"Spring Into Gardening" Garden Fair

On a bright, sunshiny spring day, Kara and I drove to nearby Miller City, Ohio to attend a garden fair put on by the Putnam County Master Gardeners. Mom met us there, too, and we had a fun day browsing the Gardener's Market and attending classes.

It was held in the gymnasium of Miller City High School, and the last time I was there was when Jenna was in sixth grade, playing on a travel basketball team. I remember it because it was there that Jenna scored 22 of her team's 26 points in a game they won. When you're hot, you're hot! LOL.

The first class we attended was on raised bed gardening. It was taught by Glen Arnold, a Putnam County OSU Extension educator. We enjoyed his presentation and I paid particular attention to the details because we are building a few raised beds this spring. We're moving our strawberries to a raised bed and I want another one for "oversummering" my amaryllis bulbs.


Between classes, we shopped the Gardener's Market, which had a really nice variety of vendors. Kara and I purchased a few plants, including hellebores, which Beining Nursery had lots of, and many different varieties. I bought a nice 'Pagoda Rose and White' columbine, and a couple of 'Clementine Salmon Rose' doubles.

Every spring, I make a list of possible new additions to the gardens, based on what catches my eye while browsing the new catalogs and offerings on websites, and the Clementine columbine was one of them that was on the list.


As we neared the display by h2o Gardens and Landscaping, I was drawn to the stone owls on their table. When Mom and I went to GardenFair at Winterthur, Delaware in 2006, she purchased a similar stone owl there and I'd been envious of it ever since. It was quite expensive, or I would have bought one then. h2o's owls were much more reasonable and I knew I was going home with one. There were other stone and metal sculptures that I liked, too, and a trip to their store in Lima is being planned, possibly on May 3rd, when they have their spring open house.


While shopping, we were treated to a concert by the sixth grade band from Ottawa-Glandorf High School (Kim of A Study In Contrasts' alma mater!) and wow, can those kids play! We couldn't believe they were just sixth graders! Great ambience and I was struck by what a small town experience we were having. Shopping in a gymnasium with our 'neighbors', eating homemade food for lunch (hot chicken sandwiches - yum!), listening to a local sixth grade band. Things like this are what I love about living in a rural area like ours.

We had time before our last class of the day to engage in another of my favorite activities - geocaching. This was actually Kara's suggestion, as she enjoys it too, and there were two caches located within walking distance of the school. We found them both, before heading back to attend our last class.




Marcella Ciccotelli, owner of ColorScapes Landscaping just outside of Defiance, presented a charming and very informative presentation about perennials that do well in our area. I learned some new facts about familiar plants to me and also discovered a couple of new things that might become familiar this year, if you know what I mean.


I've been to her business many times and look forward to going there again this year. I frequent many of the local nurseries, because each one has different offerings and I never know when or where I'll find "just the thing." Mom bought a beautiful large blue ball for her garden from Marcella's display here.

There were door prizes given, as well as a raffle for great garden items including plants, books, containers, gift certificates, and a garden cart. We didn't buy any raffle tickets, but it was tempting! We didn't win any door prizes either, but the day was a winner just the same. It was a very well presented event that I hope will become an annual affair. The cost for attending was just $15 and it was worth much more than that.



Kara and I said our goodbyes to Mom about mid-afternoon and we headed back towards Defiance, stopping to find several geocaches along the way. Once we got back to Defiance, stops (and purchases) were made at BigLots (flowering crabapple tree), Menards (Buxus 'Green Velvet'), and Lowe's (Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire' and Anemone cornaria).




Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer than today, so we've got gardening work planned - a little clean-up, planting the new tree and shrubs, etc. It looks like it will be a great day for running, too!

About This Environmental Thing . . .

I'm just a little more aware of environmental issues as I am political ones. Sometimes the two converge. But my level of commitment fluctuates, so when bloggers recently posted their thoughts on the environment on Blog Action Day (October 15th), I didn't post. But I did read. And it got me thinking, which was one of the purposes of Blog Action Day in the first place.

It's not that I'm opposed to green efforts or anything, it's just that I've never been one to champion any cause very forcefully. As opinionated and outspoken as I can be, this probably comes as a surprise to those who know me, but maybe it has to do with my lack of knowledge and understanding about "issues" and that my procrastination habit keeps me from reading and researching them.

In the last two-plus years, however, I've learned a lot about my outdoors environment as a result of my taking up gardening pretty much full-time. I've discovered much of it intimately and in a hands-on kind of way. Immersion, I think they call it. And while I'm still not totally organic, nor may I ever be, I'm certainly much more aware of the impact my actions have on the world around me.

Last Tuesday, my 92-year-old grandmother and I had a nice chat about some things along those lines. This proved to be interesting for many reasons. She and my grandpa made their living by farming and Grandma was a gardener of not only flowers, but vegetables and fruits that she preserved for her family. She has seen changes in farming over the years and they aren't all good, where the environment is concerned.

I don't remember how we started talking about environmental issues, but it may have been the Monarchs that led us to it. I told her about the one that was born in our house, then explained to her about the dwindling milkweed supply and how this is affecting the Monarch population.

Is it important that there are fewer Monarchs? Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly other species have become extinct over the years and we and the rest of the world have gotten along just fine without them, right? I'm sure the earth won't stop turning without Monarch butterflies. But that's not the point, is it?

Here's what it is for me: In all the time of existence of earth and everything on or in it, things have been in a state of change. Nothing stays the same. Some changes take place quickly, some take eras. Man had nothing to do with the changes that occurred thousands of years ago, for example, glaciers used to move over the very land where Our Little Acre now sits.

But now we're told that we're destroying the protective ozone layer that blankets the earth and if we don't change our ways, we're going to really mess up the equilibrium that exists in the environment. I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and I'm not going to say that we aren't doing some very detrimental things nor that we shouldn't modify the way we do things. But I don't believe that what we're doing is going to have the monumental effect that the über-environmentalists would have us think.

What I do believe is that the present use of chemicals by the agricultural community, which includes gardeners like me, is causing diseases like cancer. (Grandma agrees.) I believe the world would be a better and healthier place to live if we did more recycling and used less non-biodegradable disposable materials. I believe if people lived with the rest of the world in mind rather than a "me first" mentality, huge strides would be made in making the world a cleaner place - cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner land. I believe if more people had greater respect for all living things, it would affect life for all of us in a positive way.

So what am I doing now that I didn't do before? I've got a compost pile. I collect rainwater in a barrel for watering plants. As a geocacher, I practice CITO (Cache In, Trash Out). We continue to recycle aluminum, plastic, glass, and newspapers.

Being a Certified Monarch Waystation, we purposely grow Asclepias species for the Monarchs, that being the sole food source for the caterpillars. And because of all the butterflies and beneficial insects that live in our gardens, we don't use pesticides, other than Safer® Insect Killing Soap or Neem Oil, and then only when absolutely necessary. As a result, sometimes the foliage or petals on blooms don't look perfect, but that's okay. Our kitties appreciate our efforts, too.

So while there's more that I could do that would benefit the environment, I feel pretty good about what I do do, and I don't hesitate to advocate organic practices when the opportunity presents itself. At the same time, you won't see me look down my nose at anyone who doesn't consciously practice good green basics, because that once was me. And thank goodness living things have an incredible ability to adapt.

Don't look at the environmental issues as something so overwhelming that you don't think anything you do will make a difference. Every little bit helps. Just do something.

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It made a difference to that one."

Fun Times, Good Times

The day started early - earlier than I'd planned. Jack, our most well-behaved, laid-back member of the kitty family had not been feeling well for several days. Last night, his coughing/sneezing had gotten much worse, so I called the vet a little after 7:00. I had made plans previously with my friend Marsha for the day, so I needed to have the earliest appointment possible. They gave us an appointment for 9:15. I'm seldom up this early, but I was glad for it today.


Before the sun came up to burn it off, there was a beautiful misty fog hanging low, giving everything an ethereal glow. The brugmansias in Max's Garden are in full bloom now and I counted 31 blossoms open. In the heavy damp air, the fragrance was strong and I drank it in. They need to bottle that up and sell it.

I drove to Van Wert with Jack and when Dr. Kleman took a look at him, he determined that he had an upper respiratory infection and put him on antibiotic. I took him back home, then drove back to Van Wert to spend my day with Marsha.




Our first stop was in Celina for lunch at Bella's. This is an Italian restaurant located on Grand Lake, which at one time was the largest man-made lake in the world. I'd not eaten at Bella's before, which is a shame, because it's a lovely restaurant with a full view of Grand Lake and the food is outstanding. Marsha and I had the same thing - spinach salad (my favorite!), a medley of sautéed shrimp, scallops and crab meat, and fettucine alfredo. They've got wonderful yeast rolls with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan mixed for dipping, too.


From Bella's we headed south to The Winery at Versailles, where Marsha had planned for us to do some wine tasting. We each got five to try, with cheese and crackers and we discovered that while we share many interests, our taste in wines is not one of them. Marsha prefers the drier ones, while I like the sparkling and sweeter ones best.

I found some blue bottles for sale there, and chose one for my blue bottle bush that I'm planning to construct. I bought some wine, too, as did Marsha. One of them - Cinq - comes in a stunning triangular deep blue bottle, so after the wine has been consumed, the bottle will take its place in the garden.

I got two bottles of Spiced Apple wine, which is made from Macintosh apples and is served warm with mulling spices. This one was my favorite and that's saying a lot, because I have not ever found a warm drink that I enjoy. Not coffee, tea, nor even hot chocolate, but this warm spiced apple wine was delicious.

As we left the winery, I noticed the blackberry lilies were loaded with seed heads and they were spilling all over the grass. Now we can't have them go to waste like that! So I collected a few of them to take home for winter sowing this coming January.


We kept going south from there, towards Greenville. Just after leaving the winery, we passed a very bad accident in which it appeared someone had run a stop sign. Marsha and I joined hands as we continued down the road and Marsha led the two of us in prayer for their well-being. They were going to need it.



Next stop was Bear's Mill, just east of Greenville. It was built in 1849 and is one of the last operating water-powered mills in Ohio. You can buy grain that has been stone-ground here. We didn't buy any flour or corn meal, but the gift shop had plenty of other things to tempt us.






Local potters and artisans have their work for sale here and I saw many things I could have put in a bag and taken home, if I'd had unlimited funds. There were pots for plants, original framed photographic prints, contemporary handmade jewelry, and various other unique items. Marsha and I both bought leather and pewter bracelets, which we put on and wore right away.

We usually go geocaching on our trips and we had many caches planned for today, but due to both of us having other things going on, we never made it to Greenville to do them. There was one here at the mill, however, and this was Marsha's third time trying to find it.



There's a path through the woods leading to a Vietnam War Memorial. This path follows Greenville Creek and while beautiful and refreshing today, it must be gorgeous in the spring, because I saw little markers where wildflowers are located.






We spent about 15-20 minutes searching for it and Marsha finally came up with it. Usually when we cache together, if one of us finds it first, we let the other one find it on their own, but she was so excited to find it, she blurted it out. I didn't care though, and we decided it was a team effort anyway. I found all the places where it wasn't. That was my valuable contribution to the hunt.

By this time, we needed to start for home. We stopped at the Annie Oakley Historical Site we'd seen on our way down, because our curiosity got the better of us. It was a marker denoting the location of Annie Oakley's birthplace and childhood home. there's a large statue of her in downtown Greenville, and since we didn't get to there as we'd planned, we decided we'd just have to go back another day. Like we need an excuse to get together and have some fun . . .

Marsha, thank you so much for a wonderful day. You've actually helped make turning fifty FUN! Oh, and I forgot to tell you - I love your bracelet.

A Woman of the Limberlost

Romie and I spent the weekend in Kendallville, Indiana, attending the annual Midwest GeoBash get-together of geocachers. It was great seeing old caching friends and meeting some that we'd previously only known online. We did some caching of course, and logged our 500th cache find (over three years) by the time the 'Bash was over.

As we were traveling up State Road 3 and I was looking at the map, I realized we were going to be very close to the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historical Site. There were two caches to be found there, but I was most excited about seeing Gene's gardens and possibly getting to see fellow garden blogger earth_girl again. She is overseeing the restoration of the gardens there and I met her back in February when Mom and I attended the Home & Garden Show in Ft. Wayne.

Saturday morning, I called the site and asked for Martha. She just happened to be there, which she told me she "never is," so our meeting was meant to be! A little while later, we were hugging each other in greeting, and taking a leisurely stroll through the gardens.

Living where I do, Gene Stratton Porter (1863-1924) is familiar to me, but in case you've never heard of her, she was a naturalist and recorded her observations in her writings and photographs. She was the author of twelve novels, seven nature books, two books of poetry, several children's books and numerous magazine articles. Copies of her books have been sold more than any other American author's works. Eight of her novels were made into movies.

Gene's home near Rome City encompasses 125 acres, ten of which were originally owned by Gene and her husband. The property overlooks Sylvan Lake and is heavily wooded, with trails for exploring. The gardens are a beautiful sunny island in the middle of the Wildflower Woods, and showcases many of the natural treasures that Gene strove to preserve.




We walked through the long arbor, covered with kiwi vine and wisteria and in the shade of that arbor, you could look in any direction and see the various beds of native and 'tame' plants, many original to Gene's gardens. Below our feet was the original flagstone walkway paved with stones chosen by Gene herself.

At the entrance to the arbor, there is a stone in the shape of the state of Indiana. Martha shared details of the past work and future plans for restoration of the gardens.

We walked past the small garden pond which had oodles of green frogs sunning themselves among the lily pads, through the woods, down to Sylvan Lake.

We saw a beautiful view of the lake and Forget-Me-Nots were in bloom on one side of the path and Spotted Jewel Weed (orange) and Pale Jewel Weed (yellow) were blooming on the other.












Martha had a surprise for me. There was a tree that I'd noticed earlier, as it had unusual veining in the leaves and I commented on it. Martha told me it was a *somethingicantremembernow* and that it was one of the things they knew Gene had planted herself. Martha walked me over to the Garden Shed and showed me various pots filled with small plants that had been gleaned from the gardens. There were some saplings of *that tree* and she offered one to me. I chose the largest one, of course, since I'm not getting any younger and any tree I plant now needs as much of a head start as it can get.

I appreciated this gift more than Martha may know, although she's a gardener, so she might know after all. I love being able to go through my garden and see those special plantings that were gifts from friends or came from unique places. This tree would be both. In return, I will be putting together packets of seeds from my own garden plants to share with Martha for the gardens there.


Romie went golfing during the time I visited the gardens, and I knew he would love them, so we plan to return at a later date so he can see the beauty of this place. I wouldn't put it past him to ask if the cabin is for sale. He's always dreamed of living in a cabin in the woods by a lake and this would fit the bill quite nicely.

Gene and her daughter Jeannette are both buried here.

Red Spotted Purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis)






Tiger Lilies

Works by Gene Stratton-Porter

• The Song of the Cardinal, 1903
• Freckles, 1904
• At the Foot of the Rainbow, 1907
• A Girl of the Limberlost, 1909
• The Harvester, 1911
• Laddie, 1913
• Michael O’Halloran, 1915
• A Daughter of the Land, 1918
• The Keeper of the Bees, 1921
• Her Father’s Daughter, 1921
• The White Flag, 1923
• The Magic Garden, 1927

Nature Books

• What I Have Done with Birds, 1907
• Birds of the Bible, 1909
• Music of the Wild, 1910
• Moths of the Limberlost, 1912
• Birds of the Limberlost, 1914
• Homing with the Birds, 1919
• Wings, 1923
• Tales You Won’t Believe, 1925

Poetry and Essays

• After the Flood, 1912
  
• Morning Face, 1916
• The Fire Bird, 1922
• Jesus of the Emerald, 1923
• Let Us Highly Resolve, 1927
  

Not listed on the Gene Stratton-Porter Historical Site website, is Strike at Shane's. According to Amazon:

A recently discovered work of Gene Stratton-Porter, this work was a prize winner in the American Humane Society's contest of 1893 and was published anonymously. It is the fictional story of the Shanes, a farm family of Indiana in the late 19th century.




Photo of Gene Stratton-Porter from NACS website

In addition to her blog, The Good Earth, Martha maintains a blog about the Gene Stratton-Porter gardens, called GSP Outdoors.

EDIT: I think the tree that Martha gave to me is a Cornelian Cherry Tree, which is in the Dogwood Family (Cornus sp.)

EDIT AGAIN: Martha has confirmed that the tree is indeed a Cornelian Cherry. So I'm not senile yet. Whew!