In My Garden

June 17, 2013 · 1:16 am

LARKSPUR – THE NEW BLACK

Most women own way too many black clothes

I am among them

But we all know that black “goes with everything”

And it does.

So every time the fashion industry

Wants to sell a new color

They dub it

“The New Black”

I’ve decided that larkspur

Is the new

And the old

Black of the garden.

It truly does go with everything.

This spring is an amazing example.

I’ve been a little under the weather since the first of May

Very little time has been spent in the garden

As a result every single seed that dropped last spring.

Has bloomed and bloomed.

Never got around to thinning

Or just plain murdering

All that volunteer larkspur.

I’ve been cutting away at it

Making arrangements when needed.

But it hasn’t made a dent.

It’s everywhere

And it’s thick.

Some paths are impassable.

But it’s true.

It goes with everything.

Now we all know that purple and yellow

Are a great combination.

Being “secondary” cousins on the color wheel and all.

But it’s also great with pink roses

And crisp white lilies

And softer shades of yellow

And the more golden ones.

So when I was forced to the gardening sidelines in early May

And the A team took over

God knew exactly what to do.

Let the larkspur have its way.

Spread it everywhere

Bringing cheer and happiness to every corner.

Once again

Gardening echoes life

Or does life echo gardening?

Step aside – pull back – relax

God’s got it covered.

Gail

2 Comments

Filed under Flower Arrangements, Gardening, Gloriosa Daisy - Rudbeckia, Larkspur, Lilies, roses, self seeding annuals, Uncategorized

June 10, 2013 · 12:49 am

COMMUNITY GARDENING

I have long been interested in community gardens.

They come in several different configurations.

It can be a large area divided into plots.

Each plot tended by a different gardener.

Or it can be a place where a community comes together

To grow things.

For themselves

Or for others.

This spring I finally get to participate in a community garden.

You may recall I wrote about planting it a few months ago.

It’s located at our new local client choice food pantry

And food resource center named Loaves & Fishes.

At the moment this garden consists of 10 raised beds.

Built as an Eagle Scout project.

Then our volunteer extraordinaire David

Added 3 – 250 gallon rain barrels that are catching the rain water

From the roof of the building.

After a 2 inch rain

They are full.

We’ve been cutting greens each week

To share with the clients who come to us for food.

Imagine going to a food pantry and getting a bag of freshly cut spinach

Or lettuce.

Or Swiss chard.

It’s just heavenly!

But we’ve had a few challenges along the way.

As it turns out our garden sits at the bottom of a slight bowl.

And it’s been

Well a bit of a pond.

So Saturday was Family Volunteering Day

At Loaves & Fishes.

75 volunteers from the community,

A Cub Scout Troop

As well as the corporate sponsors for the day

Triangle Insurance

And Central National Bank

Came to help.

They made quick work of spreading

A truck load of fill sand.

Then moving gravel into the paths between the beds.

Within a few hours we went from pond

To problem solved.

It was an amazing transformation.

Now this is really more hardscape work

Than actual gardening.

And we may have completely worn out this group of volunteers.

But the thing is

We are community.

Cheerfully helping

To solve a problem.

Growing great food

For people who really need it

And appreciate the care

We take to help them.

For years my passion has been feeding people in need.

Now at Loaves & Fishes I get to watch others find their passion.

If you haven’t found a way to help others.

I hope you find a passion

And a home for it

That is as much fun as this wonderful community.

Or better still

Come and join us

Gardening for good and helping feed others.

Gail

P.S. If you have extra produce or eggs from your own garden we would appreciate

Your bring them to Loaves & Fishes. We’ll find them a grateful home!

2 Comments

Filed under Community Garden, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Hunger, Lettuce, Rain Barrels, Raised Beds, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Uncategorized, Vegetables

June 1, 2013 · 2:55 pm

THERE’S A BOBCAT IN MY GARDEN

There’s nothing more scary than

Heavy equipment in your garden.

We had known it was coming for months now.

The utility company is replacing all the lines in our old neighborhood.

Somehow we had escaped destruction in the garden

When they were in the neighborhood all last fall

Laying the main lines.

But now it’s time to connect each of us to the new main lines.

Fortunately, though it didn’t seem fortunate at the time,

We had discovered a gas leak shortly after moving into this house.

Actually our friend Clark figured it out

From the circle of dead grass in the middle of the backyard.

So we have a new connecting line

With the meter placed at the house.

The preferred location.

All of this is important because

The main line

And the connecting line

Intersect at the back of my garden.

I was told last Friday

That my number would be up on Tuesday.

So I didn’t dare leave home.

And shortly after 8 they began.

Around 11:30 I discovered

A Bobcat in my backyard

Heading straight for the garden.

Luckily after a quick conversation

They broke for lunch

And I began digging plants

Filling the wheelbarrow.

They even found a leftover Easter Egg.

Filled with chocolate.

Which every girl needs

At such a stressful moment!

Most of the things in their path

Were pretty strong plants.

Daylilies

Tall Garden Phlox

Gloriosa Daisies

Lamb’s Ear

There were however some more finicky items.

Hollyhocks whose tap roots don’t make transplanting much fun.

Alliums which I simply cut and hoped for the best.

And the greatest loss

Purple Poppies.

I’ve never had purple poppies before.

I spotted these last year in my friend Becky’s garden.

She was able to remember the source of the seeds.

So I ordered a supply.

Held on to them through the fall and early winter.

Actually remembered I had them

Then found them

And sprinkled them on the snow

One day last winter.

This, I have learned, is the most effective way to plant poppies.

I had a really good stand of them

And was looking forward to their blooming

Going to seed

And making lots of purple poppy babies.

But they were right smack dab in the wrong place

For the Bobcat.

So I quickly found some empty space.

Dug holes for their new home

Before I even dug them

Then dug them with as much dirt as possible.

And popped them into their new home

With a good quick drink.

Will they make it?

I don’t know.

Time will tell.

It is only fair to report

That the utility crew

Was as gentle as they could

When you’re digging a hole to China

In a garden

At the end of May.

O Blah Dee O Blah Da … Life Goes On.

Gail

2 Comments

Filed under Allium, Gloriosa Daisy, hollyhocks, Poppy, Seeds, self seeding annuals, Tall Garden Phlox, Uncategorized

May 27, 2013 · 4:58 pm

SEEING DIFFERENTLY

After gardening for decades

I think of myself as fairly attuned to nature.

Observant of it’s changes.

Aware of it’s endless offerings.

Then came last weekend.

Sunday morning

Just as I’m heading off to the shower

The phone rings.

It’s Christianne with news.

Our annual outdoor worship service

Has been moved inside.

The weather is a little unpredictable.

So…could I make two flower arrangements for the front of the church.

This is my normal pattern but put on hold this week.

Since we planned to worship

Under the canopy of that great

American Elm tree on the front lawn of the church.

The cool late spring.

Combined with high winds and rains on Saturday

Had left me we very few blooms.

But I told Christianne I’d give it a shot.

Two days before we both had endless Viburnum blooms.

Now we had what she describes as “snow”

Created from fallen petals.

I didn’t have much time

Or many flowers

But out I go in hopes of finding some protected blooms

On the Viburnum.

No such luck,

It looks nothing like it had the week before.

But as I looked a little closer

And found that though the petals have fallen

What’s left is just as beautiful

And makes a great flower arrangement as well.

What a lesson.

Look beyond what you normally see

Look deeper

There is beauty there

There is life

There are lessons to be taught

And learned.

Within 24 hours

The skies would darken over our beloved state.

Several communities would be hit

By tornados more powerful than we have ever known

26 people including 10 children would lose their lives.

Thousands of people would lose their homes

They will spend weeks

Sorting through the rubble

Looking for bits and pieces of what we call their lives.

But they have learned to see differently

Look beyond what they lost

And focus on what they have.

There is beauty there

There is life.

And gratitude.

Gail

3 Comments

Filed under Tornado, Uncategorized, Viburnum

May 19, 2013 · 1:33 pm

50 SHADES OF……PURPLE!

It is amazing to me

How each spring

The same plants emerge from their winter’s sleep

To create my garden

And yet

Each spring

I am surprised by what happens

In my own backyard.

This year

This “I can’t believe how late spring is” year

I am struck by the seemingly endless shades

Of purple.

I know that I have 2 new shades

Of purple Iris.

Plus the standard deep purple

And it seems the Columbine

Has a trifecta of purple.

Then there is my mystery wild Orchid

And the last of the Violas

Before the heat of summer knocks them out

There’s a rich purple in this year’s

Mixed Lettuce greens.

And a new purple in the Alliums

Planted last fall

After seeing Kristina’s great Allium seed pods.

I also have a new lilac bush

Small…but covered with blooms.

Add to them the purple Rose I planted last year

Could it be

That purple is the “new pink”

Of my early spring garden?

Not for long

Peonies and Roses can’t be far behind!

Enjoy the week,

Gail

3 Comments

Filed under Allium, Columbine, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Iris, Lettuce, Peonies, Perennials, roses, Spring Flowering Bulbs, Uncategorized, Viola, Violets

May 13, 2013 · 3:24 am

VIBURNUM

My current garden is my 2nd perennial garden.

We moved into this house shortly after

I quit designing garden for other people

So I brought with me all of that experience

Mistakes and good ideas

Successes and failures.

This garden is bigger than any other I’ve had

So I made the conscious decision

To use more flowering shrubs.

And as is typical in spring

Every week something new would bloom

And I’d go out and buy 3 of them!

There was method to my madness

Flowering shrubs take up space

Lots of it

They also give literal armloads of flowers

Which are fun

To cut and share

So the bones of my garden are

Hydrangea & Roses

Lots of these

Because they give you so many blooms

Off and on during the season

There are fewer Peonies

Because they just bloom once.

But who can live without them!

Then there are those early spring-flowering bushes

That take on a life of their own

Forsythia, Quince, Spirea, Lilac

And Viburnum

You may know it as Snowball bush.

That first spring I bought 3

I don’t actually remember where I first planted them

Somewhere in the middle I think

In a sort of triangle.

By the next spring

I realized I had made a mistake

They were going to get too big for their present home.

So we dug them up and moved them.

Now remember that these were all 3 about the same size.

Two were moved to the west gate.

Where they reside today.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Why the left side is not as healthy as the right

Is likely a conversation for another day.

Then there is the third one.

We couldn’t really come up with a logical place for it.

So we just put it in a hole on the far east side of the yard.

Along side of few other “homeless” plants.

We never did find it a real home.

Over the years it has driven me crazy.

I’ve actually wished it would die.

It’s under one of our big old cedar trees

And keeps growing into it.

I’ve whacked away on it

Year after year

Just to keep it kind of under control

Or so I thought

I guess I must have missed its annual haircut last spring.

Because this year

It’s well … GIGANTIC

And loaded with blooms

Which is wonderful

Because with the late spring

My yard has been pretty void of blooms.

So I’ve been cutting and cutting.

Armloads of flowers are such fun

To cut

And share

The stems are woody

So when you cut them

Be sure you either slice or smash them

And feel free to cut away

Because a happy Viburnum

Is a big Viburnum

So why is it that sometimes

The things that annoy us the most

Turn out to be our best friends

When nothing else is blooming!

Enjoy this wonderful weather.

Gail

1 Comment

Filed under Bouquets, Forsythia, Garden Planning, Gardening, Gardening;Perennials, Hydrangea, Peonies, Perennials, roses, Snow Ball Bush, Uncategorized, Viburnum

May 5, 2013 · 7:03 pm

MEGAN

A couple of decades ago my job was designing, installing and maintaining perennial flower garden

All around town.

It was fun and very hard work.

During the summer maintenance season

I would hire daughters of friends to help me.

Megan, Cristina and Ashley outlasted them all.

For instance Megan’s sister Katie told me at the end of the first…and only summer for her.

“This has been fun, but I don’t ever want to do this again.”

But it was Megan who just kept coming back.

She worked from Jr. High through High School.

Then in college she would come back each fall to help me plant bulbs.

Even post college she was there for me digging trenches

And burying bulbs.

We’ve had great conversations

That have matured with each year.

We often talked about the garden party I would have for her.

When she married.

Last fall when Megan came for our bulb planting ritual

There was only one subject of conversation

So it was no surprise that at Christmas Megan and JP were engaged.

After years of dreaming about Megan’s wedding and parties

The planning began.

What’s that saying about making plans.

“If you want to make God laugh…tell him your plans.”

Well God must have doubled over with laughter at this one.

Because JP is in the Navy

Scheduling of everything was on Navy time.

In this instance that means fast.

A mid-April wedding was planned not at home

But in Corpus Christi where JP was stationed.

No problem…if there’s anything Megan loves as much as JP and gardens

Its’ the beach

But there was only time and space for family and a few close friends.

No problem…we’ll have a reception here

In my garden

Just like we planned

Sometime in Mid-May when all is happily blooming!

Well…maybe not.

JP and Megan have to be in their new destination by May 6th.

OK we’re flexible

May 2nd it will be.

A simple ice cream social with wedding cakes

Friends and family in attendance for the perfect send off.

Well…maybe not.

The morning of May 2nd brought

Sleet

Rain

Clouds

30 mile an hour north winds

With gusts to 40

OK God I get the idea.

Thankfully for once I half way believed

Our over zealous weather forecaster

And cut every tulip that was blooming

The Saturday before the party.

They spent the week in the safety of my spare refrigerator.

And the day before the party Kay – Megan’s mother suggested

“We might want to go ahead and cut whatever else we need.”

So we cut buckets of Boxwood and Viburnum

And even cut a few Lilacs from Kelly’s yard.

We simply brought the garden indoors.

Now there’s no doubt that I was disappointed

That I couldn’t give Megan the garden party of her dreams.

But here’s the thing.

When Thursday night came.

Megan and JP were beaming

Friends who have watched her grow up

Family who loved her from the moment they knew she was coming into this world.

All of us were there

Eating gelato and wedding cake.

And sending Megan & JP out into the world

Knowing that they are deeply loved.

That they are rooted and grounded in this place with these people.

As my sister Pat said at Elliott & Kristina’s wedding.

“We have loved giving you roots and wings

It is the greatest satisfaction of our lives.

Know that we celebrate with you as you join hands,

Spread your wings and fly.”

Here’s to a happy life Megan

And gardening all over the world.

All my love,

Gail

1 Comment

Filed under Bridal Showers, Flower Arrangements, Garden House, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Gardening;Perennials, Perennials, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Wedding Flowers

April 22, 2013 · 2:23 am

TULIP TIMING

For years I’ve planted tulips along the path to my garden house.

I’ve chosen to cluster them all there

Rather than dotting them around the garden

The effect is quite good.

Even dramatic in a good year.

I’ve also hosted many spring parties in my garden

But I’ve never gotten the two events coordinated.

Until this year.

Back in January we began planning a bridal shower for my friend Gay’s daughter.

The best day was last Saturday, April 20th.

Gay asked if my tulips would still be blooming.

No chance I replied.

I’ve never known tulips to last that long.

Now this is the latest and coolest spring I can remember.

In fact, there is yet another freeze predicted for next week.

So the tulips began to bloom.

And bloom and bloom.

They have lived through no less than 4 overnight freezes

Including one complete with ICE!

They’ve just kept on keeping on.

Flushed with sunlight

And backed with still blooming Redbud trees.

Ali and Friends

Yesterday they really strutted their stuff.

Which only means one thing.

I want to plant more next year!

Gail

PS: Hopefully after the final “last freeze” next week we’ll get to really dig in and start gardening!

“PERFECT” GARDENING DAYS

I’ve never been a fan of the word perfect.

After all I grew up on a farm

Where nothing is ever perfect.

I did marry an attorney

Whose job it is to be perfect

God has such a sense of humor!

I try not to use that word.

But there are times when it truly does apply.

This weekend turned out to be full of “perfect” gardening days.

Which is surprising since last Wednesday we had an ice storm

Featuring frozen Tulips

And Redbud trees.

So when yesterday dawned cool and cloudy

I was ready to garden.

As you may recall last fall we opened a new client choice food pantry

For hungry people in this part of the state.

We serve over 800 individuals and families each month.

And we are working hard to provide them with healthy food choices.

So naturally we decided we’d grow some of that food.

A generous soul named Michael has worked tirelessly to organize this project.

A month ago 10 raised beds were built.

And yesterday morning we planted them.

With plants and seeds donated from Atwoods.

And the help of volunteers from Chisholm Schools.

In 3 hours we planted 10 raised beds.

Stuffed them full of early season veggies and greens.

What a gift!

The day continued with…what else…a nap!

Nothing better than napping on a sunny spring afternoon.

Then I began to work on the roses that I have so ignored all spring.

Each rose got a good drink of water laced with 1/4 cup of Epsom salts.

They gulped it right up.

Next I finally got around to cutting away the dead

And tying New Dawn to the fence

It gets a bit unruly from time to time.

A couple of quick flower arrangement for Sunday’s church services

And the day was done.

This afternoon was less focused.

Just piddling around

Trimmed the hedges outside the kitchen window

Pulled more of that @#$#@ poa anna grass

Before it goes to seed.

Planted a flat of alyssum

The one spring annual that can withstand

Next week’s promised last freeze

Then spent a few minutes sitting among the tulips

They are like children.

When you bend down to their height

You enjoy them so much more.

An unexpected clap of thunder

Brought a soft brief spring shower.

God watered everything in.

It was a “perfect” gardening weekend!

Gail

2 Comments

Filed under Alyssum, Bouquets, Dead Heading, Flower Arrangements, Gardening, Hunger, Redbud Trees, roses, Seeds, spring, Spring Flowering Bulbs, tulips, Uncategorized, Vegetables

April 8, 2013 · 12:37 am

FAITH

It happens every year.

When I finally get winter’s blanket of leaves removed

I wonder where everything has gone.

Sure the early blooming show offs are visible

The Iris and Peonies.

And Larkspur sprouts are everywhere.

But right now I’m wondering why is there so much dirt showing.

And what is lying in wait beneath?

My friend Suellen used to call every spring

To tell me that everything had died over the winter.

Then…she’d call back in a week

Saying it’s OK.

And we would have a good laugh

Remembering the same conversation from the year before.

Faith

It’s as important to gardening as fertilizer, healthy soil and water.

It’s the belief that a tiny green frond

Will unfurl into a gorgeous fern.

That the precious buds on my Japanese Tree Peony

Will soon take my breath away.

That come June

These few leaves at the bottom of what looks like a stick plant

Will give astonishing blooms.

The robins have returned.

Lady bugs and honey bees abound

Peg is on her never-ending bunny search

And the Hellebores are blooming their hearts out.

It must be spring.

Faith

All we need to do is trust

And believe.

And as my friend Jerry used to say

Do the best we can…

God will take care of the rest.

Take time to breathe it all in.

Gail

3 Comments

Filed under Bugs, Ferns, Gardening, Gardening Friends, Grape Hyacinths, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Iris, Japanese Tree Peony, Lady Bugs, Larkspur, Peonies, Perennials, Redbud Trees, Violets

In My Garden

LARKSPUR – THE NEW BLACK

COMMUNITY GARDENING

THERE’S A BOBCAT IN MY GARDEN

SEEING DIFFERENTLY

50 SHADES OF……PURPLE!

VIBURNUM

MEGAN

TULIP TIMING

“PERFECT” GARDENING DAYS

FAITH

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