Cold Climate Gardening

Yes, I’ve been blogging here for six years, and this is my 800th post! I thought this year I’d throw you a challenge. I’ve got four plants that I bet you can’t identify. I’m going to let you have fun trying, but I want to keep it interesting. The two prizes below will be awarded to two commenters randomly chosen, even if they don’t correctly identify any of the plants. I have both these tools and can vouch for …

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I have to say that blogging has brought more surprises to my life than I ever imagined. For instance, I had long enjoyed Margaret Roach’s book, A Way to Garden, and had dreamed, no, fantasized, that I might one day visit it on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days. Yeah, right. The other side of New York state might as well be the other side of the world, and Purdys don’t travel. That’s a frivolous use of money!

In my review of the Troy-Bilt tiller, I mentioned that I thought we’d have more use for a chipper than a tiller, but that I was going with the majority vote. Margaret responded by offering her little-used chipper, if we’d come and get it. Even with the cost of gas figured in, I reckoned it was a good deal, with the added benefit of getting to meet one of my favorite garden writers and see her garden. (And it just goes to show you can catch any fish if you use the right bait.)

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Is there such a thing as too much sweet corn?

On Sunday he asked me, “How was the corn you had yesterday for lunch, when I wasn’t here?” I said it was getting a little mature. He said, “Oh, I guess I better freeze the rest of it.” I had no idea how much was still up there. I’m not sure he did, either. He didn’t start harvesting corn until after lunch. While he was up there, five people left to go pick blackberries. Three people were called to help neighbors bring in their hay.

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Here is my entry in Idaho Gardener’s Garden Olympics. I have to say, there didn’t seem much time to mull things over and pick my three entries. Here’s what I came up with under pressure.
The Secret Garden Path
The path to the Secret Garden fulfills its job of luring you in by looking attractive throughout the year.
My Mosaic Birdbath

Acquiring this birdbath was a triumph of aesthetic appreciation over miserly practicality. It was an …

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Mary Ann Newcomer, at Idaho Gardener, is sponsoring what she calls Olympic garden events. Her rules are quirky but eminently attainable:

Three rules:
1. You must link back to IdahoGardener.com.
2. You must show me the best of the best of your garden. You decide what that is: single plant, single fabulous piece of produce, collection of tomatoes, collection of hoes, a garden vignette, whatever. Three entries per garden.
3. Deadline is Sunday night at midnight.

Prizes will be “will be smallish but very meaningful and thoughtful.” Go for it!

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A lot of the plants from last month are still blooming, though most of them look a bit weather-beaten and are past their peak. Goldenrod, asters, and Joe Pye weed are starting in the fields. A careful inspection of the wooded hillside reveals the first flashes of red. I’ve always maintained that, for cold climate gardeners, autumn really starts in the middle of August. I suppose you could just as easily say that cold climate gardeners should start their “fall” planting in late summer. But it’s time to start thinking about it, that’s for sure.
Photo Gallery
Click on any thumbnail for a medium image, and click on the medium image for an even bigger one, if you want to see detail. If you click on the first thumbnail, you will be able to go through all of them without coming back to the main post to click the next one.

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Tomatoes the Old-Fashioned Way
I’ve been reading the The Little House on the Prairie series to my six-year-old at bedtime. We just happen to be on The Long Winter and were reading “Fall of the Year” just a couple of days ago, where the Ingalls were surprised by an early hard frost. Ma and Laura picked all the ripe tomatoes from the blackened vines and made “almost a gallon of preserves.” I wondered if this was just an old way of saying canned tomatoes, but later on it is referred to as sweet preserves by Mary. So did they have tomato jam on toast for breakfast? Does anyone know how people used tomatoes in the 1870s-1880s? Or canning and preserving practices in general back then?

Ma then goes on to make green tomato pickle. People still do this today; Frugal Upstate has a recipe for Fireballs–try them if you dare.

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