Little Magical One ~ Finn's Garden

I hadn't thought about the garden bed in front of the house, I don't even remember looking at it much until now..., didn't even notice how pitiful it was.
It came to me in an instant as I walked up the path to the front door the other morning on my way home from yoga feeling good and clear for the first time in days. It's going to be Finn's garden ~ below his bedroom window overlooking the Lake.

As it is now a nearly dead, over sheared cedar stands nearest to the front door, anchoring that corner of the house. It just has to go, ...sorry, to the compost. Two leggy, confused mugo pines are also headed for the compost, with whatever mystery spindles are left. There's some sort of lime-leafed spirea in the middle that I'm not sure what to do with - let it stay? Find a new garden for it? I'm not sure yet.
The rest is just empty, full of rocks... .

Finn's garden will be filled with soothing scents, healing plants, blues, whites, yellows, and crimsons, with meaningful names, and messages in flowers. The plants I'm sure will change over time, but as our grief grows so will this garden.

I've kept the one mugo pine that seems to be in good health in the plan, but I've replaced the cedar with a Picea glauca 'Pendula'..which Cathy is kindly sourcing for me. Heather has a beautiful one growing in her front yard, which I've swooned over for years. Though they originate in France, I think they look like neat versions of trees in Group of Seven paintings. 'Droopy Spruce' is what I've called them for fun..., but seeing as a giant black spruce or white pine are a bit too big for the space (a lot too big), the 'Pendula' is a good substitute. 

Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle is going to be taken from Pearl soon, divided and planted all over our new gardens. It will grow and spread, be divided again, given to friends, growing on and on. It was given to us from Chops and Patti, who wanted to buy us a plant to remember our first loss, after that devastating miscarriage ~ which was such a sweet gesture. Chops couldn't believe what I chose, as I carried the unassuming three leafed perennial around the nursery (Bill Martin's ~ before I worked there)... Perennials often don't look like much in their nursery containers, and at the time I think Chops worried it was an insignificant gift. 

I'll never forget the look on his face two years later when they were over for a barbecue, when he saw how the little plant had grown.

Alchemilla mollis has been a favourite garden plant for as long as I can remember. I love how the dew pools on the leaves, and the lemon-lime flower sprays are perfect for cut flower bouquets - like baby's breath... gorgeous.  

Little Magical One (from 2 March 2008) Alchemilla has long been associated with healing and alchemists. From an Arabic word, alchemelych, meaning alchemy; the plant is named so for its "magical healing powers," with folklore suggesting that even dew collected from alchemilla leaves has healing properties.

Also for tea, chamomile (I like the little pointy daisy-like heads of the German chamomile Matricaria recutita), and two of the David Austin roses Winchester Cathedral (to have a little of my mother and father in Finn's garden) and Heathcliff, lemon balm, echinacea, feverfew, and lemon thyme.

For blue, I'll plant a cranesbill geranium ('Johnson's Blue' is the usual go-to around here, but newer varieties have come along that just as blue, longer flowering, and less floppy...like, 'Rozanne' and another I can't remember by name right now..) and the purple leafed Geranium pratense 'Midnight Blue'..., also bluebells and forget-me-nots seeded beneath everything. 

The back border of the bed, with the chamomile and echinacea I'd like to plant so asters - so long as they don't get too crazy back there. Blue wood asters (A. cordifolius) and Heath Asters (A. ericoides) which will all bloom late in the summer, through Finn's birthday, my special September baby. 

For earlier in the season I've ordered some irises: 'White Wings' and 'Little Sighs', and I'm sure I'll find a few more. I haven't even started planning the tulip and daffodils that will begin each new year, but what I have in mind will be something special - from under the oak tree, across the yard and into Finn's garden I imagine a wave of early, mid, and late tulips surrounded by smiling daffodils.  

I'd like to include a lemony-buttery daylily - this may be the perfect spot for Double River Wye.., and some primrose (Miller's Crimson maybe). We'll see what sort of nursery finds follow me home this year.

another jerk

on our magical Lady's Mantle

Armyworm fact sheet from

Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives

True Armyworm infestations are more common in years with cool wet spring weather, which follow years of drought. The cool wet spring weather is thought to slow down the development of parasites which usually keep armyworm populations under control.

After hiding under debris during the day, movement and feeding occur at night - or on cloudy days.

Armyworm larvae are pale green in the early growth stage and dark green in later stages. Full grown larvae are smooth, striped and almost hairless, up to one to two inches in length. A series of stripes on the body are arranged by a thin, white, broken line down the middle of the black followed by a wide, dark, mottled stripe halfway down the side, then a pale orange stripe with white border, a brownish mottled stripe, and slightly above the legs, there is another pale orange stripe with white borders.

The adult armyworm is a light brownish gray moth or "miller" with a white spot about the size of a pinhead on each front wing. When expanded, the wings are about one inch across. Moths lay eggs at night in folded leaves or under leaf sheaths of small grain plants and other grasses. They prefer to lay eggs in moist, shady areas of vegetation.

For control, I'm using Btk

"Bacteria are present everywhere in our natural environment, including in soil, in food and even on our skin. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacterium that is found naturally in the soil and is known to cause illness in various insect larvae, including caterpillars of pest species such as gypsy moth, spruce budworm and cabbage looper.
There are more than 20 varieties of Bt. The "kurstaki" variety (Btk) is used for caterpillar control and other varieties are used for blackfly and mosquito control. It is not harmful to humans, birds, pets, fish, honey bees, beetles, spiders, etc.  Within each variety are numerous strains.  The Btk used for caterpillar control is the HD-1 strain."

more on Btk from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, British Columbia

I'm also introducing some beneficial insects - Trichograms Trichogramma brassicae
H was not impressed this morning when she discovered what I had left in the fridge overnight. Grin. I'm going to release them into the vegetable garden later this morning and will update later... :o)

...more on Trichograms from buglogical.com

and some really nerdy further reading:

Demography and life history of the egg parasitoid,
Trichogramma brassicae, on two moths Anagasta kuehniella and
Plodia interpunctella in the laboratory
S Iranipour, A Farazmand, M Saber, and Jafarloo M Mashhadi
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran
Agriculture and Natural Resource Research Center of East Azarbaidjan, Tabriz, Iran

Journal of Insect Science: Vol. 9 | Article 51
www.insectscience.org
10 July 2009

Being Backyardovich 15 May 2012

The backyard's east garden is coming up nicely this year. Feeling a lot more organized now with the dedicated vegetable garden, I'm thinking about containers for contrast and annual additions. 

Asiatic Lilies 

Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle

Irises under the Lilac

Monarda, Bee Balm

Rhododendron and Mugo Pine

Sedum  Autumn Fire

Weigela  'Red Prince'

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning swooped into the front garden late Monday afternoon while R was at a meeting. It brought cold beer and a rake, and took about half and hour to make a disaster of it all, and another hour to clean it (ish) before R returned and we went on with our never ending list of things to do.

I feel a huge relief for doing it, but also slight unable to move comfortably - in a good way, bad but good - not sick bad in any way, which if fine by me. My body just wasn't prepared for the sudden session of garden yoga. I cleaned back to the mass of ferns, and broke them down as mulch - that seems to have kept the ferns going thus far, so we shall just continue. Everybody else seems to be returning with enthusiasm.

Lady's Mantle
from Heather's garden

Pulmonaria, Lungwort & Heuchera 'Lime Marmalade

Columbine, 'Songbird Goldfinch'

I planted peas on the weekend: mammoth sugar heirloom, two rows of early snap, one sugar pod, and one sugar daddy. Short rows, but enough to enjoy an early harvest, then move on with the space. They're planted in our micro-climate nook, which has been ready for seeds for weeks. I'm brave enough, are you?
Peas like cool soil, cold even - and can tolerate light frost and snow. Pansies too, and radishes, lettuce too.

We have peas and lettuce coming, radishes soon, just had to find the seeds...

I can not wait to start digging in the new bed.., just a matter of time.

I've decided that the greenhouse is going to thoroughly consume me this year with dirty green wonderfulness, and I'm just going to let it have its way with me. I'm going to try to photo document as much as I can without being a pain, and getting the job done, and not killing my iPhone ...what a blessed thing the iPhone is.

In the Rain Garden

Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle

Rue

daylily

Pulmonaria and Columbine

Baby Millar's Lady's Mantle

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

e.e. cummings

Little Magical One

A member of the family Rosaceae, Alchemilla mollis or Lady's Mantle and A. xanthochlora, (which is much smaller with deeply lobed leaves), is one of two plants I'm considering planting in memory of Lisa.
Since she passed away I have been deeply affected by the condolences filtered through me. I'm in awe of countless, countless hearts broken and missing her friendship. She was a true healer to many. For this reason I've been drawn toward plants that heal, figuratively and otherwise.

Alchemilla has long been associated with healing and alchemists. From an Arabic word, alchemelych, meaning alchemy; the plant is named so for its "magical healing powers", with folklore suggesting that even dew collected from alchemilla leaves has healing properties.

Young leaves, raw or cooked, have a dry, bitter flavour. They can be mixed with the leaves of Polygonum bistorta (Common Bistort) and Polygonum persicaria (Spotted Ladysthumb / Redshank) then used in making a bitter herb pudding called 'Easter ledger' which is eaten during Lent.
The root is also edible; and the leaves are often used in tea.

It tolerates most soils densities, although requires it to be well-drained, and prefers it in the range of neutral to alkaline. It can grow in semi-shade to sun, and is drought tolerant.

There's a certain photographic side of me that, like many, adores this plant very much for how the water and dew collects like pearls.


books to read in the bathtub:

Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959

Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169

Stuart. M. (Editor) The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Herbalism Orbis Publishing. London. 1979 ISBN 0-85613-067-2

and The Book of Herbal Wisdom: Using Plants as Medicines by Matthew Wood
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The other plant I'm considering for Lisa is

• Althea officinalis Marsh Mallow

The generic name, Althaea, is derived from the Greek, altho (to cure), from its healing properties. The name of the order, Malvaceae, is also derived from the Greek, malake (soft), for the special qualities of the Mallows in softening and healing. Theophrastus (c. 372-286 BC) reported that it was taken in sweet wine for coughs, and Hippocrates cites althea in the treatment of wounds.
Leaving Greece, Mallow was considered a vegetable among the Romans.
...and oddly (but not), The Grateful Dead song Althea comes to mind, being one of Judith's favorites, and reminds me of conversations in the department office, and Lisa.

The leaves, flowers and the root of Althaea officinalis all have medicinal properties.

"Bot. [L. althaea, a marsh mallow, f. [the Greek] to heal.] A genus of the plants of which the Marsh Mallow and Hollyhockare species; by florists often extended to the genus Hibiscus. - Oxford English Dictionary

Flowering from July to September, it tolerates almost any soil type, ..but doesn't grow well in the shade.

"Whosoever shall take a spoonful of the Mallows shall that day be free from all diseases that may come to him." — Pliny the Elder

more books for the bathtub:

Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202

Elias. T. and Dykeman. P. A Field Guide to N. American Edible Wild Plants. Van Nostrand Reinhold 1982 ISBN 0442222009

Chevallier. A. The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants Dorling Kindersley. London 1996 ISBN 9-780751-303148