Whole Life Gardening

A Gardening Life – May 12

As I walk around my garden on this Mother’s Day I count my blessings and know that so many of them have come to me from my mother. Some of my abilities are inherited from her and are undoubtedly genetic, but it took the greenhouse of her care to allow those traits to grow and flower.

“I want to make something…what can I use to make something?” I used to repeatedly ask as a child. She would come up with paper to draw on, macaroni to color and string, and shoeboxes for dioramas. Once she gave me her sanitary napkins to take apart and use for snow in the miniature village I was constructing.

One of the biggest gifts my mother gave her children was the love of books and language. When we were small she read books to us aloud, delighting herself in the rhythms and rhymes of A.A. Milne’s poems or Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. “Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees…” she read, and we both could picture the lush and slimy waterway.

I’m so grateful that my mother gave her children such freedom in the outdoors. Kids had the run of the neighborhoods at that time and it was wonderful to be allowed to make our fun in the bower of the bushes and the canopies of trees.

My mother passed along her love of plants and nature and nurtured my creativity and appreciation for the written word. Although she can no longer travel to see what I’m growing, Mom is with me in my gardens, this morning and always. She is largely responsible for my ability to create beautiful landscapes and the desire to write about them.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom…with appreciation and love.

My mother's apartment in assisted living is filled with plants. She still takes pleasure in the things that are important: nurturing life, family, and nature. When her door is open those that pass by delight in the greenhouse atmosphere as well. I am so grateful to the staff at Emeritus at Oakridge, where my mother lives, for acknowledging the importance of Mom's plants and for valuing who she is as I do.

May 12th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, Life's Gardens, my gardens | Comments (4)

A Gardening Life – May 8

Nearly all of my consultation clients want more color in their landscapes and who can blame them. Nature’s neutral is the color green…a lovely hue but so ubiquitous that we take it granted as the background of our lives. Green is the perfect setting for all the other colors of flowers and foliage that delight hearts and lift moods at this time of year. Spring color is a garden necessity.

If you have a slope, you must plant creeping phlox. In my front garden it pairs well with Sedum 'Angelina' and the marvelous Cool Wave pansies.

If you don't have much space for a large tree, consider an Autumn Moon full moon maple. Yes, this is the color of the new foliage in early spring. These grow only 8 to 12 feet tall and about 8 feet wide. When the morning or late afternoon sun shines through this foliage you just can't be in a bad mood. Full good mood maple, they should call it.

My perennial garden gets more colorful every day. The bright yellow leaves of Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' (far right) echo the foliage color of Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' (bottom left and in the background). And although it's kind of a weed, I can't help but love my variegated Lunaria. The white splashing on the leaves almost outshines the purple flowers.

I am drunk on spring color.

May 8th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, plants I love | Comments (4)

A Gardening Life – May 4

As I walk around my early-May landscape it is a lesson in the attitude of gratitude. Every square foot of land contains a blessing, but only if I have the right approach to receive it. The spring garden is the perfect place to practice a capacity for appreciation and the ability to control our outlook.

The seasons alone cultivate the facility to find joy in the smallest things. After a winter of landscape dormancy that can easily bleed over into our daily lives, the tiniest signs of growth and the smallest flowers are treasured beyond measure. The bright and bold yellow of Forsythia that might be viewed as garish in July is cherished and celebrated in the springtime. Tiny sprouts that will be overlooked later in the summer prompt cries of delight in May. After months of inactivity the smallest signs of growth are cause for rejoicing.

My friend Chris H. and I emailed today that we were both plant crazed at present, and delighted to be so. It is the time of year when hope, faith and fulfillment collide. Yet is also the season for adaptation and acceptance. There are plants that have been damaged in the winter, forever altered by snow, cold or wind. Some are disfigured and others have died. In the face of this loss we are once again challenged to find tolerance and acclimation…we acknowledge our losses while finding reasons to plant again and move forward.

Once we move to that place of recognition and appreciation it isn’t that our losses and burdens have disappeared. They are just lifted…pushed up and held by the awareness and joy of renewal. I suggest that a close connection with Nature and the land, along with the willingness to plant and tend a garden, is an excellent way to grow gratitude.

This early spring landscape contains it all: flowers, vibrant color, fresh and tender growth, and dead plants. (See the patch of twigs among the daffodils? Three dead Potentilla.) There are also numerous weeds, my yard being the Chickweed Captial of the Northeast right now. There are also tiny seedlings of prized biennials, not to mention a swirlling chorus of birds. My cup runneth over.

Sharing The Wealth
Keeping Spring Sanity

• Tackle garden chores a small section at a time. If you think that everything has to be done right away you’ll be overwhelmed and go indoors to eat ice cream. Take pleasure in what you’re able to do even in ten short minutes.
• Don’t ever think that gardening is linier. You’ll never finish one thing completely before you go on to another…gardens (and life) don’t work that way. You might get one bed weeded and some containers planted, but there will always be other areas to pull weeds and other things to plant. This is OK.
• Take every opportunity to walk slowly though the landscape looking for the tiniest of changes. Do this not with a mindset that you need to do something about what you see…walk with an intention of appreciating what is there. What colors do you see? What fragrances do you smell? What sounds do you hear?

May 3rd, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, You Can Grow That! | Comments (2)

A Gardening Life – April 29

I had a crack team of Master Gardeners in my garden today. We were digging up perennial plants and potting them for the Master Gardener Plant sale on May 18^th.

Perennial gardeners have to be good editors. Some plants spread, and others die out in the center of clumps and need to be divided in order to renew their vigor. Unless you have a meadow-style garden, the worst thing you can do is to let perennial plants grow unchecked.

We dug dozens of plants today, and I found myself repeatedly saying, “It’s a good plant.” Just because a plant needs occasional attention and isn’t totally low-maintenance doesn’t mean that it’s not desirable. There are many perennials that are wonderful assets in the garden but they can’t be left to their own devices. Some self-seed and others have wanderlust. There comes a point when the expression “too much of a good thing” applies to many sections of the perennial garden.

In all areas of our lives we are constantly working to keep things in balance. We aim for a degree of equilibrium when it comes to juggling work and home life, exercise and rest, healthy food and occasional indulgences. It’s important to bring that same quest for balance into the garden. Constant evaluation and a controlling hand are important.

In the lakeside border I had several patches of Campanula poscharskyana, aka Serbian bell flower, seen here at the bottom of the photo. I love this plant because the low, bright green foliage looks attractive all season before and after bloom. But it does spread, and just because I love small groups of it in the front of the border doesn't mean that I would love it to dominate this garden.

Sharing the Wealth
Dividing Perennials

• Divide a perennial if the plant starts to form a donut shape with an empty middle. Replant pieces from the outer most growth, and throw the center into the compost pile.
• Divide any perennial that more than doubles its growth every year. These are eager beavers who would just as soon take over your entire garden and they need tough love.
• Edit out perennials that spread so much that there is a great deal of empty space in between their shoots. This type of thin growth allows weeds to get established in the spaces. Don’t hesitate to pull random shoots and consolidate several into a more compressed area.
• When any plant grows completely out of proportion to its neighbors this can throw the garden design out of whack. Just because that perennial wants all the attention, land, nutrients, and water for itself doesn’t mean you have to allow it.
• If you edit or divide a plant this doesn’t mean you have to replant what you dig out or pull. Remember that every piece you put back in the ground will need to be divided again in a few years…do you really want to make more work for yourself in the future just because you couldn’t stand the thought of throwing a plant away?
• If you can’t bring yourself to toss extra plants in the compost, think about donating them. Many non-profits hold plant sales to raise funds, and your extras just might be their salvation.

April 29th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, my gardens, Perennial Maintenance | Leave a comment

A Gardening Life – April 26

Sometimes we plant in our gardens treating the existing objects, plants and features as if they have to be there. Just because there was a raised bed in that area doesn’t mean it has to stay and that you have to continue to fill it with plants. Just because there was a shrub border or island planting there doesn’t mean that you need to keep that bed or border in the same place. When designing in the yard and garden it’s helpful to carry along a mental eraser and a willingness to think that anything can be changed.

All of these plants would have been much more attractive if arranged in a larger space without the raised bed. The only reason that they were planted here is because the raised bed already existed in that spot.

April 26th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life | Leave a comment

Just sayin'

April 24th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, As I See It | Comments (1)

Arborvitaes are multi-stemmed plants so when heavy, wet snow falls sticks to the foliage these stems are pulled apart. What used to be a slim, green plant suddenly resembles the Wizard of Oz scarecrow pointing in two directions. “Of course, some people go both ways.”

Such split arborvitae stems can become permanently bent and the plants inner, bare branches perpetually exposed. So it’s understandable that gardeners and homeowners want to fix these snow damaged plants as quickly as possible. But sometimes the repair does more harm than good. Eager to help, many people tie or bind these stems too tightly. These ties don’t allow for growth over time and their restoration job ends up strangling the trunks as the plant gets larger.

Foam covered wire to the rescue. This product is stiff enough to bend around a stem without knotting so that the tie can expand as the plant grows. The soft wire won’t dig into the plant tissues and a spiral can be fashioned around Arborvitae stems that pulls the plant back together firmly, without damaging it.

I had five Arborvitaes that had splayed open stems after this winter's storms.

Here is the foam covered wire I used. I cut it with my Fiskars titanium scissors, but you could use wire cutters as well.

I wrapped the end around one stem but didn't close the wire on the stem or around itself. This allows the wire to expand as the stem grows.

Next I wound the four feet of coated wire up the inside of the plant, making a spiral. I worked the wire so that it gathered all the stems in that spiral but not the foliage so from the outside you can't see this support.

Bent branches are no longer pointing in two directions, yet all are free to move and grow.

April 21st, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, products I love | Comments (4)

A Gardening Life – April 14

Every year in the early spring I fall in love with Anemone blanda. “I should plant more of these,” I say to myself. The intense purplish blue flowers would be appreciated any month that they might open in the garden, but they are especially valued in April when flowers aren’t very abundant.

This Anemone, also called Grecian windflower, is usually sold as tubers in the fall. The plants spread and sometimes self-sow, and later in the spring they go dormant and disappear. This is the problem when it comes to buying and planting more Anemones. Not only is it an “out of sight, out of mind” situation, and I forget to buy new tubers, but I also forget where additional plants should be located.

Perhaps the solution is to map out and write down such future plantings now. “Place more A. blanda to the left of the daylilies that are in front of the climbing rose,” for example. A reasonable strategy, certainly, but one that I’m not likely to follow up on.

It’s spring, and there are peas to plant, clumps of Carex to cut down, and the seemingly ever-present oak leaves to rake out of the perennial beds. Anemone blanda makes me smile as I tend to spring plantings and cleanups.

Do I appreciate this windflower any less because there isn’t a garden filled with purple blue flowers? Not at all. Perhaps this plant is the early spring equivalent of love or ice cream…you can always use more, but it’s also completely satisfying to just appreciate what you have.

April 14th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, plants I love | Leave a comment

Which version do you think is true?

A Gardening Day – Version #1

I want to get the Carex ‘Evergold’ transplanted so I go to the tool rack where the shovels are hung. They are shiny and clean from the scrubbing and oiling we gave them last fall. I take one down and move the Carex, opening the shed when I leave so that the seedlings won’t get too warm.

After these grasses are transplanted I return to where they were located and dig composted manure into the area so that the dwarf conifer I plant there will have an easier time getting established. Once that is in the ground I water the Carex and the conifer.

Next I decide to weed in the fragrance garden where some winter weeds are flourishing. I take my Cobra Head Weeder into the bed and make short work of pulling these unwanted plants. The Dog watches from where he’s settled in the shade.

Finally I water the Red Head Pennisetum that I transplanted last week, return the shovel to it’s rack, close the shed so that the seedlings wouldn’t get too cool tonight, and emptied the bucket of weeds onto the compost pile.

A Gardening Day – Version #2

I have about two hours of unscheduled time on this beautiful day…time to transplant the Carex that has just sulked, refusing to grow, for the past five years. Now where is that shovel? I thought I last saw it in the garage, but maybe it’s outside where the snow shovels still lean against the back door. No such luck…the shed?

After finding the shovel in the shed, where it’s still caked with dirt from last fall’s transplanting session, I head to the Carex. But before I get there I encounter the piles of composted manure I asked my husband to dump on the slope above where the ‘Evergold’ are planted. Might as well use the shovel to spread these piles around a bit. Finally I get to the Carex and move it to a new location.

After digging manure into the area where the grasses used to be I plant a dwarf conifer here. In the process I unearth two perennials I planted last fall…they have barely broken dormancy so I didn’t realize that I was digging in a place where something was already growing.

After replanting these perennials I go to get the watering can to water all these plants in, and while the water fills the can I notice that the plastic covering is still on the window well next to the water spicket. I hate how this cover looks…it’s got to go. So I turn off the water, and remove the ugly blocks that are holding the cover in place. After stacking these to the side I carry the cover into the garage.

Once in the garage I decide to look for the Cobra Head Weeder so that after I finish watering the transplants I can attack the winter weeds in the fragrance garden. I can’t find this favorite tool so I grab a trowel.

Before going back to the watering can I head up to the shed to check on the seedlings. It’s too warm inside so I open a window and both doors, making a mental note to close these later in the afternoon so that some warmth will be held for the night.

After dropping the trowel near the weeds I take the can over to the Carex and water the grasses and the newly planted conifer. At this point The Dog notices the wild turkeys down near the lake and takes off barking, despite my yelling and commands to stop.

Once The Dog is close to the water it makes sense to him to run the rest of the way and take a cooling plunge. The ducks that have paused in our lake on their trip north are outraged at his intrusion, but The Dog is the definition of satisfied.

After toweling off the dog I return to the garden and dig the weeds, missing my Cobra Head Weeder. It bothers me that I’m turning more of the soil surface than I need to because in doing so I am bringing more weed seeds up to the light. At the same time that I’m a weed terminator, I’m also a weed germinator.

I empty my bucket in the compost pile but can’t find where I put down the trowel. Circling the house I look for the trowel and try to remember where I put the watering can as well. I need to water the recently transplanted Red Head fountain grass. The Cool Wave Pansies that I planted last fall draw my attention so I go into the house to find my camera and take some pictures. They have sailed through the long, cold winter and are starting to bloom and grow.

Once the photos are taken I water the Red Head and go indoors. At 9 PM, when I sit down to write this blog post I remember that I’ve left the shed wide open.

The Cool Wave pansies did catch my eye...all that I planted lived and they are not only flowering but starting to spread...I'll share photos of how they look later in May if you'll help me find my trowel and Cobra Head weeder.

April 8th, 2013 | Category: A Gardening Life, my gardens | Comments (7)