Self Planted

It should come as no surprise that most of the plants growing in any garden are there as a result of no action by the gardener.  Feeding birds spill as many seeds as they eat.  Wind shakes free countless seeds.  Most of these self planted seeds produce weeds but sometimes genuine beauty is the result.  Foxgloves are widespread in our gardens but we planted none of them recently.  Location dictates that some are weeded out while others are treasured.  These are of an unusual color that was not accurately captured by the camera.  Growing on the edge of a stone path adjacent to a rich planting bed, these plants have found everything they need to flourish.

Recently we cleared a bed that had lain fallow for two years.  We needed a place to plant pie pumpkins and butternut squash.  These sunflowers were found here as a result of no action on our part and they will remain.  Years ago Becky operated a pet store that sold tons of a high quality bird seed purchased from Apple's Aviary.  Plants like these first appeared under our bird feeder.  They are robust and tall with many flowers on each plant.  We find them to be an excellent garden flower and allow them to grow if their presence will not interfere with chosen garden subjects.  More plants than needed hold this area and we will leave them mostly alone.  We did bring in chopped leaves to both smother new weeds and keep the soil rich and moist.  When the squash and pumpkin plants take over this area, the height of the sunflowers should allow them to grow and flower.

These pinks make seed by the millions.  They are allowed to grow largely unchecked in this bed in front of the house.  We are considering introducing them down by the road.  Seed heads will be cut at the appropriate time and simply placed on the ground.  This riot of color will follow the next year and every year after that.

A close up picture reveals both the flower's form and intense color.  Not bad for a pernicious weed.

Focus On Some Plants

Yes, it is only January 2nd and some of us are already raring to go.  This tiny little moss bump on an apple tree branch has a nice little start.  Despite the weather realities of January in New York, both the moss and the lichen are actively growing.  The moss ball is doing a nice job of covering evidence of a deer pruned branch.  The presence of the lichen may be a sign that the tree is under attack and will die.

Ingeborg is responsible for the existence of Hazelnuts in our garden.  Our first plant was a gift from her.  This second one was purchased to guarantee that two different plants were here so that pollination would occur.  When the gift tree was delivered, the suggested growth habit of an untrimmed bush rather than a tree with a single trunk was intended to increase the size of the harvest.   Additionally, just letting things grow suits the style of the workman here.

Our foray into gardening several decades ago drew several ladies of years to encourage our efforts with gifts of plants.  This yellow flowered sedum was a gift from Thelma H.  It grows here with weed like tenacity.  We try to limit its growth to the edges of the paths but buckets of it are weeded out every year.  Its yellow colored flowers are a welcome reminder of both Thelma and her impressive garden.  That it is evergreen is a huge bonus.

Coral Bells and Foamflower are related native plants.  Both of them are in the Saxifrage family. When these were purchased we were unaware that Foam flower grows freely in our back woods.   The reddish flowers appear on a thin tall stem providing easy access for hummingbirds.  Attracting hummingbirds and an evergreen growth habit make this plant a winner.  We divide the ever increasing clumps frequently since one can never have too many Coral Bells.

For years the plant Catchfly grew in limited numbers reseeding itself among carefully chosen plants.  It was a gift from Mary Jo and carried on with no help from us. Its flowers are a vibrant pink and a mass of these plants seemed to be in order.  Seed stalks were carefully cut and placed on prepared ground.  A mass of plants resulted.  This patch will provide many plants for placement in other spots.  In addition to the bright flowers, sticky brown rings appear on the stems.  We have no idea how captured flies benefit the plant but that is an interesting bonus.

Foxglove is another plant that makes its own way here.  They freely reseed themselves and some are moved to grow in specific locations.  Several different people provided gifts of this plant.  Its leaves were the original source of the drug digitalis and the leaves are widely recognized as poisonous.  The flowers are attractive and so far no leaves have accidentally appeared in my morning tea. 

Mary Jo Remembered

No one could ignore the Catchfly that is blooming in the garden.   Certainly the butterflies are attracted to it.  Amy managed to catch this Tiger swallowtail with the camera.  Many Skippers visit the plant, but they are all too fast for us. These days Ed and I try to think back into the previous century and remember  how these plants came to be in our garden.  Back in the 1990's I belonged to an amazing herb group.  It seems to me that the first time I saw Catchfly, it was growing in the garden at Mary Jo's home.  I remember being given some seeds.  I would have planted them at our previous location since we did not yet own our homestead land.  After all these years we are thrilled to still have Catchfly with us today.  Its color demands a larger planting and we will seed a patch down by the road when mature seeds form.  Catchfly color will certainly catch the eye of drivers speeding by since it simply is too bright to be missed.

Somehow the camera does not capture the intensely hot magenta of these flowers that I see.  I could change the color saturation I suppose, but I prefer my photos as they are.  It's more natural!

It was that trip to Mary Jo's garden where I first saw Copra onions.   I can still see them laid out to dry.  The stalks were straight.  The onions were large and round.  I was told that they stored very well.  I had to grow them.  At the beginning we grew the onions from seed.  Now we purchase onion plants from Dixondale Farms.  Weeding the onions brought back distant memories of  Mary Jo. We will see if this year we will have those big round  Copra onions to make Bodacious Braids!

The weed patch behind the onion bed was formerly a planting bed.  We have known for some time that we have more garden than we can  properly cared for.  The current plan is to cut the weeds close to the ground then cover the area with grass clippings.  The change in levels between the lawn and the planting bed will be smoothed so that the next owner will have the option of mowing the entire area.  The soil that we have built here is rich, fine and deep compared with the gravel that deeply covers the field.  I would be interested in seeing the pattern if the area is simply mowed.  The stone paths will support only poor weedy growth while the garden beds will grow grass that will be much taller and much greener than what grows in the fields.  For now we are here and can still reach to the center of the planting.  The onions look great and we are still eating last year's crop.  The weather at dry down will determine whether or not braids can be made.  Stems must be dry and solid for the braids to hold the onions although a double strand of twine helps to hold the weight..

Two Wild Flowers Named Carolina

In some manner there has to be a distinction made between pernicious weed and treasured native wild flower.  This Silene caroliniana has remained a common weed for as long as we have gardened here.  Its usual appearance is as a single stalk sporting few flowers.  For some unknown reason, this year a clump of stalks produced a group of flowers of sufficient size to capture the eye from across the garden.  We have known this plant as sticky catch fly, or more simply catch fly, for years.  That name is connected to the brown sticky bands that encircle the stem at separated intervals. Wild pink is another common name that seems better suited to a garden specimen.

This plant prefers dry rocky barren soil.  That is what naturally occurs here but we wildly amend with stone removal and compost additions.  The tiered bed under construction in the front of the house sounds like a perfect location for wild pinks.  Since the basal foliage looks tattered at blossom time, this one will be placed at the back of the bed.  This plant may have been overlooked for all of these years since it grows here unaided.  Those days are behind us now.  In addition to the bright purple color, a pleasant scent is released by these beautiful flowers.

Here is another weed plant that we found growing alongside of an old fence line.  As it turns out, this is the New York State flower.  Properly named Rosa carolina, one must wonder how it came to be our state flower.  One also might wonder how the name carolina came to be attached to so many native plants.

The simple elegance of this highly scented flower is somewhat hidden by this picture taken late in the day.  These flowers last for only a single day.  The pictured one is curling its petals in preparation for casting them off.  The ground beneath this plant is littered with intact pink petals already dried.

We are still looking for a suitable location for this plant.  Underground stolons send up new growth at some distance from the parent plant.  Our five foot wide beds do not provide the growing room that this plant deserves.  We must find a suitable location soon since the two new plants potted up this spring are showing buds now.

It Will Be A Cold Day!

With all this talk about our frosts and freezes you might think that the garden was history.  It's true some of the plants like this butterfly  weed have gone to seed.  Other more tender plants have blackened and died.  But a walk through the garden shows that plants do not give up so easily.

These Debutante Mums have been frosted and even frozen several times and they still look fantastic.  How wonderful it would be if all the hardy mums you read about were as tough as this beauty!

Catchfly is a plant that self seeds abundantly and has to be weeded out in the spring.  It must be the warm days that have it blooming again now.  Of course the hummingbirds that love it so much early in the summer have headed South weeks ago.

This is the first pink bud on the Emperor of China chrysanthemums. This plant gives late blooming a whole new meaning.  Frequently the flowers appear after the cold has changed the leaves to a dark burgundy.  So far the leaves are still green.  It's nice to have these flowers to look for after most of the others have given in to the weather.

 

Perhaps this pink gladiola flower is not a perfect specimen, but it was the most  surprising and exciting flower I found in the garden. It may not be hardy, but it is stubborn. These are not expected to withstand cold weather. Others in the same bed have gone limp and mushy.  A few days have passed since I took these pictures.   Perhaps a day or two later, some of the fragrant gladioli plants sent up flower stalks.  They looked kind of sickly and were kind of pale grey-green.  I cut them and brought them into the warm house.

Here they are today.  I don't know if these flowers will bloom , but their attempt is beautiful.  We are having a few days of warm windy and rainy weather.  Ed is stubborn too.  He stayed out there this morning doing his garden thing in the light rain.  When it seemed like the rain was serious, he put away his tools and came inside.  Later if the rain stops he will likely return  outside.  It will be a cold day when he gives up on the garden!  When the plants have gone dormant, he still has his stones.

Splendor In The Grass And The Weeds

This year with all the rain, the weeds and particularly the meadow grasses  have outdone themselves in our garden.  We have managed to get some areas under control, but in others the plants have to duke it out with the invaders waiting for us to come to the rescue.  Here the anise hyssop and black-eyed Susans are looking terrific!  Either could be considered a weed but we consider them cultivated plants.

Earlier in the summer this bed was well weeded and Ed planted asters. They are starting to look good, but are surrounded by invaders including the Chinese forget-me-nots that came up from self planted seed.   These lovely blue flowers are unforgettable indeed. The way they make sticky seeds that catch on your clothes or anything passing by guarantees that should you forget about the beautiful blue flowers, new plants will spring up to remind you!

 Gloriosa daisies that have self seeded can be found in many places in the garden.  The color variations in the flowers are amazing.  Ideally we should allow our favorites to form seed and pull the rest.  Perhaps we will get to that.  In the meantime they all add a little more splendid color to the garden.

My scarlet runner beans are blooming to delight me and the hummingbirds.  I'm thrilled to see the beans develop.  I love to save the shiny pink and black seeds to replant next year and to share with friends.

I have had evening scented white Nicotiana come up from seed here ever since we first started this garden.  Here for the first time just one red plant has appeared in the garden.  It was a splendid surprise.  We are wondering out loud what we can do to increase the chances that this color sport will return next year.

This striking pink catchfly is really surrounded by grass, but it is still beautiful and attractive to the hummingbird moth.  This is another weed that we moved into the garden.  The brown sticky sections on the stems and the color of the flowers combined to make these a must have plant.  Many are weeded out each spring but many are allowed to flower.  It's the gardener who decided which plants get to stay and which have to go.  We are working on it!

June is Busting Out...

New flowers are coming on all over the garden. When I left the catchfly growing where it self seeded next to the lady's mantle, I'm not sure I envisioned the hot pink and chartreuse that would come. Oh well , color in the garden is a good thing.



The weeds are growing too. This basil patch was in serious need of weeding. Ed did the job today along with the carrots and the new lettuce bed. We had the arugula from the overgrown spicy mesclun mix in an arugula and nectarine salad with toasted walnuts and raspberry vinagarette for lunch. YUM! Tonight for dinner some of that basil and the Oregon giant snow peas made for a lovely pasta primevera. Sometimes the garden can seem overwhelming, but its rewards are many. No one eats better than a gardener this time of year!

What A Great Surprise!

Yesterday I discovered that Plants and Stones was one of
Horticulture magazine's top 20 favorite garden blogs. With all of the terrific blogs they had to choose from, I was surprised, no shocked to be selected! What a thrill it was for me. There's no question about that. My smile was so broad that Ed was afraid I might swallow my ears. I really need to say thank you to Patty Craft , managing editor of Horticulture. I did buy a brand new subscription to the magazine, but that hardly seems adequate.

Red creeping thyme is what we planted in the area photographed. It's there, but Catchfly is the larger plant. This is how we garden. Ed moved the catchfly into the garden from the gravel bank because he liked the bright pink of its tiny flowers. Brown sticky sections on the plant's stem added to its appeal. Butterflies and hummingbirds feed on these flowers, and that sealed the deal. So now we have a strongly growing "weed" in our stone garden square . Some will go to the compost, but some will be allowed to stay. Catchfly plants itself and we work around its chosen spot. Allowing plants to self seed is what we do best.