Old Country Gardens

Those #$#@! Plant collectors!

2009-11-06T07:14:00.003-05:00

As I just posted on my other blog, Melanie's Perennials, I'm off this morning to Pittsburgh PA.

Tomorrow I will be speaking to a group of gardening clubs, all made up of plant collectors. There will be Hosta collectors there, I love Hosta!

There will also be Iris collectors there, I love Iris!

Of course there will be Daylily collectors there, thank goodness I love daylilies!

And, last but not least, there will be Daffodil collectors there, I love Daffodils! Are you noticing a common theme here? Yes, I must admit I'm a plant-a-holic and most definitely have collectoritis. Truth be told, I don't collect Daffodils or Iris although I do have a healthy amount of them scattered throughout my gardens. Never say never though...

Besides these plant types, I collect hardy Geraniums, Sedums, Succulents, Astilbe, and so much more. I've learned not to tell people that I'll never collect a specific plant type, years ago I used to tell people that I didn't care much for Astilbe, now I'm adding them like crazy to my garden.

I'm so looking forward to spending two days with plant-a-holics. It turns out that I just LOVE my new job at J. Crew, but I can't say I spend even one minute there thinking about my garden.

See ya in PA!
Melanie

Inside Out

2009-10-27T11:36:00.002-04:00

Here I sit, inside on my last "free day". Tomorrow I begin working (a "real" job) and had hoped to be able to spend some time today outdoors. Unfortunately Mother Nature knows best, I really have quite a few things to work on here with my lap-top. Still, I couldn't resist taking a few shots at the amazing leaf display going on outside my windows.

Looking out my front door you can see the sugar Maple is dropping leaves like crazy. Now I'm wishing we didn't spend all day Sunday raking under this tree.

Out back (looking from my second story bedroom) you can see another spectacular sugar Maple. This one is in my neighbors yard but much of it hangs over this property and of course plenty of leaves land in my hosta bed back there.

Note to self, time to put away the yard furniture! Unfortunately in another week or two that much hated white vinyl fence will be back in full view...yuck!

Looking out my living room picture window you can see the front lawn again. The leaves are falling so fast as I type this that I expect the tree to be bare by the end of the day tomorrow. That's a good thing as they are coming to mow the lawn one last time on Thursday and after that all the yard clean up will be on my shoulders.

Hey silly dog, get out of the rain! Calie the wonder-doodle doesn't mind rain too much. Surely though it must be hard to see with all that hair in her eyes? Uh oh, might be time for a haircut...

So what will I do on this last day off? I'm going to put some time aside to finish up one of the books I'm reading. 'Bloom Again Orchids' by Judy White, published by Timber Press has been gracing my nightstand for the past two weeks. The photos alone are enough to give me sweet dreams as I slip off to sleep at night.

Orchids are the only houseplant that I'm willing to deal with. They are so incredibly easy to grow and the flowers are stunning. Later this week I'll post a book review here and then it's on to the next gardening book. If I can't be outside during the day I can still read about it and post here!

No rainy day blues for me,
Melanie

Autumn foliage

2009-10-25T20:04:00.004-04:00

What's this? Two posts in one week! Bear with me folks, I'm trying hard to get back in the saddle again.

Today I spent the most glorious day outside, at least 8 hours raking leaves, cutting back dead foliage and picking up branches that were downed during yesterdays storm.

The Hakonechloa grass out at the beginning of my driveway still looks fabulous although most of the Hosta and other perennials out there are just about done for.

This time of year the foliage on the hardy Geranium's really starts to color-up. I love the burgundy tinges on this Geranium cantabrigiense 'Biokova'.

The Hostas are putting on their very last show, within days I expect them to give up the ghost and flop to the ground. Until then though I expect to enjoy every second of their beauty.

One of my favorite plants for fall foliage is my beloved Polygonatum (Solomon's seal). The creamy yellow color is just delicious.

Here's a quick peek at the house. The lawn looks pretty clean after all that raking although I know by Tuesday it will be covered again.

Last week I applied for a job on Tuesday, had an interview on Wednesday and was hired on Thursday. Wowza was that fast! Anyway, this week (Wednesday) I begin working a "real job" again. Luckily I'll be at J.Crew at our local mall, my favorite clothing store! Guess that's why I applied there ;-) I have to admit I'm a bit addicted to wearing the latest fashions.

Off to curl up under the down blankets with Dan Brown's newest book, 'The Lost Symbol'. Won't be much extra time once Wednesday comes around.

Cheers!
Melanie

The first day...

2009-10-22T10:38:00.003-04:00

Well, autumn has truly arrived here at Old Country Gardens. It's brought a whole new life to me, today is the first day!

Emily and I have been living here on our own for three weeks now, still quite a bit of learning to do. Yesterday I went on a job interview with J.Crew in our local mall, looking for something to do for the holidays and get my feet back into the "working world". Guess what? I start today!

The sugar maple in front of my house is just a riot of color, what a great sight to see out my bedroom window.

The pass-along Chrysanthemums from my friend Gianna are blooming madly right now. I need to plant them in a spot that really shows off their autumn beauty.

Great foliage still going strong on some plants. Stachys byzantine 'Helen Von Stein' with it's big gray felty leaves looks fantastic next to the heavenly golden foliage on the Platycodon (balloon flowers).

Took a few more shots today, hope to post them to my Melanie's Perennials blog later tonight after I get home from WORK! Wooohoooo, hope my feet hold up :-)

Wish me luck!
Melanie

Living Life on the Edge

2009-09-28T20:14:00.003-04:00

Not too much gardening going on right now, been insanely busy with Board of Education duties. The other day though I took a few more butterfly images. Was totally mesmerized by this butterfly dancing oh so close to the spiderweb.

I kept watching carefully because I couldn't tell if it's feet were actually stuck there.

Now I'm thinking I should have poked it a bit with my finger to make sure that it was truly free but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing it fly about.

Also living life on the edge is Calie-the-wonderdoodle-dog who obviously has no problem sleeping in what ever position is most comfortable!

Elizabeth's Garden

2009-09-23T09:33:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I visited my friend Elizabeth. She has been the shoulder I turn to the most at this time of my life, both of us going through a divorce, both of us leaning on the other.

We had decided to go for a serious work-out-walk but first I wanted to take a few photos of her garden.

Elizabeth is an incredible visionary when it comes to design. I am so jealous of her!

The pool area she has created is so amazingly beautiful, it's hard to believe that just a few short years ago this area was just lawn and overgrown trees.

The concept of growing something between the stepping stones is one that Elizabeth uses often. In fact, the way she's done this (and other things) has almost instantly given the garden the feeling of timelessness, as if it's been there forever.

The plant material here is Mazus reptans and it must be stunning when in bloom.

Cimicifuga was cascading out over the stone wall in one corner.

Begonia grandis 'Alba' (white hardy begonias) have charmingly seeded themselves into the crevices of the stone walls. You can bet I'll be moving a few of my hardy begonias to my walled gardens this week in hopes that they too seed like this.

My absolute favorite spot in Elizabeth's garden was a massive intermingling of a dusty pink shrub rose and huge, lush Hydrangeas. I'm going to guess the Hydrangeas are tardivas but I'm not a Hydrangea expert.

Although I shot a number of photos in this area, not one of them did justice to this wonderfully romantic combination.

Elizabeth has done an awesome job of incorporating shrubs and perennials. If I'm in the mood, I'll post again soon with more shots of her shrubs.

Off to see what's going on outside today,
Melanie

Dividing Hellebores

2009-09-20T20:16:00.003-04:00

Holy cannoli, check out the size of this Hellebore! It's been in the garden about 5 years now. Although the books say that Hellebores will grow fine in bare or average soil, I planted this one in a spot that had just been amended with composted manure. It quickly grew into a monster sized plant.

Here's a side shot, you can see that it is in a full sized wheelbarrow. I have to tell you that I almost flipped myself upside down when I tried to lift it out of the ground. Note to self, trying to lift something the same size as myself is not a good idea.

I really had no idea how to divide this thing but when it comes to perennials I've become quite adventurous. So I simply grabbed my super-de-duper unbelievably sharp, root knife and started sawing away. You can see the center line where I simply when down between the emerging leaves.

I didn't cut them down too small because I really don't know how Hellebores react to being divided. All the pieces were replanted in well amended soil.

One division though was saved and I potted this one up in a big fat pot. I plan on leaving it in the pot all winter to see what happens.

So far it's been 24 hours since I cut this clump into pieces and the foliage hasn't wilted. I've got my fingers crossed that I didn't kill this beautiful plant. Tomorrow I need to remember to water all the divisions well since the ground here is bone dry and there's no rain in the weekly forecast.

Wish me luck!
Melanie

All for naught?

2009-09-18T08:08:00.003-04:00

Recently I was asked to make a container for somebody. The container was to have a $50 value and would be raffled off at a luncheon. I do so love to put together things like this and was quite excited about the task.

Unfortunately I did not have an empty container to use so I ran to Home Depot and picked a simple plastic pot for $9.99. After all, if I spent more than $50 on the container, potting soil and plant material I wouldn't be making much of a profit.

While at Home Depot, I also bought a Chrysanthemum since the only request I had about the pot was that it be "seasonal". I knew I wanted to put the Phormium in the container (the tall spiky plant that wholesales for $23 a pot but I have lots of it and thought it would be exciting for the winner) and I started gathering other things that I hoped would combine well.

The variegated Liriope, Lamiastrum and Sedum were all here in my sales area and all looking wonderful right now. Before planting the container I arranged them on the ground to see how I wanted them to end up. I knew the value was well over $50 but what the heck, my creative juices were at work.

I don't usually work in my driveway at the back of my car but I was worried that the planted container would be too heavy for me to carry. It was a good thing I thought of that! (oof)

After filling the bottom with potting soil I started adding the plant material. The Phormium went in first and got a small haircut (I trimmed out any stray leaves). By the time I had added most of the rest of the plants I realized that the Sedum wouldn't fit in and also didn't add much to the arrangement so at the end it was left out.

Just as I predicted, this pot was at the uppermost limit of my lifting capabilities. It was one heck of a "heave-HO" to get it in the car but I was so happy with what it looked like. Off to drop it off, I had to bring a wagon with me so I could just drop it down into the wagon and pull it in to the luncheon.

I decided to stay until after the raffle just in case the winner didn't have the strength to lift it into her car. Sure enough the winner was in her late 70's or even early 80's. An older man had come to pick her and her friend up. He assured me he could handle the pot until he tried to lift it. It didn't even budge off the wagon. Ah ha, I knew I'd be needed to help them get it in the car.

As we got to their car I realized a big problem, they had an old sedan and although the pot was brand spanking new and perfectly clean, they refused to place it on the back seat. With another heave-ho we got it in the trunk. As I walked off I heard them say that once they got home they were going to take each plant out of the container and split them up between the two women. The winner only cared that she got the $4.99 Chrysanthemum. CRUNCH, the trunk was closed down on top of everything. Was it all for naught?

This morning when I sat at my computer I planned on putting a post on my blooming Cimicifugas on this blog and a post on the container on my Melanie's Perennials blog. Unfortunately I mixed things up and reversed the two subjects so if you want to see the lovely Cimicifugas in bloom here, you have to click on Melanie's Perennials.

Off to split Hosta...

Fun with old slides

2009-09-16T16:36:00.003-04:00

Today is cool and rainy. Since I had several meetings to attend during the day and yet another meeting this evening, there was no chance I was going to go out and get muddy in the middle of the afternoon.

Sitting here at my computer, going through my photo files, I decided to have some fun. With my last post I discovered that I could crop some old slides that I had scanned a few years ago. Here's some images I doctored a bit.

The first was a shot that I took to demonstrate the power of foliage and foliage combinations. Who needs flowers when you have this group?

What I loved about my old Nikon camera was the ability to manually focus where ever I want. I do realize that there are digital cameras with that capability too, just not in my budget right now.

My macro lens did a nice job getting me a close up of Corydalis lutea and the miniature Iris cristata 'Alba'.

Believe it or not, I grew Edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinium) in my garden for three years. I really, REALLY need to grow this plant once more in my life time. It was so cool!

Being able to crop and focus on a specific subject in the photo was fun. The original slide with these simple planted shoes never really had the right interest. Now I would definitely use it in a program about garden shoes (of which I have enough images to make a whole program!).

Last but not least (for those of you who are counting, I tend to put 5 photos in each post because that's the limit on one download) I added a cropped shot I took with my digital camera. At times (most of the time) the digital image still gives me more to work with. But, it's nice to know that I can sit here during the blah winter months ahead and have some fun cropping, editing and adding my old slides to new programs.

Now once I upload this post, I'll be coming back to see how the images actually look over the internet. What do you think?

Pay Day!

2009-09-15T08:08:00.003-04:00

This afternoon I will be lecturing in Douglaston, New York (Long Island) on Garden Junque. This is such a fun program. Over the years I've collected a number of images of things that people use to accent their garden.

This bicycle is one that I just have to have in my own garden some day. It makes me smile from ear to ear every time I look at it!

A giant caterpillar, photographed at New York botanical gardens. Such a simple structure to make and plant, shouldn't we all have one of these?

Not all the photos are funny or crazy. The program is filled with lots of great tips on seating, walkways, arbors, gazebos and so on. For instance, while you might think the little girl in the flowered sundress is the accent in this garden, the real subject of the photo was the table in the backdrop. The home owner here took a large clay pot, turned it upside down and painted it. On top of the base she placed the large saucer that would normally be at the bottom of the pot and on top of that base was a glass circle (the type you put on an indoors accent table). What a charming seating area!

I wish I could crop the photo to show you the table up close but these are scanned slides so I'm limited in what I can do with them.

Hey! Never say never. I just tried to crop that photo and check this out, it worked! How cool is that. Ok, time to start my dance. I can't help but dance around the house when I know there's a paycheck coming in.

September blooms

2009-09-13T17:42:00.002-04:00

Summer came to a screeching halt about a week ago here on Long Island. Hints of autumn can be found in the garden. It's one of my favorite times to be outside (ok, I always like to be outside...)

Here you can see how lovely the blooms on Sedum 'Lynda Windsor' fade to a brick red color. I love the combination of them and the silvery blue foliage of the Rue.

One thing I never noticed in the past was how lovely the foliage colors up on the Oenothera 'Cold Crick'. Brilliant fall colored foliage on any good perennial is such a nice bonus.

Even some of the Monarda are starting to exhibit a reddish blush on the foliage. I know I should cut those dead heads off but they too can add to the fall scene.

The Liriope are really putting on a show this year. People never want to buy them in the spring but right now they look so nice and neat, much better than many of the tired plants in the garden.

Ajuga is definitely happy with the cooler temperatures. These voluteers popped up and have really depened in color now. I sure do love those plant volunteers.

This afternoon I was in such a weeding frenzy. It was more like weeding in beserker mode. Suddenly I noticed an excrutiating pain in my foot. Boy am I tired of getting stung. This time it was on my foot and I couldn't walk back to the house to get any antihistimines for a few minutes. I really want to get to the track and walk 5 or 6 miles tonight, hope I can get my sneaker on.

This week I plan on dividing up a ton of hosta. I'll try to remember to take lots of photos. I did manage to take a nice shot of a Platycodon (balloon flower) tap root. It was just posted on my Melanie's Perennials blog.

Off to see if that sneaker works.

Dahlias

2009-09-11T07:05:00.004-04:00

This week I took a two day Horticulture course given by the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State. A number of different speakers were brought in to give us informative programs on various types of horticulture. There was such a broad spectrum of topics that any gardener would have found something of interest here.

Our first teacher was Steve Nowotarski and the topic was Dahlias. Steve and I have crossed paths many times over the past years, mostly at flower shows and various garden club meetings. We have a good enough relationship that we can tease each other constantly about the pluses/minuses of Dahlia collection vs Daylily collecting. As an afterthought I realize we probably confuse the heck out of the people who don't know what we are talking about :-)

While I'm not going to go into the various different forms and terminology we learned about Dahlias, I am going to post a few photos that I took after the class. Steve told us about one of the Dahlia trial gardens on Long Island at Eisenhower Park. Three fellow students and I decided to go there after yesterday's final exam and see the plant material up close.

There were Dahlias in a multitude of forms, sizes and colors to see. This time of year they are reaching their peak. I highly recommend that you search online and see if there is a trial garden near you.

The bloom colors were so beautiful, I only wish the foliage had a little less mildew. Unfortunately, this summer has been brutal on our plants with unusually cool temperatures, extreme water conditions (from flooding conditions to bone dry and back to flood) so there was a hint of mildew to see on the foliage. Of course, I can hear Steve telling me that the daylily foliage doesn't look so hot right now either, hmmmm, guess he's right.

This one was extremely pleasing to me. I loved the simple form and the pinwheel effect of the inside petaloids.

Here's a not-so-artistic shot of a corner of the trial garden. If you'd like to read more information on Dahlias, Steve has a great website at www.containerdahlias.com My one wish was that I had the chance to take photos of some of Steve's containers. He's a real master when it comes to filling them with Dahlias and other plant material.

What I really liked the most about Steve's program is that his gardens are totally organic. He's a big fan of aerated compost tea (something I need to learn more about).

There were a number of trial gardens at Eisenhower Park. Besides the Dahlia one, there was a Rose Garden (very small), a Butterfly garden (at peak), an Herb garden and an All America Selections Garden (featuring new annuals). I'll post about one of the other ones on my Melanie's Perennials blog in a little while.

It's raining outside now, guess I might as well attack the dustballs rolling around the house.

Cynthia's Garden

2009-09-05T19:33:00.005-04:00

Cynthia is my neighbor directly across the street. She and her husband Rich moved in last year and I have been in heaven since then. I finally have a neighbor who understands the need to garden. Many a Saturday I have looked across the street to see Cynthia out there in a slicker during a downpour, swatting gnats while wiping sweat from her brow, or hauling around huge loads of compost. It sure makes me feel better since I'm usually doing the exact same thing!

No pictures of Cynthias garden would be complete without "the crew". On the right is Riley, in the middle is Boomer and on the left is a frequent family visitor.

Cynthia's gardens are all new and I'm always amazed at the wide range of plant material she boldly introduces to this piece of land that has not seen TLC in any recent time.

How cool is this Amaranthus bloom? I much prefer the nickname of "Love Lies-a-Bleeding". It's the perfect nickname.

Needless to say I was so taken by the Love-lies-a-bleeding that I had to take a photo of the blooms on the other side too.

In all the years I've been gardening (way more than I can count) I have never tried Colocasia esculanta (another cool nickname: Elephant Ears). This year Cynthia gave me two of them but hers appear to be much happier than mine.

I was so hoping that the sunshine coming through the leaf would translate well. It's as good as I had hoped for. What a wonderful spot to sit and sip your morning coffee.

Here's another pretty combination. Cynthia has Angelonia (the annual that I posted about earlier this week on Melanie's Perennials but didn't know the name) paired with this cream/yellow annual.

How do you like that, I'm stumped again with an annual name. It's a good thing one of my blogs is named Melanie's PERENNIALS :-) I thought this was Nemesia but after googling some images I think I'd better start to brush up on my annual names!

Cynthia, I'm so glad you're my neighbor. Thanks for the tour!

Praying Mantis in the garden

2009-09-03T07:28:00.003-04:00

Early this past spring I found a number of praying mantis egg cases while doing garden clean-up. During the month of May I did a dozen programs on healthy gardening at our local elementary schools. Part of the program was to bring them egg cases which they kept in tanks in their classrooms until the young praying mantis hatched.

My only concern was that I would not have any praying mantis in my own garden but I kept assuring myself that I couldn't have found all the egg cases and surely there would be mantis young hatching here too.

Yesterday I was thrilled to find this Mantis in the flower bed around my pool. It had perched itself in an ideal spot, right next to a large blooming clump of Sedum. Normally I would feel bad that it was catching bees there but since I'm still itching like crazy from the sting I got on Tuesday, I'm not so upset. Of course I'm joking, I realize how much we need our pollinating insects. Still, I also love watching these cool praying mantis.

I do hope to find one in the front borders too but since that's where I got stung I'm working very slowly out there.

Last night I decided that I would definitely open for sales this Saturday. Guess I'll be working like crazy out there all day today and tomorrow!

Tricyrtis - Toad Lily

2009-09-01T20:33:00.004-04:00

Finding good fall perennials require a bit of hunting. So many gardeners stop shopping for plants once summer heat hits but that's one way to assure yourself of having a boring fall garden.

Luckily, a few years ago I began to add Tricyrtis to my garden. Tricyrtis has one of those nicknames you'd rather not hear, it's Toad Lily. I think the name has something to do with the spots.

Anyway, I have a large clump of Tricyrtis blooming in my back shade bed right now.

Here you can see the whole clump. I've planted Tricyrtis in other spots and they've done ok but if you plant them next to something more aggressive, they seem to lose ground. Aparantly this one is in the perfect spot because it's quite happy there.

It took about a dozen trys to get a close up shot of the unusual bloom. Hopefully you get the picture. I do think I'd like to try a few more of these now that I've figured out what they like. Rich compost, shade and not too dry is my guess.

Do any of you grow Tricyrtis?

A charming scene

2009-08-30T21:12:00.002-04:00

As I had hoped, this morning started out nice and cloudy, perfect picture taking weather. So, I grabbed my camera and out the door I went. My first stop was a little village just west of us, Cold Spring Harbor. I did manage to find a few good plant subjects there and you can see some of them on my Melanie's Perennials blog.

These shots came from another little village, Northport, which is just east of us. If you have a small town near you, this is the time to go and check out all the annual planters.

Backing up, you can see the corner that inspired me. The shop is Hengstenberg's Florist and the brick planters along the sidewalk are delightful.

Here you can see the wonderful colors of the Tropical Hibiscus and the lavender Cleome.

I didn't push aside any foliage to look for plant tags. This is not the old fashioned Cleome I'm used to growing. It's much more compact and the blooms are smaller. I really liked the way it was used in this planting. It also dropped it's bloom petals all over which is a plus for me as they looked like lavender snow.

Here's a shot of the whole planter. Isn't it wonderful? I had hoped to come around the front and shoot more photos but the sun came out full force and the few shots I took after this point are washed out with terrible shadows.

I plan on being on the hunt all week in hopes of getting more late summer images. The weather forecast is delightful for humans with temperatures in the low 70's and lots of sun. Not necessarily the best photography weather but I will still try my best.

What's New?

2009-08-29T21:45:00.003-04:00

What's new here at Old Country Gardens? Well, I've got BIG NEWS!

Not only are my Egyptian onions sprouting, I've been working like crazy the last few days on my very own website.

It's hard for me to believe, I can be such a techno-dummy but on Thursday I bought the rights to a website and by that same night I had it up and running.

It's truly a work in progress, if you want to see my beginning efforts, simply go to
www.melaniesperennials.com

There are hyperlinks on the first page of the site to both of my blogs. Lots of surprised planned for the near future too.

Tomorrow looks like a good day for photos, I can't wait!

See ya!
Melanie

What's in bloom today?

2009-08-27T09:06:00.003-04:00

So what's blooming in the garden today? Well, the biggest bloom by far is this one. What is it? It's a pumpkin and it's about to take over all of South Huntington!

Yellow is the predominant color in the late summer garden. The Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford' is just covered with bright yellow blooms today. If I have the time later, I will get tidy it up and remove one or two of the sunburned leaves.

People pooh-pooh the black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida) plants but nothing beats them at this time of year. They've been blooming for at least 5 or 6 weeks now and show no sign of slowing down.

The solid green Liriope has sent up it's lavender colored spikes. I really like this plant as an edge to the garden bed.

Finally, not a bloom but how can you not fall in love with the amazing colors on the Coleus. The annuals are really starting to shine, it makes me wish I had planted more of them.

Off to do some weeding and take more photos.

Melanie

Got tomatoes?

2009-08-25T09:23:00.003-04:00

Late summer usually means a bumper crop of tomatoes. Here at Old Country Gardens I only have two tomato plants this year (shhh, don't tell everybody). I'm growing two heirloom varieties, one has yellow cherry tomatoes and the other are these red plum San Marzano Lampada tomatoes.

When the plum tomatoes first ripened I was a bit disappointed with their flavor. You see, I was cutting them up and putting them in my salads and they just didn't have the taste that I was looking for. Of course that means that they produced a gazillion tomatoes and now what was I supposed to do with them?

This weekend I decided to figure out a way to use my plum tomatoes. I know they're good for sauces because they're meaty with very little juice inside. Instead of sauce though I decided to use them in a tomato salad.

First I cut them into bite sized pieces. This is when you are happy they aren't juicy, they hardly make a mess when cutting them up.

Next I added basil that also came from the garden. When cutting my herbs, I simply stack a bunch of leaves and use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut small pieces.

Can you tell I like lots of basil? At this point you could also add some onions, or garlic if you would like.

Drizzle some good olive oil over the top, add salt and pepper to taste and stir all the ingredients. Let the tomatoes sit for a few hours for the best flavor. If I'm serving them outdoors I like them at room temperature but you can put them in the fridge to chill them too. Make them the day before a party to save yourself some work and don't forget to add a few basil leaves as garnish.

You could eat this with some plain italian bread. Or get a bit fancy, brush the bread slices with garlic flavored olive oil and grill them for a minutes.

Last night I made chicken salad, added these tomatoes to it and rolled them in soft tortilla shells for chicken & tomato wraps. Delicious!

Tickled Pink

2009-08-24T08:27:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I bought a beautiful piece of artwork. I rarely buy anything that would be hung on the walls but saw a piece I just had to have!

Those of you who know me know that I love purple cone flowers. One of my rants though is that in my eye they are pink and the cone is orange, so where's the purple?

At the top here you can see the original water color I purchased from Kathleen McElwain. Kathleen is a wonderful artist who paints many of her watercolors while riding a bus in Austin Texas.

Now here's the kicker, Kathleen subscribes to my blogs and this lovely watercolor was based on one of my photos. How cool is that!!!

This is the actual photo that I had posted on one of my blogs, Kathleen subscribes to both of them so I don't know where it was originally.

By reading her blog, I see that you can also commission Kathleen to paint for you. What a great idea for holiday gifts.

You can see Kathleen's artwork at her Etsy site just by clicking "Buspaintings". I think I need to go through my photos and see if there's something else I'd like painted before I decide on a frame and location for the coneflower piece I already have.

Thanks Kathleen!
Melanie

Late summer bloomers

2009-08-22T08:11:00.004-04:00

Late summer is a difficult time for the garden. Many plants have finished blooming, others show signs of stress depending on what kind of summer has just passed.

Still, if you plan your garden well, there are all kinds of perennials that shine at this time. I have a few types of Eupatorium, this one is Eupatorium dubium 'Phantom' which was planted in the spring of 2008. The description states that it will only grow 4' tall but in it's second year now it's easily broken 5'. Then again, many perennials this year are taller than usual because of the extreme weather we've had.

One of the stars of the garden right now is this sweet little Sedum 'Lynda Windsor'. I've been a big fan of this Sedum from day one although very few people comment on it when they see it here. It has never reverted (that is, never lost it's dark purple foliage), stays small and compact and as you can see, the flower color is a perfect compliment to the foliage color. Combined with Origanum aureum (golden oregano) it's just stunning!

I don't remember planning this combination but I must say it's pretty fantastic. The extremely late daylily 'Royal Jestor' and the beginning blooms of Begonia grandis (hardy begonia). I'm in the mood to do a write up on this fantastic begonia and will post it today on my other blog, Melanie's Perennials. Just click on the blog name here if you want to visit there.

Here's a close-up of 'Royal Jestor'. A real beauty in my opinion.

The Ligularias are beginning to bloom, this one is 'Britt Marie Crawford'. At this time of year the foliage loses some of it's purple highlights but it still has quite a bit to offer as a showcase plant.

The Agastaches are still blooming. I think they might have been the "bloomingest" perennials in the garden this summer. I'm madly in love with them and will keep my eye on the perennial market in the future to find any new introductions.

Of course the Helenium 'Mardi Gras' is blooming like crazy. If I took the time to get out there and dead head it I would get an even longer season but right now any time I spend outside should be on weeding (check out the right edge of this photo...WEEDS!).

Hopefully I'll get some weeding done this weekend, unfortunately I tried to weed for a few hours yesterday but was almost immediately attacked by giant sized mosquitos. Might have to break down and use an insect repellant for now.

Off to post to my other blog and then outside in the garden (if the rains subside).

Melanie

Herbalicious

2009-08-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

Heat and Humidity, it must be August. So what's a gardener to do when the mercury rises and all you want to do is stay by the pool?

Let's play with Herbs!

I grow a large number of herbs here at Old Country Gardens, some are perennials, others are purchased every spring. This summer though I learned a few new things about my herbs. First of all, they are just as happy (if not more happy) growing in pots.

In fact, as potted plants they are easy to maintain, rarely needing extra care. Just a simple pinch here and there and watering if we haven't had a recent rain. Better yet, put them in reach of your sprinkler system and you hardly have to do anything at all.

In this photo you are looking at a Thymus citriodorus (variegated lemon thyme), Mentha (basic garden mint that was here when we moved in) and Mentha suaveolens 'Variegata' (pineapple mint or also known as apple mint).

Just as an aside, I do not call them by their botanical names in the garden, I'm just including those here for readers in other countries that are looking for the same plants.

My mouth starts watering when I look at this photo. There are two different basils featured here (Ocimum basilicum in botanical terms) with the solid green leaf and the variegated Ocimum citriodorum 'Pesto Perpetuo' (let's just say citrus basil).

The citrus basil is a new variety and is patented so propagation is prohibited but what I've recently discovered is that most herbs have been around forever and of course, nobody holds a patent on them. This means that you can propigate most of your herbs till the cows come home and that's exactly what I'm going to do here.

It turns out that many herbs are quite easy to propigate with simple cuttings.

In this smaller pot are three plants, Cymbopogon (Lemongrass), Ocimum 'African Blue' (African Blue Basil) and Oreganum vulgare (true Oregano). Yum, all three are excellent for those fun summer dishes.

Here's a close up of the African Blue basil, a favorite of mine. I do admit that I let it go to flower as those blooms are just so lovely.

So tell me, what herbs are growing in your garden?

Container season

2009-08-12T10:15:00.003-04:00

Heat and Humidity, that's August around here. Actually, this year the heat has been pretty mild but that darn humidity...

This time of year I find very little energy for the garden. Thank goodness for containers, they really start to steal the show now.

Not having huge funds to blow on container plants, I tried to use plants already available to me. Almost all of my containers have Hosta in them and I'm totally sold now on using them forever more as container plants. A single flat of Impatiens gave me enough fillers to add to all the containers and I still had enough left to plant a few in the front shade bed.

A single Hosta, one impatiens and a small slip of ivy is all it took to fill this upside down birdbath base. I love how the petals of the impatiens fall into the empty container resting below. Another good idea is to put a simple water feature underneath to catch the petals.

More simple containers, mostly with Hosta. The hosta in the garden have been inundated with slugs this year but the ones in the containers show pristine foliage.

Last week I left my camera at a friends house. It was like I lost my arm, I couldn't take photos for a week! We have perfect cloud cover today so hopefully I'll get to stop at a few places and take pictures of some of the great containers I've seen in my neighborhood.

Melanie

Focus

2009-08-02T21:47:00.002-04:00

From the title of today's post you might think I'm going to write about photography. Nope, not at all where my mind is right now. Instead, my mind is all over the place, way too many things going on and not enough brain cells to dedicate to a single task.

So, I have been trying to focus, focus on what is most important at this moment. Unfortunately, that focus does not include much creative genius for blogging. I know I've been slow here the last few weeks, hopefully once life settles down a bit I will get back to things full steam ahead.

Isn't this daylily just stunning? It's 'Blowing Bubbles' by Joel Thomas Polston of Dayton Ohio. I'm not usually a fan of the round ruffled daylilies but this one opens perfectly like this with every bloom.

We've had so much rain and humidity the past week. It was a surprise when the sun peeped out this evening for an hour or two. Almost immediately the butterflies came to the Buddlea (butterfly bush).

I might have to vote the Agastache as the bloomingest summer perennial. It has just been fantastic for so long now. Next year I need to make sure I get more of these beauties. What you can't tell from the photo is how delicious the foliage smells. Yum!

Ah ha, more my type of daylily here with the oldie but most beautiful 'Asiatic Pheasant' which is mid-late bloomer in my garden.

One more shot for you shade lovers. I don't remember planning this combination of white Stokesia (stokes aster) with the Brunera 'Jack Frost' but wowza! What a perfect pairing.

Ok, now I feel a bit better although this post isn't up to par with my usual prose.

Melanie

The Visit

2009-07-30T07:01:00.003-04:00

On the right is Felder Rushing, on the left is Darrell Trout and in the center is my mom.

On Monday I had the wonderful pleasure of opening my garden to these two garden dignitaries. Unfortunately one thing I didn't do was take the time to shoot some decent photographs.

Both Felder and Darrell are garden writers. Darrell's been here before, he wrote a lovely article about my garden back in 2006.

As they arrived and drove down my driveway, I had to stop and stare at the truck Felder was driving. It was the most amazing truck I'd ever seen, a well worn Ford 150 complete with hood ornament and Hula girl affixed to the front dash. The most amazing part though was the garden in the back bed, I had never imagined anything like it.

There were wonderful twisty bottle trees, succulents galore, and all kind of lovely little doo-dads.

This is what a young sprout of a bottle tree looks like, pretty cool huh? I'm going to have to watch my garden carefully and see if any of these are sprouting around here.

Holding the succulents in one area was a little golf cart tire. Bet there's going to be a run on golf cart repair shops now, I want one of these!

Rather than post the whole thing here, I'm going to put the photos of what they saw in the garden on my other blog, Melanie's Perennials.

We're being socked here with high humidity, it makes it hard to want to get out there and do anything in the garden.

Melanie