WEEDING THE WALK

 A two week summer vacation is a classic joy, but gardeners do it anxiously. They are anxious to go and anxious about what will happen to their gardens while they are away.   

This year my husband, Jay and I went to Edinburg, Scotland the last week of June and the first week of July.  The days were long and the weather in Scotland uncharacteristically warm and dry.  Those extra hours of sunlight in that northern latitude produce a bounty of flowers in every yard, garden and roadside wild space. 

Before leaving Old Greenwich I set up a water timer with soaker hoses to give newly planted shrubs water every other morning early.  In addition a standard sprinkler refreshed the potted rosemary, lemon verbena and a small garden area.  The system kept all those plants growing well.  But in my absence my established garden and front walk became a wild patch of crab grass and weeds in just 15 days.  When I was back home and ready to go out to root out the weeds the temperatures were in the 90s and the humidity about the same.  I only worked a short time before having to quit for the day.  

A friend gave me a wonderful suggestion of a different tool to attack the creeping grasses.  As it happens my husband has three in his work shop. I had been using my Japanese-style weeding knife and an old asparagus knife, neither of which are easy to use between the closely laid bluestone pavers.  The tool I needed is a sheetrock saw (center tool).  It cuts the roots of the grass weeds which reduced by half the time spent weeding the walk. It saved my day.

  

Look Carefully as You Weed your Garden

American Pennyroyal - an old friend in my garden

Behind our garage there is a small garden with brick paths.  It was installed by my father-in-law, Joe Louden sometime during the 1950s.  At the time he created the garden it was in full sun which was very good for his hybrid tea roses.  The years between then and now  large Norway maple trees on the neighbor’s property have grown tall providing shade.  

By the time I came to this house in 1995 the roses were not prospering.  When I removed those remaining I planted flowering perennials and herbs.  Most of those plants were from my prior home in Bakerville, New Hartford, Connecticut.  They did not grow because the Norway Maple roots had made a thick mat in the soil.  

With shade and competition I was reduced to whichever of my plants would grow.  Dwarf curly chives, Allium senescens glauca, for an edger, Rudbeckia seeds from a neighbor’s garden, tough Hosta sieboldiana ‘Mrs. Allen’ were enough to make the three beds look like a garden. 

In August 2017 while I was sitting weeding grass from the curly pink-flowering Alliums I found two plants growing wedged between the bricks. I was very surprised and delighted when I reached out and touched the little leaves of the plants which were only 6 inches tall.  The scent of pennyroyal brought me back to my garden planted in Pine Meadow, New Hartford in 1972. It seems that my sense of smell is primal, rooted somewhere in the brain, buried deep with memories.

How could I suddenly find American pennyroyal, Hedeoma pulegioids, growing in a garden and yard where I never planted it? Those plants I grew 40 years ago would scatter their seeds and provide annual self-sown seedlings.  The plant is a New England native, hardly of interest to anyone.  It certainly is not at every garden center or seed company. How did it get to my garden?   Perhaps the seeds came in soil around plants transplanted 20 years ago, to this garden.  I will never know for certain.  

My discovery of the American pennyroyal made me check my library of herb books for more information.  Fortunately my mother, Bunny Foster did write about it in her 1966 book,Herbs for Every Garden, page 73, see the following:

Pennyroyal, American (Hedeoma pulegioides)

Height.1 foot

Leaf and blossom.  In walking through open meadows in New England  It is often possible to smell pennyroyal before you see it.  The slight plant is a bit similar in leaf and habit to basil but on a more delicate scale. Every part of it is filled with the characteristic aroma of its essential oil, Oleum Hedomae.  The few bluish flowers are in whorls: tiny blue, slightly hairy, two-lipped tubes circle the stem, projecting from the axils of the leaves.

Culture. Pennyroyal collected in the wild, as seeds or young plants, is worth getting started in the herb garden.  Cultivation improves the plants which will self-sow for many years.  Brushing against it makes weeding a fragrant job.  You won’t find American pennyroyal in any catalog.  The perennial English pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium, is offered as a plant by herb specialists, but the little wilding has to be your own discovery.

Habit. Pennyroyal is found in dry places from Canada southward through New England.  It is usually in the company of meadow violets, wild strawberries and black-eyed susans.

Uses. The U.S. Dispensatory says that American pennyroyal is a gentle stimulant aromatic which may be given for colic and a sick stomach.  It makes a pleasant tea, either fresh or dried, when steeped in boiling water.  And it proves a soothing morning beverage after a night out.

Comment. Pennyroyal may some day one studied to isolate the insect repellent oil which has proven itself over centuries through empirical uses.  A handful of the herb rubbed on the face and arms will protect the gardener from mosquitoes and small flies.

I read my mother’s words written over 50 years ago and still find them true. 

I kept close watch on the two plants I found last summer. They flowered, seeded and provided me with dozens of new plants in spring 2018. Perhaps next year I will have enough to share with my gardening friends.  

BUNNY AND PHIL FOSTER'S GARDEN - BELDEN STREET

THREE GARDENS by Gertrude B. Foster 
November 1951

To the gardener the most welcome part of winter’s coming is the promise of a new beginning next spring.  While the snow piles  high over the brown stalks of summer’s passing, in imagination we see greater triumphs of blossoming and thrifty growth, undaunted by insects and blights next year.

That is the way we regard the move to our own home on the other side of the village. (Falls Village, CT) It is on a south slope of land reaching down to the broad Housatonic river. There are situations for ideal garden spots,  sheltered and sunny.  During the winter, while finishing up the renovation of the eighteenth century  house with its charming little cupboards, wide floor boards, and huge basement kitchen with stone fireplace and Dutch oven, we will plan the sunken  garden, which is to be in the old barn foundation, and the rock garden on the limestone ledges west of the house.

In the past ten years we have made and left three gardens.  Although we could only rent the places where we lived, we could not live without gardens.  Now, as we turn our backs on this the third and loveliest garden of them all, why do we not have regrets for all the plant pets which must be left behind and the seedlings which will self-sow next year, only to be lost in weeds.  We have no regrets because we have taken with us each time precious experience which far outweighs the work and material left behind.  From this last and largest garden we take a way of life.  A garden press has grown out of the plantings here which will preserve, through the magic of printing the joy of this garden as well as the story of great gardens made centuries ago.

Of course, there will be more work than we have ever had before.  When we took care of three acres of herbs for drying, in Morristown, New Jersey, and Phil was doing war work, we thought we were busy all the time.  But then we didn’t have the seed business, which occupied us the year around in our second home and for years after we moved to Connecticut.  With the publication of the magazine and books now added to seed collecting and field growing of plants, we have decided that we must give up selling seed so this year we did not send out a seed catalogue.

Note by Rosemary F. Louden:

When Bunny (Gertrude B. Foster) wrote this message to the people who had subscribed to The Herb Grower Magazine, she was 31 years old. and I was six.   

Now sixty-six years later I find her words reassuring because I recognize that some day I may move away from my “plant pets” knowing they will not come to a good end. Thankfully that event is not imminent.  

Scented Geraniums - Variety in Your Sunny Window

No collection would be complete without the velvety leaved Peppermint Geranium, Pelargonium tomentosum.  The decumbent growth and slivery sheen of the fine hairs on the leaves make each plant look like a flower arranger’s idea of perfection right in its own pot. (Description GBF, photo RFL, Lyon Botanical Garden, France.)

Scented geraniums, Pelargonium species are simple to grow and have enough uses to repay the care taken to bring them in the house year after year. The most commercially available scents are rose, lemon, apple, nutmeg and peppermint, Their leaf growth in its variety of forms adds to this plant family’s diversity.

One summer I asked a friend to check on my herb garden for some weeks.  She was happy to trade a few hours weeding and watering for the chance to harvest fresh herbs for her cooking. I had just set out a six inch rooted cutting of the lemon scented geranium, Dr. Livingston.  She rubbed the leaf and remarked on the nice smell.  When I came back from my vacation my friend greeted me with the sad news that she could not find Dr. Livingston.  Together we walked to the spot where it was planted.  I smiled as I looked down at the large sprawling Dr. Livingston geranium that had flourished in my absence.  I picked a couple of leaves and gave them to her and she smiled too.  Certainly it did not look like the young cutting and she had no idea it could grow that quickly.  The following copy written by my mother suggests that it is easier to learn to take cutting than to bring in a large plant at the end of summer. - RFL

Herbs for Every Garden by Gertrude B. Foster p. 123

Geraniums, Scented (Pelargonium species)

  The way one group of plants can develop scents similar to other flowers and fruits, as in scented pelargoniums, is one of nature’s great mysteries.  Certainly, perfumes have powers for remedial action against bacteria and affect the psyche to the extent of raising the spirits and stirring appetite and memory.  If all other means of gardening were closed to me, the fragrant mimicry of pelargoniums on a windowsill would carry me through the year, provided I had cuttings, a bit of sand, soil and adequate sun. 

Height. Aside from some climbing species, most geraniums do not exceed two feet in height, except where they are grown outside the year round, as in their native South Africa or in California

Leaf and blossom. There are many greenhouse varieties of pelargoniums.  The most familiar to herb growers is rose geranium, Pelargonium graveolens, with its broadly cut leaves of a rose-like perfume.  The flowers are small, separate pinkish or pink-veined with purple, and the foliage is the most significant aspect of the plant.  Peppermint geranium, with its velvety, grape-like leaves and small white blossoms is P. tomentosum. Lemon-scented, P crisp has the most conspicuous flowers of the group, on quite long stems, which are a deep rose color  Here again it is the leaf texture, crisped and of a fruit fragrance, which is distinguishes the plant.  Nutmeg and apple geraniums have small, almost rounded, soft gray leaves with the scent of spice or apple.

Culture.  Propagated by cuttings rooted in sand in full sun in the window garden or greenhouse, pelargoniums often grow too large in the garden to be returned to the house in the fall.  The lemon geranium takes longer than most to root, sometimes three months.  Cuttings of geraniums should be made six weeks before frost so that the plants may be potted before the source material is lot.  Drainage is important to pelargoniums.  The average potting soil mixture should have sand or fine grit added to it. It does no harm to the plants to have the pots small enough to dry out daily between waterings.  Blooms will be encouraged by undersize pots, and there will be less danger of root rot.

Uses. The pelargonium clan can furnish the basis for tiny bouquets called tussle-mussies.  The fresh leaves invite experimentation for garnishing fruit cup or salad. If leaves of rose geranium are put in a pint jar with granulated sugar the sweetening will take up the perfume flavor to be added to any dessert you prefer.  Apple jelly flavored with rose geranium leaves is an old-fashioned delight. 

1955 Herb Grower Magazine Volume 4 by Gertrude B. Foster

Scented Geraniums for a sunny window: A collection of Scented Geraniums, better known as Pelargoniums, offer fun and fragrance for the whole winter.  The variety of shapes of leaves, perfume of the foliage and general habit of growth is so great we often wonder why Pelargoniums are not more popular than African Violets.  The propagation is easier and the care indoors less fussy.

Maybe we really like them because they are unusual.  To collect all the types now available would take several years and a successful grower can make his own crosses.  Plants will bloom toward mid-winter, especially if they are fresh starts from cuttings made in late summer and kept slightly pot-bound. The blossoms are not as large as those of the well-known Geraniums but in their dainty way quite as appealing.  The real difference between the two groups is in the irregularity of petals in the Pelargoniums.

Geraniums have five evenly spaced and regular petals whereas in Scented Geraniums or Pelargoniums the groupings are in twos and threes with the upper ones usually larger and more colorful.

Not all Pelargoniums are as easy to propagate as the familiar Rose Geranium.  It has cut leaves of a rich rose-like odor often used to flavor apple jelly or sponge cake by placing a leaf in the bottom of the jelly glass or cake pan before filling. There are quite a few forms of Rose Geranium, Pelargonium graveolens.

Just glancing down one page of Pelargoniums in a catalog we see Camphor Rose, Skeleton Rose (the leaves are much thinner and cut like a skeleton of the Rose Geranium leaf), Large leaved Rose, Little leaf Rose and even a variegated mint-scented rose.

Usually the variegated ones are in the lemon-scented group, (botanically, Pelargonium crispum).  The leaves are smaller and crisped about edge with fine indentations.  Prince Rupert is the largest of the group with a very handsome form with creamy edging on the leaves.  Pelargonium crisp in all its varieties needs more water than Rose Geranium and is very slow to root.

Another Lemon-scented group is Pelargoium limoneum with a strong lemon pungency and fan-shaped, tooth leaves.  Lady Mary is Pelargonium Limoneum also, with showy flowers and a slight lemon scent.  Lemon Balm-scented Pelargonium is given a different species name, P. Melissimum.

There are forms with leaves in the shape of oak leaves, Pelargonoiium quercifolum, such as Giant Oak, Sharp-toothed Oak, Prostrate Oak, Staghorn Oak Leaf and Fair Ellen. There seems to be a sticky, glandular secretion upon the oak-leaf Pelargonium foliage.  It is not much scented but the flowers are among the showiest of the Scented Geraniums.

The Apple, Nutmeg types are rounded in leaf with a fine flannelly texture.  Apricot and Filbert-scented are other offerings in the Village Hill Nursery catalog.  To see the names, makes one want to create a conservatory just for Pelargoniums.  Mecca for a collector of this genus is the glass house at the New York Botanical Garden which houses a huge collection [in 1955].

ODE TO MY SIDE YARD BORDER GARDEN

It has come to pass that the Town of Greenwich needs a four foot one inch easement along the side of our house so it can replace a storm drain on our neighbor’s property.  This is not a happy development.  When I moved to Old Greenwich in 1995 I assumed the yard from Charlotte and Joe, my in laws.  It was their home for over 50 years.  The hemlock hedge around the property was 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide and in decline.  The yews by the front steps left little room to reach the porch. I could see the charm of the house built in 1917.  

After my husband, Jay took his chainsaw to the overgrown shrubs and I dug out the roots, it was time to plant anew.  It was also time to sell my parents' home where they had gardened for 60 years and our own family’s eight acres where I collected many wonderful varieties of flowers, shrubs and herbs.  With less than a quarter acre to work with and large Norway Maple trees close by in neighbors’ yards I took a Noah’s Arc approach and transplanted my most treasured plants.  

Now I must plan a rescue removal of the plants growing in the 160 foot long and five foot wide bed that includes the proposed easement.  Perhaps we can negotiate a fair arrangement to save the two specimen Chamaecyparis obtusa trees I planted twenty years ago that have grown into handsome specimens. The fifteen year old flowering “Stewartia” accenting my steps will be chopped down. 

The town’s engineer asked if this list was accurate, he could not imagine growing all these plants.  I will admit that if you are not a gardener it could raise eyebrows.  But this is the list that I made in May as I weeded and mulched the plants along my border garden.

Syringa - 2 lilac shrubs (one white and one dark purple)  

Kolkwitzia amabilis - Beauty Bush - 17 years, gift from my father at my mother’s passing - seedling of his plant  

Clethra - pink flowering gift from friend 18 years 

Narcissus - 30 Daffodils  

Hemerocallis - 25 Daylily plants various hybrids and rare selections (no wild orange) 

Hosta Blue Cadet - 10 

Hosta Francis Williams - 3 

Hosta Mrs Allen - 5 

Adiantum - 12  Maidenhair fern  

Asarum europaeum - European ginger 

Sanguinaria canadensis - Native wildflower - single bloodroot 

Hydrangia - 4 varieties established shrubs 

Iris Japanese 3 varieties(White heron, rare purple/white, Eleanor Perry) 

Iris Henry Shaw - 10 white German iris 

Iris pumilla - 25  dwarf early flowering purple 

Iris dwarf cherry - 15 semi-dwarf red iris 

Iris dwarf yellow - 15 semi-dwarf yellow iris  

Iris  - yellow flag 

Iris cristata - 50 (rare native) 

Paeonia lactifolia - single flowered peony - 3 pink  

Polygonatum  - Variegated Solomon seal 

Rubus - Jewel black raspberry (8 plants) established and productive 

Rubus - red raspberry (5 plants) established and productive 

Cyanococcus - 2 hybrid blueberry shrubs (10 years) 

Podophyllum - Mayapple 

Epimedium  - yellow  

Muscari - grape hyacinth 

Cornus florida - white Dogwood 50 years old 

Paeonia - Double pink peony  

Nepeta cataria - Catnip 

Levisticum officinale - lovage herb 

Allium schoenoprasum - chives herb 

Allium tuberosum - garlic chives herb 

Rosa Floribunda - 3 roses (pink and red)  

Hakonechloa m. aureola - Golden dwarf Japanese grass  

Buddleia - 2 Butterfly bushes (purple) 

Angelica - 10 culinary herb 

Buxus - English boxwood 17 years - rooted from a bouquet at my mother's funeral 

Artemisia albula - Wormwood Silver King 

Malva - Pink 

Digitalis (- pink foxglove) first planted 1979 

Helianthus tuberosus - Sunchoke  

Silene coronaria - Rose Campion 

Lismachia purpurea - Purple Loosestrife 

Platycodon - balloon flower 

Onoppordum acanthum - Scotch Thistle 

SAGE - A GARDEN BEAUTY

Purple Sage and Curly Parsley at the Denver Botanic Garden

Tri-color Sage in my Greenwich garden

The holiday feast would not be complete without a turkey and stuffing flavored with sage. If you have it growing in your garden you can rely on it to be available for the chef because it can be harvested over a long season.

As fall mellows and then chills, many garden plants become tattered and straggly tempting the gardener wielding clippers to make the garden tidy. There are leafy herbs that defy this trend and show their glory even through frost and light snow.  Lavender, rosemary, silver horehound, thyme and sage all put on a fine display until a heavy freeze or deeper snow.

One delicious and durable member of this group is Salvia officinalis.  The most common varieties have gray green leaves with a matte textured surface. However, I find the purple, gold and tricolor leafed sage plants impart color while also adding their traditional flavor in cooking. 

Late in October my husband, Jay, and I spent a happy week in Denver with our daughter and her family.  The Denver Botanic Gardens, a lustrous jewel in Cheesman Park has plentiful herbs in formal and informal plantings.  Sages seem to love the high dry climate.  They are more fragrant there than in my Connecticut yard.  The difference is most likely due to the intense sunlight in Colorado and Long Island Sound’s summer humidity. My yard has lots of shady areas and fewer hours of hot sun.

PINE NEEDLES - Free and Easy Garden Mulch

Eastern White Pine - Pinus strobus

Newly fallen pine needles

Each fall pine needles drop. 

This year there is an abundance probably due to the drought that Connecticut and Massachusetts are suffering. One of the best ways to protect plants from drought conditions is to cover the soil  around your plants with mulch. Pine needles make an excellent mulch.  The water passes directly through and the resin content of the pine needles makes the mulch dry on the top deterring plant diseases.  And if you look around your neighborhood there could be plenty, just for the taking. 

Before the dinosaurs 50% of the earth's plants were conifers. Then plants (and trees) with flowers arrived 140 million years ago and became the dominant success story, reducing conifers to only 15% of the earth’s plants today. So if you are considering adding trees to your landscape consider conifers to keep plant diversity in your neighborhood.

The pine trees pictured here are along the edge of a parking lot owned by my town.  The ground crew will soon blow them into the parking lot and take them away to a landfill.  This is unfortunate.  If they were left in place they would feed and enrich the soil, save some labor, eliminate the noisy use of leafblowers and save space in the local landfill.

Last week I saw that the parking lot and grass were covered with pine needles.  I put some bags, boxes, baskets and my rake in my car for a quick stop to harvest this wealth of free clean organic mulch.  I used some immediately around leeks and garlic that will stay in the vegetable garden until I am ready to harvest, even if that is next season. The remainder is stashed away in my garden shed until spring.

It is important to look carefully at the area around the pine needles.  I did and saw some poison ivy growing at the bottom of the boundary fence, a recognition insuring that I will not rake up leaves that will make me itch. 

If you miss the fall pine needle gathering, the trees may drop again in the spring, but it will be much less.