Sun, 28 Feb 2010
Snow
My entire neighborhood looks like a winter wonderland. It's quite lovely. More snow is forecasted for the coming week. March: in like a lion this year! Hopefull, the "out like a lamb" portion of that saying will hold true this year. I've been wanting to cut some pussywillow and forsythia branches to force blooms indoors, but there is so much snow, I can't get to the plants.
posted at: 10:52 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
Sun, 21 Feb 2010
Sunshine
The sun has been brightly shining the last few days here in northern Ohio. Much of the snow is melting and evaporating. I'm starting to hear the spring birds tweeting. I'm sure the sap is flowing in the maple trees and baseball spring training camps are opening. Spring, and back to the garden - not far off!
posted at: 11:42 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
Sun, 14 Feb 2010
Snow
It has been snowing here on a regular basis. It is lovely snow; light and fluffy. Quite pretty but I am starting to feel the cold. I need some warm weather so I'm sharing a photo of my potted impatients on my deck from last summer. It warms me a bit and hopefully, will warm you as well. Happy St. Valentine's Day!!!
posted at: 12:12 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
Mon, 08 Feb 2010
Cabin Fever
It is around this time of year that some folks start to get what we affectionately call "Cabin Fever". They just want to get out of the house! It has been very cold the last few days. Friday night, we had a howling snow storm - very windy. We are expecting more snow tonight although today and yesterday have been very sunny - cold, but sunny. My backyard is lovely - long shadows over prisitne white snow. The photo is from my garden last year. A bright orange reminder of spring to come. I think it is just about time to cut some pussy willows and forsythia to force indoors. I'll think about doing that when it gets just a tad warmer.
posted at: 15:10 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
Sun, 24 Jan 2010
Survey
If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to complete our survey. It will help us provide you what you want from Growing Pleasures. If you don't let us know what you like/need/want from the club, we can't provide it, so please complete the survey. Click Here to take surveyThanks!!!
posted at: 12:20 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
January Thaw
I've been absent from my blog for a while. Sorry loyal readers. Busy with holiday events! Garden Maven Colleen and her husband, Eric visited over the Christmas holiday so we spent some fun time together along with Colleen's brother, Brion (my son the attorney!). For a while, we were under snow. Beautiful, fluffy style snow. The type of snow that makes you fall in love with the stuff. Right now, we are in the midst of a January thaw. The January thaw is an annual event, although this year's thaw is odd in that it has been long and warm. Today, the forecast is for 50 degrees. Odd for January in northern Ohio. No snow (or freezing temps.) until next week. That means we've been in the thaw for close to 3 weeks - also odd. The photo is of a forsythia bush in my backyard that actually belongs to Garden Maven Colleen. Not sure how she's going to take it anywhere - maybe some cuttings will do. It's a lovely thing - bright yellow in the spring, green in the summer and pretty foliage in the fall as the photo shows. Forsythia are great for forcing blooms indoors. Perhaps I'll go cut some today and start that process. This is the time to snuggle up with your seed catalogs and start dreaming and planning your garden for 2010!
posted at: 12:17 | path: /peggy2010 | link for this entry
Mon, 14 Dec 2009
Cotoneaster
My cotoneaster shrubs finally let go of their leaves but look at what a colorful treat they were during the fall. Cotoneasters are great shurbs. They take well to simple pruning once a year, offer tiny pink blooms in the spring, shelter for little birds, wonderful color in the fall and red berries all winter long.
posted at: 15:40 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 30 Nov 2009
Leaves
Yesterday, I raked the leaves in my backyard into my vegetable garden to provide a wonderful winter mulch. In the spring, the leaves will have composted enough that I can dig them into the garden soil. I've been doing this for years and the results are a wonderful garden soil that is light and fertile. The photo shows my oak tree clinging onto its leaves. I love this time of year. I love to hear the leaves crunching under foot. I love to hear the leaves clinging to the branches rustling in the wind. I love to see the critters in the yard scurrying around in preparation for the winter to come. Lots of folks complain about the weather and the season this time of year. The skies get gray and the air chills. I love it. It's all part of the cycle and I'd hate to live in a place without it.
posted at: 15:05 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 22 Nov 2009
Allysum
This allysum appeared in my garden in September. In years past, I've taken allysum from my flower boxes on the front porch and planted them in the garden in the fall when I clear out the annual. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, they winter over, as they have here. It's a very gratifying feeling when this happens.
posted at: 13:13 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 16 Nov 2009
Fall
We've been having a bit of wonderful fall weather. Cool, sunny, breezy with some colorful leaves still hanging around. I love to walk in the leaves and hear them crunch under my feet. My garden is still producing some chard and collards and a few flowers since we haven't had a frost. I have a white maple and an oak in my backyard that still have leaves in glorious colors. The maple leaves are a sunshine yellow and the oak is a bronzy red. Spectacular!
posted at: 14:30 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Happy Halloween
I saw this fellow crawling around my garden last week and thought he'd make a good Halloween blog entry. Yuck! I do not like bus very much at all, especially big ones like this. Have a safe and happy Halloween!
posted at: 09:36 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 26 Oct 2009
Yellow
The trees around my home and neighborhood are now in peak color! My sassafras trees turn this incredibly bright yellow color and then slowly fade to a burnt orange color before dropping off the tree and falling to the ground. My silver maples turn rellow and red and I have an oak that turns a bronzey-orange color. It is all spectacular!
posted at: 12:21 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Wed, 21 Oct 2009
More Nuts
The walnuts are almost all down from the tree. I am sooooo grateful for the nut collector Garden Maven Colleen gave me for Christmas. We are having some Indian Summer weather this week - my favorite! It's time to clean up the yard and garden to prepare for winter.
posted at: 10:22 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 19 Oct 2009
Nuts
People don't believe me when I try to explain about my black walnut tree and the volume of nuts it produces. The photo shows the nuts that I have collected so far this season. It does not include those nuts eaten by the wildlife in the neighborhood, those nuts crushed by cars and those nuts still on the tree. I collects nuts yesterday for 2-1/2 hours. Today, I collected nuts in the morning and in the afternoon. There are still quite a few nuts still on the tree, but the bulk of them are down.
posted at: 17:04 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Fall
We've had a bit of cool rainy weather the last week or so. No freeze yet, so the leaves are still green. Some are showing a hint of color. The black walnuts are falling like rain. I've been picking up daily but it seems like they will never stop. Even though it is fall, I am still enjoying my flowers on my front porch. The yellow marigolds are great summer and fall flowers.
posted at: 10:51 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 12 Oct 2009
Clean Up
Yesterday, I went to my community garden plot along with my friend to close it up. All we had to do was remove the fence and take home our things: buckets, hose. There were a few tomatoes and peppers to take home, too. I hadn't been to the plot for several weeks. I was surprised at how many other plots had "gone to seed" or should I say "gone to weed"! The weeds were so tall and thick, I had to stomp down a path just to get to the plot. My friend fell down into a trench as she was walking because she couldn't see the trench due to all the weeds. Almost all of the gardeners had given in to the weeds and many had already cleared out for the season. I did find out that there are plans for a community garden in the suburb where I live. I may try that next year.
posted at: 09:46 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 05 Oct 2009
Fall Clean-up
This morning I did a bit of fall clean-up. The weather was perfect for it: sunny, temperatures in the 60's. I like doing this type of work, especially when it is cool outside so I don't get overheated. I picked up walnuts with my new favorite tool, cut the grass (my least favorite yard chore), tied up some corn stalks to decorate my porch, pull out the old tomato plants and put away the tomato cages, pulled out some other plants in the vegetable garden and trimmed a few branches on my cherry tree. It won't be long until I'll have to empty all my flower pots on my deck, front porch and patio. Until then, I'm still enjoying their happy and colorful blooms.
posted at: 15:37 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 04 Oct 2009
Spiders
If there is a "season" for spiders, we've been in it for a while. If you look very closely, you can see the spider and its web in this photo. I had one spider build its web from a flower box on my front porch to my front door. Fortunately for the spider, the web had enough stretch in it to withstand the door opening and closing. It only took a couple of "trips" on the moving web for the spider to find a new location. I also had a spider build a web all the way across my front porch steps. I had to destroy it to get off the porch. My favorite this year was a spider I started to call "Charolette" after the children's book "Charolette's Web". I read that book several times as a girl. Anyway, Charolette (I think I've missed spelled the name, my apologies) took up residence on my driver side rearview mirror on the outside of my car. Every morning, I'd get in the car and start driving and Charolette would hold on for dear life until I'd come to a stop and the spider could scurry to safety inside the mirror casing. This went on for several days. The spider would make the 60 mile round trip to and from my yarn shop with me. One day last week, it abandoned ship somewhere along the way. I'm sure it found a much more stable home.
posted at: 12:33 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 28 Sep 2009
Windy
Today is extremely windy in northern Ohio. I walked up to the lake (Lake Erie) and the waves were at least 5 feet high. If you live near an ocean, that doesn't sound like much, but on Lake Erie, that's big. The sun has been shining and there have been rain clouds hanging around. It has also been in the mid 60's temperature- wise. My favorite weather. I got out to collect some nuts that came down in the wind using my new nut collector that Garden Maven Colleen gave me for Christmas. What a great tool! If you have a nut tree and you don't have one of these collectors, run as fast as you can to a store to get one; or type as fast as you can to purchase one on the Internet; or write or call as fast as you can to get one via mail order. They are fabulous.
posted at: 16:40 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 27 Sep 2009
Autumn
Today is a beautiful Autumn day. It didn't start out that way. Rain was threatening all morning, but now the sun is shining and there is a soft breeze; a beautiful Autumn day. I cut some straw flowers from my garden this morning to put on my coffee table in my living room. I also found a few cherry tomatoes. The raccoons have had a field day (no pun intended) with my corn stalks. The ears of corn are gone and the stalks are trampled. This past Friday was home coming for the local high school. Usually, I have a bunch of "stuff" in my vegetable garden after the big game, but I didn't have any junk this year!
posted at: 15:24 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 21 Sep 2009
Backyard
This is my backyard in September. I love this time of year: September and October. In northern Ohio, we call it Indian Summer. Warm days with brisk nights, the leaves on the trees beginning to color and fall and great harvests! My backyard is my private haven. The grass needs some work. It isn't really even grass much anymore. It is mostly ivy and weeds. I will try to restore it at some point, but the job was bigger than I wanted to attempt this year.
posted at: 14:31 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 20 Sep 2009
And Still Another Volunteer
This is my all time favorite volunteer. It is an upright growing juniper! I have no idea where it came from other than a bird dropped a seed in my garden bed. I am contemplating where to transplant it. It is a lovely shrub so I want its permanent home to be a good and worthy placement. I adore volunteers in the garden. They are scrappy and lovely all at once.
posted at: 12:56 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Fri, 18 Sep 2009
Another Volunteer
This volunteer is a taxis yew shrub trimmed to grow like an evergreen tree. There is a larger one right next to it. I'd like to move these babies, but they are large and they are under some very large pine trees making the digging of the roots very difficult.
posted at: 19:24 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Wed, 16 Sep 2009
More Volunteers
This photo shows a cotoneaster shrub bearing its fall fruit. The fall fruit as well as the spring blossoms are some of the reasons to grow cotoneaster. It is a great shrub. It is a shrub that also likes to pop up in my yard. I have dozens of little seedling like plants. The fruits are not edible, but they produce a seed that loves the growing condition in my backyard.
posted at: 10:57 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Tue, 15 Sep 2009
Volunteers
Over the next several entries to my blog, I'll share some of the volunteers that appeared in my yard this year. My yard is a wonderful place and many plants think so, since they volunteer to grow in it. The impatients in the photo sprouted from seeds produced last year by plants in the flower box that sits on my front porch railing above where this volunteer grows.
posted at: 21:54 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 14 Sep 2009
Chain Saws
My neighbors must have received chain saws as birthday presents. They are like chain saw addicts. Two of them running at the same time this morning. This has been happening on and off for the last month or so. I don't think they will have any trees left if they keep going at this rate.
posted at: 10:26 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Mon, 07 Sep 2009
Black Raspberries
I spent the morning cutting out the old canes in my black raspberry bramble. I couldn't find any gardening gloves, so I bled a lot. Those canes have nasty prickers! I also cut some oregano, sage and mint and hung them to dry in my kitchen. I love how they smell!
posted at: 17:12 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 06 Sep 2009
Greens
My community garden plot has produced a good crop of Swiss chard, turnip green and collard greens. Deer recently feasted on some of the Swiss chard, but not to the extent of killing the plants. I like these types of greens. They freeze well and are excellent in bread soup!
posted at: 18:21 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Sun, 30 Aug 2009
More Community Garden
It's not all bad at my community garden plot. I did get five nice butternut squash. I picked them early, because something was starting to eat them and I really want to be the one doing that. So, they are immature and unripe, but they'll make their way to a ripe stage in time. They are "keepers" as vegetables go. The weather this summer has been extremely odd in northern Ohio. It is August and I'm wearing a sweatshirt to keep warm. Ordinarily, we would be roasting right about now. The weather has really been cool all summer long and has affected gardens everywhere.
posted at: 14:35 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry
Fri, 28 Aug 2009
Poem
This was sent to me by a thoughtful person so I thought I'd share it with all of you.
"Vegetable Love" by Barbara Crooker, from Radiance
Feel a tomato, heft its weight in your palm,
think of buttocks, breasts, this plump pulp.
And carrots, mud clinging to the root,
gold mined from the earth's tight purse.
And asparagus, that push their heads up,
rise to meet the returning sun,
and zucchini, green torpedoes
lurking in the Sargasso depths
of their raspy stalks and scratchy leaves.
And peppers, thick walls of cool jade, a green hush.
Secret caves. Sanctuary.
And beets, the dark blood of the earth.
And all the lettuces: bibb, flame, oak leaf, butter-
crunch, black-seeded Simpson, chicory, cos.
Elizabethan ruffs, crisp verbiage.
And spinach, the dark green
of northern forests, savoyed, ruffled,
hidden folds and clefts.
And basil, sweet basil, nuzzled
by fumbling bees drunk on the sun.
And cucumbers, crisp, cool white ice
in the heart of August, month of fire.
And peas in their delicate slippers,
little green boats, a string of beads,
repeating, repeating.
And sunflowers, nodding at night,
then rising to shout hallelujah! at noon.
All over the garden, the whisper of leaves
passing secrets and gossip, making assignations.
All of the vegetables bask in the sun,
languorous as lizards.
Quick, before the frost puts out
its green light, praise these vegetables,
earth's voluptuaries,
praise what comes from the dirt.
posted at: 09:40 | path: /peggy2009 | link for this entry