MME Featured Website: The Hobbit Gardener

Written by My Middle-earth (MME) member theViking.

Greetings free folk!  We are doing something a little different this time.  Instead of the usual writing and art (which there will be plenty more of) we are discussing something and dear to the hearts of many inhabitants of the Shire, gardening.  Now, as is well known, Vikings know next to nothing about gardening, so allow me to step aside and leave the talking to Isilwren Carnasir, also known as the Hobbit Gardener.

Viking: You mentioned on your blog that you have been in agriculture your whole life. Have you been a gardener all that time, or is it a more recent hobby?

Isilwren: Agriculture was something I was sort of forced into. I grew up in California where my dad has a large avocado farm he named, ”Weathering Heights Ranch” loosely based on the Charlotte Bronte novel. Every summer from the time I was 7 until I was 16 my weekends and summers were spent there doing various jobs. Often times my dad would send me out with a large can of white paint and instruct me to cover the tree trunks to prevent sunburn. That was always a tricky job since the trees were planted up in the mountains where the terrain could be steep. More then once I would end up being the one that got painted! Other times I’d be left in a field with a weeder to remove large thistles in the fields. Not the funnest job, but it allowed for lots of impromptu song and dance performances into the end of a weeder handle! Possibly my favorite job was learning how to graft different avocado trees to each other to create different varieties. I stopped working on the ranch when I was 16 but the lessons I learned carried over into how I garden today.

I had never been a gardener until my husband and I bought our house. The backyard had once had a lovely garden but it was in such bad shape that I couldn’t help but want to rework it. I’ve been at if for over ten years now.

Viking: How does one go about rejuvenating a piece of land to make it suitable for farming and gardening?

Isilwren: First and foremost, get the soil tested to see what kind of soil you have. Most nurseries can do this for you. I live in the Midwest where the soil has a high clay content. Plants don’t grow well it in it because their roots can’t move through it easily. To change the consistency I added lots of ground up leaves, cow manure, grass clippings, compost, and coffee grounds. About five years ago I built a compost bin next to my shed to keep the compost flowing. Adding the material, every year, cultivating it into the soil until the soil starts to become softer and more crumbly or until it has the nutrient content your plants need to survive. This is not an overnight process. Sometimes it takes years. This doesn’t mean planting is out of the question, but choose plants that will thrive in the soil as it is while it being amended.

Viking: As a gardener, how do you plan out your gardens?

Isilwren: It’s going to sound corny, but I let the ground tell me what shape each garden is going to be. For instance, in our front yard the previous owners had built the gardening beds so close to the house the plants had no breathing room. There was also a pattern to where the grass was not growing well. With shovel in hand I outlined the pattern until I had a much larger and rather curvy shape. After the shape was perfected I removed all the previous plants and started over. Many of the other gardens have been made the same way. I love very large and curvy flower beds where plants have plenty of room to breathe.

Viking: Do you plant roughly the same plants each year or do you play around with different themes and color combinations?

Isilwren: It is always changing. Gardening is full of experimenting – seeing what works, what doesn’t. For a long time I wanted a very traditional English garden but that sort of garden just doesn’t work well in the Midwest. Summers here can get really hot and dry for long periods of time. Most of my inspiration for what works in my garden actually came from taking strolls with my kids through the zoo. Our local zoo has wonderful landscaping which fits perfectly in our climate. Yarrows, catmint, grasses, Speedwell and a huge variety of herbs like oregano, mints, and thymes. Lately I’ve been moving more and more towards native plants as these tend to bring in lots of local songbirds. One garden is dedicated solely to plants butterflies like to eat in the caterpillar and butterfly stages. My kids have loved these gardens in particular because of the Monarchs and Swallowtails we’ve managed to attract.

There are some plants I will stay with because they work. Yarrow is one. It comes in so many colors that it is hard to get bored by it. Herbs are another I use a lot in my gardens but not so much for color as for smell. Sages can smell like pineapples, mints can smell like lemons or chocolate (yes, I said chocolate!) and oregano makes for a wonderful smell-good ground cover. Peonies also do very well in my garden. I have some that are more than 10 years old which bloom every year with large pink blossoms.

As for color, I tend to lean more towards whites, pinks and purples. I once vowed to never have any yellow or oranges in my garden, but I’ve since changed my tune when I saw how well those colors do next to purple. Also, there are some plants I’ve gotten not so much for flower color but for leaf color. Maples, Heurcheras, Burning Bush, even Cornus which leaves behind bright red twigs during the winter, thus named Arctic Fire or Cardinal because it looks like red flames flickering over the snow.

Viking: Is there anything in particular in your gardens, the layout or the specific plants that are influenced by your love of Tolkien and Middle-Earth?

Isilwren: Nothing that I’ve actually meant to be Tolkien in appearance, although I do have fun with some of the plant names. Elfin thyme, Eryngium ’Blue Hobbit’, Echinacea ’White Swan’ or plants with the name ”dragon” or ”dwarf” in them. My favorite moments in the garden are when my husband practices his flute on the back patio. He learned the Hobbit theme from the movies and will often play it for me while I’m working. Occasionally I will garden barefoot too.

Viking: And finally, how is your clematis growing?

Isilwren: Ha ha! Well, it is still March and they are only showing signs of flower buds – but they are growing very well, thank you.

And there you have it.  As you can see, Isilwren clearly knows her stuff so if you are interested in gardening at all, or just enjoy pictures of beautiful flora coming to life be sure to visit her blog.

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