Foliage Follow Up – January 2012

Orchid cactus

I rarely participate in Foliage Follow-up, but Pam Penick at Digging has prompted me to take a good look at the foliage around me at this time of the year.

I have owned this orchid cactus (Epiphyllum) for a number of years. I pay almost no attention to it which is shameful, because it would bloom regularly and magnificently if I did. You can see I don’t even give it the pedestal it deserves. For the past year it has lived in a bright rarely heated guest room where it seems happy even if it doesn’t bloom.

I am making a new year’s resolution to prune it back and repot it in the spring.  I think I will go upstairs and prune it this very morning.

I do have other succulents. Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus which are among the easiest plants to grow.  They even tell you when they need watering. Before any serious damage is done to the plant the succulent ‘leaves’ will begin to shrivel slightly and feel limp. It just takes regular watering to bring it back into fine fettle.

Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera bridgesii

This particular Christmas cactus lives in my bedroom, right next to a plump jade tree.

Jade tree, Cassula ovata

This jade tree is over 20 years old. My daughter cared for it during the two separate years we were living in China. She is as reluctant to prune as I am, and it grew so much more heavily on one side that the plant was leaning so dangerously that she propped up the stem with a small flower pot.  I finally did prune it  so that it was not only more attractive, but safer in its pot. Then a couple of years ago I left it right next to a north window in our unheated Great Room for the winter and I thought I had killed it for sure. It never got watered and became shrivelled and frozen, but I resurrected it in the spring when I gave it a radical pruning and watered it on a regular schedule. The leaves are now fat and healthy, if a bit dusty.

This citrus scented geranium is another plant I have had for several years. Still full of life, but another plant that is in serious need of pruning and repotting. Next month. I promise. I will also be able to take cuttings and start raising another generation.

Scented geranium foliage takes many different forms. Check the online catalogs like Hobbs Farm and Logee’s Greenhouse to see the full range. Scented geraniums do produce small flowers, but it is the scented foliage that is the appeal.

Prostrate rosemary

This prostrate rosemary did beautifully in its pot out on the entry walk all summer where it is hot and sunny. I brought it in and put in in the south window of the unheated Great Room which did go down below freezing yesterday, but it still looks fine. Unlike my upright rosemary which got nipped by cold in the Great Room earlier in the season and which I am trying to revive in a warmer, but still cool, room.

This is what foliage looks like outdoors this morning. I am glad for the snow cover before temperatures plummeted. Four degrees above zero this morning.

Pam, thank you so much for Foliage Follow-Up.

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Laura Bell! Succulent Container Gardens and The Roses at the End of the Road will be on their way to you – as soon as I get an address. I know you will enjoy them. I also want to thank all the other commenters for visiting and making these past four years such an enjoyable time.

Last Day to Win

The Roses at the End of the Road

Today is the last opportunity you have to win a copy of my book about life on and off the Rose Walk, and Debra Lee Baldwin‘s book, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants. Click here and leave a comment by midnight tonight, December 6. I will announce the winner, chosen at random tomorrow morning by 9 am.

Four years ago, on December 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas, I gave myself a present that was sweeter than I ever imagined.  I began this blog and began new friendships, found new ideas and resources, and great enjoyment. And all I was looking for really, was a way to document the way my garden grew. I got so much more, including the encouragement to write The Roses at the End of the Road, which gave me a new way of sharing my pleasure in the Rose Walk. And the Rose Bank. And the Shed Bed.

I’ll be sharing that pleasure in front of the Festival of Trees at Tower Square in Springfield, today from noon to 2 pm and 4 to 6 pm where I will be signing my book and chatting with rose gardeners, and potential rose gardeners. Hope to see you there.

Blogoversary Giveaway

Succulent Container Gardens by Debra Lee Baldwin

On December 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas, I will celebrate my Fourth Blogaverary! It wasn’t an ideal time to start a garden blog, but I had just learned about blogs and ‘met’ Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening, Carol at May Dreams Gardens and all the Ranters at Garden Rant. I was lucky to meet such stars early on because they have taught me so much and continue to inspiremme.  I even got to meet them all at at the last two Garden Blogger Flings.

And of course the greatest gift I gave to myself that December 6th, was the opportunity to meet so many knowledgeable gardeners from all over the country. They all have something to teach me, new ideas, new perspectives and new resources. I thank the entire community of garden bloggers for their generosity in sharing with me – and with all their readers.

This year Timber Press and I are celebrating by offering a Giveaway – Debra Lee Baldwin’s new and fabulous book, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye Catching Displays with 350 Easy Care Plants. Debra opened up a whole new world of succulents to me – which is wonderful because these easy care plants may be the only houseplants I can keep going for more than a year or two. While I have a large jade tree, orchid cactus and Christmas cactus, I am now ready to create what people in my area call a ‘dish garden’, a container planted with a variety of succulents. I never knew there were so many, and that you could fit so many into a beautifully photographed book. Plant porn!

Besides design ideas, and ways of thinking about design, Debra gives information about some of the most interesting and unusual succulents, and basic care information. This informative and inspiring book could be yours. Just leave a comment on this post by December 6 at midnight.  On December 7 I will draw a name at random and will announce the winner. If you wanted to leave a sentence or two about your experience with a succulent that would be wonderful, but all you have to do is leave a comment saying you want this book.

The Roses at the End of the Road

IN ADDITION I will include a copy of my own book, The Roses at the End of the Road which was only the barest seed of an idea when I began my blog. These essays are not about How To grow roses, but how I live among the roses in my rural community. My husband provided the charming illustrations.

I have been having a wonderful time signing my book at local events, and will be reading and  signing at Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls on December 4 at 2 pm, and signing at Tower Square in Springfield right next to the festival of Trees on December 6 – my blogoversary!  I even got to show off many of my roses when I gave a talk at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, focusing on disease resistant roses.

Leave a comment and enter the Giveaway!

Heath Fair 2011

The Wealth of Heath

We moved to Heath in the fall of 1979 and attended our first Heath Fair in 1980. However, we had heard about the Fair years before when we were living on Grinnell Street in Greenfield. Deb Porter of Heath was visiting her friend (and my temporary boarder) Wendy Roberts in my kitchen, but she had to cut the visit short that day in order to race back to Heath and bake pies for the Fair.

Deb still works at the Fair in many capacities, as does her sister Pam Porter who is just finishing her stint as Co-President of the Heath Agricultural Society. The Porters have been attending and working at the Heath Fair from their childhoods, and have seen more changes than I, but we all agree that the essence of the Fair remains the same. It is a celebration of this piece of land that we are attached to, literally and emotionally, as well as a celebration of our productive, creative and cooperative community.

After moving frequently in my early years I have now lived in Heath for almost half my life. This year many exhibits and events at the Fair made me aware of the way my roots have sunk into my Heath hill and community, adding my own history to that of the town.

As usual I worked in the Friends of the Library’s 20 by 20 foot sturdy white tent filled with books for sale. I remembered the year quite some time ago when the weather was threatening and my husband and I donated the use of our 10 by 10 foot camp tent to house the sale. As it turned out the tent was needed and many sheltered among the books during a terrific storm. Using a tent for the sale became routine but it quickly outgrew our little tent.

My granddaugher Tricia Waitkus was born in July of 1986. That was the year that the Heath Fair t-shirt featured a big blue ribbon with the text – First Prize Person. What better t-shirt for to wrap around her stroller for her first Fair. She attended the Fair this year, mugging in the goat cutout. This year the Fair was also the scene of Margaret Smith Jones 100^th birthday celebration with her family; Karen Brooks and Melissa Ortquist in the Music Tent sang out a birthday serenade for us all to enjoy. It is clear that while Tricia has been a First Class Person for a quarter of a century, Margaret Jones has held that title for a full century, six years more than the Heath Fair has existed.

Three years ago Pam Porter reinstituted the Speakers Tent which had been an element of the Fair during the 1940s and ‘50s. Rumor has it that noted theologians and summer Heathans Reinhold Neibuhr and Robert MacAfee Brown were among those who Spoke in those days. The speakers these days do not have such lofty reputations, but the speeches remain inspiring and practical. Young people from the Gardening the Community: Youth and Urban Agriculture project in Springfield provided inspiration as they described their gardens and bicycle delivery of produce which you can read about on their website www.gardeninginthecommunity.blogspot.com. Bob Bourke, Fair secretary, provided practical information with his talk on composting.

Rory, Sue Gruen and me

When we first began attending the Fair there was no big Solomon Temple barn, an edifice that the Historical Society had dismantled and rebuilt on the fairgrounds. Now the barn contains a collection of agricultural tools used in earlier days. The barn also houses a huge loom that was dismantled and reassembled by Bob and Sue Gruen. The two of them will be giving a talk about weaving at the Heath Historical Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 27 at 7 pm.

Sue Gruen was on hand at Saturday’s Fair to demonstrate and let fairgoers, like us, try our hand weaving on a small loom. My grandsons and I took turns gingerly shooting the shuttle through the shed.

The Exhibit Hall was filled with quilts, knitted sweaters, pies, cakes, breads, cookies, eggs, maple syrup, photographs, sculptures, beautiful jars of pickles, jams, and vegetables. My daughter Kate won a First Prize for her counted cross stitch wall hanging. She is three dollars richer.

Large organizations displays were set up against the back wall of the building. I enjoyed the Heath School Garden exhibit – and even guessed correctly that the mystery tool had nothing to do with gardening. It was a hair crimper.

I was fascinated by the beautiful signature quilt that was a part of the Ladies Aid exhibit. Theresa Peters told me that it was started about ten years ago when she was part of a quilting club, but the club did not last long and she put the unfinished quilt in a closet and forgot about it.

Last year she found it again and brought it to a Ladies Aid meeting where the ladies decided to finish it. Sometimes signature quilts are made for a special occasion such as a family moving away. The quilt is a memento of friendships. This quilt is also snapshot of connections. Anyone could sign it, they didn’t have to sew or quilt. Peters brought it to the Senior Lunch in the Community Hall for people to sign. A few of the squares are signed as memorials for people like Michael Peters and Catherine Heyl, both of whom left us too soon.

The Heath Fair has become my time to look back, but also to look forward to new ideas and projects. Never again will I be exhibitless at the Fair.

Antique tractor parade

Between the Rows   August 27, 2011

Do You Feed the Deer?

50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants

It’s been a rough year for the vegetable garden at the End of the Road. There was lots of rain in the spring which was great for all the gardens. Then rain became scarce and if I have learned anything in my years of gardening it is that vegetable gardens need regular watering to thrive and be productive.

However, a new problem this year was bunnies! We haven’t had problems with rabbits in the past, but this year we have seen them frolicking on the lawn, running across our road, and gazing at the chickens. This would be fine if they stopped at frolicking, running, and gazing, but they love beans and broccoli. They have joined the deer who ate all the pea plants this year as well as squash and the tips of my rose bushes.

With all these problems in the vegetable garden I was surprised that there were so few depredations in the ornamental gardens. That mystery was solved when I received a copy of Ruth Rogers Clausen’s informative book “50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants: The Prettiest Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs and Shrubs that Deer Don’t Eat” with stunning and useful photographs by Alan L. Detrick published by Timber Press ($19.95). A quick look through the different categories in the book showed that my gardens are full of deer resistant plants.

Deer have become a greater problem for gardeners because the deer population has increased about twenty times over in just the past decade. At the same time towns and suburbs have spread out into deer habitats. The deer have retaliated by refusing to give up their habitats without a fight. Even my brother in a New Jersey suburb battles deer. At least I can leave my land open for hunters who I have always found to be respectful and happy to enjoy my woodlands, even if they don’t bag a deer. I also wish that the hunting season were longer, especially since natural predators like coyotes seem to be in a period of decline.

Clausen has provided a generous list of deer resistant plants that can be used in a varied garden. While she says that no plant is completely deer-proof, generalizations can be made. Deer seems to find plants with fuzzy leaves such as lamb’s ears, and licorice plant unappealing. I have to admit that although my summer squash have hairy leaves this did not entirely deter the deer this year.

Deer also find some plants like euphorbias and hellebores poisonous. The castor oil plant can make a glamorous statement in the garden, in the ground or even in a pot, but the deer will keep their distance.

Highly scented plants like culinary herbs or fragrant flowers like lilac and lily of the valley confuse deer enough they don’t stop to nibble. At the same, deer apparently know  that plants with tough foliage like peonies and Siberian iris, as well as ferns and grasses will likely be indigestible.

We are fortunate that so many beautiful plants are of absolutely no interest to deer. Let me list some of the perennials I have in my garden that are deer resistant: peonies, yarrow, lady’s mantle, astilbe, cimicifuga, salvias, Siberian iris, epimedium, and I’m trying real hard to get a false indigo, Baptisia australis, going. I also have daffodils, snowdrops, ornamental onions like the Allium ‘Globemaster,’ and autumn crocus. My herb garden is deer-proof with basils, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme.

Clausen gives information about hardiness zone for each plant as well as size, cultural information and most helpfully a deer resistance rating. “A rating of 7 indicates that deer sometimes nip off flowers but leave the foliage alone. . . 8 indicates that just one or two flowers may be nibbled or destroyed, but the plant is otherwise left alone, as with peony . . . 9 indicates that deer occasionally browse young spring foliage, but mostly ignore the plant . . . and 10 indicate that deer very seldom browse foliage or flowers and usually avoid the plant altogether” as with Japanese painted fern.

Clausen also gives Design Tips for each plant along with suggestions for plant combinations. I think this book is a real winner.

*****************************

In my calendar we have hit the middle of summer which means Fairtime. I hope I will see some of you at the Friends of the Heath Library Book Sale tent next weekend. The Heath Fair runs from Friday evening on August 19 through Sunday afternoon. You can get great food at the Fireman’s Barbecue and at the Green Building (which is currently painted red) where homemade pie a la mode is my favorite dessert. After the Fair on Sunday, August 21 you can attend the Free Harvest Supper at the Town Square in Greenfield from 4:30 – 6:30 pm for one of the best meals you will ever have. Produce is donated by area farms and volunteers turn it into scrumptious dishes. Musicians play and everyone has a great time. The meal is free, but any donations made will fund Farmer’s Market vouchers distributed through the Center for Self Reliance so hungry families can have the fresh fruit and vegetables we all need to be healthy.  ###

Between the Rows  August 13, 2011

Lorene Forkner’s Garden

Lorene Forkner, one of the organizers of the fabulous Seattle Fling, invited us to her own garden which is not large, but filled with enough plants and art of interest to keep me inspired for the next decade.

I cannot help it. It is the roses that catch my eye first.

This rose cluster was so heavy it would have been on the ground in my garden, but Lorene whipped up a support.

My question is – did she have this loopy metal thing hanging around, or did she have someone do the twisting intentionally?

Lorene was very offhand about having this gabion at the entry of her garden whipped up by a welder. I just learned this word ‘gabion’.

She used other gabions to provide the seating around a firepit. And a place for firewood. Many of her ideas will be available for us all to ponder when her book, Handmade Garden Projects comes out soon from Timber Press. Do you think if I gave this to my husband for Christmas he would take it in the proper spirit?

We bloggers swarmed through the garden, oooing and ahhhhing, taking photos, making notes, and sometimes just sitting and taking it all in.

Many Seattle area gardens had succulents in a pot, as did Lorene.

Nobody else had succulents AND a bowling ball.

I love sweet peas which must not have any trouble in the cool climate.

These edible peas certainly got everyone’s attention.  Did anyone get the name written down? Please let me know.

This little deck on  the hill drew a crowd. What a viewing post.

I have dozens of photos but what I felt in this garden was Love. Love of plants, of the garden, of her friends, of the community, and of all of us. She, and the other organizers, made this trip a perfect delight.

How I Spent My Vacation

Blodel Reserve in the rain. Perfect.

Spring and summer, planting and growing seasons, are busy times for the gardener especially when you add in Tour Season. For me Tour Season was especially exciting (and exhausting) this year because our garden was on the Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden Tour, and then the following week I was attending the Hawley Artisan and Garden Tour, and the Greenfield Garden Club Tour, both on the same day – while many people were able to add on Colrain’s 250^th anniversary which included tours of 16 farms and gardens because theirs was a two day tour. All these farms and gardens were a celebration of our New England landscape

Now I am just back from four days of touring gardens in Seattle and environs. With a group of 73 other garden writers and bloggers I visited elegant hillside mansions with manicured lawns and gardens, suburban gardens that mixed healthy vegetables and fruits with roses and perennials, gardens designed to withstand drought, an Olmsted designed landscape, botanic gardens, and the famed Bloedel Reserve with its serene Japanese Garden, and the fantastic Moss Garden.

Moss Garden

I cannot tell you about every garden in this one column, but you will hear about many of the gardens over the next few months.

Bloedel Reserve

The Bloedel Reserve was the last garden we visited. We left the city and took the ferry across a misty Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. We disembarked and drove across the island to this famed Reserve, arriving just as the skies opened. As I strolled along the paths of this beautiful green public space lined with gracefully drooping branches of the western red cedar (Thuja plicata), and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga Menziesii) the rain poured down. After days of brilliant sun, the soft sound of the cool rain and the shiny green sheen of Japanese maples and rhododendrons finally put me into the mythic Pacific Northwest landscape as I had imagined it.

It is the trees of the Reserve that I may remember best. We have beautiful trees in Massachusetts, but the scale is not the same. Many Washington trees rise a hundred feet or more into the air, while others like the Empress tree (Paulownia tomentosa) or the Katsura  (Cercidiphyllum japanonicum) spread broadly. All have a majestic grace.

Looking at the Reserve’s trees and plants gives one a chance to think about the history of the state of Washington. The native Douglas fir, is the dominant tree in the northwest environmental system, and because it is so easily logged and turned into timber it has been a vital part of the state’s economy as well.

Long before there were loggers the northwest coast Native Americans used the western red cedar in many ways, from carving their sacred totem poles, to the practical necessities of their life, including the building of dugout canoes, and weaving a waterproof cloth made from the fibrous bark.

Then came the Japanese. The Reserve has honored their participation in the state’s history by adding Hinoki cypress (Chamecyparis obtusa) in all its many sizes from tall to tiny dwarf.

Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) come in an equal number of sizes, and colors, especially when autumn arrives, painting the trees in shades of red, orange and yellow. There is also the fernleaf maple (Acer japonicum ‘Aconitfolium’) with its deeply cut leaves that is transformed in the fall by brilliant colors that are never the same from year to year, varying from red to yellow, depending on the weather.

Golden black locust in Japanese Garden

A century old Katsura tree stands near the entry of the Japanese garden, its branches touching the ground with the weight of the rain, while the golden black locust inside the entry, just beyond the raked stone garden, glowed as if the sun were flaming.

Of course the Reserve, like every public garden, has special delights for each season from the beauty of the rhododendrons and Japanese flowering cherries in the spring to the rich color of the Japanese maples in the fall, but it is the magic of green that was on display for me.

'Cloud pruned' pine

The Japanese Garden with its sculptural ‘cloud pruned’ pines, the dark pond waters edged with green moss, and ferns, the reflecting pool surrounded by green lawn and green hedges, mosses in shades of green glowing in the green shade of the Moss Garden, all create an atmosphere of serenity.

The joy of traveling is in experiencing a different climate (I really did love that rain) and different landscapes. There was enjoyment in pondering the mystery of seeing peonies and daylilies blooming at the same time, and delight in learning about new plants, strange or beautiful, even if I know I cannot grow them myself.

Seattle Farmers Market

Last Saturday our group attended a Seattle farmer’s market where the stalls were filled with vegetables, peas and cauliflowers, organic meats, smoked salmon, flowers, and tree ripe apricots and peaches, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. There were crates and crates of cherries. I bought a bag of big nearly black Atika cherries from a farmer who chastised our group of garden writers. “You want to write about our farms and crops? What are you doing here? This is Seattle. You have to go east to find farms. I grow 500 crops – in the east!”

I guess I will have to return to Washington someday. And go east.

Between the Rows  July   , 2011

David’s Perry’s Photography Lesson

David Perry, Photographer

One of the stellar events of the Garden Blogger’s Seattle Fling was the workshop with David Perry, photographer extraordinaire.  We only had an hour of instruction, but I went right out to use the P setting on my little Canon Power Shot A590.  I call it my Point and Hope because it is so difficult to use in the sun – but it was raining at the Bloedel Reserve and I was ready to actually move the dial from Auto and adjust my exposure. Radical.

Once I put the dial on P I pressed the little button next to the LCD screen that has a tiny + slash minus. I press that button and I see a dotted line on the screen shot going from -2 to +2 with 0 in the middle which is the default Auto exposure. David says he thinks that, generally speaking, automatic settings are too bright. He recommended hitting another little button to get the exposure down to -2/3.

Willow - Automatic exposure

This is the willow tree and pond right near the Visitor’s Center where David gave his workshop. I was wasting no time. I used the automatic exposure first.

Willow with - 2/3 exposure

I can definitely see an improvement. And I am no longer afraid of the P setting. I might even try a – 1/3 or – 1 or even -2. With all intermediate settings. Experimentation is the way to go. Bracketing – trying out different settings for the same shot to see which is better.  There are times when a + 1/3 or + 2/3 or +1 or +2 might be called for. But not in the rain at the Bloedel.

He gave our group another couple of tips. He recommended a flexible plastic cutting board to use as a light diffuser when the sun is too bright, or even a very mild  spotlight. I found my cutting board at the Lamson and Goondow outlet. Three bucks!  He also said that while he, and other professional photographers have expensive tripods, many of us might consider going to Home Depot or some such and buying a tripod that construction people use for laser leveling. Less than twenty bucks. I am ready to invest!

Inspiration From Seattle – One

Shelagh Tucker with tomatoes and sweet peas

Compared to Heath, Seattle has a mild climate, and yet gardeners there share some of our problems. Generally, it does not get hot in Seattle. Gardeners go to great lengths pampering their tomatoes in an attempt to achieve juicy ripeness. Shelagh Tucker has a small greenhouse in her sloping back garden, but she also grows her tomatoes in a raised bed sort of hot house to provide the heat tomatoes require. Behind her, in another raised bed are beautifully trained flowering sweet peas.

Lavender

I was surprised to see so much lavender growing in Seattle gardens, great healthy clumps. Lavender does not need the heat that tomatoes do, and enjoy the wet mild winters.

Potted succulent

Because of all the seasonal rain I could see why containers with all manner of succulents are popular.

Santolina

I love santolina but have never been able to overwinter this pretty herb with its yellow button flowers. It is used widely in arid climates, but Shelagh has used gravel extensively in her garden to help retain heat, and provide sharp drainage for her plants.

Shelagh took a leaf from British gardener Beth Chatto’s book on gravel gardening to design a stunning garden featuring gravel and stone to capture heat, provide paths, and provide drainage for plants like thyme in front of her house.

Stone Mosaic

Stone and gravel become art in this beautiful mosaic.

Waterlily pool

While I am familiar with the many small in-ground pools that gardeners install for plants or fish, I was particularly fond on this raised pool which was so elegant.

'Heritage' rose

Of course, I always pay special attention to the roses in a garden.  David Austin’s ‘Heritage’ is one of my favorites even though I cannot keep one alive very long myself.

Shelagh Tucker’s garden was the first garden we visited on our tour and it set the tone for the unique and personal gardens that followed.