Author Archives: bittster

Plant of the Year 2013

So what if it’s just June, I’m calling verbascum bombyciferum my plant of the year.  This means nothing as far as fancy decals or mass marketing campaigns go but it means I’m smitten with this plant.  It’s tall, it’s pet-able, it’s cheery yellow, it grows like it doesn’t care, and it’s always good looking. verbascum bombyciferum

Verbascum haters will point out it’s a biennial and will die after blooming but I say “be gone” and enjoy it for what it is…..  and I could list a bunch of perennials that never made it past year two for me and had much less interest.  They were started from seed last year and suffered the entire summer in a four pack.  While their brethren died from drought and neglect these two managed to root into the soil and survive.  Around September I desperately ripped up the plants, pulled them out of the four pack and shoved them into a poorly prepared garden bed.  They survived an autumn of stomping and whacking courtesy of the children and still came through for me.  What’s not to love about that?

verbascum bombyciferumI think my abuse was rooted in the doubt of their identity, I thought again these would grow up to be the common roadside mullein… which has happened three times already…. but apparently fourth time’s the charm.  You can bet I’ll be starting a more respected batch of seedlings this summer.  I’m hoping to top six feet with a better, less weedy and neglected upbringing.

I’m already looking forward to my seedlings and their fat fuzzy rosettes of pale grey winter foliage… kind of like a lambs ear on steroids…. now if I could only get rid of the rich purple weed that’s invaded the bed behind them.  Campanula glomerata, the clustered bellflower.  Nice but it really spreads.

Early June in the vegetable garden

Things don’t look too bad out there.  I was late in getting everything planted (of course) but the cooler weather and the last couple days of rain have helped the spring crops come along.  This butterhead lettuce (I forget the variety) is starting to look real yummy.vegetable beds

There’s also some romaine coming along.  These are all in the ‘safe zone’ behind the chicken wire, but even outside the fence its been a relatively damage-free spring as far as the rabbits go.  Slugs have been more of a problem.vegetable beds

Brocoli is making progress too.  It’s finally taking off and spreading its roots after a too long delay in the six packs (these I bought prestarted).vegetable bedsThese tomatoes have been in for a week or two as well as the onion transplants.  This will be the year of the onion since I started way too many seedlings and then couldn’t bare to toss them into the compost.  They’re small for the time of year but I hope I get something by the time the harvest rolls around….. otherwise I guess we’ll have hundreds of scallions to deal with!vegetable bedsThe tomatoes are dealing with what might possibly be the worst soil prep in gardening history.  A month ago this bed was lawn.  I turned under the grass and added a little compost for the onions, but all the tomatoes got was a layer of leaves and grass clippings to kill the turf and then holes dug directly into the lawn.  Maybe I gave them a little compost on top.
Actually the sister bed across the path which I planted on Saturday was even worse.vegetable beds

You can still see the lawn peeking out from behind the tomatoes and along the bed edging.  The plants went straight into holes dug into the lawn and then the grass and weeds were covered with a mulch of chopped leaves and twigs and whatever else the mower picked up during spring bed cleanup/winter debris removal…. I didn’t even have any nutrient filled tender grass clippings to put down!  Once I can dig out some more compost I might put a bit around the tomatoes, but until that happens they’re on their own.  At least I planted them deep, covering all the stem up to the top clump of leaves.  this should let them sprout more roots into the mulch and should help with the lack of soil prep.

vegetable bedsHopefully if I keep it watered the earthworms will find the mulch and rototill the soil with their tunnels.  Grass clippings will surely bring them in, in fact last Friday prior to the rain, I fertilized the front lawn.  I’m hoping it will produce a nice bumper crop of clippings before summer drought dries it up.

The garden isn’t all healthy vegetables, it’s also juicy sweet strawberries.  Even with the late freeze there are a couple coming along.

There’s also the promise of a few blueberries this summer.  Most likely the birds will beat us to them, but this bunch might be worth covering up and saving for ourselves.vegetable beds

Of course I’m only showing the good and new.  Peppers and eggplants still have to go in as well as pole beans.  I’m far from having everything planted and growing.  Right now the process of digging up the tulip beds is going on and it’s into these beds that the last of the transplants will go.  Someday I hope to have beds where I want them and supports ready to go but obviously it’s not going to be this year!

Please tell me I’m not the only one falling behind:)

When all resolve is lost

There were already  a couple strikes against me.  It was the first weekend in June, there was finally some steady rain to get things growing, most of my growlight seedlings are in the ground, I prepped the deck planters…… and then the kiss of death, a 33% off sale at my favorite greenhouse, Kettel’s Greenhouse in Falls Pa (check the link to their facebook page for current info).  With the exception of shrubs and trees, they grow all their stuff on site in their own greenhouses.  When it’s gone it’s gone, so waiting for the clearance sale is a little risky if you need something specific, but that’s not me….. plus I was already there once in April 🙂 ….  Here’s what I got for under $40.container annuals deckApparently I was in a red mood yesterday.  A little yellow would have been a good idea, but so goes the moment.  Celosia ‘new look’, new guinea impatiens, and snapdragons are going to be new this year but the rest are planter standards.  Usually I don’t get this much but the prices were great, the plants looked perfect, and I was rewarding myself for surviving a morning full of surprise furniture moving and bedroom painting.
I think I’m in denial over all the coleus cuttings, canna roots, and other overwintered goodies that also need to come out and get planted.  I’ll figure it out soon enough.  In the meantime there’s a nice Christmas display happening on the deck steps.  Overwintered amaryllis and recovering asparagus fern.  Happy holidays!amaryllis rebloom

 

 

The Sandbox

This doesn’t exactly fall into the garden category, but it is out there and involves digging and I guess someday will retire to take on some kind of garden purpose, so here it is.
I wanted a sandbox for the kids and there was no way I was going to look at one of those stupid plastic turtles.  Plus I knew it would be around for a while, so I wanted something that could hold up for a couple of years.  Construction behind our house unearthed a couple nice large rocks, I had a couple slightly used bricks, and lo and behold a sandbox was born.attractive designer sandbox

It’s a hole lined with bricks and a couple of stones are patched in.  The boulders are intended for seating, but I’ve never seen anyone over the age of 10 sit there.  I dug out the pit to a depth of around six inches and then filled it in with something like a million bags of sand.  Each spring I end up adding a dozen or so more bags to replace the sand that ends up in our house and in the kid’s beds.

It’s held up well, this will be year three.  The only problem so far happened on the day the boy and his equally disorderly cousin decided to play with hammers and started mining bricks and then cracking them apart.  Such is life.

…..and in case you’re wondering, no, the neighborhood cats do not use the sand for their business.  They far prefer my mulched flower beds.

 

Adios Spring

It always gives me a sense of sadness when spring rolls into summer.  All the anticipation, the return of growing things, and the new life makes spring my favorite season, but it goes too fast.  One after another things rush into bloom, have their day in the sun (or freezing drizzle) and then are gone for another 11 months.  It’s definitely a “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” season and it comes and goes in a rush as we hurry to get everything done before the heat and humidity settle in…..

When the first rose opens I call it summer and I face the fact that not all the projects are going to happen like they were supposed to.  So time to regroup, sit back, and get into porch and pool mode.  A couple 90 degree days push it along and before you know it spring is a memory and you’re into the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

Clematis “multiblue” is carrying over from spring.  I bought it as something else and got this overfluffed flower.  Not something I would pick for myself but its become a favorite.  A “didn’t happen” project from spring was moving it out of the veggie garden and getting a real structure for it to grow on instead of bush trimmings…..clematis multiblue

Clematis “Ruutel”  is also struggling along in a less than deserving position.  I have trouble finding spots for clematis,  I think I prefer them growing up small shrubs but never manage to get a good pairing.clematis ruutel

A new favorite for this time of year is “Ray’s Golden Campion”.  It flowers during my spring lull and does a good job covering dying spring bulb foliage.  I have some seed left and will be starting a few more this summer, they were a gift from Nan Ondra at Hayefield and I couldn’t be happier with the color of bloom and yellow leaves…. it’s another plant that could use better companions though.rays golden campion silene

I think this is peony “Do Tell”.  It’s blooming happily in the middle of the vegetable garden.  The reason I’m not sure of its identity is because out of a bag of three this is the only one matching the description.  Now I’ve never seen an ugly peony (yet) so it’s not the worst thing to have happen, but I guess it falls under the ‘get what you pay for’ heading…. they were clearance Van Engelen and the other one (the third hasn’t bloomed yet) is a big fat fragrant double pink so it’s win-win so far.peony do tell

Just about all my plantings are on the redo list.  Sometimes it’s not entirely my fault, but I guess it depends on how you assign blame.  By definition I never really “planted” any of these iris, they’re the result of using not-quite-ready compost as a top dressing before putting down shredded wood mulch.  It speaks of the hardiness of bearded iris that the rhizomes could survive a couple of months in the rotting compost pile and then still come back to life but I guess it also speaks of my laziness.  I never actually prepped the soil in this bed, just planted the stewartia and hostas right into the turf, covered the in between grass areas with a couple of layers of newspaper to smother it, covered the paper with compost and then topped off with mulch.  No one seems to mind and maybe when I plant better things here I’ll do soil prep.historic bearded iris

I did do soil prep for the tulips but in the vegetable beds it’s easy.  They’re starting to die down now which means bulb digging and then bean and squash planting.  Even though I did go through the effort of soil prep, I may have done some shallow planting last fall.  I don’t think they’re supposed to be this close to the surface and showing signs of sunburn.  It will be interesting to see if shallow planting effects bulb size since usually deep planting is recommended in order to keep tulips from splitting.  A real problem is that bunnies like to eat the exposed bulbs.  It’s possible this isn’t the first shallow planting of tulips and bunnies may have attacked last year.  But they need their vitamins too.tulips shallow too deep

 

 

 

History in the Garden

Using the term history around here is a bit of a stretch.  History to me means centuries, not the fifty or so years that have passed since our house was built.  Fifty puts us into the outdated category as far as baby blue bathroom themes go, but it doesn’t exactly put us on the historical register.  The garden is even younger.  Fifty years ago five trees were planted, they did well but four were removed just before we bought the place…. and for fifty years the lawn was mown.  So I guess we have one pink dogwood, antique grass and not much else.

Since I can’t afford timeless stone walks and weathered brick walls I settle for the history behind plants.  In my opinion plants with a story behind them are worth growing just for that.  Passalong plants are those which are passed on from gardener to gardener and generation to generation.  “My grandmother gave it to me” vs “I bought it at Home Depot” I guess.  Iris pass on easy, and some of the historic iris even followed the settlers west as they looked for familiar plants to fill their farmyard gardens.  Maybe that’s what I was thinking when I brought these up from the old garden to plant out by the street.iris flavescens folkwang

iris flavescensThe pale yellow is “flavescens” which dates to 1813 and is indestructible.  Mine comes from the side of a highway and survives drought, mowing, weeds, salt…. but does much better in the garden.  Sometimes it gets beaten down by relentless gale strength winds (such as we had last weekend) but it always blooms, blooms long, and keeps decent foliage all season.

iris folkwangThe other iris, a mauve/violet with white standards (the top part) is from my mother’s garden.  It’s been there since they bought the house 40ish years ago and is a favorite.  Like many historic iris it has a strong grape scent which fills the yard (you can see the windblown flavescens in the background).

“Indian Chief” 1929, was given to me by a friend and is also out there.  It’s a well-known historic and shows up in cemeteries around here frequently since it welcomes neglect.  I sometimes find the darker ‘smokier?’ colored iris hard to show off in the garden and this is one of them.  If anyone has any suggestions on combining them I’d love to hear it.iris indian chiefiris color carnival“Color Carnival” 1949 is not a favorite of everyone.  I would describe it as a fleshy pink with purple veins and a tangerine beard.  My descriptions don’t always match the catalogs.

This batch came up when I used some not completely done compost in this bed.  A year of composting and the roots still made a comeback, not bad.

I got this iris as a kid.  It was growing in our neighbor’s yard against the wood fence.  Rather than outright ask for a bit I patiently pried apart the boards enough so that a single fan could grow through.  A year it did and at that point I felt comfortable digging it up and calling it my own.  It’s been following me around ever since.

“Rhages” 1934 was purchased.  No story.  It’s reliable and I like the speckling.  In iris talk the speckling around the petal edges is called plicata, sounds fancier that way.iris rhages

Of course iris do blues best of all.  This no ID comes from the same highway roadside as flavescens and is just as hardy.  Flowers aren’t too big or too ruffled or too deeply colored, they’re just clear and elegant.historic iris

I guess that’s plenty of iris.  One last one is “Mme Chobaut” 1916 it’s growing out back in the meadow and could use a decent home.  Maybe this year. iris mme chobaut

In case you’re interested in older iris there’s HIPS, the historic iris preservation society.  It’s a great resource for info and for getting in touch with other old-iris lovers.  Members have an iris database to browse and a forum to post to.  There’s also an annual sale and quarterly magazine. 

I could easily be convinced to grow more of the modern iris, some of them are just amazing in their ruffled fluffery and colors, but I resist.  For now I’ll stick with the tried and true.  Plus this year the late freeze has killed most of their blooms.  Here’s an iris traded to me as “mesmerizer”, but it’s not.  Maybe it’s “Nordica”, another white but with orange beards. iris snowbank

The one bloom looks ok but the other is stunted.  The freeze also damaged leaves and killed off most of the other stalks.  Such is gardening.  It’s like baseball, there’s always next year…. even though you hate to lose.

Late Freeze

A little over a week ago snow and rain and then freezing nighttime temperatures hit this part of Pennsylvania.  Plants were frozen solid and frost covered the lawns in the wee hours of the night until the sun finally came out again to warm things up.  There was damage to many things, but even a week later things are still showing up.  Luckily these blue columbines didn’t miss a beat. aquilegia vulgaris blueStrawberries also looked good on the surface, but closer in you’ll see black centers to some of the blooms.  I think the freeze killed off the berry part of the bloom while the flower was developing.  Good thing there are more coming.freeze damage strawberrywisteria flowerThe wisteria was getting ready for a great show, a good recovery from last years freak freeze that killed all of 2012’s bloom.  Then this freeze came and did the same thing all over again.  Here’s how it looks today, most leaves are dead and damaged and the blooms have all fallen off.

freeze damage wisteriaEven with the damage on most shrubs and trees, I have no doubt they’ll all make a full recovery (the aggressive wisteria for sure).  The dried and damaged leaves won’t look good for weeks and maybe all season, but if it’s not a freeze ruining perfection it would be chewing bugs or children with golf clubs or something worse.

Enough about the freeze.  How can you think badly of spring when it’s the start of iris season?  Down along the street the historic ‘Ambassadeur’ (1920) is just coming into full bloom.  It’s not a favorite, but grows like a champ and the grape scent perfumes the area.iris ambassadeur

I’ve got to move those boxwood, they were never supposed to stay there.  I have hedging issues and for some reason always have a couple dozen little boxwood cuttings coming along and in need of a spot to call home.  There are projects galore to deal with around here and finding homes for hedges is always one of them.  It seems like such a good idea in August to take a couple dozen cuttings, but when you have a tray of fifty looking for a home guilt kicks in.  Enough guilt.  Here’s more iris.  This is ‘Pink Bubbles’, a more modern iris…. I’m not crazy about it this year but the violas make a nice backdrop.iris pink bubble

Spring vegetables

I finally got the early vegetable plantings in, each evening last week I prepped another patch of soil, and by Sunday afternoon was able to plant and fence.  My buddy approves, but I suspect she’d rather the fence wasn’t there between her and the lettuce.veggie garden

I’m guessing it’s a she (I really have no idea) and I’ll go out on a limb and guess there’s a nest of baby bunnies nearby.  She’s never mentioned where during our talks, but she’s around the yard all day so I’m sure it’s not too far.

Soil prep in my case was digging under all the weeds, stray tulips, and whatever leftover dead stuff was lying around from last year.  Once dug over, compost would have been nice, but since I have none I raked/hoed in some chopped leaves from last fall and followed it with a good watering down.

veggie garden

Once I get some grass clippings I’ll give it a thin mulch to keep down the weed seedlings.  I’m glad I finally got the stuff in, it’s already late for cabbages and onions, and a better person would have done all this prep in the fall.  If you look around the edge of the fence you’ll see twigs laying on top of the unfenced plantings.  This seems to be enough to discourage Mrs. Bunny from pushing through and nibbling the new transplants underneath.

leaf mulch vegetable gardenSo now I hope things have enough time to mature before summer really kicks in….. and if they don’t, at least it looks better than the unkempt weed patch it was last weekend.

Mental note for next year is *prep the bed in the fall for spring plantings*.  It sounds easy but it’s advice directed more towards the better people who follow suggestions and learn from mistakes.  I’m not sure if I can include myself in that group.  A better person would not have planted a peony in the middle of the bed, a better person would not have first let last year’s turnips go to seed (just to see what they looked like), and a better person would not have left the daffodils in the middle of the lettuce.

That wasn’t smart

Do as I say, not as I do, in this care it applies to wearing garden gloves.  Usually I do a pretty good job of keeping them on, but I was next door moving some stuff for my MIL, there were tools out, some bushes that could use a little pruning, and before I knew it I was applying pressure for two hours in the waiting area of the emergency room.gardening injury

Seven stitches later I was back home working my way through a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.  Calcium is an important part of any recovery program.

I guess I’ll take it easy for a couple days, but there are things that need planting and the weather is heating up!  Things need to get in the ground while it’s still cool.  Fortunately the kids are jumping right in to help.  My four year old came in and wanted an ice pop opened so I grabbed the scissors to make the cut.  She looked at me, reached for the scissors and said “Daddy wait.  I’ll do it.  I don’t want you cutting yourself again.”

So other than losing the confidence of a preschooler there is the bonus of extra sitting around time.  Yesterday I put together two early bulb orders that I’d been considering but dragging my feet on.  New corydalis and snowdrops should go a long way in easing my pain… and the ice cream didn’t hurt either…. but I’m running out of space on my hand for Dora stickers.

Camassia

The garden here always goes through a bit of a slump once the tulips begin to fade.  The iris haven’t kicked in yet and most of the late spring flowers aren’t doing a whole lot.  Bleeding hearts, columbine, and oriental poppies would all probably help out, but camassia is what looks the best right now.  I have two types, Camassia ‘Caerulea’ and ‘Blue Danube’.  One is supposed to have a rich lavender color and the other a dark blue…. but I can’t tell a difference between them.  One might be a few inches shorter but that could be soil or location or whatever.camassiaThe yellow iris behind is ‘Elsa Sass’, a historic iris from 1939. It blooms early for me, but maybe that’s from being close to the house.

camassiaCamassias are a bulb native to Northwestern North America and while I grow them in regular garden soil, they’re supposed to tolerate wet soils and clay soils.  Apparently they’re edible too, but I’ll pass for now.  This is the other clump, Camassia ‘Caerulea’.  I like both types well enough, blue is always welcome and they’ve never required any special care, but for me they don’t seem to bloom very long.  Just over a week seems about average, I’d much rather they held out for at least two.