Feeling Energized at Home

It is easy to feel energized in September. Maybe it’s prompted by the cooling trend in the weather or the year after year jangling of a new school year - even if we are not actually in school this particular year.

New projects started…the garden harvested….the house and car ready for winter…house guests invited and welcomed…all good ways to channel that energy and enjoy September.

I’ve never quite synced with the notion of ‘spring cleaning’ because the burst of energy toward homemaking has always caught me in the early fall instead. In the past week I’ve cleaned out under bathroom sinks and the linen closet. Spending an hour or two a day on cleaning out storage areas of the house and cleaning those areas that only get cleaned about once a year seems very appealing right now.

And then there are the gardening pots on the deck. The sweet potatoes will be the last things I will harvest (picture on right) - just before 1st frost; the plant has at least one very large sweat potato that has pushed its way above the soil twice (I’ve added soil to cover it!). All the other herbs are going to be started along the drying process this week. I also have a bucket of day lily bulbs that were too crowded in their bed; now I need to replant them in new flowerbeds.

And I have 3 sets of house guests scheduled to arrive at various times over the next couple of months!

September is definitely a high energy month for me. Is it for you too?

Little Celebrations of Each Day

Finding a way to be happy about life is easier if we celebrate - even in a small way - each day. Sure - there will still be the more substantial celebrations that happen less often but, for me, the little celebrations are more closely linked to feeling happy.

I am starting a project to write down one thing I celebrated at the end of each day to become more overt about recognizing and acknowledging the little celebrations. I’ve looked back over my notes for the past few days and picked one thing that stood out. Basically - I have a lot to celebrate so picking only one thing may be the challenge rather that searching for something.

Yesterday the little celebration was seeing one of the heron chicks from Sapsucker Woods on the heron cam. It was such a short few months ago that the chicks were just hatched and looking very fragile in their high nest…with owl attacks.

On Friday, I celebrated being able to eat banana. This may not be a celebration for many people but bananas made me violently ill for many years and I only recently discovered that I can eat them again. They are a great ingredient in smoothies.

On Thursday, I celebrated because there were a lot more iris rhizomes in my garden than I thought there were. They had not bloomed very well in the weed clogged and shady location but they were still making rhizomes every effectively. They will make a beautiful display next spring/early summer in their new location.

On Wednesday, I finally got around to asking my husband here the converted videos from our daughter’s babyhood were located on his computer and did some early celebrating of her 23rd birthday by watching some video of her 1st.

What have you celebrated today?

Summer Morning Gardening

The gardening time rule-of-thumb for me in August is - every morning from 7-8 that it is not raining. There is always something that needs to be done and something unexpected to note. The unexpected yesterday was this beautiful little mushroom with its gray pleats and white filaments.

I’ve caught up enough on the weeds to move iris and day lilies that have not done well in their current location because a young sycamore has gotten big enough to deny them enough sunlight - and they were getting too crowded. I didn’t realize the extent of the crowding until I started digging them up and found very dense bulbs/rhizomes. Next year there will be lots of flowers in the sunny bed where I’m moving them.

While I was digging and separating - I thought about how these plants are part of my heritage. The day lilies were a house warming present from my mother-in-law when she moved in with us 23 years ago. She’s been gone for about 22 years now - those day lilies are a wonderful reminder of her. I’m glad I remembered to dig them up to take with us when we moved to our current house. The irises are descended from some my mother dug from her Texas garden; they had been very prolific in her garden and she planted the excess for that year in my Maryland garden….over 15 years ago.

There were other items I’ve added to the garden over the years that I happened upon as I was digging

A small chunk of pale green glass purchased in a shop on the road to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Shells picked up on some beach

And tomorrow there are still more day lilies and iris to dig up and move!

Bulb Project - Phase 1: Planting

I have a bulb planting project this spring. In the past I focused on bulb planted in the fall that would then bloom in the early spring. This year my focus is on bulbs planted in the spring that will bloom in the summer…and summers to come.

The first bag contained 60 blazing stars (liatris spicata) that produce a spire of purple flowers that blooms in mid to late summer. The instructions said to plant the bulbs 5 inches apart and 4 inches deep. I used a big shovel to dig trenches along the back of the flower bed, just in front of the bushes. I planted as many as I could in that trench before using my hands to break up the clods of dirt as I refilled the depression. I ended up making several more trenches. 60 is quite a large number of bulbs! In between plantings - when my back did not want to be bending over any more, I used the nippers to trim the bushes a bit. In a little over an hour I’d planted the bulbs and filled a big trash bag of clippings from the bush and some weeds I’d pulled before I even started the bulb planting.

The bulbs were dried up brownish knobs packed loosely in wood shavings. Most of them had beginnings of roots on the fat end and a few had a tiny sprout on the pointed end. It was easy to tell which end should be planted up most of the time. I don’t think they’ll appear to be in a perfectly straight row when they come up but they’ll still look good in front of the bushes. The bushes are between 5 and 6 feet high so these flowers that can get up to 48 inches will be a nice stepwise progression from then. In front of the blazing stars there is some vigorous foliage of day lilies. I have some wire stakes around them because last year the deer invaded just before the buds opened; I had very few flowers! If they manage to bloom this year - the flowers will show up nicely against the lavender of the blazing stars.

The next day I planted 16 dahlia bulbs. The instructions said to plant them 1 inch deep and 12 inches apart. I dug some shallow holes before I opened up the bag. Surprise! Dahlias have big bulbs with multiple finger sized tubers with each one. It took bigger and deeper holes. Most of the bulbs had a healthy looking sprout that I could leave peeking up through the soil after I covered the rest with soil. The dahlias are positioned in the front of the flower bed since I plan to cut at least some of them for inside the house if they do well. I took time out to finish trimming the bushes behind my bulb bed too.

I am really looking forward to the flowers of summer!

Parsley in the Kitchen Window

I bought a small pot of Italian parsley at the grocery store this week. This gives me greenery to enjoy now and then put in a large pot on the deck to enjoy all summer. The small shelf above my sink is the perfect place for it - there is great afternoon sun and I’ll notice when it needs to be watered. The store had similar pots of basil and cilantro. I have some basil seeds and decided to plant them (another small project for today). The cilantro plants looked too fragile; maybe I’ll get one some other week.

I’ve enjoyed Italian parsley previously. The plant tends to be hardy (as long as it gets enough water) and rapidly replenishes the amount I cut. I like it in salads, sprinkled on top of soups/stir fries, or in a veggie smoothie. The leaves are even large enough to use on a sandwich!