Keeping away the Twilight fans and Babies everywhere! (click on title to get)

A week ago (I know, behind on posting in real time) my garlic was looking really scruffy and yellow indicating that it was garlic yanking time!

I've already done a post on garlic harvesting and braiding from a while back so I won't bore you with the details all over again.

When I harvest my garlic each year, I also re-plant it at that time to replace what I've pulled up despite many people saying that garlic planting time is in the fall.  I figure if I have holes in the garden already, why not just plant more in them and my other reason is my garden is sort of self sustaining in the garlic growing area.  The first year I planted, I planted so much garlic that it was way too much for one harvest and it seemed that the cloves I planted might have grown at different rates, some smaller than others, so I left those smaller ones  in the ground for the next year's harvest.  Some I think have even been in there for 3 years just because I wanted them to get bigger.

Well, this year was a little different.  I still is a good sized harvest despite leaving some of the smaller ones in the ground as usual and there were quite a few beautifully sized bulbs to dry for use this year. Smelly joy!

The only change in the garlic harvesting/planting came from the garlic itself telling me something: They wanted to have babies apparently:

Lots of the garlic started sprouting flowers and growing bulbs at their tops like the Egyptian walking onion, but also bursting with little bulbs oddly from the middle of their stems too.  I assume that it was their time and they had matured and these little bulbs can be considered seed garlic.

The mama bulbs that produced the seed bulbs were still small and I set them aside with the idea of replanting them too, but decided later as an afterthought that maybe they had run their course and it might be better to just simply use them despite their smallness (maybe their flavor's more intense?)  I also made the decision not to replant the mama bulbs because there were so many little seed bulbs, those and the already too small bulbs still in the garden would get a little crowded if I added anymore extra garlic bulbs to the mix.

Currently I am leaving them to hang in the garage (pardon the mess o' sports equipment and tools in the background)  It's a relatively dark place with what I hope is some air circulation to prevent rot and sprouting.

(pic of lone mid-section sprouted bulb plant)

(closeup of the midsection garlic, great color!)

Last year I dried the garlic in the guest bedroom, but it did stink the place up of garlic (made worse because I kept the door closed in that room) and as I have guests coming, it's not happening now unless I can confirm my guests enjoy garlic scent as air "freshener."  My only concern about the garage is that it is rather hot and humid outside, the heat not so bad in the garage, but still, a bit of a concern.  I suppose we'll see.  Granted garlic is cheap if it goes bad, but it's obviously nice to use what you grow and that it doesn't go to waste.

(artsy photos of the garlic with my spiffy "it's Italian night!" tablecloth I found at the thrift store)

(who knew garlic could be so pretty?)

(I don't know what happened to this bulb for it to end up looking so weird... spirals of garlic cloves! Maybe I should plant these out in hopes that I can reproduce spiral garlic? Note: this is being propped up by a small bulb of garlic)

(Unpropped by another garlic bulb.  It's like some sort of garlic unicorn horn, or a smelly seashell?)

This, and winter squashes (missing those so bad this year) are amongst my favorite things to grow because of their shelf life.  Someday I'll get/make a root cellar and I might be able to keep carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage and other goodies well into the fall/winter without refrigeration. Someday, one day I will!

I try to use the garlic up as fast as possible because there's nothing like peeling or chopping up your garlic to find that it's all gray-black and nasty smelling.  Any recipe suggestions?  Lots of Italian and roasted garlic use here, so if you've got something real good, send it this way!

OMG where did the time go? I blame Summer Soltice!

Hallo, where did the time go?  I was running around all day that I didn't get to really write up a proper post as promised!

Um, gardening updates/news: I inherited a large rubber tree/shrub plant in a pot from my volunteer place and pruned that sucker back and will be taking a bunch of cuttings for people who actually missed it.  Apparently there was a bunch of naysayers about the poor rubber tree who thought it looked like a bunch of sticks.  But it was in full rubber tree leaf glory! All dark purple-green glossy leaves! Ah well, beauty in the eye of the beholder?

I also had to re-pot up some orchids that I've been slowly killing the root system too because I 1) over watered and 2) forgot that they like to be a little root/pot bound.  The good news is that freed up some of the large pots as I had to trim back dead orchid roots galore.

Um... it's still hot? But looks like rain is in the forecast.  Which will probably mean fungus.... again. Blah.  I might be bringing out the big guns now, like copper spray, we'll see; I'm not thinking my everbearing strawberries will be everbearing again this year.

And now, allow me to distract you with some pretty borage pics!

What I I especially like with the morning pics is all the DEW:

Ugh. Summer in Memphis.

So, I'll give some updates on the garden tomorrow, because as of late, it's been  HOT here, and I have been a lazy bum, hosing the garden down on the 99 degree F days (F-days, no joke...) with heat indices in the 103-107 degree F areas.

I'm hosing the garden with sad, city chlorinated water despite having full rain barrels again because I want to be able to zip back and forth between the beds and give them a thorough, cold drink(I know they might not like the cold, but we'll pretend that they enjoy it).  Plus lately I've wanted  to be out of the heat before 8pm.  Usually I like to be in there for an hour at least, and back in no later than 10:30am, but that's not happening here on out unless the summer magically cools off or I decide to change my sleep schedule to waking up at 5am (and messing up the dog's sleep/food schedule and having her wake me up daily at that hour)... so maybe I'll just work on that being more efficient outdoors thing.

Another problem is that I'm an utter newb and never remember to drink enough liquids before, during and after hot weather gardening and have a tendency as well to black out a little when I get up from stooping during gardening.  The mom in law says that apparently petite people such as myself are prone to that.  Great, another annoyance in being short.  You'd think that there'd be less distance between my blood to my brain so that I wouldn't get all black-y out, but no.... being vertically challenged is a real bitch.

On happier news, I had an epiphany that led to me an overall revolution.  After having given myself a permanent tan on my lower back due to insufficient high pant/too short shirts I have learned why farmers wear overalls, duh.  I find that I probably look like some adorable mini-farmer now in them, and it really harkens me back to the 80s.

But yes, back to heat.  Things are wilting and dying, not setting fruit and being in general ornery and annoying. First drought, then floods, now heat and humidity.  A regular Memphis summer I suppose, so regular whining.

Back atchya tomorrow.

Introducing into the Garden: Sweet woodruff

Now this is the stuff that I was really after at my mom-in-law's place! (Thanks's mom!)

I have been lusting after more fun (and free herbs) and an herb that act as a groundcover, is rumored to be a bug repellent, and will work in the shade, and is commonly used in wine? Totally there.

This is a hard herb to come by (at least in my area) and when I saw that it was being sold at a local garden store I sorely wanted to buy it, but no, no, no my plant moratorium was still in place.  I remembered vaguely in the recesses of my mind that my MIL had mentioned having it at some point and I fired a quick email to her before leaving for her place a couple of weeks ago to ask if she still had it.

YES SHE DID, and it was now taking off too. (And she was willing to share) Excellent....

The patch of sweet woodruff my MIL donated to me was ginoromous (ginorous=1.5ft diameter).  I hadn't expected so much, but she wanted to help get me started, so I am one lucky garden nut!

Unfortunately as I was receiving the herb later in the year, I think missed I missed its glorious flowering that I read occurs in late spring/early summer.  Granted there still might be time for it to flower, but after moving it and chopping it up I won't blame it for giving me the finger and deciding to settle down and root up rather than flower out.   

Sweet woodruff, or Galium odoratum is well known in German culture for its use in maiwein or also known as maibowle where the dried sprigs of the herb are soaked in white wine for hours to days in some cases giving the wine a heady vanilla, honey herbal note. Sweet woodruff's aroma is only perceptible and useful in wine (and other food items commonly found in Germany apparently) when dried.   Trust me, I crushed some up fresh in excitement and that was a letdown.

Apparently sweet woodruff contains a natural sedative, but also coumarin (which is probably part of the source of the sweet scent of this herb), so it is important to not over consume sweet woodruff because it can result in headaches and coumarin can be an anticoagulant.

Dave's Garden reviews seem to give sweet woodruff relatively good ratings from gardeners, though some people cite some invasiveness, though others apparently enjoy that slight invasivity.  This could be the reason why Germans also give sweet woodruff the name waldmeister, or "Master of the Forest."

It is hardy from zones 5-8 and I'm excited to learn too that it is also partially evergreen so it will provide some green during the winter months.  Beyond flavors/odors and medicinal things, the plant physically is very interesting too.  I find the new leaves coming up from the center of older leaves and stems forming in the center as well to be very fun to look at.  The flowers appear to be cute things and no work flowers makes me a happy gardener.

My new sweet woodruff has been halved ( as it was nice and large) and is experimentally being placed in two locations.  One location is in full shade, keeping the lungwort company in a microclimate underneath some holly bushes where this is ample moisture from leaf mold/cover/mulch.  The other half is in part sun with my mature oregano plants and I think as long as I keep my oregano bushy, and not too rambly when I do get lazy, the Galium will be happy and stay above the oregano at its expected foot tall height as long as I make sure I keep the moisture level good.

The following links provide recipes for maiwein and other random information I might not have covered about Galium odoratum as well as pics of it in flower that I don't have personally (yet!):
http://www.herbcompanion.com/gardening/7-herbs-that-grow-in-shade-sweet-woodruff.aspx
http://herb-gardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/growing_sweet_woodruff
http://www.altnature.com/library/sweet.htm
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1994/may-wine.html
http://www.paghat.com/sweetwoodruff.html

Introducing into the Garden: Lungwort

The next new addition to my garden from my mother in law's is lungwort:

(ok, so it's not at its prettiest here, because the flower show was over when I got it, and I had to plop it in the not most amazing spot... full of spiderwebs now, thus the not usual closeup pics I like to do.  Note the cool hairy leaves though!)  (Also, please look at the other links of the pics of lungwort to get a MUCH better idea of its grandeur)

I've got an eye for striking looking plants I think (meaning I'm only good at identifying those types of plants, more mundane looking plants and I'm worthless) and lately it feels like I've been seeing lungwort everywhere lately (at the Master Gardener's hoe-down, in Botanical gardens, yada) like once you see one red head, you notice 5 of them all at once in whatever location you're in (redheads are a bad example, but I like to insert them in here because my husband is one and I love it).

Bad example, I know, but maybe because I've been seeing them a lot they've become somewhat on the the mind and it's as though they want to be with me!  "Take us home, Persephone!  There you can see us everyday in the garden in our full glory!  Come mid-spring winter we will be full of wonderful glorious flowers that will make you happy! Happier than daffodils or even hellebores can make you!"

Whoa, talk about some siren song those things have got there, so I asked for some of those too from my MIL and she kindly obliged :)

Unlike the Campanula that I blogged about last time, no on Dave's Garden gave lungwort any negatives or warnings about invasiveness, so hurray there, plant on other end of spectrum! (We like diversity here in Persephone's garden).

Besides just having cool foliage, I always thought about having lungwort (Pulmonaria saccharat) as an addition to my garden because I'd heard of its supposed medicinal herbal affiliations, which I soon began to suspect as folklore after much research.  As its name seems to imply, it has to with the lungs, and how?  Well, the spottiness of the leaves made ancient herbalists be reminded of disease lungs, and so they thought best that this was the herb to treat such problems (like walnuts and pecans are good for the brain because they resemble the brain.... which is not so far off apparently... but yes, association does not mean fact)

Still a very attractive flower in the borage family (which I am a fan of the herb) so in it goes!

Lungwort should grow no more than 18 inches high and 2 feet wide and is hardy in zones 4a-9b and is perennial (heart).  It is partial to partial sun to full shade and so I've placed it in my little microclimate underneath a canopy of holly bushes where it should keep a good amount of moisture and leaves (which will become leaf mold eventually) and so it will hopefully stay happy there.

Apparently it is cool enough that someone bought it a domain name which is chock full of good info.  Interesting info such as the variegation that is so loved in lungworts, the silvery bits, are actually air pockets underneath the leaves that keep the plant cool.

Eventually I might move the lungwort to a little sunnier spot, but as I am running out of room a bit... it's gonna stay there for now.

Introducing into the Garden: Campanula

Now that the DC trip stuff is over, let's get onto the juicy plant-y stuff, newest additions!

While at my in-law's house, my equally plant daffy mother-in-law showed me around her garden (this is tradition, if you go to any of the women's houses in this family, you give an obligatory garden tour).  Mostly the tour was for, "see anything you like? Let's dig it up for you!" (Man, I wish all garden tours were like that)

One thing that caught my eye in her garden was this knee high plant with somewhat rangy looking toothed leaves but cute long, blue-purple colored bell shaped flowers.  Being a sucker for bell shaped flowers (lilies of the valley, daffodils... sort of bell shape? and the like) I asked about it, and for a while she had one of those gardener moments all of us hate, where we just forget the name and it's on the tip our our tongue and it's driving us mad that we can't rustle up that darn name.  So she starts vocalizing various sounds "Capa... cupa...Gah, isn't it terrible that I don't remember?!" and then it clicks in me what it might be, a plant that I've seen in catalog only, and had caught my interest there too. "Campanula?" I ask hesitantly, "Yes! That's it!" she says (and I do a mental air fist pump to myself at my success... it feels good to be able to identify stuff).

(leaf closest to flower is oregano, not the campanula's)

This was a very unusual campanula to me, most I've seen are very blue and very balloon-like when in bud and then open and star-like in its petals.  Though the ones in the catalog are quite charming I found that I liked this one much more than the catalog versions.  We slated this campanula as a "do dig for Persephone" plant and though I usually like to stick to edibles (as I often say) I'm getting the "flowers for the soul" thing more and more,  especially as I can get tired of having to tend to my edibles all the time fretting about "will I be able to eat fresh veggies this summer if the bugs/weather/stupidity kills them?"  Some regular ol' landscaping for prettiness can be easy on the eye especially when I care a lot less about their death if they go, and when they're easy to take of and perennial.  Gotta love them perennials.

I forgot to ask my mom-in-law as to what variety this patch of campanula's name is before I left, so I did some research and for a while thought it was the Scottish harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) variety, but upon closer inspection it appears very much not the case...

Google image search to the rescue!

I didn't think I'd have a chance at finding it, but after some searching I suspect that it's either Campanula takesimana or Campanula punctata.  If anyone has a good eye and can tell the difference between either an my pics and would like to point it out to me that'd be great.  I'm leaning a little more towards the C. punctata because the bells are not so flared open at the edges as much as the other, but still uncertain.

My mother-in-law warned me that it was sort of invasive.  "Excellent," I said and did a little Mr. Burns-esque finger tip waggle action.  I should really stop with those "potentially invasive" plants I know, but space, must be filled! But it reminds me... mint anyone?

(I love how hairy it is.  You know me and my love for hirsute-rific plants, hairy+bell shaped flowers=I'm there!)

For this campanula, leaning towards C. punctata it should get no taller than 2 feet tall, blooms late spring/early summer and is hardy from 4a-9b.  Should be planted in sun to partial shade, but my MIL had it on the east side of her house where it was running around rampantly, and east side's where mine is too.  I hear that it likes it relatively moist and I've been heartily dousing it in my 90+ F degree weather  while it gets established.  My bed drains relatively well though and it seems fine there for the week it's been chilling.

DC Trip was Plant-tastic! (part 3)

Alright, so I was terrible and didn't take many worthwhile pictures of my plant-tastic DC trip (and this is the worst verbal slide show ever...) I'll be briefer from here on out about "DC trip."

(UPDATE: Ho, ho! I have pics now from the trip! My wonderful sister in law has provided! viewing pleasure abounds!)

The National Arboretum was a blast, though a long, hot muggy blast, so more like a sweaty hike around the beautiful acres and legions of ground you'd expect an arboretum to cover.  This area actually reminded me of the Memphis Botanic Gardens really with the amount of land a person covers.  I've never been to an official Arboretum before and the Botanic Garden feel was compounded by the fact that this one had exhibits/divisions such as the bonsai section (it's all trees right, albeit tiny ones).

The bonsai were pretty splendor-ific, and intimidating (started in the 1800s?! and you're only 3 feet tall?!)  The fact that something can be tended for many centuries, by generations of people is inspiring, but one swoop of some disease and all those centuries down the drain.  Talk about an investment.  There ought to be a bonsai market.

We came at a pretty good time as the azalea bonsais were in bloom.  Tiny trees with ginormous looking blossoms on them!  I thought that the flowers were supposed to become miniaturized too... I need to look into that,  maybe I just saw dwarf plants bonsai-ed once, making their fruit and flowers appear more in proportion? 

Some had some nifty scenes with tiny plants to look like larger shrubs and miniature figurines in them:

Um, they had a slightly larger landscape are complete with a small bridge that I danced/played Godzilla on:

I loved the garden's use of sedums as groundcover!

 Pretty fun to look at the bonsai, though admittedly, and especially on a hot day, after a few dozen, one starts to look like the other (unless it's a truly startling one) and a person sort of wants to move on...

So off we went and checked out the Arboretum's AMAZING herb garden.  Yep, this is another garden I'd love to own if it were possible.  Lots of delineations of gardens (their list): "Dye Garden, Medicinal Garden, Culinary Garden, Fragrance Garden, Industrial Garden, and Beverage Garden feature the different ways in which herbs are important in our daily lives.  The Native American Garden, Colonial Garden, Asian Garden, and Dioscorides Garden"
WOW.  The highlight of the Herb Garden was a central brick area for resting that also had various herbs too of course, but had many, MANY pots of.... scented geraniums.

Needless to say, I went a little nuts.  Like the little kid I sometimes act like, I had to smell every freakin' pot (and I think there had to have been at least 40 of them).  I don't think any of them overlapped either in type! They were unbelievably lovely in all their various sizes, shapes, flowers and leaf types and almost all (minus those weird cedar/nut-what scents) were delightful.  My husband and his brother sort of stood by the side for the next half hour slightly bemused, slightly helpless and impatient as my sister-in-law caught my geranium fever and by the time we were done my fingers smelled like something out of a perfume factory disaster. (Husband gagged when I put my fingers up to his nose).


The worst (and best part) was when I noticed that some of the geraniums were in seed.  So, yep... there I went all Augustus Gloop-ish picking seeds fervently (only 3 plants had seeds) into my pockets.  (1) I'd like to add that I wasn't shoving them into my pockets... just small little fistfuls.  (2) I wasn't sure if they would be viable or germinate true anyways, because I understand that scenteds are either notoriously difficult to germinate by seed or aren't true and thus that's why cuttings are almost always necessary.


Please realize, that I was TOTALLY not thinking as I was doing this... just regular seed saving habit I suppose... instinct?  Either way, my husband, who was flipping through the Arboretum brochure sort of coughed at me and my sis in law and pointed to a section that mentioned "no picking or taking plant matter out of the arboretum."


Oops.  So, I stopped that rightaways.... but figured the seeds in my pocket could just stay in my pocket...?


Either way, my brother in law was having a mini-hey day plucking lavender all around.  Guess we all have our perks.


I later emailed the Arboretum and inquired to some Smithsonian workers about why there was no nursery to sell extra plants/cuttings on site and I was essentially told that because it's government and non-profit they can't sell their items.  BUT, when compost day comes in... there's a line of people waiting and they don't tell the people "no."  Note to self: DC looks like a better and better place to live... Free entertainment, free gardens to visit and maybe even free plants....



We soon took refuge in the Native garden/Fern Valley which was blissfully shady.  Native garden was as you could expect, native and things rambled unattended mostly and there were lots of wonderful ferns which is my husband's plant of choice (I'd like to add that he's not a fan of sunlight, so that might be a hint to his predilections).  

There were, however, frogs in a boggy section that made the best sounds and had leopard spotted golden eyes which I adore, so we stopped to stare at those for a while.

So, of the MANY places to see in the Arboretum, we only got to THREE. Hopefully we'll get to trek over there many more times and complete the trip (and send a donation to the Arboretum...)


Finally my last bit of plant-i-ness (until I talk about the new additions to my garden Monday) is the National Botanic Garden, with the conservatory area being the area I spent most of my time in.  I was unawares and short of time of some of the other areas, so that'll be for yet another trip!


The National Conservatory houses many different environments within its 29,000 square feet.  While I could go through the list online, ones that were favorites and stuck out to me were the children's section, the sedum area and the tropical section which by far was the best.  


The tropical section is tiered so that you can go up a metal walkway and follow the vertical height of tropical palms and other taller canopy plants.  Along the way up he walkway tucked into the taller plants and hanging from the walkway or higher posts are tropicals such as bromeliads (usually a plant that doesn't interest me much usually but they had some very cool varieties I was unaware of and also probably not available in the regular store nurseries) and epiphytes like air plants and orchids of course. 


During the walk up to the second tier my eye alighted upon a strange vine that somewhat thickish and had long slightly curved up leaves.  The vine ran off of the tree trunk and onto the walkway which allowed me to inspect it closer.  The leaves, when I got a better look, reminded me of the orchid leaves at my house, and the only orchid that was a vine that I knew of.... after searching around to find a tag, affirmed my suspicions, it was a vanilla orchid!  And it had to be at least 50 feet long! (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating) but it was a very long vine!

The outside gardens were nice and I could see lots of edible action, but as it was blazing hot, the husband and I missed out on Bartholdi Park, the Rose Garden, and the Water Garden.


So, after 3 days of possibly boring material of verbal slideshow  I'll get on to regular gardening programing with the introduction of new plants to the garden Monday.  Have a great weekend and send some cool air my way, 93+ degrees F of temperatures headed my way this weekend and for about a week on and off!

DC Trip was Plant-tastic! (part 2)

I left off cooing about DC's general landscaping and my appreciation for the government buildings and their style of planting as well as their plants of choice.

I'd like to devote this entry to the more garden-y areas I saw such as the Smithsonian, National Arboretum, and Botanical Conservatory.

While the Smithsonian has a small number of official gardens it takes care of and the ones in front of the museums (the Natural History one I mentioned in the prior post) I took a real shine to the National Museum of the Native American's garden around the building and a special one I'll get into later.

The National Museum of the Native American appears to be the newest museum amongst the Smithsonian and allow me to briefly laud its insides as well as its outsides.  The exhibits are incredible, in depth and well done as well as very technological oriented.  My husband and I spent the greater part of the day on the top floor (the 4th) itself which was just the introduction to Native Americans in North and South America.  Politically correct they are.  I was overwhelmed (in a good way) by the diversity of culture, food, beliefs, and etc of all the Native Americans I learned about.  Much respect to their past (and present!) (and presence!)

Outside the NMotNA's awe inspiring brick and almost adobe looking building facade was very simple, very tastefully done landscaping, landscaping that I don't usually gravitate toward's, not that I enjoy ridiculously showing gardens either, but the colors were mostly muted of yellow,, browns and greens of grasses (to represent the grassland I would guess) punctuated here and there by, now my plant identification isn't perfect, but I could only believe them to be Indian pinks.  Teehee.

I believe I saw sweet potato or potato plants and of course, there was CORN!  The corn wasn't in vast swaths of course, but nice hills of them here and there.  Strange to think of it, but I don't think there was any Three sister's growing action going on (no beans and squash with the corn).  A large part of the front entrance was a water feature of a relatively calm pool that ran over various ledges, maybe resembling all those salmon fishing places I've seen in the past that Native American culture has been tied to.  Water features can be a drain to resources and aren't the best environmentally, but hey, it's a museum and maybe the water get recycled?

As I look at the Smithsonian site mentioning the museum's landscaping I realize that maybe I somehow missed some of the parts of the landscaping/gardening? Wetlands?  Didn't see it.

A quick shout out to the indoor gardens inside the National Gallery of Art (East side! *requisite 3 finger "E" shape sign*) btw on not just having plants in pots indoors, but since the place is so big, they have mini-gardens (which I am sure are low permanent planters) inside.  Now that I think about it, I suppose malls and some airports feature these things too, but plants + art = plant art. And thus I am happy to have seen it in there rather than being surrounded by rampant shoppers or air travelers.

Lastly my favorite, and most surprisingly so, a garden that the Smithsonian holds is a little one, tucked between some buildings dedicated to one of the directors or some sort... sadly can't remember the name! A person could very near miss it if they were walking by because it has a short face, and is narrow and winding (as it's between buildings).  It's not listed on the official Smithsonian website and this will drive me crazy to not be able to find it or know its name now.  It's not the Rose or Ripley Garden listed on the site I am sure, because there was nothing grand like roses or iron-work in this garden.

Getting over the fact that I can't find it online anywhere and hope noone thinks I'm just a loony and making it up, this little gem of a garden is a garden I'd like, except that it'd need tomatoes and peppers and eggplant and beans tucked in it.  It's cozy and warm and has MULTITUDES of interesting plants tucked away here and ready to catch the eye and surprise a person.  Loads of herbs like nigella and basils dotted the beds and random voodoo lilies were placed elsewhere in other beds and in pots to have impact.  Roguchi clematis rambled here and there and peeked out from behind some larger plants.  Unusual sedums like a chocolate variety that I'd never seen before (and omg confession again, I broke a sprig off, which is heinous and goes beyond seed saving.... check to Smithsonian...again....) dotted the beds to eventually become groundcover.

I was lucky enough to talk to a groundskeeper person who was in the area planting something (I should have looked closer to what she was planting) and after talking shop for a while I said something along the the lines of "root-y stuff" and she looked at my husband and said, "Does she make up words like this all the time?"  Heh.  I explained that I don't tend to be very mature in my conversation style and she said she was only kidding (whew).  But yeah, don't know what it is about my turning everything into an adjective just about.

Hmmm, so, as this is getting longer than I expected I'm breaking this up again and I'll conclude with National Arboretum and the United States Botanic Garden/Conservatory tomorrow and next week I'll talk of the cool plants I got from my family.

(I'd just like to note too that if I had intended to go to DC for garden viewing exclusively I wouldn't have been the newb that I was to not known that the Smithsonian also had an heirloom and Victory garden I could have seen >_<)

DC Trip was Plant-tastic! (part 1)

...unfortunately, I'm terrible when it comes to traveling that I don't take many pictures.

I realize that this is especially unfortunate when person such as myself has a blog and many people who read it like pictures :\

Part of the reason why I don't really have pics of DC and the landscaping and plants I'm going to talk about is because I find that carrying a camera around and taking pics all the time makes me feel like I'm losing out on my fun and time when traveling (stopping and taking pics all the time and etc.) and when I take pics for 'looks' I take forever and as my husband and I were wanting to cram in a LOT of Smithsonian museum time, stopping often to take pretty pics was not exactly (pardon the pun) in the picture.  Also, my sister and brother-in-law accompanying us on parts of this trip had super badass SLR cameras that put mine to shame and while I'm not competing with their camera-tude, I almost feel a sort of "what's the point?" in taking pics when their cameras are around (and I can try to ask for pics from them later), except for the fact that my eye is interested in very different things than their eyes and so I do end up regretting not having taken my camera with me more often when I find particular plants or textures interesting.  Perhaps on another trip when I'm not having to rush!

But anyways, allow me to use my "talent" with words to whisk you off to a faraway place called Washington DC also known as, Our Nation's Capitol.  Let us hope that I can give the required thousand words that  picture gives to make up for the lacking of eye candy here.

I lived in the concrete jungle of Chicago a long while ago and never saw much interest in plants or landscaping, nor was it expected with their relatively short warm season I suppose.  I've been to California many times and when it comes to plants there, they don't count when I can compare locations on plants, landscaping and etc. because plants are abundant and happy there all the time, any time just about.  Californians barely need to do anything, and really don't to have trumpet vine running prettily and rampantly all year around, and have rosemary as a common form of edging on the side of the highway and so on and so forth.

So, I was pretty impressed getting to Washington DC to see a ridiculous amount of landscaping and diversity of plants not only our nation's capitol but in the random neighborhood my sister in law was in (granted, being the capitol of our nation they might be putting a special foot forward and my sister's neighbor was a bit of a plant nut which could be considered outside the norm).

Granted once again, Thomas Jefferson, a plant nut himself, may have caused this lasting impression for DC's plant cool-ness but nonetheless, allow me to be impressed that a non-tropical city such as this (in a state that's not tall like Cali and thus have a million zones) is so plant-tastic!  (I must parenthesize here that I have not been to famed Buffalo and its Garden Walks too, so maybe we can just say that I've been a little sheltered since my incarnation as a plant-o-holic?)

Before heading to DC proper I was thrilled to see that no one in my sis-in-law's suburb appeared to take particular care of their lawn.  Weeds and clover everywhere! Score! No little tags proclaiming particular landscaping companies, no stupid crunchy fertilizer pellets ruined my walk as I took the dog out, no idiots watering their lawns at 2pm or after a rain.  It should be noted that most of the lawns were somewhat on the smaller side and that there were lots of trees, but the notice that there were TREES (and lots of them) is a happy reminder of what a few good deciduous trees can do for a neighborhood in the cooling, habitat for animals, and less watering for grass way.

I was really pleased to see too that the National Lawn was also in the same state as most of the suburban lawns I saw earlier.  Loads of weeds and clover, but it was still relatively green.  Maybe I caught it on a particularly bad week, or maybe the Gov decided that it did have better things to spend their money on than lawn maintenance especially when how many thousands (if not millions) of people tromp all over it a day.

Despite all the buildings everywhere for all the many departments and agencies of whatnot and all in the capitol, any little bit of green space that could have just been relegated to a simple lawn mow job was actually really nicely landscaped with hardy, interesting shrubs and many perennials.  I didn't recall seeing many generic annuals like petunias, but there were lots of smoke trees (love!) and mahonias (both of which are actually natives to Washington interestingly) and other eye-catching plants in those spaces with relatively little grass to cut.  Maybe even less lawn to mow in total for a building than the lawn at my house (sad, really).

 Another thing which I found pretty cool of note was the use of tall permanent concrete planters all around many of the buildings.  These planters appeared to be there to delineate the sidewalk of the building from the street, eradicating the need/use of a grassy parking strip and probably also being safe for pedestrians from cars on top of being mostly easy to tend to.

Many of these permanent planters were simple: full of mondo grass, or other tall grasses, trailing naked jasmines and the like, but in a tall planter were sufficiently nice as a long set down a sidewalk.  As you might have noted, these plants were all pretty nearly perennials, which is an awesome cost-saving thing.  I found it sort of funny that the the Department of Finance building was one of a few locations that did  not have their planters filled with any plants.  Maybe they deemed it a unnecessary and a cost-saving measure?  Come on guys, mondo grass is cheap!  Even accountants need a little more green (in the living kind sense!)

Interspersed between the buildings were little gardens and the Smithsonian museums, all of which were landscaped not just prettily but interestingly.  My interest is peaked at unusual plants, but even more so when the unusual plants (of no edible interest that I was aware of) are planted with EDIBLE plants.  Lots of basils, and ornamental peppers and random herbs (or maybe it's just that I knew those plants were herbs that are edible or medicinal that made me interested).

The Natural History museum's entire perimeter was lined with many wonderful edibles one of which was nigella, aka love in a mist or black cumin, a plant that I loved as a child and didn't know what it was despite it running rampant in my mother's flower bed (until she decided she didn't like it anymore and ripped it all out).  I only came to know what this plant from my childhood was a few years ago and I have been desperately trying to get it to grow in my garden.  The seed pods in the museum beds were dry and ready to drop, and here is where I made a gardener's sin: I took a seed pod.  *covers face*  I do not condone stealing and think it's pretty abhorrent, but seed gathering I feel a little less bad about.  "But what if everyone took a seed pod?" my brain asks.  I know, I know, so bad and the Smithsonian doesn't deserve tourists like me, but a nice donation will be made soon-ish?  There are many seeds and I don't really buy souvenirs, so I usually take a rock, some sand, a leaf, drift wood or the like as my souvenir when I go on trips, obviously most never on an institution's property... so this is my guilt and man, am I guilting here (as I should).  Writing... check.... for Smithsonian... donation...(should I write "for the seed pod?" on it?)

This whole seed pod just brings down a whole slew of apple-Adam-Eve and 'Beauty and the Beast' tales in my head.  If anything, I can say that a Smithsonian garden person working on another garden was going to offer me a pod of nigella anyways (after I had already taken one from the Museum of Natural History... but I didn't mention that...)  No excuses though still.

But yeah, that whole seed thing, DC trip and more, tomorrow at my blog!

Not dead yet!

You know, I didn't know that in Monty Python and the the Holy Grail, the official title of the character of the old man who "wasn't dead" (but was being forced into the 'dead cart' by who we can only presume to be his son) is called "The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't"

I'd almost like to claim that I'm the "The Dead Blog that Claims It Isn't" for all the times that I've left you all in a lurch except I'd be paranoid-ly looking above me for some sort of Monty Python-esque massive paper cut-out hand above me ready to bop my head.

So yes, for the second time in the past 2 weeks I must apologize for the lack of updates.  Usually I am better about having posts interspersed and prepared to entertain you whilst I am running about on vacation (yes, that's the reason for my absence as many of you might have surmised since it was over Memorial Day weekend).  I have a tendency to  not want to proclaim to the world, via Twitter, Facebook, blog and the like that I am not in the house for an extended period of time for good reason.  Not like I'm famous like Elvis or have a collection like the Kew Conservatory that I'm worried about but too many people tell the world when they're not at home and it's just not smart.

Anyways, please give me another day to recover from many days of nonstop walking around the Washington DC area (8-10 hours a day, 5+miles a day, not including the time spent upright in museums) and the 12-14 hour nonstop crazy drives my husband and I make to get to see family and fun because sleeping at night (when there's less traffic too!) is for newbs and we're just crazy like that.

Upcoming posts will be about the awesomeness of:

-Washington DC's plants and landscaping

-The National Arboretum

-The National Botanic Conservatory

-Having a family that trades plants with EVERY visit (you'd think that the plant varieties would equalize out at some point..) (this post will also highlight the plants traded)

Segueing into plant trading with family I have an admission that I am going to make that's relatively stupid (but the husband insists I need to update my foibles--- and I should, but still, blah.) but I broke my plant moratorium.  Just this once!  After I was stung by the wasp recently I was "le sad" and at the local farmer's market they were selling pretty, 6 inch tall coleus plants for a $1(!) and I, uh, believed it would dull the sadness and pain of wasp sting-i-tude(ness).  The seller also gave me a piece of a pretty purple and green coleus that had snapped off, so it was like I got TWO coleus for $1(!). 

 I'd like to blame Dave at The Home Garden for influencing me many months ago to the idea of keeping, cutting and saving coleus cuttings for over the winter (and just to make more).  I don't tend to like to purchase non-edibles, but having a yen for color lately and add in some easy propagation on TOP of being severely malnourished of new plant/interesting growth in the garden I succumbed.  SIGH. There, I got that out.  Guilt be gone?  Except for some guilt that occurred in DC... but not in the plant purchasing way! More on that later and until then, thanks for your patience.