Millerton - Things to Do

Millerton has a new and improved website:

http://www.enjoymillerton.com/

I especially enjoy the historical photos -- some I've seen before -- but many are new.

Millerton - Gardening

This year, I've tried a few new things in our Garden.

Pumpkins

My brother has grown various types of pumpkins in California for several years. His vines produce many more pumpkins than one can handle so he decided to start a fantastic tradition of

leaving a nice, new pumpkin on his neighbors' doorstep (several pumpkins if the family had

children) every Halloween.

So this year I thought I'd give pumpkin farming a try (eager at the chance to have enough to leave one or a few on my neighbors' doorstep). And, as you can see from this little beauty (and it's only

July) I've achieved some success. This one is the

largest and we have about 8 other pumpkins of various sizes so far.

My brother advised me to put "their bottoms down" to achieve a more round, typical

jack-o-lantern, shape. As they mature, they will of course become larger, then they'll turn yellow and eventually ORANGE.

Unfortunately, however, the pumpkin patch has started to take over our entire garden. Note to self: next year, plant them where there is a lot more space!

Zinnias

While I've grown Zinnias from seed in California, last year, when I attempted in Millerton, not a single flower came up! I was convinced it was something I did wrong - now I'm convinced they were just old seeds. BECAUSE look at these beauties.

These photos do not do these wonderful flowers justice. The first photo shows a flower whose color fades from a fantastic dark peach to a wonderful warm golden yellow - with a soft pink center. It reminds me of rainbow sherbet ice cream. (It's my favorite one so far.)

At first glance this bright pink one seems so perfectly simple and yet, because of

the tiny row of yellow flowers around the center, you'll notice that it is actually very complex.

In fact, and this may sound odd, but it reminds me of when I was a little girl and I'd watch the Jackie Gleason show with my father. Before the show (which was the "Honeymooners") they'd have "Jackie and the June Taylor Dancers". www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQg-L-Rbp0 The women would dance on the floor making all sorts of kaleidoscopic like images from the birds-eye camera above.

I know, I know... but that's what it reminds me of. I think because of it's bright, very feminine color and the rows of petals.

And in this last photo, showing the height that these lovelies have reached, (with orange cherry tomatoes as a backdrop) you can clearly see how sturdy, healthy and prolific the Zinnia is. Oh sure, Zinnia's may not have a fragrance but they make terrific cut flowers that will last a good week in fresh water.

I plan to harvest the seeds from the strongest most lovely ones so I'll have even more next year. Not a bad investment - a $2 pack of seeds.

Brussels Sprouts

Here is an update on my Brussels Sprouts...

As you can see, they are turning into perfect little nubs (for lack of a better word). The wonderful thing about Brussels Sprouts is you can just cut off as many as you'd like and leave the others to mature. These are definitely on my "always grow" list.

Millerton - Interesting Places

Botanical Gardens - Chapter One - Innisfree

This weekend we're planning an excursion to Innisfree Botanical Garden located near Millbrook, New York (about 30 minutes Southwest of Millerton).

Among other things, I find Botanical Gardens inspiring. And having been raised in California, I'm still learning about the plants that will and will not survive zone 5's harsh winters and even more importantly the plants that will flourish.

From the photos I've found of Innisfree, I'm truly excited about Saturday's excursion.

Here are some photos I found online - but I'll post my own photos next week.

Also, here is a link to Martha Stewart's article about Innisfree: http://theradioblog.marthastewart.com/2010/05/a-garden-a-day-innisfree-garden.html and here's the link to the Innisfree Garden's website: http://www.innisfreegarden.org/

According to their website: Innisfree is a 150-acre public garden in which the ancient art of Chinese landscape design has been reinterpreted to create, without recourse to imitation, a unique American garden. At Innisfree the visitor strolls from one three-dimensional picture to another. Streams, waterfalls, terraces, retaining walls, rocks, and plants are used not only to define areas but also to establish tension or motion. The 40-acre lake is glacial, most of the plant material is native, and the rocks have come from the immediate forest.

From 1930 to 1960 Innisfree was the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck. In 1960 Innisfree Foundation under the stewardship of landscape architect Lester Collins opened the garden to the public. Today, Innisfree is held in trust by its board of trustees, both for the people of New York and for people throughout the world to enjoy and study garden art.

Innisfree Garden lies in the hollow which surrounds Tyrrel Lake; low wooded hills give the site enclosure. Innisfree embraces the Eastern design concept of asymmetric balance that combines rhythm, pattern, space and form in a harmony independent of formal symmetry. In Western gardens little is hidden. The garden, like a stage set, is there in its entirety; its overall design revealed at a glance. The traditional Eastern garden hides this complete view. Visitors walk into a series of episodes or pictures and can enter the sequence of pictures wherever they choose. The rugged topography of the Innisfree site invariably enframes these pictures called cup gardens. A garden picture may be composed of several small cup gardens within the larger one.

Dominant in the design of the garden are natural stone, sculptured land forms or berms and carefully engineered water features. Stone is an infinitely suggestive material, rich with poetic, philosophical, and artistic meaning. Innisfree has an endless supply of rocks. The glacier which carved the lake deposited on the property a combination of sandstone, limestone, granite and quartz. These rocks are gorgeous, water-warn, lichen-encrusted pieces of sculpture that can effortlessly steal the show. Their placement, however, must be exact. Six inches right or left, backward or forward can wreck the picture.

The building of berms, like the placing of rocks requires intuition and imagination. A berm can give direction or enclosure; a berm can be impressive sculpture or merely an undulation of earth needed to relieve the flatness of the ground. Like the rocks, the land forms are permanent design elements in the garden; they do not grow, shed in the Fall, or sicken mysteriously.

At Innisfree water is paramount. Tyrrel Lake is a large, deep natural lake from which water is pumped into a hillside reservoir. A complex system of underground pipes takes this water to various parts of the garden to be used not only for irrigation but also for the man-made streams, pools, waterfalls and sculpture which make the garden so exceptional.