Time passes, blogs move on....

Well, friends, I've been blogging...but mostly in my head, several have been completed in my imagination; but time passes on, so today I thought I would put a medley of no certain association together here. Think of it as a stream of consciousness.

During the full moon most recently past, I drove home at twilight. On my right was a rosy hazed skyline with the sun just having dropped below the horizon as I was heading South. In the deepening blackberry jam twilight sky was a glowing butterpat of the risen moon in the east, on my left hand. In the distance ahead the farmers were gathering in the sheaves, but in today's world it was the bright lights of the harvester taking down the wheat. They left little behind except the shaven beard stubble of the field, still golden, but bereft of it's fruitfulness.

The air was freshened in that way that a summer evening brings a coolness and wipes away even the dust rising off a field being mowed. The horses in the pastures moved far off to the edges, as if to be beckoned by the call towards their ancestral freedoms, calling them to gallop into the west...far, far way from their fences and bridles. As I arrived home, the alfalfa field had had it's second mowing and was left to dry. It was later that the farmers were gathering it into long piles striping the field in giant designs that only God and airplanes can see. My eye followed the lines of saged green and my nose sniffed that sweet greened smell.

The peacefulness pervaded my soul like honey sinking into warm toast, melting within me mellowly. I savor such times, they seem so rare. At this time of my life I drink them, I roll them about within, like something sweet in the mouth and smooth on the tongue.

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The rains came while I was gone for the weekend, having returned home the garden reminded me of my obligations to weeding and cultivation, and I slipped easily back into the yoke. An old ox used to the labor, trained to the cycle of the seasons.

I'm happy with my containers of flowers and turn a blind eye to the front garden which never did get the renovation work planned for this year... it will get it's attention later, I tell myself. I don't yet know if this is truth or blind hope on my part. I have pictures galore and imagined articles written, only needing the time and effort to put it all into a place of virtual reality. I am moving through my life like through a Medieval garden, in sections with perceived purposes that are carved like blocks of the apothecary's plantings. Some coming to fruit and harvest, some still growing to fullness, some done and cut for another day, preserved, but placed into the attic of my mind.

Technorati Tags: time, rural

Seeing with a fresh eye

The human brain has mechanisms that help it work more efficiently, but those same things also create certain ruts in our thinking and perceptions. It would be very inefficient to approach all experiences as if they were new every time. Yet, that is what we must do if we are to be creative. What to do? That is where our interdependency steps in. What one has experienced is not at all the very same in all respects to what another has experienced. The difference between the two creates a fresh perspective. This became evident today when I garnered a new idea for a plant combination while visiting other blogs.

Reading through, and studying the photos, (yes I do that!) @A Study in Contrasts by Blackswamp girl, Kim, I found a new way to look at a pair of plants, variegated sedum and lady's mantle.

Here's is her picture


Kim is a color artist with plants. Her blog is full of detailed descriptions of plants grown together for visual effect, and like her blog name suggests she favors contrast. But in this case, she has a subtle range of color with more of the contrast contained within form and texture than in color. This is perhaps why I like it so well. I have both of these plants growing in my garden, and love both of them. They are in proximity, but my eye -grown used to my own garden- did not pick up how well they look in close combination. I made up my mind to give this pair a try in a number of places. It took someone else's view to give me a new perspective on visualizing how plants that do well in my own garden might be placed to better effect.

Now. Why might I have overlooked these two as potential partners? For the same reason someone might want to take care in their growing conditions. The two overlap in what they will tolerate, but are not precisely the same in their favored culture. (I suppose you can take that for an allegory, too).

Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla mollis prefers part shade location, while Sedums of all types thrive in full sun. This one, Sedum alboroseum 'Mediovariegatum' (at least that is the type growing in my garden), does do a bit better in less sun to keep from bleaching out; the part sun intensifies the variegation to more closely match the chartreuse of the Lady Mantle flowers. The Alchemilla also prefers more moisture than the Sedum, which will tend to grow lush and then flop if given too much moisture. The A.mollis, however tolerates a bit of dryness, and that is where these two overlap and are happy: part sun, well drained soil with normal fertility and moisture. The A. mollis is said to be hardy to USDA zone 4, and the BBG says that the Sedum is only hardy to zone 6, but I beg to differ. Mine is quite hardy to what is sometimes a dip to zone 4 temperatures, but clearly in zone 5a. I think what is likely the difference for me is the dryness of our late summer. It creates a toughness for the dessicating winds of winter, and I tend to leave the stalks in place to catch the winter's snow- perhaps that gives the plants a bit more cover.

However it is, both grow well in my garden, although the sedum is my all round champ when it comes to giving a good show in demanding conditions, the Alchemilla has also done well. Kim is farther north than me, but her area is moister and more moderate; she is also a city gardener, that might mean more smog, but less extremes in temperature. (Those city sidewalks and houses that act as windbreak to hold the temperatures in check).

Technorati Tags: Alchemilla mollis, Sedum

More From My Town

There were a large number of ideas in that one "High Victorian" garden...so let me focus on a few of those as well as a few others of different style....



I liked this quietly landscaped sideyard for a couple reasons. One is the inclusion of a fringe tree, which is not a widely used ornamental tree, but very choice in my opinion. It also uses grasses effectively. And everyone likes to see a city yard kept well trimmed, so it is pretty on all three counts. Not to say I don't like messy and overflowing ( which is how I garden) but I like the small city gardens that have both personality AND neatness, instead of trading off one for the other, as is often the case.



This one is also very tightly mown and trimmed... but it was the combination of fence and gate styles along with that inviting little Anderondack type chair that I liked.



Now we are back in the court of the cottage style. A sweet garden ornament with a lantern and lots of flowers.



City sidewalks in a small town are nothing like big cities, all is still open and friendly. This is the entry to the big High Victorian place, and the next picture is (one) of the porch(es)facing the main street. You get bunting and flowers, garden seats, wall stars... urns.... well, you can see for yourself.



Technorati Tags: small town, landscapes

So Many Pictures, So Little Space

I've taken bunches of photos of all sorts of garden related things. I think I need to give you all a peek.

This post is dedicated to my little town in Ohio. I walked around one evening a few weeks ago and snapped some things of interest to me. Hope you like them as well.



This particular side yard was interesting because of its comfortable little porch tucked in off the driveway. Although I'm not sure about the parking guides, it seems like a perfect place for morning coffee and evening people watching.




Now this High Victorian home has enough features for ten houses, but that is the way Victorians liked it. The above and next two pictures are from this home which gets more intense as you move back into the cottage home at the rear.





The two following pictures are a city display (I think, or it could belong to the home across the alleyway) of a moss horse structure and four vegetable beds. Perhaps the horse with its hitching post is a nod to the Amish who used live here in large numbers.

I immediately thought,"I've got to get a photo of that!" The veggie beds were very nicely done.







I have so many more pictures ...

Technorati Tags: Ohio gardens,

Color Harmony: July Pink

I usually attach a color idea of orange and yellow to July, maybe because of the bright light, or the fact that many flowers in those hues are in full bloom in this month. But pink is still a garden color that while warming towards salmon in many of July's bloom choices helps to cool things down a bit. Even "hot" pinks when combined with blue fescue grass or the white of lilies or baby's breath is as refreshing as peppermint ice cream.

A Candy Cane color border, with red white and pink, may be just the color palette for hot summer days (and evenings). There are plenty of choices in lilies, garden phlox- some of the more luscious whites, pinks, and bi-colors, zinnias whirly-gigged in red and white, pinks and whites in allysums, echinaceas, and gypsophilias. Dahlias have quite a few named flowers with this color range, so a summer bed filled with these harmonies would be easy to grow.

Have you ever tried this color combination? What colors do you most enjoy on hot summer days in your garden?



Technorati Tags: Pink,

Arrange the July garden around lilies

Every month has it's supreme leading lady flower of the garden; June has the Rose, but July has the Lily. Especially now that the "Orienpets" have been created. They were the belle of several beds at the Inniswood Gardens Metro Park, and I would love to have some in my garden next year. "Orania" was the one I was most taken with because of her blonde and blush coloring, but there were others that were just as lovely.

You know, in gardening you sort of run out of superlatives when you see a stand of flowers that overflows with color, form and fragrance. I suppose you can just stand there without words, but that doesn't work so well when trying to describe an impression of the senses to others. Not even the photos do justice to the way the eye is glutted with such delicious blooms, not to mention soft cotton candy scent- it is that sweet!


I've written about other lilies previously, and I really think you could build garden pictures around many of these perennial bulbs with their tall vertical lines, large flowers and delightfully harmonious colors- they manage to combine oranges, purples and pinks equally well. I think it is their subtleties that do it. Softened like ice cream sherberts and sorbets or sparkling with deep and intense hues, they hold your attention in the bright sunshine and colorfully clad neighbors vying with each other in the height of the bloom season.


Technorati Tags: lilies,