Boletus edulis, the prized porcino

On 9/17 and 9/20, Bill Bakaitis will be giving a two part class on Mushroom Identification at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York.

The program is for students and members of the campus community, but there is usually room for a few visitors as well. If you would like to be one of them, contact Jay Stein (845) 451-1793 or  j_stein@culinary.edu.

Talks coming up at each end of the summer.

June 26, 6:30PM, Thomaston Public Library, Thomaston, Maine,  Art in the Environment lecture series:

Your Own Private Environment: At Home in the Garden

A lot of what matters inside matters outside too: a comfortable flow of traffic from place to place,  plenty of light, individual personality in the décor department and of course a terrific kitchen (aka vegetables). I never know until the last minute, but it’s safe to say I’ll be discussing basic cottage garden design; integrating food plants with ornamentals; and durable garden embellishments from homemade twig arches to antique urns. 

September 12 - 14 Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay , Maine

 Maine Fare  - The 3rd annual get-together focussed on Maine Food:  tastings, marketplace, workshops, demos, talks and a couple of very special meals. As usual, I’ll be holding forth on eating locally in a cold climate and demonstrating tasty strategies that make it easy to do. As usual, that’s all I know right now. Please check the Maine Fare Website frequently for detailed updates on the whole weekend’s offerings.

Update: Mainefare for this year has been cancelled, but that doesn’t change the “please check the website” part. Planners tell me they are doing this in order to make 09 even more wnderful and there are rumors of interesting sub-events to still be held this fall.

Bunch of Dahlias:

Bunch of talk about food gardening

with Sally Spillane on The Garden Show

Sunday January 13 at 8AM

on radio staion WKZE

98.1 on the dial in the Hudson Valley. Here on the computer everywhere else (but not everywhen else; it’s live broadcast only)

July 12 - 15, Rockland Maine : Maine Gardens, Nature and Design –

A celebration of Maine gardens, gardening, gardens in art, landscape design, flower-arranging, talks, photo-workshops, a garden fair and more (much more). Assorted large names including Patrick Chasse, Page Dickey, Nancy Harmon Jenkins and Tovah Martin. I’ll be talking about “ The Writer in the Garden” on Saturday morning. Schedule and ticket details here.

August 23 - 26, Moodus, Connecticut: 2007 Clark Rogerson Foray
( not me, Bill, but he doesn’t have a website)

The Connecticut-Westchester Mycological Association’s annual big foray. Three days of walking around in beautiful parks, looking for and collecting mushrooms. Three evenings of learning what those mushrooms are – and eating the ones that are safe and delicious. Full description and reservation form here. Schedule still being set up, but we know Bill Bakaitis will be giving a talk on boletes (porcini are probably the best-known boletes, in case you were wondering).

September 14 – 16, Camden, Maine: Maine Fare

The second annual food-lovers’ extravaganza , showcasing Maine’s incredible bounty and unique culinary identity : tastings, seminars, cooking classes and demonstrations, a marketplace filled with local products and a gala opening benefit for The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, a powerhouse of support for sustainable agriculture (among their many services, an incredibly useful website).

Mainefare.com is still under re-construction but you can get a taste of it here. Schedule also under construction so all I know at this point is that I’ll be talking – and cooking! – on the subject of “Putting Food By – the key to eating well locally when the locale has a long hard winter.”

October 11, Bangor Maine: The Maine Herb Society

Illustrated talk , probably about herbs (although you never know). Details coming presently.

June 19-22, 2007. Hudson Valley garden highlights from Olana to Manitoga, and of course near neighbor Innisfree,

with a couple of spiffy private places to leaven the mix ( and plenty of the Hudson Valley’s great food, to fuel all that walking) . Full details from the tour’s sponsor, the Wellesley Friends of Horticulture.

in a cast iron urn on garden tour day.

Thunbergia grandiflora is the blue flowered vine,     Melianthus major ‘Purple Haze’ is the plant with the   toothy leaves. Please scroll down or hit coming attractions for a plant list –and write if you’re curious about something you saw that’s not there.

(Please scroll down or click at right for coming attractions)

Upper garden, as you enter from the field:

Blue-purple spike flowers around right edge are Salvia transylvanica

Cobalt blue flowers are Salvia patens

Blue flowers with balck calyces are Salvia Guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’

Shrubs with gray foliage and long thorns are sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides

Foamy yellow flowers w/blue leaves are Thalictrum flavum ssp glaucum (yellow meadow rue)

Large vines framing greenhouse door are hardy kiwis (that refuse to bloom at the same time so I never get any fruit)

In iron urn opposite stone wall:
Vine with lavender-blue flowers is Thunbergia grandiflora
Sawtooth-leaves are Melianthus major ‘Purple Haze’

Big seed head is Star of Persia ( Allium christophii)

Giant hosta is ‘Sum and Substance’

Plant with long, narrow purple bells is Iochroma cyaneum ‘Royal Blue’ ( which only goes to show you)

Vine with purple flowers in clay pot is Asarina scandens

Plant in iron urn in front of lilac is Brilliantaisia subulugarica

All hollyhocks (including the dark magenta ones) are self-sown great-grandchildren of a yellow Alcea ficifolia

Vines in front of greenhouse:

Orange daisy-flowers: Senecio confusis ‘San Paulo’

Orange/pink/white flowers all together : Mina lobata ( Spanish flag)

Bright red trumpets: Ipomoea quamoclit ( Cypress vine)

Salvia w/yellow and purple flowers ( almost done) is S. bulleyana

Plant with long deep purple spikes (on right, in front of holyhocks) is a butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii ‘Black Knight’
Poppies by path on left are self-sown annual shirleys ( P. rhoeas). On right, a perennial sold to me as P. alpinum but I don’t think it is.

The red coleus is ‘Kingswood Torch’

The purple-brown grassy-looking thing is ornamental millet, ‘Purple Majesty’

Dark green leaves on black stems are Alocasia , cultivar name lost ( there are much larger ones in the white garden)

The orange Turk’s cap lilies are L. davidii

The yellow coneflower is E. ‘Big Sky Sunrise’

The yellow flowered bush at the very back (on the road side) is a heliopsis, cultivar name forgotten

White garden:

Vines on the entry arch are
Clematis virginiana (virgin’s bower) and
Lathyrus latifolius ‘White Pearl’

Plant in the middle with big white trumpets is a brugmansia

Low rosettes of big silvery leaves are Salvia argentea ( silver sage)

Striped Euphorbia ( ball on a stem) : ‘Tasmanian Tiger’

Tall stems with seed heads, Allium giganteum ‘White Giant’

Striped red and white rose is ‘Scentimental’

plant with tuft on top that looks like a pineapple is Eucomis bicolor (pineapple lily) There are other eucomis beside the path – including one with purple leaves - which have not yet bloomed.

Dark green leaves on black stems are Alocasia , cultivar name lost

Fragrant shrub near the path end, Aloysia triphylla (lemon verbena)

The hedge is Hydrangea tardiva

In windowbox:
the big tree is Acnistus australis. It has purple-blue flowers when it gets sun in spring.
The thing that looks like a little palm tree ( sort-of) is a begonia

In bathtub, vine with orange and yellow flowers is a leggy Abutilon megapotamicum that isn’t getting enough sun.

Lower garden:

Pink and yellow border - inspired by the Minton bowl in the picture posted underneath the birch

Pink cotton candy is Filipendula rubra (queen of the prairie)
Yellow scabiosa on steroids is Cephalaria gigantea

Large shrub at end is a golden elderberry, Sambucus nigra ‘Aurea’

Small shrub in center with long yellow leaves is a sumac, Rhus typhina ‘ Tiger eyes’

Annuals:

Purple brown trumpets in front are salpiglossis ‘Chocolate’

Self-sowns on left are calendula ( grandchildren of ‘Pink Surprise’); Bupleurum rotundifolium ( no common name that I know of), blue nigella (love in a mist) , silene (the screaming pink), and larkspur ‘Blue Cloud’.

Single cosmos are ‘Psyche, ‘ doubles are ‘Doubleclick’

Special thanks to assistant/garden-helper/friend Kristi Niedermann, without whom this garden could not exist.

July 12: Benefit Luncheon Garden Party with Don and Patrisha McLean

At “Lakeview,” their Camden home. Starts at 12:30 with Champagne, appetizers and stroll through the organic gardens full of heirloom roses. Includes lunch and a talk by Eric Rector, former president of MOFGA, and ends with a 3 o’clock Q&A session presided over by yrs. truly.

$75.00 donation, for the Castine Historical Society. Space limited. (207) 326-4118 or on the net.

July 16: Georges River Land Trust Garden Tour

The 15th anniversary tour, 10 AM to 5 PM rain or shine. Eight gardens , including mine. Tickets $20.00 in advance, 22 bucks the day of the tour. Details through the Trust: (207) 594 – 5166 or on the net.

September 15-17: Maine Fare

A 3 day celebration of all things downeast and delicious , with a gala tasting, a food vendors’ marketplace, cooking demonstrations and assorted talks, including a panel discussion ( led by moi) on   Eating Local in a Cold Climate. Information at 207 236 8895 or on the net at mainefare.com.