Spring’s among my favorite time of year; I’ve been snow bound for months, and love the longer days and warmer temperatures, plus I know that some of my favorite spring bulbs are going to be showing their colors. Yay! In case you’re just thinking bulbs for spring, let me give you a short list of other things you just might want to try:

• Shrubs – Quince (awesome red), forsythia (I go wild for that cheery yellow), Japanese witch hazel (scented and cool flowers), lilac, ornamental cherry and apricot, magnolia
• Perennials – Columbines, bleeding hearts, Welsh poppy, primrose, trillium
• Bulbs (of course) – Wood anemone, crocus, crown imperial, narcissus

I read an article the other day, about the garden’s of a woman who focused on four season gardening, making sure there’s year round interest. Her beds were absolutely beautiful, and at first I found myself thinking, “Wow, I wish I could have that”, but I know myself well enough, winter is my down time; to reflect over the previous year, pour over seed catalogues and their great pictures, shovel snow instead of weed. One important thing to consider when planning your garden is how you want to use it, and when you’re going to be around to care for it. While spring, summer and fall are the times I’m most interested in gardening, I have a friend who spends most of his free time in the summer at his cottage up north. My recommendation to him: Don’t garden for the summer, you’re not going to be around to enjoy the show anyway, be a two to three season gardener instead. Next week, on being a spring gardener.

Now that my garden is coming to a close for the fall, I’m finding myself turn to the kitchen more, puttering around the stove while I contemplate what I’d like to add to my vegetable garden next year so that I can enjoy more of it this time of year. For some reason when the days get shorter I’m even more inclined to want to entertain, maybe it’s the laughter chasing away the early dark. If you’ve never had the pleasure of savoring buttercup squash, now’s the perfect time, and this particular soup is good enough for company.

Curry Buttercup Corn Soup
1 large buttercup  squash
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 – 1 tbs curry powder
1 tsp dried thyme
12 oz package frozen corn

Thoroughly wash your squash, and using an apple corer drill 4-6 wholes in the top of it.

Place in a medium sized pot, and fill with water, about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the squash, making sure to get some water in the holes so it doesn’t float. Heat on high until the water comes to a boil, and cover, simmering for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the squash easily pierces the skin and flesh.

Carefully pour out the water and turn the squash out on a cutting board. Cut squash in half and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully remove and discard the seeds (It will still be quite warm!). Use your peeler to remove and remaining skin, it will begin to separate from the flesh as it cools, and is easy to remove.

Return your squash to the pot that you cooked it in, adding broth, curry and thyme and begin to heat. Using a hand blender, purée until smooth. Add the package of frozen corn and continue to heat, simmering for 10 minutes. Serve with really rustic crusty bread.

Serves 4

Finally Frost Day has arrived!! I’ve been eagerly awaiting it for the last couple of weeks, a little bit envious of some of the colder areas of the country. I know it came because I awoke to a garden filled with shrivelled up foliage, signaling the end of a fantastic garden year. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve taken the opportunity to completely rehab some of my garden beds, even though this last year was my favorite, ready to try new things next year. Once I clean and pack up some of my garden ornaments, and add mulch and bonemeal, I’ll be ready to take a break.

I’m not sure I’m able to pick my favorite season, there are things I enjoy for each of them. And I’m lucky enough in Wisconsin to have all four!! I love fall for its:

• Pumpkin patches
• Crisp fall leaves
• Sweaters and scarves
• Pumpkin ice cream
• Holidays
• Apple picking
• Apple Cider

In my article “How to garden like you’re in the tropic when you’re stuck in the snow” I outlined the process of growing cannas from seeds. This year was the last year of growing a standard (tall) sized canna that I had acquired from a local superstore. The reason I began growing my own cannas from seeds was dissatisfaction on how the purchased canna behaved, spindly foliage, unimpressive blooms, and this one was no exception. I’m not going to store it again. Some people may not know, but canna rhizomes are edible, delicious and potato like. It’s time to put this old canna to good use. To celebrate all things good, I’m going to prepare a simple, yet delicious canna pepper hash.

Cannas are a delicious potato alternative

1-1/4 lbs cleaned canna, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large red pepper, seeded and minced

When preparing cannas, remove the most tender growing tips, discarding any woody stringy sections. Place prepared canna in a medium sized pot with salty water just to cover. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer covered for about 40 minutes until soft. Drain canna and return to cooking pot and mash roughly.

Heat 3 tbs. oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add canna and pepper and sauté for 3 minutes. Finish mashing with a wooden fork and cook over medium heat until golden brown. Turn over with a spatula. Add remaining oil. With spatula, break up pancake into pieces. Continue cooking until crispy all over. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Serve hot, cut into wedges.

My end of season daylily blooms illustrate why I like Stella D’oro as much as I do. Stella’s been around for 35 years, and remains popular for its long bloom cycles. The thing I noticed the with my latest blooms is that they have a very different appearance from my summer blooms. Overall they’re smaller and  have a more delicate appearance. The color is paler; the edges are so thin they almost appear white. The earlier season Stellas were much more heavily textured. Of my other repeat bloomers, I expect to see a difference in the quantity of flowers; the first heavy flush followed by sporadic flowers, but I really wasn’t expecting to see what looked like a completely different flower.     

The early season, almost ta-da type blooms work in well with my early summer blooming scheme, the heavy flush of color and texture helps to bring out the magentas and pinks I favor in my summer garden. By fall, the delicate blooms of my Stella D’oro really stand on their own, delicate pops of pale yellow standing out against a sea of green.        

Several years ago, “WOW factor” became the new catch phrase at work, as in “What is your WOW factor”? Hopefully I have enough “WOW” going for me, but chatting with an old work friend who’s lucky enough to have moved on to a more satisfying career, I was reminded of it again. I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to a surprising “WOW factor” plant, one I honestly didn’t realize I’d like as much as I do, and want more of next year.

I once saw the description of this Perennial Sunflower as “too coarse for most gardens” in a vintage garden book I picked up from a used book store. I couldn’t disagree with that description more, and wonder how the writer didn’t love this flower more. This tall, bushy perennial is an almost perfect ”WOW factor” plant because of its:

1. Great color - The predominant pastels of spring give way to some of the brighter tones of summer, and this plant has the cheeriest yellow blooms from mid summer to fall. I usually favor purples, blues and pinks in my flower beds, and this yellow adds a great punch of color and contrasts nicely with my blue bottle collection (pictured)
2. Height - Plants with height can add dimension to a space. This is tall, reaching heights up to 8′ tall (wowsers). This  helped me deal with the problem I sometimes face of everything being ankle to knee height, and is a great addition to the back of my border. In my garden it tended to get floppy after a couple of strong rains; I plan on staking it a bit next year
3. Maintenance - No maintenance plants are a myth, but low maintenance plants are a must have. This perennial sunflower blooms the second year from seed and handles dry conditions very well. This would be a good selection for gardeners in drier climate tending towards a xeric landscape
4. Interest - The perennial sunflower is a great addition to wildlife gardens, bees and butterflies swarmed them all summer, and now that they’ve mostly gone to seed, finches and sparrows have been picking them clean. I’ve been really pleased this year with the amount of wildlife that this has attracted to my little garden
5. Cold Hardiness - Teetering between zone 4 and 5, I appreciate a plant that can take a frigid winter. Perennial Sunflowers thrive in a zone 3-9. The seedlings I planted last year didn’t amount to much, I was really surprised when this began growing in the spring and bloomed in the early summer

This year I attempted to grow cherry red sweet peas up trellises directly behind this patch of sunflowers. It looked great in my imagination, but within a month I realized that they would never catch up to the thriving sweet peas in the rest of my garden; they struggled in the dry conditions I was just too busy to water. I decided to stop babying them (that felt freeing). While the sweet peas quickly disappeared from that area, the sunflowers were stellar. Next year, I plan on growing more of this cheerful plant, in love with its happy yellow color.