Wolf Peaches

Solanum lycopersicum (means 'wolf peach')

There's red mulch, red supports, red water tubes... all especially for tomatoes, which when ripe, are red. It's my favorite color, too. I began seeing all the red accessories tomatoes could wear in the garden sometime last year and wondered what it was all about. Merely a ploy to dress things up, or was there something more to it?

Turns out, tomatoes love red. Even when they're green. They aspire to be red, and it seems that red light, when reflected by surrounding red things, will stimulate their growth and production, even if they're exposed to it for just five minutes a day. That's the simple explanation.

Rather than purchase red mulch, I got some red plastic disposable plates and cut a hole in the center for the stem of the tomato plant and secured it at the base with some Earth Staples. So far, I've not seen any improvement in growth over last year, but we're also not experiencing a normal summer - with temperatures or rainfall - so that may account for some of it. But from what I understand, red light is supposed to increase the size and number of tomatoes, so maybe the plant itself won't be any larger.

This summer, we're growing just one plant of 'Mr. Stripey', which as you can guess, is striped! We're growing that one just for fun, and since Romie is the only one who eats fresh tomatoes, one plant will take care of us.

We've also got a few 'Sungold' plants - a cherry tomato known for its sweetness. I first learned of 'Sungold' when reading Stronger Than Dirt by Chris Losee and Kimberly Schaye. It's the story of an urban couple moving to upstate New York and starting their own business growing and selling cut flowers and vegetables. 'Sungold' was a best-seller for them, and I wanted to try them, so I bought some seeds from Kitchen Garden Seeds. Romie concurs - he thinks they're yummy, so I saved seeds from last year's crop and planted them again this year.

Vegetable or fruit?

Now there's a controversial subject. Botanically, the tomato is a fruit, as are cucumbers, pumpkins, eggplant, and zucchini. They're berries, to be precise about it. But we use tomatoes like a vegetable, and for taxation purposes in 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the tomato to be a vegetable. This was an important and necessary action, because U.S. tariff laws apply a duty to vegetables, but not fruits. The USDA recognizes this ruling and classifies the tomato as a vegetable as well.¹

Now you know.

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¹Wikipedia: "Tomato"
*Tomato photo from Wikipedia Commons

Quenched Thirst

Romie came in the house this afternoon and mentioned that I'd better check the green beans because he saw some that were picking size, so I went out to pull beans. As I was out there, I saw some new blooms had opened, so I went back into the house for the camera.

Just thought I'd share with you. Notice anything?

Oriental Lily (Lilium orientale 'Corrida')
Planted last fall, these are the first blooms in my garden.


Longiflorum-Asiatic (L.A.) Hybrid Lily (Lilium 'Samur')


Daylily (Hemerocallis Hybrid by L. Wolfe - not yet registered)
I got this last year from Lana Wolfe, who is a hybridizer in Ft. Wayne, IN. It's not yet registered, so she said I could call it whatever I wanted. I named it 'Lovely Lana' but that name already belongs to a registered daylily! With over 58,000 registered cultivars in the American Hemerocallis Society's database, it's not surprising that the name was taken.
This thing is HUGE, measuring nearly eight inches across.


Watermelon blossom (Citrullus lanatus 'Quetzali')


Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)


Wood Sorrel (Oxalis regnellii)


Clematis (Clematis 'Avant-Garde')


Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)


Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus)

There's RAIN in the heartland!

And this time I did the happy dance - IN THE RAIN.

Not a major downpour, and it looks like we'll have to be satisfied with three-quarters of a inch for now. But we are ever so grateful for all favors, great or small.

Evan Almighty

"Is it too much to ask for a LITTLE PRECIPITATION?"

To Vine Is Divine

This summer looks to be much the same as the last one, as far as annual vines are concerned. For the past two years, I've started morning glory seeds inside and plant them out as soon as they're safe from frost. I do this so I can get the most out of them since our growing season is relatively short and they are slow to start for me.

I was under the impression that morning glories could be invasive, in that they vine everywhere - quickly - and are a nuisance because they reseed freely. I must be doing something wrong, because last year, it was well into August before I saw a single flower on any of them (and I grew several kinds) and some vines were into September before they bloomed! They sat in the ground and did pretty much nothing for the longest time; even the vines themselves stagnated.

They're doing it again.

I planted Japanese Morning Glory 'Picotee' (Ipomoea nil) from seed saved from last year and I've got the healthiest six leaves on each vine you've ever seen. I could show you a picture of them taken a month ago and it would look exactly the same as one I would take today. Argh!

The ones I planted out back are doing a little better now than they were last week and are starting to vine, so I imagine the ones I planted around the light pole in front of the house will take off soon. I'm just getting a little impatient. I thought they were supposed to do well even in adverse conditions and we've certainly had those this summer. Hot hot and dry dry. But I have watered them every day.

We're growing Scarlet Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus) again. It did very well last year and it's giving a repeat performance this year. I have it at the very back of Max's Garden and just tonight, I strung fishing line between the top and bottom rails of the fencing so it would have something to vine up and around.

I had some old purple Hyacinth Bean Vine (Lablab purpureus) seeds that my mom had given me a couple of summers ago but never planted. I alternated those with some of the morning glory seedlings and they're growing pretty well, too.

Another vine that I planted this year is Cypress Vine (Ipomoea quamoclit), using seeds I saved from my vines last year. Now THAT is a self-seeder for sure! I knew that before, so last year I tried to catch all the pods before they burst open and seeded themselves. I guess I missed a few, because some of them are coming up where they were growing last year. I've let them stay, even though I've got a different vine there this year. They'll look fine intertwined with my Five-Leaved Akebia Vine (Akebia quinata), which has a white bloom.

The contrasting textures of their foliage should be interesting, as well as the white and red blooms together. Last year, I grew Black-Eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergia alata) in a salmon color with the Cypress Vine and while the textures were good together, I didn't care for the combined colors. Sometimes something works and sometimes it doesn't, sort of like my cooking...




This year, I've planted the Cypress Vine around the directional, where the Scarlet Runner Bean was last year.

We're playing musical vines!

The Great Black Swamp

*Note that left-clicking on any photo will bring up a full-sized version.

The northwest corner of Ohio was the last to be settled, with most towns and villages being founded in the latter part of the 19th century and after. This is because within its borders lies The Great Black Swamp, a flat, marshy wetland area that took years and years of toiling to drain it and make it inhabitable and useful. Today, much of that land is used for farming, since the terrain and the rich soil are conducive to producing high yields of corn, oats, soybeans, and wheat, its main cash crops.

Today, Romie and I traveled northeast of Our Little Acre for about an hour, to Goll Woods. This 321-acre nature preserve is believed to be the least disturbed woodland area in this part of the state and is home to 200-to-400-year-old trees, some of which have trunks four feet in diameter. Before we left, a quick check of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website for information suggested that a visit to Goll Woods be taken prior to mosquito season.

Gulp.

This is the last week that Romie has off work following his surgery, and this was one thing he wanted to do before he went back. So we packed the Off!® and some light jackets to help protect us from the little suckers and went anyway. We did some geocaching along the way, and didn't arrive at Goll Woods until 4:00 p.m.

Thirty-two acres of this land was first acquired by the Goll Family in 1834, immigrants from France. Their farm grew to include 600 acres and was owned by the family for five generations. In 1966, the state acquired it from Peter Goll's great-granddaughter and in 1975 the nature preserve was dedicated. The Goll family's pioneer cemetery is contained within the preserve.

We started out on Toadshade Trail, wound our way around the west side of the woods to Cottonwood Trail, Burr Oak Trail and continued in a circle around the perimeter via Tulip Tree Trail. Combined, there are 4.25 miles of trails to be explored.


We could see how each trail received its name, especially Tulip Tree. I don't know when I've ever seen so many of them (Liriodendron tulipifera), or any that had such large leaves! Our little "Mount Vernon" tulip poplar at home has a lot of growing to do before it looks like any of those.

It was rather cool in the shade of heavy canopy there in the woods and all that leaf cover and undergrowth had a muffling effect on any noises. Now and then we'd hear a car go by somewhere, or a plane flying overhead, but other than that, the only sound was of birds calling to each other. We were well aware of the peaceful quiet the woods provided.

I kept my eyes peeled and was constantly scanning the trail, left and right, for anything that interested me and that might be a photo op for remembering our excursion. I found many, but even as I was trying to capture on digital media what I was seeing, I knew that it would pale in comparison to what was really there.



We were walking along and as we rounded a turn, there before us was the most shrieking shade of orange made even more so in contrast to the various shades of green and brown surrounding it. It looked like it just didn't belong.

I presumed it to be a Sulphur Shelf fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus), otherwise known as "Chicken of the Woods." A quick google when we got home confirmed it. You can eat this stuff. And no need to take a bite to know just what it's going to taste like either. Or at least that's what they say. We actually had some of this growing on our old oak tree a couple of summers ago, but it was a bit paler than this. We didn't eat that one either.

Romie and I talked about how humid it was, even though we're somewhat in a state of drought. We can only imagine what it would have been like had we been receiving a normal amount of rainfall all along, and never mind how it must have been for our ancestors who cleared land just like this in order to settle here. I think I would have gone further west, like to Kansas maybe.

There were mosquitoes, to be sure, but as long as we kept moving, they really didn't bother us, and that too was due to the lack of rain. We could see many areas that normally would have been very swampy, but now were merely damp and black with rotted leaves and other organic material.

Several large trees had fallen, which I'd read was due to lightning and wind storms. Seeing a trunk that was three-to-four feet in diameter lying on its side was not uncommon. We saw some pretty large ones standing upright, too! Most of the largest ones were oaks, but there were some tall sycamores and cottonwoods, as well as several types of pines.



It was well past the spring wildflower season, but there was Elderberry (Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis) blooming, along with Spotted Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), Swamp Roses (Rosa palustris), and every now and then we'd see a purple Wild Petunia (Ruellia L.). I recognized the foliage of wild ginger, Solomon's Seal, and violets just about everywhere.

Goll Woods is considered to be one of the best spots in the state for observing wildflowers and native shrubs. We observed numerous raspberry thickets and as the berries are just now coming into season for picking and eating, I did. There's nothing better than to snack your way through the woods during berry season! There were other berries we saw (small red ones), but we didn't think it wise to taste test those.

Butterflies flitted along the trail with us, never stopping long enough for me to get an image on the camera, with one exception, just before we made our exit. It was a small white one, and I'm not sure whether it was a butterfly or a moth, although we both suspect it was the former. It let me get in close, but in a dark environment like the woods and the butterfly being stark white, the camera had a very hard time with auto-exposure. I tried different focusing methods and was never able to get a satisfactory (to me) result, but there it is.

To give you an idea of how dense the tree canopy was, there were many times when I couldn't take a photo without a flash and hold the camera still enough. A portable tripod would have come in handy.

We saw just one squirrel, a few chipmunks, two downy woodpeckers, and evidence of deer, but the woods was pretty quiet on this day. It seemed the wildlife were laying low, out of the heat. There wasn't much else to disturb them, as we only saw a few joggers shortly before we left for home.

Goll Woods is a local treasure and we'd like to return in other seasons. Just after a winter snow, the beauty of this place must be breathtaking. And in April and May, when the wildflowers are putting on their show, I want to be there to see it.

Many dead trees had holes in them, which we assume had initially been caused by woodpeckers, but large ants had taken up residence and were doing their part to help decompose the wood and enrich the woodland floor.

This was one of the largest trees we saw.


The elderberry bushes were in full bloom.


One of the many ferns in Goll Woods


Fungi


Zig-zag bark


Romie wondered how I saw this, since it was growing low to the ground, and the flower hangs below the leaves. I was looking for things like this the entire time we were there and something orange really stands out!


Pine cones fall where they may...


Lichens were plentiful.


Pine cone mine field


One of the large trees that have been felled by storms


This lily was on the verge of blooming. I'm not certain what it is - perhaps a Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense). We only saw just this one.


I was amazed by this carving from 1968, but at the same time disappointed that the tree had been defaced in this way.


More fungi


A natural allée


We saw these spikey things throughout the woods. I don't know what they are either, but I was fascinated by them.
EDIT: Identified! They are Hystrix patula - Bottlebrush Grass, a native woodland plant.

*Information about Goll Woods taken from The Columbus Dispatch and Ohio DNR.

A Place in the Sun

Here in zone 5, we divide our outdoor gardening into three parts. There is a fourth, of course, but I'd hardly call it gardening, unless you're lucky enough to have a heated greenhouse, and I'm not. That's not quite the same anyway.


Spring Workout - After a long, gray, cold winter, this is when we are delirious with joy at performing even the slightest chore in preparing our gardens for planting. Just clearing away the debris that accumulated over the previous months gives us satisfaction, because we're doing something.
We pick up speed like snow in an avalanche as we hurtle towards summer, when we'll be rewarded for all the back-breaking and exhausting days we have spent cultivating, planting, transplanting, mulching, watering - well, you know...all that stuff we need to do to help our little lovelies look their best.

Crawling into bed this time of year feels really good.


Summer Fun - Now this is the life! We can breathe a sigh of relief because it's all in the ground, growing, blooming, producing fruit and veggies, and filling the once-bare spaces.

These are the salad days. The reason we garden. Every breath of sweet fragrance from the blooms and the sight of all that color bursting out of the ground makes us smile and our hearts nearly burst from the delight of it.

It's not that there aren't things to do to keep it going, because there's always weeding, deadheading, watering, and garden pests to deal with. But we can at least pace ourselves a little more and not feel like we're in a race to get more done in a day than we really have the time and energy to do.

This is our reward.


Autumn Wind-down - A melancholy time of year, to be sure. In some ways, we're glad to be done with the seemingly endless upkeep that's required of us. We prepare our gardens for bedtime and the needed rest awaiting them. And we need it, too. Though we say we envy those that are able to garden year 'round, we know deep down that we welcome the respite and appreciate spring all the more because of it.

Still, we are sad to see it go. The first frost signals the garden to slow down and prepare to sleep. We hang onto each and every last bloom that comes our way because we know it will be a long time before we see them again.


So we are caught in the middle now, and the middle is a good place to be. It's the time I really enjoy our garden. I go out into it and sit and really look at it for the sheer beauty of things. There are flowers for cutting so I can bring the joy inside the house, too. And not a day goes by that we don't eat something that we grew.

The birds and butterflies are enjoying our garden now, too. It pleases me that they deem it fit to visit. Some will even take up residence there and raise a family. Our garden - their birthplace.

Every year it seems that summer goes by more quickly than the one before. Sometimes I'll just sit in the warmth of the sun and close my eyes and try to commit to memory how it feels, so when I'm shivering in the winter cold, I can summon the memory of that time. I keep thinking it will warm me and it never really does, but I don't stop trying to make it work.

Just relishing the moment in the sun is worth enough.

Ruffly Rue

Ruta graveolens

This lovely little herb came to reside in my garden as a result of the Evergreen Garden Club's plant sale in 2006. It was a petite thing when I planted it last year, but it has grown to be a nice-sized and beautifully-shaped specimen in the herb garden this summer. Last year, though small, we had a couple of caterpillars take up residence on its leaves and munch happily away on them.

I love its bluish foliage, which reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle for some reason. I keep my hands off, however, because it's been known to cause severe irritation to some people in the form of painful blisters.

In the past, it has been used in Catholic masses as a component of holy water, earning it the name "Herb of Grace."

It's also been used extensively in a medicinal way, treating sciatica, headache, and neuralgia, just to name a few. It can cause kidney damage, however, so I think it's better left for the caterpillars.

Join

One Thing Gardening Does For You

It's hard to make the definitive list of what gardening does for you, there are so many things. But in recent weeks, my garden has introduced me to a plethora of insects that I've not seen or noticed before. I'm sure they were always there, but unless you get down and delve right into the heart and soul of your garden, they don't get noticed.

This week, while I was watering at twilight (yes, I know ... not the best time to be doing that), this beautiful caterpillar was poised in all its spiny glory on the 'Dropmore Scarlet' honeysuckle that vines up the arbor entrance to Max's Garden:


I don't yet know what it is exactly, although an entomologist friend thinks it's a moth, perhaps an Io moth (Automeris io). I kind of hope it is and if so, I hope I'm around when the moth emerges, because it would look like this:

Stunning, isn't it? Stinging, too, apparently. Well, not the moth, but the spines on the caterpillar are hollow and connected to poisonous glands. If you get pricked by those spines, it can be as painful as a bee sting and if you're allergic to bee stings or other insect bites, you should consult a physician if you come into contact with them. Guess what? I'm allergic to bee stings. Glad I didn't pet the caterpillar!

I should say that's what the male would look like. The female has brownish-purple forewings. It still has the eye spots, which are a defense feature meant to scare predators away.

I'm continually running into strange insects in the garden, and while as a child I was terrified of most of them, now I just think they're fascinating and I don't shun them. I've learned so much about the clandestine goings-on under the cover of leaves. You'd be shocked, I tell you. But it's what makes the world go 'round. The garden, too.


*Photo of male Io moth - Bev Wigney
*Photo of female Io moth - Scott Henninger

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UPDATE: Thanks to bugheart, our spiny caterpillar has been identified as a Smartweed Caterpillar (Acronicta oblinita)!

Red Hot!

About six weeks ago, I had the work day in the garden to beat all work days and at day's end, I was pooped. I'll never forget trying to dig that Kniphofia out of that clay, and when I replanted them on the south side of the pool house in what is likely the worst soil on all of Our Little Acre, I really had my doubts as to how they would do.

I watered them well in the weeks following, and it looked as if we were going to lose a few of them. I did lose a few swords of foliage, but that's to be expected even in ideal conditions, I think. Then they seemed to be holding their own and I was confident they would survive all that digging, tugging, pulling, and transplanting at what proved to be the beginning of a long and ongoing dry spell.

This plant is one tough cookie.

I got them in the fall of 2005, from Spring Hill as a Buy One Get One Free sort of deal. Their first location here was on the south side of our family room, which has a microclimate going on. I'm certain it's a solid zone 6 there, while most of the rest of our property is zone 5. It gets all that warm sun and no wind, because about five feet out from the little planting bed, there are yews grown as a hedge about 2½ feet high, plus the family room is set back on that side about three feet more to the north than the rest of the house.

They did not do well there. The following spring, only three survived out of the twelve I planted. Spring Hill has a great guarantee policy and I notified them that I'd lost several of my Kniphofias over the winter and they promptly sent replacements.

Thinking that maybe the location wasn't good, I then planted them out in Max's Garden in full sun, with no protection from wind from any direction. They were just out there. And they loved it. Those little plants just took right off and while I didn't get any blooms last year, their spikey leaves grew one after the other and they were a gorgeous lot to behold. Not only that, but they survived our quirky winter and spring we had this year, too.

Meanwhile, my hollyhocks, grown from seed from my grandma's plants and which have always grown on the south side of the pool house and been absolutely fabulous, gave up the ghost, save for a few small plantlets.

I know that hollyhocks are a biennial, but I've always let them go to seed so they'd grow and bloom on a rotating basis. It was a system that served us well for many years, until this year.

I decided that the Kniphofias would look nice planted where the hollyhocks used to be, so I dug them up and moved them there. I don't know why I wanted to take something that had already been moved because it didn't do well in one spot and was now thriving in another, and put it in yet a different location, but I did. Such is the way of some gardeners.

I really did worry that I'd done a very bad thing, because they looked so droopy and sad for quite some time after transplanting, but look what happened:

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Franklin Park Conservatory Hosts a World of Butterflies

My friend Marsha and I had been planning this trip to Columbus, our state capital, for several months now. It didn't start out being on the calendar for June, but different life events prevented us from making the trip until now. That's usually how it is with Marsha and me - we live about 13 miles from each other, yet we only manage to see each other every other month. If we're lucky.


We left Marsha's house around 9:30 and traveled in the TRVL BUG down US 33 to the heart of Columbus, home of beautiful Franklin Park and the Franklin Park Conservatory. The grounds, which encompass 93 acres, have an interesting history:

• 1852 - the first county fair was held
• 1874 - became the official site of the Ohio State Fair
• 1880 - General Sherman gave his "War, it is all hell" speech to a reunion of Civil War veterans
  
• 1886 - The Ohio State Fair location was moved and Franklin Park was abandoned
• 1895 - The original glass conservatory, modeled after the Glass Palace at The Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, was constructed and opened to the public
  
  

• 1927-1929 - Animals were kept in the basement of the Conservatory, and later became part of the first Columbus Zoo
• 1992 - From April until October, AmeriFlora 92 was held on the grounds
• 1994 - The Conservatory became the first in the nation to showcase a seasonal butterfly exhibition: Blooms & Butterflies

• 2003-2004 - The Conservatory was host to a display of Dale Chihuly's works and purchased nearly the entire collection, making the Conservatory the only public botanical garden in the world to house a permanent signature Chihuly collection

I'd seen the original "Chihuly at The Conservatory" exhibit in 2004 and instantly became a fan. At that time, they were selling limited edition Chihuly prints and I bought two, intending to use them in Jenna's room, which we were redecorating at the time. Where are they now? Still in their tubes.

Our first stop, once we entered the conservatory, was the gift shop. Priorities, you know. There weren't many people in there at all, including the two shop employees, and we oohed and ahhed over the wonderful items they had for sale and squealed and giggled as we played with the cute toys they had for kids. Big kids have fun with them, too.

They had triangular prism boxes that we had fun with and then I got an idea to put one in front of my camera lens, just to see if I could take a picture through it:


We both purchased a few things, then hurried over to the Tropical Rainforest, where at 1:00 they were releasing butterflies that had emerged overnight. A docent gave a little information about each butterfly as she released it.

The variety of species fluttering about in that room was quite impressive, not to mention the brilliant colors and markings on some of them. We spent quite a bit of time in there, snapping photo after photo and trying to capture digital images of the beauties. They seemed to taunt us by landing on a flower perch, posing seductively, only to flit away just as we were ready to release the shutter.

The results of my efforts:

Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

I didn't label each butterfly, because I don't know what most of them are, so if anyone knows the name for any of these, I'd appreciate you sharing your knowledge!


While wandering around, I noticed this butterfly hanging upside down, being very still, so I took its picture. I then went around to the other side and took a picture of it from that direction. The difference is amazing, isn't it?

















After checking ourselves for hitchhikers, we left the rain forest to explore other areas of the conservatory, as well as stroll around the grounds. The effects of too little rain could be seen here, too, in ragged blooms, small blooms and the lack of blooms.


The hot, dry weather brought out another negative - Japanese Beetles.




We saw them everywhere on just about everything outside. They definitely have a Japanese Beetle issue here and I wonder what they do for control, or if they do anything. With a property this size, I would think it would be quite difficult.

There is a beautiful tribute garden, in the form of a red ribbon of begonias at the foot of a 14-foot bronze sculpture entitled Reach Out. It was done in 1992 by Alfred Tibor, a local sculptor and Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the US in 1957 from Hungary. If you look closely, you can see the hands in the sculpture, right in front of the tree:

As I was getting ready to take a picture of the sculpture itself, I noticed a fluffy white cloud making its way across the sky, so I waited just a bit to take my picture so the hands could 'hold' the cloud.


We walked back into the conservatory to gather up our treasures that we'd purchased at the gift shop and we made a little detour into a room for kids that emphasized recycling. On one wall, there was a mural of butterflies and flowers made of recycled lids.


On opposite end walls, artist Michelle Stitzlein's found object butterfly art was featured and was constructed entirely of recycled materials. Piano keys, chair casters, pop bottle caps, and glass insulators are just a few of the things she used.





















There is an extensive collection of orchids housed in the conservatory, though the majority of them are not in bloom at the moment.

It was about 3:00 in the afternoon when left Franklin Park and headed for Dublin, which is on the northwest side of Columbus. Not having had lunch, we stopped on the way, to eat at Skyline Chili. We don't have those restaurants in our corner of the state, so we took advantage of the fact that they do have them here. Very, very good stuff, that is!

Next stop was Oakland Nurseries. I'd researched online to find a nice nursery for us to visit, and this was well worth the stop. They have three stores in the Columbus area and we checked out the Dublin location. Click on the photo below and look closely at the sign that's hanging on the front of their store . . .


Twenty per cent off everything in the store. Oh boy. We could be in big trouble here. But we were good girls and neither of us bought much of anything. Not that we didn't see LOTS of things that tempted us, because we surely did, especially with the reduced prices to sweeten the deal. But we both have children with upcoming weddings, so we can't have everything we want. They sure had some lovely hydrangeas.

I didn't get out of there without buying a hat, though. It is a fairly well-known fact among my family and friends that I have an unusually large head. Thus, I generally can't wear hats because they don't fit and when I find one that does, I look either silly or downright ugly in it. But I found a gardening hat here that actually looked ... well ... good.


SOLD.



After we left the nursery, we stopped at Coldwater Creek, which was just around the corner and was a brand new store of theirs, opened for the first day on Tuesday. I was looking for a dress that I'd seen in their catalog that was a real possibility for me to wear for Jenna's wedding and I wanted to try it on in the store, if possible. They had it, it fit, I liked it, and it was sixty per cent off!

I found a couple of other things, too, and as a grand opening bonus, I got a freshwater pearl necklace and earring set valued at $69.99 for no additional charge. Lovely! As we were leaving the store, the manager said to Marsha, "You're not walking out of here with nothing, are you?" to which Marsha replied, "Yeah, I guess so." The manager walked over and handed her a necklace and earring set, too! Marsha gave her a hug and thanked her. Actually, Marsha probably earned that set, because you know how it is when two women go shopping together - you're bad for each other in a way that men just don't 'get'. Marsha was much worse for me than I was for her this time, though. That free jewelry set was her commission for the sale.



Home was a two plus-hour drive away, but it went by very fast, because Marsha and I never run out of things to talk about. I think it would be this way even if we saw each other every other day instead of every other month. Being with girlfriends is so much fun!

In Memory of a Life

For someone who is The Queen of Procrastination, it sure seems like I'm always in a hurry. Kind of ironic, isn't it? Where most people complain about how they hurry up and wait, I wait and then have to hurry up. Today was no different.

I work on Wednesday afternoons, in New Haven, Indiana, and while I like that I don't have to get up at 0:Dark-Thirty to go to work, sometimes it's a tad bit aggravating to have to stop whatever I've started doing that morning to get ready and go to work. I love doing dental hygiene, love my employer, love my co-workers, and love our patients (most of them). And I know, it's a lot easier to love a job when you only have to do it four hours a week, but still.

So I was pushing the time constraints once again when I found myself driving into New Haven, and all of a sudden, I noticed the pick-up truck in front of me started braking. We were out in the country, in the middle of a mile and I couldn't see why he was slowing down. No roads to turn onto, no driveways. And then I looked ahead of him and saw a long line of cars coming towards us. All had their lights on, driving slowly, led by a sheriff's deputy car with its lights flashing, and all had little flags on the roofs of their vehicles. It was a funeral procession.

I'll be honest - my first thought was, "Oh man, I'm really going to be late now." I pulled off the side of the road behind the pick-up truck and a car behind me did the same. And as I was sitting there waiting for the cars to pass by, so many thoughts went through my head, and I believe that's just what God intended.

I first was ashamed. Not of thinking how this was going to slow me down and make me late, but that I doubt I would have pulled over and stopped had the truck in front of me not done so. I don't find the custom of doing this to be strange, in fact, I've done it before, although it's been quite awhile since I've encountered this and I probably followed suit just like today rather than did it all on my own. And that's what bothers me.

Then I started thinking about whose funeral it was. I didn't know and even if I did, I probably didn't know the person. But it was someone's mother, brother, aunt, child, cousin, lover, or friend, and they were going to be missed. Their time here was over and there were tears that were surely shed today for this person that once walked among us.

The world seems to place greater importance on some lives than others and I suppose that's just being human. Some people fill the years of their lives with big and important accomplishments which make them more well-known while others live quiet lives, unknown to the masses, yet no less valuable to Their Maker. We all have our place here and no matter how long or short our lives are, they have a purpose, even if it's sometimes hard to put our finger on what that is sometimes.

So in the three minutes that it took for the funeral procession to make its way down the road, I went from feeling slightly inconvenienced to being sympathetic and reflective about this unknown life that had come to an end. And I hope the people they left behind knew that the three cars stopped on the side of the road were paying their respects in the only way they could at that moment.

Three minutes didn't seem nearly long enough.

International Space Station Sighting!

I don't know that I've ever posted three times in one day, but this event warranted this post. Tonight, about 10:35 EDT, Romie and I stood outside in the middle of our road with our next-door neighbors and watched the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis travel overhead. Just today, Atlantis undocked from the Space Station, and is due to land back on Earth on Thursday.

At their highest elevation that we could see here, they were 60° off the horizon, which seemed to be pretty much overhead, only better, because you could look up and watch them without getting a crook in your neck. It only took them about three minutes to traverse the sky until we couldn't see them anymore. It's pretty amazing that we could see them at all, considering they were 220 miles above us.

I ran in the house and grabbed my camera, but only half expected to get any kind of image, especially without a tripod. For the first picture, I just plopped myself right down on the grass on my back and snapped the shutter release. Being so dark, I knew I'd get some trailing of light because the shutter stayed open for several seconds, but it's still kind of neat that I captured them.


The second picture was taken when I was standing on the road looking up at them just before they disappeared from our sight. Very little trailing on this one, and I'm not sure why that is, since I was even less stabilized when taking this one.


I'm so fascinated by the night sky.

.5

I very nearly went out and danced in it.

Half an inch isn't nearly enough, but it's something.

Spinach vs. Lettuce

My husband has become a spinach snob. Last year, we grew 'Springer' spinach and he loved it so much that now that's all he wants for his salads. We also grew Mesclun Mix and head lettuce.

This year, I planted Mesclun Mix again, using seed I saved from last year. The first planting of spinach is now bolting and we're on the last harvest of that, but the Mesclun Mix is producing like crazy, so we're eating more lettuce than spinach.

Romie made it clear he was not happy that the spinach salads are over for now. He wasn't particularly interested in the lettuce, even though it's very tender and very good.

He'll just have to suck it up and settle for fresh leaf lettuce salads for awhile. Poor thing.

Don't Bug Me!

I thought the Japanese Beetles had made their appearance. I found two today, both on roses. But while they were of the same size and general shape of a Japanese Beetle, they didn't look like the ones we had last year. This is a photo I took of the second one I found today:

Trichiotinus assimilis

It's a Hairy Flower Scarab or Bee Mimic Beetle. They behave much like bees. They hide in roses much like Japanese Beetles, too, and I'm treating them as such.

I usually pick them off and take them in the house to put them down the garbage disposal. If I smash them in the garden, the resulting smell they give off will attract more. I could take a jar of soapy water with me to the gardens when I'm on Japanese Beetle Watch and put them in there to drown, too.

We only had a total of thirteen of the little buggers last summer, but something tells me we're going to have a lot more than that this year. I've only ever found them on my roses, but Wikipedia says they like these:

Strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, roses, plums, pears, peaches, raspberries, blackberries and these genera:

• Abelmoschus
• Acer
• Aesculus
• Alcea
• Asparagus
• Aster
• Betula (Birch trees)
• Buddleia
• Calluna
• Caladium
• Canna
• Chaenomoles
• Cirsium
• Cosmos
• Dahlia
• Daucus
• Dendranthema
• Digitalis
• Dolichos
• Echinacea
• Hemerocallis
• Heuchera
• Hibiscus
• Hydrangea
• Ilex
• Iris
• Lagerstroemia
• Liatris
• Ligustrum
• Malus
• Malva
• Myrica
• Oenothera
• Parthenocissus
• Phaeseolus
• Phlox
• Physocarpus
• Platanus
• Polygonum
• Prunus
• Quercus
• Rheum
• Rhododendron
• Rosa
• Rubus
• Salix
• Sambucus
• Sassafras
• Solanum
• Syringa
• Tilia (Linden, lime, or basswood trees)
• Toxicodendron
• Ulmus
• Vaccinium
• Viburnum
• Vitis
• Weigelia
• Wisteria
• Zea
• Zinnia

Oh brother. The whole freakin' garden.

Red Sky at Night is NOT a Delight

"Red sky at night, sailor’s delight
Red sky in morning, sailor take warning"

Sunset - Monday, June 18, 2007

I can remember years ago there were times when the topic of conversation was how we needed rain and they wished it would rain and it had better rain soon and I would think to myself, "I don't care if it rains, but it had better not do it this weekend. I have plans." Now it's years later and these days all people talk about is how we need rain and they wish it would rain and it had better rain soon and I think to myself, "Do tell!!"

It's all a matter of perspective. I grow things now, and our gardens are in desperate need of rain. And while we do eat some of what grows there, our garden doesn't really put food on the table. We live in farming country and lack of rain will affect the income of those who really do put food on the global table. Even if I didn't have the gardens I do now, I know that a serious lack of rain should concern all of us. It's the trickle-down effect and besides meaning less income for the growers, it could mean higher prices for us on many of the things we eat and use every day.

We have washed windows, washed cars, planned outdoor events, and numerous other things that normally would bring on the rain, all to no avail. We've been given a forecast of a 100% chance of rain for tonight and tomorrow, but we've been told this before, so it didn't stop me from watering anyway. The way I figure it, if we don't get rain I'll have given the plants their daily drink and if we do get it, the ground will be better able to absorb it and so will the plants.

We need rain and I wish it would rain and it had better rain soon...

Blooming Now at Our Little Acre

In spite of being in desperate need of a good rain, there is no shortage of lovely blooms in the gardens. Some are smaller than normal, or fewer in number, but some years are like that and this is one of them. No matter how much we water with the hose, it's no substitute for good drenching rains at the right times.

It's times like this that make me grateful for drought-tolerant plants and natives that have been through this kind of thing for hundreds of years and keep plugging along. I don't think I'd ever have to water the echinacea, except for 'Sparkler' which is variegated. I've found it can't take the heat very well.

The daisies don't seem to be particularly thirsty either. And the sedums. You've got to love sedums in times like this. Of course, I don't have any pictures right now of the aforementioned. I do have these, though:

Zonal Geranium

Pelargonium

Balloon Flower
Platycodon grandiflorus 'Astra Semi-Double Lavender'

Daylily

Hemerocallis


Ivy Geranium
Pelargonium peltatum 'Blizzard'


Heliotrope
Heliotropium arborescens 'Marine'


Viola


Nemesia


Clematis 'Niobe'


Purple Shamrock
Oxalis regnellii


Icelandic Poppy
Papaver nudicaule 'Flamenco'


Spiderwort
Tradescantia ohiensis


Potentilla
Potentilla nepalensis 'Melton Fire'


Sundrops
Oenithera fruticosa


Viola


Sweet William
Dianthus barbatus


Floribunda Rose
Rosa 'Disneyland'


Mountain Bluet
Centaurea montana 'Gold Bullion'


Red Creeping Thyme
Thymus praecox


Clematis
Clematis 'Jackmanii'


Cherry Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Sungold'


Iron Cross Oxalis
Oxalis tetraphylla


Floribunda Rose
Rosa 'Nearly Wild'


Japanese Spiraea
Spiraea japonica 'Magic Carpet'

There are more things blooming, but these are what I have pictures of at the moment. There are so many that it's hard to keep up!

It's a good thing.

Bliss in My Garden

Yolanda Elizabet, today you are not the only one who has bliss in your garden. Too bad the internet doesn't have scratch 'n sniff capabilities:



Every time I walk by the trellis where this Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) grows, or even am in the general vicinity of it, I catch a whiff. I breathe deeply again and again. I can't get enough, but I keep trying because it will be gone before I know it.

This is on the invasive species list in several states, including Ohio, but according to The Nature Conservancy, it's not found with regularity in our part of the state. I don't find it to be a problem here in our yard, and we've had it for probably 25 years, maybe longer. I don't really remember how it got here, but it's planted at the base of our large trellis, which wasn't here when we moved in (1977), so we planted it. I hate it when my memory fails me.

We also have Morrow's Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii), which is also on the invasive species list, back in Max's Garden, in the corner. I hate that thing. It grows VERY fast and isn't generally attractive. It doesn't even have the strong scent that the Japanese honeysuckle has. It was here when we moved here, and given its location, I'm guessing it was planted there on purpose.


It's so large now that it would be a major undertaking to remove it, so we try to just control it by pruning it back extensively a couple of times a year.

Max likes to use it for claw sharpening, and when it's in bloom, you can actually hear the tree/shrub buzzing from several feet away, it's so loaded with bees.

botanica

I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago from Shutterfly, making me an offer that was hard to refuse. Any order would get me a free 8 x 8 Photo Book. This is a $29.99 value! So I ordered some luggage tags featuring photos I've taken. Once my order shipped, the credit for the free Photo Book appeared in my account and they gave me one week to redeem it.

Having wanted to do one of these for quite some time, but being The Queen of Procrastination, I had never gotten around to doing it. Now I had to 'use it or lose it.'

I began by uploading pictures I'd taken of flowers in my garden into a folder on Shutterfly's site. Then I had to load those pictures into my Photo Book project folder. I thought this was going to be the most time-consuming part of the project, and for most people, it just might be, but for me, it was designing the pages.


There are so many options for backgrounds, fonts, layouts, etc., that I had a hard time putting photos on each page and being happy with the results. I can be such a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this that I drive myself crazy in the process. Of course, this very thing is what contributes to my procrastination habit. But I was not about to lose out on a thirty-dollar book, so I soldiered on, changing backgrounds and pictures and layouts over and over again until I was finally happy with things.

Jenna had done one already and we talked about the steps we took when assembling our books. She picked her backgrounds first, then the layouts, then the pictures. I chose the layout first, inserted the pictures, then picked a background that coordinated well with the pictures. We took different paths to reach the same destination and we're both happy with each others' results!

I chose the title botanica with the subtitle consisting of the latitude and longitude for "Our Little Acre." I labeled each picture with either the common name or the Latin name and sometimes I used both. Each word throughout the entire book was in "Modern Wide" font using lower case letters exclusively.

The free offer allowed for twenty pages, although you could add more if you wanted, for something like 80 cents each. If I'd had more time, I would have added more photos on additional pages, but as it was, I was right up to the last minute getting this book finished and submitting the order. And I'm not kidding. The offer expired at midnight Pacific time, and I hit "Submit" at 11:58!


The book arrived today and I'm very pleased with it! I'm sure I'll do more of these when they offer them again at a reduced price. Perhaps I'll do one for each of the major flower show trips that my mom and I have taken together. I'd also like to do one showing how our gardens have evolved over the years.

A-Caching We Will Go

For the past several weeks, Romie and I have been meaning to try and find some new geocaches that have been placed in our area. We've been so busy in the garden and doing other things that we've not been able to get to them. Romie suggested we do them today.

There were two between our house and Paulding, both adjacent to small cemeteries. We found them both quickly and easily. The third one was located in The Black Swamp Nature Center on the southwest side of Paulding. It was another very warm day today, but walking around in the nature preserve, in the woods, kept us quite cool.

This cache was a multi, meaning you find the first location, at which there will be coordinates for the next location, which might lead you to more coordinates, which eventually will take you to the final hiding place where, if you're good (and sometimes luck doesn't hurt), you'll find the actual cache. Creature From Black Swamp had two stages before we found the final cache.

We thoroughly enjoyed traipsing through the woods and as is the case with locations like this, finding the cache is secondary to our experience of making our way to it. It's usually early to mid-spring when we see lots of wildflowers in bloom, but there were plenty today, too.

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta)

Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)



Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia)



Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris)


I first thought this was Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota),
but the more I look at it and investigate, I don't think so.
I don't know what it is, though.


I haven't been able to identify this one.


Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

It's past its bloom time, but I love its heart-shaped foliage.
The bloom on ginger is very unusual, and usually goes unnoticed
because it's located under the leaves and close to the ground.



Wood Violet (Viola sororia)

These are finished blooming, too, which was a shame,
because the woodland floor was covered with them.
I can only imagine the beauty of seeing all these in bloom at once.

After we found 'the creature,' we stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Romie got a pineapple sundae (ewww!) while I got my usual custom-made Blizzard: Heath made with caramel instead of fudge (mmmm!)

We started for home, taking the long way by circling around in an easterly direction so we could find two more caches. I nearly couldn't find one of them, although while looking, I found the ugliest slug I've ever seen. The biggest one, too, at about three inches long. The ones I find in my garden are teeny things, maybe a quarter of an inch long. When I got home, I googled it and it was a leopard slug.

We got home around 6:00, tired but having had an enjoyable afternoon communing with nature outside of Our Little Acre.

Flags For Flag Day

Last September, when Mom and I traveled to Winterthur, Delaware, for Garden Fair, we stopped at the United Flight 93 crash site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It's just three miles south of US 30, which is the route we took.

I can't tell you what an emotional experience that was for both of us. We didn't expect to be moved to actual tears, but we were. We felt as if we were walking on hallowed ground. It's hard to explain; it's just something you have to experience for yourself.

In honor of Flag Day, which we celebrate here in the US on June 14th, this photo shows the flags posted near the crash site of United Flight 93 - each flag for each victim killed in the crash.

But It's A Dry Heat

Whew. It's hot. Back in the 90s again today, and no rain in sight. We haven't had any rain at all for nearly two weeks, and we were in sore need of it then. I don't want to baby the plants in our gardens too much by overwatering, but right now, it's hard to even do that. Along with the high temperatures, there's been a hot wind blowing through. Even with faithful watering, things look wilted and stressed by day's end.

Many of the plants that I started by seed and planted out about a month ago haven't shown much change in that time. They're just surviving, not thriving.

The only good thing about having no rain is that I haven't had to mow the grass since Romie did it right before his surgery. He's not allowed to do mowing for a couple of weeks yet, so that job falls to me right now.

We keep a solar cover on the pool when we aren't in it, but most summers, that comes off sometime in July or August because nights are consistently warm enough that the water doesn't cool down significantly. We really need to take it off now because the water today was 91° and if we keep the solar cover on, that water could turn green in an instant, even with the proper chemical balance. We're just pulling it back at night though, because with the high temperatures and winds during the day, the evaporation rate is high.

Right now, the only rain in our future is predicted for next Tuesday. We can only hope.

Off With Their Heads!

Right along with weeding, I enjoy deadheading in the garden. Almost every morning, I head out to survey the gardens, looking for new blooms, naughty insects, and spent flower heads from which I don't want to save seeds. I generally take my camera along with my Felco pruners, because those two things are what I use most often on a regular basis. You never know what might need pruning or photographing.

Just having the need to do some deadheading means we've really and truly left winter behind and we're well on our way to summer. Deadheading serves several purposes for me:

• I don't like seeing ugly, shriveled flowers, so snipping them off neatens things up a bit. The entire plant just looks better with healthy foliage and/or fresh blooms.
  
• By deadheading, it signals some plants to flower again. If it happens to be an annual or perennial that reblooms, deadheading keeps this process active.
• Sometimes I want to save seeds from my plants and sometimes I don't. For example, I let the columbine go to seed and let it drop where it may or I gather it and sprinkle it where I want it. On the other hand, I don't want my tulips wasting energy on seed production, and deadheading them lets them work on beefing up the bulb for next year's blooms.

Flowers that I deadhead regularly throughout the growing season include coreopsis, hardy geranium, geum, roses, platycodon, daisies, coneflower, pelargoniums, petunias, and dianthus, just to name a few.

After doing some deadheading today, I gave the creeping phlox a haircut. After blooming, they're supposed to be sheared back by half. This promotes new growth and helps them form a more dense mat and may even result in some sparse reblooming.

I'm pinching back my chrysanthemums and hardy asters, too, and will continue to do so until July 4th. That keeps those from getting too leggy and there'll be more blooms when it's flowering time for them.

In the News . . . Again

When my girlfriend Jane and I spent a Saturday morning in Van Wert recently, doing the garden tour and the art show, someone took notice. And they put it in the paper.


That's Jane on the left, me on the right. My mom cut the photo out when she saw it in their paper. And only a mother would see a picture like that and recognize her daughter's backside.

It's A Wonderful Life

It's been four days since Romie's surgery, so I asked him this morning if he felt up to taking a short road trip. He wasn't sure, but since all he had to do was ride in the car and do very little walking, he decided he'd be fine to go.

Last year, when Kara and Adam got married, Mom was in charge of the decorating and the flowers. She got twenty hanging baskets of Asparagus Fern (Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri') from Stratton Greenhouses near Bluffton, Ohio. She used sprigs of this in her decorating. When we went to pick them up, I saw a rustic wooden plaque that said "It's a Wonderful Life" that I wanted, but didn't buy. I've regretted not getting it ever since then, so today Romie and I headed that way. A long shot, I know, since that was over a year ago, but even if they didn't have it, Strattons's is a wonderful greenhouse and they have a fabulous home and garden gift shop as well.

We first went to Indian Trail Garden Center in Columbus Grove. Mom and I had gone there last year, too, and it's another place that's well worth the trip for us. I picked up a 'Harvest Moon' Echinacea to add to the small one I already have, and I was getting ready to buy some catnip since my rather large plant was one of our winter casualties. Then I saw nice large containers of catmint (Nepeta x faassenii 'Walker's Low') and got into a discussion with several employees about whether or not cats are attracted to catmint like they are to catnip.

After they researched it online and not seeing anything that suggested cats like catmint, I decided to play it safe and go with the catnip. Then a very nice woman (the owner?) asked if I simply wanted the catnip for my cats - I did - and she went somewhere 'out back' and dug up a nice big clump of it and gave it to me gratis! Once again, I'm amazed at the generosity of gardeners, and especially when I was willing to pay.

(By the way, I later found out that cats are indeed attracted to catmint.)

We then traveled further east to Stratton's, which is located on historic Lincoln Highway. I walked into their gift shop, which they call The Country Peddler. There are some absolutely gorgeous and unusual things there. It was here that I saw the 'wonderful life' plaque last year. And it was still there! Yay! (But it's not there anymore...)


They had a nice large selection of herbs, annuals and perennials, as well as trees and shrubs, but since I wasn't really interested in buying more plants, I just skimmed their selections. I ended up getting a couple of balloon flowers (Platycodon grandiflorus 'Astra Pink' and 'Astra Semi-Double Lavender'). I also picked out a decorative hose hanger that I put on the front of the pool house for the shorter hose we use for watering that area. It's usually strung all over and I'd been thinking of getting such a thing for storing it prior to our trip today, so finding one that I liked and could afford was serendipitous.

Just as I thought I was done shopping and was preparing to leave, I noticed a stained-glass mobile of a sort, of a blue jay, hanging over the counter. It was quite unusual and very pretty, and while I'd already spent more than I intended, I gritted my teeth and added it to my tally. When we got it home, Romie suggested we hang it just outside the family room window so we could see it while sitting in that room. Good call!


After we got home, we decorated our outdoor 'rooms' and planted the newly acquired plants. We had a fun day and while I wouldn't wish for Romie to have surgery every day of the week, I enjoy him being home like this so we can hang out and do what we both enjoy together.

Face-Off

Seen on Sunday (click on photo for a larger view) . . .






What you can't see in this picture is the furious wagging of the tails by both Boo and squirrel. This little tête-à-tête went on for several minutes before Boo became bored with it all and went on in search of other conquests. In the end, I think he would have come out on the bad end of this affair, so it's just as well.

Why Is It Called Flagstone?

Romie has come to dread it somewhat when he hears me say, "Honey, I have an idea..." I know that behind my back, he's rolling his eyes and thinking, "What now?" and "How much is this going to cost?" Whenever I get an idea, he rarely shoots me down altogether, but if he is reluctant to go along with it, I'll remind him of how he always likes things after we've carried my ideas out. His response? "I liked it before, too."

When I talked about our projects previously, there was one that I didn't mention, because it was one of those ideas that just randomly pops into my head and then we do it shortly after. We had a stepping stone walkway that led from our patio to the pool, using stones that my Grandma had given us when she didn't want them anymore. They were roughly 12 inches in diameter and had the texture and appearance of a slice of tree. Romie had set them down into the grass last summer.

Sometime about two months ago, I decided I wanted to replace those stepping stones with flagstone. As you can imagine, he did not see the need to do this and kind of dragged his feet about it. He knew that he was going to be the one that would do all the work on this one and while I can understand why he didn't want to do it, I still wanted it done.

When we went to Beining's Nursery back in April, we picked out 17 feet of various pieces of flagstone to make a walkway about two feet wide. We laid it out there at the nursery, and got a few extra pieces than we thought we'd need. They weighed it and at 11 cents a pound, the total came to around forty dollars. Very reasonable!

The flagstone sat stacked on our patio for several weeks, then when Romie found out he needed surgery, this was one task he wanted to get completed. Last week, he finished it and I love it. He likes it too, of course, but true to form he mentioned that he liked it before.

His assumption was that we would let grass grow between the flagstones, but my vision was to plant "Stepables", which are very low-growing, creeping plants that can take light foot traffic. He didn't really know quite what I was talking about until I brought them home.

I got three different things:

• Red Creeping Thyme (Thymus praecox 'Coccineus')
  
• Irish Moss (Sagina subulata)
  
• Dwarf Thrift (Armeria 'Victor Reiter')
  

Jenna spent the night last night, so she was there to supervise while I planted them between the cracks in the flagstone. I placed them so that they were entirely bordered by the stone so that mowing by the walkway won't affect them, although these all three grow so tightly to the ground the mower probably wouldn't cut them much anyway.


For planting, I used my garden tool that I don't use very often, but when the situation presents itself, I'm glad I have it. I don't even know what it's called, but it is sort of fork-shaped. I've used it for extracting tough weeds, loosening soil in tight spots, and digging small holes for planting, which is what made it perfect for this job. It was part of a set of hand tools that I bought from Smith and Hawken two years ago, when they had them on sale. They even came with a nifty wooden case for storing them that hangs on the wall.

I've given instructions to not walk on the Stepables for a few days, to allow them to settle in. All of them are moderate to fast growers, so the cracks will probably be filled by the end of summer.

Another project completed! I wonder what the next one will be . . .

Meet the New Rose Chinese Forget-Me-Not

Several weeks ago, Kara and I went to the Evergreen Garden Club's plant sale in Van Wert. I only bought a couple of things, one being a rose-colored Chinese Forget-Me-Not. Hmmmmm..... Mom and I neither one had ever heard of this, but there are a LOT of flowers we've never heard of. So, for two dollars, I bought one.

I didn't think the foliage looked anything like any of the Forget-me-nots I've got or have ever seen before, but being that it was rose-colored made it unusual anyway. Maybe it had unusual foliage, too.

Well, that rose-colored Chinese Forget-Me-Not bloomed this week. I guess it either forgot what it was supposed to be or it changed its mind, because now it's a Yellow Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera).

That's okay with me, though, because my Mexican Hats (Ratibida columnifera ) that I've had for the last two years deserted me over the winter. This one isn't as colorful as the ones I had before (--->), but I still like it.

Join

Monarch Life Goes On

I had just remarked to Romie this morning, "It seems like we should be seeing Monarchs by now." And by late afternoon, as if my voice traveled via the wind, I saw the first one fly around the side of the house, back towards the garden.

The Monarchs that made the trip to Mexico last fall began their trek northward the middle of April. When they reached the southern United States, they stopped when they found a food source, mated, laid eggs, and the resulting Monarch offspring is what we see when they arrive here in Ohio in the spring.

We are a certified Monarch Waystation, and last year, we had Monarchs flitting about the yard and gardens every day until they started their migration in the fall. We've seen many different kinds of butterflies here already this spring, but until today, no Monarchs.

We are located directly in the path of their northern migration, and I'm glad they found our garden again, as the plants they love best are lush and green and ready to support their babies. I'll be watching for signs of eggs on the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), and rue (Ruta graveolens). Last year, that's where we saw caterpillars of many types of butterflies, and the Monarchs, of course, loved the Asclepias the best.

So many signs of summer are here, as they should be, since it's less than two weeks away until the calendar says so and the summer solstice occurs (June 21). It's hard to believe that just two short months ago, we had snow!

Mother's Little Helper

Jenna came home today to see her dad, following his surgery yesterday. She brought us lunch from Dairy Queen. We were both glad to see her, since we don't get to very often. Well, not as often as we'd like. But she does have a life, and a big part of it includes her fiancé, Joe, and he lives in Mishawaka, Indiana. That means they both travel back and forth a lot on the weekends to see each other. They aren't getting married until next May, when Joe hopes to be finished with school.


Jenna has always enjoyed doing yard work. The grass didn't need mowing yet, otherwise Jenna would have gladly done that. Instead, she went around and picked up sticks and branches that had fallen from the trees during a storm that went through here yesterday.

I was pretty busy around the yard, too. I only intended to do some weeding, but found plenty of other little things to do. At day's end, I had:

• spread three wheelbarrow loads of mulch
• weeded all the gardens
• watered most everything
• pruned the roses
• deadheaded the daisies, coreopsis, gaillardia, and geum
• made a list of plants for which I need to make plant markers
• pruned the forsythia and put the cuttings in water to root
• picked the strawberries

It was a gorgeous day - perfect, even. Jenna enjoyed lounging by the pool. It wasn't too hot and while I'd prefer she not lay there and bake like that (see this post), I understand how good it feels to do it.

Romie was up and about, off and on. He's supposed to do some walking, but what he did I would call pacing. He was really restless, wanting to do things in the yard (he enjoys yard work, too), but not being allowed to, nor feeling up to doing much of anything, he paced.

The next couple of weeks are going to go by very slowly for him, I think. It's hard to keep a good man down, but I'm going to try!

It's a No-Work Day Tomorrow

We were madly finishing up some projects around here, like watering, mowing, using up the rest of the mulch (didn't get that done), because Romie has surgery tomorrow. I've worked him too hard. Seriously.

He's developed an inguinal hernia.

And tomorrow morning, they'll fix it. He is actually looking forward to all this, because he's been so uncomfortable. I think he's also looking forward to me waiting on him hand and foot for a couple of weeks. No problem. He's not very demanding.

We are so opposite...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 6.10.07: The surgery went well, and Romie is feeling better today than he was yesterday. He's up and walking around the yard several times a day and generally going crazy because he can't really do anything. He's resorted to breaking out the Leave It To Beaver DVDs that the girls got him for Christmas a few years ago, and he's seen them several times already. But they do still make him chuckle. :-)

Did I just say "chuckle"?

It's Unofficially Summer Now

Tonight, while working in the garden after work, it was starting to get dark. As long as I can see my hand in front of my face, I'll stay out there. That is, until the mosquitoes chase me in, which they did tonight.

As I was walking back up to the house, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw nothing. I kept walking, and then I saw it again. This time, I really SAW it and I couldn't believe it. It was a lightning bug! And then there was another one! I keep track every year of the approximate date that they first appear and this is about two weeks early.

I love lightning bugs and seeing them light up in the yard means summer to me. For the next couple of months, they'll float around in the night air and make me smile. I can't imagine summer without them. But apparently, even in the United States, they're not everywhere. And I guess some people call them fireflies, but not around here.

When I was a kid, I did the usual grotesque things that kids do with them: made rings, wrote on the sidewalk with them, captured them in a jar and kept it in my bedroom for a night light. And when our girls were little, I took them to a local woods that had a lane that went back into it so they could see the lightning bugs twinkling like 'diamonds in the sky'. The woods have a much larger population of them than open fields or yards, probably due to the higher humidity there and the warmer temperatures at night.


I remember one summer not too long ago, when Romie and I sat on the front porch late at night, watching the incredible light show in the sky. It was the 4th of July, and there were thunderstorms in the distance. We were sitting out there to watch the fireworks that were being set off in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 35 miles away. When you live where the terrain is as flat as a tabletop, you really can see that far in circumstances like this.

Anyway, there were private little fireworks displays dotted around the countryside that we could see, as well as those in Fort Wayne. There was the lightning from the approaching storms, and the lightning bugs. I'll never forget that night and what a triple treat that was, sitting there watching that.

I just read that lightning bugs eat slugs. Now I love them even more.



*Photos from National Geographic [1] and Matt BenDaniel [2]

Firefly Funnies

*From Argyle Academy.

Heavenly Water

At the encouragement of a friend, last year we started collecting rain from a downspout on the pool house to use when watering container plants or anytime we need to water with the can. Originally, we were trying to find a good way to water my pelargoniums without subjecting them to the high sulfur content in our well water. Word from our friend, who is a hybridizer for a large company in California, is that pelargoniums don't like sulfur.

Romie brought an empty 55-gallon barrel home from his work and the next time we got a rain, he directed the downspout right over the top of the barrel. Now, I couldn't figure out how that was going to get enough rain water in there to do enough good. I mean, it takes the clouds a long time to pour down an inch or two of rain into the rain gauge, so how on earth was that barrel going to get full enough, often enough, to provide us with water for our plants?

I didn't take physics in high school or college. Maybe I should have, but I got a lesson in it at age 48 anyway. It happens like this - the rain falls on the roof, runs down the roof into the gutter, and from there it runs through the downspout into the barrel. The bigger the roof, the more water we get.

And it was an amazing thing to behold. If we get an inch of rain, that's enough to fill that barrel almost to the top. I understand how it works now, but I'm still astounded by it. I think it's that little rain gauge that's messing with my brain on this. Maybe it's more amazing that only an inch gets into that little glass tube.

Whatever.

The pelargoniums did do better once we started watering them with rain water --- fewer yellow leaves.

I like the idea of using water directly from the source, too, without it being filtered through our soil and who knows what's in that, deep down. We live in farm country and I'm sure there are all kinds of chemical residues that have made their way into the water table. We have our own well, but we have an extensive filtering system on the water that comes into the house. I actually like the unfiltered water for drinking, but the filtered tastes even better and I feel more comfortable drinking it. It smells better, too.

We hadn't had rain for quite some time until a few days ago, and the rain barrel was getting very low. So low that I could no longer dip my watering can into it for filling. But now it looks like this:

Brown Booger Days

You know what I'm talking about. I know you do. I noticed we were well into BBDs a few weeks ago when I ... well ... you know.

But they should be coming pretty much to an end now because most of the spring chores have been completed. We've been able to get rid of the detritus left by the bulbs that gave us so much joy after a long, cold winter, and the summer flowers are beginning to put on their show. We have time to literally stop and smell the roses, which are also just beginning to bloom. It's time to really enjoy the fruits of our labors, with just maintenance work until fall.

Tall Bearded Iris
'Red at Night'


For the last several weeks, it's been The Purple Show in Max's Garden. We have started calling it that, because Max spends so much time there and 90 per cent of the time when you walk back to that garden, you'll find him sunning himself on the bench or resting in the cool shade under it.

Romie and I both noticed the purpleness at about the same time, but he verbalized it first. Generally, I'm the one that grabs his hand and takes him here or there to show him a new bloom that has me excited.

We do have lots of purple flowers in the garden, but the ones that put it over the top were the irises. Almost all of our irises are purple. I've got a few of other colors, but I'd say three-fourths of them are a shade of purple or blue.

The Purple Parade

Heliotrope arborescens 'Marine'

No ID tag, but I suspect
it's a golden Veronica

Dutch Iris

Tall Bearded Iris 'Blenheim Royal' just opening.

'Flight of Butterflies' Siberian Iris

Ajuga

Allium 'Gladiator'

False Indigo (Baptisia australis)

Creeping Veronica
(Veronica teucrium 'Crater Lake Blue')

Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica)

Columbine

(Aquilegia vulgaris 'Winky Blue & White')

Jacob's Ladder
(Polemonium caeruleum 'Snow & Sapphires')

I don't remember planting this bulb
and I don't know what it is! Scilla, maybe?

Delphinium (Delphinium grandiflorum 'Blue Butterfly')

Mountain Bluet / Perennial Cornflower / Perennial Bachelor's Buttons

(Centaurea montana 'Gold Bullion')

Delphinium 'Magic Fountains Dark Blue/White Bee'

Trailing Verbena

We found this iris in a ditch.

Up close ...

See what I mean? Purple.

One-Year Plant Guarantees

After work last Wednesday, I had plans to go to Lowe's to return a couple of things that I'd purchased there that didn't make it through the winter. Last fall, I bought three of Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate') and one ornamental grass (Carex testacea 'Prairie Fire'), among other things, but these two didn't survive and Lowe's guarantees their perennials, trees, and shrubs for a year from the date of purchase. Walmart, Home Depot, Menard's, and Meijer do this, too.

I think management counts on the human factor for this much like they do with rebates. How many people actually take advantage of them? With each, there are the usual hoops to jump through - original receipt needed and dates to be observed. I feel a little bit uncomfortable walking up to the return desk with a plastic bag full of dead plant material, but that's what you do when there's a guarantee like this.

I've done rebates for most of my adult life, though not as much in recent years. But this dead plant thing is new for me, since I've only been serious about gardening for a few years. The first time I returned something, it was a pink dogwood tree from Walmart and when spring came around last year, the dogwood didn't. I hated that, because it was so pretty when I first got it.

I missed the year limit they have for the guarantee by two days, but I thought I'd try it anyway. I assured them that the dogwood was just as dead two days before and the store manager okayed the refund with no problem. It was only $10, but every little bit adds up.

Today, I was well within the year, since I'd made the purchase last September. It only took a few minutes for them to credit my account. I could have turned around and walked out of the store and gone home, but what kind of plantaholic would I be if I'd done that? Never mind that I'd just returned from a big trip to Cleveland last week, with one day spent shopping in four fabulous garden centers. I just wanted to look........

And because I had store credit at Home Depot and it was a mere block away and on the way home, I wanted to look there, too. And a mile or so further down the road was Henry's Greenhouse, which I'd driven past many times, but had never stopped to see. Might as well do that today. You know ... just to look.

You want to look, too?

Porcupine Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus')

This was to replace a clump that didn't make it through the
winter/spring. We had two in this location. One made it, one didn't.
The cement pillars we found two years ago while walking along the creek.
Someone had dumped broken concrete, old bricks and these.
We don't know what their original function was, but we
like what they're doing now.



Crimson Pygmy Barberry (Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea)

Also to replace one that died over the winter/spring.
It survived the winter, but the two weeks of freezing weather we had
in April did it in. Another one, planted at the same time
in the same location, did fine.

Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'

I intended to buy something with color for these little areas just inside
one of the arbors. But in about two weeks, lots of little hot pink
flowers (Oxalis tetraphylla 'Iron Cross') will be blooming among this.
I would never have guessed this was a Euphorbia.
It's only hardy to zone 10. Every garden center I've gone to this spring
has this, and I'd never seen it before now. Must be a hot item this year!

Coreopsis rosea

I got this to add to a small clump that I already had.
I've had problems growing this. It just never does well.
You'd think I'd give it up ...

Rudbeckia 'Irish Eyes'

These will be added to one that I'd received a couple of
weeks ago from Bluestone Perennials.



Dianthus 'Bouquet Pink Magic'

I've never been a huge fan of Dianthus, but there was no way
I could leave the garden center without this charming feathery beauty.




Snowy Woodrush (Luzula nivea 'Lucius')

I've never seen this grass before, but I loved
its fuzzy look. It will grow to a height of two feet.



Flowering Maple (Abutilon sp.)

They aren't a maple at all, but the leaves sort of look
like maple leaves. I have a slight weakness for these.
I've got two smaller ones that I've had for a couple of
years and neither of those look nearly this big or healthy.
This large lovely thing was only $17, and there are
three plants in there.



Sunny approves of the Veronica
(Veronica spicata 'Icicle')

Green Frog Sunday

American Bullfrog

Rana catesbeiana

I nearly stepped on this big guy last night while walking in the yard. (He was about 10-12 inches long if you stretched his legs out.) I see toads all the time - two of them live in the gardens - but this is only the second time in my life I've seen a frog. Romie says it's a bullfrog, and we've been hearing one every night for quite awhile now. Our neighbors have a pond, so it's a familiar summer sound and I love hearing it.

The way to tell a bullfrog from a green frog is that the green frog has ridges that go all the way down its back from its eyes. The bullfrog doesn't have these. And you can tell male from female by looking at their eardrums. The female's eardrums are the size of its eyes. The male's are smaller. Since our bullfrog's eardrums are even bigger than its eyes, I think it must be a female.

The American Bullfrog is the largest frog in North America. It's a nocturnal amphibian that comes out of hibernation in April and stays active until October. The average lifepan of a bullfrog is seven to nine years.

Join

2007 Peony Festival

In the 1930s, Van Wert, Ohio became known as The Peony Capitol of the World, due to the large number of commercial peony farms in the area. Each year, a festival was held, with a major parade and the crowning of Queen Jubilee, so named for the 'Jubilee' peony that was grown in the Van Wert area.

During World War II, the festival was discontinued, but was resurrected in 1955 and held annually on the first weekend of June until it was once again discontinued in 1960. While peonies are no longer produced commercially in Van Wert, the festival was begun again in 1992.

Today, I met my girlfriend Jane in Fountain Park to partake of a couple of this year's festival activities. We walked up Jefferson Street to tour three gardens that were opened to the public for their annual Home Garden and Landscaping Tour.


We started with the gardens of Dave and Janice Kirchenbauer, which I have toured previously. I'm not sure how old their home is, but the original owners planted a Chinese Tree Peony, the first in Van Wert County, in 1917. The peony still grows there today! Their gardens are young, but very pretty, and I especially liked the shade garden.





The second home on the tour was that of Jeff and Diane Hood.





The first floor of their 1901 home was open for visitation as well, and it had much of the original beautiful wood trimmings.

The gardens surrounding the home were some of the most manicured I've ever seen. While I could never accomplish this in my own gardens, just seeing these gave me a sense that all was right with the world. I'll bet the insides of their drawers and cupboards are just as neat. There's something calming about seeing such neatness and order like that.







Third to be visited was the home of Deb Lehman. I attended high school with Deb at Wayne Trace in the early '70s and had not seen her in many, many years.


She lives in a brick house that I've always admired and she's cultivated the grounds in a way that's very complimentary to the style of the house. We chatted for some time and she mentioned that she'd like to come see my gardens, so maybe I'll see her again this summer.


Jane and I then walked back to Fountain Park, where Artrageous! was being held.


This is a high quality art fair and I could have spent a month's worth of pay with very little effort. Watercolors, pottery, jewelry, and unique garden decor items were all tempting me. I did succumb to a pair of dragonfly earrings, as well as a set of raku refrigerator magnets and a pottery bowl with a small wooden spreader that I'll use for dips or a cheese ball.

Jane needed to leave, so we parted with a hug and I headed out to the Extension Office at the fairgrounds, where the flower show was being held at 1:00. It was just a little after 12:00 and the judging was still taking place, so I wasn't able to see much. Mom is an accredited judge and she was doing her thing. I glanced around a bit, but didn't stay long, as I didn't want to disturb the judging.


There were two other homes on the garden tour, but they were located in northern Van Wert County, so I went to those on my way home. I first stopped at Lincoln Ridge Farms, which are owned by Jeff and Cathy Thomas.


This is also home to Lincoln Candle Company and I bought their peony-scented one called "Van Wert Peony Festival." I've given one of these to several out-of-town guests as a memento of their visit here. The candle company and the farms are so named because they're located just off of historic Lincoln Highway, the first highway to cross the entire United States.

While the candle barn and the surrounding area are charming, what I really enjoyed was the Serenity Garden. Cathy took me on a personal tour of this peaceful woodland treasure that she and Jeff have created as a little hideaway. Cathy likes to see things growing in a natural type setting and this accomplishes that in a wonderful way. If I lived here, I'd spend lots of time in this garden, as Jeff and Cathy do.


Before I left for the final stop on the garden tour, I picked out a Bloody Dock (Rumex sanguineus) plant to take with me. Every time I ever see this plant in a garden center, I contemplate purchasing it and never do. To prevent this from happening again, today I bought it. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore!



A few miles away was the home of Tom and Leann Gordon. In their back yard is seven acres of an abandoned stone quarry.

This makes a beautiful pond/lake setting for them, as it's wooded all around. There is a woodland trail leading to a restful lookout over the water with a bench for sitting. Today, there was a nice breeze blowing there, which felt great, considering the temperature was in the low 90s.

They have several small gardens around the property, each named for their grandchildren. An absolutely gorgeous waterfall is named Bailey Falls because it was constructed for and used during the baptism of their granddaughter, Bailey. Tom has large bins where he grows things like strawberries, onions, and gourds which he hopes to use to make Purple Martin houses.


I ran into my cousin Vickie and her daughter as I was leaving for home. I haven't seen her in a long time and we had a nice chat. I continued out the driveway and around the south end of the pond, where I stopped to take a picture of the stunning Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria) plants in full bloom. I hope mine look like that someday!




Once I got home, we had to get ready to go to Adam's brother's graduation party over near Defiance. We went to Lowe's to pick up a few things and of course, I had to go through the garden center. I found an absolutely gorgeous variegated lacecap hydrangea that was screaming "Buy me!" so I did. I also got a Purple Bell Vine (Rhodochiton atrosanguineum) that I'd seen a couple of weeks ago. It's Jodi's fault that I bought that one, since she mentioned it in her blog that it was one of her favorite vines shortly after I saw it the first time.

So that was my wonderful day, and it had a pretty good end to it, too. WE GOT RAIN.

Spinach & Strawberries!

On the strawberry:

"Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."

~ Dr William Butler, 17th century English writer

On this last day of the month, it's a day of firsts. First rose, as I said before, and this morning I got to take the first cutting of spinach. At the other end of the vegetable garden lies the strawberry bed and it's just beginning to bless us with its scrumptiously sweet fruit.

If I had to pick one single fruit that's my favorite, it would probably be the strawberry, but I like peaches and nectarines, too. And melons of all kinds. We're growing 'Savor Charentais' canteloupe and 'Quetzali' watermelon.

Charentais 'Savor' is an heirloom French melon that you'll rarely find in the produce section of your grocery store, because its skin is so tender that it's difficult to transport without damaging it. Romie doesn't like cantaloupe all that well, but he admitted that this one was good when he tried it last year. I saved the seed so we could grow it again this year. I learned the hard way though, that you want to harvest this melon before it gets too ripe, because its flavor changes drastically if you don't. *ick*

We only managed a couple of ripe watermelons last year, but they were some of the best we've ever tasted! 'Quetzali' measures 12% on the Brix scale, which is used to measure sweetness and that's very sweet. It has minimal seeds, too. I saved some of those from one of last year's melons, and we've got them growing again this year.

I purchased 50 very tiny 'Honeoye' strawberry plants last year from The Greenhouse Effect and to be honest, I wondered if those puny little things were going to produce berries ever, but we actually had a fair amount of them that first year! I'd always heard that you're supposed to pick off the blooms the first year you plant them so you'll get stronger plants and better berries the following years. Apparently, that's a myth and nothing is gained by doing it. We didn't pick ours off and from the looks of the berries coming on right now, I can't imagine we could have done anything to increase our yield. They're LOADED.

I couldn't tell you how many plants we have now, but we no longer have two neat rows. We have a section. This year, we put cement blocks on the sides to help contain the runners that they put out. If we didn't do this, I would imagine that they'd take over the entire garden within two years. I read that after three years, you want to take the plantlets that grow on the new runners and start over with those, because by this time, the mother plants will have declined to the point where they no longer produce a good amount of berries, nor will they taste as good. This is only our second year with them, so we won't have to worry about this until after the 2008 harvest.

Our spinach is 'Springer' and though we've grown spinach at various times through the years, last year was our first for growing this variety. We liked the taste and texture of it a lot better than any other kind, so we grew it again this year. It is slow to bolt (go to seed), and while most spinach grows better in cool weather, you can grow this one in the heat of summer, too. Its leaves are thicker than most, so that might be why it does better in warm weather than other varieties.

We will always have spinach in our garden, because we both love it so much. I prefer it over lettuce for salads and it's very high in iron which is good for me, since I'm always anemic. Bad for Romie, though, because his iron levels are always too high. I doubt that will stop him from eating it, though.

Since both the strawberries and the spinach are ripe for harvesting at the same time, I'd like to try this salad:

SPINACH, STRAWBERRY, & PECAN SALAD
1 lb. fresh spinach, washed & dried 1 pt. strawberries, washed & halved 1/2 c. pecan halves, toasted DRESSING: 1/3 c. raspberry vinegar 1 tsp. dry mustard 1 tsp. salt 1/2 c. sugar 1 c. vegetable or olive oil 1 1/2 tbsp. poppy seeds Combine dressing ingredients except the poppy seeds in a blender. Add the poppy seeds by hand. Toss dressing with spinach, strawberries and pecans.

* Adapted from Cooks.com

When I was a kid, my next-door neighbor Kelly and I used to walk down the railroad a block from our houses and pick the wild strawberries that grew along the tracks. We even made strawberry maps showing where the patches were and then we hid the maps in a wood pile elsewhere in town. The Super Secret Strawberry Patches. Ha! Likely, even if others knew the whereabouts of those wild strawberries, they wouldn't be bothered to pick them since you can pick for an hour and only get enough for one pan of shortcake. Maybe. But ohhhhhhh, nothing beats the intensity of flavor and the sweetness of wild strawberries.

We have some growing in our yard this year and I wanted Romie to skip that section of the yard while mowing so I could once again taste that little bit of heaven, but he mowed it anyway. Maybe I should see if The Super Secret Strawberry Patches are still there ...