Scenes from the Garden

More pictures :)
Here are some of the things presently blooming in the garden at the end of May this year. I came back from Georgia and found the lupines and roses all abloom! I hadn't grown Lupines since my city garden more than twenty some years ago, but put some in last year- they are doing famously well (I may be the only one making them famous- but hey!)

The peonies are in their glory, as are the German iris and clematis vines, and the Siberian iris lend their grace. The lower right shows oriental poppy and next to that picture is the meadow sweet. The garden holds such scents this time of year...wish you were here ;)

From the Trip: Photos

Here is a composite of my time at my daughters place and a park we went to nearby. I wasn't exactly ready for the photo op...but there you are: the old lady gardener in all her digging glory.

I put in an endless summer hydrangea, and also some azaleas...whose name I have promptly forgotten- but my daughter has the tags.




If you ever travel between Ohio and Tennessee, the Travel Center in Berea Kentucky is a great place to stop- and you might buy some original art there. I purchased a handcrafted, fine wood box for my son to keep his guitar picks in, and a calligraphy print instead of a birthday card- it had a lovely saying on it.

Take a look at that restroom picture- sparkling clean with fresh flowers in a vase.

Technorati Tags: Berea,KY, Atlanta gardening

Havi's vegetable prints

Havi's vegetable prints
Originally uploaded by rcrowley

What happens when you garden, cook, and go tech.

reunion in the sunny south

ilona is "in the neighborhood" this week, visiting a daughter and grandkids.several
days ago, i got a phone call telling me she had arrived. i have not talked to her in over
20 years; although we communicate often in cyberspace, it was such a pleasure
to hear her voice. i will be very glad see my old friend again!

we are planning to visit the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, before the big weekend...
it is a very old place, much revered by the city folks, and well-funded by those who
believe in a little nature in the city. there are many winding pathways through all sorts
of collections of mature shrubs and trees, as well as numerous gorgeous flower-gardens
and greenhouse collections. for the past month they have had a showing of bronze
sculptures by Henry Moore throughout the grounds-the largest collection of his works
ever displayed outside.

i am sure it will be an exciting time, although we might rest too long on some
secluded bench talking the morning away. seeing this impressive place with a
fellow garden lover is the best!! i know it will be a long day, between the reunion of
old friends and the multitude of places to see on the huge grounds.
i am very excited about seeing her again. knowing ilona, there will be many
photographs posted to document our journey through these lovely old gardens.
a good time will be had by all... %) i can't wait! vty, J-lea

More of my Garden

On the left are meshed pictures of the back walk made of pavers and the front walk of freeform limestone. Upper right is a picture of a just planted container with the Lemon Symphony osteospermum, middle are two views of Arenaria montana growing along the arbor walk. Last, is a part shade container grouping of caladium, polka dot plants, and nicotiana, Domino hybrids.

My Scented Garden

I love scent- out in the garden especially. Not one to use lots of perfumes on my person, but love for the waft of fragrance on the air. Not surprisingly then, I have opted towards planting my garden with things that smell good. Right now, lily of the valley and sweet woodruff weave an enticing spell outside my front door.

Both of these plants were gift plants from my mother when she had a garden. The lily of the valley has, after four or more years finally taken on its reputation for a spreading groundcover. It took that long for my few pips to spread, but now I have hefty stands that are all blooming.

The sweet woodruff is one of my favorite plants, and in my garden conditions is a polite sort of groundcover. I grow it under what is left of my roses in the newly renovated leeward flower bed. It is where the colored foliaged heuchera, variegated hydrangea and foxgloves are now installed. English ivy is creeping in and that will have to be controlled. But the sweet woodruff is blooming with a clean white sheet of bloom along with scilla hispanica punctuating little exclamation marks here and there, to say "Springtime and soon SUMMER!"

More on summer fragrance.






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Dawes: Landscaping Help

Here is another set of pictures from Dawes Arboretum. The hillside arbor includes wooden steps to climb up and down a fairly steep hillside incline- it is underplanted with shade loving plants, many hostas and some ephemerals like dicentras.

The upper right is a strong pink purple lilac against the dogwoods display behind. this hillside area deep inside the arboretum shows what many commonly used landscape shrubs look like when full grown. During this visit the air was aromatic with lilacs and viburnums, while dogwoods dominated the visual field with their abundant blooms. Clockwise, below, was an interesting specimen of a weeping and twisted redbud tree. It's name was "Lavender Twist".

Dawes has a number of Fothergilla shrubs at the entrance area, near their famous stand of Bald Cypress trees. The photo lower right is of their bloom. Then finally, the lower left is of a barberry bloom. That one surprised me. It was very showy in a pleasant sort of way, with it cheerful yellow balls. This would be blooming with daffodils that are a little late coming on (I have some small buttery yellow doubles that are blooming now that would look very pretty underneath this shrub.)

Sometimes it is difficult to visualize a plant from just words and dry dimensions on a page, and photos don't tell you all the information, sometimes even distorting your senses. An arboretum does such a wonderful public service for all levels of gardeners, in showing real plants well marked with their names.

Here is a full size picture of that odd little redbud tree:





Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio.

Just A Note-05-09

It had rained and then the sun came out. Joanne had noted my garden is mainly shrubs and flowers, which it is, and I wrote back that I was only just getting back into vegetable gardening the past few years after a decade hiatus of fervent food gardening. I still have only a third of the old garden back in production. Anyway, the conversation goaded me (inspired me actually) off my backside and out into the garden to inspect things... and one thing led to another and I planted out the rest of the broccoli and some of the pepper plants.

I was spacing out the broccoli, seems like I always have to harvest it at once.

I had planted old, old lettuce seed (don't want to tell you how old!), but saw it came up nicely. I shall have tiny butterhead Tom Thumbs in my June garden this year. At least that is when I perceive they will be ready. Lettuce seed is viable for a VERY long time, so take a chance on your old seed.

Tomato plants are looking good. Brandywine is the main variety I have for this year.

Planted some of my containers, and need to go purchase some nicotiana to stick in with the polka dot plant and white caladium for a semi-shade area. I'm keeping my pots simpler this year. Put together lemon symphony osteospermum, yellow petunia, dreamsicle (yes, creamy orange) calibrachoa, and some Victoria salvia in a couple other containers that get full sun.

Well, that is it- gotta go

Garden Therapy

Science discovers one reason we find solace in the garden

clipped from tomatoes4health.blogspot.com Getting dirty may lift your Mood Bacteria found in the soil activated a group of neurons that produce the brain chemical serotonin Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience. These findings, identified by researchers at the University of Bristol and colleagues at University College London, aid the understanding of why an imbalance in the immune system leaves some individuals vulnerable to mood disorders like depression. Dr Chris Lowry, lead author on the paper from Bristol University, said: "These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt."

Old Fashioned Things

Three Revolutionary soldiers are buried in this pioneer burial place, the Beard-Green cemetery, located within Dawes arboretum. On one old grave, whose markings were long defaced by rain and other unkindnesses, grew a lone stand of scilla hispanica. I sat on the ground to photograph it; as in olden custom there were plots that were fenced with ornate iron barriers to forgetful feet. The graves for infants and children were reminders that mortality was often early for many. And surprisingly elderly ones made me wish I could ask the secret of their longevity.

The parking lot held a pretty "mead" of tiny spring flowers at the foot of an old tree, fenced off with post and rail. And I can never resist old wells... this being a particularly pretty one located next to the old spring house, which I didn't photograph. Old fashioned living, both simpler and harder...than our own.
Their complexities were in social customs, in skill sets that they considered common, while we are mystified. Leisure activities of the rich included making a rustic cabin in the woodsy part of their property- not too far from the house, but enough to pretend that their usual world was far away. It, too, had a log cabin type of spring house. Fresh berries refrigerated in a stream fed house... keeping cold milk and maybe thick cream for biscuits baked in an old fireplace oven, surrounded by wildflowers and the calls of woodland birds.

Idyllic... if for only a while.

Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio.

Dawes: Wildflowers in May

a number of wildflowers were blooming during this time: lots of claytonias, trilliums, some Jack-in-a-pulpits, Dodecatheon meadia (shooting star),pussy-toes, many mayapples, common yellow violets in quantity, and lots of common purple violets.


Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio.

Dawes: Japanese Aesthetic

We made a visit to Dawes Arboretum, yesterday. I took so many pictures that I will have to post in installments. This first composite highlights an essential part of the experience at Dawes: the Japanese garden and the lovely bonsai examples to be seen in the visitor center. This is a great garden to see if visiting Central Ohio.

The Japanese garden is a real one, as opposed to a garden reminiscent with only the flavor of a Japanese garden. A true Japanese garden is designed according to principles. This is a stroll garden, done in the hill and pond -Chisen-Kaiyu-skiki- style. It was designed by a master of the art, Dr. Makoto Nakamura, a lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Kyoto, Japan, while he was visiting here.

As you enter there is a zen garden of mown grass, gravel and large rocks, which represent a river flowing down a mountain side ... then you meander into the large pond with increasing details of the Japanese garden. We stopped at the tea house area and I had the kids sketch some things and take a few pictures so that they might take time to observe. We watched some large turtles sun themselves on the far end of the grassy embankment of the pond.



An American arborvitae as bonsai, from 1971.



View of pond and island and path out of the garden.


Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio.

Dave's Maples

I just finished reading about Dave's beautiful Japanese maples illustrated with many beautiful pictures. I always wanted some in my garden, but the excuses kept interfering: my place is too windy, it gets too cold, the trees are expensive, ...blah,blah,blah. Then I read a post like Dave's, gorgeously done and descriptive of the attributes of these attractive trees. Of course, I am convinced that my garden will be better with not one, but several, of the choices that Dave made.

I think it is the beauty of the trees themselves, but then maybe Dave's lovely photos and thoughtful opinions might have had something to do with it. I think that 2009 has some Japanese maple purchases somewhere in it...

Check out Dave's blog... it is a good one. Ramblin' through Dave's Garden.
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Time to prune Mugo pines

I started the other day: hand pruning the Mugo pines by cutting off the new candles midway down. I didn't do it so well the past few years and my -now- small trees are spreading more than I like. So just started snipping and finished 3/4 of one and will get them both done this weekend. Just a bit tedious, but not difficult.

You can see how large I let this one grow, but it is off to the side and is fine for now, although visually it takes up space. The other one has stayed about a third of this size.

oh. and that is my favorite cat waiting for some poor unsuspecting birdie. Handyman and I call him "Bob", the kids call him "Assassinator". My favorite cat ever (I'm more of a 'dog' person). He has so much gumption and personality, but is slightly more scared of things since the time we got him "fixed"- didn't trust people so much after that. heh.

All about pruning your mugo pines, from earlier posting.

Grow a Mugo Pine:

Mugo, The Swiss Mountain Pine