AWOL Garden Blogging

I didn't mean to...
I simply have gotten lost inside the Dante-esque seven terraces of Mount Purgatory which are my closets and "junk room". After more than a decade of promising, threatening, and bargaining with myself, to organize and clean this shameful part of my life (my total inability to keep house!)... it is happening. Halfway through and already exhausted, I am soldiering on even though it means photos are unpublished and garden musings unwritten.

I take respite with breaks walking around my garden or sitting on my porch looking at a beautiful late May day, while listening to cheerful birdsong... then it is back into the murky depths, resulting in bags of my life's detritus for the Goodwill people. Good detritus for someone other than me. Clothes I will never fit into again, children's clothes, outgrown toys... all gone gone gone.

I also have post fodder for the old house blog- since along the way I put up curtains, repainted the bathroom, and Handyman has installed a kitchen cabinet... as well as accomplished various odd jobs including tilling and buying replacement mowers, etc...

It is a very busy spring.

A Garden Blog You Should Love

This is design, humor, expertise, and beauty in a blog. Really. If you visit you will see I am not indulging in hyperbole.

clipped from landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com

Garden Center: Yonies Greenhaus

What you will find at Yonies Greenhaus:

• many unusual plant choices
• moderate prices and quality plants
• original plant recipes in the containers
• friendly service

Unusual plants, Pretty combos

This greenhouse business is fairly new, but it is quickly becoming a favorite. Each spring it burgeons with glowing flowers in the greenhouse, vegetables and perennials on the outdoor tables, and large numbers of very fine hanging baskets and flowering containers.

I always make a trip there, and they often have unusual offerings attractively displayed according to color and harmony. The pots of plants are marked clearly as to whether the preference is for sun or shade. Distinctly homey signs and welcoming helpfulness from the owners and their staff makes it a place where you know care is taken with every customer and every sale.

This is another place that you can create as daytrip destination. On your way, where Route 42 turns south out of the Village of Plain City is "Der Dutchman" restaurant. A popular place to eat homestyle cooking and buy baked goods; it also houses a gift shop that will have you looking and wishing you could carry home the many things so creatively displayed on two floors worth of shopping. I recommend their broasted chicken and the homemade ice cream. Or drop down just a short ways south on Rt. 42 to Dutch Kitchen just to eat, owned by the same company, but a bit more intimate and you can get the noodles with chicken (that was always my favorite dish). The cyclists love to stop there; this area is a big draw for cyclists because the ground is so flat.

Yonie's Greenhaus
4785 Price Hilliards Road
Plain City, OH 43064-8877
info[at]yoniesgreenhaus[dot]com

A personal note I posted last year, briefly describing my experience with Yonie's Greenhaus. I should mention that you can buy a good selection of vegetable garden plants, including heirloom tomatoes, herbs, and strawberry plants. There are many larger size perennials, some roses and shrubs for sale. Potting soil is available, too.

Enjoy the drive through the country side, don't be in too much of a hurry to get home and plant. :)

my gardening grandmother

greetings all-

i have not vanished, as evident by my continuing comments. i've
been preoccupied with poetry, and i'm also working on my gardening
grandmother's life story. she was totally self-taught, yet beautifully
landscaped their farm and 20 acres of grounds during the 40"s and 50's.
i have fond memories of the many liriope-lined paths under tall pines,
the grassy nooks with statues, her formal rose garden, and wild azalea
collections. she was a "tester" for Park seed Co. for southern range of new
"wild" varieties... and was one of the first to successfully grow their new
rhododendron cultivars in middle georgia.

she created a beautiful traditional Japanese garden in the overgrowth around a
small lakeon the property. it was hacked out of a swamp, with flourishing kudzu and
poison ivy, growing on the rich bottomland. it was a surprise for my grandfather's
birthday. all the statuary, rocks, bridges and teahouse materials were imported
from korea and japan, as well as careful placing of some of the big native granite
rocks. many garden clubs from all around the southeast came to tour her gardens.
she was a very private person, but gracious enough to open her small paradise to all.

she and my grandfather had great interest in camellias, and both were expert
judges at many camellia shows. she learned to breed, hybridize, and created many
cultivars, now rare, but still in great demand at camellia nurseries today. i recall her
exchanging pollen with friends in california by mail, even from as far away as new
zealand! the extent of her skills was amazing to me- as a young girl. i followed and
watched her in her tall glass hothouse, full of grown camellias too tender for ga. cold
temps, as she worked pollinating and gibbing ( setting in a graft bud) her new creations.
she named them for all her family members- the one she named for me is a tiny
delicate shell pink... at this point in my life, i would be a big sloppy red flower! lol
many of her beauties still grow in the American Camellia Society's gardens in
Ft. Valley, Ga. she was considered an expert in her field, and wrote many articles
in horticulture magazines of her time.

my grandmother, Emilie Jarasse Witman, was a great lady who never went without
her face cream every night ( she was French) but she was quite handy with a machete
or a hoe. she could kill a copperhead snake with one chop, without blinking an eye....
and then plan a cocktail party for the evening. her extensive horticultural knowledge
as well as her accomplishments left a great impression on me; because of her, i was
bitten early by the gardening bug. she "made" me into a gardening fool, and i am still
most grateful for all her influence, today!

vty, j-lea

Garden Center: Baker’s Village

What you will find At Bakers Village Garden Center:

• Original and carefully crafted planters and arrangements
• High quality plants
• Beautiful containers and gifts
• Large selection of Fairy Garden accessories
• Wide selection of plants for landscaping and potting up
• Succulents

Baker’s Village Garden Center is located at 9267 Dublin Road in Powell, Ohio, which is right near the Columbus Zoo (across the dam).

I've gone to Bakers since I moved out into my country home, more than twenty years ago. Like most garden centers they have changed over the years, but of the things I have most appreciated about them is their excellent quality. At one time I made the trip to their store because of the rarities I could find there, and they still carry some unusual plants, but now their artistically planted containers and the great choices of specific plants such as tuberous begonias and foliage plants draw my interest.

I especially noticed the many fine custom baskets and containers that were being planted up this year. Some of the most imaginative and original artistry goes into their creations. There is a truly beautiful selection of garden ornaments of all types... for many tastes from the whimsical to the classic.

The prices range from moderate to moderately high, but given the quality and artistry this makes economic sense. I've often purchased from discount displays in non-garden stores and been disappointed. A plant well-grown is something which has organic health and will repay in its price in longer life and good looks as a rule. That is why you will find frugal me making the trek to this store.

I liked that you could see the staff creating custom containers and baskets in one of their greenhouse areas. If you feel unsure of how to combine plants, observing this type of operation first hand is educational. I did notice that Bakers Village has workshops, too. For a fee you can learn from professionals. An upcoming class on Fairy gardens (I notice it is sold out), and the display of figurines, little chairs, houses, and books is absolutely charming (no fairy dust involved- at least I don't think so!)

Fairies!

If you decide to go, remember that the Columbus Zoo is nearby and it is an exciting Botanical garden as well as a zoo, and think about dropping in on the Morgan House restaurant, a "ladies who lunch" restaurant, with thoroughly pleasant surroundings, good food, great service, and relaxing atmosphere.

I should add that I received no compensation for any business or attraction mentioned in this post- I just want my readers to have some insights into what is available in the Central Ohio area. My treat!

Aren't these succulents interesting and attractive?

This is the busy custom basket area

Directions

Bakers Village Garden Center is on Facebook.

Spring Details 2010

More Spring Photos from the garden....

heuchera foliage

Will Goodwin Clematis

pale pink columbine

Double Pink Columbine

pale blue columbine

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

~ Robert Frost

Looking east

Euphorbia

Stone path

Spring 2010

Sunset driveway scene; Lilac trimmed to treelike shape containers begun; Princess Irene tulip closeup; Tulips bent by rain.

 I planted lots of tulipa "Renown" last fall.

Queen of the Bartigons is a perennial tulip... it has lasted here for more than fifteen years, and is always beautiful.

2 New Series

Garden Center Scene

This year I have visited many of the garden centers, greenhouses and nurseries in my area of Central Ohio. It inspired a decision to do a series of posts to highlight the ones that I like and tell you more about them. That is coming right up, since I have been (after buying my plants!) out getting photos of the places in the first part of this series.


First on the list:

• Bakers Village
• Oakland Nurseries
• Straders
• Yonies Greenhaus
• Coolies

These are all located to the North and Northwest of the City (Columbus). Eventually I hope to highlight more, but I think this is enough for my plate at the moment.

---

The other series is beginning on my website, Ilona's Garden. I have been writing up plant profiles of plants I have grown, and there were so many annuals it was just baffling where to start. But as I planted up containers, the bright idea of having posts filled with the profiles of those "container recipe" plants would fulfill three benefits in one: portraits of annuals, growing information, and pleasing combinations!
Part One, Favorite annuals…Container by container


Also continuing to widen the 'style and design' opus of the site. Victorian Gardens is a topic I find of historical interest, but one that I little relate to as a gardener. That is, until you start talking about "grottoes", "ferneries", etc. -then suddenly I find I am as taken with such pursuits as much as anyone.

Just a Short 'What's Up'

Just dropping in to let all my blog friends know that I have not forgotten about them or posting in my blog... it is just the fact that it is spring! I have been outside gardening ( hope you will forgive me for that;) until my body aches, off to plant stores, and even helping out with the Church spruce up day and collaborating with planting plans.

I have been taking photos off and on.... so when I do post pictures they will reach back into the last month or so. I just am not sure when that post will materialize.

We've had some nice rain, here - the kind gardeners love. It has been flooding in Southern Ohio, but the Central part could actually use a bit more rain than we have had.

The farmers have harrowed their fields and planted corn. My lettuce and chard are doing well. The larkspurs came up heavily from last years planting (hardy seeds).
Birds are nesting everywhere around here.... and my mower broke! That, my friends is spring.

I had a few lyrical experiences... perhaps those will find a place of recall and musing within the coming posts, as well.

How is your springtime venture so far?