Each Little World

Goodbye for real

I have not been able to fix — or get Typepad to fix — the problem of pictures dropping out of my blog. So I have decided to take it as a cosmic sign (ha!) that it is time for me to say goodbye. I will leave the blog up and my email is on the top right so you can continue to say hi when you feel like it or if you are in town and want to stop by the garden. I've been blogging for 16 years and I want to use my time and energy for other projects. I've made three Blurb books while the blog has been down and I wrote my obit among other things. (I'm not sick or anything; just wanted to do it!). Now I'm ready to get back to drawing and making collages. 

Thanks for all your wonderful comments, cards, letters and visits over the years. My best wishes to all of you.

Flowers picked in my garden on February 15th, 2024. 

Blog problems again

Aargh! I am having trouble importing photos and they are dropping out of published posts left and right. So I am taking a break while the folks at Typepad try to fix the issue. Thanks for your patience.

 

Looking back at the gardening year: 2023

It was a very mixed year in terms of garden successes; a better year in terms of learning more about gardening in this changing climate. More importantly, acknowledging my bad habits online and in the garden.

I ordered a lot of plants online last winter. Come spring, it was clear that I had too many things to deal with at one time as we had frost for ages. That meant I had plants everywhere indoors and was wheeling big planters in and out of the garage day after day as night approached and bringing them out again in the morning. And that's after having potted them up in the garage and basement rather than outdoors on my work table. These up and down Spring temperatures seem to be one of our new norms.

I continued to add more shrubs, native and non, as a way to reduce maintenance, but keep the garden looking good. Last year's drought and extremely high temps reminded me that new plantings need an incredible amount of attention (and water) to survive the trauma of planting. I lost two expensive evergreens in short order and a third by late summer. Even old reliables suffered with the weather.

I may be the gardener and thus responsible, but I am going to blame my losses and other problems on our weather/climate issues. This year it was still too hot and dry to plant much in the autumn which historically has been an optimum planting time. I was still dragging hoses and watering cans around until it got cold enough that we had to turn off the outside faucets. 

I overwintered a Eucomis that I received as a door prize at a garden party in 2021 and fell in love with it. I want to try a couple more this year. I won't reorder any Calla lily which left me unenthused. In 2022 I planted a dozen Byzantine gladioli in two pots and swooned over them all season. So last year I planted 3 dozen in 5 pots and felt oppressed with watering and deadheading them. It was definitely a lesson in "less is more."

When I order plants online in the winter, I always know where I am going to put them so it feels like I have a plan. I am now going to admit that it is a dream and not a plan, given how many plants don't go where I intended. There's no room for them, they don't look good with their neighbors or they aren't getting all they require to succeed, like sun or moisture. Less ordering and more thinking needed. 

Now it's time for me to come up with a serious list of what needs attention in the garden and what plants or shrubs might I plan on getting, preferably locally. In the winter I am mentally gardening like a 35 year old. I need to remember that come spring, I am more than twice that age with a very large garden. Time to get real. 

My Christmas sister

Meg Brazill

December 25, 1952 — December 16, 2021

Remembering my dad

Today marks 25 years since my dad died. When you are growing up, you focus on the rules at home and what your parents allow you — or don't allow you — to do. You don't think much about your parents and your childhood in a more broad sense until you are a lot older. Which is to say, I did not realize what good parents — and what an idyllic childhood I had — until I was long out of college and heard the stories of other people's childhoods. 

My parents had four daughters and my dad was very supportive of us and made sure we all went to college so we could support ourselves and not have to depend on someone else to do so. Though we all married, I think none of us rushed into marriage since we indeed could manage on our own. That resulted in marriages that are still going strong. 

My dad with his younger brother, Jerry sometime in the 1920s. 

My dad (right) with his brothers Jerry (left) and Bill. Their oldest brother, James, died of pneumonia the year before. 

My dad served on destroyers in the US Navy during WWII. His first ship, the USS Long Island, took part in the battles of Midway and the Guadalcanal. 

My parents with all of us girls in a family portrait in the late 1950s.

Holiday greenery

I spent the afternoon of December 8 in the garden as it was unseasonably warm. It was a lovely day to work outside if you didn't assume climate change was responsible for the temperatures in the low 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

I wandered the garden with my clippers cutting evergreens to fan out around the big Mark Skudlarek plate by the front door. There's a long rolled-up tube of chicken wire curving behind the plate to hold the stems of the greenery.

Many of the evergreens in our garden are now mature enough that I had no qualms about cutting a few small branches off of any one of them. I ended up with the most mixed display I've ever had, using clippings from seven different evergreens. 

The mix includes Arborvitae, both Canadian and Japanese Hemlocks, blue Juniper, Scots pine, Russian cypress and an unknown lacy yellow Chamaecyparis. I put the Canadian Hemlock branches in with their silvery blue undersides showing for more contrast. 

I love how the blue tones echo the color of the plate.

I added a string of battery powered mini lights and then decided it needed something more. I tried a few still bright Allium seed heads.

But that bright pink seemed a bit much. So I calmed it down with a few bigger and much less colorful Allium seed heads and am generally pleased with the result. 

The only downside is that I learned via a discussion on the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society FB page that the professionals said not to do any trimming while it is this warm. They noted the trees and shrubs are not dormant and the fresh cuts could prove harmful.

I love the education I get on that Wisconsin site, but I sure wish the subject had come up before I went clipping here and there.