My #1 rule for gardening outdoors is simple but powerful: plant the right plant in the right spot.
My #1 rule for indoor gardening is similar: put the right plant in the right spot. Since most cultural needs—soil, moisture, fertilizer and insect and disease control—are met by the gardener, 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 (oblong iron, contemporary rectangular tin with handles on each side and a vintage green wooden with arched metal handle) 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 of this column 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 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, dig hole and plant bulb. (For planting depths and spacing, please go to Just the Facts, Ma’am.) 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.
Ready for some mind-numbing numbers? Each household produces an average of 700 lbs. of yard and food waste per year, which makes up 30 – 35% of materials going to landfills. Wow.
On the flip side, composting removes those products from the waste stream, allows them to go through the natural process of decomposition which results in the perfect soil amendment.
What a win-win-win situation.
What is compost? Composting is the transformation of various garden and kitchen waste into a humus-like soil amendment, basically mimicking the natural decaying process that occurs in fields and forests. The process relies on soil organisms such as insects, earthworms, bacteria and fungi to do the decomposing.
Why compost? As a finished product, compost is spread on all parts of the landscape and, from a gardener’s point of view, provides huge benefits. Compost: • increases organic matter in the soil • supplies essential plant nutrients (no need for fertilizers) • improves physical properties of the soil • acts as a mulch • can reduce weed problems • is free
How to compost? Composting can be as simple and easy as one big pile of stuff left alone to decompose in its own good time. As with any project, though, the more one ponders the desired outcome and noodles the options, the more complicated it becomes.
Efficient decomposition involves having the best environment for microorganisms to do their thing. There are four components to consider. • Aeration: Microbes need oxygen from air space in the pile to work. Air space is generally determined by size of the compost materials. • Moisture: Microbes need water to work. If adequate rainfall isn’t received, supplemental watering is necessary. The compost pile should be damp but not soggy with a moisture content of 40-60%. • Material Size: Microbes work most efficiently with smaller size materials. Chop, shred or mow materials so they are less than 2” in size but keep some larger to provide adequate air space. • Temperature: When microorganisms work, heat is generated to 90 – 140 degrees. During winter months, decomposing will occur, although at a slower rate.
Compost bins As mentioned previously, composting can mean just a pile of stuff but better results will be achieved with some sort of structure. Carefully gathered materials could blow away which makes for a messy landscape. More importantly, perhaps, microbial activity will be faster and more thorough when waste materials are confined.
Several options—both homemade and ready-made—are available for compost bins. • bricks or concrete blocks laid without mortar • stacked straw bales • horizontal or vertical wooden boards • heavy-duty wire fencing or snow fencing shaped in either a circle fastened with chain clips or a rectangle supported by steel or wood stakes • 55-gallon drum drilled with holes
My favorite scheme is a three-bin affair made with steel fence posts at the corners and wire for the sides. The first bin is a holding area for new items like kitchen scraps and deadheaded flowers from the perennial garden. The second bin is the actual site of decomposition and the third bin is the finished product ready to shovel out and spread on the garden.
When locating a compost bin, choose a spot that gets plenty of sun but is protected from strong winds. The area should be relatively handy for both adding to and removing from the compost bin. If possible, the location should be reachable by hose.
Ok people, we are on to something here with this Cocktail Garden idea.
Right up there with Vita Sackville-West’s White Garden and Monet’s Giverny, I proposed on June 16, 2009, that the Cocktail Garden is worthy of eminent theme garden status. Even The New York Times has since chimed in with a story on June 24.
Now two more publications are trying to get in on the action.
Newsweek (Thank you, Jan, for sharing this story.) recently devoted its Food page to “Garden Variety” cocktails. The writer, Julia Reed, quoted several sources including “master mixologist” Dale DeGroff, Brooklyn’s Clover Club and an “exotic-drink book”, The Gentleman’s Companion, by Charles H. Baker Jr.
Among Reed’s cocktail offerings: • Thai daiquiri using lemongrass-infused simple syrup • Pimm’s Cup using fresh cucumber • Bloody Mary made with fresh heirloom tomato juice • Mojitos flavored with watermelon, strawberries and rose petals • Simple syrups flavored with thyme, lavender and basil
A new Fine Gardening special publication, Grow, is featuring edible flowers. Wonderful! We keep adding to our list of flowers which are strictly, let’s be clear about this, to float in cocktails. So far our list includes nasturtiums, pansies, borage, roses, chamomile, marigold and daylily. Now, according to the author John Bray, the list continues with: • Tuberous Begonia, Begonia cvs. • Tuberous Nasturtium, Tropaelum tuberosum • Calendula, Calendula officinalis • specific sages such as gentian (Salvia patens), Pineapple and ‘Honeydew Melon’ (S. elegans ccvs.) • Garland Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum coronarium
In honor of these delicious-sounding drinks and embellishments, my husband and I created Cocktail Night. Each Saturday evening we will taste-test a new drink upon which we’ll float an edible flower. Watch this space for reviews.
The pastures and fields and roadsides in our area are ablaze with wildflowers. Unlike the lower-growing spring ephemerals, these wildflowers of summer are tall and graceful and appear, in addition to white, in all colors of the spectrum—from pink, orange and yellow to blue and purple.
In the past few days, I’ve identified 30 species, both native and introduced.
How rewarding is tending a fruit, vegetable and herb garden?
A batch of basil pesto mixed into good linguine is worth those spring hours planning and designing the garden. A platter of steaming corn on the cob is surely worth the soil test and soil amendments. The quintessential summer sandwich—the BLT—piled with thick slices of tomatoes is undeniably worth planting those tiny seedlings.
And, big bowls of fresh raspberries every morning are absolutely worth daily maintenance chores.
Apart from jam-making, it would be a crime to cook raspberries. Eat them raw, with or without sugar, with cream or crème fraiche, flavored with a little liqueur, if you like. ~James Beard
Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson. This book appealed to me for many reasons. It was written by a Norwegian who moves to a remote cabin to live a simple life away from people: “All my life I have longed to be alone in a place like this.” It was awarded “One of the 10 Best Books of the Year” by The New York Times Book Review. Petterson’s prose is, at once, clear, direct and lyrical. His characters are wonderfully and subtly drawn and his story, compelling. I love this book.
Ninety-two in the Shade, by Thomas McGuane. While I have read and loved two of McGuane’s nonfiction books, Some Horses and An Outside Chance, I had never read his fiction. I have always been partial to McGuane for several reasons: he is a fellow graduate of Michigan State University; he is a pal of Jim Harrison, one of my all-time favorite writers; and he is a hunter and dog lover with a preference for pointers.
Designer Plant Combinations, by Scott Calhoun. How lucky for me to have chosen Burntside Lodge outside Ely, Minnesota, as our vacation spot. Even luckier was the recognition of and connection to a fellow plant lover when I first contacted Burntside Lodge about reservations and ended up talking to Lonnie, the owner, for almost an hour. My husband, Jerry, and I are now happily settled into vacation life and spend our days looking at the lake, watching boat traffic through the channel, talking and reading. Even though I had brought a stack of books, magazines and newspapers, I couldn’t resist another when Lonnie shoved this book across the wooden counter in the lodge. Calhoun presents vignettes from more than 100 gardens using no more than six plants and, judging by the notes I took, many are sensational.
The New York Times Country Weekend Cookbook, edited by Linda Amster. This compilation is full of delicious-sounding and easy-to-make-on-a-weekend recipes. Nothing hoity-toity here. Some marked for trial include Tuna Pan Bagna, Chicken Salad with Grapes and Toasted Nuts, Hot Blueberries, Pleasant Pasta with Peas, Parmesan and Prosciutto by James Beard, Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream Omelet by Craig Claiborne, Tacos by Mark Bittman and Roasted Cauliflower with Lemons, Capers and Olives by Mario Batali.
July is a wonderful month in Minnesota. Summer has settled in and many take advantage of the gorgeous weather and head to lakes and cabins for their particular form of R&R.
Many area farmers markets will open for the season in July. In addition, July is the premier month for garden tours that are usually hosted by local clubs and organizations as fund-raisers. Both are not to be missed.
In the garden, high summer can still mean lots of work, especially if vegetable, fruit and herb gardens are part of the landscape. Weeding, watering and harvesting continue to be daily chores. In the perennial garden, though, July offers a different sort of opportunity. Much of the frenetic planting and dividing were completed in spring or now must until fall, so what’s a gardener to do? Make time to find that bench or chair and, with a tall glass of something cool to sip, rest and relax.
Others agree.
Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~ Henry James
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~ Sam Keen
I have news about my theme garden nominee, The Cocktail Garden. The notion certainly resonated with people around the region as I heard from several readers. And I’ve since read stories in two disparate publications that support my premise.
The current issue of Northern Gardener (July/August 2009) magazine includes a feature about edible flowers by Meleah Maynard. In addition to nasturtiums, pansies, and lavender, Maynard mentions borage, roses, chamomile, marigold and daylily as edible flowers—and, therefore, according to my theme, as candidates for floating in drinks.
On June 24, 2009, The New York Times included a special Summer Drinks Issue. Not only were there were wonderful stories about root beer and real beer, frozen drinks and cola drinks, but several recipes called for using plants like mints, chilies, blueberries and Thai basil in cocktails.
But the coolest story was by Robert Simonson who wrote about swizzle sticks and not “one of those colorful plastic doohickeys.” These swizzle sticks are actual parts of an actual tree called the swizzlestick tree (Quararibea turbinata), which is native to the Caribbean.
Simonson describes the swizzle stick: “The sticks are about six inches, with small prongs sticking out at the end, like the spokes of a wheel without the rim, and they are used as a kind of natural, manually operated Mixmaster.”
Bartenders use the swizzle stick to mix drinks instead of old-fashioned methods like shaking and stirring. Doesn’t a Bermuda Swizzle or Barbados Red Rum Swizzle, made and served with a real swizzlestick, sound enticing?
Garden tours are excellent excuses to get together with friends and share a day of (what could be better?) looking at plants and flowers.
The 9th Annual Garden Tour and Brunch, hosted by the Kanabec History Center and with help from the Town and Country Garden Club in Mora, will be held on Saturday, July 18. Brunch will be served from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. and five gardens will be open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. In addition, area artists will be situated in each location as part of an “Arts in the Gardens” feature.
For further information, contact the Kanabec History Center, 320-679-1665.
Since 2003, the Buds ‘N Blooms Garden Club in Pine City has hosted a similar sort of garden tour with brunch and artists in the gardens. But this year, due to lack of gardens, the tour is cancelled. The club has plans for 2010 but needs two more gardens. If you know of a garden that could be included, contact Karen Gross, 320-396-3555.
Area farmers markets are opening soon for the season…very exciting! Farmers markets are the perfect venue to support local farmers and producers and to have to access to fresh, seasonal goods. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, honey, flowers, maple syrup, eggs, jam, chutneys, salsa and hot-from-the-oven bakery products are usually available.
The Sandstone Area Farmers Market opens on Saturday, July 18, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in downtown Sandstone. For further information, contact Clarissa Ellis-Prudhomme or Rigel Byrum-Ridge, 320-245-2589.
Pine City’s Farmers Market in the Park will open for the season on Friday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Robinson Park. New this year, the market will also be open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon beginning July 25. For further information, contact Jennifer Peterson, 320-629-2664.
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.
