The alliums are the first to bloom among the native New Hampshire spectacular beauty, the lupine, in our backyard garden. An allium is a unique, single stalked flower that towers 3-4 feet above the other flowers with a globe-shaped spikey flower, which is still attractive after it's dried. Alliums are deer resistant and are planted from bulbs in the Fall.
Lupines grow among each other in home gardens and in fields across New Hampshire. We even have a June Lupine Festival in their honor when they bloom in various shades of purple, pink, and white.
A few years ago, when we first bought the Buttonwood Inn, we had about two to three plants--now we have more than a dozen along the pool fence in the back yard and quite a few more in the various gardens around the inn. I've transplanted a few after they bloom where they've spread their seeds in the garden. The suggested way to grow lupines is to harvest their seeds in the early Autumn, dry them, and plant them the next Spring. Aside from their beautiful conical-shaped summer blooms, lupines are hardy, deer resistant, and require little care.
Now that the snow has melted and the weather is a balmy 80 degrees (Yikes!) here in North Conway, NH, it’s time to start the vegetable seedlings in the egg cartons and place them in the sunny windows in the inn. We’ll expand our NH garden to nearly twice the size this year and place some vegetable and herbs in between the flowers too.
The rhubarb is growing and I should be able to harvest it by the end of May. As usual, I will make Honey Rhubarb bread as a starter for breakfast, which is a favorite of our guests. Here’s an interesting recipe for an Upside Down Rhubarb Cake from the Martha Stewart website.
Over the past month, Bill and I have been working in the inn “yard” raking leaves, cutting down trees for next winter’s firewood, and cleaning out flower gardens. Yesterday we found a treasure trove of rocks in the forest to create a fire pit ring for our Chiminea stove. This new addition to the backyard will serve two purposes: we can burn the tree branches and sticks that land on the property and, more importantly, enjoy relaxing with a beverage of choice sitting around the fire after a long day’s work.
In the summer, our guests can also enjoy this experience conversing with other guests or looking up at the constellations in our glorious New Hampshire night sky. Big kids and little kids of all ages can toast marshmallows over the fire too. You’ll enjoy the best of both worlds, staying in the comfort of our inn while experiencing the outdoor fun of a camping evening.
Bill and I planted a vegetable garden next to the pool at Inn this past weekend (best time to plant in New Hampshire is around June 1 after threat of frost). Clyde (Black Lab Mix) and Britt (Golden Retriever Mix) are our "garden patrol." I wanted to grow vegetables and herbs like I've done for the past few years in our previous home in New Jersey. This year, we hope to harvest tomatoes, beans, jalapeno peppers, radishes, and lettuce. We still have to erect fencing and cover the garden with netting to keep out the animals and birds. Some of these vegetables will show up on our guests' breakfast plates in savory dishes.I also harvested rhubarb this past weekend from one large plant and two smaller ones. It was washed, sliced, apportioned in plastic freezer bags, and frozen yielding enough to bake 28 Honey Rhubarb Walnut Breads as a starter for breakfast.The perennial flower gardens are lush this Spring with new plants coming up (that I didn't notice last year) and new plants that were put in last year quadrupling in size. The lupines (native flower) are blooming this week in colors of purple, coral, lavender, and white. The soil in NH is excellent for plant growth--rich, nearly black and fine-grained with a few stones large enough to be tossed aside easily. I've transplanted the abundance of some plants to other beds that needed to be filled in establishing more perennial gardens on our six acres. We are also allowing the indigenous flora blanket the ground under the pines and in the forest of sugar maples and oak trees. If you're curious about native NH plants, check out the UNH website: http://extension.unh.edu/resources/category/Home_and_Garden
