Each Little World

Going forward

If you noticed the headline on yesterday's post you will have figured out that I republished my very first blog post to acknowledge my 15th anniversary of blogging. I started my blog after a 30-year career in journalism that ended as my liberal local newspaper left print behind and went digital. They needed to seriously reduce the staff and my job was eliminated as they reconfigured the newsroom.

Most of the people who left were like me: long-time journalists who were nearing retirement. None of us was ready to leave and we definitely were not ready to see our daily paper fade into the ether. 

All this is to say that I taught myself to blog to show that this old dog could learn new tricks. If you go back to my early posts you will see that they read like newspaper or even magazine articles; long, literary and covering a variety of subjects. Over the years I've pretty much concentrated on gardening as that has consumed more and more of my mental and physical energy.

I used to check my stats but haven't done it for years. Mark, however, took a look. He said that in fifteen years I've put up 3,005 posts or 200 times per year or every 2 days; however one wants to break it down. I've averaged 222 page views per day or 404 per post. You've commented 16,328 times or 5.5 per post. Not exactly an influencer or as influential as a number of you whose excellent blogs have resulted in books, lectures and more.

These days I'm self-publishing my own garden books but I was on the lecture circuit for years; going back to the early 1990s using slides. I've got a library of over 7,000 slides that are all archivally filed, labeled and cross-referenced and I'm on my 26th volume of hand-written garden journals.

All of which is to say that I'm 76 years old. If I want to read more, draw more, make more books, see friends more — do anything more often — then blogging needs to happen less frequently. How much less?? I'm not sure; but definitely on a more random schedule when I have something to share. I know many of you only at a distance. But I've met a surprising number of you in person because you brought a tour here (Daniel Mount), were visiting Madison (Flingers, Kris in Kansas City) or you live here and read my newspaper columns long before I stared blogging. 

I may be ready to blog less but I'm not ready to give up all these blog-related relationships. My e-mail is listed on the blog so we should all be able to keep in touch easily. I will try to see if I can find a system that works for you to sign up for notifications when I post. And you can also do what I do on many blogs I read, just periodically stop by to see what's happening and leave a comment. I will still be here and I know you want to see how our road construction project finally turns out!

Let me close by saying that the idea of blogging less makes me feel panicky. For 45 years the first thing I've done almost every day is sit down at a computer of some kind and start writing essays, op-eds, editorials, lifestyle stories, columns and blog posts. It is going to be a hard habit to break. 

The first image is a snap of all of us who left the newsroom in 2008. Some of us, me included (in the blue sweater center left), are automatically smiling when faced with a camera. But you can see on some faces what a very bittersweet moment it was. 

The third photo shows Wisconsin native Daniel Mount leading a group of PNW gardeners on a tour of Midwest gardens and prairies. 

The fourth photo was taken the day Daniel Mount's tour group visited our garden. Blogging has resulted in me becoming interested in photography and in preserving the history of our garden, in words and pictures.

The last photo shows the crew putting in the new storm sewer in front of our property. They've now started to prepare the roadbed for paving, but that's still a ways away.

A Week of Flowers: Day 6

Once upon a time this bed was full of Hostas. I removed all but two of them in 2021 as the loss of a neighboring tree put this area in too much sun. More light, coupled with hotter, drier  summers led me to fill the space with Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta and Allium 'Millennium.' The new planting looked fabulous all season and was an absolute bee magnet. 

I also put in a small plant of Geranium wallichianum  'Crystal Lake' which worked its way up and through all the Calamintha to add its small bright blooms. 

To see what other garden bloggers are sharing during this "Week of Flowers," visit the blog of our host Cathy at Words and Herbs. 

A Week of Flowers: Day 5

Oops! I am so used to posting on M-W-F that I completely forgot I was going to share my flowers every day for a week. Here are a few early summer drama queens to help me get back on track. Lilium 'Forever Susan.'

L. canadense

L. martagon 'Claude Shride"

To see what other garden bloggers are sharing during this "Week of Flowers," visit the blog of our host Cathy at Words and Herbs. 

Typepad problems

While trying to figure out why the photos in my recent blog posts kept disappearing, I stumbled across a message from Typepad. They said they will be doing "housekeeping" in October. That's the only reason I can think of for this problem. 

As I sat down to write this message, we lost power at 10 a.m. We checked with our local supplier and they estimated the problem would be solved by noon. Power came back on at 11:55 a.m.! Wish Typepad was this efficient and informed their clients what was happening and what to expect. 

That was then. This is now.

Our weather continues to be frustrating. One nice sunny day and then it's back to cool, windy and gray. I looked at images from last spring after a stroll through the garden yesterday afternoon. It's not my imagination that the garden is behind last spring in bloom dates. 

'Valentine' Bleeding Heart: May 3, 2021

May 8, 2022

Cinnamon fern: April 16, 2021

May 8, 2022

Fritillaria thunbergii: April 19, 2021

May 5, 2022

Today's high is supposed to be 76°F, a prelude to the following four days whose temps are forecast from the mid-80°s to likely hitting 90°. It pretty much feels like we've been stuck in late March/early April for weeks and now we're barreling into August. Luckily I found enough flowers to manage a small bouquet to brighten my mood.

Looking for inspiration

Visiting other gardens is considered one of the best ways to be inspired with ideas for our own gardens. I find I get as many great ideas and bits of information trolling the web as I do visiting a garden in person. Here are a few online images that have recently sparked my imagination. 

I love Carexes and discovered this photo on the website of Plant Delights Nursery. I think this is a brilliant combination of color, form and texture. The grass is Carex retroflexa 'Bonnie and Clyde' but the Heuchera is not identified since the point of the picture is to sell the Carex. This image proves that two plants — the right two plants — can create a show-stopping moment. 

I have been growing bronze fennel in my garden but it doesn't do much visually for me. Nothing like this giant fennel in the garden of Dan Pearson in the UK. It went on my wish list the moment I saw this photo in the British House and Garden magazine. I am in love with plants that will tower above me. 

This is Rodgersia podophylla in the gardens at Cady's Falls Nursery in Vt. But it's surrounded by Barberries and Peonies, plants that like the sun. Rodgersias like the shade. But this image suggests they may be able to take more sun than I've been giving mine. This one looks so happy and healthy that I am probably going to move my slowpoke plant this spring. 

Author Matt Mattus has plants and ideas and information galore on his blog, Growing With Plants. In this photo of his early spring garden, he's done something it never occurred to me to do. He's put at least three different varieties of Fritillaries in three different colors around this urn filled with pansies. I've always put my Frits in different areas of the garden far away from each other. No more.

I saw this garden image on the blog of The Frustrated Gardener in the UK. Like Matt Mattus, he's another obsessive gardener sharing tons of advice, ideas and information. I grow a lot of Toadlilies (Tricyrtis sp.) and Heuchera but I've never seen them used as ground covers like this. The angle of the photo is a bit confusing because my Tricyrtis like this variety are at least two feet tall. What a thrill it would be to turn a corner and discover swaths of these plants that you could walk between.

I've planted the most floriferous area in my garden with a lot of pink, lavender and purple flowers. I wold love to add this plant, Lysimachia purpurea. It could be tucked in anywhere and would give a wonderful burst of color without overwhelming its neighbors. I've yet to find it for sale anywhere but I hopeful.

Have you got a blog, magazine or Youtube video channel that is your go-to source for ideas?

Whoops!

For unknown reasons my scheduled post for today did not publish. In fact, it has totally disappeared from my queue.  

Gardening by the book in 2020

I read more books this past year than in any other period in my life. I read books digitally on my iPhone and iPad. I read physical books via curbside pickup from the library and my favorite local independent bookstores. I ordered online from the great Timber Press and from Princeton University Press. And yes, I did get a few things from Amazon.

This is not even the entire pile of garden books I bought. I've read a few of them, am halfway through a couple more and have delved into most of them. I found it harder to focus and follow through on many books this year; something that has rarely happened in the past. 

The garden titles that I did finish were satisfying and well-worth recommending. They all had a few things in common: they were deeply personal, regardless of where the author lived and gardened. They were all written by women and none of the authors were professionals in the horticulture field. 

. . .

Life in the Studio: Inspiration and Lessons on Creativity by Frances Palmer.

Having followed author Frances Palmer on line, I was greatly looking forward to her book. Though it has much to recommend it, it wasn't quite as inspiring as I hoped; maybe that's because I like to draw and she's a potter (those are her beautiful blue and white creations below).

On the plus side: I definitely liked the fact that the book was divided into what I would called essays, rather than chapters. You can just dip into it, where and for how long you want. I don't think you really need to start at the beginning and go straight through the way I did, as each essay is essentially self-contained. The forward is by Dominique Browning, editor of the late HG magazine, and should not be missed.

I don't grow Dahlias, one of Palmer's signature flowers for her vases and photos, but they were a swoon-worthy part of the book, including photos of individual flowers with their name. When I've gone to her website and looked at her flower filled vases I am usually in awe of her skill at flower arranging. But here, I found many of her creations too full and fussy; clearly our tastes were mismatched on this score; but her 10 point advice on flower arranging is very instructive and useful.

One of the unexpected highpoints of the book are the recipes Palmer included. I tried two of them, which we enjoyed so much I immediately added them to my cooking repertoire. Excellent dishes and clear instructions. Artisan/Workman publisher.

. . .

Uprooted: A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again by Page Dickey.

I’ve owned and read just about every book Page Dickey has written, whether she profiled her own garden or those of others. A few are no longer on my  bookshelf, but all have been worthy of recommendation.

I loved Dickey's former garden at Duck Hill and followed stories about it in books, magazine and newspaper articles over the years. So it was a given that I had to read about how and why she left that landscape where she'd gardened for more than three decades. "Uprooted" is an inspiriting story of starting over in one's later years. The new property is larger than the one she left behind; but much of it is native woodland that Dickey and her husband are clearing of invasive plants and restoring. The high maintenance flower garden is smaller, nearer the house and not so high maintenance as before. 

I've been gardening and reading about it almost as long as Dickey has, so I particularly enjoyed her references to the first gardeners I heard of: Nancy McCabe, Linc and Timmy Foster and Fred and Mary Ann McGourty. Like me, Dickey planted a dwarf witch hazel, H. 'Quasimodo.' And like me, the rabbits devoured it. That's the kind of anecdote that endears an author to a reader. 

"Uprooted" includes a fair amount of specific information on what they planted, how they did certain tasks and what they had to learn to care for this new property, including thinking in terms of natives/invasives/sustainability. It also deals with larger themes about the value of gardens and gardening. As Dickey says, "In the years I have left, I simply want to savor the outdoors and garden for the joy of it." Her new approach to gardening is "less curation, more appreciation."

This is a Timber Press book which means beautiful design, high quality paper and lots of photos of plants, pets, pots of flowers and the wider landscape.

. . .

I'm a longtime reader — and fan of — author Loree Bohl's blog, "Danger Garden." But I was more than a bit surprised when Timber Press asked me to review her new book, "Fearless Gardening." She lives in the Pacific Northwest and I'm in the Upper Midwest. Our climates, USDA hardiness zones and planting palettes are dramatically different. Turns out I was wrong; this will prove a valuable book no matter where you garden. That's because Bohl does not present lengthy must-have plant lists or trendy topics. She talks, instead, about much more broad and deep aspects of gardening. Her garden mantra is right there on the cover: 

• Be Bold
• Break the Rules
• Grow What You Love

I had to laugh at the colors on the cover. They reflect Bohl's plants, pots, front door and interior design. I've never seen anyone with such a fully realized sense of design identity as Bohl. But it's important to know that despite the beauty of her garden, she's a hands-on gardener who is always looking and learning, just like the rest of us. As Bohl says, "I did it poorly until I did it well."

Don't let the pictures of plants you don't know or can't grow, scare you off. What makes Bohl's book valuable for every gardener, newbie or experienced, is that her ideas and information are useful in so many situations. She is the queen of containers with as amazing array of plants and pots as I've ever seen anywhere. She covers winter plant protection, vertical gardening and crevice gardening (think Allen Centennial Garden on the UW-Madison campus.)

Though she talks about — and shows — her own garden, Bohl also looks at the gardens of those whose ideas influenced her as well as showcasing a number of gardens in the U.S. and even the U.K. (She provides a page of metric conversions for those of us, like me, who can never quite figure that system out). 

I was particularly struck by all of Bohl's short bursts of advice like using your camera as a garden tool, turning an obstacle into an advantage, bringing the garden indoors. There's even a clever list of unusual tool tips. She ends her book with five "take-aways" that encapsulate her style and her garden philosophy. You will have to buy the book to discover what she says.  

"Fearless Gardening" is yet another title published by Timber Press. It's beautifully designed with a clear logic and flow to the chapters, and the book overall. At the end Bohl includes a great list of mail-order nurseries, blogs and books. Half of the titles on her list are books or authors who are likely to be familiar to gardeners in my zone; one more example of how useful a broad swath of gardeners will find her book. (Due out today, Jan. 5, 2021)

. . .

Garden books I reviewed on the blog earlier this year:

Chasing Eden

A Year in My Garden

The Earth in her Hands (reviewed for the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society newsletter)

A resolution for 2021

During the holidays Mark and I attempted to reduce the amount of artwork we have stored in the basement in flat files. As we pulled out artwork to examine, Mark gave me a hard time for not continuing with my drawing, which he highly praised. That conversation — and the sight of my last drawings — reminded me of how much I miss making visual, and not just written, work.

Thus I am resolved to try to get back to drawing more, which means writing less. I am going to use the winter, which is always a downtime for northern gardeners, to draw rather than blog so often. But I don't want to totally give up my connection to all of you; therefore I am going to blog once a week on Tuesdays, beginning tomorrow. 

See you then.

A collaged garden journal page I created for a workshop I conducted.

When FaceBook is fabulous

Some time ago, the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society decided to have a FB page. Initially things were posted by a group of "administrators;" I was one of them. But once we opened posting to the full membership, it started to take off.

Now that WHPS has had to cancel all their meetings and garden tours for the foreseeable future, the FB page has become the replacement. It is the place to share images of our gardens, to ask for plant identification and design advice. Now there are weekly "challenges," inviting members to show their native plants, their garden paths and currently, the art in their gardens. 

LINDA LEE WOOLBRIGHT: GARDEN ART/MARQUETTE COUNTY

I find I am visiting the site constantly to see what's new, who's commenting, and on and on. I've been blogging for a dozen years but nothing has been as much fun or as social as this site. Maybe it's because many of the gardeners posting know each other from WHPS meetings and have visited each other's gardens on various tours. Or maybe it's just because, as members, we are mostly all Wisconsinites, and are curious about gardens in other parts of the state and want to share our experience and expertise.

JOSEPH SMOOT: PASSION VINE

All the gardeners I know will admit that our gardens — as sources of both respite and activity — are helping us to cope with our stay-at-home lives. I can only add that the WHPS Facebook Page is equally helpful. It's a place where we can be social, at a distance but without masks, and revel in the beauty of nature and everyone's gardens.

PAMELA SMITH: CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THIS PLANT IS?

If your garden club or hort society does not have a FB page like this, convince them to start one. You won't regret it.