Transitioning from fall to winter

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. The garden is showing signs that the season is indeed changing to winter. The beech hedge is turning from green to yellow and brown. The burning bush is a fabulous fiery red. And the sunflowers are finally finished blooming. It truly was a magnificent year in the garden. Another sure sign that the end of fall is near: bulbs have been planted! Planting bulbs is one way to sow the seed of hope for what will come in the future – and I am full of hope! 🙂

We’ve had quite a lot of rain the past couple of weeks. Everything is water logged, to the point where the grass goes ‘squish’ when you walk on it. This makes weeding (my most pressing task) nearly impossible. So, not a lot has been done in the garden, although we did get some tulip and daffodil bulbs planted. I also harvested all of our squash: two Red Kuri squash, four Marina di Chioggia squash, and nine Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins – not a bad season in the end! I’ve never eaten the Marina di Chioggia before, so I am looking forward to that.

As my husband is a huge fan of our strawberries, he very kindly thinned out the plants this past week. It’s a task that ideally is done in the fall, and is not my favorite thing to do. I’m so thankful he did it!

I thought I was going to dig up the dahlia plants this week, but I decided to wait a bit longer. From what I’ve read, it is best to dig them up after the first frost. The good news is that I’m still getting dahlia blooms, and the bees are enjoying the ones that I don’t bring inside.

It is nearly time for us, like our gardens, to start to slow down for the winter months. What do you think, are you ready for a little ‘slow-down’ break? 🙂

In Peace,
Dana

Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins, Marina di Chioggia and Red Kuri squash surround the burning bush (Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’ – dwarf burning bush).

Dana with pumpkin infront of squash from this season

Sure what’s not to smile about? 🙂

Cafe au lait and coffee at midnight dahlias with a couple Maxi dahlias.

Dahlias! Maxi, Cafe au Lait, Tam-Tam and Coffee at Midnight. This year I’ve learned the importance of staking dahlias properly. These have mostly been blown over in the wind, yet continue to flower!

Doing what I love to do: create a bouquet of flowers from the garden! The alstroemeria has flecks of burgundy inside the flower, which I think goes really well with the burgundy colored dahlias, as does the pink of the alstroemeria, too. I was able to gather a lovely bunch of flowers that now sit on my kitchen table.

The coloring of our beech hedge is a mottled brown-yellow-green at this stage. It will eventually turn completely brown, and the leaves will stay on for the entire winter.

Thank you for stopping by! I do appreciate you visiting. What’s a sure sign that fall is over in your garden?

The magical lighting of fall

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Mominthegarden

Hello! Welcome to my blog. The transition to ‘shorter days’ is slowly but surely happening. I especially notice this with the chickens, who put themselves to bed by 7:00 pm these days. Having it get dark earlier in the evening is a difficult part of the change of seasons for me, but this has been made easier with the wonderful lighting we’ve had in the early mornings and evenings.

There’s a lot going on in the world (a bit of an understatement, eh?). My garden walkabouts always calm me, which I am so thankful for. I have found the lighting in the mornings and evenings to be simply magical – maybe because of how they lift my spirits.

I spent a day in Dublin this week and was lucky enough to be able to visit the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. While it had been an overcast day, my visit was highlighted with sunlight. The gardens are filled with color and are so beautiful! I enjoyed a peaceful stroll, meandering through the quietness and beauty of the gardens. I didn’t venture in the green houses as I preferred to soak up the sun and views outside. This gem is so easy to get to and so worth a visit. The food and coffee there at the Garden Tea Room was a nice way to round out my visit.

Is there something you do to calm your soul when life gets very full? Spending time in the garden – and it doesn’t have to be mine – is what brings me calmness.

I’m joining the Propagator for his Six on Saturday meme. I hope you enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

1 – My pumpkin display. I have some nicely shaped pumpkins this year, if I do say so myself. There are two quite big ones, and the rest are all a nice manageable size. The burning bush (Euonymus alatus compactus – Dwarf Burning Bush) is just starting to turn a brilliant crimson as the asters start to fade and the pumpkins transition to orange. These are all jack-o-lantern pumpkins and not the smaller baking pumpkins, which typically means they are tasteless, unfortunately.

Chickens and hen house in morning light and fog

2 – Morning sunlight over the henhouse. This was a very foggy morning, but was lovely with the sunlight burning through the fog. My five chickens are all there, if you can make them out!

3 – Our birch trees at sunset. I like this picture because you can also see the group of white incrediball hydrangeas just down from the birch trees.

4 – Sunflowers and lavender. I’m still in awe of how nice the lavender looks, this late in the season. This is from a second, much more substantial flowering than the first. That one sunflower plant has really been a super star when it comes to providing lots of flower stems with good quality flowers. It is in a weird spot, caged in with the blueberries, but I didn’t plant it there. It was planted via our compost!

5 – Red Kuri squash. Here is another example of something growing from my compost and not from me planting it! I actually have two of these Red Kuri squash in one of my flower beds. I am delighted to have them! We grew Red Kuri last year and they were delicious. They start out bright yellow, slowly turn to orange and then finish a beautiful burnt orange color.

collage of pictures from the National Botanical Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin

6 – The National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin. These pictures do not give it justice, I can assure you. If you have the chance to visit, I hope you do. I like to play a game of ‘name that flower’ and here they have tags on almost all of the flowers so you can check your answers! It’s the little things. 🙂

Thanks for visiting!

Sunflower bliss (continued!)

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. Ireland’s beautiful summer weather continued this week and the garden is quite happy about that – and so am I! I hope you aren’t quite tired of sunflowers, yet, as I have more this week. There are so many different varieties, how could I not be excited? The flower heads are lovely and small so I’ve used them in some flower arrangements. I also have a mysterious squash, that perhaps you can help me to identify? 🙂

I’ll be joining the Propagator’s ‘Six on Saturday’ meme. Feel free to join in.

Enjoy the tour!

1 – Red Kuri squash. This is not the mystery squash, although it wasn’t planted here by me. This beautiful, yellow for now, squash is in my new flower bed, at the top of our garden. This bed was made last year by covering the grass with cardboard and then layering it with grass cuttings and then compost, and repeating that a few more times. So I can thank the compost for this plant, I’m sure. You might remember that last year I planted red kuri squash to grow up my pumpkin arch. It is funny how yellow they start out, because by full maturity they are a burnt orange/red. Anyway, this plant has two big squash formed, with a few tiny ones. I’m glad I let it grow, despite its awkward position in the garden.

Here’s a picture as a reminder of what the red kuri squash looked like last year on the pumpkin arch. They are the bright burnt orange/redish squash on the right side of the arch and in front, on the left.

2 – Mystery squash. Yeah, so these are the ones I can’t really identify. The one, top right picture, fell off of the vine and it is no wonder as it weighs 4.5 kg (9 lbs)! Here are the options of what was sown: Muscade De Provence Musk Pumpkin, Marina Di Chioggia Organic Pumpkin, or nagydobosi pumpkin. The one that fell is the wrong shape for any of these, although I’m leaning more towards nagydobosi. I’m hoping that as the others ripen more, they will reveal their true selves. One thing is clear: I need a better system for tagging plants.

3 – Bella fuchsia. Look at those colors! This plant has quietly been doing its thing, and completely filing the container with itself. The colors are so pretty, and yet don’t shout out for attention. I am already planning on sliding this pot into the playhouse in November to ‘over winter’ it. I’m really hoping that it will keep.

4 – The back deck flower pots! Wow! There’s a lot of fun stuff going on here. Dahlias, delphinium, lilies, gladiolas and a sunflower. I do love having them all on the deck and in full view from my kitchen. But the plan is to plant out the dahlias next year. It’s a lot of work keeping them watered. The delphinium will not be far from this spot, but will be planted in the ground (so no moving around to suit pictures!). Who knows, I might get other plants to fill the pots. 🙂

sunflower arrangement with globe artichokes and dahlias

5 & 6 – Sunflowers! I made two more arrangements this week and I just can’t get enough of them. Here’s what I have:

Claret F1 (these are dark colored flowers, some are burgundy, some are chocolate, some are dark burnt orange. I LOVE these as they have so many long stems coming off of the main stem and there are loads of flowers on each stem. Lots of color variety, too, which is beautiful.

Sungold sunflowers. This has a great big (albeit dwarf!) fluffy head of golden yellow. In the top collage, it is the bottom left picture. The short stem is the downside (12″-18″ tall), but otherwise this is a super neat flower. Multiple stems with just one flower per stem. So not as much bang for your buck as the Claret, but well worth it for the unique look and texture.

Sunflower Waooh! Brown centers with yellow edges, and only 40 – 60 cm tall (16-24″). Shorter are better for the high winds we tend to get. Lots of blooms on each stem. A good, traditional sunflower.

Sunny Flowers Fantasy & Esther. These have a mixture of colors and are not too tall (70 cm). These are the first lemony yellow sunflowers I have seen. Some have brown centers, some have yellow/green centers. Lots of flowers on each stem with very strong stems.

Sunflower Giant. Of all the sunflowers, I confess that this is my least favorite and here’s why: it is a single stem that grows tall (6’/2m) with just one, single and very large flowerhead. I suppose that every sunflower garden should have at least one of these traditional flowers. I actually have two this year. The birds have already started eating the seeds of one, which you can see in the top picture.

Did you notice the ‘coffee at midnight’ dahlias and some globe artichokes in with the sunflowers? I thought that they paired really nicely with them.

And that is my ‘Six on Saturday’ collection. Thanks so much for stopping by and I really hope you enjoyed the tour. Take care!

In Peace,
Dana

A garden clean up for today’s ‘Six on Saturday’

Posted on July 17, 2021 by Mominthegarden

Hi there, and welcome to my blog! I’ve been spending a lot of time cleaning up the garden as we’ve had some really warm days and everything is in overdrive! I’ve decided that my roses are absolute Divas! They are nothing short of spectacular, and they completely show off their loveliness. But they require the most care of any plant in my garden (real Divas!). Of course I’ll be showcasing one of them today as I join The Propagator‘s ‘Six on Saturday’ meme. You can visit his site and see lots of other links joining the meme as well!

1 The Ancient Mariner – David Austin Rose. This has been a fantastic year for roses. They are almost finished with their first flush of flowers, and boy were they amazing. But admittedly, these flowers require a lot of time both in preseason and during the season. Getting the pruning right can really help the season go well. I gave most of my plants a hard pruning this year, and they are doing much better than last year. I have noted the ones that didn’t get a hard prune as it will be their turn next year. But for now, deadheading is a full time job! This week I made an extra effort to clean up all of the dropped petals and leaves. It really looked so much nicer when it was tidy. I’ve added some feed and fresh compost to all of the plants, too. I’m hoping that it pays off with a good second flush of flowers!

2 Pink lilies. A number of years ago I bought a selection of pink flowers to be planted in one planter. It worked great and looked pretty over many weeks each season. But as time went on, the plants weren’t doing so well and seemed to be crowded and unhappy. So this year, I took all of the bulbs out to repot them. I could not believe how many bulbs there were! I filled three large pots with lilies, gladiolas and some other flowers I’m not quite sure of. The lilies looked so much nicer than they ever have (even after being eaten by some bug/slug). I’m looking forward to seeing all of the gladiolas, as so many have come up!

3 Sunflower Claret F1. I almost always grow sunflowers. I love having them in the garden! This is the first year I’ve tried a ‘non-traditional’ sunflower, and I think they are absolutely fabulous! They’re described as wine-red, but some of mine are a chocolatey brown/wine-red, with yellow on the back of the petals. They are tall, well taller than me, with lots of little off-shoots on every stem. I’m very happy with them, and hope to use some in an arrangement at some stage, too.

4 Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’. I added Helenium to my garden a few years ago, and I’m so glad I did. I think they look nice next to my daisies, but I also have some next to my yellow ‘Teasing Georgia’ David Austin roses and they look great there, too! Their mixture of colors (red, yellow and orange, with brown centers) is always fun. Mine do much better with supports, I’ve finally learned!

5 Red Kuri squash (pumpkin). Funny to be called Red Kuri and look this yellow. They apparently start out yellow and turn a redish-orange as they mature. I’m excited about this item in my garden as I actually have quite a lot of them. They are supposed to be quite tasty and our family like different types of squash, so I’m looking forward to eating these!

6 Pumpkin Arch update. Well, the plants are growing up the arch! What I need to clarify though, is what the plants are. So, way back in March, I sowed a bunch of seeds for the garden. But there were too many for my suntrap hallway that I use (because it is perfect for sowing seeds). While I tried to keep the different varieties in specific containers, and separated, that all fell apart once I started putting them outside to acclimate. So while I *thought* the red kuri pumpkins didn’t survive and the jack o’lanterns did, it seems quite the reverse happened (although I believe there are two jack o’lantern plants). This actually works out much better for my arch, because the Red Kuri squash are smaller than the jack o’lantern. It’s a learning process for me! Oh, and on the right side of the arch, on the right of the bed, are some Claret Sunflowers, although you can’t see the flowers because they are so dark!

That’s another week done. I hope you had a good one. I’m just so thankful for the wonderful weather we’ve been having. It has allowed me to work in the garden to my little heart’s content!

Feel free to check out the other ‘Six on Saturday’ posts!

In Peace,
Dana

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Tag Archives: red kuri squash

Transitioning from fall to winter

The magical lighting of fall

Sunflower bliss (continued!)

A garden clean up for today’s ‘Six on Saturday’