Showing posts with label hosta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hosta. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Ice Cream


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

51° and overcast this morning. The reds and pinks of the early morning sunrise have faded to gray, and slivers of light blue are beginning to show. Gail says "no rain today" but the morning just has that feel about it that we have become accustomed to. We have both been out once with Karl the Wonder Dog who heard neighbor Michelle and her dog Jelly and wanted a second walk. Dogs like to socialize too, even in early morning hours when people are still wiping sleep from their eyes and spilling coffee.

Yesterday was one of those days where everything kind of fell apart before it started. Gail and I loaded the car and truck and prepared to head for the nursery. I took a quick look at Gail's car and a rear tire was pancake like. We switched vehicles and I began changing the flat. I headed straight to the garage thinking this would be an easy fix but everyone else had morning troubles and the morning wait was 3 hours. I grabbed an appointment for tomorrow and will have a rear wheel bearing replaced at the same time. Got back to the nursery and found that worker bee Michael called and had to take a family car in that had morning problems too. By then it was 11 and the morning had been rearranged three times. That happens with everyone, not just gardeners.

I continue to replant the hosta display garden and will be down there working this morning. The hostas that survived the flood do not look good as they are coated with some gray film. I guess if I had ten feet of water from who knows where washing over me for hours upon hours, I wouldn't look all that good either. Big John is still flattened and the magnificent Bressingham Blue, Elegans and Bigfoot are not up to speed yet. This was supposed to be the year the garden would be promoted but I cannot in good faith even encourage customers and visitors to walk down and see something that needs so much attention. Just the same people go and return to say it doesn't look that mysterious after all. Eye of the beholder I think.

Summer is a time when I like a good creamy or a homemade ice cream in a sugar cone. I have been so busy I haven't had either. I think Gail and Alex have cheated on me a little and have stopped someplace but won't fess up. Bragg Farm Sugarhouse in East Montpelier has a very good maple creamy and Artesano in Groton has a handmade maple ice cream named Munson's Maple that is out of this world. Artesano makes some wonderful meads too but their ice creams get us through and will help you too. Recently they made batches of Strawberries and Cream and also Rhubarb, both with local produce. Small batches means the customer has to keep track of availability and sometimes their Facebook page tells what they're making. Sometimes it means you also have to drive right down or face possible disappointment because people like to brag about savoring the last cone or dish of an ice cream that will not reappear until next week or next season. Artesano is open Thursday through Sunday and also holiday Mondays so you have to temper your desire with a different schedule too.

As for hostas, there's a very nice small hosta named Ice Cream. It has nice color and grows well. It's good for a front-of-the-garden position and is likely to be something that a friend will ask for a piece of. Hosta are known as the friendship plant and a hosta or an unusual ice cream flavor can form a strong bond. I like hostas and ice cream!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Mrs Deer stood outside my office window looking in, chewing on a daylily leaf and swatting flies. Loons have been talking at the pond and reservoir since 4:00 and their conversations are loud. I have to get going!


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
At VFF we'll help you grow your green thumb--for free!!

Friday, October 15, 2010

External To Vermont


Friday, October 15, 2010

After 2 PM and the rain has let up a little. The temperature has dropped to 37.8° and the wind comes in little bursts from 2 to 5 mph. The tall goldenrod, now flowerless, sway back and forth in the breeze, nodding right, then left. My neighbor persists in bringing in firewood with his tractor. He must be wet and cold to the bone after doing this since 10 AM. He's bringing in next year's wood but couldn't have picked a much nastier day to get ahead.

Sometimes it's good to step back and look at yourself and what you do from afar. I do that once in a while and I do not ask for feedback during the process. Questions expect answers and some of that is no one's business. During the week I might walk into my woods and sometimes I drive a bit into the state forest and walk where I have never walked before. Curiosity of difference draws out new insight into life and it helps me see some things more clearly. Sometimes I even leave Vermont altogether and that's what I did this week.

Downeast Maine is a difficult concept for some and I won't go there. You figure it out. Acadia National Park is mid coast to me and that's where you'll find Cadillac Mountain, a place I have been known to enjoy. I liked it a bunch more before thousands of people appeared there by bus, car, RV, bicycle and feet, each competing for mountain space relative to their mode of travel. Just the same I headed there this week.

Cadillac Mountain is a wide open place where the sun and the moon play interesting games. I just like to walk down the mountain and find a stone pocket others might avoid and sit there and watch the ocean. I also like to walk around looking at the plants, insects, birds and other critters that survive there.


At the ocean's edge is Bar Harbor, an old city that in more recent years began inviting luxury liners to visit. There is mixed review from the locals about what this has done to the town's infrastructure but it's a reality now that may not go away. Only two liners waited in the harbor compared to 5 on a previous visit.

I would not think of visiting the mountain during the tourist season as being in lines of traffic is why I live on a mountain in Vermont. Fall foliage apparently has great interest as the top parking lot and the lower observatory lot were full when I arrived as I knew they would be. I waited for a parking space. I drove in from Ellsworth and as soon as I left there traveling down Route 3, there was a constant line of traffic leaving Acadia.

I spent two hours up top and never once saw anyone I knew. Lots of people shared smiles and pleasantries but that's where it stayed. If you could temporarily erase the blue sky and ocean from your thoughts, you might think you were at a camera club meeting or a camera manufacturers convention. ..but I wasn't.

There is a magnificence to Cadillac Mountain that warrants respect and a visit. If you have been to Yellowstone you can understand park traffic. Visit anyway--at least once.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where our hostas have senesced. This includes one named Cadillac, pictured below. I don't sell it any more as it is slow for me. I don't think the name is related to the mountain....maybe the car?....maybe the Frenchman in Detroit?

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm


Cadillac, the hosta
(In the middle)


Monday, September 24, 2007

Things To Remember To Do


Monday, September 24, 2007

The sun has long since retired for the night and the moon is starting the night shift, providing light for migrating geese and foraging deer. Early this morning a moose came to the garden perimeter and let out a bellow suggesting its displeasure with the so called "deer fence". A couple-three nights ago, Gail followed me home from the new property. The time it took for her to grab some milk at the general store spaced our vehicles out just enough that she had to stop to let three bears cross the road above the hosta shade house. A sow and two little cubs added to our list of fall visitors.

When the nights grow shorter like this, there is little time to get things cleaned up before fall winds turn to white showers. We are especially busy with the business move but things are going well. I watched two couples in a car from New York as they slowed to look at the current Vermont Flower Farm. As they passed by I could see the wonderment in their faces: "What is going on there anyway?" We have stacks upon stacks of plastic crates, many empty, some filled with daylily roots ready to be planted. If there is gardener-speak for "disheveled", that's kind of what it looks like around here now.

No matter where you are at with your gardens, if your peonies need to be divided, do it now. Here's a picture of a nice Topeka Garnet which needs to be divided but may not make it this year. It's a great color and one any gardener would enjoy.

I just heard an ad on the radio the other day to put Grub-Ex on your lawns so you don't have to deal with Japanese beetles next year. The last thing we need to do is put more chemicals into our aquifers. Try Milky Spore which is a bacteria on your lawns and gardens any time until the soil temperature heads below 55 degrees. It may take a tad longer to see the total results but you won't be contaminating your lawns and gardens for those who might use them in later years.

I've been more busy than I like to think about but have tried to write a bit at Vermont Gardens
If you have any fall gardening questions, do let me know. For those who I promised a copy of my great grandmothers German Apple Coffee Cake, hold tight and I'll get it out in a few days. There's no better time than now with fresh apples to try new apple recipes and remind yourself and your family what a great fruit apples really are.

In the meantime, I have to switch to e-mail mode and answer some private queries. If you have a question but don't feel right about posting back to one of the blogs, send it straight to me and I'll get you an answer. I'll even try to make them "right" answers.


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where colored sugar maple leaves float gently to earth, piling one atop another to dry and crunch under foot until fall rains compact them the day before I receive the command to rake. Why does it happen like this?

Best gardening wishes,

George Africa
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
http://vermontflowerfarm.com