Seeking Green

I love the fact that even when there's snow on the ground up here in the north, I can still find some fresh green in the garden. Just walked around outside and found some parsley that has survived the chill. Couldn't make pesto, but if I need a sprig or two for a garnish...

Also, I've found that if I dig below the dried stems I can find a thick bed of oregano leaves growing close to the ground in my oregano plot. And while my chives are gone now, a few stragglers lasted quite a bit into the winter. It's great to throw on your boots and grab some fresh herbs. They are among the first to get going in the spring, as well.

Fruit of the rains

What a wet mess we've had to start summer. With the exception of the last week, it's rained most days. The yard looks lush, but I've got powdery mildew on my black-eyed susans already. That doesn't usually show up till mid-late August. 

All this moisture has given us an interesting bumper crop of mushrooms, though.

Not usually the kind of thing I'm looking to grow, but they certainly have a beauty of their own!

Last year I planted a number of new herbs in my garden, some for cooking and some because I love herbal tea. I also started some sage from seed. One of my plants has really flourished, which is great because one of my favorite quick dishes uses fresh sage. 

Take a package of frozen cheese tortellini and cook it in boiling water. While that's cooking, bring a couple of Tbs. of butter just to the point of browning in a frying pan. Add 1-2 Tbs, of olive oil and a handful of sage leaves, sliced very thin. Saute for a few minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Drain tortellini and toss with the browned sage butter and serve. In a pinch you can season with dried sage, but the fresh is so delicious, you'll grow your own sage for this recipe.  Enjoy!

Spring's Rite

June is the most glorious month in the garden. It seems the whole garden is flush with blooms. Together May and June make for a gardening mad dash while you have more tasks than you can possibly complete. Selecting plants, preparing the soil, planting, weeding and mulching.

I love the idea of preparing the beds in the fall, but I could never dig up plants that may have one last bloom, just so I can enrich the soil for the next year. So instead I work around the tiny sprouts, trying to remember what I might have planted and what's just a weed.

Course all this activity makes it hard to choose writing a blog over planting, so now I'm trying to catch up a bit.

Last year I started foxglove from seed, nursing the seedlings until I could bring them outside. They're a biennial, so the first year they just grow their leaves and strengthen for the bloom the following year. Last year I just had leafy circles in my garden. This year, they're beautiful, big pink stalks that are blooming under my Spanish Andromeda and under this prickly bush with a name I forget. (Course that means it's also physically painful to cultivate them!) They should set seeds. I wonder if I'll get little seedlings this year which will bloom next year or if the seeds will overwinter and sprout next year.

Need a Shrub

We've a nice little spot behind the garage, under a big oak. It has a nice bed of myrtle and used to include a good size bush. Unfortunately this old bush died a few years ago and we're left with....a big opportunity. What to put there? It's pretty shady. Gets afternoon sun. Might be considered part-shade. Trying to think of shape and the light back there, plus, being in Mass. and zone 5.

Not sure if hydrangea is the right shape. Don't want any more holly (see below). Any ideas?

Pruning Take 2

Here's a before and after of the boxwood with the winter kill I talked about in the last post. Hope it doesn't take too long to fill in. Especially since it's at my entryway.

Pruning Massacre

Have any bushes you've made a mess of when you've tried to prune them? I sure do. I have two hollies in my back yard that instead of growing up, are growing OUT. Not particularly attractive. I got some advice from the pruning workshop I attended at the beginning of the season. Seems I most likely trimmed the leader, the tallest stem, going straight up, which caused it stop growing upward. The advice from Volante Farms was to make a new leader by pulling up a likely branch and tying it to a stake until it naturally will grow in the right direction.



I tried it. Boy, was it tough to wrestle that branch in a somewhat vertical direction--a 2 person project. I think it may actually work for one holly. The other one... Well, I'll give it a year, but it just may not be long for that garden.



I also did a drastic trim on a boxwood that took heavy damage this past winter. This boxwood has been here much longer than we have (and that's 18 years.) and was standing chest high. 2/3 of it was brown from winter kill, so I went in and cut out the dead wood. leaving a somewhat lopsided bush. I'm hoping it will fill in enough this season so it won't look so sad. Boxwoods are slow growers, though.