From beloved, omnigifted commentor Satby:
It’s been five years this summer since I had to move from my tree-smooshed house in Michigan to my South Bend home. Amazon reminded me again this year how much I miss the garden I had created there, now mostly destroyed by the new occupants.
So, some memories: Top pic, my front corner bed, with orange and red lilies and a Japanese maple just starting to be glorious.
Second and third: my Joseph’s Coat climbing rose, which grew well in its location there, but newer attempts to grow it here failed three times before I gave up. The buds started as red but the color deepened through orange to yellow as they opened.
Fourth: A front barrier bed I had constructed to dampen some of the road noise. Shown in mid-spring bloom, late daffodils and tulips all open, but the variegated weigela and miniature roses just beginning to leaf out. I’m the Johnny Appleseed of the daffodils world, I plant them everywhere I live.
Final picture: a view of the stairs to my back deck where I let the pink and purple morning glories grow. Sadly taken midday, so most were closed, but they attracted as many hummingbirds as my feeders did.
I still miss those gardens, and the poorer soil and drier conditions just 15 miles southeast have so far not allowed me to recreate them. But I’m working on it ?
***********
Note from a weird weather year: For the first time I can remember (we’ve been in this house more than 25 years), a dark-purple morning glory actually self-seeded, in the trellised pot by our front steps. It’s busy outcompeting the sweet peas to twine around the railing, but the Spousal Unit loves it so much I can’t complain.
Thanks to all who sent me photos this week — I’m looking forward to showing them off!
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
PAM Dirac
I loved our Joseph’s Coat in our old house. So many colors and changes of color. Like you, I never could get one to grow in our new place.
MomSense
So beautiful, Satby.
satby
@PAM Dirac: I’m not sure why it won’t grow either, the conditions seemed perfect the two different sites I chose before I gave up. Except for a bit less baking sun, which may have been the reason. But this is the first place I’ve ever lived where I nearly lost all my lilacs to the late freeze, and three months later they still look like shit: sad, straggly deformed leaves on half empty stalks. I read that should another late freeze happen I should deeply soak the ground around the plants the night before, and then cover them ?
satby
@MomSense: Thanks! According to the timestamps, these pictures were all taken in the 7th year I lived there, so a lot of the gardens had matured nicely. I just need to be more patient here, since it’s only the third and fourth year for most of my plants.
But I still miss how gorgeous it all looked in Michigan.
Baud
@satby:
It’s beautiful.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m the same with Bleeding Hearts, they were my sister’s favorite.
PAM Dirac
@satby: Yes in my old age I’ve given up worrying about what “should” work and try to just be content with what does work. I have had a weather station up for almost 10 years and I report to Weather Underground which will show a map of all the reporting stations in your area. By looking at those maps I’ve seen just how big the differences in weather can be, even for stations that are within a mile, so maybe it is just very local conditions. Speaking of what works, the best climber in our current yard is Winner’s Circle. It is red, but in our yard a bit darker and more velvety than the standard red and grows very nicely.
Dorothy A. Winsor
No wonder you miss that yard, satby. It’s gorgeous.
satby
@Baud: Thanks. It’s not that far away, but I can’t even bear to drive past it now, because the people who bought the place from HUD a year later cut down almost all the border plantings and trees I had put in. And rototilled over the dogs graves for a vegetable garden after they ripped out the dogwood trees that marked them. I can’t stand to look at it.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Funny you should mention them, between the Orange lillies and the maple in the top photo are the barely visible leaves of a bleeding heart.
cmorenc
This reminds me of the first time in many years I went by the house my deceased maternal grandparents built and lived in throughout my childhood in a small southern town in North Carolina. While they had lived there, the backyard was a cornucopia of various fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, in addition to an abundantly productive vegetable garden – while still leaving room for a generous expanse of lawn to play on with my buds. There was a long row of blueberry bushes that produced abundant pick n’eat berries throughout the latter part of summer, a peach tree, a scuppernong grape arbor large enough to create a generous shade canopy under which to pick n’eat grapes, a plum tree, and a pecan tree.
The house had turned over a couple of times since my grandparents died 25 years ago, and I was stunned to see the present occupants had stripped the backyard of any sort of plant that produced so much as would feed a single sparrow – a wasteland of nondescript boxwoods and other dull shrubbery. The fruit trees were gone as well.
The ghost of my grandparents productive presence had been completely banished by later owners unworthy of the natural gifts they had been bequeathed and destroyed.
sab
@satby: That rose is gorgeous.
My mother had roses, and for some reason I developed a bad attitude about them. All those pesticides to keep the japanese beetles at bay. Plus the deer love them and chomp away.
I just bought my first rose bush this year and it seems to be settling in nicely.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks. To garden is to live in hope ?
@PAM Dirac: Those are very nice! After multiple failed rose attempts I finally have achieved a bit of success with shrub and Knock Out roses, as long as they’re own root. But I miss having roses that smell like roses. I have the David Austin catalog on the table next to me and I lust after a few climbers in there that are both own root and scented.
debbie
@satby:
Beautiful, especially that rose! Do you still do that hugel-something kind of gardening?
debbie
@cmorenc:
I have no yard, but I secretly own all of the yards in the neighborhood. It drives me nuts when new owners rip out favorites. I worry because azaleas have been the ones to go lately.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: @cmorenc:
Never revisit the past. It is dead and gone. So it is with my parents’ place, so it will be with this place. Hopefully whoever buys this place after we are gone will at least appreciate the beautiful soil in the veggie garden and plant one of their own there.
satby
@sab: Well, I use a systemic pesticide/fungicide on most of the roses I grow which only affects bugs that chomp on the leaves, not bees or other pollinators. And the deer never came all the way up to the house, which is where the roses were. But there were farm fields on two sides for them to munch on before they got to my property.
Autocorrect on this tablet is nuts.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, it’s true. And the guy who lived here and built a beautiful raised bed in back would weep with frustration at how overrun with weeds it gets by the end of July. I’m just not able to keep up with them and work as much as I do. I had it mostly cleared this spring, and it was all for naught.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mark Knopfler – A Place Where We Used To Live
Now in another town
You lead another life
And now upstairs and down
You’re someone else’s wife
Here in the dust
There’s not a trace of us
Everything is gone
But my heart is hanging on
satby
@debbie: Do you still do that hugel-something kind of gardening?
Hugelkultur and yes! It’s been my big success here. Probably because it’s created an entirely different soil. My shrubs in that bed are all blooming for the first time: hydrangeas and a Rose of Sharon. Until the daylillies I planted last year fill out more I have two big pots of annuals in between. I’m pretty happy with it this year ?
MomSense
@satby:
If Michigan is anything like Maine, our weather patterns have changed so things that were mature here are now experiencing the wrong conditions. I’ve lost a lot of plants over the past five years. Because the weather patterns are still in flux, I’m not sure what to plant yet. I miss my Maine gardens of 10 years ago! Today I’ve got to go replace some of my potted annuals that died from too much rain.
BTW I’m going to go review your dog shampoo today. I used it for the first time yesterday after the pup had a big ole party in the mud flats at low tide. That stuff is stinky and hard to clean but your shampoo did a great job. She smells clean and not like those awful chemical fragrances in store bought dog shampoo. She was much happier after her bath, too. Normally she fusses and scratches and acts even more neurotic than usual. Yesterday we chilled outside for a bit and then she took a nap on her dog bed. No drama!
sab
@satby: My rose of sharon has become an invasive weed. It grows everywhere and it blooms everwhere and it spreads to everywhere. N E Ohio.
satby
@MomSense: Oh, thanks; I’m glad it helped her! It’s the same formula as the human shampoo bar, it just has the essential oils that work better for dogs. I’ve had men buy the doggie shampoo at the market when I’ve told them that because they wanted a more manly scent than lavender or vanilla ???
sab
@satby: I use the dog shampoo on myself because it isn’t very scented and it works great.
I finally got the cocker trimmed down enough to get him to the groomer. He is going to use the dog shampoo next week. I am looking forward to it. He is not.
MomSense
@satby:
I think I need to try your human shampoo. Now that I’ve got some white hair in the mix, my normal shampoos don’t work as well. I’m also on town water now and that makes a difference in how the shampoo rinses.
satby
@sab: They self seed; to prevent that deadhead the flowers before seed sets, or just mow down the seedlings when they sprout. I handle all the self seeding plants that way, including the morning glories at the old place. I just cut them down as they sprout, it kills them pretty effectively so you can control where they grow.
You can see by the pumpkin on the table in the morning glory photo that it was taken in fall. After the frost I left the seed pods for the birds to eat for a month or two (it took a couple of frosts to kill it all) and then I cut and raked out the dead remains of the vines. You would never know over winter that spring would bring a fresh bunch of vines to cover the banister and thrill the hummingbirds.
satby
@sab: yeah, the one problem with that formula is that it’s a mix of bases, and they don’t hold scent as long as a cold process (from scratch) bar does. But it works pretty well, so there’s that.
OzarkHillbilly
My garden is beginning to bear copious fruit, and hobbled as I am, I am barely able to keep up with it all. Sucks to be me. I’m gonna take some to the new neighbor and try to convince her to not be shy, just come and pick what she’d like. Also thinking of taking some to the old neighbor because it’s as good a reason to go visit as anything else.
After a month in which we got 25-30% of a years rain, I am now watering like crazy because of the sudden flip to high temps and no rain. As one who has trouble just getting up and down the stairs for coffee right now, those trips to the garden are rather arduous.
And just think: My baby chicks show up this week.
debbie
@sab:
I love Rose of Sharon! They’re used here as border hedges and privacy screenings and are thick with flowers.
satby
@debbie: I do too. My mother gave me one for my old house in Chicago (that is probably now 30 years old) as a birthday gift (because of my name we’ve always had one where ever my mom lived ?). I have to remember to try to grab a few seeds from it to start when I next go to the city, 30 years is end of life for those shrubs, but it seeded a few daughter plants. Edited for coherence.
debbie
@satby:
The only thing I knew about them came from my art history classes: that they symbolized Mary in Renaissance art. I assumed plants with two different colors like that were imaginary and was so happy to see them in real life many years later
ETA: I wonder if Rose of Sharon can be grown in pots like other hibiscuses/hibisci?
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I love going to the post office during chick delivery season.
satby
Yes, they can, but they need a spell of dormancy, so they need to to into a garage or cool basement/balcony for winter if they’re the hardy version.
Geminid
@debbie: Where I live crepe myrtle has supplanted Rose of Sharon as a summer blooming tree. But Rose of Sharons have their own special beauty. I mostly see them out in the country, on older homesteads.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: I think everybody does. It seems like a smile creeps over the faces of all at the sound of the peeps.
O. Felix Culpa
Beautiful! I can see why you miss that garden. I love your comment about being the Johnny Appleseed of daffodils. It’s a high and worthy calling. :)
After five years of buying expensive xeric perennials and having approximately 2/3s of them crap out every winter, I shifted to planting herbs, vegetables and annuals, grown from seed, in a lot of my beds this summer. It’s worked out pretty well so far, so I’m going to expand that effort next year. Plus plant copious (more) daffodil bulbs in satby’s honor.
Immanentize
@satby: Such a beautiful set of pics, Satby. It made me think of the places I’ve left, and all the plants with them…. But then I thought, what better metaphor for living well, eh?
I have had a terrible cold this past week, but it is going away. I slept 10 hours straight last night (no meds) which is for me like an Olympic effort. Gold!
My garden has been baked and burned, but things are growing slowly. My Woodchuck/whistle pig/land beaver got past my riff raff fence Friday and quickly ate a few tomatillo plants. Poor thing, couldn’t get out and started to try digging out. It had found its way in at the one weak spot on my fencing — the gate — which it could only reach by tunneling under a rain spout. So, I went to the garden, opened up the gate while the poor critter cowered in the opposite corner looking away from me like a two year old covering its eyes — you can’t seeee me! Then I went out, walked to where Chucky was ‘hiding’ and he zipped diagonal straight for the exit wanting to get as far away from me as possible. Then he booked it to his burrow under my shed. Hasn’t been back yet! But I improved the gate security system with bricks….
karrn marie
When I had my three contiguous plots in the Fenway Victory Garden (only continuously used victory garden in the US!), morning glories and their self-seeding nature were the bane of my existence. They’re pretty in a place nothing else is growing but hell in a tended landscape.
I miss my garden. I should have never left.
karen marie
@karrn marie: Hahaha. Damned tablet loses sign-in periodically and re-doing it leads to errors.
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: ?
Pete Mack
After three weeks of near daily rainfall, the vegetable garden looks like a squash plant jungle. No with some sun, the zucchinis are starting to bear and the tomatoes are thinking about ripening.
On the other hand, the beaked hazelnut seedlings from the county conservation district have finally started growing, catching up to dogwoods, plums, and roses.
satby
@Immanentize: aww, sweet of you not to take revenge on the poor little guy. Like all living things, they’re just trying to survive.
I get that it’s frustrating when they take crops you kind of count on, though. My solution is to plant more than I really need, grab stuff Just as it’s ripening, and provide alternative food that’s easier for them to get. In Michigan, especially for the deer, that included two apple trees that went wild before I ever moved there, so the fruit wasn’t good eating. I supplemented that in winter with bruised fruit and hay I got from local farmers, along with a salt lick. the deer preferred that to eating down my young trees. Here, I planted a current bush that the birds like better than the raspberries, though in season I pick them daily, and I took a pint of currents to make jelly before leaving the rest to the birds and bunnies. Win-win.
satby
@Pete Mack: Sounds lovely! I wish I had room for more trees.
JPL
@satby: Beautiful!!!
opiejeanne
Lovely garden, don’t ever look at what the new owners have done to your gardens.
CaseyL
My god, satby; what a beautiful garden. I can’t imagine what the new owners were thinking, getting rid of all of it.
My “garden” – a bunch of containers on my deck – is doing great!
The amaryllis sprouted, not one, but *four* blooms this year. The strawberries continue to spread wherever they can. I pulled a bunch of runners and put them in their own bed; let’s see if they take. Berry production suffered from the heat wave: I was getting teeny tiny berries and strangely misshapen ones (yes, I watered them generously) but now that the weather has normalized, the berries are starting to come in better.
And my two new blueberry bushes are producing a lot of new foliage, but no berries so far. I’m told it can take a year or more, after they’ve been transplanted, so I’m hoping for berries next summer.
satby
@JPL: @opiejeanne: @CaseyL: Thanks all! There was quite a bit more, from the small spring bulbs I was naturalizing in the yard, to a big veggie bed, to additional flowering bulbs and iris around the house, to the many, many lilacs and other flowering shrubs now gone. I was there eight years and it was supposed to be my home in retirement, so I did a bit more each year. I’ve been a bit more restrained here, since I have less yard. And being a few years older, presumably a little less time to enjoy what I plant once it matures, so now I’m looking for faster growing types ?.
Martin
Giving another look at the garden to reduce water usage some more.
Western fires have learned a new trick – the weather systems they generate can now spawn tornados. Not the wispy ‘fire tornados’ they like to show, proper ones that rip up roads and snap trees in half. Was it also on fire? Maybe.