In a Vase on Monday: A First

I have never met Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, host of the blog meme, In a Vase on Monday. I've never participated in the meme before today, but I'm familiar with it because of someone I have met.

Everything looks as if it was created expressly for Loree's garden - the plants,
the containers, the structures... She is an incredibly talented designer.

"Careful, you could poke an eye out."

Loree Bohl, who lives and gardens in Portland, Ore., has posted her version of the meme a dozen or so times. When the Garden Bloggers Fling was held in Portland in 2014, I was privileged to get to see her garden - Danger Garden - in all its spiky glory. I've long been a fan of her blog and seeing all those glorious plants in person as well as her edgy design was one of the highlights of that trip.

I don't often cut things from my garden, preferring instead to enjoy them in their natural setting. But today, as we were experiencing way above normal temperatures for the middle of December, I got the urge to go out and cut whatever I thought might go together in a vase. On Monday.

Because I don't cut things from my garden, I'm not the most accomplished flower arranger. Those things take practice. But I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. It even looks a little Christmas-y, though that wasn't the intent.

Red is the accent color in our kitchen and dining area. Chihuly's Burned Ikebana hangs on the wall, and photos of grandchildren Anthony and Hannah keep a
handmade angel (by mom) company on the mid-century buffet.

I worked hard to find something in bloom, impossible at this time last year, which had us with several inches of snow on the ground. Though we were at nearly 70° on Saturday and Sunday this year, it will be a couple of days yet before the fall self-seeded Calendula blooms open up.








But there were some wonderful things out there just the same. I used:

• Panicum virgatum 'Northwind'
• Baptisia Twilite Prairieblues™
• Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum)
• Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens)
• Sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora)
• Coral bells (Heuchera 'Tiramisu')

 

The vase is one of a set of three that I purchased at West Elm in Austin, Texas,
when Jenny Peterson and I were working our book,
Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants

I doubt I'll participate in In a Vase on Monday again until spring comes along and I've got something different to choose from the garden for cutting. But you can follow along at Cathy's blog here.

Thanks, Loree, for inspiring me to play.

The Rice Experiment

Each year, I try to grow at least one new edible in the garden, just for the experience of growing it, whether or not it results in something we actually eat.  In the past, the chosen candidates have included okra, peanuts, parsnips, edamame, and kohlrabi.  This year?  Rice.

Rice growing at Missouri Botanical Garden

When I attended the National Green Centre event in January in St. Louis, Missouri, we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden.  In their conservatory, I saw a small amount of rice growing in a bog and decided I would try to grow it here.

Rice is a grass generally grown in the southern states in this country. Arkansas leads the country in rice production, followed by Louisiana, Missouri and Texas.  It is best grown in areas with sufficient rainfall and a longer warm growing season.

I knew that rice required a lot of water, so I'd figured out a way to provide the flooding that most rice needs.  I planned on using a horse trough, and then having Romie construct a growing tray that could be lifted  for draining.

But in looking online for rice seeds, I found a variety that can be grown in common garden soil without flooding.  'Blubonnet'  is an "upland rice," and it is available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This Mayan rice was shared with Mennonite farmers by their neighbors in Belize.

I decided to grow it in a raised bed that I keep on the patio area by the pool.  It's close to a water source, which is important, because it does need to be kept wet.  The Baker Creek site states that growers in Tennessee plant in May and harvest in September, which should work for us as well.

The packet states that the rice should be planted five to six inches apart, but I decided to sow it heavier.  That may or may not have been a mistake - we'll see.  I planted them in nursery trays and placed it in the raised bed lined with a garbage bag to help retain water and moisture in general.

I cut these nursery trays so that they would lay flat and fit the raised bed.

We used hardware cloth stapled in the bottom of the raised bed to hold the growing trays.

A garbage bag in the bottom helps hold in moisture.

Planted on May 30, 2013

This was a pretty good year to try growing rice, because we've had a higher than normal level of rainfall.  I haven't had to provide supplemental watering too many times yet.

In a little more than a week, we had sprouts!

June 9, 2013

June 15, 2013

June 24, 2013

July 6, 2013

It's now the beginning of August and the rice is about six inches taller than you see in the above photo.  It has a few signs of drying out (some browning to some of the tips of the blades of grass) but seems to be still fairly healthy.  No signs of seed stalks are showing yet, but many of my ornamental grasses don't have theirs yet either.  There's still plenty of time for that.

I'll post about my rice again when the growing season is over.  I'm hopeful that we'll get some rice that we can cook and eat!  Do you live in the north and have grown rice?  Please let me know your experiences in the comments.

侘寂 (Wabi-sabi)

Prior to today, I'd not heard of wabi-sabi (侘寂). It sounds a bit like wasabi, and I do know that that is a Japanese sauce made from the root of the wasabi plant. But this wabi-sabi thing...

Debra Lee Baldwin, book author and contributing writer at Gardening Gone Wild, introduced me to the concept in her recent post, Wabi-sabi in the garden. If you break the word down into its literal translation, it is something like this: Wabi is something that evokes a feeling of rustic simplicity and understated elegance. Sabi is that which can be seen as beautiful and serene by virtue of its visible imperfections due to natural aging or necessary repair.

"It (wabi-sabi) nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect." - Richard R. Powell

While I can think of many things this can be applied to, I'll be honest in saying the first thing that comes to mind to me personally are those crow's feet that decorate my eyes. The youthful look to my skin didn't last, my skin is not done wrinkling, and my skin sure isn't perfect. But I like this idea of using the term wabi-sabi to describe it. Makes it sound it's a desirable characteristic that I've now achieved. Yay me!

Back to the garden though...

Debra shows what wabi-sabi means to her in the provocative photos she posted and she challenged her readers to slow down and see the imperfect, yet beautiful, in our fading gardens. On this lovely, sunny fall day, I welcomed the opportunity to look beyond the brown leaves and bare spots.


The first killing frost of the season came early this morning. Two light frosts earlier didn't faze anything in the gardens except for newly emerging Elephant Ear leaves, but this one was more than the remaining annuals could take. Yet the shades of pink and orange remaining in this 'California Giants' Zinnia are nearly as stunning as they were in their prime.



Another Zinnia, 'Chippendale,' has long been dried on the stem, but it still serves a useful purpose to our spidery friends and the seeds contained in the head will be food for birds. If I collect the seeds, it means these Zinnias will live on next year, when I plant them again. It's the circle of life portrayed in many ways. You thought it was a dead flower.



Little Bluestem Grass (Schyzachirium scoparium) was planted last fall and has really done well this year. There is such grace and beauty in its flaxen feathers, wafting to and fro in the breezes of autumn.



Amazingly, the 'Mars' grape (Vitis vinifera) vines turn a deep wine shade in the fall, echoing the color of the grapes it bore earlier in the season. Hmmm...do leaves have crow's feet, too?



The blue bird bath is used more by the cats for a drink than for bathing birds. In the fall, the leaves from the oak and maple trees find their way into it, making cleaning a regular task. The contrast of the cobalt with the browns of oak catch my eye, but my thoughts also turn to the rich organic nutrients in the water, which I'll pour on the plants below when I clean it once again.



Though the Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) tree remains evergreen through the winter, it always loses some needles along the main trunk when autumn comes. In just days, these will fall, providing a soft bed of mulch at its feet.



In the dry summers, I struggle to keep the Ostrich Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) moist enough to sustain their large fronds. By fall, no amount of water will keep them from turning brown and going to sleep for the winter. Still, they're graceful and elegant with their zig-zaggy form.



The Milkweed (Ascepias tuberosa 'Hello Yellow') erupts into glorious silken seeds that become airborne when the dried pods burst open. The Monarch butterflies will be happy to see the new plants that will result next summer and be home to their offspring.


Thank you, Debra, for introducing me to wabi-sabi and compelling me to search out and find it in my own garden. It was a good day.

Do You Want These Plants? Are You Sure?

When I started gardening for real, and Max's Garden was created, I accepted donations of plants of all kinds. It didn't matter what they were, I wanted them. I begged, borrowed, and nearly stole whatever I could get my hands on. Gardening was so new and exciting to me that if it flowered and had leaves, I wanted it!

Mom was cleaning out her garden, getting rid of a few things and dividing a few others, so she shared. And there was the garden club's sale where they offered plants from the members' gardens at a great price. I was glad for both and before I knew it, my garden was more than half full.

All was well, until a season or two went by. And then I figured out why many of the acquired plants were available for free or for sale at a cheap price. Things that are easily propagated don't cost much, if anything. They're like zucchinis - here, take some! There are plenty more where those came from!
The first to try to take over the garden was the misnamed Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana). Who named that plant anyway? Was it someone's idea of a cruel joke? The flowers are pretty, and the plants are nice enough, with virtually no disease problems like powdery mildew or pest problems like slugs. A rampant grower like this ... well ... just dig out what you don't want, right? Sure. But make sure you don't leave any little bit of its root in the ground, because that's all it takes to grow a plant.

Next was the Ribbon Grass (Phalaris arundinacea). What a pretty grass it is, with its green and white striping! Who wouldn't love to see that in their garden? I loved it, that's for sure, and it was such a great grower. So great, in fact, that just two years later, it more than tripled in area. This one spreads by underground runners - it's sneaky that way - kind of like the iceberg that took down the Titanic.If you really want this in your garden, it would probably be a good idea to plant it in a large container and sink it down into the ground. I still have it in my garden and I need to take my own advice. I'm really getting tired of ripping it out every time it has a growth spurt.

The next thing that grew REALLY WELL in my garden was the spearmint (Mentha spicata). I hadn't yet learned about mints and their proclivity for spreading. They're all like that. Every last one of them. But remember the Obedient Plant? Same deal here. Even the most minute piece of root will grow amazingly into a big healthy plant. But they do smell good.


I found the most beautiful variegated plant at a local plant sale a couple of years ago and was thrilled with it the first season when it grew well and formed a nice thick carpet around the base of the Japanese Fantail Willow. The cats love sleeping in the Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), which hides them in its lush foliage. This one sends out above ground runners, much like strawberries do, and if you don't watch out, you'll have an entire garden of it. If you can't grow this then you might want to consider another way to spend your time than gardening.

Then there are the daisies (Leucanthemum sp.). Don't ask me which kind I've got, but Mom gave me a clump of them and that clump has turned into two HUGE clumps. I adore white daisies, which is probably why she gave them to me, but even I don't need THAT many of them. I couldn't tell you how they spread; I just know that they do and each spring and fall, I end up digging out several clumps of them in an effort to control the size of my two daisy spots. Nothing makes me smile more than to see those daisies in full bloom.

Now how about those self-seeders? Sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes it isn't. First, the bad news: Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). I love this grass with its herringbone seed heads, but I learned the hard way this spring that you do NOT want to let those seed heads dry and fall off. They don't just fall off, they miraculously spread themselves all over the garden. It doesn't matter how large or small your garden is, you'll find little seedlings in the nether regions and swear those seeds had legs.Now the good news: Nigella. It's such a beautiful annual and if you plant it once, you'll likely have it forever. It's a well-behaved self-seeder though and I've never found it outside of the immediate area where it's previously grown. Can I say that about Snow on the Mountain? No. Or Balsam? No. Those two have explode-a-pop seed pods and it's amazing how far those seeds can be propelled!

Love-In-A-Mist (Nigella damascena)

Shirley poppies (Papaver rhoeas) are another well-behaved annual self-seeder for me. I thought I'd collected all the seed pods from these last summer, but this spring, I found out I wasn't as good at that as I thought I was. They returned, in all their papery loveliness and that was fine with me. I just added the collected seeds from last year to supplement those that already were growing.

This post wouldn't be complete without mentioning violets (Viola sp.). You'd better love them a lot if you plant them, because they'll come up everywhere. They self-seed, much like columbine does, and the seedlings are easy enough to tear out, but if you're like me, you just let them go and bloom where they're planted. They're small, and a violet bloom is just lovely, no matter where it happens to surprise you.

There are many others, these supposed garden thugs, but these are some of the ones that grow here at Our Little Acre and they grow here because we want them to. Choose carefully what you want in your own garden!

What's Wrong With Grass?

I don't get it. I read post after post by gardeners talking about and actually getting rid of most or all of their grass. I get the feeling that grass is supposed to be a bad thing to have.

I like grass. I like grass without weeds (even though we don't have that kind of grass). I like grass that feels wonderfully cool and cushiony to walk on in the summer. I like seeing its pure greenness and I love the smell of it when it's been freshly cut.

So I ask, what is wrong with grass? Is it because you don't want to mow it? I can certainly understand that. But is there some other reason? I have a feeling there is, but I'm in the dark as to what it is and I honestly want to know so I can understand this no-grass trend.

Please! Enlighten me! Maybe I'll want no grass too (but I don't think so).

A Garden Blogger Meet!

After having a tasty breakfast at our hotel this morning, I gave Kim (a.k.a. blackswampgirl) a call as we'd previously discussed and we all headed towards Strongsville to meet at the Petitti Garden Center there.

Kim had given me a brief description of herself so that I would be able to recognize her when we met, but I think I was too busy gawking at the wares at the entrance to Petitti's that when she said hello, it just didn't register with me who she was! I told her that I was quite surprised at how young she looked, because from her blog posts she sounds mature for her years. I won't tell you how old she is (although I know), but not only does she sound older than she is, she looks younger than she is, too! What a great combination!

I have to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed browsing the aisles of Petitti's with Kim, discussing foliage, blooms, habits, and other characteristics of the various plants we saw. We spent about an hour and a half together and the time just flew by. It was as if we were old friends getting together instead of just meeting for the first time.

I purchased a few things here, one a recommendation from Kim - Hakone Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'). I'd been wanting another grass that grows well in the shade and Kim assured me this one did. I also bought a hardy Fuschia ('Cape Horn'™) and I'm anxious to see how this fares through our zone 5 winter. To add to my green Santolina, I got a small pot of the gray. Astrantia is one of my favorite plants, so I had to buy 'Hadspen Blood' when I saw it here. And finally, Viola 'Fuji Dawn' made its way onto my cart. I could have bought a few other things, including some beautifully healthy Japanese Anemones and a Beautyberry shrub, but there was no room left in Mom's car to take them home.

This Petitti's didn't disappoint me either. It had pretty much the same plant offerings as the Avon store, although the Avon store is larger in size. The staff was very available and quite friendly and helpful. That means so much when you find a plant you're not familiar with and want to know a bit more information than the identification tag tells you.

Kim and I exchanged gifts, with Kim sharing a division of one of her hostas, 'Dawn,' as well as a rock she had excavated from her yard for me to put on my cairn. It had some clay clinging to it, which is not normal in her gardens, so she said it needed to 'go home.' It will feel right at home in my clay-ridden garden, which Kim knew, since she grew up near me. As we said our goodbyes, we voiced our intentions to visit one another's gardens and trade some plants.

Mom, Sue and I piled back into the plant-filled car and began the trip home, with a stop scheduled for the Schedel Arboretum and Gardens just outside Elmore, Ohio. That visit will get its own post, coming up next.

Roll Call For Grasses

I'm just beginning to delve into The Wonderful World of Grasses and am convinced that they're way underused at Our Little Acre. I've not seen them used all that effectively in very many back yard gardens, and I suspect it's because most people don't really know how to do it, so they tend to avoid planting them. That has been pretty much the case with me, but I decided to do what I do with the rest of my garden choices - just buy them and find a place to put them.

I think the first ornamental grass I ever bought was the dramatic Porcupine Grass (Miscanthis sinensis 'Strictus'). Growing to a height of 5-6 feet, it becomes more of a foundation piece in the garden. I have two clumps of it in the Japanese Garden, with a large rock at the base of this one.

It never occurred to me that there are people out there that don't like the look of Porcupine or Zebra Grass , but when Kara and I were recently browsing Lowe's, she commented that she didn't care for it as we passed by. I like it because it's vigorous and it's tall and certainly commands attention. The kitties like its plumes, too.

I've got several varieties of ornamental grasses and I love most of them. There is one that I wish I could say I loved, but I don't, and its days are numbered here I think: Ribbon Grass (Phalaris arundinacea). I do love the variegation and the rustling sound it makes when the wind blows through it. But it's so darned invasive! Like most grasses, it spreads by underground runners and it's not shy about doing so. I have had this in my garden for two summers now and it's creeping perilously close to the compost heap. And I'm not even sure I want it in there.

But these are keepers:

There are several grasses pictured here around the cairn. Just in front of the dreaded Ribbon Grass on the left side is Blue Fescue (Festuca ovina var. glauca 'Elijah Blue'). It's not looking its best just now, but this is typical of it at this time of the year. It normally looks like a lovely blue mound.

The tallest one on the left is Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus'). I have this in four different locations and that's no accident. It is a winner no matter where I've used it. It returns in the spring reliably and always looks good.

Next to that is one of my very favorites, Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). It's graceful and I love the fans of seed heads it gets. In the summer they're green, then in the fall they turn golden. If you don't want this grass coming up in far-away places in your garden, be sure to cut the seed heads before they turn color. I've not found it to be problematic, because the new seedlings pull up very easily, unlike that darn ribbon grass.

On the back side of this, out of view, is Flame Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Purpurescens'). It's not grown much since I planted it last year and I'm not sure why, unless the other grasses are stealing what it needs. Maybe next year it will take off.




This Sedge (Carex ciliatomarginata) is called 'Treasure Island.' Sedges are similar to grasses in appearance, but they have solid stems, unlike grasses, which are hollow. They grow well in moist and poor soils.





This is part of the newly-designed front border garden below our porch railing. For years we had a nice crop of vinca (Vinca minor) growing here along with a couple nice shrubs, but every single thing died through the winter this past year! Landscaping is NOT my thing, so this bed floundered until mid-summer. I tried various things, but have settled on these grasses along with some variegated euonymous. The euonymous isn't my favorite of shrubs, but it works for me here (it's beyond the grasses, out of view in this picture), and the price was right. There are three levels, and front to back are:

• Japanese Sedge (Carex morrowii 'Ice Dance')
• Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuriodes 'Hameln')
• Maiden Grass (Miscanthis sinensis 'Gracillimus') - this Miscanthus was a division of another clump I already had. It grew well enough that I was able to divide it after only one year.
  

I'm not sure if this Hard Rush (Juncus inflexus 'Afro') on the left, is considered to be a grass or not, but it can be used like one. This one used to live in the ground at the base of the willow tree, since they both love moist soils, but when we put in our small pond, I moved it in there, along with the dock. Juncus has a tough wiry texture, just as it appears it might. It's listed as only being hardy to zone 7, but I've got two of them that made it quite well through our winter in a fairly open location.




Lilyturf (Liriope muscari) is a great shade grass that I use to define part of the front border of the trellis area. I have it clumped here and there throughout this shady area as well. On our recent trip to Columbus, I purchased a variegated liriope, which looks like a twin to the Japanese Sedge 'Ice Dance,' shown previously in this post.











This Japanese Sweet Flag (Acorus gramineus 'Oborozuki') is listed as being hardy to zone 6, but it has survived at least one zone 5 winter just fine.


Here is Fountain Grass 'Hameln' again. It's looking mighty fine this year, its second in my garden. It is at the apex of a triangular section of the garden and I'm happy with its placement there.


I bought this fuzzy grass very early this year and it didn't have an ID tag, other than to give the necessary requirements for growing it. It was just labeled "Ornamental Grass." I like its hairiness and it has been very well-behaved here in mostly shade and if anyone has a clue as to what it really is, please share your knowledge!

UPDATE! I found the ID tag for this. It's Snowy Woodrush (Luzula nivea 'Lucius')