Foxglove, Good or Bad

I am in a quandary, what should I do about my foxglove? 

I love the cottage garden affect I get from placing foxglove in my garden.  I like the vertical and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous.  I also like the pastel colors they provide against the often bright reds and yellows. 

Here is the problem.  While doing a little research on foxglove for this blog I discovered a few negative characteristics that is making me think I need to dig them up and get rid of them.  It seems that not only can it be dangerous if ingested but it has been known to cause severe skin rashes that won't go away.  Seed pods explode and are ingested causing breathing problems.  The plant also reseeds its self quite easily and spreads rapidly.  We often have horses on our property so we don't want it to spread to our pastures.  Foxglove is poisonous to all mammals if ingested. 

What to do?

 It has been around forever in old Victorian gardens and cottage gardens.  I would like to keep it in my garden but now I am a little concerned.  Let me know what you think.  Do you have foxglove in your garden?  I would love to hear from you on this topic.   

Here are a few more pics from my July garden:

The sugar Ann peas are more than five feet tall.  Wow!

Happy July 4th One Day Late.

     Well I am finally home and posting again. I have been back from Ohio for a week but I have been so busy hoeing all the weeds in my garden I have had no time for the computer.  Yes, I came home to nothing, (I first thought), but weeds.  After much hoeing and hand picking I can finally see the  rows of vegies.  Yes, I really do have Swiss chard, lettuce, beets, and onions.   I have also been busy setting traps and catching the culprits that ate my beans.  So far we have caught two pocket gophers in the garden.  I replanted the beans but it might be too late.

     Here's the clincher, I awoke to 32 degrees this morning and yes the potatoes have been zapped.  That's right, here it is July 4th and we have freezing temperatures.  So what's new in Seeley Lake?  Nothing!  I covered my poor eaten beans and two lonely zuchs but forgot the spuds.  Luckily I have beans and zuchs in the greenhouse and potatoes are cheap.

     Here are a few fun pics from my garden on July 4th, 2012.

My thyme is beautiful and probably should be trimmed back and harvested. 

 











The forever- onions are contortion artists.

This is a little taste of my flower gardens.  The lupine and iris are bloomimg along with the pinks.

    

 This is my native garden.  It has snow berry bushes, solomom seal and a very fragrant white flower.  It came up on its own. 

A River Runs Through It

I love this time of year.  The world is green instead of black and white and everything is so new.  This is Mountain Creek running past our house headed for the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean.

  All my hard work planting is starting to show with little sprouts popping up through the soil.  In the back ground are the peas, Sugar Ann, Montana Marvels, and Green Arrow.  The strawberries are covered with blossoms in the foreground, yum, strawberry shortcake soon.

I moved my babies to the greenhouse.  They are just covered in little baby tomatoes.  I worried about my babies during the night.  They are not used to temperatures in the 30's.  I sure hope they like their new home.

 Does anyone know what these white flowers are?  Their foliage remains green all winter and the flowers are some of the first to bloom.  Could they be candy tufts?

 My creeping thyme is blooming.  I love the lavender flowers and the great smell.  I put thyme in many of my soups especially those with a cream sauce as in potato or asparagas. 

This will be my last post for awhile, I am headed to see my family in Ohio where you can grow just about anything you want.  Oh well even though my gardening is limited I love where I live. 

Spring = Rhubarb, Yum

I know everyone else has already enjoyed their daffodils but mine are just now blooming and I love them.  They have had a rough week trying to look beautiful through cold, winds, snow, rain, and hail.  Each day I would go to the garden to find more daffodils pressed to the dirt.  I rescued them and brought them inside to brighten the gloomy days.  A few survived the week and are soaking up the sun today.

Spring is back and what a beautiful day!  My garden is rototilled and ready to plant.  In fact I planted lettuce and spinach this morning.  It just makes me feel good all over. 

The rhubarb is up and ready to eat.  There are so many uses for rhubarb: pies, muffins, bread, sauces, jams, and yes, cake. Rhubarb Crumb Cake is fast and easy and very yummy.  It has a crumb topping therefore no frosting to deal with.  I cut back on the sugar in the topping and used 1 cup of whole wheat and one cup of white flour in the cake. 

          Rhubarb Crumb Cake

Cream:      1/2 cup of shortening

                 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar

Add:          1 egg

                 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine:   1 tsp. baking soda

                 1 cup buttermilk

Add alternately with:

                  2 cups of flour

Stir in:        1 1/2 cups of rhubarb cut into 1/2    

                  inch pieces

                  1/2 cup chopped nuts

Place in a 9 x 13 inch greased and floured baking dish.

Sprinkle with topping:

                   1/3 cup of sugar

                   1 tsp. cinnamon

                   1 tsp. butter

                   1/2 cup chopped nuts

Bake @ 350 for 35-40 minutes 

Check out my blog down the road for more rhubarb recipes.  Happy Spring!!

Green is the Word

Green grass, green plants, greenhouses, green is the word of the day.  Of course I have to admit there are a few white flakes out there floating around but this is only April in Montana.  It always amazes me, when the spring snows melt, the grass is suddenly green. 

I have been working in my greenhouse this week since it is again pretty cold outside.  Bob helped me make a couple of raised beds and fill them.  This is the third summer for my greenhouse and I am still trying to make it work.  It is on a very wet piece of land barely  above water level.  Last summer I did not need to water until late summer.  The water came up from the bottom and kept everything wet, actually too wet, thus the raised beds.  I am using Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method.  The dirt in my beds are 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost.  The compost is a mixture of five different kinds of compost.  I am hoping to keep the plant roots a little dryer but I am also hoping to utilize the ground water for easy watering.  Time will tell.  I use my greenhouse for beans, zuchinni, peppers, cukes, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and year around lettuce.  

I have planted lettuce and onions so far but I have tomatoes blooming in the sunroom.  They will go into the greenhouse in about another month.  They are in bottomless pots and will also go into the ground to use the ground water.  We are still eating last year's crop in soups and sauces so I know this method works for tomatoes.   

Ice is gone, fishing is on!

Bob and I made our maiden voyage on the lake today for 2012.  The ice has been off for about two weeks so it was time to go fishing. It was a beautiful evening.  I don't know how I got this shot.  I could not see a thing.  I love all the circles.

The mountains were a brilliant white from a recent snow.

I loved all the colors on the edge.  The leaves have not appeared yet but the branches of the willows were a beautiful orange and bright yellow and the rose bushes, a deep red. 

     At first the water was a little choppy so we decided to troll instead of cast.  After trolling up the lake on the east side we proceeded to cross the lake seeking the elusive pike on the other side. Pike are scary fish with big teeth, but yum they are sooo good to eat.  Halfway across the lake Bob got a bite and started reeling in.  The fish came off but followed the bait all the way to the boat.  It was a pike!  We were excited now.  We then began going down the west side of the lake staying close to the weed beds.  Suddenly Bob's line jerked and he had another fish on.  He set the hook and began to pull it in.  It thrashed and ran and fought for his life.  Bob yelled, "Get the net and make sure you net him tail first."  (I later found out that head first would of course hit the line and would not bag a fish.)

   "I'm not getting my hand anywhere near that fish with those huge sharp teeth,"  I told Bob.  Nonetheless I netted the fish and brought him in.  It was not a pike but a big 6-7 pound rainbow trout.  He was the biggest trout I had ever seen, I'm used to the 2-3 pound trout.  Bob held him up so I could take some pictures and all of a sudden it jumped from Bob's hands and landed in my lap.  I started laughing so hard and I couldn't stop.  Bob grabbed him and threw him back in the lake to live a little longer giving someone else a chance to catch a big fish. 

There were a bunch of coots hanging in a pond by the lake.  I doubt they are grouped by bunches, I should ask my sister at thecottageonthecorner.blogspot.com.  Man can she take pictures.  Check out her blog.  Anyway I liked the texture of this pic.  I know, unfocused but kinda cool.

Gotter Done

Well the sweet pea fence is done and up.  After nailing the twigs to the poles I found a nice one with limber branches to weave among the twigs.  I like it and can't wait until it is covered with sweet peas. 

I just read where roosters are the latest popular garden ornament.  A friend received these for Christmas and did not like them and shoved them my way.  I of course said, "Sure I'll take them."  I think they are pretty cute in my garden. 

The ruby-crowned kinglet is back.  I heard it for the first time yesterday.  It tells me I have "Chubby, chubby chubby cheeks."  The mallard duck couple are back too.  I frightened them from the pond when I went to the garden Easter Sunday.  Every time I see them I think of the time my daughter and her friend stole two duck eggs and tried to hatch them under their pillows.  Of course it didn't work and they felt pretty bad.  They didn't tell anyone until they were grown and the secret came out.  I love hearing and seeing all the birds return in the spring. They bring a big smile to my face.