It's Alive!

My computer is alive and kicking! A friend of ours came over Friday and helped get the ball rolling with his Linux Live CD (KNOPPIX). Prior to this CD I was unable to get it to recognize the CD drive or the external hard drive that I was using for back-ups. And the horror I faced when I realized that the last back up I could find was from 2005!!!

But all is well. My husband painstakingly downloaded all my files and applications onto a back-up drive. Then he began the repair process. My computer is now in pre-meltdown condition. And I am so grateful to the both of them!

Everyone should make friends with a computer geek. Actually, two wouldn't hurt!

This week I will get to posting some of those pictures that I have been waiting to get to, so bear with me!

Computer Down!

My computer went kaplooey, and all my garden photos were on it! I'm pretty sure that I should be able to retrieve them, but right now, I can't get to them to do any decent garden posts.

I haven't been getting much gardening done lately anyway. I have been traveling. I spent one weekend in Grand Marais, MN. It is a fantastic place to explore and eat out! We save tons of money camping instead of staying at a hotel, so we have plenty of money to splurge at gourmet restaurants. Plus, we do so much walking/hiking during the day that we easily burn off all those extra calories!

Last weekend we went to my brother's and then my sister's. It had been a while since I had seen them. When I showed up at my brother's he was finishing up some new landscaping around his house. When he moved to the house, the shrub beds were weedy and over-grown. He has done a wonderful job of turning all that around. He's even put in a flower bed with a few native species. Good for him!

When I got to my sister's she told me that when they re-did the road next to her property, they made it so that all the water drained onto her property! It gets really soggy in the spring and every time it rains. So, she asked me if I would help her design a rain garden. Of course!! So, I will be taking off one weekend this fall to go back to her house to start her garden. I knew the day would come when my yard would become too small to hold me!

And this has really got me thinking...
I have been approached by many people over the years for garden advice/help. Especially recently, even strangers have come up to me in my yard to ask if I am a professional garden designer and ask me if I have thought about doing it for other people. Maybe I should! I think that I could probably afford some time to do a couple each season. I really am going to think about it because it would mean that I could try out even more of the ideas that are swimming in my head!

It's Finally Happening

I like my garden this year. I have done a lot of good moving around and everything has really been coming together.


The gazebo area is coming along nicely. We leveled out all the feet and made planting beds at the base of each leg. In five of these we planted the clematis we bought earlier this year. The clematis are doing really well so far. I can't wait to see them next year!


I had one Stargazer lily in my garden. It looked very lonely all by itself, so I bought a bag of them this spring and planted them. Now it is a much happier looking area. And they smell nice!

I have been trying out different ideas for all that brick that I got last year and I have been really liking this use. I need something to hold the berm back, and it really looks snazzy.

And when it all comes together, it's a beautiful thing.

Pears O' Plenty

I work with a guy that owns an orchard with a variety of fruits: apples, cherries, plums, and pears, just to name a few. He has had his pear trees for five years and they have yet to produce. The "Luscious" pear tree pictured here has been at our house two years, was transplanted this spring to make room for the rain garden, and it has no partner tree; yet it is covered in pears. I have actually already taken off over two dozen pears just to keep this tree from over working itself and there are still this many pears left! We had gotten four pears from this tree last year and they were the best pears that I have ever eaten. I can't wait until these ripen.

Did You Doubt Me?

I AM THE OBSESSIVE GARDENER!!

Beauty and the Beast

I love my gas plant. I got it a couple of years ago and have been so smitten with the citrusy smell of the foliage, the compact and neat form of the plant, as well as the beautiful, long-lasting flower display starting sometime around Memorial Day as most of my tulips are fading away.

And I have been reading many posts from other gardeners who have discovered this most awesome plant. Many may even know why it is called a gas plant. The plant emits a flammable vapor; which on calm days, it is said, can actually be lit. It burns a beautiful blue and doesn't hurt the plant. I've never tried it myself, but I believe it.

Now, you may be thinking, "A plant that theoretically could burst into flames? Sign me up!"

But I have a warning for all you gardeners who, like me, have fallen in love with the beautiful gas plant. Bursting into flames isn't the only trick this plant has up it's sleeve.

I found out the hard way that if it can't get you with actual fire, it will attack you with a chemical that is photo sensitive and will actually cause your skin to burn and blister if exposed to sunlight after contact.

This has happened to me two years in a row! Last year when it happened I didn't realize what the blisters and dark markings were actually from. I thought maybe poison ivy, but it wasn't spreading as it notoriously does, and it really didn't itch that much unless I was out in the sun or the area got heated somehow.

The blisters lasted for about a month and the dark marks lasted for a few months. I was actually beginning to think that they might be permanent!

Over the winter, I read a few articles about gas plants to see how to propagate them. That was when I discovered that brushing against their foliage could cause skin irritation. They really didn't get into details about how bad it would irritate your skin, though. I have a few plants in my garden that give me a minor rash that lasts a couple of days if I have too much contact with them - no biggie, right? So, when I was pulling weeds around my gas plant a week ago and got scratched by it, I thought no biggie.

Boy was I wrong! In a couple of days, I had the same welts, blisters and dark markings that I had been plagued with most of last summer! I had even washed my arms after the scratching and that didn't seem to have done much to stop it.

On the up side, it doesn't seem to spread (although I am still careful of cross contamination) and calamine does seem to help. Also, although I need to research this a little more, it seems that the volatile chemicals appear with the seed heads. I have touched and brushed up against this plant many times every spring and during flowering and never a reaction. The reaction I got last year was at approximately the same time in June that I got it this year.

I am keeping my plant and haven't completely scrapped the idea of getting a few more (even though my husband is urging me to stay away from them). They are a great plant, I just have to be aware to beware not to be fooled by its beauty; this is one beast of a plant!

an additional article with similar experience Added 05/30/2009

Rain Garden Update

I have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks - work, work, get togethers, landlording, and lots of gardening.

In particular, SSB and I have been working on the rain garden. We finally tracked down our contract which was approved two months ago but the DNR guy neglected to give to us. As our neighbor says, "Never trust the government."

What exactly is a rain garden? The idea of a rain garden is to make a place for the water that falls on your property to collect and be used up by plants rather than running into the storm drains. Rain gardens normally use native plants since they are the best adapted to your property's particular conditions. I really liked that idea and took it as a challenge. My plan is to take a garden that can look rather boring

that uses plants that can look rather weedy

both pictures from www.urbanwaterquality.org

and make it appealing to the average homeowner.

We were given a design for the garden which looked very much like the design you see in the first picture above. I'm not too big on all these doughnut or kidney shaped rain gardens. Every rain garden that was on the demonstration list we were given was either doughnut or kidney shaped - OR BOTH! They just end up looking so unnatural and boring; whereas I prefer more natural looking layouts with some excitement. -And spirals, apparently, as the design that I came up with will be the second spiral garden on our property.

This is a "Before". I already started a garden here that I had been expanding over the years. At least 2/3 of the material in the garden needed to be removed (I gave them all new homes).

Here we have begun the lay out. I like to study a site for a while, then just start digging. The site will guide me as to the shape the garden should be. It's more divining than designing.

Most of the rain garden guides that I read mentioned an option for over-flow. They suggested a drain of some kind. I decided that, since the whole purpose of the garden was to keep water from draining off my property into our river, a holding pit made more sense. This pit will house the marshier plants that we purchased. It is the spirally part of the garden.

There is SSB watering the plants that we just purchased and laid out in the design. We purchased small plants so we could afford to get more of them, and they tend to transplant better when they are small. These should fill in nicely in a couple of months.
Here you can see the river idea that I was going for. The basin will be filled in with layers of sand, pea gravel, and progressively larger rocks once the plants are dug in. Right now, the rocks are serving to keep the plant pots from tipping over while we lay them out.

Are you ready for the dramatic Before & After?

Nice change, huh? Some of the plants in this picture were ones left from the original bed. They were either wildflower volunteers (like buttercups, goldenrod and daisies) or they were wildflowers that I had planted there myself. SSB and I did all the design ourselves and we did almost all the work too (the DNR guy helped dig for about an hour one day).

We still have a little more to do, but I think we might reach my goal of having it done by July 4th!

Easy Ligularia

Although I live in the North, my garden is mostly in full, and I mean FULL, sun. Plus, the summers here are generally in the high 80s and 90s with humidity in the same - but not infrequently does it get over 100F! Bleh! And barely any rain makes for a very poor environment to grow ligularia, unless you happen to have a consistently boggy area in your yard, which I do not.

However, I have happened upon what I would describe as no ordinary ligularia - Desdemona.

Desdemona, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways

First - the fact that it actually grows!! I have killed so many ligularia; and the ones that I have managed to keep alive before finding this one have required a lot of attention.

Second - it's easy! I barely have to do anything to mine - even in FULL SUN!!

Third - they grow in FULL SUN!! Strike that. They aren't so much "growing" as they are "thriving". Having them in full sun was an accident. This area was originally very shaded, but the shade came from annual sunflowers. I had intended to move the ligularia the following spring, but they never gave me a reason to follow through with that plan. Even in the height of summer they do just fine here in FULL SUN!

Fourth - rarely needs extra watering. Ligularia have gained quite a bit of a reputation for being water hogs; and I have to say that my vote is in the affirmative on that one for every other ligularia that I have grown. But these are no ordinary ligularia! I am watering many of my other regular garden plants due to lack of rain or excessive heat long before I even need to think about the Desdemona - and did I mention that these are in FULL SUN?

Fifth - their height. The oldest plant is already over 3' high this year!

Sixth - the texture they add to the garden. Their leaves are Huge! I was just reading the other day that gardens without variety in leaf size and structure will appear boring.
These are definitely not boring. In fact they really do make all the plants around them look better!

Seventh - the color. The leaves are a spruce green on top and an iridescent raspberry underneath. The dark stems add even more contrast and interest.

Eighth - they flower! And they have nice, big, interesting flowers - and lots of them!

Ninth - the structure and form. It is a very architectural plant that can be used successfully in a formal or cottagey garden.

Tenth - did I mention they were easy?


If some one had never planted a ligularia before, this is THE ONE that I would recommend.

Wonderful Wildflowers

When I garden, I don't so much "plan" as "go with the flow". Often the most wonderful things happen when I just let things happen.

As my garden has gotten bigger I have developed the habit of leaving some of the weeds to see what they actually are. Through the years I have been rewarded with lots of fabulous free flowers: violas, columbine, catchfly, hoary vervain, poppies, sunflowers, dame's rocket, lilies, goldenrod, milkweed, asters, veronica, rudbeckia hirta, pennycress, Virginia waterleaf, downy yellow violet, Solomon's seal, buttercups, winter cress, tansy, evening primrose, rose twisted-stalk, ground cherry, geranium, wild strawberry, white campion, and lots & lots of oxeye daisies - the current backbone of my garden!

But the one that I get the most people asking me about is my mullein. It is a biennial that looks like a velvet loose-leaf cabbage in its first year - very nice for the front of the border. In the second year, the plant elongates to 6 feet tall at times! Time for the back of the border at that height; and even if you move it in that second year, it blooms just fine.

It's a member of the snapdragon family that looks more closely related to lamb's ear or cacti. In fact, part of the reason that I personally love this plant is that, as it "ripens" after flowering, it reminds me of a saguaro cactus - well a soft, fuzzy version anyway.

They dependably start up around the garden every year and are fairly easy to move. I loved the way that these were bunching here in my prairie garden, so I moved a few more here.

Just when I thought they were looking fabulous themselves, the peony bloomed. I love the white pompons behind the silvery, fuzzy foliage of the mullein. What a happy accident!

Mullein are EASY to take care of. After you get them re-established after transplant they should NEVER need anymore care - no water, no food, no fuss. Nice.

Some of these mullein are already three feet high, but don't worry - behind them is Queen-of-the-Prairie which also gets up to 6' tall. And behind that are my compass plants which can get 7' tall!!

I will be planting winter cress among the mullein this year as I find them in my veggie beds. They have beautifully full tufts of yellow in mid-spring.

In front of them I have seeded pennycress that I collected from the patch that started itself there the last three years. This is a great little annual from start to finish. Nice form, pretty flower, interesting seed pods, and great ripening color. It also blooms right before the winter cress, so there should be continual color in this bed.

Don't have a prairie garden? Don't worry, I think they work well in the average, well kempt garden too!
The mullein are impressive at all stages, even in death. They create stately bird feeders throughout the fall and winter months- goldfinches and woodpeckers especially love the seed.

Mulleins have encouraged me to continue to let the weeds grow. Who knows what gem I will find next!

Vexing Vines

I decided that no matter what I was going to get the clematis planted this last weekend, which meant that I had to finish leveling the gazebo. It was difficult since it has been raining almost everyday for a week, but I got it done Saturday morning.

When I brought the clematis out to plant, the Comtesse de Bouchard all had some sort of fungus, even though the Blue Ravine right next to them were unscathed. I went to the nursery to ask if they had a fungicide I could use on them and they told me to bring them in for an exchange instead. I know you are going to say that was nice of them but actually they were quite snotty about it even though I never asked them to do it. They only had two though, so I got a refund for the third.

I have never bought a potted vine with a mini trellis before. I seriously suggest that they include instructions with these things! I started with the Comtesse since I really wanted to get them planted to avoid the fungus problem. I nearly destroyed one and did destroy the other trying to get the damn trellis unhooked from the pot so I could get the plant out. My suggestion with this set up is to cut the pot to release the trellis hooks from the bottom, take the plant and trellis out together, plant the vine, and if you want to remove the trellis - clip the vine free with sharp mini pruners. Oh, and you'll probably want a second person to help hold things. It was a nightmare.

Just as two years ago when I knocked a hibiscus shoot off the plant, I quickly acted to make cuttings. I have 6 of them and I tried all three ways that I read about. Something HAS to take, right? We'll see.

The oak I transplanted on Mother's Day is still alive. It looks like we will be losing the very top two branches, but everything else is looking pretty good. I figure that since it is three weeks in, that tree just might make it. Yay!

The pear that I transplanted this spring didn't even seem to notice that it had been moved. It never wilted at all, bloomed profusely, and is now covered by about three dozen pears! It had over four dozen, but I clipped off over a dozen of the smallest pears to keep the tree from over-working itself. This tree is only a few years old and barely taller than I am and was recently transplanted but still manages to crank out dozens of fruit - what a trooper!

My Tiffany tea rose made it another year. See my pretty toes?


Here is the rodgersia flower in full bloom. Not bad, huh? This will look really nice when there are a bunch of them blooming at once.