Keep Your Eye on the Cone!

Cones, Cones, Beautiful and Lots of Cones Everywhere!

I had the pleasure of visiting the White Mountains earlier this month and hiked Mt. Osceola with some friends. It was a glorious day, the rains had stopped and the sun shone brightly. We enjoyed cool temps along the trail and an outstanding view at the summit. Check out the photos taken on our hike and enjoy the exquisite color of these cones! The summit was so full of them one had to force the eye to look beyond at the sites of the other mountain tops in view.

As many of you are noticing the conifer cones this year are quite abundant. You can see them at the tops of the trees from a distance, pulling the upper branches down into an umbrella like arch. The cones for many conifers actually take more than a year to reach their mature size, did you know that?

The red squirrels are busy trying to harvest the cones in the trees that surround my property. It sounded at first like someone either was hitting a slew of homers that fell the hardball in our yard or maybe they were throwing stones. We of course went out to 'check out' what the heck was going on. And thunk, thunk, then thunk thunk, thunk thunk thunk we heard them falling.

No it wasn't the wind, the air was still, so what was it causing them to drop? There are too many on the tree my husband said, I disagreed, I knew all too well what those little four legged furry tooth sawing, gnawing creatures were up to. Sure enough I found em, Red Squirrels, up at the top of the 50' or higher white pine, harvesting the crop! And below, it was 'bombs away'. The ground littered with fresh new cones not yet ready to fall. All nice and thin and green and fresh pine aroma in the air. Alongside of these perfect cones were the cartoonish looking skeletized cone, nothing left but a long thin post with a pointed top and rounded bottom.

So, keep your eye on the cones! For a couple of reasons, they just may fall on your head if you have a busy critter like we do in the neighborhood, and because they just look so beautiful hanging there in large clusters like I don't ever recall seeing before. Perhaps I just never noticed because they didn't get harvested by nature until later in the season when they may have lost a few on their own, or maybe I was just always busier that I am these days to have looked up enough to catch such a site.

I'm grateful this year for whatever the reason we have such a grand display of cones.
I'm also grateful that I'm able to enjoy and experience the journey to the summit of a mountain.
Nature is the most perfect designer of the landscape. I am most inspired by the plans that nature creates all by itself. Thank you Planet Earth for allowing us to join you for the view!





The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Containers are masters of magic for the tired garden

Oh yes it's here, the hot humid days of August in the New England garden.

Many of our gardens are now bursting with color! Yellows, oranges, pinks purples whites blues and more!

Soon September will be here and many of the garden colors will begin to wain.

If you haven't a container ready for placing in those oh so lonesome spots that emerge when the perennial burst is over, now is a great time to begin them. Many annuals and perennials are still out there waiting for a home! A container planting could be the perfect answer.

Here I've filled a dark corner that looks lovely with its Spring blossoms, but right now without the container it would be nothing but green, greeen, green. The oranges and yellows and limes I've filled the container with are visible from my Kitchen window a good 75 feet away! How nice is that.

The hummingbirds love the fuschia and impatience. I can opt to place the bright colored heucheras in the garden in late autumn, or overwinter them in the container for next year.

I will likely fill the container with a few interesting woody stems and evergreen boughs and berried holly stems for the winter season, a welcome site along the path during December and January journeys to the shed.

I have many containers - as you may have guessed with a name like 'Potscapes'. I use them in all areas of my gardens, patios, entryways, walkways, decks and landscape.

I enjoy planning what I will do with each one every year. Some years I've put roses in them when I wanted to know how a particular rose would look in the garden, other years I've planted them with vegetables to harvest from the kitchen patio. I bring many of them in to overwinter indoors. The lavendar I brought in last Fall flowered over the winter in my South facing dining room. Such a wonderful treat!

Finding the container to fill is as much fun as filling it. I've found a few fun things in my travels and received others as gifts. I'm always on the peek for something different and of course have a nice collection waiting for their chance to be part of the magic welcomed by the tired garden. Wouldn't you agree that meeting this little monster just might make your day!

Filled with Parsley and Portulaca, this little monster is a favorite of many visitors to my garden.
If you'd like me to help you with a bit of magic for your garden, visit my website and give me a shout.