Wild Thing

We went for a walk last evening--the dogs, Toby, my digital camera and I. It's a great way to unwind after a day in the office. Along the lane beside my pasture, there are dozens of interesting things to look at and photograph. I'm walking and thinking about my digital camera. Digital, what an huge stride forward. Of course I loved my old Canon EOS SLR too, but how great to snap away with a 4 gig memory card. No worries about changing film. Take a dozen photos of the same squirrel, save one and delete 11. No hassles having the film processed (or lost by the processor as happened to me on several occasions). Light weight, 12x zoom lens (which is approximately equal to a 432mm lens) but without the weight and without having to carry a bag with lenses and tripods.

Growing along the lane are two milk weed plants, huge blooms just opening. Lovely fragrance. No Monarch caterpillars on the pristine foliage, I always look.

Off by the fence, Queen Ann's Lace stands tall above the grass. Today she is just opening her blossoms to host the tiny predator wasps. On a more romantic note, the flower was named for Queen Ann of course who enjoyed sewing beautiful lace. The red at the bloom's center is a tiny drop of her blood, dripped onto the lace from a finger prick.
I barely noticed the clover. One is growing in wheel ruts or I would have missed it. No bees, they may have deserted the clover for the QAL. Had to lay in the grass to get this prospective.

To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee.
One clover, and a bee.
And reverie.
The reverie alone will do If bees are few.
~ Emily Dickinson

A little song sparrow follows us along the fence row. He probably has a nest nearby and isn't happy to see the cat walking along his lane. The feathers on his head are standing up, he looks a little frazeled. Maybe the cat or maybe his kids are giving him a hard time. I wonder if he is the same song sparrow who sat in my locust tree and sang so loudly and sweetly early in the spring. He was a bachelor then with no cares.

The horses used to stand in the shade of this old apple tree. They picked the low hanging fruit and waited for the rest to fall. Now the deer get all the apples.
When we reach the hilltop beside the barn, a squirrel is checking out the logs that are often stuffed with peanut butter. Peanut butter is meant to attract birds so I can photograph them. The squirrels get the largest share.

I had to include Toby's photo, he sometimes thinks he's wild. This old, abandoned piece of farm equipment fascinates him. He wants his own blog post. He's pretty full of himself and thinks everybody would be interested in his thoughts.

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Milkweed

Two days ago I walked 

the empty woods, bent over, 

crunching through oak leaves, 

asking myself questions 

without answers. From somewhere 

a froth of seeds drifted by touched 

with gold in the last light 

of a lost day, going with 

the wind as they always did.

~Philip Levine

I love this brief poem by Melanie Bishop. Seed of whim and chance, what perfect words to describe a wild flower. Click on her name to see more of her poems.

forgotten of days passed
seed of whim and chance
wild Queen Anne's lace
~ Melanie Bishop

queen anne's lace

by elizabeth perdomo

a wild queen of dirt roads & deserted places

with blossoms which crown the summer
& dust kitchen tablecloths with pollen bouquets

queen anne's lace tats the roadsides creamy white

looking delicate as a lineaged lady

it grows deep rooted
strong as a woman
pioneer

How often my kitchen table has been dusted the with the falling petals.


I've heard this weed called cow parsley or cow parsnips. I don't believe that's the correct name. Cow parsley has a white bloom. These weeds get 6 to 8 feet tall.

Hope everyone has a weekend filled with long walks and butterflies.

Gardenig on a budget

Gardening doesn't have to be expensive.

Tiffany purchased bagged and bare root two years ago from Home Depot for about $3.00. If you have a cutting garden these inexpensive roses are perfect. I grow a huge variety for bouquets and didn't spend a fortune. Hybrid tea roses bloom from late May until October freeze.

Unknown white (purple tinged) clematis. If anyone can identify, please let me know the name.
Home Depot purchase last spring for under $4.00. Early in the season HD often has dozens of clematis in small 3" pots. Clematis are tough little plants, mine have done well planted directly into the garden in early spring. I bought several to let ramble among my perennials. They will bloom the second year in the garden.

Stargazer at Menards about $4.00 for a pack of 6 bulbs. Blooms the same year planted.

Siloam Double Classic from Gilbert H. Wild & Son about $2.50. Most of my daylilies are from Gilbert Wild. Over the years the folks at Wilds have been so helpful and supplied large plants in excellent condition. They arrive mid summer and will bloom the following year.

Blue Chips from Home Depot about $3.99 for a 6 inch pot blooming. I never find rare or unusual plants at HD but they are large and often in bloom. I like to be sure of what I'm getting both color and health.

Stella D'oro from Gilbert Wild about $2.00. Stella is a quick multiplier and soon produces an abundance to give to friends or replant in other locations. Stella blooms all summer.

Sunflower from bird seed. Free. Just like the Master Card commercial;)

A small garden for $20. In these days of economic uncertainty, who doesn't love a bargain? (Apology for the discussion of budgets but I'm an accountant, it's to be expected;).

Often I'll take a chance or push the zone on a bargain plant. That way if I made a mistake, I learned a lesson but didn't lose much money.

I live in a small town, we don't have large, exciting garden centers here to choose from. If I lived closer to the wonderful garden boutiques in the Chicago suburbs, I would be bankrupt, homeless and living in the garden. Now that I think about that option, how bad could it be. With a splendid garden fountain (to shower in), cushy outdoor furniture (to sleep on), and a host of garden statues to keep me company, who really needs a house.

I should mention the early and late season sales at Blue Stone Perennials . It's a good source for hard to find plants. Their plants are very small but usually do well and bloom the second year. I have gotten a few cooked perennials (probably stayed in transit too long). Not the fault of Blue Stone but disappointing all the same.

Singing the blues

I've got the blues--at my feeders.


Blue Jays announce their arrival with loud screeches that scatter the smaller birds. They don't remain long--grab a peanut and fly off. Jays are a little like squirrels. They carry their peanuts off and hide many of them to eat later.

Attracting them to your garden is as easy as putting peanuts in a place where they can be seen from above. They also eat sunflower seed. Jays are large birds and prefer to eat from a platform, the one in the photo hangs from a branch or bracket, but a bench or picnic table would be perfect too.

The beautiful blue bird below is and Indigo Bunting. They don't remain in my area all season. This one was passing through on his way farther north where he will spend the summer and raise a family. Indigo Buntings will stop at feeders filled with Nyjer (often spelled differently) thistle or white millet. The tube feeder in the photo contains a combination of proso millet, peanut pieces, sunflower seeds, and safflower. It is a favorite in my garden. The birds prefer it 3 to 1 over plain sunflower.

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the
way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was
before.
~Robert Lynd

I found a great website which lets you listen to and download brief recordings of birdsong. These are primarily birds found in the north central US. It's been very helpful in teaching me to identify birds by their calls even if they can't be seen.

After downloading, I choose the folder option to play all the mp3 recordings one after the other. It's relaxing to listen to an hour or so of bird songs on days when you're cooped up inside. Another plus, this is very entertaining for my cats who run around searching for birds in the house.

http://www.uwgb.edu/birds/wbba/speciesaudios.htm

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I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
~Charles Lindbergh

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
~Henry Van Dyke

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I hadn't heard of Sky Watch Friday until this morning.

Check out Wigger's World

for more info.

A hint of blue. A dramatic sky after last night's thunderstorms.

Have a great weekend everyone. Enjoy the birds in your gardens.

Wishing you all a beautiful sunset.

Golden Moments

Some small bird with wonderful forethought
planted a golden sunflower among the blue
catmint. I left it to grow there, tall and solitary.

A goldfinch watches the sun rise.




Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~Robert Frost

More Rose Parade

Hybrid Tea Roses

Double Delight lives up to the name. Wonderful fragrance and incredible color. Instead of fading in sunlight like most roses, DD gets darker. This one is covered in rain drops from an afternoon shower.

Day Breaker, pink with yellow accents. Long lasting blooms both in a vase and on the bush. I've seen Day Breaker used as a hedge--breath taking.

Another Double Delight. Every bloom is different, they become more red as they are exposed to sunlight longer.

Heirloom, an oldie. Very, very fragrant and more lavender than the photo shows.

Mr. Lincoln, another oldie. One of the top reds, very fragrant.

Tiffany, another super fragrant rose. Large pink blooms with a golden heart. A prolific bloomer.

A Tiffany closeup.

Peace. Fragrant, beautiful.

An old photo of Peace bloom. The colors have faded to a cream and pale pink and yellow. Stunningly beautiful in every stage of bloom.

Another old photo. Chicago Peace--a perfect rose.

Coming soon, the shrub rose parade.

Tomatoes

Decided to take a break from roses for a while and talk about something else near and dear to my heart.

The photo is from Burpee's website featuring their catalog covers over the years. Their hand painted pictures are beautiful. Makes you want to run out and order a couple packs right now;)

This morning before leaving for work I stopped to check my tomatoes. They are just not doing well this year. Late frosts and heavy rains delayed planting this spring. The entire month of May and the first half of June were unseasonably cool. The tomatoes grew very little. Now, almost the first of July, it's finally getting hot and humid and they are just starting to put on growth.

This year I planted two each of Cherokee Purple (my favorite), Black Krim, Brandywine, and Sweet Million, and one each of Big Boy, Better Boy, Early Girl, and Beefsteak. If you have never tried Cherokee Purple or Black Krim you are missing a great tomato experience:)

I love to have friends over and serve a variety of tomatoes, fresh baked bread, and maybe some cheeses. It's fun to compare the different flavors of the heirloom tomatoes. We have tomato taste tests at work. We try the different heirlooms and hybrids and pick our favorites. I'd love to hear from tomato lovers. What's your favorite tomato? Have you had success or failures with the heirloom varieties?

There are some great stories to go along with some of the old heirlooms. One story goes like this: Radiator repairman Charley Byles (who knew nothing about tomatoes) managed to cross several varieties and create an outstanding plant. Radiator Charlie sold the first seedlings of his new tomato in the 1940's for one dollar each to customers who drove up to 200 miles for his famous plants that bore tasty tomatoes averaging two and a half pounds. With these sales, Charlie managed to pay off his $6,000 mortgage in only six years, and so the tomato was named Mortgage Lifter.

If you garden in a cold zone like mine, you know that the tomato season is very short. This year it looks like it will be a whole lot shorter. Very depressing.

Everybody have a great weekend!

"What is a weed? A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." -- Emerson

More Parade of Roses

I went through a period of obsession with roses and collected quite a few. I love the bloom, the fragrance and the romance. It started with some antique roses. Next several of the Canadian roses and rugosas hybrids were added. Then came hybrid teas. When the English roses were developed, I had to have several of them too.

Roses are a lot more work than many perennials. It's difficult to grow them well without chemicals. You have to really love them to spend the extra time involved in caring for them.

This post is for my old garden roses. Most of these roses bloom a little earlier than my hybrid teas. They are also tougher. Not so disease prone.

First my favorite Paul Neyron is an old hybrid perpetual. This rose produces huge blooms 6 or 7 inches across. A fat pink cabbage of a rose with lovely fragrance and a thorn free bush. Paul blooms off and on all summer. He can be a little temperamental, but I'm happy to give him whatever he wants .

Grus an Aachen is small. Both the bush and blooms are petite. A very pretty little rose for the front of the garden. Grus is another repeat bloomer with a nice fragrance.

This is an old once blooming rose whose name I've forgotten. Lovely fragrance pretty cup shaped blooms.

Another of Grus an Aachen. Early in the season it has more pink. Later the blooms fade to almost white.

Reines de Violettes (Queen of Violets) another hybrid perpetual that repeats through the summer. Flowers not as large as Paul Neyron, but there are many more blooms per bush.
Nice fragrance, no thorns.

Thanks for looking at my rose parade. Hybrid tea photos coming in a few days.

The Parade of Roses

Leading the parade we have the antique Rose de Rescht

Next the lovely French rose Peace with it's message of world peace and hope.

Double Delight very nearly perect.

A beautiful Buck rose Honeysweet.

Saving the best for last, my favorite Buck rose Golden Unicorn.

More rose parade coming soon.

Simple Pleasures

A sunny window
A soft quilt
Contentment

Breathing in the frangrance of perfect

Breathing in the fragrance of perfect.

Last night I woke to a lovely fragrance filling the bedroom. The Japanese Tree Lilac outside my window was in full bloom and the damp night air carried the wonderful scent into the house. A scent completely unlike the common lilac, but very pleasant, sweet and smoky.

I can't imagine why Syringa reticulata is such and underused tree. Smallish, very well behaved and manageable. The flowers are a delight. Big, billowy puffs of creamy white. Far showier than its cousin the common purple lilac.

My mistake was planting a white blooming tree in front of a white house. Still, I'm not sorry when the wonderful fragrance drifts into my room and wakes me. (When the purple lilacs bloom it is far too chilly to have windows open at night.)

I lay there in bed last night and thought about planting one outside every window;~) .
(Thank you Joshua Pilger for the phrase I used as a title.)

Country Things

Moss on the roof, vines covering the wooden siding. The only creatures using the old barn are swallows. The windows are gone. Old harness hangs on a peg, left long ago when the horse teams were replaced by a tractor.
















One of my favorite Robert Frost poems:

The Need Of Being Versed In Country Things

THE house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go

The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place's name.

No more it opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.

The birds that came to it through the air
At broken windows flew out and in,
Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
From too much dwelling on what has been.

Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf,
And the aged elm, though touched with fire;
And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm;
And the fence post carried a strand of wire.

For them there was really nothing sad.
But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,
One had to be versed in country things
Not to believe the phoebes wept

Advise from Julie Andrews

Remember in Sound of Music when the thunderstorm was crashing around the castle and everyone was singing My Favorite Things? I love that movie. Anyway, last night as the thunderstorms crashed around my not-a-castle, I was processing photos (I know, dumb to be using the computer in a storm). I had taken several photos of roses covered in rain from an earlier storm so that song just popped into my head and would not stop.


Photos of Distant Drums (my second favorite Dr. Griffith Buck rose) and Toby.

Raindrops on roses...



















...and whiskers on kittens.
















These are a few of my favorite things.