The Quiet Garden

Coxcomb

The garden is quiet now. No bees or butterflies at work. The finches have eaten all the echinacea seeds from the seed heads. The frosts have made the gardens droop and the monochromatic colors are shadows of what they were last week...but it makes me smile because it's time to clean up and plan next years garden.

Now, because we use perennials and annuals every year the garden can be different. This year for summer and fall the front of one of the gardens was purple, blue, yellow and orange. I liked it a lot and it gave me pleasure everyday to look at it. It's funny: I actually had meant to put a coxcomb in that area that was a sunset orange color called Temple Bells, but I misunderstood George when he told me where they were in the greenhouse and put in HUGE red-velvet looking coxcombs instead. That was not in my orange/purple plan at all. When I could tell which way the wind was blowing concerning their color it was too late to pull them out so they stayed and, surprise, everyone loved them. I would try to explain the error but no one seemed to care much and took lots of pictures anyway. The other side of the garden got the temple bells a few weeks later when I figured out the color thing, and somehow that just didn't work as well. Actually, I think it was the time difference. But what I thought of as a big mistake (big RED coxcombs), everyone else thought was genius.  Sometimes good things in a garden just happen despite my best efforts.

Getting back to next year... I went into a friend's art gallery and she had a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the checkout table. I immediately thought, "That is what I want to do in the garden next year." It was all different shades of reds and oranges with touches of chartreuse thrown in. Very rich colors, very beautiful for a garden.

I will happily do my clean-up chores thinking of next year and my new attempt at a planned color garden:   pinks, oranges, double apricot, white, and deep red. Can't wait. Until next year.

Progress in the Dog Days of Summer

Ruthie

I see the moon and the moon sees me. God bless the moon and God bless me (and you as well).

Tonight as I was watering the garden up by our sign at the entrance of the property I had the most incredible view of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the fading pink twilight (and they don't call them "Blue" for nothing). The mountains were in front of me and the full moon, as big as a pumpkin and just about as orange, rose in the slate-blue sky behind me. I couldn't believe that all that could really exist on one night in mid-August in 2008. I just stood there with the hose in my hand and laughed at how majestic and beautiful Virginia is. It has been a great season for us (and as the full parking lot today attests, it still is).

So much is happening:

First, George is putting in a rain garden behind the greenhouses.  I call it the big dig. It's going to be fabulous when the planting is done...but for now it looks like several big holes in the ground connected to each other by smaller holes. We are going to be on the Culpeper Harvest Days Farm Tour the first weekend in October, so I'm betting the rain garden will be done by then. along with a wine tasting that Saturday, and are slowly pulling the gardens together to look their fall best.

Also, we finally got back to my original garden and have cleaned out the weeds and cut back some of the over-grown perennials. Time to do some serious picking and choosing in that garden, it is in it's 8th year and definitely needs some work. The tree peonies that a friend raised from seed, and were a gift to me so long ago, produced seedlings this spring. We will be digging them this fall and transplanting them into 2 1/2" pots. I have no idea how fast or slow they will be so that is a new frontier, who knew?

George and I were talking as we do at the end of a growing season about perennials that really worked and I thought I would tell you about two of them.

Catmint 'Joanna Reed'
This is the second year we have had this plant and it is a standout in my garden. It has silvery-green foliage with blue/violet blooms. It stands 12 - 16" tall and has a very long bloom time. I cut this back mid summer after it's first bloom and it's re-blooming now in the garden.

Herniaria Glabra

Herniaria Glabra
Also called Irish Moss or  "Green Carpet," it is a lovely ground cover for full sun to part shade that I also put in my garden this year. It is a beautiful soft green mat that stands up to some foot traffic and spreads to about 2 feet and has one single tap root that help with water conservation.

And there were many more. We had success with so many that George did from seed this year that it would take pages to write about them all. Now that I have more time I will include a few every time I write so as not to overwhelm anyone.

More later, and happy planting.

Garden Pigs: Worth the Oinking

The sun is moving higher in it's arc across the sky and that's good news for us gardeners. My own gardening time is limited now, but as I walk by the garden my mind is at work. What can I do with the half hour I have to share with my garden today? Some of the plants in my garden are plants that I call garden pigs. Plants that, years ago when we first made the garden, were just right for the place we put them are now, 6 years on, all over the place. Their piggy behavior, while tolerated when I had more time to garden, is just too much for me these days.

These piggy garden thugs are creeping all over the garden and I think the oinkers have to go. My beautiful summer garden phlox that I love are coming up everywhere, seeding and spreading out like they own the place. Euphorbia, lamium, and those great old garden mums are also popping up in any open space they can colonize. My daylily bed, already thinned just 2 years ago, is just too much daylily again. Now that I think of it the whole garden is just out of control!

The solution is obvious: start a new garden. Learn the lesson from my old over-grown garden and plant picky perennials. You know, plants I have to nurture and fuss over. These plants will not spread everywhere, they will have to be coaxed to grow. Never mind that they will look sickly and pale; at least they won't be taking over. Hm.

You know, on second thought,  I really do like those piggy plants. They are some of my favorites, and I like working in my garden even if it means ripping out buckets of spreading plants. So I guess in the end I will stick to the good news about the sun getting higher and tomorrow morning go out and enjoy the spring sunshine in the garden with a few extra buckets.

The Peeper Frogs are Back

The wind is rattling the windows; spring is closing in.  Another way I can tell is that our greenhouses are full to bursting, with no where to put another plant.  We only have so many covered greenhouses or heaters to go in them.  Our friends Hilda and Clara, who come every year to help us "pot up," came in February and then again last week.  This time they brought another friend, Helen, who along with everyone else poked holes in pots filled with potting mix and filled them in with small plants.  At this time of the year they grow so fast, it is one of our spring miracles. 

We are going to have so many new plants this year.  I can't wait to see two new achilleas we have gotten (achillieas are also called "yarrows"). One is called "Apricot Delight" which is  apricot colors fading to soft peach, very fruity. The other is "Pomegranate" also fruity with a deep red coloring almost like, you guessed it, a pomegranate.  I couldn't resist them, achilleas are drought tolerant, beautiful, and low maintenance (OK: well-drained, full sun low maintenance).  We will also have the vibrant heuchera villosa hybrids "Caramel," "Christa," "Citronelle," and "Miracle" just to name a few. These are the colors of yellow-orange, rose-purple, and citron yellow, among others.

We have two tree paeonias this year: one is red and the other is wisteria blue.  If you've never seen a tree paeonia, it is an amazing little shrub with huge tissue-paper flowers.  I've heard that in China there is one that is a thousand years old.  People will just sit and contemplate it when it is in bloom.  They are definitely a long term plant. Well, I could go on and on about all the new plants, but I'm thinking you will just have to visit. Trav has posted our events and happening, and if I can manage a few more I will let you know. I love that the peeper frogs are enjoying these warm evenings.  I opened the window just so I could hear their serenade as I wrote this. Yes, it's spring.

Here She Comes

The days are getting longer.  It's six in the evening and the sky has a few pink patches off to the west, a hopeful sign of lengthening days.  We have so many seedlings coming along.  They are being well-tended by George and myself (OK mostly by George).  We are starting to take herb cuttings and perennial cuttings.  For us spring is just around the corner and there never seems to be  enough time to get the seedlings up, but before I know it they are big and strong, ready for their next assignment which is getting big enough to sell to you all.  So much care and attention goes into them and I think my little green leafy brothers and sisters know who loves them and they thrive. 

We put a new garden in at the road under our Morningside sign.  It went in when most of the plants were dormant, or at least not much top growth.  I tried to choose some that have a winter profile such as Heuchera  'Amethyst Mist', Geranium 'Karmina', Dianthus 'Heart Attack' and others. It will be exciting for us to see just what it does really look like by late spring; it may be a total disaster. Gardens can be that way.  Sometimes  I think this group of plants will look great together and that I have the golden garden touch, other times I'm not sure.  We will see which way it goes, thumbs up or down.

Work is ongoing in the other gardens.  My old first garden is going to get a revamp.  So much needs to be divided and rearranged, new plants taken for a test drive pushing the envelope on zone and sun or shade tolerance. Redoing a garden is like going shopping for a new wardrobe without worrying if I have gained weight over the winter!

We have left so many of the grasses and tall perennials standing in the gardens, and I do so enjoy the winter garden, in it's own way, almost as much as the other seasons. Everything is starting to get a little ratty by now, though, and it's almost time to cut them down.  Another turning of a season.

Welcome back, Spring.