New England Gardener

All the talk is of how this fall foliage season in as good as it gets here in New England. The cold wet summer of 2009 was torture for tomatoes and pumpkins, but good for a bounty of beauty in our hardwood Forest. This golden tree is always first to turn in our neighborhood. But not all trees are beautiful. Do you notice a red vine running up some trees around your home? The red vine may be pretty, but the tree it’s climbing may be doomed.

The red vine is one of the many invasive vines spreading throughout the northeast.

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Just when I was ready to throw in the towel and call it a season, my garden is coming alive! The dahlias that I had given up on are full of buds! My rose bushes are suddenly ready to flower again…even the ones that had lost their leaves and looked half-dead.
One bush produced the sweetest smelling rose that I have ever had the pleasure to sniff last week. It was an amazing scent. And a late, but fast growing gourd vine has a couple of babies on it that are getting bigger by the day. After all the rain, the black spots, the bugs and the disappointment this season, I am pleasantly surprised. Go figure.

The dahlias typically bloom until the first hard frost. But, I had such bad results with so many of them this year, I didn’t expect them to ever come around. I’ve attached a photo of a beautiful orange dahlia that we picked this week and put in a vase. Better late than never.

I guess that I will try to get them in the ground earlier next year….or maybe start them inside. Like Amy, I am taking notes. I’ve also vowed to plot the plan of my flower garden this fall, so I remember what lives where next spring. ( I vow to do this every year and never seem to get it done.)

It was not a great summer in our garden. In fact, I’d call it one of the worst in recent memory. But there were a few highlights.

In early August, while searching for a pre-school backpack, my husband and I found some very nice healthy hosta plants on clearance at K-mart. There were many varieties, in gallon pots, all reduced to $1.50 each. It was a steal! After a few return trips, we had planted 75 new hosta in our gardens. They blend in so well, that I couldn’t tell you where we put even half of them at this point. I have had success with some hydrangeas for the first time this year. I wish I had planted more of them! And, my morning glory seed experiment worked too. Our fence is wrapped in vines with little purple flowers poking out here and there.

As we move into autumn, the sedum look beautiful. They are full of bees, and are slowing changing color. I am thankful that they have thrived this year. I’ll be busy picking flowers until the frost.
Let’s all hope for more sunny days in 2010!

Blight, Black Rot,and Mildew all threatened to crash 2009’s garden party, but as I look around the community garden here in Maine, I see there are many more successes than failures. The corn has overcome its late start. The cukes and squashes are producing right on schedule. Lettuces are delicious and abundant. In other words, there’s more than enough to fill out a salad bowl.

As gardeners, we must learn from the farmer’s optimism and work with what Mother Nature has delivered. Yes, I did have to pull my blight-ridden tomatoes, but now I’m looking forward to a bumper crop of bush beans. After I yanked the tomatoes last week, I threw in some bush bean seeds and the seedlings burst from the soil yesterday, determined to deliver a crop before the frost hits.
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I don’t want to gloat, but those of us on vacation in early August really hit the weather jackpot this year! The last two weeks have been glorious.

Like many New Englanders, my family spends part of every summer at a small “camp.” If I were sensible, I’d forego gardening at a place where we spend just a few long weekends and a week in August, but I’m a gardener and I can’t relax without having at least a few plants to fuss over. That said, vacation home gardens must fend for themselves most of the time. Through trial and error, I’ve learned what plants are up to the challenge in our windy oceanfront location.

When it comes to perennials, Hostas, DayLilies, and Rudbeckia can’t be beat. I’ve also had very good luck with Astilbe and Delphiniums, but I put them in a spot where they’re guaranteed shade for at least a few hours a day. In fact, I don’t grow anything, besides a few ancient Rhubarbs, on the side of the house that gets sun all day long.
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We finally have some nice dahlias in the garden and I wanted to share some pictures with you! They are beautiful…but overall the season has been a disappointment. Several of our plants have no buds on them….it looks like a bug has been eating them. I have sprayed them with no success. And, I have yet to see an actual bug on the plants. I am stumped. I have included a photo of one of the distressed dahlias at the bottom of this post.

I estimate that only about a third of the dahlias we planted have bloomed. In past years, I have always had a vase full of flowers on my desk at work in August. Not this year! It has definitely been a difficult summer with all of the rain and the lack of sunshine. I’ve also been dealing with rotting rosebuds and rose bushes that have black spots.

I hold out hope that more of the dahlias will bloom in the next month or so. They usually last through October. I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping for some dry, hot days. I’ll continue to give them lots of tender loving care!

While it has only been open to the public for three years, “Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens” is already becoming a national treasure. The garden’s designers are now making sure this treasure is accessible to everyone.

Plants and sculptures are intentionally within easy reach in raised beds inviting close inspection.

In an era when we’re so often on sensory overload, this is a place to reawaken the senses. Visitors leave refreshed and ready to tackle whatever is waiting on the other side of the garden gates.

Visit the Garden of the Five Senses website..