Like everything else, the garden air show seems to be happening a little earlier this year than last and I think it’s more entertaining than TV. I wish I had moving pictures to show you the swallows scooping mosquitoes off the Great Lawn and hummingbirds feeding on monarda, gladiolus and crocosmia. There are dragonflies and butterflies and moths lighting on the every delicate stem and an easy dozen species of bees and wasps working nearly every flower. There are so many of us tending the gardens that it’s really a wonder that we don’t all get in each other’s way.

As a matter of fact (I’m knocking wood with my feet as I type this) I have only been stung 2, maybe 3 times in the 7 years I’ve worked in these gardens. And not yet by a honeybee. I may simply be lucky but for what it’s worth, I also have a profound respect for all of our busy pollinators. I do my best not to get in their way or deadhead flowers that are still being worked on. That said, I do have to admit that one of my stings was from from a startled solitary-bee when I accidentally grabbed it along with a helianthus flower that wanted deadheading. It is curious that they all seem to go for flowers we might think have already gone by…

We were so happy when Jeff from Aquidneck Honey started dropping off honeybee hives. Gail and I were utterly captivated watching him casually knock a colony into a new box and wish the “girls” good luck. His bees have settled in to their new home and we’re getting used to having a little more buzz and excitement in the gardens with five hives in place now. If Colony Collapse Disorder can be said to have any good side, I think it’s that more people have learned to be respectful and interested in bees rather than afraid of them.

We all know by now that honeybees only sting in self or hive defense, and sacrifice themselves by leaving an essential body part behind (so to speak) — which should be removed immediately by gently scraping the sting site. If the bees ever sting, we’re prepared. There is ice in our freezer, baking soda and a sting-stop ammonia pen in the greenhouse first-aid kit. I’ve also just learned that parsley and basil are effective sting-pain relievers if crushed and rubbed on as a sort of poultice. Anyone who has been in the vegetable garden knows we have plenty of basil especially. For the 2 or so percent of the population that is allergic to bees, I hope you travel with an epi-pen and never have to use it.

I am a little bit afraid of wasps because they can be vicious if provoked. Interestingly, the enormous Eastern cicada killer, which is one of the scariest looking wasps is also one of the most docile. According to my research, they will sting only if they’re grabbed or stepped on. Like the easy-going bumble bee, cicada killers are ground nesters. And that right there is why barefoot gardening is not for me.

Have you been stung much while gardening? Do you have a preferred sting relief remedy?

Before leaving on vacation, Gail didn’t write much of a to-do list for us. As she bolted out the door on the way to the beach she said only, “Just try to keep up with the gardens!” It is a daunting task. The combination of steamy tropical heat and a couple of stormy downpours have had opposite effects on gardens and gardeners. We have slowed right down as the gardens have shot up, changing before our very eyes. But even with blood as thick as molasses and sweating away gallons, we’ve managed to keep up doing things like weeding, deadheading, collecting heaps of seed from all of the pink peony poppies, and replanting the last few dahlias and some gladiolus. — Better late than never, I say. In any case, the way the season is going full steam ahead, it will be lovely to have some fresh blooms in the garden a little later than usual.

In one way, slowing down is not a bad way to keep up. Here is a very small selection of new favorite plants and combinations from a slow look around the Display Garden.

Nicotiana ‘Crimson Bedder’ is a loose 2′ tall plant with good sized bright red (slightly pinkish) blooms that looks excellent paired with just about everything (which is good because I tucked it in throughout the big bed in the Display Garden.)

Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’ (left) and Hordeum jubatum – foxtail barley (right) are both new to us this year and I love them both. Frosted Explosion came with a warning to use it or lose it (it’s a great pick for arrangements) but we haven’t used it much nor have we been diligent about deadheading it. I’m really happy to report that it’s still producing new flowers even in all this heat. We rowed out the Hordeum jubatum in the cutting bed  and although I really love the way it looks flopped against its neighbor, I think it would be more effective planted in a border the same way we tucked in the panicum.

Probably the most photographed combinations in the Display Garden lately are the new residents of the cement pond. The water garden is drying up despite the little bit of recent rain so we’re very happy that these two found a new home here.

Are you keeping up with your garden?

No matter where a group of gardeners may convene, we will always find common ground and inspiration. This past weekend about 70 of us from all over North America got together in Buffalo, NY for the 3rd annual garden bloggers meet-up. If you’re only vaguely familiar with Buffalo’s riches to rags industrial history, or like me, have passed through without stopping, it might seem like an unlikely city for a garden tour. But, believe it or not, Buffalo is definitely on the map as a rich horticultural destination.

Thanks to our hosts Elizabeth Licata and Jim Charlier (and a gajillion sponsors), we were treated to a sneak peek into a few gardens on the Buffalo Garden Walk – over 350 gardens all over the city will be open to the public (free and self-guided) the weekend of July 24-25. Since 1995, this (non-competitive) tour has grown block by block and become a floriferous symbol of urban renewal and civic pride. In every neighborhood that we went to, there was visible proof of gardeners inspiring neighbors to be adventurous gardeners. I’ve never seen such a concentration of densely and diversely planted postage-stamp sized gardens and am left to wonder if there’s a way to achieve the same feeling of intimacy on a slightly larger piece of property like my garden or even within Blithewold…

We also took in Erie Basin Marina University Test Gardens, Buffalo Japanese Garden, Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Lockwoods Greenhouses, and Mike and Kathy Shadrack’s (they literally wrote the books on hostas) amazing hosta/hemerocallis garden deep in the woods of North Boston, NY (all pictured below). I feel like I still have a lot to process and learn from seeing these places and hope to revisit them in future posts.

Since there are easily as many reasons to garden – and blog – as there are those of us who do it, the inspiration we can glean from each other – not to mention our surroundings – is infinite. I’m so glad to have had a chance to meet so many compatriots all at once and I’m eager now to see more photos from the weekend and read everyone’s thoughts about Buffa10. For a list of links to posts already written about the event, click here.

Have you found common ground on unfamiliar turf (in Buffalo or anywhere else) and come home inspired?

For the last three years I have not let up begging our gardens intern, Lilah “Weed Woman” Anderson to write a guest post for the blog – on any garden topic of  her choosing (vegetable gardening, please.) At long last, she gave in! Accompanying photographs are also by Lilah.

Blithewold’s vegetable garden has undergone some big changes this year. It has nearly doubled in size and the design has been re-organized to demonstrate a variety of different planting techniques. For my third year as the gardens intern I have been spending much of my time in the vegetable garden. Fortunately master gardener and devoted volunteer Dick Philbrick is there for helpful advice and a very green thumb.

The main goal for this year’s garden is to be an educational resource to our visitors on different growing techniques. We have put in our usual rows with succession plantings as well as companion beds and hills for vines. These different planting methods work well for different kinds of gardens. So if you have a large space like us it’s easy to do rows, but for a cramped city garden companion beds may be a better route for maximizing space and productivity.  The hills may also prove to be a challenge for a small plot, however I am experimenting with different trellising ideas that just may work for a tight spot.

There are also three different kinds of mulches being used (straw, grass clippings, and woodchips) to accommodate the many different plants in the garden. The tomatoes are well suited to the thick golden straw whereas the petite herb and flower rows enjoy the finer grass clippings. For our pathways the woodchips keep down weeds and provide easy access to beds. The fourth section of the garden is devoted to Blithewold’s younger visitors. It is filled with lots of pathways around flower-beds. The deep purple salvias and the bright marigolds and zinnias are meant to attract birds, bugs, and butterflies. There are also some interactive plants like cotton and pineapple sage (which smells surprisingly like a ripe pineapple). Fred and Dan have designed a playhouse for our young visitors and camp attendees that is slowly being covered by pole beans. This area will hopefully spark an interest in children to grow vegetables and flowers of their own. Overall, we have incorporated a number of different vegetable growing methods to educate and inspire our visitors both big and small.

The idea of having a garden can seem daunting if only a small yard or terrace is available but on a recent trip to Cambridge MA it was easy to see that every green pocket can produce.  My boyfriend’s father has quite an impressive city garden that utilizes a large raised bed and numerous containers to avoid the lead-filled soil. I have to say I have never seen rhubarb growing so happily in a container nor have I seen such an intricate tomato trellis as in Ivan’s garden. The small but robust garden provides quite a harvest that even includes cucumbers and broccoli growing in containers.

This tiny but productive plot inspired me to visit some of the Cambridge community gardens. There were two within walking distance from Ivan’s garden. The community gardens were composed of many small plots, all of which were stuffed full with a variety of plants. Many plot-tenders had creative combinations of plants to take advantage of space and maximize yield. A man and his daughter were already harvesting zucchini and another woman and her daughter gave me some of their ripe gooseberries to try. These pockets of green were an inspiration to me in furthering the educational aspect of the vegetable garden at Blithewold.

In an age of large food corporations it is refreshing to see so many people growing there own food and I hope that the Blithewold garden can serve to encourage visitors to try their hand at a vegetable garden.

We heard our first cicada today and that to me is the signal of high mid-summer. All along this season we’ve been a good two weeks ahead – starting way back with the daffodils. I hadn’t allowed myself to worry about what this might mean for August and September until I saw the daylily Hemerocallis ‘Autumn Minaret’ start to bloom yesterday. Although it’s certainly lovely, it’s an end of season sort of color. Better that it would wait and bloom with the dahlias we just planted in that bed. But gardens will grow – willy-nilly sometimes – and new combinations that we never could have imagined are always welcome, like them a lot or not. And I do like seeing Autumn Minaret with the freshly opened – and easily 4 foot tall – Echinacea ‘Envy’…

I have been meaning to do a post just on this exciting topic alone, but without further ado – and because every week should be pollinator’s week (not just last week) – drum roll, please … we have bees! Jeff from Aquidneck Honey has placed these hives of honeybees collected from local swarms down by our nursery beds. We are really enjoying watching all of their busy activity throughout the gardens.

To carry you through the weekend, just in case your plans don’t include hanging out here in Bristol for the 4th (5th) of July parade, here are some Friday photo ops from the growing Display Garden.

How does your garden grow this weekend? Does it think it’s August too?

Happy 4th – whatever month this is!