2 Things @ Once

A Beautiful Fall Day in the Garden

NaBloPoMo, Day 11

It was brisk but beautiful at the Botanic Garden today. One of the many perks of my job is the ability to come to the garden on weekdays when the crowds are nil. Sometimes, especially when the weather is colder, it feels like JD and I almost have the place to ourselves.Gone are the days when I had to push the stroller down the gravel paths. Now wee JD's legs can carry her pretty far over the course of an hour or so--assuming you don't stop too often to pick up sticks and stones.

Following up on our successful outing to the Botanic Garden over the summer (to see the model railroads--a huge hit with the under-three crowd), JD and I were once again joined by Karen and her dad, Mack. Easily the sweetest moment of my entire week came when JD reached up on her own to take Mack's hand and they walked along together for the next ten minutes.

Spanning 70 years.

Saturday 3 p.m.: Time for Mums

Planted the mums I bought this morning at the Farmers Market.

Monarch Migration

The past few days I've noticed quite a few Monarch butterflies, not bobbing in and out of the garden, but flying higher up in the sky, like they're really going somewhere. It's Monarch migration time and I seem to be catching more migrating butterflies this year than any time I can recall. Out and about this weekend, throughout the day I'd catch orange and black wings floating and flapping ten, twenty feet up in the air. I even saw a handful way out over Lake Michigan yesterday while we were sailing. The Monarch butterfly population has been on the decrease in recent years so I can only hope that my incidental increase in monarch sightings bodes well for their numbers as they head south to Mexico.

Yesterday I Saw Something I'd Never Seen Before

A little green bee.

My Sunday

I decided to use this beautiful day (before more rain storms blow back into town) to plant my containers in the back yard. I made the pilgrimage down to Gethsemane Garden Center thinking I'd beat most of the crowd by getting there when they opened on a Sunday morning. I was there at exactly five minutes after nine and the place was already packed. These people must have been sleeping overnight in the parking lot. So much for early bird.

I planted a mixture of pots and railing boxes. The big decision every year is what to plant in the largest round pot, a 3-foot high pot that's the focal point of the deck. This year I took a rave suggestion from one of the employees at Gethsemane and bought a small "Skyracer" purple moor grass. I say small but it might get a few feet high by summer's end. The woman helping me had good luck with her's coming back every year for six years. We'll see how mine does. Right now the leaves are lime green. I planted it with some purple-tinged sweet potato vine.

I also added a few plants to the yard area. One is cat mint (or walker's low) which is one of my favorite, hardiest perennials. I love the combination of the sage green leaves and the purple flower spikes that last all summer long.

I'm also trying something new called blue false indigo, which the woman at Gethsemane also raved about. It has stalks like bamboo, purple flowers and is drought tolerant, always a plus.

I also planted a few tubs of herbs. More basil, of course, some cilantro, sage, lemon thyme and a my new favorite herb, tarragon. I also tried planting a blue hydrangea that someone gave me. I have little hope of that making it but I figured it was worth a try. It's so beautiful.

Dreaming of Trees

Every year around this time, as the trees are flowering and leafing out, I get tree envy. On my walks, I'm constantly looking for ideas to incorporate in my own yard and for years I've been dreaming of just the tree I'd want to put in my tiny-yet-big-enough-for-a-tree backyard.

Right now, my eye is on the tri-colored beech, a tree I'd never heard of until last week when I saw one gorgeously leafed out and filling the frame of a kitchen window. Any tree I get will need to have interest in every season. While the tri-colored beech doesn't sound like it has much in the way of showy flowers, its variegated leaves in green, white and rose are stunning.

And if it comes complete with a goldfinch, all the better!

My Landscaping Crew

My cats are strictly indoor felines but occasionally I'll let them roam the backyard under supervision. This afternoon, while tidying up the yard, I let Scooter and Maisy out for their first romp of the year.

 

Maisy practiced her special brand of gardening, completely smashing the catmint plant. She does this every time she goes outside, making a beeline for the catmint, sniffing, chewing, rolling around and generally obliterating the poor plant. And every time, it comes back strong.

Scooter practiced Zen gardening, staring at the grass, watching it grow.

Backyard Gardening: Taking the CSA Farm Box to the Extreme

Attention Illinois backyard gardeners!

Friends of mine are considering devoting a sizable section of their backyard to a vegetable garden this summer. (I personally have room for a couple of pots of herbs and a few cherry tomato plants, so I'm living a bit vicariously through them here.) In talking with my friend, I was reminded of the summers of my youth when my parents attempted to plant a veggie garden in our backyard.

I say attempted because I grew up in San Diego, on Point Loma, where the ground was mainly sandstone. Not the ideal canvas for creating a bountiful garden. But we had fun doing it, with moderate success. Tomatoes, green beans, and zucchini did well. I think zucchini will grow anywhere. Folks who plant zucchini are soon enough giving away giant squash to anyone (friends, relatives, the mail man) who will take them off their hands. (Unfortunately, zucchini is one of my least favorite vegetables to cook with. There's only so much zucchini bread I can eat.) We grew lettuce (no deer or bunnies to nibble on it) and I remember a thin carrot of two as well.

But I digress. The point of this post was to ask my fellow Illinoisians (Illinoians? Illini??) who tend their own veggie gardens what they've successfully managed to grow. My knowledge of gardening in Zone 5 doesn't extend to vegetables, so anyone who can provide any advice, I (and my friends) would appreciate it.

Buried Tree

NaBloPoMo, Day 16

I snapped this on my way to lunch about a month ago. It's a tree that managed to spout on a vacant lot, about as close as it possibly could to a gravel driveway, growing like a weed over the course of the summer. The thing that struck me was the complete absence of a trunk. It looked to me as if it had been buried up to the neck.

I was looking forward to seeing it turn color with the season but I noticed last week, they'd "chopped" the tree down. :(

A Banner Day at the Backyard Feeder

For a brief moment yesterday morning, there were actually four goldfinches at my thistle feeder!