Garden Notes
All hail the Glorious Fourth! Ironical as it may be, I find myself indoors writing while the fairest of recent days passes outside the window. But, I reason, I am far from being the only one with conflicting commitments. The calendar becomes more packed. The season is here.
'Northern White' garlic nearing harvest. Planted in fall and harvested in early July, garlic is a crop that makes the most of garden space. Photos by Susan Safford
Like 2008, apparently it has been another good year for roses, with lots of floriferous and fragrant displays. If your rose has unexpectedly changed color, you may be seeing flowers that stem from the rootstock, such as the dark red 'Dr. Huey,' that I wrote about last summer. Many garden roses are grafted onto roots of robust roses with the goal of reliable uniformity, stronger growth, or other traits. If last winter's unfavorable conditions have caused your grafted rose to die back to the bud union, chances are the roots are throwing canes, maybe 'Dr. Huey' or another, like R. multiflora. Either learn to accept the apparent newcomer, or replace it, and - important point - all the soil surrounding it, with a rose that you actually choose.
Until recently I thought of winter as the read-about-it season for the garden, with spring, summer, and fall the doing-it seasons. The unappealing wet, cold days have promoted garden reading as one way to continue to participate despite it. A couple of titles to check if they have not already come to your attention:
"Plant-Driven Design," by the husband and wife team of Scott Ogden and Lauren Springer Ogden, (Timber Press, Portland, 2008, 281 pp.) "Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit." Illustrated with great photography by both authors, "Plant-Driven Design" takes the reader to the best gardens (including their own) and landscapes of multiple continents and climates. Especially emphatic and refreshing are the introductory preface and first chapter of this beautiful volume, where there are some pithy sections on "landscape installations and exterior décor."
The five remaining chapters amplify the authors' experience and understanding of plants and plant communities. The authors make the case for acquiring the knowledge to put plants first in design and culture. Throughout the pages are 37 features and lists, all highlighted in unifying, pale celadon boxes. Each image, all of which are in color, is fully captioned with the plant material it contains, a prerequisite for any serious plant enthusiast. Having used this book, even a beginning gardener has tools to put the principles to work and practice plant-driven design.
Some paraphrased background on "Lilacs: a Gardener's Encyclopedia," (by John L. Fiala, revised and updated by Freek Vrugtman, ibid. 2008, 580 color photographs, 416 pp.): First published in 1988 by the late lilac hybridizer and priest, Fr. John Fiala, the first edition is as much the worldwide lilac lovers' bible as exists. The latest revision combines Fiala's passion with the expertise of Canadian plantsman Freek Vrugtman, the International Lilac Registrar.
Surprising as it may seem, we are still in lilac season today. Some of the late varieties and hybrids currently available are even now in bloom, such as the tree lilac, Syringa reticulata, the S. villosa hybrids, and 'Miss Kim,' the S. pubescens subsp. patula collected and introduced by New Hampshire's noted plantsman Elwyn Meader. This comprehensive volume is a useful guide to their identification, although by its sheer completeness it is at times bewildering. While one does not ordinarily read an encyclopedia from cover to cover, nonetheless, wherever one dips into "Lilacs" one will find interesting or useful information.
I am often asked how I avoid aches and pains (I have been lucky, but also the truth is that I don't always) while gardening, fear of which keeps many in passive stances regarding their gardens. However, most gardeners acquire aches and pains muscular in origin. Many people are familiar with the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) formula for care of musculoskeletal injuries. With this helpful book, of useful interest to gardeners, "Trigger Point Self-Care Manual (For Pain-Free Movement)," by Donna Finando, L.Ac, L.M.T. (Healing Arts Press, Rochester, VT, 2005, 200 pp.) their source may be detected and treated.
Janet Travell, M.D., who famously put President Kennedy in the rocker, pioneered the trigger point theory of muscular injuries. Ms. Finando's book is a practical application of that work. What are trigger points? Individual bands of muscle lying next to one another make up muscles. A muscular trauma can lead to the restriction of one or more of these bands, resulting in a "taut band." A trigger point will be located within that taut band. The muscular dysfunction caused by the taut band will remain until the taut band is released. "Each trigger point produces a predictable pain pattern that is reproducible when the trigger point is compressed. Pain resulting from a trigger point, what is known as referred pain, is felt at a distance from the trigger point."
"Trigger Point Self-Care Manual" provides a chapter-by-chapter guide to body areas, their musculature, and trigger point locations. Illustrations augment the text and detail the stretches used to unknot and massage trigger points. The back of the book contains a helpful seven-page catalogue of thumbnail illustrations called the Pain Pattern Index. Readers can check images of pain patterns to learn which muscle is involved in their specific pain and then turn to the relevant pages for exercises.
In the garden
I have several different garlics in my vegetable garden: some look almost ready to dig, another is still going strong. How to tell? An attendee at last week's Homegrown says, when the bottom four leaves of the garlic plant have yellowed/withered/died it is ready to dig. Others say, when five green leaves remain at the top.
Polly Hill Arboretum: Making Herbal Salves, Holly Bellebuono, Tuesday, July 7.
