Gardening

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The Joyful Gardener Turns 12

Harvesting his first watermelon

My cheerful, insightful, smart and creative son turns 12 today.  As an infant we joked that he was born with the “happy gene” as he soaked up his surroundings with a positive, mellow and inquisitive outlook.  His tantrums were few, even at two.  When he fell, his cries lasted a few seconds.  My son was joy, personified.

As it turns out, he was also born with the “gardening gene.”  Sure he liked the toy aisle at Target, but the seeds were his favorite.   We came home with many a packet of sunflower, pumpkin and carrot seeds, full of optimism and good spirit.  His grandfather would be proud.  During the Santa years, I mail-ordered his pumpkin seeds so they looked just a little different from the seeds we bought in town.  The jig is up, but the pumpkin-seeds-in-the stocking tradition lives on.

Here are a few pics of my joyful gardener over the years.

The first watermelon

Starting his garden

Reading to his pumpkin plants to help them grow

A little music never hurts either

11, years, 364 days old

Happy birthday, M!

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Father’s Day: Lost and Found

I celebrate two fathers today, my dad who died when I was nine, and my husband, wonderful father to our sons.

My dad was a horticulturist by trade, but loved all things gardening so much that he gardened on the weekends as well.  We took turns on the one-way wheelbarrow rides, while he hauled rocks to our London, Ontario back yard.  He built a meandering brook throughout the garden, then added trees, flowers, and in the short summer, vegetables.  I tasted my first cherry tomato from that garden.  I remember walking through the back door of our kitchen with a handful of tomatoes and giving them to my mom as she prepared lunch.  Is it any wonder I inherited Dad’s green thumb?

Eric Milner
Father, painter, gardener, hobbyist, animal-lover

My husband loves the garden and the gardener, but not the actual day-to-day joy of gardening.  That said, we’ve spent many an hour together planning, creating, digging, and simply enjoying our garden.  Like anyone who truly loves you, my man celebrates and embraces my joy of all things green.  Our sons love and admire him.  He’s smart, kind, clever, generous and most days, a kid at heart.  The greatest gift to any son is to be a stand up guy.  What lucky boys!

Mike Francini
Husband and father, self-described computer geek, Renaissance man
He’s traveled the world, speaks with fluency in two languages, sails, tinkers, and loves his family.

Happy Father’s Day to the dad I lost and to the dad I found.  Happy Father’s Day to you and yours.

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Blooming Thursday: Flowers that Shouldn’t

Flowering Basil

I checked on the basil a day ago and all was well.  Today it flowered!  Maximum production requires more pruning then I realized.  The flowers are pretty but the prize on the basil plant are those delicious leaves.  They are at their best, before the flower.

One of my favorite uses for basil is caprese salad, made with basil, mozzarella and tomatoes.  It’s also delicious in pesto.

So when the sun goes down, the pruning shears come out.  Can’t you just smell it?

How to make Caprese Salad.

Easy Pesto: Step by step

How to dry Herbs: I’ll stick with it fresh, but all you cooking gurus can give this a go.

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Bringing the Garden Indoors: Fun Vase, Flamboyant Flowers

Hydrangea and Fern in the “Fish Bowl”

I darted into the grocery store yesterday to pick up a few things, and found myself at a stand-still in front of these clever vases.  What a great idea!  Most of the designs were dark floral prints, but I fell in love with the goldfish.

The premise is such a simple one: a non-breakable but sturdy vase that stores flat in between uses.  I may pick up a few more to have on hand for gifts.  They’re perfect for taking flowers to someone in the hospital as well.  No breakable vase to deal with when you head home.

The vase is also surprisingly stable.  I consciously tried to knock it over without success.

My gardening hat is off to you reva™ vase!

Reva Vase™, Expanding Flower Vase

Reva™ Vase

I’ve been saving small bottles and jars to use as flower vessels as well.  For some reason the squared off jars (from spices and sauces) really appeal to me.  When my husband brings me a mixed bouquet, they start out in one large vase.  As the blooms dry out (the roses are always the first to go), I toss the spent flowers, and consolidate what’s left into small jars.  I get a lot of mileage from one bunch.

Floral Bouquet Deconstructed

Closeups

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Container Garden Update: Flowering Pots

Last call for votes

Thank you so much for casting your vote yesterday.  I have a few responses still trickling in so I’ll give it one more day before sharing the results.  If you would like to weigh in, I’m asking readers to help me select one of three photos; what you think best reflects Gardening Nirvana.  I’ll use the most popular photo on my site.  Please leave your vote in the comments section here.  Thank you!

Container Garden Update

I checked on all my container plants this morning.  We’re expecting temps in the high-nineties today, so the pots are more likely to dry out.  A few of the containers are on a drip system, but most I still water by hand.  It’s a nice way to stay connected.

We have a planter out front with our address etched into the ceramic, a gift from my friend, Marcia.  It’s been home to a pink geranium for several years, but the plant is looking tired and cramped.  I’ll need to find a bigger pot, and a plant to replace it. Oh darn…a trip to the nursery ;-).

See how pretty it looked in April? Not any more.

The plants on deck are looking healthy.  The coleus had a growth spurt, and the trailing flowers surrounding it should have enough weight to start cascading down the side of the pot.

Coleus

Yellow Snapdragons grow one pot over, but they may not be getting enough sun.  Only one side of the plant is flowering.  They look healthy enough.  I’ll keep an eye on things.

Yellow Snapdragons Peak Over the Back of the Chair

The miniature yellow rose survived the transplant and is recovering from dusty mold.  The pot is finally full enough to keep the squirrels from digging.  Well, mostly.

12-Year-Old Miniature Roses

We have three, over-sized pots grouped together on our back steps.  The pink hydrangea has grown quite tall, no doubt grateful for the extra room in the planter.  I had a pair of fuchsias in there for a few years, but they developed some sort of blight and I couldn’t get them to come back.

Three Flowering Pots: Hydrangea, Sweet Onions, Lambs Ear

Today’s high temps will be good for the tomatoes, berries and pumpkins. Summer solstice is almost upon us!

What’s growing in your planting pots these days?

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Ornamental Grass: Feathery Wisps, Garden Gifts

A few years ago, a landscape designer mentioned the benefits of using ornamental grasses in garden design.  I wasn’t sold on the idea.  A few years before, I read an article on invasive grasses in our state, nearly impossible to destroy and prolific to the point of taking over native plants.  Would my garden also be overrun by the invasive grassy beast?

One of our neighbors had a beautiful ornamental grass in her garden, but it eventually overtook an entire corner of her backyard.  It required heavy pruning which in turn created a homely plant.  Well.

As you may have guessed, I eventually reconsidered!  We now have several varieties of ornamental grass, each uniquely graceful and one of my favorite garden elements.  The shortest of the grasses is a stand-out for its lemony-green striped leaves, soft and no more than six inches tall. Known as  ‘Aureola’ Japanese Forest Grass,  the plant grows low to the ground but spreads about two feet wide.  It turns brown when dormant, but bounces back to its beautiful self in the spring!

‘Aureola’ Japanese Forest Grass

Along our property line, we have a swaying wall of New Zealand Flax.  Full at the base, the plant gives way  to tall, feathery grasses that change color with the seasons.  Last fall and winter they were golden-yellow.  The Flax now boasts several deep shades of purple with a bit of gray.

New Zealand Flax

We have a single specimen known as Giant Feather Grass bumping up against the steps.  The grass arches over the top half of the ramp and catches the afternoon sun.  It reminds me of an over-sized dandelion with its tall stalk and ball-like grassy top.

Giant Feather Grass

I’m always trying to capture their beauty with my camera, but the movement and wistfulness make for a lot of blurry pictures.

If your climate supports growing ornamental grasses, I urge you to consider one native to your area.  The constant movement and the play of light are stunning.

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Staking Tomatoes

Not “steak and tomatoes” but tomato stakes, those wonderful supports you place around your cute little tomato plants.  It takes planning and a healthy dose of optimism to set them up early.  While you’re waiting around for the perfect day to do that chore, your tiny plants morph into shrubs.

I have a few choice words for the lazy gardener who puts off this task.

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Okay, now that I’m done telling myself off, I’m happy to report that I did manage to wrangle a couple of folding plant stakes around the prolific tomatoes.  I’m glad that’s done!

Staked Tomatoes

While I was at it, I tied a couple of old wooden trellises together into an A-frame for the pumpkin vines.  Hopefully, [insert optimism here] the elevated fruit deters the midnight foragers.  Time will tell.

Pumpkin Trellis

Happy Friday!

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Blooming Thursday: Kinder + Garden

According to Merriam-Webster, bloom can mean “to produce or yield flowers.”  It also means “to mature into achievement of one’s potential.”

Last night my soon-to-be 12 year-old asked if I liked HTML.  I said that I did.  He wanted to create this beautiful lettering for my blog using one of his favorite sites.  He was also careful to point out that it wasn’t completely original, giving credit where credit was due.  I love it!

• • • • • Gardening Nirvana • • • • •

His integrity, thoughtfulness, creativity and wonderful imagination bring me such joy.  It occurred to me today as I was photographing the blooms in my garden, that my children are blooming as well, blossoming really into two terrific young men.

That’s a lot of blooming on Thursday!

Oh yeah…the garden blooms:

I can’t get enough of the view: Blue Hydrangea

Close-up

I think the cosmos grew another foot!

Happy pollinator wearing a purple party hat

Pumpkin flower hiding in the cosmos

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Squirrel Abating Screen-saver Update

In my last-ditch effort to keep the squirrels from decimating my sunflower crop again I came up with the idea of using sliding window screens and a bit of twine to create tents over the planting boxes.  Guess what?  It worked!!!

I completely replanted two boxes, but had a few surviving plants in the third.  I tossed in a few extra seeds, in order to hedge my bets.  In just three weeks, the seeds sprouted and most have set true leaves.  The earlier plants are now as tall as the screens.  Originally I thought I would completely remove the screen-savers once established.  Now that the plants are up, I decided to leave them in place.  I loosened the twine and lifted the leaves to the outside and they continue to thrive.  I’m so happy.

The leaves have the same holes as they did last year, though I never saw the culprit and assumed snails.  The damage, while not pretty, didn’t seem to hinder the plant’s growth.  A friend stopped by this week and said she had seen birds pecking away at the leaves of her sunflower plants, so that could be it.  I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s the screensaver on May 13th:

Screen saver: May 13, 2012

The screen saver today, June 6th:

Screensaver: June 6, 2012

Hee-hee…you can’t get me!

You can find my screensaver tutorial here:

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Front Garden Remodel Turns Two

Two years ago this month, we “remodeled” our front yard.  For years we talked about adding a front deck or patio.  We live on a neighbor-friendly block with kids galore so we were often out front socializing.  We chatted with friends standing in the driveway or sitting on chairs in the garage.  We eventually added a bench and then a swing, but what we longed for was a full-sized patio or deck.

Around the same time, it was becoming more and more difficult for my sister to access our home.  Our entry way consisted of two concrete steps, original to the 50-year-old house, and her MS made it difficult for her to come and go.

We hired the talented team of Bergez and Associates and Natural Bridges Landscaping, to create our suburban paradise.  We’ve found so much joy with our outdoor room!  My sister can come and go unassisted, a boon to her independence.  We also realized that the ramp will allow us to age in place since the house is now easily accessible.

It’s amazing to look back at the newly installed garden.  The plants established beautifully.

Here’s a look:

Garden and Deck, June 2012

Garden and Deck, June 2010

Near the Magnolia: 2010/2012

Kitty Corner, With Special Thanks to Candace