Illegal. Vraiment?
This time, the craziness is in Quebec. And this time, the gardeners health is an issue. According to this story, the couple has lost a combined 100 p0unds since they planted the garden in March! Expect to see a garden-to-lose-weight book coming soon, based on their experience.
All are fairly drought resistant once established and like full to part sun. Shearing off their early summer blooms allow the shrubs to produce a second flush. Birds and butterflies are attracted to the tiny blossoms that grow in flat umbels as wide as four inches.
A heavier shearing during the winter months produces a more compact structure that sets blooms on the new growth.
The tallest, spiraea bulmalda Anthony Waterer, grows to 3 to 5 feet and has the red flower and bluish- green foliage.
'Anthony Waterer'
'White Gold'
Spiraea japonica White Gold grows to 3 feet and has white flowers and bright yellow leaves which mature to gold.
Spiraea japonica Little Princess is the smallest of the three growing only to 2 3 feet and not as wide as the others. It has pink flowers and green leaves.
What a wonderful combination!
Tags: blooming now, landscape design, spiraea
Whether it was because ofthe winter temperatures we had this year or the record breaking rain we had in June, my hardy fuchsias are looking better than ever before. It could alsobe that I learned they do like more sun than shade and moved a few in my garden.
Plant deeper than in the pot, much like tomatoes, and allow the soil to fill in as the plant grows. Given a moist, humous rich soil and regular feedings with a balanced fertilizer, hardy fuchsias will blossom for 3 to 4 months.Bonus: Hummingbirds love them too!
Hardy Fuchsia Tom Thumb grows to 18 inches with red/purple blossoms
Mini Rose has a bushy growth. White/pink flowers
Every man may be observed to have some peculiar theme of complaint on which he dwells in his moments of dejection.
Samuel Johnson
I was having a delightful phone conversation with my old boss last week. He always makes me laugh and gives the best advice of anybody. We always gossip about the people we know in common, ask polite questions about each others families, say a few outrageous things about the state of the world, and then move on to gardening. A big pumpkin grower, he said, Im trying nematodes this year to get rid of the squash vine borer.
I dont have squash vine borers, but I did have cucumber wilt last year, caused by another insect. That was itcheery mood entirely deflated. Whyd ja hafta remind me? I whined.
Yesterday, I visited my lovely friend Martha in her country garden. Martha is a former chef and has a large and daringly planted garden to supply her extremely active kitchen. After about ten years of operating a maximum security facility surround by cage wire and railroad ties, she showed me the spots where woodchucks are now pushing in under the cage wire.
I dont expect to get any Brussels sprouts this year.
Brassicas! I bitched sympathetically. They clearly just taste too good. I went on to complain about my lacinato kalehow the seedlings couldnt get any traction, they were so frequently nibbled by something.
Ive rousted two rabbits out of here in the last few weeks, Martha added.
That, of course, reminded me of the squirrels I have observed not just yanking plants out of my vegetable garden, but also delicately chewing on bean seeds. I thought my soil was to blame for the poor germination in my garden!
No, its the vermin, Martha said sagely.
The gardeners list of complaints is long indeed. Weather perpetually. Lets add to my list tree roots that drain the soil like a kid sucking a soda through a straw. Cut-worms, too. Yesterday, I noticed some brown edges on my potato plants, before mentally pushing aside the horrifying possibility of late blight. In Marthas case, there was the well-meaning husband who burned her eggplants as if with a blow torch by placing uncomposted chicken manure around them just as they were getting going.
Its frustrating to scatter seed or tuck a seedling into the ground in high hopes, only to get nothing. The very variety of vegetables most gardeners plant guarantees some failures every year.
And yet, Martha said, our bitchfest coming to a sensible close, there is always more food out here than we can eat.
In vegetable gardening, the glass is almost always half full, even if it takes until harvest season for the gardener to see it.
I finished the brick pathway through my garden last fall. (Thought Process in the Garden May 21st blog) The winter rains kept washing away the sand between the stones. This will continue until the sand settles and some type of plants, hopefully not weeds, colonize the sand. I decided to help out the process.
I wandered the groundcover and Stepables area of the nursery for plants that will tolerate foot traffic and do well in sun/part shade. I came up with a number of different plants.
Corsican mint and Elfin thyme are very low growing plants that smell good when walked upon. Creeping speedwell will do well in part shade.
Pink Texas Scullcap (scutellaria suffrutescens) grows to 5 tall and would be good for the edges of the pathway as well as fragrant Alyssum.
Since I already put the path in, I now had to put the 4 plants between the stones. Not an easy job. Heres what I did.
I took the plants out of the pots and took off all the dirt. When the plant could be divided, like the
Where I had a larger root ball, I looked for larger gaps between my bricks. This worked for me since my brick pathway was very casually put in and some of the bricks had corners chipped off leaving larger gaps.
So far everything is thriving and starting to grow larger. This winter less sand will wash away!
Tags: bricks, step stones, stepables
For a vegetable gardener, the definition of exciting
A few years ago, I interviewed a gardener from Bangladesh who grew exotic gourds like fuzzy melon and snake melon in the Fenway community garden in Boston.
She pointed out that the growing season is short, certainly compared to her home country, so before she got the gourds, she made sure to enjoy eating the flowers and the tender shoots of the vines. Huh, I thought stupidly. I didnt know squash vines were edible. That same summer, my Thai sister-in-law Na wandered my garden and pinched off and ate some carrot tops. She told me her dad would make a delicious egg dish with them. Huh, I again thought stupidly, I didnt know those were edible.
The truth is, what we do eat is severely limited by custom and by no means captures the full bounty of nature. In The Diversity of Life, E.O. Wilson points to chronic underutilization, estimating that while just 20 species provide 90 percent of the worlds food, there are 30,000 species of plants that have edible parts.
And in my experience, we underuse what we do use. I recently glanced through a vegetable how-to that said the leaves of kohlrabi were worthless. Not true! Kohlrabi, possibly the worlds best soup vegetable, makes an even better soup when the black-green of its chopped-up leaves is there for contrast. Kohlrabi leaves are like the worlds tenderest kale.
Friend of Rant Willi Galloways recent book Grow Cook Eat is particularly good at encouraging the gardener to try some new bits of familiar vegetables. Thanks to Willi, I used pea shoots for the first time, in a fried rice. And thanks to Willi, last night I harvested two million radish seed pods after yanking the gone-by radishes out of the school garden, which I then pickled.
Radisheswell, I should admit that I adore a variety called Chinese Red Heart. But otherwise, they hold only limited interest. They are a long-day crop that always bolts in June. They have to be thinnedthere, two major strikes against them. But radish pods! A subtler radish flavor, but just as delicious. And while one plant will produce just one root, it will produce dozens and dozens and dozens of tender pods. There is actually a variety of radish called Rat Tail bred just for its long flavorful pods. Next year, Rat Tail in the yard.
The photos above were not taken in a tropical rainforest. Surprisingly enough, they were taken in our shade house here at Farmington Gardens. The name of this plant is Japanese Aralia or Fatsia japonica.
This evergreen shrub really stands out with its distinct glossy leaves that can grow to be 16 inches across. When grown in a mass planting, it really brings the feel of the jungle to your own backyard. It also works just as well as a specimen plant, providing year round interest. For a shade plant, Japanese Aralia is quite versatile and can even be used as a houseplant.
Incorporating Aralia into your shade garden is easy, as it meshes well with most shade garden staples such as; Ferns, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Hostas and Hellebores. If youre not already out digging a hole to make this wonderful plant the latest addition in your garden, here are a few more of its excellent qualities: It produces drumstick-like flowers that have are very science-fiction in appearance. The foliage is perfect for unique cut-flower arrangements and will last weeks after being cut. To top it all off it requires no pruning or maintenance.
Mature size: 5-8 ft high x 4-6 ft wide
Sun Exposure: Partial sun to shade
Growth Rate: Medium
