Quote of the Day: Prentice Bloedel
“Nature can live without man, but man cannot live without nature.”
-Prentice Bloedel
Last Tuesday we visited Bloedel Reserve right after our visit to Heronswood. One of the things I like about this garden is that there are so many large naturalized areas. There are meadows, sheep barns, woods, large sweeping borders, ponds, marshes and so much more.
The line between cultivated and wild blends blends beautifully in a way that most gardens cannot achieve. In much of the garden nature is allowed to progress as it should, trees fall and are allowed to decompose where they are, no tidying up as you so often see in other gardens.
I like this garden because it’s grand, and yet it’s very simple. The most cultivated area is the Japanese garden, the rest consists of large sweeping borders filled with shrubs. While it was clearly a very expensive garden, the ideas used would be very feasible for the average gardener with a larger lot. This garden is very inspirational for someone like me who now has a very large parcel of land.
Is there a public garden you have found particularly inspiration for your current garden space?
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A Few Days in Ohio
Since my mom and I were traveling to Seattle, WA together this week, I flew into Ohio a few days early to visit with family. Mr Chiots went with me, he’s flying back to Maine today after spending yesterday visiting with his family. On Friday we went down to the family cabin and enjoyed a day of fun with our nieces & nephew.
We also stopped by the farm where the kids have their ponies. They have two ponies that someone is keeping for them until they buy their new place.
On Saturday we went to the Wayne County Fair, a favorite and a family tradition. We like to go on opening day to see all the flowers and vegetables at their finest. We also must buy Lerch’s Donuts and my dad likes to watch the horse pull.
This fair is everything a rural county fair should be and we had a great day! Of course I’m probably prejudiced, but this is the best county fair there is and I have been to a good number of county fairs.
Do you attend a local county fair in the summer?
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Quote of the Day: Elderberries
“Once up on a time not so long ago, elderberries were held in extremely high esteem by humans. Elderberry trees feds us. They got us drunk, provided medicine, and protected us from witches. Everybody know elderberry trees. They offered everything from fruit to flutes and cosmetics to weapons.”
Connie Green and Sarah Scott The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes
I only have one small elderberry plant here in my garden in Maine so far, though it’s sending up suckers that will be transplanted when it’s finished producing berries. There aren’t enough berries for me to make anything this year, they will be cut and fed to the chickens. Elderberries are beautiful plants and provide such nutrition.
The lacy white flowers can be fried up as fritters, made into wine or syrup for sodas and the berries can be used in all sorts of different ways. When I have elderberry syrup I use it in my tea all winter long, it’s said to boost the immune system. My dad swears by its health promoting ability and doesn’t hardly go a day without consuming elderberries in some form (jelly is his favorite medium). Even if you don’t want to consume the berries or the flowers, they are a wonderful way to provide forage for pollinators and birds of all varieties and are worthwhile to include in the garden for that reason.
Do you have any plants you grow for their medicinal properties?
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Rain, Sweet Rain
A smell of rain came on streaks of coolness through the hot wind.
“Oh, maybe it will get to us, Ma! Maybe it will!” Laura said. Inside themselves they were all saying, “Please, please, please!”
The wind blew cooler. slowly, slowly, the cloud shadow grew larger. Now the cloud spread wide in the sky. Suddenly a shadow rushed across the flat land and up the knoll, and fast after it came the marching rain. It came up the knoll like millions of tiny trampling feet, and rain poured down on the house and on Ma and Mary and Laura and Carrie.
…Just before sunset the rain went away. Down across Plum reek and away across the prairie to the east it went, leaving only a few sparkling drops falling in the sunshine. Then the cloud turned purple and red and curled gold edges against the clear sky. The sun sank and the starts came out. The air was cool and the earth was damp and grateful.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (On the Banks of Plum Creek)
It’s been dry here, for quite a while. Thankfully the weather has been cooler, but things were starting to get a little too dry in the garden. This summer our rain has come in big amounts, very quickly. We have had 5 inches overnight on several occasions. The result is that a lot runs off and not much soaks in.
I’ve had to water my newly planted shrubs quite often and I frequently find myself lugging watering cans around making sure potted plants are watered and prize plants have the water they need.
Last night we had a glorious soaking rain, it was perfect. Not too hard, not too soft, just right. I was worried with the hot days we’ve been having and a long trip on the horizon. Thankfully this rain will keep things in shape until I return, I can now travel without worry of trying to explain which plants might need a long drink while I am away.
How has the rainfall been in your garden this summer?
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Homegrown Tomatoes – Guy Clark
Ain’t nothin’ in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin’ out in the garden
Get you a ripe one don’t get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em’s a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin’ & diggin’
Every time I go out & pick me a big one
Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes
Guy Clark
Yesterday I harvested my first ‘Brandywine’ tomato, it was large, perfectly pinky red, soft to the touch and OH-SO-DELICIOUS!!!
We enjoyed it for breakfast yesterday paired with our own home raised and home cured bacon. There was lettuce from the farmers market and sourdough bread from a local shop. We put an egg ours making them more BELTs than BLTs.
This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy tomatoes in the summer, perhaps only topped by eating them with a little salt. The window for ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes is so small I’ll be eating them for every meal until frost.
What’s your favorite way to enjoy the first juicy beefsteak tomato of the season?
