Winter Ice

Looking Back, Looking Forward December 2005

As the winter Solstice approaches I am heading back to Loudoun from a five thousand mile car ride across the country. Sometimes it is necessary to look back, before moving forward. I have been traveling the last month to visit friends in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, and Illinois. At least, that was my excuse. I also wanted a look see at North America, and how it has developed since I last traveled a similar route 30 years ago. As a child I spent a lot of time traveling these roads with my parents and grandparents. Oklahoma has a lot more trees than I remember as a child, less rusty oil wells pumping across the landscape, and all the billboards and Mom and Pop road shops are gone. I loved the beautiful new wind farms that looked like huge white egrets flying in the sky as I drove past them.

Phone: (828) 295-7376

Email: awatsoninc@bellsouth.net

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A monthly Column Printed in the Loudoun Times Mirror, Leesburg, VA

The Garden Journal

At times I would hop off the interstate onto historic Route 66 to find bits of childhood memories, old gas stations and café’s, abandoned now. I did feel as though I was stepping into an old Twilight Zone episode as I explored the old two lane asphalt highway. I read along the way that the prairie is growing over the old road in many places with wildlife, including Buffalo returning in droves where the old highway used to be. I found this comforting.

Car traveling has become less interesting than in the days of Rt. 66, all exits reveal the exact same motel and restaurant chains; it is difficult to tell one from the other. No local news or legends are shared while getting a break from the seemingly endless highway. There are no surprises or adventures along these massive interstates, but it seems there is a lot of poverty to be observed along the way. I couldn’t help but compare the shacks and trailers to our homes in Loudoun. The suburbs of the cities are growing in leaps and bounds, it seems everything in

between has been abandoned. The kind man at the car dealership in Lake of the Hills Chicago who changed my oil commented that 10 years ago the area was the country. I noticed the few remaining horse farms in the area were up for sale.

This was a repeated theme in Colorado outside of Boulder as well.

A man in Prescott Arizona commented that 10,000 people had moved to the town recently. I could see why. A college town in the desert, where gentleman cowboys still dance the two step at the local saloons, and everyone waves and smiles. It is a sunny town with sunny people. It is a desert. I could not garden there with any satisfaction. It is a bit like a rocky lunar landscape. The environmental students I hiked with introduced me to the native plants in the area, such as ferns that break dormancy and produce new growth within four minutes when a rain does finally arrive.

I was encouraged to hear Iowa farmers were wary of corporate farming and genetically modified corn. They shared stories of observing children fed on growth enhanced chicken and beef so obviously larger than their cousins fed without these products in their diets, that they changed their approach to feeding their livestock.

Kindness is not missing in this country. It is outstanding. Everywhere I went I found bright eyes, bright smiles and genuine friendliness. This year has been so profound, so shocking, so depressing in many ways…..as it comes to a close I find there is much to grieve and much to celebrate as I head home to beautiful Loudoun County. It is a lush and prosperous environment to be in. As I head down the highway towards home I say a prayer that it will continue to be a haven for man and nature to co- habitate in peace and abundance. I look forward to the stacks of seed catalogues waiting for me when I get home! It is time to dream of next year’s garden.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season.

Co Creating with Nature November 2005

* This article was not published The Loudoun Times felt it was too far out for the average reader.

I am posting it below

What is it that makes a garden special and unique? I would have to say it is the spirit of a garden. Often I will enter a garden and feel as though I am standing on Holy ground. There is a vibe, delightful energy. How do these spaces then get created? What ingredients are required to create that distinctive feeling? I think it is magic, but then nature is magic and when man and nature work together it is magic of the highest order.

We all know we really don’t inhabit this earth alone. We just celebrated Halloween and the ritual of appeasing spirits in other worlds. We create gardens with plants, minerals, sun wind and rain, all the elements. We also create them with the elemental beings of nature. Every garden, or maybe I should say every creation has an over lighting Deva. Deva comes from a Sanskrit word meaning body of light. The Deva, a supervisor you might say, maintains the energy of its particular manifestation. Say then, the over lighting Deva of carrots carries in its energy field everything that makes a carrot manifest on the physical plane, thus most carrots have similar characteristics. We know DNA is responsible for these things, but what maintains DNA? In my understanding, the over lighting Deva is the energy behind that DNA. It is an intelligent consciousness. Along with nature spirits, the elementals that do the work of bringing spirit into physical form. They attend to the care and needs of all physical reality, assuring perfection, when not interfered with.

If gardening is a metaphor for life, perhaps an approach to gardening in conscious partnership with nature would change how we live life. Considering the changes the earth is experiencing, it may be a good time to question radically how we work in the environments around us. We as humans have a tendency to disconnect ourselves from the larger picture. We work on an unconscious level with this world already. Could it be that we could consciously link in partnership with the devic realm in our creative endeavors? Absolutely! We have teachers available who have introduced this reality through the Findhorn garden in Scotland. Outside Culpepper, VA is the Perelandra Center for Nature Research.

Machaelle Small Wright began her garden, Perelandra in 1975 working with nature intelligence based on the work done at Findhorn. She has written many books on the subject and provides flower essences designed in partnership with nature intelligence for balancing our environment and our bodies.

Machall has very interesting things to say about the Bird flu virus and creates remedies for balancing the immune system, soil balancing and microbial balncing.

Her health watch article puts much into perspective for me regarding the concern around this virus right now. See her article on the H5N1 virus at www.perelandra-ltd.com

It is radical, some may consider it insane, the idea of communicating and cooperating with nature intelligence. Machalle has often questioned her sanity, gardening in this way, but she does note that it works. How does one connect to the intelligence of nature? Through the heart.

The communications received from nature intelligence contain the quality of non-judgment, love and beauty. Nature understands the free will of humans. Nature cooperates within Universal Laws. Here are a few books to get you started.

The Magic of Findorn-1975

The Deva Handbook, How to work with Nature’s Subtle Energies- 1995 By Nathaniel Altman Destiny Books

The Perelandra Garden Workbook - 2^nd Edition Machall Small Wright

Dancing in the Shadow of the Moon- 1993 Machall Small Wright

Andrea Watson is a landscape designer and owner of Gardens of Delight in Paeonian Springs, VA. Visit her website for more information at www.gardensofdelight.info Email questions and comments to awatsoninc@bellsouth.net

Delight and Plenty October 2005

This has been a spectacular fall season. Plenty of delightful sun filled days and plenty of time to get all the fall chores done. For this I am very grateful.

There is still time to plant bulbs for spring. I am tucking in Chiondoxa, snowdrops, wind anemone and the small Turkestanica tulips as I fill in bare spots here and there. These bulbs naturalize quickly into drifts of color very early in the season and really cheer us up after a long winter. My dog tooth violets are forming lush clumps as they age under the Kentucky coffee tree amongst Helleborus, Trillium and Vinca minor. This woodland bulb bed also has Pulmonaria, commonly known as Lungwort. The flowers it produces are an intense blue, forming much the same way as the VA Bluebell, another woodland favorite.

For many gardeners, now is the beginning of the garden year. Most efforts are geared towards next years garden, and putting this years garden to bed. It’s a perfect time to move or divide perennials such as Japanese Iris or Daylilly for better balance and placement. Putting a good edge on the beds now saves a little time next spring due to keeping grass and weeds from creeping in there over the next 3 months. Mulching with leafy compost protects the plants from whatever winter brings, and by spring will be broken down into available nutrients needed for spring growth. The hardy annuals, Poppies, Larkspur, and Love in a Mist, can be transplanted easily to better spots. These plants seem to grow all winter, needing the cold to develop a deep taproot needed to support lush foliage in the spring. I love seeing these evergreen seedlings in the garden all winter, when other plants wither and disappear.

Frost has been late in coming this year which allowed for bumper crops of seed on the Morning Glory, Moonvine, and Hyacinth bean vine and should be collected before a hard freeze. A homemade seed packet sweetly decorated make great gifts for gardeners.

Speaking of gifts and the season of giving, many gardeners are gathering Osage orange fruit, pine cones, bittersweet vine and grape vine for homemade wreaths and decorations. I love to use the tips of Cryptomeria japonica, a mighty evergreen tipped with gold cones for wreaths. If used with a straw wreath form soaked in water it will last for months. A friend and lavender grower makes lovely fire stick packets out of her lavender stems tied with a bow to toss into the fire for fragrance on cold winter days. These make beautiful stocking stuffers. These are fun things to do if the weather keeps us inside, or while watching a movie in the evenings. I have many fond memories of this season, preparing for the holidays with the kids by getting crafty with things we collected from the woods. The house smells great with the scented geraniums brought inside. The night blooming Jasmine always has a burst of bloom in the sunroom around the holidays enchanting the air soon after sunset.

In the vegetable garden I am harvesting the leeks, carrots, turnips and parsnips, sweeter after a bit of frost, and having wonderful fall soups made from the garden. I am happy with this years garden and all the bounty it produced with such little effort.

Enjoy!

Golden October Days October 2005

My favorite season has arrived. I sip coffee on the porch wearing warm socks and a sweater while watching the golden mornings emerge. It is on the clear nights that frost arrives, so I scan the garden for signs of a light frost overnight. The night blooming Moonvine Ipomea alba and Angels Trumpet Datura are still holding bloom in the early mornings. The tall blue Michaelmas daisy opened it’s blooms Sept. 29^th, right on time, the apricot colored Sheffieled daisy and the pale yellow cosmos are beginning to bloom, as are the bright yellow fall crocus Sternbergia lutea. The Spanish Flag Mina lobata also called exotic love now covers a section of fence with yellow/orange sprays of flowers. These make sweet bouquets to attach to gift packages at this time of year. For my daughters birthday I will have the traditional armload of pink Cosmos to give her along with the fuzzy purple blooms of Mexican Sage Salvia leucantha and beautiful ‘green envy’ zinnia. These plants have endured our dry September with very little care or water.

The lettuce mixes sown in late august are ready for harvesting as they glow in the sun. I marvel at the blue green foliage of the leeks, and the size of the parsnips to be served for Thanksgiving mashed with a bit of horseradish. The colors of these days I try to absorb into every cell of my being, knowing how quickly it will all change. It is time for transplanting, dividing and filling in with bulbs for spring. This is a perfect time for planting trees and shrubs if we get some rain.

I have been inspired to study and make my own herbal remedies again. An art I studied in my early days of discovering plants. If there are Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea growing out of it’s boundaries in your garden why not dig a few up and prepare an herbal tincture made from the root of this medicinal plant. Echinacea has antibiotic properties and boosts the immune system. Herbal tinctures are potent, spirit based, liquid extracts. They are made using fresh plant material and a liquid base such as vodka or brandy. You can make about a quart of your own tincture for the price of a few ounces of tinctures commercially sold. To make a tincture use fresh plant materials, grown without any pesticides or herbicides. Rum can temper the bitterness of stronger herbs. You may also use glycerin or cider vinegar. These won't be as strong as alcohol based tinctures, but they will still be effective and are a good choice for children's remedies. Tinctures prepared this way will be preserved and effective for 2 years. Tinctures can be used in tea, juice, or directly from the bottle onto the tongue. A few drops several times a day is usually all that is needed. The more you use this type of remedy the more the body seems to respond with greater energy and function as the herbs assist in bringing our bodies back into balance.

A good website for studying medicinal plants and their uses is the Alternative Nature online Herbal, http://altnature.com/index.html this site includes photo’s, descriptions and sources for herbs and plants. I have also enjoyed the Herb Quarterly Magazine for over 20 years. I originally discovered this publication in the Loudoun County library.

Enjoy these glorious fall days!

Healing from Katrina

We are all still reeling from the catastrophic event of hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast.

Land mass is changing all over the world. Mother Nature is redecorating her landscape. It is sometimes necessary to tear down in order to rebuild on more solid ground. We are having to witness the results of practices that were ripe for change 20-30 years ago and were ignored. All coastlines will be affected. Those who gave their lives on the Gulf Coast for our U.S. wake up call are honored beings.

The suffering on the coast brilliantly illuminate the results of choices we make as a society.

What choices will we make now? It is clear that we have believed that our government was making good choices, and that we supposedly elect leaders for their ability to well…… lead. The wake up call is this……in an emergency government may not be able to cope. They may all be on vacation and may not even tell you what lies ahead. We have a whole country that is basically unprepared.

One key statement for me is that modern medicine is useless with out refrigeration. That one really woke me up. How ridicules to support an industry that is developing medicines with NO storage life? It is time to learn to grow and preserve our own medicines. Many are already growing in your garden or should be. For example, Lambs ear has antiseptic qualities and makes a very useful bandage. For your own research try a search on herbal medicine on the web. Botanical.com a modern herbal has an excellent encyclopedia and recipes http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/mgmh.html

Having an herbal medical kit stashed for emergencies is extremely easy. Bach Flower rescue remedy is an essential item in the kit. It is used for trauma of any kind for adults, children and animals, and helps the physical and emotional bodies cope with shock. This flower essence and many other useful remedies are available at health food stores. I will use the next garden column to list the herbs needed.

There is no reason why every bite of food we eat in the United States should be shipped across the country. What do we do when Costco is empty within 48 hours of a disaster? Our infrastructure is not designed to handle the shifting and changing landscape. Hopefully that may finally start to come to an end. No politician, Democratic or Republican will tell you these things for fear of not being elect able. Other than having duct tape on hand we have had no organized instructions or plan for such emergencies around here from our government leaders. I want to know things like how much water is stored for these purposes and where.

We are in the middle of the McMansionisation of the landscape. Our communities are vulnerable and unsustainable, and our transportation system is totally oil dependent. This is not good. Even if a disaster does not occur in this particular area we will be needing to absorb a migrating population and be prepared if transportation lines are interrupted.

You have HOA’s isn’t it time to start organizing your community? What is your emergency plan in your subdivision? Where are the community vegetable gardens, grain storage area’s, alternative energy resources for your immediate area? Is it possible for each subdivision to start acquiring back up energy sources? What as a community do we need to do to ensure our ability to help ourselves and others in a crisis? Get to know your neighbors, their specialties and talents and start organizing! It is nearly Fall, it is the season of preparation for winter. Preserving and storing the harvest is the seasonal theme. There is much to be done this season.

June 2005

June always brings the promise of bounty. It is has been a rare and perfect spring. I spread a dump truck load of cow manure on everything earlier this spring and I am now seeing astonishing results. My garden this year is radiating with lush growth. The green of the foliage is deeper than in years past with no sacred cow dung to spread until I begged for a load from a recently sold farm. I am indebted to that kind person for the gift of beauty he shared, by delivering it to me and I am so grateful I have the gumption in me to spread that stuff everywhere all by myself! How worth that labor it has been.

In this remarkably beautiful moment I am photographing everything. I doubt the camera can really capture the true effect. Last evening I put the finishing touches on the spring garden, staked the tomatoes, planted beans and finished mulching with thick straw. The dog, and I were in a happy evening rhythm, the lawn was mowed and I was keen on getting the work done before the next rain. While I was working, my old Siamese kept drawing my gaze over to the pea bed where he was in a blissful state. He was smiling,Kitty was enraptured. He was trying to get a fixed gaze on a flying insect every now and then. I watched him and ate the ripe alpine strawberry he pointed to with his nose to remind me that I shouldn’t always work so hard. He, being cross-eyed, is at home in the garden. He is not fond of sudden movements and goes skittish in noisy situations. In the garden he is always happy and calm. He was a wonderful color study in the evening light, silvery gray fur, chrystaline blue eyes, and that pink nose does blend just so with the purple blooming chives. The white pea blossoms dangled in the background surrounded by the creamy blooms of the arugula border all blending into a vignette of magical beauty. The camera cannot capture the energetic buzz of the landscape either. There were bee’s humming, the kitty purring, and a mockingbird in the cedar nearby, all with the background hum of singing insects. It was as though the summer chorus was tuning up for the solstice. As I write, I attempt to describe it to share with you as well as fix the scene into my memory. It is a simple garden with ordinary plants and critters, yet so otherworldly in moments like the one I am describing. The words ‘divine moment’ come to me as an appropriate term to use.

As it got dark, the beautiful kitty, the overweight lab, and I, walked back to the house, we made a pass by the cut flower garden where the Valerian officianalis in full bloom emitting it’s vanilla scent. I clipped a few blooms and added some sprigs of blue flowering comphrey a bouquet to enjoy with the salad greens cut earlier, washed and chilled. I celebrate these moments. The cool spring season has made wonderful lettuce, roses, poppies and lupine, which I am also attempting to capture on film. I know really, I have to grow it every year to enjoy that unique color vibrancy again. There is nothing quite like it. Plus, kitty needs a place to hang out and grin.

I have also been photographing the unusual & delicate martagon lilly’s, that bloom in mauve and white like miniture turkscap lillies. I am patiently waiting for them to start self-seeding and naturalizing in the moist semi shades spot they are in. It is Poppy season. The lettuce leaf poppies are a delight; soon the larkspur will join them in bloom. I feel like Dorothy in the wizard of OZ in her poppy field. Like my kitty, it is the garden and the vibrational lift that goes along with it that causes me to know that ‘there is no place like home’.

Divine Moments May 2005

It is has been a rare and perfect spring. I spread huge amounts of cow manure on everything earlier in the season and am now seeing astonishing results. Lush growth everywhere, the foliage and flowers are larger and more intensely colored than in the past. We reap what we sow and it is nice to see my effort so richly rewarded.

One evening I was staking tomatoes, planting beans, mulching and puttering in the vegetable garden. The lawn was mowed and I was keen on getting the work done before the next rain. My gaze kept moving over to the pea bed where the Siamese kitty was in a blissful state. He was smiling, radiating happiness and contentment, occasionally trying to get a fix on an insect buzzing his head. I watched him and ate the ripe alpine strawberry he pointed to with his nose, reminding me to enjoy the bounty. My old lab observed from nearby. He likes to supervise while I putter.

Kitty, being cross-eyed, is at home in the garden, happy and safe. He is not fond of sudden movements and runs from most human situations. He was a wonderful study of colors in the evening light, silvery gray fur, and crystal blue eyes. That pink nose does blend ‘just so’ with the purple blooming chives. The white pea blossoms hung in the background high above his head. Surrounded by a border of arugula. He was elevated in a vortex of beauty.

There was an energetic buzz in the landscape. With the kitty purring, bees were humming, a mockingbird and other evening bird songs floated from the cedar near by, and the crickets were tuning up for the upcoming solstice. For a moment a simple vegetable garden with ordinary plants and critters, became otherworldly in the evening light. The words ‘divine garden moment’ come to me. Time stands still, becomes meaningless. Kitty exists in that realm continually; lucky soul, and he didn’t have to spread one wheelbarrow of manure either. I savored a few more berries, and the moment, before I resumed puttering.

With the mulching completed, the cross-eyed feline, the overweight canine and I head towards the house. We pass by the cut flower garden where the Valeriana officinalis are in full vanilla scent, clip a few and add sprigs of blue flowering comphrey to the bouquet. I love the unusual & delicate martagon lilly’s, that bloom in mauve. They look like a miniature turks cap lily. The lettuce leaf poppies are blooming, we have to stop and gaze a while. Soon, the larkspur will join them. A dinner of salad greens cut earlier, washed and chilled brought the day to a delightful end.

It is the last wave of spring that brings such intense flowering of unique colors and vibrancy for a brief time to be experienced. It emits a vibration that keeps my motor purring, my heart open and my spirit strong. Enjoy the summer season, and like kitty, grin at insects, doze in the poppy patches and try to blend harmoniously into the landscape.

Forget-Me-Not Friends

The other night I came home late from working and checked my messages. It was the peak of garden mania season. My own garden had gotten little attention from me and I was feeling stressed by that more than anything. I was feeling a bit blue.

I had a lot of phone messages. One from my friend Carol said, “It is chilly out here but I had to call and tell you how amazing my garden is in the evening light. It is sooooo blue.” Her message I returned, and we sat shivering in our gardens while we had a phone chat about the garden blooming blue with huge masses of forget-me-nots, VA Bluebells and Phlox divaricata and it’s soothing effect on the heart and soul.

Deer do not eat these native plants, allowing Carol to have masses of them. A few nights later we gathered in her garden and ate Po Boy sandwiches on her stone terrace. We concluded that all that blue needed a bit of white to set it up a notch as we watched the sun go down below the mountains. I described the creamy white violet that has become a groundcover under my Kentucky coffee tree, combined with the blue of woodland phlox and how breathtaking it was. I can gaze at this bed and feel my blood pressure return to a groovy Zen beat.

Carol and I have been garden buddies since our children were infants. She has lived in the same log cabin as long and has lovingly created her unique cottage garden cut by beautiful stone paths and terraces and carefully placed wood sculptures carved by her husband. The forget-me-not masses were originally created by her then 4 year old son Shaughan when he sprinkled a packet of the seed all over the rock garden. Three years later we called it a ‘sea ‘ of blue as we stared awe struck at it’s impact on us. From Shaughan we learned the value of mass planting the color blue in the garden.

The rest of the blue flowering plants came into Carols garden from Mary Moore Debutt’s garden in Upperville 16 years ago. Her name always comes up when we discuss our gardens, as well as many other fine gardeners we once knew. I have brought pieces of Mary’s phlox along wherever I move. Many gardens in the county have clumps of her woodland phlox as well. Plants are very clever at colonizing in this way. They attach themselves to the human heart with sentiment as well as fragrance and beauty.

This is a month full of beauty realized and moments of garden perfection. Take a moment this month to let the garden do it’s magic on your soul. Enjoy your garden with old friends, and remember the friends who are still in your garden by way of semi invasive flowering plants. Reflect on all that it took to create the scene. If your jaw is dropping at an awesome garden view you have no doubt earned the moment after 11 months of waiting for that one evening when you can sit down and say to yourself that yes, all the manure and mulch spreading is so worth it. Enjoy.... with friends and a Po Boy sandwich if you can!

This is the article that was printed…………...