My crops: alpine strawberries

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I had a good harvest today of my alpine strawberries, which I grew from seed. (O.K., the bed is less than 4 ft.x 4 ft.)

I’m actually pretty bad at raising things from seed, but I’ve succeeded in three gardens with alpines. I sowed the seeds for these plants right into the ground.

Their taste is wonderful, more perfume-y than commercial strawberries (maybe I’ll even share the next handful). They also make nice small edging plants in flower beds.

To-morrow it will be the same:
Cakes and strawberries. . .

–Amy Lowell, from “Interlude“

Vintage landscape: Alabama garden

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Drigger home, 1941 Coffee Co., Alabama, via Library of Congress“James F. Drigger’s farmhouse. Coffee County, Alabama,” August 1941, by John Collier, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

This photo was taken in the same county as yesterday’s farmhouse with quilts. I think those are papaya plants in front of the porch vines and in the lower left corner. Nope, they’re Ricinus communis  or castor beans.  Thanks Melissa!

They and the flowers make a nice approach to the lined-up front and back doors.

John Collier was working for the Farm Security Administration when he took this photo. The Drigger family was receiving assistance to raise chickens under the “Food for Defense” program.

The Sunday porch: airing the quilts

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I’m afraid I have a bad cold, so today’s porch is a repeat from August 2012. 

“Typical farmhouse, spring housecleaning, homemade quilts and bedding in sun. Coffee County, Alabama.” Photos taken April 1939 by Marion Post Wolcott.

Via Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black and White Negatives Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Vintage landscape: the axis

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door, insideMontpelier, south of Laurel, Md., 1931, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

(Those are antique smoking pipes in the corner.)

door, outsideThe house was built in the early 1780s. George Washington was a guest there several times, and Abigail Adams praised the owners’ “true English hospitality” after a stay.

It still stands, although the boxwoods along the front walkway are gone.

boxwoodThe estate  is open to the public and available for events. (Although, it has been closed for much of 2013 for renovations.)

irises