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July Update

Hello again! It has been too long since I posted here, so this will be longer than usual; my other blog, “Serenity Now: Scents and Sensibilities” has been taking up a lot of time as I’m doing two monthly blogging projects with a blogger friend. And in between, I’ve actually been doing the gardening! I will retire at the end of this month and have been using up vacation days that won’t get paid out, so the garden has gotten much more focused attention lately. I think I’ve finally tamed the vegetable garden; I planted a lot less this spring and have been more regular in pinching off tomato shoots and redirecting wayward morning glory tendrils. My eggplants and herbs have been a major success!

Eggplants Rosa Bianca and Listada de Gandia for the grill; parsley for chimichurri sauce

I’m especially proud of how well my David Austin roses have been doing in their large pots on our sunny front terrace. My working from home two days a week since 2021 has really served them well — I’ve been more diligent about everything from watering to feeding to spraying, and I’ve been rewarded with multiple flushes of bloom, especially from Lady of Shalott and Winchester Cathedral. Gotta admit, my attraction to the latter is based more on the pop song of that name than the actual cathedral, which I’ve never seen. I remember the song from my childhood, when my English mother played pop radio while raising three children, while her younger sister cavorted through Swinging Sixties London as a model and actress. Yes, she sent us Beatles albums before they were released in the US, which made me a lifelong fan. The first song I remember singing by myself was “She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)“.

Winchester Cathedral, by The New Vaudeville Band; film from The Ed Sullivan Show.

My poor neglected Teasing Georgia has not bloomed well this year, and she’s usually a trouper even in our hot, humid climate, so I’m trying to do better by her with more regular feeds, including with micronutrients. I need to climb up a ladder to prune out dead wood, and I think I must get my husband to prune away another branch from a nearby dogwood that now shades part of the rose arbor.

Speaking of doing better by my roses, I’ve been looking into planting one or more into bottomless planters. I have a beautiful Generous Gardener rose in a large pot that I placed in a border. Lo and behold, GG has sent its roots right down through the drainage hole, which means the poor rose now gets waterlogged on a regular basis with all the rain we’ve had this year. That will finish it, so I need a better arrangement, but I did that in the first place because the soil where I wanted to plant her wasn’t great, and it was full of competing shallow roots from azaleas.

Here’s a great video about bottomless planters by Bunny Guinness, a noted horticulturist and landscape architect, garden columnist, BBC radio panelist, and multiple gold medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She also happens to be the niece of the late David Austin, hybridizer of the marvelous English Roses, who named a rose after her.

Bunny Guinness on bottomless planters

Okay, I am seriously not prepared or qualified to saw out the bottom of terracotta pots! BUT I think I’ve found a solution. I was considering using grow bags and cutting out the bottoms (because, of course, on top of the long-suffering Generous Gardener et al., I have pre-ordered four more DA roses for delivery next January), but this seems to be a much better option.

Have you ever used a bottomless planter? For roses? All comments and advice are welcome!

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Coneflowers and Goldfinches

Goldfinch on purple coneflower

Here we are in mid-August, and between my two-week absence to visit my dear father-in-law in New England and the plentiful rain and heat, the weeds are running rampant in my garden. However, the same conditions mean the several coneflowers I added to a flowerbed this spring and summer are also flourishing, and this weekend I spotted a pair of goldfinches among them, feeding on the seeds! Although I’ve had a few coneflowers in the same bed for a while, I’ve never seen goldfinches visiting, so this was a real treat.

Like many bird-lovers, I took down feeders this spring at the advice of various organizations, because of the current outbreak of avian flu that is having a particularly bad impact on wild birds. The more they are encouraged to congregate (like at a feeder), the easier it is for them to become infected. I’ve missed the colorful presence of the usual cardinals, wrens, and others, so you can imagine my delight when a goldfinch couple appeared: the vividly yellow male, and the yellowish brown female. I hope they stay around!

I’ve been planting more and more flowers and other plants that appeal to birds and pollinators. They are also beautiful — the bed where I’ve added coneflowers has a soft sunset/twilight color scheme, because it catches the late afternoon sun, and coneflowers now come in many pretty shades of pink, coral, purple, etc. that blend beautifully with the daylilies I have there. The ruby-colored monarda I planted years ago seems to have come into its own this year, and is spreading nicely; it has been visited regularly by hummingbirds and butterflies, who also appreciated the flowering vines I had in my vegetable garden last summer. (I planted fewer this year, because last summer’s bean vines took over the whole bed!). Our small back yard already has many bird-and-bug-friendly features, like plenty of tree cover and areas where leaf litter is undisturbed. Sadly, though, we no longer see fireflies in the back of our garden as we used to. I blame the ubiquitous mosquito-spraying in our area.

We drove up almost the entire Eastern seaboard to visit my FIL in New Hampshire, and the whole way up and back, I couldn’t help wondering WHY so few interstates include plantings of native wildflowers, in spite of the Federal Highway Administration’s wildflower programs. I saw hundreds of miles of grass along the sides and up the middle of highways. Imagine if more, even most, of those miles were planted with native milkweeds and other highway-tolerant wildflowers for the endangered monarch butterflies and other pollinators! I know there is a partnership among several states to plant monarch-friendly flowers along the “Monarch Highway”, Interstate 35 — I wish there was a similar partnership along Interstates 95 and 85. If there is one, I didn’t see any evidence of it, though I appreciate the wildflower plantings on Interstate 16, the highway that leads to the coast.

Does your area actively cultivate wildflowers along public rights of way?

Goldfinch on purple coneflower
Goldfinch on purple coneflower; image by Will Stuart, from audubon.org
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It’s A Jungle Out There!

Whether you’re in the US, the UK, or Europe, you are undoubtedly suffering through a heat wave. Here in the Southern US, we’re used to hot muggy summers, but this has been ridiculous! My backyard feels like a rain forest! The humidity has also been extreme, which can make for some dangerous conditions. Fellow gardeners (and others), here are some very helpful hints from the Old Farmer’s Almanac to deal with gardening and your own wellbeing in this weather: “Tips for Gardening in Extreme Heat.”

Gardener wearing hat in hot weather
Gardening in extreme heat

As for your plants, there are many good resources with guidance for keeping them alive during hot spells, like this guidance from British Columbia. In the US, every state has an agricultural “Cooperative Extension Service”, coordinated by the US Dept. of Agriculture, and many individual counties have their own branches. Your local extension service will be able to provide guidance specific to your particular area and local conditions. Stay safe and green!

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Happy Birthday, Old Herbaceous!

WordPress reminded me yesterday that I had started blogging four years ago that day. It doesn’t seem possible that it has been that long, but it has — I started this blog the summer that I came home from a trip to London with a broken shoulder, was confined to home for several weeks, and couldn’t leave the house, let alone do any gardening. So I read gardening books instead, and shared snippets of them here. And so a blog was born.

Thank you, to those who occasionally follow my meanderings! The best part of blogging is sharing a little piece of thought and sending it out into the world, knowing that it will connect with someone who reads it. Happy summer, and happy gardening! Do you have any garden projects underway?

Featured image from http://www.annegeddes.com

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Ghost Gardens

Gardens at Chatsworth revealed by drought; image by OLIVER JESSOP/CHATSWORTH HOUSE.

This past summer’s drought in the British Isles and Ireland have revealed many subterranean secrets, from ancient prehistoric sites to hidden garden structures and outlines. Here is a wonderful article about one such revelation: How a Heat Wave Revealed the Outlines of a Hidden Garden and Ghost Village.  I have never visited Chatsworth, although it is on my list to see, especially as it hosts one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s famous flower shows, the “RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.”

I did visit England this past May, and attend the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, before the summer of drought. On a later summer visit to Ireland, in August, the gardeners at Powerscourt were bemoaning the drought and its effect on their beautiful gardens. I must say, the gardens were still spectacular and I can’t wait to visit them again!

‘The Generous Gardener’ rose is one of my favourites. It requires some discipline not to list its selling points, even after so many years, but I’ll confine myself to observing that it is one of the more fragrant English roses, best grown as a short climber against a wall or sturdy pillar. That hardly counts, […]

via ‘The Generous Gardener’ Rose (Plus A Riff On Leaves) — Susan Rushton

I love David Austin roses, I love Susan Rushton’s photographs, and I love this rose, Generous Gardener, in particular! Enjoy Susan’s post — I am reminded that my own roses are in need of some TLC this Labor Day weekend, so I’ll sign off again.

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Gardener’s Glove

I’ve just discovered a fragrance that is perfect for any gardener! It is called Gardener’s Glove and it is made by an artisanal dairy farmer called Diane St. Clair, who makes some of the finest butter in the world at her farm in Vermont. If you’re not already charmed by now, I don’t know what to tell you. Her fragrance company is called St. Clair Scents.

Gardeners Glove St Clair Scents

Here is my review over at Serenity Now: Fragrance Friday: St. Clair Scents’ Gardener’s Glove. Enjoy! What scents remind you of childhood gardens?

vegetable-garden-illustration

 

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Saturday Tipple, Not Snippet!

Pink summer cocktail made with Fentimans Rose Lemonade and Hendricks Gin, a small-batch Scottish gin with rose, cucumber and botanical extracts

While I was in the UK with my family, I tried for the first time the most divine drink: Fentimans Rose Lemonade. It is delicious on its own — it really smells like roses and tastes the way roses smell! And it’s pink! Just lovely.

Bottle of Fentiman's pink Rose Lemonade soft drink
Fentimans Rose Lemonade; image: Fentimans

When we got home, I found a local store that carries it. Hurray! Bought two large bottles and promptly started to think, what else can I do with this yummy beverage? Aha — a summer cocktail! So I made one up. I am posting the recipe on my “Old Herbaceous” blog because Fentimans refers to its Rose Lemonade as “botanically brewed” and describes its composition as “fermented botanical lemon drink with herbal extracts”; and because the cocktail is based on Hendrick’s Gin, a small-batch Scottish gin infused with rose and cucumber extracts, plus other botanicals: “Hendrick’s wondrous botanical signature consists of flowers, roots, fruits, and seeds from the world over. They function to complement and set the stage for our delicious duet of infusions: rose petal and cucumber.”

Illustration of bottle of Hendrick's Gin, a small-batch Scottish gin made with botanical extracts
Hendrick’s Gin; image from us.hendricksgin.com

So here is the recipe for what my daughter calls “Rosie the Riveter”, although I’m trying to think of a more romantic, ladylike name to match the pale pink color with light green accents; and there is already a different cocktail named Rosie the Riveter, which I only discovered after I came up with mine and Googled the name. Maybe I’ll call it “Scepter’d Isle”, after Shakespeare and the gorgeous David Austin English Rose of that name, inspired by Susan Rushton’s beautiful photographs! What do you think?

Old Herbaceous’ Rosie the Riveter Cocktail (or Scepter’d Isle):

Fill a tall glass halfway with ice (cubes or crushed).

Add one jigger of Hendrick’s Gin.

Fill the rest of the glass with Fentimans Rose Lemonade.

Add five drops of rose water, 1-3 thin slices of cucumber, one sprig of fresh mint leaves.

Enjoy!

Next stop: the bar “Fragrances” at the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin, which serves cocktails inspired by legendary perfumes. I’ve never been there, have you?