Louisa's Garden Chronical

Wascally Wabbits - 6/20/10

Each year this time we have a new crop of cute plump little bunnies that scamper about in the yard and particularly like the cover and protection of the gardens. While hanging out in their garden paradise they will sample the local produce and I really don't mind, most of the time. This habit becomes something less than cute however when they find, for whatever reason, ONE PLANT that is irresistably delicious. When this happens, those tiny, cute as a button bunnies can chown down like a teenager in a growth spurt. One day, a big beautiful plant, heavy with bloom and in peak condition -- next day, maybe a few greenish stubs poking out of the ground.

What to do... what to do....get a gun??? Gawd no! Those bunnies may be eating their way through some of my garden favorites but they are still almost painfully adorable and entertaining, and I have lots of gardens. I have a bottle of some stuff that purports to protect plants against deer and rabbits. It smells a bit like raw sewage and fish heads so I can imagine that it may take the blush off the rose when it comes to epicurean delight in the garden. I can't swear it works however since I typically don't spray the stuff on everything - that's just not possible - and by the time I discover the culinary favorites, it's pretty much over for the season. Some things are perennial favorites - no pun intended. The echinacea, the rudbeckia... something eats the clematis off an inch above the ground every year. Some years it seems to be a dinner of convience, where the poor plant just happens to be in the favorite spot for lunch that year. The surprises this year were the hollyhocks

Um, ya... about that apple tree... I don't quite know where that came from but I was suddenly struck with an irresistible urge to grow an espalier apple. So, we found a semi-dwarf Macintosh that would just fit in the van, rearranged the van seating to hold it all, and packed everything in nice and tight. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll decide what has to go in the existing gardens to make room for the new arrivals. Meanwhile, I did some pruning of a pink rambling rose - not sure of the variety - and now I'm going to sit at the sewing machine and knock off a pink rose bathrobe for myself. I'll be back out there in the gardens tomorrow and some of those foxglove will make their contribution to the garden in a wholly new way - as compost.

In bloom this week: Early Daylilly, beebalm, acdhillea, fillipendula, hosta, thalictrum.

A Relationship in trouble - 6/13/10

Warm, soft, snuggly bathrobes really do it for me. So much so, an old ratty one featured prominently in BITTERSWEET, one of my IR erotic romances. Call this obsession of mine a fetish or a lifelong love affair, but whatever the case, I grow attached to my bathrobes. So, when my present one (I have others, but I'm monogamous within the season) moved from comfortably lived-in to embarrassingly beat-up to holy-hell-this-thing-is-falling-apart I panicked.

What to do????

Shopping is always a painful experience. Nevertheless, I started scouring the stores for just the right replacement.

See first sentence. I'm fussy about my fixations. The robe must be warm, soft, and snuggly. I have a beautiful floral satin robe, slinky and sexy, and I never wear it. It only takes up space in my closet because it was a gift.

After months -- yes, MONTHS -- of looking, I continued to search for just the right replacement. And the situation was becoming urgent. The torn and bedraggled one would not survive another wash cycle.

What to do?

See bathrobe in photo. Took me 3 days, off and on, to sew this McCall's "Easy" (to which I say HA!) pattern. Like the style, not satisfied with the fabric. Wanted a rosebud poly/flannel blend and could only find 100% cotton flannel.

Though we've bonded, it's a qualified acceptance and, this time around, I'm not holding out much hope for a long-term relationship. 100% cotton flannel never lasts.

I've already started to panic.

Out of Control... again - 6/11/10

When the bare ground of the early spring started showing signs of this season's growth I was as excited as an 18 year old in a porn shop. Ok, well maybe not that kind of excited but certainly filled with that enthusiasm. When much of the new growth showed itself to be foxglove volunteers I was still excited because those tall spires of pink and rose and white are some of my garden favorites. My garden soil is very fertile and things grow fast and tall here. Some of these spires top off at close to six feet in my garden. I suspected it was too much of a good thing before heading out on vacation and when light dawned on the garden after our return it was worse than I had thought. The foxgloves were beautiful-- the whole acre of them. There are many other lovely plants out there and I'll find them as soon as I start pulling up the foxgloves that have taken over everything.

You can tell a gardener out of control when they look out on a garden chock full of too many plants like this and instead of heading out with a shovel and wheelbarrow to weed out the excess, they hop in the van and drive for over an hour to pick up some more plants. I intended to get a Sambucus nigra "Eva" as a dark accent in a difficult corner. Once at the nursery I also spotted a single pale yellow hollyhock, pink gaura, red phygelius (not hardy here but I couldn't resist the color), some beautiful single pink shrub roses from the Knockout family, and lastly an apple tree.

In bloom this week: Roses, Asiatic lilies, foxglove, centranthus, lychnis, cat mint, honeysuckle.

Off and Away - 6/7/10

We touched down in Jaxonville almost a week ago and have been visiting the sunny and warm (read that hotter than hell) south in the first week of June. I'm not sure why DH got us booked here now but I suppose if we can do Chicago in November, we can do Savannah in June. What I don't understand is why all the Georgians are complaining so bitterly about the heat. I mean, excuse this yankee but isn't it always hot down here in the summer months? I suppose it's like me complaining about the cold and snow in a New England winter. We're all wusses.

What does an author/gardner do on her vacation? Research for books, tour the environs of well known books - ala Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - and visit any garden she can find. Here in Savannah the gardens aren't large informal stretches with flowing drifts of color, like in my own garden. Here in the city, gardens are little green patches kept neat and formal of necessity, due to the limited space. Just looking at these spaces makes me feel cooler and more relaxed - Ok well at least more relaxed. The one in the picture here is from the Owens-Thomas House located on Oglethorpe Square in the Savannah historic district.

In bloom this week: who the heck knows - I'm on vacation!

Tethered to the sling - 5/30/10

At the risk of sounding sad and pathetic I will freely admit that summer vacations are something I sorely need - don't we all need a vacation at almost every time of year - but they aren't necessarily what I want. By that I mean, we have a vacation all planned and partially paid for but, it means leaving my gardens behind just as the peonies, iris, and poppies are coming into a rush of bloom. I know by the time I return they will be gone for another year.

There is a way to reconcile the need to get away from the work and mundane and still enjoy my beautiful gardens but it requires a discipline that I have yet to master - the art of stepping away from the keyboard. Maybe I could get some kind of a timed, locked safe that I could store away the keyboard and mouse for a week or two or better still, a tether that would only reach to the sling... I mean hammock... and not the PC. I'm going to have to work on that so that I can share the best of both worlds in the future.

In bloom this week: Iris siberica, peony, coral bells, lady's mantle, dianthus, valerian, persicaria polymorpha, oriental poppies.

Garden Confections - 5/23/10

We're on the cusp of the breakout blooming season here in New England. Some of the most delicious blooms in my spring garden are the tall bearded iris. The earliest varieties are coming into bloom now. I order from Cooleys every year and they do so well that I wind up enlarging the gardens almost every year to accommodate these beauties that I just can't seem to get enough of.

I have a strong partiality to the large, ruffled varieties in any color. When the setting sun strikes the massive blooms I can't help this urge to just eat them up.

In bloom this week: Iris, coreopsis nana, verbascum, amsonia, baptisia australis.

Breaking free! - 5/16/10

Been dang windy lately but the sun is shining and the night time temperatures are now reliably frost free in these parts. That means all those annuals crowding the floor at the atrium doors can go to their final resting place in the garden and I can finally pass through the doors to the decks and gardens in the back of the property without going the long way around. I can also plant the cucumbers, squash, and other warm weather veggies in their plot as well. These plants too have been languishing at the sunny but not quite sunny enough spot inside the house.

The dahlias have just poked through the soil at exactly the right time. Each needs a cutworm collar to protect against these night time predators and snails. In fact, just about everything that gets put in the ground or starts up gets a ring of plastic constructed from slices of plastic milk cartons stapled into little collars. It's one of those chores that seems so tedious but absolutely necessary if I don't want to be making another trip to the garden center to replace the casualties of the evening garden villains.

There are bigger garden projects needing attention, like a trellis for the trumpet vine, but that's the realm of DH. I just make sure it gets on his list and stays there until it's done.

In bloom this week: Centaura montana, Salvia 'Mai Nacht', Geraniums - G sanguinium, G. Samobor, G. Roxanne, G. striatum lancastriense, Daphne 'Carol Mackie', lilac 'Charles Hepburn'.

Triumph over Nature - 5/9/10

We've been spoiled this spring. Since February there have only been a handful of days that were not above normal temperatures. This has been the warmest spring since 1945, and I wasn't around to witness that one. So, tempted by the lure of those balmy days, I tried to cheat a bit this year. The tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers were in the ground two weeks before the earliest I've ever tried to plant them. When the forecast for below average temperatures came along this weekend I was in a total quandary. Do I just cast my hands in the air and leave it to fate and a lesson learned?

Hell no! I will not be defeated. I took the plastic wrapping from a recent delivery and with a pair of scissors and stapler I wrapped the tomato cages in the clear plastic. I gathered up plastic milk gallon containers from anywhere I could find them and cut the tops and bottoms off to fashion similar shelter for the peppers and cucumbers. Then I took more plastic grocery bags and stuffed them into the little shelters I had created. They made it through the first night - well maybe no so much the cucumbers but we'll see after tonight. The potted Agapanthus, some of which have already started to bloom, are on the front stairs covered in black 30 gallon trash bags, all seven large pots of them. The place looks like a trash dump but if I can carry these things through just one more night I will have victory over Mother Nature - once again.

The veggies are easy to replace and the Agapanthus will survive even a snowfall but look nasty for a while. I just so enjoy the challenge. It will be a very small victory but still very sweet.

In bloom this week: heucherella, clary sage, native columbine, allium 'Gladiator', scilla, geum.

Hedonism in the Garden - 5/2/10

Some eons ago, Sigmund Freud wrote about the pleasure principle - how we all strive for immediate gratification of needs for which we are rewarded with pleasure and at the same time seek to avoid pain. Sounds straightforward enough but in reality nothing is ever that simple. The Hedonist usually finds that there is a downside to the endless pursuit of pleasure. I'm a good example.

For me, my Hedonist approach to gardening - bingeing at garden centers and dawn to dusk digging, weeding, pruning frenzies - most especially at the beginning of the gardening season, results in a morning after regimen of a couple Advil with my first cup of tea. It's sort of like your hedonist hangover but a bit lower in the anatomy - like my back. The pain is well worth it, for even sitting at the kitchen table with my head propped up on elbows, I have a perfect view of many of the garden beds. That view is as restorative as the Advil and a few cups of hot tea. Better still, my view lasts all season. The backache only lasts until I have my hands back in the dirt and I'm such a dirty girl that's never too long a wait.

In bloom this week: Candytuft, creeping phlox, lilac (Syringa).

Patience - 4/25/10

I'm not typically a patient person. Spring is a difficult time for me. I want to move things along. Here in New England frost is a threat until at least mid-May. Browsing through garden centers this weekend, it was all I could do to resist buying tomatoes and plenty of other tender annuals. Shame on those places for putting all that temptation in my path. I can't let a few warm days fool me into believing that it's safe for those tender plants.

I've got five pots of Agapanthus along the atrium doors of the family room, trapping me in the house, forcing me to take the long road to the back deck and gardens. They've even started to bloom in the house (again). There's a couple of Amaryllis potted up, keeping them company. There's more too. Unable to wait, I have a large flat of pots starting veggies and annuals in the house. They let me pretend that the warm weather is already here and help move the season along. Since those cucumber seeds can be put in the ground, they can at least be put in dirt even if the dirt is potting soil and it's sitting atop the sound system in the living room.

In a few months I'll be doing just the reverse, trying to slow the season down, hanging onto the last few days of the summer weather even as the shadows grow ever longer. Those dahlias that I just put in the ground were specifically selected for late bloom. They give me color in the gardens when the daylilies and most everything else is fading. Grasses help too, for even though they don't have your typical blooms, they come into their own as the curtain opens on the fall season.

In bloom this week: Euphorbia, tulips, Japanese flowering cherry (Prunus).

Chin on the windowsill - 4/18/10

What do you do when you have a stretch of rain that spans the weekend and you can't wait to get out into the garden? Well, after booking a trip to Savannah for later in the spring.. hmmm there's a steamy southern romance percolating... I've busied myself with some online garden catalogs. You recall those dahlias I mentioned earlier that were hastily tossed into the basement at the end of last season? Well it seems like after more careful assessment of their health, there may be more space available in the garden than I thought. Swan Island just confirmed my order for this year.

We also received a shipment of Centaurea macrocephala and other perennials ordered earlier this spring. These big golden thistles bloom in late spring and my once impressive drift has dwindled to one hearty soul in the garden at the top of the hill. I couldn't bear a spring without the showing we've had in the past so I'm backfilling with replacements. If the damn rain ever stops, I'll get them in the ground.

I keep telling myself that this weather is doing just what the garden needs but I have needs too -- like getting out of the house on a weekend. So, I'll don my weatherproofing in a bit and attempt a neighborhood walk if the rain would only let up just a tad. Wait a minute... is that the sun??... I'm outta here.

In bloom this week: Epimedium, Primula, Dicentra, Prunus (purple plum). Epimedium are typical of some of the early blooms in the garden. You have to get down to the ground to get a really good look and when you do, it's worth the effort required to get back up again.

Muskrat Love - 4/11/10

We have a pond on the property. It's not big and it's certainly not beautiful. In fact, its glory days passed long ago. However, there's a resident muskrat couple that just love the place, muck and all. Since the damn dam broke after record rains a few years back, the cat--nine-tails have been taking over the place and the muskrats couldn't be happier with the arrangement. The new vegetation provides some sort of muskrat delicacy and they make regular trips across the pond, returning to their den in the stone wall there with the evening meal between their teeth.

The daily activities of the couple provide plenty of entertainment but this past weekend there was some real action on the waters. A weasel moved in and spent the entire morning battling the muskrats for territory. I can't help but admit that the idea of a cross-species manage was in my mind but they had other ideas. Who would think that vegetarians and a carnivore would have such a difficult time getting along. I watched for hours until the muskrats just gave up and jumped over the dam, moving downstream.

The new lord of the manner patrolled all day and chowed down on... I don't want to know what - eeeeww! As sleek and sexy as that weasel was, I missed my short and stubby, muskrat couple. Not to despair. When the sun rose the next day, the view from our bay window overlooking the pond showed two balls of wet fur chowing down on muddy weeds. Having conquered the realm, the weasel had moved on to the next challenge and life on Trent pond had returned to peaceful normalcy.

Sigh.... it was clearly muskrat love back in action.

In bloom this week: daffodils - many varieties, Sanguinaria (bloodroot), Waldestinia, Pyrus (flowering pear). Plenty of growth after some warm weather - finally. The manure has been spread and now I'm looking for more to do in the gardens. I just need the weather to catch up.

Winners and losers - 4/4/10

Every year in the fall, we tuck the flowerbeds in for the season. Then, in late March, providing no snow lingers, we (DH and myself) pull on our sturdy work boots and slip-slide around the mushy grounds of early spring to assess what havoc the winter months have wrought on each individual plant. Sometimes, a wonderful surprise greets us. A specimen we thought too delicate to survive our frigid New England winters bursts forth from the still chilled earth, big and healthy, more robust than we ever anticipated. Other times, it's a complete bust. A plant we really looked forward to sprawls on top of the wet soil, a rotted, yucky mess.

Sigh. The bear's breaches -- acanthus spinosus -- was our plant fail this time around. Oh well. Casualties like this one are an opportunity to try something else, something new and never done before, something exotic, something positively decadent...

OOPS. I forgot. I'm supposed to be writing a gardening journal here, not an erotic romance.

Anyway, real estate in our flowerbeds is a valuable commodity. When a plant bites it, we take full advantage of the hole it leaves behind and dig in something else. Not terribly sentimental, true, but gardeners usually aren't the soggy tissue types.

After our walk around the grounds, we headed for the basement, where we store all our gardening equipment and winter over our least hardy plants, like our 5 pots of persnickety Lilies of the Nile -- agapanthus -- and the dahlias.

The dahlias. Another sore point. A peek told us they're not happy. Though the tubers doubled in size during the preceding growing season, the damn things shrank during the winter. Their wrinkled appearance didn't bother us, but their hollow feel does not bode well.

C' est la vie. Garden prima donnas get no special treatment in the Trent gardens. At the end of the growing season, we dig out the dahlia tubers, dry them out, dust them with garden sulfur, and stuff them in big labeled baggies. No milled sphagnum peat moss, dry shavings, sand, vermiculite, or shredded newspaper, as is recommended. It's survival of the fittest around here.

I'll end this on a cliffhanger. Will we or won't we have our colorful display of dahlia blossoms this season? Check back later and see...

In bloom this week: crocus, anemone

Building a garden? Start from the ground up - 3/27/10

OK, let's keep this simple. Wanna build a garden that will stop traffic? Start at ground level. It's all about the D-I-R-T. There's no substitute for good soil. Get things off to the best start possible by adding plenty of organic matter to your flowerbeds. Every year in early spring, we get a delivery of cow manure ( superior to horse manure) and then spend the next few weekends top dressing the beds. Rain (we've gotten too much of that lately), warmer temperatures to cook things up, and a little help from us removing weeds, and the gardens are good to go. Wake up earthworms and get to work!

We're considering placing the gardens on exhibit again this year. We enjoyed being on the tour before but we're talking about a whole heck of a lot of work. Hosting garden quests is the same as hosting house guests. You want the place to look its very best and, for that, everything has to be in top shape.

Let's talk dirt - 3/21/10

Mother nature announced spring with a beautiful 70 degree day and a call to the gardens. We spent an entire weekend raking the remains of last year's garden. It always amounts to a staggering pile of brush. This time of year the collection of downed branches debris and dry garden refuse gets burned. As the weather continues to warm and the weeds begin to flourish, the compost bins, are emptied of last years waste. This black gold is spread on the beds and the bins are re-filled with the fresh harvest of spring weeding chores.

Spring is an impatient time of year in the garden. Things happen so fast in the garden that the only way to slow it down is to savor the moments with photographs. OK the picture to the left seems like not much more than dirt, but I see the promise of the season. The gardens don't just help me enjoy these warm sunny days, but I also can honestly say I enjoy the rain as well because I know what's happening out here in the dirt.

After a day of back breaking work, what's the first thing I think of? Hint: it's not a long soak in a hot bath. It's making the call for a truck load of manure. When that truck of cow poo starts backing down the driveway my heart starts to beat fast. I like the look better than that nasty mulch that gets piled high in so many other yards.

I'm looking forward to sharing my season in the garden with you here, one week at a time. So, join me here each week in my garden.