Cheerful and Hopeful
Surely the most cheerful and hopeful of the fall catalogues are those of the spring-bulb growers.
Katherine S. White from Onward & Upward in the Garden
Two weeks ago I placed a rather large order for spring flowering bulbs, around 2500 total (YIKES, I know). Most of my money was spent on bulbs that will naturalize, like narcissus, crocus, muscari and bluebells; making my workload a little lighter in years to come. I love tulips, and even though many get eaten by deer, I ordered a few hundred of those to plant as well. We’ll see if I can keep the deer away from them.
Needless to say, I will be spending every waking moment of nice weather and sun we get over the next couple weeks planting these bulbs. I even made a video about planting bulbs for the Your Day blog, check it out. Next week I’ll post about which varieties I ordered and where I’ll be planting them. It looks like this coming spring will be quite beautiful here at Chiot’s Run.
Will you be planting any spring flowering bulbs this year?
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Quote of the Day: Crescendo of Plentitude
To those who have a garden, and care about the table, each season offers it’s own causes for celebration, its own little festivals; but in autumn they become concentrated, each day it presenting it’s own ripeness. By late autumn, the whole year has reached a crescendo of plentitude.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
I’m certainly enjoying the flavors of autumn. Our table has been bountiful with roasted root vegetables, tender venison, slow roasted tomatoes, hearty cabbage, spicy pumpkin, sweet apple cider and so much more. Learning to eat seasonally has truly been a joy!
What flavors are you enjoying this season?
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Quote of the Day: Indian Summer
Generally, the first frosts will be followed by fine, bright, warm days, the glorious suspension of what is certain to come, that perfection of weather is called “Indian Summer”.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
Technically, we haven’t had our first frost here at Chiot’s Run, but we’ve had temperatures in the 30’s already. The tropical plants in the garden are showing their discomfort, brown crispy edges on their leaves, some have died back completely.
For the past few days and most of the coming week, we’re having temperatures in the 80’s during the day. It still gets down into the 50’s at night, so as not to fully fool you into thinking it’ll stick around. I do love Indian Summer, it’s kind of like the last piece of cake, always make sure you savor it because when it’s gone you know there’s no more. This is something Lucy, the resident chiots, is very good at this.
For the last couple days and the days to come, you’ll find me out in the garden, planting cover crops, weeding, mulching, raking, emptying pots and all those things you do to put the garden to bed. There are always so many chores in the fall, but I’m glad they always come during that perfect weather.
It won’t be all work and no play, I try take some time to simply sit and enjoy the weather. My favorite way to enjoy a little down time in the this time of year is to simply sit on the front porch watching the breeze blow through the colorful leaves.
Do you have an Indian Summer in your climate? What’s your favorite way to take advantage of a nice day?
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Quote of the Day: Terry Kay
“What grows in the garden so lovely and rare?
Roses and dahlias and people grow there.”
At the moment I have these lovely little roses blooming in the garden on the front hillside. These roses are easy care, they bloom beautifully all summer long with no work from me. In the spring I give them a watering with fish emulsion and that’s it.
I don’t grow dahlias in the garden, at least not yet. I bought these at Local Roots last week to enjoy on my table. At fifty cents each I thought they were a steal.
My mom and I decided, after seeing these beauties at the market, that we’re going to grow dahlias in the potager we share next year. We will set aside a portion of the garden for some posies to grace our tables all summer long, a cutting garden of sorts. If you’ve ever grown dahlias, make sure to comment any suggestions below, as well as any sources for tubers.
What’s your favorite flower for cutting and bringing indoors? Any great recommendations for our cutting garden?
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Plant Spotlight: Goldenrod
Baroness Matilda and all the children showed me over the whole estate on their first free afternoon. When we passed by a large bed of tall yellow flowers, Rupert said proudly:
“This is echte amerikanische Goldrute (genuine American Goldenrod). Papa says it is quite expensive, and we are not supposed to pick it. Pepi, our gardener, takes special care of it with a special kind of manure mixture”.
I admired wholeheartedly this noble guest from America, whose golden blossoms attracted all the bees of the neighborhood.
– Maria Augusta Trapp The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
Goldenrod is a truly beautiful plant, especially at this time of year when most other flowers are waning here in the Northern parts. It provides a bright pop of color and blends beautifully with the colors of fall, blooming just before the leaves start the change. Most people consider it a weed, but it’s really a native wildflower, actually an herb. Goldenrod is a beneficial plant, playing host to butterfly larvae and repelling other insects considered pests. Being a vital source of both nectar and pollen for pollinators, it’s allowed a place in the gardens of Chiot’s Run.
Goldenrod is a member of the aster family, along with joe pye weed, chicory, black-eyed susan, liatris and many others. It produces food for a wide variety of insects: monarch, clouded sulfur, American small copper and gray hairstreak butterflies as well as a wide variety of other pollinators like: bumblebees, wasps, soldier beetles, honeybees, syrphid flies and others. Lucky for the the monarchs it’s blooming everywhere during their migration through Ohio so they have a plentiful source of food for their journey.
Goldenrod is under appreciated and even vilified by many people. Those will fall allergies often blame goldenrod for their sniffling, but ragweed is actually the plant they should be cursing. As with many “weeds”, goldenrod is actually an herb. Traditionally it was used medicinally for it’s anti-inflammatory and diuretic effects. It was also used because on wounds because it helps promote healing.
Interestingly enough, while researching for this post, I found out that goldenrod contains rubber. Inventor Thomas Edison tested a number of plants looking for a source of rubber after being asked to find a native source by his friend Henry Ford. He finally settled on goldenrod because it contained the most and through his experiments was able to produce a 12-foot-tall plant that could contained as much as 12% rubber. The rubber produced was long-lasting resilient, examples of it can still be found in his laboratory, elastic and rot free after more than 50 years. In fact, the tires on the Model T given to him by Ford were made from goldenrod. Edison turned his research over to the U.S. government a year before his death, goldenrod rubber never went beyond the experimental stage. Which is quite a shame since the synthetic rubber based on petroleum became the material of choice for car tires.
Many people shudder when they think of goldenrod blooming in their gardens, but I welcome them. They can become invasive since they spread by both seeds and underground rhizomes, but I find that they’re easily pulled out when the need arises. I don’t let them grow in my cultivated foundation gardens, at least not in large numbers, or in the vegetable garden. They do however, spread freely along the edges of the woods and in the more naturalized garden areas. We actually have a couple of the 125 different species, it’s quite interesting to note the differences between them.
Do you incorporate any native wildflowers in your gardens? Any goldenrod?
