Owner: Ilona's Garden Journal URL:http://ilonagarden.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:23:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Recording events of my garden season and its inspirations, while jotting down information on plants and gardentips. A garden journal that connects with other gardeners and shares the joy of the art and craft of creating a personal landscape. Site statistics:Click here
Weathering the Heat Wave 2007-10-06 00:05:00 It's fine for tomato ripening, but a little too hot for me. We are seeing temperatures of 89 to 90 in October this year- I sure hope this isn't our Indian Summer! Funny how I feel all lazy when it is this sort of midsummer weather, and how a brisk normal October day can be so invigorating. I just need to shake off my habitual response and remind myself of the time and the short season to finish up garden chores.Haven't seen any of the usual fresh cider yet. Plenty of 'pasteurized', which changes the flavor; but nothing of the good old fashioned kind. But then it was a bad year for the local apple crop due to that late frost we had this spring. More of the fields lay bare and the harvesting, while still underway, is winding down. A farmwoman I know said the corn crop was good if the area got rain, not so good in places where rain was scarce. It was patchy this summer, with my own area getting sufficient rain for decent crop production. The farmstands are still selling sweet corn, b Read more:Weathering
, Heat Wave
Plant Blacklist : Aegopodium podagraria 2007-10-20 12:18:00 Every one of us has a few: plants we hate. Aegopodium podagraria is one of mine. I detest this plant. I don't care if you like the variegated form, it is so noxious that no one should plant it. If you like variegation and vigorousness, plant variegated vinca major, but not "Snow on the Mountain". Please, not that.Oh yes, they make it sound pretty, and sure it was an old standby in gardens of the fifties, but it is a devil in disguise... if you ever have to wage war with it invading your perennial beds or creeping eternally and interminably from your neighbors stand under the fence. Do not grow 'Bishop's weed' I beg you.Technorati Tags: Aegopodium, plants, weeds Blogroll Me! Read more:Plant
, Blacklist
Trees I Grow 2007-10-19 01:22:00 When I moved to my place here in the country, there were precious few trees on the property. Back in the seventies the farmers had determinedly cleared the land for more production. Obscene production I call it, but anyway... I decided first off to plant more trees.What I didn't know was how difficult it would be, but now many years down the line I have some that survived and they have changed the landscape here. Different birds, changed light conditions, different garden chores are a few of those changes.Here are some of the deciduous trees growing within my yard:Silver Maples: I didn't plant these, and I don't like silver maples very much, but they are fast growers and people of the past seem to have loved them, because there are plenty throughout the territory around here. These are the largest and oldest trees on the property. Clear yellow fall color.Red Maples: I have one large one that was here and planted some on the back part of the property, they are similar to the silvers Read more:Trees
Repostings:The Sycamore Story 2007-10-19 01:13:00 Every once in awhile I repost something from the past: relive my memory with meI come by my love of trees genetically- my mother was an original tree hugger. Back in the sixties we lived on a tree-lined city street, the way most city avenues were at that time: large overhanging trees that shaded the asphalt and the concrete, that were hefty enough to climb, and which turned beautiful oranges and yellows in the fall. But along about the mid-sixties it became vogue to cut down all those trees- they were messy with their leaves that needed to be raked and their roots which cracked all the ticky-tacky sidewalk squares. And so they began to be felled... One or two at time along the streets. About four doors down was a giant Sycamore between the street and the sidewalk. An oddity of a former time, as its girth looked to predate the twenties when this neighborhood was likely a new subdivision on the outskirts of the city. A full grown Sycamore is more of a rustic country tree; it has ghostly
Win A Book 2007-10-17 07:21:00 Dry Ideas (I'm sorry, that name sounds like a deodorant commercial!) has a contest:Post a Comment--Win a Free Book Contest. Jump over there and participate- it runs until November 1, 2007. cool book + cool idea.I'll enter once I think of something to say....Technorati Tags: contest, Blogroll Me!
Choice Sightings 2007-10-16 21:23:00 I've been surfing again, visiting bookmarked sites and finding new ones. One that I liked recently was Doug's Green Garden. It is a freewheeling site, and I signed into his directory, which is nicely done. He has a blog, and many articles, but what I like best is his authentic and knowledgeable gardener's voice. He also experiments with the web media, having a website, a blog, e-books, and podcasting...and don't forget photographs, he has lots photos and invites you to submit yours. ( Not that I will be doing that- being the poor picture taking person that I am- but many of you are marvelous photographers).I appreciated being included in his lovely directory, but most of all I was happy to find a garden site full of nooks and crannies of interest and fairly bursting with the love of gardening. Adding it to my list of sites that encourage and inspire.=======Speaking of which, that dear Mr Brown Thumb, who is a garden blogging force to be reckoned with (fabulous photos, interesting c Read more:Choice
, Sightings
Pyracantha, Friend or Foe? 2007-10-15 13:58:00 I grow pyracantha, and love it. I wouldn't be without it, but it is quite wicked, and shows no mercy to the unprepared gardener. It has long thorns all along the branches that are stiff and very sharp. When working around it, gloves and long sleeves are a necessity. I once saw a pyracantha trained up a wall to the height of the second story roof, and it is that picture in my mind that catches my fancy. Knowing what I now know of its tearing thorns, my memory might not be so kind, but I was a child and along the walk to school the changing colors and beauty of this sight attracted me. It is the bright orange berries of fall persisting into winter that first caused me to plant it, but now the winter visits of birds right in my window are what I most enjoy. The spring bloom is just the icing on the cake.Pyracantha, the firethorn, is a sprawly rangy shrub and I have seen some people hack it into hedge shapes of privet form, but really that is an atrocity I couldn't impose upon it. Where
Overcast Days, Dark and Stormy Nights 2007-10-24 13:35:00 Like a cheap novel, the days turned dark quite quickly. The plot moves on toward unmistakably dreary November weather. Not my favorite time of year, even though each season has its beauty if you are willing to make yourself aware of it. The suddenly cool and damp weather is the more acutely felt since we had the "heat wave" of this past month, and no one is yet acclimated to the cooler temperatures. It is warm cider and hot chocolate weather, curl up with a sweater and book weather, with that unique must and acrid smell of wet fallen leaves when out walking.=======I have some tulip bulbs that I must yet plant, at the first break from falling rains I have to muster up the motivation to dig them into their cozy winter beds. The leaves are just now dropping from the trees in large amounts, so the the fall raking is still ahead, and the final round up of yard furniture and tools, final major mowing... all need to be done. Actually I am glad it is time to put away the garden for this year,
Poem for an Autumn Day 2007-10-21 18:20:00 AutumnThe morns are meeker than they were,The nuts are getting brown;The berry's cheek is plumper,The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,The field a scarlet gown.Lest I should be old-fashioned,I'll put a trinket on. ~Emily DickinsonTechnorati Tags: Emily Dickinson, autumn Blogroll Me! Read more:Autumn
October Selection of Poems 2007-10-26 13:08:00 OctoberAY, thou art welcome, heaven's delicious breath! When woods begin to wear the crimson leaf, And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow briefAnd the year smiles as it draws near its death. Wind of the sunny south! oh, still delay In the gay woods and in the golden air,Like to a good old age released from care,Journeying, in long serenity, away.In such a bright, late quiet, would that I Might wear out life like thee, 'mid bowers and brooksAnd dearer yet, the sunshine of kind looks,And music of kind voices ever nigh;And when my last sand twinkled in the glass,Pass silently from men, as thou dost pass.By: William Cullen BryantPainted Pink Sky My eyes set their gaze across the horizonThe sun is setting in late fall afternoonCold snap in the air as the leaves swirl aboutA welcoming view is the painted pink skyStreaks of pale blue dotted with whiteHave been suddenly brushed with a soft pastelThe beauty is breathtaking, such natural artistryI am in awe of the painted pink skyI th Read more:October
, Poems
Four O'Clocks 2007-10-26 10:47:00 Emily from her Garden Living blog had a post and pictures on four o'clocks that remind her of "grandma". Hers are a cheerful hot pink color, but four o'clocks come in a mardi gras variety of colors that really brighten up the garden. I grew some a couple years ago and hoped to winter them over, they are hardy- better be as they are native the Andes (hence the name: Marvel of Peru). They are warm-season annuals, but produce lasting underground tuber-like roots. Kind of like skinny dahlia roots, they also can self-sow. But mine did not survive, and I really don't know the reason. A good gardener tries again for something that is wanted in the garden, so Emily's post inspired me to try again.My own memory is of a neighborhood lady who lived on a corner shoehorned tight against the street. Her house was raised up and bounded by a retaining wall that held the four o' clock hedge right at eye level of pre-teen passersby (me!). The pink, yellow, and fuschia flowers were fascinating to ob Read more:Clocks
Need to Find Purpose? 2007-11-01 21:54:00 "People are always asking, "What is the purpose of life?" That's easy. Relieve suffering. Create Beauty. Make Gardens" ~Jan Barker Read more:Purpose
Q&A From Keywords 2007-10-30 09:15:00 Sometimes it is interesting what people are looking for when they land on your page. Here are a few questions that people had according to my Statcounter, along with the answers I have for them today.When to mulch garden? Well, for this time of year I would wait until we have had frozen ground, or at least until a few hard frosts have passed over us. The reason is simple, even though it is pleasant to work outside while the sun still shines and the air around is holds a bit of warmth, the rodents aren't yet done finding their homes for the winter... and a newly mulched garden seems made just for their good pleasure. "Why thank you good mum, good master! How thoughtful to have me cozied up to your own house with ready made garden plant munchings for my winter repasts... thank ye, thank ye", you may almost hear them chattering.Is peat the same as peat moss? Well as I answered here, in my "I (heart) Peatmoss" post, NO.Sweet gum leaves good for mulch? Yes, they make wonderful mulch, but y Read more:Keywords
Photo Essays 2007-10-30 03:14:00 There are the most beautiful photo essays atOur Little Corner of Paradise to inspire you.Technorati Tags: , Blogroll Me! Read more:Photo
I beg to differ,Stu: or Watering Time Matters 2007-10-29 18:34:00 In his post of October 23rd, Stuart of Gardening Tips 'n Ideas argues why watering times don't matter, but prevailing advice and my experience argues the contrary: it most certainly does matter. Here's why:First,this: if you water your plants in the morning then they will have time to dry out before nightfall. For at evening, once the sun has set, plants are unable to deal with water around their roots and become susceptible to all manner of fungal diseases. Really?....Now, if this were a true statement then shouldn't we be covering our plants when it rains during the night? And how many of us gardeners have had plants wilt and die from fungal root diseases after enduring months of rainy days and evenings? I'll hazard a guess at none.-StuartWrong guess, Stu. I have had problems with this, sometimes through fault of my own (not having good garden practice), but mostly through weather conditions. Fungal disease is due more to a combination of problems, rather just one of watering. Read more:differ
Garden Magazines 2007-11-07 11:03:00 Have you visited bloomingwriter? A truly interesting writer who engages your brain. She asked some questions about garden magazines,So friends, tell me: what are your thoughts on your favourite gardening mags? Are they as good as they always were? Do you find yourself wanting more from their articles? Have you noticed a dumbing down, a tendency towards sound-bite or news-clip type short pieces rather than something you can really enjoy? Or am I being picky?I answered in the comments:I think garden magazines are a victim of their own popularity. They are dumbed down, but that is because "in the old days" they were seasonally produced at most, and were more of an additional resource, so they could have more indepth articles. Once you produce something more prolifically the expertise and the focus take a hit. Not to mention the costs involved which have to be offset by reaching a broader audience and including more ads.I think we see this in the internet as well. In garden literature as a Read more:Garden
, Magazines
Garden Web Community 2007-11-07 10:11:00 I just explored two really neat additions to web gardening community. While I like the social things on a grand scale (like mybloglog, stumbleupon, etc) I find them a little intimidating- with a learning curve in order to use. These two communities were much more user friendly for me.Green Thumb BloggersI have always relied on blogrolls to discover new blogs in my line of interest, but found personal lists frustrating due to the similar blogs that everyone subscribes to ( I do it it too, it seems) but finally there is someone who is shouldering the task of making a garden community blogroll, -thank you, Amy. It is simple, with a tiny lovely little graphic ( My page keeps getting bandwidth heavy and it is like the paper clutter in my home- always ahead of me and growing). what makes these topical blogrolls great are the quality of links and the focus on the like-mindedness of the blogs.Amy of "Playing In The Dirt" has now provided the service of a garden blogroll. Presenting...ta...da! Read more:Garden
The Dark Side 2007-11-05 22:39:00 Turning back the clocks has caused us to take note of turning toward the dark side of our seasons on this hemisphere. When I was @ Curves this evening the ladies were all talking about how dark it was already, and hoping it was just the effect of the storm clouds gathering.But no, we are in the season where now the days end all too fast and darkness sits quickly before we have a chance to get used to its company. Still there are things to like about November, even if they are fewer in number than other times and seasons.The November rains began this evening, and will continue tomorrow. I guess this years gardening season is really over. As long as there was sun and some semblance of warmth the illusions of growing things could be maintained, but now the rains have washed away those thoughts and it is dreams of next years garden that rises in their stead.Technorati Tags: , Blogroll Me!
Leaf Day 2007-11-04 00:36:00 It was "leaf day" at our household this Saturday. Everyone worked on getting a couple acres worth of property cleared of leaves. Since we have a sort of savannah, trees interspersed among the grassed yard, that means we can't just let the leaves sit all winter; they blow everywhere in the winter winds, anyway. It is like doing an entire city block worth of raking and gathering.So everyone was busy at it, the children with the rakes and the husband with the leaf vacuum. He likes to burn the collected leaves, and I divert as many as possible onto my veggie garden area. Or the compost pile. Today it was mainly on the freshly tilled garden.I should have mowed the grass, but I was too busy rounding up escaping kids. It isn't like everyone is terribly mature and responsible around here. I had to tell the youngest three times to do one area over. He thinks he can get away with giving a token performance and mom will simply get tired and give up. I often do, but today I felt it was important
This Is Crazy 2007-11-03 15:52:00 I don't think it gets any more illogical than having statues that is statutes, arguing about whether a pumpkin gets eaten or not. Petunia, in 'Get Your Pumpkin Tax Refunds' reported on "Iowa Department of Revenue Press Release: Iowa Tax on Pumpkins Put on Hold". Is that nuts or what? How is anyone supposed to determine whether someone will put a Jack O' Lantern on their porch or make a pumpkin pie? Nuts, I say. ... and oh...oh.. what if they roast the seeds? does that qualify a pumpkin to be tax exempt?Technorati Tags: , Blogroll Me! Read more:Crazy
Beauty Bush, Kolkwitzia amabilis 2007-11-10 10:15:00 While out shopping, of course I couldn't resist checking out the sale shrubs that were left in a store that happens to have a very fine nursery during the growing season ( Andersons). There were very few to pick from, but lo, and behold, a shrub that I had wanted to obtain for years: Beauty
Bush. So I am the owner, at a bargain price of a new variety of Kolkwitzia amabilis, 'Dream Catcher'. Five dollars less in my pocketbook, and I now need to find the perfect spot for my new shrub. It will grow quite large, and is graceful in habit, so I don't want it to be crowded along with other shrubs, maybe I will put it near the aronia, where the sweet gum, of recent memory, used to be. Here are the stats on beauty bush:This is a hardy and reliable shrub accomodating to even the most negligent gardener. *Hardy in Zones 4-9. *Deer resistant. *Grows in a well-drained, average soil. *Requires light shade (filtered to partial) for Dream Catcher -otherwise full sun. *Fertilize in l
Get some Sun and Freedom 2007-11-08 12:00:00 why don't you swing by Sunshine, Freedom
, and a Little Flower ? she has photos that for me have a "je ne sais quoi" quality of light and happiness... sort of like the name of her blog. she does some beautiful container gardening, very simply and elegantly.Technorati Tags: , Blogroll Me!
Rural Observations 11/08 2007-11-08 10:21:00 Even though most trees have lost their leaves, and without a good show of color, around here... for some reason the ones who held out ( or more precisely held onto) now are showing a surprising blaze of last color. Certainly it isn't as effective as when the trees all color en masse, but it sparks the dreary November landscape which usually is a neutral gray and beige. Early this morning as I ran off to exercise in the opening hours, there were shades of scarlet and some bright golds. One surprise as I breezed by was the beautiful golden hues of a pin oak. I didn't think oaks ever carried off the autumn so well, but shining off by itself was the unmistakable shape of the pin oak with its pointy leaves all golden and shining in the morning light. As a matter of course was the effusive red color of the euonymous elatus, or burning bush as it is commonly known. That is a shrub that is maligned nowadays. Injunctions against such plants, as that and the purple loosestrife.The farmers are Read more:Rural
Why A Gardener Loves Slavery To A Garden 2007-11-20 11:51:00 Is there such a thing as maintenance free gardening? No. Is there such a thing as easy gardening? No. Is gardening hard physical labor? Sure is.... so why do it? Why expend all that effort?Because of love. That's right, we are love-slaves to our gardens.It is because of the many things that a garden can satisfy within us that we gladly serve it. A closeness with the earth... there is no place where you can intimately know things about nature more than in a gardened place. It satisfies the curiosity to observe the seasons, the life cycles of insects and birds...sometimes other visiting animals, and the ever changing panoply of the plants themselves. It connects you with something larger than yourself, and teaches you about lessons that man-made life leaves out: that we don't have all the control. That alone is worth the price of admission to the gardened life.Then there is creativity and beauty. As humans we long for beauty, our eyes are never satiated with enough beauty, and our soul Read more:Slavery
, Garden
Thanksgiving Time 2007-11-20 11:16:00 Just a day away and I will start the cooking extravaganza tomorrow. It seems as though I plan and look ahead to the holidays, but they always arrive surprisingly quick, why is that? We warmed up this week, but are promised a drop in temperature over the holiday. With wet... not my favorite weather condition. I will be ensconced in my warm kitchen, however, cooking up the requisite turkey and trimmings.Speaking of turkey, the wild turkey is making a comeback in Ohio. Isn't it interesting how many of the wild animals of the pioneer days are again populating the state? Of course, they no longer have that nostalgic sheen to them once they are up close and personal. Like the coyotes. They eat little dogs, apparently, and I have friends who must carefully walk their diminutive pet with one eye out for coyotes.Bears are now again in some of our state forests in the Southeastern part of the state. And getting back to cooking dinner- I saw a cookbook that extols the joys of such pioneer fare a Read more:Thanksgiving
November Heats Up 2007-11-18 00:02:00 ...into the 40's anyway. It has actually been very nice weather lately (for November
, all things considered!). My daughter held a bonfire get-together with a few of her friends that had the right amount of briskness. With pleasant enough conditions to make some-mores and hot chocolate just the thing for a fun gathering, my husband and I enjoyed some time out there watching the dying embers after the kids went home. It was slightly cloudy, but if you looked straight up the clouds had an opening that revealed the array of stars overhead. Lovely!I returned to the store where I had purchased the Kolkwitzia shrub, and wayyyyy in the back of the lot there were a few left, so I bought another one! The store had completely swept away all their usual garden display and in their place ...Christmas trees! Since we are just days away from Thanksgiving, it really was no surprise. I found my favorite candy in the store too: real Maple Sugar! It is so hard to get, that I am afraid I bought more than
Flowering Kale 2007-11-25 12:14:00 I couldn't help myself. I was at the former "Wild Oats", now "Whole Foods" store yesterday and there were the last of their flowering kale offerings on sale for 99 ¢ each. You know me by now... if you read here often. I am a frugal gardener, but also an addicted one. I could not pass up that tempting combination of good price-good plant that I had been wanting. So I bought two and stayed out after dark last night planting them up tout suite. I had the perfect idea for them, and since I was out there gathering leaves in the wheelbarrow ( which several of the kids were asked to do, but somehow ??? didn't get done!), I dug out the dead annuals from the urn planters, put in the kales, one in each pot, and grabbed the pruners to prune off some red pine flourishes. Voila- a couple Christmas porch planters for the recently turned cold weather. A bit "shabby chic" and elegantly decayed with the remnants of the variegated ivy.I had meant to buy some kale plants earlier, they are the annu Read more:Flowering
An Indian Summer Thanksgiving 2007-11-23 12:33:00 The weather throughout this season has been so mild and with an end of surprising color. I see again why I planted goldflame spirea and even the maples in the field gave forth a deep oranged-yellow and long lasting display. I think we are often more thankful when taken by surprise with the gifts of a season. It is like we are viewing the old pleasures with new eyes and sensitivities to their life enriching beauty.I was talking with a fellow gardener who, like me, still has some last minute plants to get in the ground - plants that we kept alive all late summer believing we would soon get to some quality gardening time. We commiserated together and encouraged one another to "git 'er done" this weekend. Better than fighting the shopping crowds in both our books. I felt better knowing I wasn't the only one with willing gardening spirit, but weak flesh. I refuse to waste any of what I purchased,though - if I don't get them all in today or tomorrow I will temporarily winter them over in Read more:Summer
, Thanksgiving
Bloomingwriter Pictures Winter 2007-12-08 02:17:00 bloomingwriter: in "Flurries where winds blow on shore...and White Juan remembered" takes some amazing winter pictures and warns us that this is what "meteorologists are saying is going to be the coldest winter in at least a decade".Well, I am ready with my stockpile of wood... at least I hope it is enough! We had one winter we ran short, and I really don't want to repeat that experience. During a teenage bonfire event we had out here, one of the guests grabbed alot more wood to stoke the bonfire than my husband intended would be used! However, he is the one who left it in sight/reach. So now that is somewhat less for our winter stove.Go see Jodi's pictures- they are all my favorites, but the one of her horse hs just a bit of an edge:)Brrrr. Read more:Pictures
Dreaming of a White Christmas 2007-12-05 10:46:00 Dream no more: it's here! Deep drifting mounds of fluffy white snow. the kind that is soft and packable and holds the large crystal shapes in fragile sparkly points... just visible long enough to astound you with their beauty before they melt away.I couldn't help it- I had to go out into the hot tub this morning to experience it falling into my hair and the steam from the hot water. To sit in the bone mellowing heat while looking at the falling snow and newly white world was bliss. Pure bliss.It started about 3AM this morning- I know, I was up and checked on it. By daylight it was perhaps two inches deep and steadily increasing. Still falling lightly, it may get to three inches, yet! I am so glad the Christmas
lights went up last week- it is supposed to turn colder and no one wants to be fiddling with the lights and gutters, etc. in this weather! The cold should preserve the snow cover for a little while.Our house is filled with the happy jumble of Christmas decorations being unpacke Read more:Dreaming
, White
, White Christmas
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