Indian Cigar Tree in Fall

I took these photos three weeks ago, long before my beloved Indian Cigar Tree (Catalpa) lost three big limbs in the wretched October Snowstorm last weekend.  He'll survive (it's a he) and will hopefully look somewhat normal again someday.  I couldn't actually bring myself to take a close look at the damage. 

I'm glad I took these photos of its final perfection, in the glow of the setting sun, while the leaves were turning yellow but not yet shriveled and brown.  Catalpas don't turn pretty colors like maples and oaks -- this is about as good as it gets.

I look forward to seeing his seed pods and fresh new leaves in the spring.

My Indian Cigar Tree in Summer

Summer is when my Indian Cigar Tree (Catalpa Tree) is in all its glory.  Its gigantic leaves grow on long stems, starting as tiny leaves and bursting forth into the biggest leaves I’ve ever seen on a deciduous tree.

And then there’s a magical week in June when the thing blooms.  All the other flowering trees bloomed months ago in April; you know the ones, the little pink, fluffy types that look pretty but make your eyes water and the back of your throat itch.  How odd for a deciduous tree of this size and stature to bloom so beautifully and in June. 

I missed capturing the blooms with my camera at their prime—I was probably off by only a day.  But you can see how striking the white blooms are up close with their yellow and purple throats.  They remind me of Foxglove blooms, another summertime favorite.

Soon I’ll have my Adirondack chairs beneath this tree to give you some perspective on the sheer size of my beloved Indian Cigar Tree. It’s an amazing behemoth, and beneath its leaves I feel like I’m in a shady room.



Gigantic Catalpa leaves in a quart-sized ball jar.



My tree is so inspiring to me that I’m patterning my June socks after it.  I’ll call them Catalpa.

Adventures in the Garden: Breaking Ground

A lot’s been going on in the garden this week, although you probably wouldn’t be able to tell by the looks of it.  Squeezing in time to get outside means doing things in short bursts, 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there.  This week I’m proud to have:

• bought supplies (with Nathan in tow)
• changed out my flat wheelbarrow wheel for a new one
• weeded my herb-turned-kitchen garden
• almost finished replacing the chicken-wire fencing on my kitchen garden with a nicer-looking wire fencing
• dug up, moved and replanted two Russian sage plants (they were big, and the work was sweaty)
• and taken down the deer fencing in the area that used to be my vegetable garden.

That last one was seriously hard work.  I hope I start losing weight soon!  With the help of my local tiller guy, this area will now be turned into a cutting garden, where I’ll plant zinnias, Mexican sunflowers and I’m not sure what else.  Maybe overflow herbs from the kitchen garden, but definitely not veggies.  Not with all these deer around and no fence.

Today the tiller guy tilled and my mom helped me cover my new cutting garden with black plastic to keep the weeds at bay:
 

The cutting garden is almost 300 square feet of plantable area.  I can't wait to see how many zinnias, Mexican sunflowers and hummingbird-attracting cleome plants I can cram in here from seed.

And my mom and I ripped out weeds, dug up wild raspberry bushes and pruned back dead branches in the spot under my Indian Cigar Tree, where I’ll plant a shade garden and host what I hope becomes a well-used and lovely sitting area:
 

I seriously regret not taking a “before” photo—this cleared area looks so much better than it did before.  I can already imagine the soothing space it will become once its planted.

Nathan is in the photo for scale.  It's a small area, but once the tree's leaves come in, I hope it'll have a room-type feel.  A baby-sized adirondack chair and a few adult-sized ones with a side table will make it complete.

The funny thing is, I don’t have one new plant to plant yet.  This is really odd for me for this time of year.  Usually I do things out of order and buy more plants than I know what to do with and before I’m quite ready to plant them.  This year, I’m trying harder to do things in the “right” order and am resisting the thrill of buying new plants at every turn.  Well, now I’m thoroughly ready for a thrill, and just in time for a special annual local plant sale on Saturday.  Going to the sale with my friend and her family has been a tradition for years—and I can’t wait to do it again this weekend.  Let the planting begin!!!!  Breaking new ground is so exciting.

New Leaves on My Indian Cigar Tree

It seems like it would be an oxy-moron to say that my Indian Cigar Tree (Catalpa tree) has tiny leaves, but it does.  I feel like I’ve been waiting so long for its leaves to appear!  This is the first year I’m attempting to document the states of this amazing tree; it provides the only patch of shade in my yard in summer.  (But that’s not the only reason it’s amazing—we’ll get to all those other reasons later.)

To see my Indian Cigar Tree in its early spring (okay, winter) state, check my first post about this tree and what we’ll do under all that coveted shade.  Here’s what it looks like now: tiny leaves are finally appearing!

One of the things that makes this tree so neat is that it doesn’t get buds in early spring like most other trees do—that and its strange-looking, bare (and few) branches make the tree look stark and dead in winter (and through the first half of spring, when everything else is coming to life).  Multiple leaves just poke right out of the end of the branch, which is why it doesn’t have very many tiny branches like maples and oaks do.

I know these shots aren’t all that exciting, but just wait until these tiny leaves become huge, like bigger than my head huge.  It’s gonna be amazing.  Beneath all of its shade I will grow my first-ever shade garden this year and create a sitting area for my family.  Stay tuned!