Playing With Blocks

Sometimes you just never grow up. When I was a kid one of my favorite toys was Legos. My brother and I would build all kinds of contraptions from buildings to vehicles. Even today I still play with toy building blocks with my kids but there is a different sort of block that I like to use in the garden: concrete/cement. Concrete and cement blocks are very handy in the garden whether you want a retaining wall, a patio, or just a few well placed stepping stones. You can always make your own too with a bag of cement and a nicely shaped form.

In my garden I've used several kinds of concrete blocks for different purposes. I prefer natural stone whenever I can get it for things like stepping stones but concrete works in a pinch.


Here is how I've used blocks in the garden:

As Stepping Stones


These blocks are actually retaining wall caps that we used during the Arbor Project for BHG last year. Soon I'll move them to use as additional flooring material in the greenhouse. I want to replace them with some homemade stepping stones of a different design. Larger stepping stones will work better here.

As a Retaining Wall/Raised Bed

These large and heavy blocks were used to build the area up a little around the arbor. They also add a little presence to the pathway.

The raised bed around the patio garden is made also constructed with retaining wall blocks. The blocks are heavy but can be arranged into curves which makes them good for ornamental gardens or creative vegetable garden designs.

As Lawn Mower Treads

In order to create a good resting location for my riding lawnmower I used some very cheap 8"x16" concrete cap stones to make treads going into the greenhouse shed. Of course this also means a significant event has occurred...THE LAWN MOWER IS OUT OF THE GARAGE! I'm sorry...please excuse this brief moment of exuberance!

As a Patio

The patio was one of the first big projects we did here in our landscape. It's a porous patio where the water can move between the cracks.  Underneath the stones the base is made from gravel and sand. My best advice when building a patio of your own is to make sure you dig the area out sufficiently enough to spread a good layer of base material. There were a few spots that needed dug out more as we went which slowed down the process and was pretty frustrating but I'm happy with the results.

Garden Blogger Assignment:

Write about how you have used blocks in the garden! You have two weeks (March 14th) to write about blocks in the garden or this post will self-destruct...um...not really. (The due dates are just general guidelines, if you would like to post about one of the earlier assignments you are more than welcome to and I'll add a link into that assignment to your blog post.) Have fun playing with your blocks, I know I do!

Completed Assignments:

Tina at In The Garden: Stone in The Garden

Hiding Spent Foliage

I like daffodils and tulips, but you know their foliage just isn't much to get excited about. Once the flowers are done we all know the best thing to do is to cut back the flower stems to prevent them from going to seed (unless you are hybridizing or want to collect the seed) and leave the foliage to absorb the suns rays. So what do you do with that mess of foliage? Can you stand it? Often gardeners get tired of looking at it and cut the foliage back while risking reduced vigor the following year in the process. I prefer to think about plants that help to hide or disguise the unsightly foliage.

In this picture you can see the daffodils I have in my front garden. To hide the daffodil foliage, or disguise them rather, I have a couple other perennials that will come to the forefront. In May the bed becomes filled with the purple flowers of salvia and the yellow blooms of daylilies. My tulips, which are in the sidewalk garden, don't have much to disguise their foliage but I leave the leaves to die back on their own anyway. I've been able to maintain a reliable display of tulips this way. Last year I planted lantana among them but it won't return here - at least not without help from the gardener. 

What perennials do you think make a good sequential planting for bulb flowers to help hide the foliage?

What's The Best Mulch?

In posting yesterday about my mulch (that I got for $1.34 per 2 cubic foot bag) several people left comments about what mulch they like to use. I thought that maybe today it might be good to take a look at the types of mulch and what's good about each one. The main purpose behind any mulch is to retain moisture in the soil for plants to utilize.

Hardwood Mulch
The mulch I use the most is regular brown hardwood mulch. I usually get it in bulk from a local bulk landscaping supply company because it's usually cheaper in bulk than in the bag. Generally I pay about $30 per yard which is 27 cubic feet. The brown mulch looks good and lasts through each season and then some. It's an organic mulch which gradually decomposes and feeds the soil.

Pine Mulch

Pine Mulch by the bag

The bags of mulch I picked up this weekend were filled with pine mulch. It breaks down a little faster than the hardwood mulch.

Pine Straw
Pine straw is just pine needles. Pine straw usually comes in bales and is very inexpensive. It's even cheaper if you happen to live in areas with pine trees! Over the course of many years it can acidify your soil - slightly. It makes good cover for azaleas, blueberries, and other acid loving plants but really won't effect other soils significantly unless you had very heavy acid soil to begin with. There are two good advantages to pine needles - it's cheap and easy to spread!

Straw
Straw works great on vegetable gardens and decomposes fast to enrich the soil. It's also fairly inexpensive and sold by the bale.


Rock, Stone, and Gravel
This is probably the most expensive of the mulches but it will probably outlast the gardener! I'm not a big fan of rock mulch because is doesn't feed the soil. If the rocks are in a sunny location they will heat up the area more during the day creating a warmer micro-climate. That may be good if you live in cooler regions but for Tennessee it's not necessary. I'd rather save the rocks for use in borders and dry creek beds.

Grass Clippings
I have a push lawnmower with a bag attachment that I use all the time to collect grass clippings. The clippings decompose fast, feed the soil, and keep the moisture underneath. My favorite use for grass clippings other than the compost bin is to start new beds with heavy layers of grass. A 3-5 inch layer of grass will completely kill off the grass and weeds I cover with it. A layer of newspapers underneath is a good insurance policy against a few highly determined weeds creeping through. When the grass decomposes I have a soft soil to begin a new bed with a more attractive type of mulch.

Leaves
In the fall I collect leaves everywhere I can, chop them up with the bagger mower (which inevitably fills with a mixture of leaves and grass clippings) then spread them anywhere that needs more mulch. Around trees, over garden beds, in the vegetable garden, or anywhere else - it works great! Just be careful if you have black walnut trees since the leaves contain a chemical that retards plant growth.

Questions for Garden Bloggers:
In a post on your blog write about your favorite mulch! Why do you like it? Where do you put it? Share a little Mulch Madness with us. Any blogger posting about your mulch mayhem will get linked to in this post with the appropriate mulch!

Catching Up!

I thought I would put together a catch up post for anyone who might have missed the past Garden Blogger Assignments. You are welcome to write about any of the past assignments over the last several weeks. I won't be putting together a new assignment until next Sunday so please enjoy taking a look back at what some of the participants had to say about the gardening topics below.

Week 1 How to Add Magic To The Garden
Week 2 5 Things in The Garden
Week 3 Putting Things Off
Week 4 Playing With Blocks
Week 5 Four Favorite Plants

Edit:  This post was meant to run earlier in the day but the auto-post feature on Blogger seems to be a little iffy.

Four Favorite Plants

I've seen many posts around the garden blogosphere about signature plants. That's a hard one for me because there are so many plants I like and every year I find a new one that seems to be the best of the best. Picking one plant from the hundreds of thousands of possibilities really seems futile. So rather than talk about signature plants why not just mention some favorites?  These aren't my most favorite plants, since I'm declining to pick one favorite, but they are definitely plants I think are very worthwhile to plant in the garden!

A Favorite Annual

While I could go with the old standard of coleus (which I plant every year because coleus is cool!) I'm going to mention Persian Shield or Strobinlanthus dyerianus. Its foliage is a blend of green, purple, and silver hues. Here in Tennessee it's an annual but in areas further south it can be perennial. I've been overwinter cuttings of it to plant this spring and they are very ready to see the outdoors again!

A Favorite Perennial

While one of my favorites is salvia and another is 'Powis Castle' artemisia I'm going to skip both of those for now and mention one much more common perennial just because it is a favorite in so many beautiful gardens. Rudbeckia is well deserving of that sentiment!  There are so many varieties of rudbeckia (some perennial and some annual) to choose from with a variety of colors.

A Favorite Shrub

I'm really a big fan of beautyberry bushes. In the fall the purple clusters of berries stand out as much as any other plant's blossoms could. It's easy to care for, feeds wildlife, looks great, and is very easy to propagate! What more can a plant propagation nut ask for?

A Favorite Tree

For a flowering ornamental tree my favorite is still the 'Yoshino' Cherry. It's a nice shade tree throughout the growing months but very soon it will stand out among all the other flowering trees with beautiful white blossoms. To me, 'Yoshino' Cherry trees are the essence of what spring brings pristine, white blossoms that usher in the warmer months. They aren't the first to bloom, but maybe they are the best!

Garden Blogger Assignment

I bet you have four favorite plants too! Tell us about your four favorite plants by picking one per category and I'll post a link to your post.  Don't forget to visit other bloggers who post about their four favorite plants and see what they enjoy.

Completed Assignments:

• Cyndy at Gardening Asylum: Dave's Assignment Desk
• Kim at Instrument of Grace: Four favorite Plants