Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal




year in review

Mid-Ohio Gardening Update

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Garden updateThe weather has proved unusual, and here is the impact for my garden; plus some jots about other notable conditions and effects.

It has been far wetter than usual, and then there is the inverted effect of our temperatures… June was as miserable as any July-August might have been. The heat and humidity was horrible at the beginning of summer, but what happened in July? Perfect June weather happened. The month of July was perfect for me: cooler temperatures, regular rainfall, prevailing blue skies. It was just lovely.

The Weather This Summer

Now, how did that weather pattern effect my garden? I could not, would not, work in those terrible temperatures of June. Weeds went wild whilst I secluded myself in an air conditioned sanctuary. However, I did manage to plant some containers and a small raised bed with many herbs, a tomato plant and some pepper plants.

Daylily -August 2018Since the weather turned rainy, cooler, and more often cloudy than not, the tomatoes have not yet produced. There are a few green ones coming on… but the Swiss Chard got big and beautiful. Cucumbers have done well, but peppers (who like the same conditions as tomatoes) have done diddly-squat.

I, however, cannot complain since the weather has been good for catching up on weeding. When not working in that capacity, I simply enjoy the lovely days stretched out on my zero-gravity chair.

Getting older means not feeling guilty about such pleasures.

Now, Let’s Talk About The Japanese Beetles

japanese beetle -aug 2018
Japanese beetle feasting on a rose leaf-Aug 2018

They were back in their hordes this year. It meant the death-knell for my Contorted Hazels. Every year the beetles had been eating the leaves and weakening the trees, but this year there just wasn’t the strength left to the trees to rejuvenate. My dear Harry Lauder Walking Stick trees are gone and I blame the effect of the beetles.

The cherry trees were defoliated before I realized, not that there would have been anything done about it. The leaves looked a strange apricot color from a distance. That was because they were becoming skeletonized. The farmers had crop dusters out in force this year, and I suppose it was to spray pesticides for the beetles and their ilk.

Hazel with spider web
Contorted hazel branches with spider web

A nearby orchard draped all their trees in white netting. That was a first for this area.

Here, we went ahead an put out some of the traps and (emptied loads). The trouble with traps is that they work by attracting the pests, but we had to do something. Grapevines and some of the roses were also eaten into apricot-colored oblivion.

When invaded by such numbers there is no defense from trying to pluck off the little beasts from your plantings.

After emptying out piles of beetles from the traps, I wondered whether such things could be turned into feed for chickens on those huge egg farms or something?

Butterflies And Beauty

At the beginning of this summer I was pleased to see lots of butterflies and the spotting of a lone praying mantis, but after the crop spraying, the numbers dwindled noticeably. Except for some of the cabbage butterflies; their presence survives despite all onslaughts, apparently.

There were many more Monarchs in June, and perhaps they have laid some eggs on the milkweeds. I haven’t had the idea to check for them. All my time outside is spent weeding, or harvesting basil for salads and pasta.

I also have the most adorable hummingbird. I noticed the presence of hummingbirds fairly early, so went off to buy some red flowers to pop into the container plantings. The red fuchsia and scarlet sage (Salvia splendens) provide morning stops. As in past years I notice that the lilac bush is a favorite rest stop. Butterflies and hummingbirds enjoy resting on this bush for some reason.

my butterfly

The Rural View

Earlier summer had flooded the fields. The crop plants are mostly recovered and while some corn remains stunted, most fields around here have 8 ft. cornstalks. All looks lush, from soybean to cornstalk to tree. As I mentioned previously, there has been much farm field spraying. While the latest was probably for insects, the other spraying was likely for diseases and fungus.

The hayfields look like they yielded exceptionally well.

I imagine other neighbors are also having a slow harvest of tomatoes- I don’t see any signs for roadside sales of the fruits.

Today was misty and cloudy with comfortable upper 70 temperatures. I hope it stays comfortable during the coming month, and I might get my chores, well not done exactly, but progressing forward.

How has your summer gone? (Because yes, it is almost gone already!)

The Blog Move Finally Gets Attention

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This blog had 1000plus postings and was moved to its own domain with a new WordPress platform. It has taken awhile to get to cleaning up everything around here, especially while trying to adjust the theme and look and write new posts!

The gist of it is that I am today fixing old posts, getting header images on old posts that didn’t have any, organizing information and working on navigation.

I hope that all this work becomes noticeable in the near future. Maybe I should add that as of this time I am up to year 2009 and hope to make further progress today…

Garden Update And Late Starts

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Every year I promise I won’t go AWOL during the main growing season of the garden. Just so I will get everything done and catch up with the past year’s neglect. but every year I manage to break those unspoken, informal vows.

Usually family related, but sometime through the call of far off places I leave the yard in varying states of upkeep and return to a jungle.

This year I didn’t even start until I returned after Mother’s Day.

Vegetables Are Growing

Nevertheless the vegetable garden was put in, and I have harvested the salad stuff. Handyman rigged up a somewhat permanent support for my tomatoes, in between the latest upkeep of painting the house’s metal roof.

I finally went about buying plants for my containers, and reversed the usual schedule of garden cleanup, starting from the outer reaches (the vegetable beds) and working inward toward the house. I was so ashamed of my driveway entrance that I finally popped in some flowers and halfway cleared the weedy overgrowth. Now I am only half ashamed.

Flower container with Rose geranium and Polka Dot plants
I should take photos of my best container examples -not the ones that are thrown together. Next time.

This year has been forgiving of late starts, so far.

The tomatoes and peppers are a little behind, but the spinach grew like… what is a good simile? As in a time lapse, almost visibly leafing out like a Magician’s scarf trick. It was the old fashioned ‘Bloomsdale Long Standing’ variety, I think.

It was very good tasting even after those hot spells, and hasn’t bolted yet, though the radishes long had gone to flower and cracked … now cleared away.

No, I didn’t note which seeds I planted this year – in the rush to just get something planted.

I have switched over to raised beds and deeply mulched the paths in the last few years. The chickens make havoc of the paths as they scratch through. Now an extra chore of raking the mulch into even levels is added to program of regular tasks.

The mulched paths have kept the weeds down and spare both dust and mud. They have been a good idea, so far.

Summer Storms

magnolia tree after the rainstorm
M. stellata after the storm

We had a powerful storm last night and the leaves of the Star Magnolia and the hostas are still turned from the winds. Tree leaves are scattered everywhere and the seat cushions even blew off the porch.

I had given up on the many predicted days of precipitation, and watered. The overnight storm brought inundations and flash flood warnings, but is all soaked up now.

My Hands… And Muscles

All the weeding and pruning that was needed has taken its toll. My mind can always accomplish more than my body can keep up with. However, what is more satisfying than the result of a newly tidied garden?

I have only bits that qualify for that description, but still! Every area that is worked on shows such marked difference that it redoubles my determination to see the job through.

And the weather has helped immeasurably. Warm, but with cooling breezes and overcast days, lend meaning to the old farm saying “make hay while the sun shines”.  Whether sunny or in shadow, the days have been perfect for yardwork.

When the hot and humid Ohio summer settles in, Nature will be given no restraints from me. At least not on the scale that shows progress,

The Yin And Yang Of Gardening

It is a constant exchange of both positives and negatives in working a garden. It is more obvious to me as I am older, but I must flow with both the successes and the failures… which more often seem just an illusion of my own making.

So many years of no fruit from my sweet cherries and the destruction of one of the trees in entirety by Japanese beetles, only to have a flush of beautiful fruit on one of the trees this year.

The loss of a tree can produce an area of light; the loss of branches becomes a plethora of fruit; cool temperatures are a delay of one type of plant while prolonging the bloom of another.

We don’t always have everything figured out and our subjective view often lacks wisdom.

The Garden Now

Shirley poppy
Shirley Poppies are blooming now. This one hold the pod of another opening bud.

My dream of a gardened place has given way to that of a planted place. It also is more derelict than I would like.

As gardeners we all harbor a vision of ‘The Secret Garden’ somewhere in our mind. Long neglected, the earth with just a little care springs forth as Eden. The reality might be closer to blood, sweat, and tears.

But the lesson of “late starts”, as taught in the garden, is that the outcome may surprise you and the only failure is to not to have tried.

For all its work, the storms, pests, and losses, there is nothing so peace nurturing, soul satisfying, and restorative as the hours spent puttering in the garden.

 

Autumnal Sweetness

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The door is closing on this growing season. To make up for the sense of loss, somehow the season has incredible sweetness. Frost has that effect on things. On fruits, on the the ground, on our souls.

It is as if to placate our mournful sense that the pleasant days of fall will give way to winter’s austere lessons of rest, endings, and survival.

Sweet Labors

october gourds

I have had a few simply perfect days of warm weather, crisp mornings which end in mellow afternoons. The days are shorter, but filled with end of season work. The kind of work that is a pleasure to accomplish. Gathering in the last of tomatoes, picking gourds for indoor decor, clearing out the old garden to make way (and planning already!) for the new.

Garden Tips
It is time to put away outdoor furniture and cushions. Clean up the vegetable garden.

I have readied the outdoor furniture’s cushions for storage, but the nights are just right, still, for gatherings around the fire. I have to put away the lounging invitations of our back porch, but not yet ready to relegate all seating to the indoor fortress of a cold climate. That will come soon enough.

There is something so sweet about the smells of the dying and fallen leaves. If you pay attention, the individual trees and plants have their own distinctive fragrance to them. Maple is most acrid and strawberry is aromatic, not with strawberry smell, but in a likeness.

Walks and short hikes have been in order. Enveloped in the woodsy aroma of thickets, trees and streams dotted with floating leaves, filling my memories with the gaudy color framed in browns and stubborn greens.

On an Autumn walk
On an Autumn walk

autumncreek

Pleasant And Tasty

It is apple time, and the farmer’s market is bursting with varieties of all kinds. Pumpkin pies are on my menu, and the aromas of burning leaves and hickory logs in the chill nights all infuse life with sweet smells and a cozy sentimentality. It warms my inner thoughts as well as my jacket clad body.

Seasonal Recipes
Apple recipes

This time of year increases our craving for comfort foods, many made from the increase from our gardens. Along with apple everything, good cabbage dishes and tender squash, chicken pot pies and hearty soups suddenly sound irresistible.

Weather And the Garden

We have had a few frosts. None have been the hard killing kind, so there are still some flowers in my wildflower patch. Soon though, this soft kindly end of my garden will be over and the realities of winter in the North will arrive. I know that. I just want to dream and revel in this aromatic and sunshine warmed time a little longer.

It has been a very lovely year in Ohio. I wish I could say the same for other parts of the country, places with persistent drought or with record rain and flooding.

My heart always goes out to those who struggle surviving the elements. We are all vulnerable and subject to these whims of nature.

All the more reason to count our blessings and fully appreciate the good that is given us, today.

I am grateful for the good harvest, the comfortable weather, and the generally congenial conditions of this past season.

thefountain

It is to be savored in our memories, as not all years are so gentle and generous.

Monarch Butterflies In The Garden

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This year I saw a big uptick of Monarchs, along with many other types of butterflies in my garden. The most promising thing is the many Monarch caterpillars that I see happily munching on my plants.

I don’t begrudge them.

The garden has lots of Milkweed in it ( grown just for Danaus plexippus), but surprisingly the plants that the larvae most love seem to be Ruta graveolens, or better known as “Rue”.

Full grown butterflies absolutely love the butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa and “Butterfly Bush“, which I also grow, but the caterpillars don’t noticeably feed on them. That surprised me.

Other Plants They Visit In My Garden
  • Autumn clematis
  • Sedum spectabile
  • Bronze Fennel
  • Asters
pink asters
Aster buds and flower

This is the the first in a number of years that I have seen promising numbers of butterflies, particularly of the Monarchs. I am glad of it, but must say that it is still not even near the many crowds of them that I would see in earlier years at this time of the season.

The hopeful thing is simply that the numbers are noticeably increasing in my own garden- which has its challenges from surrounding farmland that is often sprayed.

How I Help Butterflies

  • Plantings that they love
  • No spraying ever
  • Small areas of water (like a birdbath and indented rocks)

One thing I started in recent years has been “meadow areas”. This is easy because as an aging gardener I can no longer give the flower beds the upkeep I once did. I have wildlife supportive plantings of prairie denizens and weedy things like goldenrod and milkweed (real milkweed, Asclepias syriaca).

goldenrod
Goldenrod blooming now

I am not bragging about that… it is just a fact of life. I do like the meadow section with its Echinacea and a bit of Monarda. I would actually like less Goldenrod there. The ornamental grasses did not thrive there, but it has been a feature that has been experimentally successful I think. And good for insect life.

If you would like a list of plants and some tips on encouraging butterflies in your garden I have written an article for you to read.

Make Your Yard a Butterfly Destination

New Year, New Look, New Plans

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What’s Ahead

Christmas Roses

More Video in 2015

The blog has a new look. In keeping with the changes of the internet,i.e. more mobile users, I attempt to create a more functional design.

You may notice the emphasis on including a video gallery. That is the direction I hope to go this year- always choosing the most challenging option possible, I guess.

The important thing for me is to not worry about how amateur I look in the process of the learning curve, but producing something useful and helpful to other gardeners.

Why would I want to make more videos? Probably because I like to learn in that way, and figure that this is true of many others. It is a variation on the “a picture is worth a thousand words” maxim.

While I genuinely love to write how-to and information based posts, perhaps writing is better for musings, inspirations, etc.

Right now, if there is a choice of watching a one minute example of pruning lavender, or reading an article that tries to implement visual aids of clumsy graphics and a few photos… I believe I would rather have the video.

Clean Look

We are all talking about “clean”. Clean eating, clean living, and a clean experience. I am trying to pare down all the junk, in my home environment, my garden, and this blog.
The aim, of course, it to clarify thinking, increase calm ( just like those ubiquitous posters???), become lighter weight in life. We carry so much in the form of belongings, obligations, and distractions, it seems.

Garden Plans

I am so much slower and have less physical resources, so “slow gardening” is a necessity for me. No more big plans that I can slap out in a couple days of exhausting work. Last time I tried that, I injured my knee with long term consequences.
No, now I will garden with deliberation and a smaller scope of goals in tow. My plan is to enjoy my gardening and not allow the work of it to drive me… yet still expand parts of it.
I think I mentioned my gardening partnership. I will expand the food gardening (and hopefully master the harvesting part of it) by working alongside a friend who is going to “community garden” here.
Her enthusiasm is contagious and I could use the motivation to get back to cooking and eating a better diet this summer.

Becoming Calm

I want my garden to be a place of reflection and complement my spiritual direction. I have plenty of space and like the idea of setting up a prayer/exercise walk. The idea is one of encouraging a daily morning excursion around the yard.

Balance

If I accomplish these two main projects:
  • Food garden
  • Prayer walk path
I believe it will balance the tension I often feel between blogging, creative work and the practical daily tasks that tug at me. Sometimes one side tugs and prods, sometimes the other.
I end up inefficient and often dissatisfied. But the balance achieved by changing how I start my days and the time given to fueling my inner being promises to lessen regret and confusion. I think it will help center me, which is my best weapon against distraction.
Plus I will have some nice vegetables on my plate!

The Declutter Lifestyle

Yes, I think it is becoming my lifestyle, now. God knows I need to head in that direction!
While continuing to sort through my home life, decluttering the garden will be next.

Severing Old Links

When I was working on changing the design of this blog over the past week, I found I had linked to many things that no longer were there. Worse than 404’s are the parked domains with spam ads and links.
I severed those links, taking them off the site. I know I will have to continue to sort through even those of some benefit, just to streamline the experience here into one where the utmost of “time well spent” is the aim.
This is so much like my life, in general. I have many “old links” that don’t go where they were originally meant to, or which have minimal benefit to either of us. Something about those links must change. Otherwise they anchor too much of my energy and thinking to what drains me, instead of invigorating or nurturing me. Or allowing me to become that for others.
So this is a window into the year of 2015.
I might name it “consolidating”.
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© 2015 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.