Well , 85 degrees today with higher tomorrow! May have some thundershowers tonight--but I may water anyway--this weather never really knows what it wants to do!
Spotted the first woodchuck and saw a few plants (thankfully just a couple) where it ate some new growth. I put some chicken wire fencing around the plants until I figure out how to discourage the horror. Gardening with wildlife (at least the animal kind) is a misnomer; you can only garden "for" them, not "with" them--they don't share!
I don't think it lives on my property-- just comes for a while and eats and hides under my gazebo. I guess I should tack wire to the base going into the ground.
Fortunately, my gardening helper is here again this summer (from Guatemala). He is doing a lot of cleaning up and neatening after our weird winter and spring. He is very good with plants and is a hard worker; thank heavens, since this property needs lots of work. We have finally gotten to the point that, if it rains, we can walk in the yard and not sink into mud.
I have started to make sun charts for the summer perennial border. We took down some trees and cleared out some areas, and the remaining trees have grown much since we moved here. I do not think that the sun charts I made so many years age (assuming I could find them) would be of much use. It looks like my summer border will not be in full sun but almost sunny and the border that will be the shrub border will be in full sun. I had not expected quite that.
I am also starting my almost daily regimen of a light spray of Miracle-Gro on the plants. I also lightly fertilized the border with 10-10-10, and have been trying to finish wood-chip mulching the border, also.
I am letting a lot of "weeds" grow around the property, just in case they may be "escapees" from my garden of many years ago. In a couple of weeks though, I will start making decisions as to whether they get moved into the border or get mowed down.
I was introduced to gardening by my maternal grandmother Giuditta, and in her garden I spent the most idyllic days of my childhood. By the time I grew up and wanted a garden of my own, I had to find substitute grandmothers. I found Gertrude Jekyll and Jim Crockett. Through their words and with my memories, I am attempting to create another idyllic garden.
Down the garden path ...
...and strolling through a garden of memories
~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!
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!
~Gertrude Jekyll, Jim Crockett, Grandmother, & I~
~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.
*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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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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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
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My boss has a beautiful Hosta garden on a large piece of land. He is a shade gardener. I did my sons senior pictures last year there, and he has a lot of weddings and events in his yard. It just amazes me how much work it is to keep things looking great. Things that I thought were weeds were some special plants. He does not want me help weeding his garden! I think he has some books about him and his hostas - Jim Wilkins. Such a neat man with a great hobby
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