The other day when Fred and Dan had the ladder out they invited me up on the north porch roof for a look at the North Garden. I’m a little bit scared of heights and ladders but I would never pass on a chance to see any of our gardens from a fresh perspective.

It’s ironic that even though we tend to draw out garden plans as if from a bird’s eye view (do you do that too?), we rarely get to see it that way as it grows. From up there the tapestry of our intentions is fully revealed. I could also more easily see the quiet places and the gaps in the patterns of colors and textures than when I stand right in front of them. (Knock wood, there were no actual gaps. – Sometimes by this time we’ve had to contend with the disappointment of a tired plant or two or ten…) But even my critical eye thought it looked so pretty I wished everyone could see it that way. And of course, it is possible to see that garden from a little ways back and a tiny bit above – from the north porch steps and railing. It’s actually clear from there that it was – and is – designed to be enjoyed from exactly that spot. (Click on pictures for a better view.)

And if you can’t get above your garden to really see it again the next best thing is to go down low. Yesterday I looked up from a weeding crouch within the display garden and was suddenly amazed at the size of the plants and the beauty of the combinations. It’s not that I can’t see and appreciate the garden it from 5′ or so off the ground but I had sort of stopped noticing, if you know what I mean. But then it is also time for me to go on vacation… It wasn’t until I saw Gail’s reaction to the gardens when she got back from her vacation that I realized again just how necessary time away is at this time of year: I had worked for a while in the Rose Garden on Monday and it barely registered that all of the roses still have healthy leaves AND they are in full June-like bloom again! (It’s July!) Thank goodness Gail came back to point that out. And now it’s my turn. I’m off to gain some even fresher perspective and hope to see you back here too in a couple of weeks.

Are you still noticing your garden’s gorgeousness?

It’s been pretty hot here lately – unpleasant enough that we gave the volunteers the week off – but this morning, even at dawn, the sun had a particularly malevolent look in its eyes. The dome of heat that has been covering so much of the country came to sit on Southern New Englad today. At almost 5pm, it’s 94.5 degrees in the potting shed and 101 outside and about as humid as it ever gets. It’s gross (though I know it’s been even worse elsewhere.) This is no time to be out in the sun gardening, that’s for sure. It’s simply not safe.

But I have to take just a moment here before I go home to stretch out in front of a fan to say how smart the Van Wickles and their landscape architect, John DeWolf were when they designed the Bosquet. It’s a natural air conditioner and was fully intended as such. Not only does the mansion get some delicious breezes off the water (except for today) but whenever the breeze blows from the north, it’s cooled by the Bosquet. And it’s the best place on the property find some relief from the heat. It was a perceptible couple of degrees cooler in there today – I could swear I even felt a breeze! – and on a day like this a couple of degrees can make a significant difference in comfort level.

Gardeners, like most people, tend to want what they don’t have – those with shady gardens often would love nothing better than to be able to grow anything under the sun that needs full sun. But during a heatwave, I’m sure everyone with their own natural air conditioner rediscovers a love for shade and all of the plants that thrive under it.

Do you appreciate the shady places in your garden? Do you ever wish you had more shade?

Ever since Dick, our vegetable gardener extraordinaire, first joined his wife Mary in the Blithewold gardens, we’ve had more produce than we know what to do with. (Dick orders the vegetable seeds, starts them, plants them and tends the vegetable garden along with his faithful sidekick Cathy and any of the garden volunteers willing to spend time in the hottest spot on the property.) The vegetable garden’s raison d’etre is to give visitors an up close look at a beautiful and productive vegetable garden, and is a great place for the camp kids to learn about growing and harvesting vegetables.

But none of us want to throw good food on the compost heap. We have always offered all of the kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, beans, peas, basil, artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, endless zucchinis, millions of tomatoes, mountains of lettuce and anything else to Blithewold staff members and volunteers willing and able to come down and help themselves. But because the garden is so large – and so productive – we often ended up with extra and although Gail and I have had every intention of bringing the surplus to the local soup kitchen, we didn’t always share as much as we could have. What we lacked was time and an easy way to get the produce to where the need is.

Enter my neighbor Dyan. She suggested and is facilitating a partnership with the East Bay Food Pantry, which according to their website, currently serves an astounding 900 households (3000 individuals including 850 children.) We have adjusted our work schedule in order to pick first thing Tuesdays and then Dyan comes right over to fill her car, and then her cool cellar and fridge with an abundance of fresh veg. She delivers it to the pantry just before they open their doors every Wednesday.

So far, since we started picking for the EBFP the first week in June, we have donated about 180 pounds of produce. (Dyan not only stores the food and delivers it, she weighs it too!) And we still have plenty left over for our staff and volunteers (not to mention our bunnies, woodchucks, and cabbage worms…) And when I worried that so much kale and Swiss chard might be a tough sell, I was assured that the food pantry volunteers are giving pantry clients cooking advice and recipes, and that all of the produce donated from Blithewold’s garden and other home gardens has been snapped up fast.

Does your garden produce more than you can eat? Have you donated any surplus to a food pantry or soup kitchen?

I’ll use the excuse of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (generously hosted as always by Carol at May Dreams Gardens) to show off a few more of the attractive plants in and around our pollinator’s garden. It’s been really fun talking to visitors about all of the activity and noticing who goes in for a closer look and who takes a few apprehensive steps back. The bees and wasps don’t seem to mind either reaction, they’re so intent on taking it all (the nectar and pollen that is) in. Would you go in for a closer look at all the busyness or are you more comfortable with a little distance between you and any insect activity?

Click on pictures for larger view or mouse over for captions.

There are lots of names for July’s full moon, which was full in the wee hours of this very morning, but Full Thunder Moon seems the most appropriate this year. (Full Buck Moon and Full Hay Moon are other choices…) We’ve been lucky enough to have had a couple of good storms within the last week and the gardens are loving the infusion of rain – almost 3″ last Friday and another 1/2″ish Wednesday night. This last storm broke the heat wave and I can’t ever remember more heavenly July days than these last two. It’s not too hot or too humid – it’s juuuuust right. I hope you’re getting to enjoy a Goldilocks-perfect mid-July too!

I’d say it’s easy to plant a garden full of attractive plants except that it isn’t so easy. There’s way too much to choose from and what qualifies as attractive changes, for me at least, by the day. Some days it’s green flowers; other minutes it’s spectacularly enormous leaves; sometimes it’s blue foliage or anything orange. But it’s very easy to find plants that are attractive… in other ways … to other garden visitors, such as insects and birds, bees, wasps and butterflies. And planting those plants turns the garden from a pretty picture into an experience.

Every year we change the Display Garden around a bit. Some years we focus on flower colors (green, blue, anything that amazing apricot shot through with magenta…), sometimes we play more with texture (giant leaves… you catch my drift) and I have never known these gardens to not hum – audibly and visually – with activity. The gardens look alive because we plant such a variety that there are always plenty of plants for the insects and birds. But this year we tried to plant, in the big display garden bed in particular, ONLY what would be attractive to pollinators.The garden is buzzing! And lucky for us and for all the garden’s human visitors, we didn’t have to leave aesthetics out of the design equation.

The hands-down busiest (and hands-off busiest if you have any healthy respect for bees and wasps on a mission) is the sea holly (Eryngium planum). There must be an easy dozen different species on it at any given mid-day moment. And it’s highly attractive to me too, fulfilling the blue foliage (and flower) category so handsomely along with having an excellent architectural prickliness. When the sea holly goes by, the more subtly lovely (green) flowers on the mountain mint (Pycnanathemum muticum) will likely draw the most visitors.

But the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), which is a stunning shade of brilliant orange that incidentally looks amazing with sea holly, not only attracts all sorts of bees, wasps and butterflies to its flowers, the plant itself is the only larval food source (along with every other member of the Asclepias/milkweed family) for the beloved Monarch butterfly. It’s always great fun to attract butterflies to the garden, and it’s even better to give them a reason to stay. At least 4 generations will go from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly over the course of the summer in a garden with an Asclepias restaurant. When Gail and I started researching plants for this garden we were thrilled to note that a lot of the best nectar sources are also popular host plants for all sorts of butterfly and moth caterpillars – like goldenrod (Solidago), Aster, false indigo (Baptisia), Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium) and even Zinnia.

Do you plant anything specifically for bees and butterflies? What are the most attractive plants in your garden?