Lest you think I don’t follow my own advice, “When at greenhouses, nurseries or any place that sells gardening supplies, check out the clearance areas. Maybe there’s last year’s model…”, I present the following tale as evidence.
My husband, Jerry, and I have been spending some time near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Part of the enjoyment of travel for me is to explore and to discover. I sniff out coffee shops, book stores and places to buy good bread.
Also, I’m always on the prowl for flower shops, greenhouses and nurseries. Imagine my excitement and anticipation last week as I sped down an Oklahoma highway on my way to Tulsa’s nicest nursery.
The place positively bustled with green-smocked workers. Some were inside planting and watering and setting up displays. Outside, others moved pallets and unwrapped winter-protected evergreens.
I wandered around for perhaps an hour or so—a few items were piled in my cart—when I spotted a huge, gorgeous glazed pot in a sumptuous shade of turquoise in a corner of a back greenhouse. It was clearly last year’s pot as it was planted with an overgrown geranium with bright chartreuse foliage and a pink-blooming dipladenia. The whole thing was stunning. And it was marked down 50%. And I wanted it.
After a brief struggle with logistics—I was 750 miles from my home in Minnesota and we were staying in a rental home and the thing was big and heavy—I bought it.
Once home, my turquoise container will be an arresting point of emphasis for my indoor garden. Later in May, we’ll move it outside where it will highlight the deck.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Gardeners love to garden for many reasons. One of the most common is the desire “to grow pretty flowers.” When questioned further, gardeners often confess that it’s really all about the colors of flowers and plants.
It’s color—too much of it used with too little grace and a stunning lack of artistry… ~ Graham Rice, Discovering Annuals
A color wheel is a useful tool for gardeners. I bought my first one while studying landscape design many years ago. To a neophyte designer, it provided key information about primary, secondary and tertiary colors and their relationships. That wheel was rudimentary in comparison to The Gardener’s Color Wheel.
Sydney Eddison, nationally renowned garden writer and lecturer, developed this wheel in collaboration with The Color Wheel Company in 2006. The wheel is more complete and extensive than my little art store model—as 18 colors and 12 gradations of those colors are represented. It shows complementary, split complement, triad, monochromatic, analogous and analogous-complementary colors in a clear, graphical manner.
Why, really, is color important in garden design? Color is one of the elements of design. All artistic expressions utilize an underlying structure of design principles and elements.
Design principles are the abstract, intangible characteristics of the composition such as balance, emphasis, scale and sequence. Design elements are the physical aspects of the components in the composition. There are five. • color • form • line • mass • texture According to Eddison, color theory can be simple: “There are only two ways to use color in the garden, contrast and harmony.”
I like Thomas Hobbs’ approach. Hobbs is another famous gardener with a erudite, irreverent, passionate and compelling manner. Somewhat unwittingly, he paid homage to color relationships in his book, The Jewel Box Garden.
“I am a sucker for color and am ready to hop into bed (the garden bed…) with anything silver, celadon green or violet purple. I also require massive doses of rust, apricot and chartreuse. Interestingly, these colors all look good together in virtually any combination. Celadon green and silver are neutral. Purple is a standout, the alpha wolf of the garden. It dominates but allows rusty and apricot shades to play second fiddle.”
I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~ Ruth Stout
What a wonderful sentiment. Most gardeners eagerly await the first sighting of an emerging shoot or flower. Many have their favorites—their personal arbiters, if you will—of the official beginning of spring. Some gardeners might anticipate a bright, white snowdrop (Galanthus); others might count on the dainty blue blossoms of glory of the snow (Chionodoxa) or perhaps even the ubiquitous crocus (Crocus). In my garden, the first flowers to appear are the exquisite blossoms of hellebores.
What are hellebores? Hellebores are a genus of herbaceous plants native to Europe and Asia and are members of the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Two well-known species are Christmas rose (H. niger) and Lenten rose (H. orientalis) and are so named due to their bloom time.
Proper pronunciation is hel-LEB-or-us.
The genus is a real mix—some evergreen, some not, some acaulescent (without stems), some caulescent (with stems)—and breeders have fiddled around so much that nomenclature can be confusing. Most plants offered for sale today by nurseries are crosses of H. x hybridus, although the hardiest cultivars are out of H. niger.
A good resource with an excellent selection is Tony Avent’s Plant Delights Nursery out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Of the 17 cultivars in his 2010 Spring Catalog, nine are rated to Zone 4 and three are rated to Zone 3. Hellebores are pricier than other perennials due to propagation difficulties and length of time from seed to market.
Hellebores grow to 12 - 15” in height and spread to about 2’. In late winter/early spring, flower stalks emerge. Most hellebores naturally have nodding, bell-shaped flowers which I think a most charming characteristic. But again, hybridizers have been doodling and, according to Tony Avent, “some opting for cupped flowers, while others work toward breeding large, flat open flowers. Some breeders prefer up-facing flowers, while others prefer the natural bell-like form…” Colors include pink, white, lavender, purple, and even one yellow. Some blossoms are marked with darling freckles and speckles.
Hellebores have been used in gardens for many centuries but not, as they are today, for their flowers and sturdy foliage. All plant parts are poisonous due to the presence of alkaloid toxins. According to Vita Sackville-West, an English gardener with a straightforward writing style and dry wit, wrote of an herbalist in 1597 who said “a purgation of hellebore was ‘good for mad and furious men.’ Sackville-West added: “Such a decoction might still come in useful today.”
How to grow hellebores? Despite rumors to the contrary, hellebores are easy to grow. Their native soil is rich, moist, alkaline and fairly heavy but the plants are tolerant of drought and can adapt to acidic soil. Avoid poorly drained soil. In our country, they prefer a woodland setting with light shade and some protection from wind. Top dress annually with compost and/or well-aged manure.
Hellebores are resistant to deer but not rabbits. My own planting of hellebores wasn’t in the ground more than one week before a fat bunny discovered it.
How to design with hellebores? Plant hellebores either singly or in groups of three or more. Different species and cultivars can be easily mixed as the generally soft colors of the blossoms blend beautifully with each other.
The ideal setting for hellebores is in a bed with spring flowering bulbs. (Amazing how nature knows best.) Not only is the sturdy, glossy foliage a nice contrast to the usually strappy foliage of bulbs, but the watercolor-y colors of bulb flowers are excellent complements. Choose flowers in apricot, lavender, rose, white, cream and green. Stay away from intense yellows and golds of some daffodils and tulips.
Finally… Here’s one last piece of advice from Vita Sackville-West: “Once planted, leave them alone. They will grow in strength from year to year. I have a plant in my garden which to my certain knowledge has been there for fifty years.”
Soil Science isn’t the most scintillating of subjects (and the nerd ratio can be quite high) but basic knowledge of and understanding about soil is essential whether a gardener, horticulturist, naturalist, landscape designer, botanist or forester.
Soil facts. To save time and alleviate boredom, I’ve collected some bullet points. • Soil is the mineral and organic matter on the top layer of the earth’s surface suitable for the growth of land plants. • Soil is formed by environmental factors (water and temperature) and by organisms acting on parent rock material over time. • Soil is not the material on the earth’s surface areas that are permanently covered by more than 8 feet of water. • Plants need soil as a water and nutrient source. Tiny tertiary roots are the major absorption means. • Most plants need soil as the means of support. Exceptions include epiphytes which grow in trees and have aerial roots that don’t reach the ground. • Productive soil is about 50% air that alternately fills with water for use by the plant and then slowly dries out. • A fascinating, vital, complex symbiosis occurs between soil and soil organisms. And, according to Horticulture magazine, “There are more living organisms [in one handful of soil] than there are people in the world.” • Healthy soil = healthy plants.
Soil for indoor gardens. The best source for indoor garden soil is a bag of top-notch potting soil from your favorite greenhouse or nursery.
Potting soil is usually an assortment of organic materials in various amounts: peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, compost, sand and lime. Potting soil for cacti and succulents should have more sand while orchids and bromeliads need a mixture of mostly chopped bark.
Read the label carefully on the bag of potting soil. Don’t buy “garden soil” or “topsoil.” Also, don’t use soil from the outdoor garden where the soil is many feet deep and water can drain well away from plant roots.
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer or have a large indoor garden, consider making your own. It’s a little like cooking—assemble the ingredients, add the right amounts of each and mix. Plus, I love the feel and smell of the soil. Information on creating potting soil mixtures is in the entry below, Mix your own potting soil.
Take care of your soil. Just as in gardening outdoors, take care of your soil.
Always provide drainage. In my opinion, water-logged soil, which we now know doesn’t have any air pockets, is the prime killer of indoor garden plants. Water should be able to flow out the bottom of the pot and, further, the pot should never be allowed to sit in water.
In addition, organic components such as peat moss and compost break down and nutrients get used up over time. Soil then compacts and shrinks which reduces that nice ratio of 50% air. When that happens, do one of two things.
#1. Top-dress. Gently scratch away the surface soil and replace with 1” of fresh compost. #2. Repot. Periodic re-potting is necessary even if the plant isn’t pot-bound.
Finally… You could pass Soil Science 101 now but here’s one last tidbit. Plants grow in soil. Soil is not dirt. According to my dictionary, dirt is “a filthy or soiling substance, such as mud, dust, or excrement.”
*** This column used information from the Soil Science Society of America (wouldn’t they be fun to party with?) and the books Soil Taxonomy, Wyman’s Gardening Encyclopedia and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Photo above: This healthy indoor garden uses a metal window box and contains clubmoss (Selaginella kraussiana), geranium (Pelargonium ‘Black Velvet Rose’) and English ivy (Hedera helix). All three plants are in individual pots with drainage holes. I check each daily and when one needs watering, I simply take it out of the window box and bring it to the sink where I water thoroughly until about 10% has drained out the bottom of the pot. I then slip the plant back into the window box.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
It’s easy and fun to mix up a big batch of potting soil. Plus, it’s cheaper than buying pre-mixed bags.
These recipes are from a book by Alice and Brian McGowan, Bulbs in the Basement Geraniums on the Windowsill. With perhaps the exception of Turface, all ingredients should be readily available at nurseries and garden centers.
The McGowans wrote that Turface “consists of calcined clay, which is clay that has been heated, in a process similar to the firing of clay pots, until the moisture is removed. In their texture, the small angular bits of baked clay resemble kitty litter; the color is of terra-cotta pots.” Further, Turface prevents soil compaction and has a unique ability to hold moisture.
The dash of lime is necessary to counteract the acidity of peat moss.
All-purpose mix 1 part peat moss 1 part sand ¼ part Turface ¼ part compost dash of lime
Succulent mix ¾ part peat moss 1 part sand ½ part Turface 1/8 part compost dash of lime
Tropical mix 1 part peat moss ¾ part sand ¼ part Turface ½ part compost dash of lime
Dead Silence, by Randy Wayne White. This latest in the Doc Ford series was published in 2009 and I picked up a hardback copy at the bargain table for the price of a paperback. Besides the regular cast of characters of Doc Ford and Tomlinson and the enviable location of Dinkin’s Bay off Sanibel Island, Florida, White created an intriguing and forceful young hero with a Minnesota connection. Will Chaser is a 15-year-old who had been living on a reservation in Seminole County, Oklahoma, until he was moved north to Minnesota. Will “had done some dumb things. He’d been kicked out of three schools and arrested twice. Math was weak, his spelling worse. But he wasn’t stupid. Ever.”
A government-hired psychologist diagnosed Will with “a condition—a gift perhaps—that’s been well documented. It’s called synethesia. Synethesia is not a paranormal power. It’s a heightened awareness.” At the beginning of the book, White quotes Peter Matthiessen who quotes Red Cloud in 1903: “As a child I was taught the Supernatural Powers were powerful and could do strange things.”
Even though White described some extremely grim scenes, I kept reading because I had to know what happened to Will.
Waking Up in Eden, by Lucinda Fleeson is a well-researched, well-written, sort-of journal Fleeson wrote of the time she spent on Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, working for the National Tropical Botanical Garden.
Roads Less Traveled, by Catherine Watson, is on loan from my friend Jan. Watson was the Minneapolis StarTribune’s travel writer for more than 30 years and this book is a compilation of her adventures/newspaper stories during those years.
Bulb, by Anna Pavord. I have a special affinity and affection for bulbs that dates back years. At Michigan State University where I received my Horticulture degree, the entire department paid homage to a couple of famous bulb research professors. The very first plants that were dug into the soil of my very first garden were tulips—and every garden since has always included bulbs.
While browsing in a bookstore on a dank and dreary January day, I splurged on this big, gorgeous book. When Pavord wrote in her acknowledgements: “I spend more on bulbs than on clothes...” I immediately felt exonerated and a kinship both.
Pavord is English and writes from a European perspective but her knowledge and experience knows no boundaries. “This book is about the most glorious group of plants on earth: bulbs, corms, tubers, and rhizomes…A single perfect crocus or fritillary, growing in a terra-cotta pot, gives as much pleasure as a crowd of daffodils…In these pages you will find about 600 of my favorite bulbs…”
Another allure of the book is the exquisite photography by Andrew Lawson and Torie Chugg. Wow. If you weren’t a bulb lover before reading and/or beholding this book, perhaps you will be.
Two of my earlier, fonder recollections of food are grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. No doubt both were made with Velveeta, a pasteurized cheese product which was de rigeur in the 50s and 60s.
Grilled cheese is still a favorite dish and is regularly on the menu for our Sunday Night/Sandwich Nights. Now, though, the sandwiches are made with a cave-aged Gruyere or perhaps a Comte, real cheeses made from milk, salt and little else.
Lately, cheese has been featured in several meals.
Pasta with Walnuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Cream. This is an old stand-by from Patricia Wells, my pasta-making guru, and made with ingredients usually in the pantry. The walnuts are first roasted and then blended with cream and a small amount of garlic. That sauce is mixed with the cooked pasta and then freshly-grated cheese is added and gently tossed. Sometimes Wells’ pasta recipes state “Cover and let rest for 1 minute to allow the pasta to absorb the sauce,” but for this dish she advises “…serve immediately, passing the pepper mill.”
Sandwiches with Roast Beef and Stilton. What a traditional and unbeatable combination…and a perfect accompaniment to the Super Bowl. I spread thick slices of good bread with mayonnaise, added generous slices of meat (real roast beef—not lunch meat) and cheese and topped with a handful of baby greens. The scrumptious sandwich was served with pickles, chips and cold beer.
Salad of Roquefort, Walnuts and Baby Greens. This recipe is from another Patricia Wells’ cookbook and has similar ingredients to the pasta dish (very handy!). The dressing is a refreshing blend of Roquefort, cream, lemon juice and pepper. The greens are tossed in the bowl with the dressing and then nuts and additional cheese are sprinkled on top.
Scrambed Eggs with Cream Cheese and Fines Herbes. If you deem cream cheese plebian, you are missing a wonderful cheese. This is my own riff on a Shellagh Connelly (talented chef of the now defunct Mildred Pierce Café in St. Paul) recipe called Luxury Scrambled Eggs. Cream cheese is rich and luscious when paired with softly scrambled eggs and delicate, fresh herbs.
*** In fact, Velveeta, although it does contain milk, is barely cheese. Look at these ingredients: milk, water, milkfat, whey, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate, milk protein concentrate, alginate, sodium citrate, apocarotenal (color), annatto (color), enzymes, cheese culture.
Plus remember those big, foil-wrapped rectangles? Kraft manufactured Velveeta by heating those ingredients until liquified, packaging and then cooling.
12 things he can’t live without Town & Country by Samuel Cochran
9. Trays. They give order and clarity to clutter.
I agree and have several trays around the house. One is in the bathroom and confines lotion, shaving cream, perfume and myriad hair products. Another tray holds a nice assortment of liquor bottles on our dry bar. I also have a few reserved for plants. (See the Finally... section of Let there be light below.)
12. Juxtaposition. high/low; shiny/matte; refined/crude; grand/humble; modern/ancient. It is the essence of chic.
Redd is an interior decorator but his sentiment applies to all areas of design and style. A favorite pair of well-worn, faded blue jeans is fabulous worn with a simple white tee, blazer and sparkly sandals. For gardeners, a delicate maidenhair fern looks treschic when placed in a heavy-duty, black iron urn.
As gardeners, we often see the larger forms of life that live in or on our garden soil—beetles, worms, millipedes—and we accept on faith that there are other critters down there. Understanding the mystery of these others behooves us if we are to help them live and feed our plants.
…..
The number of organisms that exist in good soil is mind-boggling. When high-school students visit our farm, I hold up a single handful of soil and tell them, “There are more living organisms in this than there are people in the world!”
A soil food web begins and ends with plants. Plant roots exude secretions into the soil that attract and feed beneficial bacteria and fungi. These organisms compete for this food source and are in turn eaten by protozoa and nematodes. The excretions of all these creatures, and the nutrients therein, are made available to the plant roots. More nutrients are released when they die or are consumed and digested by other soil inhabitants. Larger forms of soil life, such as springtails and beetles, also feed on the results of this activity. When they die or are eaten, even more nutrients are released in plant-available form.
We can disrupt this natural cycle by applying chemical pesticides or by roto-tilling. We can also help by providing raw materials in the form of good compost. Use a tool called a broad fork to loosen and aerate your soil, apply a couple of inches of good compost and aerated compost tea, and your plants will flourish beyond your wildest expectations.
My #1 rule for gardening outdoors is simple but powerful: put the right plant in the right spot.
My #1 rule for indoor gardening is the same. Plant location is paramount and, further, light is the most crucial need to supply.
Plants need light. Why is light essential to plant health?
Because we humans run on food, we tend to think that plants depend on fertilizer (as “food”) in a very fundamental way. Certainly they do, but plants derive most of their energy from light. ~ Barbara Pleasant, The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual
In the presence of the complex, green pigment called chlorophyll, plants have the awesome and unique ability to carry out the process of photosynthesis. In the presence of sunlight, plants transform carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and sugar. This sugar is their source of food and energy.
If a plant doesn’t receive enough light for adequate photosynthesis, it starves to death.
Assess light levels. Since, of course, you want healthy plants, let’s evaluate light in the home. Address the following questions and understand their consequences should provide essential information. (Although artificial lighting is an option, most people depend on natural light from windows.)
• Which direction do windows face: east, west, south or north? East light in summer and winter (although weaker) is excellent as it is bright but never hot. West light in summer is harsh and scorching while in winter is fine light. Due to the extreme declination of the winter sun at our northern latitude, light from a south window is fairly weak while from that same window will be intense in summer. North windows in the winter provide almost no light but in summer offer enough light for many plants. • Is light blocked by awnings, roof overhangs or a covered porch? • Do trees block windows? Conifers could severely limit available light but deciduous trees will be bare during the peak indoor gardening season. • What color are the interior walls? Pleasant wrote: “In rooms with dark walls, good plant-growing space is limited to 12-24 in. from the windowpane, while rooms with light-colored walls can accommodate large plants, or plants placed more than 24 in. from the window.”
What if the assessment shows that the best light in your home is under the big window in the living room where the couch is placed? Easy. Move the couch. Ditto for the awnings. Remove them.
Finally… In indoor gardening, portability should be a key consideration. I have trays in different sizes and styles that can be loaded up with plants and placed on different tables depending on the season.
Think also about portable furniture, such as shelves and plant stands, that can be moved easily from window to window and from inside to outside. About 30 years ago I bought a stainless steel wire Metro shelf that has been everywhere with me. Many, many plants have been grown on those shelves—and in various living rooms, kitchens, garden rooms and porches.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Today continues the series I introduced on January 11, 2010, when I proposed a paradigm shift vis-à-vis gardeners and winter—the Indoor Garden. This new notion takes aspects of outdoor gardening and moves them inside.
This will be fun. Let’s begin.
Just living isn’t enough, said the butterfly. One must also have sunshine, freedom and a little flower. ~ Hans Christian Andersen
Careful readers know that, in my opinion, containers that hold plants are vitally important for the health of the plants and for aesthetic reasons. In the past my emphasis has been on containers for outdoor use but when viewed now through the eyes of an Indoor Gardener, the same theory applies.
Basically, put a $5 plant in a $50 container. In the short term, the look is far more pleasing and, in the long term, the container is a sound investment. It will hold countless plants over many years and will become a valuable piece in the collection of pots.
For collection is how I view it. Start gathering pots. You’ll need to be prepared to have a proper Indoor Garden. Who knows what plants might be brought home from the grocery store and the greenhouse? Who can anticipate what coleus or fuchsia or begonia might be overwintered inside?
Consider all kinds of containers: antique urns, moss-encrusted olive jars, quirky pots, sleek and sophisticated pots, wicker baskets. Consider different materials: terra cotta, stone, metal, wood and concrete. Look for different sizes, too.
Where to find containers for your collection? • Look in the shed where summer gardening things are stored. No doubt there are treasures never before considered. Clean them up and haul them inside. I’m pretty certain the pots aren’t labeled “For outside use only.” • When at greenhouses, nurseries or any place that sells gardening supplies, check out the clearance areas. Maybe there’s last year’s model (who cares?) or one with a slight chip (adds character) or one that everyone else thought was weird but you find delightful. • Cruise art shows, craft fairs, flea markets and antique shops.
Options are everywhere. The sky is the limit. Have fun.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
The Defector, by Daniel Silva, is the most current in the series about Gabriel Allon—the ultra cool Israeli spy. Let’s hope it’s not the last.
The White Garden, by Stephanie Barron. I’m in a serious Vita Sackville-West phase. I’m researching her life, reading her writing and studying her design style. She and her husband, Sir Harold Nicolson, bought Sissinghurst Castle in Kent in 1930 and for the ensuing 32 years developed one of the most magnificent gardens in England. Sackville-West created the much-copied “one-colour gardens,” the most notable of which is the White Garden. This fascinating novel is set against the background of Sissinghurst Castle where a manuscript—perhaps the last thing Virginia Woolf wrote prior to her drowning—is the catalyst as Barron delves into the relationship between Sackville-West and Woolf.
V. Sackville-West’s Garden Book, edited by Philippa Nicolson. Sackville-West chronicled her gardening experiences in a column she wrote from 1947 – 1961 for the London Observer. Nicolson (Sackville-West’s daughter-in-law) selected from among those columns and presents them in this anthology. Sackville-West had an appealing style which Nicolson mentioned in the Foreword: “She established with her readers a gentle, bantering relationship, like that of an amateur gardener talking to a friend about their horticultural triumphs and follies—boasting a bit, laughing a bit, grousing a bit, mingling reminiscence with hard advice, and sentiment with something approaching poetry.”
Far Flung and Well Fed, by R. W. Apple Jr. Apple was a reporter and bureau chief at The New York Times. He was also a world traveler and gourmand who often wrote features for the Times of the places that he and his wife Betsey visited and of the food they ate. This compilation includes about 50 of those wonderfully written essays which are part travelogue, part food memoir.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
The idea of the summer cabin, the lake house, the woods retreat, the stuga, is buried deep in the psyche of the state’s culture. Minnesota was settled by (and is still inhabited by) a couple of million Norwegians and the better part of a million Swedes for whom the stuga is not an option but a religion. ~ Bill Holm, Cabins of Minnesota
In 1935, my grandfather (half Norwegian/half Swedish) had an itch to spend time on a lake and discovered a wild piece of lakeshore just north of Nisswa. The property owner, Elmer Olson, was a taciturn, stubborn Scandinavian farmer and it took my grandfather several years to woo Mr. Olson into selling a chunk. They ultimately agreed on a seven-acre parcel on the north side of the lake with about 1,000 feet of shoreline.
Five years later when my grandfather was 47, he and my grandmother (half Swedish) built a simple, 24’ x 36’ log-sided cabin. The floors were pine-planked and the interior walls were covered in wide, knotty pine paneling. Real, wooden mullions divided each of the large windows into six panes and those windows constituted most of the south wall facing the lake.
My parents spent many nights dancing at the original Bar Harbor on Gull Lake while dating and later honeymooned at the cabin. When I was a child, my family lived there in the summers along with my aunt, uncle and cousins.
My grandfather had an elaborate shop in the boathouse down by the beach where he spent hours sawing and hammering and painting. He fashioned a nifty log ladder for us kids to climb into the sleeping loft. He devised the infamous “Kiddie Bar” by attaching a long piece of pine directly to the wall and drilling round holes at each grandchild’s assigned place. Our plastic milk glasses fit snugly down into the holes which rendered them spill-proof, a wonderful reprieve for my long-suffering grandmother, mother and aunt. One summer he was on a sign-making binge and made them for everything, even “The Biffy.”
The favorite of my grandfather’s projects, though, was the dining area table. Built of wide pine planks, he sized it to be at exact window height and widow width. The table was then pushed directly against the wall so all could see out to the lake.
Since those idyllic summer days, I continue to feel most at home in a simple cabin on a lake with a dining table pushed up by the windows. Over the years I’ve stayed on many lakes around Minnesota—White Iron, Gunflint, Green, Lake of the Woods, Gull, Bay, White Bear, Winnibigoshish, Leech, Ida and Burntside.
Providentially after several years of searching, my husband and I found the perfect small, rustic cabin on a lake in Hubbard County. A big window faced west toward the lake and my first act as cabin-owner was to place our dining table directly under the window. I was 47.
There’s something special about cabins …a cabin holds a treasury of life’s most meaningful mementos. Like a living scrapbook, cabins evoke feelings and events that no photograph could capture...The traditional cabin connects us to our timeless cultural roots. ~ Dale Mulfinger, The Cabin
The Lost Gardens, by Anthony Eglin. My sister, Barbara, recently visited and since we share the gene for mystery-reading, my hostess gift from her was this book. What could be better—a murder mystery/gardening combination?
The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon is my new hero. I am completely enamored by this tough, proficient, intelligent, complex character with emerald green eyes and a slight graying at the temples. This is the seventh novel in the series.
Elizabeth David’s Christmas, edited by Jill Norman. Yes, I know Christmas is over but it’s been busy. David is a favorite food writer and I couldn’t resist this compilation of essays, menus and recipes. Visually, the book is exceptional. The graphics, paper stock, fonts and colors are simple, but sophisticated and beautiful.
The Garden Lover’s Guide to Britain and One Hundred English Gardens, both by Patrick Taylor. One of my projects for 2010 is studying English gardens. A gardening friend, Jill, and her family spent two weeks touring England and Ireland and she graciously loaned me these books. Yikes! I want to see all 100 gardens!
In northern climates, there are many months when it’s impossible to garden outside. How do gardeners cope? What do they do?
Many gardeners exhale mightily at the end of the outdoor season and are perfectly content to store watering cans and trowels until spring.
Others, perhaps, ignore the frozen landscape outside and instead indulge in a fanciful world of possibilities. For in January, catalogues from mail-order nurseries begin filling the mailbox.
For gardeners, this is the season of lists and callow hopefulness; hundreds of thousands of bewitched readers are poring over their catalogues, making lists for their seed and plant orders, and dreaming their dreams. ~ Katherine S. White, Onward and Upward in the Garden
In addition to studying catalogues, gardeners can work through a stack of beguiling books.
I’m quite certain that Tasha spends every winter evening huddled close to the toasty fireplace with her reading spectacles perched on the edge of her nose, poring over every seed catalogue and gardening book she can lay hands on. ~ Tovah Martin, Tasha Tudor’s Garden
Some gardeners have inclinations similar to the wonderfully cranky Henry Mitchell, a former columnist for The Washington Post.
The days are now at their shortest and the gardener should keep it in mind that his ill-humor and (as it may be) gloominess is directly linked to the nadir of the year…Whenever there are ice storms, pull the window shades down. ~ Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman
Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd are serious gardeners who have built an extremely successful, nationally renowned business around their five-acre, Vermont garden—but even they complain.
January is, quite simply, the year’s low point for gardeners. For though one may take brisk walks, weather permitting, or hit the ski slopes, or the treadmill in the bedroom, though there may be a fragrant fire of birch logs on the hearth or a savory pot on the back of the stove…still, January is, as far as gardening goes, not a whole lot of fun. ~ Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd, A Year at North Hill
All are fine ways for a gardener to pass time in winter. I have another idea. With a subtle shift in focus, let me introduce an entirely new coping mechanism.
The Indoor Garden.
My notion of the Indoor Garden examines indoor spaces with the same critical eye as outside spaces. It takes into account architectural features and interior design styles of the house. It examines the amount of light available, whether natural or artificial. It borrows aspects of outdoor gardening and applies them inside including the use of container gardens, window boxes and hanging baskets of mixed plants. It tackles cultural needs of plants. Further, it incorporates design principles and elements which ensure that the Indoor Garden is a visual success.
Finally, and this is the best part for a gardener, the Indoor Garden banishes the notion of “houseplants” and opens the floodgates to new plant possibilities—everything from bulbs to tropicals to tender perennials.
Not all aspects of gardening outdoors are possible, of course, in an Indoor Garden. There can be no shrub border of azaleas and hydrangeas and, alas, no room for a perennial border or a vegetable garden. But there could be space for woody plants in containers, impressive hanging baskets and a tiny kitchen garden of sturdy herbs.
In future entries I’ll explore this new approach and, hopefully, move winter from the “nadir of the year” to a season of lush green growth, fragrant flowers and beauty.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Let’s stay in this winter holiday mode for now and refrain from discussing anything too serious. There’s plenty of time for more meaningful discourse in January.
Every garden magazine I’ve read lately has featured lists of plants—everything from Lee’s Favorite Lettuce Varieties to Seven Popular Holiday Plants to 10 Flowering Evergreen Shrubs—and they inspired me to create my own. It’s a hodge-podge list—some are herbaceous, some woody, some aren’t even hardy in our region (blasphemous!). But this is my list, after all.
~ Baptisia (Baptisia australis) was chosen by The Perennial Plant Association as the 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year—an award long overdue. This is a long-lived, easy-to-grow member of the pea family and a winner in all seasons. Foliage is a lovely, soft, grayish, blue-green. Deep indigo blue flower spikes bloom in June and later mature into showy pods.
~ Blue Muffin Arrowwood Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum ‘Christom’) is a 2010 Plant of Merit awarded by the Missouri Botanic Garden. Viburnums are a large genus of wonderful shrubs—many of which are native. The fine-textured foliage is eye-catching and showy white flowers mature into showy blue fruit which birds love.
~ ‘Bonfire Scarlet’ Begonia (Begonia boliviensis ‘Bonfire Scarlet’) will be a 2010 introduction from Selecta First Class. No one could have missed the orange-flowered cultivar, ‘Bonfire’, which was in every greenhouse last year. This plant is similar in its exuberant growth habit and profusion of blossoms but the flowers are, instead, vivid red.
~ Compact Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia ‘Compacta’) was recognized by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society as a 2010 Gold Medal Plant. I agree! Summersweet is a fabulous shrub that should be planted more. The tidy foliage is deep, glossy green and the showy upright flowers are 8 - 12” in length and, as the name indicates, smell sweet.
~ Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum). I got to know this big tree when I lived in Michigan and have always admired its gorgeous heart-shaped foliage that emerges reddish-purple in spring, matures to bluish-green and, finally, turns apricot and gold in fall. Michael Dirr is equally smitten: “…one of my favorite trees…if I could use only one tree this would be my first tree…” In more than 30 years in Minnesota, I have rarely seen one even though rated to hardiness Zone 4.
~ ‘Pink Chaos’ Coleus (Solenostemon ‘Pink Chaos) has bright magenta and burgundy foliage highlighted by a thin margin of lime green on the ruffled leaf edges. Wow. But why wait? Start growing now as an indoor garden plant and later move outside.
~ ‘Pretty Much Picasso’ Supertunia (Petunia ‘Pretty Much Picasso’) is a new Proven Winners annual. The hot pink petals have purple throats and, like the coleus above, lime green margins. Think of the possibilities in a hanging basket, window box or container garden!
~ ‘Strawberries & Cream Hydrangea’ (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Strawberries & Cream) is a small, non-hardy (Zone 7) plant to be introduced by Anthony Tesselaar Plants in 2010. This lacecap cultivar has deep rose outer petals with pink centers. Imagine how charming now as an indoor garden plant and, later in the year, as an anchor in an outside container garden.
~ Red-leaf Rose (Rosa glauca or R. rubrifolia) is a shrub rose that was honored by Plant Select for 2010. This is a cool plant! The foliage is a unique bluish-red and the fragrant, pink, single blossoms mature into showy, large, orange hips.
~ ‘Twinny Peach’ Snapdragon (Antirrhinum F1 ‘Twinny Peach’) is a 2010 All-American Selection. The plant is a compact 12” in height and individual blossoms are somewhat tighter looking with ruffled margins. The flowers are, well, peachy in color.
Petunia 'Pretty Much Picasso' photo courtesy of Proven Winners.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Since it is the winter holiday season, my husband, Jerry, and I have been part of several celebrations and, therefore, munching lots of appetizers and sampling many cocktails. Here is a (another!) list of our favorites.
Cheese Plates are an easy but delicious appetizer as long as you know where to shop for excellent cheese. Serve your selections (labeled with cheese name, dairy and geographic origin) with thin slices of fresh baguettes and big olives.
Gizzies are a holiday tradition that date to my childhood. My own recipe is oil-stained and worn and I can hardly read my mom’s writing anymore. But it doesn’t matter. After decades of mixing up batches every December, I know the recipe by heart.
Rosemary Cashews. Who doesn’t love cashews? And when roasted with chopped fresh rosemary, some spices and a bit of brown sugar, they’re irresistible.
Cosmopolitans are lovely any time of the year but especially now due to their pretty red color and festive presentation.
Hot Buttered Rum is a perfect drink for snowy, wintery weather. It is strong and warm and intoxicating due to the sublime combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and rum. We’ve discovered also that the drinks make soothing night caps.
Mimosas are the favorite brunch libation. It’s worth the effort to use freshly squeezed orange juice and to add a bit of Triple Sec to the bottom of the flute before adding the champagne.
Cheers!
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Do you have a gardener on your gift list? Forget about a pair of gloves (yawn) or an amaryllis (rather vulgar, don’t you think?) or a lawn mower (want to stay married?). There are far more exciting gifts from which to choose.
After thorough research, I offer the following list.
Practical. Felco Pruners. If the gardener on your list doesn’t already own a pair, then your present is a no-brainer. (How many cheap pairs have been bought over the years?) Felco is the best. Their pruners come with removable, cleanable, sharpen-able and replaceable parts.
Garden Bucket. My dad gave me two big, green plastic buckets many years ago and they’re wonderful. One is usually filled with potting soil and the other is lugged around the garden while weeding and dead-heading. Tubs are available now in pretty, bright colors.
Garden Labor. This gift is very economical but does require some hard work on the giver’s part. Offer the gift of garden labor—whether for a certain number of hours or for a dedicated project.
Thoughtful. Magazine Subscription. The best national gardening magazine is Fine Gardening. Plant hardiness is always considered and the excellent content is well-researched. Other good options include Northern Gardener, Horticulture and Garden Design.
Garden Books. Depending on the needs of the gardener on your list, choices include beautiful books of inspiration as well as hands-on/how-to books. A must-have for the serious gardener is Michael Dirr’s Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Just in time for gift-giving, a sixth edition was recently published.
Calendars. Who doesn’t adore calendars? On the first of each month, it’s refreshing to turn the page to a brand new image. The themes are numerous: country gardens, herb gardens, bouquets, flower depictions by individual artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and, obviously, flowers of all kinds.
Gift certificate. Give a gift certificate to a favorite local nursery or greenhouse. An editor at Fine Gardening summed it up perfectly: “Honestly, what every gardener really wants for the holidays is for it to be spring so they can buy plants.”
Over the top. Garden Bench. Nothing is more traditional in garden furnishings than a teak bench. Whether left to weather naturally to a soft, silvery gray or treated periodically to retain the rich color, teak is classic, handsome and sturdy. For a special touch, personalize the bench with a commemorative brass plaque.
Fabulous Container. Many gardeners spend the majority of their budget on plants, disregarding the pot. My take is just the opposite. The most important consideration in container garden design is the container itself. The combination of a simple ivy and an antique Grecian urn is exquisite but a plastic terra cotta pot is dreadful no matter how it is planted. Give a fabulous container (or two!) whether metal, stone, concrete or terra cotta.
Finally... Let’s treat ourselves a bit during these winter holidays. A special indulgence of mine is a scented candle. Who wouldn’t succumb to its flickering light and wafting fragrance?
I’ve liked several from Aveda over the years but my two current favorites are by Thymes. Naia is a lovely, clean scent made from water lilies, among other flowers and plants, and is presented in a glass painted with pale blue polka dots. Frasier Fir is refreshing and evergreen-y and should be enjoyed all winter.
This column also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Tout Sweet, subtitled Hanging up my High Heels for a New Life in France, by Karen Wheeler. A fashion writer abandons her glamorous London life and buys a fixer-upper in rural France. The concept is appealing but the follow-through is a little too fluffy and predictable, even for me.
A Book of Silence, by Sara Maitland. I was intrigued by this book after reading a review in The New York Times. Among other subjects, Maitland writes about her 40-day, solo sojourn in a remote cottage on the Isle of Skye, off the northwest coast of Scotland.
Among her conclusions: …with fewer things to look at I see better. …I got interested in silence itself…We have reached a point in contemporary Western culture where we believe that too much silence is either ‘mad’ (depressive, escapist, weird) or ‘bad’ (selfish, antisocial). …I discovered the silent joy of gardening…In our noise-obsessed culture it is very easy to forget just how many of the major physical forces on which we depend are ‘silent’—gravity, electricity, light, tides…Organic growth is silent too. Cells divide, sap flows, bacteria multiply, energy runs thrilling through the earth, but without a murmur…Gardening puts me in contact with all this silent energy; gardeners become active partners in all that silent growth.
Window Boxes, by James Cramer & Dean Johnson. This book is here for inspiration. The pair has extremely innovative, seasonal ideas for window boxes and their contents. Even though I don’t have a window box (alas), many of their designs are applicable to container gardens.
The Minnesota Homegrown Cookbook, subtitled Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes, presented by Renewing the Countryside. (What’s the deal with subtitles?) During a recent stay in the Grand Rapids area, I sniffed out a fabulous coffee shop, Brewed Awakenings, where I spent many contented hours. The atmosphere is warm and hip, the coffee is strong and the display case is full of goodies including a scrumptious apple pie I can vouch for.
Near the register was a stack of cookbooks. As I leafed through one the first day I was intrigued because Brewed Awakenings was in the book. On ensuing visits I read even more and, finally, while buying my last cup of coffee and scone, I purchased the book.
It features 31 restaurants from around the state that specialize in excellent food with a tradition of sourcing good, local ingredients. Paired with each restaurant is one of their farmers—whether supplying fish, maple syrup, bison, chicken, dairy, vegetables or wine. Since the book is a cookbook, each restaurant also offers several recipes. I’m excited to try Mahnomin Porridge and Bison Sausage Bread from Hell’s Kitchen and Herb Goat Cheese Quesadillas from Dancing Winds Farmstay Retreat.
The book begins: All food is not created equal. Anyone who bites into a just-picked tomato on a warm summer day knows that it hardly resembles that tomato-like thing you get in Minnesota grocery stores in January. And cheeses crafted by an artisan cheesemaker is worlds apart from those single-wrapped, processed slices that many of us grew up on. This is a book about homegrown food.
The winter holidays mean different things to different people and they celebrate and decorate accordingly. Some families adorn their homes with themed linens for the bedroom and bathroom and haul out boxes of special dishes and crystal. Others prefer a low-key approach. My hair stylist laughed when I asked him. “I might buy a poinsettia,” he commented.
Whatever one’s traditions, it does seem the season inspires us to do something.
My favorite outdoor winter feature is container gardens. Other options include wreaths, swags, garlands and filling window boxes if you’re fortunate enough to have them (and I’m jealous if you do!). Another bonus—outside container gardens created now will add life and greenery throughout winter.
Following are five steps to creating the perfect winter container garden.
Location, location, location. The main front entry to your home is de rigueur. Nothing is more welcoming to guests than a gracious entrance filled with beautiful containers. Think also about the side or back door that you always use. Other options include flanking garage doors or by entrances to pole sheds or other outbuildings.
Container, style and colors. The first and most important consideration is the container itself. I can’t emphasize enough the value of a good pot. Spend the money up front for aesthetically pleasing, heavy-duty containers that will last several seasons—and look good, too.
Then think about the style—or the feeling you want convey—and any associated colors. Here are some ideas. Northwoods/Lodge: pine cones, twigs and other natural accents. Traditional: simple greens with red and green accessories. Elegant: touches of silver, gold and crystal. Winter: snowmen, snowflakes and cute mittens. Fanciful: bright colors and whimsical touches.
Gather contents. Now comes the fun part of choosing what to put in the containers. Check out favorite nurseries and greenhouses, in addition to gathering from your own garden. Here are ideas. evergreens including spruce tips, white pine, Norway pine, balsam fir, Colorado blue spruce, Port Orford cedar, incense cedar. other greens such as eucalyptus, boxwood and magnolia. bare branches of deciduous shrubs like birch, curly willow, dogwood (red, yellow or ‘Winter Fire’). fruiting branches of winterberries, roses (hips), pepperberries, junipers or tallow trees. dried flowers of hydrangea or sedum. something to add a touch of pizzazz like sparkly, glittery branches. pine cones, dried lotus pods (very cool!) and ornaments made especially for outdoor use. strands of small, fairy lights.
Consider design principles and elements. Even though this project is merely winter container garden design, certain design principles and elements remain germane.
Scale and proportion are critical, not only when considering the container size vs. volume and height of its content, but the placement of the container in the landscape. An arrangement 18-inches tall will look silly in a grand, two-story entry.
Simplicity and its counter, variety, also are considerations. A container garden that is too simple is boring while one that has too much variety looks messy.
Another principle that shouldn’t be ignored is emphasis, or the use of a focal point. A focal point gives the eye a natural place to rest. It can be as simple as a big bow or a group of pine cones.
Key elements to bear in mind are color and texture. If all components have the same texture—for for instance, feathery and fine-textured—the design could be, again, dull. But add bold boughs of Norway pine and immediately the arrangement has contrast and interest. Consider color, too, even among similar-seeming evergreens. White pine is a soft, light green, Colorado blue spruce can be very blue and incense cedar looks bright due to its yellow cones.
Pot ‘em up. Fill the container about ½ - ¾ full with potting soil. Old potting soil can be re-used. Re-cut fresh greens and push into the soil. When all components have been added, water thoroughly and keep watering until the soil in the pot freezes. The greenery, for the most part, should stay fresh all winter.
Finally… Decorating with real plants is responsible and sustainable. Plants are a renewable resource with strong, eons-old processes and chemical responses that trigger regeneration. In addition, when redesigning container gardens in the spring, toss old plant branches, boughs, fruits and flowers on the compost pile to foster another, eons-old process—decomposition.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
It’s short and sweet. No undue obligations. No present-buying, card-sending or mounting of plastic Santas on rooftops. We simply gather with family and friends around a big table, toast the season with nice wine and enjoy a homemade meal of turkey and all the traditional trimmings.
Over the river, and through the wood, To Grandmother's house we go; The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river, and through the wood Trot fast, my dapple-gray! Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound, For this is Thanksgiving Day.
--Lydia Marie Child
As a gardener, flowers are integral to my Thanksgiving celebration but I keep them classic and uncomplicated. Bouquets shouldn’t be formal, complicated affairs with wired stems. Rather, my formula for gorgeous cut flowers is: simple + full = stunning.
Place one large arrangement in the entry area to welcome guests. The vase is important so choose with care—whether crystal or pottery, modern or antique. Keep the stems long and fill with a profusion of flowers.
On the dining table I adhere to two rules: nothing tall and nothing fragrant. Place several short, matching arrangements in identical vases in the center of the table. Diners can view the flowers up close and can see across the table. Use three or more bouquets, depending on the length of the table.
For a homogenous look, choose one flower and buy plenty to fill all vases generously. Or buy a mix of flowers but of the same color. A bouquet of dahlias, tea roses and alstroemeria in similar shades of rich burgundy would be stunning. Look for wax flower, hypericum berries, pepperberry or sea lavender for filler. Always use plenty of greenery—seeded eucalyptus, myrtle, salal, nandina and leucadendron.
In a final gesture of Thanksgiving, offer guests a table arrangement as they leave.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Flower shops and greenhouses should be chock full of flowering plants for the holidays and among my favorites is Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata). The plant has softly jagged leaf margins and the flowers, which naturally bloom in late November, have a distinct upward bend.
Closely related is the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) but with noticeable differences. Flowers and foliage of the Christmas cactus are more pendent, the leaf margins have no points and the blossoms have no upward bend. In addition, it normally flowers in late December.
Both cacti are members of the true cactus, or Cactaceae, family and are native to the tropical rain forests of Brazil. They are tree-dwelling epiphytes, relying solely on rainfall for moisture and nutrition, and their vivid blossoms are pollinated by hummingbirds.
Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti make wonderful indoor garden plants as long as the following care is given.
Impeccable neatness in a yard, without a leaf in sight and with all the natural debris of nature shredded and sent out, does not necessarily indicate good husbandry. On the contrary, it is evidence that the owners have no conception of the natural processes by which land regenerates itself year after year without the need of expensive fertilizers. ~ Thalassa Cruso, The Gardening Year
If you haven’t completed all the fall chores in the garden, don’t worry. There’s still time. Distilled and detailed below are four simple, but must-do tasks.
Your garden will look attractive all winter (but not too tidy) and will be very pleasurable to venture into next spring. Most importantly, though, the simple work completed this fall will actually improve the health your garden.
Task #1 If not recently done, take soil samples and send to the U for analysis. The test results will yield important information about texture, pH, nutrient levels and percentage of organic matter. Plus, you’ll need results for Task #4. Go to: http://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/ or call 612-625-3101.
Task #2 Cut back annuals and vegetables and place on compost pile. Don’t cut back perennial foliage and don’t deadhead fall-blooming perennials which provide winter interest, help prevent erosion and provide natural insulation. Exceptions include peony foliage and any diseased or pest-infected plant parts which should be discarded.
Task #3 Shred fallen leaves with the mower and do one or all of the following: leave on the lawn, spread as mulch (See Task #4.), add to the compost pile. Don’t bag your leaves and toss in the garbage which is a terrible waste of time and effort, as well as environmentally reprehensible.
Task #4 Over all beds, spread a 2-inch layer of organic mulch (compost, shredded leaves, well-rotted manure or a combination) and any materials suggested by soil sample results. The materials will decompose into wonderful, luscious soil—rich with organic matter and proper nutrients.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Autumn and cool weather signify final chores in the garden. This time of year also brings out the hunting and gathering instincts that must be part of our genetic code. I feel positively squirrel-ish as I rush around gathering armfuls of luscious, colorful branches for one huge, finale of a bouquet. Somehow, I need to capture part of the natural abundance—before the inevitable denouement—and bring it inside.
The vessel for this bouquet must be ample no matter whether wicker, metal, pottery or crystal.
Go into the garden or stroll the nearest woods and fields. Have good pruners in hand. Gather branches from maples, oaks, blue beech and ironwood. Find rose hips, winterberry, bittersweet, viburnums and crab apples. Cut frost-tinged plants like yarrow, asters, ferns and ornamental grasses. Don’t forget to add dried flower heads of the ubiquitous hydrangea.
And, as every good designer knows, include a foil whether in color, shape or texture. A stem or two of striking blue delphinium is perfection.
Tasha can find a glorious bouquet anytime, and in fall her porch holds masses of autumn leaves, delphiniums, crab apples, and hydrangeas. ~ Tovah Martin, Tasha Tudor’s Garden
The English Assassin, by Daniel Silva. This is my first book in Silva’s series about Gabriel Allon, an art restorer by day/Israeli spy by night. Allon is a very cool character and the story takes him to classy European locales—Lisbon, Zurich, Rome, London and Corsica.
The Windows of Brimnes, by Bill Holm. I fell hard for Holm when I read his Cabins of Minnesota. After poignantly describing venerable cabins around the state, he confessed that the cabin he purchased was in his ancestral country of Iceland and he is “in love with it—madly, ecstatically in love with it.” Holm was an excellent writer and I’m now captivated by all things Icelandic. He died last winter but left for us a large number of books, poems and essays.
Projects for Small Gardens, by Richard Bird and George Carter. I picked up this book from the bargain table and was instantly seduced. Included are detailed instructions and mouth-watering color photographs for 56 garden projects. In fact, after a bit of design tweaking, the trellis and trellis/screen are installed now in my garden. Other projects include hurdles, wattles, arches, obelisks, arbors, window boxes, troughs and countless containers.
Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, by Julia Child. I’ve had this book since 2001 (complete with a Julia Child-autographed card) and have used it on a limited-but-regular basis for her salads, dressings and “Egg Cookery.” With all the hoopla surrounding the movie, Julie and Julia, I had to dust it off and re-connect with this amazing chef and colorful character.
There are many reasons I’m partial to French culture and lifestyle. Cheeses such as Camembert and chevre and gruyere, crusty baguettes, wine, omelettes, café au lait at sidewalk cafes, black wrought iron street signs and window boxes, Provencal fabrics, soaps and lavender, bicyclettes…..and did I mention wine?
Another reason is now clear. I bought three shelter magazines—two American and one French—and the photographs, underlying style and, dare I say value, were remarkable and striking.
The houses and the rooms in Maisons Cote Ouest (which roughly translates to West Coast Houses) are places where I would want to eat, sleep and live. Not so the other two, Architectural Digest and Elle Decor. The French designers seemed to value the fundamentals of architectural style and materials that are real like wood, stone and metal. American designers, on the other hand, value stuff—and lots of it. There is also heavy use of color which, when combined with all the stuff, appears that American designers are hiding under layers and layers of paint and objects.
Architectural Disgest, October 2009 Just inside the front cover was a blaring, glaring, two-page spread from Ralph Lauren Home. The red-and-black bedroom was dark, over-decorated and over-pillowed. I counted eight pillows on the bed. Why would someone want or need eight pillows on the bed? My inclination was to shove them all out of the way. Layers upon layers of linens covered the bed and at least one, maybe two, oh-so-casually tossed coverlets were at the foot. Bedside tables were covered with stuff. (Where would I put the books I’m reading?) Ditto the walls. The focal point was a gigantic set of mounted moose horns hanging over the bed. Would you want to sleep in this bedroom?
Elle Décor, October 2009 Another stalwart of American shelter magazines is Elle Décor. It recently surpassed all others in this category and left some detritus in its wake, including Home and Garden. One featured living room was simply too much and too red. (Red must be an “in” color for interior design.) An ugly Lucite table was in the center of the room above which hung a strange light fixture fashioned of a bunch of silver balls. Another spread featured a “Media Room.” (I don’t have a Media Room. What am I thinking? I don’t even have a tv.) Although not red, this room was also dark and furnished in shades of blue and black. Cozy, huh? Another silver-ball light fixture hung over the whole mess.
Maisons Cote Ouest, Septembre 2009 On page 59 is a gorgeous dining room—warm, inviting and serene. The soft colors are derived from shades of cream and various wood tones. The well-worn, pine-planked floor is a lovely foil to the beamed ceiling which is painted off-white. Surrounding a simple pine table are alternating chairs of either cream-colored upholstery or handsome wicker. Along one wall is a beautiful cherry hutch—large and glass-fronted and filled with useful items such as dishes, crystal, serving pieces and liquor bottles. I would love to eat at this table.
And, at the end of the day, I could definitely sleep in the bedroom on page 52. The walls are soft apricot and the bed is simple but sophisticated. All the linens are crisp and white. Two (only two!) fluffy pillows are at the head and a thick duvet is invitingly rolled back.
Depending upon one’s bent, October in Minnesota heralds different activities—football games on Friday nights, grouse and duck and pheasant hunting, MEA weekend and Halloween. A highlight for me is a visit to an apple orchard.
Minnesotans are fortunate to be close to a world-renown, apple research effort. For more than 100 years, plant breeders at the U of M have been developing excellent, cold-hardy cultivars. Consider: Haralson (1922), Fireside (1943), State Fair (1977), Honeycrisp (1991), Zestar! (1999) and their newest introduction, Frostbite (2008).
Apples are delicious fresh from the fridge but also are irresistible when baked in crisps, crumbles and pies.
Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness. ~ Jane Austen
National Geographic October 2009 Redwoods: The Super Trees by Joel K. Bourne, Jr.
I loved this comprehensive, thoughtful, long (35 pages!) feature on a fascinating and amazing plant—the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). These trees can live 2,000 years and grow to 379 feet in height.
The story chronicles the trek that Mike Fay, a Wildlife Conservation Society biologist and National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, took in 2007 when he walked the length of the redwood’s range. It details the history of the redwood forestry industry and its key players: Pacific Lumber Company, Humboldt Redwood Company, Mendocino Redwood Company and Green Diamond Resource Company. And it presents several innovative ideas.
They can grow to be the tallest trees on Earth. They can produce lumber, support jobs, safeguard clear waters, and provide refuge for countless forest species.
If we let them.
…..
Perhaps the most amazing thing about redwoods is their ability to produce sprouts whenever the cambium—the living tissue just beneath the bark—is exposed to light. If the top breaks off or a limb gets sheared or the tree gets cut by a logger, a new branch will sprout from the wound and grow like crazy. Throughout the forest you can find tremendous stumps with cluster of second-generation trees, often called fairy rings, around their bases. These trees are all clones of the parent, and their DNA could be thousands of years old.
…..
…a tree’s annual rate of wood production increases with age for at least 1,500 years. More important, the older it gets, the more high-quality, rot-resistant heartwood it puts on.
…..
After walking through every kind of managed forest and talking to foresters on all sides of the issue, Mike Fay is convinced there’s a better way: Grow bigger trees, which can maximize wood production while providing good habitat. “You’ve got to start thinking about this as an ecosystem,” he says. “All these plantations might as well be growing corn. But if you want clean water, salmon, wildlife, and high-quality lumber, you’ve got to have a forest.”
.....
Some call this ecological forestry, in which the forest is managed to provided wildlife habitat and clean rivers as well as forestry jobs and wood products.
…..
Which means that along with high-quality wood, carbon storage, clean water, and wildlife habitat, ecological forestry can bring back another benefit for which redwoods are justly famous: utter awe.
The New York Times September 24, 2009 The Grass Is Greener at Harvard by Anne Raver
There is an underground revolution spreading across Harvard University this fall. It’s occurring under the soil and involves fungi, bacteria, microbes and roots, which are now fed with compost and compost tea rather than pesticides and synthetic nitrogen.
The results have so astounded university administrators that what started as a one-acre pilot project in Harvard Yard has spread organic practices through 25 acres on the campus.
…..
The organically grown grass on campus is now green from the microbes that feed the soil, eliminating the use of synthetic nitrogen, the base of most commercial fertilizers. No herbicides or pesticides are used, either. Roots reach eight inches into soil that was once so compacted the trees planted in it were dying.
Gardeners, horticulturists, botanists, foresters and naturalists should feel sick or heart-broken, or both, about the outbreak of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) across the Midwest and Upper Midwest. Minnesota’s 940 million ash trees will probably succumb. Sadly, this scenario has been played out in the past by different pests—Dutch Elm Disease, Chestnut Blight and Dogwood Anthracnose—and, no doubt, will be repeated in the future.
Unfortunately for wholesale and retail nurseries that have inventories, an ash is a poor choice for a new tree purchase. Unless Minnesota is extremely lucky and escapes the fate of many states to our east, all three species of our ash trees are targets and could die.
But because I’m a “glass is half-full” kind of person, let’s look at alternatives to ash trees. Here are my seven favorites.
Amur cherry (Prunus maackii) This is the only non-native tree on my list. It’s often overlooked but should be planted more often. I first saw one about 15 years ago at a peony nursery where I bought some ‘Freckles’ violets. The bark is a rich, bronze-cinnamon in color which exhibits a peeling look similar to River Birch. The foliage is fine-textured and turns a bright yellow in fall. If that’s not enough, white, cherry-like blossoms flower in spring and turn to blackish fruit in late summer. The tree is native to China and hardy to Zone 3.
Basswood (Tilia americana) Have loved this tree since a mature specimen graced my first garden and dwarfed our little white cottage. I’ll always remember the fragrant blossoms, friendly heart-shaped leaves and many suckers!
Late September finds most summer annuals looking a bit ragged around the edges and, really, who can blame them? For several months the plants have given their all—flowering and flourishing—despite the cooler-than-normal temperatures.
But there’s a time for everything and now it’s time to redo container gardens. Newly planted pots should last well into November and, perhaps, until Thanksgiving if we’re lucky.
In my column about a month ago I detailed more than 30 plants with outstanding fall features. With the exception of some tender annuals, all are terrific options for a fall container garden and, in addition, there is the bonus of using the plants later in the garden.
Listed below are additional design ideas for fall container gardens. Plant frost-tolerant herbs like thyme and rosemary. Consider small-sized woody trees and shrubs. Try an evergreen (also easily transitioned to a winter container garden). A lovely and graceful plant with bright foliage is ‘King’s Gold’ False Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘King’s Gold’). A distinctive accent is a grouping of berried branches. Look for rose hips, cranberrybush viburnum, crab apple (love the cultivars with golden fruit), bayberry, glossy black chokeberry or bittersweet which also can be curled artfully about the pots. Display containers with cornstalks, gourds or big, colorful pumpkins.
Late September finds most summer annuals looking a bit ragged around the edges and, really, who can blame them? For several months the plants have given their all—flowering and flourishing—despite the cooler-than-normal temperatures.
But there’s a time for everything and now it’s time to redo container gardens. Newly planted pots should last well into November and, perhaps, until Thanksgiving if we’re lucky.
In my column about a month ago I detailed more than 30 plants with outstanding fall features. With the exception of some tender annuals, all are terrific options for a fall container garden and, in addition, there is the bonus of using the plants later in the garden.
Listed below are additional design ideas for fall container gardens. Plant frost-tolerant herbs like thyme and rosemary. Consider small-sized woody trees and shrubs. Try an evergreen (also easily transitioned to a winter container garden). A lovely and graceful plant with bright foliage is ‘King’s Gold’ False Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘King’s Gold’). A distinctive accent is a grouping of berried branches. Look for rose hips, cranberrybush viburnum, crab apple (love the cultivars with golden fruit), bayberry, glossy black chokeberry or bittersweet which also can be curled artfully about the pots. Display containers with cornstalks, gourds or big, colorful pumpkins.
Light frost. Killing frost. Hard freeze. Confusing terms, aren’t they?
Technically, frost and freeze have different definitions but often, in the vernacular, are used interchangeably.
In the October/November 2009 issue of Horticulture magazine, Dr. Ed Brotak, a former meteorology professor, wrote, “Frost is the formation of white ice crystals on an exposed outside surface.” He continued, “The major concern is for the water inside the plant. If this water freezes, then plant tissue damage is possible, if not likely.” And while frost itself doesn’t harm plants it can be “a good warning sign that plant damage has occurred or may occur.”
Now that the terminology is clarified, what are important dates for our part of the country?
The best data I found is in an exhaustive report the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration compiled for 3,106 locations from 1951 – 1980. The report defines the various freezes as follows:
Light Freeze: 29 – 32. Tender plants killed with little destructive effect on other vegetation.
Moderate Freeze: 25 – 28. Widely destructive effect on most vegetation with heavy damage to fruit blossoms, tender and semi-hardy plants.
Severe Freeze: 24 or less. Heavy damage to most plants. The ground freezes solid with the depth of the frozen ground dependent on the duration and severity of the freeze, soil moisture and soil type.
Below is the chart for Hinckley with probability percentages for 36-, 32- and 28-degree temperatures. (I didn’t think it necessary to check microfiche for temperatures of 24, 20 and 16!) The probabilities for 36 are included because temperature readings are taken about 5’ above the ground and surface temperatures (i.e., where plant parts are) can be 4 – 8 degrees lower.
TEMPERATURE 10% PROBABILITY 50% PROBABILITY 90% PROBABILITY 36 Aug 23 Sep 8 Sep 23 32 Sep 9 Sep 19 Sep 29 28 Sep 15 Sep 28 Oct 10
While so far this has been a lovely September, clearly our warm days are numbered. Enjoy them while you can!
Some years I can’t bear to rip out a geranium or gorgeous coleus that grew faithfully for me all summer. Somehow it doesn’t seem fair. Instead of composting favorites this year, grab a pretty vase (I especially like antique aqua canning jars), fill with water and root cuttings.
It’s a breeze. Snip about 4” – 6” off the tip. Remove foliage that will be under water and place the jar in an east window or bright, indirect light. Soon, cute white roots will form and the cuttings can then be transplanted into small pots.
In addition to geraniums and coleus, try impatiens, fuchsias, wax begonias, annual vinca vines, lemon verbena, oregano and sage.
Early mornings find me on a routine walk with our Labrador and pointer. Normally as I round the west side of the pond, I admire the colors reflected on the surface of the water. Always there is the deep green of the aspen woods and, depending on the weather, various shades of blue and gray.
But on this crisp morning in early September, a frog jumped into the pond and startled me out of my usual reverie. I noticed a spider web. Then another spider web, then two more, then four more. Oh! I counted more than 30 spider webs, all things of exquisite beauty and artistry. The spiders used seed heads of bulrushes and bent-over cattail stalks for support. One web was strung horizontally and brought to mind a lovely, loosely knit hammock.
Each strand held dozens of bright drops of early morning dew. The light from the east struck it and made it all plain and clear. It was a perfect piece of designing and building. ~ Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White
If you want to be part of a miraculous feat of nature, take time now to design and implement a bulb garden. You’ll thank me next spring when those innocuous brown bulbs sprout and bloom—well before little else in the plant world has even broken dormancy.
Bulbs aren’t maintenance-free and will require work—both this fall and in ensuing seasons—but are unequivocally worth the effort.
Four steps will help ensure success.
# 1. Design the garden. Bulbs look terrific almost anywhere—along a fence, by the back door or as part of perennial gardens and borders—and best when used in mass. Single-color gardens can be very classy. Mixed colors are bright and cheerful or consider similar tints of different colors (all pastels or all deep colors). Plant in casual drifts, i.e., don’t use the tape measure to carefully plant in a straight line. Some gardeners gently toss bulbs onto the bed and plant where they land. Consider minor bulbs such as crocuses, muscaris, fritillarias, scillas and snowdrops in addition to the big three—hyacinths, tulips and daffodils.
#2. Buy the bulbs. Check out local greenhouse and nurseries or try two favorite catalog/online sources that have excellent quality and selection:Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com and White Flower Farm, www.whiteflowerfarm.com.
#3. Prepare the site. Choose a site in full sun with good drainage and amend soil with compost and well-aged manure. No additional fertilization is necessary.
#4. Plant the bulbs. When soil has cooled to about 60 degrees, dig hole and plant bulb. (For planting depths and spacing, please see entry below, Bulb planting information.) Water in well and continue to water if adequate rainfall isn’t received, about 1” per week, until the ground freezes. Apply mulch of loose organic material—straw, leaves or evergreen boughs—after the ground freezes.
No apologies to Michael Pollan are necessary for my recent indulgences of corn. None was grown on factory farms. None was processed by Cargill or ADM. In addition, none of these dishes contained high-fructose corn syrup or any other of the 11,250 products made from corn. Instead the only corn used was real corn.
Fried Cornbread. I fried thickly sliced, day-old, savory cornbread until crispy and crusty. Served with warm, real maple syrup and a handful of fresh blueberries, my breakfast was reminiscent of John Thorne, the Outlaw Cook.
Corn on the Cob. Freshly shucked ears of corn were boiled quickly and served with extra virgin olive oil for brushing and sea salt for dusting. While I adore butter and use it laviously on toast, caramel rolls and baked potatoes, the olive oil was lighter and allowed the full flavor of the corn to shine. (Thanks to Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s radio show, The Splendid Table, for the idea.)
Corn Salad. This room-temperature salad was made with corn cut fresh from the cob, finely diced red onion, zucchini and red pepper and dressed with a subtle vinaigrette.
Corn Pudding. I’m not normally a big pudding fan (not enough English blood, I guess!) but this was irresistible when I spied the generous servings—decorated with long pieces of chive—at a take-out place known for using local, organic ingredients.
Well, The New York Times is certainly on board with my Cocktail Garden notion. For the fourth time in almost as many months, the newspaper has featured another twist.
In the Shaken & Stirred column in the Sunday, August 30, 2009, edition, Jonathan Miles focused the use of tomatoes in cocktails.
…tomatoes…have all but exploded onto cocktail menus this summer, as bartenders increasingly embrace a philosophy, called “farm-to-bar,” in which fresh local produce plays as important a role as the liquor…The result is a slew of tomato-based cocktails that leave the Bloody Mary way, way behind.
Really great-sounding drinks are detailed, including Heirloom Tomato Mojitonico, Greekjito, El Pomodoro, Summer Crush and the Bloodless Mary made with tomato water, vodka, dry vermouth, lemon juice and hot sauce.
Death on Demand, by Carolyn G. Hart. This heroine lives in a treehouse on an island, owns a mystery bookstore and has a very cool boyfriend named Max Darling. What’s not to like?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling. My husband and I somehow missed the whole Harry Potter thing…shrugging it off as books for kids. Thanks to friend Jan, who is loaning us books and movies, we have started the series.
Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, by Wendy Johnson. Even though I didn’t care for the title, I pulled this book off the shelf at the bookstore to browse through. It intrigued me. Johnson works at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in California and is both a gardener and a Buddhist meditation teacher—a cool combination.
The Pat Conroy Cookbook, by Pat Conroy. Although best known for his novels that take place in the southeast, Conroy has been a cook and traveler. Recipes are included from Italy and France but the ones most appealing to me are home-style and southern: Smithfield Ham Spread, Vidalia Onion Dip, Shrimp Salad, Grits Casserole and Candied Bacon.
In our part of the country, we’re on the brink of a major change of season. Even though the autumnal equinox is several weeks out, the lowering angle of the sun and the sighting of scarlet foliage on maples and sumacs are harbingers.
Transitions can be tough, though, and this seasonal shift from summer to fall is the toughest for me. To know our days of warmth and sunshine are waning and many months of cold days and long nights loom ahead is daunting.
What’s a gardener to do? Buy plants, of course!
Let’s get the garden blazing this autumn by venturing beyond asters and ornamental kale, sedums and Russian sage. Let’s seek new, exciting plants—whether annuals, perennials or woody plants.
Listed below are favorite plants I’ve grown and some I’ve recently come across. As you’re rummaging about a far section of the nursery, no doubt you’ll discover others worth a try in your garden.
Part of my self-imposed job as Cocktail Garden Connoisseur is to keep abreast of developments in the Cocktail Garden arena from other sources. I seriously peruse magazines and newspapers and do rigorous field research at bars.
So I couldn’t miss the front page headline in the August 19, 2009, Dining & Wine section of The New York Times, “How to Sip a Flower Garden”. And if further enticement was necessary, the story was accompanied by a photograph of a pretty pink-and-green cocktail called The Hummingbird, made with gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice and seltzer and decorated with fresh flowers.
The writer, Laura M. Holson, wrote of flowers as ingredients in cocktails. She includes back stories and recipes for Lavender Mojito, The Hummingbird, Coming Up Roses and The Marea, an unusual concoction with preserved wild hibiscus flowers as both ingredient and adornment.
Holson then makes a point that was new and rather Michael Pollan-esque. “For many, the trend is another iteration of local food traveling from farm to table; if it tastes great on a plate, it is sure to please in a glass with ice and gin.” She quotes Scott Beattie, a former bar manager from California: “’People have more access to better products…Once you start tasting real flavor in cocktails, you don’t want to go back to cut melon balls.’”
Another idea for our Cocktail Garden comes from Melissa Clark, A Good Appetite columnist for The New York Times.
In the August 5, 2009, Dining & Wine section, Clark admitted to an obsession of cooking with flowers. She had previously used rose petals, lemon-scented geraniums, lavender, marigolds and violets in recipes and, this day, was experimenting with chamomile.
I could have steeped the chamomile directly in the gin. But that would take days to infuse and I was far too thirsty to wait. Instead I simmered together a simple syrup laced with chamomile blossoms, and stirred a few drops into my next gin and tonic. It made a slightly sweeter drink than usual, and with a delightful flavor that was aromatic, herbal and complex. ~ Melissa Clark, The New York Times
Let’s summarize the various manifestations of plants in cocktails. • fresh flowers, foliage or fruit muddled directly in the drink • fresh flowers, foliage or fruit infused into booze • fresh flowers, foliage or fruit decorating cocktail • a real tree, the swizzletree, as the swizzle stick
Plants as ingredients in cocktails. basil, Thai blueberries chamomile chilies cucumber hibiscus flowers (dried) lavender lemon verbena lemongrass mint rose petals rosemary sage strawberries sunflower petals tarragon thyme tomato watermelon
Plants to garnish cocktails. begonia, tuberous borage calendula chamomile chive chrysanthemum, garland daylily lavender marigold nasturtium rose sages, gentian, Pineapple, Honeydew Melon swizzlestick tree violet
In most areas of design—whether interior, architectural or landscape—an element of whimsy is essential. This element, or foil, can be in terms of color, size, shape or style.
In the garden, the best foils are funky, quirky, charming and make me smile.
Not every silly thing works, though. The cutout of the fat lady bending over and showing her petticoat is ridiculous. This year I have seen several attempts at whimsical garden art that do work: solar-powered dragonflies that, when the sun goes down, glimmer and shimmer in various bright colors; a yellow rubber duck that spouts water for a too-serious rock pile/water feature; and Mr. Flamingo, rescued from a garage sale, lording over the garden from his perch in the bird bath.
Previously I wrote about the incredible value of compost and various choices for compost bins. And even though composting can be as simple as a big pile of stuff left to decompose on its own, the ultimate goal should be to have excellent soil using sustainable means. One of the best practices is an active compost system.
Let’s discuss what to compost, preparing and maintaining the compost pile and, finally, what to do with it.
What to compost A compost pile needs carbon-supplying brown material and nitrogen-supplying green material in an approximate ratio of 10 - 25 parts brown material to 1 part green material. Listed below are suggested sources of brown and green materials.
Brown material • leaves. • pine needles and cones. • corn cobs and cornstalks. • dryer lint. • sawdust and wood shavings. • straw. • wood ashes from a wood-burning stove or fireplace.
Green material • garden refuse from deadheading, pinching, spent plants, thinned seedlings, annual weeds before they’ve gone to seed. • kitchen refuse including plant scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, ground-up egg shells. • manure from horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, ducks. • hair. • seaweeds and lake moss.
Don’t add these items to the compost pile. • dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt. • kitchen refuse such as fat, grease, oils, bones or from meat and fish. • diseased plant material. • annual weeds that have gone to seed or perennial weeds with sturdy root systems . • manure from cats, dogs, other carnivores. • coal or charcoal ashes. • grass clippings. (Leave clippings on the lawn to decompose en suite. They don’t cause thatch.) • newspaper and cardboard. (Recycle instead.) • lime (although can be controversial).
Preparing and maintaining the compost pile Since the objective is to provide the best environment for soil organisms such as insects, earthworms, bacteria and fungi to do their thing, let’s help them out. They like smaller-sized materials, moisture and oxygen.
Chop, shred or mow most of the materials so they are less than 2” in size. Keep some larger to provide adequate air space. Layer 8 – 10 inches of brown material and water until moist. Sprinkle a thin layer of green material. Repeat layers and watering.
Mix up or turn the compost pile once or twice a month with a pitchfork or shovel to blend the cooler outer edges with the warmer, active center.
Water the compost pile if adequate rainfall isn’t received. The contents should be damp but not soggy with a moisture content of 40-60%. Do the squeeze test. A handful of compost should feel like a well-rung-out sponge.
No additives or chemical fertilizers are necessary.
How to use compost If the above steps are followed, luscious compost should be ready in two – four months during warm weather. The pile should be about half the original height and be rich dark brown in color with a wonderful, earthy smell.
Finally, what to do with the compost? • Spread 2+ inches on all garden beds every fall. • Spread a thin layer on the lawn every fall. • Spread on or dig into new planting beds. • Spread several inches as mulch around newly planted trees, shrubs and vines. • Mix with potting soil for indoor and outdoor container gardens.
So get busy, gardeners. It’s not too late for this season. Get your compost together.
The New York Times August 9, 2009 You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster by Dan Barber
The 2009 gardening season saw an explosion of new gardeners who innocently and unfortunately helped spread a killer breakout of late blight that basically obliterated the tomato crop in the Northeast.
According to plant pathologists, this killer round of blight began with a widespread infiltration of the disease in tomato starter plants. Large retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, Lower’s and Wal-Mart bought starter plants from industrial breeding operations in the South and distributed them throughout the Northeast. Once those infected starter plants arrived at the stores, they were purchase and planted, transferring their pathogens like tiny Trojan horses into backyard and community gardens.
There’s another lesson for the home gardener. When you start a garden, no matter how small, you become part of an agricultural network that binds you to other farmers and gardeners….As we begin to grow more of our own food, we need to reacquaint ourselves with plant pathology and understand that what we grow, and how we grow it, affects everyone else.
Is it just me or is anyone else tired of the bright magenta/lime green combination in container gardens, window boxes and garden beds? What was once fresh and vibrant is now boring. And when the plantings around MacDonald’s are magenta and lime green, it’s really over.
Now I’m liking orange. Orange is a bright and happy color and is so casual, so plebian.
Orange tuberous begonias (Begonia x tuberhbrida) are growing cheerfully on my covered porch. Orange impatiens (Impatiens ‘Super Elfin Mix’) are part of a bright hanging basket on a rusty iron hanger. A goldfish plant (Nematanthus gregarious) is blooming away with cute, orange fish-shaped flowers on the screen porch. I’m even choosing an orange coffee mug these days.
Orange facts Orange is a secondary color made by mixing the primary colors yellow and red. The complementary color to orange is blue. Violet and green are split complementary colors to orange. Analogous colors which are next to orange on a color wheel are red-orange and yellow-orange. Orange is a warm color and foreshortens spaces with advancing qualities. Orange is an evergreen tree of the genus Citrus, native to subtopical regions. Orange is the fruit of an orange tree. A popular Citrus hybrid is Calamondin Orange (. X Citrofortunella mitis), sold extensively as an indoor container plant. Plants with orange in their names include Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) due to its fruit and Mock Orange (Philadelphus spp.) due to the fragrance of its flowers.
Designing with orange Let the color wheel be your guide. Be careful, though, as orange can look harsh and vulgar. Always consider the color of the background whether brick (red brick and orange can be ghastly!), stone, walls or fences.
Orange looks rich and deep when paired with its complementary colors. Imagine a daylily border of reds, yellows and oranges. Orange flowers are perfect foils when combined with their complement, blue, or their split complement colors of violet and green.
Penelope Hobhouse, the quintessential English garden designer, described one of her borders: “At Hidcote, scarlet dahlias, red fuchsias and orange-buff hemeorcallis (daylily) blend together, while the dark leaves of Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’ and Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’ in the front…..serve as catalysts. Grassy miscanthus contributes more airy effects.”
Orange flowers and fruits Many flowers are available in orange: tulips, poppies, nasturtiums, zinnias, lantanas, begonias, impatiens including the vibrant cultivar ‘Bonfire’, lilies of all kinds, butterfly weed, dahlias, cannas and glads. Orange fruits add pizzaz to the landscape: bittersweet, mountain ash, some crabapples.
Finally… Just as orange is a nice foil in garden design, orange food looks wonderful on a plate as do orange drinks in a glass. I often top a green salad with thin slices of orange bell peppers. A perfect autumn meal combines roast turkey and orange sweet potatoes or orange squash. And a sparkling flute of orange juice and champagne is divine for a celebratory brunch.
Sure, nurseries stock and catalogs tout the latest and greatest in perennial plant cultivars but there always should be space in the garden for a few old-fashioned favorites. Among the best are hollyhocks.
Hollyhocks (Althea rosea) are biennials, officially, but can live many years under favorable conditions. Their tall stature, 6 - 8’ in height, is evocative of cottage-y gardens, especially when planted in the back of the perennial border or near the faded side of a barn. Even the common name, hollyhocks, is delightful.
Oh, I just love hollyhocks, but only the singles, mind you—I won’t look twice at the doubles. My favorites are still the melon-colored seedlings. ~ Tasha Tudor
This might seem like lots of books to have on a bedside table but two are from the library and one is on loan from my sister.
A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. This is a classic piece and I should just break down and buy my own copy. Leopold’s descriptions of the male woodcock sky dance and an oak tree are masterful. “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.”
Bogtrotter, by Richard A. Coffey. Little did I know we had a star living in our midst! Coffey, the husband of our wonderful librarian, Jeanne, wrote a book about one year when they lived in a rustic cabin on the edge of the bog. This is a very well done story, heart-warming and so evocative of our area.
Crewel World, by Monica Ferris. My sister, Barbara, and I are avid murder mystery readers but she usually one-ups me when it comes to new, good series. This book is enjoyable for many reasons: easy reading; the setting is Excelsior which also means many Minnesota references; the heroine is named Betsy.
‘wichcraft, by Tom Colicchio with Sisha Ortuzar. Sandwiches are a big thing in our house—we even christened Sunday evening as Sandwich Night. And while I have many, many recipes for fabulous sandwiches, including several from a favorite, Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book, one can never have too many cookbooks.
Wildflowers of the Boundary Waters, by Betty Vos Hemstad. I bought this book from Lonnie at Burntside Lodge when my husband and I recently stayed at their amazing place outside Ely. Lonnie is an extremely talented gardener and had stocked this newly published book. What an excellent resource! Vos Hemstad presents the plants in chronological order of bloom and includes photographs, in addition to the ubiquitous flower photos, of foliage, fruit and the entire plant as seen in the wild.
Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, by Debra Prinzing. One of my 2009 garden trends predictions was the notion of potting sheds, or garden sheds, not only as a place to store one’s gardening paraphernalia but, as Virginia Woolf so aptly phrased it, “A Room of One’s Own.” A stylish garden shed is definitely on my dream list.
Books The Complete Book of Composting, J.I. Rodale. The Garden Primer, by Barbara Damrosch
Catalogs FarmTek, 800-327-6835, a big, fat, wonderful catalog for all things horticultural and agricultural. Gardener’s Supply Company, 800-427-3363, www.gardeners.com, very nice catalog that stocks my favorite garden plant markers and my latest fun purchase, spiral plant supports made of brightly painted, heavy-duty steel.
After a brief struggle with logistics—I was 750 miles from my home in Minnesota and we were staying in a rental home and the thing was big and heavy—I bought it.
Dead Silence, by Randy Wayne White. This latest in the Doc Ford series was published in 2009 and I picked up a hardback copy at the bargain table for the price of a paperback. Besides the regular cast of characters of Doc Ford and Tomlinson and the enviable location of Dinkin’s Bay off Sanibel Island, Florida, White created an intriguing and forceful young hero with a Minnesota connection. Will Chaser is a 15-year-old who had been living on a reservation in Seminole County, Oklahoma, until he was moved north to Minnesota. Will “had done some dumb things. He’d been kicked out of three schools and arrested twice. Math was weak, his spelling worse. But he wasn’t stupid. Ever.”
Today continues the series I introduced on January 11, 2010, when I proposed a paradigm shift vis-à-vis gardeners and winter—the Indoor Garden. This new notion takes aspects of outdoor gardening and moves them inside.
Tout Sweet, subtitled Hanging up my High Heels for a New Life in France, by Karen Wheeler. A fashion writer abandons her glamorous London life and buys a fixer-upper in rural France. The concept is appealing but the follow-through is a little too fluffy and predictable, even for me.
Autumn and cool weather signify final chores in the garden. This time of year also brings out the hunting and gathering instincts that must be part of our genetic code. I feel positively squirrel-ish as I rush around gathering armfuls of luscious, colorful branches for one huge, finale of a bouquet. Somehow, I need to capture part of the natural abundance—before the inevitable denouement—and bring it inside.
Sure, nurseries stock and catalogs tout the latest and greatest in perennial plant cultivars but there always should be space in the garden for a few old-fashioned favorites. Among the best are hollyhocks.
