Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 11, 2012 · 6:52 pm

The Morning Walk

When I first began to garden

I unconsciously created a habit.

The morning garden walk.

I distinctly remember going out each morning

To walk through my first garden

To observe the changes

That can happen over night.

For instance, Lilies open in the night.

As do the blooms on Hardy Hibiscus.

So even though I walk along the same path each day

The path in spring

It’s different every time.

And summer

Subtle changes.

But change just the same.

The irony of this is that

We used to laugh at Daddy

When he would go to “check on” the wheat.

We accused him of spending time

Watching the wheat grow!

Every farmer does it

And they should

Just walking through the garden or wheat field.

Helps find things.

The first buds of spring.

Hellebores in January

Things that need to be done.

Bugs that have arrived to do good

Or not.

Remember last summer’s Harlequin bug invasion?

Diseases at their beginnings.

Weeds – always a few.

But I don’t stop to solve these problems on the morning walk.

No, the morning walk is simple to take it all in.

To enjoy

Nature’s accident

To smile

To observe

Curious Peg

To wander

And to wonder.

Gail

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Filed under Diseases, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Harlequin Bugs, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Japanese Tree Peony, Lady Bugs, Oriental Lilies, Perennials, Shasta Daisy, tulips, Uncategorized

August 4, 2012 · 6:19 pm

Perspective

Debra’s view of the garden house

A few weeks ago

My friend Debra came for a visit.

This is not unusual.

She comes often.

Usually we have an agenda.

But this time we had a few unscheduled hours.

And she wanted to take pictures in the garden.

Now, you need to know that Debra loves photography

And…she’s very good at it.

You can easily tell which pictures are hers

And which are mine.

Her avocation photography

Connects to her vocation mammography.

She is trained to see detail.

To look for the smallest speck on a mammogram.

When she finds them.

And unfortunately she finds many.

It’s life altering.

For her patients…for her.

So seeing my garden through her eyes

Makes me see it differently.

In more detail.

Poppy and Poppy Seed Pod

To relish the small things.

The accidents of nature

The purposefulness of it all.

Now that I’m into my 6th decade

I’m making a conscious effort

To broaden my view.

Not to get stuck where I’ve always been.

To look at things differently.

To value what I’ve known.

But keep looking forward.

To see my world through a new lens.

Through someone else’s lens.

These past few years have been a constant awakening.

Wise women Jane & Betty with Debra

In many aspects of life.

I know where I’m anchored.

Where I really began to learn this

Was in my garden.

Thanks, God.

Gail

P.S. You, too, Debra.

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Filed under Garden House, Garden Photography, Gardening Friends, Gardening Mentors, Larkspur, Perennials, Poppy, Shasta Daisy, Uncategorized, Wise Women

July 22, 2012 · 10:27 pm

Mid Season

Yesterday was the first Saturday in a long time

That I spend the whole morning in my garden.

I didn’t dash to the farmer’s market

Didn’t run flowers to the church for Saturday Manna

I was selfish.

I started early in the sunshine

And as the heat came on

I followed the shade.

Weeding

Deadheading

Planning

Thinking

Praying

It’s mid-season here on the plains

We have an 8 – 9 month growing season.

So that makes mid- July just about the middle

Of the time between first and last frosts.

It’s too hot to transplant.

So maintenance becomes the routine.

But…mid-morning a friend came through my gate.

Hydrangeas were on her mind.

Her’s are planted under a Magnolia tree

A giant Magnolia tree.

Her Hydrangea on the other hand have

What we diagnosed as “failure to thrive”

We think the Magnolia is a bit greedy with the water.

And likely nutrients too.

So the solution for now is auxiliary water

In the form of a soaker hose at the base of the Hydrangeas

Turned on Oh So Slowly.

This should allow the water to go deeply into the root zone.

And not run off.

It’s worth a try.

I’m going to drop by soon and see if we can’t find some more hospitable homes for them.

She and I are close in age.

We are definitely at the same stage of life.

Empty nest

Worked a lot

Volunteered a lot

So what comes next.

She’s seeking

So, it occurs to me once again

That gardens do reflect our lives.

If we pay attention.

My garden is full of life

Here in the middle of the season.

Just like my friend.

They both have much left to give.

And hopefully time to give it.

So how do we re-arrange our lives.

Cutting out the stuff that overgrows

And crowds out the good things.

Even maybe shades them out completely.

Keeping extraneous thing cut back – pruned – deadheaded.

To let in the light.

It’s a challenge.

And a continual effort

To keep our gardens

And our lives

Going where we are to go.

Glad I have a garden and friends to share in the journey.

Gail

Planning for Fall

Lately I’ve been thinking about vegetable gardening.

I know.

I’m a flower lady.

Something blooming all season long has been my M. O. for years.

Sunflowers – this week’s new kid in the garden

It will continue to be.

But I’m getting these vegetable messages.

They keep popping up.

A cantaloupe vine here.

A watermelon there.

I think it’s a watermelon.

And, of course, the errant volunteer tomato.

Obviously, my compost is not hot enough to kill seeds.

Is anyone’s?

So, I’m thinking I need a plan.

There’s another reason this is on my mind.

Many people here are working in conjunction with

The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma

To build a client choice food pantry and warehouse.

A place where we can offer fresh fruits and vegetables

To people who don’t have a lot to eat.

And help them learn how to cook them.

And maybe – just maybe – help them to be healthier.

Fresh Cucumbers and Onions soaking in vinegar and water.

So, what with vegetables literally popping out of the ground at me.

And the knowledge that I could share them with others.

Perhaps a little intentionality is called for here.

So, I’ve cleared a small space that I hope will work

For a fall vegetable garden.

It’s to the south of the garden house.

Which means it will be protected from the north this winter.

It’s somewhat shady in the summer

But when the leaves disappear this fall

It will be sunny.

Arugula has been seeding itself there for over a year.

Volunteer Arugula

Which gives me hope

That it will work.

So, I pulled up the OSU Extension Fall Planting Guide.

If you do this make sure you get the right O

Oregon – Ohio – Oklahoma

Our climates do vary.

I plan to start with some familiar friends

Sweat peas – enough Peg, for us, and to share.

Carrots, now that I’ve had a little success with them.

Greens – lettuce – spinach – and maybe a little swiss chard.

I’d really like to try brussels sprouts if I can find the plants.

According to the fall planting guide we can start planting things

This week through the end of September.

So I’ve moved a few stragely hostas

Next door to Torry’s garden.

Transplanted a couple of columbine to a shadier home.

Spread a bit of home made organic fertilizer.

And watered it all in.

So begins a new adventure.

I guess the point of all this for me is to keep myself open.

To pay attention to the signs that come my way.

To be willing to change

To try new things

While valuing the old.

Isn’t it amazing what gardening teaches us!

Gail

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Filed under Uncategorized

July 8, 2012 · 11:58 am

Time & Weeds

Border Dahlia

When people visit my garden.

They often ask 2 questions.

The first

“How much time do you spend here?”

The answer is simple.

Not as much as I like.

Tall Garden Phlox

The last few summers have been well…hot!

Which means that my long summer Saturdays in the garden

Have been more like mornings and evenings.

But the truth is my garden does not require endless hours of work.

And because I enjoy it…it doesn’t seem like work at all.

I’ve also changed my expectations.

Endless hours outside just don’t seem to happen

So I do a bit here and a bit there.

It’s amazing how much can happen in a few minutes.

So I focus on weeding and deadheading in small areas.

Peg helps?

Which brings me to the second question.

“Where are the weeds?’

Once again the answer is simple.

Everywhere!

You just don’t notice them.

So how does this work.

There are two things that I’ve accidentally discovered

To keep the weeds away.

I’ve never planted according to instructions.

I almost always plant too close together.

Way to close together.

The pleasing results of overplanting

Which means the plants shade out the weeds.

Or simply don’t leave room for them to grow.

Granted it’s a little crowded

And some plants don’t have room to reach their full glory

But, for me, it works.

The second thing is those wonderful self-seeding annuals.

It begins with Larkspur in the early spring.

And ends with cockscomb from now till it freezes in the fall.

Throw in the zinnia and cosmos that I plant each year

And my garden is filled with “filler flowers”.

Zinnias & Cockscomb – “Filler Flowers”

Which is better than “filler weeds”!

The truth is that lately I’ve been pulling up as many baby cockscomb plants

As I have weeds.

So you might think of it as a friendly weed

That blooms nicely.

And is great in arrangements.

“Filler Flower” arrangements

I’m really trying to keep it out of the very front of my garden this year.

So, I guess it turns out that what some consider to be garden problems.

Are really just how you look at it.

Much like life!

Gail

Over Mothering or Under Mothering???

Years ago a friend and I used to joke about how we were mothered.

Both raised in the 50’s and 60’s

We marveled at the different styles of mothering we experienced.

We dubbed her mother’s style as “over mothering”

And mine as “under mothering”

Looking back all these years later

I realize that we were both young & wrong.

Her mother had 4 children

It’s not humanly possible to “over mother” with 4 children.

My mother had 3 children, my grandfather living with us

And no running water!

Who am I to judge.

But the truth is we all wonder if we are doing this right.

We even have those moments when our children are grown.

Which brings me to this year’s tomato plants.

The last 2 summers have produced maybe a dozen tomatoes in the entire state.

Just not good tomato growing weather.

But this year is different

People are raving about their tomato crops

And rightly so.

My uncle George has such a bumper crop

George’s Tomatoes

He’s even more popular at the retirement village he lives in.

And a healthy 88-year-old man was pretty popular to begin with!

Then there’s my house!

Let me give you a little history.

I was determined to have a good tomato year.

So I started my plants early – like January.

As they grew I kept potting them in bigger pots

So that I would have big healthy plants to put in the ground.

And I did.

I even located extra tall – 8″ tall – peat pots to achieve this goal.

Then when mid-March was acting like mid-April

And everyone else was digging their plants into the ground.

I chose to protect mine from what I was certain would be a late frost.

Never happened.

Which means I “over mothered” them at that stage.

I kept in that mode when I finally did plant them

Making sure that they had crushed egg shells

In the bottom of each appropriately deep hole

For all those deep roots.

I even used a new – to me – organic fertilizer as I planted.

Then I left them alone – “under mothering”

They grew and grew

And began to bloom – lots of blooms.

It’s getting really exciting at this point.

Then the blooms began to turn brown

And fall off.

Every single bloom

On every single plant

Except for one

What is going on?

June was a perfect tomato month

All I have to show for it

Is about a dozen tomatoes on one plant.

And 4 large happy tomato-less plants.

I’ve tried everything.

Jerry Baker’s tomato tonic of epsom salts and baby shampoo.

My friend Virginia’s solution of a Tums (calcium) allowed to melt into the roots.

So far I can’t see any change.

If anyone has other ideas.

Let me know.

So…are they suffering from “over mothering”

Or…”under mothering”

The truth is we all are probably guilty of both at some time.

It’s hard to know when to move forward

And when to pull back.

A minister once told me that

“All parenting is incomplete

We do the best we can

God will take care of the rest.”

Perhaps the same is true of growing tomatoes!

Gail

At least the Daisies are happy!

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Filed under Garden Planning, Gardening, Motherhoos, Timing, Tomato, Uncategorized

June 24, 2012 · 9:01 pm

PRESTO POT UPDATE

You may recall that earlier this spring I made another attempt at figuring out my patio pots.

Years of so so results had left me not at all excited about container gardening.

I’m pleased to report I think I’ve figured it out.

My theory was all wrong.

For years I have planted lots

And I mean lots of small bedding plants.

Petunias, marigolds, petunias…

I always picked a variety in case it was a bad year for a particular plant.

It had worked lots of places that I had lived and gardened.

But for some reason the theory was all wrong here.

I think it’s because the pots are so big

And I couldn’t put anything tall like a topiary basket

in the middle since it would block the view from the breakfast room.

So this year I went for fewer bigger plants.

I mean bigger in every sense of the word.

The plants were bigger when I started

and their grown habit is bigger in the end.

The center is deep red Dipladenia.

Though the one that’s in the sun all day fades a bit.

Both pots had Nierembergia that wintered over.

Mostly purple.

To that I added golden Lantana

and blue Plumbago

Those are the “big” plants.

I did fill in with Gomphrena

Impatients on the shady side

and even a few Petunias.

Initially I left last winter’s lettuce.

Bit by bit it was pulled up and the new plants allowed to fill in.

It was a very good idea.

I never had huge holes

Which made for a smooth transition.

Now chances are that because I have so many plants

that at maturity are big enough to fill the pots on their own.

That they will get way to big in the next month or so.

I’ve come up with what is, for me, a novel solution.

Pruning!

You may realize by now that I have a hard time reigning things in.

Myself included.

So as the Lantana heads across the steps to join hands with its sister in the pot on the other side.

I’m thinking it’s ok to whiddle on it a bit.

We’ll see.

Enjoy the week.

Gail

GLORIOSA DAISY

There’s a reason someone named them Gloriosa Daisies.

They are glorious!

Or maybe it’s just sentimental on my part.

They are, after all, the first perennial I remember in my garden.

I remember the day very well.

It was December.

I was decorating for a party for Shirley Jones.

You know…of “Oklahoma” fame.

She was in town doing a concert.

The party was across the street from my friend Sally’s house.

Sally was well….distraught.

There was a backhoe in her garden.

Chewing things up.

She scooped up some plants and asked me to take them home.

They needed a safer place to reside.

So home we went.

Thus began my first perennial garden.

When they bloomed the next spring

I thought it was the most glorious thing.

Sally’s garden always has great patches of this bit of floral sunshine.

Now, all these years – decades – later I do too.

They begin blooming as the larkspur is waning.

The gold and blue combination is stunning every year.

Gloriosa or Rudbeckia if you like the Latin

Are easy to grow.

They like a sunny spot where they can become a small bush.

About the size of a peony.

They can get tall and fall over

So support is a good thing.

I put small portable green wire fencing around them.

Gro-Thru hoops also work.

If you deadhead them.

They’ll bloom off and on all season.

They are a good cutting flower.

Bringing the same sunshine to any arrangement.

Just be sure to remove the leaves below the water line.

And slit the stem and inch or two to increase water intake.

I don’t know what varieties I have.

We’ll call them Sally’s Mom’s Gloriosa.

Since that’s their lineage.

They do self seed and make lots of babies.

To share.

Most recently with Megan and Torry.

There is one variety I don’t recommend.

Rudbeckia Goldstrum.

The flowers are great.

But the root system is greedy.

It spreads into a giant mass.

It’s like digging up a tree to get rid of it.

Be warned.

As I look across my garden it occurs to me

That Gloriosas are like the exclamation point.

The patches here and there give accent to the colors around them.

Blasts of happy faces everywhere.

Just love this one.

Enjoy the week.

Gail

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Filed under Bouquets, Dead Heading, Garden Planning, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Gloriosa Daisy, Gloriosa Daisy - Rudbeckia, Larkspur, Uncategorized

June 3, 2012 · 12:07 am

FAST FORWARD GARDEN!!

Rosa Colorific on it’s second round of blooms

This has been the most incredible spring.

It began early

and is lingering.

I love it.

Lilies and Larkspur

It seems we haven’t had a freeze since almost Valentine’s Day.

The result is one of the prettiest springs I can remember.

It also means that my plants are blooming way ahead of schedule.

At least 3 maybe 4 weeks ahead.

A fast forward spring.

People were picking tomatoes on Memorial Day for heaven’s sake.

All of this means I’ve hit that “peaceful puttering time” early.

The “peaceful puttering time” is when the rush of spring ends.

Everything is planted.

And moved.

And tucked in to grow.

So now begins the first big weeding sweep.

Last Summer’s Zinnias

When the weeds are gone I”ve sprinkled zinnia and cosmos seeds.

And this year the cosmos seeds are actually sprouting.

Especially where I dropped an entire pack of seeds!

Puttering also includes deadheading.

Gloriosa Daisies

Which is often done on my morning walk through the garden.

This year I’m also taking an oath to truly thin out the cockscomb.

You remember cockscomb.

It absolutely takes over the garden in fall.

So I’m determined to manage it better this year.

We’ll see.

Then there is the field of nut grass moving toward the strawberry patch.

It is the hardest weed to get rid of.

If you pull it up

It multiplies.

So as much as I hate to admit it I’m going to spray it with round-up.

It’s the only way over the years that I’ve found to rid it from my garden.

I promise not to use much.

Next I think I’ll tackle the area around my compost bins.

It’s filled with this spring’s empty pots

And last falls end of season leaves and stuff

That hasn’t hit the composter yet.

I’ll stake up a few of those Orienput lilies I planted last fall.

Their heavy budding heads are drooping.

My other weekend task is to move some mums around in the front bed.

We reconfigured it a bit earlier in the spring

So I need to move some to fill in gaps here and there.

As you can see there is a different pace in the garden.

Slower.

Less list driven.

More relaxed.

Easy days to putter

And play.

And enjoy.

I plan to take it all in.

Slowly.

Hope you have some puttering time in your week.

Gail

P.S. Here are a few pictures of last weekend’s wedding. Thanks for the pictures, Pat.

My nephew Will

2 Comments

Filed under cockscomb, Compost, Cosmos, Dead Heading, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Orienpet Lilies, Timing, TRANSPLANTING, Uncategorized, Zinnia

Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Morning Walk

Perspective

Mid Season

Planning for Fall

Time & Weeds

Over Mothering or Under Mothering???

PRESTO POT UPDATE

GLORIOSA DAISY

FAST FORWARD GARDEN!!

PASS ALONG PLANTS

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