End of May Garden Report

With our mild Winter and extremely early Spring, I guess the garden is about a month to six weeks ahead of where it "should" be. Well, there aren't really any "shoulds" in gardening -- it is what it is. And this year it's early.

Tree Peony, bachelor buttons, and the white climbing rose

Our mature tree peony has 20 blooms on it. It is amazing. I can't wait for the two we planted this year to get on with it. This picture shows our fountain - an anniversary gift to each other about five years ago - the climbing white rose, which is loaded with blooms, some of the bachelor buttons, and the tree peony.

Newly painted bench in the meditation garden

Every year there is some sort of building project that seems to need to be done. This year's project is the garden bench in the meditation garden. Joanne bought this a few years ago. It's one of those metal and wood benches you see everywhere. I guess we have had it about four years. A couple of years ago it started to look pretty beat up, so she took it all apart, sanded it back, and polyurethaned it. It was difficult because the metal parts of the bench are cast iron, and they are HEAVY! We always wrap the bench up with a tarp and bungie chords. But this year, when we unwrapped it, it looked terrible again. J wasn't really looking forward to taking it all apart again. She decided that this time she should paint it. So when John and Nic came up for a few days, John helped her with the project. He was really wonderful. You can't imagine how much easier a job is when it's a young (strong) guy helping you! I love the way the bench came out, and I think I'll like it even when the paint starts to look "old". I tried to talk J into distressing the paint, to speed the look along. But no luck!

Clematis "Crystal"

The clematis are coming along this year. I think we will probably buy a couple more to help them get to the level of coverage we want quicker. J says she is a little disappointed, but I figure it will take a few years, and it has only been 2 really. J's favorite clematis is one called "Crystal" - it really looks like a lotus, I think. The picture isn't a very good one. The color of the clematis is a very very pale blue, almost transparent.

I hope you are having a wonderful time in your garden too!

May Garden Report

Petunias. I love this color combo.

Well, Miss J was off to South Carolina, helping with grandbabies last week. While she was away, I worked like a demon in the garden. As a result, I am now to the part of the gardening year where I describe our state as being, "almost finished." Almost finished is some kind of weird gardening calculus where you get closer and closer but never actually finish. My list of "to-dos" includes:

• Feed the roses (we have 9 bushes)
• Move a day lily
• Buy and plant 1 or 2 tree peonies (depends on if I can convince J that we really need 2!)
• Plant some small black-eyed Susans so I have more flowers in the fall
• Weed
• Cut back the spent tulips
• Tie up the spent daffodils
• Plan 30 little zinnias that will grow to 30"
• Buy and plant some smaller zinnias
• Move the birdbath
• Unwrap and set up the fountain
• Buy and install 8 -12 bags of mulch
• Deliver the bachelor's  buttons I dug out to our neighbor

And that's just this week's list! 

April Garden Report

We are enjoying a very early spring here in Rochester. Well, I guess I should modify that statement a little. Here is Rochester, we enjoy good weather very very much. But we always have that sensation that a meteor is speeding towards earth when we do. There is just that little bit of, "Oh wow, we are going to pay for this!" in the back of our minds.  My garden, however, has no guilt, and just blooms it heart out when the weather turns warm.

From what we refer to as the "plum tree".

Last Fall I put in about 150 new bulbs, mostly daffodils, but also some tulips, allium, and lilies. I put in 50 tulips -- a lily form tulip -- in front of the house. They are going to be the last of the bulbs to bloom, I think, because it is shady and cool there. That's ok with me. I like the blooming season to be spread out throughout the season. Most of the bulbs were daffs because I decided I wanted to represent all of the eight different types of daffodils in my yard. I get my bulbs from Zimmerman and McClure, by the way, and their stuff is absolutely the best! You can find them on the web here. Be sure check them out.

I won't tell you how much this cost.

Most of the daffodils were something like $6 for 6, but this one -- my absolute favorite -- was a lot more. No, I'm not going to say. Go look it up for yourself. I love the way the white petals have yellow at the centers. It looks like either the cap is reflecting on the white, or has somehow rubbed off on the white. The effect in person is stunning.

J's favs

Joanne's favorite this year are the daffs with peach colored cups. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like those, so I didn't plant very many. But I'm going to add another dozen or so this year. Also, I planted these outstanding peach tulips that have yellow at the base of the flower. I think a bunch of those with the peach and white daffodils would be just amazing. I'll be doing a bouquet next spring, you can be sure!

I got about 100 of the lily form tulips, and as I said, only about half could go in front of the house. So I have them spread about. I got an assorted group. I love the two-tone jobs. When they open up all the way, they are just spectacular! J seems to like the traditional shaped tulips better, but I am pretty fond of these.

Robin's nest in our climbing rose. Sweet!

One exciting thing to share with you -- a mama robin has built a next in one of our climbing roses. I saw her going back and forth yesterday evening, caring in bits of grass and such. I can't wait until the eggs are laid. I want to climb up and take a picture of the eggs in the next. Of course, I'll have to be very careful and will abort the mission if it seems to distress the bird at all. So sweet! This rose is an extremely prolific bloomer. I can't wait until the nest is wreathed in blossoms!


I hope you all are having a lovely spring, and will be able to get yourselves out into the garden soon!

Philadelphia Flower Show

One day I came home from work in a decidedly grumpy mood. I used up all my vacation time having fun in the Summer and Fall, and now there isn't any time for a Spring vacation. I suggested that maybe we should go to New York for a weekend. So Miss J told me that she was planning to take me to the Philadelphia Flower Show for my birthday! What a treat!

The Garden Show was amazing. I visited Philly in the fall, and the conference I attended was at the same convention center. It's huge! I was really glad that we got over there just as it was opening on Saturday. At 9:00 AM it was just a little bit crowed, but by 11:30 it was jammed. We saw examples of every kind of flower possible. We've had an early Spring here, but not so early as to have things blooming like they were at the Flower Show. 

We are making our project list right now for this year's gardening, and we got some interesting ideas at the Show. I am absolutely dying to put in some kind of a rock garden. I saw these home made planters made from Styrofoam and cement that end up looking like that volcanic rock, tufta. They looked spectacular. J isn't as enthralled, but I think I might be able to get her on the bus.

I bought myself a new pair of gloves, a pair of flower snips for arranging, and a "frog"  - a round piece of heavy metal (brass I think) with pins sticking out of it that you can use for flower arrangements. I've already used all three!

Philly was just lovely -- I hope we get to return there some time soon. I've got a couple more posts on our dinners there. The food was only second to the flowers!

Fourth of July Cherry Pie

This year, we were invited down to Keuka Lake where friends have a cottage. The cottage is a charming little house, right on the lake. Even though we were having a scorching hot day (at least what passes for that in Rochester), the breeze off the lake was wonderful. We were all invited to bring a dish to pass, and our hosts provided roast turkey and veg enchiladas. Those might seem like rather odd Fourth of July foods, but since both are native to this continent, I think they were actually spot on! The enchiladas weren't like any I have ever eaten, but they were good just the same.

We also took a bouquet

J and I chose to make pies -- which are kind of our specialty. We have made a lot of apple pies together, and it is soothing to work side by side at something we have done so many times. We decided to make cherry this time, because cherries are in season now, and you can get good local ones. I got up early on Saturday and went down to the city market and scored us 4 pounds of nice local sweet cherries. At noon, yesterday, we set to pitting them. J had done some internet research, to try to determine the easiest way to go about it. But we ended up both working with our little paring knives, cutting the cherries in half and then prying the stone out with the knife. Kind of brute force, but it got the job done. Thirty minutes later we had 8 cups of cherries ready to be employed.

Cherry Pie, strusel topping!

I make the shopping list every week, and J does the shopping, so it was my fault that we only had half as much pie crust as we needed yesterday. Yes, me, the queen of all things homemade, uses roll out pie crust. Well, I'll tell you: I'm no good at making a pie crust, so I take the easy way out. So I found myself short of a 2 crusts. We decided to go with a struesel topping this time, and it was a great choice. Easy to make, too -- I just dumped flour, sugar and a stick of butter in the food processor and pulsed a few times. Pour it on top of the pie, and there you go - pie done. The strusel topping got good reviews, too. I usually make a latice top, and although they look nice and impress some people, they aren't as tasty as that struesel topping.

Cherry Pie with Struesel Topping

Cherry Filling

4 cups of fresh pitted cherries. I used sweet because that's what we had. But sour would be ok. just be sure to taste and adjust the sugar as needed.
1/3 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1/3 cup flour. I know most recipes online call for tapioca, but I didn't have any and this is what my Betty Crocker cookbook calls for. So there.

1 bottom pie crust, rolled out and place in a pie plate

Strusel Topping

Brown sugar
Flour
1 stick butter. Yes, butter.

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix the cherries, white sugar, vanila and 1/2 cup of flour. Pour it into the prepared pie shell.
3. Put the ingredients for the strusel topping into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse a half dozen times until the mixture looks like course meal. Pour the topping on the pie, making sure it is fairly evenly distributed.
4. Bake for 45 minutes,  until the filling is bubbling. Enjoy!

Linwood Gardens

 Have you ever gone to a new place and wondered how it could be that you have never gone there before? That's exactly how I felt when J and I visited the Linwood Gardens on Saturday. Linwood Gardens is located in Pavilion, NY and is a short drive from Rochester.

The Linwood Gardens are located on a former country home created by William Henry Gratwick II, of Buffalo, in 1901. In 1933, WH Gratwick III moved his family to the estate and set up the Rare Plants Nursery. The Japanese Tree Peony became a feature of the nursery and the gardens. Oh, how I would have loved to visit that Nursery! We only have one tree peony in our garden. That would be the plant I spent $50 on, and every year I hold my breath to see if it will come back. But after spending a beautiful summer afternoon with these beauties, I asked J to consider taking out one of our roses (that has never done very well, anyway) and replacing it with a tree peony. I think she may have thought I was kidding, but I was serious. 

View from the Italian Garden

Now the Gardens are open a few weeks of the year, and for $10 (or $15 for two), you can wander through the Gardens and enjoy what must be some of the most spectacular flowers ever. When we were finished walking through the gardens, we enjoyed a cookie and some lemonade while we listened to a group of recorder players. It was about as perfect of a day as I could imagine. 

Garden Report

Garden gloves - J's ingenious way of keeping them organized

We definitely enjoy a change of seasons here in Rochester. The problem is, you never quite know when Mother Nature is going to flip the switch, and the mild days of late summer/early fall become the rainy, miserable days of late fall. So every fall, we have endless debates about when should we actually cut everything back.

J trims before mowing. Last mow of the season?

Today we had 70 degrees, sun, and high wispy clouds. There is still a lot of stuff blooming in the garden -- blackeyed susans, zinnias, obedient plant (a plant that must have been named with a wish rather than reality because it is NOT very obedient!). There are probably 40 rose buds ready to pop. And the bachelor buttons are making a comeback. So it seems too early to finish cutting everything back. I did do a really serious trimming back of the herb garden -- but I bet there isn't anything I could do that would seriously affect the mint or chives, is there? Even after a cataclysm, mint would survive!

Remind me to plant more zinnias!

This year we didn't accomplish everything we wanted to in "Phase 4" of our gardening project. We wanted to get a dry well installed in the "new garden" to deal with some of the water problems that I created when I put the garden in. But it just didn't happen. Maybe next year. And we didn't get the fountain going either. J has the idea that if we change the the plastic tubing to a larger size, the flow will shoot up higher. I don't know -- we will see next year because we didn't finish it this year!

Strawberry Bed

One thing we did accomplish was to put in a strawberry bed. We installed a raised bed on the side of the house last year, but the lettuces we grew there were bitter and disappointing. So J thought we should give some strawberries a try. We planted one June bearing plants, and they have gone great guns! I was afraid they would have enough sun, but that hasn't been the case. Maybe next year we will have to consider adding an asparagus bed. J and I have the opinion that you can't have enough asparagus!

Obedient Plant

We still have a few things we want to do before the end of the year. For one, I ordered a ton of tulip and daffodil bulbs. And allium. And some other stuff that I can't remember. When they show up, we will have to pop them in the ground. We also want to remove a rather significant limb from the red bud tree that is shading the climbing rose too much. And of course, the rest of the cutting back. So we probably have 2 or 3 more happy days in the garden. And then it's time to start dreaming about next spring, when there will be even more things to do and plant and trim and enjoy!

The Last Rose of Summer

"The Last Rose Of Summer"

'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone

All her lovely companions are faded and gone

No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh

To reflect back her blushes and give sigh for sigh

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the stem

Since the lovely are sleeping, go sleep thou with them

Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed

Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead

So soon may I follow when friendships decay

And from love's shining circle the gems drop away

When true hearts lie withered and fond ones are flown

Oh who would inhabit this bleak world alone?

This bleak world alone ?

PS: Miss J suggested that I give attribution to the poet -- and she was right! The Last Rose of Summer was written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore in 1805. It was set to music the first time by Sir John Stevenson. For more interesting info, see Wikipedia.