Thursday, July 8, 2010

A Walk Thru My Ozark Garden



      Our favorite place in the summer is the wrap-around-porch.  There is usually a breeze somewhere on that porch.  Our house was built on the basement of an old house that had burned.  Amazingly, the plan we had chosen was almost a perfect fit.  It was built by Amish builders.  The carved bear was done by them also.  The white hydranga is from my friend Mary Ruth's yard.  She is 94 and still lives by herself in a little stone cottage on a nearby farm.
                                                         


    
     My garden is like a memory book of family and friends.  I call this rose "Aunt Marie's Rose" after a dear lady in Jack's family.  I have given cuttings to many friends, who, in turn have also passed along cuttings.  It is a 'repeat' bloomer and will have another show of blooms in later summer.
                                
                                                                         
     These lilies came from my mother's yard on Jackson Street in Hamburg.  I dug these bulbs and some of her prize iris rhizomes before she sold her home of 50 years.  It was the only house I really remember living in.  Lots of sweet memories left behind....   The old picket fence came with the yard.  Every year Jack props it up and says it probably won't make it through the next winter!

    
     These garden phlox came from my grandmother's backyard.  I have transplanted a clump of them everytime we have moved.  I can remember, as a child, smelling the sweet fragrance as butterflies fluttered 'round.  I would often pick some to put in my playhouse.

                                                              
     This sedum, or Autumn Joy, (I love the name!) is from Louis and Jean, an elderly couple who live in a sweet little cottage in Boxley Valley.  There is always something blooming in their garden.  He always refers to Jean as "my love".  The blooms start in late summer and still look pretty in their dried state in late autumn.



     The lavender is one of my favorites (and, obviously the butterflies love it too!).  It comes from my friend Debbie's Belle Rose Farm located on Fire Tower Road nearby.  I have one plant that is at least six years old.  I could never grow lavender in south Arkansas--too humid!


     Must go now!  Next time we will walk the other side of the yard.  Wait till you see my "mountain spa"! Or "hillbilly hot tub, as Regena's husband calls it!


 You're only here for a short visit.  Don't hurry.  Don't worry.  And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.  The Walter Hagen Story


                                                                 

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Fruits of Our Labor

 Mountain Springs tomato patch(the Have-A-Heart trap is behind the scarecrow)

    
     My early recollection of anything 'tomatoes' is when playing in and out of the laundry/canning room in my grandmother's backyard.  I remember the hot, steamy, 'tomato' smelling air as my brother and I would run in and out of the room, always banging the screen door. My grandmother, mother, and aunt would spend a day or two every summer (always the hottest day of the summer, I'm sure) canning tomatoes for the winter.  At the time, you couldn't get me to even taste a tomato!
     Things change.  Maybe the aroma of all those hot tomatoes simmering in a pot on the stove finally 'took'.  Today, I LOVE tomatoes.  Red better boys and Park whoppers, yellow Lillians, orange-lobbed Kellogg Breakfasts, green striped Zebras, green and red Mr. Stripys, little sungolds,  and the dark, rich red/green of Cherokee Purples.  I have never met a tomato I didn't love--EXCEPT those 'cardboard' tomatoes you find in the grocery store in winter.  I don't consider those tomatoes and resort to canned tomatoes at that time of year. 


Summer bounty


     When tending a garden, as all gardners know, there is competition with the 'critter' world.  A few days ago, I noticed signs of one of these 'critters'.  The half-eaten, nearly ripe, tomato, still on the vine, alerted me that I wasn't the only one that appreciated a lucious tomato.   Again, the next day, more half-eaten tomatoes still clinging to the vine.  We suspect a groundhog  made a trip or two through the tomato patch. 
     Jack googled 'trapping groundhogs'  and soon found "How to Quickly and Easily Trap Nuisance Groundhogs".  Obviously, it is a hot topic since there was lots of advice.  We now have our Have-A-Heart trap baited with carrots(that's what they say groundhogs love!) and set out in the midst of the vines. 
     No groundhog this morning, but no new half-eaten tomatoes either.  We have also encouraged Molly and Daisy to make rounds every hour through the area.  They are such a help.  Last week they rid the garden of a mole who had made several tunnels through the garden. And,  woefully, a few rabbits!



"But don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden."
                                             The Tale of Peter Rabbit
                                                             Beatrix Potter