Instrument of Grace

Now THAT's a Raspberry!

Garden Man's raspberry canes are in their second year. The neighbor who gave them to us said we shouldn't expect any fruit the first year, but we did get a little. So did the foxes, and the deer ate some of the foliage.

This year, Garden Man fashioned a makeshift fence around the canes, which are much bigger than last year. They are brambles, after all. Even though a deer, fleeing some imagined threat, managed to land right in the middle of the little enclosure and break everything down, we've still gotten fruit. There was a small flush of fruit earlier in the summer, mostly from the gold berries which I believe are Fall Gold. For the last 3 weeks or more, we're getting a much heavier flush of fruit, mostly from the red Heritage. Heritage is the most popular everbearing variety, and it's typical to get a flush of fruit in July with heavier production in August and September. We pick a small butter dish piled high with beautiful berries every few days. We've had enough to enjoy ourselves, with some left over to share with special friends. Garden Punk's friend next door thinks we are magical, producing such wonderful fruit in our backyard, and he sure is happy to hear "come over and get yourself some berries."

Garden Man delights in bringing me a dish of them every couple of days, and this morning, he brought me this:

Now THAT's a raspberry! And it tasted just as good as it looks.

If you have sun and a little space (it really doesn't take much space, but it does take diligence to keep them contained), you can grow raspberries. They are definitely worth the effort, because the ones from the store just don't compare.

Common Cinquefoil?

I thought this little gem might be Common Cinquefoil, Potentilla simplex. I saw it during our walk on an interior path on Sears Island, ME. There is something incredibly pleasing about its perfect simplicity, don't you think?

After looking at many images online, I'm reconsidering whether or not this is cinquefoil. In my North Woods Wildflowers, Common Cinquefoil is the only flower looking remotely like this one. This plant's distinctive heart-shaped petals, I thought, should make identification easy. Now I'm wishing I had paid more attention to the foliage.

Can you identify this plant?

Rose and Lily

These were everywhere in Mid-Coast Maine and Acadia National Park. I took this photo at the top of Cadillac Mountain, and these roses were everywhere. If you passed a group of them, you could catch a whiff of their sweet scent on the seabreeze. Even though there had been rain, rain and more rain in Maine over the last two months, these roses had pristine foliage. Those are MY kind of roses!

This lily, I believe it is a Canada Lily, was located in the Wild Gardens of Acadia. If you ever visit Acadia National Park, you must visit this lovely little garden in the park. It's right off the park loop road near one of the stops, and there is parking nearby. It's definitely worth the time. We toured it in the rain, and it was still lovely.

The reason it looks like you are looking up into this lily is because you are. It was over my head. I rounded a bend in the path, and there this golden beacon stood.

Today's Take From The Garden

The garden is not producing quite like I hoped. I think part of the reason why is that our garden sitters didn't pick very much. They waited until the cucmbers, zucchini and yellow squash were very large before picking them. Same for the green beans. As a result, I think the plants are confused. Yep. That's my story. While I'd like to have more produce, our garden has been so successful this year, I will NOT complain.

We've picked a good bit since we got back, and I've not recorded it. Vacations have a way of destroying routines, but that's OK. Here's what we got today:  2 bell peppers (not quite ready, but the heavy wind on Friday broke the branch they were growing on), 2 cucumbers, 3 yellow pear tomatoes and 12 "grape" tomatoes. Our "grape" tomatoes are very large, about half the size of a roma. We also got a big mess of chard. The chard is definitely confused. I thought for certain it would be gone as soon as July rolled around, but with the cool summer, relatively speaking of course, we've been having, it's still producing. I think today may have been its last hurrah, but that's OK too. I'll be planting more in a week or so.

In other garden news, we finally got the two spicebush plants in the ground. I know. I bought them in April, for goodness sake. Problem is we needed to take down a tree near where they were going, and I didn't want them harmed. The tree came down Thursday, and now the spicebushes are snug in their new home. We also planted the two Dixie Wood Ferns I bought in April. They would have been planted long ago, but somehow they ended up going home with my friend and her purchases. Although we've visited several times, we always forgot to bring the ferns home. Now they're home and planted. I have ONLY one thing in a pot still needing to go in the ground. It's a crepe myrtle from my friend, and it's been in that pot for over 2 years. I know, I know. But I'm just not sure where to plant it yet. Maybe next spring . . . . . .

Tonight we'll have a cucumber, tomato and onion salad, wilted chard and roasted potato with our roast chicken. Sounds good to me. What gifts did your garden give you today?

Plants on South Bubble

One of the things I noticed during my walks (and climbs) in Acadia was the plants. Of course I noticed the plants - I'm a gardener! Often, I'd look up and realize Garden Man and Garden Punk had left me far behind because I had become engrossed in some plant by the trail. As I said in an earlier post, it delighted me to find varieties of some of the very same plants I have in my own garden or that grow nearby.

On that first hike we took in Acadia, up to the summit of South Bubble (did I mention it was strenuous?), we started off in a heavily wooded area. As we climbed, it became more rocky and open. As soon as the trail began to move into sun, I noticed the viburnums. The leaves looked just like those on the Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum I have growing in my yard, only the leaves were much smaller. The growth habit was the same, too, but the plants were just a few feet high. Since we were there in July, I didn't notice any flowers, but there were some fruits, held above the foliage just like a Doublefile Viburnum. I wish I'd taken pictures of these, but I didn't.

When there was a little more sun, I noticed these low-growing plants with tiny dark pink buds and pink flowers. When I bent down to take a closer look, I was delighted to find miniature Mountain Laurel flowers. Turns out, this lovely little plant is Sheep Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia. The little leaves are about two inches long and the flowers are barely a half inch across. These bear a few of the marks of a very wet spring and summer on their leaves, but they were blooming their hearts out.

As we got closer to the summit and there was more and more sun, we began seeing Vaccinium angustifolium, lowbush blueberries, with berries in various stage of ripeness. It was amazing to me these hardy little plants could flourish and bear fruit on what little soil was contained in the crevices between the rocks. It looked as if they were growing on almost bare rock. The leaves of these blueberries bear heavy marking from the wet weather, but the plants seemed to be thriving in their harsh conditions.

Although Acadia is located in Zone 5 and I'm located in Zone 7, we share many of the same plants, and that delights me. Do you have varieties of viburnum, kalmia or vaccinium in your garden?

The Trees

As I expected, work is keeping me away from my blog. I've been choosing to spend my time reading others' blogs instead of posting, and I've had a lot of fun doing that. But if I read, who will post? And I have some nice (I think) photos to post.

On our recent Maine vacation, we spent two days in Acadia National Park, and I loved every minute. Even though the weather wasn't perfect, it was good enough and we had rain jackets. I captured the following three images on hikes in the park.

This image of tree trunks is from the South Bubble Trail. I caught the image on the way down, because on the way up I was focused solely on breathing. I don't remember anything visual from the trail up except the next set of rock steps going up up up, and those "next sets" seemed endless. It wasn't until after the climb I found out it was a "strenuous" trail. I'll say. But on the way down, I noticed a lot of things. I just liked the way these tree trunks looked grouped together. One surprising thing to me was the number of Aspen trees in the park. I thought Aspens grew only out west, but there are a lot of them in Acadia. They have light trunks like the Birches, but once you pay attention, you can tell them apart. Do you see any differences in the trunks here?

On the much less strenuous (thank goodness!) Nature Trail path near Jordan Pond, I noticed an oddly-growing tree. It seems it sprouted out of the ground, and then something forced it to grow along the ground for a bit before heading skyward. I thought the bark pattern was interesting.

On the path above Otter Point, we were walking among the trees with the ocean and the cliffs just a few feet to our right. I was focused on looking ahead, but Garden Man stopped me and told me to look off to the left. This is what I saw.

It's a piece of much-weathered wood, but doesn't it look a bit like a cow or buffalo skull and horn?

I hope you enjoyed your mini-tour of Acadia. More photos to follow in the coming days, so please come back and visit.