I didn’t realize was that this actually deleted them from the blog post as well. So from about mid summer back to the beginning the pictures are missing. I’m thinking fixing this will be a project for the frozen days ahead.

SUNFLOWERS

Growing up in the country

The ditches of the county roads

Were lined with sunflowers

This time of year.

Maybe that why I’ve always loved Sunflowers.

Who doesn’t.

It’s hard not to smile

When you see one.

For some unknown reason.

I’ve never been able to grow them.

I would plant the seeds

And nothing would happen.

I blamed birds

For dining on each and every seed.

Leaving nothing to sprout.

That all changed last year.

Somehow smack in the middle of a crepe myrtle

That John had carefully nursed into life

A sunflower sprouted

Then grew

And grew.

I guarded it carefully

In case John chose his shrub

Over my flower.

Both survived.

The Sunflower bloomed as it towered above

Everything else at the east end

Of the garden.

I let it go to seed

To provide lots of food for those birds.

They must have felt guilty

For all those years of wiping me out

And they left a little patch of seeds.

The result is a Sunflower jungle

Growing wildly.

I pulled several of the volunteers

But a half-dozen or so survived

And are now somewhere around 12 feet tall

So loaded with buds and blooms

That the slightest wind or rain

Renders them horizontal.

Combine this with the forsythia

And Viburnum

At this end of the garden

And you would think that no one

Tends this garden.

Yet I can only bring myself

To cut just enough for bouquets.

I’ll just think of it as

The “wild child” end of the garden.

And let it be for now.

Some things just need a little grace.

Gail

FALLING FOR FALL

The signs are everywhere.

I can hear the high school band

Practicing every morning.

Sweaters are appearing.

DSCN6243

Geraldine’s asters are starting to bloom.

The air is softer.

Shadows are shifting.

Fall is almost here.

I think I’ve mentioned before

There’s only one other place

I can think of living.

The place where the weather

Alternates between spring and fall.

I’ve never found that place.

I know it doesn’t exist.

Because

In order to have spring

You must first abide winter.

Difficult for me.

And so it follows that

In order to have fall.

You must abide summer.

Gardening makes this one easy.

DSCN6251

Fall here on the plains

Can linger for weeks

Months actually.

After last year’s glorious fall

I wasn’t sure we’d see another one like that

For some time.

Something tells me

It’s happening again.

There’s a lushness this September

God is spoiling us.

Spring rains

Mild summer temperatures

And now the glorious days of fall.

Coco and I spent Saturday transplanting.

We dug up a batch of daylilles

That were spreading wildly

In the main garden

They’ve been moved to areas that are

A little more accepting of their behavior

Some will even get transplanted

Across state lines

To Elliott’s garden.

In their place I planted cabbage.

DSCN6247

Not sure they have time to get giant

But I saw these babies at the store

And thought…why not?

They are near where we lost a Redbud tree

In June

Between the two new stands of Dahlias.

Not sure what will be the more permanent fix.

But after following Floret Flowers

On Instagram for a few months.

My monies on…more Dahlias.

Can this woman grow Dahlias!

One goal this fall

Is to fill in the empty spaces.

That were weed havens all summer.

So I’m scouting for plants in need of dividing

And volunteers that are popping up in odd places.

I’m looking forward to weeks

Of playing in the crisp clean air

And basking in the glory of a garden.

Gail

Surely this is the last Easter Egg left in the garden!

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Tagged as Butterflies, Cabbage, Dahias, Fall, Zinnias

September 6, 2015 · 1:08 pm

RE-ENTRY

They say that first impressions are important.

Hopefully as a culture we’ve evolved to giving ourselves

More than a few seconds to get to know each other.

But the first impression of a garden

Can draw you in.

Ever since John built this lovely arbor

Over the back gate

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I have loved the entrance

To our back yard.

How it beckons you

To reveal “the rest of the story”.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

But over the past few year.

It’s gone through some pretty severe changes.

You may recall that we lost

This charming old Mimosa tree

A few years ago.

DSCN9725

It still hurts my heart to think about it.

It created a canopy for the entry

And shade for the plants just inside the back gate.

Which means I had a glorious bed of some of my favorites.

Hydrangeas and Caladiums.

With Impatiens dotted in.

And a part-time home for lettuce.

In summer Hydrangea, Caladium and Impatiens spill onto the sidewalk.

But when the tree was gone.

This once shady haven

Began to bake in the noon day sun.

We have planted a replacement Cherry tree.

Buying the biggest one we could find.

Even taking out the fence to get it in.

But it will be years before it creates

The kind of shade we had known.

So the Hydrangeas have been transplanted

To a cooler home

And replaced with Dwarf Crepe Myrtle

The Caladiums and Impatiens have gone missing

Replaced with an old friend I haven’t used in years.

Heliotrope.

It’s spinach-like leaves provide a backdrop

For the deep purple blooms.

Mixed in between

Is orange and yellow Lantana.

So my cool bed

Is now a hot spot.

Both in temperature

And color.

Change.

I seldom invite it

But once I embrace it

I grow

Just like my garden.

Gail

Lots of Dahlias coming soon.

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Tagged as Caladium, Change in the Garden, Crepe Myrtle, Dahlia, Heliatrope, Hydangea, Impatiens, Lantana, Late Summer Garden, Shade to Sun

August 30, 2015 · 10:26 pm

ZINNIAS

Getting a perennial garden

To bloom all season

Can be challenging.

Many around here

Simply throw in the towel

In late summer.

Photo credit Dave Meara

Years ago

I accidentally discovered

How to have plenty of blooms

As summer turns to fall.

Like most things

It’s all about the timing.

And the right plants.

I think it truly was an accident

Or maybe I just didn’t get around to

Planting my Zinnia seeds.

Until late June.

The result was delightful.

Lots of smiling faces

Blooming at me

When most things have

Come and gone.

Then there’s the bonus fact

That butterflies love Zinnias

So by having them around

During the butterfly migration.

I get my share

Or maybe more of butterflies.

I know it’s a moth, but I like it!

Zinnias are a simple flower

One almost everyone knows

They are not exotic

They are not overly flashy.

They are like that old friend

You talk to after months

Of not seeing each other.

And you slip right back

Into your comfortable place.

Flowers and friend

Have a lot in common.

Gail

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Tagged as Late Summer Garden, Perennial Garden, Zinnias

August 25, 2015 · 7:47 pm

LIVING ON THE EDGE

Planting home vegetable gardens

Is experiencing a resurgence in popularity.

I think it’s great.

Especially if home gardeners

Share their abundance with a local food pantry.

But for some reason

I haven’t been able to convert even a section

Of my perennial border

Solely to vegetables.

I convince myself this is OK

Since my abundance of flowers

Supply the nectar

For hundreds of bees.

I’m thinking they are pollinating

Vegetable plants all around town.

I also consider flowers

“Food for the soul.”

But the truth is I’m not that great at growing veggies.

This season alone

I’ve gotten a total of 5 tomatoes from 3 plants

One of which has now been eaten

By a tomato hornworm

May he rest in peace.

And something ate my three brussel sprouts plants

I am good at leafy greens.

Leaf lettuce and arugula are my favorites.

I can also grow radishes galore.

So I’m doing my bit for the local food movement

Planting the edges of my garden.

And a pot here and there.

I have a hard time remembering

When it’s time to plant things.

So last winter I took the local Extension Service calendar

And input it into my personal google calendar.

Which means when it’s time to plant something.

It pops up on my calendar.

Now I remember it’s OK to plant my fall garden

In August.

Last weekend I cleaned out the spaces

Where there were weeds

And sprinkled seeds for

Carrots, radishes, arugula and lettuce.

They I planted peas around the dahlia cages.

It’s not the vegetable garden of my parents

With neat rows and room for towering corn plants.

But it works for me.

Fitting in things along the edges.

Finding the time and place to grow the things

I really want.

And not trying to force myself

To fit it into a standard mold.

Life changes with time

Finding the time and place

For those changes

Can be challenging.

When we figure out how to do it.

It’s wonderful.

Gail

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Filed under Arugula, Bees, Brussels Sprouts, Bugs, Carrots, Fall Vegetables, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, late summer garden, Lettuce, Radishes, Seeds, sugar snap peas, Tomato, Uncategorized, Vegetables

Tagged as Fall Garden, Gardening, Vegetables

August 17, 2015 · 12:57 am

VISITOR FLY IN

Nature is an amazing thing.

That’s hardly news to fellow gardeners.

No matter how many years I’ve gardened

Nature still surprises me.

For the past few weeks

I’ve had daily late afternoon visits

From two hummingbirds.

Being hummingbirds they flit around the Phlox.

So fast that I’ve only been able to capture

A few pictures of them.

But this week a friend arrived with them.

A giant Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

They come every evening between 5 and 6.

Just like I have rung a dinner bell

To beckon them to the nectar of the Phlox

And Zinnias.

And they hang around.

So I have been able to take pictures

With my Iphone.

Which is always in my pocket these days.

Then return to the house to get my point and shoot.

One evening I even called Torry

To send Sloan and Cassidy

Over to see it all.

The hummingbirds and butterfly

Put on quite a show.

Even though they are in constant motion

I find them soothing to watch.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Amidst our busy fluttering lives.

There is peace

All around us.

Gail

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Tagged as Hummingbirds, Tall Garden Phlox, Tiger Swallowtail, Zinnias

August 11, 2015 · 7:23 pm

FLOWER ENVY

The subject comes around from time to time

Usually when I travel.

Flower envy.

I’d define it as wanting to grow things

That just won’t grow where you live.

After all

There’s a reason for USDA Hardiness zones.

It’s hard to grow palm trees in much of the world!

My flower envy began young.

As a nine-year old my family traveled to Maui

My father had been stationed there during WWII

The Marines would leave the safety of Maui for places

Like Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima.

But he had a love for an undeveloped Maui

And it’s people.

In 1959 just before my older sister turned old enough

To have to pay full fare.

He and mother took us all there to meet the people

Who had welcomed a war tired Marine into their homes.

One of them was a doctor

Who grew orchids in his greenhouse.

He told mother and the three of us to go

And pick all the orchids we wanted

To make our own leis.

Can you imagine

Setting a nine-year old loose

In a greenhouse of orchids

To pick at will.

Talk about generosity.

I never realized it before just now,

But this is likely where my flower passion started.

My family traveled far and wide.

By the time I went to college

I’d been to 48 states.

Still haven’t made it to Utah and Alaska.

But the place we went most often

Was to the Rocky Mountains.

And there in the heat of summer

I would find smiling pansies, cosmos, daisies, geraniums and petunias.

Lots and lots of petunias.

John and I have continued this pattern

Especially since Elliott, Kristina, Harper and Henry

Live in Colorado.

We have visited most summers for several years.

And the flowers only get more extravagant.

After all, if your bread and butter as a state

Is tourism.

You want to look pretty.

And oh how pretty they look.

But there is a trade-off.

There always is.

And that trade-off is a short growing season.

The last freeze in these mountain towns.

Occurs in what they affectionately call “mud season”.

When all the snow is melting.

Technically it’s June 15th or so.

And the average first freeze is just after Labor Day.

Now all gardeners push the edges of these dates

To the limit.

We’ve all been nipped by a late or early freeze.

So while the cool days and nights

Allow for glorious blooming annuals and perennials

It’s still a trade-off.

They get three months of growing season.

I get nine sometimes ten.

Blooms lumber through my zone 7 backyard

From Valentine’s Day.

To Halloween or later.

In the mountains

It’s a flashy summer run.

Short and sweet

Or long and lovely.

I’m thankful I get to enjoy both.

And grateful for dirt under my fingernails

For so much of my life.

Gail

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July 26, 2015 · 11:39 pm

ARRANGING THINGS

It’s the height of summer here.

Endless sunny days.

And because we had all those wonderful

Badly needed rainy days.

The humidity is back

Big-time.

So what’s a gardener to do.

This time of the year is basically for maintenance.

Deadheading and weeding and watering are the order of most days.

I love it because it can all be done in little snippets of time.

But there is one more activity for high summer.

Flower arranging.

For some reason I don’t bring a lot of flowers into my house.

I have a few here and there

But mostly we enjoy them from the inside of the house

Or on the morning garden walk.

So it’s great fun

When I have a reason to make flower arrangements.

Friday night was just such a reason.

We were one of several host couples

For a shower for our minister Andrew

And his bride to be Katie.

Now it’s too hot to have the party in my garden

So it was held at a local lodge.

Decades ago it was part of an amusement park

And has been lovingly restored.

So along with chamber music

Yummy food

Including crab claws In honor of Andrew’s Maryland roots

Family from home

Church members

And local friends

We needed flower arrangements

And lots of them – 26 to be exact.

First order of business

Find 26 vases.

I’m embarrassed to say that 25 of them

Were alive and well living in my garden house!

The schedule went like this.

Weekend before dig out all the vases

And wash them

Tuesday the vases were taped with cross hatch pattern

To hold the flowers in place.

It was also the day to cut Euonymous.

And Hydrangeas.

They last for days if you sear the end as soon as you cut it

And let them rest in buckets of water up to their necks.

Wednesday morning Linda came to help with the harvest.

We cut buckets of Phlox, Purple Coneflower, Dahlia & Dusty Miller

We added bits of White Balloon Flower, Veronica Spicata, Hellebore leaves and blooms.

Linda and Virginia each cut a bucket of Zinnias – one fuchsia and one pale pink.

I even used the blooms on the radishes that should have been pulled long ago.

Wednesday night the arranging began.

Linda, David, Mary and Gay came on Friday morning to complete the arranging

And haul it all to the lodge.

It takes a village!

Friday was a warm evening.

Not just the temperature.

But the people, the place and the occasion.

There’s something wonderful about small towns.

When I looked around the room

There were people I had known for decades.

We have raised our children together.

We have buried our parents together.

We have thrown a million wedding and baby showers together.

We have welcomed newcomers together.

Those newcomers have become new friends.

What is there to do in a garden

In the mid- summer heat?

Share it.

Photo Credit David Meara

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Filed under Bouquets, Bridal Showers, Dahlias, Dead Heading, Euonymus, Flower Arrangements, Garden House, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Purple Coneflower - Echinacea, Radishes, Tall Garden Phlox, Uncategorized, Vases, Veronica Spicata, Wedding Flowers, Zinnia

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