Quote du jour / Philip Larkin

Today at 3:21 pm Eastern time the sun goes into Libra, beginning the autumn season.

I came across this quote today and thought it perfect for the blowsy, over-stayed-its-welcome cleome! It looks so out of place amongst all the autumnal colors around these days. Unbelievably, we haven't had a frost yet!

Autumn has caught us in our summer wear.

Philip Larkin (1922-86)

That pink just doesn't fit! 😂

Quote du jour / Robert Finch

"But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness. The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head ... The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on."

-  Robert Finch 

I am quite sure this is the man the quote is attributed to.

It is so perfect, to me. This is exactly how we feel just now. The garden is pretty much over except for the glorious hollyhocks that just keep on comin', the sedum, and the ox-eye daisies in the blog header photograph. 

"Possessiveness". Isn't that just a perfect word for how we gardeners feel? We are trying to get it to look good and produce good vegetables. And now we can let it go. The season is over and all that happens now is cleanup and moving some plants around. The sun is not "beating on my head" anymore. 

And I love that phrase - "intense midsummer relationship". He isn't talking about "midsummer" in the British form. It is the actual middle of the summer, and for us that is pretty much July into August. And now we are in the last month of summer, with fall coming at 3:21 pm Eastern time on the 22nd. 

I took a little walk down the road to the mailbox today, and I thought to myself that these September days may be my very favorites of the year. Not only has the garden cooled but so has the air. There are no bugs, and there is an ease about life.

And some of that ease comes from the fact that Tom's mother is leaving the evaluation facility, and going back to where she was - in assisted living. The place also has a spot in memory care, should she need to go there. Not as close to us, but really only 90 minutes away, and Tom's sisters are only 45 minutes away. So we are all breathing a sigh of relief.

And, as I jotted down the quote, I had a vague feeling of having posted it before and by golly I did! You may find the post here if you are interested. I haven't changed a whole lot since 2007. 

Blueberry Report - 2021 (and a bit about flour)

I'm always pleased when I see our neighbor's name on my caller ID because it means blueberry season has begun! This year the first call was July 29. The last of the berries was on August 12. This year we bought 26 quarts. 

This is more than last year's 17, and equal to 2018's number. The man asked about the numbers because his wife likes to keep track, so I gave him the list I posted here on last year's blueberry report. 

What you may see to the left (and under) the berries is my bread flour.  A fourth-generation farmer just across the state line has begun growing wheat and other grains. The farm he grew up on was a dairy farm. Dairy, as you may know, has declined greatly in the country so they sold up, and he now has a grain farm. You may read an article about it here. I buy 50 pounds of whole wheat flour,  

move it to freezer bags, and freeze it. I take out a couple bags at a time so I always have some available. I make bread twice a week. The fridge freezer has local strawberries, and some blueberries from another local source. Today I am heading to the Co-op to get lots of local sweet peppers to freeze. Ah, August!

In praise of cleome and cosmos

Sometimes on TV you will hear the phrase "wow factor". Well, I think the cleome and cosmos both have it. This year we started two-year-old seeds of both these plants. We figured we had nothing to lose, and maybe they would be fine. And they were. More than fine! This is the variety of cleome I bought from Renee's Garden. Some people say "cle-ome-ee" but I prefer cleome, sounding like gnome. 

Hummingbird's Choice

Color Fountains Cleome

(Cleome spinosa)
Thomas Jefferson loved the beautiful flower trusses of tall cleome in his renowned flower gardens at Monticello. Today, these vigorous summer flowers are treasured in heirloom and restoration gardens. The 4 to 5 foot plants are crowned with huge flower clusters of pale pink, crisp white and rose-violet florets. Cleome’s unique blossoms with their long petals and spidery stamens are favorites of nectar-seeking hummingbirds. They make striking large arrangements when the long stems of bloom are brought indoors. 

I just love it that Windy Poplars Farm is growing a plant that Jefferson had in his garden! Have you ever read the wonderful book, Dear Mr. Jefferson: Letters From A Nantucket Gardener by Laura Simon?  

I grew one years ago, and it kind of took over the flower garden so this year we planted them out in the vegetable garden where they have plenty of room to spread out. I like having flowers among the vegetables, although I'm beginning to see it is vegetables among the flowers!

Blurry and washed out, but I wanted you to see how huge it is.

And aren't these stems otherworldly looking. 

They all don't look like that.

It has been noted by visitors that the leaves look like a pot plant, and even the smell is a bit "skunkish". I don't think they are related though.

That same year I also ordered this from Renee's. 

Double Butterfly Cosmos

Rose Bon Bon

(Cosmos bipinnatus)
New from the very best French breeders, florist-quality Rose Bon Bon offers you extra fancy, uniformly double blossoms densely packed with frilled petals in a rich romantic rose. This exceptionally beautiful and carefree new cosmos produces 3-inch flowers that bloom non-stop on long stems, making them perfect for cutting abundant bouquets all summer long. Butterflies love to visit these lovely blossoms as they sway above finely cut foliage.

This is an interesting cosmos because it has both these tight flowers and the more usually seen open ones.

Here is how they look together.

I think we planted three plants of each. Again, sorry for the less than perfect pictures. The afternoon sun is so bright. I should have waited for a cloudy day!

A different way of gardening

"If you want to attract wildlife into your garden, and increasingly most of us do, the key thing is you've to abandon trying to control every aspect of your garden and that will allow wildlife in." 

Monty Don on Gardeners' World.

This is a quote from a recent show, but he has been talking about this subject for years now. And we have followed his example. 

I expect most men just love to mow. I know that Tom always did. But he has had a sea change in his view. He no longer mows any of the lawns every week. In England this past May was "no mow May". At Windy Poplars Farm, it might be called "mow once in a while in May, June, July, August". And you should see the results. Both red and white clover, little white flowers I don't even know the name of, daisies, hawkweed, dandelions, Achillea/yarrow have all grown and prospered. We have seen bees and other bugs on them. When Tom does mow he leaves whatever is still in bloom. Along the edge of one garden a whole row of achillea grew; a real row - as if we had planted it. 

Another benefit is that when it is dry, as it was here early in the summer, the grass stays much greener. 

We shake our heads in pure delight at this change in our yard. The big fields are mowed only once a year at the end of the summer. When we had more animals we used to bring them into the other fields, but with only 8 sheep and a donkey, the barn pasture is plenty so we let those other pastures become fields loaded with all kinds of plants. Along our road/driveway are tansy, goldenrod, meadowsweet, brown-eyed Susan, buttercups. 

It is a veritable garden of Eden here now. In addition to all these wildflowers, a couple years ago we planted echinacea, monarda, perennial hollyhocks, and achillea milleflora in the terrace garden, and the butterflies and bees are plentiful. I left the flowers on the catnip plant and it is full of bees every day. There is a wild garden off the side yard where there are lupines and comfrey and globe thistle, and loads of milkweed. 

"Wildlife" has quite a different meaning to the people on Gardeners' World and people who live where we live in northern New England. It is not the bees and butterflies and other flying pollinators. Our wildlife is deer and coyotes and black bears. We've had them all visiting this spring and summer. The coyote only once. It was the biggest one I've ever seen. It was just looking into the pasture. I opened the door and said it should probably leave now, and it did. A mother and her two fawns come and eat from the garden most evenings, and they haven't done much harm. I don't begrudge them anything really because I am happy they come by. We also had a young bear early in the season. Just saw one the other evening and wondered if it is the same one, only bigger. There have been birds nesting, and the wild turkeys with their chicks. 

Possibly (probably) because of climate change, we've seen tomato plants pop up all over the garden from last year's tomatoes. Also potato plants and, just like last year, the calendulas have returned. Mallow has come back in grand fashion after being away for a few years, and the hollyhock in the patio garden appeared. 

The gardens and animals have been such a source of comfort and deep joy during this kinda still in the pandemic time, and also some family situations that have taken up a lot of time and emotion. Very, very thankful. I wanted to put up pictures today, but just didn't have the time. I'll try and do that soon.

Hoping for a blog post without the word "hay"?? Not quite yet!

Yesterday our young friend delivered nine bales of hay from a town about an hour north of us. There won't be more from that source, but we are so grateful. And on Wednesday we will go again to the next state for those five bales we are allowed. The animals are smiling.

Here is the lad himself.

And the hay.

Hay, again

Today Tom took two trips to get hay. The first was the feed store in the next state - the place where you can get five bales a week. And who knew that five bales would fit in a VW Golf! He put down the back seat, and voila!

That truck in the first picture is Matt's old, now dead, S-10, a truck much loved by those who had one. You can't get small trucks anymore. They are all huge - too huge in my estimation - and they cost a fortune.

Trip two was to a lovely place a few towns away. Turns out the guy cuts many fields and then sells the hay. Tom got four bales there, which were a bit bigger than the first load. So, nine bales in the barn. Money in the bank. I think we are going to try and sign up for next year's hay. Although I don't get political here, I am going to say that it has been a stress this year getting hay and feed at our usual store. It is one of the stores in the big town next to us where they refuse to wear masks. Most of the stuff we get is outdoors, but Tom still has to go inside for dog food, bird, and deer food. He's been going to another place sometimes, but the store is the only show in town when it comes to hay. I think it would be lovely to drive down to the new person's place once a week and get lovely, local hay.

So, there we are. Good for now. Haven't heard back from our friend yet, but that may well be another source. A tentative "whew". 

Hey, hey, hay

 So here we are on Groundhog Day. Tom went in to the farm supply store, and there was no hay. And there will be none till Friday. We have Nebby the donkey and eight sheep who need hay twice a day. Tom drove out to visit a farmer from whom we bought our raw milk for years and years who now raises meat cows. He said he didn't have any extra at all. He said because of the drought last summer there was a scarcity of hay all over. But his daughter's partner has some hay and he gave Tom her number. In the meantime I called a feed store in the next state, some 30 miles away and asked if they have any. She said yes, but she knows they are going to run out so they are allowing a customer to buy only five bales a week. That sounded great to me! I also texted a young friend (who is going to become a first time father this year at almost 43 years old) who knows everyone in the north country. He said he'd get back to me. He does know a guy. Tom came home and we are now going to get some hay from each of those sources, and then buy more at our store on Friday. But still, it is really worrisome. Our next call will be to a few towns north of us where the drought wasn't so bad.

It isn't enough to have a virus and discord in the country. We have to be fearful about the most basic of basics, hay.