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

Fun indoors on a rainy day

How do you amuse yourself when you can't work in the garden? I have been getting a flood of catalogs from nurseries and garden supply companies. Most of what they're pushing are holiday arrangements and house plants and garden tchotchkes. I'm waiting for the real garden porn to arrive, the nursery and seed catalogs. I love to sit with tea and catalogs and try to figure out where I can squeeze one more plant. In the meantime I will make do with what's on the web.

The owner of a Hometown Seeds sent me this link to their garden seed website. It's a nice looking site and they have a good inventory of annual, perennial and vegetable seeds. Go take a look and then leave me a comment with your favorite sources.

October

It was too cold and raw to work outside today - strange for the middle of October. I took a quick tour and took a few photos.

A few late roses. This is Buck's Earthsong, the only one of his hardy roses that has done well for me. The rest seem awfully susceptible to black spot.

From TTH200910

Minou in her favorite lurking spot. The neighbor's wood pile is on the other side of the fence and the Chief Rodent Control Officer will sit here for hours waiting, waiting, waiting.

From TTH200910

The front bed, replanted last fall about this time. In the back corner I added a fothergilla to replace the dead Franklinia. There's a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs: Winterberry 'Red Sprite' (Ilex verticillata), Inkberry 'Shamrock' (Ilex glabra), Leucothoe 'Girard's Rainbow', Abelia 'Kaleidoscope'.

From TTH200910

From TTH200910

I spotted this variegated version of a blue holly called 'Honey Maid' on a recent trip to the nursery. I had to have it even though I wasn't sure what I would do with it. I've decided to extend the back shrub island into the side yard, tie it in with the lone dogwood and plant the holly in the middle. That will also give me more room for azaleas next fall.

From TTH200910

The blueberries have finally taken hold and grown. These are Sunshine Blue, a southern highbush variety. It's supposed to be more tolerant of less acid soil so I tried them near the house. I have 3 or 4 other varieties at the back of the yard so they can all cross pollinate each other. Sunshine Blue is a nice landscape plant with blue green, semi-evergreen foliage and rather showy pink flowers. I had planted two sourwoods to give some height. One survived and is doing well. One died so I replaced it with a white fringe tree. My neighbor has one that's doing well and it's lovely when it's in bloom.

From TTH200910

Meadow in July

This is the second full growing season for the wildflower meadow. I had imagined it as a swoosh of native grasses studded with flowers. Instead I have a 5 to 6 foot high, solid wall of blooming forbs. I'm not complaining mind you but I'm still trying to revise my expectations. The bees, butterflies and birds give it top marks. Here's what it looked like last year and the year before.

From 200907

From 200907

From 200907

From 200907

From 200907

May by Guest Photographer

My friend Karen is a much better photographer than I. Happily she came to visit when there was lots in bloom and took these photos for me.

Mountain Laurels

Snowdrift, I think. I wish I didn't always lose the plant labels.

From Karen200905

From Karen200905

Meadow about hip high

From Karen200905

Coral bells in the front bed. I grew these from seed labeled Heuchera americanum. Since the native has non-descript whitish flowers and these range from pink through salmon to red, I got duped. Still, these are pretty.

From Karen200905

Herb bed with chive blossoms

From Karen200905

Roses

Westerland, gaudy but one of my favorites.

From Karen200905

Autumn Sunset, a sport of Westerland. These are both Kordes roses. I have very good luck with them, hardy and though they get some blackspot, it doesn't seem to incovenience them.

From Karen200905

Summer Wine and Siberian Irises

From Karen200905

From Karen200905

I've kept planting climbers along my neighbor's board fence. This fall I dug out Rambling Rector, an alarmingly vigorous white one and moved it to a friend's yard. In its place I planted an Alchymist, another Kordes rose.

Either Morning Has Broken or Sunsprite - whichever, it's a cheerful color.

From Karen200905

The Impressionist -
Once in a while Heirloom Roses produces a new rose that makes it worth doing business with them. They send pathetically small, barely rooted cuttings and the shipping from the West Coast is staggering. I had to have this and it has fulfilled it's promise. It's getting some size and will be trellised to my front wall. I think one of the parents is Distant Drums, a really ugly rose.

From Karen200905

May 2009

May
The first flower on my pawpaw. Maybe next year the smaller tree will bloom and I'll get fruit. I finally got to taste one at a garden festival. It's creamy, sort of like banana but with a hint of something else. The blossoms are rather erotic looking, like something Georgia O'Keefe would paint.

From TTH200905

From TTH200905

Some of the established native azaleas:

From TTH200905

From TTH200905

I wouldn't stake my life that these are straight natives but instead are some of the commercially available hybrids:

From TTH200905