joene's garden » Thanksgiving

This gardener gives thanks

joenesgarden — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:52:09 +0000

For the sunrise through winter trees.

For autumn's display.

For a beech leaf on snow.

For blueberry buds and opening ferns.

For blooms and creatures.

For photogenic fungi.

For these few wonders and the millions more that wait for our eyes to behold, each day, each season, each year.

For freedom, family and friends; for health, home and harvest; and for you, dear readers.

Garden thoughtfully and, in the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (courtesy of The Quote Garden),

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Categories: Gardening, Seasons.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, Thanksgiving.

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Thankful for sage

joenesgarden — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:55:07 +0000

I'm thankful for so many things, for example a loving family; good health; the ability to garden, read, and see and to listen to birds sing, wind blow, and ocean waves break on-shore; the rights I'm afforded by living in the U.S., and you, my readers. But when I'm preparing Thanksgiving dinner, and specifically the homemade stuffing that traditionally goes into our turkey, I can't help but sing praises for common sage (Salvia officinalis).

Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs offers a rather ordinary description for this herb - a hardy perennial subshrub with woody, wiry stems that are square and covered with down. This rather nondescript description, however, does not give sage its due.

My ordinary Salvia officinalis, happy now for about a dozen years in the same spot, is the main source of fresh picked sage and sage for drying. It leafs out later than many perennials but holds its own against other plants once the stems fill with gray-green fuzzy leaves and the early-summer blue-lavender flowers open. Its fresh leaves flavor egg dishes and summer salads, and large sage leaves, lightly sprayed with olive oil and grilled until crisp is a taste not to be missed.

Still, the bulk of the leaves from this one shrub end up in tied bunches, hung upside down to dry.

Harvested in September (left photo), leaves are amply dry by Thanksgiving (right photo).

Early on Thanksgiving Day, with a fresh brewed cup of coffee nearby and cranberry orange bread warming in the oven, this dried sage becomes the mainstay flavoring ingredient for homemade bread stuffing. I'm warmed by the pungent scent of dried sage leaves being crushed between my palms, but the essential Thanksgiving aroma comes from sage combined into home-made bread cubes stuffing with celery, onions, home grown and dried thyme, turkey stock, apples, and cranberries.

If this alone is not reason enough to include sage in sunny planting beds, there's more cause to be thankful.

Sage tolerates, in fact prefers, drier soils – no need to spend time and energy watering
Sage requires little care – just prune off damaged branches and remove spent blossoms
Sage is deer resistant. I've never, in all my years of gardening, seen sage nibbled by deer
Except for occasional caterpillar munching (some is evident in the photo above), sage is rarely bothered by unwanted pests.
Common non-variegated sage shrubs can be excellent additions to perennial beds. When happy – no wet feet and in full sun – they grow about two feet tall and wide (at least in Connecticut). As such, sage shrubs make nice back drops for lower blooming perennials or annuals, or act to hide unattractive lower regions of taller blooming plants.

I use more ornamental varieties, such as Tricolor with green, white, and red leaf color variegation and golden-edged Icterina with yellow and green leaf coloring, in perennial beds in need of some season-long, little-care, color-boost. I'm not overly impressed with Tricolor's flavor, scent, drying ability, or hardiness in my zone 6a garden (I've had to replace Tricolor many times) but the interesting leaf variegation continues to speak to me. Golden-edged Icterina holds a nice flavor used fresh or dried. Icterina still thrives in my gardens after three very different winters and even retains some color through the early snowfalls.

With northern gardeners heading into our season of garden dreaming, visualize a sunny,cry spot for sage. It's a simple herb that offers extraordinary returns as a foliage plant and a source for home-grown flavor and fragrance.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Categories: Edibles, Gardening, Herb Highlights, Seasons.
Tags: drying herbs, gardening in Connecticut, sage, Thanksgiving.

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Stars aligned to bring fall pleasures

joenesgarden — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:53:03 +0000

November 23, 2009. The stars aligned this weekend - the combination of good weather, diminishing cold symptoms, and no other plans meant I had time to rake up, clean up, dig in, fence out, and generally prep for winter. I had pots to empty and store, compost to turn, leaves to tend, and deer fencing to secure. But my wanders uncovered a few surprises. Irving watched as I discovered scabiosa, gazania, and salvia still blooming.

Raspberries ripening and Alpine strawberries pushing out blooms and fruit.

We saw winterberry and blueberry contrasts in red;

and ornamental kale in purple and green, plus santolina shining grey.

Cutting celery beckoned to be used in Thanksgiving stuffing, and the warm fall temperatures kept sage still ready to harvest.

Thyme looked as healthy now as in the spring when I planted it in a pot with purple string bush beans. Its green carpet covered the pot's dirt, yet offset the vibrant dark purple of the beans stems and pods. Now, a month after the beans caught frost's wrath, thyme continued to draw the eye until it's otherwise occupied tender snipped it's green stems and dropped them in a bag. Here thyme will pass time, and once dry, will share tasteful pleasures by flavoring winter's meals.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Like many other fortunate folks I'll be busy stuffing a turkey and making pies, relishing cranberry and baking bread, mashing potatoes and casseroling beans, focusing on family and friends, counting my many, many blessings … and hoping the cold weather fencing again protects my rhododendron and azalea bushes from browsing deer.

Categories: Edibles, Gardening, General, Seasons.
Tags: berries, fall clean up, herbs, late blooms, Thanksgiving.

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