Monroe County Master Gardener Association

Chris had a few more photos she wanted to share.
I can share additional pictures. Please post if you think it would add to the article. If not you can just enjoy them.
The first four show the beautiful vegetable garden. I really was impressed by their use of containers, growing flowers, herbs and vegetables together in the garden, and the use of chalkboards to inform visitors of what was ready for harvest. I would love to have raised beds made of bricks, but that is just not in the budget. The final photo is a view of a terraced bed in one of the flower gardens.

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Sandy O’Connell recently visited Kingwood Center and sent this article and photos.

These are a few pictures of my pictures taken at Kingwood Center located in
downtown Mansfield, Ohio. The estate consists of a total of forty-seven
acres with gardens, mansion, pond, and a horticultural library and is open
to the public year round. The mansion was built in 1926 for Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Kelley King. Mr. King began making his fortune when he was hired by
the Ohio Brass Company as the its first electrical engineer in 1893. After
his death in 1952, he left most of his estate to the private foundation that
continues to operate Kingwood Center today. The home consists of twenty-six
rooms and is built and decorated in French Provincial style. Visitors can
view the mansion at no charge. The main floor is primarily displayed in a
manner similar to its original arrangement with many of Mr. King’s
furnishings which includes the dining, flower, and drawing rooms. Peacocks
also like to roam the gardens and don’t mind the visitors.

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Naida shared this with me and I felt it would make a great blog article and link for members

Once every three years, there is an international competition in horticultural sculpture, called “mosaiculture,” in a major city in the world. This year it is Montreal.
This is not topiary but rather creating sculptures out of living plants. The greatest horticulturalists in the world, from 20 different countries, submitted plans a year in advance. Steel armatures were then created to support the works (some 40 feet high); they were then wrapped in steel mesh and filled with dirt and moss and watering hoses. Then they ordered 3 million plants of different shades of green and brown and tan, and these were grown in greenhouses all over Quebec.

In late May, these horticulturalists came to Montreal and planted all of their plants in the forms at the Montreal Botanic Gardens, and they have been standing for three months now. There were 50 major sculptures along a path two miles long. They were incredible. If you would like to visit a few and walk along the path with me, click on

http://myvirtualgarden2.blogspot.com/2013/09/mosaiculture-exhibition.html

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Earlier this week I went outside looking for something to bring in for a couple vases and the sedum caught my eye.

I also picked some of my Sunpatiens and dahlias. What great color! Also I had a huge surprise to find that my hibiscus was in bloom again with 8 buds, and after talking with a friend found that her plant was blooming also! Would love to hear from other gardeners of their garden surprises.

Today I’m looking out the window at the sad state of some of my beautiful annuals after two hard frosts. As soon as it warms up a bit I will be going outside to pull the last vestiges of summer. It would have been a difficult task a couple days ago when they were still in their glory, but not such a grim task today. They will contribute to my huge compost pile along with leaves, grass clippings and garden refuge. My husband is most anxious to turn this compost pile over but had to wait until this week for the over 40 volunteer butternut squash to ripen. (Later in the day this is what my compost pile looked like.)

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Jennie sent in these beautiful photos with autumn colors.

Stella and I were fortunate to have a chance to visit Hidden Lake Gardens on Oct 10, when early fall colors and a sunny day made the bonsai spectacular! An added treat was seeing Jack Wikle there and having him show us a photo scrapbook of some of the specimens in their earlier lives. (Google this charming retired education director of HLG for expert articles on growing bonsai and on the conifer collection. Better yet, sign up for classes/tours he still teaches.) Hard to believe some were nearly the same size and not looking much younger in 1985! The next couple of weeks will be fantastic for an afternoon drive through the arboretum as well as seeing the bonsai collection before it is stowed away for winter. At the entrance to the conservatory we loved the parsley and coleus border as such a fine textured contrast to the huge hardy banana leaves behind them, and the jewel red tones of dangling Jap maple seeds as we approached the door.

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I took some photos of the Fall color this week in Irish Hills. They are just starting to become bold. If you have some you wish to share, we can add them for a Photo Friday

 

 

 

 

 

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Interesting article: The TomTato is a grafted pant growing cherry tomatoes above the soil and potatoes beneath. To read more information and photo check out this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/fruitandvegetables/10332908/TomTato-mutant-plant-that-grows-tomatoes-and-potatoes-unleashed.html

Just one more way to plant more in a small space.

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Naida sent me the following information and photos:

 
We were talking about mushrooms in the September MG meeting and I came across a very informative website I’d like to share with other bloggers, http://www.mushroomexpert.com/yard.html by Michael Puo, P.H.D. Dr. Puo is an English teacher and an amateur mycologist and has written several books on mushrooms which have been published by UofM press. I was on the web looking for the name of (another) interesting mushroom that I discovered several of while watering my front, mulched planter in late August. It “looks like a carrot” (photos attached) and is very slimy which I discovered when I wiped the “odorous spore-thick brown slime” (which attracts flies and other insects) off the tip. From this website I learned it is called Mutinus elegans – or stinkhorns. This is a really great website with a lot of photos for easy identification and information – a good one to “bookmark” for future questions.

Thanks,
Naida

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