Links of chain

It was cold and dark this morning with the skies spitting pieces of sleet and intermittent snow flakes. I hadn't been fooled by previous weeks of warm weather and the nicer signs of spring but like many, I had hoped the mild days would continue. As I came around the corner of the lower woods road, a grouse ran through, did a half circle, took a glance my way and scooted into the balsams.

I walked up the road checking for deer and moose tracks. No fresh moose tracks today but the usual deer sign showed movement from the valley floor up to our seculded fields. Recent rains have encouraged the grass to grow and although it is always a poor crop, it's the best there is in these parts this time of year.

I made it to the old barn foundation garden and as I always do, I entered the front, moving slowly and looking for signs of unfurled hosta and wildflower leaves breaking ground. Save for a few bunchberry stems, there were none. I sat on the granite bench a neighbor had made for us, and listened to the silence. The sun would be rising soon, I thought, as the birds had begun their morning chorus.

Lots of work left to get the garden ready, I thought. I had already raked the leaves off the beds and into the walkways. The accumulation of downed branches from January's storm would take time to remove. The northeast corner of the foundation wall still had a foot of ice and snow welding piles of leaves to the garden floor. It would be another week or two before they would thaw. The little display pond was ice-free but filled with leaves and twigs. Apparently, it was still too cold for the spring peepers, as the water surface didn't move.

My eyes focused on an old piece of chain I dug out of the cellar hole. Eight beautiful old links of pitted and rusted iron....left I surmise, from the days when the foundation was built. Moving large stone takes levers and rollers and pry bars, man and animal power...and sometimes even chains. I could be wrong about its use but I'm certain the bigger part of it remains a mystery, still missing....perhaps buried right here. Eight links would not have been much use except perhaps to hold a rope hoist to the barn rafters and secure a beef or pig butchered and spread on a whipple tree, hanging to drip. Chains have many uses......but eight links?

In the distance, I could hear the sound of the route driver for my Sunday paper. He's new and I haven't met him yet. His muddy truck sounds as if it is missing the muffler, perhaps another victim of mud season. I'll meet the driver sometime soon, but for now...........a cup of coffee.

Be well.

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Spring rains, spring flowers

Mornin' from Marshfield! 50.7 degrees now as a gentle and much needed rain begins to fall. I've been away for a few days and there is a lot to catch up on. The greening grass, the calls of loons just back to Peacham Pond and the sight of the first blue heron all suggest the early spring will continue. The lone cowbird and the absence of red winged blackbirds remains a mystery.

The ice left Peacham Pond on Wednesday and that's a couple weeks earlier than the April 28 average. Although the water level is still low, the power company will probably be closing up the dam gates and the level will rise quickly over the next couple weeks.

Each spring is somehow different. The first spring we were here in Marshfield, the spring of 1990, Gail's Dad planted his peas on April 1st. It's never happened that way since. On April 23, 2001 we had 8" of fresh snow a day after we had planted 1500 lilies into gallon pots. On April 28th, 2003 about 4" of wet snow covered everything for a couple days and slowed down our spring planting. Keeping a garden journal is a good reminder to the past as well as things we should do that sometimes are escape us.

I was outside early this morning setting up the hoses on the lower hosta garden for the first time. I waited impatiently for rain but there hasn't been enough to suit me. Last year I waited and I paid the price with some less than admirable looking hosta. This is a plant that loves water, in fact water is said to be the best fertilizer. Dry springs, absent of sufficent rain to really get to the roots, shows itself weeks later when the leaves dehydrate ahead of time and brown and tear at the edges. One of my favorites is Regal Splendor, a vase shaped sport of Krossa Regal. Last year the creamy edges cracked and tore early and once that happens the beauty of the plant is lost for the season.

As I set up the hoses I noticed some damage from voles this winter. There is all kinds of information available about these little critters and I avoid the controversy of moles, voles, mice and who eats what, damages what, and so on. Fact is I could see too many holes among the hostas and pieces of root mass on the top of the ground.....chewed leftovers from sometime this winter. Hopefully a thorough watering will bring them around.

Time to get going here. The list is long. The rain is now falling hard enough that it was like turning off the switch on the voices of the spring peepers who carried on all night as they do when the temperature stays above 45. Already I miss their voices as nature's music is kind of nice. Off to the garden..Be well!

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Building a Garden

Another beautiful spring day making everyone want to be outside enjoying the warmth and sunshine. I wanted to get home early to do some raking but things didn't turn out that way. I've been trying to get the leaves and branches collected in the "lower garden" but as usual, it's a bigger task than I want it to be. I sat on the garden bench with a cup of cold coffee and enjoyed the sun.

Close by the bench is the old barn foundation within which I started a shade garden several years back. The granite and fieldstone slabs pay homage to the strength of the past when men and animals accepted the burden of this type construction and labored on for weeks as a foundation moved into place.

At the end of one of the front walls is a flat rock that just seemed a natural place to toss things I found during the garden building process. Some the the metal shapes offer no idea of their origin but the collection of hand wrought nails of various sizes is very interesting. No need for nails in the current theme of construction but just the thought of history-past weighs more obviously when you grasp a hand-made nail and think back in time. I guess these "found" nails hold part of my mental garden history together.

This is an interesting garden and building it has been fun. The first part was more laborious as the foundation had become a dumping ground for rocks and trash. The foundation was close to the Peacham Pond Road and it afforded an easy place to off-load unwanted property in the days before we moved here. I became friends with the crew at the landfill for a time when cleaning up the mess was the first priority and trips with a loaded pick-up were frequent.

Using stone in garden construction is so very rewarding but it requires some thought ahead of time. Stones rarely move themselves and some are larger than others. Calculating each move in advance cuts down on the work. Crude tools to enhance mechanical advantage also come in handy--a 6 foot pry bar, some wooden blocks for fulcrums and some iron pipes in 2"-3"-4" diameters to use as rollers.

Folks often ask where I learned to do this. There really was no course to take, no book to read, no mentor for me. It was more a mix of time and trial.....and a plan. As I sat on the garden bench I reminded myself of the garden plan which had come this far. Today I saw some buds starting to show on the European ginger; the hellebores are forcing their first new shoots out of the cold ground; a few lone Trillium grandiflorum are breaking ground. My plan is well underway but long from finished. History covers time.

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Almost 8 PM and the light is almost gone. One robin is running across the lower field looking for a last bite. It's been a busy day! I sat here at the computer at 5 this morning watching the sun rise up from the valley. The morning was clear and it had every indication of being the great day it turned out to be.

As I scanned pictures of last year's gardens, I ran across this one of our driveway. It's only a driveway when flowers aren't in season. Beginning about the first week of July when the first lilies begin to bloom and continuing on until about Labor Day, the colors are warm and inviting and pots fill the drive save for a small area we leave to handle 3-4 cars. This picture represents a time we really enjoy at Vermont Flower Farm.

This morning was pleasant but cold to start. Last night's drop in temperature caused the pond to skim over with a fresh layer of ice. As I enjoyed my coffee I caught a glance of a dark brown mink at the edge of the pond. He seemed upset that he couldn't enter the water for a fine trout breakfast but that didn't hurt my feelings. Each spring just as it did late Friday afternoon, a strong wind breaks up the last of the winter ice on the pond. The pieces tinkle as they slide into each other and then they melt away.... only to come again a few more times until May rains warm the water. This is the time we typically see mink or maybe an otter traveling overland. They are fun to watch but as they leave I always wonder how many trout are missing.

Today it was time to uncover the pots we had carried over from last year. There were about 6000 this year, too many according to Gail. In the fall we line up the pots, ten abreast in rows 50-60-70-80 feet long. Then we cover them with a spun fiber insulating blanket and a piece of construction poly to keep the water out. Tree boughs top off the plastic to hold it in place and catch and hold snow to further insulate.

I had started this uncovering project a week earlier but the woods road muddied up quickly and I had to wait for it to dry a bit. Today was a good day to remove the rest of the boughs and errant tree limbs from the bad storm back in December. It took four large loads but the task is done.

My curiosity won't ever leave me alone and I had to uncover the lilies to see how they fared. I curled back a corner of the insulating cloth and the evidence was clear that the vole population must be healthy. Some pots looked as if a strong hand reached straight into the center of the pot and grabbed out the lily bulb and soil. Voles are small but they have an interest in the sweet sugars contained in lily bulbs. I can't say that I like them even though I rarely see them. Why do they eat the most expensive lilies first? Wouldn't a $2 lily bulb taste just as good as a $20 bulb? Guess I'm not a vole. Hope you enjoyed today too!

It seems like ages ago when the tall Orienpet lilies stood 7 feet tall and towered above the other flowers. Perhaps their name "The Empress" was appropriate to their strength and stature, all the while in contradiction to their role as chief hummingbird perch for the ruby throats. The tiny birds stake these lilies out as they catch their breath before feeding again on the bright red monardas, known to many as bee balm.

Welcome to the Vermont Gardener

It's a blustery day here on the hill above Peacham Pond. It's still too cold to get outside to work in the gardens but it's a good time to begin The Vermont Gardener. Here at Vermont Flower Farm, flowers are our specialty. We've been growing flowers since the early 80's and although our interests have changed over the years, we have arrived at an outstanding collection of astilbes, daylilies, lilium and hostas plus some great shade plants. During the evolution of this blog, we'll post pictures of how the gardens develop and the varieties grow. Chances are good that you'll be interested and want to keep coming back.

We hope that as you visit and exchange thoughts, questions and pictures with us, you'll get a sense of gardening in Vermont, the people who visit us here and the gardens that interest us. One of our fondest and most popular gardens is a shade garden built within the granite and fieldstone walls of an old barn foundation. We left the wildflowers we found growing there as design anchors to the plants we added. Now, as this particular garden enters it's seventh year, hundreds of different hostas combine with epimediums, hellebores, cimicifugas, ligularias, rodgersias, primulas, ferns, baneberries, arisaemas and false solomon seal. It's a picture to remember!

So thanks for joining us on our gardening journey.

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com