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December 12, 2011

Frost on the punkin

Filed under: Fall,Grasses,Miscellaneous — Judy @ 12:21 am

Frosty mornings are the norm now, but little snow yet. I’m sure that will be remedied soon as it is almost the middle of December already. I ventured out a few mornings ago to take some pictures for you to enjoy.

Chamaecyparis 'Golden Mops'

“When the Frost is on the Punkin”
by James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then the time a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Frozen crabapples

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Hakonechloa 'Aureo-marginata'

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!…
I don’t know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—
I’d want to ‘commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

And a final image for you to enjoy while waiting for the snow to fall.

Microbiota decussata

September 27, 2011

Caution: Winter approaching

Filed under: Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens — Judy @ 3:52 pm

The air has been soft and warm these last few days and the pool warm enough to swim in, BUT time to be outdoors in shorts and tank tops is getting short before the snow flies. The signs of winter approaching are getting more numerous. The fall grasses are starting to throw up their plumage.

Grasses

The Virgina creeper in the trees is starting to color up, and a few of the early maples already are turning red and orange. Some yellow is peeking through on the birches and the ashes and, with a little bit of rain, the last roses of summer are pulling out all the stops and blooming like crazy.

Cuyahoga rose

Rosa 'Cuyahoga'

Morden blush rose

Rosa 'Morden Blush'

The sweet autumn clematis is putting (Clematis terniflora, formerly C. paniculata) on a spectacular show this year with, it seems like, millions of tiny flowers.

Sweet autumn clematis

The ‘Nikko Blue’ and ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas are pinking up.

Hydrangea 'Endless Summer'

The crabapples

Yellow crabapples

Red crabapples

and the seedheads on the coneflowers and rudbeckias are ripening, soon to be devoured by the hungry birds.

Rudbeckia 'Herbstsonne'

But the Autumn Joy sedum is still pink and the Amsonia hubrechtii is only just beginning to turn yellow.

Sedum and amsonia

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Amsonia hubrichtii

This is one of my favorite fall plant combinations – their glory is still to come! Maybe there is still time yet!

July 18, 2011

Midsummer

Filed under: Berries,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Summer — Judy @ 10:10 am

Wow! We have been so busy that I haven’t given a thought to updating the blog. First, so much rain in the spring that it was hard to get in the gardens to do cleanup. Then, it was rush, rush, rush to get everything cleaned up, planted up, and spruced up for the holidays and beginning of summer. And, in the meantime, all the moisture in the soil dried up and huge cracks appeared in the parched earth while we were experiencing temperatures hovering around 90. This morning? A bit of soft, steady rain to moisten things up and maybe some more this afternoon – yay! We surely need it.

I’m loving this corner of the yard now – the red doublefile viburnum berries, the dark purple foliage and berries of the Diabolo ninebark, the hint of yellow on the chamaecyparis pisifera aurea, the wispy threads of the Morning Light miscanthus grass, and barely seen at the bottom of the picture, the bluish green fronds of a microbiota decussata. So much going on!

A closeup of the center shows all the coloration and texture variations going on.

Here is another corner with lots of interest now – amsonia hubrechtii in the center, coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ and ‘Goldsturm’ rudbeckia just below, lamb’s ears (which interestingly have not browned out and turned to mush this year) and ‘Amethyst Myst’ heuchera at the very bottom, hosta (can’t remember the name) and aruncus on the far right, hakonechloa ‘Aureo-marginata’ and sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ on the left, and spikes of siberian iris ‘Caesar’s Brother’ and ‘Butter and Sugar’ punctuating the scene here and there.

Despite the flooding rains this spring, the horrific heat this summer, and the tough love we are meting out to our gardens this year, they don’t look too bad! What’s going on in your gardens now?

February 7, 2011

Genius loci pars duo

Filed under: Contests,Fall,Flowers,Grasses,Our gardens,Spring,Summer,Veggies,Winter — Judy @ 10:25 pm

I’ve been thinking more about the concept of ‘Genius loci’ and how it relates to my own personal gardens. Currently buried under a sea of white here in upstate New York, I thought that perhaps I could find some older pictures of my gardens to use to convey ‘the spirit of the place’ to others for the Picture This contest for February over at Gardening Gone Wild. I found nothing that I felt was suitable. Why was that? Had I ignored the ‘Genius loci’ when I was creating my own gardens or had the ‘Genius loci’ really left the area!

First of all, location, location, location. Andrea Jones’ photos showed us enticing and gorgeous vistas. I live in suburbia. Granted, we have almost an acre of land, but everywhere you look there is another house impinging on the “vista.” Losing seven mature trees in ice storms over the years does not help! I can’t grow trees tall enough in my lifetime to block out all those houses looming over us.

So what if I thought about the ‘borrowed’ vistas, a time-proven fundamental of landscape design? Hmm! I found this, this, and this.

Snowstorm

Fall sunset

Winter moon

Yes, but those are not of my gardens specifically and doesn’t everyone have lovely pictures of snowstorms and sunsets and moons? Well, what else could I find that would entice you in and make you want to visit, or at least to convey what makes my gardens special to me?

Summer Pool

Nice range of colors, nice sunshine, open gate, feels good to me, but that picture brings up the second major problem – I am not a very good photographer! There’s that pool skimmer and brush in the corner. If I crop that out, the picture just doesn’t have the same feeling. It becomes blasé – all because of a pool skimmer? Ok, so my photographic skills need to be improved on, but surely among all those hundreds, nay, thousands of photos I have taken over the years, there might be a few really good ones of my own gardens. Hah!

At this point in my thinking, I still don’t know whether I had ignored the ‘Genius loci’ or whether it had left when I wasn’t looking (if a ‘Genius loci’ can even do that!). It occurred to me that our little plot of land used to be a cornfield before it became suburbia. But what do they do when they build and build and build? Why, they scrape off all the good dirt and sell it down the river! Yikes! What if there never was a ‘Genius loci’ here?

No, no no! I mean, really, look at that pool picture again – there are some good things going on there! There are some pretty perennials, some great grasses, some shrubs growing into nice specimens, and lots of varied evergreens (both mine and borrowed).

All right, so maybe I need to think more about what I love or want in my gardens. In no particular order then –

Attracting birds, even predators like this juvenile Cooper’s hawk:

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

A place for children and adults to play – in the pool, in the yard:

Kelsey playing Ultimate Frisbee

A place to grow lots of vegetables and fruit and flowers:

Pool and veggie garden

A place for herbs for my cooking adventures:

Herb garden

So, what about the ‘Genius loci’ in my own gardens? Perhaps we created a new one while bringing in new soil and composting and amending and planning and planting all these years, and maybe it is just waiting under the snow to emerge once again in the spring.

Pool in winter

Too bad I don’t have the photographic skills to convey the ‘Genius loci’ to you . . . yet!

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