February Fever

Posted on February 18, 2025 by shobha

‘Fever’? you ask? It’s been one fiercely frigid month after all. Snow storms every few days, ice, some hail, rain leading to more ice, powerful winds. It has been a very busy couple of weeks with more of the same expected this week. It’s become rather tiresome as most outdoor activity has been unpleasant if not impossible. We need options to warm up our spirits. Fear not. I have a few suggestions.

Last Friday, I went to the member’s preview of the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Gardens. This might well be my favorite one thus far. While it’s always fun to see a mad array of colorful flowers in the middle of winter, I’ve never found myself as motivated and inspired as I was by this one. Taking its cue from the designs of Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán, the show transports you to Mexico where you feel the warmth, the vibrant colors and rhythmic music lift your mood. The orchids are arranged and grouped brilliantly – coordinated and curated colors that sing in harmony. Juxtaposed with walls in vivid hues, sculptural cacti and traditional pots, it is tasteful and artful. Indeed cacti and orchids require different conditions to thrive but there are design lessons to be learned nevertheless. I love this show and plan to visit it again soon. Do go see for yourself. At the very least, it’ll serve as a welcoming, warm respite.

The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days directory arrived over the weekend. Thumbing through it is jolly exciting – so many interesting and beautiful gardens to visit. I know I won’t have the time to visit them all but it’s gloriously fun to consider the possibility. The final list will be shorter of course. Now is the time to make plans, schedule them into the calendar and make reservations in a timely manner. It’s the best way to ensure I get to see new gardens and revisit old favorites all of which will no doubt keep me enthused all through the gardening season. February affords one the time to peruse and plan at leisure. Take full advantage. Note: My garden has it’s Open Day on May 10. Come on over!

Finally, starting this coming Sunday, February 23, there’s a new show on NBC. The Grosse Point Garden Society is described as an “American drama television series set in a wealthy suburb where everything appears to be perfect on the surface. Four members of the local garden club get entangled in a scandalous murder… with mysteries, drama and deceit growing like weeds …!”. I learned of it quite by chance – it caught my attention right away! Since I adore both gardening and murder mysteries, I’m eager to check it out. If anything, it’ll be fun to see how hoticulturally accurate or inaccurate it will be!

And in less than 2 weeks, March would’ve arrived.

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Universe! You Did Hear Me!

Posted on May 14, 2024 by shobha

What a weekend it was – packed to the gills with events, I’m finally coming up for air. Friday and Saturday was the PlantFest at Teatown Lake Reservation where for some years now, I’ve participated as a vendor to sell my soft home furnishings. 100% of the profits are donated to deserving causes and that’s my strong motivation to do what I do – using my art to create beautiful, useful products in order to raise funds for projects I believe in. This year, the ACLU and Doctors Without Borders are my chosen causes. If anyone is interested in my products or in supporting the two causes, please use the link provided above and make your purchases on-line.

Now, at PlantFest, folks primarily come to make a beeline to the plethora of plants available from some pretty amazing growers. So to purchase anything else is not a priority. I participate because Teatown itself is a very special place of nature and deserves to be supported. PlantFest is an important fund raiser. As an opportunity to sell my products, it is less than ideal. But, every item sold helps the big purpose. I did okay. What is gratifying are the people who return every year to buy Mother’s Day gifts. That is definitive endorsement and I sure feel good about it.

On Friday, it was tough – cold and rainy weather had everybody wishing for time to fly. The thought of a hot shower tantalized relentlessly. Finally, at 7:00 pm we were able to go home. But that hot shower had to wait.

Last minute garden work awaited – that final effort to get the garden as ready as it could be for Open Day on Saturday.

So, in the drizzle and cold, I deadheaded, weeded and neatened up the garden for another hour and a half. Satisfied, I finally went in for shower, sustenance and sleep. I couldn’t dare to consider the weather for Saturday.

Well, the Universe heard my pleas – Open Day could not have asked for better weather. Sunshine! Blue skies! Warmer temperature! Not too warm but perfectly comfortable. Hallelujah! While I anticipated the visitors I reveled in the sunshine. It felt heavenly.

And the garden truly rose to the occasion. It looked so beautiful even if I say so myself. As all gardeners know, all we can do is our best and the rest is up to Nature. Over a 100 visitors came and time passed quickly. I so enjoyed meeting everybody. It never ceases to impress me that they take the trouble to come to my little garden. Some had visited a few years prior and had liked it so much to return – that cannot but touch my gardener heart. Meeting new people is invariably fun as friendships get forged this way. And boy did we gossip about plants, gardens and gardening! And maybe about certain gardeners! All in all, a perfect Open Day. Thank you all for visiting – my deepest gratitude.

The day ended with our traditional pizza party with close friends arriving after Open Day hours to get their own private viewing and to linger on into the night eating, drinking and being merry. Sublime.

Note: The baby robins in the nest above the dining table on the terrace had grown and flown in time! So we could use the table guilt-free!

Sunday was Mother’s Day. And the rain had returned but not for the entire day. While it was not really busy or hectic, it was delightfully eventful. I feel extremely blessed.

I’ve given myself a well earned break this week. No gardening. Except for the planting of seedlings. Maybe a bit of routine weeding. Keep up the deadheading. The edgers of the beds in the herb garden could use some straightening. A little re-potting. The tiny front lawn will need mowing. The lilacs look done so maybe get the pruning over with? Ha! What am I thinking? There’s simply no rest for the wicked and the good don’t need any do they?!

Note: Some pictures from Teaown’s PlantFest and my Open Day –

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Opening The Garden

Posted on May 7, 2024 by shobha

It’s the final stretch – Open Day is this Saturday! All the last minute frenzy is happening. Fussing and faffing, mowing and moving, planting and panting. Since the weather forecast has a chance of rain for Wednesday through Friday ( fingers crossed for Saturday), the deadline to get ready is really sunset today. Madness!

I know it’ll all get done but there’s always that final push and panic. The adrenaline is high and truthfully, I’m super excited to welcome the visitors so we can gossip and commiserate on all things garden. I hope you are planning on dropping by?

If the race to get the chores for May haven’t been addressed as yet, here is the list –

Weed regularly if you want to keep the thugs in check.
Put stakes in place so as plants grow it’ll be easy to secure them.
Deadhead spent blooms for a neat look. Some plants will reward you with a second wave of blooms. Of course, if you want to collect seeds, do not deadhead.
Water as necessary. Add a splash of compost tea to fertilize – about every 3 weeks.
Plant in summer vegetables, summer bulbs and tubers and, annuals.
Keep bird baths filled with clean water. Use mosquito ‘dunks’ to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. The same goes for fountains.
Start mowing lawns but do the right thing by keeping the mower blade high at about four inches. Leave clippings in place to replenish the soil.
Make sure all beds, shrubs and trees are mulched to retain moisture and keep weeds from proliferating.
To take care of weeds in areas that are paved or bricked, pour boiling hot water over them. The weeds will be killed and no chemicals were used!
Stay vigilant for pests or disease. The earlier you catch a problem, the easier it is to treat them. Always employ organic methods.
Stir the compost heap regularly. Keep adding in kitchen and garden waste.
Take time every day to simply enjoy the garden.
Visit other gardens through the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. You will be vastly instructed and inspired. Www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays

Get cracking!

In the garden right now – tulips are having their moment!

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Parallel Processing

Posted on April 16, 2024 by shobha

Working on two deadlines at the same time is anything but dull. The pressure is on full throttle – final stretch to Lyndhurst In Bloom which happens this weekend and less than a month to my garden’s Open Day. Both are very personal to me as they speak of my philosophy, my creativity and skills. In both cases, I’m aiming to share whats important to me – the natural world that deserves to be appreciated, admired and protected at all costs. Along the way, we find joy, laughter and comfort.

In the garden, given the vagaries of the weather, it’s been slower than I’d like. Between cold and rain, I’ve had to be cautious about bringing out plants from the greenhouse and/or planting too soon. This past week, I focused on replacing groundcovers that had simply run their course. In the garden, perennial doesn’t mean forever. They come back every year but many will eventually run their course and peter out over time.

This was the case with a favorite of mine – Mazus reptans. Originally planted along the side path that connects the front and back of the garden, it had faithfully performed spectacularly. But over the last couple of years, it started losing momentum and finally, very little showed up last spring. This is a very pretty garden stalwart. Undemanding, requiring no direct sunlight it carries on. Diminutive leaves delicately scalloped around the edges form fresh mats that knit together to beautifully cover the earth. The flowers come up a bit later in spring and look like small moths charmingly speckled in purple and white. So very pretty. After the flowers, the green carpet remains and serves for rest of the growing season.

It was a joy to find them in my local nursery and plant them in on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the creeping phlox in the checkerboard garden had been challenged by moss that wanted to take over. Last years wet summer had clearly favored the moss. So much of the moss got removed and new phlox was added to the ones that remained. This garden will have to be reexamined as it is entirely possible that conditions have changed more permanently with surrounding trees and shrubs casting more shade along with all the rain we seem to be getting lately. For now, the new phlox will do. I must research some other interesting yet suitable alternatives.

Opposite from attending to spring chores, is my project on seedpods for Lyndhurst In Bloom. A wholly different season and still so very interdependent. The diversity, sheer beauty and genius designs in packaging so well suited to how the seeds are dispersed is breathtaking. I’ve learned so much through my efforts at painting them. But as I created some arrangements this past weekend, I found myself learning more about how exactly those designs functioned. Quickly meshing into a network or snagging a hold on a neighbor just to get a bit of leverage, quivering at the slightest disturbance, using its sticky seed coat to attach firmly till its safe to open and send its seeds out into the world. They all wait patiently for the rain, wind or critters to help them. Some, do it on their own via ballistic action or gravity. And in each, the circle of life carries on. Just brilliant.

In all the busyness, I’ve been mindful about taking the time to enjoy the process. Giving each task due attention is imperative. Because to have a garden to work in is a privilege. To have the opportunity to show my art is a gift. To share both garden and art is a blessing. I’m aiming to deliver with Grace.

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April Disarray Brings May Open Day

Posted on April 26, 2022 by pgbundil

For the past 14 years, this time of year is somewhat frenetic in my garden. With Open Day in mid-May, everything needs to get done in double time pace. None of the deliberate, systematic course of action. Instead, I must approach the various tasks all at once.

The upside is that it’s pretty much all the necessary work that gets completed – tasks that need to get done anyway. However, it can be physically punishing doing so much in a short time. And then, there is the weather. Some years, it’s too wet and prevents working in the garden. Other years, it gets warm too soon which means the best of plans can be thwarted when expected flowerings are over and done by the time Open Day rolls up. It’s not like I can simply rush out and buy replacements to stick into the beds. That would lose the whole point of Open Day – folks are coming to see my garden as it is meant to be. Authentic and bearing my personal stamp. In a way, my garden is my soul laid bare.

But I’m always reminded of the I Love Lucy show when Lucy enters the garden club contest and accidentally mows down her tulips. With mere hours left for the judges to arrive, she replaces the tulips with wax ones. Which of course proceed to melt in the sun.

This year, it has been much cooler than usual so the unfolding of flowers is behind schedule. I’ll take it. While it means some annuals are still unavailable at the nurseries and several plants cannot be brought out of the greenhouse, it’s so much easier to get the heavy work done.

As a result, much of the chores are being done in timely fashion. Am I aching and creaking? Yes! But it is enormously gratifying to be on track. With the birds singing as they go about their business of house hunting and building and spring bulbs in bloom, it’s a very congenial atmosphere to do my work. With husband and daughter willingly doing their share, I really cannot complain.

There are bags of soil, water hoses, assortment of tools and pots and plants all over. It looks somewhat messy but truly, it’s coming together! As this year’s experiment with dahlias is on tap, I’ve got the bed for them ready – it meant digging up a mature witch-hazel and relocating it, moving a few other plants, weeding and loosening the compacted soil. This week, I’ll add a good topping of compost and next week, the tubers will be planted. A layer of mulch will follow and then we wait. I’ve already got some tubers started in pots – they’re staying warm in the greenhouse and should be up and running well ahead of their cousins in the ground.

Pruning, placing supports and other mechanical elements have been completed. The hummingbird feeders are up. The veg bed is planted up with cool weather candidates and the herb wall is up. The vertical garden is greening up as the moss comes back to life and the ferns and heuchera are peering out cautiously. Lots of other tasks were done this past weekend. The tulips have just started blooming so perhaps the weather will permit a showing on Open Day.

Slowly, more order than disorder is becoming apparent. There is still plenty to do till the very last minute but in all honesty, I love getting the garden ready to welcome old friends and new. I hope you’re all registered and we can see each other on May 14.

Note: I’ll be at Teatown Lake Reservation’s eagerly awaited and hugely popular PlantFest May 6 &7. Look for my Seeds Of Design booth – items from my Printed Garden Collection will be available. Beautiful gifts for Mother’s Day, teachers, hostess, brides , birthdays and yourself. All profits donated.