A Garden Journal Diary of Ilona's Garden

A Little Magic in the Garden

2012-01-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

A display from one of the garden stores I visited.

It seems that the idea of creating a Fairy Garden is popular again this year, and no surprise since there is something about those itsy bitsy little worlds that catch the imagination even if you don't believe in fairies, per se. (Shhhh, don't let Tinkerbell hear that!)

Latest trend in gardening goes miniature was an article I came across that reports on some ways to make and use Fairy Gardens that are installed in containers, "They make good centerpieces for tables and are good garden decorations".

At first I thought a fairy garden would be something ideal for a project with children, and I still believe that, but like other miniatures, dollhouses, for example, some of us "girls" never quite grow up. We still like making and (secretly playing) with these enchanting,tiny gardens. Really, they are so much fun with the little furnishings, imaginative dwellings and the possibilities of creating your own homemade accessories out of acorn cups, bits of moss and twigs.

Of course, some people are too busy for all that.

But if you have a bit of time here and there, some imagination, and the desire to putter around in a miniature world, the Fairy garden might just provide the perfect little environment.

I wrote some pages on making these gardens, as well. You do want to visit them, don't you?

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

A Robert Frost Sort of Evening

2012-01-18T19:18:00.000-05:00

Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter
by Robert Frost

The west was getting out of gold,
The breath of air had died of cold,
When shoeing home across the white,
I thought I saw a bird alight.
In summer when I passed the place
I had to stop and lift my face;
A bird with an angelic gift
Was singing in it sweet and swift.
No bird was singing in it now.
A single leaf was on a bough,
And that was all there was to see
In going twice around the tree.
From my advantage on a hill
I judged that such a crystal chill
Was only adding frost to snow
As gilt to gold that wouldn't show.
A brush had left a crooked stroke
Of what was either cloud or smoke
From north to south across the blue;
A piercing little star was through.
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Goodbye and Keep Cold

THIS saying good-by on the edge of the dark
And cold to an orchard so young in the bark
Reminds me of all that can happen to harm
An orchard away at the end of the farm
All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.
I don’t want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,
I don’t want it dreamily nibbled for browse
By deer, and I don’t want it budded by grouse.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Plotting out the Year

2012-01-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

After doing some inspired thinking on why resolutions fail, I gathered the family members together for a beginning of 2012 planning session. Just a brainstorm and planning session which situated the family vacation times well out of the early garden season. I am so glad.

This year I believe I will succeed in the garden in a way that has eluded me for the past several years.

It is not that I haven't gardened, or even that it wasn't high on the priority list, because not only do I continue to love the garden, it truly is one of my most satisfying and overall beneficial activities. But when many family members moved many states away, it required that I contribute far more time traveling. This year, more of those plans are in months where absence from the garden won't be as critical.

One thing about gardening, as with raising children, is that you have to physically be there.
I plan to be here for the important early season this year.... now, just to get those all important plans going.

I will try to be successful with the food garden. Tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, sunflowers (for the birds), swiss chard, parsley, are all on the agenda.

And in the flower garden I am plotting to again make room for more annuals, while transplanting more things into the "prairie section' and the 'look-into garden'.

Annuals:

Cosmos
Marigolds
Calendula
Nigella

Those to start with, and I don't want to get too ambitious this year. My age has been telling on me and the lesson learned is to keep a check on grandiose plans. Good luck with that!

So there is the loose plot of the garden plan for this year.
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

What Are Your Garden Plans For 2012?

2012-01-15T13:58:00.000-05:00

I was just wondering.

It is January, and until the last week, it was weather to garden in more than weather to plan with, and that was rather strange. We were out digging postholes for the fence to corral the new dog. but now that real January weather has settled in, i.e. freezing temperatures, snow, ice, wind, and other inclement conditions, I have started to plan. Then was wondering what the general consensus is for gardening in 2012. Does the economy still influence us? Our generational values or stage of life?

For me, it is my age and plans for the year that are the main guidelines for my priorities. I'll need to account for dogs, vacation plans, and a few other factors. I began more food gardening the last two years, an those plans haven't gone so well. Whether I lost my touch, or it was the weather is still not certain in my mind. For the first time in a long time I will not be going out of state for periods during the first part of the garden season- that is bound to make a (good) difference!

How about you ...out there in blogger reader land?

And are we going to journal online, in a book, with art or charts or what? Just wondering, still. Ohyes, and is anyone going to the Columbus Garden Show this year?

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Solace of the Garden

2012-01-05T09:24:00.000-05:00

At times when grief seems overwhelming, or when personal sorrows weigh down the spirit, people often find balm in nature. It seems to speak in a way that is healing to our souls. In a garden, where one is most intimately acquainted with nature, we often see it as a workplace, a place that invites us to active experimentation, investigative curiosity, and diligent labor. But when our hearts are most grieved we want none of that.... and it is then that we discover the garden as a place of solace, a place that waits for us.

In those times we are no longer laying plans or putting ourselves into our gardens, but simply receive the quiet lessons, comforting friendship of the earth we till. For many, a garden is where God speaks to us, still.

It has lessons and insights of the cycle of life, of the ebb and flow of the seasons, and of those things greater than ourselves. That gives comfort and peace, to know that there has been a continuum and that nothing ever really passes completely from existence, but often changes form. It tells us of our mortality, but also of our eternal hope. It tells us that life and love are stronger, in finality, than death. It reminds us that there are good things, so many good things, all around us.

Our lives are better for our gardens, and our gardens speak things to the world for us in ways without words. Sometimes those ways touch the deepest part of the human soul.

Technorati Tags: solace of nature, gardens

Goodbye 2011, I Hardly Knew Ye

2011-12-29T12:07:00.001-05:00

Winter Day in February 2011

The year not only seems to have gone fast, but it seems a stranger in the night... passing with little recognizable in it. The weather was different, my goals were different, the holidays were different, and none seem connected to either past or present.

I am sure none of that is true if I think hard enough to rein in the disconnected strings, but that is the general feel of it. I know I blogged far less here on IGJ. I'll look through and see if there were posts that qualify as "best", but I believe the poor satisfaction in the garden reflects in the dearth of posts: the garden inspires my writing. I have never been good at "just making things up".

Here are the posts I liked best:

From January, 2011...

The Night The Ice Fell for the story, which we in the family all look back on with laughing and the kind of good memories that such situations are capable of inspiring. You are never sorry when you "make the best of things", and this post has illustrative photos.

From February, 2011...
What's Wrong With Gardening Today? is something of an essay/ quasi book review. Where I pinpoint what makes gardening something to love rather than something to do. Worth re-reading.

From March, 2011...
Springs Watershed shows that at times I write better than at other times. A day in the life.

Winter Damage is a very good collection of early spring garden advice. I think I will add it to my Spring Maintenance page on the garden site.

From June, 2011
Short Reminder on Pruning Mugo Pines is very short, but this seems to be a perennial topic. By June, it is too late to ask the question, so get this info under your belt now, if you own a mugo pine.

From July, 2011...
July Chore Reminder is one I like because it marries task tips with a favorite picture that I took that month on a trip to Lake Erie ( Marblehead Lighthouse, to be exact). Though sorry it was for a family funeral, Lake Erie is a place of many good memories.

From August, 2011
Good Reason To Eat Locally Grown Tomatoes holds a good link, good book, and good recipe. All in all, a good reason to read it over again.

Chicago photos holds two collage photos (click to see full size). Best examples of front yard veggie gardens in upscale neighborhoods (the suburb of Evanston, where I used to live).

Best Butterfly Picture I ever took. For some reason my old lilac is a favorite resting place for butterflies and hummingbirds. And me, in my old lichen-covered Andirondack seat... but that is not in the photo.

From November, 2011
I Learn About Seed Bombs and share the knowledge with my readers. Good late winter project.

Short list. I blogged very sporadically, traveled quite a bit to visit family, and decided to not record my many melancholy thoughts, although as is good for melancholy I did go out into my garden more in the latter part of the year.

When I am away from the garden I always wonder why I don't take more time in it after I have returned. It always refreshes me - so long as I don't make it about tasks and projects and instead more about the daily wonder of growing things and touching the soil of this old earth. Then I understand the phrase, "grounded".

I raise my glass to the coming year of growing: plants, projects, myself, relationships, and even this blog. Cheers, my friends, may the year of 2012 find us thriving and prosperous. In all ways possible. And if not, gracefully bent into interesting shapes, and meaningful ways.

To you, to me, to our gardens!

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Wrapping Up The 2011 Gardening Year

2011-12-27T13:14:00.003-05:00

Hello Dear Garden Loving Friends!

We are at the cusp of the year, and I greet you as garden-loving, rather than gardening, since some of us -as John so wisely remarked to me- have had a few barriers to doing as much as we might have wished in the garden this year. For some of us it is our health or the slowdown of age, for some it was the wild weather patterns that prove how little control we truly have. I suppose there are a whole spectrum in between, but whether we have have a banner year of bloom or a baneful one, we still remain those who love our world of beautiful gardens... something is always beautiful.

Ohio broke its precipitation record, and it has been rain, rain, all through fall and into December. We dug some post holes yesterday and the water table is very close to the surface. Postholes? In December you say? Yes! We have a new dog (story will follow), and he needs the sight barrier of a fence. So we are using a temporary snowfence along the back of the yard.

Hellebores, and Heavenly Weather

That brings me to the other point of fact: I gardened and did yard cleanup in December! And not my old Midwest Grit of " gardening in any weather", but with beautiful warm temperatures and comfortable garden conditions. For the first time, I had Christmas Roses (Hellebore niger, HGC 'Jacob') that bloomed beautifully in all its pure white glory. The rain and occasional frosts kept the flowers drooping, but they caught my eye from the window and I had to investigate. At first it seemed like white paper or a bag in the garden... but then I ventured out and saw their blooms! Caught in a picture for you.

I don't know if you are a longtime reader, if so, you may remember the story of my Christmas Rose Hellebores ...originally bought on sale as indoor plants and then put into the outside garden on the off-chance that they would survive. See my Christmas Roses indoor pictures here.

White dogs and white flowers to make up for the lack of that other white we wished for: a snowy Christmas.

The "Puppy" Our new "puppy" turned up on the doorstep right before Christmas. He was scraggly from rain and looked like he had taken a dunk in the ditch, looking forlorn and undernourished and BIG. No collar and no one who wanted to take him in. We decided to give him a chance, since we had wanted to get a dog for the past year. He looks and behaves like a textbook Great Pyrenees -except doesn't bark so much as reputed. We have had five people voting on the name and it has been a real challenge to come to a consensus.

Right now I am calling this huge dog, "puppy". My kids are used to naming the cats- and they come up with the most outlandish names possible, I have held out for something more dignified, since the dog is a serious guy. So far he behaves in the garden, but I expect some territorial marking signs on my bushes. Fairly benign with the scaredy cats, who perch on the roof and give him the eye. They are slowly back to their haunts as long as he is out of sight.

The Garden

This year the prairie patch proved to be an asset.

I did not plant new bulbs this year, although I had wanted to.

Was able to weed the entry way and the "Look Into Garden" reasonably well.

Compost pile and the vegetable garden will have to wait for spring to get in order.

Mulching will wait, didn't get to it.

The bushes, including the pyracantha were put in shape, although I think I will reduce the firethorn even more this spring.

I look forward to the new growing season, and am going to put more of my plans together during January month- what about you?

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Autumn Garden Assessment

2011-11-04T12:04:00.001-04:00

Noting this last growing season's garden in the Garden File. Not a stellar gardening year for me in 2011.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

I Learned Something - You Can Too

2011-11-04T11:02:00.000-04:00

Seed bombs

I've been doing everything except gardening and blogging for the last few weeks. It is fall, and while I usually am out in the garden planting bulbs and all sorts of autumn tasks, this year I tidied the garden and then left for the South to visit my children and grandchildren. Along the way from Ohio the beautiful leaves turning in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia satisfied my yen for natural beauty. Ohio autumn leaves seemed to have been over in a blink between rainstorms.

But what I have found for you dear readers is something which may or may not be new to you,( I had come across it a few years ago, sharing about how to become a modern Miss Jekyll ), a delightful video on how to make flower or seed bombs.

I have seed left over from a very unsatisfying growing season this past year, and I think I will make some of the bombs to pop out in my yard next spring. It should work especially well with the fact that my autumn has been dedicated to grooming the wildly overgrown beds and landscape areas that had been my gardened yard. There was no time to do much planting with all the pruning, cultivating, tearing out, and weeding.

One of the best seeds to sprout in such spaces are the hardy and half hardy annuals: Shirley poppies, Nigella, Calendulas. Wildflower perennials, such as in the video are good choices, too.

See if this idea appeals to you and the garden you wish to see growing next year.

Remember: anything you can get done in the fall and early winter is one less task for the spring.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

I took a Blog Vacation

2011-10-07T23:47:00.001-04:00

I am in the 900 block of posts right now, 903 to be exact, and I made the first experimental blogpost on September 9th in 2003. Those were the days when I might post two or three things a day... in a freeform sort of way. The first one with any real content was later that day, I called it "OK" because half the time the blogposts weren't titled. And I didn't use photos or pictures hardly ever.

So, last month I passed the eighth year anniversary of my Garden Journal, here. Eight is the number of the start of a new order, the beginning of a new era. Eight represents regeneration and resurrection.

I'm telling you about the old days of blogging because I just sort of slipped into a longer than usual break, and realized that I needed to step back from the many online projects I juggle.

It didn't help that this gardening season wasn't the best. I was gone from the garden quite a bit, and this year I just plain felt overworked.

Have you ever had that feeling?

Still, it felt good when I did work hard doing work in the RL garden. Helen Weis posted a neat picture "Unplug and GO OUTSIDE" it said. It is restorative to go outside and just enjoy the great outdoors... getting work done at a sane ( as opposed to insane) pace.

I am very sorry to have neglected my friends... and much else, but I needed the time. I hope no one begrudges me that . I don't think anyone would, really.

What were the accomplished chores?

I weeded like a crazy woman. And then called in the recruits.

I pruned - broken and dead branches, overgrown shrubs, then did some edging and set the mowers in motion (I no longer do the mowing).

Together we trimmed up the badly damaged willow tree. That was quite a bit of work, but it looks passable now. We gathered and burned bonfires of broken branches from everything downed by winter's ice storm to the two violently wild summer storms we had this year. The trees are a fraction of their former selves, but this is nature's way.

The garden is groomed...gone from its unkempt slatternly ways to a decently presentable visage. Not perfect, but much,much improved.

I reinstated some things in the blogs, too. Still needs tweaking and then I hope to pursue it throughout the coming year. Was a little consternated with the recipe component of the website -but it seems to work now. Why do so many of these thngs appear to work and then oopsy the gremlins get in there and it suddenly doesn't? I wanted to photograph some scenes and do a nice blogpost for fall...but went to IKEA instead and we are updating our guestroom area.

Fall isn't over, so I might yet pull some things together with this blog.

It's October already. wow!

Missed you all, but the break did me a bit of good. How are things with you? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Amazing Collection of Garden Art from Creative Artist

2011-09-05T12:22:00.001-04:00

I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. Yes, there are terra cotta Greenmen sold in many garden outlets, but this is the art form taken to its outer limits. An entire garden filled with the most enchanting terra cotta statues, placed within lovely vignettes that make you want to see more... no overload of jumbled things placed willy nilly. This is how I like to see garden art displayed. There is a sad note, however. Apparently a massive brushfire swept through the artists town and destroyed them. But the videos tell the beautiful story: Bruno Torfs, woodcarver Just the sculptures:

Telling the story:

His site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Hard Decisions

2011-08-28T23:38:00.000-04:00

looking toward the unsatisfactory driveway some years ago

My garden, like myself, is no longer young and freshly planted. We have been here awhile, and the signs of maturity are equal parts dignified and disconcerting. Once this property was almost a blank space with few trees and mown grass, now it holds almost thirty years worth of plantings, some grown quite large. Large enough that it is time to consider whether to keep some of the less stellar choices I have made.

This year had seen the apex of neglected gardens and the aftermath of some of Nature's affronts. January's ice storm had drawn down the branches of the trees with a merciless hand, showering the house with crashes and clatterings of broken branches throughout a night of fiercesome pruning. The spring and summer were times to reshape the willow, and pull out the broken off branches of the large Arborvitae, tasks only finished this past week.

The willow may actually be the better for its massive pruning. But the Arborvitae, a tree of some age, is looking like a balding and scruffy personage after huge branches broke under the heavy weight of the Northwesterly ice which had coated large arms of its stature with a burden that it could not withstand. Although many other trees had lost a good deal, like the pines especially, nothing took the brunt so greatly as did this particular Arborvitae.

Past experience with these plants is that they come back well after such mishandling by either nature or the gardener's hand. Some globe Arborvitae (much younger in age, but all the more roughly broken) had suffered from snow weighting their branches to the breaking point and were severely misshapen. The globes looked split down the center; surprisingly, they recovered within a year. I thought I would have to remove them, but procrastination on my part worked in their favor, for once. I now expect the regrowth to fill in the tree in a few years.

The other age related wrinkles in my garden are not so optimistically regarded.

This past week, as I mentioned, I have trimmed and pruned many shrubs and trees, and while there is still much to do, the garden is shaping up... but the mistakes of the past years are all the more exposed. I really have to remove some fringe trees which have not thrived in the too dry conditions of the driveway, and the doublefile viburnums are trimmed within an inch of their life, but still do not fit within that same area. It was a grand mistake I made that I hoped could have been mollified with efforts on my part. It is obvious that I need to remove them.... I just hate to do it, because I doubt if I can save them once they are pulled out. That area has been a challenge for me in more than one way. It remains to be seen if I learn to understand what answer it requires.

An old garden will tell you what doesn't work for it, but will still make you dig for answers on what does.

There are other parts of the garden that are not aging as well as I had hoped. The Lavender walk is suffering from the enthusiastic growth of the rue, the encroaching grass, and the awkwardness of the surviving lavenders. I've debated taking it out, although perhaps removal of some of the rue and replanting with new lavenders might be all that is needed.

The worst part of an old garden is the way weeds come to make themselves at home within the older plantings. A newly planted space has none of that.

The longer I live and the longer I garden the more I find one tip that works for many a problem. That is the power of a consistent attention to what is needed. If every day I work for a few hours or even a few minutes, if I bend down and pull some weeds here or there as I pass.... and not leave the garden neglected until there is a marathon amount of work to accomplish.... I sustain some form of victory. A garden is made of little attentions given often.... much like every other relationship we may desire to cultivate.

And with that nugget of wisdom I leave for another time, my friends.
~Ilona

Arborvitae trees and Willow in better days

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

August is time to divide and plant perennials

2011-08-25T13:04:00.001-04:00

Butterfly within the Lilac Branches

Every year, August feels too hot and dry to be digging and planting, but late August is an especially good time to give new perennials a start in the garden. The trouble with this time of year is mainly the hot sticky weather for the gardener, and it is often too dry for the plants. That means attention to watering is usually necessary. Yes, you can wait until September in Ohio, but it is often as dry and full of sunshine as August, and you have less time before winter conditions for those plants to get rooted into place. So, August it is. This year August is proving good for plants that need to be transplanted. We are having regular rainfall here - and moderate temperatures (relatively speaking). I have dug up an Echinacea I wanted to move, sliced it in half, and planted it in the prairie bed. To tell you what else I've been doing would infer it is the best time for it, it isn't; but like all things in life and in the garden sometimes the job must be done, even though the time is not ideal. So, all the pruning and trimming I've done is mainly for the sake of a "garden gone wild" which sorely needs to be taken in hand. This year I planted precious little due to my out of town schedule, but I am getting the yard to look more like a gardener actually lives here. Restoring the little pond is on the agenda, and I will soon dig out the overgrown iris and waterlilies. Some of the surrounding rocks need to be reset, which takes me longer now than in my youth. All in all, I am happy to be working in the garden, although there were a few days when I was literally dripping with the effort.

I have had the pleasure of observing hummingbirds and butterflies, who for some reason simply love the shelter of the old lilac (one of the bushes I have been pruning and reshaping).Hummingbirds are very curious and they whiz about my head, which is how I come to be aware of them when bending over my work. Cardinals and goldfinches have also been sighted this month. The children also obtained a new kitten. Tortoiseshell in looks mewing pitiously for its old home and companions, my old cat has not taken to it. He does not suffer fools gladly.Maybe that is why I like him so well. Enough conversation, it is a fine day for gardening and I must go back to my efforts within the garden. Til later, friends- Ilona

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Notes from Chicago

2011-08-23T17:02:00.000-04:00

Today we had our first experience of a large ( for Ohio) earthquake. A landmark day you might say. In Chicago there was something equally earthshaking with the Awakening convocation. I loved being there in Chicago and there is a certain exhilaration to the entire area. I visited the Baha'i Temple- a place I often went to when living in Evanston. It has beautiful gardens surrounding a lacy white Oriental style edifice. I have a picture of a reflecting pool for you. The gardens are done in the Islamic manner of regular and symmetrical gardens and I noticed a number of fragrant types of flowers chosen. There are segments of differently themed gardens with fountains in the center, stone steps separating each transition from garden to garden. Nestled within a typically American neighborhood of beautifully landscaped homes, it was a lovely day trip.

Finding the Olive Oil restaurant in Wilmette was a wonderful pleasure- because you always want to eat well when visiting an area like Chicago, so diverse in ethnic makeup. "Like eating in Israel" caught my eye, and I decided to give it a try. If it hadn't been such a hot and humid day I would have eaten at the sidewalk tables, but stayed inside and ordered the Isreali meatball and okra- I always jump at the chance to eat okra. The Turkish coffee was ordered, as well, because I always sample it if it is offered on the menu. The main entree was perfectly done, with a mound of saffron rice in the center and a flavorful stew of tomato based sauce with okra and spiced meatballs I enjoyed every single bite. Ordered chicken shawarma.to take back to the kids... which turned out to be simply wonderful with fresh Israeli salad (a type of fresh salsa) with some wonderful and flavorful yogurt sauce. to put on the savory chicken within the pita sandwiches. Excellent and large servings that easily fed three girls (OK, I am no longer a girl... but you know!)

Chicagoland Visit

2011-08-19T16:04:00.000-04:00

Snapshots of Evanston Yards

While in Chicago last week, I managed to visit my old neighborhood in Evanston, a suburb on the lake. The neighborhoods are still quiet and beautiful, the beaches alluring, but a few things have changed. The houses used to be almost uniformly painted in shade of light gray with deep gray trim. Now you will see a wide range of Craftsman era color. I think it looks good and the Lake climate creates lovely conditions fro the gardens.

Another change was the inclusion, in some parts of the neighborhoods, front yard vegetable gardens. No one can complain about their looks- they are well integrated and some of them were screened behind waist high hedges.


Front Yard Vegetable Gardens

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Good Reason To Eat Locally Grown Tomatoes

2011-08-18T13:00:00.003-04:00

Photo credit: robbinssky

If you weren't convinced already, the truth about your store bought, commercially grown tomato is out and being broadcast.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Tomatoes But Were Afraid To Ask

gives everyone a heads up on the new book, Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook

If ever there were a plethora of reasons to grow your own tomatoes and patronize your local farm markets, and groceries that carry locally grown produce - it is now. The word is out on what many of us have known, not only do commercially grown and shipped tomatoes not taste good, they are not good for your health, either.

This year I grew some heirloom tomatoes, and while it was not a banner year for my produce garden, there are those who have had better luck and they supply the markets, and at this time of year anyone in my area can get deliciously tasty, juicy tomatoes for their favorite recipes. I love BLT's, Margarita pizza, fire and ice salads (made with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers!). And what is that grilled hamburger without the fresh tomato slice? Well, during winter, when only the store bought tomato is available it may be time to skip the tomatoes and learn to eat in season.

For a fresh tomato salad:
Fire and Ice
Get the best, most flavorful tomatoes you can lay your hands on ( hopefully right in your own garden) and slice them up.
Add scored and thinly sliced cucumbers. Arrange them attractively on a plate.
Make a garlic infused vinaigrette or just splash on some good old Wishbone dressing.
Serve and enjoy- what is simpler or more pleasurable at the end of summer?
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Answering more of your questions

2011-07-17T06:09:00.000-04:00

In the interest of how people find my gardening pages I occasionally see certain questions pop up. If I were the searcher I would like those answered. After you garden for awhile you sometimes forget how many things were a mystery at first. So to the person who asked,"What is peat moss used for in gardens?" there is my post,I ♥ Peat Moss, but in sum I would say it is simply a soil conditioner. It helps retain moisture and it breaks up clods of clay soil by providing clumpy organic material. What it isn't used for is mulch. It can dry into a hard cakelike substance that causes the water to run off and deprive plants of the moisture that it helps to conserve when incorporated into the soil, that is a reason you want to bury the edges of any peat pots, they would wick up moisture to the surface and cause the roots to dry. There is the odd use of peat as a part of the mix that you use to make tufa containers, and here is an informative video to show you how to make your own.

Hypertufa pots

Another question that came up, "What season should you start gardening?"

Any season, really. It just is a matter of finding out what to do in that season, so a garden calender for your climate zone is helpful. A few of you fellow Northern gardeners are scoffing at me, now, aren't you? What does one do in the winter? Well.... a huge part of garden success is in the learning and the planning, and wintertime is ideal for that! Gather your garden books (or get some from the library), use a notebook and pencil and make plans. View how-to videos, and of course, read garden blogs.

But if you are thinking about real hands on touching the earth gardening, the fall provides preparation time: get your garden spot ready for next spring season when all the garden planting begins for that year. Just dig in!

Technorati Tags: peat moss, beginning gardening

Responsible and Remarkable Resource

2011-07-07T15:53:00.000-04:00

I like to shop at Whole Foods, and this spring I picked up a free magazine called "Edible Columbus". I got a chance to really read through and get into the articles within, and was surprised at the range and depth of this great resource. It was a complimentary issue, and I hope it is successful since it is crammed full of real garden and food information worth reading. The format is not a glossy magazine, but colorful with lots of excellent photos.I loved the ideas included and the products and places are those which really interest me.

The price for a subscription is $35 for four issues a year. It turns out that not only do they have a magazine, but for the rest of you who access your information online, there is a wonderful site.

Edible Columbus

Writeups on local food, and farmers markets, events and more than a few tasty recipes. Not just for Columbus!

If you are up around Lake Erie on Saturday, July 16th, you might want to visit Milan, Ohio's Ninth Annual Veggie U Food and Wine Celebration. Find out more, here.There are many such events to put on your calender.

I wasn't paid and received no compensation for pointing you to this - I just want my readers to benefit from something I know they will love.
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Mid July Chores

2011-07-07T14:24:00.000-04:00

It finally heated up and this is what we expect in July: hot muggy weather.

It is time to keep up with the weeds, hoeing them out in the morning means that the hot sun is killing the weeds and not you. Afternoons are made for sipping lemonade in the shade of a tree.

Look for bargains beginning in the garden sections of the stores.

Keep your tomatoes and other veggies watered, either in the morning or evening. Keep water soaking the ground and spare the leaves, to avoid diseases. Fertilize.

You still have time to pinch the asters and the chrysanthemums, but do it right away, don't wait until the second half of the month.

If you don't have chrysanthemums, consider planting some. Small plants should put on good growth in the next month and be ready to bloom their heads off in the early fall.

Sow your cool season vegetables for your fall garden.

Time for annuals to get their haircuts; they will look renewed and refreshed if given a chance to put on new growth after you have trimmed back the seedy, floppy, spent growth of their first flush of the summer. Just trim away with sharp shears and then lightly fertilize and water.

For more July garden tasks, see the July calender page of tips and chores and the Summer garden pages.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Everything Is Late, But Coming Along

2011-07-06T11:42:00.001-04:00

Home in Late June

My main endeavor this summer has been to weed, since absent from the garden so long. While taking care of the vegetable plot, which if you will remember was planted hurriedly just before leaving town, I noticed some tomato fruits. Green, small to medium sized, but coming along. After all the rain you wouldn't think I need to water, but they are in raised beds and it looks like I will need to give them a drink. Planted with a few pepper plants, which are not as far along as I'd like, but looking healthy, I gave the bed a dust mulch.

The Annabelle hydrangea is blooming her head off, one of the few things of note in my garden this year. In fact I can't well contain her or get rid of her... she loves it here.

The bugs are intolerable, it makes work in the garden constrained to short increments of time. Sometimes the mosquitoes, sometimes little gnats that won't leave your eyes alone. Maybe I should use swimming goggles to extend my worktime, what do you think? I do love weeding when it is hot and dry, though. It means sure death for those that are grubbed out. There was also some time spent pruning and trimming the spring flowering shrubs- better late than never, removing poison ivy from inside them.... hopefully will get to the roots later... once poison ivy gets a foothold it can be tenacious.

Many people, including myself, often dislike the chore of weeding, but as in housework, it isn't the effort, but the result that is of such great satisfaction. To look over a freshly cleaned walkway, flower bed, or nicely trimmed shrubs makes for a good feeling... even when sticky with sweat and bothered by bugs. I don't know how to translate that good feeling of being in touch with the earth, and yet playing a part in the care and control of it that makes gardening such a deeply passionate pastime. I know there is something of the happiness that comes from making the world, even a small corner of it a better place.

puppy-sitting

Visited Lake Erie

2011-06-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

I wore a hole in my good leather gardening gloves grubbing out the weeds in the stone walk, dropped a garden fork on my toe and ruined the polish, my arms are itchy from from weeding among the rue and the shrubs, but all in all it's a good day.

Too late to take a picture, though.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

Today People Are Looking For...

2011-06-26T21:41:00.003-04:00

the candle growth

Today people are looking for information on how to prune a mugo pine. That is the Google interpretation of what people want from this garden journal. It is just a little too late to be asking that question.

But it is just the right time to prune other things, like the Spring blooming shrubs:

Lilacs, viburnums, forsythia, weigelas, et al ... all those shrubs that just finished flowering last month and could use a good trimming up? The time is now, and I have just the post for you:

Quick Review of Important Pruning Tips

Ask me how I know? I was out of town when the time to prune the mugo pines was in season and I missed it. I had pruned off about half the candles of the one nearest the porch, but then got busy getting ready for my trip South and never resumed the job. The other mugo... the one that is already grown out of bounds on the other side of the house... didn't get pruned at all. I think it is a tree, now.

Its location is fine for its growth, but still, I had not intended for it to be more than a shrub. It got away from me.

This has been a year for that, so far. I started weeding the stone walk yesterday. The front garden will get mown (held off until bulb foliage matured), and will continue the front yard recovery act. At least the weather has been nice.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

A lovely summer day

2011-06-14T00:45:00.003-04:00

Summer Day
Potthast, Edward...
Buy This Allposters.com

It has been a long time since I have waxed poetic... that expression only manifests when the time is given for long reflective periods, when the beauty of atmosphere can saturate my very skin and sink deeply into my mind. There it ferments, as I turn phrases in my head, mix metaphors and then hold them to the light to sort them out, and rephrase until the words hold the feeling and the meaning in an intelligible way. Then... if the mood is right and I am left alone to write it before it all evaporates away... is something that I can feel happy to have written. something that captures and then gives away a glimpse into what was shown to me.

I have not had days like that for a long while. The days have been busy, and productive, but with weeding and work, not with words, dreams, and thinking processes. I spent much of today happily clearing walks of vegetation and sweeping them neatly, trimming the lilac, and clearing beneath it. I hedged back the sage. Raked up the debris and considered it all time well spent. Then I simply enjoyed the warm sunshine and perfect June weather we are having, sharing some of that generally beneficent feeling with the cat... who seemed to enjoy walking around the garden with me.

The vegetable garden is getting some grooming and even though I had left the newly planted tomatoes to fend for themselves... it seems only two were lost- to who knows what! And all others are growing thriftily now that the temperatures have finally warmed.

It will take awhile to brood over my blog writing, I still have so many garden chores to catch up on, and for some reason it gives me a rather more clipped communication, something like the newly hedged sage plants.

Til later friends... with pictures. Everything photographed is either the spring pictures or the beach.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

When Should I Transplant My Garden Plant?

2011-06-12T11:29:00.002-04:00

The rule of thumb for transplanting any sort of plant is:

The best time to transplant a plant is when it is most dormant.

That rule seems simple enough, and for most plants, dormancy is in spring before the leaves appear, or in late summer or early fall when they are getting ready for their winter sleep. For those of us in cold climates, we are taking chances when planting any later than the beginning of November.

But as simple as that general rule is, there are caveats and exceptions with particular plants.

Take a tree like the magnolia, for example. These flowering trees are very popular for their fragrant large flowers and beautiful leaves. Northern gardens usually have to settle for some of the smaller varieties like the M. stellata or the Magnolia x soulangiana instead of the stately M. Grandiflora. For the Northern gardens, such as in Ohio, springtime is the best time to plant these trees with their shallow, fleshy roots. It gives sufficient time for the tree to settle in before the ground freezes.

Early spring Magnolia stellata

Horticultural advice for magnolias

Some plants go dormant in the summer, such as German Iris, and they are best divided and transplanted in mid to late July.

Horticultural advice for German Iris

Peonies are long lived plants and they don't like transplanting, but one of the better times to move them into a new place in the garden is in August. Tehy have fleshy roots with growing points called "eyes" and this trasnplant schedule gives the roots time to settle in and to grow through the early winter and late winter to establish well. You still won't see good bloom until the following year or two, but after their sulking period, peonies give you the bloom they are famous for... and lasting beauty for many years.

Horticultural advice for peonies

Photo credit: katmystiry from morguefile.com

My plant profiles for :
Iris is a star perennial.

Scented pink peonies in full bloom

Peonies in My Garden
Magnolia stellata for Northern gardeners.

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.

June 2011 Report for Flatironed Acres

2011-06-04T12:03:00.003-04:00

Flatironed Acres is what I have decided to call this place because it looks like God took an old fashioned flatiron and smoothed it out without fold or wrinkle.

Some passing thunder rumbled, but it proved an empty threat of rain. I had taken note of it this morning and continued my efforts at reclaiming my gardens from weeds that had grown while I was gone for two weeks. Two weeks in the growing season and it might as well be two months! I've made good,sweaty progress however, and the lavender walk again looks like a feature instead of a sad mistake. The mosquitoes took advantage of my efforts under the Cameo quince bush, where the Quack grass loves to take hold.

I am puppy-sitting for my daughter, and Brutus is an energetic romper throughout the garden with frequent dives into the garden pond. He loves it when I'm pulling weeds- and tries to catch each handful that I throw backwards from my advance into the garden bed. Annoying only when he decides the garden fork is his sworn enemy and goes on semi-attack. I have to stop and speak sternly at that point. He found an errant tennis ball and is leaving me alone...for now.

I had one sad loss of the fir tree in the front yard. When I left for vacation it looked fine, when I returned it was ghastly orange and dead. I think it got too wet in the clay soil and I probably helped its demise with a deep mulch of hardwood chips. I didn't volcano mound, but I think the roots were buried too deeply. My husband will need to get the chainsaw out.

The family of mowers (everyone except me) has been busy trying to control the tall grass prairie we've got going here.

The farmers have been out in force the last two days or so, and the field across the way is harrowed and planted. The smooth semi-sweet chocolate ground is a good sight to see.

Oh, and the roses and peonies are blooming.

Til later friends,
Ilona

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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.