“Do what we can, summer will have its flies. If we walk in the woods, we must feed the mosquitoes.” Emerson
My friend the Wind Chime Hater is convinced that the mosquitoes are bigger this year. I’m not sure that they’re bigger but there are certainly a lot of them. Nature seems to be getting us back for enjoying a month of daffodils and tulips.
A timely two inches of rain has made a huge difference to the flower garden. The foxgloves are extra tall this year and the sweet william is lush and full. One of my favourite annuals, love-in-a-mist, is also taller than usual. This is a beautiful and useful self- seeded annual that fills in spaces in the flower border. It self- seeds freely but is not invasive. I planted it years ago and it has come back every year ever since.
The old fashioned double peonies were spectacular this year. Never mind that they flop over in the rain; they are the most impressive cut flowers bar none. They look wonderful even when they’re about to fall apart and collapse into a heap of scattered petals. I never seem to get around to staking them in the wild garden.
There were no peonies when I moved here which is surprising for an old farm. There was rhubarb and asparagus and the unfortunately rampant common lilac, both white and purple. I’m happy to say that I have no gout weed, another plant that is very common around old houses.
In a book called The Flower in Season by Jocelyn Brooke there’s a description of gout weed that anyone who has it will recognize. He quotes Gerarde, he of the famous herbal, who says that it “groweth of itselfe in gardens, without setting or sowing, and is so fruitfull in his increase, that where it hath once taken roote, it will be hardly be gotten out againe, spoiling and getting every yeere more ground, to the annoying of better herbes.” Sound familiar? Brooke goes on to say that gout weed is edible and tastes a bit like parsley. And that gardeners might eat it with “vindictive satisfaction.” Has anyone around here ever eaten it? Enquiring minds want to know….
I received a lot of advice about what to do with dahlias to ensure that I actually get to see them flower. It turns out that a lot of people put them in pots as I did. Some people who are willing to work harder than me actually sink the pots in their borders. I’m not willing to go that far. They can live on the porch in their pots and no digging is involved.
The seemingly never ending phoebe show continues. Four young phoebes flew away from the nest on the side porch on the first of June. I was a day late trying to take a picture of them all lined up. When I tried to get a picture finally, they up and flew away and didn’t come back. The nest was empty for about a week and now Mrs Phoebe is back with what I presume is her second family this season. I will try again to get a picture a little earlier this time.
In the vegetable garden, the garlic has been trimmed of its scapes. That always feels like a turning point in the garden year. The tomatoes finally have flowers and the snow peas have reached the top of their trellis. Pole beans have started to twine around their poles. That they do this naturally has always seemed magical to me. They grow inches every day at this point in the year.
I’m looking forward to tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and all the vegetables of mid- summer. I’m also looking forward to being able to work outside without feeding the mosquitoes. I’m hoping that July brings us lots of those graceful swooping bug destroyers, the dragonflies.
By Jill Williams
