Today’s post is a melange of photos.
One and two were taken at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. We had relatives visiting from the Portland area and this was a great way to introduce them to the history and culture of the Chesapeake.
I’ve been wanting to include some specific photos from the museum gardens. The one below was a project of a St. Michaels High School student who, several years ago, received a grant to install a butterfly garden. This photo shows just a piece of it. I saw my first Monarch butterfly of the season there this week, but it declined to be in my picture.
2. There are two relocated dwellings at the museum which demonstrate the types of houses common on the shore in the 1700’s. It is important to remember that until the Bay Bridge was opened in July, 1952, the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake was isolated, only accessed from the Baltimore area by boat or a long drive around the top of the bay and down through Delaware.
The house on the left in the photo below is the Mitchell House and was once the home of Eliza Bailey Mitchell, the sister of abolitionist Frederick Douglas. A former slave, Eliza and her free black husband, Peter, lived in this house and worked nearby on Perry Cabin Farm.
The log house on the right is a humble farm cabin, once common throughout rural Chesapeake. This dwelling served as the tenant farming house for Albert and Henrietta Wilson and their eight children for most of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although small, this log cabin provided the basic essentials – a hearth for cooking, a table for gathering, and a dry, warm place to sleep at night.
My friend, Roger Galvin, designed raised garden beds to illustrate the types of food crops which would have been grown around houses like this in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The paths between the beds are oyster shells.
3. Now back to my back yard. Several crepe myrtles that were planted when small are now tall and really blooming for the first time. This is one of two that I rescued from someone’s trash. The home owner had put them out for the garbage men to take. They seemed healthy enough so I brought them home. That was probably eight years ago. (I’m a patient gardener.) It may have helped that one of the compost bins feeds the roots.
4. One of my leaf castings sits on the deck. I keep a little water in it for the butterflies. The crepe myrtle in the bottom of that picture is growing from the roots of one I moved. Obviously I didn’t get it all. I don’t mind it there as long as I can keep it short.
5. The garden that is going to get an overhaul this fall doesn’t look so back from this angle. Soaker hoses are connected to my four rain barrels that collect rain from the shed roof. This area is under water when we have heavy rains and dries out to concrete when we don’t have rain.
6. A big job this fall is to remove this multiple trunked river birch. For a number of years I had it topped to keep it in scale with my house and to maintain a weeping look. I suppose I could have it trimmed to get a couple more years out of it, but I have several other small trees that will fill in when the birch is gone. The other trash rescued crepe mytle is one of those trees. You can see it blooming behind the right side of the birch. At the left side of that bed I have a flowering cherry. The area may look slightly bare for a couple of years, but, as I said, I’m patient.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my Six on Saturday. The gardens are slowing down but the asters and golden rod are still to come.
I love your leaf ceramic, Mala. A lovely idea to leave it out for the butterflies to drink. Your garden is looking lush too.
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I need to put some small stones in the leaf. Apparently the butterflies like something to perch on.
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This leaf ceramic is beautiful and also useful for bees I guess. I liked your crepe myrtles. Mine is red but still young (5 yo). I like their bark as much as their “vaporous” blooming
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The exfoliating bark is wonderful. The one that is coming up from the roots of a plant I moved is very shrub like which is perfect for that spot. It is the most red one of my crepe myrtles.
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Glad you rescued the crepe myrtle, it looks so pretty.
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Love your post. Takes me back to fond memories years ago when exploring the eastern shore. I used to live in Baltimore and St. Michael’s was such a fun place to visit and I loved Oxford too. Miss the crape myrtles – they wouldn’t survive here in the cold winters of Ohio. Thanks for taking me down memory lane.
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When we lived on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake I couldn’t grow crepe myrtles. We were in a valley with a cold micro climate. I’m thrilled they thrive here.
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Did you make your own leaf casting? It’s lovely. Pebbles, yes. It keeps insects from drowning. Your garden’s looking well & the myrtles are gorgeous. What a lucky trash find. The museum bit was so interesting, too. Can you imagine 10 people living in that little cabin?
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I can’t imagine 20 people in that small cabin either, but that was life back then. We are spoiled. I did make the leaf casting last summer when I spent most weekends showing other people how to make them.
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Crepe myrtles are such wonderful plants, so hardy and yet floriferous as well. The colour of the one by your steps is gorgeous. Goodness, how did all those people sleep in that little cabin? They must have needed to take shifts!
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I suppose it was worse in the winter. In the summer people could have slept outside.
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That house in picture #2 is excellent! Such architecture is very rare in California. I designed my home (which was never built) with Early American architecture because of the simplicity. (Ranch architecture is not very adaptable to small buildings, and tends to collect debris on the low pitched and complicated roofs.) The Tomeo House is a historic museum in Lousiville near Denver that also happens to be of Early American architecture. The Denver area seems like an odd place for such a home, but there it is.
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What a fabulous story to have saved your crepe myrtle from the bin and for it to bloom so wonderfully for you now!
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My best bin rescue was an oriental rug that a dealer told me (when I had it cleaned) was worth $1500. I think the owners had let the dogs sleep on it. It is in my kitchen.
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The myrtle is rightly popular with everyone. It’s not one I know so more learning for me. And the leaf casting is just perfect, I’d love to source one for here. Very interested to hear that you are running a soak hose from your water barrels. It’s on my to do list but I wasn’t sure if there would be enough pressure. Is it a special soak hose? !
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Just a regular soak hose, but my rain barrels are elevated on cement blocks so there is some gravity. Leaf castings are pretty easy to make. Lots of youtube videos on how to do it.
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