A Fairy in the Garden

I have always loved whimsy.

I have always loved fanciful.... not fancy, per se, but fanciful enough to make every chipped-cup tea party seem like Buckingham Palace and every walk in the park to be a tread lightly on another planet.

I love that an overturned flowerpot becomes a fairy haven or a toad's shady home.  And because there isn't a lot of time, I've had to learn to develop gardens that need minimal work.... Using clever spacing, perennials and thick mulch has helped keep me from constant weeding... Oh, and hiring my friend Christina to come and do the spring spruce up because her freshman year at college folded in March.... and she's been home, working remotely with professors ever since. So I did cheat a little! :)

But she is totally worth it.

I love getting dirty. It doesn't bother me a bit. I love gardening, creating water ponds, funny stone sidewalks, cozy corners. And that love transfers itself into a wonderful backdrop for our September and October fall extravaganza or Pumpkinpalooza, whatever you want to call it!

But it all starts now, in the spring (that has finally arrived on 5/20/2020, and I'm not going to say what I thought about that, I'll just "huff" really loud!) :) The front mulch on this side of the sidewalk looks like a simple yard trim but it's really the base beneath one of our Orange Pumpkin displays each September as $3 and $4 pumpkins are stocked on pallets over the mulch. And in the far back left of this picture you can see the monster-sized wood rounds Dave cut.... how pretty will they be in someone's garden? Gorgeous!

And our fair Amanda has created little swinging bridges and staircases to aid and abet the fairies in their quest for cozy living.... With cozy homes provided by the efforts of palliated woodpeckers, who often have been known to give fairies a ride.

And there is always Lampost Lane if you're looking for a quiet well-lit street for a lovers' stroll....


Or stop by the Stars Hollow Hotel for your choice of rooms overlooking the gardens! :)

Now we need a sign: Fairies Welcome Here! :)

There are 255 tomatoes planted.... we'll see how they do... and yesterday a hundred bell peppers and classic eggplant joined that area where I can hand water mums, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and summer squashes..... It feels so good to be out there working, but I won't pretend there isn't some bone-achin' goin' on, LOL!

This is Dan and Zach..... we need some heavy lifters around here, too!

So that's what's going on here.... We're throwing together sandwiches a lot of the time, and the guys installed some new donkey fencing yesterday to give the donkeys more space.... and those donkeys are going to eat themselves silly....

It feels good to be springing ahead... to have something to do and get out of the house.

And to have folks stopping by and coming to work on this, that and the other thing!

That's it from WNY right now!

Ruth Logan Herne is busily writing and working in Western New York and so glad to hear birds singing, frogs croaking and peeping and to have this chance to live this thing called life! Visit her website ruthloganherne.com friend her on facebook, or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com!

Brooklyn "Yards"

Last week, when I mentioned the front yard in front of someone's house, Missy commented:

You said that flower was sprouted from a crack in the front yard. Do you call the front a yard, even if it's tile/concrete/sidewalk? Small town southerners want to know! :)

Well, yes, we do, but it's not an easy answer because the gardens/yards are as diverse as the population. Some have short stoops and no yards, some have stoops that extend to the sidewalk, some have A LOT of plant life, some have nothing but concrete - and then there's everything in between.

So I figured I'd share some photos with you today.

Some are plain.

Some have a small tree in courtyard/yard

Some are more elaborate.

To give an idea of how things change with various owners - when my daughters were little, one of their friends lived in this building. That back area was an elaborate play spot with rubber pads, sand boxes, climbing toys, plants, etc. Now it's just a place for the garbage.

Some have pine trees.  :)

I think these are gardenias.

As you can see, most have a small concrete area in front that houses trash cans. Some people leave as is, but some create elaborate gardens. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden runs a contest each year for The Greenest Block in Brooklyn. If you're interested, this site has photos of the blocks chosen each year from 1995 - present (except it's 2015). This is last year's winner.  It takes some serious work and neighborhood cooperation!

Minimizing your Garden Work with Garden Ponds and Old Stuff

By garden lover Ruth Logan Herne who is absolutely lying, this isn't really minimizing anything, but the effects are gorgeous! And so fun, and perfect for the fairy houses we're adding to the "farm" this year so our young visitors will have ONE MORE CRAZY FUN THING to do!

I love garden ponds. Small garden ponds attract birds, frogs, toads and fairies.The sound of gurgling water, that isn't from leaking pipes, is so calming. It's like sitting by a waterfall without having to get into the car.

Who can possibly object to that????

So to have garden ponds in the north, they must go through winter.

And to have them in the northeast woodlands, they must deal with leaves and tree clutter.

And to have leaves and STUFF sit in water all winter is gross.... in the spring. But even if you drain the ponds, rain and snow are going to fill them back up and leaves will fall: Fact of nature. But the joy is in getting them cleaned out each spring (I use the word joy loosely, darlings) because it's a yucky job, but once it's done... it's done!

This was the first pond we did, and it's not level.... so I learned that a pond should be fairly level but it hasn't leaked in 20 years, so I'm not messing with it. :) And finding small fountains for small ponds is tricky but I want the water aerated and churned so avoid mosquitoes, so I have a "gurgling" fountain which is about as basic as you can get.

This pond was formed with our inexpertise and old vinyl fabric I used for an underlay and pricey pond liner. Which.... as I said... hasn't leaked in 20 years, so it pays to get the good stuff. And, the less sun the liner gets, the better. We (by we, of course I mean "I") layer field rocks around the edges to avoid the sun beating on those edges and rotting them.  This one is about 28" deep at the deep end and then about 14" deep in the shallow end. I've got all kinds of irises, including Japanese water irises around the ponds because they look lush. Even when the flowers are done, hostas and irises look lush.

Then this is the waterfall that was buried beneath English ivy and poison ivy for years...

 Link to Garden Pond Video at Ruthy's House

I do not want to tell you how much herbicide it took to finally regain control of this yard when the ivies paired up and made it insurpassable. I don't even know if that's a word, but I'm using it. I've got two pics here so you can see how I built it.... The lower pond has a strong pump the sends water up a two-inch hose and then it pours out over the 'waterfall' and back to the pond below. This is all hand-done, and frogs and toads and birds love it. And the little stone sidewalk is from free stone that the country club pulled out and my son brought it home to me. There's more out  back of the house, and hopefully this year I'll turn that pile of stone into a patio-type area so that the dogs aren't quite so muddy when they come in. :) A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

 You can see Grandma Blodgett's Gold-and-Burgundy irises that I've propagated for years and given gazillion away. They match the house! :)  But I like a kaleidoscope of colors, too, so there's also this:

A Blue Iris.... It is so tricky to find blue flowers. They are uncommon, so I've propogated this guy multiple times because I love it!
And this:

That's an old soup pot we found at a garage sale. It makes a great county planter! And this old ash bucket:

You know how expensive it is to get planter arrangements at the nursery, so we find old things and make our own. Mandy (my wonderful niece/pseudo daughter) roots coleus and sweet potato vine for us every year... this year they met with a sun scorch accident, but they're coming along! Where there's life, there's hope, right? I buy six packs of the bigger flowers on purpose (the 4" pots) because with a short growing season, I want color to take hold in June and last until September.... and then the mums show off their beauty.

And this water garden came from a kit my kids gave me about a dozen years ago and it sat for several years until I was able to get rid of at least most of the poison ivy in this section of yard.... It abuts a marsh (my frogs and toads!) and the poison ivy is a constant battle because it crawls east... and we're east of the marsh. This one has a pump in the lower pond that feeds through a buried tube to the upper pond... and when it's full, the spillway water fall channels the water back to the lower pond where it all repeats. When we had the rotting porch pillars replaced nine years ago (book three!!!) we had electricity installed on this porch at the same time, and all for the ponds and Christmas displays. :) I have staked electrical ports near each pond and then the cord runs to the porch electric box. And I don't run them all the time.... but a few hours/day to keep the water fresh and critters happy.

And that's a glimpse of how to keep a perennial garden and water gardens looking sweet without laying out a lot of cash.  Each year we do a little of this and a little of that... this year the fairy houses will be new. I think the kids that visit the farm in the fall will love finding fairy houses!!!

And that's it from Blodgett Family Farm where I planted 2108 pumpkin seeds today.... and there will be more tomorrow. Because it all begins in the spring!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves to get her hands dirty and avoid poison ivy and write beautiful stories of faith, hope and love. Both jobs provide therapy which keeps her from doing
bodily harm to unsuspecting persons.  Find her on facebook, email her at loganherne@gmail.com, follow the farm on facebook at Blodgett Family Farm and you can check out her website at ruthloganherne.com....

Red Cabbage Slaw?

Yesterday Mindy brought you greens and today I'm bringing you red - as in cabbage.

This is only part one of some experimenting, so let me give you the background.

On Mother's Day, my daughter took me to Dinosaur BBQ for lunch by ourselves. I had the most delicious pulled pork sandwich, but what really captured my interest was their coleslaw. It was to die for!

So, last week, to celebrate the end of school, I picked up a brisket sandwich with extra sides of cole slaw. I made one really big tactical error. I dumped the coleslaw onto the brisket before I noticed the jalapeno pickles.

OUCH!!!!!!!!

Fortunately, I 'd saved the second side to go with my fried haddock on Friday night. Seriously, that was one of the best meals ever!!!!!

But I can't keep going to Dinosaur and only buy coleslaw.

I was in the market the other day and saw a beautiful head of red cabbage. Iremembered there had been some red in the coleslaw, so I decided to experiment.

I only had red cabbage so it was a very simple experiment. 

I decided to mix some honey mustard in water and simmer the cabbage briefly, then chill.

I did and it was good.

Honey mustard thinned with some water.

Nothing at all like the Dinosaur coleslaw, but tasty nonetheless.

I remembered that there were seeds of some sort in it and I researched recipes. They looked like flax seeds, but the recipes say to use celery seed.

Honestly, I was going to try some variations like adding caraway seeds and grated carrots. But when I got home with the carrots and peeled the first one...YUCK.... It smelled like swamp water.

So, I give you honey mustard cabbage slaw and the promise of more variations to come.


















Mindy shared her recipe here  and Julie shared a favorite restaurant version here.

What's your favorite coleslaw recipe?


And in the meantime, here are some pretty photos I took in my neighborhood when the sun came out Saturday morning right after some FIERCE storms.


I wish I could have captured how magical these looked. The rain was caught in the feathery leaves and shimmered like hundreds of miniature rainbows.

Except for the rain droplets, who'd ever guess these had just been half drowned in a deluge.

My church garden. The gardening committee does such an amazing job!