Open Post and Garden Update

[kimberlysteele]

Here are some photos of my garden in lieu of a meatier post today -- I'll save the more gravitas-filled posts for a week when I've got more mojo.  Change back to the school schedule is rough!  As usual, please feel free to comment but keep in mind I don't publish what I consider "I don't do that anymore" swear words, such as rhymes with duck, skit, runt, etc.

 

 

Recently planted feverfew nestled in the bricks -- the hosta hated it in this space so I transplanted it elsewhere.  



I'm trying to propagate roses from cuttings this year.  This one is tucked into the raised bed by a tomato and some borage.  I'm just going to leave it in here until next spring and hope for the best.





We used to have two old and dying Siberian elms in this area when we moved in 8 years ago.  The stone and the paths weren't there, it was just huge, falling elms in a sea of waist-high grass.  Tragically, the elms had to be cut down because they were falling down.  Once my husband put in the stone paths, I noticed elm sprouts coming up between the mulch and the stone.  I shepherded/trimmed them into the rectangular bush you see on the right.  It has ended up being a perennial elm bush. Whenever new elm sprouts come up, I transplant them and try to start new elm bushes.  I have one started on the bottom left of the path south of the visible boxwood.  My plan is to eventually move the boxwoods and border every stone path in transplanted elm bushes.  

Rudibeckia or Black Eyed Susan is a native plant in my upper part of Illinois.  In the back I've got some double orange daylilies, the dark red one called Bela Lugosi which is my favorite, and some overgrown Russian sage.  

Cedric the Eastern Cedar for those who may remember him.  He's getting big!

My neighbor's gorgeous phlox, more Rudibeckia, and Ms. Blondie Piggy, resident feral.

I grow elecampane.  It's very weedy.  The only way I have ever used it is tincturing the root.  Tincturing is a fancy word for chopping up plant material and letting it stew in vodka in a jar.  I notice with myself that I tend to grow lots of herbs and then mismanage my time so that I don't end up doing anything with them (except observing their beauty, which I guess counts for something).  

My overgrown herb garden.  Upper left is yarrow, upper right is lemon balm and catmint, lower right is sage and native Midwest monarda/bee balm, and left is spearmint.

Yarrow on its second bloom this year.

The pussy willow that was started from donated sticks of my neighbor's tree.  And Ms. Piggy stalking me for snacks.

Tommy, Piggy's son, saying Hi by the Brussels sprouts.  

I grew buckwheat this year.  Not sure what to do with it though.  The orange bloom on the right is nasurtium.

Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) I started from seed, catmint, iris, tall grasses, and rose.  Still chipping away at that lawn, year by year.  Someday I will make it disappear entirely.

Wild lettuce growing by the house.  I made a tincture of it this year.  It's a natural pain reliever also known as wild opium.

Coneflower growing in a ring around an oak seedling that I've been growing for a few years.  

Comments

[kimberlysteele]

Crazy! Yes, they are pink -- I had no idea they also came in white! What's so odd is how LONG they've been blooming. It's August 17 and they've been in flower since mid-June with no signs of calling it quits.

I do have bee balm. It's the lavender prairie kind and it does get quite tall. This year it hit four feet but I wasn't surprised as it has done that in previous years. The smaller red one is lovely. I'm trying to start it this year from a cutting and I just got roots on one that I stripped the a bit and put in water.

[(Anonymous)]

Up until this year, we were in drought conditions for quite a while. That's probably why they didn't grow so tall until this year. Talk about an about-face! Now I wish the rain would let up for a while so I could enjoy some sunshine! A red bee balm seeded itself just outside the perimeter of my garden, so I dug it up and planted it in a different area. It took it in stride. I've never attempted cuttings before but may give it a try.

One herb that I bought a seed packet of many eons ago from a now defunct seed company is Russian comfrey. Is that stuff ever ginormous! Some leaves are the size of dinner platters. They get so tall that a really hard rain will knock them over like trees so I have to get the clippers to clear the path. They just laugh at me and send out sideshoots from the stems. The bumblebees absolutely adore the flowers. It spreads itself slowly through seeds (contradicting what I've read online about it not seeding itself). I haven't tried using the roots for medicinal purposes yet, but I am reading up on herbs and hope to bring myself up to speed on herbalism. So far the only thing I've really used is lemon balm which I sometimes make a tea from when I'm having trouble sleeping.

JLfromNH