Signs Of Seasonal Change

There is no question that our late August weather is less than fun to work in.  Searing heat and the accompanying heat advisories limit the amount of time that we are willing to remain outside.  The swarms of tiny biting insects are beyond unpleasant.  So far no broken safety glasses have accompanied frenzied moves to get the little buggers away from my eyes.  It might be considered heresy to wish for a frost but the thought has crossed my mind.

New England Asters are a favorite.  We enjoy them as do the deer and insects.  Deer pruning gives us shorter plants and slightly later blossoms.  This wire cage could be identified as deliberately placed protection but actually it is part of a pile of unused fencing.   

Goldenrod is an invasive weed beyond description.  Its root mass is so huge that a five foot pry bar is needed to loosen the plant for removal.  In short order it will choke out all of the other garden plants.  We would like it gone but it provides the last source of pollen for the newly arriving Monarch Butterflies.  Frost survival is an uncommon trait among flowering plants so we actually welcome extensive appearances of it.  Its yellow color is quite attractive if one can get by its invasive habit.

Becky found five different species of Goldenrod growing on our land when we first moved here.  Their names were easily retrieved then but those days are behind us now.  Even I recognized that this plant was different from the more common variety but I have absolutely no idea of its name.

 

The Clara Curtis chrysanthemums were deliberately planted here.  That small group has expanded wildly and they have been transplanted in many different locations throughout our gardens.  Cardinal Flower and Rudbeckia Triloba are both self planted and welcome.

Myrtle Remembered

Years ago Becky was part of a Fiber Arts Guild.  There she came into contact with skilled women some of who were many years her senior.  Their skills were eagerly shared with Becky benefiting greatly from her time with the group.  Myrtle was part of the Guild.  Well into her eighties she had moved from the farm to a third floor apartment.  That she climbed all of those stairs was impressive.  During the winter season heat from the lower floors found its way up to Myrtles apartment.  She always had a pot of basil growing in her warm kitchen.

Today was the day to remove our basil plants since frost is forecast for the next several nights.  Destroying plants is beyond unpleasant and as I arrived with my digging tools I remembered Myrtle.  Twelve plants were removed with their roots intact and placed in two plastic dishpans.  We have no intention of carrying these plants over but they will be used over the next several weeks.  Why this method has never been tried in the past cannot be explained but we are doing it now.

I was not the only one interested in the basil's last day outside.  Many bees were feeding on the flowers.  Usually bees are focused on the flowers and we work together in peace.  Today they seemed to have a sense of urgency and stung me twice.  My work continued.

Expecting to be moving these plants to the compost pile, I was obviously delighted to be placing them in the basement.  A generous amount of water was added after the dishpans were on the basement floor.  If it is possible to carry the now much heavier containers, these plants will spend more days in the sun.

 The planting bed was clear weeded early last spring.  After the basil plants were set out, a mulch of chopped tree leaves was worked among the plants.  Weeds were kept at bay while the leaf mulch also retained moisture.  Once again this area has been clear weeded.  This bare soil will winter over enjoying purifying sunlight on clear warm days.  The Clara Curtis chrysanthemums should be divided next spring.  Potted divisions placed in this beautiful soil could receive needed watering while they settle in prior to being planted out.  This before the frost day was expected to be horrible but now we are filled with the hope of fresh fragrant basil for days to come and the promise of well tended mum divisions come spring. Lucky for me I didn't weed out Becky's tiny Italian parsley plants from seed.  Tomorrow will be soon enough to pot those up for winter use.

Signs Of Fall

The foreground shrub is Silky dogwood.  Its berries start out blue then turn white.  Somehow that seems backwards to me as the darker color is stunning.  In a moist location it would reach ten feet in height but here on the gravel deposit we are fortunate just to have it.

That Locust tree closer to our house grew from a pile of imported compost.  Its size is a measure of just how long we have been working here.  Twenty-six years is the actual count.  The pines behind the house were planted by a farmer's offspring long before we found this land.  We do not know if it was a 4H or FFA project that brought these trees here  We have two different plantings of these trees.  Both are on some of the steepest slopes that that were part of the original farm.

 
Our Red maple trees are still covered with mostly green leaves.  When taking a break from weeding what will soon be the garlic bed, occasional falling leaves caught my eye.  It is an unmistakable sign of what season is approaching.

Goldenrod and New England asters loudly announce the coming of Fall.  This color combination is among the most beautiful seen here and both are native plants.  Goldenrod is a tenacious invader so my plan for creating this combination in a garden is to give the asters several years to take hold of some ground before the Goldenrod is introduced.  The single survivor is well known but the Asters will likely persist for as long as we remain here.

My maternal great grandfather was a strong influence on my interest in plants.  His Eden like home was located in southwestern Pennsylvania and his Chrysanthemums were beautiful.  I have spent a small fortune trying to find plants that are hardy along the Unadilla River.  Only the Clara Curtis and Mammoth Pink survive.  We freely share these plants for those interested in actually growing mums rather than buying the potted ones widely offered for sale.  Our choice of color is limited but these are our plants.  Charles Wesley Felton would have approved seeing these hardy mums next to dry stone walls.

Yesterday when the day's work had ended, a loud group of disorganized geese  barely cleared the pines having just taken off from the nearby river.  As they passed over our meadows the energy efficient V formation came to be.  This is the time of year when the geese take their training flights to build up their strength and skill for the approaching migration flight.  This location is usually silent but the chatter of the geese while finding the needed formation was loud and unmistakable.  There was insufficient time to find the camera so imagination will be needed to see the geese barely clearing the pine trees.

Frost Caused Food Shortage

Several recent frosts have ended much of this year's growth of flowers.  Some still grow in sheltered locations and continue to produce pollen.  Insects of varying types find these flowers and some late food.  Clara Curtis chrysanthemums are quite hardy giving us flowers to look at and food for some bugs.

Goldenrod is highly invasive and has claimed many of our acres.  Exposed plants have been ended by hard frost while some take advantage of their sheltered location and continue to flower.  We have seen several different kinds of insects feeding on the same flower stem and even a fight between two wasps.  This fly gave us the best picture so it is included here.

Our asters have been widely placed in the gardens despite their common occurrence in roadside ditches.  Frost did not harm their leaves yet but most of the flowers are now dark masses with no pollen.  This bumblebee found one flower that remained intact.

Fragrant Lady Tresses flower late in the year.  Despite their southern native range, this plant continues on.  We have been trying to sample its scent by placing noses close to the flowers.  More than once bees like this one were working close to where we were sniffing.  No stings yet and the scent seems to be elusive.  We try to experience it at different times of the day under different weather conditions.  At best we have found only subtle samples of a very different but pleasing perfume.  This plant is well north of its natural home but we hope that it returns here  at winter's end.

Butterflies Are Free

For years we have cultivated plants that attract butterflies.  This year we have been rewarded with Monarch sightings on a daily basis.  Now though, when the milkweed has gone to seed, it is the late nectar-producing flowers that lure butterflies into the garden.

Clara Curtis Chrysanthemums, Pink New England Asters and Brown-eyed Susans all provide food for butterflies.  I wanted to snap a picture a Milbert's Tortise Shell on the mums, but it was too fast for me. Yes there is orange in the upper left of this picture and it is some kind of butterfly, but it is not the shot I was hoping to get!!

Persistence pays!  I chased this butterfly from flower to flower and finally got a half-winged picture of that speedy Milbert's Tortoise Shell.  With the dry weather we have had, the leaves on the sunflowers make kind of an ugly background.  They are left there so that the soon-to-leave goldfinches and the newly arrived Black-capped Chickadees have sunflower seeds to eat.

With just a little cropping, I got my picture.  This butterfly is a real jewel!  It is the patch of stinging nettles relished by the caterpillars of this beauty that attract it to the garden.  Like us, this butterfly stays put when cold weather comes and may be seen in the garden on warm days long after the Monarchs have gone!  Butterflies in our garden are free  to come and go as they please.

Stunning Combinations

Much of what happens in our gardens is a matter of luck rather than careful planning.  In this case the unplanned combination of White Phlox and Cardinal Flower must be remembered and repeated.  That both flower at the same time is what makes this special.  There is a self planted small phlox that is easily movable and we must give some thought to its next location.  It will be surrounded by Cardinal Flower plants.

Phlox come with some drawbacks.  Deer are terribly fond of eating them.  The plant in the picture is encased year round inside a wire cage.  Deer trimming does not drop below the top of the cage so the white flowers are lower than they would be if the plant remained unmolested.  As it is the height of the red and white flowers are very nearly the same.  That could be seen as a plus.

Left alone, Cardinal Flower places all of its blossoms on a single stalk.  Early pruning will result in a shorter but more numerous flower set.  That action totally destroys the natural appearance of this native plant but so does placing it in a garden.  We shall see what changes appear next year.

Anything looks good near a dry stone wall.  Clara Curtis Chrysanthemums grow here like dandelions so this picture seems like cheating.  Still this accidental staging will be repeated again and again.

Here is a bit of a puzzle.  Cardinal Flower presents a low rosette of leaves each spring.  As the flowering stalk grows the leaves near the ground disappear.  They may grow on the climbing stalk but the end result is that the ground at the base of the stem is bare.  This may be a plant from seed sending up flowers in its first year.  Likely the stems should have been snipped off to encourage the growth of a healthy rosette.  I cannot see myself doing that at this stage of the game.  The others are ending their flower production while this plant is just starting.  This plant is on the inside of the stone wall opening shown in the mum photo.  With this written reference, we may remember both the plant and its location next spring.

Seasonal Shift

Last night the temperature dropped into the low 40s.  At a different time of the year the decision to cover tender plants or take a chance would have been made.  August frost is not unheard of here but it certainly is rare.  An extra early wake up found the air filled with moist fog.

New England asters fill the roadside ditches and grow freely in other waste places.  A purple flower catches my attention every time so we have this native growing in far too many locations in our planting beds.  Roadside locations show this plant flowering on short stems following highway crew's mowing.  Here the deer rough prune as they walk our garden paths.  The plant's response is to produce more flowers on shortened stems.  We have yet found the time to prune and the beautiful flowers appear at the top of tall stems.  Lower the stem is covered with dead dark leaves.  With care these plants would make excellent garden subjects.

My Great grandfather introduced me to both chrysanthemums and the notion that real men could grow flowers.  Our cold location makes mums usually an annual plant here.  These Mammoth Pinks may be an exception.  Out in the garden they frequently winter kill.  These located right in front of the south facing house wall have expanded after two years in this spot.
 

Nursery men find our native asters irresistible.  From them they have created an aggressive plant named October Skies that grows rather close to the ground while maintaining the wild form of the flower.  No pruning is needed here but a large space will be filled by this plant.  Our original scrap of a mail order plant has given us two divisions and it still closes off the path opening in the stone wall.

Clara Curtis is truly hardy here.  It winters over with ease and has taken over large areas of whatever planting bed where we placed it.  Its appearance would benefit from some timely pruning and thinning.  We do manage to weed out occasional intrusions toward other treasured plants but have so far resisted the pull to sell plants.

This resembles a weedy jumble but it actually contains treasure.  This Pinxter bush has formed seed pods.  Checked daily, we plan to harvest some seed at exactly the right moment and again attempt to raise some of these plants from seed.  Our first attempt at this failed but this time we will place a screen barrier to keep out garden rodents.  This native plant grows best in moist locations that would also support the natural growth of Cardinal Flower.  We may have the perfect spot for these two plants to grow together.  All we need now is to get the seeds to sprout.

Today In The Garden

 This morning in the garden  started with frost and the uncovering of tender plant.  That was followed by sunshine and warm temperatures.  Carefully weeding out the dandelions and other unwanted plants from the shade garden is challenging.  When they are this close together it is nerve wracking.

Ed and I worked on the shade garden and the difference is stunning.  We just didn't have what it took to finish there.  Tired gardeners make mistakes.  We moved on to something else.  Ed did some mowing and watering.  I cut back many Clara Curtis chrysanthemums and a butterfly bush and pulled some weeds in the bed next to Ed's stone square.

I am pleased with the progress we are making.  However I can't help feeling that someone has pushed the fast forward button on the garden and our fast forward buttons are no longer working.  We had fun while it lasted anyway!

No Time In The Garden This Month

Health issues have denied me time in the garden for all of this month.  Desired plants are on their own and the weeds are rapidly reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.  There is still great beauty to be found if the pictures are carefully limited.  This ice plant is new here this year.  Three were ordered with one totally dead on arrival, the second nearly dead and the third showing some hint of life.  This single plant looks like it will divide with ease next season and soon there will be a row of bright yellow flowers edging this bed in front of the house.

Our cardinal flowers were totally on their own this season.  We usually pot up a dozen plants so that they can be moved inside when frost threatens but this year we found no time for this task.  Left to their own, their display this year is the best ever.  Again we tried to identify plants self sown from seed but weeds moved in and we lost track of the desired seedlings.  Some obviously made it as this is the largest appearance this plant has ever made here.

A close relative of cardinal flower is blue lobelia.  Blue lobelia is a highly invasive true perennial.  Unsure that we wanted this plant to remain, these plants were levered out of the ground with the root masses left on the ground.  Unfazed by this harsh treatment, these plants have flourished.  They need a more remote location away from our tended garden.  It may be too late to move them.

Clara Curtis Chrysanthemums continue to winter over here.  We have enough to plant an acre but how can one discard this hardy beauty?  Spent flowers need to be pinched off but this year that is impossible.

New England Asters have captured and held our fancy for years.  Their purple and yellow flowers just seem a perfect combination.  Hardy beyond belief, they quickly take and hold our enriched planting beds.  Plant breeders have worked with wild stock to create new color combinations.  Several years ago I traded some cash for a sad scrap of a plant.  After four years here it has finally produced a single flower.  It is not shown in this picture.  Every year we see this naturally occurring color sport in roadside ditches.  Never have we been able to steal one of these roadside weeds.  Last year one appeared on land that we own.  It was carefully moved into a planting bed so that we could see if the unnatural color remained.  It has.  This plant has expanded wildly in our rich bed soil.  Many divisions will be taken as we have wanted this plant for several years.

My decline in health may be telling me that it is time to leave these treasured thirty-six acres.  The twenty-one years spent here have been filled with more memorable experiences that one could expect to enjoy in an entire lifetime.  We will wait to see what comes next.

Where To Begin? Start Anywhere!

After all the waiting and anticipation, today was the quintessential spring day to work outside.   Ed started early and headed for the back.  When he returned from there, I got my cart and all my other gear and joined him in the garden.  The crocuses are beginning to bloom and it's a pleasure to hear the buzzing of the bees.  There might not be many flowers just yet, but this bee's sacs are brimming with orange pollen.  We have lots of cleaning up to do, but the beds with blooming  flowers  beg for attention and they get it.

Right now my Kathryn Hodgkin Dutch iris are  a delight.  Some of them are open and there are more to come.  These early flowers are always good for a smile.  Cleaning up around something so lovely is fun.  The tree swallows are back and provide a little aerial excitement as well.

Lest we forget the weeds, they seem to have wintered over well.  Here is shepherd's purse already in flower.  Quack grass is making an appearance as well.  The dandelions are off to a slow start, but give you a great feeling if you can get the small plant and its gigantic root out in one piece. We spent the rest of the morning, removing mulch, pulling weeds, cutting back dead stems to make way for new growth.  Ed potted up some Clara Curtis chrysanthemums that he wants to move.  This kept up until lunch time. We were both starved and enjoyed the break for lunch.  After lunch we left our tools in the garden, thinking we would return to do more and took the truck on a scenic tour around the place.

On our stop at the gravel bank, we found the colts foot in flower.  The yellow flowers are one of the first wildflowers to appear.  The flowers always come before the leaves that give the plant its name.  It really is a ditch weed.  These plants are growing on a section of gravel bank that was actively mined last season.  The clump may have slid down to its present location.  Its charm lies in its early blooms.

The buds on the red maple trees are still tightly closed.  We will need more warm weather before they will open.

One of our stops was for me to watch Ed use his new cable and his truck to pull out an invasive rose. The cable has a ring at each end .  Ed puts the cable around the stump and the smaller ring over the hitch ball on the truck.  He still uses his pry bar to loosen the stump, but then the truck pulls it from the ground.  We will see how many Japanese honeysuckles and nusiance roses will get this treatment. I'm betting a lot.  Ed  is delighted with every one that goes!

That's a pretty big rose bush.  It fills the back of the truck. We took it to join the others on Ed's brush pile down at the gravel bank.

When we returned Ed went back to work on weeding a garden bed.  I was out of gas, so I just went out to put away my tools.  We are both tired but happy.  Tomorrow looks like another nice day. I hope we are both up to it!

What's Going On Out There?

It rained pretty hard during the night. The rain stopped for a short while this morning and Ed and I went outside to walk around an get a look at the garden.  It was way too wet to actually do anything out there.  Hmm... This looks a little like a Big Foot footprint.

I stuck my bright pink size 9 boot in there so you could see the size.  This is not a footprint however.  You can see by all the stems cut on the diagonal that the creator of this garden bald spot is rabbits.  Whether they spent time here under the snow or are intending to build a future nest, they are not welcome here.

Here is another one in the Siberian Iris.   We'll have to check on these as soon as it is dry enough to work in the garden. Beat it bunnies!  Move out or face the consequences. As far as we are concerned spring is here and the gardeners are taking over!

We still have some snow in the garden.  The recently uncovered foxgloves look nice and green.  Today's continuing rain should get rid of the rest of the icy snow.

With just a little warmth and sunlight, my Dutch iris should pop into bloom!

At last my snow drops are making an appearance. Their buds are just the very beginning of the promise of beauty to come.

Our Clara Curtis mums are holding back in this chilly rain, but that's  temporary I'm sure.

Sunday gloves is the first of Ed's day lilies to surface.  It's hard to contain our excitement.  I've had enough for now however.  My fingers hurt from the cold and like the flower buds in the garden I'm waiting for a warm sunny day before I really show my face out in the garden  for any length of time.