Forsythia, in bold spring bloom. Branches arching out over my old wooden fence. No frost to kill the buds this year. I love the natural look of forsythia. You can still prune and shape it but let it take on it's natural habit. Small, square or round forsythia all boxed in make me feel sad. It's like they didn't get a chance to live up to their potential.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
We have a "problem"...
Example 3. and this plate of moss have happily established residence here in the Rapplings' kitchen. I have two more planters also growing moss. My love of all things green and growing seems to have infected the smallest girls here with an uncontrollable need to collect every piece of moss they can find. But I seem to be able to keep these alive in my darkish kitchen much better than house plants!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Surprise!!!
Today I discovered that my shade garden is already in bloom. This lovely Pulmonaria that I added to the garden last year for it's fabulous spotted foliage, has flowers. I loved the surprise! I expected flowers but not until later in the spring. Happiness is a surprise in my garden today.
Pick one up for yourself May 7 -9th at TBG's Spring Plant Sale.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Phenology... what's in bloom.
Last year I learned a lot about phenology from the Ohio Master Gardeners. Updates on bloom time were kept by a dedicated group of gardeners. This would then give us cues on what else in happening or about to happen in our garden. Here is the definition of phenology.
phe·nol·o·gy
Pronunciation: \fi-ˈnä-lə-jē\
Function: noun
Etymology: phenomena + -logy
Date: circa 1884
1 : a branch of science dealing with the relations between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as bird migration or plant flowering)
2 : periodic biological phenomena that are correlated with climatic conditions
1 : a branch of science dealing with the relations between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as bird migration or plant flowering)
2 : periodic biological phenomena that are correlated with climatic conditions
So it's all the "common sense" things our grandparents knew. They were a little more aware of how nature worked and would use signals from the garden to tell them when/what to plant and what pests would be appearing too. Here's a link to a great article, from Horticulture magazine on the subject. Here are a few out of their list...
- When daffodils begin to bloom, sow peas.
- When oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear, sow corn.
- When maple leaves reach full size, sow morning glories.
- When apple trees shed their petals, sow corn.
- When dogwood reaches peak bloom, plant tomatoes and early corn.
- When crocus bloom, prune roses.
Love that this common knowledge has actually become a field of research. By the way have you pruned your roses?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
This is the garden being created at the Notre Dame Preschool. It's a sensory garden, which means this garden will be letting the children, smell, taste, touch and hear the plants. Okay so the sound part of the garden isn't as easy as it sounds, Ha! There will be wind chimes and a small water feature plus a few plants.
These lovely ladies are Christine, the garden's designer, and Denise Gehring, the garden's motivation. Christine's design is very fun with paisley shapes throughout. Sorry no photo but trust me I'll put a completed garden shot up in May.
I asked Kate to take photos she of course had to get the rototiller. It's bigger than ours so must be recorded as part of the day. Me raking, the day involved much digging, weeding, raking, sod replacement, placement of edging.... basic gardening. Fun to be out in the sun, and wind, working with great people.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Plant Science, Weeds and Inspiration
Today I enjoyed another five hours with Becky McCann and the wonderful world of plants. We talked about adaptations that plants make.Here's my favorite one and GASP! I know where you can buy your very own. This is a Lithops plant...or pebble plant... or living stone. If you would like one of your very own visit Mary, at Bensell's Greenhouse on Dorr.
Apparently this is my new weed of the season. Curious how we covered it in our weed identification portion of class today.
Gardening inspiration for the day... the Crack Garden in San Francisco.... see how far $500 can go.
On the other end of the spectrum check out these vertical gardens.
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