Community Garden Scenes

Lots of produce is being harvested at the Community Garden -- tomatoes, beans, beets, carrots, eggplants, peppers, onions... Despite (or maybe because of) the hot and dry weather, the vegetables have thrived. 

It's a different world at the Garden -- so peaceful and quiet. I love going there to work the plot, water and harvest the crops, watch the goldfinches and butterflies on the sunflowers and zinnias. It's like a little slice of heaven.

Reflection of the sunset on nursery greenhouse

Some of our produce

View of the barn from the Community Garden.  It would make a nice painting!

The cherry tomatoes have been a great success!

This summer's weather has been good for the onions.

Nursery sunflowers at entrance to Community Garden

Have you ever seen a white eggplant?  I haven't, until now. This is in our neighbor's garden.

Our hot banana peppers in all colors. Spicy!

Heading into Fall

Despite the dry Summer, the plants look healthy in The Perennial Path, thanks to regular watering. Over the weekend we trimmed back dead blooms and did some weeding. It seems that weeds grow even without water! We found permanent homes for the recent purchases from the garden center (Aug. 25th posting) and removed the bird netting from the blueberry bushes, since the berries have all been picked.

We planted the yellow daylilies and the lavender, both perennials, around the base of the birdbath. I like the yellow/purple color combination. The astilbe at the bottom has already bloomed and the sedum at the top right is about ready to bloom.

The hanging planter filled with purple verbena, pink petunias and yellow million bells, all annuals, is at the side of the lilac tree on a metal butterfly shepherd's hook. The purple aster is planted below and the white mum is across from it on the other side of the path, both perennials.

Hanging basket, purple aster, white mum

The wisteria vine that was planted in July has reached the top of the arbor. Maybe it'll have flowers on it next Spring. The turtlehead (chelone), a perennial, is flowering. I added some slow release fertilizer to the annual pots a couple weeks ago and it has really made a nice difference in the plants, giving them a second life, and should take them through the Fall. They have to be watered almost daily because of the dry weather and their heavy root system.

Wisteria on arbor at entrance

Turtlehead

Impatiens in pot by arbor entrance

Coleus

I'm hoping my new perennials make it through the Winter!  Wouldn't that be nice!


Last, but not least, we had a monarch caterpillar who found his way up and under the window box at the side of the house and decided that it was a good spot to form his chrysalis.  Saturday about 10:00  a.m. he eclosed and after his wings were dry, flew away.  "He" turned out to be a she!

August Vignette

Hanging baskets of annuals were half price at the garden center, so I couldn't pass up that deal!  I arranged the pot of petunias, million bells and verbena, along with my other plant purchases, while they await their permanent homes in the perennial garden.

There's a hardy white mum, lavender, with a heavenly fragrance, two canary yellow everblooming daylilies called Happy Returns, and a purple aster.

Hardy mum

Lavender

Happy Returns daylily

Aster

The bird cage has been around for years. After spraying it with an off-white paint, I "planted" one of my little rues in it (hubby's idea!). The chair was purchased for $5 at a garage sale.  The seat was missing, so I made a faux rush seat for it -- not very professional looking, but it serves its purpose! It had chippy white paint on it, so it was stripped down and stained.

The three-pronged digger was my grandmother's and I still use it!  I inherited my love of gardening from her ❤️

Beyond the Path

It was such a gorgeous day, we couldn't resist taking the short ride to the lake, with camera in hand, to capture the golden sunset and the waves lapping onto the shore. About 10-15 other folks had the same idea.    

Sunset on Lake Erie with Canada directly across on the horizon

Red sky at night, sailor's delight

Northerly view of the City of Buffalo with windmills on the shoreline

Time flies ....

It's the end of August, the County Fair left town yesterday, school will be starting soon, the sun is setting earlier  -- signs that Summer is winding down and Fall will soon be upon us.  Yesterday was my kind of day -- sunny with the temperature in the mid-70s, blue skies, low humidity and a gentle breeze.  Today's supposed to be a repeat.  Yay!

Raising Butterflies in Your Garden, Part I

On a warm, sunny day everyone loves watching colorful butterflies fluttering through their garden, stopping to nectar on flowers and flowering bushes. With the addition of a few host plants, an ordinary flower garden can be transformed into a waystation or habitat that not only attracts the butterflies, but provides them with plants on which to lay their eggs.

Each variety of butterfly has specific host plants where it lays its eggs and when the caterpillar emerges, feeds on the leaves of those plants. About seven years ago I began incorporating host plants into the garden and have successfully raised and released monarchs, eastern black swallowtails and giant swallowtails.


Monarch host plants include all types of milkweed and my garden includes Common (Asclepias Syriaca), Whorled (Asclepias Verticillata), Butterfly Weed  (Asclepias Tuberosa), and Tropical (Asclepias Curassavica).  Common, Whorled, and Butterfly Weed, are perennial milkweeds in our NY climate zone.  Tropical is an annual and has to be replanted each Spring.  All milkweeds secrete a sticky, white sap that is irritating to the skin and eyes.

Black Swallowtail host plants include Fennel, Dill, Parsley, Queen Ann's Lace, Carrot, and occasionally Rue.

The Giant Swallowtail is the largest butterfly found in North America, measuring up to 6" across the wings.  I've provided Rue for its host plant.  In southern climates its caterpillars feed on citrus trees. Rue is irritating to the skin and eyes and has a pungent odor.

I make a point of buying host plants from a garden center that hasn't used pesticides on them, since caterpillars will die from eating those leaves. Online nurseries are also a good source for plants and many of them mention on their site that they don't use harmful chemicals. We also avoid using pesticides in and around our garden.

Monarch Host Plants:

Butterfly Weed

Swamp Milkweed

Whorled Milkweed

Tropical Milkweed

Common Milkweed

Black Swallowtail Host Plants:

Dill

Queen Ann's Lace

Fennel

Parsley

Giant Swallowtail Host Plant:

Rue

If you have an interest in attracting specific butterflies that are typical in your area of the country, provide them with their host plant and you'll have a good chance of spotting them in your garden.

Tomato Time

It's been a good year for growing tomatoes.  Last year's meager crop got an early blight, causing yellow, dying leaves and stems, so the tomatoes had to be picked before they ripened. There's a bumper crop this year, even enough for canning. The Early Girl variety was started from seed in April under the lights indoors and the small plants were put out in the garden the end of May.

Early Girl tomatoes

There's nothing like picking a ripe, warm and juicy tomato from the vine and eating it right in the garden!  

After the Rain

And in the morning, when the sun returns 

to claim the earth the mist surprises,

rising unabashed and clean again to grace the

nascent waiting skies after the rain.

Ivan Donn Carswell

Weekend Happenings

This weekend the storm clouds rolled in and we got the rain (with sound effects!) that was expected, making for very happy flowers, vegetable gardens and lawns.  Some folks around the country are suffering with too much rain and with flooding; but in upstate New York we've got a drought and any little bit of relief is very welcome! Hubby and I got a break from our almost daily rounds of watering our community garden parcel, church flowers, and our own gardens.  I was able to make the cream cheese pastries, one of my mom's recipes, and I made a trip to the garden center.

Three plants caught my eye over at the garden center.  The middle plant is a native perennial called Upland Ironweed and grows 3-5 feet tall.  It's a late blooming plant that has purple flowers.  I'll put it in a sunny spot at the back of the garden, since it will grow tall.

The two daylilies are rebloomers.  One's called Sunday Gloves and is almost pure white; the other is Barbara Mitchell, a soft pink color.  I've decided to only buy rebloomers to have more color from the plants throughout the season.

An all-white phlox is flowering in the perennial path.  I've never planted all white, so it must have grown from a seed that was deposited there.

Finally, this weekend I had a chance to make the Cream Cheese Pastry Tarts with blueberry filling from the last of the berries picked from our little patch of bushes.

It's a recipe that's more than 50 years old.  Mom filled them with mincemeat, but any thickened fruit filling works, or jam. Dainty tarts with a rich and flaky crust.  I made extra filling to serve with the baked tarts, since there isn't much inside. You could make them larger with more filling.

Cream Cheese Pastry:

Filling:

3 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch for thickening
1/4 cup water

Cook ingredients in a saucepan until thick and bubbly.  Cool.

Crust:

1 cup butter softened at room temperature
8 oz. package cream cheese softened at room temperature
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and cream cheese, add sifted dry ingredients.  Chill dough 2 to 3 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Divide dough into 4 equal parts; work with 1/4 of dough at a time.  Refrigerate remaining dough.

Roll dough very thin on lightly floured surface.  Cut into 2" squares.  Put 1 teapoon filling on half of the squares and top with remaining squares.  Press edges together with floured tines of a fork.  Brush with milk.

Bake on a cookie sheet 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  When completely cooled, sprinkle tops with confectioners' sugar.   Makes about 5 dozen.  There will be extra filling to serve with the tarts.