What'up! May 1st, 2013 Plattsburgh, NY
In bloom - Bloodroot, Lungwort, Violets, Hepatica, Coltsfoot, Daffodils, Scilla, Periwinkle, Spring Beauties, Bellworts, Wild Ginger root
In bud - Tulips, Foamflowers, Red & White Currants, Ground Ivy
Sprouting up - Goldenrods, Wild Asters, Malvas, Horseradish, Solomon's Seals
Harvesting - Garlic Hedge Mustard flower buds, Violet blossoms and leaves, Jerusalem Artichoke tubers, Horseradish roots, Wild Garlic tops and bulbs, Dandelion Flowers, Dogtooth Violet leaves, Live Forever sedum leaves, Asparagus shoots
WHAT'S UP! A listing of what is up in the garden.
2013 April 14 In my Plattsburgh garden.
It has been a usual spring for a change. The garden is not underwater, nor have we had 80 degree weather. It was sunny when I walked about making this list, now it is hailing.
No shrubs are budding out yet.
Snowdrops blooming - photo
Scilla peruviana blooming - photo
Crocus blooming
Wild Garlic young leaves in edible stage
Garlic Hedge Mustard leaves edible
The following have leaves that have wintered over or are just coming up so you can tell what it is and where it is. Be careful not to greatly disturb the soil around self-sowing plants as the seedlings come up later.
Bergenia, Tulips, Daffodils, Lamb's Ear, Live Forever,
Strawberries, Wild Asters, Wild Geraniums, Mugwort
Lady's Mantle, Monarda, Catnip, Catmint, Dead Nettle
Foam flowers, Angelica, Indian Chocolate Root
Forget-Me-Not's, Self-Heal, Cardinal Flowers
Spring Beauties, Celandine, Columbine, Lovage
Moneywort, Teasels, ThistlesYarrows- White, Gold and Red
Greek Valerians, Phlox, Hyacinths
Periwinkles, Iris, Star of Bethleham
Rhubarb, Wild Carrot
Dandelions, Mullein
Ground Ivy, Sweet Woodruff
Rose Campion
Violets - most leaves are dead except for one variety I rescued from a dirt road grading mound through a swampy land. This tiny light blue violet has transplanted very well and is multiplying. This wild light blue violet has also stayed tiny in various soils. Unlike a tiny white violet I moved that came up the next year as large as the purple violets. I have kept it away from the large purple, white and yellow varieties of violets here as they may crowd it out.
Facebook Page
With the help of +Pete Hager at +CCE Clinton I have finally started an +Underwood Herbs Facebook page.
I have also signed-up to do the North Country Community College Craft Show November 17th.
Mid- summer 2012 or is it fall?
We had an early and warm spring, with a hot summer. I've been working hard reclaiming the gardens in Plattsburgh. With the heat most everything has come early. My tomato plants are the best ever. I got most of them transplanted the third week of May. Three weeks ago I got word there was late blight nearby, so every day I walk out expecting the worst. So far so good. I will have enough to can a bunch this week.
As to wild fruits, the Black Elderberries are ripe already in Plattsburgh. My mother and I stopped and picked Wild Hawthorns on the way back from the Keene Farmers'Market. Hawthorns have the most pectin of any fruit I have tried. The Mayapples are ripe. The Blackberries are gone. It was a bad year for them due to lack of rain. The Red and Black Raspberries were fine. That downpour we got around July forth was just in time for them.
Wild herbs I collect for teas are doing great. I've have multiple cuttings.
The lavender is starting to bloom again.
Don't think there will be any flowers left to bloom soon. The goldenrods are going by and the asters have started already.
Spring Mayapple Surprise 2012
This spring I am finishing cleaning up from last years mess from never before spring flooding and a never before hurricane. I moved logs to make new pathways and am raking clean gardens. I started in the wild flower section. The first few days I saw nothing green except purple and yellow violets. The violets rotted last year but the roots sent up foliage again during the summer and were the only wild flowers left.
Or so I thought! A few days ago I was turning over a Mayapple patch to replant. As I got to the higher end of the patch I dug up a Mayapple sprout! So I stopped and today there are many Mayapple sprouts coming up! Though the sprouts rotted last year the corm must have just decided to rest for the year. A few trilliums are doing the same! They are very small, but alive.
Of course this year I am having to water the same places where there was water up to my knees last spring!
Now I enjoy working in the garden again and out I am going! Jane
Or so I thought! A few days ago I was turning over a Mayapple patch to replant. As I got to the higher end of the patch I dug up a Mayapple sprout! So I stopped and today there are many Mayapple sprouts coming up! Though the sprouts rotted last year the corm must have just decided to rest for the year. A few trilliums are doing the same! They are very small, but alive.
Of course this year I am having to water the same places where there was water up to my knees last spring!
Now I enjoy working in the garden again and out I am going! Jane
Tucson, Arizona trip
Just returned from two weeks in Tucson. We collected pecans and cracked about 4 gallons of nuts. The grapefruits were just getting ready to pick so we had a few and brought home a few. The pineappleweed was blooming and is one of my favorite teas. We got some sun, spent a day at the world's largest gem show, found some exciting new fabrics at area stores, and spent most of our time visiting relatives. It was sunny until the last day when northern parts of Tucson got two inches of snow. That is more snow than we have at home in Plattsburgh, NY this year.
2011 - Year of the Flood
Record rains for April and now May has caused flooding in many areas. We often have a wet spot in the Plattsburgh gardens when Lake Champlain reaches 101' or more. This year the lake has reached 103' many times the past two months. A record since they have been keeping records!
It is Memorial Day weekend when most people plant their gardens in this neck of the woods. We have water to our ankles in the back yard and to our knees in the gardens. During the past two months we had two days in April when we could walk on the garden pathways. One patch of Bloodroot flowers could be seen for a day stretching their flowers to just above the water surface. The beautiful double Bloodroot had not even come up yet. A few Mayapples on higher ground were up but no visible sign of most of the Mayapples. A ten foot row of Columbines were up 6". Catnip plants were up 4-6", but no sign of the large patches of Bee Balm. We had hopes the areas that had the most water were delayed in growth. Then it rained more, and more, and more.
Finally we had three days where we could walk the wood chipped pathways. I had to move back the logs along the sides of the paths as they had floated away. The newer wood chips had also floated so to strangers to the gardens it just looked like a mess. I dug down to root of the Bee Balms and Mayapples and found mush! The tops of the Catnip and Columbine were also mush. The Mints looked shorter than usual for this time of year but very alive. I dug-up and potted the wandering Mints and Sweet Woodruff. I had started a fern walk with a variety of ferns and none seem to have survived. The bramble type berries all seem fine. The peach tree had started to send out it's leaves but for the last six weeks seems to have halted as if frozen in time. That is a preferable thought than thinking this tree my mother started from a pit is drowning to death.
I emptied four sand bags in the garden. Gosh they are heavy. Our garden wagon could only carry one at a time. Something told me not to hurry with the rest. We thank the City of Plattsburgh for delivering 24 bags to our house. It diverted more of the whole block's run-off water from entering our basement.
We did manage to pick enough violet blossoms from the yard to make jelly. At home in Chateaugay I picked Dandelion blossoms for jelly making as well as Apple Mint. So the season of harvesting and preserving has started which lifted our spirits.
This weekend is depressing. We had 4.5" of rain the past two days! The plants I potted to sell at the farmers' market were ready, but I was not prepared to hike through water over my knees to get to the potting table! The bright side? I had left just enough sand bags to keep most of the water from entering the basement.
That is just one story from one who lives three blocks from the lake. You can imagine how much worse it is for so many others. It is the slowest disaster I've experienced. Many cannot even see the damage till the water level drops. We will be recovering from spring all summer long. Food prices will be going up as so much of the country has had disasters this year. So get your gardens in if you can.
It is Memorial Day weekend when most people plant their gardens in this neck of the woods. We have water to our ankles in the back yard and to our knees in the gardens. During the past two months we had two days in April when we could walk on the garden pathways. One patch of Bloodroot flowers could be seen for a day stretching their flowers to just above the water surface. The beautiful double Bloodroot had not even come up yet. A few Mayapples on higher ground were up but no visible sign of most of the Mayapples. A ten foot row of Columbines were up 6". Catnip plants were up 4-6", but no sign of the large patches of Bee Balm. We had hopes the areas that had the most water were delayed in growth. Then it rained more, and more, and more.
Finally we had three days where we could walk the wood chipped pathways. I had to move back the logs along the sides of the paths as they had floated away. The newer wood chips had also floated so to strangers to the gardens it just looked like a mess. I dug down to root of the Bee Balms and Mayapples and found mush! The tops of the Catnip and Columbine were also mush. The Mints looked shorter than usual for this time of year but very alive. I dug-up and potted the wandering Mints and Sweet Woodruff. I had started a fern walk with a variety of ferns and none seem to have survived. The bramble type berries all seem fine. The peach tree had started to send out it's leaves but for the last six weeks seems to have halted as if frozen in time. That is a preferable thought than thinking this tree my mother started from a pit is drowning to death.
I emptied four sand bags in the garden. Gosh they are heavy. Our garden wagon could only carry one at a time. Something told me not to hurry with the rest. We thank the City of Plattsburgh for delivering 24 bags to our house. It diverted more of the whole block's run-off water from entering our basement.
We did manage to pick enough violet blossoms from the yard to make jelly. At home in Chateaugay I picked Dandelion blossoms for jelly making as well as Apple Mint. So the season of harvesting and preserving has started which lifted our spirits.
This weekend is depressing. We had 4.5" of rain the past two days! The plants I potted to sell at the farmers' market were ready, but I was not prepared to hike through water over my knees to get to the potting table! The bright side? I had left just enough sand bags to keep most of the water from entering the basement.
That is just one story from one who lives three blocks from the lake. You can imagine how much worse it is for so many others. It is the slowest disaster I've experienced. Many cannot even see the damage till the water level drops. We will be recovering from spring all summer long. Food prices will be going up as so much of the country has had disasters this year. So get your gardens in if you can.
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