Summer, Fall...Winter?

June

Well, this has certainly been the craziest few months. Canceled plans and lots of staying at home did give me more time to work on the garden, especially at the beginning of summer.

Aren't June gardens beautiful?

July

This summer was quite hot and dry for New England. I spent a lot of time watering and watering... and taking photos!

This spring I started posting pictures of the garden on Instagram.  While I'm not on social media a lot anymore, I have been enjoying Instagram.  Posting pictures is quicker than blogging, and I love seeing other photos of gardens and plants!

August

Somehow life still seems busier than ever with everyone home all the time - lots of cooking and cleaning and trying to keep everyone organized.

With a serious health risk in the family, my husband is fortunate to work remotely, and the kids are in virtual school.  Thankfully, school has been going relatively well, and the kids have some really great teachers that have been working hard to make things go smoothly.

September

Unfortunately, with a family member with a possibly worsening health issue, the one thing that is daunting is dealing with such things in the middle of a pandemic.

Days of doctor's appointments and lab tests involve going in to Boston to the hospital - exactly where we were trying to not end up.  The doctors are trying to get everything done as quickly as possible as our COVID numbers in Massachusetts are increasing.

October

Other than the doctor visits, October in New England has been glorious.  Fall is my favorite time of year, and the changing of the leaves has been spectacular this year.

Well, until yesterday anyway...

A record for an October snowstorm here, of course.

Seems on par for 2020, right?

Happy gardening?

Canada Lilies

There are only three true lilies native here in the Northeast, and one of them is the Canada Lily, or Lilium canadense. (Our other native lilies are Turk's Cap Lily and Wood Lily.)

Canada Lily

Three years ago I bought three lily plants from Garden in the Woods, a native garden and nursery, and planted them in the gazebo garden.  They took a bit to get established, but now are flourishing.

Sometimes also called wild yellow-lily or meadow lily, Canada lilies are native to eastern North America and found in open woodlands, moist meadows, and savannas.  They prefer dappled or partial sunlight and medium to moist soil and are hardy from zone 3 to 9.

My lilies bloomed for about three weeks from the later part of June through early July, with gorgeous apricot and yellow flowers, freckled underneath.  Canada lilies may be different in coloration, though, ranging from yellow to red-orange.

These lilies attract Halictid bees (aka sweat bees) and large butterflies such as Swallowtails and Great Spangled Fritillaries.  The only thing I actually noticed enjoying my Canada lilies, however, was a hummingbird.  I got some great pictures of it... if only the memory card had been in my camera.

I keep all my lilies in my protected gazebo garden so that the deer don't eat them.  I have spotted a few of the invasive Lily Leaf Beetles in my garden, but on my other, non-native lilies.  It's the first time I've really noticed the beetle in my garden.  They have released several parasitic wasps throughout New England for a biological control, so I do hope that they won't become a problem.

Historically Canada lily was used medicinally for such things as stomach disorders, dysentery, rheumatism, irregular menstruation, and snake bites.  The buds and roots of these lilies were traditionally eaten by Native Americans, and the bulbs are said to have a bitter or peppery flavor.  Some sources label the lily roots as 'starvation food' eaten in times of famine, so I don't think I shall be trying them any time soon.

I would rather have the flowers in my garden anyway.

Happy gardening!

One Scarlet Poppy

Last year I planted 'Bridal Silk' Shirley Poppies in the gazebo garden.

The pure white annual poppies looked beautiful, a nice foil to lilies and delphinium.

Interestingly enough, one red poppy seed made it into the packet of white poppy seeds.  I was amused and let it be in the garden.

But that one scarlet poppy had an effect. The plants seeded around in the garden, and this year, several of the poppies that came up are... a little different.

A few have blush pink edged petals.

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A couple others look even more like (what I'm assuming is) their red-flowered parent.

It is interesting to see what effect just one poppy had on my little garden of flowers.

It makes me wonder what next year's garden would look like if I keep the red and orange ones in, though they do not quite go with my more pastel-themed front garden.

But how beautiful is that?

Happy gardening!

Fire the Gardener?

During the winter I always come up with so many plans for the garden, and it is always right about now that I realize just how many of those didn't come to fruition due to the laziness of the gardener.  (I really should fire her...)  

Lonicera sempervirens 'Tangerine Princess'

I have a shoebox full of seeds not sown, and my deck is full of seedlings not planted.  A new garden section isn't dug, and the beds are not all nicely weeded and mulched (even though I promised myself that this year would be the year.)

Thankfully it is also easy to overlook all those faults.  This time of year the garden is usually bursting with blooms that far overshadow the weeds, and this summer is no exception.

Clockwise from top left:  hellstrip and front garden, Delphinium elatum 'Million Dollar Blue', Clematis 'Niobe', driveway garden, 'The Wedgwood' Climbing Rose

And there are some accomplishments this year to celebrate.  The overabundance of bulbs ordered in winter might have been planted on the late side of spring, but some are already in bloom, such as this Aztec Lily.

Sprekelia formosissima, aka Aztec Lily

And, thanks to my new gazebo garden that keeps out the deer, I am finally able to grow lilies.

Clockwise from left: Lilium martagon 'Pink Morning', Lilium pumilum, Lilium canadense

The gazebo garden is also full of poppies grown from seed this spring.

'Bridal Silk' Shirley Poppy

(Though when I say 'full' of poppies, I mean it, as not a whole lot of thinning happened....)

a rather full gazebo garden

I am am so excited to see my 'Princess Kate' Clematis in bloom for the first time this year.  I planted it two years ago, but transferred it to the gazebo garden last fall after it kept getting nibbled by rabbits.  When I bought it, there were conflicting reports about whether or not it would be hardy in my zone 6 garden.  Thankfully, if it made it through last winter with its lack of snow cover, it is most definitely hardy.  I love clematises, and this one is such a beauty.

Clockwise from top left: Clematis 'Roguchi', C. 'Lemon Bells, C. 'Princess Kate', C. 'Bees Jubilee' (I think)

There were a few plants lost from the winter, but more than enough in the garden have thrived and grown to make up for them.

Maybe I won't fire the gardener after all.

A Hill of Very Long Beans

My new gazebo garden gave me more fenced-in space this summer, so I just had to try growing a few new veggies, one of which was the Chinese Red Noodle Bean.

Chinese Red Noodle Bean (banana for scale)

This impressively-sized bean is also commonly known as the Yard Long Bean, Chinese Long Bean, Snake Bean, Asparagus Bean, and Pea Bean.  The botanical name is Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, and this legume is not actually a bean at all.  It is a variety of cowpea and in the same family as black-eyed peas.

The heat-loving vines did wonderfully in my sunny front yard.  I planted the seeds in June, and two months later they started producing beautiful, fragrant flowers followed quickly by the beans.

The vines are vigorous and indeterminate (which means they keep growing and growing), ending up around 9 to 12 feet tall by the end of summer.  Once they started producing, they didn't stop.  I think I planted 8 seeds, and I ended up with crazy amounts of beans.  I gave away piles of beans, as there were far more than we could eat along with the other veggies from our garden.

one harvest of Chinese Noodle Beans

The beans were definitely better picked before they got too long and overly mature, before about a foot and a half.  I enjoyed the mild flavor.  Many think they taste more like asparagus, which is probably why a nickname is Asparagus Bean.  This is a great bean for a stir-fry.  It is highly nutritious, a good source of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, folates, and other nutrients.

So were these plants incredibly productive?  Yes

Were the beans delicious? Yes

Would I grow these again?  NO, because of...

THE ANTS.

Yard Long Beans have extrafloral nectaries right below the flowers.  These nectaries secrete a sweet, carbohydrate-rich food that attracts ants.  In return, the ants protect the plant from predators that want to eat it.  Like me. 

several ants on this one

I don't know if it was just my ants or what, but they were very good at their job.  Every time I tried to pick a bean, the ants went crazy, racing up and down the bean.  Imagine me, a vertically challenged woman who has to harvest these beans while standing on a step stool, trying to pick beans in this jungle of vines while constantly swatting ants off of me.  I only got bit once, but still. 

my hard-fought pile of beans

Online others have said that they would just shake the bean and the ants would run away or fall off, but that didn't work with mine.  I must have the extra-special guard ants.  It is too bad, as these were great, productive beans.  If anyone has a solution to fight off the ants, let me know.

Until then I will be sticking to my more regular pole beans.