Seasonal Chores & Observations...
In and Out of My Zone 6 Garden
(c) Hilda M. Morrill - All Rights Reserved

Friday, July 18, 2008 - The temperatures hit 90+ degrees today, and it's not supposed to be any cooler tomorrow.

In the veggie garden, we've been harvesting some leaf lettuces; basil; and Italian flat parsley - as well as a few edible radishes (a miracle since we usually only get leaves).

No red tomatoes yet, although lots of little green ones are visible. 'Celebrity' plants were the first to set fruit, followed by 'Better Boy' and 'Early Girl'. Soon, I hope!

No green beans, cucumbers or zucchini yet, either.

Of course, it's easy to lay the blame on the veggie garden being situated on the north side of the house and the lack of sun.

The daylilies and the Knock Out roses are spectacular, though. Alas, no time to deadhead them for a neater look.

Lots of critters around! Bunnies, voles, chipmunks, coyotes - plus some deer munching on our Krossa Regal hostas. We certainly know the meaning of "sharing."

Although we didn't see it, a blue heron was prancing around on our roof, according to Gene, our neighbor across the street. It was taking a break from eating our other neighbor Richard's Koi in his water garden.

Noticed that today's Home Depot newspaper ads were announcing "End-of-Season" clearance sales! Along with $10.98 perennials and $6.99 annuals. Yikes!

Saturday, June 21, 2008 - Today is the first full day of summer. It's all going way too quickly for me. The days will now begin to get shorter!

The Kousa dogwoods are still putting on quite the show. There should be tons of berries later in the season. Gone by are the peonies, the Baptisia, the bearded irises, the Queen Elizabeth roses and the climbing hydrangea.

But coming along are the Japanese irises, the Shasta daisies, the different spireas and some of the hydrangeas, especially 'Endless Summer.'

Some of the daffodil foliage is starting to yellow and dry off, making it easy to pull up and tidy up the gardens. Why is it that the foliage that is most visible is the one that stays green the longest amount of time?

Friday, May 30, 2008 - The rhododendrons, azaleas, weigelas and viburnums are spectacular this year. Also looking good are the enkianthus with their little bell-like blossoms.

Other blooms throughout the gardens include: Sweet Woodruff (Asperula odorata), Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), Slender Deutzia (Deutzia gracilis); Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Goldenstar, Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), Dwarf or Common Periwinkle, Creeping Myrtle, Flower-of-Death (Vinca minor), Yellow Baptisia (Baptisia tinctoria), several different irises, and a couple of clematis.

Squirrels dug up some of the fibrous rooted begonias I planted in the containers in front of the house. In the one container where I stuffed pinecones between the small plants, I find that no damage was done. Will have to save some of the cones that fall from our pine trees for next year!

The peonies and roses are full of buds. Hubby made some really great peony "grow-throughs" out of tomato cages. Such a clever man! No more fighting with stakes and spindly supports.

In the veggie garden, the rhubarb is in bloom. Since I don't eat it or cook with it, it really doesn't matter. I just like the look of it.

A couple of six-packs of tomatoes wait to be planted. Maybe this weekend! Hope to get some lettuce seed planted, too. Not too many re-seeded from last year - at least not "in" the garden. Amazingly, there are many little lettuce seedlings between the cracks of the adjacent cement pavers. I may try to transplant them.

And there's also some seed packs of green beans, zucchini, radishes, and .... Oh dear! Busy weekend ahead for sure. Good thing our grandson Christopher will be here to help out.

Thursday,
May 8, 2008 – The color palette is changing. Blue is now the predominant color in the garden, with the grape hyacinths (Muscari) taking center stage. They are joined by blue forget-me-nots (Myosotis), blue “false” forget-me-nots (Brunnera), and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia). Of course, it wasn’t too long ago that blue Scillas were everywhere.

The yellow forsythias are all but gone. Soon it will be time to give them a good pruning. Late flowering daffodils are taking their final bows, too. If I can get my act together, I will divide some of the daffodils that have multiplied into large, crowded mounds. I should do it soon, so that the bulbs and their foliage can be replanted in other areas of the garden, especially where previous plantings of daffies have mysteriously disappeared.

Although not the prettiest, the daffodil foliage is necessary to make and store nutrients in the bulbs. So it has to be left attached until it yellows. Thank goodness for the emerging hostas and daylilies, which help hide the withering foliage.

The first baby seedlings of Monarda made their appearance on May 1st. And Christopher’s peppers started to poke their little curved stems out today. Life is good!

Monday,
April 28, 2008 - Yellow is the predominant color in our garden at this time of the year. There are the beautiful daffodils and the forsythias and, of course, the dandelions.

There are even some yellow tulips that, although diminished in numbers, have been coming back every spring for many years. I must check my notes to see where I got them. I do remember that they were called "perennial" tulips.

It rained most of the day today. We really needed it after a week of unseasonably warm weather with many brush fires in the Greater Boston Area.

Last week I planted some seeds in little peat pots, planning on keeping them indoors until they germinate. However, it was so warm, I put them outside in a shady spot. (They are back indoors today keeping nice and warm on top of the refrigerator.)

I had saved some seed from a mystery cherry-red Monarda that has behaved well and not spread all over the place in the back yard. It is a magnet for hummingbirds and I'm hoping to have some plants in the front of the house.

I also planted some "California Wonder" pepper seeds, which I bought with our four-year-old grandson Christopher in mind. He told us that peppers are his favorite vegetable! Who knew?

Thursday, April 10, 2008 - It's time to harvest some of our "crops" from the veggie garden! The chives and green onions are ready for a trimming. They'll make a great addition to an omelet or a frittata. Very exciting!

We haven't even had time to clean out our little veggie garden yet. But the chives, onions, lovage and rhubarb are always faithful and return every spring for us, no matter what the conditions.

The onions are really Egyptian onions, which we enjoy eating, especially if I trim only the new tender shoots. Later, when they develop baby bulbs at their tips, I'll use them like shallots.

Soon I'll be looking for volunteer lettuce and tomato seedlings. They are always a surprise, as there's no guarantee that they'll self-seed from the previous summer's plants, which are left in the garden until after the killing frosts.

In the flower gardens, we're seeing the results of winter vole activity. Whole areas of crocuses have not returned. On close examination, we can see the tunnels where the little varmints lived over the winter, next to their food supply-our bulbs. At least they didn't get them all!

Monday, March 24, 2008 - The potted daffodil bulbs in our unheated porch have several nice emerging leaves. It won't be long before they also bud; and it will be time to bring them into the house, where their pretty yellow blooms will be sure to add lots of cheer.

Speaking of yellow, the finches at the thistle feeder get more yellow with each passing day.

A week or so ago there were literally hundreds of European starlings at all three feeders and all over our Kousa dogwood, from which the feeders hang. To be sure, we checked "A Field Guide to the Birds" by Roger Tory Peterson. Sure enough, that's what they were, with their distinctive yellow bills.

The chrysanthemums I planted in the container on the front steps survived the winter! I noticed lots of little green shoots when I went to replace/refresh the greens that I had stuck in the soil last fall.

Today we saw the first blooming crocus in our south-facing front yard. Spring is definitely in the air!

Indoors, the schefflera, the croton and the Song of India plant (Pleomele reflexa) got their leaves washed off in the bathtub last Saturday with the shower spray-a good way to get rid of all the dust they had collected over the winter.

One of our two potted amaryllis has begun to break dormancy after I started to water them again. It's showing about an inch of the tip of a green leaf.

And the Holiday/Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is in glorious full bloom again; although, alas, my trying to get it to set seed was a failure. Can't win them all, I guess. Will have to figure out what I did wrong.

Monday, March 10, 2008 – There they were, hiding under one of the still-dormant azalea shrubs, when my husband spotted them yesterday and called me to go and see for myself.

I’m referring to a small clump of white flowering Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), also known by such other common names as Snowpiercers, February Fairmaids or Dingle Dangles.

Every year we really look forward to their appearance. Spring is definitely just around the corner!

Thursday, March 6, 2008 – I spent most of today at the Bayside Expo during set-up for the Flower Show. I’ve always found it very exciting and I never cease to be amazed at the transformation of the space and the incredible amount of work that it takes.

The air is filled with so many wonderful scents: from mulches, soil, sod, flowers, compost, herbs, shrubs, trees, leaves—you name it—vegetation in general!

Here’s a little bit of what it looked like:

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - We have a mystery. Can anyone help us identify the leaf pictured below?

It was given to me by the members of the Wollaston Garden Club last Thursday in hopes that I (or my readers) could help them correctly identify it. They had invited me to give a slide presentation at their February luncheon meeting on "Gardening Into Old Age," the lecture I gave at the New England Spring Flower Show last year.

The Wollaston Garden Club members are entering this year's Flower Show Window Competition and have a very healthy plant that they would like to include in their display (and from which the leaf was removed). The specimen was grown from seed that one of their members had brought from California. No one is sure of the correct genus, but it's definitely a baby tree. It looks so familiar!

If anyone has an idea, please e-mail me: hilda@bostongardens.com and I will let the Wollaston Garden Club members know, plus we'll post the answer in a future "Seasonal Chores..." entry.

Speaking of The Flower Show, it will be here before we know it. The days are getting longer, and spring is right around the corner. Yeah!

February 18, 2008 – We are often told, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So, here’s a picture taken a week or so ago. So much for “squirrel-proof” bird feeders! They don’t work.

However, they may cut down on how much birdseed the rascally critters devour in a day since it’s harder for them to swing/shake the feeder back and forth to get some seed to drop to the ground.

Since the picture was taken, we decided to stuff the bottom of the feeder with "little balls" of rolled-up tinfoil so as not to have so much seed at the bottom of the feeder tray. And now, we're filling the feeder up to the top.

It was very gratifying to see a female cardinal at the feeder this morning, in between the torrential downpours and 60 degree weather, along with some titmice, chickadees, finches and, of course, sparrows.

There are lots of fat robins around. However, they don’t go near the feeders, or even scavenge underneath them. They prefer to hop around on what’s left of our so-called lawn, or line up on the fence or power lines—when they’re not eating the holly berries, that is.

We mustn’t forget to thank our dear friend Bernice Speen, who recently invited us to appear on her Brookline Cable TV Show, “Conversations with Bernice Speen.” We talked about gardening (such a surprise), this ever evolving gardening Web site, and the upcoming New England Spring Flower Show, among other things.

We didn’t know at the time that it was the taping of her 100th show. Congratulations and Best Wishes, Bernice, and many thanks for the invitation!

February 3, 2008 – We were finally able to buy one of the so-called “squirrel-proof” bird seed feeders we’ve been watching for at the Ocean State Job Lot store in Quincy. It seemed like a steal for $10 (see “Observations” entry for November 29, 2007).

How come, however, that we sense the squirrels will be the ultimate winners? We’ll see….

Alas, we couldn’t help ourselves and we recently were enticed to buy seeds at (gulp!) Walgreens! They were 10 cents a packet. How can we lose?

So, what did we buy with one dollar?

Mammoth Russian Sunflowers; Cosmos (Single Sensation Mixed Colors); Cleome (2 packets of Rose Queen, even though it has reseeded in our garden for years and years); Sweet Basil; Cucumber (National Pickling); Beans (Tendergreen Improved); Zucchini squash (Dark Green); Peppers (California Wonder); and Radishes (Early Scarlet Globe).

We’ve also received a packet of seed in the mail from our Garden Writers Association colleague, Renee Shepherd: Cutting Zinnias (Apricot Blush).

And, of course, we have all the seed that we never got to plant last year.

Unbelievably, there’re still more seeds on our “wish list”…. Like the old-fashioned beautiful opium poppies that we used to buy at Pickity Place in Mason, New Hampshire in the old days; and many different lettuces; and parsley; and dill; and spinach; and….

Oh, oh…. We keep forgetting how small our garden is!