Category: Gardening

Farmer’s Markets

About now, Farmer’s Markets are up and running just about everywhere. I did a quick search and, impressively, there will be 113 open in Maryland this week. Every single county in our state has at least one, and I’m pretty sure it would be about the same where you live.

These opportunities to get good, local produce at a decent price shouldn’t be missed. In our big grocery store age, it’s nice to be able to speak to the person who is growing the food we eat.

If you have the chance to check one out in the next couple of weeks, don’t be afraid to try something new. I recently tried some kale which was labeled smokin’ hot. I asked the farmer just how hot it was, and he pulled off a leaf and told me to find out myself. More peppery than hot, I liked it and bought a bunch. Sauteed with a bit of olive oil, onion and garlic, it was delicious. Even if they’re busy, these farmers love to talk, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. When you buy something, ask them how they prepare it. You might just walk away with a new family favorite:) If you remember, don’t forget to thank them for doing what they do. Small, family-run farms are fading fast. It’s hard work for very little compensation. They deserve our thanks.

We’re moving into the height of the growing season, and fresh fruits and vegetables are bountiful. Try and make some time in the next few weeks to visit a farmer’s market in your area. I think you’ll be glad you did! Enjoy the weekend.

Gardening Inspiration Prayer

Grow Where You Are Planted

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 06/26/2010
No Comments on Grow Where You Are Planted

About three weeks ago, my first bulb catalogue came in. For a gardener, it’s like seeing the first Christmas merchandise roll into the stores after Labor Day. I’m not quite ready to think about it yet. I took this photo of these single late tulips this past spring. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten the name, and wouldn’t you know it, they’re not included in this year’s catalogue. I know I’m not thinking about it, but what’s wrong with a quick look?

I’m reading a book right now called Close To The Heart: A Guide To Personal Prayer. The part I read today caused me to remember these beautiful flowers in my back yard. Here’s what Margaret Silf wrote,

“If only I could have my life again, choose a different job, a different lifestyle, begin again, knowing what I know now…”

Almost everyone indulges in this daydream from time to time. When I feel these thoughts coming on, a short respite in my innermost garden helps me see things rather differently. For instance, sometimes “spring bulbs” tell me their story – of being buried beneath a suffocating weight of the clay. There in the clay that is cold, wet, dark and lonely. But at the same time deadening clay is the provider of the bulbs’ nutrition all through the unobserved growing months. From them I see that the circumstance we so often long to escape is the very place, and the only place, that can provide the means of our growth and bring us to the moment of rebirth in due season.

For so many of us, we’re always looking for ways to quickly escape our present circumstances. Our lives are filled with the thought “if only…” In this excellent book, the author reminds us that, if at all possible, we should be content with our present circumstances, trying to see the positive, instead of dwelling only on the negative.

If I decided to plant my bulbs in pots, and then keep those pots inside through the winter, fearing that the weather would be too hard on them, I would have no flowers the following spring. The bulbs need the winter freeze to bloom their best when the weather warms.

I trust in the fact that there are times when just being open to change and new growth is all that is asked of us. Eventually, that fresh start, a transformation, or that new life we long for will come to us, but it will happen in due season. As Matthew 6:28 reminds us, “look at the lilies of the field…”

Gardening Travel

Try Something New

Last year around this time, some of my family and I had the chance to visit Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills. Although we had never heard of the place before, its not too far away from Glendale, tucked into one of the canyons just up from Beverly Drive. Mrs. Robinson was the heiress to the JW Robinson department store fortune, and she lived the high life. Touring around the beautiful grounds, there was no doubt the place was built for parties. From the stories the docent told us, I doubt if anyone in her circle of friends ever had a day job. It must have been fun, but I think it would have gotten boring after awhile.

Well, the reason I wanted to write about our little garden tour is because its planting time just about everywhere. There are public gardens all over the country. Take some time over the next couple of weeks and visit one. They usually have some interesting and unusual plant you’ve never seen before. Or maybe you’ll come upon an interesting design. If you see something you like, write the name down, or draw a sketch of the layout.

At Robinson Gardens, I found this little urn of succulents interesting:

Then, when you get home, do a little research on line about the plants you liked, then track them down. There are lots of on-line resources today, and two that I like are Bluestone Perennials and Whiteflower Farms.

Here’s how I interpreted the urn of succulents above for my own garden:

The gray and black scheme worked great at Robinson Gardens, but I’m a color person, so I took the concept I saw, came home and made it my own. Now, I know not everyone is going to be that ambitious. No problem. Just make a trip to Lowes or Home Depot, or better yet, a local independent nursery. It’s always nice to help the little guy, and right about now, they really need the help.

Get a few market packs, get them into the ground with a little fertilizer, and then look forward to a summer of brilliant color. Or maybe the cool monochrome of the urn above from the Robinson Gardens might be just the thing for you. Either way, try something new and have fun.

Gardening Spirit

Soul Gardening

This is my first rose of the season, and she’s a beauty. This David Austin rose is Crown Princess Margareta, named after one of the grand daughters of Queen Victoria. I have a small rose garden at my house, nothing compared to the big bed my mother still tends. My mom’s favorite flower is the rose, and she’s instilled that love on most of her children. But roses are finicky, and they require a lot of love. As this photo shows, they are worth the effort.

Over the past few years, I’ve read a book several times over. The book was written by Terry Hershey, and the title is Soul Gardening. It’s a short read, but packed with lots and lots of comparisons between how caring for our soul is similar to the tending of a garden. Hershey talks about cultivating appreciation for the ordinary gifts of grace as you would a bed of shasta daisies. He asks us to focus on the value of solitude, calling the reader to venture to some random corner of their garden and just sit back and enjoy the breeze, the smells, the beauty. Finally Hershey reminds us that nature can heal.

When we work on our gardens, we can, in some sense, make the connection for caring for our souls. A beautiful garden and a peaceful soul take a lot of work. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it in the end. According to the back cover, the stories in the book will lead you to nurture your soul and renew your sense of what it means to live the “good life.”

In this fast paced world we live in, its hard to have a nice garden. It takes patience and vision to see a plant in the winter, sitting in the snow, with no life apparent. When I called to tell my mother that my roses were buried under thirty inches of snow, she told me that hers were already leafing out in sunny California. It took a lot to envision the flower above on that winter day, but here it is.

If you’re not a gardener, have no fear. Just take a walk around your neighborhood. You can enjoy the fruits of someone else’s dreams and labors. If you see something that strikes you, ask the person who owns the garden about it. We gardeners love to share knowledge (and plants).

The moral of this story is that souls need tending too. We shouldn’t be afraid to take a look inside, to see what might need to be pruned, or fertilized, and cut out all together. Sometimes the most painful cuts produce the most fruit. A rose bush that goes unpruned will not bear the most beautiful flowers.

Take some time this week and take a walk or drive around your neighborhood. No matter where you live, I’m sure its going to be a beautiful some day or other. Enjoy the show. Be grateful for the eyes to see it.

Gardening

Tomato Time

First thing tomorrow morning, I’m heading up to a big nursery in Maryland called Valley View Farms. They carry over thirty varieties of tomatoes, along with an unbelievable amount of veggie plants and seeds.

I was telling my friend Brian about my annual pilgrimage, and he asked to join me. He already has some tomatoes planted. Maybe he’s planning a little friendly competition?

At least four plants will go into the earth boxes my brother gave me a couple of Christmas’ ago. The info sheet that came with the boxes said that, if you followed all their instructions exactly, you would get a record crop, and that I did. I was giving tomatoes away left and right. Now that I’m doing a lot more cooking, my hope is that this year I would try my hand at doing some home canning. I can already taste the little red gems, right from the mason jar, along with garlic and basil. I’ll be remembering summer straight past New Year’s.

Well, that’s a good goal to have at least. I want to put a lot of veggie seeds in soon as well. Our last frost date around here generally occurs the first week of May. Only days from now! Pictures of the crop will be forthcoming. What are you going to plant?

Gardening Ignatian Spirituality Spirit

Earth Day

I wish we could have sat together today under the pergola. The warm air was heavy with the scent of lilacs. We have Hans and Mary to thank for this one, planted years ago and still going strong. I’ve added my own to the mix, a white one on the side of the house. Will the people who come after me know my name, or why I planted a white one?

Yesterday, a dvd from Netflix arrived in the mail. It was the second part to Ken Burns’ documentary on the National Park System. What a master film maker! It was ironic that it would arrive on the eve of Earth Day.

As I watched, I realized what a debt of gratitude we owe to people like Teddy Roosevelt. What would have been lost had he not taken a little trip out west in his youth, and who one day had the power to stop a destruction that could have never been reversed.

We also need to thank the people who have cared for the land, who planted the trees, designed the gardens and parks we enjoy. What would Central Park be had it not been for Olmstead? Descanso Gardens without Boddy? We have lots of people to thank for giving us the pleasure of experiencing the joy that comes from nature. Most of all, thanks to the Master Himself, who created it all, and called it good.

All of earth is crammed with heaven

And every bush a flame with God

But only those who see take off their shoes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Gardening

Hope of things to come

When I got up this morning to let the dog out, I opened the back door and felt the first warm, gentle rain of the season. Spring usually comes a bit earlier here in Maryland, but we’re coming off of a long, snowy winter, the likes of which had never been seen in these parts.

As all good gardeners do, I started thinking about spring when the first bulb catalogues start rolling in around September. I had wanted to order the bulbs pictured here, “Katherine Hodgkin” dwarf iris, for the past couple of years, but they were always sold out before I got around to ordering. This past fall, I was on top of my game, got my order in early, and received fifty little bulbs. I kept about twenty five, and gave the others to a good friend who had just moved into a new house. Bulbs are meant to be shared! We plant these ugly little things with the hope of things to come, only seeing their future beauty in our minds eye. But plant we do, dreaming and digging.

These gems, named for a woman I will never meet, came up early, right behind the snowdrops (Galanthus),which were planted by the former owner of my house. They are beautiful, tiny, and a wonderful harbinger of things to come. Somewhere, I hope Ms. Hodgkin is smiling at the sight.

Sadly, the blooms lasted only a few days and are now gone, already storing energy for next year. The cool thing is that other performers in this symphony being played in my garden quickly took their places. Building upon the snowdrops and dwarf iris, next came the forsynthia and narcicis, the lenten rose. All these leading to a future crescendo of tulips, flowering quince, dogwoods and trout lily. It’s like the tension that builds from Palm Sunday to the Easter Vigil, a slow unfolding of the Mystery. We know what will come next, but there’s an excitement in the waiting.

Holy Week is meant to be a time for thinking about our lives and how they intersect with the One who knows our name, who gave up everything and calls us to a better Way. Are we living the life we are called to? Can we trust like Him, no matter where it leads?

Holy Week is also a great time for taking an assessment of your garden, looking for signs of life and clearing out anything that didn’t make it through the winter. Its a time for mulching, fertilizing, pruning, and dreaming about blooming roses, oriental lilies, and an abundant vegetable patch with lots of tomatoes.

Encouraged by this hope of things to come, I went to a couple of garden centers and stocked up on a wide range of seeds. I also picked up some basil, thyme, parsley, already growing in little pots. I can’t wait to cook with them, but for now, they have to sit it out in my greenhouse until its a bit warmer.

I also purchased a Passion Vine with the name “Immaculata.” How could any Catholic pass up a plant with a name like that? The place where I purchased this plant is sadly closing after over seventy five years of business. Not many people are supporting the local, independent garden centers any more. But they are the place to turn for advice, special and unusual plants, and a chance to hep the little guy. If there is one in your area, please support them!

These days of Holy Week are all about remembering and trusting. Death will never win out. Resurrection is right around the corner. I can feel it when I go to Church, and I can see it in my garden. We don’t have to wait long now…