Spring scene

It's cold and rainy outside. So, if I can't have spring out there, I'll make it be spring in here.

It might not be much but this little vignette set up on my kitchen counter is the first thing I see when I come in the door.

The Primroses were just being unloaded at Main Street nursery when I was there on Friday. The yellows smelled heavenly but I just couldn't resist this color combination, even though it doesn't have any scent.

Unusually warm temperatures this past weekend did a great job of melting much of the snow around here and today's rain is finishing it all off. Saturday I got to do a little clean up in one of the front beds and found foliage on the Colombines and Nepetas. By the end of this week I hope to be able to find some of the Dicentras (Bleeding hearts) popping up.

Melanie

Then and Now

On the 15th of February I went out to the garden and shot some pre-spring photos. We had a fairly mild February and I was sure spring was just around the corner.

As you can see, the buds on the Hellebores were already full of promise.




While the sempervivum were quite shriveled, I knew that a few weeks of milder temperatures would perk them up quickly. This one is 'Oddity', the only sempervivum I can readily identify without any name tag.


The trough is filled with grayish sempervivums. They will turn all kinds of lovely shades once they get a little bit more sun and warmth.


Sedums in the red wagon are lush and full, just waiting for spring. They call to me begging for an overhaul this year. It's a task I look forward to, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get to it later this month.


Alas, winter was not ready to let go of it's hold. Last weekend while I was up in our state capitol advocating for our schools, Long Island was walloped with a snow storm. This photo taken this morning is five days after the snow, finally we've had enough melt to see the tops of some of the plants. With temperatures forcasted to be quite mild for the next few days, I expect all the snow to disappear by late Monday.

Another thing to note here is that this spot is still in shadow. With the tall evergreens surrounding our property, the winter sun has little chance to reach the ground.

I'm sure it's only weeks from when I'll be posting photos of the most beautiful, lush sempervivum. For now though, I can only sit here at my computer and look at last years photos.

As for the Hellebore in the opening shot, it's still under snow but being ever the optomist, I know I'll be out there soon taking more photos.

How long do perennials bloom?

When I was doing quite a few gardening lectures, I was often asked why perennials don't bloom as long as annuals. I had to explain that my understanding is that they bloom for a shorter time span because they need to conserve energy to return again the next year.

Most likely there is a much more scientific answer for this question but in my own garden I have had some perennials that bloom for a very long time and it seems like many of them don't reliably return. Hellebores though are quite hardy here.

This photo was taken last year on June 9th. You can see that the Hellebore was in full bloom. I couldn't find a photo of when the Hellebore began blooming but I'd guess by late March if not early April it was blooming. Since it certainly didn't stop blooming a day or two after June 9th, I can pretty much bet that it bloomed for over 3 months. That's an incredibly long bloom season for a perennial!

There are other perennials that bloom for a long time here on Long Island, I'll have to look through my photos and see what pops up. Right now though, I'm looking forward to seeing some Hellebores, Crocus and Galianthus (snow drops) appear any day now. Last year I shot a photo of a crocus bloom on February 20th.

What perennials do you find have a long bloom season?

Hidden gems

Today's plant combination is one that didn't catch my eye during the growing season. Maybe my eyes are so starved at this barren time of year that they see things differently.

This photo shows a corner of the garden where I have quite a few plants of Alchemilla mollis (Ladies mantle) alternating with Nepeta mussinii (Cat mint). In this last spot though I also stuck in a little piece of Sedem 'Purple Emperor'. I really like the combination of the fleshy Sedum leaf against the soft fuzziness of the Alchemilla leaf. I think this combination would pop even more with a darker purple Sedum such as 'Postman's Pride'.

Right now I'm so incredibly thankful that I shot so many photos of my gardens and plant material last year.

Off to look outside to see if anything is thinking of coming up soon :-)

Unexpected Combinations

Today's feature combination is one that moves around from year to year.

In the bottom left corner is the lovely perennial Oenothera speciosa. This variety of Oenthera took me a few years to learn to appreciate. The blooms are lovely, more pink than this image shows. One possible problem with this plant is that it travels underground and spreads quickly. At first I was worried about it but it really pulls out quite easily and once it starts blooming it's love at first sight. In my garden while it spreads quickly it doesn't seem to choke out other plant material but instead winds its way around them.

The plant in the top right corner is one that can be seen in many combination photos from my garden. It's the annual (or possibly biennial) Silene armeria. The nick name of this plant is Catch fly because of the sticky bands across the stems that actually trap insects. If left to seed it will reward you with lots of lovely babies across the garden. This year for the first time I will make an effort to pot up the seedlings early in the season and offer them for sale since I've rarely seen this plant in any other gardens around here.


Here's another photo of the Oenothera that shows the coloration better. Just a foot or two further in the garden now combined with Stachys byzantina (Lamb's ear), another great combination.

Behind the scenes, this morning I've tried a new feature on my Picasa 3 photo program. Finally I can add text to an image and I'm looking forward to being able to incorporate the plant names in the photos.

I've also been reading quite a few gardening books and magazines lately. Have you been reading too?

Symphytum "Langham's Pink"

Brrr, it's freezing outside so there's nothing better to do than sit here and go through some lovely photos taken last spring. One plant caught my interest quickly, Symphytum 'Langham's Pink" also known as comfry.

Now some of you might be groaning out loud since comfry is considered invasive by many people. I don't have any experience with invasive varieties, this pink version is extremely well behaved. I've been growing this beauty in my garden for about four years now and in all three spots it has stayed in a clump.

Here you can see it along with some of it's neighbors. The Coreopsis verticilata 'Zagreb' growing next to it is at least as vigorous a grower. The same goes for the lovely, silvery Stachys byzantine (Lamb's Ears).

Finally, here's a close up shot showing what a nice contrast there is between the foliage of these two plants.

This spring I'd like to divide the Symphytum. I've never done this before so I do hope that it's a simple dig and then chop. If you have any advice, drop me a comment here. Many times it's not HOW you divide a perennial but WHEN you divide it that makes all the difference. For instance, the Coreopsis get's divided extremely early in the spring. If I divide it after it's three inches high it just flops all over and looks lousy for a year. Divide it early and you'd never know it was cut.

By the way, after the Symphytum finished it's first bloom season, I cut it back hard and put the cuttings on my compost heap. About a month later you will be rewarded with another flush of bloom and the cuttings will have already decomposed. What more could you ask for!

Off to put on another layer of socks.
Melanie

Technology

Good morning,

Nothing like a fresh new day. My rested brain thinks it has figured out how to access those smaller images.

Hope you like today's image. Geranium sanguinium and the lovely silvery foliage of Stachys byzantine (Lamb's ears).

I've deleted my test posts from last night so I don't bog down anybody on dial-up.

Right now we are covered in a fresh blanket of white snow so the only gardening going on is photo manipulation.

Weight Loss Tips - 1

Ok, now many of you are probably asking how does the title "Weight Loss Tips" fit in with my garden blog theme here. Well for one thing, I really look forward to working in the garden this spring. For the first time in years I have more energy than I know what to do with and you can bet I'll be focusing some of that new found energy into my garden.

For the past week I've been hounded by weight loss spam every time I log on to the internet. These ads are combined with before and after photos that basically look like somebody first slouched over and stuck out their belly and then stood up straight and sucked their gut in as far as possible.

No photos here, at least not for now. What you'll read here (and hopefully once a week or so) is what worked for me. Bear with me, this post will be a bit longer as I lay out the ground work.

Here's the background, no holds barred. Last year during winter break (February 2008) I decided I was sick and tired of the extra weight I'd been carrying around. Most of the people who know me did not think of me as fat at that time. I was wearing a size 10 in pants, sometimes I squeezed into an 8 if it was labled "curvy fit". By the way, that "curvy fit" really means "hey, you should be buying the next size". When I was married at the early age of 23 I was 123 pounds. As my age crept up into the 30's, so did my weight and by my early 40's I followed suit and found myself weighing in the low 140's. So how did it happen that by the time I was in my late 40's I was no longer in that 140 range?

I was never one to step on the scale. Truth be told, I'd rather go to the dentist than confront the number on that little thing. It took two weeks of "dieting" before I had the nerve to get on that scale. Holy cow, it said I was 162 pounds and I knew I had already lost a few pounds by then. Did that motivate me? No way, I went into a funk and ate my way to happiness for another month. Great, now I was up to 165.

Finally, with no pants fitting me I decided I just had to get back on track. There are so many weight loss tips and products on the market but all I could think of was something I overheard at the pool at the Kings Point senior citizen developement in Delray Beach Florida. There was a younger man there with a body builders physique who was speaking to two women. He told them that his opinion was that somebody should NOT try to lose weight by working out. Working out builds muscle and it also makes you hungry. His idea was to try to lose the weight first and then start toning your muscles. Ok, but you still have to figure out how to lose that weight. Still, the thought of no working out sounded good to me so my next step was to figure out how to cut those calories.

If you are like me then you've read hundreds of weight loss tips and articles. I can't even count how many times I've read that you should eat a big breakfast, a medium lunch and a small dinner. I'm not a breakfast person but I thought this might work for me so I started making myself a big healthy breakfast. I measured 3/4's of a cup of Fiber One (bran) cereal into a bowl, added a lowfat yogurt and splurged on what ever berries were available in the supermarket. Yum yum, that was a delicious breakfast. Lunch was always a salad of some sort with lots of protein and dinner was our usual dinner fare but smaller portions. Did I lose weight? Nope, not really, maybe a few pounds over 3 months but nothing to write home about.

Maybe the big breakfast concept works for some people but for me it just stretched my stomach and I continued to want to eat all day. The good news though was that I had stopped gaining weight and managed to get into the high 150's which got me back into a few pairs of pants. Do I think this type of diet would work in the long run? Yup, it would but I wanted to lose weight now, not 2 years from now.

By May 2008 my motivation was kick started and I found myself looking more seriously at my eating habits. My biggest weakness came around 4:00 in the afternoon and continued until 6:00 pm. We were late dinner eaters here, usually eating as late as 7:30 pm. My problem was I was hungry long before that and nothing was safe when I began grazing my way through the kitchen. So I made a huge decision, I would no longer eat dinner at 7:30. Dinner time for me had to be when I was hungry, even if it was 5:00 pm. Luckily, with only one daughter left at home, this was something that I could manage since Emily spends most of her evenings at the high school at after school activities. Also, my husband Don is not a big eater and he was fine with not getting dinner many nights or just heating up something I had cooked earlier.

I began to cut things out of my diet. No alchohol unless I was at a party or dinner occassion. No bread, that meant no bagels, no toast, no sandwiches or anything like that. I didn't cut out the carbs all the way, I still had pasta (smaller portions) and potatoes when they were on the menu. I just cut out the bread.

The big breakfast just wasn't working for me and I switched back to my old standbye. Two cups of coffee and a slimfast meal bar. This is my number one tip and I truly believe the reason my weight loss began to really work. Today I still have the same thing every morning. It fills me up and I don't get hungry again until about 11:30 am.

Ok, I'm going to end this here. Be assured there are lots more tips coming. One thing I forgot to mention at the beginning of this post is that for the last two weeks my weight was 125 pounds and I've actually had to make an effort to put a few pounds back on! For those of you who are math challenged, that's a total weight loss of 40 pounds!

Now don't forget, this is what worked for me and I'm not a dietician or anything like that. I'm a stay at home mom and gardener.

So to wrap things up, the tips in this post are:

1. I didn't work out while trying to lose weight. I did move about though, walking is something I've always loved and once I lost some weight I swam daily but nothing super strenous.

2. The big breakfast didn't work for me. I'm much happier with a small breakfast and decided it's ok to eat lunch at 11:30 if that's when I'm hungry.

3. Late dinners are a killer. Rather than graze for two hours in the early evening, I ate dinner then and didn't eat later in the evening.

Stay tuned for more diet tips and of course, more gardening posts (once this darned snow goes away).

Poinsettia Guilt

Poinsettia. Nothing says Christmas like the Poinsettia.

The new colors available are amazing but even the old stand-bye red will warm your heart.

Poinsettia's are so easy to grow, that's the problem with them. You see, after Christmas, after New Year's, after all the holiday decorations are packed back in the attic, you find yourself left with a bright red plant.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the color red, my kitchen has lots of deep red accents. But a red plant that screams CHRISTMAS? Nope, this just doesn't fit into my decorating scheme. Ha! That sounds like my house is a showcase out of Better Homes and Gardens but it isn't. I just can't seem to get used to this plant being in my house right now.

So here comes the guilt part. You can stop watering it and let it die a slow, painful death. You can imagine it needs more sunshine and put it out on the breezeway and forget the fact that it's the frozen tundra out there. Instant death sounds so much better than a slow death but I just can't make myself do it.

The other day I posted to a daylily listserve I belong to and posed this same question. What do you do with your Poinsettias? The reply I liked best came from a woman who suggested watering it and ignoring it until spring. Then take it outside and plant it in the garden where you need to fill in a hole (or in a container with other foliage plants). The leaves won't be red then, but it will grow big and lush and fill in a spot that was barren. Come fall when a heavy frost settles down, it will die but it will have lived on for one more glorious season.

Now I only need to find blinders to wear every time I walk through my living room. Or better yet, maybe I'll move it to my daughter Lauren's room since she is away at college. Hmmm, I think I'll do just that!

Just "me"

Here we are, the end of January with the dull dreary days of February barreling down upon us.

So where have I been? I've been here, not on my computer but here, in my house and up at the school.

What's new you ask? Well, it appears our desktop computer has finally passed out for good. I have my photos saved on an external hard-drive but haven't moved them yet to this laptop. Since I'm known to be technologically challenged, it might still be awhile before I get photos back up here. At least I'm not chomping at the bit to take lots of photos these days, right now everything is white or dirty gray outside.

My first inclination was to title this post "the new me". You see, there have been some big changes in our lives and more changes yet to come. People around here who know me personally have noticed one of the changes. Over the last year I lost a total of 40 pounds. I really didn't have 40 pounds to lose though so I find myself with the unusual task of having to put 5 pounds back on again! So when it comes to the physical me, maybe there is a new me but I find the old me is still right there, under my skin.

This June will be our 25th wedding anniversary. It will also be our last wedding anniversary. Read between the lines if you will. The biggest change yet to come? Chances are this coming growing season will be the last one here in this garden. So here's another "me", not "us", just "me". The garden is something I just can't really think about, it just seems to be hiding in a corner of my mind, waiting for spring before it begins to set down roots and grow again.

Being a gardener, I think I'm an eternal optimist. While I know that any house I can afford in this town will be a tiny cottage, I have dreams of a magazine-like cottage garden with white picket fences and lots and lots of cutting flowers just cascading over rough walkways. Hmmm, maybe I can think of gardening after all.

Hopefully this tentative sticking of my big toe in the water's of the world wide web will lead me to jump back in. I've put up all the comments many of you left me on my blog but will only begin answering new comments for now.

Hugs to everybody,
Just "me", Melanie

Columbus Day

Whew! Columbus day weekend and our marching band home show are finally behind us. Now there's just a bit of breathing space and a wee bit of time for the garden.

Here's a lovely shot of one of the old churches on Main Street in our charming village of Huntington New York.

Looking up Main Street, we were waiting for the big Columbus Day Parade to begin!

And here they come, the most amazing, incredible, Walt Whitman High School Wildcat Marching Band. Hooray!!!

Ever wonder why?

Why? Have you ever seen a plant growing in a garden that you used to grow years ago? Do you ever wonder "why aren't I growing it now"?

In my very first, very beginner-like garden I grew a large patch of Chelone. I'm pretty sure I didn't know how to pronounce it back then since I'm still not sure of how to say it today. The nick name around here is false turtle head.

Back to the story, I had this big clump of Chelone. I thought I was the best gardener in the world because it was just thriving! Then I tried to dig a piece out of the ground. It had roots like I'd never seen before, they just twisted and turned and went all over the place. I was freaked out by those roots and have never grown it again.

How silly is that?

Last week when we visited Stonecrop I saw this nice clump of Chelone. Oooohhh, I wish I had a nice clump of Chelone in my garden. Look how lovely it looks even now in early fall.

I do have the white variety in my garden, it doesn't seem to be as fast growing as the pink variety. In fact, I don't remember seeing it bloom this summer but I was away much of July. It will be interesting to see if come spring I've matured enough to get past those weird roots and buy a pot of the pink Chelone 'Hot Lips'.

Stone Troughs - Part Two - Germany

This past summer I was lucky enough to spend two glorious weeks touring Germany with my mom. We have quite a large family in Germany so rather than see the big tourist sites, we also got to see small places that only the locals know about.

My cousin Ingrid took us to the most amazing place. I don't know what town it is in, I do know it's an easy drive from Frankfurt. The place was a mill stone museum and they had a charming restaurant and hotel by the name of Hotel Wambacher Muhle. If you are visiting Germany, I think this would be a great place to spend a day or two. Bring some hiking shoes as I understand there's some spectacular trails that start at this hotel.

At first I wasn't sure I wanted to visit a mill stone museum, then I saw that they also collected troughs. These troughs were real ones, carved out of stone, not the new light weight ones.

Here you can see how they were interspersed through out the mill stone display.

Germany was going through a cool, wet season while we were there so everything was amazingly lush and green. I really loved the way these troughs looked. Here you can see a spot where the stream was diverted through a channel alongside the hotel.

Resting over the channel in various spots were these beautiful troughs. You can see how different they feel as opposed to the dry barren troughs in my previous posts (taken in New York). I think both styles are fantastic.


This trough was filled with a Sedum that was at peak bloom. I don't have the name of the Sedum but it could have easily been Sedum 'Acre'.

Now we'll see some troughs with stones in them too. How about a dward hardy Geranium in the planting scheme? I love it!

Don't have any troughs near you? No worries, how about a big old wash basin? I know they sell them here at the hardware stores and they aren't terribly expensive.


I had to throw in a landscape shot showing the hotel in the backdrop. Oh if only I had a good pair of walking shoes with me.

This wash basin was filled with perennials, and yes, there are daylilies in it too.

Another trough, so lush and full. I think the different stone arrangements inside the troughs add great charachter.

As a last shot, I give you a tantalizing view of one of the walkways. This one was easy to navigate so I went down to the water. I can only imagine how lovely the walkways that went up into the mountains and woods must be.

Stone Troughs - Part One

The main focus at Stonecrop is their alpine collection. While I think spring is their peak season, we certainly had many wonderful things to see now in September.

This collection of stone troughs was set perfectly. I really liked how every now and then a specimen from the trough was also planted at the foot of the trough as if it escaped.

Here you can see how the different textures play against one another. Another thing I noticed is that they had no fear about leaving empty spaces. In my own garden I tend to cram in as much as possible but these troughs were very restful feeling.

This was my favorite of the rectangular troughs. I would really like to do something similar in my own garden.

This one was a very close runner up and I know I have these types of rocks around here. I think that this would be a fun project to do with children.

Be still my heart, when I came upon this type of planter I thought I had died and went to heaven. Kim and I both desperately want to make one of these now.

Here's a close up shot. Not much more than a jumble of rocks, just enough thought put into the placement to keep it from falling apart and yet loose enough to feel totally natural.

For those of you who have a shady corner that you can't get anything to grow in, you have to try one of these. Another pile of rocks but this time planted with shade plants. Ferns, miniature Epimediums, moss, mini Hosta, I can imagine all kinds of goodies to plant in these nooks and crannies.

Finally, another type of man made rock garden, these were on a larger scale. I bet you could even use broken up concrete from construction sites to make these cool beds.

These types of garden are not for the "flower" lover although most of these plants will flower at one time. Yet, I find they tug on my heart in a totally different way. Kind of a call to my wanderlust soul.

I titled this post as "part one" because I also have a wonderful set of photos of trough gardens that I shot in Germany this summer. They'll be popping up here some time this week.

Off to look at the stones in my garden,

Melanie

Stonecrop - An Overview

This past Tuesday I went on a trip with my garden club to Stonecrop gardens in Cold Spring, New York. My friend Kim and I have been waiting for this trip for years now so we were really excited to finally be on our way.

Today I just have time to share some landscape shots and give a quick overview.

My favorite part of the garden was the flower and vegetable garden area and this opening photo is my new screen saver on my computer.

Dahlia's were used in many places to accent the various color schemes. They weren't planted in groups, instead they used individual cultivars as focal points and they were stunning.

Grasses and Boltonia swayed with the most gentle breeze. What a delightful spot to stand and listen to our charming tour guide Michael.

I didn't get a chance to look up the name of the purple flower here. We were given highly detailed maps and plant lists but I tucked them in my backpack right away so I'd be free to shoot photos.

How's this for a glorious early fall grouping?

Interspersed through out the perennials were a wealth of tender plants too. Look in the top left corner and you'll see the leaves of a Banana peaking out. One plant I noticed quite a bit and have put on my wish list is Angelica. I've grown Angelica before in my herb bed but here it was a wonderful accent in the flower gardens.

Another thing I noticed quickly was that the purple perilla was allowed to naturalize in many locations where its dark foliage was just what was needed.

A photographer who likes to take landscape shots would have a field day at this lovely garden. Every time you turned around there was a spectacular view just begging to be photographed.

This bridge was aptly named the Flintstone bridge. I was disappointed that our group wasn't led across it.

A final shot from the inside of the Wisteria Pavilion.

As soon as I have the time I'll be posting about the most well known feature of Stonecrop, the trough and stone gardens that were just amazing.