Hi there, everyone, and welcome to The Daily Gardener, and thank you for listening. I'm your host, Jennifer Ebeling. It's August 2nd. Today we remember the master landscape and portrait painter who grew up with a magnificent mulberry tree, and we'll learn about the planting of the first potato in Hawaii and the discovery of a tree named for Benjamin Franklin.
We'll also remember the poet who was inspired not by his day job at an insurance company, but by a beautiful park that was across the street from his house. And we'll review some August weather folklore, and all I have to say to you is you might want to grab your coat. And we grow that garden library with a book that lets us drop in on some of the most gorgeous spaces in the world. And then we'll wrap things up with a little post about a non-public, private, gorgeous garden at Longwood.
But first, let's catch up on some greetings from gardeners from around the world and today's curated news. Well, today I thought I would begin by welcoming the newest members to the Facebook group for the show, The Daily Gardener Community. So I want to wish a warm welcome to Karen Freeman, Ed Snugid, Paula Toscanati, Diane Dalek, Lisa McAuliffe, and Keely Criswell-Brock. Welcome, you guys.
Then, second, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what's been going on up here at the Cabin Garden. This past week, I had a construction company come out. They were just fantastic. Gregory Construction out of Chisago, in case you live up in this area.
And they did two projects for me, and these have been on my list for the past two years. The first project was to put new footings under the deck. And this became especially important to me once the kids and I started living up here full time. The deck is now where I have my kitchen garden.
So I've got three two-foot by four-foot planters. Those babies add a lot of weight. And then we have a large bar-height wooden table that we eat almost every meal on. So that adds even more weight and traffic.
And I knew the current supports were an issue for us because when we had the home inspection, the home inspector pointed it out to me, first of all, there were only two little four-by-fours supporting this deck. And the other issue was that the overhang from the header was going out about four feet. And that entire space is where my kitchen garden is. Anyway, I wanted to address it this year.
And these guys were great. They gave me a very reasonable bid. But even better than that is the work that they did. It's phenomenal.
It's not an eyesore at all. I absolutely love it. And I am so glad that I did it. In fact, when my oldest son was out on the deck tonight, he said, wow, deck feels great.
Now, I never noticed any rocking or movement. But apparently he did. He's a little more sensitive to those kinds of things. So anyway, peace of mind.
I feel great that we did that. And then the other project that I had them help with was adding stairs to the front porch. So if you can imagine, we have a front porch on this cabin. And on the front and on the side of the porch, the previous owners had removed the railing.
So it's just the columns supporting the roof that you see from the street. Now, in general, I like the porch opened up. It gives me direct access to my garden. There's no obstruction.
I can actually sit on the front of the porch very comfortably and weed the back of my garden because the porch is only about 18 inches up from the ground. And that's the case all along the front and the side, technically. But what happens on the side is that that part of the ground is tiered. It's actually about an eight-foot drop after that initial 18 inches.
And so when you stood on the top of the deck, you kind of got a little vergo because you felt like you could take quite a tumble if you lost your balance and tumbled off the side. So it never felt very safe to me. So I guess another safety issue. But the bigger issue for my garden is that I really wanted a staircase there because that's the natural way I would go to get to my side garden.
That's where my potting bench is. It's a beautiful, shady space underneath the grove of these incredibly majestic white pine. But I could never get there directly. I always had to come out the front door and then go all the way around the front garden before I could meander my way to the side.
And every time I'd walk past the side of that porch, I thought, wow, it'd be nice to have some steps there. Well, now that it's done, I can tell you that it is beyond nice, that we all love it. And when Gregory was putting together these steps, I asked for longer treads. And that's really given these steps a very relaxed vibe.
They feel a little southern to me. And the other thing that these steps have done for me is that they've really helped me crystallize in my mind the plan I want for the front and the side garden. And this is something I've really been struggling with. You know, there's this saying when we talk about plants that you really have to grow it to know it.
Well, sometimes I think when it comes to garden design, especially if it's a place that you're very close to, a place that means a lot to you, you kind of need to live there a little bit before you can design it. And isn't it funny, I seem to have no trouble coming into new spaces for friends and family and sharing my thoughts on what they should do. But sometimes when it comes to my own space, I can get blocked. And I can go completely blind, either out of sentimentality or just because what's going on in my life.
I'm just too busy to attend to these issues. And you know, for me, this calls to mind something that I read on Anne-Marie Powell's website. She's the woman that I told you about who started broadcasting from her garden on Instagram. And then she experienced all this success, even though she's been gardening and garden designing for years.
Well, anyway, on her website, she shared an excerpt of a story that had been written about her. And it was featured in The Telegraph. And the title of the piece was, A Fresh Pair of Eyes on Your Garden Can Throw Up New Ideas If You Can Handle the Criticism. And this article really made me chuckle because it's exactly what I'm talking about right now, some garden blindness or blocks to effective garden design.
So this piece was written by Stephen Lacey. And he had Anne-Marie stop over and give him some tips on his garden. But listen to what he wrote. In your own plot, it can be hard to see the wood for the trees.
Why is there a great big hedge down the middle of your garden? Asked Anne-Marie Powell, the designer, when visiting last autumn. This rather ambushed me. That's what Stephen said.
And then he said, when we moved in, this panel of cypress was essentially screaming from the neighbors. But in the intervening 40 years, the dozens of trees and shrubs that I've planted on the property and in the borders have filled out to create a small copse. Yet the hedge has continued to sit there, a 50-foot-long, 12-foot-high, 5-foot-wide fixture whose presence I have never questioned. Suddenly prompted to think about it, I realized it had no purpose at all.
And on the first day of lockdown, the tree surgeons came to fell it. Isn't that a fantastic story? Anyway, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I have been in a complete fog about what I want to do in this space.
And then suddenly, I've been handed a key in the form of a stairway up to my porch, and it's unlocked the entire mystery for me. Now, why am I sharing this with you? Well, because I think if you dissect my story, there might be some lessons here we can all learn from. Sometimes those little projects that we keep putting off year after year after year translate into other blockages.
And they can prevent us not only from attending to the little project that needs to get done, but the cascade of all the following projects that really hinge on that initial work that needs to be done. And another thing that occurs to me about this story is how important it is to just do something. So while I wasn't sure exactly where I was going with my garden and what I wanted my end product to look at, I just had no vision. I was very certain that I needed the stairway to my porch.
And so maybe that will help you if you're overwhelmed, if you're in a fog, if you don't have vision for design for your garden. But there's this one little piece that seems very clear to you. Don't wait. Take action.
Take action in the areas where you feel ready. And then maybe the fog will lift and the sun will shine on the entire plan. And you'll be so glad that you at least took that first step. Well, that's it for today's Gardener Greetings.
Now, if you'd like to participate in the Gardener Greetings segment, just send stories about your garden projects, your garden pictures, birthday wishes, and so forth to me, Jennifer, at thedailygardener.org. That's Jennifer at thedailygardener.org. I love hearing from you guys. And don't forget that while you're home, you can listen to the show on your smart speaker.
Just ask Alexa or Google to play the Daily Gardener podcast. It's just that easy. Here's today's curated news. Well, today's article really made me smile.
It's from Southern Living, and it was called Cheery Hollyhocks Brighten Up the Garden. I don't have any hollyhocks yet up here at the cabin. The key word in that statement is yet, because I fully intend on growing them. These vibrantly beautiful stalks can reach heights of eight feet tall.
And Southern Living did a very nice job of introducing us to this plant. Here's an excerpt. In summer, we can't get enough of hollyhocks. These plants are long-blooming summer flowers that appear in spikes of bright blossoms.
Hollyhocks have the Latin name Elcia rosia, and they are a cottage garden favorite because of their appearance and their extended bloom time. They really bloom their hearts out. The warm-weather bloomers are low-maintenance plantings, and they make for great additions to cut flower gardens. And they're also known to attract birds to the garden, which is another great bonus.
Now, hollyhocks are perennial, and they're also biennial. You need to be patient with them. They need a year of growth before they put on a vibrant show. So the first year is all about growing, and the second year is all about blooming.
Now, like any tall plant, hollyhocks benefit from staking, so consider adding some support to the area before you plant your hollyhocks. Because it always seems that if we don't get those supports in place early, we just never get to it, and somehow it ends up being less than ideal. So you might as well do it all at once. Now, the other thing I wanted to mention with regard to growing hollyhocks is making hollyhock dolls.
In fact, my mom recently shared an article with me about how to make hollyhock dolls. They're really pretty easy, and they're actually quite beautiful. In fact, I found a marvelous Pinterest page completely devoted to hollyhock dolls, and I shared it in the show notes for today's episode. And I've also put it in the Facebook group for the show.
So just head on over to thedailygardener.org to find that link, or join the Facebook group, and you'll see it there. And before I forget, I have to mention that if you're on that Pinterest page, right at the top, you're going to see a beautiful cupcake decoration, and they are essentially using a hollyhock doll. The post is called Hollyhock Doll Cupcake Topper. They are just so stinking cute.
And I can see these being used for a baby shower or for a little girl's birthday. They are just that adorable. It's just another reason to love hollyhocks. All right, that's it for today's gardening news.
Now, if you'd like to check out any of my curated news articles or original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. Because I share all of it with the listener community in the free Facebook group for the show, the Daily Gardener Community. So there's never a need to take notes or search for links while you're listening to the podcast. The next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group. Here's today's brevities. Today is the anniversary of the death of the landscape and portrait painter known for his painting of the blue boy, Thomas Gainsborough, who died on this day in 1788. Gainsborough is regarded as one of the master landscape painters.
But he's also remembered for his portraits, which made his subjects look relaxed, natural, and beautiful. Thomas' portraits were a direct result of customer preference, and Thomas' customers were the elite. In fact, his commissioned paintings of King George III and Queen Charlotte made him a favorite with royals. So much so that after Thomas died at age 61, he was buried in the royal church.
Today you can visit Thomas' house in Sudbury. It's been turned into a charming art center. And there's also the garden, the garden Thomas grew up in. And it has a spectacular mulberry tree with falling-down branches that date to the early 1600s during the reign of James I, who encouraged the planting of mulberry trees so that he could establish a silk industry.
And although England never successfully became known for silkworms, the craft of silk weaving became firmly rooted. And the Gainsborough families were weavers. In fact, over 95% of the woven silk in England comes from Sudbury. Now, back when James I and his advisors were trying to get into silk-making, they lacked the knowledge about mulberry trees.
There are actually two kinds of mulberries. The white mulberry tree feeds the silkworms, and the black tree supplies the fruit. The Gainsborough mulberry, as well as every other mulberry cultivated in England, was the black mulberry. And this tree, the Gainsborough mulberry, would have been 100 years old already when Thomas was born.
In addition to the ancient mulberry, which is regarded as a sentinel tree or a tree that has kept watch for a great many years, Thomas' garden includes two beds for herbs and another that has plants that were used for dyeing fabric. There are also beautiful trees on the property, such as meddler, quince, and witch hazel, which gives some beautiful color and scent to the garden early in the year. The rest of the garden is made up of plants that were available during Thomas' lifetime in the 18th century. And Thomas once said, Nature is my teacher, and the woods my academy.
And it was on this day in 1820 that the first potatoes were planted in Hawaii. It turns out the American brig, the Thaddeus, brought more than the first missionaries to the island. Four years later, the mango tree was introduced, and by 1828, the first coffee plant would be grown in Kona. It marked the beginning of the Kona coffee industry.
And it was on this day in 1938 that the Belvedere Daily Republican out of Belvedere, Illinois, published a small article about a tree named for Benjamin Franklin. Here's what it said. About 200 years ago, John Bartram, an eminent botanist, discovered a strange flowering tree in a Georgia forest and named it Franklinia in honor of his fellow Philadelphian, Benjamin Franklin. Well, the discovery of the Franklinia...
made John Bartram famous. The Franklinia is in the tea family, and it has blossoms similar to the camellia. Thirty years after Bartram's discovery, the Franklinia went extinct in the wild. The last one seen was in 1803, and the only surviving Franklinias are descended from the original seed in the work of Bartram's garden, North America's oldest botanic garden.
They worked very diligently to preserve the species, and Bartram himself lovingly cultivated the Franklinia. And when I was researching this piece, I found this interesting little quote from Benjamin Franklin, who said, I have thought that wildflowers might be the alphabet of angels. Isn't that sweet? And today is the anniversary of the death of the poet Wallace Stevens, who died on this day in 1955.
Stevens said, Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers. Stevens was one of the most skilled poets of the 20th century. He lived his entire adult life near Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut.
By day, Stevens worked at Hartford Insurance Company, where he became a vice president. But by night, he was a poet. It was an unusual combination. Stevens lived two miles from his work, and he walked to work every day, undoubtedly using the time to find inspiration and to write poems.
And the park across from his house was one of his favorite places. Elizabeth Park is huge, covering over 100 acres, with formal gardens, meadows, lawns, greenhouses, and a pond. And Stevens wrote many poems about Elizabeth Park, Vacancy in the Park, The Plain Sense of Things, and Nuns Painting Water Lilies, just to name a few. By 1950, Stevens was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his poetry.
And here's a little-known fact about Wallace Stevens. He once started a fistfight with Ernest Hemingway in Key West. Who knew? In unearthed words, today's words are all about August weather folklore.
And buckle up, because it's surprising just how many August sayings mention winter. So here's some August weather folklore. As August, so February. If the first week in August is unusually warm, the winter will be white and long.
So many August fogs, so many winter myths. For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall in winter. Observe on what day in August the first heavy fog occurs and expect a hard frost on the same day in October. If a cold August follows a hot July, it foretells a winter hard and dry.
And finally, when it rains in August, it rains honey and wine. And then I thought I would end with this delightful little snippet from Resminia Massoud, the author and short story writer, August Weather. August is that last flicker of fun and heat before everything fades and dies. The final moments of fun before the freeze.
In the winter, everything changes. It's time to grow that garden library with today's book, How They Decorated by P. Gay Tapp and Charlotte Moss. This book came out in 2017 and the subtitle is Inspiration from Great Women of the 20th Century.
New York Magazine said interior designer and blogger P. Gay Tapp recollects the lives and impeccably decorated homes of 16 iconic women. And the style Salonista said covering these 16 elegant women shows how they orchestrated rooms of great charm, individuality, and style. Tables are lavishly set, bedrooms invite lingering, fashions are paraded.
And then just when the lavish interiors are feeling rather intense, she introduces Georgia O'Keeffe and then Leslie Blanche, the ultimate romantic. It's a book to treasure. I love it. Now, this is not a gardening book, but it is a book of 224 pages of gorgeous decorating and many of these rooms feature botanicals and indoor gardening that add nature-inspired beauty to these incredible spaces.
You can get a copy of How They Decorated by P. Gay Tapp and Charlotte Moss and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $26. Finally, here's something sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart. A few days ago, Andrea Brunsendorf of Longwood Gardens wrote an excellent post about the little studio garden and the plants she used to create some of her gorgeous containers.
And I thought you would love to hear about it. And be sure to read Andrea's full post for more details on additional plants that she loves. But if you especially enjoy hearing about plant styling and putting together different combinations of plants, you will especially enjoy listening to Andrea's post. Here's an excerpt.
As Longwood's director of Outdoor Landscapes, I'm very fortunate that my office opens up to a little patio known as the Studio Garden. This 35-foot square space centers around a large elliptical concrete pad surrounded by low stone walls to sit for lunch or lean one's bicycle against before or after it gets you around the gardens in the morning. This beautiful little space serves as a constant reminder to me that the physical action of gardening is good for us, not just for our bodies, but also for our mental well-being as it gives our minds a respite. This morning, as I wrote about my containers, I was reminded of the basic human need for nurturing something like plants and the simple pleasure that comes with it.
In early June, once all the seasonal change-outs from spring to summer have taken place, you will find me swirling around gathering leftover plants to switch out for the Studio Garden's seasonal containers from spring bulbs to summer annuals. This year sparked the idea of creating calm, interesting space to rest my eyes and meet colleagues for a social distancing lunch. The mantra I followed while gathering from the surplus plants was looking for green, one of the most diverse, versatile, and beautiful colors in the plant kingdom. I pulled back from intense flower colors and focused on the textures, structures, and foliage of plants by combining those based on harmony and contrast.
I looked at the plant's character and habit beyond their flower color when assembling them in pots. I should mention that I tend to mask containers and pots together of the same neutral material and similar style but vary their sizes and shapes. For example, I utilize mass groupings of aged concrete containers and groupings of smaller terracotta pots to build my pot compositions in the Studio Garden. In my larger container in the Studio Garden, I have the beloved Silver Dollar Gum with a purple-leaved shrubby spurge, Caribbean copper plant combined with fine-textured pheasant tailgrass.
This is a grass that I miss so much from my gardening days in London where, of course, it is hardy. But here in Pennsylvania, in Zone 6B, we must remember to enjoy it during the warmer months before extreme winter cold takes it. Honestly, I'm not sure how the pheasant tailgrass from New Zealand is going to weather the high humidity combined with summer's heat on my patio. But as gardeners, we should not be afraid to experiment.
Trialing new plants, growing them in different conditions, or creating unusual compositions are all worthy ventures. Sometimes a plant fails and doesn't thrive, or the impact of the intended design is not what we'd hoped for. But in the end, we have learned something, we've grown from that experience, and we've become more knowledgeable and skilled in our art and craft of gardening, all while enjoying that simple human pleasure of caring for plants. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener, and remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
The Daily Gardener is produced in lovely Wyoming, Minnesota with the help of Paige Mance, Brooke Beerbaum, Keanu Rayleigh, Maddie Doyle, Natalie Ducker, and Eric Begay. You can find The Daily Gardener on all your favorite social media. You can follow the show on Instagram, and listeners always have a standing invitation to join the free Facebook group for the show. Just search for Daily Gardener Community the next time you're on Facebook and request to join.
All the stories and books that are featured on the show can be found over at thedailygardener.org at dailygardener.org And while you're there, be sure to sign up for my free Friday newsletter. Last but not least, you can share your own gardener greetings on the show by emailing me at jennifer at thedailygardener.org I'm your host, Jennifer Ebling, and as always, have a great day in the garden and we'll see you tomorrow.