Here and There .... Time Travel Through The Journal

I saw A Way to Garden announced her 3rd year blog birthday (in March), and it got me wondering...just how old is my blog, anyway? And I didn't even know which month I started it. So I looked back. Not a real post, but opened the blog on 09/09/03.

Posts get lost on blogs, so a time travel with something you may or may not know seemed a good occupation on a wintry day. It is still cold, here.

2003-2005

After trying out some css effect I introduced myself: A Bit About Me in 0-Three. Well, more was written about "design"; and as always, I digressed. And today? I don't like the eighties styles anymore. What happened with that? 9/9/03 First actual garden related post, and the iteas mentioned are dead- I could not get that viburnum to grow in the spot spoken of (got mowed down), and the campanula carpatica is gone. The kerria is doing nicely and the leadwort turned out to be a favorite plant.

September chores

Robert Frost's Storm Fear

Kids and The Snow

01/27/04 Seed viability and plans for marigolds February and Garden Plans First appearance of the dread Emerald Ash Borer in our area. A Thought or Two on Growing Old- fun to look back now that I am firmly planted there....

Seasonal Garden Starting for Ohio A March Garden Report- my way. I never did sell anything on eBay, but the link for making softwood cuttings still works. Early bloom report for 2004.

The Vase of Flowers

Flowers for the Guestroom...

I love cut flowers, but I don't often create bouquets for the house. It is a gracious habit, however, and one which I think I will pay more attention to this year.

The pictures above are of some flowers I originally had for one of my guests right before Thanksgiving, the photo shows them the week after my guest had left. I moved them into my front room to better enjoy them, and it was surprising how long they lasted.

The Central Ohio Garden Show in Columbus

Hocking Hills Garden has a "pretty in pink" look

I notice that LonaDawn of Hocking Hills Garden has a post up announcing this years garden show. It is "scheduled for February 26 through March 6 in Columbus will be held at the Ohio Expo Center."

Her pictures are always terrific, go see some views she photographed and what she has to say about this years show. I didn't see where Lona had mentioned Tracy DiSabato-Aust, but the Dispatch website mentions her speaking schedule as :

Tracy DiSabato-Aust will once again enlighten guests with her deep horticultural knowledge and her vibrant stage presence. DiSabato-Aust will appear at the 2011 Central Ohio Home & Garden Show on the Garden Stage, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 6, 2011.

She is one of my all time favorite authors.

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© 2010 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. Copyrights apply.

Not Your Usual Tomato Post

The tomato is probably tops in what people want to grow for their dining table. It is just a guess, but due to the lack of good tomatoes available in groceries and the many ways we use them in our cuisine, that seems like a safe guess. So garden articles, posts, and even books, are dedicated to the topic of how to grow a good tomato.

Actually, I inserted the word "good" which how I think the tomato opus ought to be written. Tomatoes are easy to grow, it is the high quality of the fruit that can be a challenge.
Nevertheless I will probably include some facts and links to sites that are better at a blow by blow set of directions on growing your transplants. My one hard earned piece of advice on your baby transplants: harden off. Harden off is the careful introduction of plants from the nice cozy environment of your home to the cold cruel world of your garden. OK, not cold, because you have to wait until after the frosts are totally over, but definitely cruel with real sunshine, actual wind, and soil.

Tomatoes and squash never fail to reach maturity. You can spray them with acid,
beat them with sticks and burn them; they love it.
- S. J. Perelman

That is where the path of my post here will divulge from the main road of tomato growing advice.

A Curmudgeonly Gardener

It could be blamed on the time of year, or it could be blamed on being cooped up in winter's closed quarters. Or it might be the frustrated attempts to figure out yet another snafu in the maze of computer troubleshooting. It doesn't really matter the reason, but I find everything a bit unnerving and irritating. Because of that it seems that many of my fellow gardeners seem much too optimistic...with pollyanna tweets and cheery reminders that spring is coming.

Harumph.

"A long way off" I feel like muttering.

I admit that I usually try to write about the bright side of things, myself ...always another season, the silver lining, how cute the squirrel is, even though you know he just spent the last few months devouring all your crocus bulbs as appetizers to the main course of the tulips. As a gardener you try to flow with nature, but sometimes nature isn't so easy to get along with.

So I'm irritated. Not at the squirrel who is just trying to indulge in a well stocked larder, but at myself. At the limitations and the foolish expectations, and let's face it.... from a deficiency of sunlight. I haven't been out in the garden for several months, at least nothing to speak of, and the skies have been mantled with gray for just a little too long.

So with the holidays behind, and nothing very cheering in the foreseeable short term, I will just grouse a bit and hope that somebody sends me a garden catalog soon. I sure need something to break the cycle of this grumpy winter stalled gardeneropath.



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© 2010 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. Copyrights apply.
The image is the original art of olivamoon, whose etsy shops holds lovely little sculpture and other delights.

Under the Surface

Just like a garden in winter, there are things happening under the surface of what we can see. I have been busy producing posts and advancing projects, some which might be of interest to gardeners or bloggers or garden + bloggers. Take a look at some of pages that popped up over the past month or so....

Garden

The Flowers of Emily Dickinson -Victorian Flowers, a complement to the post about her garden.

Plant Science: Leaves, Roots, and Flowers was inspired when something I read wasn't in depth enough, and I wanted to start recording some information behind the garden advice we often receive.

I started updating some pages and reposted 'The Prairie Garden', which is worth reading if you haven't yet seen it. Or even if you have....

There had been a lot of reading in the autumn, some of which inspired the Emily Dickinson posts, but others were summarized in the Garden Librarian's reviews.

Among them, is 'Understanding Garden Design: The Complete Handbook for Aspiring Designers' by Vanessa Gardener Nagel. This link to the review tells you why I think it is one of the first books to buy if you are interested in designing your own garden spaces.

There are three other new reviews there that I posted this month. Two shorts and a regular length review, all of garden books.

Garden Hints and Tips #457

I just made that number up, but not the helpful garden tip!
Buy lots of Bounce Dryer Sheets.

The Garden Professors shared this nugget:

Entomologist Dr. Raymond Cloyd of Kansas State University and his group were intrigued by Master Gardener anecdotes of dryer sheets repelling mosquitoes, though no research had been done. Could your common Bounce sheet also repel other pests? And, to take it a step further, what, exactly, repels them? The answers are “yes” and “lots of volatile compounds.”



Their study [pdf file-Ilona's note] was published last month in the journal HortScience. Honestly, I’ve never seen descriptors like “controls static cling” and “gives clothes a fresh scent” in a Horticulture journal. Hee! Plus the researchers made it clear this experiment specifically used Bounce Original Outdoor FreshTM. Still kind of humorous, but really good science and the part that’s usually overlooked in the translation to a News Story. Do NOT extrapolate results to include Bounce Spring Fresh, Fresh Linen, and certainly not Downy or Snuggle brands.

Read more...

I might add that we use this tip around here for repelling rodents from taking up residence under the hot tub. Don't want any wiring chewed.


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© 2010 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. Copyrights apply.

Pathways

footprints on the path

Someday I am going to write a resource page on pathways, but today is not that day. Today I follow the muse, and just share some recent thoughts on garden pathways and those of life.

January with its New Year mark is connected in my mind with a picture of a path. Right now, I am at a new gate, going into a new garden year, but the pathway itself has continuously stretched over a much longer journey of time. I am interested in working in this new garden. There are some things I want to either see within it, or create, however. I'm not one to leave my garden unmarked, simply having passed through.

Really,it is inconceivable to me to imagine that one does not in some way impact the ground that footsteps have impressed in some way. Some of us tread lightly, others more heavily, but we all leave an impression and change of some sort.

How a Homeowner Can Use a Garden Journal

'Easy Peasy' Vegetable Gardening Diary

I was reading a review of a gardener's journal and I came across a description of how one resourceful homeowner had put her garden journal to use.

I think it would be one way that a seller could gain a bit of advantage in a tough housing market. It is a well known piece of advice that sprucing up the landscape adds a great deal of value to your home, and is an important part of the "curb appeal" for new buyers, but how many people think about helping out the the new owners after the sale? How many people ( unless they are avid gardeners to begin with) think about taking care of that landscape that attracted them to the house they now own? This woman who used her garden journal to benefit the new owners, did just that.

How?

She had lived in her residence for more than a couple decades, and during that time had kept a journal recording her newly planted shrubs and trees. Details like what she planted, when she planted it, and where it was planted (using a garden layout plan) were all kept in her garden journal. All she needed to do was make a copy of this invaluable information for the new owner. Who wouldn't love having a record like that from the former owners?

I know that the tried and true garden advice for a new homeowner is to live a year at your place before making big changes to the landscape, and part of that is discovering the interesting and valuable plants that are already in your garden. It would help considerably to have all that first hand knowledge written down and ready to incorporate into the future planning of a new garden.

Gardener, Know Thyself

::repost::

Question:

Which do you prefer, honesty or hype?

Think carefully and answer truthfully, now. Because nine times out of ten...maybe ten out of ten we are going to say "honesty". We are going to say that, but we will gravitate towards books and videos that tell us we can have it all, our way, with no work, and constant bloom. And even if we are experienced ... and our heads tell us "no", our eyes tell us yes, because we saw the pictures. And pictures don't lie. Even pictures with impossibly perfect flowers, from different bloomtimes, all crowded together in one little garden space. For us, in our waking dreams which purveyors produce, it can BE.

I hate to break it to you, but you are choosing hype.

Or how about this? Easy, organic, and green, simple, and immediate. Hint, those words don't go together.

Organic soils are built over time, they are adjusted, and they need attention. All soils need attention over time. They need to be kept fertile and in good tilth.

It is worth it, but it is not simple, and certainly not immediate. We want to say we are green, but with the easy steps of just spraying on this, or adding in that.

We want no bugs, but be ecologically sound. Insects are a part of being ecologically sound.

Just saying.

So the next time you read something or buy into an idea that is just "too good to be true", it is;  remember that this reality check should apply to the garden, too. Everyone is marketing for your attention, but good things, truly good things, are worth the time they take to create.

I don't mean to say there is no such thing as easy, because we all have to start somewhere, and small, simple, and easy are the place to start...just use your common sense when adding together the promise and the facts.

And if it makes you feel any better, I confess that I still fall for the hype every once in awhile. some of which I make for myself every year, about this time.

:)

Does Everyday Design Matter?

::repost::

Does Everyday Design Matter? Of course it does. I mean we think that and might say it, but the way we live often says something else.

Not that we don't appreciate good design. Our appreciation sells books and magazines, it drives blogs...after all, some of the most popular have gorgeous photos all over the place and tell us about all sorts of things that will make our life more beautiful. And this post could be appropriate for any of the topics I write on since it addresses beauty, especially beauty in our everyday experience. Not just in gardening, but in life, although I chose to consider that garden part of giving thought to good design.

We often settle for far less than we could, or should. The reasons why could range anywhere from whether we consider our own selves worth the effort to being too busy with other matters, to a bit of a laziness. But whatever the reason we could have better design and appreciate our own lives more if we "settled less". In other words, if we decided that everyday good design mattered to us.

In the garden I was specifically thinking about that old complaint about foundation plantings, and which could extend to overuse of "lawn". Really, any part of the yard that suffers from unimaginative, uninspired spaces.

Does that mean everything has to be professionally "designed"? Not what I'm talking about at all. Just some attention paid to using spaces in the best way for you and your family. That is a big part of "design".

What Defines Everyday Design?

I could give you a point list, but a better illustration comes from walking into a store that makes its business from this "everyday" design type of ideal.
First example- When I walked into an IKEA store I was blown away by how simple clean lines and useful inventions create a well designed living space. It wasn't dependent on expensive materials or intricate combinations. Instead thought was put into making good use of space, ease of maintenance, and people friendly usage. That same ethic creates a great landscape.

Second example- Target household supplies and products. Tar-zhay for a reason. Good color combinations, fresh looks, clean lines, all for an affordable price. You don't want to spend hours putting it together and taking care of it, and that can be how many people want their front gardens and back yards: they want them to work and not take lots of their time and effort. There is nothing wrong with that, but it can look great and work like that too... and that is what I mean by everyday design.

Third example- Martha Stewart. I mean, she has built an entire business empire around the concept of incorporating good design into a simple and easy combination of color and look. I say simple and easy because it is edited to a workable number of colors and decisions that speak of a specific basic look. And from there the sky is the limit in terms of how detailed or how much effort you want to take in any direction: fixing your food or making your bed, or lounging out in yard under a tree. A little forethought in colors, plantings, how you want to use your space and it can all work.

Where Do I Start My Design Efforts?

Anywhere you want, but personally I would pick the front entrance and then the front yard as a whole after that. Think curb appeal, but not for everyone else, or to sell your house, but because you deserve something welcoming every time you look at your house after coming home from somewhere else. Your yard should welcome you.

I truly believe that.

Then second, I would work on a personal space in your backyard. On facebook, a friend from "way back when" just bought a new house. You know what impressed me? She created an instant personal space by hanging outdoor curtains around a covered patio or lanai type area. It seemed like a perfect place to take time out and enjoy whatever was going to come next in her new garden...which was all in the planning stages.

It is that sort of "everyday design" that I mean... making the space beautiful, even though it might not be the landscapers choice of a "to-do" list. I think that a to-do list gets accomplished by taking that sort of simple action, though.

What steps can you take to get some good design in your front yard today? A well chosen pot for the entry? Fill it with soil and choose just one great plant to fill it if you don't have time to design something more complicated, or go for it and put your effort into that and do some trim and cleanup in the rest of the entry. Take pictures of what makes a good design for you and draw your plans for this season.... make your yard more you, and little less every one else on the block. I guarantee that it will brighten everyone's day, including your own.

Read "More Design Thoughts"

Not The Emily Dickinson You Knew (but she DID garden)

"Plants grew on her family property; she ordered plants from catalogs; she collected plants for her herbarium; she wrote hundreds of poems about plants, flowers, and nature; and also wrote about plants and gardening in her correspondence. She was inspired by plants and was enamored by their attributes."
- http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2010/05/recreating-emily-dickinsons-gardens.html

As I said, I took some time to read and one of the books was a biography of Emily Dickinson.

"Lives Like Loaded Guns" gave a whole new look at her life and influences and came up with surprising turns; I no longer think of her in the same way. It seems that much of what is accepted was the product of image making from both herself and those who worked on publishing her work. Marketing, it turns out, is an old profession. We might have guessed it, but it still flies in the face of how we like to look at "simpler times".

One thing fairly true to reality is the fact that Emily Dickinson liked to garden and found inspiration in it. The "Lives Like Loaded Gun" book is not the place to explore that fact, however. It is far more concerned with her brother's adulterous affair.

What was Emily Dickinson's garden like? The Gardens of Emily Dickinson would be the book for exploring that question. We might come away with our own questions of how much does our climate and lifestyle create our garden and how much is of our own making and design?