garden notes for October 9

I had a pretty good freeze here Saturday night and a couple of hard frosts late last week.  I had covered my dahlias but the tips still look a little blackened.  The tomatoes are done and even the marigolds look bad.  However there are still things blooming in the garden.

 Last years Farmers Almanac predicted that this October will have 2 inches more precipitation than normal, which is about 3 inches.  I guess it could still happen but I have my doubts.  We are supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow but less than a 1/2 inch.   It seems like our early warm weather has resulted in equally early cold weather at this end of the year.   However the NWS forecasters are saying we will have a warm up this weekend and next week so who knows.

 The days are really beginning to feel shorter.  It’s quite amazing that we will lose almost an hour of daylight between today and the end of the month. 

My garden favorites this year

 Last week I told you about MSU’s favorite annuals in their trial garden.  This week I am going to list the stars in my garden.  I really enjoyed the tomato Sunray, an orange-gold tomato that started producing early and kept going until the freeze.  I have to say that my landscape rose Carefree Celebration  really bloomed its head off this year and is still blooming.  It’s a very nice peachy-orange color.  And it really is carefree with no disease problems. 

 I believe I talked about the newer plant I bought this spring called diplodenia.  It proved to be a beautiful addition to the partly shaded garden.  It has deep velvety red trumpet shaped flowers on a low growing plant with thick, dark green glossy leaves. I have brought it inside for the winter.

I bought some milkweeds from the MG plant sale this spring and although I am not sure what varieties I have here they proved to be long blooming and very pretty.  One is yellow and one is red flowered.  Also without a name was an impatiens I picked up at a close out sale.  It was a hybrid of some kind with tiny butterfly shaped lavender flowers with a rose center.  The plant had smaller leaves than a regular impatiens and made a nice compact mound.  It survived the downy mildew the longest of all the impatiens, it is still alive but I hesitate to try and over winter it because it does have signs of the disease.

 Have you tried kale chips?

 If you have watched any cooking shows on TV lately you have probably seen some one preparing kale chips.  I am not one for any cooked greens in the cabbage family but I just had to try this.  I didn’t have any regular kale growing in my garden but I did have some ornamental kale- which is perfectly edible.

 I plucked some frilly outer leaves off the kale, washed them and tore them into pieces, discarding the heavy center rib.  I sprayed a cookie sheet with olive oil pan spray, laid the kale pieces on it and sprayed them with the olive oil spray.  I next sprinkled them with sea salt.  They were then baked at 250 degrees until they turned crispy.  And surprise, they were quite good.  And kale is very good for you, better than most leafy greens; I just had to find a delicious way (fattening) to eat it.

 You have to be very careful that the leaves don’t burn because scorched kale does not taste good.  It just takes about 5 minutes.  I used the green leaves from the outside of the ornamental kale but I am thinking about trying pink and white kale chips from the  colored inner leaves next.  My husband, who also liked the chips, started thinking of even more ways to increase the calorie count by suggesting we sprinkle them with powdered cheese or dip the leaves in bacon grease.

 Smithsonian’s Archive of American Gardens Collection

 This is the 25th anniversary of the beginning of a unique collection of garden photo’s, plans and descriptions from beautiful and unusual private (and a few public) gardens across America.  In 1987 the Garden Club of America donated a very old collection of glass lantern slides of American gardens from the 20’s and 30’s to the Smithsonian to begin the new museum collection.

Since then the Archives of American Gardens has increased to represent 7,000 gardens and has over 70,000 slides and photos as well as other documentation.  Some 30,000 photos are available to view on line.   You can access these at the Smithsonian’s online catalog, SIRIS, www.siris.si.edu.  The Garden Club of America continues to scout out and nominate gardens for the Smithsonian collection.

 Here is the clubs statement as to why they want to document the history of American gardens.

Every moment a garden exists it is subject to the forces of change, loss, and, in some cases, destruction. A familiar and beloved garden today may become a distant memory in just a matter of a few years (or, in the case of a natural disaster, a few hours). Even the most meticulously maintained garden evolves over time to the point where it deviates from its earlier incarnation. Unless gardens are photographed and their origins and life span documented, the thought, creativity, care and labour that goes into them may be lost forever.

To be nominated for inclusion in the collection the garden must not already be documented or be a well known historical garden (such as the Biltmore Estate or Monticello).  It must be a garden that has been planted and maintained, not a natural landscape.  It should have some unique design, unusual beauty or other outstanding feature. The garden owner must agree to have it extensively photographed and documented and sign releases to allow the Smithsonian to display the photos and documentation and to allow garden historians to study them.

There is no prize for being included in the collection nor does the inclusion give the garden any protection.  The garden does not need to be opened to the public.  About 50 gardens a year make it into the Archives.  The Smithsonian reports that the most viewed photos are the earliest ones.

Here is some more information if you are interested.

Archives of American Gardens: http://www.gardens.si.edu/collections-research/archives-american-gardens.html

Garden Club of America Collection: http://www.gardens.si.edu/collections-research/aag-garden-club-collection.html

 

Oh those British gardeners

The British Carrot Growers Association holds a Carrot Whistle Blowing Olympics each year.  Competitors whittle whistles out of carrots and must play a song on them with a theme related to gold.  This years winners were a 4 piece band who whittled panpipes from carrots and played the theme song from a cartoon called Mysterious Cities of Gold.

The reward for this contest is two solid gold coins worth about a $1,000.  If you would like to see the winning song go to this site. ( tinyurl.com/carrotgold)

Information

 Rex begonias are a great plant to brighten up Michigan winters. As a houseplant their colorful foliage will add zest to the windowsill. And they can be moved outside in summer to bring color to shady containers and baskets.

Rex begonias have large leaves, generally pointed, although rounded and other shaped leaves are not uncommon. The leaves are thick and wrinkled looking and come in a variety of stunning colors and patterns. Some plants can reach a foot high and some plants have been bred that stay quite small.

Read the rest of the article here

 http://www.examiner.com/article/growing-rex-begonias

 Grow any pumpkins, sunflowers or squash this summer? The seeds of these plants make excellent winter snacks. They are tasty and nutritious and it isn’t hard to prepare them. Sunflower seeds are one of the few food sources of the much acclaimed Vitamin D. If you don’t think you will want to eat all of the seeds you produce from pumpkins or sunflowers your animals and the wildlife on your property will gladly take your unwanted seeds.

 Read the rest of the article here.

  http://www.examiner.com/article/using-sunflower-and-pumpkin-seeds-from-the-garden