Raking leaves

With the weather cooling down and the rain causing a huge leaf fall, my husband and I have been busy raking leaves.  Early in the Fall, I mow and compost the leaves with our lawn mower but the fallen hickory nuts have forced us to rake now.  Usually, my sweet, sweet husband does this chore single-handedly but retirement has afforded me the golden opportunity of involvement (I'm trying to be positive...Bob and I are both working hard on re-framing our attitudes and being supportive of each other). 

After working out in the gym for an hour this morning, I felt kind of guilty about neglecting our leaves and raked for about an hour.  Note to Self:  It is wonderful upper-body exercise.  It also helped me be creative because I have to figure out where to put those darn leaves.  Bob thinks all should be composted and leaves chaotic little piles in the yard for composting purposes at a later date.  With neatness being my ultimate goal, I raked the leaves around trees and shrubs.  Of course, these carefully crafted rings of leaves were swept by the wind and I ended up raking and re-raking. 

Bob sweetly (and somewhat defiantly, in my opinion) sighed and threatened me .  He said that if I want compost come February, I need to give up my OCD desire for control and let him handle this task.  Okay, okay, if you force me ....I will.

Rain, Rain, Come Again to Stay

Neither my irrigation system or sprinklers can match the renewing effects of a good rain.  As I'm writing this, the rain is drizzling down in sheets.  It's been almost two months since we've gotten anything like this wonderful cleansing rain.   There is no rushing torrent going down our yard or our street--just a good soaking that our garden badly needed. 

Just before we went to sleep last night, Bob and I sat on the porch and reveled in the sound of this welcome visitor.  It reminds me of our courting days when we would sit through hurricanes together and feel joy of just being together and facing the elements. 

Speaking of courting, our romantic-looking angel trumpets (Brugmansia) are blooming now.  They are deceptively beautiful and fragrant but all parts of the plant are reportedly poisonous.  Ours are about 8 feet tall but this perennial shrub can grow up to 20 feet.  Hummingbirds may be attracted to the white, peach, orange and yellow blooms but be careful that your dogs or children don't chew on the plants.  That's really important if you have teenagers because the plants are reportedly hallucinogenic.  Angel trumpets (some refer to them as angel trumpets of death) can grow from seeds or can be propagated from cuttings (rooting solution).  Our neighbor pulls hers inside the greenhouse for the winter so hers grow much bigger.  Mine are generally killed back by the winter but by October, they are almost 8 feet tall and blooming profusely.  They enjoy pruning, too and bloom nicely on the new growth.

Home Sweet Home

We just returned from the Dallas Fort Worth area where our daughter, Susannah, and her husband live.  It was a tiresome 13.5 hour trip there and back plus we took our dogs, Emma and Winston so we could not stop and take a much needed rest.  To say we were exhausted is not an exaggeration.

We came home to our empty nest home.  We do love Susannah's home in Mansfield-- it's the perfect size (almot 2000 square feet); it's fairly new (only 10 years and it has a wonderful modest garden that could be mowed in record time.  We're rambling around in an unneeded 4 bedroom that is going on 40 years old with a yardful of hickory trees with falling nuts that make mowing a disaster when Autumn comes.

Emma and Winston, our dogs, didn't notice that our house seems decrepit and in dire need of Extreme  Makeover Home Edition and Ty Pennington's help.  From a dead sleep, they raced out of the car and started chasing some uppity squirrels.  They headed for the doggy door and went racing the entire length of the house joyfully before collapsing in their beds (that's another story).  They didn't notice the unused house smell and start burning candles immediately.  Nor did they notice that the shrubs are looking unsightly and put that on their mental "to do" list.  They didn't seem to worry that the house will need repainting soon or start to plan to rake the leaves that had covered the walkway in our absence.  They just knew we were home, settled down immediately and started snoring.

Sometimes I wish that I could have the simple life along with the disposition of my sweet, sweet dogs.  Maybe, I just needed a lesson in my outlook.

Thank you, God, for being able to visit with my wonderful daughter, brilliant son in law and smart grandchild.   Thank you for bringing us back safely to our home, sweet home.

Garden Pests

Below are pics of my garden pests-- Winston and Emma:

• Both love to dig large cavernous holes and lie under shrubs while chewing off any lower branches that impede their comfort.
• Both chase chipmonks mercilessly and care not where they step in their efforts to catch them.  Emma caught one and played with it for about 45 minutes one day.  Bob thought she had a toy until he investigated it more thoroughly.  The chipmonk scampered away seemingly unhurt. 
• Both leave muddy tracks and fall leaves in my sunroom and near the doggie door.
• Both love to chase neighborhood cats that  mistakenly sit (or plot and taunt) on the picket fence supports. 
• Both try to leap the picket fence when the UPS truck drives by.
• Both have created a trodden pathway along the length of the fence chasing anyone and everybody on foot or riding a bicyle or motorcycle.
• Both trample my impatients to get to their water bowl.
• Neither have a real appreciation for the beauty of butterflies other than chasing them and jumping to catch them.

Emma is the overall winner in the pest category because she chases frisbees all over the yard.  She also takes all her toys out the doggie door and leaves them in the yard. 

On the plus side, both contribute to the compost so I guess we'll keep them.

It's time to pull these kiddos indoors

When we purchased our home in the fall of 1990, one criterion was to find a home with a sunroom.  After enjoying a Florida room and wicker loaned to me by my in-laws, I wanted to recreate that feeling of cottage coziness. I purchased vintage wicker and hung ferns along the wall to wall windows.  The wicker proved to be uncomfortable, the ferns shed, and the ficus plants kept outgrowing their space allotment.  The romance with wicker and lots of indoor plants died after a few years. 

I kept two plants in the sunroom.  These two ficus (is the plural fici?) came with me in 1991 as 2 foot fledglings from Walmart.  As you can see, both are over 6 feet now and that's only after being pruned in February (when I pull them out to the patio) and in August (when I start planning to push these jokers back in).

I love the canopy aspect of the ficus.  Care is not difficult.  We've repotted a couple of times and I'm determined not to let them get any bigger so I have to control their room to grow.  During the summer, I water them 3-4 times a week.  After I pull them back inside, some of the leaves will yellow and fall off initially (response to a change in environment) but the plants respond to once a week watering,   Because they need light, I kept the recessed fluorescent lights despite our paint and ceiling contractor telling me I needed to put in canned lights when we repainted in August.  More light, however,means more water is needed.  Our sunroom has lots of windows so they should do fairly well until I can drag them out again in late February (or after frost).  This November will be the 20th year that these plants have graced our home.  They are now family.

Courage and boiled peanuts

I remember eating my first raw oyster and gagging the entire time, while thinking that the first person who ever swallowed a raw oyster must have been very courageous. I think the first person who boiled peanuts must have been in that club, too.

My big sister (whose birthday is today had she lived) was a transplanted Yankee.  She grew up in the South but quickly fled to Miami, then to Chicago, then to New York and finally to Sedona, where she thought she had found Nirvana.  On her visits home, she always begged for boiled peanuts.  We would visit Mr. Trawick's stand or sometimes drive out in the country to Headland or down to Campbellton to try to locate the best boiled peanuts.  We would gorge ourselves and share memories of our father boiling large vats.  His peanuts were always the best with just the right amount of salt.  We'd fight over the young peanuts that we could eat whole --juice and all.  The smell would waft throughout the house and we couldn't wait for them to cool.  We would sit on the porch and crack the peanuts with our teeth and toss the shells into the shrubs below.   Our dad didn't fuss-- he knew the shells make wonderful compost.

To honor Beverly on her birthday, I boiled peanuts.  I'm waiting for them to cool -- then I'm going to sit in the rocker on the porch to think about my sister and the good times we shared.

Fall's last hurrah -- green peppers

As much as I enjoy gardening, I cannot seem to grow a decent produce garden.  Our tomatoes failed miserably this year because we have so many trees.  The one sunny area that we have is taken up with my perennials.  The herbs I planted (with the exception of rosemary) were all scrawny and listless.   The only tomatoes that seem to grow well are the little Israeli ones that grow from seeds in our compost and had lots of growth but few tomatoes.

In an act of desperation, I planted several green pepper plants in my perennial garden long after planting season.  They were on sale (less than a dollar for each plant) at Lowes and I felt sorry for the little stragglers.  Despite very little care from me, they quickly overtook my pink pentas and started producing hundreds of green peppers. I've been trying out all kinds of recipes with green peppers and giving them away to anyone who looks mildly interested.  We've had green peppers filled with rice,ground beef and tomatoes.  Lunch, egg salad with green peppers, was fantastic.  Last night's spaghetti was enriched with green peppers.  I'm planning to have an omelette tomorrow for breakfast.  I'm planning recipes for the next week and I still won't have used all the peppers.

Mondo grass = superstars of gardening

Mondo grasses are my designated superstars of gardening.  

I've spent the last two mornings dividing and replanting dwarf mondo grass.  It's a great way to fill in an area under a tree (see my work this morning in the second picture).  Although it flourishes with watering and fertilizer, it tolerates drought and sandy conditions.  It's an evergreen and needs mowing only once a year (February).  It propagates most easily by sending out underground roots (stalons) that help establish it.  It's good to use when your landscape needs some definition.  To divide it, you have to dig it up and separate the roots and transplant it (unfortunately on your hands and knees) to its new location.  One large bunch can be divided up into 20 or more plants if you're really patient.

Another awesome type of mondo grass is liriope muscari-- some refer to it as monkey grass.  Liritrope is a widely used perennial.  It is also an evergreen and  rewards you with  purple flowers in August. I use it for edging, defining pathways and preventing soil erosion. It's also easy to separate and replant.  Once you've planted it, it sends out underground roots and grows exponentially.  It has funky seed (balls) but I've not seen it reproduce this way.

This morning, I put the hose down in an area edged by liritrope and even the water didn't penetrate the barrier.  It's wonderful for filling in as area that is hilly or shady. 

These plants help fill in spaces where nothing else seems to want to grow. My heroes.

Passalongs

There are two plants in my garden that I haven't a clue what they are.  Both are passalongs (plants given to me by someone else).. 

One is a white pinkish begonia (I think it may be a hardy white begonia) that blooms and fills in all the garden spaces from May to October.  It's easy to root and once you stick a cutting (cut, dip in water and rooting solution) into the ground, it goes wonderfully berserk and covers all those areas that look bad (roots of roses, for example).  I use it as filler and it never dissappoints me.  It likes to be pruned and comes back with a vengence.  Tami, Susannah's mother in law, gave me a cutting and it's all over my garden now.

Another passalong came from my neighbor.  I think it came along for the ride along with a rooted angel's trumpet.  I think it might be petite pink monarda but I really don't know for sure.  It grows well but the hydrangeas grew so large this year that it couldn't get enough sun.  It's not a towering plant but it was trying to reach the sun.  To rescue it, I took three cuttings and each is blooming now. 

Passalong plants are one of most rewarding parts of gardening.  I think about the contributor when I see each blooming. For example, the yellow daylies and white hydrangeas came from Susannah's grandmother, who died last year.  The forsythias, nikko hydrangeas and purple and white althea that grace my garden all came from my niece, Dana.  The angel trumpets and fox ivy came from my generous back door neighbor, Jan.

Steve Bender said that "true gardeners would much rather shake a hornet's nest than deny an interested part the joy of a beautiful plant." I'll continue to beg and plead for cuttings.  I have my eye on a wonderful pink flowering vine near Sears and I plan to ask its owner if I can have a cutting. Gardeners must be very brave, too.

The poop scoop

Bob, my sweet, sweet husband, does all my composting for me.  I do help him out a little bit.  I keep a compost pot by my sink and throw in all my vegetable trimmings, egg shells, coffee and tea grounds, and any flower arrangement that might be a little past its prime.  Warning:  You cannot place meat in the compost bin.

Bob contributes the majority of the compost (grass clippings, dog manure, prunings, etc).  He layers the compost materials and keeps black tarp over the compost pile (to add a bit of heat.)  Monthly, he turns the layers over and adds 8-8-8 fertilizer to the top, then re-covers the heap with the tarp.  He fusses at me if I throw away leaves or sticks.  Everything goes into the compost pile (except meat-- but I have questioned him about the doggie poop and he just shakes his head to indicate that I need to research the whys of that myself).  He has a Sears shredder that when its working, shreds limbs, twigs and leaves.  The kids and I tease him about his relentless quest to scoop up doggie poop all over the yard and add it to his pail that he empties out regularly.  You can see the pail below, too along with the compost heap.   Our composting is continuous and is generally ready to add in February.

Bob also makes compost tea-- requiring  1/4 pail of compost, a burlap bag and water.  He puts the burlap bag in the pail and covers it with water.  In a few days, you can use it to water flowers and it's an excellent fertilizer. 

Susannah always reminds me to tell Bop (what Anderson calls him-- the other grandchildren call him Pop but Anderson has trouble with his Ps) to bring his pooper scooper with him when we come to the Dallas area so he'll have plenty to do in her yard, too.  He's already excited.

Intervention needed, please

I have an addiction.  No, I am not a crack addict or a cutter.  Take that back, I admit it...I am.... a cutter.  I prune the hydrangeas or other plants and cannot force myself to discard those cuttings into the compost or the city's  vegetation collection.  Instead, I have to trim the cutting.  I trim it to two leaves, dip it into water and then dip it into a rooting solution (found at Lowes for $4.95).   

I actually plant the cuttings in my containers with waning impatients (which are being pulled out one by one to support my habit.)  Water.  Make sure there is some shade/filtered sun available for shade loving plants.  Assure that all black spot leaves are pulled off and discarded in a separate waste bag.

Once it's rooted nicely (have patience--it's not an immediate high...it takes a couple of months to get a great root system going), transplant it in a place (if you can find one) to allow it to grow.  This cutting is a blue lace cap hydrangea. 

Plant, tap it down and then water.  I'll add compost this weekend. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until next year to see the fruits of my labor.

I try to fight it but the habit has overtaken me.  In the meantime, I'm running out of space for cuttings to be rooted.  Wait....instead of an addict, I may just be .....a hoarder.

Clematis

Our clematis started blooming Sunday again.  When I first planted it, I placed it near the faucet and the traffic by the dogs discouraged this delicate vine from reaching its potential.  I moved it -- like I do alot of plants that are not doing well to see if it might fare better in a sunnier place in the garden.  I gave it a  support system on a iron trellis, trimmed it back and it's now flourishing.   This is a fairly young Jackmanii which is a rich, velvety purple. I am hopeful that the blooms will increase in ther future.  I understand that the climbing plants could eventually reach 10 to 12 feet high and 4 to 5 feet wide. It's definitely not a plant for the mailbox,but it is ideal to thread through a trellis or pergola. I prune it annually.  It's my understanding that you can propogate it by cutting (cut, wet and dip into rooting solution) or layering (secure the stem into the soil and cover with peat and soil). To get a good picture, I had to do a little staging because the flowers are so delicate and heavy.  I can't wait until it blooms next year.

Morning Glory and Dew Drops (I know ..I know...the picture is not a Morning Glory)

I opted out of gardening today because I wanted time to visit my mother-in-love, Granny, who is 93.  I did manage to quickly snap a friendly bumble bee who was grazing on my Mexican petunias. Too busy gathering nector, he generously allowed me to snap picture after picture of him and his industry. 

Luckily for us, Mexican petunias are resistant to drought.  Their blooms are generally closed by nightfall.  They are easy to propagate and root quickly with the help of a rooting compound.  They also send out invasive roots and come up all around the original plant.  They grow about 3 feet high but there are dwarf varities.  They are generally blue, purple or pink.  They are easy to grow and grace us with late summer bloomss.  They tolerate sandy soil, too. Butterflies, hummingbirds and bees adore them.

Granny, who grew up in Headland as a Soloman, always regales me with stories of her growing up next door to her Aunt Kate.  We tumbled onto the subject because we started talking about our recent visit to Headland and seeing a huge pomegranate bush loaded with fruit.  She tagged on to that train by remembering that her aunt had another unusual plant at the time for the 1920s:  a banana tree.  She told me that Aunt Kate lost her husband when she was pregnant with her seventh child, May-May.  Even with such hardship, her children became prominent and productive citizens.  I've met many of the cousins and one thing that seemed to be shared by all is a wonderfully sweet nature, just like Granny.  Dan-Dan, her husband of over sixty years, always referred to her as his morning glory with dewdrops. 

Indian summer

As a gardener, September always makes me a little sad and a little lazy.  There has been no rain for 30 days or more and  the temperature is in the 90s.  The impatients are not responding to my revival attempts with water plus all that water is causing black mold spots on the hydrangeas.  It's too early to plant mums or pansies for color.  I'ver been thinking about buying a Confederate rose but it's too hot to dig.

There is one plant that has finally bloomed and is showing wonderful promise.  The gingers have a gorgeous wedding white bloom that is so awesome that you have to fight the urge to cut it and place them in a vase. 

Henry Brooks Adams says it best:  "In America,.Indian summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone - but never hustled.”

I'll sit on my hands.

New Beginnings

Who would have the audacity to start a gardening blog in September?  The garden is waning, leaves are turning yellow and falling, flowers are spent, a month-long drought has felled two of our dogwoods along with redbud tree framing our porch. It looks pretty hopeless out in the garden.  What
could the end of September offer?  In the midst of all this decomposition, one finds life and hope.

 A shimmery spider web beckons unsuspecting insects.

Hiding in the leaves of the camella, a lizard hopes to be ignored by utilizing his camouflaging skills.

Several robins on their way south visit and chirp happily whilst enjoying our sprinklers. Unfortunately, they won't sit still for an amateur photographer.

It makes me smile and appreciate all the seasons.  Henry David Thoreau said,  "Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”