Lilac Wonder Tulip
The Lilac Wonder tulips were in bloom for about two weeks in our garden plot. They lasted long enough for a Mother’s Day appearance. These tulips remind me of a mom’s power. There is a bright ruffled circle formed from all the random yellow splotches on each pink petal. Order created from chaos. God’s design. A peaceful home forms as a mom prays and loves each stress splotched life into the center of God’s grace.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Tulip tip: Do not cut the leaves, let them yellow. Yellow leaves on tulips are a sign that the bulbs have stored enough energy and are now ready to go dormant until next spring. If the leaves are cut off before they go yellow, the bulbs will not get enough energy and may not produce a large flower or survive a winter.
Arbor Day 2015 – Celebrate and Plant a Tree
Last year, my husband planted this Eastern Redbud tree in our backyard to celebrate my birthday. This is our first Spring to watch it bloom. Redbud trees have small rosy-pink flowers that outline its bare branches like strings of lights. The flowers follow the curve of the tree limbs giving these trees a light and airy quality. They add an elegant and subtle beauty among the bigger “cotton candy” shaped Spring blooming trees.
The Eastern Redbud are native to Eastern United States and Canada. They can be found tucked among larger trees in neighborhoods, along roadways and in the woods.
One day my son and I played “look for the Redbud trees” while driving home from school. Planting a tree is fun and opens our eyes to nature around us.
Hidden Spring Beauty
Bright sun, vibrant color and sweet scents surround me. I walk in Spring beginnings. The white and pink flowering trees are splendid. I stop and gaze below me. There is another beauty here with a dance that reveals the secret rhythms of light and wind. It softens the sun’s sharp edges. It shelters. It is not a brief burst of Spring color. It will grow through summer. I stand inside the hidden beauty of a Spring Shadow.
A New Garden Plot
This fall we transformed a 12 foot by 20 foot soil patch in the backyard of our townhouse into a new garden plot. Most of the day, one side of the plot is in shade and the other is in sunlight. We wanted a natural and clean looking flower and kitchen garden, but did not know where to begin so we consulted a landscape designer from Sun Nurseries. She inspired us to make these changes…stone path, drainage system, new plants and two raised beds. My husband built two beautiful cedar structures to contain our kitchen garden. What a great milestone birthday present!
My husband is putting a wire mesh on bottom of one raised bed. This will prevent moles and other ground digging critters from tunneling through our kitchen gardens. There is a lot of work to do, but we persevere with thoughts of watching our new garden come to life in Spring.
Garden Additions –
Plants:
Schip Cherry Laurel
Autumn Fern
Japanese Painted Fern
Astilbe Sprite (Pink)
Bleeding Heart
Brass Buttons (ground cover)
Bulbs:
Chionodoxa Blue Giant (Glory of the Snow)
Tulips (Lilac Wonder)
In another spot about 15 feet away from the flower and kitchen garden we planted two new trees:
Eastern Redbud
Semi-Dwarf Peach
Help for Our Lemon Tree
Our lemon tree is covered with fragrant white blossoms and tiny lemons.
In October, we brought the tree indoors to our west facing kitchen slider window, but it needed more light. The leaves began to turn yellow. We did not want a repeat of last year’s winter of bare branches so we added light, fertilizer, drainage, humidity and mobility. Some tiny lemons are holding on and the leaves are getting greener. Our interventions are working so far.
A grow light hangs above the tree shining light for 12 hours a day. Now our kitchen has a Florida glow to warm the cold mornings and evenings. Lemon trees are sun loving. The best indoor place for a lemon tree is a south facing window that lets in sunlight all day unlike our window that lets in only afternoon sunlight. The tree is set on a pile of river rocks inside a wheel based stand to allow drainage, humidity and easy turning. It is rolled around so all the leaves get natural sunlight, too. We feed our tree Jack’s Classic Citrus FeEd (recommended by gardeners at Sun Nursery) during its weekly watering. Lemon trees do not like soggy roots.
Our family study the plant daily. We all look for tiny lemons and wish for a winter watching lemons grow.
Sunflowers
It is August and I am nostalgic for Giant sunflowers. I miss growing them. They are too big for our townhouse garden. I remember when my 5 year old son planted sunflower seeds in our community garden. In wonder he watched them grow fast into hard thick stalks towering over him. Bright and cheerful garden flags waving and smiling over our garden. How could a simple seed grow so tall and produce hundreds more seeds inside the flower’s center?
My son inspired me to write this simple poem over 4 years ago when we played in our sunflower garden.
A Community Garden
A neighborhood of dirt plots,
Garden F-1 is our spot.
Open the gate, down first row,
Here’s the garden we did grow.
See my sunflowers standing tall,
an umbrella, a green wall.
Under giants I will run,
play hide and seek
with the sun.
Billy Goat Trail in Great Falls, Maryland
The bumpy walk over rocks turned into a strenuous scramble up a rock wall. My 9 year old son did not hesitate. He plowed up first and my husband followed. Both stopped half way up and stepped out from the line of climbers. They sat down and waved at me. I stalled and took more perspective photos. They called to me. Embarrassed, I slipped behind the last climber. I hoped my weak and tired legs could make it up. My feet and hands shifted and settled into the deep crevices in the rock wall. Even though I crawled up, I thought it was easier than expected. I did it!
The unexpected will always find you. Your path may change. Your circumstances may seem more than you can handle. Look for the solid and secure footholds around you. Climb up. You will reach your goal.
A New Gi and Thoughts on Gardening
On the way to Saturday afternoon karate class with Dad. Karate – one activity that pulls us away from our garden plot. School projects, house projects, jobs, swim team and more, also compete for our time. Limited time and energy is why it has been over 3 months since my last post here. It may be a bit odd to start writing again on the garden blog at the end of the growing season. But, I just had to write about our garden again because it is grew despite all our distractions. That inspired me to get a little philosophical. Living is like gardening. The rhythm of preparing, planning, nurturing and harvesting is the created pattern of growth. Life abundant. We had less time at our garden plot this year, but we were still “gardening.” I saw it as my husband helped my son put on his new Gi for karate class. I looked for a moment in amazement at what grew amid all the daily chores and activities – a big boy ready to follow the rules in karate class and a father and son relationship. We have several garden plots. A metaphorical one is right inside our home.
Our community garden plot produced lots of veggies this year, but not as much variety as years past. Recently we picked over 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes, 10 pounds of assorted peppers, three sugar baby watermelons, and several bags of kale. We dug up over 3 pounds of sweet potatoes. Kale is still growing in our garden despite an early frost last night. I will post more about our recent harvests. I may even add some philosophical posts about our metaphoric garden plot -home. Glad to be back, gazing at what is growing in all our garden plots.
White Fuzzy Caterpiller
The lettuce in our garden had a long growing season due to the cool and wet weather in the early part of summer. We had more lettuce than we could consume. Unfortunately, lettuce can not be frozen like Kale or other thick greens. Our lettuce plants finally started to go to seed and were very bitter, so I pulled them out a week ago. While removing the plants, I found this white fuzzy caterpillar tunneling at the center of one green leaf lettuce plant. I hated to disturb its home so I pulled out the whole plant and placed it in our compost bin with fuzzy still tucked inside the leafy goodness.
I did not mind a caterpillar munching on a plant that had become too bitter for us to consume, but I wonder if it will harm other crops in our garden plot. My guess is that the caterpillar will turn into a Tiger moth, but I am not sure. For any bug identification or garden questions, I contact The University of Maryland Extension Service, Ask a Garden Expert . They reply with an answer to my gardening questions within a couple of days. They are a wonderful service to the garden community.
I am waiting to see what the garden experts have to say about “snowy bear” as my son named it. I will let you know what I find out.
Our Garden Plot 