Quote of the Day: Terry Kay
“What grows in the garden so lovely and rare?
Roses and dahlias and people grow there.”
At the moment I have these lovely little roses blooming in the garden on the front hillside. These roses are easy care, they bloom beautifully all summer long with no work from me. In the spring I give them a watering with fish emulsion and that’s it.
I don’t grow dahlias in the garden, at least not yet. I bought these at Local Roots last week to enjoy on my table. At fifty cents each I thought they were a steal.
My mom and I decided, after seeing these beauties at the market, that we’re going to grow dahlias in the potager we share next year. We will set aside a portion of the garden for some posies to grace our tables all summer long, a cutting garden of sorts. If you’ve ever grown dahlias, make sure to comment any suggestions below, as well as any sources for tubers.
What’s your favorite flower for cutting and bringing indoors? Any great recommendations for our cutting garden?
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Stocking up for Winter
I don’t spend much time canning in summer, I much prefer to eat vegetables fresh and in season. In winter my tastes lean more towards root vegetables roasted with venison or chicken. Hearty stews and crusty artisan breads are also on the menu quite often when the snow is on the ground. Learning to love root vegetables is quite nice because they don’t need much in the way of preservation, squash gets piled in a corner of the dining room, potatoes are tucked away in the garage, garlic and onions are in boxes in the basement, and cabbages are pounded with salt and stuffed into jars and stowed in the basement as well.
Every other year, I do spend some time putting up jam, jelly, relish, and chutney, but we have enough left from last year that I haven’t made any of that this year. The one thing I did spend some time putting in jars, tomatoes.
Over the past few weeks I have managed to put up a few dozen quart jars of tomato soup (recipe here if you’re interested) and some roasted tomato passata as well (recipe to come later). Hopefully I have just enough tomatoes left for a batch of ketchup and then my canner will retire to the basement shelf.
What summer bounty do spend the most time preserving?
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An Autumn Beauty
I was lucky enough to inherit this beautiful ‘Sweet Autumn’ Clematis (Clematis terniflora) when we moved in here at Chiot’s Run. It’s planted in the worst spot, almost in the gravel driveway, but it doesn’t seem to mind. It’s always grown well and bloomed nicely despite neglect and the tough conditions. Last year, I planted a comfrey at it’s base, to bring up nutrients from deep within the soil. The comfrey leaves also provide a nice mulch in the winter, protecting the soil and composting down in spring.
As you can see, the clematis is really appreciating this partnership. This year it looked better than ever, blooming profusely and providing food for all kinds of pollinators during a season when food is scarce.
This is a fantastic clematis if you’re looking for an easy care tall flowering vine. It blooms on current season growth and should be cut back to about 8-12″ in spring. It’s a vigorous plant, topping out at about 20′, so it can cover a trellis in no time flat. I now prune it several times during the summer to keep it to size. Before I pruned mine as often, it would grow to the top of a dogwood tree nearby.
Some people say this plant invasive, as it puts off seeds. I have only found a few seedlings in my gardens in the nine years I’ve lived here. I find that the deer eat all the seeds in the winter. I’ve never seen one growing in the wild around here, so I think the seeds only survive a mild winter with the right conditions. Since I deal with a few very invasive plants, this one doesn’t strike me as too much of a problem. Be aware though that it might be invasive in warmer climates than my zone 5 garden.
I’m truly amazed by the tenaciousness of this vine. For all the mistreatment it received early in it’s life, it is one of the most beautiful and easy going plants in my garden. Each fall I relish it’s season, happy that it survived the previous owners to grace our fence with such beauty each fall.
What’s your favorite fall blooming plant?
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Rain, Rain, Rain
So far this fall has been fairly wet, which we really needed after our dry July and August, however, it makes it really tough to get all the fall gardening chores finished. I have managed to get the new garden area weeded and I’ve been clearing more space, photos on this to come when the rain stops. One great thing about fall and the rain – sunsets.
There’s just something about the sun setting right as the rain moves out. The clouds, the colors, it’s really quite beautiful. This time of year I start to notice the sunset more, just as I do in February. There must be something about the changing seasons, the change in day length and the weather patterns that make them especially spectacular this time of year. Earlier this week, this was the view out my front window right before the sun went fully down.
One of the great benefits of gardening is that you notice the subtle changes in weather more. I notice that the longer I garden, the more I notice those small changes that happen when the seasons change. I really believe, that tending the soil gets you more in tune with the seasons, nature and God.
What are some of the benefits of gardening that you have noticed? What little things do you notice at the the change of the seasons?
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A Sweet Harvest
On Monday, I harvested my first fruit from my ‘Hardy Chicago’ fig tree. I’ve been keeping my eye on it for a while, watching and waiting for it to come ripe. Since I’ve never grown figs before, and my eating of them has been mostly reserved to the dried kind, I wasn’t exactly sure when it was ripe.
Somewhere, I read that once they start to droop and crack you know they’re ready to harvest. Mine was turning a beautiful shade of purple and was slightly soft, I figured it was time.
I took it inside and cut it open to reveal it’s beautiful jeweled interior. It was perfectly ripe. Mr Chiots and I each enjoyed half, the typical crunchy seeds reminiscent of the fig newtons I ate as a kid, but much less sweet and so much better. I think this may be the first ripe fig I’ve ever eaten, I cannot recall ever having one. There are still 4 or 5 figs on this tree, and a few on the fig tree I purchased at Monticello last summer. I hope these still ripen with the weather turning colder.
Figs are such a wonderfully exotic fruit, they remind me of many of the different fruits I ate during my childhood in Colombia, especially guava. I certainly miss the tropical flavors I became accustomed to during my youth, it can be tough to find a good mango, papaya, maracuya, or guava here in Ohio.
What’s your favorite fruit that’s not native to your area? Do you grow any exotics?
