Everyday Happenings

Big Things I’m Doing Differently in 2018

March 1, 2018 by Ilona Erwin

Remember “The Beverly Hillbillies”? How about “The Brady Bunch”, or “Green Acres”, for that matter?

They are all TV shows that started out with a theme song that told their stories. For me, it could have been

“There once was a woman who homeschooled, With her ten kids, she moved out to the country and found she needed to keep her sanity.

She wanted something creative. Something that could be constantly interrupted, something at home, something that was cheap, but that inspired her and gave her some peace and quiet”

God knows, she needed that peace and quiet.

So all my efforts at many self-expressing endeavors boiled down to and centered around ~ta-da~ GARDENING. Then as a by product, blogging superseded even that obsession. I wrote and website-d about GARDENING.

But life changes, and I grew old. My kids have grown and many have moved to other parts of the country. It was inevitable that my garden life would change.

And, (understatement here) the internet changes. Goals for the blogging and websites changed, coalesced, and are undergoing rebirth.

Now What, I Have Been Asking

It started with a little break last year.

Which then morphed into a full blown hiatus. I know I haven’t posted here, or written many new gardening articles on Ilona’s Garden website, and I am not sorry – it was needed.

A similar thing has happened with my gardening.

Big Change #1

Refining and focusing. I’ve always been all over the place, but that inconsistency -while interesting- has not been sustainable. In my gardening, that means I have cut out what I can no longer sustain, and around here the garden is mostly undergoing pruning and cutting. I’m still debating how much of a garden I can reliably maintain.

True confession: While I loved seed starting, I just can’t do it with my present realities. I know how, but it’s not happening again this year.

When I don’t do something in real life it is hard to write about it. I must have more trust in the value of past experience. I’m not sure what that will look like for this blog.

Driving the changes behind the work of either blogging or gardening has been physical wear and tear. In the garden, it might be obvious, but blogging? Considering how much time is spent creating the writing/graphics/ and sites… it involved lots of sitting on my a__. ahem, backside. Plus skipping sleep, for years. That is unhealthy.

Maybe you ran across the info that sedentary lifestyle is as bad as smoking for your health? Yes, I’m testimony to that. That has to change.

Big Change #2

cornfields — I now love the flat plain that holds a wide horizon in view. It used to seem boring, but it opens your mind. The world is a big place.

Widening horizons. Work on the computer and gardening arose from that need to stay at home. I was tethered to my house. That is different now- yes I actually go on annual vacations now. I travel to visit my kids. I am away from home!

Great for me and my family. Not so good for my garden.

I’m even considering tearing up my flagstone walk. I’ll give it this year to get it under control. Representative of the fact that our gardens must change.

stone walkway — The flagstone walk in its better days…

Either I must hire help or simplify the garden. Wear and tear is no longer acceptable. My new view is that gardening should be pleasurable, and when it becomes burdensome it must change in its purpose.

Now I am “creating spaces”, rather than gardens. I’ve lost so many plants that required care or coddling, as well as those which are now crowded out. But this place has matured and invites more birds, so flowers are less of a feature and trees, bushes, seating and birdbaths are more.

The rhythms of my garden year have changed.

Big Change #3

junk — Decluttering started a couple years ago- it is the big focus of my life right now. Getting rid of the dust and detritus.

I’m going to do more of what I like. When you are 65 years old it is high time to stop putting off the things that make life satisfying. I will still pay attention to obligations… maybe more quickly to get them out of the way; but I will not be such a stern taskmaster with myself.

If you read my blogposts, it is because you like me. If I write the posts, it is because I love something or just enjoy the act of writing. I’m a granny now, and my expertise is a result of the life I lived, not some grand maven influencer.

I have a lot of interest in history, family stories, experiencing nature. I’ll start there, and knowing me, who knows where we will end up?

In Sum

It is hard to let go of things. I love flowers so much, and want to grow so many, but they need my time and attention. I realize that as I go on in life it is a process of letting go. As a conservator at heart, it means I sense loss each time. The reality is that such change is opening doorways.

I must always garden in some way, but how that manifests will not be the model of the past.

I love my blogs… they are my creations, but they must change. I might move the “how-to” types of post to my website, and this will be my personal story place. Still gardening, but with a different outlook. It is in flux and evolving now.

Is your gardening changing? What part does the landscape around your home play for you? Do you blog about gardening? How has your vision for it evolved? I’d love to know, friends.

Observations on an Ohio Spring

March 2, 2017 by Ilona Erwin

We haven’t entered springtime officially, but tell the weather that! This has been a most mild winter, and Ohio experienced all time high temperature records for the month of February in 2017. It accelerated a climate phenomenon which, as a gardener, I look for each year.

Viburnum 'Dawn' blooming — Viburnum ‘Dawn’ blooming

Most everyone know of the “Indian Summer” and “January Thaw” that is experienced – those period of unexpected warmth coming in autumn time and the month of January, respectively. The Indian Summer is that bit of reprieve from the onset of freezing temperatures, ideal for a procrastinating gardener to hurriedly put the last of the bulbs into the ground. The January thaws are those sloppy times of year when winter snow (should we be so lucky to have snow cover) becomes slush. I haven’t found it to be a boon to the gardening chores, it is mostly a teaser to better days ahead.

There is another climate pattern that arrives pre-spring, usually in March, but this year quite early, so I found myself gardening in early to mid-February. There is no name for it that I know of, but this warm, dry period has become important in my gardening year.

MUD TIME

You see, in this area it preceded what can be called “mud time”. The ground thaws in earnest, and the spring rains begin to fall, which makes spring ground inadvisable to work. In precisely that sequence.

Despite the eagerness to get soils ready for planting, clay ground just cannot be worked during mud time.

That is why I look for this late winter window, a period when the ground has thawed enough to work, the weather is pleasant enough to spend outdoors, and the rains have not yet arrived. It is a wonderful time to ready the gardens with weeding and even shallow tilling.

Good for weeding because the soils are loose and the roots are easy to pull.

What Shall I Call It?

“The Gardeners Window”? Or maybe “Indian Spring”? It is a time that allows for the same short enjoyment of ideal conditions that the Indian Summer spate of the last hurrah of golden days gives us.

It is a window, not a door, and even as I write this Gardener’s Window has shut, for now. Rains have soaked the ground, and temperatures will grow colder. I already regret not moving some of the earth I had planned to, but grateful for a front yard spot that is nearly ready for early spring planting.

It also allowed for clearing some of the old vegetable garden in readiness for transplanting wayward strawberry plants before the spring tilling.

The older I grow the more grateful I am that weather conditions allow me my slow pace in the round of chores. Such work is more of a pleasure than a burden.

Sign of Spring is Crocus

The warmth causes the crocus to bloom very early.

Out here in the boondocks of long horizons and farmers fields, the signs of season’s change are always a bit delayed compared with most of Central Ohio. Even the extremely early warmth, while coaxing may spring bulbs to greater foliage heights, did not culminate in bloom… except for the enthusiastic crocus.

I favor Snow Crocus corms, and they pop up and bloom quite early- I had a whole stand of them which have naturalized underneath a Sweet Cherry tree a-buzzing with bees last week.

For this, the feeding of foraging bees, it is reason enough to plant as many crocus as one can afford in both budget and labor.

Naturalizing Crocus

white crocus — White Snow Crocus photo Ilona Erwin

This is a challenge. The bulbs are favorite snacks of a number of critters. Most of my plantings see decrease, not increase. In fact, that area of spreading C.Tommasinianus did not struggle against the challenges to which others had succumbed. Yes, I’m talking about “The Mowers” who are not me.

It underlines Nature’s fiat on the necessity of bulb foliage growing until fully withered. The crocus in this space also has little competition from grass, since I neglectfully allowed weeds to grow there instead. Not that I advise this particular practice! But I do see that grass can be a merciless competitor.

Along Come the Snowdrops

The Galanthus nivalis, Snowdrops had bloomed at the same time as the early crocus this year. I had intended to divide and move some of them, now I will wait until they are finished blooming, but before they cease active growth.

I read an interesting tidbit about this plant that could explain why they are so slow to spread on their own in my garden. In their own native lands, the bees pollinate, but it is foraging ants (which are attracted to the elaiosomes on their seeds containing fats and proteins) who help plant and spread Snowdrops.

In my garden I must manually ensure the groups of G. nivalis. They have been very slow to grow into nicely blooming clumps.

The Trees and Bushes

As usual for my yard, the Viburnum ‘Dawn’ showed some pink blooms in its clusters- not full blown, but just a hint. The silver maples dropped their red flowers to litter the walkways, deck, and driveway. It is hard to say whether the return of freezing temperatures will be taken in stride or not… it all depends on how cold for how long, and how far the plants have progressed in their growth.

Whatever the longer term effects, it is so pleasant to be outside comfortably in the months that can be chilling and harsh in most years. After all, the Native Americans called this month’s moon the “Hunger” or “Snow” moon.

Moon Month Names

The Usual Chores

Usually, late winter is a good time to prune many of your woody plants. As the month turns to March, the time has arrived to begin your indoor seed starting. Gardening will begin in earnest at the end of this month. Tools sharpened and ready?

Spring cometh.

Snippets of Gardening, February’s Mercies

February 7, 2017 by Ilona Erwin

One of the mercies found within an Ohio winter are those small windows of dry enough conditions and relatively pleasant weather. They are almost always very short, so the opportunities need to grasped. We have a short window at this moment and I have used it to carry on the weeding and garden preparation that the beautiful fall allowed in 2016.

I’m so grateful to be able to work in the yard, and it makes me hopeful that I will regain my garden from it’s state of decay and disarray. For the coming 2017 season, at least.

Proverbs 27:1
Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.

I can’t promise that I will have a groomed garden next year or in the future beyond, but things are looking good for this year.

Back to February’s mercy:
We have mild temperatures and I have been cleaning out the areas under the shrubs where weeds and unwanted grasses took hold. I hope to clear a stubborn area of poison ivy from its hold under the quince bush. Removing buildup of grass and messy plantings near the fieldstone walk is bearing visible results, as well.

Remember this walk after I cleaned it of weeds some years ago?

You can see the Spirea at the base of the lantern post with the Alberta directly behind. Unfortunately the Hinoki cypress succumbed to an unknown disease a couple years ago.. The Alberta is so much larger that it has filled in .

Little Improvements

While out and working I am better at making plans. The large green urn will go in front of the Alberta spruce instead of behind it this year. It will sit on a troublesome part of the stone walk that always gets overgrowth. While I was down there clearing under the Alberta in anticipation of the urn setting there in the spring, I noticed old stones and coffee can that must have been where I had a clematis planting long ago.

The can is rusty now, and the stones are completely hidden by the Princess spirea that grows there now. It was evidence of the way I plant my clematis… learned from Dad back in the 70’s. The can allows for extra soil to be built up around the roots without suffocating the vine with too deep planting. The stones provide extra moisture retention and coolness and keep me from disturbing the roots.

It is a method that usually works extremely well for me, but this particular clematis had been lost. I will pry the rocks out when the ground thaws more thoroughly. Debating still whether to plant another vine there. I am sure it was to clamber up the lantern situated there.

Anyway, I am thankful for the opening in the weather and my time outdoors in the garden. Here is a look at my inspired new urn placement (I’ve been doodling in my Gimp graphics program).

I have plenty of Nepeta (Catmint) that I’m clearing from the stone walk, which will be planted underneath the Alberta.

I noticed over the years that Catmint surrounding the spruce staves off the mites that defoliate the needles, otherwise. There needs to be a thick planting all around the base for it to be effective.

Little ideas and small improvements add up.

Take-Away

Use the gifts that the garden and nature give you, even the little ones make a difference. Even a few days of February opportunity.

Thoughts from the Deep Freezer

January 9, 2017 by Ilona Erwin

It is a normal weather pattern for central Ohio to plumb the depths of single digit temperatures with little or no snow. It is equally expected for gardeners to go into planning mode during the deep freeze of January.

Reviewing the last year has made me realize that I’m more prone than ever to the unknown vagaries to mess up my well laid plans. It is enough to tempt me to have no plan at all, but to be ready for whatever capricious direction my weather takes me.

2016 Examples

The summer was so hot I could not even go outside for a period of time: no weeding, chores, or even cleaning up outside the air conditioned environs of a couple rooms.

On the other hand, the autumn was truly a gardener’s gift, with pleasant temperatures and clear skies which allowed for a bevy of those undone projects of summer to come to completion. Not all surprises are unpleasant ones.

Vacation Plans and Gardening

Another snafu (which I am not complaining about, simply stating) is how traveling can interfere with progress in the garden. Depending on the time, the weeds won’t wait, and attending new plantings may create a conflict. Should I order new plants knowing that I may not be able to properly care for them?

The best way to proceed seems to be lots of plan A, plan B, and Plan C scenarios.
Mindfully following lessons I have learned from a lifetime of gardening: get as much done as early as possible.
Look for late winter/early spring opportunities of preparing the ground, getting tools ready, and setting up the yard for summer enjoyment.

It may be too early to plant or pull out the patio furniture, but clearing last years growth, tilling when possible, winter sowing, even edging can be done. Pruning is a usual activity for that time of year.

On a Sad Note

Winter’s thrall is not only for hopeful planning, but to assess the past. My beautiful Bantam rooster met his demise as fall turned to winter last year. During broad daylight hours he became a meal for a predator who made off with his head. The hens were out in the yard, but he apparently was guarding the coop.

It is very sad because we loved his beauty and personality. He was the companion of our Banty hen, the pair of whom my husband liked to call “George and Martha”. Poor Martha… he had saved her from a Hawk early in the spring, but now his heroic days are done.

Speaking of the chickens, they are no longer laying with regularity. We have kept them cooped up since George’s demise, and they will be reaching their two year mark this spring; two possible reasons for their egg laying hiatus.

Back to Garden Planning

reseda odorata — Reseda is not a showy flower, but sweetly fragrant. I like to sow it in my containers.

Where was I? To order or not to order?

I have decided that I will order some seeds that I have had a notoriously difficult time finding in the past. I received a ‘Select Seeds’ catalog and several things that I want in this years garden are available there… one being Mignonette.
I will purchase a few trees this spring. Small ones.
I will need builders sand for some projects…. must remind husband, well before.
Since I ordered seeds, it makes sense to start some of my own plants indoors.
Considering whether to buy a replacement rooster.

I am trying very hard to keep my plans small, simple, do-able. Becoming overly ambitious and complicated is my Achilles heel. That lesson was relived over the holidays.

The Simple Life

We don’t really need to be entangled in the grandiose and complex. I don’t want to romanticize a simpler life, and I don’t mean the usual way it is understood. Old fashioned is not necessarily simpler, neither is homesteading or growing one’s own food. All that matters is what streamlines our lives in accordance with our own resources and means.

I think what I mean by a simpler life is one that is balanced, lived in moderation, lived well.

My plans will be influenced by that aim in 2017. Do you have plans, ambitious or otherwise? Have you ordered plants and seeds? I noticed that some selections are already being “sold out” for the season.

Lessons from this Post

Chores can be done during winter thaws
Simplify garden plans, take vacation absence into account
Order plants and seeds now, for best selection
Plan to enjoy life, as well as work

This Is What I’m Doing in the Garden

November 29, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Single Focus Living

I can’t seem to gardenblog and attend to my actual chores at the same time, so posting has been sparse. Fall is always one of the busiest times in the garden and this autumn has been spectacularly wonderful for getting things done.

Which is a good thing, because I am now very slow and have been very behind. Not that this is a new condition of life!

The rhythms of seasonal change indoors means putting away summer clothing and bringing out the woolies. A similar set of tasks in the external areas of my home is an autumn ritual.

Tasks we have completed:

Packed up al the outdoor cushions in plastic bags and stored in the shed.
Ditto for most of the outdoor furniture and the grill.
Cleaned off and stored planters
Vacuumed and washed down porch walls
Done first sweep of leaf raking, started on second
Weeded the overgrown veggie patch to get it ready for next year
Cut down a lot of damaged tree branches.
Stacked firewood for the coming winter
Cleaned out the chicken coop

One of my cherries was 3/4 dead. After my husband cut away some large branches we saw that insects had eaten away the heartwood. Carpenter ants were noticed… was that the sole culprit?

That tree had taken the brunt of the Japanese Beetle invasion, being defoliated every year since they arrived. It is also in the drift of farmers poisons. What contributed to its demise? As in all mature trees with problems, it seems there was a confluence of factors.

I left the lone living branch, but there is little hope that I won’t be removing it completely in a year or two. But still… there’s a chance.

We took out lots of nuisance mulberry trees and saplings, removed old lower branches from some of the oldest spruces.

It is surprising how much cleaner the landscape looks when scrubby stuff is removed.

PLANT HIGHLIGHTS

There was a self seeded cotoneaster growing next to a sidewalk. I pried it out and planted it near the original, which has suffered loss the past few years. I hope it takes.
Newly planted rose was blooming and looked beautiful in the focal point given it. It was bought at discount during this horribly hot summer. Planted where the old fir tree stump stood. It had looked, disconcertingly, like a groundhog popping up to stare at our garden. Now the graceful pink shrub rose delights me, instead. Peace in the garden.
The new hydrangea has done well, looking forward to its settling in and coming into its own next season.

THIS OLD DOG LEARNED A NEW TRICK

This year I learned how to mow with a zero turn mower. When very young (pre-teen) I learned to use a reel mower; married with children found me using a push power mower…. through several upgrades to self-propelled; then learned to navigate the yard with a Woods West deck mower on the back of a tractor.

When the Woods West gave up. in time we bought the zero turn. I was a bit scared of using it and didn’t have to since my husband had a short term interest in mowing (the new toy syndrome), and then my son took over.

But young men get jobs and go to school and it becomes the woman at home who mows. Yes, I had a few times of “runaway mower”, but mastered it and can finally get the lawn mowed the way I like.

‘Zero turns’ are pricier, but much better than the small tractor mowers (which I’ve also used). Few people use the big tractor with a Woods West deck!

MORE FALL ACTIVITY

[evp_embed_video url=”http://www.homegardencompanion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_2708.mov”]

2 Second clip
Also managed a trek to Old Man’s Cave. With my less than athletic walking abilities, had to skip this annual trip the pst couple years, but I am trying to regain mobility.

Pleasantly surprised to see how improved the Old Man’s Cave hike has been made for “challenged” hikers like myself. Very safe stairs, new tunnel, rather than precarious old trail, railings, all make this a hike I was able to master.

Not being a Granny Gatewood, it was my own little triumph to be back in the beautiful Hocking Hills on a perfect Ohio autumn day. And on the way home we bought real cider!

So there it is, my autumn accomplishments. I hope your season was enjoyed… and now we can all look forward to the holidays!

…and true confession: started putting up Christmas lights to beat the cold and damp.

Is It Fall Already?

October 3, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

Yesterday’s winds, today’s rain, and the smell that has been on the air tells me so. The asters blooming, the store displays burgeoning with mums (I bought two huge ones at Sam’s Club) also tell the undeniable story that summer has past.

I still have tomatoes ripening on the vine, and they should continue to the first frost, which I expect around midway through October. How did the summer get away from me?

Oh yes, all through the hot and humid days which kept me immobile in my house. When the weeds had their way – and due to my health I could do nothing about them. Do weeds laugh? If so, mine were in the throes of hilarity.

But such restrictions do have their bright side, believe it or not. I am learning, once again, to savor the days and their blessings. To be thankful for the gift of a hummingbird sighting, or a morning spent muddling about. The small joys to be had, no matter what the circumstance.

And now it is fall.

In Ohio, these really are the best of days. A cool, crisp edge to the air, and intense skies of celestial blue. A clear, strong blue so unlike summer’s. The bird calls change, with a Blue Jays strident voice above the others.

The menu changes, too, with everything becoming apples, pumpkins, and soups.

There is always a sense of reflection in the autumn, for me. Is it that way for you?

Looking back over the growing season as it now comes to its natural close, brings a little sadness, too. I am one of those people who begins with a burst of enthusiasm, and closings bring more melancholy than satisfaction.

The only antidote for closing is the cycle of seasons, a slow accumulation of progress and the sense of ebb and flow that the larger picture gives. I find comfort and satisfaction in that.

But fall time is a joy. Just that transition where everything balances on the cusp of change -a mad rush to enjoy all the fruits, the warmth, the abundance before winter’s advent during November. Time for walks in the woods, gathering the fallen leaves, a color scheme of oranges, yellows, purples, black.

I love fall, but it is a parting, a closing; so it is always tinged with the edge of a certain awareness of its brevity. It is the season of my life, as well. I sense I must enjoy and savor in this season. Enjoy each clear day, prepare during each cloudy one, and gather comforts in memory and materially for the winter ahead.

But a large lesson of the seasons is to not get ahead of oneself… one season at a time.

chinquapin leaves and acorns — Chinquapin leaves and acorns

A couple weeks ago I was taking a walk in a small park my husband and I like for its proximity and short, manageable trail distance. During a respite on a metal bench at one of the overlooks, a loud “kerplink” signaled falling acorns.

It caught my attention and I looked around for the nuts. They were so tiny, and the oak leaves were different from the usual Red or White oak, or the huge Burr oaks of my county. The leaves were almost dainty in their size and scallops, one had turned a premature yellow. Tufts of green ones, nuts attached, had blown off the trees on this upland ground, cut through with a fast running creek at the bottom of the ravine.

What were they?

The Oak at Indian Run

I have identified it as the Chinquapin Oak. It is also called Yellow Oak or “Yellow Chestnut Oak” as the shape of the leaves are reminiscent of Chestnut leaves.

The description says it is often found on the summit of hills, and this was the location of these.

I brought home some of the fallen leaves and a couple acorns to photograph. The nuts seem unusually small, and I thought of little cups for a fairy garden vignette. The drought of this summer may have contributed to how small they were, but maybe this is normal for the Chinquapin.

It is a “climax species on dry, drought prone soils, especially those of limestone origin“

What Is In a Name?

Latin name of this oak species is ‘Quercus muehlenbergii‘. I like the common name (first known use: 1612) which seems to be derived from Virginia Algonquian chechinquamin, denoting the acorn as an edible nut. citation

The word ‘chinquapin’ seems to be used in old times for sweet nuts, like Chestnuts, and the acorn of this tree (called by one source, the Shin oak) was supposed to be sweet. If it anything like other acorns, it has to be prepared properly to actually be edible.

This was the rabbithole I went down because I wanted to know what kind of oak this was. Oaks are incredibly important in their ecosystems.

Everyday Happenings

Big Things I’m Doing Differently in 2018