Hydrangea Selma’s new life.

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Mominthegarden

I would love to say that I get it right the first time with all of my gardening projects. (Wouldn’t that be great?) But as life would have it, that just isn’t the case. My husband was laughing at me just the other day, due to his having to move a plant from one location to another. He’d prefer that I had a more clear vision, one which didn’t involve changing my mind (or the locations of plants!). I’m still learning, and thankfully, my husband is still digging for me.

I probably have more than a few examples of our learning as we go along, but I’ll just focus on my Hydrangea Selma today. I figured it was about time for an update. Back in June, I posted about my Hydrangea Selma, and how it wasn’t doing well. https://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/nursing-hydrangea-selma-back-to-health/ I bought this plant two years ago, and there were lovely pink and white blooms on burgundy leaves. It was gorgeous. As it turns out, the soil I planted it in was quite wet with not enough drainage or air, or peat. My husband dug it up for me, and we added a 60/40 mix of compost/peat to the soil. I could not believe the change in the plant! It was immediately happier, filling out over the past few months. It continued to improve despite the constant attack by slugs this summer. Nothing deterred those guys. Every night I’d be out in the garden picking them off. I won’t mention what I did with them. I’d prefer for you to think of me as a non-violent gardener. 🙂 So here are some pictures of Selma now. I think the foliage is lovely. I don’t have blooms yet, but I’m really hoping that next season we’ll finally get to enjoy some blooms.

So I’ve learned that all is not necessarily lost if your plant isn’t doing well. It’s worth investigating to find a solution!

Dana

P.S. On a topic unrelated to Selma, I want to show you some pictures of my front gate garden. The Asters given to me by my friend Susan are a pretty “wow” factor! I love seeing them every time I drive through our gates. I think the pink climbing roses are a nice backdrop, as I am partial to pink!

June 2012 Hydrangea Selma in a bad way.

October 2012 Hydrangea Selma filling out.

October 2012 Hydrangea Selma.

A close up of Hydrangea Selma 2012.

A healthy Hydrangea Selma in 2010.

Asters at the front gate.

Asters.

My Asters earlier in the season, after some rain.

The front gate at sunset.

The race is on: Green or Orange Pumpkins for Halloween?

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Mominthegarden

(still very green) Pumpkin.

It’s October 9th and our pumpkins are green. I think they are quite pretty, in their different shades of green. But maybe I’m just trying to make the best of the situation; the situation being that pumpkins are supposed to be orange! Starting to panic a bit, I checked on-line to see if I could help things along. I’m glad I did! Since their vines are fine, I’ve left them outside. I could have cut them and brought them in, though. What they really want now is sun. Some of the leaves were in the process of dying back, letting in some sun, but there were still too many for this late in the season. So I cut back all of their leaves. Perfect timing too, as it is a beautiful sunny morning. I also have to keep in mind that they should be covered at night if there is frost.

So the race is on … Will we have orange pumpkins for Halloween? I’ll be sure to let you know!

Dana

Pumpkin Patch mid-season.

Pumpkin patch October 9th. We have just 12 pumpkins in all of those vines!

Speckled Pumpkin.

A lighter shade of green (and some orange?) Pumpkin.

My upside down pumpkin.

Butternut Squash. This little guy, 4 inches long today, was a bit of a surprise! We thought those seeds hadn’t taken.

A butternut squash & flower.

Fall harvest time in Sheepwalk. Those are some very tall haystacks!

Taking time to smell the roses.

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Hybrid Tea Rose “Pink Peace”.

That post heading is really for me. Boy have we been a busy family the past month! Between school, Irish dancing, swimming, and my coaching we have been on the go non-stop! It’s a good thing we all love what we’re doing. Five o’clock wake up calls to swim before school do not come easy if your heart isn’t in it. It’s been an adjustment for my daughter, but she loves it. My son has been working really hard on his Irish dancing. It’s fantastic to watch him dance and see how far he’s come. As for my swim coaching, I have a super group of kids that really want to work hard and improve. It doesn’t get any better than that! In between all of those activities though, I think it’s important to have some down time. For me, that is time in the garden, especially taking pictures.

I hope your schedule isn’t too crazy! and that you have some beautiful roses to smell along the way.

Dana

Floribunda Rose “Iceberg”. These have given a beautiful show all summer! They are white in bloom, but they have a very light pink appearance in the bud stage.

Floribunda Rose “Iceberg”.

Floribunda Rose “Burgundy Ice”.

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868). These are incredibly fragrant! You don’t even have to get up close to smell them, and it’s a beautiful smell!

Rosa Jacques Cartier (1868). I’ve put the fallen roses in a bowl and enjoyed their ever lasting scent in the house. 🙂

Beautiful Poppies from July through October!

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Late blooming poppy.

I planted poppies from seed this past spring. I had my doubts that they were going to take. It seemed that they took forever to bloom. But once they started blooming in July, they have kept at it for the entire summer and continue even now during the first week of October! I don’t really know the different varieties. I’d say these are pretty plain. I planted Poppy Flanders/Corn American Legion, Poppy Iceland Nudicaule Blend, and Poppy Oriental. None of them describe a white center, though, so I don’t know what kind the flower above might be. The deep red ones are the American Legions. Poppies are such a delicate flower. I’ll admit their stems can look a bit messy up close. These guys are at the back of my garden though, so I can really enjoy their color without seeing the mess! I’m so happy with them.

Right next to the poppies I’ve planted some Shasta Daisies. My father-in-law started them from seed for me in his greenhouse. I planted them as seedlings. I think they fit nicely next to the poppies.

Moving right along the ditch wall, I’ve planted Rudbeckia hirta, Black-eyed Susans. They were given to me from a friend’s garden. She is a very special friend!

Finally, you’ll see some horrible cardboard. I’m killing some more grass/weeds along the wall. I’ll have a big job ahead of me this winter, as I’d like to uncover a lot more of the hidden wall!

What is your favorite flower for prolonged blooming time? I hope you have lots of color in your garden!

Dana

Poppies.

Oriental Blend Poppies.

American Legion Poppy.

Poppies & Shasta Daisy flowers.

Wildlife 🙂

Poppies, Daisies, Black-eyed Susans & Cardboard.

An abundance of pickling cukes … and a dill pickle recipe!

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Deciding what to grow in the garden is usually a fun discussion with the family. I like including them, hoping they’ll make healthy eating choices later on. Our littlest one would love if we only grew potatoes and carrots! I still have a lot of work to do with her taste buds… My son suggested growing cucumbers this year – so we could pickle them. We love dill pickles on our burgers and they are impossible to find in the grocery store! Must be an American thing 🙂

We figured, why not give pickling cukes a try? So that is what we did. Our summer was rather cool, and wet, so it was slow growing. I planted them next to the zucchini which didn’t mind the odd summer weather, and I really had given up hope that they’d grow at all. But by mid-August, the cucumbers were a nice size (between 4 and 6 inches long and getting fat!). We’ve done two batches of pickling so far, and I have enough in the garden still for one more batch. We’ve already eaten some, and they were delicious!

Confession time: my husband and daughter have been doing the pickling! All of it; from finding the recipe, then pickling, and finally to taking the pictures! It’s good to share the fun, right?

It was neat growing something new. I really enjoy going into the garden and seeing how things are growing. It’s so nice to see all of those flowers on zucchini, pickles, and pumpkins, too! I’ve included the recipe my husband used. I know it had quite a strong garlic flavor the first time, so they cut back on garlic for the second batch.

Happy pickling!
Dana

Boston Pickling Cucumbers.

Look how they grow! Boston Pickling Cucumbers.

A cucumber flower.

All lined up and ready to be pickled!

Pickling the cukes.

Now we wait!

Kosher Garlic and Dill Pickled Cucumbers (Parve)
From Giora Shimoni, former About.com Guide

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds (1 1/2-2 kilo) young and small cucumbers (dark green, firm, warty skin)
2-4 sprigs of fresh dill
6-8 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and cut in half
water
kosher salt
white vinegar

Preparation:

1. In a large jar, place 2 sprigs of dill and 3-4 cloves of garlic.
2. Wash and snip off ends of cucumbers. Put cucumbers in the jar until it is full.
3. Add water to the jar, one cup at a time. Then add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar for every 3 cups of water added.
4. Top with 2 more sprigs of dill and 3-4 more cloves of garlic.
5. Once the jar is filled to the top, seal jar. Gently shake to mix.
6. Set in window or outside where it will get some sun. Allow approximately 4 days for fermenting. If you like more sour pickles, can can let them stay in the jar for an extra day or two.
7. Refrigerate.TIPS:1. Use cucumbers that are small, young, dark green, firm, and have warty skin.
2. The jar should be filled to the top with the cucumbers and water (see photo).
3. The vinegar ensures the pickles will be crunchy and not soft. So if you like a hard pickle, add a bit more vinegar.
4. If you want your pickles to be ready in less than 4 days, you can boil the water with the salt and vinegar. Let it stand so it gets to room temperature. And then add it to the cucumbers. This speeds the fermenting time.

Time for a cuppa? Zucchini bread with crumb topping is perfect for your break!

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Zucchini bread with crumb topping on Vinegar Hill pottery.

Zucchini (courgette) are fairly easy to grow, even in Irish weather. Just a couple of plants will yield plenty of zucchini in one season. I have to check on them daily as they grow, because they can get quite large rather quickly. It is better to not let them get “out of control huge” as then they lose their tastiness.

There are so many different ways to use zucchini. We often just slice them up, lightly coat in olive oil, add some Cajun spices, and throw them on the outside grill. It’s too easy! I think our favorite thing to do with zucchini though, as rated by family and friends, is making zucchini bread. Only after moving to Ireland did I start to think that the name is a bit off: it should be called cake! It’s perfect to have with your cuppa of choice, whether coffee or tea. It isn’t a common dessert here, so I like giving it to friends and family as a way of sharing something different.

A friend from Syracuse, New York, Charlotte, shared her recipe with me last year. I hadn’t seen crumb topping in a zucchini bread recipe before. What a hit! I do realize this is not a health food. 🙂 But I did make a couple of changes to the recipe to make it more healthful in my eyes: I added some whole wheat flour, increased the amount of zucchini, decreased the amount of sugar, and changed the sugar from white to Demerara (unrefined cane sugar), and I added nutmeg. Yeah, I know, it still has oil in it, but ya gotta live a little!

There wasn’t any sun shining when I took my pictures (have I mentioned the weather we’ve been having this summer???). I have my plate and cup as close to the window as possible, which isn’t a very nice set up (sorry). The pottery is my newest addition from County Wexford. It is called Vinegar Hill, and I absolutely love it. We met the artist and it was so nice to get the story of the historical meaning of the pattern. But that is for another post!

I hope you get to enjoy a lovely cuppa with some zucchini bread sometime soon!
Dana

Zucchini Bread

Dana’s adaptation
of Charlotte Santella’s recipe:

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour & 1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (can substitute ½ cup apple sauce & ½ cup oil)
2 cups Demerara sugar (unrefined cane sugar)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups grated zucchini (usually takes 2 large zucchini to get this)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Crumb Topping:

Crumb Topping: 1/2 cup regular oats, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup cold butter (2 oz) cut into small cubes. Combine dry crumb topping ingredients, add cold butter and mix (I use my hands) until combined. Add this to pan 5 minutes into baking.

Directions

Grease & flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon & nutmeg together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients to the wet mixture, along with zucchini (and nuts if using) until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. 5 minutes into baking sprinkle crumb topping over top of loaf pans.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool. (mine are rarely finished before 60 minutes – I think because I heap those measuring cups with zucchini!).

Enjoy!

Zucchini bread with crumb topping on Vinegar Hill pottery.

Vinegar Hill pottery from County Wexford.

My Zucchini (courgette).

Zucchini (courgette) growing great in the raised bed.

Zucchini (courgette) growing really well in the raised bed.

I couldn’t have a post without any flowers in it! 😉

From sharing flowers … to growing a Hydrangea from a cutting.

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Having friends who like to share their flowers is such a great thing. A lot of my garden (flowers and fruits) are from friends and family. My friend Susan has such a beautiful and well loved garden. After one visit to her last year, I left with a gorgeous bouquet of blue hydrangea. I had the arrangement up high in my kitchen, and well, just left it there. Some of the blooms actually dried, which I think is also very pretty. One bloom had just enough water to grow roots. Roots! O.K., for those with Green Thumbs this would be no big deal, but for me it was huge! I put the cutting in a small pot, out of the sun, in our laundry room. I watched it die down, and then miraculously start to grow again. I waited until I had transplanted it into a bigger pot before even telling Susan. I didn’t want to take any chances that it might not make it! Now it is in a bigger pot, with a big flower and seeming to be very happy. The color has changed; it’s now pink. I only have it in a peat/compost mixture though. I’ll have to wait until I plant it in the soil to see what color it will be in my garden.

Are you sharing your flowers with a friend? Or if not, I hope you have a friend who likes to share with you! 🙂

Dana

A beautiful blue hydrangea. from Susan’s garden.

Cut flowers of hydrangea, sitting up high in my kitchen.

“Susan’s hydrangea” growing bigger.

Side view of more growth.

Buds appearing!

A flower! It’s not blue, but it’s only in a pot of compost/peat. We’ll see what color it turns after it’s eventually planted in my garden.

Still growing and getting more pink in color.

Even more pink!

Just a pretty view.

This is officially known at my house as “Susan’s Hydrangea”!

Some fabulous scents are in the garden now, which is perfect timing since the lavender is finished.

This is my flower of the moment! I love how it smells just walking past the garden!

The lilies are in among my lavender plants. We get so much wind that I have to stake them (ok, it’s not very pretty – I’ll have to seek out a prettier system next year!). You can see in the front I’ve trimmed the lavender plant, and I still have to trim the one in the left background.

Roses, Hydrangeas and Poppies for some summertime beauty.

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Mom in the garden. That’s me. Except I haven’t been able to get into my garden very much the past few weeks. This, unfortunately, is making me quite grumpy! So I’m simply going to post a bunch of pictures that make me feel like I’m in my garden. 🙂

I hope you like them. And that they make you feel happy too!

Dana

A cluster of my climbing roses (Zephirine Drouhin). I’m so happy with their brightness factor on our fence!

I really liked the lighting on this Zephirine Drouhin Climbing rose.

This is my sister-in-law’s Tiger Rose. I think it is amazing! (and I really *need* to get one!)

What a splash of color this beautiful Tiger Rose adds to a garden!

Evening sunlight softens the color tone of my Burgundy Ice Floribunda Rose.

Evening sunlight on my Iceberg Floribunda Rose. I can’t resist taking pictures in the evening!

Fuchsia is a very popular plant in Ireland. It’s not uncommon to find it growing in hedges in the West. It was introduced to Ireland in the mid-19th century from Chile & Argentina. (This picture was taken in County Mayo).

Is it any surprise that I have a picture of a Hydrangea? I love their high cheerfulness factor!

Yep, another Hydrangea picture…

My Clematis ‘Bagatelle’ (Dorothy Walton). This picture is for my husband 🙂

My poppies on a glorious morning!

A different view of the poppies.

Marigolds to finish the post with.

A beautiful visit to Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Gardens, Connemara Ireland.

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Kylemore Castle.

The first full sunny day of our holidays beckoned us to visit Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Gardens. It is simply beautiful, and if you are in Connemara it is well worth the visit. www.kylemoreabbeytourism.ie Admission for our family of five was 33 euros (about $40). The first worker we came across was a lovely Irish girl who informed us that midgets (very annoying, small mosquito like bugs) love the Connemara area, and that the best defense for them was spraying on Skin So Soft (an Avon product)! She kindly handed us her bottle and said “here, you can spray your family”. So then we were armed to enjoy our day at the Gardens.

Kylemore Abbey sits on 1000 acres with woodland, lakeshore, and the largest Victorian walled garden in Ireland. The castle was built in 1867 by Mitchell Henry (as a romantic gift!) for his wife Margaret. Tragically, Margaret died in 1874. In 1877 a Gothic Church was built on the property as a memorial to her. It is often described as a cathedral in miniature due to its proportions. It is beautiful, with pillars of stone from the 4 provinces of Ireland: red Cork marble from Munster, black Kilkenny marble from Leinster, green Connemara marble from Connaught, grey Armagh marble from Ulster.

The 6 acre walled gardens have been restored to some of their 1870s majestic splendor. They only have plants and vegetables which grew in Victorian times, growing them all from seed on the grounds. So far, two of the original 21 glass houses have been restored. I was surprised to learn of the exotic fruits they used to grow in them. Fruits such as bananas, melons, grapes, and figs were grown and sometimes shipped to England. The garden is divided into two areas; a kitchen garden and a flower garden, with trees and a stream dividing the two.

Since 1920 Kylemore has been home to a community of nuns of the Benedictine Order. They are the directors of the Kylemore Trust, keeping a close eye on how the Kylemore estate is run today. In addition to their spiritual daily routine, they run their farm and make handcrafted products such as soaps, sweets, and jams.

This is just a small glimpse! There really is so much more to this beautiful gem of an estate. It is well worth a visit. We were very lucky to have a lovely sunny day to explore the grounds, and some Skin So Soft to protect us from the bugs 🙂

I must get back to my garden plans … they need some adjusting after this visit!
Dana

View of Kylemore Castle from the far side of the lake. In order to preserve the family’s privacy, Mr. Henry had the main road re-routed to the far side of the lake, and used the original road, which runs in front of the castle, as his personal access road around the estate.

The Gothic Church. Note the stone which comes from around Ireland.

The Gothic church is often described as a cathedral in miniature.

View around the lake at Kylemore Abbey.

The gardens captivated me! They were incredibly neat and tidy, with so many different sections! I’ve tried to give a glimpse of as much as I could. We were lucky to manage some photos with very few people – it’s just how the flow of people moved. I hope you like the little virtual tour!

The flower garden side of the walled gardens.

Flower garden side of walled gardens. The designs are exactly as they were in the original gardens.

The kitchen garden side of the walled gardens.

View of the mountains from the kitchen garden side of walled gardens.

Some of the cold frames. All of the plants at Kylemore are started from seed on the grounds.

Artichokes.

A splash of color.

Couldn’t resist a picture of a purple flower…

Poppies and other flowers from the garden.

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Mominthegarden

My poppies have bloomed! Just like a child, I’ve been checking on them every day, wondering when they’d finally bloom. The wonders of gardening for me is not knowing if the seeds you planted will take! They are planted by my ditch rock wall. I planted way too many seeds! The upside of that is it crowded out weeds. The area right next to the poppies is in need of some serious work. The weeds are super strong. It’s going to be quite the battle! But for now I can enjoy the bright blooms of the poppies, and worry about the weeds another day.

I hope your garden is full of wonderful blooms!
Dana

Early morning fog in Sheepwalk.

I woke up very early one morning and couldn’t sleep. A peek out the window enticed me to take a walk around our garden. It was so beautiful! These four pictures were taken around 4:00 A.M.

Early morning pre-bloom poppies.

And here come the blooms!

Poppies!

Poppies.

Some other plants have been flowering too. This Bergenia is so pretty! The leaves are somewhat large and hardy, and turn a burgundy color after their green start.

Bergenia flowers.

Bergenia plant & flower.

This hydrangea was given to me at the end of last season. It’s so pretty in with my lavender.

Hydrangea.

We’ve had some really windy days recently. The poor roses! I’ve been cutting some to save them from being battered!

Hybrid Tea Rose Pink Peace.

Hybrid Tea Rose Silver Anniversary with lavender.

This climbing rose is at our front gate and seems to be quite happy.

These are some pictures I took of blooms in the garden. My camera is broken (two cameras, actually!) so I’m using a zoom lens that I wouldn’t normally use. It was challenging, but I think I captured some color, which was my goal!

Summer flowers with lavender.

Summer flowers.

Marigolds.

I love Marigolds. They are so bright and cheerful! They remind me of my childhood when my mom would save their seeds and use them the following year. I did that with these, too. 🙂

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Category Archives: Gardening

Hydrangea Selma’s new life.

The race is on: Green or Orange Pumpkins for Halloween?

Taking time to smell the roses.

Beautiful Poppies from July through October!

An abundance of pickling cukes … and a dill pickle recipe!