Flower Friday

Yes, yes, I know I'm overdue for a Flower Friday post. I've been having fun, I mean working hard, and trying to blog about all the other stuff going on, too. Like the beetles eating my zucchini (Rar!). But I happen to know at least one reader who really likes the pretty posies so without further ado:

The lilies in front of my house are ready for their close-ups (don't know the cultivar, though).
A lovely Hydrangea in Pierce's Woods

Actaea racemosa (Black Snake Root or Black Cohosh), formerly known as Cimicifuga racemosa, which I think is much more fun to say. This plant was used by Native Americans as a remedy for arthritis, muscle pain, sore throat, cough and indigestion. Yet another common name, Bugbane, refers to its insect repellent qualities (this is why you need to learn the botanic names for plants! Imagine the confusion if you were to go to your local nursery and ask for Bugbane when they only knew it as Black Cohosh, or vice versa. Even worse, imagine asking for Snake Root and having the sales person give you funny looks. It's bad enough when I insist on calling it Cimicifuga and the nursery help has never heard of it at all!). 'Course, some of the noted side effects of using this herbal remedy are far worse than the original condition, so think twice before you rush out and start gnawing on your garden!

Not a flower, I know, but the foliage sure is perty! And with a name like Coleus 'Fishnet Stocking', how can you resist? I couldn't, and took several cuttings while working in the propagation house this week!

This is one of the plants we have to know for our Deciduous Flowering Shrubs class. Can you see the fussy little headless chickens?How about now!?

I always get excited when I manage to come even remotely close to identifying a new plant so when I correctly guessed that this Stylophorum diphyllum (Celandine Poppy), seen at Jenkins Arboretum, was in the poppy family I gave myself a nice "Atta-girl"! Another common name for this one is Wood Poppy, probably because it likes the dappled shade that a woodland environment is happy to give it. There's a noxious weed in these parts called Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) that was introduced by European settlers who used it as a culinary herb. It decided it really liked the eastern side of the US, especially those dappled woods, and promptly took over. The roots produce alellochemicals (oooh...big word) that harm the micorrhizal fungi (oooh...even bigger words) in the soil that many of our native plants rely on for growth. Consequently, it's threatening many species in the woods out here from huge trees to this poor little Wood Poppy. The Garlic Mustard also confuses the West Virginia White Butterfly and the Mustard White Butterfly because it so closely resembles the native Dentaria (Toothwort; don't you just love these common names!) on which they lay their eggs. The butterfly larvae can't survive on the Garlic Mustard because it's toxic to them. So I say, Down With Garlic Mustard! Save the Wood Poppies and Butterflies!

Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink)

Aesculus parviflora (Bottlebrush Buckeye)

Asclepias syriaca, commonly called Common Milkweed, Butterfly flower, Silkweed, Silky Swallow-wort, or Virginia Silkweed. This pic isn't nearly as awesome as the one Emma got of the bee coming in for a landing.

TGIF!

How Does My Garden Grow? (or The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly of Gardening)

It certainly has been a challenging season, or so I'm told. Everyone keeps saying how it's been an unusually wet spring and summer. Coming from LA, anything over the annual 12.8-inch average is unseasonable but so far this year, we've gotten that much if not more in just a few short months. To be honest, I've gotten spoiled by the rain - it means I don't have to remember to water my garden!

So while all my So Cal gardening friends turn green with envy, let me take you on a Weeder's Digest tour of my garden. Remember that bare bit of earth back in April?

Not so bare any more...
This is what it looked like a few weeks ago. I planted tomatoes under each of the bamboo tee-pees but one of them carried a disease from the grower. I've since replaced that plant with two others but the first one imported the disease to the soil and the two replacements have each croaked. I've had to give up on tomatoes in that spot so I planted a vine on the tee-pee instead. In the beds behind the tee-pees I have an Artichoke and recently planted some 'Turks Turban' squash (don't get me started on what the dastardly striped cucumber beetles are doing to the poor helpless seedlings!). In the bed opposite, the 'Mottistone' lettuce, white onions, and two kinds of cabbage are filling in nicely.

Then......and now.I do get a little help from my friends, too. One of my rounds of bug hunting turned up this little guy. Since I couldn't immediately identify it as friend or foe I spared its life until I could figure out which it was. Good thing, too, because this is a Pyractomena angulata, otherwise known as a firefly.

A word about fireflies: we don't have them in So Cal but I can remember visiting my grandparents in Arkansas and catching the little critters in mason jars. When I came to Longwood, I really didn't even think about what sorts of entomological specimens I would find but the night I walked into the garden and saw them sparkling with soft yellow lights was one of the most magical sights in recent memory. There are few things as romantic as working in the garden at dusk by the light of the fireflies (except maybe candle-lit dinners, long walks on the beach, or a box of dark chocolate on Valentine's Day, preferably 70% organic cacao). I'm convinced that when it comes to fireflies, we're all just little kids inside and I view these twinkling bugs with great fondness. As far as I'm concerned, they can hang out in my garden any time.

Another good guy that's one of my favorites is the Praying Mantis. I had many of them in my garden in LA and always enjoyed watching them watch me. When I found an egg sac attached to a twig in the meadow, I decided that it would be better off in my garden and brought it home. It hatched recently and one of the former residents and I came nose to nose when I was inspecting the lettuce.
Meanwhile, I kept noticing another garden visitor with increasing frequency. A little rufous bird would park on the rebar tree or atop the bamboo tee-pee and chatter away while I worked.

It seemed that every evening when I went out the garden he would be there waiting for me to turn the soil and reveal a tasty new snack. Knowing that an inch-long Praying Mantis egg sac can easily contain hundreds of little baby Manti (Mantises?), and having seen only the one, I began to suspect that my new bird friend was getting fat on my beneficials! It took a while to identify him but I finally managed to figure out he's a Chipping Sparrow. So I named him Chip. This from a person who had a pet rabbit named Bunny. I'm obviously very creative in the pet name department.

You've already met the evil striped cucumber beetles. I noticed that they were going to town on a weed that popped up in the mulched path so I left the weed there in the hopes that the bugs would eat it and leave the squash alone.



In spite of their voracious appetites, the squash is picking up speed and putting on new flowers and fruit daily.

My other market crop, the onions, are getting by just fine. Seemingly impervious to pest or disease, they're going crazy and seem to be earning their keep by repelling any pests that think they might nibble on the basil or parsley.

On the other end of the insect spectrum is this slug. This wasn't your average garden variety slug, this was a slug on steroids. This thing could have been in a Godzilla movie. It was HUGE!


I wasn't about to squish this monster with bare hands so it received a complimentary flying lesson and was launched into the adjacent field.



Over in the Honeymoon Suite, these cabbage moths were enjoying each other's company.
Their progeny are these cabbage loopers that make an otherwise pristine cabbage leaf look like Swiss cheese. They get a squeeze whenever I see them.
Other pests that damage crops are slightly larger and more difficult to deal with. Like deer. Who think my garden is their personal salad bar.
I wanted to do a little experiment since this is my first foray into lettuce farming and let some of the heads bloom. Lettuce flowers are reputed to be quite lovely as well attractive to many species of Lepidoptera so I was eagerly anticipating the show.
And then Bambi came by...

I did harvest some lettuce and make a tasty salad for myself.
The various corn fields are happy and thriving. The sweet corn is about thigh-high now and the broom corn is growing fabulously! Pretty soon I'll be on the lookout for craft fairs and making weekend pilgrimages to Amish Country in search of some artsy handmade brooms so I can study up on construction methods and materials.That's Bambi's foot print in the broom corn. Rar!!!



My giant sunflower seedlings are living up to their name and following the sun.

That's the latest installment on my adventures in farming. According to the weather forecast, sunny skies are coming which means things should take another leap. That's the fun of gardening in a climate like this one - every week it's a new garden!

I am Chip and I approve this message.

Recipe for A Garden

Take a 225 sq.ft Bit of Earth, squared and quartered. Till thoroughly, removing weeds.

Add the following:
74 bricks, recycled 2 cobbles, recycled
1 long slab
1 misc. square stone(1) large container, planted
(4) barrow loads compost
(1) 5-gallon Cercidiphyllum japonicum
(6) plugs Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'

(3) 4-inch Verbena bonariensis

(4) plug Asclepias

(3) 1-gallon Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro'

(1) 1-gallon Calamintha grandiflora variegata
(1) 6-inch Datura 'Belle Blanche'
(3) 4-inch Leucanthemum x siberian 'Brightside' (Shasta Daisy)
(2) 4-inch Phlomis tuberosa 'Bronze Flamingo'
(1) 4-inch Cynara cardunculus (Cardoon)
(1) 4-inch Burkheya purpurea 'Mauve Thistle'
(1) 4-inch Eriogonum umbellatum v. aureum 'Psdowns' (Sulphur Buckwheat)
(3) 4-inch Ratibia columnifera 'Mexican Hat'
(3) 4-inch Tanacetum coccineum 'Robinson's Dark Crimson'
(1) 4-inch Melissa officinalis (Lemon Balm)
(1) 4-inch Anthemis nobilis (Roman Chamomile)
(1) 4-inch Anethum graveolens 'Fernleaf' (Dill)
(1) 4-inch Thymus citriodorus argenteus variegatus (say that five times fast!) Silver Edged Thyme
(1) 4-inch Stevia rebaudiana

(34) Tagetes patula 'Lemon Drop' from seed

(4) plugs Senecio cineraria

Plant vigorously, working up a good sweat.

Add water.

Wait for things to grow.

Enjoy.

Bugger Off!

Those of you among my extensive readership (Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!) may recall a recent post whereupon war was declared in the garden. Heedless of my companion planting strategies and impervious to the chemicals that I allowed to be sprayed, these evil varmints continue to ravage my crops! There are Enemies about and each day brings new evidence of their destructive tendencies. I really would prefer to live in peaceful harmony with these entomological foes, but so long as they insist on consuming my courgettes, there can be no peace. We are still at war. But I think help has finally arrived! Tune in again soon for more on the Cucumber Beetle Chronicles.

Pretty Posies

Zinnia 'Magellan Pink'
Liriodendron tulipifera

Magnolia (unknown cultivar)