The Garden Buzz

Gifts for Gardeners: What We Don't Need

 Here we go with Part Two of my holiday gift suggestions for the gardeners in your life. And what a gift they are to you, by the way.

A few days ago I talked about all the great practical and appreciated gifts that gardeners would love to receive. Today I'm all about the things we don't need. 

Some people just love thingamajigs and inventions "sure to make your life easier", and if that's the case, you can leave quietly and go sip egg nog in another room until I get to Part Three in a few more days.

However, just as many accomplished chefs believe you can make good food with simply a pan, knife and spoon, I think that gardening doesn't have to be complicated by lots of specialized tools,widgets and what-nots.

Thus a short and succinct list of things we'd rather you didn't get us. 

1. Whimsical Watering Cans: Watering cans shaped like elephants with silly spouts or any other shapes that made you say, "Oh, isn't that cute", probably aren't worth a fig. It's funny how good design suddenly makes sense once you've hauled a few hundred pounds of water around in a container that hurts your hand and sloshes liquid all over your feet. Classic watering cans are classic because that's the shape that works. 
2. Bulb Planters: I'm talking about that device with the small cone-like piece on the bottom of a long handle that you supposedly insert into rich, loamy, crumbly soil (because less than ideal soil like most of us have compacts in the little cone and has to be scraped out, each time), twist and pull to reveal the perfect little pocket-sized hole to nestle your daffodil bulb. Really? Real gardeners don't plant 2 or 3 bulbs. We go for quantity. All you need for planting bulbs is a sharp shovel to excavate big kidney-shaped indentations to house large platoons of tulips that will bloom in natural drifts. Think of all the money you'll save avoiding carpal-tunnel surgery too.
3. Garden-Themed Gift Baskets: They look tempting, but step away from the ribboned and cellophaned ready-made gift basket. More often than not they contain cheap and flimsy gardening tools, weedy seeds and some smelly hand lotion. If you genuinely want to encourage or support a gardener, cobble together your own basket, referring to the previous blog post for better ideas.
4. Butterfly House: You've all seen these charming little houses, painted in pretty colors with coin-width slots arranged on the front. They look like a little butterfly Motel 6; you can just imagine them, wings folded, all tucked in for the night. Leave it to science-based research to poop that party. It's been found that butterflies won't use them. Plant a few sheltering evergreens though and they'll thank you. If you insist, they can still be used as decorative elements. 
5. Potted Plant-of-the-Month: Don't get me wrong, we love to get plants, but those catalog offerings are "hothouse darlings" that look good for a week or two and then send us into throes of guilt because even we intermediate to advanced gardeners have a hard time keeping them alive until spring to plant outside. (This entry not applicable for gardeners living in California and other perpetually sunny places. Just plant, plant away)
6. Cute Little Containers with Herb Seed Packets: You know what I'm talking about. They masquerade in all form and fashion purporting to be an instant and endearing little windowsill/kitchen counter herb garden. They are not. Even if you faithfully water the diminutive pot that dries out every few hours in your heated home, chances are the light conditions in your home will not support growth beyond a few measly sprigs. See # 5 re:guilt. See # 2 re:quantity

If I sound a little surly with this list it's because I want everyone to have successful, happy gardening experiences. I want things to grow and flourish and bring joy to the person that tended them. A lot of the gimmicks and gadgets aimed at gardeners bring about guilt and disappointment. Many are just another marketing ploy that reinforces the faulty notion that you don't have a green thumb.

Everyone has green thumb potential. It's all about the right plant in the right place. Simple as that.

Attending classes and presentations put on throughout the year and throughout the country by Extension Master Gardeners who give the latest and most accurate information on gardening practices might be the best gift you can give yourself or suggest to others.

Stay tuned for Part Three:  Silly, extravagant and ridiculous gifts for the gardener who has everything.

 

 

Bob Saget? No, Bog Sage, Really.

Still wit gathering, but you can get a bit of the 'Buzz' over at Herb Companion magazine. I've just added this beautiful herb with the unfortunate name to my herbal wish list. Click and read all about it.

Coffee No, Cappuccino Yes, Rudbeckia That Is

I'm not at all about coffee, no matter how macchiato, but I'm all over this new perennial, Rudbeckia "Cappuccino". 

Rudbeckia "Cappuccino"                                                  The Garden Buzz

Every year Renee's Seeds offers a selection of free seeds to garden writers, it's a generous gesture with no strings attached. They do hope if we find something that wows us, we will write about it. Well here goes...

I planned to get back into seed starting in a big way this year. Going back to my roots you might say. As life has gotten busier and more complicated, I've turned to nursery-grown plants more and more. Yet I missed the thrill of coaxing tiny seeds into beautiful flowers and vegetables.

I asked my husband to construct a simpler version of my old seed starting set-up. He put together an inexpensive metal shelf with flourescent lights and voila, I was back in business.

Of course, I tried to restrain myself but as always my eyes were bigger than the time and space I had in the garden. This is nothing new to gardeners growing from seed. Furthermore I had to leave town several times and ask my son to water the seedlings. Although he watched over them faithfully some suffered from overcrowding, but this Rudbeckia was unfazed. 

In the meantime, the place I had planned to plant "Cappuccino", a new berm, wasn't finished yet, so as they grew bigger, stockier and full of buds, I put them in temporary holding pots that received sporadic care while other life-y things happened. 

With more traveling to do, I decided not to do any fall containers. But a trip to the nursery for shrubs found me wandering into the discounted tropical plant area, you know, those 75% off, sad-plant, orphanage-like, no man's land populated with crispy bougainvilleas and yellowing ficus trees (I bought one and now it's thriving).

Looking perfectly healthy and happy, some Heavenly Bamboo with alternately blue-gree and apricot foliage beckoned to me, and I could swear I heard them saying, wouldn't we look great with those rudbeckias and that millet you bought too many of too?

Cappuccino with friends                    The Garden Buzz

I had never bonded with my large summer entry containers, so I was easily swayed. Keeping the helichrysum and huecheras, then adding the bamboo, millet and rudbeckias, gave me a late summer to autumn transition that makes me smile each time I pull in the driveway now. And eventually they will get planted in the new berm.

The point of all this:

Rudbeckia "Cappuccino" is a gorgeous large-flowered rudebckia that comes in a mix of lovely russet, gold and mahogany with a chocolate brown center. The compact plants are dominated by the prolific blooms. It is drought tolerant, and in my yard, even neglect-tolerant, holding up to wind and less than regular watering. Butterflies love it. Best of all, they are in the easy category for seed starting, and that isn't always the case with perennials.

A much better value than Starbucks and calorie-free to boot.

Pleasant Surprises and News of the Strawberry Fields Project

Pulling into the driveway on Saturday I expected to find my garden all turned to black mush after the predicted freeze. Instead I found the garden much like I left it, only a little more mellow from autumn's first chilly weather. And other pleasant surprises...

The rampant Virgin's Bower had draped the William Baffin roses and Tollymore spruces with thousands of white star-shaped blooms. That wine-red dahlia finally flowered.The PeeGee Hydrangea panicles had taken on more of that soft shade of vintage rose. The zinnias were still blooming and taller than ever, and without any deadheading, lots of those spent flowers with that yellow corona to lend interest. Best of all, Monarch butterflies fluttering all around them.

With frantic cross country instructions for my husband to pick all the tomatoes left, I had a counter full of Costoluto Genovese, Cherokee Purple and Clear Pink heirlooms. 

Down in that low spot where the Heritage raspberries thrive on benign neglect I spied ripe berries, enough to fill a good-sized bowl. 

If you've been following the great strawberry growing challenge of the summer, you know no one can pick a strawberry without keeping count. Even though the contest ended, my husband reported 30 more smaller berries from the three, now tattered and exhausted  Stark Tribute plants. Enough little gems to combine with the raspberries for a rustic berry tart.

And...speaking of the Corona Tools Strawberry Fields Project, the most pleasant-est surprise was the small white box waiting for me. YES! I won the iPad. I found out at the GWA conference but was afraid to say anything until I saw it. I can't wait to get it "initialized" and start exploring all of its iPadian wonders.

I thought for sure my formidable competition, fellow garden blogger, Shawna Coronado would be the winner. With her winning smile, abundant energy and huge following, she is a force to be reckoned with. The Corona Tools people tallied all the criteria and found us in a dead heat. They flipped a coin and I got lucky. So here's a tip of my gardening hat to Shawna.

Thanks so much to the good folks at Corona Tools. What a fun challenge, I learned a lot myself while teaching others to grow food in the smallest of spaces.

Thanks to Stark Bros for donating the Tribute strawberry plants as well. For many years I drove past Stark Bros in Louisiana, MO on my way to visit family. On the hill is a white barn with a painted black bear, proclaiming Stark Trees Bear. That's so true.

And damn, if those strawberry plants don't have a dozen more larger berries (and many babies) ripening as I write!

 

Mexican Sunflowers: Carrying a Torch for Tithonia

I'm always stumped when asked to name a favorite flower. It's usually whatever is blooming at the moment. Of course, it's kind of like being asked to name a favorite child. And just for the record, I love both of mine equally for their equally different charms.

Mexican Sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, "Torch" with bee       The Garden Buzz

However this year, my choice is simple. The Mexican Sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, wins hands down, for ease, color, form, foliage and wildlife value. This bright beauty is a member of the daisy family, but it's more bodacious, with flaming orange flowers and striking green foliage. Depending upon your height preference there are three varieties from which to choose; "Torch", the tallest at 4-5 feet, "Sundance" at 3-4 and finally "Fiesta del Sol" at 2-3 feet. There's even a yellow Torch available now.

Potato-leaf shaped foliage is attractive too.

Tithonia is an annual flower that's easy to start from seed, growing best in full sun. It makes a great cut flower or container specimen as well. 

Artsy image of black swallowtail and tithonia                The Garden Buzz

Beyond it's dramatic beauty and statuesque shape, the greatest thing about Tithonia is what it brings to the garden...butterflies, bees and hummingbirds! Not many flowers draw all three in such numbers. And don't forget the goldfinches that perch on its sturdy branches to munch on the attractive seedheads.

Sturdy stems with raindrops

Plant Tithonia and I guarantee you will have a garden buzzing with lively visitors.

Another swallowtail visitor on Tithonia "Torch"         The Garden Buzz

 

Welcoming wildlife into your garden is so rewarding, you might want to check out my latest Star Tribune article, Planting for Pollinators, for more tips toward making a wildlife haven. 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: August 15, 2011

I'm going to go off the garden path this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and do it a little differently. Usually I'm guilty of the same game the garden catalogs play, lots of colorful closeups and no full length views of the subject at hand. It's tempting to go in tight for the beauty shot. Maybe get out the macro.

I thought you might appreciate it a little less edited this time. I won't show all the warts and weeds, but you'll get a better idea of this garden I'm trying to make my own out here in the water, woods and wetlands.

My "office chair" on the porch

Across from the porch, I watch butterflies and hummingbirds on these zinnias

 Pee Gee Hydrangea blooming with courtyard beds in the background

Oops, I couldn't resist, Zinnia "Cool Crayon Colors"

Looking back towards the porch, Nodding Onion blooms attract bees and butterflies

Alliums along the path looking out to docks

Pole bean tower in the "hot mess" garden; a freeform, oft self-seeded veggie potager including Italian parsley, nasturtiums, signet marigolds, kale, beets and strawberries.

Beyond the beans, Joe-Pye weed blooming

Over the fence, the blooms of aquatic Duck Potatoes

Purple elderberries on the path by the pond

Further along Rudbeckia "Herbstsonne", phlox, and fading blooms of Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea

 Hang in there, we're halfway through!
Lots of bees browsing native Culver's Root

Reliable beauties, Annabelle hydrangeas with Nepeta Souvenir D'Andre Chaudon

Clethra "Ruby Spice" smells sweet

Swallowtail on lily

 

Black swallowtail on Mexican Sunflower, "Torch"

Rudbeckia "Cappuccino" started from seed with ornamental millet

 Warm sunset colors 

Out front, the blank canvas where my pine trees stood before a violent windstorm felled them. Check out my funky new stone wall. I'm studying the spot while I wait for it to "speak" to me and tell me what to plant. Any ideas?

 

 Uncommon annual, Cerinthe with blue-green foliage and dangling blue-purple buds

Not blooms but a beautiful combo, maidenhair fern and coleus

(Note the large mosquitos on wall above the container, it is Minnesota after all)

And finally, the blooms of Persicaria "Firetail", Joe-Pye Weed and Rudbeckia planted just outside my son's bedroom so that he might glance up from his laptop and perhaps see a hummingbird or butterfly. What a nice mama he has.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!!!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: July 15, 2011

Whoosh! That's me shifting gears right now for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. From foliage to flowers, that is. I just spent the morning interviewing a talented landscape consultant and scouting photos in her incredibly clever garden. Rather than relying on bursts of bloom to carry her design through the season, she employs a wide variety of foliage from perennials, grasses, shrubs and even veggies that exert a steady and beautiful influence on her yard.

But back to blooms.

Bouncing between heat waves and thunderstorms, my garden is both suffering and thriving. Here's a smattering of what's happening...

Zinnias, the essence of summer bloom, with the frothy seedheads of Deschampsia "Hair Grass" in the background. Having fun with my iPhone camera for this shot.                    The Garden Buzz

Marigolds, old summer standbys, look fresh and new next to lemon thyme  The Garden Buzz

A little Martagon Lily peeking from out of the hydrangeas

Insects on False Spirea shrub.                   The Garden Buzz

Trial plant: Campanula "Viking", compact, non-invasive and hummingbird-friendly

Trial plant: Rose "Candy, Oh", a sweet rose bred by a sweet guy, Dr. David Zlesak       The Garden Buzz

A different sort of catmint, Nepeta "Souvenir D'Andre Chaubord with bigger, looser flower spikes that draw hummingbirds        The Garden Buzz

Hydrangea "Let's Dance Starlight" blooming big this year!

Bumblebee in the background of Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, milkweeds are the sole larval plant of the Monarch butterfly

Alien pod, or macro shot of a blueberry?

A thick carpet of Chameleon Plant, Hottuynia cordata, attractive but aggressive to somewhat invasive in my garden.

Trial plant: Proven Winners Leucanthemum "Daisy May" emerging from where the mesclun bed is bolting. I'm a sucker for a good daisy.

On the other hand, invasive Oxeye daisies, that I allow to bloom on a limited basis in my garden, love the high meadow look.

Another macro shot, a painterly image of Dahlia "Mystic something or other"

And finally my little green visitor...

Happy National Pollinator Week!

Celebrate National Pollinator Week by planting trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs and fruits that attract and support these vital forms of wildlife. It's what puts the buzz in The Garden Buzz!

Check with your local extension office for lists of pollinator-friendly plants for your region, it's easy.

I've posted this article link below recently, however I'll repeat the link since it provides an emphasis on pollinators and their behaviors, along with plant information.

http://www.herbcompanion.com/gardening/attract-pollinators-to-your-garden.aspx

 

 

 

Bad Hair Day - Great Butterfly Gardening Tip from Garden2Blog

You can skip ahead to the video...or listen to me natter on.

When I was told that for part of the P. Allen Smith Garden2Blog event we would be filmed giving a 30-second gardening tip my heart sank. Oh, don't get me wrong. I can give gardening tips until the cows come home. With one hand tied behind my back.

It was the filming part that had me a little worried. You see when it comes to having my picture taken, in any format, I have much in common with former British prime minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie. What, you say?

Ever since living in England, I've  kept up with their country's news and cultural events, in good part by being a regular reader of The Times of London. So it didn't escape me that whenever I used to see a photo of Cherie Blair, a formidable woman with her own career outside of politics, I would cringe and sigh.

You see, we share the trait of being unphotogenic in a most spectacular way. Mostly in the form of duck lips and double chins, eye rolling and frozen fish faces. It's uncanny. 

There is even a google auto-category for her misshapen smile. While there is a special and voluminous gallery of "bad mama pictures" in our family Flickr account. I envy people that can flash the camera a gorgeous toothy smile without a second thought. I don't think I'm unattractive, yet while I doth protest about being photographed, it's not vanity, but posterity that concerns me. From my grave I will be shouting, "I really didn't look like that..."

But back to butterfly gardening. When asked to give a gardening tip, I wanted to be truly helpful, not too general or too specific. I thought back about my most popular blog posts and immediately thought of those dealing with attracting and supporting beautiful butterflies in our gardens.

For this video date, I made sure my hair was freshly tamed. I wore something structured to avoid lumpy body parts appearing where they shouldn't. I thought was pretty pulled together and had high hopes for not embarrassing myself.

Then the bad weather and surrounding tornadoes came and I could feel my hair going "Sproing-g-g" in the heavy humidity. They changed the event schedule and seemed to scrap the video thing getting done. Well, sure enough, at the end of the next day when we were dressed for mucking about the farm; windblown and wet from that day's bad weather, they told us to get ready for our closeup! Maybe it was all a plan to make sure none of us were better looking than P. Allen.

Turns out the video is not all that bad, but the butterfly tip is better. I'm including links below to those butterfly posts in case you missed them before.

 

EIght Great Shrubs for Your Butterfly Garden

Top Ten Butterfly Plants: This List Might Surprise You

 

All the Tea in South Carolina...and North America

*AAAHHH.

I will never forget my first taste of iced tea. My grandmother was setting the table and I was four or five and busy doing what I did whenever she set the table...sticking (and licking) my finger in the blue "Poppy Trail" sugar bowl and alternately running the same finger through the butter.

However one day I took note of a tall, sweating glass of iced tea and asked if I could take a sip. She told me to squeeze in the slice of backyard lemon and add a few spoons of sugar. That was back when you used proper iced tea spoons. Something about the sweet-sour-icy tannins thrilled me and I've been knocking back the stuff ever since. It's probably flowing through my veins.

I've even been known to call it the "elixir of life". 

Anyone that knows me, knows that there's a glass within my reach any given time of the day, although I try to taper off after dinner. Coffee? Meh. It's tea for me, and usually cold. I do my own not-as-teeth-aching version of slightly Southern sweet tea.

I know that the first iced tea was "invented" at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. Yet I was surprisingly ignorant about the origins and growing of actual tea. Then while in Charleston (the stories are still backed up from spring break, I'm afraid) we took a trip out to the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. It's the only place in North America where tea is grown!

Charleston Tea Plantation                    The Garden Buzz

Turns out the conditions are just right for growing tea in this part of South Carolina. The original plants were brought from China and Japan, and then as fate would have it, a third generation certified tea-taster came along to carry on with the farm.

Tea plants waiting for spring's first flush                        The Garden Buzz

I knew the latin name for the tea plant: Camellia sinensis. But I didn't have a clue what it looked like growing or how tea is actually made.

There at the "tea garden", they take you around the fields on a re-purposed trolley from Philly. You think you're not going to make it back to the main buildings at times while it's lumbering through the sandy soil and then he mentions some of the resident wildlife; poisonous and non-poisonous snakes along with the alligator that just moved into one of the irrigation ponds.

The tea plantation uses no herbicides or fungicides on their 127 acres and uses a water collection system to irrigate, making it a low impact crop. Tea plants thrive in the hot, humid, hundred degree weather, when other crops might wilt.

The tea plants grow close together in hedges trimmed straight and tight as a Marine Corps crew cut. Here they aren't hand-picked like overseas, but harvested with a machine of their own invention somewhat like a hybrid combine. 

Tea-harvesting machine                            The Garden Buzz

The tender leaves of new spring growth is the prized "first flush". Too bad it was too early to see this. But new leaves are trimmed periodically as the plant grows (7-10 times) through summer. The leaves are taken back to the farm building where they are put on a withering bed, where they, well, wither. This process removes 12 % of their moisture. Next the leaves are run through a rotorvane that roughs up the leaves, opening the cells to bring out the flavor.

Withering bed removes moisture from the leaves               The Garden Buzz

At this point, you might ask if the plantation grows both black and green tea. Turns out it all comes from the same plant. Once it's placed on the oxidization bed, the length of time it's exposed to heat determines whether it becomes green, black or Oolong. Green tea is created in a matter of moments. Finally it's dried and packaged in tea bags for consumption.

Where oxidization determines green, black or Oolong tea             The Garden Buzz

Some numbers for thought: It takes 5 pounds of tea leaves to make 1 pound of tea. One pound of tea makes 200 glasses of iced tea.

Hot or iced running tea...                                          The Garden Buzz

This my kind of place...hot and cold running complimentary tea. Big, comfy rocking chairs out front to sit a spell and survey the land. Of course they have plenty of American Classic tea and tea accessory-buying opportunities. And it never hurts to sweeten your tea with honey from the Savannah Bee Company, available there as well.

Peaceful surroundings at the Charleston Tea Plantation             The Garden Buzz

I hear it's gorgeous in the fall, that's when the tea flowers and bazillions of butterflies abound. And since it's a short trip from Savannah I think I'll make a return trip to see.

It's a slippery slope from tea lover to tea geek.

A note if you plan to visit; there's not much else on Wadmalaw Island. They suggest you bring a picnic if you plan on eating while you're out there. Better yet, on your way back turn at Main Road on the way back to Highway 17, and stop at The Tomato Shed. It's an appropriately named little cafe/farm stand next to the tomato packing sheds. Great food; good crab cakes and fabulous BBQ, plus the tomato pie is out of this world and the other pies are just as heavenly.

*Thanks to TaylorTakesaTaste at the top of the page...Such a beautiful image I couldn't help but borrow it!