When Phlox Takes Over

I woke this morning determined to spend some time in the yard, hopeful that rain would not spoil my plans. After a breakfast of whole wheat crepes filled with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, I donned some comfy clothes and ran to the store to pick up a few items including some Alyssum and some grass and begonias for my porch planters.

I quickly packed away the groceries, enjoyed a lunch of lemon Stilton and blueberry Stilton wedges, and dove into my flowerbed. I tied back my bleeding heart, training it upward rather than outward, and then started removing plants that had started to define their own space. I trimmed back the hostas, removed several ostrich fern stray children, and divided the blue, pink, and white Phlox in half. Phlox is one of those beautiful plants that delves deep into the soil. It says, "What's this, space? For me? Don't mind if I do!" You know their kind.

A plant-loving friend obliged me by taking on my castaway ferns, Phlox, and a few other items. She is one of those free-spirit gardeners who loves to just let things grow how they will. As I trimmed back the Irish moss and split and moved half of dwarf king's heart to another part of the bed, I thought about my carefully manicured garden and recalled a day when overgrowth to me was perfection.

Why control growth? As I Bonsai-shaped my lace Japanese maple tree, I thought about the yard of my childhood filled with wild grasses and unmaintained trees. I thought it was the most beautiful place on earth. I now believe there is a place for both philosophies. I must confess that Japanese gardens are most glorious and beautiful to me, because things are placed with such attentive detail that they grow into something that magnifies its natural beauty beyond anything it could achieve on its own. While we all need some freedom to become what we want to, we cannot truly achieve our full potential unless we are guided, pruned, and nourished in certain areas of our lives.

Harvest Lessons

 This year I planted about five varieties of tomatoes, most of them seen here: Yellow pear, red pear, grape, and these little orange sweeties that are as tasty as candy. I planted a beefsteak variety and a roma managed to sneak in there somehow, but they were too close to the fence, so I only managed to produce green tomatoes from that batch. I like green tomatoes, so I guess this isn't a bad thing, but tomatoes need lots of sun, and I gave them partial shade. Lesson #1: More sun.

Our farm-savvy neighbors mentioned that their broccoli had caterpillars in them, but our broccoli was pristine and produced quite well this year. Unfortunately, I didn't really know what to expect with broccoli, having never grown it even as a child. I didn't know if I would just get one stalk and then it would be over? Well, it keeps on giving, and at the end of the season you just break off the individual florets rather than getting the whole stalk, otherwise it flowers, and once it flowers, it stinks. By stinks, I mean, you search for the smelly item in your fridge and pass by the fresh lovely broccoli each time without thinking it could be the culprit.

I have made a practice of steaming it right away and reheating it for this purpose. Lesson #2: Broccoli can get stinky. Lesson #3: Broccoli grows like a beanstalk with huge leaves that overshadow anything nearby, so give it plenty of room to grow!

 I hate my new macro setting on this new camera. Close-ups are NOT going well so far... but strawberries are also in need of more sun. They remained reasonably small and slug-infested this year, but then I didn't put my usual slug bait out. Lesson #4: Death to all slugs!

 I wasn't sure if those tiny little onions would really amount to much, but let me say that I have not had to hunt for Walla Wallas all summer long, and is there anything better than a Walla Walla onion, fresh from the garden? Behold, I say NAY! Lesson #5: You are insane if you don't plant Walla Wallas again next year!

 There were at least two plants that suffered from the broccoli monopoly of sunshine. The first is the eggplant. Behold my lone eggplant, sun-deprived, but so adorable! Lesson #6: If you want to EAT the eggplant, more sun, and keep it away from the broccoli.

A week ago my neighbor brought by some of the green peppers from her garden. Shown here after spending a week in the fridge, her peppers were more gorgeous than store peppers and tasted better! Oh, and that shriveled little runt below it? My lone green pepper. Alas, the second casualty of the broccoli monopoly. Lesson #7: Give us-us SUN!

No photos, but the pears and apples (which I have discussed in the past), were gorgeous and tasty as usual. I did get a couple of plums off of our new tree, a handful of gorgeous raspberries, and a few cherries. Who knows, we might actually get a peach or two! Next year is our healthy-tree year, the time when I will apply all of the great knowledge from our arborist, since I didn't have time this year. Lesson #8: Prune the apples less aggressively, and wait until March to help give them a healthy start...

How to Spend {ALMOST} Three Hours in a Nursery

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book about that enormous, massive monster that nobody can kill? I encountered one today. It was called, Moroccan Mint. I told C I was going to run down to the Nursery today to pick up some herbs for my herb pot. Last year I fatefully drowned all of my herbs except the mint because I forgot to add holes in the bottom of the pot. "No!" He said.

"Why not?"

"Because you need to clean it out first."

"So if I clean it out, then that No is a Yes!" No problem, I thought, five, maybe ten minutes, and I would be on my way!

It was a tiny seedling last spring, but it was this enormous monstrosity that was not about to let go of the dirt without a fight. You know the part in the movie where they finally determine that the only way to destroy the thing is to blow up the ship? I almost blew up the ship to get rid of this thing. It would NOT come out! It was like a giant octopus with tentacles woven across every square inch of that 3' round pot!

At last, after cutting off each tentacle one by one, I overcame the beast (shown here with my sword in the SECOND half of the monstrosity), and I was on my way to my FAVORITE Nursery! This is the nursery where you get to pull your plants around in Radio Flyer Wagons... Kids love this place. I know, because I dodged them for almost three hours.

How, you may ask, is it humanly possible to stay in a nursery for three hours? Well, first of all they have something like TEN HUGE buildings like this one:And then there are all of these shelves lining the OUTSIDE of each greenhouse, filled with even MORE plants!

And then they have all kinds of unusual and wonderful plants.

like MONKEY FLOWERS!!!

Purple Verbena,
Fuchsia Verbena...

Velvety black Violas...
King Hearts, which are a dwarf species of a bleeding heart. Maybe a King heart instead of a Queens heart because it is small? I don't know. :D
I can't recall what this one is called, help me out here, if you please...
I then had to ponder what a weeping cherry would behave like as a boulevard tree. Would it put my ornamental pears to shame? I then found some EGGPLANT seedlings, and sweet peppers, and several delightful tomato varieties that wanted to come home with me. Oh, and the herbs... THE HERBS!!! Lovely Rosemary, Basil, and gorgeous colorful painted Sage and St. Johns Wort? I already have Thyme, but who doesn't need more Thyme? It was a fun, gorgeous variety that begged to find a place in my herb palace. I didn't find any Savory, but I did find Curry! Ah, curry! You delightful rosemary/sage look-alike, you! Your leaves smell like my favorite Indian Restaurant, and I can't wait to cook with FRESH CURRY! I did purchase a bit of mint, confined to a tiny, solitary pot, a prisoner of its own misbehavior.

And then I needed to plan for my planter pots out front. Grasses in the middle surrounded with, um, silver falls, perhaps? Begonias? These decisions should not be made lightly. And then there were the fruit trees. I planted a cherry three years ago, and after yielding seven cherries last year, it is FULL of blossoms.

Two years ago, I brought home a Braeburn apple tree. C thought I had cracked or something, considering we have four apples in the back yard; three old fashioned red delicious and one antique Johnathan:

and four MORE of the same combination in our side field for a total of eight apple trees. "You bought a WHAT?" So far it has only produced one apple. Last year I added raspberry twigs, and this year I am hopeful to eat at least one raspberry. The blueberry ALMOST made it. RIP, blueberry.

Every year we spend oodles on peaches. Juicy white peaches if we can find them, and any fresh, ripe, sweet peach we can get our hands on. And so after studying each peach tree, and finally getting a specialist to consult me on the branching, I left with:

...a white peach and a Carolina peach! I hurried home and started digging.

C documented the effort without any encouragement......while Kawi supervised from a nearby apple tree...

I woke this morning with the satisfaction of sore muscles, and a happy heart to get the wheels turning on someday peaches,Walla Walla onions, sweet peas and pear tomatoes... Maybe next year, a plum? Or perhaps a graft of our very old pear that someday will stop bearing bushels of the biggest and best pears ever.

Oh, I almost forgot! While fighting the herb pot, I did a little prep work for my garden as well, and wouldn't you know, a friend brought over a load of topsoil! After a friendly visit, he and C had a John Deer/TroyBilt showdown:

I found this little milk bucket for under $5.oo. Today it will hold weeds, but tomorrow it will hold the fruits of our labors!

I found a couple of things in my garden that suprised me. First, the grub. Look at those greedy little chompers!

Second, this lacy, lovely leaf! I don't know about you, but this was a much nicer find for me. Well, thanks for reading! Say, how was your Saturday?