Duke commutes: May

I've been busy these last few weeks, both with my job as a research administrator at Duke and taking care of my own home yarden. Thankfully,  it is bright enough in the mornings that I can get some work done outside before my house wakes up.  I've finally done all the transplanting, pruning, and potting that I wanted to do by April 15. It only took me an extra month.

From inside the historic terraces at Sarah Duke Gardens where folks were (justifiably) peony crazed all month long. This may be the best shot I've ever taken in the terrace garden.

Wherever the porcelain berry wants to grow, it does...it has led some of us to think it might be a wild hop vine.  And yes, that would be me.  I was very disappointed to learn otherwise. This picture is from near the Davison Bldg. on West Campus and definitely the best shot I have ever taken of an exotic invasive.

untitled

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.

house and yard; garden and anxiety- nearly May, 2010

All pictures taken this week and pictured from top to bottom L to R:
* a small cardoon that was given to me by a neighbor as a seedling. It promises to grow to four feet wide and tall someday.
*a colony of ginger lilly that I threw in my compost heap last fall because I couldn't decide where I should replant it.
*the old fashioned and tough-as-nails climbing china rose "old blush."
 *strawberries that my wife bought yesterday from a roadside farmstand in Warren County.
 * dark violet spiderwort, whose good looks up close  make up for the fact that it can look lanky and weedy from ten yards away. 
*what I call a German iris; it will likely bloom for the last time this month unless I get around to moving it in August. It is getting crowded by siblings and covered in shade from three nearby shrubs. 

This will be my fifth spring living in our house and tending a yard fifty years in the making. Compared to April 2005, there is a lot less yard and a lot more garden on our slice of southwest central Durham.  Most of my efforts have been to shrink the lawn and maximize the good sun with flowering things. 

As we move into late spring, a familiar feeling of being overwhelmed has set in. But instead of responsibly pulling weeds from the perennial border this weekend, I predict that I will be sketching a homemade trellis of rebar shanks to support the  heavy, scrambling, hop vines that may overgrow my picket fence by late June. I am all daydreams these days with not enough fire in my belly to get all my chores done.  Of course I should remind myself that there is not a day of the year when all the chores can be done.