Amy Batog
21.07.2023 - 22:13 / awaytogarden.com
DO YOU REMEMBER that TV ad for the medical alert device: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”? To me that’s how peak spring is–mid-May into early June–when I can’t keep up with the to-do list, or sit still long enough to savor any of it.Or to publish my weekly reports (remember those?). Hence this catch-up covering Month 3 of the 2018 season.
big-leaved perennials, and a threat of hailWhen we left off in mid-May, things were starting to warm, and accelerate. My beloved big-leaved perennials, from hostas like ‘Sagae,’ below (also called Hosta fluctuans ‘Variegated’), to Astilboides tabularis, above, and its cousin Rodgersia podophylla, and even the mass of plain old rhubarb I grow for its showiness on the edge of the vegetable garden.
Of course the weather seems always to want to wreck things–or at least scare the hell out of you. Fortunately my giant, freshly unfurled leaves and I got by with just a few minutes of mothball-sized hail last month (not like what happened a few years back, when all was lost). This year’s looked and sounded bad (below), but the garden was mostly spared, with just a few chewed-up leaves here and there.
the frog from hellIf not hail, then I thought nature’s dirtiest trick on me this year was going to be the Size-XXXL female bullfrog (Rana catesbiana) who spent the early spring here devouring any unsuspecting green frogs (Rana clamitans) who happened to dare try to share the little pool with her. As if to tell me who was boss, she ate two adult green frogs right in front of me (at separate meals, not consecutive courses).
I saw no wood frogs this year (perhaps she ate them, too?) and who knows if any of the spotted salamander egg masses deposited in the pool survived, either. This was one big mama. AndA cherry plum, sweet, thin-skinned and very prolific (you’ll also find it sold under ‘Red Grape Sugar Plum’). It was in the top three of our recent taste test and everyone liked it for its strong tomato flavour that’s sweet but not overly so, and its firm not mushy texture. It has a slight acidity running through it which all sweet tomatoes need. It ripens quite late compared to ‘Sungold’ and produces for a long period of time. It’s lovely in a mixed salad with the larger varieties.
Welcome to the wild ride known as parenting teens! If you’ve ever found yourself caught between eye-rolling moments and heartwarming instances of wisdom, these quotes about parenting teenagers will definitely hit the spot.
As the country begins taking stock of the damage caused by hurricane Ophelia and works to restore power to much of Scotland and Northern England, gardeners throughout the country are lamenting the destruction of their gardens.
No food signifies summer more than watermelon. We’re so sweet on the hot pink (or yellow) fruit that we designed an entire watermelon bar party showcasing the many ways to snack on, sip, and even centerpiece-ify the hydrating produce item.
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Are you frustrated because there are dandelions and other weeds in your lawn? Did you know that dandelion flowers provide one of the first springtime sources of pollen for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects?
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” ~May Sarton~
Sarton, who today is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as phrases like “women’s literature,” or covered in women’s studies curriculums, wrote more than 50 books. She actually came to my attention thanks to two men, at different times in my life. I might have missed her altogether if not for a one-two punch by Sydney Schanberg, an ex-New York Times colleague who thirty-odd years ago offhandedly said, “You would like May Sarton,” and then years later my therapist (who gave me “Journal of a Solitude”).It wasn’t her emerging influence on feminism that provoked their decades-ago recommendations. They knew that the natural world, and specifically the garden, called to me, as it did Sarton.“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself,” she wrote.SARTON, A PROLIFIC POET and author of fiction, also wrote memoir
MY GARDENING LIFE STARTED with a hedge—cutting one back hard, specifically. It was the threadbare, tall old privet surrounding my childhood home, and I was determined to “rejuvenate” it, after reading about the process in a book. No artful hedge has ever been created by my hands, though—a fact that feels all the more lamentable after watching Sean Conway’s video tour (above) of designer and nurseryman Piet Oudolf’s garden in the Netherlands. What magic.