On Using Found Objects

I think I was born with a shovel in my trunk, a pruner in my bag, and a paintbrush in my pocket. I feel like everything I see is either in need of paint, pruning, or planting.

So when I come across a piece of rusty something, I feel I either need to paint it, or fix it. This bell with a wooden clapper had its rope hanger rot through and ended up in my scree garden.

When I visited the Hancock Research Station run by the University of Wisconsin Extension, their organic take on garden art ran to historic items displayed in a sheltered exhibit and in their garden beds. Their rusty finds ran to late 19th century and early 20th century farming implements.

I actually have used one of these. It was the only drill my dad would allow his daughters to use when they lived at home, sad to say.

In my garden I also have several pieces of gating and railing. The simple railings I have tipped on end and used them for my clematis. I have one additional piece in need of some serious scraping and sanding, currently done in a peeling white.

I have been contemplating hanging this piece within a 4' fence that would divide my side yard into a separate, more intimate seating area. Thoughts, anyone?

I have been looking through my pictures for ideas how to stage my garden and have found a few photos I neglected to share that are comment-worthy.

This first one above, is taken in May and shows my pagoda dogwood (cornus alternifolia) in spring bloom, along with my creeping phlox out front and the the fresh green of my May hosta.

This next is of a late blooming chrysanthemum, typically blooming just before my asters. It was a passalong, so I don't actually know what this cultivar is.

And a plant I always tell myself to actually plant in my yard, goats beard. Not sure why I haven't found a place for this beauty.

Effects of Low Light in the Garden: The Seen and Unseen, the Bones of the Garden

Although temperatures have been hovering around the freeze line and still get into the mid 40s to 60s during the day, the amount of light is fading fast. Falling leaves are much more dramatic than drying paint. Large leaves are falling noisily, hitting branches and other leaves on their way down, down, down.

The herbaceous perennials are dying down in my borders; my few annuals have been taken to safety or succumbed to frost. This time of year, I start up my lawn mower one last time and actually mow my border beds as best I can. I mow the leaves that have fallen on my lawns and blown them into my border beds. I don't rake anything other than the pine straw generated by my signature white pine. Anything with lasting seed pods for birds, I leave.

When spring hits with all its fury, as it sometimes can here in the central sands, I don't want to be raking out beds and clipping back the stalks of perennials.

The garden art panels may yet get stored where the winter weather will not have opportunities to mar them before the garden walk of 2013. Right now they provide the only shot of color in my garden picking up the metal garden chairs.

Something not typically seen, are my neighbors. As my leaves fall, not only do they show up what pruning opportunities warm winter days hold, but also the neighbors.

Due to the way my yard is situated, I get these borrowed views of trash receptacles, parked vehicles, back garages, and storage areas. Not that I sense a conspiracy here, but each and everyone of my neighbors through whim or yard layout has determined that the side of their yards abutting mine is their "back yard".

On a small pergola in my back yard with climbing roses and clematis, are katsura trees. These are trees that typically grow to 20-25' tall. My goal, keeping them around 8' or so in a very unnatural shape of a lollipop. I have a small yard. To allow me to enjoy these trees, grow strawberries, roses, and other vegetables, mandates a severe pruning schedule to these trees planted on the south side of my yard.

There is a lot to enjoy with katsuras. Although their leaves, unless the frost is delayed tend to turn a non-decorative black, instead of the peachy orange possible in warmer zones, they are completely hardy here. Their heart-shaped leaves mock the redbud, which in the central sands is on the very edge of the most northerly hardy strain of redbuds. During the summer, visitors tend to mistake them for redbuds to which they are not even related,being the sole representative of their species and a genus and family with only two members.

The most glorious aspect of these trees this fall in my rather colorful yard is the strong sweet, almond-like scent the leaves exude as they begin to fall. More than once I have caught the strong scent of this tree while walking in my yard and quickly looked around thinking there must be some sort of glorious lily or flower putting up a bloom. Like native plants that as Piet Oudolf says should "look good dead"; this tree smells good in decay.

Found Object

The other day we (my brother, the Twins, and Baby Gardener) went to a city park and walked the river levee in Stevens Point.

Walking the river, we came across this waterlogged tree fall on which someone had placed a found object I can only imagine came out of the river when someone was walking the bank on one of our dry, hot summer days.

If it had been mine to take, you know I would have incorporated it into my garden art!

More Fall Foliage

Sedum 'Matron and 'Autumn Joy' in Fall

This nearly translucent glowing sedum is 'Matrona' After it freezes, its dark foliage seems to glw from within, taking on a pearly yellow after clocking itself in darknes most of the summer.

It is much showier than the 'Autumn Joy'. Don't you think?

Fall Foliage

Yellow foliage and persistent crabapples on the crabapple 'Red Jade'.

Backlit miscanthus

'Crimson Frost' birch

Bergenia

Korean barberry fronted by carex Ice Dance and cornus alternifolia - Pagoda dogwood.

Crab Apple 'Red Jade' in Fall

The crab apples are persistent through the winter months adding a bit of color.

Before the leaves fell the yellow color was nice.

It is almost like the crab apple glows from within.

What's the Buzz? Fall Pollinators

This last sunny Sunday, the buzzing was very loud indeed.

Take a closer look...

Quite a few honey bees!

A bumble bee...

Even a wasp!

What sort of bee is this? Not a wasp, bumble, or honey...

Even some FEELL_EYES! (flies).

Pumpkin Raisin Cookies

I have a third drop cookie to add to my OMG list.

This cookie comes to me by way of the Taste of Home bakers book. I've been subbing for the FCE and I always like to check out the classroom's cook books. They also have a wealth of DVD from the International Cordon Bleu Cooking School, so I am always taking notes on things I want to try. I watched as one of the chefs made a red onion brulee. Today I transformed a chicken filet today with my version of onion and mushroom brulee.

This cookie recipe does not use eggs, which is interesting. I also made a couple upscale touches like exchanging butter for shortening, adding nutmeg, and doubling the cinnamon.

This cookie would be an excellent upscale dessert by serving it drizzled with caramel sauce, sprinkling it with chopped pecans or walnuts, and a dollop of whipped cream. As the recipe is written it calls for a frosting, which I would not omit, even if up-scaled as it is not overly sweet.

Making this more fun, was having help in the kitchen from Handsome Son's College Girlfriend, who came home with him this weekend.

So here goes.

I cooked these as drop cookies, nine dollops to a cookie sheet, for 14 minutes at 350 degrees.

In the mixing bowl, combine:

1 Cup sugar
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream in 1/2 Cup butter into above mixture.

Then add one cup of raisins that have soaked five minutes in hot water and then been chopped, and one can of pumpkin. (The original recipe said one can, too. I didn't look, but I think the can was probably 12 or 14 ounces. It was not the big fat cans you sometimes see of pie fillings.)

The Frosting:

2 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 Cup of confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons milk (I used 2%).
1 teaspoon vanilla

Next time I serve this as a fancy dessert, instead of "just a cookie", I'll be sure to add pictures!

Shiny Red Rakes

Nina and Foster are my neighbors and are 9 and 7. Today, I was out front raking up the pine straw on my walkways to cover some bulbs I planted in pots when Nina and Foster flew out onto the sidewalk, each with a shiny, red rake. Their rakes were so red and shiny and the day so bright. I commented how I liked their shiny, red rakes. Nina, ever the little lady, said thank you, and that they weren't new, but that her and Foster took good care of them and kept them in the garage when not using them.

Oh, good idea Nina!

Foster added, they were off to rake leaves on the side of the house. Both Nina and Foster acted very happy to have nice shiny, red rakes to chase the leaves around. So unlike my chipped up blue rake, with two bent teeth, and possibly a missing one on the side.

In all honesty, my rake's handle is worn smooth and the teeth have plenty of spring to them, and it is not in the least bit rusty. It, too spends its off-time in either my shed, truck, or car trunk, where it will be dry.

All of which leads me off to the thought how some jobs are just so much easier, and more fun, with nice tools. My rake, although not shiny or red, gives me the same feeling when I reach for it the twentieth fall or spring as it did the first time. I know the weight and heft of my rake and it is familiar in my hands.

I'm so glad Nina and Foster's parents bought them each their own pretty metal spring rake instead of some silly pretend or plastic rake that will stress-fatigue in a handful of years. Feeling competent is a good feeling for children to have, and good tools foster that feeling.

Happy raking, kids!

Garden Art Panels for Your Garden

Some of you know that my garden was selected for my county's Master Gardeners' Garden Walk in July 2013. It is in a small yard.so I thought choosing a signature color might help pull it together. I had for Handsome Son's graduation painted every paintable surface with federal park dark green and found it too severe and unimaginative.

To lighten up my garden, I selected this green apple color. The stray blue plastic pot was given a couple coats of this shade and now waits for its 2013 planting out. As you can see, I have mounted three swirling metal window boxes on my deck windows. I don't plant a lot of annuals, but I thought these boxes might be just the thing filled with either alyssum or bacopa, dragon wing pink begonias, variegated spider plants, and limey green sweet potato vine.

The top band on my clay pots have been given a swipe of this signature color.

The trellis was quickly resprayed and is now rehung on the dark brown fence from which it seems to leap.

Some of my metal garden chairs were also repainted in the signature green apple, while these two retained the dark federal park green, but were given an individual touch all their own. On the way to a cohesive look in the garden, I realized as a plantsperson might, that the green squiggle was not actually a green squiggle at all or even a fern frond unfurling as Dr. Darrel Apps suggested, but a young seedling emerging from the seed root radical and unfurling proto-leaves.

This proto-plant is the subject of the graphic triptych (top picture) I think might be just the thing for the bald space next to my apricot tree. By simply adding the proto-leaves at a jaunty angle to the squiggle, I have my stylized design. Painted in broad strokes in my signature green apple on MDF panels sprayed with a dark brown similar to the fence color, and outlined with a white paint pen; I have my art pieces.

I kept this simple by just drilling through the face and putting painted screws in the fence to mount my art. I realized after hanging, one of the screws needs to be painted the green apple to stay with my individual panel's peculiarity of its design. I other words, I wasn't stressing to keep each panel exactly the same. Young seedlings have their differences, too.

In addition to being an easy art piece, it has the advantage of using a tester paint sample I had mixed to match the spray paint I choose. The spray paint was the simplest method to paint my trellising. The repainting of the chairs and the puling together of the stray elements in my yard with his signature color has run me the cost of three cans of spray paint and the one tester (still half full). That's a lot of bang for the buck.