On Summer, Gardens, and Independence

Summer afternoon.

One of the things I love most about gardening is that there is no end to learning new things. I have never heard a gardener, even the most renowned master gardener, say they knew all there is to know about growing things. Because gardening is working with nature (or sometimes against it), there are always surprises, mysteries to unravel, new microcosms and macrocosms to explore. Every gardening season I learn new things. Last week was no exception.

Several years ago, I planted a patch of stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) in my yard. That might seem like a strange or even stupid thing to do. Most people regard the plant as a nuisance weed to be avoided or eradicated. Why would I want them growing in my yard? Well, I did it because I learned something new from a book I read several years ago on holistic orcharding. For years I have been making a concoction of rotted comfrey leaves that I spray in my garden (I learned about that from watching a gardening show). I make it by cutting the leaves and packing them into five gallon buckets and then filling the buckets with water, putting lids on, and setting them aside. The comfrey, which is an amazing plant full of so many good things, rots. After three weeks I open the buckets, strain the rotten mush out, and spray the liquid on my fruit trees and garden plants. It smells really bad (we call it sewer spray), but the plants love it. Well, the author of the book I read also uses comfrey water, but he adds stinging nettle to the mix. Stinging nettle is also an amazing plant. Many people use it as food (they say it tastes better than spinach) or for its health benefits (it cleanses the kidneys). Touching it causes a stinging or burning sensation on the skin, but cooking it or drying it removes the sting. So I decided to plant some. It took a year to establish, but I now have a lush patch of it growing against the back wall of the woodshed. Or, it was lush until last week. All of a sudden something began eating it. The leaves were being chewed and shredded. I couldn’t imagine what would do that. When I looked closer I discovered black spiny caterpillars. My first reaction was to find a way to kill them. I considered picking them off by hand, but there were so many of them and, even if I tried, I’d have to wear gloves or get stung. Then I decided to find out what kind of caterpillars they were. My research quickly determined that they are the caterpillars of the Red Admiral butterfly.

My chewed up stinging nettle patch.

The culprit.

The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is a common butterfly. It is pretty, but not elegantly flashy like the various swallowtails. I’ve seen them around a lot. They are fast flyers. They like to visit mud puddles. I’ve seen them feeding on the nectar of milkweed flowers. In the caterpillar stage, nettles are one of their preferred foods. The caterpillars actually roll the nettle leaves into a tube and hide in them to deter predators. I couldn’t destroy the larvae of such a pretty and clever insect. And the nettles will recover. That’s one new thing I never knew before – an insect that likes and uses stinging nettles.

A Red Admiral butterfly.

Speaking of butterflies and milkweed . . . The milkweed plants are beautiful this year. They seem stronger and healthier than ever. They are just getting ready to bloom and I have been watching for Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Monarchs are in decline because milkweed, their only source of food, is also in decline. Around here it grows on the edges of the roads and fields, but is often mowed down or sprayed with herbicides. Many farmers grow corn that has been genetically modified to produce its own Bt toxins (derived from Bacillus thuringiensis a bacterium that occurs naturally in the soil). Bt toxin kills the caterpillars of the Lepidoptera family, moths and butterflies. Bt corn was designed to kill corn borers that feed on the ears of corn. Unfortunately, the pollen from Bt corn is also toxic and corn pollen blows wherever the wind takes it, including into stands of milkweed growing around the corn fields. Monarch caterpillars eat the pollen dusted milkweed leaves and it kills them. I encourage milkweed to grow all around my yard – in the wild edges that I do not tend, along the road edge of the property, out in the tall grass orchard, and even in parts of my flower beds. Every summer I have to post a sign along the road telling the township not to mow it all down. And I watch for the Monarchs, the adult butterflies and the caterpillars. Some years I see very few. Last year we had about ten caterpillars that I observed. On Wednesday I went on a milkweed inspection tour and found two caterpillars in the orchard patch. I was happy to see them – and the season is still young, so I’m hoping there will be many more.

One of my milkweed patches in the orchard.

One of the caterpillars I found.

The other caterpillar.

My "Do Not Mow" sign down by the road.

The summer flowers are bursting into bloom now. The lilies are starting to open and the dahlias have buds, but most of all it’s poppy time. Poppies dominate my garden during June and July. I grow two kinds, Papaver rhoeas and Papaver somniferum. The rhoeas poppies are delicate and usually bloom a week or two ahead of the flamboyant somniferum poppies, but this year they are coming into bloom at the same time. I love their bright colors and delicate silky petals.

My Sarah Bernhardt peony is almost done blooming now.

One of the first lilies to open.

Another lily.

Some of my rhoeas poppies.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the battle between the bluebirds and the tree swallows for occupancy of one of my birdhouses. I’m happy to report that the bluebirds prevailed and have moved in. The female is on a nest and the male spends the day taking food to her. I can’t wait to see the babies.

The female bluebird peeking out of her house.

The female bluebird.

On Wednesday morning we had a man come out and grind down the stumps from the row of spruce trees we cut down. He had an impressive machine that shredded the stumps and left me with piles of nice chipped pine mulch. The mulch will be perfect for conditioning the soil to prepare for the blueberry bushes we plan to plant there in the spring. After he was done, I raked the whole area, set up my future blueberry patch and planted grass seed over the rest of the area.

The stump grinder.

On Thursday evening Stacey and I went visiting. We drove up to West Bingham and stopped in to see the Joneses. Nancy wasn’t there, we knew she’d be at work, but Bob was there and we had a nice visit. We went to see a plant blooming in Nancy’s flower garden. Her dragon arums (Dracunculus vulgaris) are flowering. They are strange and spectacular plants. The flowers are huge! They smell like rotting meat to attract the flies that pollinate them. We were impressed. While we were there, Bob walked us around his vegetable gardens – also so impressive. Although West Bingham is just a few miles from our house, it is like a different world garden-wise. I’m sure they are in Zone 5 or maybe even 6 while Gold is Zone 4 (some years more like Zone 3). Bob’s cabbages are huge. He’s already had his first harvest of broccoli. He has spinach, chard, carrots, and lettuce ready to eat. His squash vines are blooming and some already have little squash on them. His tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are twice the size of mine. He grows melons, which don’t do well in my garden. As we walked and talked, he pulled up a delicious little carrot for me to munch on and a crunchy radish. His gardens are huge and orderly and well tended. My vegetable garden seems so small and pitiful compared to his. I tell myself that sure, he does operate a vegetable stand so he has bigger gardens. And sure, he has more property and great equipment for big gardening. But he has skill and experience more than anything. I came away from our visit with a case of garden envy and a determination to try some new ideas. I know I’ll never be able to keep up with the Joneses, but I’m glad I can visit their gorgeous gardens.

Nancy Jones's dragon arum.

Part of Bob Jones's beautiful vegetable garden.

We had beautiful summery weather all week. It was warm, even hot by Potter County standards. The temperature rose to 85° midweek. That’s hot for here. These fine summer days were made for taking walks, especially in the morning and evening. I like to be up before the sun and out on a walk. I usually just take a morning stroll around the property – around the flowerbeds, through the orchard, the woodland garden, and meadow. I stop to say good morning to the chickens and the peacock and I throw them some scratch. Then I go back into the house to get everything else started for the day. Some mornings are especially lovely and call for a longer walk, usually down the road past the beaver pond and to Burrell’s and back. Last Sunday afternoon while I was still home alone, I took a very long walk up the road, across the fields, through the woods and home again via Burrell’s to visit their rose bush. It’s a fine old rose, a huge bush full of fragrant crimson flowers that only blooms for a few weeks at the beginning of summer. I make a point of visiting it every year. These warm summer days are rare. They make up just a tiny percentage of the year here and I treasure them.

Scenes from my afternoon walk.

More scenes from my afternoon walk.

On a morning walk.

We are starting to eat more things from the garden now. We’ve eaten two nice heads of lettuce. On Saturday I harvested all the garlic scapes. I also picked our first batch of basil. Stacey used the basil and some of the garlic scapes to make a marinara sauce. It was delicious.

Garlic scapes.

We are home from church. Today our sacrament meeting talks were about our nation and our Constitution. I selected the music and decided we needed to sing some patriotic hymns. I chose America the Beautiful and My Country ‘Tis of Thee. Neither of those hymns are programed into our Kawai organ, so Stacey practiced them and played them in the meeting. It was nice to sing them. I was one of the speakers. I spoke about our Constitution and how it was created by inspired men, about the liberty it establishes and protects and about how those liberties are under constant threat these days. I challenged the congregation to read the Constitution sometime between now and Independence Day. I think many people do not know the Constitution or understand it.  If we do not know what it says, how can we defend the protections of the freedom it provides for us? I love this great nation. I hope you all have a great and meaningful celebration of our hard won liberty. God bless America!

Rachel made these dresses for her girls.