My Favorite Plants
If it isn't toxic or invasive then I usually like it.
Plants Currently in My Garden
Thousands. Too many to name.
I love to garden, because....
It teaches my daughter, brings wildlife to the yard, yields excellent fresh food for my family's table and is generally satisfying and enjoyable.
Biggest Gardening Challenge
Taming my wild and wooly backyard that was left fallow of 30 years before we bought the house.
If I'm not gardening, I can be found:
Spending time with my family, reading, writing, cooking, hiking, botanizing and shooting pictures, aside from mundane everyday tasks.
Other Hobbies
Traveling, singing, music, antique collecting (especially pottery) and restaurant hopping
During my recent trip to Germany I fell in love with the autumnal majesty of the European Mountain Ash, or Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia, www.learn2grow.com/plants/sorbus-aucupar...). Pure gold foliage creates the perfect backdrop for the pendulous clusters of orange-red pomes that decorate its boughs. When paired with a red-leaved fall tree, like Japanese maple (Acer palmatum, www.learn2grow.com/plants/acer-palmatum/) or in the case of the photo below a sweet gum with red fall color (www.learn2grow.com/plants/liquidambar-st...), it lends an other worldly glow.
Children also love to hold or wear the non-toxic fruits. I gave my daughter a showy truss that she tucked into a button hole and wore like a fall corsage.
Colorful clusters or orange-red pomes persist on Rowan trees into winter.
Rowan trees are relatively small, so they are well-suited to modest-sized yards. Their edible fruits can be made into a somewhat bitter tasting jam and are eaten by winter birds.
The chief weaknesses of Rowan are its susceptability to fire blight and borers. It responds poorly to extended drought too, but if given mild, favorable growing conditions it will thrive and offer spectacular fall and winter color.
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