Grow Write Guild #13: Garden, and gardener, in transition

Posted on October 10, 2013 by missinghenrymitchell

The prompt for Grow Write Guild #13 is to write about the topic of the garden’s end or transition.

I am fortunate to live in a horticultural haven: USDA Zone 7b, where winter happens but not for very long, the ground doesn’t often freeze beyond a slight crust, and a wide variety of glorious plants are both winter- and summer-hardy.

I look forward to the transition from summer into fall. For one thing, at this time of year it’s truly pleasant to be outside in the garden: mosquitoes dissipate along with the humidity, the kids are in school and the days are (mostly) quiet, and nurseries put everything on sale. But what I enjoy most about this season is the changing of pace that always occurs, particularly within the gardener herself.

What is it about autumn that makes me slow down? People around me continue to hurry as much as ever; the calendar is always chock-full. The list of gardening tasks doesn’t shorten: rake, shred, compost, repeat. I never get the fall food crops in on time, but I’m not bothered. It will happen, in its own time.

My husband would remark that he hasn’t seen me slow down, but I definitely feel a disconnect between life’s flurry around me telling me to hurry up, and my response to that directive. The (relative) ease with which I can slip into a (relative) state of Zen is most pronounced in the fall, and most pronounced in the garden than elsewhere.

Maybe it’s the mornings of chilly rain that make me want to burrow under a blanket. Perhaps it is because I know I have several slow-moving months ahead of me in the garden, with fewer weed and disease battles in my immediate path, that I can feel so at ease. But mostly I think it’s something deeply biological: Nature is telling me, like she is telling most other living creatures in my environment, to prepare to rest. It’s refreshing to be reminded of my connection to nature; that, opposable thumbs and technology use notwithstanding, I am not terribly different from the rest of the living world.

Grow Write Guild #12: Describe fall in your garden in 5 to 10 words.

Posted on October 7, 2013 by missinghenrymitchell

Grow Write Guild’s prompt #12 is ambitious, and I am verbose. I can, however, summarize fall in my garden in 17 syllables:

Oak leaves drift earthward

Fire up the chipper-shredder.

Compost on the way.

Anemones: Not driving me crazy, for the moment.

Posted on September 16, 2013 by missinghenrymitchell

I wrote in response to a prompt from the Grow Write Guild that anemones are a challenging plant for me. Well, thanks to an absurd amount of rainfall this spring and summer, I have finally coaxed one into bloom.

Anemone hupehensis var. japonica ‘Pamina’

The weather has turned cooler earlier than in most years, although we haven’t had rain in some time. The anemones looked a bit puny earlier in the day so I gave them a long drink, and they perked up neatly.

I mean to savor this plant while it blooms, but not let long-sought success go to my head. I am wondering if I should have the courage to try some other anemones, though? Maybe just one, for now?

Grow Write Guild #10: This Plant Is Driving Me Nuts

Posted on September 6, 2013 by missinghenrymitchell

The Grow Write Guild’s prompt #10 is This Plant Is Driving Me Nuts.

Anemone hupehensis, Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, and Anemone × hybrida (commonly known as the Chinese or Japanese anemone, thimbleweed, or windflower) are herbaceous perennials in the buttercup family. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I cannot seem to grow Japanese anemones (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica). These gorgeous plants typically top out at about 3′ tall, showing lovely wide blooms in shades of white, pink, and lavender from August to October or so. At a time when asters and chrysanthemums dominate, anemones bring much-needed elegance to the fall garden.

Just not to mine.

Anemone hupehensis (Photo credit: Alexandre Dulaunoy)

Gardening literature alleges that Japanese anemones can colonize large areas and become “almost thuggish.” I wish. This article does acknowledge that they dislike disturbance, so transplanting them can be tricky. If I can find a local gardening friend who has them, perhaps I can try propagating them by root cuttings.

Gardening literature also instructs me to plant them in partial shade to full sun, in well-drained soil (what else is there?). I have plenty of partial shade and I would have thought I had dug in enough compost anywhere I tried to plant them, but my efforts are insufficient. They also apparently like regular moisture and cool soil. This year notwithstanding, the regular moisture, I am sure, is at the heart of my problem. I am habitually irregular in my watering: very good for a few weeks, then forgetting a bit, revisiting it once again, then leaving it while I go on vacation, hoping a little rain falls during the week of above-90 temperatures.

“Tough plants for partial shade!” “Easily grown in average soil!” One can always find Japanese anemone on plant lists with such headings. These reminders only serve to highlight my anemone-incompetence.

Anemone hupehensis ‘Prince Henry’ (Photo credit: KingsbraeGarden)

This year, though, I may finally be in luck. I have planted Anemone hupehensis ‘Pamina,’ which I got at the Duke Gardens plant sale last fall. When I transplanted it, the root ball fell into perhaps a dozen small pieces, and I planted each of them that was of reasonable size. The others I overwintered in my winter sowing orgy, and transplanted this spring. Then it has rained, almost nonstop, since March.

Here they are the Anemones ‘Pamina’ today, offering such promises as I can hardly hope to believe. Look at all those buds. What method will they contrive to break my heart again?

Grow Write Guild #11: Grow Your Own

Posted on August 20, 2013 by missinghenrymitchell

The Grow Write Guild’s current prompt is Your Edible Rewards.

The last thing I ate that came from my own garden was mint, which I prepared in a sauce for a delicious North African pork tenderloin recipe. My collection of edibles is meager; having a garden of large oaks means wonderful shade for our semi-tropical summers, but they do cut down on the prospective edible landscape. My edibles, except for some blueberries, reside in pots on the deck.

I am, however, planning to experiment next year by intermingling more food crops with the sun-hogging shrubs and perennials on the south side of my garden. Okra, I know, will do very well; I love a good grilled summer squash but fear that if I’m not careful about the selection the plant may overtake not only the shrubbery but my neighbor’s driveway as well:

This is a vining-type squash that has overrun the small community garden I oversee. I apologize for the poor-quality photo. I don’t know the variety–the seeds came in a seed-swap and were labeled “squash.” I am reminded to be less frugal with information whenever I share seeds with friends.

I also hope to expand my collection of container-grown veg by delving into the world of bush varieties: bush beans and tomatoes, peas (challenging with our volatile spring weather), compact peppers, and eggplant, and by researching and experimenting with more exotic vegetables from Africa or Asia that perform in hot, humid climates.

Every gardener faces challenges when growing her (or his) own food: if it’s not the infernal weather, it’s plagues of insects, varieties that don’t live up to their promises, pollinators that don’t show, or the wildlife that is so charming when it’s beyond the fence, but less so when it takes precisely one bite out of each tomato on the vine, which of course we were planning to harvest tomorrow. So for me, I try to find my rewards in the process of growing, of observing nature in its cycles, and if I have anything to snack on at the end of it all, then that’s cause for celebration in itself. So it’s a good thing that I have mint for the mojitos.