Gardening for the Senses

Victor, my childhood memories are pretty much of concrete and asphalt also - and red brick (the rowhouse I grew up in) but even there in the back alleys we had honeysuckle, spiderwort and queen anne's lace growing in the cracks. Imagine my surprise when as a new gardener I saw spiderwort for SALE in a catalog! I couldn't believe people actually bought that for their gardens, lol!

I don't usually actively plan for the five senses, but I do enjoy what I have.
Obviously I enjoy the look of the blooms, but I do stop and smell them often. I think my neighbors think I'm nuts when I bend over to smell the same exact bloom every day for days in a row!

I also keep a big pot of herbs right on the back steps, and every time I go in and out the door I give them a touch to release the scent. I also keep sweet peas near the back door and patio, and usually put other fragrant flowers on the patio to enjoy - oh! Evening scented jasmine is to die for!

One plant I love to touch is artemisia.... can't remember the exact name, and unfortunately mine did not return this year. I think it was Powys Castle. I just absolutely could not walk by this plant without reaching down to touch it.

Of course, I have to touch sempervirens too, lol. And today I found a very cool-looking weed that must be some kind of thistle. Had a round bud on it just covered with vicious-looking spikes, and I just had to touch it!

As far as sound, I do have a small fountain, new to me this year, but I can't always take the sound of it. Every once in a while I have to unplug it. But last year I did have a pot of bamboo Red Margin on my patio, and I loved the sound of the wind rustling through it. Very peaceful.

Great thread as usual, Victor! Thanks!

Did you have to bring the potted bamboo in for winter? We know local people who have it growing wild but I'd be interested in a potted one (without any escape holes).

Thanks Dee. For someone who doesn't plan for it, you do a great job!

LOL, Victor, I realized after I posted, saying that I don't really plan for it, that I guess I do plan more than I thought I did! I guess because I don't do an overall garden scheme, I didn't think of it as actively planning. I might plan the sweet peas and herbs for the back, but that's about it. The bamboo was pure luck, lol.

Well, pirl, I didn't bring the bamboo in for the winter... but I guess should have. It's supposed to be hardy (in the ground) at least to zone 5. I loved the sound of it rustling so much that I thought I would give it a shot outside. Not that we are on the patio much in the winter, lol, but it is our main entrance and I did enjoy it during the winter also. (I also found out after I got it at a swap and was told it gets about 6 to 8 feet that it actually gets to almost 60 feet! But I figured in a pot it might only make it to 20 feet, lol. In reality, on my patio, it was about 6)

It seemed to survive through the winter fine.. but then died in spring! I had a few plants out there that did the same, including a yucca and a juniper. They were gorgeous throughout the winter, and for some reason bit the dust when it warmed up. The juniper I'm almost sure was spider mites, but the others...???

And, to get back on topic, I also always felt compelled to touch that darn yucca. Ouch.

Dee

Thanks for the information on the bamboo.

Dee, hope you're not compelled to touch Poison Ivy!

Sheesh no, Victor! Actually, I never ever got it and admit to not having much respect for it. Then two summers ago I got some on my wrist and forearm, and it was torture! I have a much healthier respect for it now and give it a wide berth... although it does have gorgeous fall color climbing up the trees. Maybe I should post this to the Fall Color thread?

:)

We are inundated with poison ivy, can't even get to the mailbox without having to step in it. At the old house (trees just one house down from here) there are lots of Elm trees, the scent from their blossoms in the spring was heavenly but the ivy seem to prefer climbing up on them,. we cut it down, we sprayed but it kept coming, Our daughters were terribly allerigic to it , even ending up in the hospital, their fingers were so swollen they could not be moved, eyes totally shut and face twice its size, it was simply awful.
Once they even got that in the middle of winter when putting logs in the fire, after that the could not do that anymore nor could they go near a brush fire, that could affect the lungs. One summer I sprayed one of them with OFF to prevent her being attacked by mosquitoes while going with the girl scouts camping, she came home and exactly where I sprayed she was covered with PI..

In reference to their color in the fall it is very pretty, my MIL complained when we were trying to get rid of it, how much she missed it, but then she never was infected by it.

Yes it is very pretty in Fall. I too get a bad reaction to it. Just found more the other day so I'll be spraying with Brush - B - Gone. Works great.

How can one not garden for the senses? Gardens are all about the senses, I think. It's the people that don't garden (or appreciate others' gardening efforts) that I worry about. I know a few like that. I'm still trying to make a connection with them, but I don't know where to start! I just can't relate to those that don't love nature.

I plant for fragrance first - then visual impact - then touch. The birds provide the music (lots of birds here -even if I am in a city). Alas, no edibles . . . way too many squirrels.

I had to walk on my woolly thyme yesterday to take a pic of a rose. I don't know why I don't do it more often...I came in the house with the scent on my shoes :) this is also a touchy-feely plant. and pretty. and edible, although certainly not a first choice for culinary use. if it could talk it would have everything covered. here it is beginning to flower in May

Harper - I fully agree with you and find it unsettling to try and communicate with those who think of gardening as worthless. They seem eager enough to eat food but let others grow the vegetables and flowers.

Reminds me of the Little Red Hen story, pirl.

So true.

Beautiful Jan!! How does it hold up to foot traffic? Is that a full sun area? Still have not tried Thyme.

Grampapa, that reminds me. Almost one half of my side yard is covered with this...moss, for lack of a better word. It looks like teeny-tiny little pine trees, about an inch tall. In the dry spells, like the 3-week one we recently had, it gets all dry, brown and hard.

Oh, but when it rains! It springs back to life, is a lush green, and is absolutely delightful to walk on with bare feet! I think lots of people would try to get rid of it, and plant grass, but it is so low-maintenance, looks great when it's green (admittedly awful when brown, lol) and is such a delight to walk on when green that we wouldn't think of ripping it out just to rip it out. I do rip some out when enlarging garden beds, but I wouldn't rip it out to plant grass!

Dee

Dee - have you considered decorating them for Christmas with real small lights and ornaments??

LOL, Victor! But the little Christmas lights are probably taller than the individual stems of "moss"!

But that reminds me while driving through a neighborhood several years back, when visiting my grandmother in a nursing home, there was one street that at Christmas time had an absolutely amazing amount of decorations. People would literally slow down to gawk at all the houses. The kids loved it.

One house took the prize. They actually had their lawn decorated - it was strung with lights! They had laid strings of lights across their lawn very closely placed, so the whole lawn was lit up. On one hand, it was too much for my taste, but I was just as fascinated as the kids, lol!

Dee

OMG - was there any snow? Can you imagine the reflected light?

Can you imagine the electric bill??!!

I grew up in North Vancouver, BC. There is a neighbourhood called the British Properties in West Vancouver - very expensive and VERY exclusive - lots of diplomats from the consulates would live there.

Anyway, the Chairman of BC Electric had a house up there (British Properties is built on the side of a mountain overlooking the inlet and Vancouver city). He would arrange for BC Electric worker to light up his mansion. It was AMAZING! I doubt there was a surface or plant that wasn't light.

Well, of course, all the neighbours tried to meet or beat his display. People would drive from all over the lower mainland (like driving from Springfield to Boston) just to drive through the BP to see the homes lit up. This was in the early 1960s, when most homeowner just strung a simple string up lights along the eavestroughs.

Today when you 'arrange' for one of your workers to work on your house, you're prosecuted.

Well, I should have said "workers" - the display supposedly took almost six weeks to set up.

Well, if the worker is doing the work during the normal work day, and if it is a private company, then how can the employer be prosecuted?

Well first - most utilities are not private. And you cannot use employees to work on your private projects on company pay.

You can if you own the company - can't you?

This guy owned the utility??!! I doubt it. Why should rate-payers foot the bill for this guy's show?

Well, this was a long time ago - and BC Electric was a private company then. Then the government took it over, and since I have been in the US, the crazy BC government has sold the company back to the private sector. Go figure.

It's not like electicity is expensive in BC - it's all hydro-electical - and the damns are already in place - so why sell?

Do you remember what you paid per kWh?

I was seven years old . . . . how old do you think I am? 80????? lol

Didn't you live there a few years ago before you came here??

LOL, Seandor!

I lived a block up the hill from General Electric when I was a kid - HUGE building - they used bicycles to go up and down the main corridor of the building.

Anyway, the name "General Electric" with the GE logo in the center, was illuminated on the top of the building in the front, I believe with individual light bulbs (maybe bigger than household size, of course, but I think they were individual), At Christmas time, they would change it to red and green lights. Pretty cool to a kid.

This must be a bit before my time, because I don't remember the front of the building lit up like this:

http://www.east-enders.itgo.com/450.jpg

Uh, oh yeah, back on topic... GE had a river next to it, and it sounded wonderful as it gurgled under the Boston Post Road, especially with the sound of the wind rustling through Remington Woods in the back.

Dee

Ah - I see, yes, I lived in BC up until 2002 - but BC Electric became BC Hydro sometime during childhood - it was owned by the government then - not private. How much did electricity cost? Well, we ran a dryer, electric stove, lights and it was about $90 every two months. David (DH) does the bills here - so I have no clue what electricity costs - but now we hang up our clothes rather than run the dryer, and we only air condition the 2 bedrooms.