JOURNAL October 2018

Garden entrance, 10/3. Today brought the first gestures of Autumn: cool temperatures, a mix of clouds and sun, and thousands of grackles gathering for their annual voyage down South.

Tickseed, Bidens aristolchia, in the foreground, 10/3. A most appealing yellow, to me and to dozens of insects. Five years ago, I seeded a big patch of it elsewhere in the garden and was alarmed by it’s spread the following year. Its easy to identify and pull, now restricted to a few patches. It blooms here in late September, a true harbinger of Autumn.

Garage bed facing West, 10/8. Two nights in the high 20s didn’t knock much down. Once the heat subsided, mid-August, the tomatoes began flowering and fruiting again. I had hopes of fair weather and a lucky, last-minute harvest but…

Squirrels. There were about a dozen plump and blushing fruits hanging on various plants. Squirrels are discerning diners, taking a single bite from each fruit to judge flavor. Once the bite is made, the bugs move in. I had planned this ‘Cherokee Purple’ to be my last tomato sandwich of 2018, salted and peppered on crusty bread with a thin smear of mayonnaise.

10/7. Squirrels here don’t usually eat hot peppers–the Aji amarillo were untouched except by a friendly pumpkin vine. My new favorite pepper to grow and eat, the Aji ignored the damning heat, flowering and fruiting with generosity throughout the season. Medium-hot, like a Serrano, with a sweet peachy-pineapple flavor. Fifteen delicate-looking plants easily yielded 10 pounds of fruit over four months. Sauteed with garlic and thyme for a starter, soups and stews, pickled, and pureed for a sauce that freezes well.

10/3. I’m hooked on the Solanaceae and Amaranthaceae families; beautiful, interesting and useful plants. I’ve yet to harvest the seeds of amaranth but I gladly eat the leaves. A delicious passalong green amaranth in front, “Hopi Red Dye’ behind. If you cut red amaranths for the house, use a clear vase–they turn the water red.

The Garage Bed looking north, 10/7. Peppers, tomatoes, amaranths, Ricinus and Leonotis. You can see where the squirrels have been planting acorns under the bamboo.

Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii, giving Autumn color and berries. Poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, glowing gold at bottom right. Amur honeysuckle is a Top Five invasive plant in Kansas–I fight this plant more than any other in my garden. But twice a year, it is beautiful.

The Small Barrows were a good trick this year. Planted with ‘Genovese’ basil, ‘Cherry Falls’ tomatoes, and Gomphrena ‘Strawberry Fields’. The Gomphrena blooms mimic small tomatoes and I saw several people double-take. “What kind of tomatoes are those?”

Leonotis nepetefolia, the Lion’s Ear, in strong wind, 10/3. A mint growing to ten feet and more, their square stems are thick and very strong. I dry them most years for garden canes.

Leonotis on the lean, 10/8.

Leonotis with Ants. Six years and this is the first time I’ve noticed ants on the blossoms of this plant. The flowers are nectar-rich, hummingbirds flock to Leonotis. Hummingbirds are aggressively territorial and I’ve seen amazing aerial battles over the years.

 

Plume poppy, Maclaeya cordata, in the rain. They flopped this year and look like giant Alchemilla.

10/3. Not a b/w picture, taken at 5pm before a storm. Ipomoea batatas ‘Solar Tower Black’, a climbing sweet potato, and Ipomoea quamoclit ‘Alba’, the feathery, white-flowered cypress vine, on the pole.

The lacy blue leaves of Rue, Ruta graveolens, remind me of sea plants. Host to swallowtail butterflies.

Empty space on the Main Path, 10/3. Most of the pots that stood in the bare patch at left are now on the back patio.

Main Path Helianthus, 10/7.

Main Path after first hard frost, 10/17, 8pm. Orange flowers of Gaillardia pulchella, a fine plant for most gardens.

Klee set-up with yellow Amsonia hubrichtii, juvenile blue Juniperus, grasses, lilies and flowering tobacco.

The Ride facing East, 10/8. Sagging ragweed in the foreground.

The Ride facing East, 10/24.

Solanum quitoense, 10/3.

Solanum quitoense frosted, 10/17.

View from the table, 10/3.

View from the table, 10/24.

Brush pile on the West fence. Eight feet tall by 20 wide in May, now five feet tall and collapsed to two feet by Spring. The soil underneath the pile will make a rich mulch. Home to dozens of my marauding rabbits, cute Eastern wood rats, and one tetchy groundhog.

Pots holding for Winter quarters on the back porch. Rosemary, Fuschia and Pelargonium.

Lots going on.

 

 

GRAPEVINE November, Neelakurinji, Greenhouse One, Greenhouse Two, Medlar, Edison Gardens, Victory Gardens, Rock Gardens, Gymnosperms, Leaves One, Leaves Two, Variegation, Hummelo Closing

Basket of Medlars. Photo jorgen.mi, Wikimedia Commons

Neelakurinji, Strobilanthes kunthiana, Anamudi Shola National Park, Kerala, India. Photo Vinayaraj, Wikimedia Commons.

The only difference between an extraordinary life and an ordinary one is the extraordinary pleasures you find in ordinary things. – Véronique Vienne

– November
If November begins in autumn it ends unambiguously in winter. The days become shockingly short and the chances of frost – or worse – are real enough to make the business of protecting and tidying the garden urgent, so it is a busy month, especially as bad weather can bring work to a juddering halt for days or even weeks at a time.
Monty Don

– One of India’s best-kept secrets
One of the rarest flowers in the world, the Neelakurinji blooms just once every 12 years in India’s south-western state of Kerala.
BBC Reel; video, 1:43 mins.

– Experimental mini-greenhouse plays host to urban plants & bees
Located in the middle of a busy, “exposed and harsh” intersection in Copenhagen, right beside a three-lane road and a train station, it’s not exactly the most hospitable place for greenery to grow. However, that is the point of this three-year experiment, which will see this ecosystem hopefully thrive without any human interference whatsoever.
Treehugger

– Growing the World’s Food in Greenhouses
For this project, Mattson’s team studies the use of LED lights. LEDs are significantly more energy efficient than legacy lights and also have more control capabilities—such as adjusting light intensity and spectrum—whereas legacy lights can only be turned on and off.
Cornell Research

– Mespilus germanica
If, like me, you are a fan of the word “bletting”, then medlar is the fruit for you.
UBC Botanical Garden

– The Garden History of Thomas Edison
He used soil from the adjacent Caloosahatchee River to enrich his fourteen acres, and one of the reasons he originally bought the property was that it was already established with bamboo. Carbonized bamboo was one of the first lightbulb filaments, lasting over 1200 hours before burning out.
Garden History Girl

– Gardening for the Common Good
Victory gardens (originally called war gardens or liberty gardens) made their first appearance during World War I (1914–1918). President Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to plant vegetable gardens to ward off the possible threat of food shortages. Americans took up the challenge as a civic and patriotic duty.
Smithsonian; Cultivating America’s Gardens

– It’s about the plants, honey!
People pooh pooh crevice gardens as stark, and rock gardens as artificial in urban settings. But if you want to grow treasures like these, this is the way to do it.
Prairiebreak

– Gymnosperms and Fleshy “Fruits”
Many of us were taught in school that one of the key distinguishing features between gymnosperms and angiosperms is the production of fruit.
In Defense of Plants

– Moving On To Fallen
A whole bunch of leaves fell in the last wind and rain. More of that is incoming for Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday it could be all over. The mountains are already naked up top and I see a possibility of the first snow for the weekend.
Outside Clyde

– Last Load?
A basic requirement for a woodland garden is a thick cover of rotting hardwood leaves.
Plants and Stones

– Working with Variegated Plants
Spots, splashes, streaks, and margin markings: These and other sorts of variegation add an extra element of interest to lovely leaves. The visual effect can range from subtle to gaudy, and from elegant to somewhat sickly, depending on the pattern, intensity, and colors.
Hayefield

– Closing Time: Goodbye to Hummelo
After nearly 40 years of welcoming the world through its gates, the private garden of Piet and Anja Oudolf at Hummelo will close to the public for good at the end of this month.
The New Perennialist

A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy. – Luis Barragan

Segment of Piet Oudolf’s planting design for Hauser & Wirth Somerset garden. Photo John Lord, Wikimedia Commons.

Dahlia ‘Thomas Edison’. Photo Mark Twyning, Wikimedia Commons.

JOURNAL September 2018, Part Two

Dad’s birthday lunch at Barolo, one of his favorite Italian restaurants. A lifelong sports fan, Dad was very happy to see members of the Anaheim Ducks at a nearby table. “They won a Stanley Cup,” he said with pride.

Pollo piccata at Barolo.

Agave encroaching on the front sidewalk were transplanted to the back yard. I was concerned that the sprinklers would provide too much water but…

This sprinkler only waters the pavement. A chore for the next visit.

Brugmansia borrowed from the neighbors.

Planted a Papaya in a sheltered corner. A transplanted rose and cuttings of Senecio, Crassula (guessing), and Pelargonium below.

Blood Banana, Musa acuminata var. zebrina, planted near the Fig Wall, Ficus repens.

Blank canvas by the garage.

A fine tangle: Thunbergia alata (‘Blushing Susie’, I think); white-flowered Salvia; and red-orange Asclepias curassavica.

The same Thunbergia with a striking and unknown purple-flower, perhaps a Hibiscus relative.

After 10 days away, back home to my own lovely tangles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOURNAL September 2018, Part One

Three of a hedge of four Solanum quitoense aka Naranjilla, overwintered on the back porch last year, looking sick when planted to rich ground in April. Two months of drought and hard sun soon followed, I thought them goners. Four feet tall now, in fruit and flower. What a difference some rain makes. Their broad leaves make shade enough–even in Kansas sun–to stunt Lamb’s Ears, Stachys byzantina ‘H von Stein’. The flowers look like a large, white tomato flower; the fruits are the size of a big cherry tomato, covered in brassy fuzz, but I grow them for their big, scalloped, gray-green, felted and pink-thorned leaves.

Ipomoea quamoclit ‘Alba’

Transplanting lettuce.

The chain-link fence was installed in 2014. The house is on the local Historic Register; there are rules about changes. But when Burroughs bought the house in 1982, there was a similar chain-link in the same place. In fact, chain-link is all over the property, a 20th century Midwest vernacular. A fourth-year Rosa “Darlow’s Enigma’ is covering the fence at left, three plants of Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ at center. What is that mutilated tree, you ask? An old hackberry, Celtis, most of it came down in a hard Spring storm. There’s a world of Funghi growing on the shady graveyard side, it will come down soon, but not on the house.

Birdseed Helianthus annus.

North side of house, looking east through sculpted Lonicera maackii. Azalea, Box, Hydrangea, Flowering Quince and Viburnum down there, so far. Another boxwood, Clematis montana, an upright Chamaecyparis seeking shade, and a Cranberry bush will be moved here while dormant in mid-February. If transplanting in mid-late winter, Zone 6b here, take the biggest rootball you can carry. No matter the weather, water in well after planting to settle the soil around the roots, add thick mulch.

Left to right: Hibiscus acetosella ‘Mahogany Splendor’; Miscanthus g.; Ipomoea batatas (a Triffid in this year’s heat); and a surfing flower of Zinnia ‘ Will Rogers’.

Pear Path looking South. ‘Peppermint Stick’ Balsam the scarlet in the foreground.

Barrows, small, 9/8. Tomato ‘ Cherry Falls’, ‘Genovese’ basil, Gomphrena ‘Strawberry Fields’.

Barrows, small, 9/13.

Barrow, big, Pumpkin ‘Jarrahdale’, Garage.

Garage Bed facing West.

Verbascum ‘Governor George Aiken’, seed from Hayefield, standing proud in the third month. The “lawn” is filling in.

View from the table, 9/13.

DAD VISIT 9/17 – 9/27

Downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo, Donna and David.

Freeway overpasses and sidewalks bordering vacant lots seem to be safe ground for the homeless. The police are justifiably overwhelmed by the numbers–mostly, they let them be. Odds are you won’t freeze to death in a Southern California Winter. Check the slogan on the billboard.

On the drive from LAX to Little Tokyo, once we got on surface streets near downtown, three things struck me: the increase in destitute people, used to be confined to cardboard night cities around the Mission on Main Street; the increase in yuppies (still a viable descriptor); the increase in trees. A limo will pull up in front of a hot shitty restaurant and You Tube stars will pile out, influencers dressed and plucked, barely stepping over the skinny old woman collapsed on the sidewalk. Tall planter boxes of Equisetum are the standard street space definitions. I lived downtown 1982-1986, in the Jewelry District at 7th & Hill. The Garment District was seven blocks West. Most of the high-rises downtown were empty above the third floor or renting to garment manufacturers, sweat shops. In 1982, I paid $200 mo. for the entire second floor of an old department store. I had to build in my own place, 2000 square feet, luckily encompassing the old men’s room. I had fourteen-foot ceilings, four toilet stalls, four urinals and four sinks, all with good pressure. For an American male, a glimpse of Paradise. Now, 600 square feet of level drywall and flat eggshell paint, some kitchen granite, and a bidet-toilet starts at $3,000 a month, before coop fees. So much money is pouring downtown, so many more people are slumping on the streets. But plants are everywhere, there has been plenty of funding for greenery. Used to be only Spring Street had trees.

Echeveria planting, parking lot, Bunker Hill bodega.

Arrived LAX 5pm, Dave picked me up, dropped off bag at home, saw Donna again, out to Suehiro for dinner. Then a lovely LA nightwalk.

Grand Central Market. After 18 years away, still there. Still has brain tacos. Prices gone way up.

This building originally housed a bank. When I lived downtown, it was a paint/hardware store–I painted my home from this store–a Glidden franchise, if memory serves. Now, it’s the best bookstore I’ve ever seen: The Last Bookstore. I’m a bookhound, been around, but this is really something. They tell you books are more than words on pages.

Last Bookstore third floor paper sculpture.

Only one day in downtown, much to revisit. Early morning at LA Fish Market.

Elysian Park, where Plumbago is a rangy weed.

Downtown Gehry.

Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC).

LAAC bar.

LAAC roof.

Suntory Garden, Japan America Cultural Center, Little Tokyo.

Suntory Garden 2.

Suntory Garden 3. The Persimmon that survived Hiroshima.

Bottega Louie.

Philippe’s French Dip. Lamb and blue cheese.

Donna walked me over to Olvera Street, where “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles” germinated, just across from Union Station. Had coffee and guacamole for breakfast, fed chips to the same bold sparrows. Caught the Pacific Surfliner south at noon.

Dad and Marta met me at the station and we set off on the daily errand run. First stop was the lottery store, Dad and Marta reflected in the window. Then to lunch, the post office, and the grocery store to get ingredients for a chocolate cake. Dad’s 86th birthday was the next day.

The guest room where I stayed. The Batman rug was in my bedroom when I was a kid.

Dad’s roses, mostly Tea, all unknown to me.

Growing Tea roses against a wall in any climate is said to encourage black spot. These poodle roses must have good wind.

“Get rid of those tall green sticks. Too tall” Some kind of succulent, a surprisingly small root mass, heavy to lift, but stems turgid.

Cleared.

A crime against Nature. Matilija poppy, Romneya coulterii, hacked like a common Hibiscus. I got Dad’s gardener’s number.

Enough for now. Part 2 in a few days.

 

 

JOURNAL August 2018

Sunplay on the back wall of the garage, west-facing. The amaranth on the right is twelve feet tall and still reaching. The seed (provenance unknown) was given by a friend as a “real good eating green.” The young leaves are indeed tender and unusually tasty, until hard heat sets in. Then the plant is set on growing straight and tall, leaning in September to disperse it’s seed and increase territory. I pull out far more than I keep but its still a keeper.

Seeded ‘Touchon’ carrots in a grow bag this year. Budding mystery Sedum–ahem, Hyloteliphium–on the right. 9/5, no germination.

Camouflaged. Katydid (family Tettigoniidae), munching on ‘Genovese’ basil.

Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima, is in my Top Five lifelong plants. I have grown it in four counties, three states and six towns, often in pots. It is always beautiful, sometimes fragrant, tough, delicate, humble and highly attractive to insects. I hope to never be without it.

Cucamelon, Melothria scabra, finally on the move. They hugged the ground until rain came at the beginning of August. Also known as Mexican sour gherkin and Sandita, “little watermelon.” Grape-sized when ripe, striped black and green. A good crunch, almost sour, cucumber green. Kelly Kindscher advises slicing them in half for salads.

Always tickled to see the straw bales sprout. Rye, I think (Secale cereale). I’ve caught several neighbor cats eating it. Seeds sold as Cat Grass are often rye. Nice set up for the Taro, Colocasia esculenta.

Tritunia ‘Blue Star’ on the gravel bench 8/16.

Gravel bench 8/22. Thyme, Talinum, sage, miniature roses, lilies and fading Echinacea. A wave of yellow Ipomoea batatas ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’ crashing from the left. Meyer lemon in the pot at left, rhubarb chard seeds in the pot at right.

Gravel bench 8/31. Peachy Rosa ‘At Last’ in bloom on the bench.

Rosa ‘At Last’ from a quart pot planted in April. Rich soil, mulch and monthly feedings of fish emulsion. Fourth bloom flush so far, slight fragrance on hot evenings. Sweet alyssum seedlings coming up underneath. Advertised as 3’x3′, it will go in the ground mid-September.

The future home of Rosa ‘At Last’, between the blue and gold. Catmint on the left, Creeping Jenny at right. A wee Plectranthus in the bottom right corner.

Cypress vine piling up on the left, Ipomoea quamoclit ‘Alba’.

Little path facing West, 8/22. The pink-white trumpets of flowering tobacco, Nicotiana x mutabilis ‘Bella’, held aloft on strong, thin stems at right.

Little path, 8/31. The Nicotiana at right now stripped by tomato hornworms (likely). At back left, magenta-red Madagascar Periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus–a Catharanthus species is increasingly used to dramatic effect against childhood Leukemia. ‘Pesto Perpetuo’ basil and yellow chard mixed in.

Main path, South entrance, 8/31.

Main path pots facing East, 8/22.

Spiky flower heads of Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’ at left; chenille tresses of Amaranthus cruentus ‘Hopi Red Dye’ at right.

Tomato ‘Amana Orange’. Nearly all of the early fruit was spoiled by blossom end rot, occurring when soil moisture is inconsistent, as it was during our June/July heatwave. A few fruits are ripening unscathed.

Garage bed face South, 8/22.

Garage bed face North, 8/31.

Garage bed face West, 8/16. Wild arugula owns the pathway.

A striking yellow mushroom, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, popped up in the rosemary pots, 8/4. Common in warm, organically rich soil. I’ve never seen it before but I did go heavy on the compost this year and it has been very warm. It also came up in the lemon pot a week later.

The Red-Footed Cannibal Robber Fly, Promachus rufipes. What an excellent name; also known as the Bee Panther. Reputed to kill hummingbirds on the wing, Robber flies feed primarily on flying insects: bees and wasps, dragonflies, beetles, grasshoppers, and their own kind. They are strong and swift in the air. They find elevated camouflage (as above), perching immobile until prey flies by. Rocketing onto the backs of their targets, they use strong legs to enfold and immobilize, and inject a paralyzing enzyme via a sharp proboscis. All on the wing.

 

White Gladiolus bloom. I’ve never grown Glads before but I’ve bought plenty from florists over the decades. I planted 30 corms in Spring; 10 each of green, white and yellow. Several sent up spikes at the end of July but they soon burned. Two whites have bloomed so far.

In early September, the tallest plants in the garden are usually the Leonotis nepetifolia, aka Lion’s Ears or Klip Dagga, the orange-flowered mint at top right. Hummingbirds are crazy about it, nectar-rich, easily accessed, and one of the last energy resources of the season before they move South. This plant is seven feet tall now, 10 feet easily in two weeks, probably two feet taller by the middle of October when it will fall flat on the ground. I planted it five years ago, a Zone 9 tropical in a (then) Zone 5 garden, and it has reseeded more and more each year. Now, like Perilla and Amaranthus, an introduced plant requiring editorial diligence.

Fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’, backed by blooming Plume Poppies, Maclaeya cordata, 8/16.

An un-rooted pad of Opuntia ‘Snowball’, hopefully rooting, and a tender Echeveria struggling to bloom.

Fingers also crossed for a pad of Opuntia ‘Nebraska Orange’ across the Little Path from Opuntia ‘Snowball’.

Ipomoea batatas ‘Solar Tower Black; Ipomoea quamoclit ‘Alba’, the white-flowered Cypress Vine; and Tritunia ‘Blue Star’. All in the family.

Pumpkin ‘Jarrahdale’; Monarda fistulosa re-sprouting behind; and Sweetbay‘s Bidens aristolchia moving up, top left.

Ride face East, 8/22.

Ride face West, 8/31.

Giant Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida, (Asteraceae). Long ago it was pointed out as a troublesome weed so I routinely pulled it out. This year, because it was the only plant in July that was tall, green and thriving, I let it be. A visiting botanist identified it at the end of the month. For three weeks, I’ve been weeping in the garden like a Celine Dion song and I thought it was the misery of age. That ragweed is gone.

A final note about Ambrosia trifida: It blooms at the same time as Goldenrod, Solidago sp., and because the Goldenrod is showier, it is falsely accused as the allergen. Ragweed makes you sneeze, Goldenrod feeds the bees.

Baby ‘Santa Fe’ peppers, thick-skinned and Serrano-hot when red and ripe, about the size of a ‘Cubanelle’. A bone-warming heat for soups and sauces.

View from the table, 8/4.

View from the table, 8/16.

View from the table, 8/31.

Solanum jungle.

For the third year in a row, Spring is getting shorter, June and July are much hotter, August wetter. Bitter cold last Winter but only three inches of snow. More bugs, more rabbits, busier voles, and poison ivy everywhere, even in gravel. Lantana over-wintering at minus 15.

 

 

 

JOURNAL July 2018

We’re all talking about the heat. Unprecedented fire and drought all over the world. We all can’t afford my spending as much water next year as I did in 2018. On July 30, my accounting confirmed that my vegetable garden expenses exceeded the cost of buying the same produce from the farmers market. That’s a moot argument: it isn’t the gardening game and there aren’t enough small farms. We have to become sincere  phenologists, we have to think ahead.  I’m planting Forestiera, Opuntia and Portulaca for 2019, and reading up on swales and dry farming.

Entrance 7/29. Cloudy day, storms on radar bearing down, only spitty rain came. Two cloudy days followed–the plants had a respite from cruel sun and heat.

Two small barrows, handles sawed off, placed end to end under a Hackberry but still too hot. Tomato ‘Cherry Falls’ and ‘Genovese’ basil. Tomato flowering shut down after the second week in the 90s, early June.

Lilium ‘Scheherazade’, fourth year, now tough. Not a bit of scorch on those beautiful leaves. Seven-footers, before leaning. They share space with a four-year stand of Monarda fistulosa, also a shameless leaner. I’m not an enthusiastic staker but I’ll give them better direction next year.

Lilium ‘Scheherazade’ in flower. The one on the right is a week older than the left. The new flowers have extraordinary substance, almost feel like plastic.

Lilium ‘Saltarello’. Flash in twilight.

Scorch, early July.

Scorch 7/17. Lilium ‘Legend’ and Echinacea purpurea. That was as good as that lily got this year.

Lilium ‘Legend’ again, faring better in the company of Eryngium yuccifolium in a hot, gritty bed.

The Tiger Lilies all bloomed at once and barely lasted four days.

‘Black Beauty’ lily suffering. Rabbits took it down last year, now beaten by heat.

TP and JT put new paint on the garage.

I was glad to bring this Jordan Briceland sculpture down from the South-facing garage wall, placed by the artist seven years ago. It was deep blue then. My plan was to set two posts standing six feet above ground in the thicket along the fence line and attach the sculpture at eye level–a short, pruned path leading to it–to block a dull view and prying eyes. A job better suited to Autumn than 100-degree days in July. I leaned it against a honeysuckle trunk in the interim. Two weeks ago, a storm threw the sculpture to the ground, snapping off most of the protrusions and dismantling the frame, and giving us two inches of rain.

Pearl Crescent Butterfly, Phyciodes tharos, resting on Hibiscus acetellosa.

The Imperial Moth, Eacles imperialis, seven-inch wingspan, 7/28.

The floor of the Gravel Bench. Thyme, Hylotelepium ‘Blade Runner’, and regular self-seeder, Talinum paniculatum ‘Kingswood Gold’, less gold with each year. ‘Jewels of Opar’ is the charming common name of this succulent plant, young leaves good in salad.

Three red stems. Left to right: Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’; Hibiscus acetosella ‘Mahogany Splendor’; Amaranthus cruentus x powellii ‘Hopi Red Dye’.

Three- year Helenium blooming mid-July, a month early. At least its upright at this point–last year it was a groundcover when it bloomed.

Hemerocallis ‘Hyperion’ and Juniperus ‘Moonglow’.

Hemerocallis ‘Wedding Band’, two feet tall with an eight-inch flower. From the Greek: hemeros (day) and kallos (beauty), we get the common name of Daylily.

Main path pots.

Solanum quitoense, Naranjilla.

Seedlings of flowering tobacco, Nicotiana x mutabilis ‘Bella’, on the move after deep rain at the end of July.

Little Path facing East.

Sparse fruit set on the native Sambucus canadensis ‘Burroughs Creek’ this year. Hoping the stressed berries are extra-potent.

View from the table, 7/29.

Today I Sing The Blues

GRAPEVINE Old Bread, Cucamelon, Toxic Nectar, Jamaican Ackee, Spiny Eggplants, Mother Olive, Father Elder, Abyssinian Gumbo, Bloom Day, Perennial Problems, Deep Diamonds, Suicide Moon

He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise. – Paul Klee

Beatrix Farrand. Photo: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library archive.

Thomas Church. Photo: The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Archaeologists discover bread that predates agriculture by 4,000 years
The findings suggest that bread production based on wild cereals may have encouraged hunter-gatherers to cultivate cereals, and thus contributed to the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period.
Science Daily

Mouse Melon or Mexican Sour Cucumber, Melothria scabra
The white, crisp interior flesh has a crunchy texture. The flavor is generally described as cucumber-like with a hint of sourness.
Master Gardener Program, University of Wisconsin Extension

Toxic Nectar
I was introduced to the concept of toxic nectar thanks to a species of shrub quite familiar to anyone who has spent time in the Appalachian Mountains. Locals will tell you to never place honeybee hives near a patch of rosebay (Rhododendron maximum) for fear of so-called “mad honey.”
In Defense of Plants

Jamaican Ackee, Blighia sapida
Consumers of the unripe fruit sometimes suffer from ‘Jamaican vomiting sickness syndrome’ (JVS) allegedly caused by the unusual amino acid components, hypoglycin A and B.
Department of Chemistry, UWI, Mona, Jamaica

The case of the spiny eggplants
My first experience with this botanical genre came early in my gardening career. I had just taken up seed-starting, and had yet to discover the wonderful world of online seed trading. …Among the many curiosities I ordered were balsam pears, hairy-leaved chiles, and bundleflowers, some of which still inhabit our garden. But the one I remember best was Solanum atropurpureum, whose description included a quote from a botanist proclaiming the majesty of this ferocious plant, ending in, “I call it ‘Malevolence’.”
Rob’s Plants

Olea europaea
Olive trees (Olea europaea) have long represented wealth, abundance, power and peace. The olive has been a symbol of the Mediterranean since time immemorial and has a reputation for long life, nourishment and its ability to thrive in tough conditions.
Kew Science

American Elderberry
As with many underutilized fruit crops, relatively little breeding work has been done with American Elder. There are few named cultivars, and those that exist are not genetically diverse. But this may change through a concerted breeding effort at the University of Missouri.
Uncommon Fruit

Okra, or “Gumbo,” from Africa
One of the earliest accounts of okra is by a Spanish Moor who visited Egypt in 1216. He described the plant in detail, as cultivated by the Egyptians, and stated that the pods when young and tender were eaten with meal. (Southerners in our own country know how to cook it with corn meal — slice the pods, dip the pieces in meal, and fry them.)
Aggie Horticulture

A Bloom Day Walk About
I have a lot of ground to edit when the entire three plus acres of wild cultivated gardens are taken into account. So it’s ok with me that the leeks went wild in the roadside vegetable garden.
Outside Clyde

Perennials Proliferate in Three Year Old Garden
Summer is generally not considered a time to work on garden planning, but it is in summer that many of the problems of our plant arrangements reveal themselves with painful clarity.
Commonweeder

Sound waves reveal diamond cache deep in Earth’s interior
There may be more than a quadrillion tons of diamond hidden in the Earth’s interior, according to a new study from MIT and other universities.
phys.org

Astronomers discover 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter – one on collision course with the others.
Astronomers describe the twelfth new Jovian moon as an “oddball”.
The Guardian

Botany, the science of the vegetable kingdom, is one of the most attractive, most useful, and most extensive departments of human knowledge. It is, above every other, the science of beauty. – Sir Joseph Paxton

Rosemary Verey. Photo: WBUR Here and Now.

Russell Page. Photo: Landscape Notes.

JOURNAL June 2018

“No occupation is so delightful to me than the culture of the Earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.” – Thomas Jefferson

 

Verbascum thapsus ‘Governor George Aiken,’ from seed via Hayefield in Pennsylvania. Fourth generation here. Like many in the species, it is biennial, reseeds freely, and is attractive to many insects.

The big barrow at the end of June, facing North, home to a ‘Cherokee Purple’ tomato, ‘Rosita’ eggplants, ‘Genovese’ basil and petunias. Blossom end rot is a problem.

Big barrow from above, facing West. Yellow chard on right after three cuttings.

Thunder woke me at 3AM, June 4. Opened the front door to strobe lightning and fierce winds, another Kansas storm. Went back to bed. For eight years I’ve been eyeing the massive branch of the 60-foot hackberry, Celtis occidentalis, overhanging my bedroom. Four years ago, the tree started to rot. At 5:30AM, I woke again to that “train sound,” a sustained gust of wind, then loud cracking noises. I went on the front porch again, the lightning revealed a significant event, but the storm forced me to retreat indoors. Made coffee. At 6:30, I took the photo above. No damage to the house. The forked branch on the left even managed to straddle the lamppost and the flowering spikes of the Yucca (first storm photo).

Tree crew came by the next day.

 

Rosa ‘At Last’ and Tritunia ‘Blue Star’ take a selfie.

Stump pots, June 4. Two Fuschia triphylla ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ and a petite, yellow-rimmed Buxus.

Stump pots from above, June 30, with Maclaeya cordata, the plume poppy, on the move. Hosta ‘Daybreak’ in bloom below, and a self-seeded Petunia exserta bunking with the boxwood.

The small barrows, home to ‘Cherry Falls’ tomatoes (bred to cascade), bright orange ‘King Theodore’ nasturtiums (slow in the heat), and ‘Genovese’ basil. ‘Red Globe’ amaranth in the pots.

The fetching blooms of Dianthus ‘Coconut Surprise’ in front of a ‘Bluebird’ aster, Symphyotrichum laeve. The Dianthus is very fragrant but the blooms fade quickly to brown mush, probably due in part to the extreme heat we’ve had since May.

Gravel bench facing East, June 6.

Gravel bench facing West, June 24. Dark red ‘Serengeti’ lilies, a Longiflorum/Asiatic hybrid (LA); Castor Bean, Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’; Echinacea purpurea; and Red-Leaf Hibiscus, Hibiscus acetosella.

From the main path, facing Southeast, June 4.

Same angle at the end of June. Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea purpurea ‘PowWow White,’ Polygonum orientale, Rudbeckia maxima, Helenium autumnale ‘Rubinzwerg,’ and ‘Hopi Red Dye’ amaranth, Amaranthus cruentus x powellii.

Main path, facing southwest. Evening light, June 4, 7:45PM.

Lilium ‘Bright Diamond,’ another LA cross, has good substance and strong fragrance. Hemerocallis ‘South Seas’ in the background.

The white blooms of Lilium regale album, a species lily with powerful fragrance, are four feet tall after three years. To seven feet at maturity. White Verbascum on the left; Chamaecyparis and Sambucus canadensis behind; Monarda fistulosa rising on the right; and the flowers of Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium, below.

The main path facing South. Berberis thunbergii ‘Sunjoy Tangelo’ in the foreground at left.

From the main path facing West. The red and yellow blooms of Blanketflower, Gaillardia aristata, below. The seeds I purchased were supposed to be the ‘Burgundy’ cultivar but turned out to be the species.

Same, from above.

The broad, felted and thorny leaves of Naranjilla, Solanum quitoense, with Prairie Dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepis, a fine native grass.

Flowers of Sambucus canadensis ‘Bob Gordon,’ collected by Mr. Gordon from the wild in Missouri, 1999. Two-year plants are eight feet tall, blooming mid-June.

‘Bob Gordon’ setting fruit at the end of June.

Pole and bush beans by the trellis at left, June 4. Rabbits mowed them down a week later. ‘King of the Garden’ lima beans were sown in their places, their rough leaves seemingly less palatable to young bunnies. The snow peas on the right failed to set pods in the extraordinary heat.

‘Dragons Tongue’ bush beans , peppers (Jalapeno, Poblano), and ‘Black Vernissage’ tomatoes on the upright canes, plum-sized mahogany fruits striped with green.

Bush beans along the bamboo cut to the ground by rabbits at the end of June. Some are making new growth so wait and see.

Notes on Rabbits
– Rabbits, hares and pikas are in the Order Lagomorpha, more closely related to elephants than rodents.
– A female rabbit is a doe, a male is a buck, babies are kits. The word “bunnies” refers to rabbits in general, not just kits.
– Most active feeding at dawn and dusk.
– Does are able to breed at four months of age. 30-day gestation period, four to 12 kits per litter. A single doe can produce as many as 800 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in one year.
– Kits can care for themselves after five weeks, only 15% surviving to their first year.
– Average lifespan of eight years.
– Rabbits do not hibernate, eating bark, roots and buds in Winter.

Five-gallon buckets, bottoms removed, filled with loam, compost and worm castings. ‘Amana Orange’ tomatoes in the back row, Aji amarillo peppers middle and front. Zinnia ‘Will Rogers’ in between the buckets.

Buckets from the other side (facing North), at the end of the month. The Castor Beans supply much-needed shade.

A week of 100+ temperatures were too much for the yellow straightneck squash at left. Above the corpse, ‘Jarrahdale’ pumpkins, an Australian variety with a slate blue rind, face a challenging future.

The Empty Bed, Jun 4. Two nice rose bushes and a fine Abelia grandiflora ‘Sunny Anniversary’ also fell victims to rabbit depredation in Winter. Hence the name of the bed. Last yellow blooms on the Carolina Bushpea, Thermosis villosa, center, with buds of Hemerocallis ‘Bertie Ferris’ below.

Young plants of Nicotiana alata x mutabilis ‘Bella’ filling space in the Empty Bed on June 24. Wind-damaged Wild Senna, Senna hebecarpa, on the right.

Gravel bench facing East, mid-June.

Sun scorch on the Meyer lemon, Citrus x meyeri, mid-June.

The New Path, facing North, June 4.

A new bed in the works; at the moment, an ersatz nursery bed. Calamint, Calamintha nepeta; Love Lies Bleeding, Amaranthus caudatus; Russian Sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia; a young Elderberry, self-seeded pink Cleome hassleriana; and perennial Sweet Pea, Lathyrus latifolius. A  Catalpa pollard in back.

Lilium ‘Scheherazade,’ an Oriental Trumpet hybrid (OT), in bud at the end of June.

Toadflax, Linaria maroccana ‘Northern Lights,’ blooming at the beginning of June from a mid-March direct sowing.

View from the table, June 24.

While I have the space for long sentences, I prefer to use color as punctuation. Garden mavens generally disapprove of “dot planting,” single plants sprinkled around, but it depends on the plant and the bloom display. Color isn’t the only consideration: foliage size and texture also come into play. A single Castor Bean is an exclamation point; a green Hosta, a comma; a fresh lily flower, full stop. Above all, my garden is my creation, my gathering of friends. I favor a Pointillistic manner, welcoming many and sundry to good relation.

I’m too old to be a plant snob anymore. A “right” plant is happy and long-lived in it’s place. I care less and less about the Color Wheel, a human notion rejected by Nature. Those who preach that orange with pink is heresy have never seen miles of California poppies cozying with pink Gilia. Those who say orange is vulgar in the garden are rejecting genuine thrills.

I wonder if humans are a failed species.

My favorite gardens are mostly green, truly peaceful.

 

“Young Hare” by Albrecht Durer, 1502. Photo Wikimedia Commons.

 

JOURNAL May 2018

 

“Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation.” – Kim Hubbard

 

Spring Green 1: Six-pack Violas, Daylilies, “Scheherazade” lilies, Chamaecyparis, Miscanthus and Carolina Bush Pea, Thermopsis villosa.

Spring Green 2: Elderberries on the left (Sambucus canadensis “Burroughs Creek”), native Fleabane upright in the background, fronted by a cutting-grown Korean Boxwood (Buxus koreana), a potted Meyer Lemon, and on the left a Banana gifted by friends as a pup last September, overwintered on the back porch. In the foreground is Northern Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium. I appreciate this plant for it’s bambooish appearance but I pull at least 30 seedlings every morning. The two plants I have in half-shade are slower, skinnier and sparing re-seeders.

The rosettes of gray leaves on the left belong to white-flowered Mullein, Verbascum “Governor George Aiken,” a favorite of bees.The yellow groundcover up top is Creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’. The feathery leaves below belong to Amsonia hubrichtii, a Bluestar, in it’s fifth year from seed and finally bulking up. The compound leaves at far right belong to the Carolina Lupine, Thermopsis villosa, with wild Violets (Viola papilionacea), and Calamint seedlings underfoot.

The end of May marks the start of one of the biggest annual events in the garden: the Fruiting of the Mulberries. Avian anticipation is sky-high, as much parking lot activity as a 1970s Grateful Dead concert. Grackles, Cardinals, Robins, Thrashers, Catbirds, Chickadees, Bluejays, Waxwings and wingless Squirrels inspect the fruit many times a day, awaiting that moment. One male Cardinal——nesting with his partner in the light above the garage door—staked turf on the big Mulberry, taking up his position on a high perch in the tree at dawn, forcing other male Cardinals to the younger, less fruitful Mulberries in the back of the garden. The fruit is still tight and red but if this heat keeps up, they’ll ripen in a week. Once the mulberry feast is over, the grackles move north, following the Fruiting up to Minnesota, leaving behind a minefield of purple and white ejecta that cling to plant leaves like Super Glue. The best part of the Fruiting is that the grackles are gone until March next year. And mulberry pancakes, of course.

– Other birds: Barred Owls, a Merlin, Red Tails, Turkey Buzzards, and a newcomer whose call starts with short, rhythmic chucks that sound like rosewood sticks, followed by several liquid gulps, all unusually loud—a rainforest sound. Reports that the raptor boxes installed on the nearby grain silos are all occupied account in part for the decrease in the rabbit population.

I was strangely satisfied with this picture, taken on May 25: Star of Persia, Allium christophii, bursting out; Giant Coneflower, Rudbeckia maxima, the glaucous leaves at left; Helenium ‘Rubinzwerg’ rising in back; Red Clover, Trifolium pratense on the sprawl; and bright Creeping Jenny on the ground. I can’t deny my admiration for the Hayefield style–my ideal garden is a cross between Ninfa and Harry Dodson’s walled Victorian kitchen garden. I often consult Nan’s site, particularly older posts, and came across a shot from Bloom Day, June 2013, below.

 

Ahem. The persistence of inspiration. Hayefield.

Chelsea Chop: Sedum, Asters, Monarda, Patrinia, Buxus
Delays bloom and directs growth—you can stagger and prolong the blooms of particular plants by cutting back only half of the plant. The uncut half will bloom at the usual time, the cut half a few weeks later.

In July, the Hampton Hack (also named after an RHS plant show), rejuvenates herbaceous plants after their initial flushes of bloom (Geraniums Nepeta, Alchemilla, Calamintha—anything looking spent), spurring foliage growth and occasional repeat bloom. The key is to divert the plant’s energy from making seed to overall vigor.

Seedlings of Bush Bean “Dragon’s Tongue,” long flat pods, yellow streaked purple, purportedly tender with extra-beany flavor. A rainy day on the 16th.

That same rainy day.

The Bunny Beds on the 20th, another gray day.

Small pond, Cat graveyard and garage.

On the chain-link out front, “Major Wheeler” had his first flush mid-May.

In front on the creekside, left to right, Burroughs elderberry, “Darlow’s Enigma” rose (fifth year), and dark-leaved “Summer Wine” Ninebark, Physocarpus opulus ‘Seward’.

“Darlow’s Enigma,” close.

The Pseudo-Shrubbery on the front walk.

The New Elders bed, from six-inch cuttings 15 months ago, now pushing eight feet and budding.

Unusual flower color and form, and very early bloom, on a Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, by the main path. There was a phyllodic mutation in this patch of Coneflowers last year—perhaps more interesting variations are forthcoming.

Iris “Gerald Darby,” a yellow Ipomoea batatas, tropical Plumbago at left.

Bugs return mid-May: Chiggers, Mosquitoes, Oak Mites (humans), Loopers, Hornworms, Flea Beetles (plants), Fleas, Ear Mites (cats). Many Bumblebees, few Honeybees. Fireflies and crickets back in force. Fireflies are Earth magic.

The Shiitake logs flushed after the first rain, two pounds in five days, three good dinners.

Slaves to the Color Wheel would hate this.

On the Main Path facing West, May 30.

Main Path and Little Path, May 20.

Peppers and Beans, mid-May. Tomatoes on the stakes.

Snapdragons on the Little Path. Never grown Snaps before–bees all over them. This location seems too hot and sunny; a bit more shade next time.

Left to right: Prairie Dropseed grasses, Sporobolus heterolepis; Nasturtium “Moonlight,” a pale yellow trailing type; and Naranjilla, Solanum quitoense.

Main Path pots, from the left: a coral Diascia; seedlings of Zinnia “Profusion Apricot;” a remarkable yellow Lantana camara, a Zone 8 tropical who survived the Winter of 2016 (-12 degrees), in open ground; variegated Aptenia cordifolia; a Tangelo Barberry and pale yellow Moss Roses, Portulaca grandiflora, in the big red pot; and a seedling “QIS Red Globe” Amaranth in the pot in front.

Barrows of “Cherry Falls” cascading Tomatoes, orange Nasturtium “King Theodore,” “Genovese” Basil, and Red Globe Amaranth in the pots. Seventy-five percent of this garden is from seed or cuttings.

Pole Beans on the left, Cucumbers and Bitter Melon on the right. Bush Beans below.

Mulberry One, facing North.

What we’re waiting for.

The last year for this old raised bed.

Forcing a plant, or any living thing, to subsist in unnatural conditions is a cruelty to the creature; a waste of time, hope and resources for the gardener; and a bad effect on Life. It goes back to Beth Chatto’s dictum: “Right plant, right place,” though, as Chatto always averred, she wasn’t the first to make that observation, (Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, 300 BC).

Case in point: the ubiquitous Verbena bonariensis, almost a garden cliche now. It grew itself in my California gardens, reseeding at a welcome nuisance level, yet here it languishes in our muggy heat. It really is a desirable and charming see-through. This is my third attempt to bring V.bon into this garden—the first two from seed, this time from nursery plants—and its not looking good. Even in part shade, they droop drastically by noon. Drooping is not a reason to fill the watering can; it is a survival tactic for extremes. Usually, when the hard sun passes, plants perk right up. V.bon perks up in the shade but with each 90+ day, it’s will diminishes. Desired plant, wrong place. I don’t like to witness unearned suffering; sometimes, the greatest mercy is a quick kill. Perhaps Hesperaloe is a better see-through option in this changing climate.

Path around the Big Pond.

Robert Burns isn’t so shy anymore. He heads to the creek around 7:30 am most mornings and returns to the pond at 6pm. Punching the Snapping Turtle clock. I see him in transit a couple of times per week.

Snake Path facing West.

White Cypress seedlings, Ipomoea quamoclit, have germinated at the base of the pole and are reputed to climb to 15 feet. A white Daylily at right in front, Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’ at left, Lemon Balm milling around, and Tritunia ‘Blue Star’ in the pot.

View from the table, 5/25.

Las Condiciones del Pajaro Solitario
Son cinco.
La primera, que se va lo más alto;
la segunda, que no sufre compañía, aunque sea de su naturaleza;
la tercera, que pone el pico al aire;
la cuarta, que no tiene determinado color;
la quinta, que canta suavemente.
– San Juan de la Cruz, Dichos de Luz y Amor