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!