~Grandmother Never Bought a Plant~
I suppose that is not literally true since in the beginning she bought vegetables and fruits for eating and then used their seeds to start plants.
Grandmother's garden was filled with many plants--I wish I could remember all of them--including Sweet Gum, Peach, Fig, Weeping Willow, and Magnolia trees; white and blue Hydrangeas, Azaleas, various Roses, Bleeding Hearts, Ferns, Periwinkle; Weigelia, Privet, and Barberry shrubs; succulents, and a vegetable garden.
Grandmother's garden was developed from "found" items, so to speak. My grandmother knew that plants could be started from the seeds they produced (no sterile hybrids for her). She also exchanged plants and cuttings with her neighbors. If she liked a plant, she made as many as she wanted from cuttings or seeds. Her neighborhood was filled with open fields (nowadays, almost gone for the rest of us), and these areas were great places to find plants.
Obviously, one of the things my grandmother brought to this garden and learned from it--was patience. In this era of instant gratification, we forget that good things are worth the wait, that patience really is a virtue, and that there is nothing wrong with frugality, either!
~Biographies~
*My grandmother started me down the garden path and Gertrude and Jim push me along. I do know that while all my mentors are deceased, I hear their voices loud and clear -- know the environment in which you want to garden, gardening is hard work, gardens take time to develop, start plants from cuttings, and that nature is not always on our side. In other words, be realistic, be frugal, and have patience.
*Gertrude Jekyll (1843 - 1932; photogragh from her book: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden) has had the most pronounced influence on English and American gardening. She studied the landscape and designed flower borders, woodlands, and specimen tree and shrubery placement with regard to color, vista, soil, and year-round pleasure. Gertrude Jekyll approached the garden as a canvas. It has been said that Monet planted his gardens to paint them while Gertrude Jekyll's garden was the painting.
*James Underwood Crockett (1915 - 1979; photograph from his book: Crockett's Victory Garden) was the original host of PBS's The Victory Garden, then called Crockett's Victory Garden. I was fortunate to see his weekly shows. He showed that while gardening was work, it was also enjoyable with great rewards. While reading gardening books is informative, it was great to see and hear a gardener in action and see the results. It was good for morale! Jim made a statement on a show about asters that has become famous in my family because not only does it apply to gardening -- it applies to many things in life: Life is too short to stake asters.
*Painting of a child who reminds me of myself and grandmother in her garden: Monet - The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil.
~Gardening in Connecticut~
The Ice Age was not a good thing for gardeners in this area. On its march to Long Island and the sea, the glacier removed the soil down the bedrock and then when it melted, it dropped terminal moraine (rocks) in its wake -- except for southern Long Island where it was nice enough to deposit a glacial outwash plain (sand).
My family gardened on Long Island. When I moved to Connecticut and wanted to garden, I bought a shovel. What did I know? Quickly after that, my husband bought a pick axe.
Gardening here means "digging" out rocks and then going off to buy a truckload of topsoil--and while you are at it: sharp (not play or all-purpose) sand, and a ton of peat moss--to fill in the holes so that your plants may live long and prosper.
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Don't tread on me!
One of the articles in the current Fine Gardening eLetter talks about"to rototill or not to rototill". It reminded me of when we decided to landscape this property and discovered that we had very little topsoil and mostly clay, and rocks from pebbles to boulders. We immediately bought a Troy-Built Horse size rototiller. We never regretted the purchase since without it, we would have no gardens and no lawn. In fact, this year when we decided to resusitate our property, Tillie went to work again. (I named the tiller Tillie the Toiler, and toil she did!)
I remember reading back then about not overtilling the soil -- just get it usable and then keep it in good shape. We bought tons of peat moss, topsoil, and lots and lots of earthworms! I think the earthworm purchase was another brilliant idea. (By the way, another reason not to repeatedly till the soil is that you may "chop up" your earthworms!) As we are turning over the soil (I use my favorite tool-- spading fork) this year, I see lots of big, fat earthworms -- it is a wonderful site. One of the ways to keep the soil is good shape is not to walk on it! Now this is not for lawns and play areas, but for gardens. I remember learning a good way from the "Square Foot Gardener" Mel Bartholomew. I was into vegetable gardening at the time and he had a fantastic system for intensive gardening. (I used it and I had almost more produce than I could use.) He said never, never walk on your garden soil, and offered that you should put stepping stones in any garden that needed to be tended from within. The author of the current article says the same thing, showing that good ideas stay around forever--the previous generation teaching the current.
I enjoyed the eLetter article.
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