Outta my Gourd

This past spring I did a post on some of the women in my garden club making newspaper pots and planting heritage seeds. One of the types of seeds we planted was for birdhouse gourds.


You can see the package here on the left of this photo. I don't know the botanical name for these gourds.

There was a left over plant which I put into a large tree pot. As it began to grow I didn't quite know what to do with it but suddenly I had an inspiring thought. Behind my shed was this old metal arch that I had bought at Michael's Arts and Crafts store for a whopping $12 (using a coupon).

As you can see in this close up, the arch was just the right amount of support for these gourds. There are three big ones growing on it and lots of little ones. The little ones seem to rot out and fall off before they get as long as a finger so I don't know if there's a maximum amount of large gourds a single plant can sustain.

Before I left for Germany I noticed some new foliage growing out front in my perennial borders. I knew it was something unusual so I let it grow. Two weeks ago some friends were here and one of them pointed out that some type of gourd was growing at the base of one of the flowers.

Looking closely inside the foliage you can see what is growing there. It looks like the little white pumpkin called 'Baby Boo'. Last year I had bought a sack of assorted gourds and decorated my house with them. After Thanksgiving, I threw them on my compost heap. Looks like the seeds came through the winter!

By the way, those black specks aren't insects, the sprinklers were just on and they're just bits of soil.

Across the driveway in another perennial border is yet another compost gourd. This one has selected a nice location between some pretty Rudbeckia fulgida (Black eyed susans).

Looking inside this foliage you can see what is growing here too. There's a second one of these gourds but not located where I can photograph it well. It appears to be more rounded than the 'Baby Boo's' so I'm not sure yet what it will become.

Isn't this exciting?

I wonder if all gourds start out white and then turn colors?

This is the first time I've ever grown something like this and I feel like a kid with a new toy :-)

Off to water the garden,

Melanie

Dear Friends...

Dear Friends,

What can I say? It seems I've hit the writer's block wall, I just didn't have any desire to sit here and blog.

Blogging has been a wonderful way for me to share the passion and joy in my garden. Maybe, that's why my lack of blogging reflected my lack of gardening. Getting ready for my trip to Germany I began to ignore the garden and once I returned, it only got worse.

My husband Don did a monumental job of keeping the garden beds watered while I was gone. It figures that the hottest, driest spell of the summer was during those two weeks. Since I've been home I've rarely had to turn on the sprinklers although today would be a good day to do so.

Tuesday a strange feeling came over me. I was so sick and tired of the mass of weeds along my driveway that I decided to pull a few of them out. Two hours later I had filled many bucket loads but the garden didn't look any different. Yesterday I went on the attack and spent 6 hours weeding and hauling bucket after bucket load to the woods. Note, I use large tree planting pots when I weed as they are very light and if I stop working and it rains the water runs out of the holes in the bottom.

This morning I woke up with the urge to take some photos and share them with you but Don took my camera to work so that will have to wait. I've discovered some new delights in the garden, the secret of Lunaria and most amazingly, gourds!

I can hear you now, "she must be out of her gourd" but I just find this so cool. Last year when it was time to decorate for Christmas, I threw the decorative autumn gourds on my compost heap.
In June I noticed some strange foliage in my garden in three different locations. I couldn't figure out what it was but decided not to weed them out. This week I've discovered that I've got gourds growing in my garden. They look like little white pumpkins, I think they're called 'Baby Boo' and I'm so excited about them! To top it all off, my birdhouse gourds are growing like crazy and I've got three big gourds plus tons of babies coming along.

Hopefully I'll get some photos posted here tomorrow. Thanks for sticking with me through this spell and thanks for all the comments. My mom is back in Florida and doing well (although getting soaked with Fran right now). Last night was my first Board of Education meeting (Hi Gail!) today my youngest daughter returns from band camp, and this weekend my older daughter heads back to college in Pennsylvania.

Time to get my fingernails dirty again,
Melanie

Germany, Part Five, Gudrun's Garden

Our second week in Germany was spent visiting several family members in different cities. My brother Michael had to return to California but Mom and I were lucky to be able to see quite a bit more. Our experiences with the German rail were wonderful, not as timely as we were led to believe but they were clean, safe, comfortable and fast.

Leaving Hamburg we headed south to Hanover to my cousin Gudrun's house. Gudrun and I had met only once as young children and then last December we met in Florida, almost 40 years later. I think if we lived in the same town we would be the best of friends, we have many of the same likes and dislikes.

The opening photo was taken outside the entrance to the Schloss Marienburg and Gudrun is the one without an umbrella. She and I even look alike!

If you are in the area of Hanover, I highly recommend touring the Schloss Marienburg. If it hadn't been raining so hard I would also have loved to tour the grounds and sit outside and have lunch in this amazing courtyard.

After spending a morning at the castle, Gudrun took us to the most delightful city of Hameln where the story of the Pied Piper is to have taken place. Unfortunately we were in quite a downpour for half of the day so I don't have as many photos from this town as I would like.

Rather than show lots of building facades, I wanted to show off Gudrun's delightful garden in this post (and yes, credit also goes to her husband Winfried).

The very first thing to catch my eye was the largest butterfly bush I had ever seen. Two years ago I saw a number of Buddleia's in England and Scotland although they tended to be lavender and white. Germany was filled with these lovely shrubs too but the predominant color was dark purple. Gudrun's shrub had to be over 3 meters (9 feet) tall and possibly 4 meters (12 feet).

Globes were in many of the gardens that I had seen and sure enough Gudrun had them too. Too bad they were too heavy to pack and bring home, I saw many varieties in the stores we visited.

Look carefully at these containers, do you see what caught my eye?

Here's a closer look. I was amazed at the combinations Gudrun chose for her planters. Impatiens with Peppers, Sunflowers and Strawberries, Tomatoes with Impatiens too, something that would never work here in America.

The higher heat and lesser rain water we have here in New York makes our containers dry out much faster. Gardeners around here water container plants once or even twice every day. Impatiens in the sun just droop too quickly, we use them as shade plants but in Gudrun's garden, they were just wonderful with her sunny vegetables.

Phlox was just beginning to bloom in the garden, I have quite a few of them here too and have been taking photographs of them for a future post. Some of mine have terrible powdery mildew and others are perfectly clean like this one in Gudrun's garden.

I was just green with envy when I saw this delightful Asian inspired pond in the corner of the garden. It was filled with goldfish and the sound of the trickling water was exactly what the relaxing gardener would want to hear.

Outdoor eating areas were a prerequisite in any German home with a garden and Gudrun and Winfried had a perfect set up. Two solid walls and a roof kept out the weather when it was cold or raining but two open sides let in all of nature.

Here you can see the view that one had while sitting at the table. Our first evening there we had supper outside. As the sun sets quite late in the summer (about 10:00 pm would be my guess), sitting outside with cold cuts of meat, thick slices of fresh bread and lots of tomatoes and mozzerella cheese makes a heavenly way to end the day.

Hydrangeas were very popular in many of the gardens. These were right in front of Gudrun's house and you can see how pink they are. Our soil here is much more acidic and my Hydrangeas all turn deep blue and purple.

Lavender was another plant we saw in just about every garden and again, Gudrun had waves of it planted in front of her house. It was a sure sign that the German winters were more mild than what we get here on Long Island.

Long Island gardens near the ocean (with sandy soil) can grow lavender like this but it does not overwinter well at all in my area.

Ok, next post will be a biggie, as just minutes from Gudrun and Windfried's home is the most spectacular botanical garden I have ever had the pleasure to visit.

Till then...

Melanie

Germany, Part Four, Faces and Facades

Wow, what a tough time it's been the last few days. First blogger locked me out of this site with a notice telling me that my blog was considered a possible spam site. I almost had a heart attack when I read the notice that they had the right to erase my entire blogging history. Thankfully though somebody did a review and they released the blog back to me.

Friday night we lost power to half of our house, how strange is that? The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that the kitchen still had power so we could make coffee :-)

Today's post is a total mix-up of faces and facades. For my family members reading in Germany, a facade is the "face" of a building.

The opening shot shows the facade of the Parliament building (Rathaus) in Hamburg and the face of my brother Michael.

A totally different facade caught both Michael's and my attention when we visited this delightful looking building only to find out that it housed "Wok In", the Chinese restaurant in Geestacht. Really, with me living in New York and Michael in Southern California we thought we had cornered the market on Chinese restaurants.

The facade of this church was a "must take" photograph because this is the symbol Michael would like to have as a tattoo! Well, only if he got a tattoo...

Another face and facade, a farm house in the small town of Krukow. I wish I could take this photo again without the gray boxes blocking the little boy on his toy tractor.

Michael and Mom against a pretty awesome structure in Hamburg.

Another farm house in Krukow, I totally fell in love with these red tile roofs.

Michael again, yes, in Hamburg...

What's this? Another charming farm house in Krukow. Just look at those ivy geraniums spilling out of the window boxes.

Michael and our cousin Andre'. These two men had met just three days before this photo was taken and I think it was instant karma, they look more like brothers than cousins. My wish for them is that they can spend time together again some day.

Back to Krukow, if memory serves me correctly, this is my aunt and uncle's, neighbor's front door.

Finally, a few messages here. To all you gardeners, don't despair, there is lots of gardening information building up in my head just about ready to bust out of my ears. Here's a sneak peak at one of the upcoming gardens I visited my second week in Germany.

To Edith and Andre', I love getting your comments! If you have a chance, please send me an e-mail using the address on my card. I don't have your e-mail address with me here.

Last but not least, to all of you who have been writing, calling and e-mailing, thanks for the good wishes. Our flight to Germany was a long trip made worse with a 2.5 hour delay here in New York. My mom developed a blood clot in her leg from sitting so long and it's been just the first sign of a number of health issues. Luckily mom is a trooper, and has always been careful with her diet and faithful to her exercise so I just know she'll get this all straightened out.

Back again soon (going to go out to photograph some summer flowering shrubs).

Melanie

Germany, Part Three, The Bountiful Garden

To begin my third post on German gardens, I chose this wonderful shot taken while standing in my cousin Ingrid's garden. Ingrid is a popular name in my family and I have an aunt and two cousins with this name. This photo was taking in Ingrid and Egberts garden in Krukow, just down the road from my Tante Inge & Onkel Heinz's charming farmhouse.

Imagine having a view like this every day, pure heaven.

Ingrid and Egbert have a wonderful collection of plant material. A huge assortment of beneficial herbs, a top notch collection of tropical plants that they overwinter in a lovely garden room attached to their house and most importantly, a dazzling array of food plants.

My brother Michael and I were just astounded with the wealth of food that we found in each garden. Michael lives on the West coast in California and I'm on the East coast here in New York but we both had the same impression of this garden. We were just so impressed with the practicality of growing trees, shrubs and plants that look great in the landscape and at the same time offer a bounty of food.

Here you can see one of my favorite snack foods, red currents.

Just in case you don't believe how much I love these little gems, here's another photo :-) It seems I took quite a few photos of red currents, they looked so lovely hanging on the many bushes. The funny thing is I knew for sure I've never seen these in my local gardens. When I came home I did some research and found out that many states have laws against growing, buying or selling the various current bushes.

Thankfully, New York does not have that law and I'd really like to add some to my garden here.


Another favorite were these black currents that are extremely high in Vitamin C. Yesterday I found Black Current juice at a local health food store and I bought a bottle home to try. I'd much rather get my hands on some bushes and plant them in the garden too.

Apple trees were everywhere. Not one kind of apple, many different kinds. If I remember correctly, Ingrid had 5 different varieties in her garden and she told me that it was her favorite snack while she was working outside.

It seems I also took quite a few photos of apples in Germany, none of them show insect damage on the apples and I forgot to ask if they are sprayed at any time during the season.

This year's apple crop was so huge that a whole limb came off a tree while we were at the farm. It was just too heavily loaded with apples for the tree to hold upright.

Today is a "two for one" day with a second garden included. This is my cousin Mirko's garden. Mirko has a "many-hundred" year old farm house along the Elbe river with the most amazing views. I don't know why I don't have a photo of those views, you'll have to take my word for it.

We spend a delightful Sunday afternoon sitting in the rare sunshine having cake and coffee. It doesn't get any better than this. When we arrived we found this charming scene waiting for us, tables loaded with flowers, fresh juice, coffee, and lots and lots of cakes :-)

There are 4 or 5 different buildings on this large expanse of property. Mirko has been restoring the historic buildings and now has several appartments in one of them. There were lots of nooks and crannies in the garden so that different groups of people could enjoy the outdoors and yet have total privacy. They are thinking of eventually opening a Bed and Breakfast on the property for the many cyclists that tour along the river.

I fell in love with this rough and tumble country garden with the distinctive beach chair. While walking around you could see why some areas were left to grow wild. Parts of the ground were quite marshy and wet due to the nearby river.

Right before I took this closing photo a pair of Storks flew over head. Neither Micheal nor I were ready with our camera (phooey).

Here's my mom, my brother Michael (smiling at the camera), Paulo (Mirko's 15 year old son) and just the back of Mirko's head (sorry!). Mmmm, what I wouldn't give for another piece of that delicious cake...

More to come soon, sorry for the long delays between posts. We have been going through some health concerns here and the typical summer crazies.

Germany, Part Two, up North

The third day of our trip to Germany, mom and I spent the day traveling with the ICE Bahn (Germany's fast trains) north to Hamburg. As soon as we arrived at the main station in Hamburg we immediately bought ourselves a bratwurst (one of my all time favorite foods). We continued east on local trains, splitting up so that my mom stayed with her sister Eli in Rhinebeck and I stayed with my cousin Edith in Geestacht.

This opening photo was taken on the balcony at Edith's brand new penthouse home. Edith had just returned from seven weeks in Australia and her newly planted boxwoods show the stress of the heatwave that swept the area while she was away. I can only imagine how lovely she'll have this balcony looking by next year :-)

While this photo is not artistic, I wanted to remember the boxwoods that I saw everywhere, often planted in clay planters like this. While these type of planters do not survive our New York winters, I think I'd like to plant boxwood this way.


Looking straight out over the balcony railing, I couldn't help but be drawn in by the amazing tapestry of evergreen trees in every direction. You would never know that this penthouse was only one block from the town center in Geestacht.

Edith was a wonderful host to me and my brother Michael who arrived two days later. She drove us all over the area, most often, to the tiny town of Krukow where we all had more family.

As a child, my most favorite place in the world was my aunt and uncle's farm in Krukow, just east of Geestacht which is just east of Hamburg. A community of only 250 people, every house looking like a postcard image.

So often when revisiting places as an adult, you find your memory played tricks but not this time. I still would list this town as my utmost favorite place in the world and would love to spend a year of my life living there.

Although we arrived in Hamburg in the evening, Edith drove me straight to the farm where we suprised a whole gathering of aunts, uncles and many cousins.

I credit my Tante Inge and Onkel Heinz for making me the gardener that I am today. The idealic days I spent on their farm as a child I learned organic methods of farming (lots of manure) and the love of the outdoors which imprinted my soul.

This photo is one I will stare at many times in the coming year as it is my aunt standing at her doorway (with two more aunts in the backdrop). See all the boxwoods in the garden, they really were everywhere.



Growing against the doorframe was this stunning passion flower. While the summer temperatures in Germany are generally much cooler than we experience here in the USA, the winters are milder and I was amazed at the plants that overwinter in Germany.

Not to be outdone by other homes, you can imagine what a delight it was to sit under this roof, eating delicious food in the fresh air as a light rain fell just a few feet away from you.

Tante Inge's Clematis were a wonder, everybody had to comment on them.

Tucked into the cracks and crevices of the retaining wall were a wealth of plants. I wish I could share back and forth with my aunt as I know she would love the plants in my little rock garden.

Lots and lots of sempervivum were in the garden, some whole beds were bordered with them. Tante Inge had cut off some of the bloom scapes and was holding them over in a bucket of water. I wonder what kind of craft they will end up in.

A small glass house was chock full of runner beans, tomatoes, salads, and more.

Here you can see the tomatoes in the back of the greenhouse. We had lovely ripe tomatoes to eat with our meals before the tomatoes in my own garden here are even close to turning red.

As a closing shot, I thought I'd include a family pose in case some of my cousins are visiting here. The internet will hopefully bring us all close together as my mom, brother and I are the only branch in the USA.

From left to right is Onkel Heinz, next is my cousin Ellen who lives outside of London (another branch that moved away), I'm the tall one in the suit and at my right is my Tante Inge. This is another photo I will really treasure.

Time to wrap this up, I hear the rumble of thunder coming close and think it's time to close down this post.