A PETUNIA TO RECOMMEND

Presenting.......AZTEC petunia, a favorite find of Gardening Season 2015.  This drew my attention while wandering through one of MANY nurseries in June.  Even though it sported only a dozen or so blossoms at the time, it had the whole spectrum of lemon, peach, orange, tangerine, mango.   The very name brought to mind my Mexican ancestors. And so, onto my cart it went.  I knew exactly how I wanted to present it to its new flower friends along the patio wall.  It would be contained  in my old........

 MILKING MACHINE  

In the 50's, before assembly line milking became the standard for efficiency, my father had two milking machines that would work their way down the line of Guernsey cows.  This vessel was hung on a harness or strap that girded the cow's middle.  There was a metal cap to cover the opening of the vessel, and on the cap were four suction cups to attach to the udder to do the work.  I re-potted my plant in a 7" pot which fit perfectly into the opening.  While I expected the usual straggle effect that my petunias tend to give me, this one surprised me.  A bit of pinching now and then, some regular doses of fertilizer, and it filled it out quite nicely.  Shades of pink, lavender, purple and white tend to dominate my Spring and Summer gardens.   But as Summer advances, the Autumn colors begin to emerge thanks to daylilies, sienna sunset coreopsis, helenium, nasturtium and marigold.  And so, as this plant gets bigger it begins to feel more at home.

Best of all, when I look at this I am right back in the original barn of Misty Meadow Farm.  On summer nights it was a pretty big deal to stay in the barn past our usual bedtime.  If we made it to the end of milking, we knew it was very late indeed.  We listened to the gentle whoosh-whosh of the milking process.  We watched my dad pour the rich milk from the machine into the milk strainer. We braided the tail of an agreeable cow.  We stayed away from the hayloft which took on a spookiness at night.  We looked for the wild barn cats to scurry out from hiding when my dad put out a saucer of fresh milk.  And finally, our tired selves walked to the farmhouse in a chorus of crickets and katy-dids.

At $2.49 for the small pot, I would say the Aztec petunia has given me the most bangs for the buck of anything in my garden this year.

Never Stop Wanting More

When favorite gardening author Margaret Roach signed my book she wrote "Never stop wanting more."  Magic words for me!  I have to admit, that in Year Seven of my garden, I'm running out of space and have acquired most of the perennials that I want.  But every now and then a little space will open up when one of my plants goes off to the garden morgue, or becomes too invasive.  I captured two of my more recent acquisitions in one picture.  In the foreground is Lychnis "Angel Blush."  It's more well known sister, lychnis coronaria is more common, but it's popping magenta is a bit to popping for me.  I enjoyed this softer, gentler variety in my Pittsburgh garden, but it took me five years to find  it locally after we moved.  

In the background is another new discovery, Dianthus "Heart Attack."  It is tall, remains upright at about three feet, is the deepest, loveliest shade of red, and blooms forever.  I found this at the Falls Village Flower Farm (see link on sidebar) in my hometown.  I have said it before and I will say it again,  the FVFF has the healthiest potted perennials I have seen anywhere.  It is well worth the hour and forty-five minute drive.

Thank you again, Margaret, for your wise and generous words!  I took them to heart.

Good-bye Katie, Hello New Day

We had just returned from taking Katie to the airport for an early morning flight.  I was missing her and  resorted to my usual form of therapy - the garden walk.  Coffee mug in  hand, I spoke to each flower. I complimented many of them, welcomed a few first blooms, and questioned others as to why they were not doing well.  "Am I giving you too much shade, you little sweetheart?" "If I set out beer for the slugs tonight will you promise to recover?"  I swear they hear my every word.

Before Katie left I told her that when I looked at the porch I was going to miss her.  And I did.  Katie is our third daughter, and geographically the furthest away.  She is a guidance counselor in Phoenix, AZ. Her school calendar allows her some flexibiity in the summer for a well deserved flight of fancy.   After a long string of temperatures above the 115 degree mark, she needed a cooler escape and I'm glad she chose "home."  We had five days of good times with family, kayaking, the usual raucous meals on the porch, cycling and enjoying a memorable anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant.  But all of Katie's "inbetween times"  were spent on the porch.  With her book, with her laptop, dozing, giggling on the phone with her boyfriend on the other side of the country.  She loved the porch moments - feeling the cool breeze, listening to the birds, looking out onto the garden, hearing the night noises of tree frogs.  It was truly her niche.

Last night at 10:00 we sat on the patio, wrapped up in blankets, and watched the light show that the lightning bugs gave us.  It was a breath-taking, twinkly wall in front of the woods.  I really think that when we retired, people expected that we would buy into a small, maintenance free, one level house where we could anticipate needs for the aging.  Feeling grateful that we were physically and mentally able to put in gardens and mow a lawn, we plunged right into a two story, four bedroom house with plenty of outdoor areas to absorb our energy.  In six years we have not regretted that decision for a milli-second. We are grateful that our kids and two grandkids love to come here. Filling the house and porch with family and friends is the joy of our life.  

My Traveling Garden Angel

     I have a garden angel who travels around the garden to where she is most needed.  Last year I placed her near potted flower seeds from a packet given out at the funeral of a dear gardening friend. I knew my friend would laugh with me if she knew that not a single seed germinated, but a rogue cherry tomato plant came up where I planted the seeds.  It thrived until I enjoyed "Jane's tomatoes" in my September salad.    Early this Spring I put my angel near the Hellebore because, of all the changes I made last Fall I was most excited to see if this perennial would do better in its new spot.  What I didn't see until yesterday is that as the angel bows its head in prayer, so does the down-facing hellebore.  A perfect pairing.  When I am at the kitchen sink, this is in my direct line of vision and is a daily reminder to say a prayer for someone in need. 

    Hellebores come in lovely shades of cream and pink, but the spectrum includes deep rose, white, green, speckles, solids, bi-colors, and even an almost black "onyx."  Hellebores are often described as  a late winter perennial.  In my garden is is an early Spring perennial.  But in recent years I feared for its very existence in my garden at all.  Last year I visited the garden of Hudson Valley garden author, Margaret Roach.  Her hellebores colonize.......COLONIZE!!  For five consecutive years, my original four plants have sent up one flower per plant, totalling four blossoms per season.  I'm desperate for them to colonize.   I discussed my problem with Margaret (and with the angel).  Based upon things I had read and wisdom that Margaret imparted, it might be all about location.  This is an instance where a little knowledge is good, but more knowledge is better. I knew they were a shade perennial.  But I put them in the shade of the house on the North side.  The late cold temps and lack of sunshine gave little hope that their roots were doing great things under the soil.  And so I moved each of four plants to beneath a deciduous shrub facing East.  This way they could benefit from the Spring sunshine, but the leafing out of the lilac would protect them from the hot summer sun.

     This particular one is showing early promise of increasing in size.  I'm encouraged!  If my relocation plan is successful, I will let myself add another variety (or two).  I'm ready - I've been turning down corners of catalogues and garden magazines all winter.  

Nesting Days

Gardening and birding....... I can't have one without the other!  There are  days when I become so absorbed in the bird activity around me that I have to put down my trowel, make a dash for my binoculars or just retreat to a chair and observe.  A few days ago I completed a chore that I should have tended to last Fall. I took down the remnants of a string support I had put up near a porch railing for the sweet pea flower vines.  I set the strings on the ground and failed to clean up.  And this is where I found the strings this morning - woven throughout a shrub.  I had just noticed that a cardinal was doing the back and forth thing characteristic of nest building.  I followed her to her work area and this is what I found.  If you look carefully you will see the beginnings of a nest in the center of the picture.  She has worked large leaves in among the twigs.  Apparently she liked my strings, dragged them to the shrub but became daunted by the lengths of the pieces!

That sent me to my yarn scrap drawer.  I cut a few lengths to offer to the birds and hung them from two trees and from this pea support that my husband had made for his vegetable garden.

I admit to a fascination for the construction of nests. Last November my grandsons and I gathered all the abandoned nests that we could find in our yard and wooded edge.  With my identification book and what I remembered of summer activity we were able to identify most of them.  When we repeat the activity this Fall we'll see if any of them took advantage of my free yarn program.

I took time on Monday and Tuesday to record the birds I saw in the yard:

nuthatch

mourning dove

red-winged blackbird

common redpoll

chickadee

junco

goldfinch

cardinal

housefinch

purple finch

(I think I finally can tell the difference between the two birds above)

grackle

white-throated sparrow

downy woodpecker

hairy woodpecker

robin

crow

tufted titmouse

yellow rumped warbler

fox sparrow

blue jay

song sparrow

yellow shafted flicker

The way that the birds have paired up is "adorbs" - it is as if they can't bear to be far from one another, whether for nesting, feeding, flying about or courting.

Migration patterns tell me that the junco and redpoll will soon depart and the fox sparrow is just passing through enroute to its Canadian breeding range.  It won't be long before the hummers are back - they know exactly where their last meal in Ballston Lake was. Soon the Baltimore Oriole will be checking out my yard. I always try to invite him to make my yard his home by putting out orange slices but he never quite makes himself at  home here.  I hope that the scarlet tanager will remember that this is where he has made his home for several years. What a beautiful bird and............

How lovely April is!!

Boots n' Bathrobe

It is April 3.  Thanks to a heavy overnight rain the ice-cap receded significantly from my garden.  And so it called me for my first early morning boots n' bathrobe inspection of Season 2015.  It wasn't a plant by plant clipboard tour.  That will come later.   So many have not emerged,  were very wet and brown, or were still covered in snow.  But oh, there is hope!  And it started my day on a euphoric note.  Even the spring birds migrating "home" sounded happy to see me.

I had such good intentions of continuing my blog over the winter months and devoting my posts to favorite gardeners or gardening books.  But holidays, housecleaning, appointments, guests, family events, work and play all overtook my schedule.  Maybe I'll move those intentions forward to winter 2016.

I will highlight one positive from today's early survey.  Blue flax linum rarely survives a winter here, being a tender perennial for zone 5.  But the two plants I put in last summer are literally bursting with healthy, green basal foliage.  Maybe the snow cover and very long winter was just what they needed.

Stay tuned.  The fire has been lit.