Tag: gardening

Daylily Clumps

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 16, 2024

Siloam Doodlebug with a little Primal Scream on the side

Let those daylilies multiply!

As daylily lovers, we get used to pictures of perfect single blooms. Catalogs tout them; proud growers post them. Plus we take plenty of those kind ourselves too. But, what really impresses in the garden are the daylily clumps that have been tended for years and are producing a truly beautiful display. I am blessed to have several such beauties in front of my house. I don’t even try to count the number of scapes they are pushing out anymore. But I sure do appreciate the beauty!

In this post I am featuring pictures from blooming clumps of daylilies. Even then, because of composition considerations, often the picture only focuses on part of the clump’s full output. My daylily clumps tell a story too. This one originated in my grandmother’s garden (Frans Hal below). That one is a gift from a friend (the pink one). I can tell you the story about the lakeside garden where I purchased this one (Red Sails in the Sunset). One came from beside my brother Phil’s warehouse (the purple bordered one). And so it goes. Here’s such a collection.

Tags daylilies, garden, gardening, summer fun

Country Touches Journal

Bear Exterminator

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 14, 2024

This bear was helpful!

Early this summer, I was weeding along the fence line and I was unpleasantly surprised by a yellow jacket sting. Fortunately, I am not allergic. I thought that there was a ground nest so I just stayed clear. Later, while admiring daylilies, I was shocked to discover a football sized nest hanging from the bottom of the fence partially hidden in the grasses I had left. I checked on hiring an exterminator, but the price was not in my budget.

However, I remembered that twice on my property, the local bear had dug up a nest of yellow jackets to eat the developing larva. I said a silent prayer that he would visit my fence row for the same purpose. But I also remembered that another year I had a big ground nest of yellow jackets which the bear did not touch.

yellow jacket nest destroyed by the bear

Well, as you can see from the above picture, the bear did his job. Very little remains of what had become an even more massive nest. I believe he may have visited on one of those very rainy nights, probably to minimize the wasps defense. Anyway, I am very grateful for his help. It is an answer to my prayer. And he didn’t even disturb a daylily!

Tags bears, gardening, prayer, wasps, yellow jackets

Country Touches Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

It’s Daylily Season

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date July 11, 2024

Open garden scheduled

Kelvin’s daylily garden is about at its peak with around fifty different varieties in bloom. A couple early ones have already completed their season and some late ones are yet to start. The Joneses are inviting friends who would like to drop by to an open garden time on Friday, July 12 and and Sunday July 14 at 1:30 PM for a couple hours. Lemonade and cookie refreshments are planned.

Tags daylilies, garden, gardening, summer, summer fun

Americana Country Touches Journal Who Am I

Uncovering History in my Garden

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date July 11, 2022

Hitching post with Bela Lugosi daylily — Hitching post, a piece of history with Bela Lugosi daylily

Hitching post Daylilies — Roadsides orange and Jeanette’s Tall Yellow by a hitching post

Hitching Posts

At our home in the historic section of West Granby, CT, the old granite hitching posts standing in the rail fence line are immediately obvious. The remaining granite sentinels with their broken rusty metal loop tie hooks remind me of the mid nineteenth century mill origins of this part of West Granby. I love the look of an old hitching post with yellow and orange daylilies blooming alongside. Not so obvious are the granite pieces of former hitching posts that previous gardeners had used for borders along the nearby wall. I found them buried under the grass when I planted my first daylilies. I also noted that more such granite pieces had been used to form garden tiers in an area that is now young woodland with nativized daylilies. Apparently succeeding residents did not tend that area and let the saplings grow in the enlarging shade of the sycamore tree.

Rusty Metal Hoop

This spring I was again reminded of the long history of this spot by a rusty metal item that came to the surface as I was planting perennials. I am seeking to diversify my daylily garden with an emphasis on natives. I found a spot in the middle of the front of the fence row and started digging for my new meadowrue. My shovel hit something hard about three inches down and it wasn’t a stone. I kept digging and unearthed an old metal hoop. Was it a rusty metal rim from an old wooden wagon tire? Or was it a barrel stave left over from a long-departed flower barrel? Had a gardener long before me had used it as an edge for a bed of annuals, but the grasses had overtaken it and it was forgotten? Whichever, I felt justified in choosing that spot as I knew in the garden history of this land, some previous gardener had also found it a good choice.

Nineteenth century cut nail found about four inches deep

Cut nail from early settlers

Then just a week ago I found a late perennial sale. Among my purchases was a decorative onion which I hoped would help deter voles. With my sturdy trowel, I dug a hole near a plant which they had almost destroyed this past winter. It was also near the cellar entrance. I soon ran into metal pieces, which turned out to be a collection of nails. Most were ordinary, but one which was a little deeper in the soil was a cut-nail. According to websites I’ve visited, this nail likely is mid-nineteenth century vintage. Is it somehow from the original house, the one reflected on the civil war era map for this lot? (See my house history posts for discussion of why this current home is likely the third house on this site.) Or is it just a fallen nail from someone splitting fire-kindling they had trucked in to feed the stove which was inside the cellar door in the second house. Either way, I had unearthed another connection with the history of our home.

Tags gardening, local history, rusty metal, West Granby

Americana Country Touches Journal

Rose Arbor Delights

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date June 12, 2022

Rose Arbor 2020 — Roses for our Anniversary Year!

Climbing roses reward hard work

Rose arbors have a history in our family. My maternal grandmother had a rose arbor. Here’s a picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother, Samuel and Jessie Isaman in front of their home rose arbor. The arbor was still there when I was a child but the roses were no longer thriving as they are in this picture.

There was also a rose arbor at my wife’s maternal grandparent’s house, Clifford and Mildred Wilcox. I often visited there to date their lovely granddaughter, JoAnne. And each time, I entered through the rose arbor gate.

JoAnne always wanted a rose arbor at our home and I did too. But in our first two parishes, there just wasn’t a good place for one. But when we moved to Copper Hill/West Granby parsonage, there was an old broken down gate to a fenced-in area. (It had been a dog run.) The gate and fence were overgrown with poison ivy. But the gate was clearly visible from the dining room window. I saw my chance. I sprayed the ivy and dug out the remaining roots (I’m still digging.) I tore out the old gate and saved the hinges. I turned the fenced area into a garden spot and rebuilt the fence. (We ate strawberries from the garden this week.) Even before I started replacing the gate, I planted the first climbing roses. Then I started building parts for the arbor in the garage. Eventually, I finished the construction. It took at least a year as I did not have much time to work on it. By then, I had roses to tie on it already. The following year I painted it white. After all, both my Grandmother’s arbor and JoAnne’s grandparent’s arbor were white.

To maintain our rose arbor, I fertilize each bush each year and remove the weeds. In the spring I remove the dead material. As the bushes age, there is more of that. I tie the climbing canes to the arbor so they don’t tip over. In the most recent picture, there are a couple canes that have come lose and need to be retied. If the weather is unusually dry, I water them. At first, the red rose (Blaze) dominated as in the featured picture from 2020. But now the pink one is taking over (lower picture set from 2022). The first couple years, I mulched the base of each bush for winter. But that seems unnecessary now.

Tags gardening, grandparents, hobby, rose arbor, roses

Americana Country Touches Journal Who Am I

Daylily season underway

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date July 12, 2021

Ruby Spider Daylily blooming — Ruby Spider Daylily is the star of the garden these days

I’m a daylily fan

Daylilies are still blooming even though things are a little soggy. The blossoms look great with a few drops of water on them, but eventually most of them are damaged by continued downpours. Every garden has some old favorites like my Ruby Spiders in the featured picture. But there are also up and coming new favorites like Primal Scream and Angel Rose. I know most of the daylily names but not all. The nametags are always moving in the process of clearing winter debris away. A few years ago I started growing daylilies from seed and encouraging “volunteers” too. Volunteers are ones that sow themselves in your garden. I am reaping some pleasant surprises from these practices this year resulting in the chance to name some new varieties like Kel’s Purple Ripple and Kel’s Star Glow.