Gardener's Muse on Hoeing

Hoeing
by John Updike

I sometimes fear the younger generation
will be deprived of the pleasures of hoeing;
there is no knowing
how many souls have been formed by this
simple exercise.

The dry earth like a great scab breaks,
revealing moist-dark loam --
the pea-root's home,
a fertile wound perpetually healing.

How neatly the great weeds go under!
The blade chops the earth new.
Ignorant the wise boy who
has never rendered thus the world fecunder.

Yesterday morning, I hoed my other vegetable garden, the one loaned to me by my former neighbor. It was cool for the last day of June and the skies were overcast, so I barely broke a sweat.

I was reminded again that there is great satisfaction in hoeing down a row and then turning around to see the results. Weed-free, freshly chopped earth. It really is a simple exercise and one I recommend for any gardener.

As you can see from the picture of the garden above, the beans are coming along nicely since we got some rain. There are lots of flowers, which hopefully means lots of beans. The sweet corn will truly be just "knee high by the fourth of July". I don' t hold out great hope for an ear of corn from this garden, but I'm certainly going to let the corn grow and see what happens.

And every week to ten days, I'll stop by and get out the old hoe that goes with this garden and watch "how neatly the green weeds go under".

To see other posts with garden poetry today, go to Sweet Home and Garden Chicago where Carolyn Gail is hosting Garden Bloggers' Muse Day.

Rock-a-bye Gardener, in the Tree Shade

What does a gardener wish for when she plants a tree? Just a little shade for her hammock so she can while away the day and dream about her garden.

Here's the view from the hammock...

And if you lay in the hammock long enough, the view changes to this...

Some days, the most important task to do in the garden is...

Nothing!

Rock-a-bye gardener in the tree shade
Dream of your garden and long summer days
When you awake, they'll be plenty to do
But until then enjoy the flowers and muse.

Vegetable Garden Tour Today

Thanks in advance for stopping by to see my vegetable garden this evening!

As you walk into the raised bed garden area, you'll see some Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' growing at your feet. I refuse to call it Tickseed because "ticks" and "flowers" shouldn't be in the same thought!

This is going to be my best year ever for grapes.

Someone asked me if I knew how to prune grapes. What do you think after seeing these? Do you think I know how to prune grapes? And yes, those are daylilies down under those grape vines.

I haven't written much about tomatoes because I feel like mine are later than usual this year and I'm not even "in the game" for the earliest tomato contest.
But when I harvest that first red tomato, there will be a big post about it, I promise, because it is an event whether early or late!

My green beans are blooming.
This year the rabbits won't get all the bean plants. I really do think I scared the main bunny away last Sunday with my little trapping episode.

I've got fancy squashes growing, too. This is a variety called 'Cue Ball'.
I think it will be like zucchini, only round. I also have lots of zucchini but I didn't take a picture of it because you all have seen zucchini before. If you want some of my extra zucchini, just let me know.

I did take a picture of the spaghetti squash vines.
There aren't really growing up that tower, they are more growing through it.

And what have we here? The bane of my vegetable garden, purslane.
This weed can ruin your life, if you let it. But I won't let it ruin my life or my garden. I've been weeding it out as I can and throwing it in the trash. DO NOT put this in your compost bin. Any tiny piece can sprout into a new plant, even a one celled piece it seems. Listen to me, I have experience with this weed. I have made the mistake of putting it in the compost bin. And yes, I know it is edible, lots of vitamins, but it is still a weed in my garden and I'm not going to eat it. However, the rabbits may eat as much of it as they want!

If you were here for real, I'd go get some trash bags now so you could help me weed out more purslane, and you'd help me, wouldn't you?

Quest for Sweet Corn - Actions Taken

Is it just me, or do the coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) seem to have a little deeper color this year? I wonder if it is due to the lack of rainfall?

Wait, I wasn't really out in the garden to take pictures of the coneflowers. I was heading back to take some more pictures of my sweet corn and the coneflowers caught my eye. Sometimes I think I have "GADS", garden attention distraction syndrome. I go outside with one gardening task in mind, see something else to do and say "Gads, I gotta get to that big tall weed" or something like that. Then I end up doing about five other tasks before I get to the task of the moment or even remember why I went out to the garden in the first place.

Anyway...

When I got up this morning, I decided that I needed to thin out the sweet corn to increase my chances of getting a few ears of corn from my "tiny by corn standards" patch of sweet corn.

I thought about going out early in the morning, but I was already dressed for work and I knew if I went out then, I'd get all dirty. When someone comes into work with baby spit up on the back of his or her shirt, everyone just smiles and nods knowingly accepting that it is just part of being a new parent. But if a gardener shows up to work with a little dirt on her knees, people wonder what kind of slob she is. There is no recognition that sometimes there are unseen forces that carry you out to the garden at odd times, when you don't have on the proper clothing, and before you know it, the knees of your good slacks are dirty.

So I waited until after work to go out and thin the corn.

I think this will give the remaining corn a better chance of tasseling and forming ears, but still provide enough corn for pollination. But I'll admit my expectations are low. Just two, maybe three good ears is all I ask for. Then I can start boiling some water, run out and harvest my sweet corn, shuck it, throw it in the boiling water, and cook it for just a few minutes, so it is as sweet as possible. I wouldn't want there to be one extra minute for the sugars to turn to starch.

It took some willpower to thin out the corn. How did I do it? First, it was threatening to rain when I got home, and in spite of the lack of rainfall, I had to wish that it wouldn't rain for just a little while long. That was hard! Then I cut the stalks off rather than pull them out so I wouldn't disturb the shallow roots of the remaining stalks. I kept my eyes at the base of the corn and cut back based on stem size and spacing. I didn't concern myself with height. Cut and remove, cut and remove, down through each row.
Now I have enough corn leaves to thatch the roof of a tiki hut, Hoosier style.

But more importantly, I hope I've improved my chances of harvesting a few good ears of sweet corn.

Conquering Sweet Corn

I'm still working on conquering sweet corn. I have two gardens going this summer, as previously noted. The corn above is in the garden at my house. The corn below is in the garden next to where I grew up. There is quite a difference in the two corn plots, which I can explain rather simply...

I have no idea what I am doing with sweet corn.

How's that?

I have excuses. My Dad never planted sweet corn so I didn't have a chance to watch and learn how he planted it. Last year was the first year I tried to grow my own sweet corn even though I've had a vegetable garden of my own for at least 20 years. I don't always think it is necessary to follow the instructions on the seed packet.

I believe the corn at my house is planted too close together. Since it is a small plot of corn, in a 4' x 8' foot raised bed, I spaced the corn a little (a lot) closer than normal. This is in spite of the problems that I had last summer, which the seed company told me were because my sweet corn was planted too close together. I remembered that when I planted this corn, which is a variety called Bon Appetit from Pinetree Garden Seeds, but that didn't stop me.

I don't always listen very well, even when I am talking to myself.

So when I planted sweet corn at the second garden, I planted the corn in groups of 5 or 6 seeds, spaced about a foot apart. The variety there is Illini Super Sweet. It was the variety that the owner of the garden patch had purchased, and I was happy with it because I think it was the sweet corn variety my aunt recommended I try after reading about my sweet corn struggles last summer. But I think I planted this corn too far apart.

I clearly over compensated on the spacing.

The other difference in the two gardens, besides the spacing, is the amount of watering. I did water my raised bed garden during the 'moderate drought' but we did not water the other garden. So the second garden is struggling a bit (a lot). The beans (not pictured) are soaking up the rain and making a good comeback and are ready to bloom. The corn doesn't look so good, as you can plainly see, but it should still be "knee high by the fourth of July" so I am hopeful.

It will also be quite embarrasing if I don't get at least a few good ears of sweet corn this summer out of one of these gardens, and perhaps a bit of a blow to my overall reputation as a gardener, a well-educated gardener at that.

If these were flowers I was trying to grow, I'd enter Kathy's contest at Cold Climate Gardening and try to win a book. But it's sweet corn. It's sweet corn, which really should not be that hard to successfully grow!

Diagnosis Confirmed

After doing some research and reading several blogs, I've confirmed my diagnosis.

I have Hemerocallis defiencii, otherwise known as Daylily Deficiency Disorder.

Symptoms? I do not have enough daylilies in my garden and I have far too many 'Stella D'Oro' daylilies.

I'm posting the evidence here. These are the only four daylilies I have, other than common Tiger Lilies and good ol' Stella and a daylily that isn't even blooming yet and shows no signs of blooming (I bought it at a big box store, it might be 'a dog'.)

This first one, a little blurry because I was in a hurry due to it starting to rain, is 'Pardon Me'.

Then there is 'Siloam Double Classic', my only double daylily, and I just got it last year.

Here's 'Hyperion', a nice clear yellow, but a bit of a yawner compared to some daylilies.

And 'Fairy Tale Pink', which has a few ruffles but not very many compared to other daylilies I've seen pictures of.

Comparing my daylilies to those of garden bloggers like 'Gotta Garden' is like comparing a tin shack (me) to the Taj Mahal (Gotta Garden). If you check out this post of hers and look in the comments, she has offered some excellent advice on how to cure 'Daylily Deficiency Disorder'. It involves getting more daylilies, of all things. I hope it is not too late for me. I plan to start working on the cure this weekend!

Seven Random Things

"Tag, You're It." I've been tagged by Colleen at In The Garden Online to post seven random things about myself and then tag seven others to do the same. I'm a good sport, so I'll list seven random things.

One, as noted before, I am an Indiana Pacers basketball fan, so this Thursday I will be watching the NBA 2007 draft to see who gets drafted by which teams. Since Indiana traded away all their draft picks to acquire various players, none of whom are part of the team any longer, I'll be listening to hear if they announce any blockbuster trades involving the Pacers. Won't that be fun?!

Two, because of the 'moderate drought', I didn't have to mow the lawn for nearly two weeks in the front, and three weeks in the back, meaning I'm at an all time low for number of times I've mowed the lawn this far into the season. This is an obscure thing and only because I keep track of when I mow the lawn, am I able to know this and share it with you. I mowed on Monday night and there were actually cobwebs on the mower when I got it out. No kidding!

Three, I stop at Starbucks nearly every morning on my way to work and get a venti unsweet iced green tea, no water, no ice, and then pour it over ice at work and drink it all day long. When I walk in the barristas don't even ask me what I want. They just serve me my drink. But that certainly does NOT mean I'm addicted to their green tea. I could stop a-n-y-t-i-m-e. I could. Today when I stopped in they mentioned they had new products, which prompted me to ask if there were any I should try, not that I would give up my daily iced green tea. Well, one of the new products is iced white tea, with a nice blueberry bouquet. I tried it. It is pretty good. Drats. Now I have options to consider each morning.

Four, I cut down a small oak tree a few years ago because it was supposed to be a Red Oak but I think it was a Pin Oak and it was always yellow and sickly. Now these little sprouts come up from where I cut it down, reminding me that I cut down a tree. I cut down a tree. Maybe I shouldn't have cut down that tree. But it was under-performing and I wanted to cut it down while it was still small enough for me to manage. When it sprouts like this it creates this miniature dark little forest, where I think some garden fairies might try to live.



Five, I was recently featured in my company's employee newsletter/magazine in a feature on gardeners. I was one of three gardeners featured, and had to have my picture taken by a professional photographer for the article. Since I mentioned that when I'm not gardening, I'm reading about gardening and looking at seed catalogs, they had me bring a book to pose with. I choose "Beautiful in All Seasons - Southern Gardening and Beyond with Elizabeth Lawrence" by Elizabeth Lawrence. The person who wrote the article did enough "googling" to find my blog and the hoe collection but I wouldn't let her mention either in the article because I have to work with the people who will read the article and have them take me seriously in a not-related-to-gardening line of work. Fortunately for me, the newsletter is not on the Internet anywhere, so don't even think about trying to find it!

Six, there are just over six quarters until I reach a milestone birthday. That makes it seem really soon, but it's not. It's a long way off, it's nearly 600 days from now. I'm trying to think of something special to do for that birthday that doesn't scream out "she's having a mid-life crisis!"

Seven, I have trouble tagging others for memes like this, so if you've read through this far, and I've commented on your blog before, consider yourself tagged! Even I haven't commented on your blog, consider yourself tagged and let me know you are going to post seven random things so I can find your blog.

(The budding flower pictured above is Phlox paniculata 'Creme de Menthe', one of my favorite perennials in my garden.)

Finally, Violas

It's time to confess what seedlings we all still have that weren't quite timed properly or never made it to a "grown up pot". I know from posts in January that there are a lot of gardeners, including me, who do a lot with seeds.

I can not be the only one who still has seedlings that haven't been planted in a container or flower bed at the end of June.

First up, I have the violas. Usually, every other year or so, I get the big idea that I'm going to grow pansies and violas from seed, and sow them early enough that they are blooming and ready for containers by mid-March, in Zone 5, just like the ones that show up at that time in the big box stores and local greenhouses.

So far, I've never gotten the timing quite right. My violas from seed are just now blooming and are still in the original flat I sowed them in.

But aren't they pretty? It's Viola cornuta 'Arkwright Ruby'. (Wait, that close up looks like the flower is sticking its tongue out at me! I just noticed that.)

I think I'll pot these up now and see if I can keep them through the hot summer so they can be part of a fall planting. Then I can tell people that is what I planned to do all along.

Then there are the Foerster's hybrid delphinium seedlings all potted up in three inch pots but not quite ready to be planted out with 'the big plants' in the wilds of the perennial bed where I intend to plant them. I left these inside under lights for far too long. I finally set them out a few days ago when it started to cool down a bit. Once I give them a little fertilizer, I think they'll be fine. My plan is to plant these out in early September, which will hopefully give them enough time to establish themselves before they go dormant. And by waiting until then, it will give me a few more months to prep the flower bed for them. Then next summer, will I have some delphiniums in bloom? I hope so!

However, this is my first time to try Delphiniums from seed, so if anyone thinks that my plan is all wrong, let me know now, not when I post about about a tragic loss of Delphiniums in the spring!

What seedlings do you still have? I think there are a lot of gardeners who always have some seedlings or cuttings or other experimental plants scattered about. I keep mine on the patio, where I can keep an eye on them. That's why my patio will never have that "finished" outdoor room look that you see in magazines pictures. I'll always have a few little flats of plastic pots with something or other growing in them tucked in among the container plantings.

In fact, I'm just a little bit suspicious of a gardener who has no seedlings or cuttings that they are still nurturing along in the middle of summer. Really, who gets absolutely everything planted in the spring?

Raining and Rabbits

It's raining again today and it looks like it is going to rain off and on all day long. In the previous 24 hours, my rain gauge measured one inch or so of rain.

So many plants seem happier when it rains. Like the Hydrangea 'Endless Summer'. Before the rain, the flowers were droopy and limp and seemed dull.

Now they are bright and perky and soaking up the rain.

Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes sp.) actually bloom when it is rainy outside. I usually refer to these as Fairy Lilies but today, they are Rain Lilies.

Even though they were watered every day, the lilies didn't bloom when it was so dry out. They waited until this weekend to bloom. I assume it was the rain that caused them to bloom and not Midsummer's Night?

Today, the bird bath fills itself.
Rain is such a miracle after you've been without it for so many weeks. And even though everyone has seen rain and wet gardens before, I decided to go out in the rain with my umbrella and just see what was going on and what I could find.

Look what I found.
A rabbbit in my trap. I put the trap in between rows of green beans several weeks ago, where the bunny was eating constantly. I figured at some point Mr. (or Mrs.) Bunny would go down that row and end up in my trap. And I was right.

After making the rabbit pose for pictures, I picked up the trap to put it in the back of my truck and take the little bunny for a little drive. My plan was to take Mr. Bunny to a nearby park that was across a creek and a few miles from here so he couldn't find his way back.

But when I picked up the trap, the rabbit got all jumpy and wild and ended up pushing open the one end of the trap and escaping! Escaping and running off through my garden, finding shelter under a nearby snow ball bush.

I guess I forgot to flip down the wire "hoops" to further secure the trap doors, and because I was holding the umbrella with one hand, and the trap with the other, as the rabbit moved to one end, the trap flipped downward and gravity and "rabbit super-strength from eating my bean plants" was enough for the rabbit to push open the door and jump to freedom.

So there I stood in the rain, with my empty trap in one hand and an old umbrella in the other, getting wet and watching my catch of the day run off. Was that the little snickers of garden fairies I heard, laughing at my thwarted attempt to catch a rabbit?

Drats! The rabbit wins today's round but the trap has been reset. I'm not giving up yet! I hope the rabbit is telling his family, "You would not believe what I've been through! Stay out of Carol's garden, it is just too dangerous". Or I hope that I re-trap the rabbit, and next time I remember to secure the doors!

Guest Post Today

I was busy most of the day with a garage sale, so my niece Sophie surprised me with a guest post. She's nine and three-quarters years old, and loves to work out in the gardens with her Mom and Dad.

I don't know if she remembers that I once offered to pay her one dollar per paragraph for guest blogs. I'm guessing not since she made her post one big paragraph.

Here's her post:

Do you remember those spiders in our backyard last year? The ones that were so big we were afraid they would carry off our kittens? Well, we were outside transplanting little rose bushes dreaming of our dog pen that we plan to create in our little woods when my mom went off in search of her clippers. She called me over to tell me that she had found a praying mantis on the Alberta Spruces. And then my mom saw something that freaks us out – a two inch long fat spider, along with about 10 sisters, and even worse – there was an egg sack. A big egg sack. An inch in diameter egg sack. My dad had the nerve to say, “Great! Keep them! I love spiders!” Keep in mind each spider can grow to about 3-4 inches. Sometimes that doesn’t even include the legs. What is my dad thinking? Of course, this comes from the same person who loves snakes. My mom and I were so freaked out that we are considering getting rid of the Alberta Spruces. Do you think that will get rid of the spiders? Please vote: 1. Keep spiders and move away. 2. Cut down Alberta Spruces hoping the spiders will go someplace else. 3. Capture the spiders and take them to Aunt Carol’s garden so they will eat her rabbits.

I don't blame Sophie one bit for trying to figure out how to get rid of those big, ugly spiders. But please vote no on moving them all to my house, please! There is another choice, but I suppose they won't hear of it.

Garage Sales and Gardening Tools

The neighborhood garage sale is tomorrow and as one of my sisters pointed out in a comment on another post, that is why we are expecting scattered strong storms and thunderstorms tomorrow morning.

After so many dry hot days, now that there is something going on that we'd really like it to be nice and sunny for, it rains.

But you won't hear me complaining. I'll take the rain any time right now, no matter what it interrupts.

I am participating in the sale with my friend and neighbor from next door. Everything is nearly set up and ready for the bargain hunters.

But do you know what you won't find at my sale? Gardening tools, pots, plants, stuff gardeners would want. I think I have some kind of addiction to gardening as I just can't part with any gardening related items, even if I don't think I will ever use them. Yes, I even keep broken clay pots, because the pieces are useful to put in the bottom of other pots. Does any gardener part with garden-related items at their garage sale?

Consider those three trowels in the picture above. They are from the early days, before I allowed myself to buy hand-forged stainless steel trowels from the Netherlands. I'll never use them. For one thing, they bend easily when you try to dig with them when the ground is hard and rocky. And they aren't all that comfortable to use, I think it is something about the handles and the weight of them.

My heavens, I sound like such a snob with my gardening tools! I'm not really, truly. Okay, maybe just a little bit, but you don't have to have tools like mine to be a great gardener. I just believe that you get a lot more enjoyment out of something if you have good tools to use. There are enough things you can't control in the garden, like weather, and rabbits, and plants, and insect infestations, so why not take control of what you can, with good tools?

You would think I'd sell these trowels in the garage sale for twenty-five cents or something like that. But I probably won't. You know why?

What if someone comes to the garage sale, sees those trowels and thinks, "Hey, why don't I buy those trowels and try gardening for a hobby?" Then they take them home and the first time they try to use them, they bend and it hurts their hands and they decide gardening isn't worth it, and they give up.

I can't have that weighing on my conscience!

So, anyway, no gardening items for sale tomorrow. In fact, after all this rain, I'd actually prefer to spend time in between whatever storms we are fortunate enough to get doing some weeding in the gardening. Because after the half inch or so of rain we got this morning, the weeds are suddenly rejuvenated and growing like, you know, weeds!

And I want to get my tomatoes tied up some more. I did nip off some of the suckers a bit ago and checked for tomatoes. I've got a few coming on, but I am a long way from having a ripe tomato. I think this year, I might have the latest ripe tomato of my record-keeping years of gardening.

I think it's the weather that is slowing down the tomatoes. It couldn't be anything I did or didn't do, right? But rest assured, when I do get my first ripe tomato, you all will hear about it! Because the first tomato is very special, isn't it?

Five Oh Oh

I realized a few days ago that this week I would probably post the 500th post on this blog. Five-Oh-Oh.

And this is it.

I started this blog in 2004 and left six posts from that year. There were a few earlier posts that I thought were pretty lame, so I deleted them. Then in 2005, I posted only twice. In 2006, I started posting again on January 11th, and as they say “didn’t look back”. In the process of blogging I also started a couple of other blogs.

There’s the Hoe Collection blog where I put the hoe pictures and hoe collection, along with some other mostly picture entries from last summer. I don’t update it any more, unless I get a new hoe.

There’s also the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club blog which I started before Blogger added the feature of tags. I thought the separate blog would make it easier to find posts about the book club that I put on May Dreams Gardens. Now tags would serve the same purpose, but it would seem “incomplete” to me to disband the GBBC blog.

Not related to gardening, some of you may have discovered the blog with the posts of my Grandma’s diaries from the 1920’s and the companion picture blog. On that blog I posted the 500th entry yesterday. I only have diaries through 1927, so that blog will have a natural end in another year and a half.

But the May Dreams Gardens blog? I’m not sure where it will go from here or how it will end or if it will end someday. I just keep posting as things happen in the garden or thoughts occur to me about gardening in general.

I’m often asked how long it takes me to write up a post so I’ve been timing it recently and the average is 30 minutes. That’s 30 minutes that I didn’t just veg out and watch TV!

In honor of this 500th blog entry, I’ve come up with five questions to answer about my gardening. If you would like to answer these same questions on your blog, too, please do so!

What are you most proud of about your garden?
I am most proud of the fact that other than the fence and the lawn, I have installed or planted everything in my garden. However, pride goeth before a fall, they say, so at some point, to take my garden further, I’m going to probably have to hire some help.


When you go to sleep at night, what are you worried about in your garden?
I’m worried we won’t get any rain this summer! And that the rabbits will once again eat all of my green beans. See below for a picture of the garden and that darn rabbit who won't leave! He acts as though this is his home and garden!


When others come and see your garden, what do you think they remember most about it?
I think they remember the raised bed vegetable garden. I am an evangelist for raised bed vegetable gardens (see below). It makes it so easy to start planting in the spring and to keep up with weeding throughout the season. And if I show them, they remember all the hoes hanging up in the garage.


What is your favorite gardening tool, the one you would recommend every gardener get?
You all think I am going to list one of my hoes, don’t you? But I can’t really choose a favorite hoe, they are all my favorite! So, I’ll say the tool I think every gardener needs is Felco pruners. And maybe a really good trowel. And a Cape Cod Weeder. And of course, a good hoe.

If you woke up this morning with all the time and money in the world to spend in your garden, what would you do first?
I’d finally plant a nice shrub border along the east side of the back yard by the privacy fence, and also add a nice pond and a garden shed (forget those neighborhood covenants), and then install some nice walking paths to lead you from garden bed to garden bed. That’s what I would do!


How about you, how would you answer these questions?

This rabbit is my enemy. The one above at the top of this post is my new statue for my new miniature garden. This one here was caught, again, in the vegetable garden

This is the garden today, the first day of summer. It's overcast, maybe it will rain!

I Only Got One Mini Hosta!

The American Hosta Society 2007 National Convention is in town this week.

The vendor sales area is open to the general public.

So I went.

Without supervision.

My goal was to get two new miniature hostas for my miniature garden.

I fell short of my goal and only got one miniature hosta, Hosta venusta. It's a species hosta and fairly inexpensive, compared to some of the hostas there.

I've always admired gardeners who focus in on one genus or group of plants, and I found myself in a room full of them earlier this afternoon. As one woman said, they think of the plant world as consisting of hostas and companion plants for hostas. Or something like that.

Do you feel sorry for me, being in a big room full of people selling every size and shape and color of hosta (and companion plants) and only ending up with one miniature hosta?

I have no one to blame but myself. But my excuse is that I got distracted by a few other plants.



These are all the plants I purchased at the sale.

Hosta 'Praying Hands' - It has these skinny upright leaves with just the tiniest bit of a white margin on the leaves. The pot has two "eyes" so I think I can divide it into two plants.

Hosta 'Tea and Crumpets' - It was sitting next to the 'Praying Hands' and I loved the name of it and the little round spoon-like leaves with creamy yellow margins.

Heuchera 'Petite Lime Sherbet' - Such pretty pale leaves, who could resist?

Tricyrtis hirta 'Lightning Strike' - A new toad lily for my new toad. This has such pretty leaves with just a hint of a swirl of green variegation in them.

Aruncus aethusifolius - Dwarf Goatsbeard. I also bought a miniature arbor to put in my miniature garden and the lovely lady selling me all these plants convinced me this would look great on one side of the arbor.

And then, I saw this trough container made of hypertufa.
Who could resist this? I love my miniature garden, but it is mostly in the shade. With my new trough, I can have some sun loving miniature plants! My new gardening best friend, at the booth selling these, was sooooo helpful in assisting me in finding just the right plants to put in this. So I also ended up with...

Spiraea japonica 'Golden Elf' - A little miniature spirea that only gets six inches tall!

Sedum rubrotinctum 'Mini Me' - Won't a little dwarf sedum look great around the edges?

Leptinella squalida "Pratt's Black' - I love the dark reddish color of the little tiny fern like leaves.

Ophiopogon japonicus 'Pygmaeus' - Dwarf Mondo Grass - These almost black leaves will be a great contrast to the light color of the spirea.

And a special little garden statue.

Once I have everything planted and arranged, I'll post about the miniature garden ornaments I purchased, including the little statue, the miniature arbor, a miniature bird bath and a miniature bench. (That's a whole lot of miniature in one sentence!)

Since I only bought one miniature hosta, I'm tempted to go back, but I won't. There are too many other things going on and I don't have the time. My new gardening best friend at the booth with all the miniature plants and garden ornaments will just have to get through the rest of the week without me.

What To Do With Leftover Flowers... And Send Rain!

We got enough rain today to wash the dust off my umbrella, not nearly enough to catch up from what is being called a "moderate drought".

The only plants not really suffering are those in containers, because I water them every evening. When I water the containers in the back, my little toad seems to show up and I give him a good shower of water, because I want him to be happy and stay and eat bugs. Up around my patio is one of the only places around for him to not dry out like a lizard right now.

Sometimes I wonder why I water the plants in the containers when throughout the garden there are shrubs, perennials, and trees that thirst for a long drink of water.

I've given up on the grass. It is now officially dormant so I won't worry about it until it starts to rain again. They've lifted the voluntary ban today on watering lawns and we are back to the even - odd system. Tomorrow will be an even day, my day to water, so I'll give the vegetable garden a good soaking, and also water some of the trees and maybe set up some soaker hoses around some of the shrubs and perennials.

In the meantime, isn't that a pretty geranium with variegated foliage? I'm too lazy to look at the tag to tell you the variety. It's down there in the pot. It was one of the last plants planted in the containers, and ended up in what I generally call the 'leftover' container with a mis-match of plants that just didn't end up being used any place else. Do you have a 'leftover' container of plants at your house?

See the whole container? If you saw it in person, what would you say to the gardener who put those flowers together? "Hmmm... interesting choices".

You can look all over the Internet at sites that show different combinations for container planting, and I guarantee you won't find that particular combination. It's one of a kind!

Now, back to the subject of rain... today's rain was just a teaser, not enough rain to make a difference.

But there is hope! The weatherman says we might get rain on Friday, maybe Saturday morning. I'll take it, any time. In the meantime, I am going to do all I possibly can do to get it to rain, like get my car washed, leave all my umbrellas at home, put something in the yard that I absolutely, positively do not want to get wet, participate in the neighborhood garage sale on Saturday, stuff like that.

Do you have any other ideas to conjure up rain? We really need some as you can see from the picture below.

Warning... the picture below is pretty sad looking and may cause some gardeners to spontaneously weep... My viburnum cries for rain!

Where Did That Double Flowering Clematis Come From?

I have a new gardening goal. I want to grow clematis that out-grow those that my older sister has around her garden. A few weekends ago, we were all at her house, and my youngest sister and I decided to go out and look around at all the plants and gardens.

After all, that's what we do when we visit one another, we go out and look at each other's gardens and steal ideas, if not actual plants. (Kidding! I never took a plant I didn't ask for first and I am always willing to give my sisters plants when they visit me!). I can't say as how I didn't take an idea or two from their gardens, however.

Anyway, my older sister was too busy with other guests to accompany us on a tour of her garden but she had a moment to holler out "Don't take any pictures to put on your blog that make my garden look bad!"

Honestly. Look at that clematis growing through that picket fence in the picture above. Does that make her garden look bad? Doesn't that look beautiful?

And how about this clematis growing by their front porch?
Look how big that one clematis flower is, and how the yarrow spirea flowers complement the color of the clematis so well.

And this clematis. What a stunner, just loaded with flowers.

I really had seen enough when I asked where she got this double clematis.
Her answer? It wasn't a double clematis when she bought it.

My sister turns single flowering clematis into double flowering clematis! And then she asked "did you see that clematis on the trellis in the front bed?" Yes, I did. "I didn't plant it there, it just came up this spring". And clematis self-sow around the garden for her, too.

Or she is getting so old she can't remember where she plants her clematis and what she buys.

Now is there anything bad about my sister's gardens in this post? See I can be nice, I can be trusted with a camera in someone else's garden. Really, I can!

While I was looking around, I took careful notes on how and where she is growing her clematis so I can try to grow them like that in my garden.

But in case I missed something, does anyone have any hints or tricks to growing clematis that they can share with me?

"You Are In Such Trouble"

My sister called me the other day and I cheerily answered "Hello!" in a sing-songy happy voice. She greeted me with "You are in such trouble!"

Moi? I searched my conscience, it was clear, as usual. I had no idea what I could possibly have done to get in trouble.

"You didn't tell me about this new greenhouse place!"

Uh, yes I did. All spring, my sister asked me where I was buying my plants and all spring I told her about this place. (Court's Yard and Greenhouse, I even mentioned it in a post on March 16.)

It's not my fault she didn't get over there earlier. But now that she's been there, I think she has been back two more times.

"You are going to be sooooooo jealous of what I got there". Really? A week later, I dropped by her house and gardens to see what was going to make me so jealous. She was referring to the edging in the picture above. Yes, that is cute and it looks very nice with the soft grayish color of the Lamb's Ear. Maybe I'll get some for a spot in my garden where I have some Lamb's Ear by my patio?

Then she showed me what they had done with their vegetable garden. I knew about the raised beds, as I'd been telling her to do that for years, and I told her how to do it. But I didn't know they had purchased that wrought iron fencing.

It's primarily there to keep the dogs and kids from running through the garden. They bought it in sections and she said it was easy to install. It does look nice and her vegetable garden is doing quite well.

But she still has the shrubs with the big spiders in them. And seeing those webs, it looks like they are back this summer. So, am I jealous? I'm not telling, but I'm sure not jealous of those spiders!

Where The Zinnias Were Six Feet Tall

Old pictures tell some interesting stories and often remind us of details long forgotten.

My Dad always enjoyed working in his garden, especially the vegetable garden. I have a vision of that garden in my mind, and can tell you how he rowed up his vegetables and what he planted where. And I remember that he always had a row of flowers along the edge of the garden.

But until I found this picture, I did not remember that he once grew a zinnia that was over six feet tall.

That might not be a world record, but that is one tall zinnia. I betcha my Dad's zinnias were taller than your Dad's zinnias!

His secret was in the soil. All the leaves and grass clippings seemed to end up in the garden, enriching the soil year after year. I try to do the same with my gardens. Though I don't bag my lawn clippings, I do have compost bins and put all that rich compost back into my own raised bed vegetable garden every year.

It makes a difference. With good soil in the garden, it is amazing what you can grow.

Home of the Green Towers

Welcome to May Dreams Gardens, home of the purple bench and now home of the twin green towers.

I finished painting my towers this morning and set them up in the garden.

This particular tower will probaby end up with squash vines on it, as I've placed it in a bed with spaghetti squash, which I think will climb up the tower if it is there, or I could let the vines sprawl across the ground. The other tower is at the other end of the garden and I'll plant a late crop of pole beans to climb up it.

Some of you may be asking why I didn't go with a bolder color choice like purple for the towers? I'll tell you why. I picked green because it is my favorite color and I want the plants that grow on these towers to be the show, not the towers themselves.

And for me, the purple bench is quite enough color in the garden. I don't want it to look like a cheap carnival park out there! I want it to be an attractive vegetable garden, a potager, a place to relax.

I also want to have a garden that attracts birds and bees and toads and insects like praying mantis and butterflies (but not tomato hornworms).

It takes awhile, you know, to turn a blank, barren field of a suburban lot into a place that attracts wildlife again. And after ten years, I think my garden is finally getting to be a place for wildlife because I finally have some toads.

Toads!
At least one toad, and he enjoys the miniature garden most of the time.

Now if I can just figure out a sure-fire way to get rid of rabbits and keep all the other wildlife...

(By the way, if you missed Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day yesterday, you can still join in this weekend by posting what is growing in your garden and adding your comment to yesterday's post here at May Dreams Gardens. All are welcome, the more the merrier, as we compare what is blooming in gardens all over the world.)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2007

Welcome to my garden! Could any morning be finer in the garden than a cool June morning, before the heat of the day rushes in?

Here’s a few pictures of some blooms in my garden in mid-June.

This is a double daylily, 'Siloam Double Classic'. I found this at a big box store last June for five dollars. (Sorry about the shadows, it was a sunny evening when I took pictures).

One of several hostas starting to bloom. This is 'Baby Bunta' which is in my miniature garden where some little coral bells and meadow rue are also blooming.

I like the Limemound spirea mostly for the light green foliage, but the blooms are pretty and dainty and attractive to bees. I cut these down to the ground in early spring, and they are now nicely sized shrubs. I might cut them back every other spring or so to keep them to a manageable size.

I have Marquerite daisies here and there throughout the garden. Doesn't everyone? Who could have just one clump of these?

Yes, some cactus are hardy enough to withstand a midwestern winter and then give us these pretty blooms.


And in the vegetable garden, the onions are starting to bloom. And so are the tomatoes.
Here's a list of other plants blooming now…

Alchemilla mollis – Lady’s Mantle
Allium – variety unknown but it is a late bloomer
Anthemis tinctoria ‘Kelwayi’ – Golden Marquerite Daisy
Chamaemilum nobile – Chamomile
Clematis integrefolia ‘Alba’ – Shrub Clematis
Clematis sp. – variety unknown, two of them.
Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ – Moonbeam Coreopsis, please don’t call it Tickseed!
Echinacea purpurea – Coneflowers
Heliopsis helianthiodes – False Sunflower
Hemerocallis – 'Stella D’Oro'
Hemerocallis ‘Siloam Double Classic’ - Daylily
Hemerocallis fulva – Tiger Lily
Heuchera ‘Petite Pearl Fairy’ – Coral Bells
Hosta ‘Baby Bunting’
Hosta – several blooming, varieties sadly not known
Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’
Lamium maculatum ‘Aureum’ – Spotted Nettle
Lychnis coronaria – Rose Campion
Monarda ‘Petite Delight’ – Bee Balm
Nepatica – Catmint, variety unknown
Oenothera tetragona ‘Sunspot’ – Variegated Evening Primrose
Opuntia sp. – Prickly Pear Cactus
Potentilla fruticosa ‘McKay’s White’
Rosa – White Flower Carpet
Sedum sp. – various ground covers, some with white flowers, some with yellow flowers
Spiraea sp. – variety unknown but has white flowers
Spiraea x bumulda ‘Crispa’ – Cutleaf Spirea
Spiraea x bumulda ‘Monhub’ – Limemound Spirea
Stachys byzantina – Lamb’s Ear (but I usually cut off the blooms)
Thalictrum kiusianum - Kyushu Meadow Rue
Tradescantia - Spiderwort

In the Vegetable Garden...

Onions
Thyme
Peppers
Tomatoes

In the containers... a whole bunch of different flowers. I've chosen to skip listing them because they are all blooming and have all been blooming since I bought them and I listed them in May.

What’s blooming in your garden today?

Please join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day by posting on your blog what’s blooming today in your garden, and then leave a comment here so we can find you and visit to see all your pretty flowers.

If you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your blooms in a comment below.

If you have too many blooms to list or not enough time, just go with your top 10 list and join us anyway. And botanical names are strictly optional! All are welcome!

“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Did I Catch A Rabbit Today?

As soon as I got home from work, I went out to the vegetable garden to check the rabbit trap to see if I had "caught me a rabbit" today. (See yesterday's post.)

I had not. But I do think the mere presence of the rabbit trap has kept Mr. Rabbit and his family away today. I can just imagine him telling the missus and their bunny babies, "We need to stay away from Carol's gardens for a while because she saw me yesterday and wasn't too happy about me eating the beans. Now she's set that trap and it is just too dangerous for us right now. Wait until she gets distracted by something else, and then we can go back."

There's quite a bit to distract me in the garden right now, starting with the grapes. I am going to have a lot of grapes this year. I should probably start lining up people to give these to since I don't cook much or make jelly or preserves. I just hope the Japanese Beetles, who generally find these grape vines right away when they emerge in late June, were killed off by the April winter weather or find it too hot to eat this summer.

Then there's the corn. We were taught growing up that corn should be "knee high by the fourth of July".
My corn is knee high now, so I wonder how tall it will be on the fourth of July? My other corn crop at my second garden needs water according to my sister, so I don't think it is knee high yet. I'll have to check into that this weekend.

I won't be doing much more watering of the lawn for awhile. This morning the water company asked people to water on the odd-even system. If your house number is an even number, then water on even-numbered days. Then this evening, the water company annouced through the media for everyone to voluntarily stop watering lawns until we get some rain.

They say it isn't a capacity problem, there is plenty of water. It is a distribution problem, that we lack the infrastructure to get water to everyone with a high enough water pressure. That makes it dangerous if there is a house fire to be put out, if the water pressure is too low.

So the neighbor down and across the street, with an odd numbered address is watering his lawn this evening, on an even numbered day, and on the first day when we aren't supposed to water lawns at all. They must be better than all of us, exempt from the rules that we "less neighbors" follow. I don't know them well enough to go down and tell them to "get with the program". I just hope the other neighbors with automatic sprinkler systems turn their systems off, and don't also consider themselves exempt from the ban on watering.

In a few weeks, we'll know who is following the watering rules and who isn't! Personally, I like the ban, as it takes the pressure off (no pun intended) having a green lawn when it is so dry out.

But enough about the water situation.

The vegetable garden is starting to look like a real garden and not just raised beds of dirt.

This is the view looking east with the sun behind me. I wish the cucumbers were a little bigger (bed on the lower right)

And here's the view looking back to the west. Those three narrow beds along the right are the beans. You can see the rabbit trap in the first bed.
Maybe tomorrow I'll catch me a rabbit.

An Evening in the Garden

This rabbit was eating the tops of my green beans. I caught him in the act this evening.

In this picture, he's trying to figure out how to get out of the garden and away from me, because I was chasing him. Then I stopped and took a picture. Get away from those strawberries, those are for ME!

He made it out of the garden and went half way across the lawn and sat with his back to me. He was probably thinking I'd go away if he sat there real still and then he could go back and finish his dinner. I'm not going away that quickly, Mr. Rabbit!

Then I chased him out of my yard.

It's a temporary reprieve for the beans. That rabbit will return. It's just too tempting, I suppose, all those delicious bean plants.


But I am ready for him. The trap is set.
Do you think I'll catch a rabbit this evening or tonight or tomorrow? Oh, Mr. Rabbit, come on back to the beans, I'm sorry I chased you away like that. I have a nice shady place for you to sit...

Tomorrow I'm going to be busy at work and then busy working on my Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post, so if I do catch a rabbit, he's going to have to wait for a bit until I have time to cart him off and release him someplace far, far away from here. But don't worry, if I come home from work and find a rabbit in the trap, I'll put the trap in the shade so he won't get too hot. And I've gotten a head start on my bloom day post, so I really wouldn't make the rabbit wait that long.

To get a head start on my bloom day post, I surveyed the gardens yesterday evening and made a list of everything that is blooming. Then this evening, wouldn't you know it, I found a new flower blooming. It's a false sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides.

I'm sure glad I didn't miss it. These will be blooming for the rest of the summer, as common as grass in my garden, but it is still nice to see the very first bloom.

No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden. ~Hugh Johnson

Oscillating or Pulsating?

Oscillating or pulsating sprinklers? And is it the same type of sprinkler your parents used?

Growing up, my Dad always watered the lawn with oscillating sprinklers, so naturally, when I bought my first sprinkler, that's what I chose.

I've tried the pulsating sprinklers, and even own one or two of them, but I prefer the quiet, gentle "rain" of an oscillating sprinkler over the "throwing" of a pulsating sprinkler.

I guess that's just how I was brought up. And yes, when we were little, on really hot evenings, my Dad would let us run through the sprinklers until we were soaking wet. Try that with a pulsating sprinkler. It would be no fun at all.

(Quick story... last summer I saw the kids who live behind me, who have a swimming pool in their backyard, playing in the sprinkler in their front yard. They looked like they were having quite a bit of fun. Just goes to show that sometimes having a sprinkler is better than having a pool and it's definitely a lot cheaper.)

Now, I know that some of you are thinking "no sprinkler" because you don't water your lawn at all. Normally, I don't water my lawn either but this spring has been quite dry around these parts.

I'm all for letting the lawn go naturally dormant in July and August when it is hot anyway, but this year it started to go dormant before Memorial Day, so I started watering some on May 31st. I know! I shocked everyone, including myself, when I did that. But that was the day I got a new roof put on my house and the lawn looked pretty beat up after 16 roofers stood around on it while they were packing up to leave.

I hope we return to a more normal weather pattern soon. If you want to see how odd the weather has been since last November, check out Robin's Nesting Place for some links to some of the NOAA headlines about our weather here in central Indiana. We had the driest May in 15 years, and June isn't much different so far.

And while you comment to let us know if you use an oscillating or pulsating sprinkler or maybe even one of those fancy tractor sprinklers that travels along the hose as it waters, I need to run out and turn off the sprinkler in the back. In addition to watering the lawn, I'm also watering the vegetable garden.

It's dry out there!

GBBD Reminder and Garden Mysteries

Once again, the sundial shows us another day is nearly over and we are just four days from the next Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on June 15th. As a reminder for those who haven't participated before or have forgotten, on Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the 15th of every month, post on your blog what is blooming in your garden, then come over here to my blog and leave a comment on my GBBD post so we can find you and your post.

I keep the rules of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day to a minimum. Post whatever you feel like posting about what's blooming on the 15th and leave a comment here to let us know you've posted. That's pretty much it as far as rules go. You can even post late, if you happen to be busy on the 15th.

Already I am looking around the garden to see what will be blooming on Friday and it makes me see the entire garden in a different way, the way a vistor might see it. I want lots to be blooming and be at the peak of perfection.

This hosta, unfortunately, isn't nearly the perfection it should be right now.
This is the passalong hosta from my youngest sister. It is supposed to have great big leaves, and last year it did. I wonder if something I did stunted its growth? Let's see... last spring I dug it up and divided it at her house and brought a division to my house where I promptly planted it.

Then I decided it was planted where the miniature garden needed to be, so I dug it up and put it in a large container for the rest of the summer, and there it overwintered.

Then it sprouted and grew some leaves and I transplanted it to the center of the hosta bed to be THE hosta, the one that everyone would exclaim over. "My, what large leaves", they would say! Other than accidently turning it upside and nearly crushing it with the root ball, I'd say it was an ordinary transplanting process.

So it's a mystery why it is just sitting there not growing. I'll have to go to the big hosta show coming to Indianapolis and ask one of the experts. Yes, "the greatest spectacle in hosta", the American Hosta Society's 2007 convention, is in town next week and it looks like they have some times when they will be open to the public. I think I'll try to go and see some hostas, maybe buy a new big one or a new miniature one, and ask about my hosta.

In the meantime, you can check this old post to see what that hosta used to look like and exclaim over the giant leaves it had last year, to make me feel better. If you think you know what is wrong with it, leave me a comment or an email. (Comment if it is useful information for everyone, email if I've done something stupid with the hosta, so you preserve my self-esteem.)

Another mystery is what happened to the baby wrens.
Yes, the nest is empty. I went to check on the baby wren, "Lily" and the first thing I noticed was the nest was lower in the lilac shrub than before, and it was empty. There is no sign of the unhatched egg or the baby bird. There is no baby bird on the ground anywhere around the nest, either. No signs of struggle, or anything like that.

It's a mystery what happened, but it sounds like this may not have been a happy ending. How long does it take a baby wren to leave the nest. Yesterday the baby bird was sporting some feathers , so maybe today it flew off and is on its own now. Right?

A Place for Little Plants and Garden Fairies

I've always been fascinated by miniature plants but most miniatures that I planted were soon swallowed up by the bigger, stronger "regular sized" plants around them. I realized that to be successful, the miniature plants would need their own garden space.

The garden space I finally dedicated to just miniature plants is a cut out built into the patio, on the north (back) side of my house. It's approximately three feet wide and five feet long. Since it is on the north side, I can only grow shade-loving miniatures, but that's okay, and better than no miniature garden at all.

In the picture above the hosta that is blooming is 'Baby Bunting'. The relatively tall scapes of pink flowers on the left are from three Heuchera 'Petite Pearl Fairy' plants, currently the giants of this garden.

Below is a close up of Thalictrum kinsianum, Kyusbu Meadow Rue, which is also on the left in the picture above.

In the center, there's a fairy door and a little sun dial.

I hope the garden fairies like this garden, because I like to think it is as much for them as it is for me.

Touching the Ground With a Hoe

"One gets strength out of the ground as often as one really touches it with a hoe." Charles Dudley Warner in My Summer in a Garden.

I have added another hoe to my collection of hoes.

My aunt brought me this one from a sale that another aunt and uncle had recently. No one knows the history of it, no one knows how old it is, or how it came to be in my uncle's shed. We can only imagine it might have been used on the farm where my father grew up.

It has a short handle and is what is typically called a grub hoe.

It seemed fitting to take a picture of it in the cool shade of a nearby tree, resting upon a large rock which was once a part of the original foundation of the first homestead built by my ancestors in southern Indiana.

Regardless of where it was used, or who used it, it's earned its rest.

It will be a reminder that as long as gardeners have gardened, they have found satisfaction and strength in hoeing the ground.

Because It's Pretty!

You know where I found this pretty cactus flower?

In my garden.

Friends are generally surprised to find cactus growing and blooming in my Zone 5 Indiana garden.

This is a prickly pear cactus, Opuntia sp. and it is perfectly hardy in Zone 5.

It's another passalong plant, one that I handle with care. Actually, I generally don't handle it at all if I can help it. It has little tiny pricklies that are painful if you get stuck. And I've been stuck enough to know. So I won't pass it along to anyone with children or pets in the garden. It would be too dangerous!

Why keep such a beast, also called devil's tongue, if I'm afraid to touch it?

Because the flowers are pretty. And because I like having a few unusual, unexpected plants in the garden.

Do you have any unusual, unexpected plants in your garden?

Crying Out

I checked on the baby birds yesterday and today. This little birdie, desparately crying out for food, was born sometime before yesterday evening. I don't know much about birds so I don't know why the other egg hasn't hatched yet, nor do I know what happened to the other two eggs in this nest. I checked on the ground below and didn't see any eggs or egg shells.

I do know that at least the mama bird has had some very traumatic experiences in the last week, well beyond any nervousness caused by me getting up close and taking a few pictures.

Her nest is precariously perched in a 'Miss Kim' Lilac beside my house. Last Thursday, a large crew of roofers spent an amazingly short three hours stripping off all the old shingles and putting on a new roof. I was home when they did it and they were quite loud, quite quick and I'm sure at the speed that the SIXTEEN roofers worked, shingles were flying everywhere. Mama bird must have been quite distraught.

Then on Monday, another crew came and took off all the gutters and put on new gutters. They must have come quite close to this nest at one time when they removed and installed the gutters on that side of the house.

In a way, it's amazing the nest didn't fall out of the lilac.

I just hope mama bird wasn't totally traumatized by all of these events and is coming back to feed this baby bird and that the other egg hatches soon.

While all this activity is taking place on the west side of the house, on the east side of the house some summer flowers are starting to bloom.

Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)
Mine is a passalong from someone along the way. I have coneflowers in several different places because they self sow. No one has just ONE coneflower plant in their garden, it just doesn't happen. And gardening friends don't let other gardening friends buy common coneflower plants, when it is so easy to share seedlings.

Tiger or Ditch Lily (Hemerocallis fulva)

Also a passalong, the only way to get more of these is to dig and divide them. They are commonly sterile, not producing any viable seed. It's amazing to think how much these spread through the ditches out in the country, without viable seed. This usually will bloom for just a few weeks and then it is pretty much just leaves the rest of the time.

It's got that "open mouth" look like that little bird. I know the birdie is crying out for food, what would this flower want?

Good Advice From Someone Who Doesn't Garden

Several years ago, my sister-who-does-not-garden came by and saw my vegetable garden. She thought the compost bins detracted from the overall neat appearance of the rest of the garden and that I should put up some kind of screening or something so they weren't in plain view.

Hmmm, I hadn't looked at the compost bins that way. When I looked at them I saw future "black gold"

But she was right.

Now I use temporary bamboo fencing to hide the compost bins.
It does look a lot better. But make no mistake, I'm in no way ashamed of my compost bins. I think they are an important part of the life of the garden.

Before I put the fencing up this evening (finally, it was one of those tasks I hadn't gotten to in May), I made note of what is growing in the compost.

There is a lot of purslane in there. I think this is why I end up with all kinds of purslane in the garden. It probably grows, flowers, and seeds itself in the compost. From now on, I'm going to put the purslane in the trash!

There is this pretty little geranium growing and blooming.

I threw this out when I re-did one of my perennial beds this spring. As I recall, it was late and the geraniums had a lot of grass growing up through them, and I was too tired to deal with that, so they ended up in the compost bin. Now I think I might dig out this start and give it another chance.

I also found a fern next to a weed.

I don't think the fern will last much longer out in the sun and I hope someone leaves a comment to let me know what the weed next to it is. I know it is a fairly common weed, easy enough to pull, but I can't remember its name.

There is plenty of costmary (Tanacetum balsamita) in the compost bin.

I just got tired of this plant. It gets all floppy and sprawls all over by mid summer, and is a bit of a spreader. It is also called Bible leaf because the sweet smelling flat leaves were used as Bible bookmarks and during long church sermons, ladies would sniff or chew on them to revive themselves a bit. If I had an actual herb garden, I might give this some space, but I don't, so I'm pulling it up whenever I see it around the flower gardens.

Here's what the whole vegetable garden looks like now.

Under the row covers are the corn and beans, where the rabbits can't get to them. The garden still seems quite bare, but that will change in a month or so. I do like the purple bench. Once I paint my new trellis towers, I'll find a place for them in the garden and plant some "late beans" to grow on them this first year.

And it does look better with the compost bins hidden behind the bamboo fencing.

Do you screen off your compost bina or leave them in plain sight? What's growing in your compost bins?

Hats in the Garden

The fairy lilies (Zephyranthes sp.) are starting to bloom. Some people call them rain lilies because they tend to bloom after some rain, but I prefer to call them fairy lilies.

I don't know if I read it or dreamt it up, but I think they are called fairy lilies because these are just the type of flowers that the garden fairies are likely to pick and wear for hats.

Here in Zone 5, I grow these lilies in containers and overwinter them in my garage. I have two types, this darker rose colored one that I got from my aunt and a lighter pink variety that I bought.

I have other flowers blooming now that the garden fairies probably use for hats. I haven't actually seen a garden fairy wearing one of these flower hats, or for that matter even seen a garden fairy, but there is evidence that they are out there. (I'll go into that more in another post.)

Back to hats... here is my shrub-type clematis, Clematis integrifolia 'Alba'. Those white flowers, with their bell-shape, would also be good fairy hats.

However, they are white, so I doubt that any self-respecting fairy wore them before Memorial Day. Those fairies do have some fashion sense.

This daylily has a good shape for a hat, but I think it would be a little large for a garden fairy. Or let's just say if there is a garden fairy in my garden who is big enough to wear one of the daylilies for a hat, I'd better be a bit more careful about what I say about the garden fairies or accuse them of doing.

There is one hosta getting ready to bloom; the florets of the hosta bloom could be hats for the tiniest fairies.
I'm thinking this hosta is blooming a bit early, but I'm not sure. As spring moves into summer, I tend to get lax in recording when different flowers start to bloom, so I don't have records to refer back to on when the hostas bloom. I do know that I'll have hostas blooming throughout the summer, culminating in the traditional 'August Lilies', which bloom, guess when?

These are the hats I wear in the garden.

There is no flower big enough for my head, though there have been recent suggestions that I wear a crown of pea vines to commemorate my pea harvest!

On the left is a traditional wide-brimmed straw gardening hat. It does a good job keeping the sun off of my neck and out of my eyes. I used to think only "old lady gardeners" wore hats like this one, but I'm over that, and I ain't that old.

On the right is a ball cap I wear sometimes when I mow the grass. They gave these away for free at Indiana Pacer's basketball games a couple of years ago, if you signed up to be entered into a drawing to be the "Chevy Fan of the Game". I did that half a dozen or more times, so I have a lot of these hats. When one gets dirty, I toss it out and bring out another one.

Anymore, if the sun is shining, I'm wearing a hat, it just makes good sense to do so.

So what hats do you wear in the garden?

Home of the Purple Bench

Welcome to May Dreams Gardens, home of the purple bench. See it back there in the vegetable garden?

Before I painted it purple, it looked like this.

It was a pretty color of cream but the paint was starting to flake off on the seat (ha ha, "pretty color of cream", that's an attempt at dry humor which doesn't always come across well in writing.)

And here's a close up of the bench right after we got some rain early Saturday evening.

Does everyone like the new color? It's kind of bright, but I think I'll keep it like this.

Behind the bench are the green beans which I have covered with row covering, because May Dreams Gardens is also home to ravenous rabbits who would eat my green bean plants down to the ground without a second thought if they could get to them.

In other news around here:

I harvested more peas this evening, dodging a few rain drops in the process. As I noted before, the row is only eight feet long, so I don't get a lot of pods with each picking, just a good sized serving, so there isn't much to share. I think I'll get one, maybe two more pickings. Perhaps I'll try some fall peas? Anyone have any tips to share on planting peas for a fall harvest? I'm guessing I would need to plant them ten weeks before the first threat of real frost, which would mean planting by mid-July. Is there a variety that is good for fall planting? Or would it be a foolish waste of seed?

I checked in on my second garden twice this past weekend and everything is coming up just fine. Over at that garden, there are very few weeds, so I don't think I'll have to do much hoeing around the corn, beans and squash. Here in my raised bed garden I have purslane sprouting everywhere so even though I weeded it all on Saturday, it could stand to be weeded again today.

A few more bloggers have joined in on the Garden Bloggers' Book Club and posted their reviews on the book, Passalong Plants, or written about their own experience with passalong plants. So you might want to go back to that post and check them out.

We are getting some rain, finally, which is welcome and needed. We could use a lot more but its a good start.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is coming up again on the 15th of the month. I'm starting to watch more closely in the garden to see what is blooming and budding in anticipation of what might make a good showing on the 15th. More later on how to participate in this if you are new around here.

That's some of what's going on here at May Dreams Gardens, home of the purple bench and ravenous rabbits. What's new in your garden?

Garden Bloggers' Book Club Change in June-July Selection

Changing my mind in the garden can bring on some extra work. Changing my mind on what book to read in June and July for the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club just took some thinking through while working in the garden this weekend.

So ignore what I previously posted as the book selection for June and July. The selection is really, truly going to be My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner.

Why the change? Oh, a variety of reasons mostly having to do with the books originally selected being a bit too difficult to get, at least for me. As I wrote to one person who regularly participates, I like to choose books that are of general interest to all gardeners wherever and whoever they may be, that are also available to everyone regardless of means or location. So I look for books that are likely to be in a public library or that have multiple used copies for sale on Amazon.

With “My Summer In A Garden”, there is the added bonus that the full version for the book is on Google Books, so you don’t even have to buy it. You can read it online or download it to a PDF.

If you don’t recall hearing about Mr. Warner and his book, you’ve probably heard some quotes from it, including, “What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.”

If you are thinking you have no time to read a book these next few months, you might reconsider as this book is only one hundred pages, not counting the introduction. Warner writes a chapter for each week of the summer, spanning some 19 weeks.

And if you still can’t imagine finding time to read even 100 pages, you can still join in the virtual meeting of the book club by posting about your own “summer in a garden”. You’ve got some time to think about it, as the virtual meeting post will go up on July 31st.

Questions or comments? I am always happy for constructive input, feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.

Again, the book selected has been changed to “My Summer in a Garden” by Charles Dudley Warner. I hope you’ll join me in reading this gardening book, just right for summer reading.

Triumph With Peas

Always the whispers... "she has a nice garden, but did you know she can't grow peas".

I always had good excuses.

Some years, I planted too late, and the vines shriveled in the heat.

Some years, the bunnies ate the vines before the pea pods could even form.

I didn't choose a good variety for the midwest.

I got busy and the peas dried up on the vines in the hot June sun.

But not this year.

This is the Year of the Pea.

I planted early on March 17th.

I kept the peas under cover to keep the rabbits from eating the vines.

I chose a good variety for the midwest, 'Green Arrow'.

I did not get too busy and neglect the peas.

I have triumped with peas. I can grow peas! I no longer hear the whispers. I am no longer the disgrace of the family. And it has only taken me twenty years of having a vegetable garden of my own to reach this point.

Aren't those peas the prettiest green you've ever seen? The green of spring, the green of triumph.

The pods are full of these "jewels of the garden".

Peas like these should be displayed in an antique crystal dish like this one, now known as "the pea bowl".

The vines are healthy so there will be many more pods to pick.
I have triumphed with peas. 2007, the Year of the Pea. If all else should fail in my garden this summer, I'll always have the peas.

Dawn Of Summer

Tis June, the dawn of summer, and time to change our mindsets about the garden. We hopefully move from planning what to do in the garden and long task lists of spring chores to enjoying the garden and 'getting to it when I can' type activities.

The 'Endless Summer' Hydrangeas are starting to bloom. These are wonderful hydrangeas for those of us who live through what we think is an endless winter, because they bloom on new wood.

My 'Endless Summer' hydrangeas all died completely back to the ground, and so that's all they have now is new wood.

My one disappointment with these is they don't get very large, at least in my garden. When I planted them two years ago, for once, I gave them lots of room to grow, too much room. I have a problem with plant spacing and am more likely to plant shrubs too close together than too far apart. It figures this one time that I tried to overcome that, I get them too far apart.

But I have a spade, so that's easy to correct, and my reward for doing so will be more space for planting other flowers and shrubs!

I'm also going to be rewarded today with some peas. Here's just a sampling.

There are ten peas in that pod and many more pods like that. Finally, finally, I am going to harvest a decent amount of peas. I've accomplished my goal to grow better peas! I am no longer a disgrace to the family and and those who came before me and grew peas.

And, so far so good on the squash seedlings. The bunny rabbits haven't eaten them, but I've been keeping them covered with cayenne pepper. Do you see those little tiny seedlings surrounding the squash? That's purslane. I wrote about that last summer, and I will probably go out of my mind trying to control it again this summer. I'll add hoeing in the garden to my Saturday chore list, and try to knock out these seedlings before they mature. At the rate they grow, they could be big fat clumps of purslane by Monday.

I am expecting big, fat clumps of grapes later this summer. I thought the 'winter of April '07' did them in, but they are loaded with baby grapes. I think it will be a bumper crop.

I love this time of year, the dawn of Summer, time for harvesting peas, watching grapes grow, hoeing around baby squash seedlings, seeing the first hydrangea bloom. THIS is why we garden, time to get out an enjoy it.