Yesterday was a great day. I had Michael Nolan on the radio show and we chatted about community gardens in general, and the Riverside Garden that he is helping with in his own neighborhood. After the show, Michael was heading to the new community gardens in town in the Edgewood area. The gardens were part of Fiskars Project Orange and were put in within 8 hours!
I headed down to the garden for the ribbon cutting event and met some great people. Joe lamp’l who many know as Joe Gardener was there getting distinctly dirty which was great to see - some garden spokepeople are all talk but don’t get their nails dirty!
Kate Chura from the SEHort Society was also there, as were Farmer D, Fred Conran and Paul Tonneson (Pres. of Fiskars). It was great to see so many familiar faces all come together to help and support this neighborhood project. I also found some guests for the radio show while I was there and just might get the Mayor of Atlanta on the show - she is an avid gardener!!
Joe Gardener - watering a new Magnolia
The little flowerhead among a bunch of leaves
At the end of last year we had a mystery plant arrive. The plant was located where, three years before, a double row of large boxwood stood. The mature boxwoods were intertwined and about 4 foot high, and wide. When we were returning the garden to the original mid 19C design we had to remove the inner row of boxwoods. So the guest may be a century yr old remnant or only 20 yrs old, we didn’t know.
The mystery plant was not in evidence for the first two summers, and is such an interesting leaf that it would hardly have been overlooked (as against the rose among the winter honeysuckle that blooms for two minutes and was overlooked). So when this character arrived, we were surprised - it was in a prominent place in the garden.
The leaves were wide and slightly lighter in the mid vein area. It persisted over the winter and into spring. Then in May, among the many leaves, a flower stalk arrived. Just the one amid a bunch of leaves. Finally a small insignificant blue flower that looked like a primitive hyacinyth arrived. The ‘flowers’ were at the bottom of the bloom tip, and not all the way up, but that could have been because of the length of time it was dormant, oveercrowding or just the natural form of the plant.
The flower lasted about two weeks, and this past week the leaves were dying back so we were able to see the root of this thing. A very large ‘bulb’ plus some other smaller bulbs were underneath.
The large 'Bulb'
We are still at a loss as to what this plant is and if anyone has any ideas, please send them this way.
It was bound to happen - the cabbage white butterfly likes my cabbages, and broccoli, and cauliflower and everything else that is in that bed. I first noticed them last week and ran to the fabric store Saturday for some tulle. It wasn’t quite enough but would do. Then I noticed that the bluberries are almost ripe and the birds were taking an interest in them. More fabric - the lady at the checkout thought I was making a tutu for a daughter! Nope - the blueberries.I will still have to spray the cabbages for eggs and slime before the catapillars hatch, but at least I have bought some time.
I had forgotten the trials of growing more than tomatoes and peppers - it usually turns into a disaster.
One of the problems with my veggie beds is labels. The tiny tags that look great in a pot soon get overwhlemed by growing tomatoes and green beans. They move around, and get splattered with mud. I had no more luck with the wooden ones, but some success with left over window blind slats. These were large enough to write on clearly. The down side was pushing them into the ground. Then I was given a set of large plastic slats that started life being utility markers. They are broad enough to write on, come in different colors for simple identification, and have nice strong metal rods that go into the ground. They are from a company called Quik Stakes
I tried them this week, and ran out of stakes, because I cut the labels into two halves, which was plenty large enough for my need.
The stakes in the bean/carrot patch.
Get more information on the stakes from www.quikstake.com
When you move to a new area, a good gardener does some research and comes up with a list of things that will or will not grow in that new area. Cold hardiness, heat tolerance and chilling times all reflect what you should avoid growing. Plants in unhappy growing conditions do not thrive and are apt to get disease and other insect problems.
Then you get the odd person who didn’t know that lilacs do not grow well in the south because the winters are not cold or long enough. They mail order the plant or shrub because it is not available locally, because it doesn’t grow well. They stick the thing into the ground, and the shrub takes off nicely and continues for many years. Such a case was a gentleman that I spoke to the other week who brought a lilac at a northern nursery and was growing it in his garden - for over 10 yrs. It is big, thriving and giving plenty of luscious sented, lilac blooms. Fortunately I was given a bloom and I am trying to root it.
Lilacs that didn’t know they couldn’t grow in the south.
So while I may not say forget the books, sometimes it is worth trying a shrub, or perennial that is reported to sulk in the humid south. If you don’t tell it, it will never know and will try to survive. Many times the shrub just might surprise you, because it didn’t read the book that told it that it couldn’t grow in Atlanta!
Each spring, I attempt to clear out and clean the garden bucket. Over the season it gets fuller and fuller with ’stuff’ and makes it heavy to cart around. This past Sunday morning was when I did this. There really was not much in there that weighed a whole lot, but the cumulative affect was noticeable. So what was in my bucket:
5 pr gardening gloves - some for each type of chore
5 pr garden clippers
1 wire cutter
1 lopper
3 trowels
bunch of plant labels
1 hand cultivator
skein of florist wire
untidy load of string/twine
2 small saws
2 adjustable wrenches
sunscreen - a few yrs old
empty bottle of water
watering wand for hose pipe
‘S’-hook
washer for hose pipe
eye goggles
2 empty beer cans
screwdriver
lots of dirty/dust.
Not a pretty site, and once it was tidied up, cleaned out and the gloves all washed, it was much lighter.
So what needs to come out of your bucket?
Just noticed that the blog has not been updated in a while and the only excuse I have is that gardeners garden rather than write in spring!
We have had a great spring - it was coolish, but rainy which has put us into the almost non-drought status and the rain has reinvigorated us all. We can actually garden without thinking about how to water because right now there is plenty of water coming down from the clouds.The difference compared to the past two years is incredible. Flowers and trees are looking vibrant and luscious, the grass is, of course growing a mile a minute, and garden centers are full of people buying plants.
This year my main project is the veggie garden which was a poor apology last year, but is looking great so far this year. The cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, potatoes,beans, peppers and tomatoes are all in and looking good with just a few things falling to pests and rodents.
Hopefully you will be updated more often as to the progress.
We, as in the Barrington site director and I, had heard about Lawsons a few weeks ago, and Thursday was the day to traipse up there to see what he had. I had phoned to confirm that he had June apple trees/Carolina June and that was one of the fruit trees we needed.
So just past noon we get into the car armed with mapquest and a bottle of water. The directions were fairly straight forward - north then west - 40 minutes. Traffic lights and road works were not too bad, and we were well on the way west in 15 minutes. Thats when things started to turn from urbanization to horse farms and country estates worth millions. At one point we realised that the road name had changed. About turn to get back to where we knew we were on B’ham Hwy, then figure out where it went missing.
We returned to the right highway and found our way to the correct road. We needed 2700 on the road. When we first saw a number it showed 3400, then 3600 then 4500, at which point we backtracked again. At the end of the road we still had not found 2700, so we pull in and phone. “Ignore the numbers, we are 2 miles past the warning sign” - sounded ominous, but back up the road we went. We came across a sign that indicated ‘caution - congested area ahead’. This was strange as it was an unihabited crossroads with no town, hamlet, farm or building anywhere close by to cause congestion - not even a hurd of sheep! A little further on we come across the sign for Lawsons.
The building was a modest little homestead type, with brown porch, dusty coke machine and two trucks parked outside. We entered and were met with a brown interior of unpolished, unpainted wood. An older gentleman was leaning against the table, chatting to a couple of younger men. One was in the rocker, the other in a chair. A vague aroma of parfin was inthe air. Every surface was filled with old hand tools, books,papers. The older man came forward to greet us, then introduced us to the younger men. They dropped by to buy trees every year or two and had stayed to chat. We chatted too - no rush in this part of the country. The site boss did most of the chatting, then he mentioned we ordered seeds from .??… he looked at me - ‘Rare Seeds’ I said. The others looked blank, until I said Baker Creek - they brightened. We moved on to talk about Seed Savers another place they used for seeds, and I mentioned the southern branch of that organization was a new area - we bonded, I had shown I knew something about plants. We continued to talk about peaches that grew on their grandfather’s farm, Jim Lawson talked about apples and peaches, and brought over a book from NY Agriculture Dept (1913) which he went thru finding the right picture. He talked about the yellow striped apple that he found, then was sent the ‘real’ yellow striped apple, then another one that didn’t have a yellow stripe at all, but was just pale red to give the affect. He talked in terms of which made the best pies, which pears were good keepers - he had grafted them all over the past 65 yrs or so (he is now in his 80s).
We finally go into the field to pick the trees we wanted. Along the way talked about apples from Europe and I mentioned the old, large, ugly pie apple -”Bramleys” he said, and yes he did have one but it was promised already. I will return in fall to pick one up. We were picking our trees, when I started to think about getting one or two for home as well, but after searching my bag for several minutes came to the conclusion that I didn’t have a check book or cash. We hadn’t thought about that. Robert had not brought the check book or cash either. No problem, you can send me a check when you get back Jim helpfully suggested, and wrapped the barerooted trees into the bags and burlap.
On re-entry into the main building, I mentioned that we were looking for a late 19thC apple that was described as ‘red and firm, and shaped like a pear’. I have looked up and down for that variety of apple. He pulled out a 1903 apple dierectory and pointed to a page of red and yellow apples - apparently in that era ‘pear shaped’ referred to a long and skinny apple not one that bulged out at the base. I browsed the book filled with painted peaches and apples, while they filled out the sales slip. He pulled out a mid 20thc catalogue from Starks - the ones that looked the shape of modern newspapers - and pointed the Arkansas Black apple - he chuckled at the black painted image - that was how they first advertised it - it is a red apple, from Black’s farm. He talked about the Detroit apple that was mentioned in Jefferson’s papers. He supplied a northern apple, then found that the apple was really from Kentucky area, which called the apple the Detroit apple because that was the destination for most of that specific crop.
What an amazing gentleman - he knew and had grafted almost every commercial apple that hit the market over the past 70 yrs or so, and still does all his own grafting. I will return to study his books, and talk to him about some old varieties he may have, and hopefully we get to see his fields of trees that he grafts each year.
Definitely a day to remember, but it is sad to know that this incredible gentleman has so much knowledge that is not recorded and will go to the grave with him, at a great loss to those of us in the horticulture world.
The remnant edge of an old flowerbed
This was a fun week in many ways, but you can’t beat having a Monday that takes a turn into a fun day.
The day started quite normally - mild, Monday-ish but nothing special. My garden helper (Dale) arrived about 9 and we set to work roping off the daffodils. These are perhaps the remnant hedge the George Camp had referred to in his late 19thc letter: “the jonquil hedge is in full bloom” - helpful but didn’t say where!
Last year around this time we noticed this sort-of line of daffodils coming up near the spirea hedge. They are late blooming, and alas had not bloomed before the landscape crew missed them as daffodils and mowed them down - eek! So this year I want to rope them off.
Dale and I put stakes into the ground, wound twine around and secured one patch along the hedge.We also noticed a few in the grass to the left of the hedge heading north, so we started roping them too. As we were figuring out where they went I espied a little clump up under the winter honeysuckle bush. This is an area that is 2 foot deep in leaves from decades of accumulation. The little daffs were in a sheltered area so not too buried.
I wondered over to see if there were some more over there. I unearthed another little patch, then my hand hit a rock sticking up from the ground. Scooting leaves out of the way, I found another rock, then another.Dale came to join me. Together we pushed leaves aside and exposed a line of rocks. This was more fun than weeding, but to help the matter along, I decided we had better go fetch some rakes rather than using feet and bare hands to remove the leaves. Finally by 11 o’clock we had exposed some 50 or so feet of remnant flower bed edging. The daffodils may be in the bed, in which case the edging is at the front of the bed, or, more likely, the edging is at back of the planting area as it is in the exposed part of the property. This puts the daffodils behind the garden bed, which was typical for 19th flower beds (daffs not being highly thought of until the turn of the 20th C). We followed the edge under the clump of winter honeysuckle, around an old tree. Then came across a tree that butted up against the edging showing that the tree was not there when that tree started growing. This delineates the timeline for when the edging was installed.
The next step is to remove all the leaves and see what else comes up - I have already noticed a little iris that was glad to see fresh air again.
Things like this make the job fun - yes indeed the city pays me to play in the leaves!!
Well today is the real test of whether I can hold down two radio shows. The first show, at 10 this morning, is the Master Gardener Hour and my guest is a local landscaper. Unfortunately, she had a few problems, and will be phoning in rather than coming into the station. Then I get an hour break before the America’s Home Grown Veggie Show at noon. After much frantic searching this week, I hit gold yesterday. Today I have Ellen Zachos, a New York author who is going to talk about veggies in containers, and next week we are going to have Doug Green, who has a new vegetable book coming out this spring. Then we get local CSA and market gardeners. The whole show will take a week or two to settle into some sort of order and rhythm, but we are off to a good start.
Check out the show and phone in, www/radiosandysprings.com