Ready for the Light Show at Brookside Gardens

/

Brookside Gardens looked close to being ready for the annual Garden of Lights Winter Walk that starts the evening of November 23 and continues through January 6. Last weekend we walked around the gardens during the day to see how the light features are created. Favorite features from previous years were obvious: the hyacinth lights, the sea serpent in an emptied reflecting pool, animal forms (frog and lion pictured below…but there are many more) and flowers of all shapes and sizes. Several new items we noted used recycled plastic bottles as reflectors and diffusers of lights. I’ll post again when I see how they look at night.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations

/

Back in mid-August I posted about finding things to celebrate each day. It’s been remarkably easy for me. Here’s what I’ve recorded for 10 days:

Sunlight through the trees. Being out and about on a late summer morning with the sun making an ordinary forest of trees look magical.

A family birthday. Not one where everyone can gather to celebrate. This was a savoring of relationships that last a lifetime.

Butterfly stake and solar powered sunflower for the garden…. and the sunflower lit up the 1st night! We had gone to the nursery to buy azaleas; we’d read they could be planted in the early fall or early spring. We were advised that in our area the fall planting is not advised (winter too harsh). While we were there we looked at the various garden ornaments and bought two of them. They’re both visible from the window over the kitchen sink.

Labor day with hot dogs and corn on the cob and watermelon. Food and celebration go together.

Finding treasure under a bathroom sink - a long lost spritzer of leave-in-conditioner. Isn’t it wonderful to find something you forgot you had….and actually decide it’s something you want!

Black swallowtail caterpillars. They showed up on my parsley plant. Earlier in the season, I might not have celebrated. But I enjoyed photographing them and they’ve already made their cocoons --- and I still have about half my parsley plant left.

Getting rid of stuff via donation. I almost filled the porch on the pick up day. It’s good to clean out at least once a season.

Talking to family on the phone. I started out calling one then another called me almost as soon as I hung up from the first call. For a family scattered all over the country - it’s good to catch up on what’s happening in our lives.

Finding out that a friend who had been very ill is better. It’s scary when a friend is seriously ill…and cause for celebration when they improve.

Doodling oninterfacing-like fabric). I have been doodling on scraps of paper but discovered some scraps of interfacing as I was cleaning out. I celebrated the results of sharpie and interfacing doodling!

Brookside Gardens - August 2012

/

Brookside Gardens in August - the plants are hanging on in the heat, making seed pods. There are quite a few with lots of buds brought on by the recent rains and the coming reduction in temperatures. The textures and shapes that I focused on during my walk included: 

  • Fan-like gingko leaves
  • Pleats of the yellow petals behind a fuzzy bee
  • Folds of a hibiscus petal just opening
  • Feathery papyrus
  • Curved path through the rose garden and purple crepe myrtle
  • Overlapping of petals of an old rose…the tight furl of a bud
  • Compartments of a lotus pod
  • The compactness of a passion flower bud
  • The ripples behind two ducks

 

Brookside Gardens Lotus Blossom - July 2012

/

On Friday (7/20/2012) when we made our trip to Brookside Gardens - the only Lotus blossom was facing into some leaves and too far away to photograph…but there were buds.

 

 

On Sunday (7/22/2012) when we returned - after almost 24 straight hours of rain - one of the buds had opened fully. I took a number of pictures and noticed that there seemed to be a lot of bees coming and going from the flower.

The only way to see inside the flower was to reach as far as I could and point the camera into the flower from above (in other words - taking the picture without being able to see the screen of the camera at all). The best one is below. It clearly shows that bees love lotus flowers! I think there are 6 bees visible!

Recipe of the Week: Iced Tea

/

Summertime and iced tea - they go together. There are many ways to make iced tea. Sun tea is as simple as putting teabags in a jar of water and letting it sit in the sun. My preferred method is using a tea maker (a coffee maker that has always been used exclusively for tea).

To make plain tea: put two small tea bags or one family sized bag in the brew basket for 10-12 cups of tea. As soon as it is brewed, turn off the tea maker and let the tea cool before pouring it over ice.

I very rarely make plain tea. There are just too many things from my garden to add. The last few days I’ve cut up (with scissors) three large stevia leaves and a handful of citrusy mint to add to the brew basket with one small tea bag. Put the tea bag on top because the acid from the tea helps leech the good flavor/sweetness from the stevia and mint. After it is cool - the tea is just the right strength and sweetness to simply pour over ice and enjoy.

Some other things I am going to try from the garden: 

  • Lemon balm. I have a huge amount of it and it seems to lose its flavor when it is dried so I might as well use as much as possible while it can be cut and used fresh.
  • Rosemary. I’ve read about putting a spring of rosemary in lemonade. It would probably be a good additive to tea as well. My rosemary is growing well and probably would branch out more if I trimmed it a bit.
  • Chocolate mint. I have two flower beds with chocolate mint…and it seems to grow about as fast as I can use it. 

Enjoy iced tea!

Texas Gardens in June 2012

/
trumpet arbor.jpg

A few weeks ago - before and after my time in Tennessee - I was in the Dallas, Texas area visiting family. June is one of the best times for gardens in Texas - before the heat burns or dries out the more delicate vegetation. But don’t be fooled - even the arbor covered with trumpet vine was no substitute for escaping to an air conditioned house after being out for a morning walk! 

How many plants can you identify in the slide slow below? Here’s a quick list of what it includes: 

  • Trumpet vine
  • Lilies (several kinds)
  • Mesquite
  • Canna
  • Hibiscus
  • Sunflowers
  • Amaryllis
  • Onion
  • Pinks
  • Purple peas
  • Beets
  • Squash 

 

Dallas Arboretum Chihuly - June 2012 - Part II

/

Continuing the post from yesterday….some other pictures are in today’s post. The blue font below indicates the pieces that are in today’s post.

The Dale Chihuly glass was placed in interesting settings within the gardens. The Blue Icicles (they look like blue yucca or aloes to me) were the first pieces we saw before we even bought our tickets. There was a tower of yellow icicles. The Blue Polyvitro Crystals were installed in a rocky creek - like chunks of blue ice. The Red and Blue Reeds stood in water or at its edges. Some were installed where mist would rise around them or in front of falling water. The Blue Marlins were in the area of rising mists. They somehow reminded me more of great blue herons than marlins. The Dallas Star was in an allee of crepe myrtle. There was glass on boats with balls of glass floating around on the water. Some clear and white glass forms were in a pool mimicking the lotus leaves growing there. There was a fanciful piece with green mirrored glass called Mirrored Hornets. There were towers of reed pieces. Ones I liked the best were the Scarlet and Yellow Asymmetrical Towers.

Enjoy the second group of pictures below. 

Dallas Arboretum Chihuly - June 2012 - Part I

/

The Dallas Arboretum is hosting an exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass through November 5th. I was there earlier this month and thoroughly enjoyed both the arboretum and the glass.

The Dallas Arboretum opened in 1984 and is on the bank of White Rock Lake. We were there when it opened at 9 AM - trying to ‘beat the heat’ of the day. We walked around and saw almost everything by about noon (even making a short tour of the DeGolyer Mansion that is included in the Arboretum).

The Dale Chihuly glass was placed in interesting settings within the gardens. The Blue Icicles (they look like blue yucca or aloes to me) were the first pieces we saw before we even bought our tickets. There was a tower of yellow icicles. The Blue Polyvitro Crystals were installed in a rocky creek - like chunks of blue ice. The Red and Blue Reeds stood in water or at its edges. Some were installed where mist would rise around them or in front of falling water. The Blue Marlins were in the area of rising mists. They somehow reminded me more of herons than marlins. The Dallas Star was in an allee of crepe myrtle. There was glass on boats with balls of glass floating around on the water. Some clear and white glass forms were in a pool mimicking the lotus leaves growing there. There was a fanciful piece with green mirrored glass called Mirrored Hornets. There were towers of reed pieces. Ones I liked the best were the Scarlet and Yellow Asymmetrical Towers.

Enjoy the first batch of pictures below….there will be more tomorrow. The blue font above indicates the pieces that are in today’s post.

Cheekwood’s Howe Garden

/

The Howe Garden at Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum in Nashville, TN has been recently renovated so the plantings are just becoming established. There were three things that caught my interest: the rain garden, the botanical images stamped on the gates, and the thatch roof on the cottage.

rain garden.jpg

A rain garden is made to retain water with terrain and plantings. I had read about them but never seen one. The renovation to the Howe Garden included one that can be viewed from both sides of the bridge (the metal silhouettes of the bridge add to the view as well).

The botanical images stamped on the panels of the garden gate were of familiar things - lilies, lady slipper orchids, morning glories, and trilliums…and some I couldn’t name. They were wonderful images for a garden gate.

And last but not least the thatched room of the cottage. It was a thick layer of rushes, tightly layered. The underside, visible from inside the cottage looked just as neat.

Cheekwood Tree Houses

/

As promised in a previous post - this post is about the “tree houses” at Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum in Nashville, TN. They are all sized in a way that children can climb up into them and were very popular. There were families and groups of summer-program children all around them so it was good that they were scattered throughout the garden. My favorite is a giant fish that has recycled CDs for scales!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a conch shell, a slide that was built with a ramp and sides with every non-walking or sliding space covered with plants,

 

 

 

 

 

a ship,

 

 

 

 

 

a traditional looking house among the trees , and

 

 

 

 

ball of yarn suspended over a pond (there was a walkway into it just out of the picture).

The excitement these structures evoked from children changed the tenor of the gardens!  It was a high energy place.

Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum

/

Cheekwood Garden and Art Museum was my favorite place on a recent trip to Nashville TN. The weather was near perfect and the place was full of other people (young and old) enjoying the place. There was a great-grandfather looking for the Howe Garden with his granddaughter and her two children. Groups of children in look-alike T-shirts were roaming the garden enjoying the tree houses or in art programs. I’ll post more in upcoming days about the Howe Garden and the tree houses…so the pictures below are just an introduction.

The glass bridge (1st two images in the collage below) was in the forest. The dappled sunlight enhanced its appeal. The stream with plantings along each side was lush. The sculpture of a mythical plant (a combination of several) seemed to be what Cheekwood is all about - the blending of art and garden. Finally the owl sculpture was in very bright sunlight and dessert plants. There is something to enjoy at every turn at Cheekwood.

Garden Weeds

/

I feel a lot like Kate Greenway - “I can really boast with truth that we have larger and more varied weeds in our garden than you have in yours - in fact, our garden has forgotten that it is a garden and is trying to be a field again.” The garden patch at the corner of our house is totally overgrown. I took a picture of it a month ago to use as a ‘before’ because I was going to start working on it (photo on left). I made a valiant start but got busy preparing for our house painting so the ‘after’ picture is not much improved (photo below). I’ll start work again this coming week.

This garden started out quite well with large flat pavers outlining it and bricks making squares for herbs. Some of the herbs survive - the chives, the mint, and the lemon balm (particularly the lemon balm). The day lilies have not done so well the past few years because there is too much competition from other plants. The hydrangeas are holding their own but could be tremendously more vigorous if they didn’t have so much growing into them.

The biggest culprits (weeds) that I can name are the honey suckle and blackberries. I dislike the blackberries the most because they have thorns. They could redeem themselves if they had substantially sized berries but they don’t. There are a lot of other things growing in the bed that I don’t know what they are but I know that I didn’t plant them. I am going to be quite ruthless about cleaning it out and then plant some other things there. When the mint was vigorous it kept out a lot of the other plants and I like to have the mint to cut up for making herbal tea. This year I’m going to cut the lemon balm more often to eat in salads so perhaps it won’t be so out of control. If it isn't allowed go to seed, it may not be quite so thick next year.

There is a sycamore tree at the edge of the garden furthest from the house. When it first came up, I kept cutting it off at ground level but then decided to let it grow. It is becoming a nice tree and should get tall enough to shade the west facing dining room window; it's a full story above ground so it will take a few more years of growth to shade the full window. I'll have to move the day lilies that like full sun but the hydrangeas should thrive in the shady space under the tree. Some gardening is all about control over plants; other gardening is about appreciating the serendipity of a tree coming up in a good place for a tree!

A Garden in Pots

/

 

About a month ago I had a sweet potato in the bin that sprouted. I cut off the sprouted end and put it in a bowl of water (cooked and ate the rest of it). It grew slowly at first then - just as I noticed that roots has developed - it started to grow very rapidly. It grew straight up, reached the bottom of the raised mini-blinds above the kitchen sink and then used them for support. It was clearly time to plant the sweet potato outside. Several years ago I had a pot crammed full of sweet potatoes by the fall starting out this same way. the only challenge was to keep it well watered.

 I decided to buy herbs and 'greens' in small pots to fill every container I had on the deck. 

 

The stevia, orange mint, Italian parsley and chocolate mint are pictured above (left to right). The sweet potato, rosemary, and basil are pictured below. I hope the sweet potato will grow all over the metal scultures so that it can get plenty of sun. Notice the two parts to the sweet potao vine. It was so long and spindly that it bent while it was transfered outside; the stem eas cut and (hopefully) the end will root quickly enough that there will be two plants in the pot.

Last but not least, I planted the curly parsley in the old turtle sandbox that my daughter outgrew long ago. It looks a little lonely right now but there are peas planted that will come up all around it (old seeds so it's an experiment to see how many will actually sprout). 

So - why didn't I buy tomatoes? They've been part of my deck garden for the past few years. Over time I've come to realize that the local Farmers Market has excellent tomatoes and I can try new varieties every week whereas if I grow my own I have only one kind (and they are not beautiful plants!). It's harder to get just the small amount of herbs and greens to be used for a meal and keep them as fresh as you want unless you grow them yourself. So - I've made a change this year by sticking with green stuff. I'll probably plant the mint in the garden at some point and let it 'escape' so that I'll have lots to dry for herbal tea.  Something needs to compete with the lemon balm that is taking over one end of the garden and growing into th yard.

The challenge - as in previous years - is to keep everything watered on the deck when it doesn't rain often enough. Collecting water from rinsing veggies and carrying it outside is enough until it gets really hot and dry; then we'll have to rig a hose and mister for our 'garden in pots' that I can see from my kitchen window!