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.

The Sweet Spots of the Fall Garden

For two days I have been cleaning the Fall Garden. The sun was bright, the temps were in the 80's, the chickadees buzzed at me while I worked.  The days bore the euphoria of Indian Summer, but technically cannot be called that as we have not had our first frost.

I fed three wheelbarrows of trimmings and debris to the compost pile.  I cut back late summer bloomers to give sunshine to the foliage of spring bloomers that need a little boost before winter.  A few things begged to be moved to a friendlier spot and so out they came and off they went.  I watered well, having just read of the importance of Fall watering to wintering over.  This is the kind of work I love.  The late September garden is a quiet garden, muted, but there are treasures and even surprises.

 This was my last purchase of the gardening season.  It is a Fall bloomer named Gentian.  In all its true blue glory, it pops!

 My sweet alyssum re-seeds along the patio wall each year.  Some wither and some flourish.  This is ONE alyssum plant that must have liked its location and getting cozy with the red dahlietta.

 I discovered this one little dahlietta blossom hiding in the foliage when I cut my shasta daisy patch back.  I had re-planted last year's dahlietta tubers willy-nilly because the permanent marker wore off the labels over the winter. I had forgotten I even had this one whose yellow is ever so delicately edged in pink.

 My morning glories never blossom until September, so I really appreciate them in the small window of time before frost.

Helenium Bruno is  a true autumn color.  Here is is reaching over to a late blooming stalk of Digitalis.

When my bones and back couldn't take one more task I fixed my tea and took my book to the patio.  One season was pulling me back as another urged me forward.   The sun was beating down on my back, driving me to the shade.  Yet as I looked over at the birdbath I saw yellow and gold leaves floating in the water.

My garden is small.  It is not spectacular.  But on days like this I know that it is just right for me.

Flax, I Love You

In late August I finally found my flax blooming, and doing what it does best - dancing like little ballerinas over other blossoms. Blue Flax (Linum Lewisii) comes with a strong resume - it was discovered and documented by Meriwether Lewis, in whose honor it was named.  It is classified as a tender perennial, but my personal classification would be "extremely tender."   In my garden it rarely comes back.  In my sister's garden 20 minutes south it survives and thrives - just one of those things.  And so I purchase two or three each Spring and hope for the best. I might add that it is not easy to locate them for purchase.  They seem to have lost favor with plant providers, perhaps because they often fail to return.  But Ray Schultz Farm and Greenhouse on Hetcheltown Rd., grows their own plants from seed and they have not been frightened away by flax's delicate nature.  I might add that Schultz's is an all around great nursery - true farmers.

The natural bloom time of flax is late spring. This year's plants were strong, rooted well, sported healthy foliage, but didn't bloom until late summer.  I'm hoping that the energy they invested in establishing strong roots will have wintering-over rewards.  It only blossoms when the sun is shining and I find that it closes up when the sun becomes too hot. It seems to like cool, sunny mornings and evenings. On rare occasions I find that a baby has sprouted from seed cast into the garden by a parent plant.  This is a joy equal to finding a wheat penny in my change purse.   With all its challenges and drawbacks, it is the purest, sweetest shade of blue in my garden.  And that is why I keep inviting it back to my garden party.

White Echinacea

I admit it. I look for trouble.  I'm a garden trouble-seeker and am at my critical worst when we are having supper  on the patio.   I created my garden to be a "hug" around my patio, so there's no escaping dinnertime analysis.  We're surrounded by the good (the saving of the July garden by daylilies), the bad (pruning by rabbit), and the ugly (complete annihalation of climbing rose by Japanese Beetle). I really do try to focus on the positive while munching on my chicken and pasta salad.  The sun has sunk low into the sky by the time we sit down, the light is friendly, the evening birds are saying good night, and overall I am satisfied with that garden hug.  But invariably something will catch my eye that makes me jump up nearly upending the table and say, "WHAT WAS I THINKING???" (GDQ = Garden Drama Queen)  

This evening, for example. I love white echinacea.  It's cousin, pink echinacea is fine, but I really do favor the white.  So I looked at what is pictured below and asked myself, "WHY did I plant it right behind Shasta Daisy where it just gets lost?"  Finding the coneflower in this picture is akin to finding Waldo.

It wasn't bad enough that I did that in one spot, I repeated it in the side garden - right in front of the daisies again (though somehow it's not quite as bothersome here).

The third location was near my Happy Returns re-bloomer where its competition is friendlier. I'm one for three.

And so, before dinner was over and while it was fresh in my mind, I made a beeline into the house for the garden steno pad and added white coneflower to the "must move" list for when the weather cools down.

 I made a discovery this Spring when I wanted to thin out re-seeded echinacea.  The pink re-seeds easily while the white is much slower to do so.  In early Spring all foliage looks the same and I didn't want to pull out any new white starters.  I analyzed the plants very closely and saw that the young pink echinacea plant has a faint streak of red in the stem while the white has a stem of pure green.  Just a little hint that should help me next year.