Growing Strawberries Using Organic Gardening Techniques

I've been picking a pint or more a day of wonderful strawberries from the garden.  I grow our strawberries using only organic gardening methods. The secret is really in the soil.  I use almost 100% compost in the raised bed; strawberries are heavy feeders, and by the fall, the soil level is down an inch or more as they transform it through their roots into nutrients. It's pretty amazing stuff.

This year the weather has been absolutely perfect for growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The strawberries thrived with an inch or more of rain per week and the gentle spring weather. Honestly, if I could have dialed up the perfect weather for growing food, it would be this season.

Another thing really helped my strawberry crop this year and that was digging up many of the smaller plants that had grown as the second or third generation plants from the ever-bearing strawberry plants that were the parents. I bought plain old every bearing strawberry plants from Lowe's to start the garden, but I planted them too close together. This winter on a mild day, we dug up the baby plants and moved them, giving the plants plenty of space. We also added even more compost to the bed. I think the combination of giving the strawberries more space, the abundant rain, gentle temperatures and rich compost gave us the bountiful harvest this year.

Learn more about my organic gardening methods (remember, I'm the lazy organic gardener!) for growing strawberries over at Main Line Gardening. My latest essay, Growing Strawberries, is now online.

Happy Strawberry Season! Yum!

Choosing Plants for Shady Spots

I published an article this morning on choosing plants for shady gardens. I'm blessed with full sun here at Seven Oaks but I did install a small shade garden near the stone foundations of our back deck. I love ferns, so it gave me an excuse to plant a bunch of cinnamon and painted Japanese ferns.  I also plant to transplant many ferns from our woods.  We have clusters of ferns growing on the paths and Hubby needs to mow the paths to keep them clear, and I don't want the ferns mowed down.

Please click here to enjoy my latest gardening article, Choosing Plants for Your Shade Garden.

Dancing in the Rain

I used to love thunderstorms. When we were kids, my sister Ann and I loved nothing more than a good roaring thunderstorm. We had a screened in porch at the back of the house, and we would sit in chairs facing the backyard and watch nature's pyrotechnics. Once I remember the two of us running outside in our shorts and t-shirts on a hot summer afternoon while black skies poured rain onto the slick pavement. We danced through the puddles and the rushing water in the gutter in our bare feet.  I shudder to think what was in that water, but what a fun memory!

Since my friend Patty's firsthand experience with lightning, however, and since becoming a homeowner myself, I'm now afraid of lightning. I used to be cautious but this weekend, when we went to Patty's and saw the damage first hand - a giant red oak tree pretty much split in half by the explosion of lighting, the burned wires her husband pulled out of the basement - and saw how far, how strong, the lightning bolt traveled, I have grown apprehensive whenever "severe thunderstorms are predicted."

I started getting more cautious in 2005.  We had a power surge during a thunderstorm at our home on Long Island, and even though it was barely noticeable, it fried my poor computer. I lost the modem and it damaged the mother board.  Money spent to repair it, and then a virus killed the computer a short time later.  Now, whenever thunder is predicted, I unplug computer, modem, you name it.  My piano is an electronic keyboard and I keep it unplugged at all times unless I am playing it. I even keep my CD player unplugged!

Last night, the local TV station kept beeping in with severe thunderstorm warnings.  We had a few rumbles. I sat on the back deck before dinner, listening to my fountain and enjoying the flowers with Shadow while I read my book and checked on dinner cooking in the oven.  I started to get apprehensive.  I saw the big black clouds in the north.  I remembered that my sister Mary, who worked as a nurse for many years, told me that she once took care of a man who had been seated in an aluminum lawn chair, the kind I was sitting in, and he had been affected by a lightning strike...it had struck a tree many feet behind him while he was at a picnic, but the electricity traveled through the ground and into the lawn chair, hurting him.

It's these things I think about now instead of the joys of dancing in the rain.  Is this what is meant by growing up and losing your innocence? As a child, we danced with joy under the canopy of clouds. We marveled at the bolts of lightning streaking across the sky. Now I glance fearfully at the heavens and seriously consider hiding in my basement for an hour or two until tornado and thunderstorm warnings pass.  I check my cell phones, check the water supply in case the power runs out, make sure the pets have their ID tags on.

I think I am grown up.

Sometimes, I wish I was with Ann, dancing in the rain again.

Cottage Garden Flowers: Snapdragons

When you think of cottage garden flowers, what do you think of? Old fashioned roses, blowy peonies, perhaps pansies? I think of cottage gardening style as a loose arrangement of my favorite flowers, with a preponderence of old-fashioned favorites.

I'm not a good garden designer. I plunk whatever strikes my fancy into the ground, then shoehorn more plants in whenever I can. The paths I planned through the flower garden are uneven and a bit odd, but that sort of reflects their designer, I think: a bit odd.

Here in front of the garden shed is what I call my cottage garden.  I planted marigolds in the window boxes because as soon at the hot, dry weather strikes, those shallow boxes are tough to keep watered and marigolds are the toughest plants I know. In front of the shed, Hubby put in a little garden border bed for me.

I have Sweet Woodruff, a gift from my friends Eni and her late husband AJ, growing at the far left.  It's blooming now with tiny white flowers.  I have some gladiolus bulbs there too, and newly planted zinnia seeds springing up through the tangle. But mostly it's my snapdragons that I love.

I grew all of these snapdragons from seed.  It is a mixed package of the tall types. I love snapdragons. My childhood neighbor, Mr. Hoffman, grew them, and he taught me how to "snap" the flower heads like a Chinese dragon snout.  It's another plant I grow that reminds me of someone.  I love looking at a plant, a flower and thinking about someone I loved who is gone.  The sweet woodruff and mint in the garden reminds me of my friend AJ; the snapdragons and mint, Mr. Hoffman; the new kerria Japonica and coral bells; my mom.  My snapdragons also act like perennials here in Virginia, another reason to love them!

Do you like snapdragons, too?

Cottage garden (sort of) by my garden shed

Follow up on the Lightning Strike

The Farmville Herald, our local newspaper, ran a story with pictures about the lightning strike on my friend's farm.  Here is the article.  Yes, Farmville is a REAL town...it is a wonderful town, our local town, so stop laughing at the name. 

The picture at left is the oak tree that was struck. I am now very careful during lightning storms.

Thank you to the Prospect and Pamplin volunteer fire departments!

Want to See What I Made Today?

Check out Recipes from the Garden

Yes, I have turned into one of those weird bloggers who photographs her meals. But really, there's a reason. This is today's recipe on Recipes from the Garden, the sister blog of Seven Oaks. If your garden is overflowing with Swiss chard and you'd  like a nice vegan, vegetarian meal, this one is terrific. It cooks up in about 10 minutes and is very filling.

I grew Swiss Chard "Bright Lights" again this year. The incredible rains we have had and the nice long, mild spring has done wonders for the vegetable garden. It's literally bursting with vegetables and fruit right now. I pick a quart a day of strawberries and am actually wondering how to make strawberry pie, I have so many berries!  The chard, various greens and even the herbs are all growing wonderfully now.  The tomatoes? They are shooting up like Jack in the Beanstalk, and seem to grow inches a day. I knocked some potato beetles off the potatoes today and I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come. So far my squash is outgrowing any beetles, but in a few weeks I know I'm going to be complaining about the squash bugs and everything...I just hope I am growing enough for all, bugs and people included.

Here are some pictures of the organic vegetable garden here at Seven Oaks.  Enjoy!  Do check out and follow Recipes from the Garden, too, if you enjoy cooking. And eating. Don't forget eating!

Swiss chard in the garden

Vegetable garden, with the herb beds blooming (sage, left and chives, right)

Whatever Happened to the Kids?

"Me and my Shadow!"

 The furry kind, I mean! It's been forever since I've written any Pierre and Shadow stories.  Aside from Pierre biting his doc, Mark French, at the Ridge Animal Hospital last week, it's been rather quiet here. (Dr. French: "Dr. Gates has a note on Pierre's chart that he's difficult to give pills to; is that true?" "Only if you value your fingers, doc." )  Pierre got a clean bill of health but his considerable bulk has everyone a tad bit worried.  He tops the kitty scale at 17 pounds. If he grows any bigger, we're going to have him walk onto the dog scale. And Dr. French, if you are reading this please don't feel bad; Pierre woke us both up this morning by biting us.  He's just that kind of cat. He bites with a gleam in his eye and without drawing blood, but unfortunately he does think his fangs are for communication rather than hunting.

As for Shadow, her allergies are under control, and we got an A+ for her coat condition. Aside from pollen allergies (which she has, and which we can't do anything about), she's doing well on just her special dog food and homemade dog biscuits.

Shadow

*   *  *

So that is the update on the furry kids at Seven Oaks.  As for the human kind, there's so much nonsense this week in the news it's just making me angry, so I try to move on. The woman who gives her 8 year old daughter Botox - did you hear about that? Can you believe the absurdity, the abuse of injecting your kid with Botox?  And how does she have Botox AT HOME to inject her child with?  I was glad to read that there is an investigation into that.  Honestly, those pageant shows on television and the "dance recitals" where kids shimmy around in sexy, totally in appropriate costumes with sexualized dance moves make me want to throw up.  When will the madness stop?  When will we let little girls be little girls? When will we learn? Never, I guess.  Yikes, I'd better go back to work or else I'll rant more!

Types of Roses for the Home Garden

I've got roses on my mind today, so I wrote an article on the Many Types of Roses for the Home Garden. It's an overview rather than an in-depth piece, but this leads nicely into a series I have planned on roses - planting, fertilizing, and most importantly, organic care.

The rose bed in the flower garden here at Seven Oaks is a destination when anyone steps into the garden. Now that the arbor is in place, it draws people to it as I hoped it would. Structures and vertical spaces in the garden tend to do that. The masses of red and pink roses along with the lavender growing along the hedges creates a strong scented area too that perfumes the whole space.

I'll enjoy it for a few weeks more and then the onslaught: Japanese beetle season. This season's great rains have really created an abundance in the gardens that is hard to repeat, but it's also caused the first black spot outbreak too. I was going to use my Neem oil organic spray BUT...you guessed it...more rain predicted for the week!


Enjoy your roses and enjoy my rose gardening article.

Growing Lavender

Lovely lavender in the garden.

I always wanted to grow lavender, but my gardens on Long Island were too shady and humid to grow it successfully. Here in Virginia, I have full sun and long, hot summers, perfect for lavender. I've got three types of lavender growing in the gardens: Hidcote, Munstead, and Spanish lavender. The Spanish lavender looks nearly identical to Munstead.

I started my lavender from seeds. I bought a collection from Parks that had three types in it, but only the Munstead and Hidcote survived....and thrived!  The lavender have grown so big that I've had to trim some and divide others. It's gotten to the point that gardening friends who visit leave with a few Gaillardia and lavender plants tucked into plastic shopping bags. Their cars must smell like Bed, Bath and Beyond by the time they get home.

Lavender is one of my favorite plants to grow in our hot, sunny, sometimes zone 7 sometimes zone 6 yard.  It's tough and survives drought. It survives Shadow, who often chooses to lay on the lavender border in the rose garden when I'm out weeding. At least she smells better when she gets up thanks to all the crushed lavender underneath her.

I've got lavender growing around the perimeter of the rose bed. I love how the purple flowers blend with the mostly pink roses, and the scent rising from that garden on a hot summer day is enough to make a perfumer swoon.  I also have them growing in the island bed which sits in the middle of the front yard.  Lavender and three different colors of Echinacea form a border around other perennials including peonies, iris, daylilies, yellow and white daisies, Crepe Myrtle, Snowball Viburnum and a crab apple tree.

This year I had to dig up some lavender from the rose beds to make room for the arbor.  I just plunked it down into a hole dug among the invasive pink Missouri primrose, tamped it down, and forgot I'd moved it. Today I checked it, and you know what? It's thriving.  Talk about tough.

I like to snip off the flower heads and dry them in an old pie plate or a big metal roasting pan in the sun. I store them in a Mason jar with one of the silica gel packages you get with your new shoes - the silica gel removes any remaining moisture.  I make small counted cross stitch bags with flowers on them and tuck fresh dried lavender into the bags, as well as use it as a potpourri throughout the house. 

Do you grow lavender? I love it. It's one of the best and most useful perennials in the garden.

Lavender. I grew it from seed.

Lightning DID Strike

I got an email on Sunday from my friend Patty.  She lives about 4 miles away on a beautiful 100+ year old farm.  "Hey Jeanne," she said, "You know that big boom you heard the other night? That was lightning striking...it hit our farm."

I called her yesterday afternoon. The story is absolutely chilling.  Without her quick thinking and the rapid response of both the Prospect and Pamplin volunteer fire departments, this story would not have a happy ending.

The big boom I heard?  It was a horrendous bolt of lightning that struck a massive oak tree in her field. The electricity jumped to her electric livestock fence and used it to travel through barns, outbuildings and into her house.  Her smoke detectors alerted her and she was able to get her family out of the house in time and grab her kitchen fire extinguisher.  The fire department said that if not for her quick thinking and her use of the household fire extinguishers, she would have lost her 100 year old farmhouse.  The full story is going to be in the local newspaper this week and I will share a link to it once it's out.   Thankfully,  even though such a massive amount of electricity went through her hay barn and livestock barns, neither hay nor buildings caught on fire and all of her livestock are fine.

Patty wanted especially to thank the wonderful people at both the Prospect and Pamplin fire departments. Not only did they arrive within minutes, their professionalism and care for her and her family was wonderful.

Listen, everyone reading this: Install smoke detectors. Check the batteries regularly and replace them.  Test the detectors to make sure they work. Get a fire extinguisher and check it.  I sure hope lightning never strikes your place, but if it does, those things DO save lives.

Without those things, my story today might not be the glad story of a safe family and a saved farmhouse.

Peonies in Bloom and Peony Growing Tips

Peonies bloom around the first week of May in Virginia, and our climate here at Seven Oaks seems extremely well-suited to growing peonies. If I remember to bring my camera with my on my way to church on Sunday, I will stop and take pictures of peonies growing in the yard of an old, turn of the last century home in Prospect that now looks like it's used to store furniture. The yard has a line of peony bushes that must be over 100 years old. These unkempt, uncared for bushes flourish and produce the most amazing display of pink and white flowers I've ever seen. If you're in the Prospect area, look at the house to the right of the post office, sandwiched between the post office and the fire station.  Peonies must be hardier than I ever gave them credit for!

Festiva Maxima after the heavy rains last night. I use a peony hoop for support. Without it my plants would be flattened.

Here at Seven Oaks, I have four peony bushes from a sample package of five I purchased in 2008.  I bought the sample collection from Breck's nursery and four survived.  The four that survived include:

1. Dr. Alex Fleming, a hot pink flower
2. Festiva Maxima - my all time favorite
3. President Taft - delicate pink flowers (doesn't remind me of Taft at all, but go figure)
4. Sorbet

Last year we also added a tree peony to the island garden bed in the lawn. We thought it died, but it came back this year quite nicely.

Pres. Taft peony (background) with salvia blooming (foreground)

Two peonies - Sorbet and Dr. Alex Fleming - are in the island bed.  Flanking the garden path at the corners where two pathways meet are the "Festiva Maxima" and "President Taft" peonies, like twin sentinels greeting you after you enter through the main garden pathway.

Peonies won't bloom if they don't receive enough sunlight, so be sure to plant them in full sun. They also dislike being moved or divided and may sulk the first year after transplanting.

I wrote an article on How to Get Peony Flowers to Bloom which many readers wrote to me to say they found helpful.  Please click the link above to read my tips on getting your peonies to bloom.

More pictures from the flower garden at Seven Oaks. These were taken last year.

Pinks dominate this corner of the garden - foxglove and peony in bloom

Year two for this peony and it is loaded with flowers.

Festiva Maxima with red dianthus at its feet.

When Lightning Strikes

Last night, I had the scare of my life as lightning struck directly outside of my bedroom window. We'd had a few rumbles of thunder, but they were far away, and after a brief shower all was quiet. Hubby had just stepped outside to check something and was downstairs locking the front door. I was in bed, reading. Everything happened at once - there was a sizzle and crackle, like in the old Frankenstein movies when the electricity moves between the gizmos in the lab, a bright flash, and the loudest bang I've ever heard.  I don't know if it actually struck the ground, a tree or what.  Luckily for us we were all okay.

Pierre the cat proved that his training works.  Anytime there is something scary in the house, such as a stranger, a big noise, or a storm, he runs for the basement. Hubby also has him trained to return to us with a certain tune he whistles.  We whistled for him and there was his little furry kitty face, peeking around the basement door.  In the event of a big storm, he's the smartest one of all of us and takes shelter right away in the basement.

Shadow the German Shepherd dog is not afraid of thunderstorms, but that bang was too much for her, so she ran into the bathroom where I found her curled up between the sink and the tub. She looked at me with accusing eyes as if to say, "Make that loud noise go away!"

It was the only time all evening that we heard such a loud bang.  I was more frightened by the fact that we could have been struck.  Each of us had stepped outside during the thunderstorm to grab something the wind was carrying away, or just to check something.  The thunder minutes before had been a low rumble, the kind that sounds like it's miles away. Then suddenly - bang. It was right there.

Here's the eerie coincidence. Now, it's a common phrase to describe a once in a lifetime event as a 'lightning strike.'  I was on the phone with a friend yesterday.  He was upset because he is getting audited, which is very stressful indeed.  I asked him if he had made a mistake in his taxes and he said, "No, not that I know of. My attorney keeps saying it's like lightning striking - a once in a lifetime thing, and very unusual to get chosen for an audit."

That phrase had been going through my mind all day yesterday.  Like lightning striking.

Now I REALLY know what that phrase means!

Today's picture is from Morguefile, a photo file sharing website.

Welcome New Followers and How Seven Oaks Got Its Name

We've reached a new landmark on the Seven Oaks blog - 50 followers. Welcome! I hope you enjoy tales from Seven Oaks, our 17 acre timber farm here in the middle of south central Virginia.  For those new to the blog, we moved onto this little piece of heaven on October 1, 2007.  Since then, we transformed a bare dirt clearing into the gardens you see on this blog.  Almost everything we grow is grown 100% organically.  We grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers for our family's enjoyment and consumption, and the rest of our land is planted with loblolly pine, a marketable timber crop used by the paper industry. Except for a little piece of land bounded by creeks on all sides and very swampy, almost everything here is pine trees. We're zone 6b in a good year, almost a 7, and in a bad year we're closer to a zone 6.  Old timers say that our town has its own zone and the farmers here tell me that is true; they have learned it's best in our little part of the world to read nature's signs rather than rely on the weatherman.

Spring 2011:  Blooming shrubs, perennials, pathways and hardscapes.

Spring 2011 - pathways, plants and more

Before moving to Seven Oaks, I lived on Long Island.  I worked as a marketing executive for a global publishing company in New York City.  I adore New York City, particularly the area around Lincoln Center where I used to work.  But I really love life in the country and life as a freelancer.


I hope you enjoy the Seven Oaks blog. Do leave a comment, and you can email me too.

Curious about how Seven Oaks got its name?  No, it's not because there are only seven oak trees on our entire property.  It's a funny story and you can read it here: How Seven Oaks Got Its Name
Thank you for following this blog!

Climbing Roses and Building a Rose Arbor

Blaze, climbing rose, on the new arbor

Yesterday we completed the last major hardscape additions to the flower garden. In addition to building a rose arbor, hubby used scrap wood to build a trellis.  We made sure to brace the trellis against a sturdy piece of wood so it doesn't take off like a sail on a windy day. The slats on the trellis are far enough apart that the wind won't knock it down right now it has plenty of room for the wind's energy to pass through. Once my Blaze climber gets going, though, it will get heavy, and so we braced the back.

Hubby constructed the rose arbor that you see from scrap wood and a few leftover fence posts we had behind the garden shed.  He used my dad's table saw and sliced two round fence posts in half, using each for the four corners of the trellis. The slats are constructed from pressure-treated 4 x 8 sections of pine that he also cut to size.  We used a pickaxe to dig through the hard clay soil, then a post-hole digger to widen the posts. He didn't nail the pieces together first but assembled the structure in place to make it easier to move into position. We assembled it without nails on the floor of the porch to check the evenness of the slats, then marked the spots using a pencil.

Three views of the new arbor

I'm delighted with the arbor and it creates the perfect focal point in the garden.  You can enter the garden on one of two pathways; a utility pathway at the far end, closest to the garage and where all the gardening tools are stored, or through the metal arbor where morning glories twine and bloom in a few weeks.  But the eye is drawn right into the garden to the rose arbor, making it a destination.  My little birdbath/butterfly bath, a resin cast with the three graces from Greek mythology around the base, is underneath. On the left if the second of two Blaze climbing roses I have in the garden; on the right, the new pink one without a name that John bought me for my birthday at Lowe's.  Clustered around the foot of the arbor on the diagnonal are two red miniature rose bushes we rescued from the discount rack at Lowe's in March - Valentine's Day leftovers, I guess, really ugly things past bloom. They love it in the garden and are thriving and both have little perfect red buds on them today.  To the right of the arbor is my birthday present rose from 2008, the salmon pink hybrid tea rose called Sonia, and beyond that, a Bonica floribunda.  The Sonia struggles, but Bonica loves it out there.

The no name pink climbing rose, this year's addition

I'm amazed at how the roses are thriving despite the heavy clay soil. Considering we had to use a pickaxe to dig those fence posts, they must be incredibly tough plants.

The entire rose garden is grown organically. I have to - it sits almost on top of my water well, where water from the house and our drinking water flows deep under the ground. I won't risk pesticides or chemicals there.  Japanese beetles are the main problem starting in June. I use a Neem-based spray oil concentrate to fight them and hope for the best each year.  The deer haven't troubled them so far (knock wood).  I fertilize them using a rich compost we get from the local paper mill, and pine chip mulch applied in a thick layer cuts down the watering.  Watering? That's whatever God provides in the form of rain.  We do no supplemental watering in this part of the garden unless we're in a deep drought.

I can see the rose arbor from my office windows. As I'm typing this, a flock of goldfinches alighs on the top of the trellis. They seem to enjoy perching there.  I hope insect eaters - particularly those with an affinity for Japanese beetles - enjoy the perch. And soon!

Seven Oaks Garden Tour in Pictures - Flowering Shrubs

The light was perfect this morning for garden photography, and I got some great pictures to share with you. But first - the highlight of our weekend work - the "keyhole" shaped pathway, leading a to nice garden bench.  The pathways in that area are finished, but we need more stones for the base under the bench. When you sit on the bench, you're nicely shaded by the trees, and you're looking up at the blooming hillside of the sunny garden next to the driveway.

Look down the slope towards the butterfly garden, where salvia is the first to bloom.

I thought I would focus the garden tour in photographs on various plant groups.  Today's tour: flowering shrubs.


My gardening buddies asked me if we have trouble with deer nibbling the azaleas. Not this year, but last year an inquiring deer nibbled branches off some of the pink ones.  One of my friends wanted to know my secret.  My secret? Her name is Shadow, and it's called German Shepherd dog patrol. She chases them off and her scent is everywhere.  We haven't seen deer in the garden all year thanks to her.

The pinks, salmon pinks and white azaleas this year are spectacular.  But I love rhododendron. We have four planted and two look like they're being chomped by insects. Not this one. This is my favorite.

Next garden tour will showcase the many iris at Seven Oaks.  And then hopefully, the peony collection.


Enjoy!