Each Little World

Winter returns

It has snowed every day since last Wednesday. But almost all of that snow has been so light and delicate that it has looked like fog. You couldn't be sure it was actually snowing unless you could see the snow against something dark like evergreens.

By Saturday morning we might have been approaching three inches, but it was not enough to blanket all the plants in the garden. Ivy by the house, Carexes and ferns on the hills — lots of greenery was still visible. 

Not any more. It snowed seriously for a while during the day Saturday and then picked up again in the evening and overnight. Looks like the week's total is a good 8 inches.

Since the temperature this morning is at 14°F (feels like 4°F according to WeatherBug / -10°C and -15°C.), I am thrilled to get some garden protection. Monday's high is only supposed to reach 4°F with a low of -12°F (-24°C.). 

We made a brief stop at the grocery store Saturday morning after our weekly coffee gathering, so we are nice and snug. Well, I am, though Mark had to trek outside manhandling the snowblower to clear the driveway. But that job is done, so we can relax by the fire with our stash of books until Spring.

Garden maps

Last summer I snapped this 3-D map of Ohio on the wall at the information desk in one of the state run rest stops along the U.S. interstate highway.  

When I got up close to it I was disappointed to see that it was composed of artificial greenery. Not surprising given how much attention vertical gardens require. Even with fake foliage it was nice to see a bit of green in those big neutral highway buildings.

But it still strikes me as a great idea for those who like vertical gardening: A map of one's own state on the fence or wall in your garden. I can picture adding blue flowers for lakes and rivers. Or silvery foliage for mountains. Reminded me a bit of creating a "fern table," but on the wall instead of on a table. 

Sedges have edges

Margaret Roach shared information about Carex plants aka sedges in her most recent NYTimes column. She talked with Sam Hoadley, the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware. Sam is doing an online class on sedges and Mt. Cuba has just published the results of its Carex trials that ran from 2018 to 2022.

One of my favorite sedges (above) is Carex 'Beatlemania,' a sweet but slow grower.

According to the Mt. Cuba Center, their four-year Carex trial considered the "horticultural qualities, vigor, and adaptability of 70 different Carex species and cultivars." Plants were grown in shade and sun in average garden soil. In the last year of the trial, response to biweekly mowing was noted to see if Carexes can act as a lawn substitute.

I've looked at the trial information on line and given my love of sedges, I'll be using it for future purchases. I've also made Phlox and Hydrangea buying decisions based on other Mt. Cuba plant trials.Their plant trials, along with those of the Chicago Botanic Garden, are among the best sources of trust-worthy plant information on-line.

January blahs

I think there was a sunny afternoon earlier this week, but I'm not really sure. It's been endlessly gray, though not as snowy as the garden needs. The latest storm dropped some rain that turned into about an inch of wet snow. Before that happened I wandered around the garden to see if any plants were pushing up, confused by the rain and warmer weather. 

No Hellebore buds or snowdrops were visible, but a disturbing amount of new Alliums had started growing. I think it means I did not plant them deep enough. Whether their flower buds will still be viable come summer is the big question. 

The ground was soft enough that I was able to push plastic plant tags right back in where they'd been disturbed, Not a good sign in mid-January. Some plants, like Autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') are looking surprisingly good despite extremely cold temperatures and snow. 

I've been taking advantage of this down time to work on more Blurb books: One about the ducks who visited our garden each year, two using old family photos and one of garden columns from my newspaper days and the early blog. Working on them is keeping me from obsessing about the winter garden and ordering too many plants on-line.

On again, off again

It's lightly snowing this morning and the temperature is currently 28°F (-2.22°C), but supposedly it feels like 17°F (-8.33°C). By Monday we'll be hitting 40°F (4.44°C) with rain. 

The only plant that's currently happy is Arum italicum 'Ghost' which comes up in late fall when the temperature drops. It looks great despite snow, rain and seriously cold temps.

The long view

Looking down the length of the roof on Mark's fence across the back of our garden. Now those shingles are moss covered and some have fallen off. The tree in the foreground is the old cherry tree that got taken down last winter. 

A good reminder that short term thinking doesn't work well in a garden. The start of a new year is a good time for me to remember that it also doesn't always work that well in life itself. 

IVOM: By the book

Late last fall Typepad did some kind of massive update that screwed up my blog for a week or so. At first I was annoyed and frantic. Once I calmed down I began to think about what I might do with my unexpected free time.

In December of 2020 I made a 20-page magazine via Blurb.com. "A Christmas Miscellany" contained old family photos, pictures of my holiday decor and three family-related Christmas stories I'd originally written as newspaper columns back when I worked at a daily paper. I gave the book as a Christmas present to my sisters, nieces and nephew and a few close friends.

I was so pleased with my Christmas effort that I stared a 48 page 7" x 7" book called "The White Album." It was going to be white flowers and winter garden shots. 

I abandoned it when I got too busy with other things. Now I looked it up again and decided to finish it. Luckily I found a few notes I'd saved that helped me figure out everything I forgotten in the two years since I last made a book. 

I finished that book and did two others between Oct. 25 and Nov. 17. I did these just for me; a way to remember hundreds of moments in my garden for the day when I am no longer living in the midst of it. 

Back cover of the autumn book. This is also 7" x 7" and runs 152 pages. 

IVOM is the third in this 7" x 7" series of garden books. It is 140 pages. I'm not sure how many more I will do at this size, but I expect at least a couple more to showcase spring and summer in the garden. 

Currently I'm working on a small one about our ducks and a 6" x 9" book on "The Sweet History of my Dining Table." They are very satisfying projects that also include learning a new computer program, taking new photos and finding old photos from the blog that need to be resized. Like any art project it's all about the process.

HOW THIS ALL BEGAN:

Mark had two of his photos selected for a competitive exhibit this past fall. We went to the opening and stayed for the excellent lecture by the judge, Aline Smithson. I was particularly struck when she pointed out that my generation is the last one to have had the experience of shooting film, taking the roll to the local drugstore to get it developed, followed by the thill of picking it up and discovering what we had captured — or didn't.

She also emphasized how technology is constantly changing and there is no guarantee that we will be able to access our images when we want them again. Prints — real, physical prints on paper — are the only archival way to retain our treasured images. 

Mark has done almost 30 books of all different sizes, kinds of paper and subjects. I decided it was time to join him; though I consider mine more like scrapbooks than photographic art publications. They are essentially vanity publications but I am happy with them; knowing that I can look at my house and garden when and wherever I want once my images are committed to paper. 

You can look through my books page by page without buying them if you are curious. Here's a link to see the three I've recently done. Click on the preview link and full-screen. You can also find Mark's books on Blurb.com here. Scroll down to see them all.

Stars of the 2022 garden

My gardening friend Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener, just posted a video on her YouTube channel about the plants she considered award-winners in her 2022 garden. She has a bigger garden than I do and grows annuals, veggies and trials a lot of plants.

But she gardens in southern Wisconsin like me. So I am always interested to see what's doing well for her. Watching her video made me look back at my gardening year to determine what plants are on my awards list.

Here are a few plants — in no particular order — that performed well for me from the get-go in 2022. 

. . .

I bought a dozen bulbs of Gladiolus murielae, split them into two pots and fell in love. They had elegant flowers, very statuesque foliage and looked good in and out of flower.

I just ordered 3 dozen for this coming season. It may have gotten too cold in the garage where I was trying to overwinter the original bulbs for them to survive; we'll see. But I think I may be finally hooked on adding containers to my garden. 

Though I had a Geranium 'Rozanne' surrounded by Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta in my Traffic Island bed, I was never that crazy about it. I am much more pleased with Geranium 'Azure Rush' and G. 'Crystal Lake.'

Both are sprawling plants with pale toned flowers with striped interiors. They don't need any attention from me which is always nice. This is G. 'Crystal Lake.'

I love Brunnera and am growing just about every variety I have seen for sale. I don't know when or where I found B. 'Dawson's White,' but it is a winner. I moved it last spring from a shady spot with a lot of root competition from big trees. I put it in a spot that turned out to be quite sunny.

When everything around it was stressed from the heat, dryness and loss of part of the nearby tree canopy, 'Dawson's White' just soldiered on. The expanses of white on the foliage never browned until so late in the season I didn't care. 

I grew a beautiful blue Agapanthus from Seneca Hill Perennials for a good ten years in my garden. When the polar vortex killed it a few years ago I was broken hearted. I didn't think twice when Olbrich Botanical Gardens offered Agapanthus 'Galaxy Blue' for sale in 2020.

It came back again beautifully this past summer and is a clear winner in my garden. I love being able to grow it as a perennial rather than as a house plant. 

I decided to take a chance on a different variety of Hydrangea when I planted H. serrata 'Mountain Mania in 2021. I love its orange-tinged new foliage. Frankly, I adore this whole plant.

It came through its first winter with flying colors. I hope that means it will keep doing so. This year I also added Hydrangea arborescens 'Mary Nell,' highly recommended in the Mt. Cuba trials. It blooms on new wood in the shade!

I've been growing Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' since I purchased it from the old Heronswood nursery in 2004. I moved a few plants in with some Hellebore seedlings a year ago and I am really happy with this color and texture combination.

The Luzula is very yellow when it first appears in the spring. It can take dry shade, but this group is in a fairly sunny spot and is doing so well it feels like a new plant. Sometimes the oldies are still the goodies.

Speaking of Hellebores, I planted a pair of H. foetidus 'Red Silver' in 2019, but lost one of them last winter. Missouri Botanic Garden says they may not be reliably hardy in Zone 5 but I've had good luck with another one of this type.

The good new is that the departed plant left behind seedlings.That's a first for me — and it puts this plant in the winner's circle even though it will take quite a while to get blooming size plants again. 

A look back at 2022

As gardening years go, 2022 was an unusual one. We had three major garden tours: One each in June, July and August. Won't ever do that again. I felt like all I did was get the garden in shape for other people. It was fun on one level, but it also kept me from just hanging out in my own garden.

This coming garden season I will be alone in my garden as the city will be tearing up our street for a summer-long project. So I will get to see if I really prefer that.

Here's a more detailed look back at 2022. 

JANUARY

I ordered more plants on-lilne at the start of the year than ever before. I'm not sure if I've even got room for much else, but I am currently getting emails from nurseries left and right. 

FEBRUARY

When Mark built the fence across the back of our property, he encased the old cherry tree that was growing there. We should have taken it down but we were using any extra cash for garden design and plants in those days. The tree finally came out in February making it possible to see the spectacular Dawn Redwood in our neighbor's garden.

I love watching the arborists work in the most awkward situations. 

MARCH

The Witch Hazel put on a great show before any other plants were pushing up.

APRIL

April Food's Day gave us snow and then the temps started climbing quickly . . .

until it snowed again mid-month. Pretty common weather for us.

MAY 

For the first time in long time, I planted multiple containers. Some had shrubs waiting for a final home, some were filled with bulbs or houseplants like Begonias. A big Buttonbush shrub in a pot is temporarily filling the space where half of a large Pagoda dogwood died over the winter. 

JUNE

We drove out to Vermont at the beginning of the month for my sister's memorial celebration, which was a lovely event. I dug these Primroses out of her garden to add to my garden as a way to remember her. 

A week after we got home, Mark had surgery for his A-fib and the following week the Garden Blogger's Fling visited us. Lots of fun to see long time blogger friends and meet new ones.

We we so pleased that at least a couple of people actually went into the Tea House and sat down. (I downloaded this photo from the Fling site and don't have any id's.)

JULY

I took advantage of the city putting off tearing up our street to invite members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society to stop by. This photo is by Steven King, the new president of the Wisconsin Daylily Society. I love the images he and other visitors took of the garden. So often standing in places where I had never thought to stop with my camera before. 

AUGUST

The first week of August I took advantage of early sales and bought even more plants. These are all from our local nursery, K & A.

SEPTEMBER

I spent a chunk of the month ripping out and redoing areas that had never quite been finished or had become problematic for many reasons. Two new shrubs were added in this narrow bed on the west side of the house. 

OCTOBER

We had spectacular fall color everywhere in the garden and it lasted and lasted. A memorable autumn. 

We took out another old and diseased evergreen tree (you can see the stump below), along with a Korean maple that had succumbed to verticillium wilt. Our arborists also did pruning on the trees that had suffered winter damage. 

NOVEMBER

All the problems I had with Typepad got me thinking about archival projects. I've kept years of big and little journals on the garden, trips, menus and parties. Now I've started making some physical books to remember the garden down the road when we're no longer living here.

DECEMBER

On December 9th we had such heavy wet snow that Mark went out to try to clean off the trees. I went out the following week to do the same after the next snow fall. On Thursday, Dec. 23, I noted that it was -7°F (and felt like -29°F, according to WeatherBug) at 9 p.m. The next Thursday, Dec. 29, the high was 50*F. which made the snow disappear overnight. Not really sure what to expect next.

Though we have a lot of winter left to get through here, I'm anxious to get out in the garden and hopeful that most of my new plantings will have successfully weathered our winter. 

Holiday trees

We got a holiday card from the group of arborists that take care of our trees. This is the wonderful quote from Wisconsin's legendary environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, that was inside their card.

“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods

and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent

this restriction if they know how.

To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither

god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel.”

— Pines Above the Snow, A Sand County Almanac

. . . 

Mark bought me the above book. which is also a calendar. Each page follows the year beginning on January 1st with a tree image and text. It will go on the kitchen counter where we will turn over the pages as the year unfurls. 

It is clear to see from these examples of the pages, that this is going to be a wonderful way to start to our days. If you double click on the photos you can read the text.