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At last, a partner for rudbeckia

August 21, 2012

Happy Tuesday everyone! Are you all just soaking up this last bit of summer like I am? Last weekend we did pretty much nothing productive after noon on both Saturday and Sunday. We read books on the beach, ate lots of taco dip, drank Coronas at 2 and I got to go paddleboarding (my new obsession and so much fun) in a very balmy Lake Michigan. It was lovely.

This is always a good time for the garden. Things do tend to get a little overgrown and a bit floppy but everything is so lush now thanks to a good amount of rain we got while I was gone.

I’ve written about plant combinations before and I’ve admitted that it’s something I sometimes struggle with. So when a plant combination comes together I do a little jig. I’ve struggled with the rudbeckia in my garden for years. On one hand, it blooms for an insanely long time and is covered with blooms. But on the other hand, it spreads like wildfire and is a rather bossy yellow color that I’ve found to be difficult to pair with other plants. Last year I pulled out dozens of clumps of it to create a much more manageable patch of rudbeckia, which was definitely a step in the right direction.

This summer I added some hyssop in the areas that I had relieved of some of that rudbeckia. Even though both plants are a little taller than I’d prefer to have so close to the edge of the border, I am thrilled with how these two plants are working with each other. The medium blue of the hyssop is a good match for that bossy orangey-yellow of the rudbeckia and their contrasting textures play well together as well.

It’s a relief to finally be at peace with rudbeckia. It’s a good plant, it just needed the right partner to shine.

On an unrelated note, I’ve joined Instagram. I don’t really understand Instagram and some of those old-timey photos sort of annoy me, but it seems to be a good way to quickly share photos. I’ve been posting them on Twitter and I’ll put some of them up on Facebook (I think I have that figured out), but you can also follow me on Instagram @impatientgardener. Leave me a comment if you’re on Instagram with your user name (or account or whatever you call it) so I can follow you.

Here are the first two pictures I took using Instagram.

The bees are incredibly active at our house and are loving the anenomes and Oso Easy roses right now.  There is the most lovely buzzing audible in the garden at almost any time of day.

I’ve not shown you my purple beans, but I grew some Velour beans this year. They are so beautiful and really look like velvet. They taste the same as a green bean and when you cook them they quickly turn sort of a drab green (not a nice bright green like a regular green bean) so I’m enjoying using them raw in salads. Last night I made green bean soup with both green and purple beans and BLTs for dinner. It might be the most perfect summer supper ever. And the best thing is that I have leftover soup for lunch today and that soup gets even better the second day.

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by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
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Comments

  1. heather @ new house, new home, new life says: August 22, 2012 at 11:30 am

    Great tip for the rudbeckia – it looks great against the hyssop. I'll have to try that combination next year.

    As for Instagram – good for you – haven't made the leap to the IPhone yet.

    Reply
  2. Amanda says: August 22, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    That is a beautiful color combo, I'm a huge fan! Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: August 23, 2012 at 5:03 pm

      Glad you like it!

      Reply
  3. Amy Winningham says: August 22, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    I love your blog. I started following you on Instagram. I'm not a big user, just mainly use it to spy on my 13 year old daughter and keep up with her and her friend's posts! It will be nice to see garden pictures on there!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: August 23, 2012 at 5:04 pm

      Thanks the nice comments on the blog, Amy! And thanks for following me in Instagram. I suspect your daughter's feed will be far more interesting than mine, though! 🙂

      Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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I had a rather unpleasant realization last night w I had a rather unpleasant realization last night when I remembered that I’d not yet ordered tomato seeds. And I’m not going to rectify that until I dig into my seed stash, because I don’t go through tomato seeds quickly so there are definitely some lurking down there. 

I never used to grow tomatoes from seed because there are great varieties to be had in garden centers (including many heirloom varieties). But it’s almost non-negotiable for me now that I’m a convert to dwarf tomatoes. If you’re not familiar with the #dwarftomatoproject championed by @nctomatoman and others, these are heirloom varieties that are crossed with dwarf varieties to create plant that produces all the flavor and interest of an heirloom in a short (usually less than 4 feet) plant. 

They are particularly great in my tall raised beds. Of course I leave room to try new non-dwarf varieties every year (I loved Sun Dipper from @panamseed last year and I’ll grow it again).

Last year was a good tomato year and the photo shows some of the varieties I harvested in one day. I hope this summer will be equally good for the tomato harvest. 

One of my favorite questions to ask gardeners is: What is your favorite tomato variety to grow? So have at it in the comments because inquiring minds want to know!
And this is why I leave my winter containers assem And this is why I leave my winter containers assembled until at least March. A dusting of snow gives them a whole new look (even if it’s shades of gray). Also, I think I love my Limelight hydrangea even more in winter. Fabulous winter interest!
I’m going to look for opportunities to add more I’m going to look for opportunities to add more ferns to my garden this year. They are such interesting plants and often real problem solvers, bringing texture and color to places that many plants aren’t interested in. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ grows well for me in part shade (even pushing a bit into part sun) and looks great next to Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’.
Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled o Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled on) foliage, and texture galore. I can’t wait to have moments like this again. The star, by the way is Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ which looks so good with the bold foliage of Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ next to it. 

With the new path, this area will be getting a small revamp. It’s the next spot I’ll be focusing my planning on.
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