GardenRambler

New Orchids in my house

2011-03-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

I visited the Metropolitan Lawn and Garden show again in February. This time I spent nearly the entire time with the orchid vendors. And, again, I was jazzed. It's really kind of strange how fascinated I am by flowers!

So I walked away with two orchids and here they are.

Paphiopedilum

This one is a lady slipper orchid. I love the deep maroon color. But possibly the best part is the foliage. the mottled leave are gorgeous. And, since this orchid will only bloom about once every nine months or so, enjoying the foliage might be important. I heard it has nearly the same requirements as my two Phalaenopsis. All I know is that it looks really nice sitting in the tray of pebbles with them.

Epidendrum

My other new addition is this interesting beauty. It loves the outdoors and I hear grows new shoots like crazy. I already have one showing up since bringing it home. And each new shoot will bear a spray of these pink and white flowers. Compared to most other orchids the individual flowers look upside-down.

Look closely here and you can see what I mean. And besides that, isn't it awesome that you get so many! I placed the plant where I can see it through the window when I walk up to my front door. It just makes me smile to see them. The plant itself is really tall, the stalks are held up by a hoop that wraps around a stake. According to the grower, if I repot this in a heavy enough pot, it would flop over and be pretty trailing from a shelf. I'm planning to give that a try.

Happy nearly spring wishes - my crocus are blooming already :-)

Begonias in my sunroom

2011-02-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

The begonias in my sunroom are thriving this winter. The one on the left is a gift I received from a friend last summer. She called it a watermelon begonia. I assume it got it's name because the leaves are a glossy green with a lighter green vein. It has been blooming now for about a month and, with more stalks forming, looks like I'll have blooms to enjoy all winter.

The begonia on the right is called The Fairy. It was an impulse purchase at my favorite local garden center, Colonial Nursery. I nearly killed it with lack of water over the summer. But I think it has recovered.

In November I saw wild begonias growing in Costa Rica and these remind me of them. The wild ones were growing on a rocky outcrop near the ocean and their flowers were almost exactly like those of the Watermelon begonia.

So with the position and culture the wild begonias enjoyed in mind, I planted these two begonias very high in a light, peaty medium and I water them sparingly.

I think it's working!

Tomato seedlings

2011-02-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

Pink Brandywine and Pineapple tomato seedlings

Here is a quick snapshot of my first try at starting tomatoes from seed. I have one flat of an heirloom variety called Pink Brandywine and another of my favorite from last summer called Pineapple (it was incredibly sweet). It took them about 5 days to come up and I left them covered for about a week. They have been uncovered now for a few days.

Next weekend the plan is to move them to individual jiffy pots. They should be easy to share with my friends and neighbors that way. Truly, I wasn't expecting the seed packets I purchased would contain so many. But if they all live and grow well, it will be a lot of fun to have something to share.

Next weekend I'll also attempt to start some peppers. I've collected some seeds from the bright yellow and red peppers I bought at the store. It should be a fun experiment.

Revival

2011-01-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

Ah, the dead of winter. The cold and dry, the bright and bitter, here again to make us wait. And this, a warm day, the whisper of Spring to melt the snow and blow it's moist breath through my bare garden. I am happy to walk in the mud and to see again into my pond, to fill my birdfeeders in my pajamas without risking frostbite.

I've been away for a while. Life has changed, so has my garden. But, whatever changes, whatever comes or goes, I keep watching and my garden is still with me. The squirrels still nest in my maple, the white throated sparrows still like the yew outside the window by my desk.

My sunroom is finally the haven it was intended to be. It's warmth has been a comfort, through the Fall and Winter, through the changes. It's nearly time to grow again.

The beauty of time spent gardening

2010-08-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was nearly perfect. Yes, it was hot and humid, because it's Missouri. But I found reasons to be outside nearly the whole time. On top of that, I got to visit and work in a very beautiful garden in Leawood, KS, another suburb of Kansas City, but this one is south of the city. I live on the eastern edge of KC.

This is the front of the home surrounded by the garden that I visited. You get a sense even here that it is lush and full, spilling out of it's borders.

A walk around one side of the home takes you past large terraced dogwoods and an immense oakleaf hydrangea bearing it's beautiful blooms that are just now fading to pink. You can see in this photo how much this gardener loves hostas. This is a tiny sampling of the never-ending variety that thrive here. The gardens behind the home are edged in this lovely red brick forming a neat edge that a mower's wheels can ride along easily.

Through this arch there is a shade garden filled, not only with hostas, but also with many varieties of Japanese maples and other shade-tolerant shrubs. A small patio in this space is surrounded by a large and obviously thriving variety of shade-loving perennials. The space was cool and inviting.

I came to this garden to help a long-time gardener/owner who felt she'd gotten a little behind in her planting and weeding. As you can see, the garden still looks lovely, there being very little that seems untended. I think that's because this gardener is truly a lover of beautiful plants and over many years has amassed a collection of them that gives a visitor like me an eyeful of beauty everywhere she looks. With so many plants a weed has little chance of being noticed - and to be honest, there just weren't a lot of weeds.

We spent most of our time working around this area, exposing the brick edging. Behind these large, established plants is a terrace with two archways covered with climbing roses and other vines. One of these arches led to steps made of railroad ties. Standing beneath the arch I could hear birds playing in the vines entwined above me, very comfortable that this was their space. It was near midday when I was there and in the shade of the vines the air was cool. I succeeded in spending a lot of time making sure those steps in the shade were as clean as possible. It was nice under there and now there should be very few weeds obscuring the path.

In this photo the tall arching hydrangeas and the flowing grasses create a beautiful contrast to the lawn. And look at the canvas cart sitting in the grass. This belongs to this garden's owner. I love this gardener's tool cart. She has everything in there - even a skinny retractable rake. I'd never seen one of those.

This, I think, is my favorite spot. Behind the Ming house is a circular pond. The pond was constructed many years before by sinking a stock tank into the ground. There is a waterfall, but it isn't running. You can see on the left a threadleaf Japanese maple and a young ginkgo biloba that edge the pond. I remember what looked like a miniature juniper and other pretty ground covers helping to create an oriental feel. It's a very pretty space.

I enjoyed my visit to this garden. It was inspiring. I'm impressed by this gardener's love of plants which is obvious in the variety she has collected. I'm hoping to return and explore more soon. Maybe I can help get the waterfall going again?? I'd like that.

The definition of friendship

2010-08-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

I think I've figured it out. A friend is someone who will spend two afternoons (basically, his whole weekend) in the hot sun pulling weeds with you in your garden and... make you think he's enjoyed himself.

Here is the vegetable garden after we finished work on Sunday. So it really didn't take two more weeks of frustration to get my grabgrass-overrun vegetable garden back into some semblance of neatness at all. It just took one very nice friend with time to share with me.

The weather even liked me last weekend. It rained a bunch on Friday night, so the soil was soft but not soaked. Ah, to pull a weed and get the roots, too, on the first try - that makes me happy.

I think pulling weeds is very, very good for me (and friends are even better).

Gardening therapy

2010-08-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

My life has been pretty much a mess lately. A lot is changing, people going and coming, plans that fall through, things that break, and there never seems to be enough time to adjust. Even in the best of times life can be crazy. Right now I've got a bunch of both the best and the worst.

And, of course, my garden - especially the vegetable garden - is suffering from my lack of time and attention. In this photo you can see that the crab grass has officially overtaken the space.

Yep, it's basically mostly grass.

But here's the great thing. When I get overwhelmed and overwrought - just so frustrated I don't know what to do - pulling weeds is great therapy. There is something very soothing about yanking a huge ugly clump of crabgrass out, roots and all. It helped that we had a nice rain the night before. That way I didn't have the added frustration of leaving roots behind. It all came out relatively easy. On top of that I spent some quiet time listening to birds and bugs. There's nothing more soothing than that.

And, not only did I feel a whole bunch better, but I also rescued some pepper plants. About 2 more weeks of frustration and I might just have the whole thing cleaned up :-)

Surviving in spite of the heat

2010-08-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

The heat has been nearly unbearable and lack of rain has caused everything in the garden to wilt. In spite of the sad, droopy leaves and burned up flowers, the garden is still attractive to many.

The American goldfinches have been flocking to the mass of purple coneflowers in the island garden. I'm having fun at my kitchen window these days seeing how many I can count among the flowers.

What surprised me, though, is that I'm also seeing hummingbirds around the coneflowers. I wouldn't have thought those dried up flowers would be attractive to them. The Missouri Department of Conservation puts out a calendar, the Missouri Natural Events calendar, that says hummingbirds are preparing to migrate and to look for increased numbers around feeders. Their increased numbers are very evident at my place.

We finally got a little rain yesterday. I like seeing the plants looking refreshed. Their sad, stressed look over the last two dry weeks was stressful for me. Yes, I worry over them like children. But, keeping true to my goal of establishing a more natural space, I avoided watering. Only the viburnums planted near the street got water. They looked very close to death, but appear to have recovered.

Now I just have to decide how to make the coneflower garden pretty without driving away the goldfinches.

Pond happenings

2010-08-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

My pond is a real blessing this time of the year. In my part of Missouri we need rain and it's scorching hot. Everything is shriveled and dry - except the pond.

In the photo above you can see one of the reasons I'm loving my pond. I get an occasional waterlily bloom to brighten the day. Only one of the 3 water lilies in my pond has bloomed regularly this summer. I bought this one 1/2 price from a grower that sets up a stand in the parking lot of my grocery store. Amazingly, it appears much healthier than the pink one that cost 3 times as much from my local garden center. I figure I'm lucky to get blooms at all since all three are new this year.

I've also noticed two bullfrogs inhabiting my pond. Last night this frog (or maybe it was the other one - I can't tell them apart) was sitting outside the water. And today he was out again. I would have thought the rocks would be too hot. But maybe hot is refreshing for frogs.

In the quietest times, it's fun to search the pond to see if I can spy both frogs. I'm usually lucky to see one. They like hiding in wait for unfortunate dragonflies. I actually saw them catch one. I had no idea until that day that they would leap into the air to get their dinner. It made a pretty good splash and surprised the heck out of me.

Here's one in a more normal setting in some grass near the waterfall. Pretty sneaky, I think.

A walk in the woods

2010-08-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today I walked a trail through a nearby park, Landahl Park, and saw a couple of plants flowering along the path. I'm always on the lookout for flowers that look good in the shade and one in particular seems to love it. It's American bellflower. I've seen the plants listed as Campanulastrum americanum and also as Campanula americana. The Missouri Plants website lists it under the second name.

It's blue flowers are striking and open along straight standing stems. The ones I saw today were growing very near the path. I imaging with a little more light and planted in groups these flowers will make a beautiful show.

The other shade-loving plant was new to me. It had small sweet pea-like flowers on branched stems. I'll have to bring my camera on my next walk to snap a few pictures. My memory might not have captured enough details to identify this one :-)

Fame Flower

2010-08-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, my camera cooperated and I got a photo of this great flower. It's only about 1/2" across, but it's intense magenta color makes a big impact. It's fame flower (Talinum calcynium). I tucked these little succulents into the gaps in the rocks that border my pond and they are thriving. The tiny plants are now filling the spaces in the rocks and every afternoon I'm happy to see many of these pretty little flowers bobbing in the air around the edges of my pond.

We've had a pretty wet summer so it's still hard to say exactly how drought tolerant they are. Looks like there's a dry week coming up. I guess I'll find out.

Even more butterflies

2010-07-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

I think this one is pretty common. It's an Easter Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). It was the first to find the purple coneflowers I transplanted into the front yard.

This butterfly was in the island garden amongst that huge mass of purple coneflowers. This is a Common Buckeye (Junonio coenia). Although it's mostly brown, the large circular "eye" on it's wings are quite striking.

Here's another brown one. I think his one is a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele). Click on the butterfly name to check out the species description. On the description page there is a link that will show more images. It's a little faded, but the markings on the underside of it's wings look identical to me. It was a large butterfly, which also fits the Butterflies and Moths specied description.

Every weekend I appreciate that huge mass of coneflowers more. These are only the butterflies I could capture in a photo. There are lots more that just won't hold still long enough for a photo. I'll keep chasing them, though. It makes me feel like a kid again :-)

Plains coreopsis

2010-07-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the newest addition to my prairie garden in the front yard. It's plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). On my trip to Arkansas last weekend I saw this growing everywhere along the roadsides in the southwest corner of Missouri and as I traveled in the northwest part of Arkansas.

These plants are annuals that self-seed easily (from what I hear- and observed along the roadsides). I think they will add a lot of color and fullness to the area around the edge of the pond and perhaps fill in among the grasses and other prairie plants in the front yard next year. I usually shy away from annuals, but I like these. They're very pretty :-)

By the way, I'm really looking forward to the filling in part in the prairie garden. It looks very sparse right now. But, on the brighter side, I see new shoots on most of the plants, even the ones like the Monarda and rosinweed that have suffered from my dogs running through the garden. And this weekend I'll add some purple coneflowers from the island garden in the backyard and rudbeckia from an area near the vegetable garden. That should help.

I believe I'll install more of those ugly wire fences to keep the dogs out until I can move the underground fence. They protected the spring bulbs and the daylilies along the sidewalk this spring. I removed them when the daylilies filled in. And they were just a little ugly for just a little while :-)

More butterfly fun

2010-07-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

Remember this butterfly from a post last week? I thought it was a Pipevine swallowtail. Actually I found a link on the Discover Life site mentioned in that post to another site Butterfliesandmoths.org. There I found a perfect duplicate of the butterfly in this photo and it was a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). The Butterflies and Moths site is a good one; lots of photos. The photos are arranged by butterfly or moth family, so you kind of have to know what you're looking for or be willing to spend some time looking.

I'm still looking for an image to identify the butterfly in this photo.

Growing veggies - still learning

2010-07-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a view of my vegetable garden. I know, it's pretty well covered with crabgrass. But there are some vegetables in there. The beds on the far side of this photo actually produced lettuce and already have bell and hot peppers and tomatoes. As you can see the lettuce has gone to seed. The zucchini and yellow squash in the nearest bed are pretty slow to produce, I think. I'm not sure why. There are a few zucchini already, but no squash at all.

Here is a little bit of a bright spot - collard greens. They are a favorite of mine. These are a little bug-eaten, but still a beautiful and tasty plant. This is growing in the same bed as the lettuce.

This is a view of my tomato plants. They seem to be doing pretty well. They aren't overly productive, but we've already had to give away lots of cherry tomatoes and a couple of slicing tomatoes.

This has to be my favorite plant in the vegetable garden. It's horseradish. I think it's really lovely. I noticed it last year. Then this spring it produced tall stems with many small white flowers that were very, very fragrant. You can see the dead, dried flower stems here among the large shiny basal leaves. I think I'm going to use this plant near the foundation of my house in place of hosta. It is growing here in the shade of an oak tree, so I think it will tolerate a partial sun/shade location.

Next year, I won't have a water garden to build and a muddy front yard to cover with a prairie/meadow garden. I'll just have maintenance there. So maybe my big project will be raised beds for the vegetable garden. Or maybe it will be a grabgrass-free vegetable garden with lots of nice fluffy amended soil :-)

Purple coneflower frenzy

2010-07-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

As little as a two weeks ago this was the overgrown island garden that I watch from my kitchen window. Please excuse the huge walnut tree seedlings that grow faster than I can find them and the purple loosestrife that no one should have in a Missouri garden. But notice the variation still visible at the edges where I've planted some herbs and tickseed coreopsis that I brought from my previous home. That same space is now nearly totally covered with layer upon layer of purple coneflower bloom. Here's a photo.

It is truly eye-catching. I've spent so much time in the front yard that this garden hasn't gotten much attention. Yesterday when some friends were over to celebrate the Fourth, I brought them back here to explain that I could share some purple coneflowers and, Wow!, was what they said. Standing back, like in this photo just doesn't do the beauty of this mass of flowers justice. You have to get close. Because when you do, you can see all the stuff that's happening.

The bees were everywhere. There were big bumblebees like this one and smaller bees. Are the smaller ones honey bees? I'm not sure. There were also many wasps, but not on the coneflowers. They seem to like the flowers on the oregano and yarrow that I transplanted from my old garden. The whole garden was buzzing with activity. It's very wonderful; more to see than you can take in with one look.

In addition to the bees and wasps, the garden is attracting some quieter and gentler bugs like this one. I haven't tried identifying a butterfly before. But doing a quick internet search I found a site called Discover Life that leads me to think this is a pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor). Discover is a cool site with lots more than butterfly identification. Nice, nice, nice. I love summer :-)

I may have to rethink the amount of coneflowers I want to move - and when to move them. In spite of its overgrown and kind of weedy looks this backyard, ignored garden has become beautiful. I would hate to disrupt the work of these garden friends. I wonder if bringing coneflowers to the space in the front will also bring all of this lovely activity? I bet it will. There's something to look forward to.

Happy summer!

Native prairie planting near the pond

2010-06-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this look pitiful? Well, it's just the beginning; give it time. I wanted to show this photo as a placeholder of sorts. This will give me a benchmark for how this area looked when first planted. We'll all get to judge my garden design "vision." All the plants in this area are natives. Most were in the cartful of plants I purchased at Critsite's Prairie and Wetlands center. Many others were purchased at Heartland Nursery in Lee's Summit and a few at my favorite local garden center, Colonial Nursery. I'll highlight plants as they bloom rather than list all of them here now. I'm keeping my receipts which list the genus and species as well as the tags that came with each plant for future reference.

Hard to see in this photo is a bare spot toward the back of this planting. That will be filled with purple coneflower and Rudbeckia growing in gardens in the backyard. In the case of the coneflowers, I should say "overtaking" the island garden in the back. More about that project in another post.

For now, we'll just call this area the prairie garden. And this photo will help me remember how it looked in the beginning. The ground beneath this mulch is compacted from equipment and people traveling across this area while it was mud during our very wet spring. It will be interesting to see how well these plants fare given my hasty planting techniques and, for the most part, lack of soil amendments. At this point these plants have been in the ground for approximately 2 weeks. Almost all of them still look fairly healthy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-)

The pond's prettiness

2010-06-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

The pond is done. It's just maintenance now. This photo was taken early in the morning from my front door stoop. Even in this beginning state, I think it looks pretty. The plants tucked in the rocks outside of the pond that I mentioned in my last post will hide a lot of the gaps and unnatural looking edges. So I think it will just get better. You can see the green wire fence I put up to keep the dogs out of the bog and off the rocks while the plants get established. With any luck they will quickly find a route they like to the pond's edge and forget they can walk on the gravel in the bog. Lucky for me the wire doesn't obscure much of the view and barely shows up in photos :-)

Update on pond planting

2010-06-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a snapshot of some of the planting I've been doing. Might be hard to see here, but the gaps in the rocks are filled with gravel and dirt.

Tucked into those areas are sedum and Fame Flower (Talinum calycinum). I tried to photograph the intense magenta flowers with yellow-gold stamens that float on almost imperceptible stems in the evening above the Fame Flower. My camera must be intensity-avoidant because it just refused to focus. But you can see the little succulent leaves protruding from the rocks.

Planted at the bottom on the rocks in this photo are Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and Missouri Evening Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa). These are planted on the east side. There are more planted along the south side of the pond.

Where the pond intersects the waterfall (not shown in the photo), I've planted Purple Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata ) and Bush's Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe bushii). The purple poppy mallow will trail. So I've planted one of them in a large crevice in the rocks around the pond. It should look pretty trailing over the side.

If all survive, it will be beautiful. I'll have to keep a close eye on things as they become established. If I haven't secured the soil in those rocks well enough, it's likely to wash out. It would be a shame to see those little fame flowers wither!

More daylily gorgeousness

2010-06-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what variety these are and I don't really care. They are beautiful. The peach colored flower in the foreground has a yellow center. It's intensity makes the whole flower glow. It captivated me for several minutes before I noticed the pretty yellow flower in the background.

I'm spending so much time in the front yard with the pond that this area near the vegetable garden is hardly noticed. But when I notice, I'm always delighted with the loveliness I've been given :-)

Just passing along a very cool map

2010-06-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Garden Rant, one of the blogs I follow, discovered this cool land cover map. Check it out.
Here's a link to the map:
Landcover Map

Here's a link to the Garden Rant post about it:
Garden Rant

Daylily fun

2010-06-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

Last week I noticed some color peeking through the weeds around the vegetable garden and found this beautiful daylily blooming. Now I'm excited to see several others nearby that will also bloom soon.

Here is another pretty variety blooming beneath the burr oak at the south east edge of the vegetable garden.

I thought, based on this planting along the walk to the front door, that all the lilies in my new yard might be Stella d'Oro. They're beautiful grouped in such a large number, but it's nice to see some other varieties have been planted. I guess I shouldn't be surprised knowing the previous owners loved gardens - just impressed at their choices - and thankful :-)

My kind of shopping!

2010-06-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

I took a trip on Friday to CritSite's Prairie and Wetland Center just south of Kansas City in Belton. The day started out misty and threatening rain, but ended up very muggy as the sun broke through the clouds.

The Prairie and Wetland Center was my kind of place: all overgrown and full of growing things. I loved it. Here are a couple of photos of their selection area and display.

These tables are full of perennials. The low plants in the background in pink pots are Fame Flower (Talinum calycinum). I bought two pots. They grow on rocks and they're pretty. How could I not?

This photo shows a corner of one of their displays. It reminded me that I wanted some Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum). All of the displays were lovely and informative, showing great combinations and preferred location.

And this was my cart as I prepared to check out. It wasn't cheap. I paid over $200 for that cartful, but it was fun and I found most of what I wanted.

After we left the CritSite's Prairie and Wetland center we visited Heartland Nursery. I was impressed with their selection of native plants. I found a few that I couldn't get at the Prairie and Wetland center because they were still in production and not ready for sale yet. I even found an Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). I hadn't planned to purchase that since it isn't going in the area around the pond, but I didn't want to pass it up. What if I couldn't find one? The only plant I'm still missing is Butterfly Milkweed :-(

And this is the space my new purchases will fill - at least in part. That big pile of mulch is at the left edge of the area that will receive sun the majority of the day. The grasses, goldenrod, rattlesnake master, blazing stars, wild bergamot, penstemons, prairie dock, and at least one or two others that I can't remember will, with any luck, make a nice little prairie/meadow just outside my front door.

The other plants I purchased will soften the edge between the gravel path and the pond. Others, like the fame flower, will be placed in the rocks that edge the pond. And the American Beautyberry and Summersweet bushes will fill space near the waterfall.

Shortly after this photo was taken we had a huge rain and flash flooding. So not much was planted, but between thunderstorms I did spread all the mulch, getting nearly all the mud covered. And my new purchases won't suffer from lack of water :-)

Pond progression photos

2010-06-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

Just for fun, I want to show the progression of the pond from beginning to where I left off last weekend.

Shelves have been dug all around the edge, including the large shelf that will house the gravel bog filter.

Foundation for the partition wall of the bog filter is in place and I've begun creating the level edge for the pond.

Edge of pond is level and I've begun to place underlayment (carpet pad in this case) in the bottom of the pond to protect the liner from all the tree roots.

I've finished placing the underlayment and I'm ready to place the 45 mil. rubber pond liner.

Here is the pond liner in place and it's been filling for about 1 1/2 hours, reaching the 12" deep shelf for the bog filter.

I shifted viewpoints here and we're now looking from the other end of the pond. And as you can see it's nearly full. At this point we estimated based on how long it took to fill the 5 gallon white bucket in this photo that the pond is holding around 1200 gallons.

There's a big gap here in the photos. I installed the pump and plumbing including valves to adjust flow to the waterfall and bog filter. I used 1 1/4" flexible hose to go from the pump to the "T" and then to the ball valves. From the valves flexible hose takes water to the 2" PVC pipe to feed the bog filter and to the waterfall. Then, I was very busy moving cinder blocks for the wall that partitions the bog from the rest of the pond and shoveling two pickup loads of gravel into the bog. I also purchased plants for the bog and planted them.

After all that, here's what I had. You can see that the water level has risen to nearly overflow the edge due to displacement from the gravel and cinderblocks. The water is also very cloudy from the gravel. You can't even see the gravel just under the water and the plants.

In this photo the waterfall has been "roughed-in." It's just cinderblocks, liner, and the rocks creating the "splashy" sound that I like so much. The water is clearing up a little, but it hasn't receeded or evaporated much.

There's another pretty significant gap here. I am moving literally tons of rocks to cover the edges of the pond and waterfall as well as to form a path around two sides of the pond.

And this is how the pond looked last time I posted. The waterfall is now covered with rocks, the edge of the pond is completely concealed, and the gravel path around two sides is in place. You can see the gravel in the bog filter now that the water has evaporated a little.

I still haven't spread the mulch, but another weekend will be here before I know it :-)

Pond photo

2010-06-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here it is!

The only thing not done in this photo is spreading that big pile of mulch. But that doesn't really affect the pond. I took this photo Sunday evening before calling it quits for the weekend. The reflection on the water makes it a little hard to see details so I'll explain.

This view is from the front door stoop. The gravel bog filter is the area at the close end of the pond that contains plants and doesn't look as though it has any water. The rocky lump at the far end of the pond, between the wheel barrel and the pile of mulch, is the waterfall.

More plants are needed around the edges of the pond. You can see one that I've placed near the waterfall. It came from my old, small pond and survived the winter in a shallow pan of water. There is a waterlily in the far right corner that purchased a week ago and a clump of water hyacinth floating in the center to provide a little shade for my gold fish. The majority of the plants I've purchased so far are in the bog filter. There is a water canna, cardinal flower, bog bean, two Louisiana water iris, a variegated sweet flag, two pickerel rushes, a taro (annual), something called a water wisteria, and two blue rushes. You may notice a small pot sitting in the gravel. That's a chocolate mint that my uncle gave me. I've heard it will grow in the pond, but that it's pretty aggressive. So I'll put it in a pot. There is also a plant with small yellow flowers in the bog that I pulled out of a puddle in a gravel parking lot the other day. It looks like a buttercup. I'll check it out and let you know.

It all seems to be working well. Most of the plants have been in the pond for over a week and they all appear to be growing. The water canna and the pickerel are blooming. The gold fish from my old pond that lived in the aquarium downstairs all winter were moved into the pond on Friday. They look healthy and happy.

Yay! And I still love the splashy sound of the waterfall.

I've been lost in the world of water gardening

2010-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Whew! That long weekend lasted too long. Placing 3 tons of rock and 1 1/2 tons of gravel in a pond is hard work. Not only that, but it leaves no time for writing about the progress on my pond.

I'll take a little time today to share how the project is progressing. No pictures to show yet since it isn't quite finished. Incredibly, I ran out of rock. So the top of the waterfall isn't covered and more flat rocks are needed to clean up the pond edge.

Three tons might sound like a lot, but there never seems to be the right rock for the spot. I just called today to have 2 more pallets delivered. That should more than finish things up.

Last time I wrote about the pond it had a liner and was being filled with water and now it is full and has a splashy waterfall :-) I wish I could share a recording. It reminds me of the relaxation tapes I used to have. Think small splashes in a babbling brook.

The plumbing and gravel bog filter are finished, too. The plumbing came together very well. The pipe that feeds the bog filter was easy, but putting together the fittings for the two ball valves to regulate the flow from the pump to the waterfall and bog was very tough. The flexible hose just didn't want to slide onto the barbs. But I got it done with lots of cursing and sweat - and it works, hence the splashy waterfall.

After covering the pipe in the bog with 1/2 ton of gravel, I purchased plants and another 3/4 tons of gravel. My guide to bog filter construction suggested placing the plants after filling the bog halfway with gravel. But I found it very difficult to shovel gravel in around the plants without damaging them. So I added gravel to about one inch below the water level and then placed the plants. The last inch of gravel I added by hand. So it's now a very good thing that I don't care how my fingernails look - because I have none.

I also jump-started my bog's biological filter by adding Microbe-lift to the water. It's some bacteria-mix stuff that my neighbor suggested. He has a very clean pond with huge, happy koi so I think he knows what makes a healthy pond. In addition, as a precaution, I added a water treatment to remove chlorine since I filled the pond with water from the house. It was probably okay since the water had been sitting for a week, but just in case.

The pond water was really murky due to sediment on the gravel and I was nervous about putting my 3-year-old. Laura at Brother's Pets where I purchase the Microbe-lift suggested I buy some feeder goldfish to test the water and start things off. Nine of the dozen I bought seem to have survived. The bodies of the other 3 haven't surfaced. They may still be there, too. The goldfish I am nervous about putting in the pond were also feeder fish (actually bait from the bait shop), but they are getting pretty big. It's a lot easier to dispose of a small fish body.

The water was pretty clear yesterday morning and I could see all the way to the bottom. Still didn't see the missing goldfish, but I think the filter is working.

Last night I finally took time to work at my desk in the sunroom and enjoy the new view of the waterfall. But I'll have to adjust to the restful sound. It's hard to stay focused on balancing the checkbook with that lovely distraction in my ears dragging my eyes from their task.

Ah, the troubles I endure :-)

Misidentified mystery plant: not Dame's Rocket - it's Money Plant

2010-05-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

My most recent mystery plant turns out to be something I can keep. It's not the invasive Hesperis matronalis (Dame's Rocket). Instead it's Lunaria annua, better known as Money Plant.

These seed pods formed very quickly and were a dead giveaway. This plant is growing in a sunnier location than the ones I photographed earlier this spring. I was taking a stroll near the vegetable garden when I noticed this mass of flat seed pods. And I quickly checked the plants near the brick patio. Yep! They had the same flat seed pods.

I recognized it as money plant. A quick Google search and I found the name: Lunaria annua.

Since I had seen many of the purple flowers growing in the woods near my home, I decided to see if I could locate a plant when I went for my morning run. Near the road I found several plants that still had fading flowers and pulled one up. Unlike the plants growing in my garden, the roadside plants had long, skinny seed pods. As shown in this photo. These plants also have longer, thinner leaves that barely wrap the stem at all. This plant actually is the invasive Hesperis matronalis. When Dame's Rocket and Money Plant are in bloom it is difficult to tell them apart. The flower structure is identical, so it was no help. The best clue before the seed pods form will be the leaves. Money plant has wider leaves that clasp the stems. Dame's rocket has thinner, smaller leaves; much like phlox. The trouble in identifying my money plants came from not plucking a plant sooner so I could compare.

I remember thinking the leaves looked like Brunnera last fall. They were large and deeply veined; nothing like the leaves on the flower stems. I plan to cut most of the stems before the seed pods dry; leaving a few to start new plants next year. I'll keep an eye on the plant that's left to see if the leaves continue to broaden or if this plant is a biennial and what I witnessed last fall was the first year plant.

I'm glad I found out this wasn't an invasive before I pulled them all up. Money plant is really pretty!

A little peek at my road trip

2010-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a little peek from my road trip. I took many photos, but only can show a few tonight.

My aunt and I started out Tuesday afternoon from Olympia, Washington, and drove along the north side of the Columbia River (pictured above).

My photos don't nearly capture the grandeur. The views from the road were breathtaking. Much of Wednesday was spent in Idaho and Utah. I didn't know until Thursday how much there was to see in Utah, particularly just west of Green River along Interstate 70. I was speechless.

For now I'll share just a couple of photos I snapped of roadside wildflowers in eastern Utah. I'm still working on identifying them, so more to come about them soon. Enjoy :-)

Pond beginnings

2010-05-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, now that my sunroom is finished and the builder finally graded the front yard, I can work :-)

Here's a picture from the outside of the sunroom. You can see my dog, Doogle, standing very near the large hole that will be my pond.

The pond will be kidney shaped and easy to see from several areas. Anyone walking to the front door, seated on the deck, or sitting in the sunroom will have a great view of the water.

Here's the hole my builder dug for me. It was a great help having him excavate the deepest part for me. My last pond was only 3' by 6' and digging that was enough to tell me that this wasn't a job I could do.
This is the view standing next to the sunroom windows. I had just finished digging the shelf for water plants. The area near the shovel will be the gravel bog filter.

In this photo you can see that I've added a cinder block foundation to support the wall that will partition the filter from the rest of the pond. After checking the outside edge with a level, I also placed a line of cinder blocks to support the liner beneath the moss rock that will edge the pond.

My next steps are to place a level line of concrete pavers around the edge of the pond and install the underlayment. The pavers will make a nice, even edge for the liner that is slightly raised to keep water and dirt from washing in. I'll use carpet pad to protect the liner from protruding roots and rocks. I think before I put the underlayment in I will do more trimming of roots. There are a lot of them and some are really big. Look at the one on the near side of the photo. It's like a tree branch.

I'll be out of town for a week, so not much will happen in the garden. I'm driving across country from Olympia, Washington. So, even though nothing will change much in the garden, I should have some great pictures to share from the trip.

Columbine and iris in the backyard garden island

2010-05-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm very familiar with the native columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, because it grew freely on the rocky bluff near the lake at my former home. The red and yellow flowers with their down facing habit are pretty and bright, like little fairy lanterns.

This one is growing in my backyard in a space I call the island garden. It's the same garden that last fall was filled with fading purple coneflowers; the same flower heads that I left standing all winter to feed the American goldfinches and other birds. I have a view of this garden from my kitchen window.

In the background of this photo you get a little glimpse of the other columbines in the garden. See the tall purple flowers?

There are nearly as many of the purple columbines in my garden as there are the natives. The purple form is much taller and the flowers are larger. Here's a closeup of a particularly blue one with very long petals. It's a small plant that is nearly overrun by the rapidly sprouting purple coneflowers. But others with flowers like this that appear a little more pink are also much taller. I found this little blue one particularly nice.

Another color I've found in this garden is this one: burgundy. I have never planted a columbine. As I said earlier, my last garden had the native form growing everywhere. But, from my browsing of perennial catalogues, I don't remember seeing many of this burgundy color. There is only one like this in my garden as far as I can tell. Very pretty.

One other columbine in this garden is purple with a white center. I didn't get a good photo of that one, but it's similar to ones I've seen in catalogue and garden centers.

The garden is also home to this iris. It's unusual with its white spot surrounded by purple. It is also very tall; over 3 feet.

With the exception of the red and yellow columbines everything in this garden that's blooming right now is purple, even a sage that's blooming ahead of it's companions. I'm guessing it was planned that way.

I'm enjoying the garden Bob and Judy created. I watch it daily from my kitchen vantage point. it often draws me outside to get a closer look, which leads to a stroll around the vegetable garden. And then I'm hooked for as long as the demands of life will allow.

I'll get busy soon moving many of the coneflowers to a different space - maybe to different gardens. There are plenty to share. That should allow the columbines some room to grow. But I wonder if they like the shade of those larger plants. I'll be careful and watch for signs of distress.

I remember thinking last fall that there were columbines growing like weeds under all the coneflowers as I hurriedly planted some of the herbs I brought with me from my former home into the edges of this garden. It didn't bother me at all if I stepped on a columbine. I thought they were all the native plants that I knew were easy to grow. They all seem to have survived my trampling. But, still, I'll be more careful now. :-)

Tulip tree or tulip poplar

2010-05-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

The other day when I looked up at the large tree in my neighbor's yard I saw this; a pair of very pretty and large yellow-green and orange flowers. I noticed the tree last fall and thought it was a tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. These flowers confirm it. This is a huge tree with pendulous branches. I'm guessing the tree is well over 40 feet tall. It stands west of my house providing shade for my sunroom; shade that sparkles with light as the sun sets and a wind flutters those large leaves. Wow.

I have to tell you that I really, really love the view from my desk in the newly finished sunroom. Sights like this are enough to make this goofy plant freak teary-eyed . . . and happy.

White Throated Sparrow

2010-05-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Remember I mentioned a little bird whose song sounded like a thinly whistled "old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody"? That was when it was still frigid the tress were bare. Well the little birds are still around and I got a close-up look at a few near a window of my sunroom.

The little one pictured here is missing his tail feathers. But he is definitely the most frequent visitor to the area beneath the feeder by the window near my desk. I hear and see many others, including one with the alternate tan striped head. They are cute little birds with a fun and easily identifiable song that hop around in the mulch and fallen leaves. They are a tiny bit smaller than a house sparrow (the non-natives that are everywhere) and have a bright white throat and black and white striped crown.

You can read more about this bird on the All About Birds site.

It makes me happy to know they like my garden enough to hang around for a while. I think they tend to nest farther north than Missouri, but it might be nice if they decided to raise their family here in my messy garden :-)

Hesperis matronalis - that's what it is

2010-05-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hesperis matronalis is also called Dame's rocket.
This is the plant I recently mentioned I couldn't identify. But, with the help of the Missouri Plants website, I found the species name. The site has great close up photos that are very helpful.

Unfortunately, when I searched for this plant on MoBot's plant finder, I learned it's an invasive weed. It's really too bad because the plant is lovely and the flowers are fragrant. After reading that the plant is invasive, I noticed that it is blooming in the woods along the railroad track behind my house and in woody areas on vacant lots - kind of everywhere.

I'll be sorry to see this one go from my garden :-(

Maybe I can remove the seed heads and keep one or two plants??? Darn, it's tough to be principled.

Sunroom update

2010-04-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, after months of complaining, the inside of the sunroom is done. AND I have real steps all the way up to the front door (no more walking the plank across the mud hole)Yay!

Here's a photo of the windows from an angle more like previous photos.

It's a big room and I love it. This fall it will be filled with plants. The benches mentioned in an earlier post will occupy the spaces just below the windows. I'm looking forward to starting my vegetable plants from seeds for next spring!

For now, I'm enjoying having my desk back and a great view of the chickadees, cardinals, and white throated sparrow at the birdfeeder right outside the window.

Mystery plant

2010-04-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

This plant is growing around the edges of the patio outside of the area inhabited by the ferns. It's mostly shade, but gets morning sun. I noticed the plant last fall and thought it was Brunnera because these tall flower stems were gone. What was left looked like deeply veined heart-shaped leaves on a prostrate stem. I was waiting for the flowers this spring to confirm that identification. Now that I see the flowers, I think it's not Brunnera.

Here's a closeup of the flowers. These beautiful purple blooms are bright spots in the shady edges of the garden and I'm very fond of them. I'll keep on eye on the progression to seed. But barring anything totally ugly, I think it's a keeper - native or not :-)

Fern relocation

2010-04-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

I discovered last fall when we moved into this garden that a small brick patio near that beautiful dogwood tree was being invaded by ferns. The patio appeared to be overgrown by euonymus and ivy as well as covered by a couple of seasons of leaves. The patio looked very small and I wondered how far it extended beneath the advancing ground covers. So I decided to make a quick job of clearing it off.

It wasn't long before I ran into some strange knobs protruding from the spaces between the bricks. It was impossible to shovel more than a few inches of dirt and leaves off the bricks without hitting one. These "knobs" had green things that looked a little like curled up worms at their tops. I quickly realized that they were dormant ferns. And some of them were big! One was 8" tall. Since it was November and getting cold, I decided to remove only the ground covers and as much of the dirt as I could without harming the ferns. Then I used grass cuttings and mulched oak leaves to cover the ferns again for winter, creating an edging of wall block to keep the mulch from blowing away.

As I noticed the fiddleheads beginning to unfurl a few weeks ago, I decided they needed to move before they got too big. Here's how they looked as I removed the mulch and dirt. I'm still amazed at how far the colony had expanded under the patio. It gave me some insight into the type of soil these plants prefer.

My mom helped me pry the plants from their comfortable, but inconvenient, home. Using a long screwdriver and a small spade we leveraged the ferns from the sandy spaces between the bricks.

This photo shows how the ferns were connected. Their underground stems would turn to follow the gaps between the brick and produce new ferns every few inches. We tried to keep the groups intact as much as possible, but we often ended up breaking the stems to get just one out at a time.

We ended up with two boxes full of ferns. I never counted, but I think there were at least 2 dozen plants.

Here is the space at my mom's house that we planned to make the new home of the transplants. It's on the north side of a fence in a space that doesn't grow grass and often grows moss. Mom has covered the dirt with gravel, which I think will make the space even more appropriate for the ferns.

Here's the way they looked after planted; tiny, but still healthy. I'll post an updated photo soon, but Mom says they are 2 feet tall. She will enjoy their feathery fronds a lot more than her blank fence and I am glad to give them a comfortable home rather than see them in the compost pile.

And, lastly, here is my patio. It still needs some new sand and dirt to fill the gaps, but it's much bigger than before. I noticed last fall that moss was also growing between the bricks making a beautiful contrast with the red brick. I'll add that as I can to make a more solid pattern. The ferns are now at the edge of the patio and out into the surrounding garden space. They are, as my mom said, at least 2 feet tall now and very green. I'm so happy I found a home for the invading plants. They really are lovely.

A few more spring flowers in my garden - some native - some not

2010-04-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks several trees have begun flowering. In addition to the pretty, but diseased, purple leaf plum there are two other woody plants blooming.

One is this lovely quince. I never really liked quince with its thorns and thick, overgrown messy shape. But having several growing in the hedgerow between my yard and the street behind me has given me a new appreciation for them. These bushes were some of the first to leaf out this spring. The ones I have are approximately 9 feet tall and at least as wide. They form a nearly solid screen when leafed out. And now that I can get close to a quince it's easy to appreciate their beautiful blossoms. Their color and shape reminds me of Asian paintings. For some reason I didn't cut any to enjoy indoors. I'll have to remember to do that next year.

Another tree that's flowering is a cherry tree. It's bark alone is beautiful; dark and shiny with horizontal streaks. I remember last September that the leaves were small and sparse. I did some reading and think this is a sweet cherry. I base that on Mark (Bob and Judy's son) telling me that there used to be another one near this one that died. Since then he says there hasn't been any fruit. Sour cherries are self-pollinating. Sweet cherries are not. I also browsed photos of cherry blossoms and this one looks more like the wild cherry, Prunus avium. Not only is it airy and pretty, but it fills the garden with a light, clean, vanilla fragrance.

Here's a close-up of the blooms.

And last but certainly not least is the dogwood tree. Always beautiful, but until now, never in my own garden. I've seen the blooms on this tree for several years now from the other side of the hedgerow. It's even more beautiful up close. Every window you pass on the north side of the house has a view of the tree. I catch myself stopping and standing to soak in the sight. Then, of course, I totally forget what I was doing. But still it makes me happy.

This photo only shows a small part of the tree. It's really just a huge cloud of blinding white tiers of flowers. The tree is probably 18-20 feet tall.

Just for fun, here's a picture of my husband, Jerry, and my step-dad, Pete. They're working to install the second large rain barrel/tank. This one will be hidden beneath a huge forsythia on the northwest corner of the house.

Beneath their feet and tucked in every corner around the edges of the garden and amongst the faded daffodils and tulips are tons of white and purple violets. These little lawn weeds are bringing cheerful color to the leaf litter that remains in the wild spaces in my garden.

I learn more about the genius of the gardener who lived here before me every week it seems. It's humbling and exciting - and I've only been here since September!

My purple leaf plum is infected with perennial canker

2010-04-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Sadly, one of the trees in my yard appears to be diseased. I noticed some dead branches last fall in the purple leaf plum and made a mental note to look more closely in the spring when the garden beneath it wouldn't be so overgrown. In spite of the disease, the tree's flowers this spring were lovely.

The purple leaf plum is in the backyard garden space that I've enjoyed from the kitchen window. The pink blooms were very pretty and nicely offset by the new purple leaves.

The tree is approximately 18' tall and it dominates the west corner of the garden in the backyard. The sparse grass and moss in it's shadow hint at this tree's age. Judy and Bob, the previous owners of my garden, must have planted it long ago. I know it provided them with many moments gazing through the kitchen window at the cloud of pink and burgundy it gives us in the spring. I'm thankful for this one spring's worth.

A few weeks ago I cleaned out some of the dead branches thinking the extra air circulation would benefit the tree. It was then that I got a close look at the strange swollen areas on the small branches and huge gashes in the bark on the large branches and trunk.

I did a search on the web for diseases common to plum trees and found two could cause this. At first I thought it was a fungal disease called black knot. But, black knot was described as having swollen fruiting bodies that grow about this time of year, and I saw no evidence of those. The other possibility is perennial canker. That's what I think this is.

Perennial canker forms dark sunken cankers along the limbs and subsequent cycles of healing scar tissue and expansion of the fungus cause the infected tissue to crack, dry out and blacken. Over time the infected branches become girdled, lose vigor, and die. Given the amount of blackened cracking bark I see throughout the tree, I don't hold out much hope that this tree has long to live.

My plan right now is to severely cut back and clean out the most infected parts. As I said, I think there's little hope that will save it. But, if I can enjoy another spring gazing at this pretty tree out the kitchen window, I'll count myself lucky - again.

My big rain barrel isn't so big after all

2010-04-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I decided we have the perfect spot for a rain barrel. The downspout on the northeast corner of our house emptied beneath the steps from our deck. An additional deck will be built at that corner of the house, so a rain barrel in this spot will be hidden. And that gave me the idea of having several rain barrels linked together. Then my husband Jerry suggested using one of those white 250 gallon tanks that have a metal cage around them. What a great idea! That ought to take all spring to fill up. So he bought the tank and I started digging.

Here's a photo of the space we wanted to use. It's pretty much a mess. Whenever it rains water collects at the bottom of the steps. And the brick retaining wall is falling apart. After measuring the area, I figured that with a little digging the large tank would fit perfectly. The tank measures approximately 4' tall, 4' long and 3' wide. It comes equipped with a large opening in the top and a 2" ball valve at the bottom. I decided to position the tank so that the valve at the bottom of the tank would be accessible when standing by the retaining wall at the bottom of the steps.

So my first task is removing the crumbling brick.

In this photo taken last fall when we moved in, you can see there are several hostas that grow in this space, hiding a lot of the problems. They were beautiful. So before I did anything else I removed the hostas from under the deck stairs and set them aside for replanting later.

I used a small sledge hammer to break up the brick. I dumped the broken bricks and mortar in the space that has yet to be back-filled around the foundation of the sunroom, and I salvaged all bricks that weren't broken.

I decided to use red Windsor wall block to rebuild the retaining wall. After removing the bricks I found a small concrete footing that I couldn't remove. So I decided to place the blocks just outside the concrete footing. To accommodate the little lip on the bottom of the wall block, I cut a channel in the blacktop of our driveway. Using a masonary bit, I drilled holes about 3/8" deep. Then with masonary chisel and hammer I chipped out the channel. Once that was done stacking the blocks was easy. But it took me a whole weekend.

To make a space for the tank to sit just west of the stairs, I needed to dig into the dirt along the north wall of the house. I wanted to make sure the tank was level. So the next weekend I build an additional retaining wall and created a gravel floor where the tank could sit.

And, voilá! With Jerry giving me a hand to move the tank in place, the rain barrel was installed. We cut the downspout to end about a foot above the top of the tank. We attached a flexible, expandable downspout we bought at Home Depot to the downspout to direct water to the opening in the top of the tank. A 12"X12" piece of window screen was placed over the opening to catch leaves. It was attached with a large gear-drive hose clamp and the flexible downspout was attached with a wire.

The best part was the drenching downpour we had the following morning. We got about 2" of rain that day. It only took about 30 minutes to fill the tank to over flowing. That's 250 gallons in half an hour! So I guess it wasn't going to take the entire spring to fill it up after all. Jerry and I quickly decided that we could probably use two more. Luckily there won't be any retaining walls to rebuild where we install the other two :-)

Oh, and today Jerry, again being the fabulously handy guy he is, installed fittings and a spigot to which I connected my garden hose. And I watered for free! Of course, it's different than the pressurized water from my house - a lot slower. But it works and it's free, did I say that?

The beginning for the vegetable garden

2010-04-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

My previous experience with vegetable gardens has been more fun than productive. Over the years I've incorporated vegetables into my landscape in any space that looked likely to grow them, never knowing anything about what I was doing other then the information that came with the plant. My son, now 13, planted a garden with me in our first home when he was nearly 2 years old. We had a great time growing mint because it smelled good, butternut squash, and tomatoes. The mint spread everywhere. The tomatoes were unremarkable. In fact, I don't remember even one of them. But the squash was a huge success. It was so easy to grow and fun to watch. On top of all that the squash was delicious!

I've tried out a lot of different things just for fun and to find out whether they were easy or tasted good. If they grew, great! If they didn't, that was okay too. If they were pretty, I remembered to try that one again.

Here at my new house I have a real garden space, totally unlike the terraced small spaces I've carved out of my past yards. I haven't measured, but this space seems huge and it has a gentle slope. Neighbors have told me that Bob and Judy, the previous owners, had a great vegetable garden that was very productive while they were both in good health. When I moved in it was just a flat mowed space. It hadn't been planted or tilled in years. Here's a photo from last fall. You can just make out the somewhat square flat space.

Just before our last snowfall I rented a tiller and began thinking about how to make the space into a vegetable garden I can use. I decided to leave a grass path approximately 4 feet wide down the middle with narrow tilled garden plots on either side. Each of the narrow plots is separated by a 1 foot wide path that will be mulched for walking. My intention when I tilled was to roughly turn under the grass before things began growing in earnest, giving the weather some time to work moisture and nutrients into the tilled spaces. Here's how it looked after I tilled.

The day after I did my work we got over 8 inches of snow which was perfect for my plan. The snow melted away in about 3 days, slowly watering in the rough soil. There's a lot to do before I can plant anything and that's a good thing. As I mentioned, I'm not used to so much space. So I'll be working with my step-dad to figure out what to plant. Of course, I will have to plant butternut squash and also the other successes I've encountered over the years like Swiss chard and collard greens, tomatoes, green beans, and peppers. There is also a trellis on the west side of the garden made of two halves of an iron wagon wheel that I think will be perfect for berries. I've already planted two blueberry bushes I brought from my old house. They are just north and west of the trellis. My raspberry canes were too large to move, but I will certainly plant more. Some of my most relaxing times last summer were evenings after work spent picking berries with Skylr and often one of his friends. I loved the quiet time exploring the canes to find the ripest, sweetest ones.

I'm excited to get started breaking up the soil and working in some compost. Since this space is about 3 times as much space as I'm used to, I'll give myself a couple of weekends to ready the space for plants and seeds. I think I have that much time before we are frost-free here.

Maybe I can get my not-so-little-anymore son to help. It'll be a lot different than having a two-year-old help. He's bigger than me now. As much as he complains about being asked to help (he's a teenager, of course he complains), there's no mistaking the pride he takes in letting friends and relatives know what he's done and showing off the "fruits" of his labors. And I think he likes the time with me at least as much as I like the time with him. The truth is there's nothing I'm more thankful for these days than time like that. :-)

Happy Easter!

Daffodils - my new garden has tons!

2010-04-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

We've had a few days of warm sunny weather here. Overnight it seemed like the forsythia exploded. There is yellow everywhere. But even better are the daffodils. My yard is full of them and there are several varieties. These photos show the 4 different kinds I've seen so far.

These were the first to open.

These opened next. And they are very fragrant.

Then these are planted in front of the house and opened a few days after the others.

Yesterday these pretty ones opened. The petals are much whiter than the others. It rained today just before I photographed them. That made for a pretty picture. The flowers are smaller. The American Daffodil Society describes a division on their website called Poeticus. I think that's what these are. Or perhaps it's a small-cupped variety. Check it out and see what you think. The website was a great reference for someone like me who has no idea what's planted in my yard.

In addition to the daffodils and the forsythia I have grape hyacinth just beginning to bloom. The previous gardener was smart to plant them at the beginning of the walk that leads to the front door. You can see from the photo that there are many, many more blooms just waiting to open. What a perfect spot for them. This fall I'll move a few of the daffodils close to these to provide a little contrast in next spring's display.

Needless to say, I love this time of year. It's especially fun in the new garden I've come to own. Bob and Judy, who built this home, raised their family here, and stayed until they died, obviously loved the garden, too. I feel so fortunate, like they've given me a gift. Wouldn't it be great if somehow they know I'm grateful? These thankful thoughts are sure to add good vibes to the world, the cosmos, heaven, this garden. I hope Bob and Judy get them, too :-)

Happy spring!

Talinum - my new plant find

2010-03-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post about what looks to be a great plant. It's common name is "fame flower" and its species name is Talinum calycinum.

Take a look at Missouri Plants page for this plant. I'd never heard of it or seen it before I found it on the Critsite website's native plants list. Note that I've added Critsite to my favorite links. Critsite is just south of Kansas City in Belton. I hope to have time to check out their nursery this spring. They may be my most convenient resource in my search for plants to fill my new garden.

Funny that I didn't discover Talinum sooner. It was listed on the Missouri Wildflowers website which I've been browsing for months. It's probably because their plants list doesn't have photos, and I'm really a sucker for pretty pictures. If it's pretty, I'll click on it.

Anyway, Talinum calycinum is a little succulent plant that produces a deep rose flower atop a thin wisp of a stem. The flowers open late in the afternoon and from the photos I've seen it looks like a pretty pink cloud when a group is planted together. The plant appears to like rocky, dry places. Just the type of exposure that plants south and east of my yet-to-be-built pond will enjoy. I think some lucky plant will be adopted by me this summer.

One thing I discovered while browsing Critsite's list is that all the plants on the native plants list aren't exactly native. I started cross-referencing with the USDA Plants database to be sure if I was suspicious. If there was no reference to USFS MO Ecological Map on Critsite's page for the plant, that was a good indication to check USDA Plants for more information. In spite of that, I love browsing their list with all their great photos.

Happy frantic gardening between rain showers! It's a good thing I'm not afraid of mud :-)

Snow days are all about the birds

2010-03-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, not only am I a plant freak, but I'm a bird freak too. It snowed, I don't know, maybe 7 inches today in the Kansas City area, and I had a great time watching the birds eating at my feeders and digging in the mulch outside my sunroom. I'm embarrassed to say it was almost as much fun as being outside yesterday tilling up the garden.

I have no idea why everyone doesn't get as excited about seeing unusual birds as I do, but at least today I know I'm not alone. In the process of identifying a bird I'd never seen before, I found this very fun website called Greensboro Birds with a great article about and photo of the very bird I was seeking. Reading that author's description of the bird made me smile. You know, when you read someone's thoughts and you recognize the funny things you think, but maybe don't say, it makes you happy. At least, that's what it does for me. Thanks Greensboro Birds.

Well, one of the birds digging for worms in the mulch in front of my house was the one I had never seen before. Turns out it was a fox sparrow. I actually saw two of them. I learned today that the fox sparrow is a fairly common winter resident. I mistook it for a thrasher or thrush that was behaving strangely and spent a long time trying to match what I saw with the descriptions of thrushes in my 3 bird guides. The definitive identification was the funny little dance one of the birds performed while its companion looked on. I was watching a robin throw my mulch around and dig a hole I had previously blamed on my dog when I noticed these two slightly smaller birds with spotted chests nearby. One was also moving mulch in search of food. Only this bird, instead of throwing mulch with its beak, was doing a two-hop shuffle and moving the mulch with its feet. I'd never seen that before.

The bird guides didn't mention the little dance at all, so I was stuck with the "iffy" descriptions of a highly variable species. Fortunately, the Greensboro Birds site as well as Cornell University's All About Birds site both described the fox sparrow's distinctive back and forth hopping habit. I think it's very cute.

It isn't a coincidence that I saw this bird on a snowy day, either. Both sites also mentioned that these birds are often not noticed until a snowfall. Funny that it has snowed before and I haven't noticed them. But today the two in my garden really stood out.

Anyway, I am yet again thankful that I'm so easily entertained. Usually I'm pretty grumpy when I'm stuck inside. But today I was excitedly running from room to room carrying books and binoculars trying to get a better glimpse of a little brown bird. My husband thinks I'm nuts. . . Like I said, it's good to know I'm not alone :-)

That bird wasn't the only one that distracted me from my household chores. There were tons at the feeders. The male goldfinches are rapidly gaining their bright yellow colors. There were several at the feeder or waiting in the bur oak for their turn at the feeder all day. I consider them my very own nearly care-free pet canaries.

There were also pairs of titmice. It's hard to know how many. They all look alike - gray and very cute with their big black eyes and little crest. The one here doesn't have its crest up because it's busy working on the seed in its mouth. They are very fast, like the chickadees, and often pick up a seed and take it to the tree to eat. Then the other in the pair will take a seed. They just keep doing that until another bird butts in.

And, of course, there were several cardinals visiting often throughout the day. The females came much more often than the males today. This one sat on the rail while others pulled seeds from the feeder. Other birds enjoying the snow and my newly-filled feeders were white-breasted nuthatches, red-breasted woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, carolina wrens, lots of house finches or purple finches (I can't tell them apart), and the tiny chickadees. I think they must be carolina chickadees - just because they are so much smaller than the titmice.

If I have time I'll post again tomorrow. I found another good reference site for native plants and stumbled on what looks to be a really great plant!

Until then, happy first day of spring!

Water garden plans and sunroom update

2010-03-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

There wasn't much opportunity for gardening this week. Rain has left the ground far too wet for work. So I spent my free time drawing a plan for the water garden that will occupy most of the front yard outside my sunroom.

Speaking of the sunroom, the walls are painted and the woodwork is stained. It's very pretty. Jerry is working today to finalize the wiring and install the lights and ceiling fans. And tomorrow the slate tile will be laid. Those tiles are really beautiful. The only thing that will be left then is cleaning and sealing the concrete floor. Yes, the delays have been painful and disappointing, but it's hard to complain with such a beautiful space just begging for plants.

Okay, now that I've gushed over the sunroom, back to plans for the water garden. Here it is. Outside dimensions, not including the waterfall (brown area), will be 10' X 12'. I've moved the pond out from the house to insure a good view when I'm seated at my desk. I may run the supply for the bog filter through the pond rather than around, but this is the basic layout.

I was excited to learn about bog filters just a couple of weeks ago. There was a large article in Reflections, the newsletter for the Water Garden Society of Greater Kansas City. Nelson Water Gardens in Katy, Texas, authored the article that illustrated several possible layouts and explained the construction. It's actually called a gravel bog filter. I love the concept because it allows for a more natural looking planted area. You see, the plants are placed, dirt and all, in 12" deep gravel partitioned off behind a permeable rock wall. The roots absorb waste to feed the plants. By doing so they filter and clean the pond water in a way that mimics nature. So rather than placing my bog plants in water, I can put them in the gravel where water is pumped in at their roots. If you're interested in more details about the concept go to the Nelson Water Gardens website.

My builder will dig the deepest part of the pond for me. It saves us some money on fill dirt needed around the foundation of the sunroom and will save me a lot of hard work. I'll dig the shallow shelf and use that dirt to make the outside edge level, because my front yard has a gentle slope south and east to the street. Then I'll have the liner and rocks delivered. I think this will keep me busy for a while. I'll make sure to share pictures. Stay tuned - but don't be shocked at the mess!

Needless to say, with the weather as wet as it has been, the digging will have to wait a few days. But, if our weather man has it right this time, there will be several dry days this week. Of course, it will rain again on Friday but a few days of sun will dry things out quickly.

I have a few more plans to put together, so the extra time isn't so bad. The crocuses don't seem to mind, either. They are blooming brightly near the mud puddle beside my front door. They keeping me smiling in spite of the mud just because they're pretty :-)

Spring cleaning

2010-03-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Kansas City area just experienced it's first weekend of 50/60-degree weather making it a great time to reconnect with the neighbors and with the garden. I spent all weekend outside and was surprised to find tons of bulbs under the leaf-covered gardens around my new home. It was also a good time to cut back a few small low-hanging branches that have been shading and impeding air-flow around the edges of the property.

My first task was tackling the low-hanging branches. On my property's perimeter are several pine trees of a very pretty variety with short needles and a top that weeps. Near the house on the west side of the yard are 4 of them. The needles on most are sparse and one of them is nearly dead. I think they struggle beneath the hickory and oak trees behind them whose branches intertwine with the pines' branches. One was also nearly encased by an euonymus. That's the nearly dead one. They are free now after a couple of hours of sawing and clipping. I'll keep my eye on them this summer hoping for signs of recovery. There are a few on my property that are healthy. They're beautiful. So I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can keep them all.

Yesterday I tackled the island garden in the backyard. Here's how it looked when we moved in. I left the purple coneflower stalks standing over the winter, because I wanted to watch the birds eating the seeds. I wasn't disappointed. This garden is right outside my kitchen window. It was very smartly placed by Bob and Judy, the previous owners. You can see, though, that it hasn't been tended for a while and has become overgrown with coneflowers, walnut seedlings, and grass. Last fall I found that there are spring bulbs planted here, too.

As I cleared out the coneflower stalks it was difficult to avoid stepping on all the new green leaves sprouting from the bulbs. They are everywhere. It took nearly the entire day, but I got the space cleared - roughly. It still needs mulch, but it is a joy to see the promise of flowers to come. Look at all these daffodils! But that isn't all. There are clumps of tulips scattered about this garden as well as a group of irises in the center. It'll be fun to find out what I have in my new garden. And I won't have long to wait for the daffodils :-)

Well here's what I have now that I've discarded the coneflower stalks. I left enough leaves to protect the plants from what will certainly be more cold weather. The leaves will soon be replaced with mulch making the garden look much neater. Last fall I pulled up some of the coneflowers on the east edge of this garden to plant several herbs and flowers from my old garden. There are two large clumps of thyme, a lovely blue-green lavendar plant, a yarrow with a terra-cotta flower, some moonbeam coreopsis, oregano, two large purple-flowered East Friesland sage, Russian sage, and a couple of others. They all seem to have survived the winter under the leaves and old coneflowers. Yeah!

The long-awaited spring arrived just a couple of weeks early. It may stay only a few days, but I was glad to see it and my neighbors. I know it's just the beginning and the cold is bound to return at least once, but what a great feeling. The birds were boisterous, the bugs were moving, and I'm was working in the yard. It was a tantalizing taste of heaven for this garden girl. Happy digging for all :-)

Common Dittany - that's what it was and here's how I found it

2010-03-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I included this image of a plant I saw on my trip to Mount Nebo State Park in Arkansas. It was a small plant with these delicate little lavender flowers that I thought might be a nice native plant addition to my garden. I didn't recognize it from my plant studies in college, so I've been keeping an eye out as I research native plants on various websites. Well, I finally found it while cross referencing the wildflowers available at Missouri Wildflower Nursery in Jefferson City. Here's a link to the plant profile on the USDA plants site http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CUOR. I found another even better description on this site http://www.missouriplants.com/Blueopp/Cunila_origanoides_page.html. This plant has an added benefit of producing frost flowers in the fall. That would be interesting!

I've added links to the Missouri Wildflower Nursery, USDA's plant profile search, and the Missouri Plants site to my links list. These seem to be the sites I've used the most in my recent research. I've had literally hours of fun browsing these sites.

Progress toward Spring

2010-02-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

There's nothing wrong with being so close to nature that your moods swing with the weather. Is there? I read in another blog I follow that it might not be healthy, but I think just the opposite. I love the outdoors and spring is one of my 3 favorite seasons. Winter is the only one I struggle to enjoy. Although occasionally it does provide glistening beauty that stops me in my rush to get on with life. Frozen mornings like this one last week is an example. Sparkling crystals hung everywhere as the sun rose and it looked like an ice garden :-)

The snow has nearly melted now bringing muddy tracks into the house and new birds in the garden. We have robins year-round, but this week
I saw my first robin in the yard picking through the wet leaves looking for, and finding, worms. With highs in the 40s we are still below normal, but that hasn't stopped the bulbs or the birds. The cardinals, chickadees, and titmice are calling loudly, determined to set up territories and begin nesting. In spite of the cold and mud being out in the yard is a treat for my ears.

This weekend I built a prototype for my benches that will be placed under the windows in the sunroom. My sunroom, which will be my haven next winter, is still in progress. But in a couple of weeks I should be able to begin moving plants into their new home. I'll need to have the benches ready to raise the smaller plants up to the light. Last week I found commercially built "light stands" that were pretty pricey and too tall for my purpose. So I came up with a plan that would fit perfectly and give me space for starting seeds next winter. This bench, including the trays and light bulbs for the fluorescent fixture cost a little less than $60 to build. It measures 22"H X 52"W X 12"D. The fixture uses 2 T-8 bulbs and can be adjusted to hang at different levels as seedlings grow. The wood will be stained and sealed to match the trim in the room, so it will eventually be a little prettier and water resistant.

As I wait for the construction to be completed and spring to officially arrive, I've been planning and gathering information like crazy. The Metropolitan Lawn and Garden show left me with information overload. My challenge right now is to focus on some realistic goals for my new garden. The area just outside the sunroom, the front yard, is just mud. I think that's where I'll start.

My first newsletter from the Water Garden Society gave me a great solution for the pond that will occupy the front yard. This issue had a large article about gravel bog filters. I had been trying to figure out how to make a more natural edge to my pond and how to configure the filter. This is the solution I've been looking for. Now I just have to decide what type of layout to use. The pond will be roughly dug by my builder. He has agreed to use the dirt from the pond to fill around the sunroom foundation rather than having new dirt brought in. Cross your fingers that the digging happens before the spring rain begins!

The pond should take up most of my time and energy this spring, but the rest of the year will allow time for observing what surprises are hiding in my sleepy new garden. I am already anxious to see what flowers will top the hundreds of bulbs I see sprouting in the overgrown garden spaces. Everything is in sore need of tending, trimming, dividing, and mulching. So I will probably have no need of new projects. But my list of native shrubs is growing and the hedge row at the back of my property looks in need of some serious attention. The road just beyond is clearly visible through the spindly Althea that has self seeded in the shade under the walnut, box elder, redbud, pines, and other shrubs. That may be a worthy effort before next winter.

I guess in spite of my distaste for the cold and uninviting winter, the time it gives me for dreaming about the fun I'll have outside is a gift. And the occasional beautiful sunrise is admittedly uplifting even for this seasonally sour gardener :-)

Cooped Up

2010-02-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, like all the other gardeners out there I'm battling cabin fever. Luckily I've had some opportunities to get out recently. And that's kept me somewhat sane but still grumpy and unfocused. As usual, my rambling weekend thoughts turn to plants and plans for my new garden.

There have been several days lately when the streets were clear enough for my pre-dawn jog and yesterday the snow was melted completely. So I took time to explore a little of the woods around the lake to spy likely spots for finding native spring plants. There was a lot of evidence of deer, but no spring plants sprouting yet. I think I have about 2 more weeks to wait. That is, if the sun would come out to warm the ground.

As I explored the muddy ground there were some encouraging signs of things to come in my own little patch of woods. I saw some bulbs beginning to sprout. Late last fall I planted a few crocus bulbs that I dug up from my old house. Knowing how silly I look with my binoculars searching the ground for signs of their flowers, I planted them very close to the walkway that leads to the new front door in my sunroom. Two have spiky leaves showing already. They need a little more mulch, I think, because in one or two cases, they have been trampled by our builder. I'm hoping the freezing rain and snow falling today will protect them. Neither the builder nor the workers he contracts to help seem to notice what's planted under their feet.

Today the weather is dreadful and luckily I'm forced to stay inside and finalize plans for my new growing space. The sunroom is now open to the house because the former entry to our home was removed. Jerry and I are experimenting with balancing the different heating systems in the two spaces. Even with no sun, the space is bright, warm, and open. I'm sure it won't seem as spacious when it's filled with my plants. But, for now, it's an echoing cavernous room. Just standing in it makes me smile :-)

My plans for my "benches" to lift plants up to the windows and for starting plants next winter are almost complete. I did some research and found this light stand on Harris Seeds' website (www.harrissseeds.com). I'm using it as a model for my bench design. As you can see the light fixtures here are adjustable rather than the shelf as I had originally planned. And in looking at fluorescent fixtures, I think making the fixture adjustable will be simple as they come with chains for hanging.

My benches will be wooden instead of aluminum like this one, and they will have only one fixture. The "shelf" on the bottom will actually be a frame into which I can drop 2 trays like those shown here. Only mine will position the trays end-to-end instead of side-to-side. The light fixture will be suspended from the bottom of a similar structure 20 inches above the bottom shelf. I will drop trays into that top structure and sit potted plants in them. I should be able to build one bench before I post again next week. I'll take a picture to share.

There's a good possibility that painting and staining will begin in the sunroom next week. So my space is almost done. I think in two, maybe three, weeks my large tropical plants can move into the new room.

They are suffering like me from the close quarters imposed by winter cold. In their current crowded condition watering them is difficult because I have to crawl on my hands and knees to reach the smaller pots. As a result a bout with scale has resulted in some serious pruning of one plant and the total destruction of another. I hate killing plants, but I haven't found a way to curb the infestation on a beautiful gardenia my husband gave me several years ago. It's huge, but it had to go before every plant around it became infected. If it survives in the garage, perhaps I can revive it next year outdoors where I'll be free to spray it with dreaded chemicals. But I would be surprised if it makes it until spring. Yuk.

I'll be glad when my space is done. Even if spring hasn't come, the sunroom will make those last days of winter easier to bear. I'm sending encouraging thoughts to my builder and I won't even mention my trampled bulbs. I'll just grit my teeth and put down mulch... and draw an occasional calming breath... and meditate a little. "Oohhmmm...ohm..."

Indulging my flower fetish- KC Metro Lawn & Garden show

2010-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

What a fabulous way to spend Valentine's day! At the invitation of my husband I visited the KC Metropolitan Lawn and Garden show. Of course, being an introvert and near-recluse, it wasn't easy to drag myself out on the last day of my stay-at-home weekend time. But, I'm so glad I did. Running into plant freaks like myself around every corner was pretty thrilling and enlightening.

My favorite exhibitor was the Orchid Society of Greater Kansas City. Oh my gosh! This is the closest I come to being like a kid in a candy store. I can't believe what a weirdo I am, but my heart beats faster in my chest just thinking about all the flowers. My little Phalaenopsis has been in my home for 6 or 7 years and has only bloomed 4 times, but maybe with a little more education, I can have more of this kind of eye candy in my sunroom next winter. In any case, I'm hooked for now. They'll have my membership money soon. Even if I never attend a meeting, it's great to know there is a community of people who have a freakish attraction to plants similar to mine. I don't mind supporting their fetish at all. Giddy? Yes, I think that's exactly how I feel about it. I mean, there was even a guy who likes our native lady slipper orchids!

Here's another photo just for fun. It's a tree covered with orchids. There are also some little balls covered with Tillandsia bromeliads. One of those little "air plants" was my only purchase today, by the way. The guy selling the little plants had a great booth inside the door and sold the "pups" for $3 or $4. They don't even need a pot or soil; just a bi-monthly soak to keep them growing. I'm thinking I can grow those on the interior wall of my sunroom. There would be plenty of room for a collection if I get good at it.

A close second favorite exhibit was the Water Garden Society of Greater Kansas City. In their case, it wasn't the display that impressed me as much as the person with whom I spoke. Maurice was great. He told me about all the projects the Water Garden Society has in the community, particularly in conjunction with schools. The organization does so much to share the love of gardens, plants, and the outdoors with children. It's good to know there are so many doing good work out there. I talked with Maurice about my intention to build a larger pond just outside my sunroom near the entry to my home. The edges, just outside of the pond liner, are usually dry, but I have been mulling over how to create a bog garden near the edge. Maurice suggested I let an area spill over and discussed the way to flip the liner out rather than in to allow water to fill the space occasionally. I was hoping that would work. Since my pond has yet to be dug, I think this is the perfect time to get to know this group. They will be getting a membership application from me as soon as I have time to fill out the paper. Maurice says I'll get a discount at the House of Rocks with my membership. That should come in handy. Rocks aren't easy to come by or cheap. And I'll need a lot of those for my pond.

Maurice, and you guys at the Orchid Society exhibit, thanks so much for sharing your time with me. I had a great time. You really made a cold day in February fun :-)

Winter drags on - Sunroom is a bright spot

2010-02-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

After last weekend's busy household happenings this weekend has brought lots of time for happily pondering progress on my winter workspace. The sunroom now has a door, all it's windows, and insulation. And Jerry, my fabulously handy husband, hooked up the radiant heating system he installed in the floor.

Radiant heat feels very different from the forced air heat in the rest of the house. The thermostat that will run the pump for the hot water hasn't been connected yet, so last night Jerry connected the pump directly and let it run for about 4 hours to try it out. Before we turned it off for the night, the air temperature in the room rose from the low 40s to near 60 while the temperature on the concrete slab floor reached about 68. It felt very comfortable. That was rather amazing considering that same temperature might be a little chilly with forced air heat. The temperature shift in the room was slow, I believe, because the slab loses heat very slowly. My plants should thrive in the gentle warmth at their roots. Kudos to Jerry for coming up with the idea and for seeing it through :-)

I'm looking forward to moving into the new space soon, and so thoughts have turned to how to use the space efficiently. As you can see the windows are about 2 1/2 feet above the floor providing very little light to plants sitting under them. So I am designing narrow, movable benches on which plants can sit just below the window. They need to be low enough that the plants sitting on them will not further shade the floor yet high enough that the plants can capture a little sunlight. I think about 20 inches high will work well. On the underside of the bench will be a fluorescent light fixture to light an adjustable shelf. The electrician has installed outlets beneath each window so I'll have power. I hope to start plants under the benches next winter. I think 4 benches should be enough to span the two 9-foot windows and adequate space for several flats of seedlings. I've never had space for starting plants. Learning how to do it and tending the seedlings as they develop should provide some happy distraction while waiting for spring in the years to come.

For this year, I'll have to suffice with watching my sunroom develop. In spite of the fact that most of the work is not mine, I am enjoying the progress. It's a lot like watching a scrawny perennial planted in the fall sprout from the ground the next spring and become the beauty you hoped it would be. In fact, as I see this room grow into being it's almost exactly that same thankful, full-in-your-chest, wide-eyed feeling I get when I discover a plant is about to bloom - like I've discovered treasure. It's an odd, but welcome, feeling this time of year for a gardener.

My Garden is Overwhelmed

2010-02-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

I discovered over the weekend that my life can be overwhelmed by stuff just like my garden. And when that happens I feel surrounded by weeds and helpless to change it.

Most of us gardeners, I think, derive a great deal of pleasure from weeding and tending their garden if only because we love the time spent alone with the outdoors. Some may think the payoff and joy is all in the admiration of the beautiful, weed-free garden when the work is done, and that is definitely a big part. But, for me, the time outside is the best part. The tending to details is restful and gradually I find I've created a sanctuary. Well my weekend was anything but restful. My home didn't feel like a sanctuary. It was totally overwhelmed by weeds in the form of laundry and broken desks and an unfinished sunroom.

My sunroom-to-be is the intended winter home of all the tropical and other non-hardy plants I have always over-wintered in my home. Given that winter is nearly half-way through and my sunny indoor garden is not yet built, there is one plant that couldn't fit in the house and that is suffering from a winter in my garage. My practical sense tells me my beautiful spider lilies will come back as soon as they are moved indoors or out into spring air when it arrives. But the creator in me is mourning the loss of the beauty I've enjoyed for several years. The bulbs were a gift from my sister-in-law in Mississippi. She leaves them in her garden over the winter and they come back every year. But having tried that and destroyed a few in my garden, I know they aren't hardy here in Missouri. The last two winters I've kept mine inside in a warm sunny place and they thrive, keeping their strap-like leaves all winter and producing these lovely flowers in July and August.

They look very sad now. Although I have kept them from freezing badly, I can tell they have suffered from the cold. There are very few green leaves left. I'm not sure how much they need the food their winter leaves provide, but it certainly seemed to have paid off last year as they bloomed profusely. With any luck my sunroom will be done before the last frost and their bulbs can get a jump-start before I set their pots outside. It's so difficult to see them looking so very dead. But maybe a winter's rest will actually do them good and this summer they will out-shine their previous performance :-) Can you tell I'm trying to reassure myself?

As for the broken desk and the laundry - they, of course, were tended to. I spent most of my Sunday dismantling my teenage son's old desk, shopping for a new desk, then assembling the new furniture and rearranging his room. Of course, the newly folded laundry has yet to make it into his well-positioned dresser. But somehow it eventually gets done and we all seem to get what we need to thrive.

And that includes mom writing in her blog - even if it is a day late :-)

Time for planning and dreaming

2010-01-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

I received a back issue of Horticulture magazine this week and it's got me thinking of more native plants to include in my garden this season. As I mentioned in my last post, that first break in winter came early this year and began my annual impatience for spring. Lucky for me, the arrival of this fun magazine reminded me of how much planning I have to do and now I'm thankful for a little down time.

Horticulture's December 2009/January 2010 issue is the one that arrived yesterday. You might be asking, why now, since I've already received the February/March edition? Well, there was a subscription snafu because I moved. Now I am up-to-date.

This issue includes a fine article on native plants from all US states, plus Washington, DC. Plant habitats don't honor state boundaries, so many of the selections are also suitable for my zone 5 garden in suburban Kansas City. I will be looking for these plants on the private open areas around the lake, as well as in my local nurseries, to see if there are specimens I could collect. Take a look at the magazine's website www.hortmag.com. There you'll find suggestions in a tab called "Plants We Love" along with photos.

Another great reference I use to learn about plants that are suitable for gardens I'll be creating is the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plants of Merit webpage: www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Merit.
It's a great place to browse. The entries for specific plants explain whether the plant is a Missouri native and provide a lot of information about the plant's environmental requirements. I like the Plants of Merit in particular because these plants have performed well. The "emeritus" list is very long and provides hours of entertainment - great for those days when weather makes going outside a dreadful chore.

I've also just purchased my first landscape design software: Punch Home & Landscape Design Studio for Mac. It's the most inexpensive program I could find for my Mac. Since mine won't be a money-making endeavor (at least not for a long while), I don't want to spend a lot. I've never actually created visuals of my garden plans. It's all been in my head prior to it's existence in reality. So I'm looking forward to being able to see a preview of my ideas before actually implementing them.

Hopefully in next week's post I can show you my first plan. :-)

A Winter Flower Fix

2010-01-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

There is a thaw afoot. My dormant lawn shows through in patches throughout the snow that was solid white just a few days ago. Moisture is everywhere. There is water dripping in the downspouts and for the moment the air smells of spring. This is my signal to start impatient foot-tapping and searching from my windows with binoculars for sprouting crocus or buds on the trees. I know, it's still only January. Winter still has time to freeze everything solid several more times. But that won't matter. I want to be the first to spy the signs of life. My new neighbors, I'm sure, will think I'm spying in their windows :-)

As I wait for my sunroom to be constructed, the plants crammed into my living room provide a helpful flower fix.

A peek over the back of my loveseat gives me this shocking splash of bright pink. The tiny non-hardy azalea my husband gave me for my birthday 3 years ago has struggled to survive. But, this year, on the floor next to the wall of windows in my living room, it has exploded with blooms for weeks. It's thriving.

This summer it will get a bigger pot and a nice spot next to the pond (that, like the sunroom, doesn't exist yet).

My new house has also been a good thing for my African violet. Next to the east-facing windows it has bloomed continuously this winter. I can't complain about the beauty its purple blooms have always added to my home. But I am a little anxious about repotting this large plant. As you can see it's large stem has tumbled over the edge of the pot. It's almost so heavy on one side that it tips the pot. In addition, several new plants have sprouted from the stem's base. This plant is the result of repotting last summer to put the plant back in the center and to separate several sprouts. I think this is the old main plant and that all the sprouts I tried to separate died. I'll cross my fingers that I end up with at least one plant like this one again. With a little luck maybe I'll have sprouts survive that I can give away, too.

I think I should add another violet of a different color for next winter. I'll have more room in the sunroom. Hmmm - does this mean I'm addicted? :-)

Follow me

2010-01-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

I've added a new gadget to my blog. Now you can follow my ramblings by clicking on the "Follow" link to the right. So if you like reading my weekly entries, please follow me. That way, I'll know who shares my interests and have an opportunity to read similar, or even very different, blogs. I'm looking forward to finding some other garden ramblers out there. :-)

Thoughts about winter and tough little birds

2010-01-09T12:17:00.000-08:00

Well, winter has made an big show this year. Missouri can be brown and unpredictably mild or frigid. But this year it's been very predictable: unrelenting cold and snow.

We returned from our trip to Mississippi the day after Christmas to find a winter storm had dumped about 8 inches of snow on the Kansas City area. The temperatures weren't too bad, so it was nice to get outside the next day to shovel the driveway and listen to the birds. - Good to be home.

The next week brought incredible cold to the area and more snow. The birds flocked to the feeders outside my dining room. I've counted at least 6 male cardinals and groups of 5 titmice and 5 chickadees at the same time. This photo shows a cardinal in the big burr oak next to the deck and a pink house finch on the feeder. The snow was light but constant the entire day.

Even though it's been at least a decade since we've seen it, our Zone 5 is known to drop down to -10 or -20. The forecast high for today was 0º F. with sunny skies. The sun made the snow clinging to the trees and branches even more beautiful.

As I look out my windows, there are so many reasons to be thankful for the gardener who lived here before me. The purple coneflowers that I left standing attract goldfinches and juncos, but I have seen as many as three cardinals sitting in the plum tree as others forage among the seedheads

Today I watched as a streak of electric blue stopped in that rather scraggly plum. It was a female eastern bluebird. A few minutes later she flew to the pine trees and a male landed in her place. After reading in the Missouri Conservationist that these birds don't tolerate our coldest temperatures well, I was worried to see them out in this weather. I'm hopeful they found food to fuel them at my feeders. These spruce trees at the northwest corner of my home as well as the pines planted nearby should also provide some shelter in these coldest of days. And again I am thankful to the person who thought to position them so well.
The windows on that end of the house look out right into those trees and occasionally I'm given a closeup view of the ever-present cardinals. On the west side of the house is an overgrown forsythia that's as tall as the house. I watch the birds as they forage among the buds and wonder what it is they seek. I can hear them peeping as they congregate in what must be a favorite spot.

This morning I heard another bird that has a distinctive call - a white-throated sparrow. As I watched from one window, then the next, I finally caught sight of the little brown bird. It looks much like those very common, but not native, house sparrows. But this bird is native, at least in winter, in our area. unlike the house sparrow, the white throated sparrow has a white throat and a black and white striped cap. The distinctive call is a high thin whistle, with two notes followed by a series of 3 quick notes repeated 3 times. It sounds a little like, "old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody," or I've also seen it written as "pure sweet Canada Canada Canada." Either way works and even if it's not the entire phrase just a few notes will make me stop to look for the source.

Well, the sun is out today and it's still cold. But looking out my front door I see an encouraging future - my sunroom in progress :-)

Even though I had intended this as a sunny spot for birdwatching this winter, it seems obvious that the person here before created a solution for me with wonderful trees that bring the birds close. But next year this will be my spot, I think. My huge ficus and Norfolk pine will have plenty of light and space to grow. And I will have a happy, sunny place to enjoy a few tropical blooms and even more of the hardy little birds that seem oblivious to temperatures that even the snow-lovers among us avoid.

Meanwhile, you have my admiration and appreciation little carolina wren. Thanks for your loud and cheerful song. I'll make sure to keep that feeder filled :-)

Beech trees in Mississippi

2010-01-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

I spent Christmas in Vicksburg, MS, where my brother and his wife have 10 acres of woods. I was fascinated by these trees with terraced branches. They looked like dogwoods, but they were holding onto their leaves in December and had no flower buds.
These photos were taken on Christmas morning. It turns out that these are beech trees. I had heard of them and seen a few cultivated varieties planted around here, but, in the woods around my brother's house, they are native and plentiful.

Look at how ferns and moss seem to love the protected spots around the base of the trunk.
And isn't the bark pretty - a wonderful mottled pattern of light and dark grey.

I explored the woods a little more with my sister-in-law, Eileen. We hiked down to a small stream bed that had running water the evening before. The soil around Vicksburg is called loess. It erodes easily forming steep, sometimes vertical, inclines. The hills were somewhat softer in this little patch of woods. The plentiful, towering beech trees may help to hold the soil in place here. Perhaps eroded soil is what leads to the little gaps that appear at the base of the trees where the roots enter the ground. Whatever the cause, the result can be lovely.
Beneath one tree near the edge of the stream I saw this interesting fern. I did some research today and found out it's a Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium fortunei), a non-native fern. According to the Hardy Fern Library link posted to the right, it would also grow well in Missouri.

The eroding of soil around the stream in most areas seemed well-controlled to my naive eyes. But, for Eileen, erosion is an issue she is working to control on her land. The stream had eroded a large amount of soil since she and my brother bought the land (about 10 years ago). That was evident as we neared a road where a culvert allowed water to pass underneath. The stream was several feet below the culvert and this beech tree with exposed roots stood nearby. It seems to be adapting to the situation and still stood straight and tall. I felt a little like I was looking under it's skirt. Maybe the roots will thicken at the bottom in years to come. I'll have to visit again and see what happens. I have a feeling this tree likes the spot it's in and won't move without a vigorous fight :-)

I returned from my holiday trip to find 8 inches of snow had fallen in the Kansas City area. It made my trip to Vicksburg seem even more exotic - and my holidays even happier.

I hope the holidays held wonder and happiness for you :-)

Slideshow of Mount Nebo trip

2009-12-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

I've just added a slideshow to share the photos I took on my trip to Mount Nebo, Arkansas. This was in October. I know, I'm pretty slow to get it out here. This is new for me. There's a learning curve :-)

You'll see our cabin in the first photo. It was on the edge of the mountain with a beautiful view. We drove a short distance to Sunrise point the morning after we arrived. I tried to get a photo of the asters, but it was pretty dark. Then we hiked the Waterfall trail that started right next to our cabin. I photographed this small bush with little purple flowers. I haven't had any luck identifying it, yet, but it was pretty and seems to tolerate shade pretty well. It reminds me of something. I hope I figure it out soon. Near the bottom of the trail there was a rock fall of pink sandstone with these beautiful lichen rosettes. And shortly afterward I came across a lovely assortment of moss and lichen growing on the same, seemingly dry rocks.

My husband, Jerry, took a photo of me doing what I always do - plan. I'm looking at the trail map, trying to figure out where we are. The trails were enclosed by trees and much of my time was spent watching my step. But, at every break in the trees there were spectacular vistas and often at your feet would live these incredible mixtures of tiny plants. There were also these towering rock formations. I took a photo of Jerry looking up where I shot the "stack" photo.

The final morning of our trip we spent another sunrise at the point and I learned how all these plants could grow in such a "dry" place. As the sun cleared the horizon mist began to form. The trees appeared to breath out this moist air that the wind would carry up the mountain side. The light formed rainbows right below my feet. Before we started home, I hiked one last trail. It was flanked by gorgeous American Beautyberry that seemed to sprout from the stone. The mix of stone, pine needle, bark, and gravel trail, with the backlit trees in the mist reminds my of Japanese gardens. I'm already thinking of places on the east side of my home where a small garden might recreate that look.

Well, that's the Mt. Nebo trip. Goodbye little cabin.

Mt. Nebo, Arkansas

2009-12-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

I just added the favorite photo and just thought I'd explain. Jerry and I took a trip in late October to Mt. Nebo State Park in Arkansas. It was beautiful. The park is at the top of a mountain (more like a huge mound) with cabins and a great hiking trails. I took this photo hiking the "rim trail" shortly after sunrise.
I'll post more when I have time. There were lots of native beautyberry bushes with purple fruits. I also saw asters and verbena and some fascinating moss and lichen. I photographed a few plants that I couldn't identify. I'll post about them soon.

My first post

2009-12-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

This is just the beginning. Since I'm working today, I won't have much to share. But I want to tell you why I'm blogging.

I've been thinking about this new garden I inherited when I moved in late September. The house was built in 1967 by a couple who were teachers, Bob and Judy. Both of them have passed away and my husband and I bought the house from their son, Mark. It turns out that Bob was a master gardener. And, although the garden is overgrown, the evidence of his work is everywhere. I've already discovered some fun things that I am anxious to share.

Also, my previous home, as well as the one I now own, are in a lake community. To gain more garden space, I moved from a lake front lot to a fourth-tier, nearly 3/4 acre lot. Unfortunately, only lakefront owners can pump lake water to their gardens. So, in an effort to conserve water, I'll share what I learn about gardening with plants that require little water - like native perennials.