Garden Gifts Are Blessings

 The Gift of Smells – Blessing #9

I love so many aspects of the gardening experience, but none excites my senses as much as the sense of smell.  Oh, to have ‘smellavision’, for I do not know how to have you experience the aromas with just my description.

So let your imagination go, and let’s go into this smell, smell world!



Fresh mowed grass smells moist, and earthy, and green.  I love the smell.

 


Fresh compost is earthy and moist – no wait – that was the mowed grass!

 
Pine trees – no, not this ‘pine scent’ but apparently my preference for the pine is worth having for so many.  I’d rather have the real pine scent. A true gift of nature.



This is more of what I have in mind when I think of pine – but here again, this aroma is pressed into candles, and room deodorizers in cans. These aromas that entice our sense of smell are a blessing that the garden offers - naturally. We keep trying to bring these fragrances into every aspect of our lives.




Basil and lavender are herbs that give an added element to cooking. The pasta sauce with basil is mouth-watering, and taste and smell go together for culinary enjoyment.

Lavender scent is very calming and is often used in bath products and lotions. Sashays of lavender have lined dresser drawer for centuries. Tussie Mussies, such as this, graced the Victoria Maiden when daily showers and personal deodorants were not available.These fragrant bouquets waft the ladies in lovely floral scents. A Blessing?  Most Certainly!

Mint has many varieties – mint with underlying flavors of orange, basil, lavender, banana, spearmint, lemon, chocolate, apple and pineapple. By rubbing the mint leaf, one can smell the mint flavor.


Sage is a fragrant, bushy plant that rarely grows taller than 2 or 3 feet.

Pineapple sage is a fast-growing plant with bright green leaves and red blooms that appear in late summer or early fall and smells like pineapple!  It is used as a fresh, edible flower and is added to salads, iced teas or used as garnish. This Pineapple sage is only hardy to zone 8, but can be grown an an annual in colder climates.

Pineapple sage

Sage

Herbs of any type are fragrant.  I like the smell of lemon balm, - reminds me of lemon drop candy.  But if it is allowed to flower, you can have a lot of lemon balm pretty quickly, as it floats around the garden.

Lemon Balm

Roses – how does one describe a rose aroma?  The smell is bottled and sold as a cologne and bath oil. Rose petals retain their aroma even when they are dried and used in potpourri. Citrus, cinnamon, and  bay leaves meld senses into a refreshing combination.

Roses, lavender, and pine scents are a gift from the garden. 

Everyone has a favorite rose for color or petal count, or disease resistance, but Greesemonkymann wrote that he likes Blue Girl. “it's a purple/blue rose that smells AMAZING, hands down the best smelling rose, I've ever smelt, and I've smelt lots. Completely different than typical rose smell, lavender, lilac, jasmine like smell.”





Necotiana emits an aroma late day.  It wafts through the garden and the scent is strongest at night, so as to attract pollinating moths.

 Nicotiana sylvestris is a species of the genus Nicotiana, known by the common names woodland tobacco, flowering tobacco, and South American tobacco. It is grown as an annual in my Zone 6 garden for its scented flowers. This plant is a gift in the garden.

CasaBlance is a lily that I have in my garden and when they are blooming, all you want to do is stand nearby and just breath.  Although, near is not a prerequisite, as the fragrance of this lily will come out to meet you. A gift for sure.




I must not forget to mention all of the flowering trees that delight us for a week or so every year.  Apple, cherry, crabapple, and serviceberry welcome the spring with their gift of  scent.








Artemisia, lilacs, hyacinths each have its own heady scent that linger in the early summer garden.

Lilac

Hyacinth

But let's not ignore the seasonal scent of burning leaves on a bonfire in the fall.  Great memories are evoked from this smell - roasting marshmallows...... and sitting next to someone special on a hayride.

I know I’m omitting so many other plants, but acknowledging that fragrances from any source are  gifts from the garden and they are truly a blessing.


What fragrance do you like?  Please share with us you favorite.  Thanks.

Designing an Herb Garden

  An Herb Garden Design to Suit your Needs

When starting an herb garden, one of the things you need to decide on is your herb garden design. This means selecting the herbs you will be planting and how you will locate them in your garden.

An excellent herb garden design has a lot of benefits. For one, it is essential to making sure that the herbs you plant are given the right conditions to thrive. Another benefit is you create a garden that is pleasing to look at and easy to care for. And lastly, having a design from the outset will prevent you from making mistakes in placing your herbs.

Designing an herb garden to suit your needs can be daunting for a beginner herb gardener. To help with this crucial first step, consulting veteran herb gardeners and guides like “Healthy Happy Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide to Herbs and Herb Gardening” will really go a long way in making sure you get to enjoy a thriving garden as well as a rewarding hobby.
Designing your own herb garden depends on several factors: lifestyle, needs, overall purposes and personal preferences. Let’s take a look at some of these factors.
Designing and creating your herb garden based on your lifestyle means finding herbs that you have uses for. It also means choosing herbs that you will be able to easily care for given the amount of attention that you can actually give your garden.
For example, you decide that you want an herb garden that will provide you fresh and flavorful herbs for cooking. In this case, your choice of herbs would be those that are used most often in cooking. You may want to plant these herbs in movable containers so that you can put them in your kitchen, where it will be convenient for you to use them.

Some people want to grow herbs for aromatherapy or as raw material for various crafts. In this case, their hobby will influence the types of herbs that they will want to grow in their garden. For aromatherapy, popular herbs are chamomile and lavender.

Let’s say you decide that you want an herb garden design that’s great for entertaining guests. In this case, you may choose herbs depending on how big they grow or if they bear flowers or not. You may also decide to allot a bigger space for your garden and build an outdoor patio for full effect.
 

If you have limited space available for your garden, then you need to choose herbs that don’t grow to big. Herbs that can thrive indoors or in container gardens are excellent choices. Container herb gardening is specially great for those who live in apartments but still want to engage in gardening.

There are also herb plants that you will need to pay special attention to. Take note that chives, lavender and mint are invasive herbs - they tend to spread easily and overrun your garden. So when growing these, putting them in containers and away from your other herbs is important.

Some plants that are grown next to each other tend to influence each other’s properties. For example, tomatoes when planted beside basil or thyme will acquire the flavor of the herb.
You can also choose an herb garden design based on various themes. For example, you can have an Italian theme and plant herbs like basil, parsley, rosemary, oregano, sage and other herbs mostly used in Italian dishes. Or you can also to make a theme out of a certain herb and plant different varieties of it in your garden.
More formal herb garden designs usually involve designing around geometrical shapes with paths, walkways or kiosks. Herbs of various heights are selected for their pleasing and complementary appearance. 

If you are serious about cultivating an organic herb garden, be sure to check out “Healthy Happy Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide To Herbs and Herb Gardening” by Jeannie Woods. It’s a book packed with all the information you need to be able to successful start and keep a thriving organic herb garden. You can read more about it here: http://www.healthyhappyherbs.com.
Please check out Jeannie’s guide.  I know it is full of great ideas. (As an affiliate I receive compensation .)  Claudia

Drought Tolerant Plants–Very Pretty

Perennials That Need Little Water

Perennials that can stand the heat can help redeem the otherwise scorched landscape.
Stunning may be exaggerating this season considering the heat and drought.  However, as I inspect the garden, several areas seem to be holding their own.
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Silver Scrolls, Heuchera, is vibrant.  Located in full shade seems to be ideal.

The blue fescue still has a great color.

The Lavender, Hidcote, is right at home in the dry, hot south side of the house.The blooms have faded already, but may rebloom later in the fall.

  
This silver leaf of the Lungwart still looks fresh. 

Sedum is thriving.  The silver succulent loves this weather. Two varieties here, with one blooming yellow. 

These Hosta get watered regularly and they are hanging in there.

Lungwort, again, gets water.  They tend to wilt and get powdery mildew, but they are surprisingly resilient.

The Russian Sage has full sun this year. We took out an ash tree last year that had been shading this area. So the Perovskia atriplicifolia, or Russian Sage has never looked better. 

Liriope , Silver Dragon, is stunning.  This silver/green grassy plant is drought tolerant and looks ‘cool’. 

The Painted Japanese Ferns in shade, do get supplemental water. The silver fronds and deep burgundy veins are a favorite of mine.

Shasta Daisy and Daylilies have a cheerful attitude!

Yarrow, Achilliea, and Coneflowers, Echinacea, make a great pair.  Even better since their need for less water is the same.

The Monarda, Bee Balm, (unknown variety) is hanging in there with some powdery mildew, and blooms that are reemerging after a good drink. 

The white allium is just blooming, as is the Casablanca Lily.  The white is refreshing in this heat. The lily has an awesome aroma as an extra bonus.

The Sedum, Autumn Joy, is blooming several weeks earlier than usual.  It’s pale pink will deepen into a dark rose by autumn.  This, too, does well in low water situations. 
Heat and water have really been issues this summer, but with minimal supplemental water, these plants will serve us well. 

Building the Garden of your Dreams

The Dream Garden or A Nightmare Garden

The 2010 summer in my zone 6 garden has been challenging.  The extreme heat has many of the late summer perennials fading earlier than normal.  The coneflowers are brown and the daisys are just sticks.

The ferns hate the heat.  I'm hoping that  with the extra watering I've given them, they will emerge nicely in the spring.




Even the perennial sunflowers which are drought tolerant have given up the fight this year.

The lawn has not been a priority for me to keep green.  My water bill will be bad enough just concentrating on shrubs, and perennials.  (The rain barrel has been empty for weeks!)

We fertilized the gardens and turf Sunday with an organic fertilizer ( 4-3-5) and some left over corn gluten (9-0-0).We were anticipating some rain which lasted 10 minutes and cooler temperatures.  This is late September, after all!  Forecast for this next week is 12 - 15 degrees above normal - near 90 degrees. Good thing that organic fertilizers will not burn the turf as chemical fertilizers can.


On the positive side of gardening this season is the second blush of the lavender.  Since lavender thrive in heat and low moisture, I shouldn't have been surprised.

The pink fall anemones which bloomed a few weeks ago have finished their show, but the white anemones, which are over 5 feet tall, look great.

Sedum Autumn Joy is full and gorgeous. 

Several roses are reblooming, including this "Queen Elizabeth".

These 'FejetaBells' are in heaven.

This aster is one of five varieties we have in the garden.  I prefer the reliablity of asters for fall color over mums which do not over winter well for me.

So, building the garden of you dreams is not a science.  Nature has a way of interjecting her will on us.  We may research plants draw diagrams of flower beds, and arrange plant varieties so we can have color all season, BUT, (lesson learned)  brown is a color.  Oh well,  there is always next year. 

Relax and enjoy whatever happens.  Remember we are not the center or the source.  Just the caretakers.

How did your garden fair this year?  Let us know.  And thanks for stopping by.  Claudia