When I visited Daniel Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm some time ago, he showed me how he did a lot of planting in goat manure-laced hay. I envied his access to so much bedding because it does provide plants with nutrition and eliminates weeds. No fertilizing. No weeding. He is a lucky man to have manured goat bedding from his barn, as well and old hay bales. He said he doesn’t use the hay bales for planting until…
Therese Bugnet is the Rose of the Day. And this line rhymes. Therese Boo-nay is the Rose of the Day. Even though I do have three whole years of high school French, it took me many years to realize it was not Therese Bug-Net. Oh well. Miss Rochelle is no longer here to be scandalized. Therese Bugnet is a rugosa and it is the rugosas that are not only the hardiest roses in my garden, they are about…
We are enjoying the best wisteria season ever. I don't know why one year is better than another. I have chronicalled the history of my wisteria here. And added a warning here. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
Purington Pink is the first rose of summer this year. The blossoms are modest, pale pink, fading quickly to almost white. The thorns are anything but modest, spiny and prickery. Like all of four of the roses that the Purington family gave me, this one is a strong grower. Just what we need here on the hill. Of similar prickliness is this rose, also from the Purington's Woodslawn Farm. I think it is a Harrison's Yellow, because it…
It is planting season. I have been planting roses. That means I have been digging holes. And I have been dreaming of a book, first published in 1952, that I often read to my young children, A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss and illustrated by a young Maurice Sendak, who has recently departed our world. Sendak’s lively children are shown digging, energetically planting a garden and jumping and sliding in the mud while yelling doodleedoodleedoo. I’ve…
Carl Linnaeus, botantist and father of modern plant taxonomy scandalized his world with his talk about a plant's sexual parts, but his taxonomic system finally won out over others in use at the time. In her book, The Brother Gardeners, Andrea Wulf lays out the difficulties botanists had with identifying and naming plants that would be useful to scientists around the world. "priests bollocks" and "mare's fart" did not work everywhere. The important Miller'sGardener's Dictionary listed ALL the names various given…
Due to computer problems I have been out of e-contact for the past 24 hours but I now announce that Jennifer of Spiral Ridge Permaculture has won the copy of Handmade Garden Projects by Lorene Edwards Forkner. Congratulations, Jennifer.
Renovating and planting the lawn bed continues. I had to wait until after the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale before I made my final 'design' decisions. This is the end of the Lawn Bed, all cleaned out of a nearly dead potentilla and lots of weeds. I also removed two clumps of ornamental grass that had been grown in pots last summer and just stuck in this bed in the fall. "Just sticking" a plant somewhere is always…
Container gardens seem to be more and more popular for ornamental plantings, and even for vegetable plantings. No matter which there is an opportunity for container shopping, ceramic, terra cotta, resin – all kinds of handsome containers are available at garden centers. This spring I succumbed and bought a terra cotta strawberry jar, not because I wanted to plant strawberries, but because I thought it would make a good looking herb garden in a pot. I bought a…
The trouble with the Handmade Garden Projects book by Lorene Edwards Forkner is difficulty in choosing where to begin. Steel trellises or other things made with metal scraps? Clever hose guides? Or creative containers? Then the Bridge of Flowers committee thought it might be a good idea to make hypertufa containers to plant and sell at our Annual Plant Sale on May 19. The decision was made. If you decide you want to have your own copy of…