Bzzzz July 16th, 2007

I need a plant detective…

In trying to mend my lackadaisical garden record keeping ways, I am staring a list of the plants in the garden, along with their general requirements and propagation methods. Unfortunately, though, my inconsistent habit of keeping the garden center tags is catching up with me. Plus, pass-along plants don’t generally come with tags. So I need some help.

I have two plants that I cannot find names for. Can someone please post a comment and enlighten me?

Mystery Plant #1

This is a plant that I bought at the garden center and planted last year. It is in front of the house, which is mostly north-facing, so it gets only a bit of sun during the day.

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Although it started out as small starters in 3″ pots, it quickly bushed out into a nice, spreading plant, but without becoming out of control. It is about 6″ high and has a nice clumping habit.

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It has tiny, variegated leaves with spiky edges. In the spring, it sports tiny yellow clusters of flowers just above the foliage. And this is a nice feature: It stays green all winter long here in zone 7.

Does anyone know the name of this useful little plant?

Mystery Plant #2

The second mystery plant was recently given to me by our family friend Lucia.

First, you should know that Lucia loves all plants. She does not discriminate between those that are weeds and those that are finely-bred and valuable specimens. She also NEVER EVER knows the name of a plant or its origin. She passes along a plant with the generic endorsement, “It is boo-ti-ful. You will love it.”

As a result, I always fret about her gifts and whether they will turn into monsters.

She also has the tendency to tell me WHERE to plant something. And if she doesn’t like how I plant it, she digs it up and re-plants it. Sometimes, she comes over our house and I don’t know she’s here until I hear the waterhose turn on. She’s outside in my garden!

Despite all that, she is a good-hearted person and we couldn’t get along without her here. I don’t have the heart (nerve) to tell her to stop telling me what to do.

Nuff said about Lucia…

Mystery plant #2 is one of her recent gifts. It is a small plant that she says will spread. (Oh, goodie.) She also says that it likes shade and will grow to be about 1′ high.

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The leaves are rather pretty–green with veins of red underneath and showing on top. The stems also are green and red.

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The plant looks a bit fragile and spindly to me right now, but she says that it will fill out as it gets established. I have planted several of them in a shade garden I’m starting near the driveway turnaround.

Do I WANT this plant to get established? What the heck is it?

On the Subject of Record Keeping

Many of the garden bloggers that I’m reading reference reference going back to their blog postings to see when plants bloomed or harvests occurred in previous years. So it seems that many are also using their blogs as their record keeping tool for the garden. I haven’t seen anything particularly formalized in this respect, although I have seen one garden blogger (can’t find her now) who actually keeps a TO DO list, complete with crossed-out chores, on her home page!

I began this garden year keeping a spiral notebook of each day: what was planted, what chores were completed, etc. That lasted about 10 minutes. So I’m looking for a better method.

For example, a client of mine recently bought a house with a beautiful yard and garden already in place. The owner had lovingly made a drawing of the whole yard with landscaper-like notes. And, GET THIS, he also had an Excel spreadsheet cross-referencing all of the plants in the drawing, along with when they were planted, requirements, propagation methods and other information.

I think that I don’t want to go the Excel spreadsheet route, but I am interested in something a bit more formalized that what I’ve been doing. (Which would be nothing.) I would be fascinated to hear how you keep your own garden records.

Help anyone?

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Bzzzz July 14th, 2007

A garden is continually changing…

Plants grow, flourish, produce their fruit and then find their magical ways to create a new plant.

The spinach bid adieu long ago. Our lettuce also has finally gone to seed. This is, perhaps, one of the saddest passings in our garden, since a green salad is nearly always on the dinner menu. One of the great joys of a garden is going out and picking what is fresh and ripe, rinsing it off and eating it within minutes of the harvest.

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Lettuce going to seed

But to take its place, our cucumbers are thriving. Cucumber salad. Cucumbers in neufchatel cheese. Oriental cucumbers. Chopped cucumbers in veggie wraps. Homemade bread and butter pickles.

Yes, you can perhaps have too many cucumbers. And zucchini.

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Cucumber vines

A closer look at the flowers in the garden also reveals a bounty of bugs. Some good. Some bad.

A constant are the bees–at least so far. I do worry about the mass bee deaths that are occurring. So far, we still see bees, particularly the big fat bumblebees.

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Bumblebee

My favorites are the butterflies. I haven’t made a conscious effort to attract butterflies. It just happened. They love any and all flowers. But especially, they love the butterfly bush.

I wish I had the skills to capture what happens near the end of the day. Although all day long the butterfly bush is FILLED with butterflies, around 5 p.m., there seems to be some sort of butterfly meeting. They all converge in a frenzy of activity. Perhaps they are trying to get that last bit of nectar before it gets too late and everyone has to go to bed. Really, though, I don’t know why. But I wish that I had the ability to capture the mass and movement of butterflies. I’ll have to figure that out.

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Butterfly – Red Admiral (vanessa atalanta)

Until I do, though, there will be plenty for me to do cataloging and identifying the wide variety of butterflies that visit our garden.

bfly2.jpg Butterfly — Anise Swallowtail?

Can anyone tell I have a new camera? After seeing all the fabulous photography in some of the garden blogs I visit, I decided I need to be a better photographer.

Good grief. Another thing to do! Ben is already laughing at all my “pet projects!”

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