Foliage Follow Up: my rosemary hedge

I’m a bit late, but I did want to show off my 25 rosemary plants (on the left, below), which grew from cuttings that I took from a single big old plant that was in the garden when we arrived here.

Foliage Follow Up for December/enclos*ure: rosemary(Especially since the gardener expressed grave doubts at the time that they would root and grow.)

The photo above shows the passage between the vegetable garden on the left and the cutting garden on the right, walking toward the south end of the upper lawn.

By the way, that huge, dark green tree in the upper left corner is what your potted weeping fig would look like over time — in the ground, in a constantly warm climate.

I started the cuttings about 18 months ago.*  Now the plants are 2′ to 3′ tall,

Foliage Follow Up for December/enclos*ure: rosemaryexcept at the very end, on the left above.  Those plants — which will finish out the row — are about 6 months old.

Foliage Follow Up for December/enclos*ure: rosemaryAbove, on the left, is the mother plant.  Just to the right of it is a little patch of alpine strawberries, which I grew from a packet of seeds.

Foliage Follow Up for December/enclos*ure: alpine strawberriesI divided them recently, so they look a bit skimpy.  The tiny fruit does have a more pronounced and almost perfume-y taste, compared with larger strawberries.

Foliage Follow Up for December/enclos*ure: black-eyed susan seedlingAs I am giving you  a couple of my success stories, I should also show you the flip side — above.

This is the one Rudbeckia hirta or black-eyed Susan to germinate out of an entire packet of seeds — a plant that has a reputation for generous self-seeding.  I have big hopes for it, though.  It’s a pretty showy native American plant.

Thanks to Pam at Digging, who hosts Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up on the 16th of every month. Click  here and see what’s happening in other gardens.


*I cut pieces that were a little or not quite woody, stripped the ends of leaves, and stuck them in a slightly sunken, slightly shaded place.  Then, I kept the ground there damp for a few months.  After I transplanted them, I was also careful to water the new plants almost daily for a few weeks.

Bloom Day in December: 50 shades

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I know that posting a lot of flower closeups is the soft porn of garden blogging,* but I find that I’m not above it.

I live in Rwanda, which explains all the color in December. If you are reading from the recently snowy northern hemisphere, I’m very sorry, and you may avert your eyes.

Thanks to Carol of  May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of every month.  Click here and see what’s blooming in other climes.

This is my second post today.  “The Sunday porch” is here.


*Or of any garden publishing, outside of botany books.

The Sunday porch: behind Randolph Street

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Looking through a “slat screen” from the back porch of a house on Randolph Street (probably N.W.), Washington, D.C., May 1942, by John Ferrell, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

OK, it’s possible that I’m easily amused.

Also, I have holiday shopping to do. . . and it’s Bloom Day.  (So more later.)

John Ferrell was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration when he took these photos.

Randolph Street, N.W., runs east-west through the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back.  .  .

— Gwendolyn Brooks, from “a song in the front yard

 

 

Vintage landscape: the homesteaders’ garden

Vintage landscape/enclos*ure: family in garden via UW CommonsHomesteaders seated outside in garden surrounding house, probably [in] Washington State,” ca. 1905, by Albert Henry Barnes, via University of Washington Commons on flickr.

This photo was taken by the same photographer as Monday’s picture of repeating haycocks in an apple orchard.

There may be a little porch underneath the vines*, but it’s hard to tell. There is one fairly large window at the end of the house.   In order for settlers to acquire a homestead, “[t]he law stipulated that a domicile suitable for permanent residence of at least 10 by 12 feet with a minimum of one window must occupy the property,” according to the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest.


*It looks like English ivy, which is now terribly invasive in the state of Washington.