October 2010

I broke a garden rule today

October 31, 2010

The garden rule I broke today is: Don’t plant flowers in a straight line. And I did it for a very good reason: I wanted a straight line. I’ve looked at the scene above for many years, and frequently thought to myself how much better it would be to have that swath of daffodils swing [...]

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From Here to There

October 29, 2010

Maureen and I spent the first weekend of October in Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester, NY. We did the usual things that starry-eyed visitors do, going to a Wegman’s store, where the range and quality of merchandise in a giant super-market made me feel that I was still living in the nineteenth-century, and whose theatrical, [...]

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Soapwort Hiding in Plain Sight: Wildflower Wednesday

October 27, 2010

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Coles Creek State Park in Waddington, NY, which borders the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is almost as far north as you can get in New York State. Parts of St. Lawrence County are USDA Hardiness Zone 3b, but right along the St. Lawrence Seaway it’s “only” [...]

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Planting Grafted Container Roses in Cold Climates

October 24, 2010
gertrude jekyll rose

As I mentioned to Elizabeth, I’ve been busy planting roses. I received nine bareroot roses this spring from the generous folks at David Austin Roses. Three each of three varieties. I planted the three Crown Princess Margareta soon after they arrived. But I wanted to plant the other two varieties, Gertrude Jekyll and Sophy’s Rose, [...]

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Native Enthusiasm

October 18, 2010

At last.  Finally. Why chicory, Cichorium intybus, the blue flower of August roadsides, should have avoided our rural road for so long, is a mystery to me. So forlorn have I been made by its absence, when all neighbouring roads were bright with its sky-blue gaiety, that I have from time to time been tempted [...]

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Freeze Aftermath: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2010

October 15, 2010

Our first frost this autumn was later than usual, and was actually a hard freeze, dropping to 26F(-3.3C) on Sunday, October 10th. Most gardeners in warmer climates imagine a hard freeze like this: But cold climate gardeners know the scene can just as easily look like this:

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Summer’s Stillness

October 10, 2010

…………When you do dance, I wish you A wave o’ th’ sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, And own no other function. W.S., The Winter’s Tale (4.4. 140-43) Neither Maureen nor Roan has found this to be a companionable summer; too hot, too humid. But for the garden [...]

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Frost: The Least You Need to Know

October 6, 2010

Stumbled across a link to an excellent synopsis of frost and its effects via @urbangarden. If you don’t have a copy of A Gardener’s Guide to Frost, this is the next best thing.

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Five Inches of Rain Brings on Autumnal Madness

October 4, 2010

Five inches of rain fell here in roughly 24 hours. After a multi-week dry spell where my constant promise to my garden was, “As soon as we get some rain, I’m going to…”, it finally rained, big time. Casting an eye at the seasonal clock and acknowledging that we really should have had a frost [...]

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Colchicum ‘Beaconsfield’

October 1, 2010

This is a recent acquisition from Odyssey Bulbs, in full, though battered, bloom on September 15th. It does not seem to be as tesselated (checkered) as Colchicum agrippinum. But since this is its first year, and since I was out of town for its peak bloom, we’ll revisit that issue next year. It appears it [...]

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