roadside attraction

One long side of my yard is bordered by a fairly busy road in southwest central Durham. When we first moved to the house six years ago, I came close to planting a row of  broad leaf evergreen and deciduous shrubs for a quick privacy screen. I am sure it would have looked fine. But I am glad that I made another choice. By leaving room for perennials and some spaced out shrubs, I have been able to keep most of the good sun that this southern exposure offers.  Five years later, I have gobs of  stuff running and reseeding over both sides of my picket fence.  This fall and spring I purposefully put some things in the drainage ditch (see the right-hand side of the picture above). I figured the runoff from the street could use a little filtration….and plus, I get tired of standing on a sharp angle with a weed eater. One of the most trustworthy natives for this type of location is the green headed, or cutleaf coneflower. It promises to be the standout flower for this roadside border come August.

  For an interesting article on planting in the right-of-ways of an urban lot, check out Michael Tortorello's piece in last week's New York Times.  

merit badge trivia...

Here is a chart of discontinued merit badges...from Wikipedia

And here is a link for folks interested in signing a petition to bring the beekeeping merit badge back.
I don't think there will be similar initiatives for "Cement Work" or "Master at Arms."

other people's wwws: Bluebird Meadows

I love this blog. As farmers, flower merchants, builders, bloggers, CSA providers, and etc.,  this couple (Alice and Stuart) are busy enough that I wouldn’t fault them if they didn’t post for weeks on end. But they seem to find the time to post observations from the great outdoors and lots of beautiful pictures. Some of my favorite shots come from their stall at the Durham Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. Two other things I like about the Bluebird Meadows blog are the rotating blogroll (I am always aiming to keep piedmont plots in the top five of the most recently updated), and the masthead picture which changes every few weeks or months. I may have to copy those two ideas.

Butterfly Weed

Asclepias tuberosa  is near the very top of my list of favorite native perennials. Because of its long taproot, it survives drought  but is hard to transplant. This means that you are probably not going to find a gallon of it in the Kmart garden center. The best bet is to buy the seeds and be patient. In a year or two you can have pretty large clump. It is a favorite for butterflies and makes a nice seedpod in the fall. This year I finally have enough that I will not mind cutting a few reddish-orange clusters to bring inside.

The photographed page is from the Golden Nature Guide series, "Flowers: A Guide to Familiar American Wildflowers" published in 1964.

third week of may: yard and garden pics

Heading into the last week of the last month of spring, it sure feels like summer. We’ve had hot and humid and dry all this month. The real difference between May and June will be the nighttime temps which will probably stop dropping below 70F soon. High Summer is on the way and that always is the peak time for my perennial and shrub border. I’ve chosen mostly low-maintenance perennials, self seeding annuals, and native shrubs for this part of my yard. But every year there are things that get taken away, or spread beyond their boundaries….that is the real joy of gardening for me. I like messy and don’t mind killing things unless it was an expensive plant. My only real disappointment has been the fact that my red hot pokers have not flowered. They are a young clump- maybe next year?

Here is a quick tour of what's doing in my yard this week-
Hope bines: I have had flowers on these in past years, but I have not harvested them at the right time. Last year I waited until too late in the summer and they dried out on me. Hopefully this year’s late summer batch of home brew will finally get a homegrown hop dousing. The deeply lobed leaves of hops make a nice contrast against the fine textured foliage of Queen Anne’s Lace and yarrow, both of which grow on the sunny side of this fence.
If you are interested,  here is a link from the blog of Durham's Fullsteam Brewery about recent experiments to find a good mold-resistant hop for the sultry South...

Flower buds from the stalk of my variegated yucca:  I bought this yucca to sit near the road. It is very striking in winter, when yuccas are often appreciated the most…I kind of forgot that they can send up four foot spikes of bloom too….what a pleasant surprise.

Here is my property's preparation zone for the Scratch Bakery container garden project. Besides succulents, ornamental grasses, and some other things, I’ve added broken concrete and local stone to some of the planters near this shop’s address at 111 Orange Street in downtown Durham; this new shop is due to open very soon! 

Fig leaves: I am so happy about this tree. I never really thought I would have room for one until I decided to make room. On a partly shady side of my driveway,  and smack in the middle of grassy area is where I finally put  it. Because it is not Full Sun, it will probably not be super bushy or super prolific, but that's okay. 

yesterday's Times

In yesterday's New York Times, there is a great  profile on John Ameroso, a pioneer in the world of urban farming.

I had never heard of him before reading this article. I think his story is fascinating especially given the fact that urban vegetable plots and community gardening are often cast as trendy throwbacks to the victory gardens of  WWII.....at least that is the impression you often get when you read about the "rise of urban agriculture" in most popular magazines and newspapers.

But as this piece shows, it's been catching on for quite a while. 

other people's wwws: Gene's Garden

I bet there are thousands of garden blogs out there but Gene's Garden out of Hampton, VA is on my shortlist of bookmarks.  Cheers Gene and keep up the good work!

yard and garden pics: May 13th

The first picture is of a tawny daylily which I am not used to seeing bloom before June 1. In Elizabeth Lawrence's A Southern Garden (1942), she notes the earliest flowering date of a tawny daylily in her garden as May 21. And I am assuming this would have been from her Raleigh garden..a full tinch warmer than my yard in Durham.  To provide a full disclosure, this Hemerocallis fulva has been planted in a very hot site beside the driveway in extremely rich soil. So performance enhancement may be to blame.

Other shots:
*a Siberian iris
*seedlings of good old fashioned cleome....and a few hollyhock seedlings too.

other people's wwws: Liberated Gardener

If you have lived around Durham long enough, you've probably heard of Frank Hyman. He is a writer, landscape designer, horticulturalist, political activist turned politician turned political analyst, artist.....I'm probably leaving something out.

This is a good month to check out his blog, Liberated Gardener, as he and his wife are traveling in France and blogging about it.

Pinus cellus toweris

These pictures were taken of a tower near the old Elks Lodge on Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd.

  

dame's rocket

I've had this perennial in my Durham garden ever since I've had a Durham garden. The seeds were originally sown from souvenir tins that were given away at a wedding. Folks don't throw rice anymore because everyone has heard that birds eat the rice and then explode.....I think that has been proven to be an urban myth but, whatever.

I made away with several tins and threw the contents all over my freshly tilled perennial border in the spring of 2005. Dame's rocket is the only surviving flower from that mix. For a few years, I wondered if I had made a mistake as it vigorously self-sows. If you do a google search for dame's rocket you will find all kinds of nasty comments about it being invasive.  I have found that if you cut the flowers off after they fade but before they turn to seed, then you can keep it in check. If you like what most people call a Cottage Garden style garden....then you should grow some Dame's Rocket. My yard is an experiment in different styles so I can't commit to being a Cottage Garden style expert. Actually I am not a big fan of even using "styles" to describe gardens since most landscapes tend to evolve over time unless there is very diligent garden-editor/green thumb on hand to keep things in bounds. I think I need a blog editor since I am obviously veering off topic here.....

Hesperis matronalis  is also called "sweet rocket."  It is supposedly fragrant at night but I went out last night about 9:00 and sniffed around a few stalks. The scent was barely noticeable.  My best description is that is smells like wisteria but diluted by about 80%.

Dame's rocket makes a nice bright cut flower. I have a simple bouquet mixed with orangey-pink floribunda roses on my dining room table. It could use some white peonies but I do not have any. Perhaps I will buy some at the Farmer's Market this weekend.

other people's wwws: Human Flower Project

I am not sure when I discovered this website but it is one of my favorite gardening blogs / repositories of garden stories, pictures, etc.

I am epecially eager to read whenever Allen Bush contributes.....as he did today.

Maybe it is the humidity

This morning I spotted my first Southern magnolia blossom of the season. It was pretty far above my head so I couldn't get a great shot....now it really does feel like summer.