Plant Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

Plant shadows are a sneaky way to blog about my plants.

 This may be brunneria Diane's Gold. 

Brunneria.  I love their early blue flowers but they were caught in a frost in April, and are just now blooming again.  I wish their blooming season was longer.  We have three varieties, the green the gold and a variegated one. (You can see one of the leaves in the phto below on the right).

In a shady spot, I have trillium has a flower that doesn't open completely.  It has been slowly spreading. I bought it years ago at a plant show in Ithaca, New York.

The day before yesterday, the sun came out for a while.  That's a good thing, because my mail order plants from Select Seeds came on Thursday and they need to recover from transit stress.  They also need to be hardened off, which I am in the process of doing.

This is my second year ordering plants from Select Seeds.  Last year, I put I in a small order of annual varieties I can't get locally and was pleased by the quality.  I didn't lose any to shipping shock, either, a far cry from the last time (2015?) I tried to mail order plants.  That time it was from a well known plant retailer and my experience was way different.  So I finally tried again, this time with Select Seeds, and I am now a repeat customer.  (Not being paid for this plug, either).

Mail ordering plants are expensive but it's also a big convenience for me.  For example, scented geraniums and fancy geraniums are hard to find here. 

So here are my plants, along with two basils and a rosemary (rosemary has to be grown as an annual where I live) I got the other day at a big box store. Three geraniums, two cuphea, two fuchsia, a salvia destined for a hanging basket, and a lavender plant, all perfect for containers. 

Maybe next week (we may get a frost Tuesday) I'll be able to buy sunpatiens, million bells and a patio tomato. 

Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog, for her #ShadowshotSunday.

The Small Beginnings of a 2023 Garden

We (meaning mainly my spouse) are gardening for another year.

In our zone 5b area, it's too early to start most planting, but we are behind on even doing a seed inventory to see what we have on hand.

In the meantime, we traveled to our new raised bed we were able to rent this year from our local community garden.

Right now, it doesn't look like much, but don't be fooled.  A month will make a big difference.

Last year, this new raised bed had been planted and then never harvested.  I remember there being a lot of unharvested yellow pear tomatoes, the remains of which were lying on top of the soil.  Last year's renter even left some nylon (?) fencing, which we may or may not reuse.  These raised beds are prone to deer attacks.  Last year was a bad year for that - we lost all our peas.  Theft, sometimes, too - someone dug up a couple of white eggplant plants with eggplants growing on them.

It's discouraging but my spouse soldiers on because growing things is in his genes.

It will be interesting to see what will come up once we add some soil additives and put in our seeds and plants.  A lot of the new bed will be the home of onion plants that will be coming (mail order) in May.  Spouse uses a lot of onions in his cooking.

Meanwhile, back in the raised bed we've had for several years, plants are coming to life.

The green you see is garlic planted in the fall coming up.

This is a chive plant we rescued (with permission) from a walkway in the raised bed area (apparently someone's chives had seeded the walkway, which was full of chive plants last year) and that is sprouting, too.

Yesterday and today, it's been raining.  It probably won't get into the 40's F today, and as soon as the rain stops, it will get quite windy.  No planting today.

But it won't be long.

Hopefully.

Chipmunks #WordlessWednesday

We have at least two (probably more) chipmunks living in our small back yard this year.

I can't help but not upset it.  The cuteness factor is too strong.  They like chasing each other, but I am not happy when they disturb my plantings.

Here, an Eastern chipmunk is exploring one of my plant containers.  These pictures were taken on October 14.

 

Hey! Get out of my planter!

Resistance is futile.  Instead, I sit in the chair where I am blogging, wrestle my iPhone out of my pocket, and start making Mr. or Ms. Chipmunk famous.

The upright plant, incidentally, is called a Persian shield.  Unfortunately, it will die with the frost.

Here he or she is.  This is the only chipmunk we have in the East, so ID is easy.

Jumping out in one fluid, blurry, motion.

I haven't been sitting out there recently, as it is too cool, but it's supposed to warm up again this weekend.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.

Can't Let Summer Go Cuttings

Today is January 6, the one year anniversary of a grim event in Washington, DC.  There will be many speeches today and words written about it.  But this is not a political blog, and I want to concentrate on some natural beauty today.

Have you ever wished (if you live in climates where frost sensitive plants can not grow year round) to be able to take cuttings and make summer last a few more months?

It sure is tempting.  It's also a hope for the New Year, and my word for this year is "hope".  I hope these will survive and thrive in next year's garden.

Every fall, I take some cuttings a couple of weeks before the expected frost date and attempt to root them. Impatiens are the easiest.  I have two small pots and both are thriving right now under lights.

Cuphea - I took three cuttings, used a rooting hormone called Rootone, and one of the cuttings survived.  This is a picture from late November.  My plant isn't blooming anymore, but it's alive.

Although I rooted Vietnamese coriander last year and brought it through the winter successfully, these cuttings (photograph from December) didn't make it for some reason.

Lemongrass (not pictured) - dug some up, potted last year.  It survived, and this winter, what we dug up is doing well, too.

We brought in our pot of Zaatar marjoram and so far, it is surviving.  Ditto with rosemary, which is not hardy in our climate.  And, one of my geranium pots is inside, also, for the third year.

So, all we can hope is that all goes well, that we don't kill anything, and we'll get a head start on spring.

Do any other of my readers do this?

Letting Go of the 2021 Gardening Season

It's so hard to let go of something you love.

The 2021 gardening season in the Binghamton, New York area is close to closing.  I can't let go yet.

The first frost date approaches.  Last year, it was in September.  It's more commonly sometime in October.  And, if it doesn't come in October, our community garden wants us out by October 31.

We've already picked our (almost) last tomatoes.  No more tomato sandwiches. 

No more zucchini (yes, I'm one of those who love zucchini).

The zinnias are slowing down in their blooms.  We still have peppers and eggplants growing or ripening, but they will die with the frost. Ditto for our basil (sob). Ditto for the last planting of beans - we are finally getting beans, after all of our previous efforts this year being eaten by (we think) deer (despite getting repellent spray).

It's time to make sure of my supply of old sheets and towels, to cover plantings I'd like to continue a few more days.

But it is also time, now, to take cuttings.  Our weather channel has predicted lows in the low 40's for Wednesday and Thursday night.  We are in zone 5b, and have a long winter/early spring ahead of us.

I need to take cuttings of plants I want to try to root now, before the stress of cold weather makes it more difficult for them.  Some other plants, already in pots, we will try to save in their pots.

In the past, I've tried to keep as much as possible going inside the house, but it becomes harder and harder. 

Spouse will definitely take rosemary in.  It's not hardy where we live. 

We also had success with lemon grass, both rooting it in water, and transplanting it into pots, so we will probably do it again.  Vietnamese coriander rooted easily in water last year, and I didn't find it locally this year, so that's a possibility.  Last year's poinsettias? They've been outdoors all summer in a large pot.  I may try to keep them.

Last year, I rooted a Bravo impatien plant and it bloomed in my north window until I could plant it out in spring.

Coleus? I've had varying success rooting them.  I know I can keep them indoors if they do.

Still, it's not the same.

I am dragged into fall each year, kicking and screaming.  Eventually, I like fall, and may even eat an apple cider donut or two. I'll take lots of pictures of leaves turning.  But at the back of my mind is this:

Winter is coming.

And I am not ready. 

Are you?

Unusual Things I Grow

Earlier this month, I gave a quick tour of some of the food I grow in my Southern Tier of New York yard.  We don't have enough sunny room for a large garden so we rent a community garden pot.   So, we would all consider plants like dill, basil, parsley as usual type plantings.

But I think many gardeners also like to grow some unusual things just because they can.  Today, some of my herbs, three of which are in containers.

I grow more common herbs, too.  Here are (clockwise) garden sage, one of my thymes, bolting small leaf basil.  

These are in the ground but the rest of today's herbs are in containers, for various reasons.

First, Vietnamese coriander.   I bought this plant last year at a garden clearance sale before they closed for the season. I had never seen it before. It grew nice last summer but it is not hardy in my zone 5b garden.  I took cuttings before the frost, which rooted in water, and then planted in soil  The plants grew over the winter under lights.  I planted it out in the spring in a larger container.  I am not sure I will overwinter it again.

We tried this maybe once or twice.  As it turns out, we don't use this or the next two herbs in our cooking.  We just grow these because why not.

Second, Papalo  I saw this in a nursery near Ithaca, New York and decided it would be one of my experiments. It's a Mexican herb and has a sharp, unusual flavor used in Mexican/Central American cooking.  Spouse tried cooking with it one time and hasn't since.  We are just letting it grow.  And I do mean "grow".  Let's just say it is taller than I am and going strong.  But once temperatures drop into the 40's it's not going to be happy.  It will also be gone with the frost.

Third, cardamon in a pot.  Yes, cardamon as in the seed that goes in some dessert baking.  This was a gift from my guest photographer and I've had it, perhaps, four years. It replaced another cardamon plant I had gotten at a nursery somewhere several years before.

Until last year, it was in my office in a clay pot and very happy.  When COVID came along and I was sent home, I brought the plant with me.  It was not happy at all in the house until we put it outside when the weather settled.  Was it ever happy!

Then, I almost killed it over the winter (I think it got too much light and not enough water) but spring came just in time.   It's in almost the same location as last summer, in the same pot but is not as happy as last year.  You see the yellow leaves.  Maybe it needs a larger pot - this plant can reach 10 feet tall.  By the way, this plant has never bloomed.

Alas, we approach fall, and I am going to try to overwinter my cardamon.  Maybe it would bloom next year?

Have you ever experimented with growing plants that are a little bit unusual?  Have you ever cooked with Vietnamese coriander or papalo?

Container Gardening and Fall Gardening

We have limited room to garden because our small back yard is fairly shady.  We try to grow things in a couple of Earth Boxes but with only limited success.   The vast majority of our gardening is in two community garden beds - one in ground (spouse) and one raised bed (mine, due to my back issues) which spouse ends up doing most of the maintenance on while I work part time.

I have written about our home container gardening in the past and wanted to give you a quick tour of that, including a not too successful raised bed on the side of our house.  I also wanted to answer a question put by one of my regular readers (thank you!) asking what we plant for fall in our gardens.

Turns out I took enough pictures for two (or maybe more) posts.

Parsley.  We have to keep this elevated because of groundhog problems at our house. We tried planting from seed this year, but the seedlings all died.  This year, all the plants seem to be bolting.   No idea why. (And yes, in case you were wondering, we also have sage, rosemary and thyme in our sunny front yard.  The rosemary must be overwintered indoors.

Beets (left) and basil (right).  Basil is looking a bit worn in the pot.  We bought a flat of small basil seedlings and didn't dare separate them, so the whole thing went in the large pot.  

 

Our raised bed has to compete with a maple for water but we've found kale will grow in it.  We had romaine lettuce in here, too, until the groundhog found it.  The rest of what is growing in here are onions (for green onions). It wasn't meant as a fall crop but it's going to become one.  Someone at our community garden gave away excess onion bulb starts he had purchased, and we were one of the beneficiaries.  (Thank you!) By the way, the two pink things in the box are plastic pink flamingos hiding from the camera.  Please don't judge.

Here are the two Earth Boxes.  One has carrots growing, and we hope we get a crop.  The other box has kale planted in it (not yet germinated) as a fall crop.  We had tried planting fall peas in it but only one seed germinated. I suspect we didn't plant it deep enough for summer planting.

Last but not least for today, two ornamental strawberry plants in a large hanging basket.  Yes, I do get an occasional (and small, and tart) strawberry, if I beat the birds to them.  You can see one - a small pop of red - in the lower right.

No ginger this year.  We gave up on it a while back.

Other fall crops we hope to get to harvest?  A planting of beans (a gamble crop) is in where our main crop onions were harvested in the garden. And we are still thinking on the others.  Unfortunately, our garden opened late for unavoidable reasons, and so we are already pushing our first frost date (which, last year, was in September but is normally in October).

Strawberry Spring

Today, it is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Where I live in the Southern Tier of New York State, we had clear blue skies and springlike weather today.  Bulbs are coming up although my crocuses haven't decided to bloom yet.

This year's big surprise:  strawberries.

Last spring, I bought a strawberry plant - although considered an ornamental, it does produce good tasting tiny strawberries.  I planted it in a large hanging basket.  We got a handful of ripe berries from the plant last year. When the cold weather moved in, we moved the plant to our unheated garage, and hoped for the best.

Last week we visited the plant, and it was obviously alive.  We were able to put it outside on a couple of sunny days. We still have to take it in at night.

Today, this is how my plant greeted spring.  It's definitely broken dormancy.  It may have helped that we had a relatively mild (temperature wise) winter - it never got below zero at our house.

We haven't started any seeds yet, but tomorrow, we will go over to our community garden and plant sugar snap peas in my raised bed planter.  The in ground plots don't normally get plowed until May.  We haven't started tomatoes yet - this year decided to start them a little late.  But it will be time really soon.

I'm thinking of growing some swiss chard in a large pot again this year. We planted a couple of plants from seed in a pot last year and they did well - "proof of concept". I think we've given up on growing cucumbers in a large planter - we get some but then they get mold, or a weird thing where they grow with one pinched end and the cuke's growth is stunted.  Obviously we are doing something wrong.

The birds in our neighborhood are quite active.  Along the river, we saw the underbelly of what "may" have been a 2nd year juvenile bald eagle in flight - it was large and had a beautiful pattern on the underside of its wings.  It flapped a few times, wings held straight, and then soared a few seconds, then flapped again.  It almost made me gasp.  We saw one adult bald eagle (first time ever) along the river several times in late fall, so, who knows. On the other hand, we are just beginning our birding journey so I'm sure we will make a lot of ID mistakes along the way.

As a bonus, my one blooming African violet is putting up more flower buds.  I killed some house plants over the winter, and wonder if I was giving them too much love, since I'm home most all the time.

So, let's call today "strawberry spring" and see what else the weekend brings.

What about you?

Garden Updates July 30 2020

I don't blog a lot about our (spouse and my) gardens, and yet my Twitter handle is @RamblinGarden.  I need to do this some more.

Spouse and I have several gardens in zone 5b upstate New York: flower gardens around our house on our small urban/suburban property (and several veggies in pots), and two plots in a community garden.  One is in the ground and the other (mine) is in a raised bed and is perfect for someone like me who has back issues.

Many people have tried to garden for the first time this year.  As they have probably found by now, it ain't necessarily easy.  We've been fighting deer at the community garden (they especially seem to enjoy our filet beans).  Groundhogs and rabbits are challenges, too.  I wish I could give you good solutions.

I wanted to send some garden photos to a cousin in New York City and now I will share with you.  These are the photos that will keep me going when winter comes.  This is the season for storing up memories.

First, let's visit my raised bed garden in our local community garden.  Of course there are flowers, such as this white zinnia.  I thought I would show zinnias first.  Doesn't almost everyone like zinnias?

Candystick zinnia.

White eggplant (If you grow your own, why stick with the usual?)

Small bite peppers.

Yellow squash in spouse's ground level garden.  (The flowers are edible, too, although this year we haven't eaten any.)

Back to the raised bed.  Beans.  Liquid Fence spray did the trick for a while, but the deer have decided it won't stop them.

But you don't need to have a garden to garden.  If you have a yard, a sunny spot, and some pots, you can do it, too.  We have a big groundhog problem but, knock on wood, they haven't bothered these.

Swiss chard.

And tomatoes.

We are also growing cucumbers and summer squash in containers, but haven't had the greatest results.

If you want to read more about our container garden experiences, I can do a post on that.  If you want that, please let me know in the comments.

Do you garden?

How Does Your Summer Garden Grow?

Summer arrives later this afternoon.  Those who have planted victory gardens this season have a good idea how they are going to do.

For my spouse and I, it's a mixed report.  First, the (hopeful) successes.

We community garden in Binghamton, New York, zone 5b. We've purchased plots in community gardens for the past thirty or so years (except for a few year stretch when the garden was discontinued and then relocated.)  Because of my back issues, I've been limited in gardening until this year, when our community garden (under new management) built more raised beds for those with physical limitations, and I was able to rent one.  Spouse maintains what I call the "main" garden, which is in the ground.

This is what "my" raised bed looked like yesterday.  Starting from the bottom of the picture and working up, you'll see zinnias, a cabbage plant, several rows of beans, yellow zinnias (more on them shortly) peppers, tomatoes, more cabbage, and eggplants.  The last four were purchased as starts.

In my spouse's main garden, potato plants.

Zahara Double Yellow Zinnias - not the best for cutting but I liked them

We grow zinnias in the community garden because, for some reason, we can't seem to grow zinnias at home from seed.  Don't ever feel guilty about growing ornamental flowers in a garden - they have their place, attracting beneficial insects and providing cut flowers (if you don't have allergies) for your table.

Onion plants are one of our most successful community crops - this was taken before a well deserved weeding.  I helped with this (using a portable bench) and am paying the price.  I'm writing this blog post with a heating pad on my back.

But we've had our shares of failures, too.  That's part of the gardening game.  Don't be discouraged when you have failures.

Weeds - at least one of us is there several times a week, and it's been a good year for them. 

Not shown - beans in the ground level garden - something nibbled on them and we have them under row covers right now. 

A first planting of carrots in the raised bed never germinated - might have dried out. (This is my first attempt with raised beds - perhaps three feet tall).  Cilantro - almost no germination, perhaps for the same reason.

We tried to grow cabbage from seed in the raised bed - something ate all but one of the seedlings. We had to buy plants.

We are trying to grow more plants at home in pots (we don't have a lot of room in full sun, plus we have a bad groundhog problem.  Mixed results.  Something (squirrels, I think) loves to try to roll around in the pots.  We lost our swiss chard and parsley from seed that way.

But the cucumbers (bottom of photo) are good so far.   So are my two tomato plants - one called Fourth of July and the other a patio variety.

So, it is work.  A lot of work.

Advice?  Don't plant and forget.  Spend time each day with your plants, if you can, so you can identify problems early on and take action.

Have you tried to garden for the first time this year?

If You Won't Do It During a Pandemic

I've read a saying that, in this time when much of the world was on lockdown, and we had to stay (for the most part) at home, we would have time to do whatever we wanted indoors.

Week after week passed.

We forgot what day it was.

Some of us baked.  Some of us read.  Some of us remodeled our apartments or homes, or drank (maybe too much) or rediscovered crafts, or learned to make sourdough bread from scratch.  We learned what Dalgona Coffee was, even if we didn't make it. (I didn't).

We all eventually came to one realization:

If you won't do it in a pandemic, you will never do it.

Yup.  My stack of unread books - still unread.  My bedroom - still messy. (My spouse did work on other parts of the house, while I worked from home).  My mind was still in winter mode, half asleep.

But, after our last snow in May (yes, May), things suddenly warmed up.  After three freeze warnings in a row, frosts were suddenly (we hoped) out of the picture.

It was time to rush and garden.

So, spouse and I went to the nurseries.  As much as we had tried to flatten the curve (especially with his brother having survived a COVID-19 hospitalization) flowers and veggies were calling and these businesses, considered essential in New York State, were open for business.

I remembered when, last year, I wanted to make potpourri, something I did years and years (and years) ago, and decided that potpourri material would be on the shopping list.

This year, masks were required, and we all did a dance of dodging other customers with (most of us) trying to keep social distance.

My finds:  Three scented geraniums - nutmeg, orange and pinewood (the pinewood was a repeat of last year) in this photo.  Scented geraniums are not hardy here and I have not had luck in overwintering them.

In another planter, lemon (citronella) geranium.

I am trying patchouli for the first time.  This is not its ideal clime, and I know it will die with the frost.  But I am willing to try it.

I planted sweet woodruff years ago in the most shady part of my yard.  It's perhaps too shady. It has never thrived.  It hung on, though, and, this year, I decided to do something about it.

My back has gotten pretty cranky in the last couple of weeks, and massage is not available in New York due to the pandemic.  So the harvest was a bit painful - this grows low - fortunately I had a gardening bench to help me.  

I blogged last week about my experiment in drying lilacs in cat litter.  So yesterday, I decided to dry some sweet woodruff.  It's now at the end of its blooming season so it was time to harvest.  I looked up microwave instructions and it said "place on paper towel, cover with another paper towel, then dry at 100% for 30 seconds, then in 15 second increments until fully dry.

Here the sweet woodruff is before I started to dry.  Green, it doesn't have a fragrance but once dried, it has a vanilla like scent.

It took, perhaps, two minutes, and I had to do it in several batches even for the small amount I harvested.  This is what it looked like by the time it was dry.  I put it in a small container and am keeping it for when my lilacs are dry. (I hope to report on that tomorrow).

There's more to potpourri than lilacs and sweet woodruff, though, and I have to work through that.

Gardening has become so popular, though, that our biggest area nursery is closing tomorrow, a month early.  They ran out of plants.

So...what have you done these past few months?  Do you have "When I Get Around to It" items you know now that you will never get around to?

Gardening Has Not Been Cancelled

So many things in our lives have changed.  Millions unemployed.  Meat supplies limited. Schools cancelled for the year, turning many parents into homeschoolers.

On the other hand, gardening has not been cancelled.  Where I live in upstate New York, many who have never gardened are going to attempt it.

Here are some random thoughts for this Sunday.

Here in the Northeast United States, the weather is trying to settle.  It's beautiful, sunny and in the 70's today.  Finally.  But tomorrow it isn't supposed to get out of the 40's.

Again.  When will spring come?

But today, I am declaring victory.  Victory of sorts, anyway.  I am outside.

I have planted four hanging baskets.    Thank you, curbside delivery of plants.  Thank you to the essential workers who grew those plants.  Because they also sell fruit and vegetable plants, they are open, and people are taking full advantage of their items for sale.

Our home started tomato seedlings are soaking up warmth outside today. (Pro tip - if you live in the Northeast United States, it is probably too late to start tomatoes from seeds, but it isn't all that hard.  If you wish, I can cover "how" in a future post.)

We don't have many sunny places in our yard, so have had a community garden plot (or two!) for many years.  But community gardening has its own challenges, especially if many people are there at once.  There s supposed to be a conference call at 4pm today to "orient" us to our new realities and also the organization that has taken over our garden.

A local business that sells baby chicks and ducks sold out in hours.

There was a seed giveaway yesterday at our local farmers market. We are fortunate - we had ordered back in the winter, before the virus struck.

You can do it, too, even if you live in a big city.  Although, in these times, it may be a lot harder to get out and buy materials, especially if you are in a city with a high infection rate.

In the meantime, spouse and I  are doing what we can at home.  We have several large containers and two Earthboxes.  We've never been that successful with our Earthboxes, for some reason, but are going to try again.

We also planted lettuce in a planter in our front yard, (the two pots with flower spinners above) and will also try to plant some parsley.

What would be my tips for you?
1.  Veggies, for the most part, require full sun.   What is full sun?
2.  Plants in containers dry out a lot more readily than those in the ground.  Keep your eye on them.  While we are at it, make sure these pots are close to water, or you will get awfully tired of lugging water to them.
3.  Make sure the containers  are deep enough for what you are growing.  There are charts online that give you minimum planter depth.
4.  Use soilless mix, NOT earth from your yard (assuming you have a yard).
5.  Common sense, but only grow what you like, unless it is so ornamental that you want it to nourish your soul, and you have the room for it.
6.  Make sure the plants will mature before your first frost.  Know your USDA hardiness zone (ours is 5b).  This online resource may help.
7.  Don't make it too complex, or you would have failed before you start.  Keep it simple the first year.  After that, you can branch out (no pun intended).

Let's hope for a successful gardening season, as it may be more important than ever.

A Summer Small Urban Garden

It's a bit amazing that, given that my name on Twitter is RamblinGarden, that I don't talk about my front and back yard garden that much.

I do talk about my flowers from time to time.  But what about veggies?

I don't have much room in the sunnier parts of my yard, so my spouse does a little gardening in our front yard and some container gardening, too.

But don't we want to have our front yards reserved for grass, or flowers?  Not necessarily.  Today, I'd like to give you a little peak into my front yard garden in upstate New York.

How about a little basil? Or, to be exact, basil and a bee?

We grow Italian parsley in a pot.

We have other herbs, too many for this post.  One we like to grow, which is not hardy here, is pineapple sage.  We don't use it much - we grow it more for beauty.

We have peppers both in pots....

...and in the ground.

This is an ornamental pepper, which will product a very hot, small purple pepper.

Not everything is successful.  Our cucumber plants (grown in large pots in the front) have succumbed to a blight.  This is about all that is left - one piece of stem, a couple of leaves and a flower.

But our ginger in a pot (something else that can't overwinter here), which failed last year, is growing this year.

Do you have limited space, or no yard, and still garden?  I'd love to hear from you.