A Study in Contrasts

Feeling A Little Dirty...

2009-11-19T23:25:00.000-05:00

The Meyer lemon is about halfway to full bloom now, and it smells heavenly in my dining room. Its wonderful lemony perfume that wafts through the house, especially when the heater kicks on and swirls the scent around. And the pristine white (which I usually am ambivalent about at best) blooms are gorgeous in their elegant simplicity.

At first I thought that I would just enjoy the fragrance and flowers... but after so many people commented about waiting on a crop of Meyer lemons themselves I had an about-face and decided to try for the trifecta. I feel a little silly and inept going around to all of the blooms with the soft paintbrush every day (like a fumbling but enthusiastic 15-year-old boy?!) but I'm really not sure when exactly to pollinate, so I'm covering all my bases.

I understand that I won't get to enjoy the lemons themselves until next year... but I'll know whether any of my ministrations bear fruit--literally--in the next few months, I think! Stay tuned...

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2009

2009-11-14T20:04:00.001-05:00

What a beautiful weekend! As I was out taking photo after photo for November's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (hosted each month by the lovely and funny Carol of May Dreams Gardens) on Saturday, I kept thinking, "Wow, and there are flowers on THIS, too?" and, "Really, who would have guessed that I'd still be seeing such a show from my salvia guaranitica 'Black & Blue' this late in the season?" But there it was:

Which brings me to why I participate in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day each month: Not only is it a lot of fun to see what's blooming in OPG (Other People's Gardens) but also it keeps me on track with the whole "garden journal" purpose of my blog. While the images were downloading onto my computer, I went back through previous Bloom Days and discovered that LOTS of plants that are blooming today were still blooming here in the past few Novembers, too, including:

Top to bottom, those images show: 'Munstead' lavender, 'Hameln' pennisetum with blue caryopteris, self-sown red snapdragons with one branch of the still-blooming 'Walker's Low' catmint behind, 'Purple Dragon' lamium, 'Jumping Jack' (zygopetalum) orchid, 'Vodka' wax begonias, pineapple sage fronting 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass, lonicera sempervirens--a the native honeysuckle, 'Sweet Kate' tradescantia, 'Golden Delicious' pineapple sage with 'Sweet Kate' behind, 'Ozark' strawberries, and 'Caradonna,' which is my favorite of the long-blooming perennial purple salvias.

I admit, I was a little bit disappointed to find out that many of my "Special November Flowers" weren't really all that special after all! But there are a few new things blooming here in the garden, like:

Top to bottom: Mandevilla sanderi, 'Albury Purple' St. John's Wort, 'Meyer Improved' lemon--which is scenting the dining room wonderfully!--above dark purple begonia foliage, unnamed variety of calendula, lemon verbena, the insidious but pretty 'Neon Lights' mini snapdragons (linaria aerugimea) that self-sow everywhere, and a tiny sprig of alyssum peeking out from a mound of silver 'Amazon Sun' lotus vine foliage.

Other things in bloom at my house this weekend, but not shown in pictures, include: Peace lily, Thanksgiving cactus, 'Dragon Wing' begonia, 'Grosso' lavender, golden oregano, and 'All Gold' hakonechloa.

Want to see more November blooms? First check out Carol's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day Post, and then visit the links at the bottom for more.

Any Given Sunday

2009-11-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

The sun shone brightly all weekend... as if it somehow KNEW that there was no way Cleveland residents were going to be subjected to yet another Browns loss, and it wanted to celebrate with us. (Maybe Ma Nature has NFL bye weeks marked on her calendar?!) I was on the garden center schedule until 5pm on Sunday, but when things slowed down around 3:45 I was able to head home to do some work in the garden.

There is still lots of color in the front yard (above) and the oakleaf hydrangea just gets more stunning every day. But it was the backyard that needed the majority of the work today, so I didn't linger in front for very long. I did, however, stop inside for a second to take a picture of my blooming Thanksgiving cactus:

The poor thing really need to be repotted out of the small birdbath where it currently resides--and I will do that as soon as its show is over--but there wasn't much time to even think about that. Daylight is precious and short in the after-work hours right now, and I had a lot of cleanup to do. There were still tomato plants, peppers, and even herbs left in the garden to clean up!

Once the sun set, I headed back inside with a huge basket--trash can lid, actually!--full of the almost-last produce of the gardening year. I stopped at the computer to search for an interesting green tomato recipe that didn't include the word "fried" in it, and was surprised to find more than a few references to "green tomato gratin."

After checking out both the recipes online and the contents of my cupboard, I decided to do some freelancing and came up with the dish shown both above and below:

My version of Green Potatoes Gratin: Rub sides of 9" square baking dish with butter. Cut green tomatoes in a large dice, sprinkle with 1 large garlic clove (minced) and about 3/4 cup of panko (or other breadcrumbs, or some other sort of filler) and dot with about 2 Tbsp of butter. Then top with 1 tsp. freshly ground sea salt, cracked black pepper to taste, grated white cheddar (all I had left in the fridge, about 2-3 oz.) and a few more Tbsp. of grated asiago. Bake at 375 covered for about 45 minutes, then another 15 minutes uncovered to brown the topping, then another 10-15 minutes or so, covered, until the largest tomatoes are fork-tender.

When finished, this dish was amazing. Green tomatoes are pretty flavorless on their own and not as acidic, so the taste was hard to describe. It tasted a bit like baba ghanouj, just without the sesame/tahini flavor. I am definitely going to make this again--and soon, since I have lots of green tomatoes left!--but I think I'm going to add some smoked paprika. And maybe make just a batch of roasted green peppers to use as a different base for a baba ghanoj-type spread, just for the heck of it.

While the tomato gratin was baking in the oven, I devoted the rest of my evening to cleaning up the rest of the pears. They simmered on the stove along with cinnamon (bark,) cardamom, maple and vanilla, and will be turned into all kinds of yummy goodness this week.

I decided about halfway through the evening that I would not have made a very good pioneer woman, however. Not that I couldn't have accomplished the tasks at hand, but I have enough trouble escaping my head anyway... and peeling and dicing pears gave me way too much time to think! But I did sleep well, at least... with the sweet scents of spiced pears lingering in the air.

Hope you all made good use of this beautiful Indian Summer weekend, too!

Pear Pie, Lemon Buds and Fried Green Tomatoes

2009-11-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Seriously, is this not one of the weirdest blog post titles you have ever seen? It's definitely been a strange stretch of days, both garden- and cooking-wise, though, so the title "fits" my week pretty well!

The weirdness started on Sunday night, when I freaked out a little bit because the temperatures were supposed to drop down into the low 30s for the first time. I had left my tomato plants up in the garden as a little experiment to see just how long into a Northeast Ohio November they would survive... but I had a LOT of green tomatoes out there, and I hated the thought of them all going to waste. So I went out and picked a bunch of the largest ones left on the vine:

A not-quite-ripe 'Pineapple' with pretty yellow stripes but (sadly) no red streaks

On Monday nights, I head over to Steve's apartment and we watch "Jeopardy," "Heroes," and "Castle," and just generally chill out while Steve makes dinner. Sunday night, I told him that I needed to make use of some of my newly harvested green tomatoes, and offered to fry them up as part of Monday supper. Sliced to about 1/4 of an inch, breaded first in flour seasoned with smoked paprika, sea salt and black pepper, and then in cornmeal... they were delicious.

On Tuesday after work, I noticed a distinct pear smell when I walked into the kitchen. Last week, during a quick trip home, my grandma and I filled up a large grocery bag with fresh pears from her neighbor's tree. Eloise doesn't do anything with the pears anymore so she's glad when someone takes them so they don't go to waste... and I'm planning to bring her a jar of pear butter as a thank you when I go home for Thanksgiving. But Tuesday night, I skipped the pear butter and made this instead:

It's a mishmash of two recipes from Epicurious, Pear Pie with Maple and Ginger and Pear-Cardamom Pie with Almond Crust. Steve and I tasted it while it was still oven-warm, and it was... absolutely amazing: The flavors were more subtle and delicate than I thought I was capable of producing in a pastry, and completely balanced.

The next day, though, I had a small sliver of pie after work and was surprised to find that it tasted completely bland! In a panic, I tossed it in the microwave for a few seconds... and luckily that did the trick. I handed out a few slices to friends with the warning that it needed to be reheated, but I'm still curious: Why would both the spices and the luscious pear flavor itself disappear like that at room temperature? Any of my foodie friends have a guess as to why the heat restored the flavor excitement?

Speaking of excitement, this gardener is extremely excited about a certain development in her indoor garden:

There are 51 (yes, fifty-one!) flower buds on my Meyer (Improved) lemon! I'm sure that they won't all turn into baby lemons--and I know that the ones that do will not be ready to pick for a while--but I will definitely enjoy the flower fragrance in a few weeks. And if I get enough to make even just one of the yummy-sounding Meyer Lemon recipes I've uncovered, I'll be ecstatic.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend, full of similarly pleasant surprises!

The Year of Should've: A Hike to Brandywine Falls

2009-11-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

I'm noticing a trend here lately in my blog posts. They all start off with, "What I should have been doing was A," and proceed to talk about how I spent my free time frolicking and following Plan B instead. This theme continued throughout my past week of vacation. On Monday, Steve took a day off of work as well. We bummed around all day, having delicious corned beef sandwiches (and a cream puff as big as a football--which we both shared for dessert on Tuesday night as well!) at Simon's in Brecksville, and then nosing around Leener's and buying stuff to brew our own Root Beer.

And then we headed to the Stanford House in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to take a short but fun hike to Brandywine Falls. When you arrive at Stanford House, you kind of feel like you're trespassing, because you have to drive behind this big old barn to find the parking lot:

Recently, Stanford House was also a hostel, and also served as a retreat place for some local school groups. Now, they have rustic campgrounds there that you can reserve, with both water and chemical toilets for your use. They also have this blue tanker labeled "Drinking Water," which I wouldn't be brave enough to use but which looked pretty against the yellow fall leaves:

This great old maple tree was near the trailhead. When I looked up at it before we got started, I felt like it was kind of giving me a hug--because its branches fanned out all around:

I assume that this was once a chicken coop or some other kind of animal area... but maybe someone better versed in farming can set me straight here? Whatever it was, it may be on its way to a return to its former glory, judging by the recent addition of plywood and other boards:

Isn't that old brick great, by the way? I love the texture, and the sheen:

Steve spotted this huge millstone, on the edge of a field, from a good 50 feet away. He has good eyes--mine skimmed right over it, assuming that it was just a regular old rock:

The same millstone, with our feet (mine are a women's 9, his are a men's 14) near the center to give you an idea of how huge this millstone was. Notice the leaves inside? There was a foot or so of space below the stone, which makes me wonder if it covers up something like an old well shaft. There's no mill or creek around for a while, so no other reason for it to be here:

While we were checking out the millstone, a rustling and tapping in the nearby field caught our attention. It wasn't long before we spotted the woodpecker--a male downy woodpecker, I think?--tapping at the browned tubes in search of dinner. Taking a photo of him was another story. This single clear photo was probably photo #11 or 12:

Photo accomplished, we headed off toward the falls. The first part of the walk is through a meadow area, and I loved how the bright white shocks of opened milkweed seedpods punctuated the field of grasses. In the late afternoon light, they reminded me of tiny deer tails:

If I had to guess, I would say that this is a ground cherry... but it doesn't have that papery husk. Anyone else want to venture an ID for this bright yellow fruit?

There's something kind of lovely about the meadow of browned plants against a light blue sky, with still-green grass at its feet:

I loved the quirky shape of this already-bare tree, spotted just off the path:

Finally, the first footbridge, leading into the woods, of the 4 that you encounter on this trail. I've done this hike at least 6 or 8 times now, mostly toward evening time, and this is always the marker for being "out of the woods" on the way home.

You rarely encounter any humans on this trail until you reach the falls, but don't think that doesn't mean you are really "alone" out here. The woods have eyes! Do you see?

We probably saw half a dozen deer, and heard at least a handful more, during our hike. It's such a seldom-used trail that the sense that you are encroaching on their land (which of course, we were) really hits home. And it also struck me how big woodland animals like deer are typically very quiet (identifiable by single branch cracks) while the small animals like squirrels and chipmunks make enough noise for animals 10x their size.

Steve and I were making just as much noise, shuffling through the carpet of newly-fallen leaves:

Very few wildflowers were still blooming here--it's just a half hour south of where I live, but they get frost and colder temps much earlier than I do. (Thank you, Lake Erie!) A few asters, and this dainty little persicaria, were among the bloomers:

The fungus "blooms" were everywhere, though, including this huge "bouquet" at the foot of a fallen tree:

The trees that still were upright with leaves were mostly those showing yellow coloring. It made for a golden, warm, cathedral effect as the sun streamed through to the path:

The walk is fairly hilly (190ft vertical over the course of the walk, not counting the falls) and when you went down into a valley, just the tops of the trees around you would be sunlit:

It amazes me how much the color of the sky can change from photograph to photograph, even when the camera settings remain the same. Check out how much bluer the sky looks in this zoomed-in photo below, as compared to the one above:

The plants weren't all golden, however. A few deciduous trees still retained their green leaf color, and many little colonies of green ferns popped up here and there. They were particularly abundant in this little creek ravine:

And this hillside, near another footbridge, was completely covered in green:

I have "a thing for" twisted fallen trees, and can rarely pass one without snapping a picture or two. I would love to have a piece like this to use as a focal point/natural sculpture in my front yard:

This, I believe, is a new footbridge that they built over the summer. Very sturdy, and they picked a color that would work well with the surroundings:

We soon exited the woods, and picked up a crumbling old road that has long been closed to car traffic. We were very close to the Falls, but couldn't resist stopping to try to get a few pics of some impressive wildlife. See them in the white box below?

Not sure what you're looking at? You might still not know after viewing my blurry photo below (zooming all the way, in low natural light, leads to blurry pictures!) so I'll give you a hint: If they weren't on National Park land, they might have to worry about being served for dinner somewhere in a few weeks!

Giving up on the wild turkey photos, I shot one last picture down the ravine. Here, the water from Brandywine Creek starts to calm back down after its trip down the falls... but it's still a rocky creek bed. We could hear it better than we could see it through the evergreens:

As we descended the stairs that lead to the observation deck, the view opened up to give us a better look at the rocky creek:

When we rounded the last corner, we were glad that so many of the leaves were already gone. You generally can see the last stairs and observation deck from here, but when there's no leaf canopy, you can immediately view the falls themselves as well:

Brandywine Falls were first formed between 300-400 million years ago. The lighter layers at the top are made of Berea sandstone, and the darker layers at the bottom are made of Bedford shale. (Berea and Bedford are two local towns, so I assume these stone names just designate that they are the "type of sandstone like one could find in X town." But I'm not sure.)

Anyway, the sandstone is harder than the shale, which chips away much more easily, and that's why you see the overhang at the top:

I wonder if, a long time down the road (as in, not in my lifetime) the lower level will be taken away entirely by the power of the water? And what would be left would be a straight drop of water, uninterrupted, from the top of the Berea sandstone into a deepening pool carved out of the Bedford shale below. Whatever the life cycle of the falls is meant to be eventually, right now it's a gorgeous "bridal veil" style waterfall:

But we didn't have a lot of time to admire it. The darkening sky and the time on Steve's cell phone sent us the message that we had to hustle unless we wanted to get stuck in the woods in the dark. We started to ascend the 69-step, multi-tiered decking to head back to the trail:

But I couldn't resist taking this cool shot of a fern growing out of the rock ledge overhead:

We wasted no more time on photos, and little time on conversation, as we powered back through the woods to our starting point. Remember the "out of the woods" footbridge I mentioned earlier? I know I can make it through the meadow part in almost complete darkness (don't ask!) so we were aiming to reach the footbridge by the last remaining daylight...

.... and we made it, just in the nick of time! By the time we got back to the car, our cheeks were pink with an autumn chill and with the exertion of our speed walking. And we were a little too tired from our day of bumming to brew any root beer yet that night... so that will be another post.

Unless, of course, I find something else to do when I "should be" brewing root beer. Who knows? After all, this IS turning out to be "The Year of Should've!"

My Favorite Holiday Arrives!

2009-10-31T16:10:00.001-04:00

Wishing everyone an Enchanted, Enchanting, Haunted, and Hauntingly Happy Halloween!

Always remember to carry your shield, Perseus... or you, too, may become one of Medusa's victims!

(Yes, those are plastic snakes braided into my hair. It took about an hour and 15 minutes for me to put them in on my own, and about 30 minutes to take them all out, with Steve's assistance!)

*Edited to add that we won the costume contest that night! Our very cool hostess wrapped up a box of Frankenberry cereal for the second place winner, and Steve and I get to split a Magic Hat "Night of the Living Dead" sampler 12 pack. Fun!

Late October Color

2009-10-29T18:39:00.000-04:00

I've had this week off of work, but it's been a really busy one. (Still neglecting my garden, unfortunately--although I should be able to rectify that oversight some tomorrow!) No time for details, but I do want to show off some of the color that's starting to blaze in the garden this week:

Orange Pyracantha berries behind a screen of 'The Blues' little bluestem.

My tiny blueberry bush (can you see its red leaves?) surrounded by lemongrass, 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass, pineapple sage, woolly thyme and Japanese bloodgrass.

'Black Lace' elderberry encroaching on the aforementioned switchgrass. (An area to fix next summer.)

Lonicera sempervirens combining more tubular flowers with bright yellow fall foliage.

'Black Beauty' elderberry, with still just a few burgundy leaves hiding behind the 'Grosso' lavender.

My new fave tall sedum, 'Hab Gray,' with yellowing leaves behind the drying flowerheads. Surrounded by 'Sky Pencil' Japanese holly, blue fescues, variegated silene, and the tiny sedum hispanicum.

Asparagus, with its yellowing foliage falling over part of the blue footbridge.

'Himrod White' grape leaves turning yellow against the burgundy of its arbor and a cool candle lantern that Mom gave me for Christmas last year. (Yikes! I NEED to get this fence painting finished already!)

The reddening leaves of my thornless blackberry.

Alpine strawberry 'Ozark' shows flowers and red leaves at this time of the year, and fall berries seem to have a little more tart with their sweet but are still delicious. Above, 'Sioux Blue' indiangrass.

On to the front yard:

The front yard garden is almost a riot of colors... in a bad way! But too soon we'll be left with the gray and brown-gray of a typical Cleveland winter, so I love it.

'Diablo' purple ninebark is definitely this week's show-stealer, with its blaze of red leaves backlit by the afternoon sun.

No plants seem to want to be left out of the fall show here: Even the golden oregano is tinging pink on the edges!

I love backlit grasses, so I try to choose sites for them where they will be between me and the sun as much as possible. Here 'Hameln' pennisetum shines against the deep fall color of my oakleaf hydrangea.

'Albury Purple' hypericum (St. John's Wort) has leaves tinged with purple year-round. But it looks particularly great in Autumn when capped off with berries (and even a few new blooms... I think the caryopteris behind really sets it off.

Not all fall color is pretty! Here echinops ritro is seen turning yellow--and brown and crispy--all at the same time.

I couldn't get my arm and camera out of this pic (sorry) but a single hybrid amsonia is shining brightly--along with the oakleaf hydrangea--among a neutral palette of sage and sea kale.

Another year-round shiner is 'Golden Sword' yucca. See the hybrid amsonia to its left? It's the same kind as the blazing yellow beauty above, so I have no idea why it and its neighbor are still green... maybe they decided to take turns this year!

A last parting shot: My front yard garden as it looks from the corner of the driveway. Now, off to work on doing a little more cleanup here--including adding in some much-needed "chunky" foliage in the area behind the oakleaf, to offset all of this fine-textured stuff a little better.

Hope you all are enjoying a beautiful autumn day like mine... and that you're not as behind in the garden as I am right now! :(

Garden Bloggers' (Belated) Bloom Day - October 2009

2009-10-21T00:45:00.000-04:00

Garden mum 'Hannah' (small, new quart-sized pot that needs to be planted) temporarily sited between golden oregano and Spanish foxglove foliage.

Can we file this one under "Better late than never?" I missed last week's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (hosted by the lovely Carol, of May Dreams Gardens) because I was so busy at work. As per its usual, the garden went on blooming... not even noticing the absence of its gardener, or so it seems. While I try not to pout about that too much, let's show the blooming highlights from October:

'Black and Blue' salvia blooms get a little lost against the deepening leaves of 'Sykes' Dwarf' oakleaf hydrangea

Caryopteris and 'Hameln' in bloom above, with the spent flowers of 'Purple Knockout' salvia lyrata and 'Voodoo' sedum below.

A closeup of the mingling of caryopteris and 'Hameln'... both rather fine and frothy, but I like them together anyway.

My 'Party Dress' is falling down... what a faux pas! Luckily, it looks good against the golden oregano and Japanese maple leaves.

Red snapdragons are my favorite--so velvety and rich, especially against this unnamed (but probably 'Walker's Low') catmint.

In the backyard, there are a few surprises. 'Blue Balsam' basil is supposed to be one of the most cold-tolerant, and is so far living up to its reputation. (It's been tested by a few nights in the upper 30s!) Observant herb lovers will notice a few orange calendula blooms in the background here, too.

Chocolate eupatorium, being overrun by the sprawling 'Sioux Blue' indiangrass, sorghastrum nutens. My gypsy heuchera, 'Regina' is nestled at its feet.

The native coral honeysuckle still blooms in a messy corner with various weeds, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, 'All Gold' hakone grass, scaly Buckler ferns and yellowing foliage of goatsbeard.

A single toad lily bloom remains, held delicately over the foliage of an unnamed (garden center rescue) pulmonaria.

An overview of the back bed, including the flowers and seedheads of panicum virgatum 'Rotstrahlbusch,' Russian sage, pineapple sage, zebra grass, and the amazing lantana that keeps on blooming in the clay tile planter.

Other things in bloom here still include:

hardy blue plumbago (ceratostigma plumbaginoides)

Salvia 'Caradonna'

Butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) seedlings

'Sweet Kate' spiderwort

'Grosso' lavender

two other kinds of basil

a couple of peppers and tomatoes (crazy!)

dark blue angelonia

'Ozark' strawberries

'Vodka' wax begonias

Parlor Maple (abutilon megapotanicum)

annual dark purple salvia

'Vancouver Centennial' geranium (pelargonium)

'So Sweet' hosta

'Sun Power' hosta (which has a lightly sweet scent)

To see what else is blooming around the world, visit Carol's post via the link above. And now that my crazy work month is almost over, I promise to return to my regularly scheduled posting soon. :)

The Backyard, October 10

2009-10-11T01:30:00.000-04:00

Today had all the makings of a gorgeous fall day: Sunshine. Crisp, clear air. The crunch of fall leaves underfoot. That level of cool where you're comfy enough in a fleece but going inside every now and then feels good--and getting into a car that's been sitting in the sun brings an instant flush of warmth to the tips of your fingers.

As you can see on the tree peony above, the leaves are beginning to flush, too, with fall color. I noticed its reddening leaves as I quickly took stock of the backyard this evening. Amazingly, there are still a lot of things yet to harvest there! Some, like these 'Hungarian Hot Wax' peppers and 'Ichiban' eggplants, have been simply waiting for me to get to them:

Others, like these 'Pineapple' tomatoes, got a late start and are racing the clock to ripen before a frost does them in:

And then there are my 'Sundance' apples, which are never quite ready until mid-October. They're worth the wait, though--as the Gurney's website promised, they have a very unique sweet-tart flavor, and there's a hint of lemony flavor in their firm flesh:

Not all of the fruit set in the garden is edibles, of course--unless you are a bird. These pyracantha berries are the last thing to get eaten in the spring, and I'm not complaining. That means I get to enjoy them longer:

Also sporting orange are these seedpods (I assume?) on my native honeysuckle, lonicera sempervirens:

By the way, I would not hesitate to recommend this vine to anyone--and might be planting a few more of them along my fenceline. It pretty much flowers throughout the summer, and the blue-green foliage is fantastic, too.

Speaking of impressive foliage, it's hard to believe that this 'Black Beauty' elderberry has gorgeous dark leaves through the growing season, bears fruit (a 'Black Lace' nearby pollinates it) AND gives fall color, too. But here you see the bottom sets of leaves (near the still-blooming 'Grosso' lavender) starting to turn a pretty wine-red:

See, autumn isn't ONLY about the fiery reds and oranges! Other cool combos that are just coming into their own finally in the October garden include Little Bluestem and purple heart:

And the darkened, spent flowerheads of 'Hab Gray' sedum above the fine-textured, tiny foliage of sedum hispanicum:

Most of the garden IS turning red or yellow, though. The acid-yellow foliage colors of the milkweed and hosta are should be outstanding in another week. And the otherwise-yellow foliage of hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' is starting to look downright tropical with its fall streaks of crimson:

But it's not completely over quite yet--there's still a lot of shouting going on, in a few corners of the garden. Like here, where the jewel-like tones of 'Sedona' coleus, angelonia, 'Black Lace' sambucus, and portulaca foliage can almost trick you into thinking it's still summer:

Bright lantana blooms add their voice to the garden chorus, too, while Japanese bloodgrass sways in the background:

Maybe the lantana is actually singing a rather surprised cover of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing?" Because the fact that the Russian sage is blooming right next door--and providing a nice, cool foil for this definitely overgrown lantana--is a sign that it really can't be too long before the garden needs to be put to bed for the winter:

That and all of the "berries" on the branches below the lantana flowerhead, which mean that I have long since given up doing any upkeep on the "throwaway annuals" that I replace each year.

I might be adding more things than I had planned to the "throwaway" list, by the way. There will be pockets of frost tonight and tomorrow night throughout my area, but I didn't get everything pulled, dug and put away today... and tomorrow will be another long day of work, with no real chance to play in the yard. So we'll see how things shake out once we get through this first real cold spell. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Washed-Out Weekend

2009-10-01T16:14:00.000-04:00

So here's a quick list of what I SHOULD have been doing this past weekend:

Cleaning up the garden
Painting my "plant table" so it had a few days to dry before tender plants had to come inside and spend the winter there
Primping and painting/sealing the window that is unfortunately located inside the tub/shower
Planting some of the many perennials that are sitting out on my driveway, waiting for a winter home
Canning more applesauce and apple butter
And about a hundred other chores that needed to be finished!

And here's a hint as to what I did instead:

This weekend, Steve and I joined one of our volleyball teammates, his girlfriend, and 6 of their friends on a 2-night camping trip to Mohican Reservation. We shared some campfires, a few spirits, many hamburgers and cheese brats, and millions of raindrops. In spite of the rain, we had a good time... yes, even when yours truly managed to tip over one of these:

In my defense, it was my very first canoe trip ever and I HAD managed to "pilot" us through a few rocks before we went right over top of the big one. (I didn't even see that rock, honestly, until it was too late.) On the bright side, the boat didn't crack and start to take on water a la the Titanic... and Steve had been through about a dozen canoe trips without capsizing once, so I'm happy that I was able to help him out with a new canoeing experience! ;)

Between the canoe trip and the raindrops, it was hard to capture many photos for posterity. But I did get some cool ones early Saturday afternoon, when Steve and I ventured off for a walk down the river. Here are some highlights:

Fern growing in a cracked tree trunk along the riverbank.

Fun photo of moss growing on a tree

Same moss, same tree, different perspective

Speaking of moss growing on a tree, isn't that (or maybe lichen?) supposed to grow only on the north side of a tree? Both seemed to be growing on all sides of the trees scattered along the Mohican River.

Lichen-encrusted tree, with an ant. Steve noticed him and we both admired his industriousness--it seemed like a lot of work for him to be carrying that fly carcass, and he was fairly high up the tree. (Almost at eye level!)

Cool-looking fungus of some sort. It was so close to the shore that it reminded me of a creature that might jump back into the water at any time.

Shelf fungus. There were many of these scattered around in the trees. The largest one--which we just couldn't get a good picture of, because of the lighting--was about 9ft up in one tree, and about the size of half of a serving platter.

I assume this is some kind of a fern growing in this tree crotch--it's so pretty and airy, and I love that it seemed to "capture" the maple leave. Can anyone give me an ID on the fern?

A few people were fishing in one of the many shallow areas as we started our walk. When we came back toward the campsite they were gone so we walked down toward the bank they had vacated. While investigating the river more closely there, we discovered that they--or someone who visited before them--had created an artistic arrangement of rocks on this log:

And then I amused myself for a few minutes, trying to capture on film (or should I say on computer chip?) one of the many leaves that were floating down the river:

"Leaf in Water" photo, attempt 1. Fairly well centered, but too far away.

"Leaf in Water" photo, attempt 2. Now THIS is better... nevermind that I had to "cheat"--by taking a photo of a leaf that wasn't actually moving in the water--in order to get such a good close-up!

The only bad thing about having fun and ignoring your "To Do" list is that it doesn't magically get shorter while you're away. So all of those items still need to be done--and the undone table-painting came back to bite me last night when I had to bring in all of my houseplants as the temperatures dropped. Boo.

So maybe I'll get a few things crossed off of my list this weekend instead... that is, if nothing more exciting comes up in the meantime. :) Have a great weekend, everyone!

Random Cuttings

2009-09-24T16:15:00.002-04:00

Lately, I keep finding myself with random little snippets of posts, and no good way to tie them all together into a coherent bundle. Weeks later, I log into Blogger and find draft after draft cluttering up my account... so I end up just deleting the drafts to clean up the mess. In addition to wasting any effort I've put into writing, I don't always remember to go back and chronicle the items in the deleted drafts for posterity. This may not seem like such a big deal at first glance, but it is, because the primary function of my blog is to serve as a gardening journal.

As a result, I've decided that I'm going to just cull these little post snippets into an occasional post seriess called Random Cuttings. I hope that they turn out as nicely as this little scrabbled-together garden bouquet:

Garden bouquet, September 2009.

Plants include 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, 'Sweet Kate' tradescantia, Russian sage, Japanese bloodgrass, and coleus.

I like to take random cuttings from the garden and put them into various vases around the house throughout the season. Some don't live up to my standards and are either revamped or sent to that big compost bin the sky--er, the backyard. But others really work for me, and I'm very happy to have brought the garden inside on days when I can't go outside into the garden.

Remember those apples from the last post? The ones Steve and I picked off of his grandfather's tree? I'm still whittling down the pile, slowly... but here's how the Apple Pie with Walnut Streusel looked while it cooled:

I'm not sure how the apple crisp turned out, because we dropped it off at Steve's grandpa's last night and haven't heard any reviews. I used a new topping recipe and made it gluten-free for Steve's uncle (who often eats dinner there) so that makes me a little nervous... but as Steve pointed out: "It has yummy apples, cinnamon, sugar, butter, oats and oat flour in it. Really, could it have turned out that bad?" Good point!

The edibles had a really rough year in my garden--and it's all my fault. I got everything into the ground so late this year that I can only hope for the cold temps to hold off long enough for me to harvest some tomatoes. My lemongrass hardly grew, the birds got all of my grapes, it was a not-unexpected "off" year for the blackberries, and so on. But the worst was finding scale on my potted, 3-year-old bay laurels! I immediately cut the whole plants down below the infestation and harvested the salvageable leaves. They look pretty drying on my dining room table:

I have no idea whether cutting the bay back will work, by the way. Since I don't spray, it was just a gut-instinct action as an alternative to throwing out the infected plants. I keep watching the branch stubs for signs of scale, or for signs of additional leafing out... and see none of either, yet. I'll keep the blog updated on their progress (or lack thereof) as autumn progresses. Please keep your fingers crossed for them!

7 Things, Plus One Box of Possibilities

2009-09-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

A while back, Carol from May Dreams Gardens tagged me for a meme. I know that I've done this "Seven Things About Me" meme before, and frankly I'm not a very exciting (drama-finding, larger-than-life) person, so coming up with seven interesting things is going to be a struggle. But I like Carol, and I really don't feel like doing anything productive right now, so I'm giving it a try. Here goes:

1. I play a lot of volleyball.

I started playing volleyball in adult leagues a few years after I got married, and have kept playing through the years. In the summertime I play 4's, 6's and even a lower-level (upper intermediate/BB, as opposed to open/A/competitive) women's 2's league. My favorite team is my Thursday indoor competitive 6's team, though. We have a good team (including my boyfriend Steve) and great chemistry, and I can't wait until we start playing together again next week.

Speaking of Steve...

2. Here's something scandalous, after all: I'm dating a younger man.

Okay, it's not really that scandalous. I'm not dating Steve because he's younger... in fact, all of the guys I've dated previously have been my age or within a year older than me. I'm dating Steve because... well, because he's Steve. :-) And outside of a few amusing comments from various friends, and a few cultural references from our childhoods that we have to explain to each other, I never really remember on a day-to-day basis that he's 26 and I'm 33.

(But I have to point out--just in case Steve is reading this--that I may be older, but he has WAY more gray hairs than I do already! ;-)

3. Speaking of gray hair, I am NOT going to be one of those women who constantly colors and touches up her hair when it turns gray.

I hope it turns the pretty, silvery-white color that my Mom's is... but if it isn't, then I will probably just cut it short and choppy and punky, so it has some attitude.

4. I have a deep love of architecture.

I seriously considered going to school for architecture, or at least art... and still wonder whether I shouldn't have done so. Regardless, I definitely appreciate both. And part of what I love about Cleveland is that many of its beautiful buildings were created during the Art Deco period, which is one of my favorites because it's a mashup of contrasts (like opulence and modern efficiency.)

5. I hope that I never, ever, EVER have to eat meatloaf again.

I know, this is a silly one. But once when I was a kid my Mom made me sit at the table until I ate every last bite of my meatloaf. (This, by the way, is the worst thing I can say about her... she is an amazing mother, and I consider myself extremely lucky!) I didn't like meatloaf all that well prior to this particular evening... and after choking down numerous bites of cold, icky meatloaf amid tears, I downright hated it. Ugh!

Luckily...

6. I love cooking.

So I don't ever have to worry about having to make meatloaf for lack of recipes and ideas. My friend Jessica and I like to trade recipes, and when we get together we are known to indulge in making ridiculously gourmet epicurean feasts. During my visit to Cincinnati chronicled in the photo above, she introduced me to Jungle Jim's (heaven!) and I showed her that roasting a whole chicken is so easy that someone who makes her own delicious ice cream doesn't need to be intimidated by it at all.

Almost done with this meme! So I'll end with one more confession:

7. I have a secret admiration/envy of Martha Stewart.

Okay, it's probably not such a big secret given how much I read her magazines. And people who know me and have seen my messy, eclectic house are probably laughing right now. But I aspire to cook as well as, decorate as interestingly as, garden as efficiently as, and generally housekeep as amazingly as Ms. Martha. Maybe some day.

And that brings us to the end of this meme... so it's time to show you the "Plus One Box of Possibilities" from the title of this post:

Apples! Steve's grandfather has a huge old apple tree in his backyard, and we stopped by there for a quick visit and some apple-picking today. I filled up the big, old (trashpicked) antique trug shown above, plus another bag... and could probably go back for the same amount again, there were so many fruits weighing down the boughs.

It's a great old tree, missing some limbs but perfect for a little climbing nonetheless. And these apples are heavenly--firm and crisp, with a really good balance of tart and sweet in the flavor. Could they be Gala? Macintosh? Nobody has any idea: According to Steve's uncle Mike, his parents had actually purchased a crabapple tree for planting, and were surprised when it started bearing regular, full-sized apples in subsequent years.

It doesn't matter what kind they are, really... they're going to be an apple pie with walnut streusel, an apple crisp, and probably some apple-clove butter, too, by the time I get done with them. Anyone have any other all-time-favorite recipes that they would like to share? I certainly seem to have enough apples to give them all a try!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - September 2009

2009-09-15T00:28:00.002-04:00

I'm out of town this week for a work-related seminar, but I took a few photos before I left so that I could put up a quick GBBD post. So here, without further ado, are a few snapshots of what's blooming in my garden--including a BIG September surprise:

Portulaca blooming alongside lavender, hens and chicks, and bronze carex buchanii

Variegated sedum in bud at the base of sorghastrum nutens 'Sioux Blue,' which is currently in bloom

Sun Parasol, a bright crimson mandevilla

(very cool, but not the surprise)

Spent flowerheads on red groundcover sedum are still showy against my 'Golden Sword' yucca

The first blue caryopteris flowers emerge amongst the bottlebrush flowers of a pennisetum that I bought as 'Hameln'--but which I think flowers too darkly to be that cultivar.

'Albury Purple' hypericum, which has sported berries for months now, is again throwing out occasional buttery yellow blooms

(Again, cool... but not the surprise!)

Purple Heart, Purple Tradescantia, Setcreasea Pallida... no matter what you want to call it, this lilac-flowering beauty always reminds me of my lovely sister-in-law Amanda

(A story too long to explain right now)

Some annuals still beating the heat with blooms: 'Yubi Red' portulaca and a dark blue angelonia in the tile planter

'Sweet Kate' spiderwort putting up a second wave of color

The twisty onion: allium senescens subspecies glaucum

HERE is the surprise: A pot-planted Christmas amaryllis bulb in rebloom!

Magenta snapdragons, seen through a veil of 'Black & Blue' salvia. The feathery plant on the left is 'Golden Rain' rosemary

And to close this post? Not a bloom at all, but instead a rather gratuitous photo of the puppy I've been missing so much this week. (I am also surprised at how many times I have thought that "I wish Steve was here to see..." or do something with me during this trip. Interesting...) In a few days, I'll be back in town to see whether the next few tomatoes have managed to escape her notice... or whether she's been picking up the "harvesting" duties while I've been gone. Expect a full report!

In the meantime: Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is one of the many brainchilds of Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. To see what else is blooming around the world on the 15th of September, check out Carol's latest GBBD Post here.

Signs that Autumn is Just Around the Corner: Critters, Sedums & Locks

2009-08-30T00:13:00.007-04:00

A turtle made of found objects soldered together by a friend; my cracked pot of hens & chicks seemed the perfect thing to slip into the wheel to complete his shell. See the orange pyracantha berries--already!--in sprays behind him?

I love autumn; it's my favorite season of the year, from the rich smells of decaying, earthy leaves and acrid, smoky bonfires to the glorious last blazes of color in the garden. Once the calendar hits August, I usually start thinking fall. I look forward to pulling out sweaters for brisk walks, plan for a visit down to the local apple orchard, and vigorously rid the house of summer's whirlwind mess the way that most people do spring cleaning months earlier.

But this year... well this year, I'm just not ready yet for fall! Maybe that's because I've been so busy (I made only 19 posts in all of 2009 so far? Yikes!) or maybe it has more to do with the fact that summer seems to have forgotten us this year. Either way, the signs of an impending autumn are undeniable... and I'm not particularly happy about finding a lot of them in my garden this weekend.

A ladybug by the same friend, made out of an old pipe cap and some other spare parts. I am seeing less ladybugs, and many more grasshoppers and other "late summer" bugs, in the garden these days.

For one thing, the 'Matrona' sedum that I love in every other stage but bloom... is blooming. I know that many people have asked in the comments about why I don't keep it from blooming, or replace it with something else. Two reasons: 1) I love the dried flowerheads. 2) The bees love the blooms!

I tried to count the bees on one of my two 'Matrona' plants today, and I was up in the 30s before I lost track of the number!

My summer-flowering sedums, like 'Fuldaglut,' 'Red Dragon,' and 'Voodoo' are all spent. Some are coloring up nicely, and still look full, but the ones that get a bit of shade--like the one below--start to look scraggly at this time of the year:

A couple of sedums are still in bud, though. Here's a variegated (unnamed, bought at a plant sale, but probably sedum alboroseum) one that prefers a bit of shade:

Sedum alboroseum (I think) nestled in with horehound at the base of sorghastrum nutens 'Sioux Blue'

And here's the sedum that I showed in my bloom day post, still nestled up against the warm brown of the nearby rock:

Sedum cauticola 'Lidakense'

By the way, if I ever do get rid of 'Matrona' it will be to replace them with more of this wonderful sedum that I bought last year from Plant Delights as 'Hab Gray' sedum telephium:

Sedum telephium (bought as 'Hab Gray') with a 'Sky Pencil' Japanese holly, red cabbage and blue fescue in the background

I'm kind of convinced that I have something different, though, because Tony Avent's notes on 'Hab Gray' say that you can expect "clusters of pink flowers"... and these are more of a yellow flower. That's perfect for me, so I'm not complaining! Also notice in the photo above how the flower buds continue all the way down the stems--very nice.

And as if that wasn't quite enough, check this out:

'Maybe Hab Gray' (as I think of it) sprouting up amongst the cutback stalks of drumstick allium

Awww... it's a little baby! In fact, I have at least 6 of these little guys sprouting up within 3-4 feet of my 'Hab Gray,' and that's fine with me. I'll be transplanting a few of them to various spots around the Lock Garden next spring, assuming they overwinter okay. (They're so little, and none of them will hurt anything where they are now, that I'm leaving them alone until spring.)

Speaking of the Lock Garden, I finally got it weeded, mulched and cleaned up. That's another sign that autumn is just around the corner--I always save this area for last, since very few edibles are grown here and the plants that do reside in "the locks" are tough cookies. Some areas are filling in very nicely already:

Sedum sieboldii, 'Metallica Crispa' ajuga, silene, 3 kinds of thyme, a self-seeded blue fescue and some random baptisia foliage in the lock garden.

A close-up of the sedum, silene, ajuga, and thyme--which is the beautiful 'Clear Gold' from Mulberry Creek--meshing together underneath one of the metal industrial shelves that serve as "bridges."

A few of the plants, like this lavender thyme, were a little too happy and needed to be cut wayyyy back. You can probably tell by the way his branches are draped that I chopped about half of the plant out toward the bottom of the lock:

Cutting back thyme (and other herbs) is always an enjoyable job, but this garden will need some "real" work within the next year, though. Where the clumpier sedums reside, the sides of the locks have caved in a bit, burying some of the stone that I culled (with permission) from work) to line the lock. Their roots aren't vigorous enough to hold the soil in place the way the roots of the thyme and creeping sedums do:

And I still have some framing and pebbling (technical term... ;) to do under the shelves that are either fully or partly resting on the ground. Here's one of the frames--made from cedar, and filled in with pebbles and a small sedum album that I love and let wander a bit--that I built last year:

That frame is a simple one, so the 2-3 identical ones that I need to make for the land part of the pathway should be easy. The shelves that partly hover above the ground will not be so easy. I will have to artfully construct two separate boxes--one for each end--for shelves like these:

Two of the "bridges" over locks in the Lock Garden that will need box ends to support them. The bridge in the foreground is over the sedum/silene/thyme/ajuga combo shown above. That's part of my asparagus bed (which is beneath a small 'Himrod White' grape arbor) falling onto the pathway on the left, and self-seeded blue fescues on the right. The second bridge goes over two different types of blue-leaf sedums.

I imagine that I will either need to shore up the end of the frame that abuts the plants in the lock with stone (or maybe a full plank of cedar?) before I can pebble them, to make sure that the pebbles stay where I want. It will definitely be an engineering job, but once the frames and pebbles are in place they will stay there for a long time... only the blue shelves get lifted off of the frames and stored in the garage for the winter.

I'm trying not to panic just thinking about how much I still want to get done in the garden this year--not to mention the need to finish my fence painting, too! And I don't have very much time.... after all, autumn appears to be just around the corner. :(

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day August 2009

2009-08-14T23:47:00.007-04:00

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens)... and it's a typical August weekend here in Northeast Ohio. We are finally hot and muggy--yes, I mean that WE are hot and muggy, just like the weather!--and the gardens are in their midsummer doldrums, where most everything looks a little worse for the wear and the annuals try to catch their second wind before they put on a good fall show.

There are a few exceptions to the doldrums, of course, and I think that this time around I'll show off the backyard blooms first before I move around to the front. But only because the star of my garden right now is the lovely verbena bonariensis, a.k.a. "tall verbena," "Brazilian verbena," or verbena-on-a-stick:

Verbena bonariensis, an anual that doesn't quite reseed as freely as I would like, backed by sorghastrum nutens 'Sioux Blue'

Most of my spring bloomers are long gone--and even some summer blooms, like the drumstick allium, have called it quits--but my silene is still blooming off and on:

Silene uniflora maritima 'Compacta' putting out some more blooms and mingling with 'Metallica Crispa' ajuga and one of my golden-leaf thymes... incidentally, I know that I had promised someone seeds of this last year, but I don't have any clue who that was. If it's you, email me to let me know!

Okay, this one isn't quite in bloom yet, but many of my sedums look really pretty in bud, too:

I'm pretty sure that this is sedum cauticola... the leaf color just looks more purple than blue because it doesn't get as much sun as my truly blue-leaf versons do!

... and here's one that I actually prefer in bud, 'Matrona,' (which flowers... ugh... pink!) alongside Russian Sage:

Love it now... but hate it when the 'Matrona' sedum blooms cotton-candy-pink against the already-sweet purple of the Russian sage.

In the shade garden by the driveway, 'Othello' ligularia sometimes pouts and droops its leaves in the heat... but it's still blooming away in a bright cheddar-y yellow:

'Othello' ligularia with golden creeping jenny, 'Jack Frost' brunnera, ferns, 'Chocolate Chip' brunnera, black mondo grass and the brick-y orange of the bamboo pot to break up the monotony

Keeping 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth confined to one corner is working out fairly well so far... as is having that area be Coco's Corner, since the ones she happens to bend over fall artfully into the also-blooming 'All Gold' hakone grass:

'All Gold' hakonechloa macra, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, and foliage from hellebores, goatsbeard, ligularia and sweet woodruff

Moving on to the front yard, there are more annual reseeders to be found. Nestled amid the catmint (which I need to cut back again for a little more rebloom) are some red-toned snapdragons that were allowed to stay--the white and pink ones are always weeded out for bouquets!

Random red snapdragons with 'Walker's Low' (probably, but a passalong) catmint

'Summerwine' achillea would reseed for me, except that I keep them deadheaded fairly well in order to get more bloom. This one needs to be trimmed a bit for both rebloom and to help it stand upright again--I put a little too much compost and manure on this bed in the spring, which the heucheras love but which makes the yarrows a bit indolent:

A lot going on here by the front porch! Plants from left to right: 'Garden Dwarf' culinary sage, Northern Sea Oats, 'Chubby Fingers' sedum album, 'Peach Melba' (I think?) and 'Obsidian' heucheras, 'Summerwine' achillea, bergenia cordifolia 'Bressignham Ruby'

On the other corner of the porch, the 'Purple Dragon' lamiums are starting yet another rebloom, entirely unaided by any gardener's work:

From top of picture to bottom: Japanese maple, 'Purple Dragon' lamium, Japanese bloodgrass, the foliage of (Spanish foxglove) digitalis parviflora

I've decided that my neighbor has the best view of all of my anemones, since they show up so nicely against the Japanese maple (as seen from her driveway):

From top of photo to bottom: Japanese maple, 'Northern Halo' hosta, golden marjoram/oregano, various Japanese anemones

I DO have a pretty good view of these dahlias, though, as I come down the stairs every morning:

I love this dahlia and wish I knew which one it was, but it came into the garden center without any tags as a spontaneous purchase from a regular supplier. Behind it you see variegated ginger, 'Frosted Curles' carex, 'Amber Waves' and another unnamed heuchera, 'Ivory Prince' hellebore foliage, and a blue haze of catmint blooms.

**EDITED TO ADD A BIG THANK YOU: To Chris, the wonderful photographer and blogger behind Digital Flower Pictures, for the comment that led me toward an ID (I think!) of this dahlia. I believe that it's 'Gallery Art Deco' and you can check it out on Dave's Garden via that link to let me know whether you think I'm on target! ***

And here's the last thing I notice before I get into my car. The lovely blooms on my oakleaf hydrangea:

At the top of the shrub, you can see a new, creamy white oakleaf hydrangea bloom... and in the middle bottom of this same picture you can see the browned remains of an earlier bloom, mixing in with the hazy purple-brown of 'Hameln' pennisetum flowers. Plants in this photo, from left to right: The blue foliage of crambe maritima, variegated iris spears, the oakleaf hydrangea and the pennisetum in front of it, culinary sage, and 'Golden Sword' yucca

That wraps up my highlights of this month as far as Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is concerned. Go to Carol's August 2009 GBBD post to see more of what's in bloom all across the world!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also in bloom here in my garden in August: 4 different hosta, 'Caradonna' salvia, salvia plumosa, ceratostigma plumbaginoides, my blackberry (weird... I'm eating berries already, and there are still branches in bloom?) and my strawberries, allium senescens var 'glaucum' and an unknown white-flowered allium, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil (oops!) and marjoram, golden marjoram, 'Rotstrahlbusch' panicum, 'Aureola' hakone grass, my wavy-leaf blue (unnamed) echeveria, bronze fennel, 2 kinds of thyme, 'Grosso' and 'Munstead' lavender, unnamed calendula, 'Tequila Sunrise' calibrachoa, 'Vancouver Centennial' geranium, annual salvias, 'Vodka' wax begonias, echonops ritro, and (the coral honeysuckle) lonicera sempervirens. Pyracantha and 'Albury Purple' hypericum have pretty berries, too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's (Aerial, Slug) Amore!

2009-08-14T13:52:00.001-04:00

Anyone who sticks around here for very long soon discovers that this is not strictly a gardening blog. I am fairly easily distracted and I sometimes go off-topic, especially where nature or science is concerned. As a fair warning: This is one of those off-topic posts. And it might make a few people go "Eww!" (But it's also pretty amazing! :)

My boyfriend Steve often joins Miss Coco and I for our nightly walks, after volleyball games or after we have dinner at my place. Lately we have noticed quite a few leopard slugs making their way across the sidewalks in little trains of two, hooked together in the middle, like this:

Slug "train" on my front sidwalk... my hand is included for scale so you can see how large the slugs are around here!

We suspected that this was part of some kind of mating ritual, or maybe a precursor to... and after a minute or two of Google searching, we discovered that we were right. Apparently, if a slug wants to mate, it will change some of the secretions in its slime trail to advertise its desires. If another slug picks up on this special scent and is amenable to the idea, it will follow along closely behind the first slug, touching, to let it know that its invitation has been accepted.

I had seen pictures of leopard slugs mating before, but during our research Steve and I also found a couple of videos that showed slug sex--you can see one at the Animal Planet site, here, or search YouTube for the British clip. I wondered aloud where the slugs on my front sidewalk were going to fulfill their quest... but we agreed that we were not likely to actually witness slug sex in my yard until my trees get quite a bit older.

And then, on Tuesday, we walked up to the house after volleyball and saw this:

A tangle of two slugs. On a vertical surface. With a big blotch of slime sturdy enough from which to hang their trapeze rope. I was convinced that it could only be one thing: "Steve, look! I bet we're about to see Slug Sex!"

After coming over for a quick look, he turned to me with a grin: "I think you're right! So... we need to watch this. You're going to go get your camera, aren't you?" (See why I like him?!) By the time I fetched the camera--and the dog--the slugs had already started their descent:

They didn't dangle nearly as far down as I'd expected. And for most of the descent, they stayed curled up like this:

Once they were about 2-1/2 bricks' height down from the ledge, they stopped making their trapeze and started to uncurl and stretch out:

Then their male sex organs started to emerge. Slugs have both male and female sex organs, but they are not able to fertilize themselves--hence the need for these aerial acrobatics. The area of their bodies where all of the reproductive organs are located is called the mantle, and is located close to what we would think of as their "neck," as you can see here:

The male sex organs get longer fairly quickly, and start to drop straight down as they look to entwine with each other and swap sperm:

Unfortunately, I am not quite used to taking night photos on my parents' camera, so I didn't get a close-up shot of the entwined organs that wasn't blurry. Here is the best I could do:

In the "slug sex documentaries" we watched, after the transfer was complete the slugs dropped down off of the slime trapeze and onto the forest floor. Maybe dropping onto concrete was a less hospitable idea to these slugs, maybe they've adapted to city living over the years, or maybe they're a slightly different species than the ones in the video clips. Whatever the reason, they curled back up once they were finished and their organs were fully retracted...

... and then proceeded to "climb" back up the slime trail, to the top of the brick column:

Once they arrived back at their starting point, one slug rested on the vertical slime blotch for a while, while the other continued a short distance onto the horizontal top of the stone slab to take a rest. (And probably to fertilize the eggs.)

As I zoomed in on this last photo to make sure that I hadn't missed anything, I noticed a small circular "hole" in the top slug. A slug anatomy page told us that was the pneumostome, an opening to the slug's lung. The pneumostome is not usually open--the slug breathes through its body/skin normally, but when the slug is involved in strenuous activity the pneumostome opens to allow more surface area for air absorption. It's just about the size of the dot a pencil eraser makes if you dip its tip in ink, and you can see it just about 3/4" above the slug's head if you look:

Well, that's all that I know about Slug Sex in my garden... and I'm sure that this post has left its readers with at least two key questions. So for the gardeners out there who are wondering: Yes, I peacefully coexist with the slugs in my garden. I rarely (if at all) see slug damage on leaves, so they only annoy me when I accidentally touch one and get that slime all over my hands. The slime is very hard to wash off... and now I know why: It's apparently strong and sticky enough to double as a slug trapeze!

The answer to the second question is also Yes: Steve and I did jokingly wonder if being camped out on the front steps, snapping photos of the big slug sex event, meant that we were now voyeurs! Lol.

But seriously, I am beyond excited about witnessing this amazing mating procedure, and being able to share it here on my blog. I hope that you all found it interesting as well... and that nobody was particularly grossed out. (Sorry, Mom! :) If you're not particularly amused at digressions into crazy animal behaviors, don't worry: I have been taking lots of pretty garden pictures this week as well, so we'll be returning to our usual green-and-growing theme here very shortly! Have a great weekend...

Foliage Friday (July 31)

2009-07-31T11:26:00.003-04:00

I am working on all of the fun stuff still--a badge, the little function that allows you to include a link to your post in mine, etc.--but the lack of those bells and whistles just doesn't seem like a good reason to let Foliage Friday fall by the wayside!

I am also running out the door right now, on my way to work at the garden center for the afternoon and early evening. I'll be back later tonight to see what foliage has been highlighted around the garden blogosphere (explain why I'm still at the garden center in late July!) but I will leave you with a few things that have caught my eye in the backyard this morning.

A lovely (and untagged, when I brought it home from the garden center at the end of last year) hosta, which absolutely glows when backlit by the morning sun:

The luscious leaves of 'Key Lime Pie' heuchera, dotted with droplets from last night's rain:

Both of the above are in the "currant bed," which is the first thing I see when I step out my back door. As I round the corner of the house, the Japanese bloodgrass always catches my eye. This is my first view of it during every trip to the backyard:

As I continue into the backyard, I stop to admire how both it and the Russian sage behind it pick up fresh, chartreuse-y green tones when the sun comes streaming through them:

As I round the corner of the bed, the bloodgrass colors flatten out a little bit once the sunshine is more "in their face." I still love the contrast between the grass, the cascade of woolly thyme behind, and the sedum cauticola 'Lidakense' at its base:

I think that foliage combinations are even more necessary to add interest when the floral show wilts in the heat of midsummer, don't you? What kinds of foliage combinations do you have featured in your yard? I could use some more inspiration for a few particular areas in my gardens... so I'm looking forward to seeing your foliage posts when I return tonight!

Currant Events

2009-07-17T23:04:00.002-04:00

While weeding and mulching the side bed this week, I made a fun discovery: It was time to harvest my first currants!

Last year, I planted two 'Red Lake' red currant bushes in the bed directly across from my side door. Currants were supposed to be able to take some shade, and could be trained to be fairly compact... both key for that area, and I was excited to be able to add some more fruit production in that kind of space. I didn't let them flower or set fruit last year, but this year I did get quite a few strands (my word for them, not necessarily the right word!) of currants from the smaller of the two bushes:

Once they were harvested, it was time to figure out what to do with them. I removed the berries from the stems, rinsed them, and dried them in the open air. Then I went online to search for recipes and figure out how to use them.

This was a harder search than one might think, as what we usually think of as currants is really the dried fruit of the Zante grape. Red currants are an entirely different fruit, and are most often used cooked (because they are so tart when they're fresh--I can vouch for that personally, because I tried one raw) in jams, fruit soups, tarts, etc.

I had really wanted to make jam, but since my harvest was not exactly bountiful--I only had slightly more than 1 cup of fruit to use--I decided to try to make a freeform tart instead. The recipe I cobbled together used pie crust, sugar, cornstarch, a pinch each of cinnamon and salt, and all of my crushed currants. Here is the final result:

Looks really pretty, doesn't it? It's tasty, too, but as you can see at least half of the currants managed to jump ship and escape the tart crust! They bubbled and baked on the outside of the pan, turning into a tart/sweet jam of sorts on their own. I used some of the crust to scoop up extra filling as I sampled it.

Next time, I will leave these freeform tarts to the sturdier fillings (plums, apples--anything that holds its shape better) and instead make a smaller pie out of regular crust or maybe incorporate them into a cobbler or crisp. Ideally... well, ideally I'll just have a larger harvest next year, and plenty of currants to use in multiple recipes. But as always, we'll just have to wait and see what next year's gardening season brings!

Foliage Friday

2009-07-17T09:39:00.002-04:00

This month, Frances combined Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day with "Weed Wednesday," an idea she got from The Home Garden blog. That got me to thinking: If Weeds get to have their own day, then why wouldn't we also have a special day to celebrate some of the prettiest greenery? (And yellow-ery, and silver-ery, and blue-ery... you get the idea!)

I'm a foliage gardener in general anyway, so here's a post in celebration of Foliage Friday. First up: Golden Creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea', pictured here in my shade garden.

Many people see this plant grown over the sides of containers, and for good reason. Its cascade of gold is a wonderful effect as a "spiller" in many different color combinations. I like to grow it in my shade garden, though, where it rambles nicely around and sometimes over plants like miniature hostas and dark-leaf ajuga (above) and ferns, 'Jack Frost' brunnera, and broadleaf sedge (carex platyphylla) below.

A word of caution: Golden Creeping Jenny isn't as aggressive as her green-leaf cousin, but she does spread. I have a very dry garden, however, so the lack of moisture here really keeps her in check. The photos above show her at her height of spread, and in a few weeks I'll go out, rip her out from around anything she's really choking out, and then ignore her again for the rest of the summer.

So... anyone else care to join me for Foliage Fridays? I would love seeing the interesting foliage combinations that you all have going on! Just leave a comment in the notes to direct me over to your place to see what you've posted.

And if I ever get all of this weeding done in my own yard, I promise to put up one of those cool "add your post link here" widgets like Carol has on the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day posts. Just... um... don't look for that any time soon. (Back to weeding, ASAP!)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2009

2009-07-15T11:38:00.006-04:00

July is a time of transition in my garden... when the spring bloomers are definitely finished, and the late summer blooms are just beginning. The change is just beginning, too: I have a LOT of work to do in the garden today, including ripping out pea plants and getting the last of the veggie garden in the ground! So without further ado, here's a mostly pictorial rundown of what's blooming in my garden today.

Vines & Shrubs: 'Jackmanii' clematis and coral honeysuckle are both in bloom on the vine side. Only one shrub is showing off right now, though. It's the pretty 'Sykes' Dwarf' oakleaf hydrangea, shown here with 'Black & Blue' salvia guaranitica and magenta snapdragon blooms:

Herbs, Veggies, Fruits (Edibles): 'Ozark' strawberries, my thornless blackberries (which also have berries close to harvest), 3 different eggplants, 6 different peppers, 8 different tomatoes, 2 kinds of basil, 2 kinds of oregano, marjoram, 'Grosso' lavender, and one branch of my 'Newe Ya'ar' salvia officinalis. That's a lot to choose from in terms of photo subject matter, but after comments on my last posts, I couldn't resist showing this 6ft tall bronze fennel stand in all its glory:

Grasses & Perennials: 4 different kinds of hosta and 3 different heuchera are in bloom--only because I haven't gotten around to cutting down the stalks yet! (I would only leave them if they were scented.) 'Samobor' geranium and 'Copper King' lilies are blooming their last, and 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass is just beginning to throw up a few airy plumes. Several other lilies are showing bud color now, 3 different lamiums are in bloom, and my non-climbing clematis has its first bloom, and the lavender cotton is covered in little yellow button flowers.

Several perennials are in prime flower now, though, starting with echinops ritro-I purposely sited this to take advantage of the contrast of the globe thistle against the silky miscanthus:

'Summerwine' Yarrow, which picks up the warm tones in both this rock and a nearby peachy-leaf heuchera:

'Cinderella' milkweed, which was started from seed generously shared by another garden blogger:

And another asclepias, the orange a. tuberosa (aka butterfly weed) which is (finally) living up to its common name this year, as you can see:

Annuals, tropicals and houseplants: These (okay, and leaf/texture color and contrast) really carry me through the month of July! My sanseviera has thrown up some more flower stalks this year, and two fuchsias were recently cut back or they would be adding to the party. 'Vodka' wax begonias, and red and magenta snapdragons, are dependable bloomers in my summer garden, along with the salvia mentioned above.

A few more plants in this category that keep catching my eye include the 'Vancouver Centennial' geranium and pretty callibrachoa in the urn planter. I can't wait until the brugmansia in the middle joins this party:

A dahlia that I just couldn't resist at the local garden center, although I think I like the blooms even better when they're darker and not yet fully open:

My crown of thorns plant, daringly placed at the top of my porch stairs because I like the way it looks against the brick:

An echeveria that blooms in all the colors of a gorgeous sunset. In fact, I think that Steve and I saw all of these shades on Monday as we were finishing up a post-volleyball walk at Edgewater Park:

One of my favorite self-sowers, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth:

Last but not least, more photos from those tile planters that I just can't seem to get enough of. 'Angelface Blue' angelonia:

'Yubi Red' portulaca blooms:

'Desert Sunrise' (I think?) lantana and a different portulaca:

And a close-up of the multicolored lantana blooms:

Maybe I should have lumped this last one in the with the edibles... but here are the first blooms on my Meyer (Improved) lemon. Even if I get nothing edible from them, I adore their sweet scent:

Okay, enough procrastination... time to get back outside and get back to work! (For me, at least.) When you get a free moment, check out what's blooming around the world via Carol's July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post at May Dreams Gardens.

A Working Vacation

2009-07-08T09:48:00.008-04:00

I closed up my office late Monday afternoon, with the rest of the week free and two weeks worth of loooong days at work behind me. The laundry, the garden, the house, the dog, the boyfriend... all had been relatively neglected during our big summer event, and all needed some attention.

On Tuesday, I slept in, had a nice breakfast, took the dog for a very long walk, and then got out into the garden to enjoy all of the beautiful sunshine. First destination: The back yard, where some veggies are still in need of planting out and the weeds have been allowed to run rampant.

Romaine lettuce, skirted by woolly thyme, with a blueberry and 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass

Looking across the bed closest to the house, I notice the absence of canna foliage. I was too busy to plant up the cannas this spring, and now that it's too late to buy more, my tubers are all shriveled or rotten. Too bad--this bed could have used their bold texture:

Maybe once the eggplants really take off, they will offer a little relief from the fine texture of the Russian sage and grasses. On the bright side, the clay tile planters are looking great again this year. I love the funky feel they add to this space:

And the way that they combine with the red of the Japanese bloodgrass to make a line of warm color through the cool blues, greens and purples:

Here's a close-up of the first tile planter--unfortunately, it's too early in the morning for the portulaca flowers to be showing off yet:

'Desert Sunset' lantana, a portulaca that was supposed to be 'Yubi Red' but isn't--the flower petals are "broken" in red and gold instead of being all red--and a coleus whose tag I will have to find to give you a proper ID.

And you can see that I've repeated the portulaca and orange-y coleus combination in the second tile, too:

'Sedona' coleus, 'Yubi Red' portulaca, and 'Angelface Blue' angelonia.
Surrounding cast: 'The Blues' little bluestem, 'Black Lace' elderberry, rhododendron, zebra grass, and 'Fuldaglut' sedum

If last year is any indication, the portulaca will eventually cascade all the way down to the ground. I love how it falls flat against the tile, so it still shows off the squareness of the planter. I also love the way the purplish stems and leaf centers of the 'Sedona' coleus pick up the deep color of the angelonia blooms:

Take a look back across this bed, over the second tile planter toward the first (and toward the driveway)... this is what I see from the corner of the main veggie area:

Continuing the orange-y theme, as you walk around the bed, these tile planters line up to lead your eye right to the native honeysuckle, lonicera sempervirens, growing along the fence. From far away, you can see that it adds height to the "back" of the bed:

Closer, you can see the pretty blooms on the honeysuckle as it towers above a stand of 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth:

Coco likes this corner of the garden, for a few reasons: 1) It's usually cool there. 2) The neighbors on this side have a chocolate lab named "Hugs" (whose siblings are named "Kisses," "Hershey," etc.!) who likes to meet her for a sniff here. 3) There's a knothole in the front panel that gives her a great view of what's going on in the street.

I like that she tramples the sweet woodruff there, and keeps it in check:

I'm taking a new approach to my self-sowing annuals this year. They each will have their own area of the garden--the bronze fennel gets the front driveway area, the ruby mountain spinach gets the back area by the grape arbor, and the 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth gets to add some pizazz, height and color here to Coco's corner:

'All Gold' hakonechloa, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, hellebores, sweet woodruff, goatsbeard, and 'Hillside Black Beauty' cimicifuga/actaea.

There's still a little work to do in this bed. I didn't really wade in to weed, and there's lots of clover growing--along with many little 'Othello' ligularia babies, which have convinced me that deadheading this plant is the way to go in spite of how pretty the dead flower stalks look. Check out all of the little 'Othellos' at the feet of the nearby bugbane:

The ligularia seedlings aren't very useful, but many of my reseeders do double duty when pulled. The 'Ruby Orach' mountain spinach can be eaten like regular spinach. As I weed out some errant amaranth seedlings, I cut the ends and throw them into a vase for an arrangement that will pretty up the dining room table:

I'll probably throw in some lady's mantle blooms, and possibly some baptisia foliage, before I bring the vase inside. Here you see the lady's mantle flowers picking up the shades of yellow in a variegated sedum that, oddly enough, hates being in full sun but glows in this semi-shade area:

It might be nice to add in some of the orange butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) flowers, or the drumstick alliums, too:

But enough of that. There's still a LOT to do in the backyard today, from weeding to planting veggies to moving a few things that have gotten crowded along the way, like this poor fern:

This is one of those compositions that probably "shouldn't" work, but really does--for me, at least! 'Jack Frost' brunnera, carex platyphylla, and Scaly Buckler Fern surrounded by golden creeping jenny.

Somebody better whip my gardening assistant into shape before I need her help today, though. After just an hour of "hard labor" (supervising, mostly, but also eating raspberries and peas) in the garden yesterday, she disappeared. This is where I found her:

What a lightweight!!! LOL. We have two more gorgeous days of sunshine and great gardening weather ahead of us--and probably a mulch delivery, too--so there's still lots of work to be done. Time to get out there, and get busy... I hope that everyone else is enjoying the wonderful gardening weather that I'm getting this week!

And A New Camera Tour of the Front Yard

2009-06-30T16:28:00.000-04:00

Lately, my only real chance to enjoy the front yard garden happens as I walk up to the front door after parking my car in the driveway post-work. So it seems fitting that I take you along on that short journey, one that can last as few as 15 steps--or as "many" as 30, if I get distracted by plants along the way!

Before I even get out of the car, I check out this year's version of the Urn Planter:

I tend to gravitate toward hot colors, and this year the urn features a brugmansia (thanks to a cutting from Joe at the CBG glasshouse) that is just now starting to take off. The underplanting includes 'Vancouver Centennial' geranium, a bronze sweet potato vine, purple iresine, golden creeping jenny (not seen--it's spilling out the back) and a 'Tequila Sunrise' callibrachoa that was recently pinched back (hence not in bloom.)

When I first get out of the car, my view of the front yard garden is hidden by the corner of the porch, and the end of a 6ft long stand of bronze fennel:

The contented buzz of parasitic wasps and various bees often greets me here, as they busily flit around the fennel. Lately my eye is drawn toward the newly-planted purple ninebark, which replaced the front-yard focus of my love-hate affections, the doublefile viburnum.

Rounding the corner, I usually look first to see whether the 'Summerwine' achillea is blooming yet. I love the way the feathery yarrow foliage combines with the bergenia, the rock, and the sedums in front of it:

The wispy brown blades in the foreground are carex flagellifera, which I grew last year in my chimney tile planters and then planted out in the fall to see if they might overwinter. One did, but it's not very vigorous... carex buchanii seems to be the sturdier bronze sedge here in my yard.

Taking a long view from this vantage point, you can see that I have a lot of plants crammed into this little garden--which I think of as the "Porch Corner Garden"--along with a trashpicked black milk can that sits in the dry corner:

From top to bottom in the photo above: Northern Sea Oats with a mini-leaf culinary sage and 'Angelina' sedum at its feet, 'Obsidian' (which despises me for putting it in afternoon sun and pays me back by requiring constant deadleafing) and a peach-leaf heuchera whose name escapes me, white-flowering 'Chubby Fingers' sedum album, the yarrow and the bergenia mentioned above, and the silver leaves of Elephant's Ear kalanchoe, a native of Madagascar that reminds me of the glasshouse biome in which I volunteer at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Turning to my left, I admire the ever-changing "Sharp Corner garden," where tough plants like lavender, sage, sea kale, variegated iris and yucca, and oakleaf hydrangea thrive:

I particularly love the way the wavy sea kale leaves seem to imply movement--they practically dance their way through the other plants:

Real movement does happen here, as well, thanks to the carex buchanii. I think that having the tough, squatty, and seemingly immovable hens and chicks at its feet really highlights the airy nature of the sedge when the wind tosses its blades around carelessly:

There are many colors of sempervivum here, including a pretty one that appears to be covered with spiderwebs of cotton. Some of them have started to bloom, and I can't wait until they become one tight mass of rosettes in this corner.

Picking my eyes up from the hens and chicks, which I always seem to bend down to inspect, I catch sight of the rest of the front sidewalk garden:

My eye travels along the pathway and stops at the Japanese maple, admiring its dark beauty. I sometimes think about how nicely the Spanish foxglove (digitalis parviflora) and bronze sedge pick up the orangey tones in the 'Amber Waves' heuchera at the foot of the maple, or wonder just how many different leaf colors I have crammed into this small space...

I alternately fail to see the empty pots and catmint debris in the scene above, or look at them and think, "Ah, yeah, I need to get that cleaned up," with a quick pang of "What must the neighbors think?!" guilt. But soon my attention is distracted by the nouveau-prairie feel of the 'Hameln' pennisetum, foxglove spires, 'Black & Blue' salvia, and golden oregano:

I have to walk past this section and look past the ninebark to see the recently cutback catmint (a passalong, but probably 'Walker's Low') still blooming away next to the unnamed miscanthus from my aunt's garden:
In front (to my view, anyway) of the miscanthus, a lemon thyme is blooming next to a heuchera that came with the yard. (Three of these heuchera, the Japanese maple, and the rhododendron in the back yard are all that remain of the original landscaping here.)

From here, I sneak a peak over the purple ninebark branches, back at the sea kale corner... and see that from this angle, you don't really notice the spacing between the plants:
No wonder my next-door neighbor said, "Time to tame the jungle?" When she caught me pulling a stray weed in my front yard the other day!!!

She probably isn't amused by the state of my front porch, either, now that I think about it. I do have random bags of potting soil and garden implements strewn about. And a couple of recent trashpicking finds... like this metal chair, which just needs a good wire brushing and a few coats of paint in a funky color to return it to fabulousness:

Oh, and of course, there are the houseplants that are brought out to summer on the porch! The houseplant jungle includes this blooming echeveria, flanked by variegated philodendron, a dark begonia, twisty spider plant, and...

... this pot of a little trailing succulent, which I adore:

On the matching brick column at the top of the stairs is another collection of succulents, including a fun twisted- and yellow-edged snake plant, a trailing lipstick plant, and a variegated agave that's also from Joe at the CBG:

Elsewhere on the porch I have two large planted containers (one with three bromeliads, coleus and Nonstop begonias; the other with black elephant ears, coleus and upright fuchsia), two hanging pots of various mints, a peace lily, a dark-leaf philodendron, aloe, a hanging pot of fuchsia, three orchids, another begonia, Thanksgiving cactus, and a few other random houseplants.

Definitely a jungle... and one in which I want to spend some more time, once this last "busy weekend" of the summer at work is finished!

A New Camera View of my Backyard

2009-06-27T22:41:00.003-04:00

So the trip to Dayton last weekend was a success... I got to cuddle my new little nephew, see my family, introduce Steve to both grandmas, drop off some plants and gifts, and listen to the best radio station in Ohio for a few hours. And I came home with not one digital camera, but TWO!

My parents also had an extra digital camera that they offered to me, and I'm borrowing it to try it out. It's similar to the ones that I had been looking at online, so it's handy to have one to test before I buy. I still need practice with it (and I really need to remember to take the date off of the photos) but I thought I'd post some photos so you could see what's been going on in my backyard garden while I've been busy with work:

Blackberries are going crazy this year with blooms.

The little sedum hispanicum (I think) that I put in the "shallowest" part of the "Lock Garden" has filled in nicely already. I left in the beech leaf and my toes for scale so you could see how tiny this sedum is.

Eryngium, starting to get its blue tinge in front of a clump of 'Grosso' lavender. Both were supposed to be moved to the front yard garden this spring... Oops.

I love this little clay tile planter, with 'Yubi Red' portulaca spilling out the front, and 'Sedona' coleus mingling with a dark blue angelonia behind. (My other tile planter pairs the portulaca with a different coleus, and a lantana.)
Supporting cast includes 'Black Lace' elderberry, zebra grass, flowers from 'Plum Pudding' heuchera, and some spiky blades of little bluestem in the foreground.

Ruby orach self-seeds itself in interesting places--here it's a pretty companion to little bluestem. Ruby orach is also known as "mountain spinach," and I like it cooked with garlic and olive oil. It's even tasty when eaten fresh from the garden, if the leaves are small. That you can eat it makes it easier to weed somehow!

For the third year in a row, my 'Bing' cherry tree brought me nothing but a crop of aphids (and lady bugs, which are very cool looking in their spiney larval stage) and just plain looked horrible... so I started hacking at it a few weeks ago. About the time I got the small branches and all of the leaves removed, I was looking for a home for my clematis Jackmanii as well, and... voila: an interestingly shaped trellis that has pretty bark, too!

I can't wait for this lily, located near the far back fence, to bloom--I can sometimes smell it all the way in my bedroom, and it's a luscious orange color, too. (I want to say it's 'Copper King,' but I may be wrong on that one.) Notice also the reuse of those spiral tomato stakes that are utterly useless for supporting tomatoes.

Yum... Concord grapes. :) My 'Himrod White' has a bumper crop of baby grapes on it, too!

So as you can see, the backyard garden is mostly plodding right along, even without my attention. Tomorrow I should be posting some photos of the front yard garden... maybe even in time for inclusion on the Gardening Gone Wild June roundup? We shall see!

Peaches, Blueberries & A Weekend Trip

2009-06-19T23:23:00.002-04:00

While chatting with my baby brother Jeff (one half of The Overachievers) on the phone tonight, the subject of blueberries came up. His didn't get flowers or berries this year, and he wanted me to explain why... I think only so he could mention AGAIN that he thought it was completely unfair of me to tell him to de-flower his blueberry last year and forego the berries!

I told him that I have read this in several different places, that you should let the plant put its energy into making roots instead of berries for at least the first year, and that it has always seemed to work well for me. What I didn't tell him is that a few sources even suggest doing this to your highbush blueberries until they're at least 36 inches tall. (Waiting just ONE year was already asking a lot of him, I know!)

To prove to him that I practice what I preach, here are the few flowers on my dwarf peach that escaped my notice this spring until they were past the bud stage and in full bloom:

These were pinched off shortly after this photo was taken, and if he stops and thinks about it, he will know that I am telling the truth about this. After all, if I actually had baby peaches in my garden, I would definitely be rubbing it in and sending photos around to all of the family in anticipation of my first peach harvest! But... that fun will have to wait until next year. :)

By the way, while looking for the peach tree photo, I came across this interesting picture:

It's the spent flowerhead/growing seedpot from my tree peony! I love how the fuzzy pods flare out and curl over at the end. They look kind of like a jester's hat.

Speaking of funny guys, I'll get to see 3 of them this weekend. Tomorrow I'm heading down to The Apartment Dwellers' place to spend the night with Craig and Jen and meet their new puppy, Maggie. And then on Sunday morning the four of us are heading to Dayton for a baptism. (The Overachievers had a baby this spring! I'm now Aunt Blackswampgirl! ;)

This will be the first time I've seen "Baby Evan" since the weekend after his birth, so I'm very excited. He doesn't count as one of the funny guys (yet!) though--the other 2 funny guys are his father, Jeff, and our father, Rick. Both of my grandmothers will be there, too, and they'll both be meeting my boyfriend Steve for the first time. Add in getting to see what my brothers and sisters in law have been up to in their gardens... and it should be a fun and interesting weekend! We shall see. :)

The Last Camera Photos (RIP)

2009-06-16T11:37:00.002-04:00

My boss at work was nice enough to bring in a 6-in-1 device that she had at home... and luckily my storage chip fit into the longest, thinnest slot! So here are the last of the photos from the old digital camera, may she RIP:

Japanese maple underplanted with 'Purple Dragon' lamium in the front yard.
Supporting cast includes Northern Sea Oats, a 'Peach Melba' heuchera that I got for free in the fall and meant to move this spring, 'Amber Waves' heuchera, 'Frosted Curls' and 'Beatlemania' carexes, red-flowering pansies and tulip foliage.

Succession planning, of sorts: As the miscanthus starts to get bigger in the spring, the purple-flowering catmint needs to be cut back anyway for rebloom.
Supporting cast: An inherited heuchera that is sturdy enough to shrug off a sunny, dry Western exposure, a low-growing cultivar of lemon thyme, and digitalis parviflora foliage rosettes.

More succession planning: I hate the messy look of goatsbeard foliage (on either side of the rhododendron) after it blooms out, so I cut the whole plant back and top dress it with compost to make up for the shock. It responds by putting out a lower mound of new foliage, which gives the switchgrass in the front (and 'Hillside Black Beauty' bugbane, out of sight in the back of the photo) room to grow.
Supporting cast, from the fence forward: lonicera sempervirens, 'Othello' ligularia and zebra grass, 'Black Lace' (sambucus) elderberry, tulip foliage.

One of the other "wall pockets," where the woolly thyme was cut back to better show off the sedum cauticola 'Lidakense.'
Supporting cast: Japanese bloodgrass, sedum album 'Chubby Fingers'

This one makes me wish I had a camera... so I could show you a current photo of this area, too! The 'Midnight Reiter' geranium in the middle is absolutely covered in blooms now, and the golden lemon balm has been cut back for a harvest (and to prevent reseeding) which really shows off the dark-leaf geranium.
Supporting cast: The 'Sioux Blue' sorghastrum nutans (sorghum grass, or Indian grass) is already a lot taller, and I've planted a bunch of 'Cocktail Vodka' red-leaf, red-flowered geraniums at its feet. Nearby are some 'Lime Rickey' heuchera, two currant bushes, lovage, and a dark-leaf canna. The whole effect is a bright, tropical look that is deceptively made up of tough (okay, except for the geranium!) plants.

I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the sweetness of everyone's comments on my last post--I feel very lucky that such wonderful people visit my little gardening blog! I believe that I am going to take my brother up on his offer to "permanently borrow" his old digital camera (he and his wife got a really nice, high quality digital when they got married two years ago, so he doesn't really need it) and I will see them this weekend. So I could be "back in business" here as early as next week... I hope to be posting again regularly then!