Can everyday be Action Day? There are bandwagons all over the place that I want to jump on. Here is a post about the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) that reminded me to rave that Fred and Dan, Blithewold’s groundsmen are expert at Reusing/Recycling. They took sills from the old greenhouse when it was renovated and rather than hauling it to a scrapyard, they re-invented it as a bed edge and grass stair risers. Sometimes with a wide open to the possibilities imagination, a useless cast-off can be rescued from the landfill and transformed into the perfect solution!
This morning I found a sidetrack bandwagon in this (otherwise really interesting) post. I’ve been on a (passive) lookout for an alternative to the soilless potting mix that we use in the greenhouse. Most (all?) potting mixes are made with peat which is not a renewable resource. It also bears mentioning that peat harvests are killing precious bogs and I don’t want to be a party to bog death. I perked right up at the mention of coconut coir in this post and did just a little searching and found that it’s available by the brick and bale. I’m curious now – has anyone has used it either in or as a potting medium? What’s your source? Did you and your plants like it? Do you have any other peat-free potting medium recommendations? Enquiring gardeners want to know!

And if everyday is action day (sometimes action is not about Activism…) the volunteers have had a couple very active days! Here’s a before and after of the Cutting Bed – note that Gail and I have allowed the Asclepias physocarpa ‘Oscar’ (a.k.a. Hairy balls) to live on for the time being!… Next week we’ll be planting tulips.

And the Fairies have been pretty active too. The fairy family at 4 Dust Ave. has acquired some overstuffed furniture! Looks like they’re still working out how to get it up the stairs and down the hall…

Blog Action Day and Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day are two for one subjects for my post today. Read on for Action and click on for bigger images and names of what’s in bloom (I don’t think the subjects are unrelated!)

Nearly 16,000 voices are speaking on blogs all over the world wide interweb today on the subject of the environment. The parameters are pretty broad – we’re asked to publish a post about the environment in any way that relates to our usual topic in order to begin a global conversation. There are so many relevant environmental issues to gardening – where to begin? Where to end?!

I think it might begin and end with stewardship. When I first heard about Blog Action Day, I immediately thought of the couple in Cranston, RI who wrote an inspiring letter last year to Blithewold’s director of horticulture. They are concerned about climate change and took the call to plant trees for carbon sequestration seriously. When they ran out of room in their own garden, they decided to plant (so far, about a dozen) trees at Blithewold because, in their words “Blithewold is guided by a vision of stewardship wherein trees are welcomed, valued, nurtured.” Planting trees at the equator is immensely important but it’s also important, like the bumpersticker says, to think globally and act locally.

Gardeners (like mountain climbers and deep sea divers) are intimately involved with the Earth’s crust and in a unique position to pay attention and take care of our own little patch. We can exploit the Earth or we can leave no trace. We can (pretend to) have dominion over all living things or we can share the caretaking responsibilities with fellow critters like bacteria, worms, bees, spiders…

Blithewold is a 33 acre patch of planet Earth with lawns, trees and flowering gardens. We cannot call ourselves an organic garden although we try to make careful choices and weigh the visitors’ experience with our personal tolerances of garden chemistry. Thinking globally, it’s come to the point where sacrifices have to be made locally. Gail and I refuse to treat the Rose Garden with pesticides and non-organic fertilizers. As a result of that choice the roses decline from blackspot and beetle infestation and the visitors’ midsummer enjoyment of that garden is diminished. This year we interplanted the roses with shrubs and flowering annuals. The roses didn’t look any better but the garden as a whole did and visitors raved.

We know when we’re doing it right. Any garden full of bees, birds, mantises, worms and butterflies is bound to be balanced and healthy. These creatures are the world’s canaries in the coal mine and rather than wait to be alarmed by global colony collapse, gardeners can be (and even have an obligation to be) mindful and preemptively careful.

I love paying attention and being in tune with a patch (especially this particular patch) of the planet and participating in the care of it. I think what I do locally does make a difference globally and I pledge to continue my daily education in how to be a better gardener and earth steward. — Who’s with me?!

This week we’ve had cool nights, a little rain, and no frost yet but the garden is just beginning to have a tattered Fall fading Miss Havesham Raggedy Annie sort of look to it. I’ve always had a soft spot for those characters and I am as facinated with the coming apart at the seams Fall as I am with the fresh flush of Spring baby growth. I spent days watching this fellow (left) – a monarch who has obviously been around the block and has lived as fully as flutterbyly possible. Right near where it was anchored, a butterfly’s worth of wings were on the ground looking for all the world like there had been a bar brawl. Gail watched our guy gimp off flying out of reach yesterday. (Amazing that it could still get loft with all those holes!)

The excuse of rain gave volunteers their first days off in a while and kept us in the greenhouse. I finally potted up some things that have been making me cringe all summer. The Container Bed was short shrifted this year because of other garden projects. We didn’t buy any new special specimens and potting-up the ones we already have was not a priority (can there be more than one priority?) and was so far down the list of things to do that it just didn’t happen. Now though, I’m putting potting-up at the top of the list (priority number 2 or 3 at least)! This Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba’ was heaving itself out of its pot (like this bromeliad had) and you can see why – the roots had nowhere to go but up and the babies were hurling themselves up and out. Mother and children should be happier and healthier now.

I love and covet things like Agaves but have a slightly conflicted feeling about keeping them even in a greenhouse. Are potted plants like caged animals? Do they long to run free? When I see pictures of Agaves in their preferred environment I think “yeah – that’s a happy plant!” But then I want it and the cycle of guilt and plant torture continues… I know there are some gardeners out there (who are you? – speak up!) who won’t keep plants indoors. As conflicted as I am sometimes, the pleasure I take in green growing around me (especially in the winter) outweighs the guilt and I know I will always bring the garden in.

And speaking of gardening in – Gail and I are teaching a terrarium class tomorrow and that, I think, is one of the best kinds of indoor gardens. It’s self-contained, pretty self-sufficient and the plants seem to not think it’s torture – actually any diminutive plant that likes a warm, moist environment thrives on jarred benign neglect – now that’s my kind of garden!

I plan to post about jar garden how-tos next week (the class is full) but first stay tuned on Monday for Blog Action Day (thousands of bloggers around the world -plus me- will be writing about the environment) and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.

All good things must come to an end? That’s definitely not my kind of philosophy but it was a little bit true in the Display Garden today. The mansion is closed for the season and it’s time for us to start working on next year’s gardens: Hopefully, if funds and weather allow, Fred and Dan will be able to continue the Display Garden redesign this winter. The Idea Beds are next on their list. Gail and I want to save most of the perennials and shrubs from those beds and decided to move most of them, at least temporarily to the new Display Garden beds (the Ellipse and Stone Bench Beds).

So today we and the Deadheads had the heartbreaking task of ripping the tender stuff out of the still beautifully blooming Ellipse Bed to make room. The Deadheads made the best of it though and cut flowers to take home and some even took a plant or two to winter over. Gail and I chose plants to take in for “stock” and took dozens of last minute cuttings from the garden before the digging, wrenching and hurling started.

We probably should have been more conscious of the resident critters – this mantis found shelter in the chaos but I wonder how many we inadvertently evicted?

Getting started with our first fall project was actually pretty fun and if we think of it as more of a beginning than an end … then all good things must keep on!

Today dawned damp and foggy. Whenever the air and water temperatures duke it out, we get horizonless vistas, amplified sounds and a glimpse of the world wide spiderwebs — rather than obliviously crashing into spidy infrastructure, this morning we could see all of the guy wires and danced the limbo through the bosquet.

We’re getting on with the move in because even with warm nights continuing in the forecast it’s a good idea to at least start thinking about bringing plants in.
Remember how you gently weaned your houseplants to the outdoors last spring? They want that love in the fall too – bringing them some cold day into an already heated house could be a little shocking! Gail and I are starting with the succulents. In the greenhouse, the temperature climbs to the 90′s on a sunny day, and because there’s nothing much in there for us to water yet, the humidity stays pretty low. Our tender succulents will much prefer to bake a few extra days in the hot dryish than sit in the cool damp of day starts and stops lately – they should be shocked into thrive with the change.

As we load plants to carts, we groom them and set any aside that are in desparate need of repotting or special t.l.c. – This is another reason we plan ahead and stick to our schedule regardless of the weather – it takes time and it’s an important step for anyone bringing houseplants back inside for the season. Check for bugs and treat them; take off scrunky leaves, and repot! This mother bromeliad had several children and -poor rootbound thing- was launching herself out of her pot. With some of the kids detatched and a brand new house, she already looks less suicidal!

I think this might be a good long weekend to tend to your soon-to-be indoor garden. I’m on my way home and have every intention of taking my own advice! What will you do this weekend?