Native groundcovers

The Virginia native ground covers are starting to fill in under the mountain laurels.

From TTH20100531

The big round leaves are wild ginger, Asarum canadense. The mounds of pointy leaved plants (word of the day: acuminate = pointy leaved) are Virginia snakeroot, Aristolochia serpentaria. It is the larval host plant for the Pipevine swallowtail butterfly. I have only been found by Pipevine swallowtails once, two years ago. My little neighbor girls discovered the caterpillars and were thrilled. I sent one of them off to school with the cat in a jar and the butterfly book to show her class. She told me the caterpillar spun a cocoon while in her care. I never heard its ultimate fate.

Sweet Bay Magnolia

This is Magnolia virginiana, the Sweet Bay Magnolia. I think it's a lovely thing. I do admire the big Southern Magnolia but my neighbors have them and they have maintenance issues. For starters, they get huge and I don't have room for another huge tree. Sweet Bay grows to about dogwood size with a shrubby, multi-stemmed habit. Southern Magnolia leaves are very tough, leathery things that do not break down well. They and the big seed heads have to be raked and won't even compost well. I like the color of the Sweet Bay leaves, light green on top and silver below. The flowers have a light, almost lemony scent and a nice waxy substance.

From TTH20100531

From TTH20100531

Edibles

The asparagus bed got off to a rocky start this year. Winter 2009 set in early and hard before I got it weeded, fertilized or mulched. Weather stayed cold and wet in the spring until it started sending up spears. I did finally get it cleaned up and it got down to business producing. I love having lots of asparagus to eat and to share. I even got my neighbors, self-described picky eaters to try it. Bob brings me bags of cucumbers and tomatoes all summer so I was glad to reciprocate.

From TTH20100531

The herb bed became infested with wire grass. I spent a day digging it out along with a large dead rosemary bush. That gave me a clear space for the basil and other annuals in a good sunny spot.

From TTH20100531

Moving the basil gave me a little more room for greens. I always say I'm not going to bother with vegetables and then always decide to plant a few. This year it is the Mystery Vegetable at the back. It's a surprise for a friend who remembers it as a childhood treat. It will be harvested in the fall and then I can tell you what it is.

In front of that is some chard, then parsley. Buttercrunch lettuce is to the right. It has been struggling in a heat wave. I hope some will head up before it bolts.

In the fall I will plant some weird kale called variously Lacinato, Tuscan or Dinosaur kale. It has very dark leathery leaves, not curly edged like most kale. It makes a wonderful tangy salad. The kale is stemmed, sliced very finely, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and then tossed with mix-ins. This week that is radishes, young local garlic and scallions. I could eat a bucket.

From TTH20100531

Rose genetics

Autumn Sunset

From TTH20100531

is a naturally occurring 'sport' of

Westerland

From TTH20100531

I love them both!

Hedge Roses

Darlow's Enigma with a few wild Virginia roses (pink) peeking out. DE was a 'found rose'. No one knows exactly what it is but the fragrance can carry clear across the yard.

From TTH20100531

Wild pink roses. Not the dreaded multiflora, a terrible invasive around here, but native Virginia and Carolina roses.

From TTH20100531

From TTH20100531

Hagen's Woods 2010

March 21

From TTH20100531

April 10

From TTH20100531

From TTH20100531

May 29

From TTH20100531

Carolina Allspice in weedy mess

From TTH20100531

Ripening serviceberries

From TTH20100531

Scarlet elder, a favorite early ripening berry for birds. I whacked the bushes back pretty hard in the fall but they're growing fast.

From TTH20100531

New Community Project - Harrisonburg

I picked up a flyer at Saturday's Farmers' Market. It's for the New Community Project - Harrisonburg, who describe themselves as a "faith-based nonprofit organization with the modest goal of changing the world". I like the looks of their projects and hope this may be an entry point for me to get more involved in community initiatives. I'm always glad to find new playmates!

http://ncpharrisonburg.wordpress.com/
http://www.newcommunityproject.org/grounds_keepers.shtml
http://www.newcommunityproject.org/

Wildflower meadow 2010

Here is what it looks like at the end of winter:

From TTH20100531

From TTH20100531

Ideally you burn off the old vegetation but I live in a town where the neighbors and Fire Department would look askance, nay have a conniption fit, if I set fire to the backyard.

I tried an ordinary gas powered string trimmer and it could not cope. It didn't even make a dent in the tough stalks.

This is what I need:
DR String Trimmer
But alas, I lack the $500 to $700 for it and couldn't justify the cost anyway. I used to have one but lost custody in the divorce.

This is what I have:

De-thatching rake

It got the job done but it was a brutal job. I dragged at the stalks with the rake and periodically hacked with a machete, loaded it all onto a tarp and dragged it to the curb.


April 10

From TTH20100531

May 29

From TTH20100531

Mostly Penstemon in bloom

From TTH20100531

Bumblebees love Penstemon. I watched them burrow deep into a flower, back out and bumble on the the next.

From TTH20100531

Roses

Westerland, my favorite gaudy Kordes rose

From TTH20100531

Plus Ghislaine de Feligonde, pretty creamy apricot thing

From TTH20100531

Equals this

From TTH20100531

My flower arranging skills are rudimentary but this worked pretty well. I cut a bunch of each rose, stripped the lower leaves, laid them on the kitchen counter in layers of color and sort of rolled it up and dropped it in the vase.

Spring Ephemerals

Bluebells

From TTH20100531

Wood Poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum)

From TTH20100531

From TTH20100531

Fothergilla, OK, not an ephemeral but a very nice shrub. Honey scented flowers, striking fall color.

From TTH20100531

While we wait for spring

There's nothing blooming in my yard yet so while we wait, take a look at David Schwinler's pictures of flowers. The site has interesting notes and lovely photos.

Sighting spring

After this unusually cold and snowy winter there are signs that spring is on its way.

The varmints have emerged from hibernation. The hospital grounds where I work are overrun with ground hogs the size of basset hounds. There are dead skunks all over the roads.

But best of all, I looked out the kitchen window while I was fixing dinner and saw bits of green. I went out and sure enough, where the snow has melted from the long bed along the fence there are daffodil noses up out of the ground! It was already dusk so I didn't try to get a photo but I will soon.

Things for putting things in

I received an email from SKS Bottle & Packaging, a distributor of plastic, glass and metal containers in upstate New York. Their representative, Kate Rosenberg, says:

"Our site features an index of gardening containers that could be useful for many projects, from seed storage and seedlings to feeding plants and composting. This index could offer both the novice and seasoned gardener many great ideas!"

Site Name: SKS Bottle & Packaging

I took a look and agree that it's a good resource. I am even more interested in their bottles and pots for homemade cosmetics and such. I make a hand salve, a last ditch treatment for gardeners' hands.

I take shea butter that I order from this fair trade site. I warm it in a sauce pan with an equal quantity of almond oil. I pour it into little pots and let it cool. I keep all but the container that's in current use in the refrigerator. I have used four ounce canning jars but these are much nicer.

While you're looking at the shea butter, take a look at these market baskets. I have one I take to the local farmers' market on Saturdays. Most weeks someone asks where they can get on like it.

February 6th, Higher and Deeper

The snow kept coming. A large branch came down out of the big pine tree.

From 20100206

Carolina Silverbell with the trunk buried and American holly 'Dan Fenton'

From 20100206

The meadow

From 20100206

The shed disappearing

From 20100206

Likewise the porch. Later I let a couple of the cats out and found cat tracks going all the way around the porch. One evidently tunneled under the snow and in through the hole in the screen door.

From 20100206

February 5th snow storm

We had a heckuva lot of snow for Virginia though we did not get hammered as hard as DC and Maryland did.

Here is when things were just getting started.

Red twig dogwoods

From 20100205

Oakleaf hydrangeas and Sweetbay magnolia

From 20100205

A lovely surprise to find in the snow. 'Jelena' witch hazel in full bloom. I had to shake a little of the snow off before I photographed it.

From 20100205

From 20100205

The wildflower meadow. Click here to see it in its summer glory.

From 20100205

Hazelnut catkins
The funny thing about hazelnuts, or filberts, is that the catkins, the flower, looks like little wormy things while the maturing nuts in their cups look like green flowers.

From 20100205

From 20100205