Longwood Gardens

Two things happened special this week.  One, I took my son Travis back to South Carolina to see where he lives and meet his new friends.  We also went to the botanical garden and visited the zoo.  Always fun with our children no matter what age.  And Two, George and I went to a green roof conference in Philadelphia.  We spent the night downtown and learned a lot about the green roof industry and how it works as we have started growing green roof plants.  On the way in we stopped at Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square, very near out old home.  Oh my gosh what a show, it would make anyone want to garden.  Well actually you don't have to be a gardener to appreciate the beauty of the place, it's overwhelming walking into the conservatory and gardens.  If you haven't been it's hard to describe, I would say Disneyland for gardeners except more natural. The smell of growing things is what first hits you, warm and inviting.  After that it's just one long mouth hanging open experience.  Thousands of poinsettias and white hydrangeas along with branches from red twig dogwoods. Amaryllis in red and white.  Tall white euphorbias next to giant red amaryllis. Small salmon poinsettias that look like roses next to silvery big leafed begonias.  My oh my, how to describe it all.  Maybe I will just use the rest of the page for the pictures, after all one picture is worth a thousand words and who has time to read all that.

OK, this is my zoo visit which was way cool too.

Here come the blue ridge

Fall means, among other things the return of the mountains from my office window.  The trees that have grown up through the years, in summer obscure those beautiful blue ridges, but now have lost their leaf power and with it the ability to hide my view.  OK so good and bad things happen with the demise of another year of gardening.  I love this window outlook, it includes a view of 'Old Rag' a local landmark.  I have painted this same scene on our stairway leading up to this very same view.  No one would notice this but me which makes me smile.  George has started cleaning up our garden, it's a nice time of year with mellow days and cool nights. I am listening to Danny Wright on Pandora as I write this and life seems perfect. We are looking forward to lots of garden projects with anticipation.  Not everything will get done but enough to make the place look good when spring rolls around again  Our plant and seed catalogs have appeared from hiding places where we squirreled them away, it's time to plan spring 2012. Of course it's also time to plan what we will have for Thanksgiving, the paradox of gardening.  Plans must be laid in the season of dormancy in order to bring forth new life in the spring.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.  Better than Christmas (although the parties are nice) is figuring out what to try. Notice I said try, not everything works even some tried and true seed may fail to germinate this year, it happens.  I would like to have more varieties of Anise Hyssop. Bees and butterflies love them, they have a long bloom time and deer leave them alone, sweet. This year we will have,  Golden Jubilee with it's stunning yellow foliage and blue flowers, rupestris with root beer scented leaves and rose orange flowers, Bolero  has rose purple blooms with bronze aromatic leaves and a few more. Foxgloves, one of my favorites just because they are beautiful, how many can I talk George into this year.  Maybe Apricot, and Snow Thimble (white), lutea (yellow straw foxglove), Rusty Foxglove which is yellow with brown-red spots, Strawberry Foxglove (guess what color) and I bet I can talk him into more. I can really get him going on the odd stuff that will work in our area. I have a while until spring after all.

And the rain came, we all breathed a sigh of relief, spring again.

This spring has been outstanding. As I am looking out my window this cloudy morning the grass and trees are so green and grateful for all this rain.  This year, it seems like it's better then other years or is it just that old spring fever again. I wake up with a smile on my face and ready to face the day.  My customers and friends that come are of the same mind, no lamenting here. 

Seeing the plants emerge from the ground is like seeing all of my gardening friends that also emerge this time of year. Some have grown, some are the same, and some have died away and somehow new plants find their way into the garden and new customers find there way here as well. Of course we at Morningside change too; a new greenhouse went up where our herbs abide, shade perennials moved around to a new home and there are ever so many subtle changes only old customers would notice.

We are working like mad to make everything beautiful and welcoming. I have finally figured out that the nursery, like my home, is my attempt at making a place I would like to find on a back road. Full of blues and greens, people who love plants and love to talk about plants, and of course the plants themselves. Sharing a life's passion is the best part of being here. I can make people happy just by being here; we make a difference in the quality of the lives of the people who come here. Pass this on if you feel like it, it's good to pass around happy thoughts. I have also started a facebook page to jot down day to day happenings or not happenings as the case may be. Check us out. Onward and upward in the spring garden.

The spring rush is on.

We had a great opening weekend. Old friends came by and new people showed up as well. We had a few extra vendors from local farmers markets selling organic beef, lamb, goat cheese and so much more (I will be eating well for the next few weeks myself). We closed up shop for the day at four and all the vendors vowed to meet again for dinner in September, a fine time was had by all.

During the weekend, as my friend Anne and I were walking up to our house, we passed my old retail garden and she said 'I used to covet this garden'. She said it in a sad way as the garden is over run with all kinds of weeds and plants that have gone wild.  Another friend, Linda, had commented the day before how beautiful the garden had once been. I have neglected it the last few years, it will get a quick run through from George once a year but that isn't enough to keep weeds at bay. Some of the worst offenders are plants I put there, like the confederate violets, with their beautiful splotched blue and white flowers. I got a clump from good friends years ago and put them in the garden where I could take care of them. I was able to do that for, say, 5 years; I even thought I had gotten them all. But when we moved to the new retail area, the garden got lonely and neglected. Over the years I kept at the violets and I thought I was winning the war. Nope. The reason I thought I had gotten them all was because, unknown to me, they had sneaked over to the other side of the garden and were flourishing. Having come upon them a few days ago, I am enjoying digging them up as they are easy to spot (being one of the only green things in the garden--beautiful flowers even now). 

One of the things they were crowding out were my tree peony seedlings. Years ago I was given tree peonies that had been done from seed. Now eight years later I have a really nice crop of seedlings of various age groups below their mothers. Three years ago I dug about 30 of them up and tried to pot them up. It was too much care for me, being as they were not going to bloom for another four or five years and I couldn't keep them alive for one. So I decided to leave them in the ground. It's funny that I consider the violets invasive, while I encourage the peonies (of which there are many). I am thinking of turning the garden into a tree peony garden: now that would be impressive. I bet a confederate violet garden wouldn't take nearly as long to mature; they're very sneaky. Come and visit now that we are open; we'd love to see you...and we can help you with just these sorts of problems. 

Happy Digging,

Karen

Sporting Life

In Virginia, if you talk about the sporting life, almost everyone thinks that you’re talking about football or some other game of sport or maybe fox hunting, here in Virginia that's big. But I’m actually talking about how plants can move around in a garden and change color, shape and size. I think people can make a lot of money on the sporting life of plants. I would imagine lots of the new plants that make it big out there in the gardening world are just random sports that an observant person noticed in a garden. I have been pleasantly surprised with some of my own sports, and laughably disappointed in others. The sports or seedlings I have found need to hold up to a couple of seasons of trials before we at Morningside give them names and turn them loose on our customers (OK I am lying a little bit, I name them all). The two plants that seem to sport the most for us are tall summer phlox and the old fashioned garden mums. So I will start off with my phlox experience.  After neglecting one of our gardens for a few years, there seemed to be phlox colors I hadn't planted in that garden, could they be worthy sports? I watched these new plants for powdery mildew and made sure I really loved the colors so different then the parents, they seemed like they had potential.  At the end of the season I dug them up and moved them to another garden where I could keep an eye of them and trial them for a year or so.

This was their first year of flowering in their new home and my gosh, what was I thinking? They looked just like two other phlox we already have and one of them got powdery mildew so badly I had to cut it down. How could I have thought they were special?  One of my problems is I don't have a real trial garden where they can be separated and spaced to really see what they look like.  I just mixed them up in my overflowing garden and what happened? Not good. By the end of the season I didn't know what was what anymore. So cross off the new phlox for now. On a happier note, the new garden mum is still a stand out going into its third year. Beautiful color, nice habit, a great plant in the late summer/early fall garden. This year two more mums decided to sport and I’m thinking we should start a new mum line, call it something catchy, and make a million.  I wonder how many I would have to sell to make a million?

Changing Gardens

Cardoon in our garden

The big horse-shoe garden down by the greenhouses, where you will find me hanging out most of the spring and summer, changes everyday. No one else notices these changes, but like the mother of a young child, I notice every change, everyday. Buds appear on plants, flowers open, plants get taller and fill out. The mix of annuals, perennials, and herbs make the changes both more dramatic and, perhaps, harder to recognize. This year, I took a lot more pictures of the garden determined to share them with you, my garden blog readers.  Now I wonder why so many of those pictures  look the same.  They seemed so different to me at the time! Every day, there's an important change in a garden's color and texture as its flowers open, mature, and go to seed, but its as subtle as if its nothing more than the changing light in the day. Even my cardoon, which has only gotten bigger and is unfazed by the frosts of October and November, is never the same. All the plants change everyday, or so it appears to me. How important could all this be, me seeing changes no one else would notice? In that way, a well loved garden is like a beloved child: we see them changing everyday; it is our joy as gardeners (and parents) to watch these small changes that make up the life of our gardens and families. And rejoice at every single one every day, even if only for ourselves. Because, as we all know both gardens and children can be a challenge (and I mean that in a good way).

Pesto Weather

I love working with our herbs.  One of my favorite jobs is watering them everyday, and I have to take it seriously. They are my tasty aromatic charges and no one is going to die on my watch if I can help it. Today I had one of my best friends over for lunch.  As always, I changed my mind about the menu 10 times.  I finally settled on 'Golden Corn Salad with Fresh Basil' from this month's Cooking Light.  It sounded SO GOOD and it didn't disappoint. As always when I am cooking something I will sample it along the way to see how it tastes, and I knew I had a keeper recipe from my first taste.  What I didn't know was how basil would elevate it from keeper to sublime.  The last ingredient is basil so after putting the whole salad together I went out to snip the basil from the garden, brought it in, chopped it up and sprinkled it on top.  Oh my gosh what a difference! Such a small act, adding a half cup of the quintessential summertime herb basil made this salad extra special, delish.  I should have taken a picture because it was a beautiful salad as well as tasty but alas I just ate the last of it as I was writing this.  There is a very good picture in Cooking Light if you want a visual.  As our summer is winding down I want to make lots of basil dishes; the time is fast approaching when it will be gone like our warm weather. Because of the cooler nights, plants are slowing down and not growing as much as they were even a few weeks ago. Soon basil will follow this summer and just be a memory. Some of the other herbs will hold on through the winter but not basil; it is even hard for us to grow in the greenhouse.   We keep two mother basil plants which are done from cuttings so we must overwinter them, not easy during those dark days.  So I guess it's time to think of that old saying 'make hay while the sun shines' or for basil, 'make pesto while the sun is hot and high in the sky'.  Not quite as catchy but just as true.

Golden Corn Salad with Fresh Basil

8 ounces small yellow Finnish potatoes (I used fingerlings of different colors)

3 cups of fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears)

2 cups assorted tear drop cherry tomatoes ( I used different sized and colored cherry tomatoes) halved

1 1/2 cup s chopped red bell pepper (I used several colors)

1/4 cup minced shallots

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

6 cups arugula (I used arugula and spinach)

1/2 cup torn fresh basil leaves

2 ounces goat cheese sliced (I used mozzarella as I couldn't get a good goat!)

1. Place the potatoes in a small saucepan; cover with water.  Bring to a boil; cook 11 minutes or until tender.  Drain and chill.  Cut potatoes in half lengthwise.  Combine potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and bell pepper in a large bowl.

2. Combine shallots and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Slowly pour oil into shallot mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Drizzle over corn mixture; toss well.  Add arugula; toss. Sprinkle with basil; top with cheese.

Bungle in the Jungle

I have been indulging my garden for several years now. I love it in the spring: beautiful, neat, tidy. In summer, things much more blousy and overgrown but still basically OK. Now it's end of summer and all my indulgences along the way are making it hard to make out a garden for all the over-grown stuff I felt sorry for. I have coxcomb, three or four foot tall that seeded right at the front of the garden. Also, the infamous 'Monkey Balls' which everyone (including me) loves have, after 3 years, seeded everywhere in my little garden. Way too much of a good thing. And did I tell you about the morning glories that have over taken one end of the garden? They have also over shadowed some of my spring perennials so much I am afraid they are no longer with us, gone to glory as a very dear friend used to say.

You may be asking yourself how this came about. I am a diligent gardener, so I work at least a little bit in the garden everyday. How could I spoil these plants so much that they hijacked my garden? It started in a small way when they were small plants: I just didn't want to pull them out.  Who wants to pull out a perfectly good plant? My problem is I had so many perfectly good plants that I knew would grow up to be beautiful, they were just in the wrong place and way too many. As if I needed encouragement, I was egged on by customers and friends who exclaim how beautiful it is. By now, all I see is a mess. I have at this late date started to rectify the situation by pulling up these plants that started life so small and innocent and became so big and bullying...which means I now have huge holes in my garden. Morningside Farm is on the Culpeper Farm tour the first weekend in October--uh oh. What do you think sunlight, space, and expert watering can do by then? Stay tuned.

Summer Sale

Ruthie checking out the sale items

Welcome to our sale, it's time again to load up on our great perennials and herbs. You too can have gardens galore with everything you have wanted that we have and save money.  Thinking of trying something new, this is the time.   Visit now while the selection is at it's best.  Once they are gone, they are gone.

Sale dates: July 31st to August 8th, 10 am to 6 pm all week

Cutting Back and the Garden in Transition

Achillea Apricot Delight

My garden at the front of the nursery is heavy on spring bloomers because that is our busy season and it makes sense to have it that way. At least it does in the spring, because, well, it’s the second week of June and so much needs to be cut back that it’s a dilemma. The dilemma: I don’t want the garden to look like a bomb went off in the middle. Now at the moment there is a beautiful golden Tansy and yarrow ‘Apricot Delight’ next to each other, they make a stunning combination. The only problem is that they are next to so many plants that need to be cut back. First there’s the veronica ‘Georgia Blue,’ and then there’s the Dendranthema (cold hardy mum) we discovered (I call ‘Raspberry Thursday’ because it has raspberry colored flowers and I found it on a Thursday). Next, Catmint ‘Joanna Reed’, Penstemon ‘Huskers Red’, salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna.’ I decided to cut back a few and leave a few to cut back later. Not too harsh, it’s working out well.
 
With some plants, cutting back isn’t enough. I took out and moved two very big baptisias because in the three years they had been in, they have gotten way too big for the space. So there are more holes in the garden to be filled, more decisions to be made. I am waiting for inspiration to strike as to what to put in those spaces, and how much to cut back. For now the space holders are a few of my mixed container pots. I kind of like that, mixing the pots in the garden, but I need to plan it a little better than filling large dirt spaces with pots because that’s what it looks like, and it’s not very memorable.

So what do I put in there? These are good summer bloomers to help my one season garden:

1.Phlox paniculata: I have had this in my first garden next to the old retail area. Years ago I put in my favorites ‘Nicky’, ‘David’, ‘Laura’ I tried to choose mildew resistant cultivars, and over time they crossed with happy abandon. The few that showed the most promise (mildew resistance, good color) I dug up and moved to one of the empty spots in the new garden.

2.Cone flowers (echinacea): Now, I love the new colors and have used them in the garden but I have noticed that echinacea magnus and ‘Ruby Star’, and all the old varieties attract so many more butterflies and bees. It has to be a pollen thing. The new varieties were bred for beauty not helping nature; eye candy I guess you would say. Which is fine just be aware of the difference.

I have also learned that both of these plants do much better with some space around them. I have put some of the newer varieties of echinacea like ‘Sun Down’ and ‘Harvest Moon’ crowed together with everything else in my garden and they disappeared after a year or so. George has some in his garden which are not crowded and they are beautiful three years later. I have found it is the same with phlox, which are prone to powdery mildew, when planted too close. Choose cultivars that are mildew resistant and give them some space. Consistent water also makes all the difference in how they look and perform. I am also using annuals, which I do every year, to help the garden transition from one season to the next. OK that’s it for now…time to water again.

Smelling the Garden

I walk outside and I smell honeysuckle. I come out of the grocery store with no apparent honeysuckle and I smell it. It is in the air everywhere. It’s one of the first things I remember about moving east: spring honeysuckle. Taking walks in the evening and being overwhelmed with the smell. Yes, I know it is a terrible invasive, but at least it smells good. I love plants that smell good. Few new plants seem to have fragrance these days, not high on anyone's preference list. It seems people are more inte.rested in the color of the flowers and the bloom time then if it has a fragrance.

We still have a few, Clove Pinks or Dianthus, lots of the phlox family are native and otherwise are good smellers. Some cone flowers are very sweet smelling, Moonflowers on a summer evening... yum. Nicotinia. Some of the old roses. Heliotrope with it’s baby powder fresh scent, even catmint: not quite what I would call sweet but still pleasant brushing up against it. Me and the bees think it smells grand. The blue Wave petunia smells great, too (no other color that I have found). Angles trumpet...well OK so I could go on and on. All of the herbs, of course...

How many smellers do you have in your garden? Not what we think of when we go to the local nursery these fragrant plants. Anyone ever asked the sales person “what do you have that will make everyone remember my garden because it smells nice?” I for one have never said that. But when I pay attention to fragrance it makes the garden so much more interesting and memorable, even something I enjoy working in more. It's not just something to appreciate with my eyes. In fact, if I close my eyes I can still smell the garden. It’s like a fresh cut lawn in summer, something we remember forever. If I take care to add plants with fragrance, the garden is more memorable for me. Just like smelling that old invasive honeysuckle: sweet spring. Next time we'll talk about herbs that smell... hmm . They all smell. How about my favorite scented herbs? Until then, night all.

Nature's Symphony

Peonies

When I walked up to the house this evening the cacophony of sound was unbelievable. Are there birds that sing in the evening?? And the peepers have migrated all over the yard I hear them from every corner (either that or there is a weird echo thing going on). I never remember hearing anything like it. The plants are feeling the same; they are going gangbusters. I am so excited about all the different kinds of Peonies we have this year. Watching the buds swell and the color start to show is just so darn much fun.
Everyday I thumb them to see a little more of their color. They are my flower children. 
 
This evening along with nature's symphony I loved seeing the shadows our weeping willow branches make as I pass under. We have so many different kinds of willows on the property and for sale I can’t keep up but George knows them all. I do know the Rosemary willow I put in my first garden so long ago. It now shades my tree peonies and blows gloriously in the wind, just as I intended. With willows it doesn’t take a life time to become mature and beautiful and that’s a good thing because I hate to wait too long for anything in my garden. Joyous spring everyone.

Spring

This evening the old spring ritual of potting up perennials in the gloaming began. Garrison Kellier on the radio and potting mix under my nails, a time honored ritual. George swears he heard spring peepers at the pond the other day but I think he is dreaming on that one, although in one of the many puddles in the rain garden I did see big fat pollywogs. 

Looking at all of the green shoots emerging out of the pots in the greenhouses makes my soul sing. The miracle of barren roots turning into healthy plants and then sighing into flower gives new meaning to the phrase "love what you do" (plants do seem to love what they do, too). Our dear friends Hilda and Clara, who come every spring to pot up our plants have come and filled up a greenhouse with George's seedlings and cuttings. 

We have so much great stuff now! I can’t wait for the show to begin. Here is a small list...four different carexes with names like Red Rooster, Prairie Fire, Indian Summer, and Toffee Twist...bronze and copper and brass. Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’ which I love, love, love because of it’s pendulous pink to green hanging flowers; everyone notices this one in bloom. We will have Achillea ‘Saucy Seduction’ and Eupatorium ‘Chocolate” with names like that they have to be great. We will have strawberries and rhubarb this year and oh so much more. And you know with the advent of warmer weather this week maybe we will hear the peepers. Come on spring, we're ready.

Christmas 2009

Stone Fox

I took the two younger girl dogs out for a walk this evening. It was almost dark, but that didn't stop them from romping and snow-stomping, barking and carrying on. I saw what I thought would be a great picture: my stone fox leaning over in the snow with his head and one shoulder exposed. The day was fading fast and by next light the rain will have washed that picture away. I snapped one in the dusk.
 
The garden looks so beautiful with its brown and white color scheme today. I never got around to cutting anything down after the season and I am glad now. It doesn’t always pay to be neat and tidy. 

The winter solstice has come and gone and that means the days are getting longer (they are! My insisting the days get longer always works at this time of year. You can count on me, like clockwork). It must have been some big deal to our ancestors who farmed the land for a living. I wonder with no TV or computer to get them through the winter months how many farmers of yore watched the moon travel across the sky, and watched the lengthening days with hope, knowing the soil would warm again and accept the gift of seeds and seedlings to feed a family.

Butterflies

Chrysalis

I am overwhelmed by the butterflies, caterpillars, and bumble bees in the garden now. Two monarch caterpillars have started their journey toward their new life in front of my eyes, but I've missed the final act. I had no idea it happened so quickly. First, I saw one attached to the underside of a leaf. It slowly started to curl up. I thought I would come back down in a few hours and see what had happened. When I came back two hours later, it was a done deal! I couldn’t believe it. How could that have happen so quickly? It has to be so hard to turn from a caterpillar into a chrysalis. Doesn't it?

Two days later I happened on another caterpillar on the underside of a Salvia Indigo Spires. He was just starting the process: green, black, and white; striped, fat, and very zen.  "Ah ha!" I thought, I will come back in one hour and see how far she has progressed.  One hour later, I came into the garden and presto, all done, the green gem was already formed.

If I am so lucky to find another this year I am not leaving. I'm not even going to blink. There's some magic in this everyday miracle of nature. When you have gardens as big as we do, miracles of one type or another are an ongoing thing. This very large garden started from things so small, seeds or cuttings. Every time, they grow into just what they are programed to be.  The seeds that come from my phlox never turn into surprise frogs in the garden. Some great new colors of  phlox seedling yes, but no frogs.

Some new things we have at the moment: Epimedium ‘Orange Queen’ are great for dry shade. I love these plants, I have to admit I took one for myself. Hypericum ‘Chocolate Lion’ and ‘Pink Lion’: I am also keeping a few those beautiies for my garden. The fruit of these plants in flower arrangements is to die for. Plus those bright yellow flowers in summer are perfect. The fall blooming anemones ‘Prince Henry’ and ‘Party Dress’ both double pink spreading shade plants. These need some room to spread.

Well I have wiled away a few minutes of your time telling you about the happenings here at the moment. Always good to keep in touch. Come visit us and see the garden. We always love to have visitors!

How the Garden Gives Back to Nature

Bee enjoying a echinacea flower

It's high summer: The blue birds and cardinals have found the ripe fruit of the native pagoda dogwood. What fun! I get to watch it all happen and it’s all serendipity. George and I got the dogwoods years ago and we sold not a one. They grew crooked and stunted because we just left them in their small pots. Four years ago we put one in the ground and I saw how beautiful they were, but still no takers (maybe because the beautiful one was in our back yard that is private). Last year we put them all in the ground and I am so happy to have  bird feeders I don’t have to fill.

More signs of summer: The monarch caterpillars have found the Asclepias physocarpa (we call it monkey balls). The Asclepias are now reseeding in my display garden out front, and I just pull up the few I don’t want. I think the butterflies get hungry and feel there's an open sign that says Free Eats at the Morningside Butterfly Restaurant. Then they tell all their closest friends and relatives who also come back year after year to lay their eggs and belly up to the plant bar. And I love it. That's why I make sure those plants are in my garden every year. I love showing people their green, black, and white bodies making short work out of the leaves. One day they are fat and sassy, and the next day they are gone, having inched their way to a safe spot to prepare for the miracle of rebirth into winged messengers of future generations.

Finally, keep an eye out for the cone flowers, which are getting ready to feed the finches. Echinacea's pink, orange, white, and yellow flowers will be replaced by bright yellow wings as nature intended. Lets hear it for natives and non-natives plants that feed our inner soul and the outer world of nature. Sounds like two for one to me.

The Magic of Gardening

Ruthie and George

I have come to believe our place here is magic and that people come here to feel it. A friend who has suffered a great tragedy in her life has used gardening to ease her sadness. Working with the earth and making a special garden is her way of remembering a daughter. Gardens can be like the soul of someone we love, we are not left alone if we garden in someone's name and keep thoughts of them close. They will be with us always in the garden. I have my mother with me as I garden often.

I believe working the earth is a blessing to everyone who is open to it. We shut ourselves up and out of so much that is of the natural world, we limp along waiting for the next thing to make us happy whatever it is, and there is always a next thing. Well, you know what? I stopped looking for my happiness outside of what I already have: family, friends old and new, my happy dogs, the cats that eat their fill of mice and voles and leave the parts everywhere, what could be better then this?

This evening I picked some of my favorite zinnias tonight, like apricot. I also planted salvia ‘Phyllis Fancy’ which has pale lavender flowers because the hummingbirds know it’s better then anything else around (all you have to do is pick one of the flowers and suck on the end to see for yourself).  I DO love it when the garden is alive with bees and butterflies and hummers. Tonight I was cutting back the spent blooms of my salvia ‘Caradonna’ to encourage a second flush of flowers, but I had to be careful not to rub elbows with the bees filling up on pollen for the evening trip home.  They were honey bees and I have enjoyed watching them hover around those deep purple/blue spikes for weeks. Thinking about it now, I believe 'Caradonna' is the same color of our new shady rest pergola. Friends and family helped put it up and it’s almost time to rest in it’s shade. When life gets to hectic at the farm me and the dogs plan on resting up quite a bit.  Come and join us sometime. We will drink mint sweet tea and chat and laugh and that should be enough to make anyone happy. A bouquet of happy thoughts to you all and good night.

Spring Update

It’s been the darndest weather this spring: Cool-misty, cool-rainy, cool-cloudy, and then really hot all in the same week. The plants in the greenhouses and in the gardens certainly recover faster than I do. There is also no denying how the weather has made everything lovely this year. The gardens have had enough rain, and the world looks green and lush.

We are doing well at the nursery this year; we had no idea what it would be like. I appreciate the love and support from friends and strangers alike. I guess we are becoming known for peddling beauty to everyone who stops by. Yesterday a young family came down the driveway in the late afternoon, I smiled and said hello and they said they were just looking. They gave the the display gardens the once over before getting back in their car and heading out the driveway. Thats what I want our place to be: a respite from all of the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I believe the people who make their way here feel that as well.

Finally, next week we are putting up a shade area attached to the retail greenhouse just for sitting and relaxing (something we all need to do more of). When the breeze blows through, it will be like heaven. The new sitting space will also afford a great view of the gardens, which are now showing off false indigo, golden spiderwort, and catmint, among others things. Come and join us and talk gardening anytime.

Happy Digging!

Preparing for Spring Opening

The stage is set, the lights are coming up, and it’s almost show time.

We are rushing headlong toward our opening. It is coming so fast, as fast as the green shoots emerging from the ground all through the gardens. Our Morningside calendar has filled up with wonderful classes, check them out in events.

This year we are going to be adding a small herb cutting garden for fresh herbs. George is going to be taking some to the market and if people who come here would like fresh herbs we will go out into the garden and cut some. Of course we have to put the garden in first. We do have the spot picked out, we just have to amend the soil, figure out how many of what to put where, and plant them. Hmm Karen, and when is this going to happen? I am a firm believer in miracles, and as miracles go, this one doesn’t seem so out there. Herb cutting garden? Just make it so. Check back later to see if anyone was listening.

I also want to start including a few recipes on these pages and in our class. I love to cook (nothing fancy just what I would call good country fresh food, and the way to get fresh food is from your own yard). So we are putting in our first extensive veggie garden. That should also be fodder for a few laughs here as my small efforts with tomatoes and peppers has been spotty at best. Ornamental gardens I can handle, but the kind of garden I can eat out of, well it is my experience other things want to eat out of it as well. Fences don’t keep blister beetles out of the garden. I learned about crop rotation the hard way last year. This year I hope to fool the little suckers with a new garden location.

George is still working on his rain garden, which is coming into it’s own. He is working on a living willow fedge, which is a cross between a hedge and fence. It is an experiment, but exciting if it works. Our fascination with willows continues...they are cropping up everywhere here. I was thinking next year of having a pussy willow day so everyone who wants to can enjoy them also. Honey bees are enjoying them at the moment. Willows are good bee food as not much else has pollen at the moment. I also love to bring big bunches of all the different kinds of willows (we have about 6) into the house. Happiness is spring, fresh food and willows.

Happy Gardening!

The Call of Nature

Kumson

I think yellow is the color of early spring. It seems to be everywhere: the daffodils, the forsythia (‘Kumson’, right) blooming in pots, and the big yellow twig weeping willow. Even the finches get into the act by changing from their dull winter browns to neon yellow. It catches the eye and lifts the heart with the thought and hope of spring.

As rocky as the economy gets, gardens and gardening will always be just what it always has been, we can count on that. Garden ups and downs can only come from, say, the weather or garden-eating animals or my unwillingness to do the work I know needs to be done. We can adapt our gardens to almost all of these conditions to ride out the rocky times. Plant drought resistant plants, deer proof plants, be more diligent with weeding. In gardening we can be pro-active and take control of our gardens; we have so much control. We can make them as big or as small a garden as we feel like working in. It doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. A beautiful container at the door is a garden.

This spring, thanks to a very good friend Clara’s suggestion we are going to have two classes that speak to the ability to put a garden anywhere. The first will be an English trough class and, in the next, we will be making a fairy garden in the troughs. Fairy gardens are those petite magical gardens that a fairy would love to inhabit. Gardens don’t have to be the size of Versailles to stop the heart and make you sigh. Sometimes being here at the nursery I am struck by people who like the idea of gardening but think it’s too much work The problem is just semantics. Maybe we could call it "earthly meditation" or "communing with plants" instead of "work." Remove the old idea of toiling away in the hot sun with a hoe, and replace it with the idea of a quiet time to hear the call of the natural world again. You can be anywhere, in a city on a balcony, or in the country, the natural world is always calling we just have to be quiet enough to hear it. And if we listen close enough, we might even hear one of those fairies.

Happy Spring!