Shooting Around the Garden

Yes deer season is in full swing, but that's not what I'm shooting!  The other day I ventured around the garden just to see what was growing (and what wasn't), what was blooming (and what wasn't), and what I needed to get done (or put off/procrastinate). In the latter category there is a mountain of things I could do but weather conditions and time will no doubt force me to put off today what can be done tomorrow. You've never had that happen to you have you? ;)

Still there were some things to look at and some things to file away in anticipation of spring.


First let's start off with something blooming like this 'Winter Snowman' Camellia.  Two of these are book ending the front foundation garden.  It is only in its second year in the garden and is blooming nicely!

We'll hop around the corner to the corner shade garden.  It is on the list of things to do, mostly because of the weed situation.  I didn't mulch it this past year and it shows.  Mulch can keep many of those annual weeds at bay that self sow.  My strategy now is to remove the chickweed and henbit before they go to seed. The oak leaf hydrangea looked really nice this fall.  The hostas have all faded into the soil leaving the heucheras and hellebores to show off their foliage for the winter.

Here's a closer look around some ajuga in the corner shade garden.  Even the ajuga is having issues with holding off the chickweed.  At least chickweed is easy to remove!  (And its edible, or so I've been told)

If we turn around we end up in the self-sowing garden.  There is lots of green here too only it's a mix of self-sowing plants and weeds.  The poppies have germinated already for a big display next May.  There may be a few other germinated seeds hidden in and around the chickweed.  I need a good day of weeding!   

The arrowwood viburnums are all still retaining their leaves.  I don't remember them holding on this long last year but the yellow colors are welcome when everything else is bare!

This viburnum is in the middle of an open space turning it into several pathways.  I need to transplant the ornamental grasses at its base.  That grass is Nassella tenuissima, Stipa tenuissima, pony tail grass, or Mexican feather grass whatever you want to call it.  I've been told it's invasive but the only spreading it has done in my garden is through division by this gardener's hands.  There is also a purple coneflower nearby that needs relocated.
 

An about face brings us face to face with my favorite shrub for fall color.  OK I can't really pick favorites but red twig dogwoods are one of the best fall color shrubs around.  I highly recommend mixing red twig dogwoods with a backdrop of evergreens and not a backdrop of air conditioners...

...oh and red twig dogwoods propagate VERY easily from cuttings!

We'll end today's post with a view of this little collection of self-sown lunaria seedlings.  Also known as Money Plant, lunaria blooms in the spring with flowers that resemble garden phlox.  As the seeds develop a disc shaped seed pod is formed that is between the size of a quarter and a half dollar.  I gathered seeds from a couple plants near my parent's house and brought them to my garden. 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my garden in later November.  Don't forget to leave a comment!

Front Porch Garden Remodel Part 4

Today I thought I would show you the before and after since yesterday I teased you on the details of the front porch garden remodel. It's current state is still classified in the unfinished category but it is well on its way to becoming a welcoming front porch garden.

First let me show you the before pictures:

The crabapple is front and center in the garden with the hollies along the porch. Two ragged Russian sages that need moved are standing on either side of the crabapple. The 'Powis Castle' artemisia is a bit overgrown but we kind of like it there so it might stay! Please ignore the weeds. I've kind of let this garden go since I was planning on re-doing it eventually!

Here's the other side of the garden with the same plantings as above except for the crape myrtle on the left. Irises and daffodils will brighten up the area in the spring. If our weather had been more cooperative the salvia would be blooming right now, but everything has been way too dry.

The in-progress photos:


Removing the hollies was the toughest part. I tried to save them but eventually gave up and ended up clipping them to the trunk and digging the main parts of the roots. I may end up with hollies again so I'll have to watch for those volunteers from the leftover roots. Digging in clay and gravel is very difficult, but you probably know that!

 From the side sans hollies.

In this picture all the plants are removed that need to be. I still want to move the Russian sage but I need to wait until dormancy or at least when rain is in the forecast. 

The after:

It's a little hard to see what I'm doing here but if you look closely you'll be able to tell. I planted two 'Otto Luyken' Laurels in the middle and left a space for a third. I only bought two since they were on the discount rack for $6 each - and really they looked great! On the left and on the right are my splurges two 'Winter Snowman' camellias. It's a relatively cold hardy camellia rated to a zone 6 hardiness. I couldn't pass up an evergreen planting that blooms in November and December!

Here we are from the side. You'll notice that the plants are spaced a good distance from the porch. I did that so that the plants were out from underneath the roof overhang of the front porch but also to give them space to grow.

Here's the other side. It's hard to see the plants with the Russian sage still present but as foundation plantings grow and the Russian sage is moved you'll be able to see it much better. All the plants are smaller plants which generally means cheaper on the wallet! It's also good because smaller plants tend to adapt quicker to their soil conditions. I did attempt to improve the soil a little by adding two wheelbarrow loads full of compost to the top of the soil. I didn't work it in but eventually it will be buried underneath mulch.

The plants:

'Otto Luyken' Laurel

'Winter Snowman' camellia

It's coming along and I can't wait to see it complete. A little mulch, a little weeding, a little transplanting, and soon it will be good as new!

Front Porch Garden Remodel Part 3

Today I started another segment of my Front Garden remodel. If you recall from my previous posts on this particular garden I wasn't pleased with the builder's special hollies and the crabapple I had there. The crabapple was free tree from Arbor Day that I planted in a completely wrong spot. I do that sometimes I get a plant going then just stick it in somewhere only to have to move it somewhere else later.

My plant was to attempt to save the hollies and move them elsewhere in the yard. I also wanted to see if I could move the crabapple. Unfortunately the crabapple turned into an exercise in futility. I had so much trouble digging around the base of the tree due to the clay and gravel leftover from construction that I kept finding everywhere. I also kept running into daffodil bulbs that I didn't want to damage which led me to give up on the crabapple. Out came my bow saw and down came the apple tree.

The hollies were a slightly different story. They were large and had mostly pot bound roots. I had to give them a severe pruning in order to get close enough to the root balls to dig. Once I did that I tried to save as much of the rootball as a possible on the first two which took a long time. That's when I decided to not worry about saving them. I found as I removed them that the roots were circling each other and they were planted a little too close to the house for their size. Plants should be planted at about half the distance of their ultimate width away from the house. These were way too close!

I managed to get all five of the hollies, the crabapple, and a spirea removed from the front porch garden. The spirea was transplanted to another location.  I still need to remove several 'Emerald Gaiety' euonymouses and transplant two Russian sages, a lavendar, and several New York Celeste asters. I'm waiting on transplanting the Russian sage until after dormancy since they're finicky when transplanted otherwise. The asters already bloomed and really could use a dividing to rejuvenate them for next year.

I'll show you some before an after pictures in my next post - stay tuned!

Beginning the New Front Garden

I mentioned several weeks ago (a couple months ago) that I was wanting to remodel my front garden. I was mostly speaking of the area directly in front of the house but since then an additional idea popped up. There is a small area around a Bradford pear tree that I envisioned an elongated oval shaped bed. Eventually that ornamental pear tree will be removed (it's bound to split one of these days!) and I'll replace it with something else but a little farther away from its current location. Making this new garden bed will create a wide pathway between our front garden and the hillside in the front of our house. The pathway will direct the view toward the arbor and the self-sowing garden. It will also give me a place to move several of the plants that will be coming out of other areas.

Here's another view of the new garden spot. You can't see it really well in the picture so I highlighted it in black lines for you. When making a new bed there a technique I like to use with my bagging lawn mower.

• First I drop the wheels down as low as they will go yet still be able to roll across the ground. 
• Then I mow the shape of the bed. The low mowing height will go a long way toward killing off the grass in a chemical free way.
• Afterward I gather grass clippings and pile them onto the new bed area as a mulch. I'll pile them on as high as I can then let them dry. 
• Once the grass is dry I can come back with a nicer mulch to enhance the area. I use newspapers under any layer of mulch to prevent weeds from popping through. It's a layered bed but the technique is often called lasagna gardening.

Until I get around to it or have the time to get mulch I'll pile on more grass clippings. Dead grass clippings make an excellent source of organic material. They decay fast and really create some heat when thrown in the compost bin. I placed two bags of grass clippings in my bin the other day and was amazed at the heat they helped to generate - and heat in the compost bin is a good thing!

I'm beginning with the preparation of the bed now so that I can plant a few things this fall. Have you started any new gardens lately?

Something is Wrong With My Front Garden Plan

My garden is made up of a series of island garden beds. Each one is "designed" (I say that very loosely) to create the pathways that appear in between the gardens. To me a pathway is what really makes garden. A good path let's you see everything there is to see, leads you down unexpected turns, and really enhances a garden. Plants are integral for a garden and structures are important too but you don't go anywhere without a pathway. But this post isn't really about pathways, it's about one garden bed in particular that I need help with. You see, there's just something wrong with it. Maybe it's the plantings, maybe it's the size and shape, or maybe it's something else entirely.

In this bed I've brought lavender plants from my in-laws garden.  They were the result of the natural layering of several lavender plants. I also have several irises, a blackberry lily, 'Husker's Red' penstemon, and even pumpkins! (I'm not ashamed to admit I left out pumpkin from 2010 lying in this bed to rot in the hopes of future Halloween pumpkins.)  I transferred some strawberries to this bed as well because I thought incorporating real edible strawberries as a ground cover would be pretty neat. We'll see how that turns out later. There are even an annual coleus in the mix as well as some sedum 'Acre'. Which would be have to be the sedum genus's response to kudzu - even though it really can't come close.

But there's something wrong with this garden. Do you have any ideas? Here take a look: 

So you tell me, what is wrong with this garden bed?

The Scene Around the Arbor

A couple years ago I was fortunate to participate in the Better Homes and Gardens 48 Hour Blog Challenge. Three other blogs and myself competed with projects subject to online voting to see who would win. The winner took home $5000, unfortunately it wasn't me but the whole project was fun anyway - and it paid for the arbor! My project was the front garden arbor and I've really enjoyed how it helps to anchor the gardens nearby. Three gardens come together at this point (Self Sowing Garden, Corner Shade Garden, and Front Porch Garden) and the arbor ties them together.

On the left side of the arbor is the self sowing garden. The gas line is underneath it somewhere and I wanted a planting area that if for some reason the gas line needed to be dug up I wouldn't worry too much about.
Poppies will be blooming in a couple weeks along with many other self sowing plants.

On the right side of the arbor is the Front Porch Garden. No nifty name for this garden, just the plain old front porch garden! Near the arbor is a crape myrtle which provides summer color and several irises which should begin blooming very soon. At the base of the crape myrtle is golden ragwort a spring blooming native. 

From the other side of the arbor you can see the native honeysuckle blooming along the front porch. The arbor had a third diamond shape that fell off and needs some repair work. The Japanese maple is filling out very nicely after two years. It's no wonder so many people enjoy Japanese maples in their garden! The foliage is just very cool. I bought a new coleus the other day and planted it by the base of the arbor. I still need to plant my caladiums, the last several days have been too wet to do much of anything in the garden.

Here's Maggie, one of the neighbor's cats. If you look close you can see she's caught something - a lizard. I cheer her on when she gets the mice but I like the lizards hanging around to eat the bad bugs!

Here's the arbor and front porch area. My Fiskar's rain barrel is overflowing with rainwater, I really could use another one! The corner shade garden is on the left but hostas still have found places on the other side of the dry creek bed.

What structures hold your garden together?

The Iris Garden

In our front yard is a triangular shaped area that for now I'm calling the Iris Garden.  In a week or so after the irises finish blooming I'll have to change the name to something else but for now the Iris Garden works!  I actually began this garden area as a winter color garden but soon realized that winter color should be interspersed everywhere and shouldn't be all by itself.  So I redesigned the garden to be what it is now.  At different times of the year this garden provides different types of interest.

The Trees

On each point of the triangle design is a tree. The largest of which is a Yoshino cherry that provides some powerful spring color with its white a pinkish colored blooms.  Two small redbuds anchor the other points.  They were transplants from my in-laws property.  Redbuds are tricky to transplant but with some care ( and a long enough root) it can be done! (This is best done when dormant.) Eventually the trees will shade the triangle enabling the garden to be converted to a part shade to full shade garden area.  That will be a few years down the road.

The Irises

The current main feature of the garden is the river of irises that flow down from the top point of the triangle.  These irises were all given to me by my parents who had a bunch of these lavender purple colored bearded irises.  Now we have a ton too!  These are highly fragrant irises and you can imagine with as many irises as we have in this garden the scent can be strong!  We have other irises in other gardens but I felt that keeping the same color scheme in this garden would give the maximum impact.

The Perennials

There are a few other perennials in this bed along with the irises.  Pretty much all of the perennials fit into the purple color category with variations in shade and tint allowing for a cool color blend.  'Caradonna' salvia is right next to the irises and will eventually become a second river that will re-bloom periodically through the summer. 'Purple Homestead' verbena is a spectacular groundcover that is perfect for this garden.  It doesn't like being constantly wet over the winters which makes planting in our sloped front yard perfect for it.  In the summer two Russian sage plants will flower.  One on the right side and the other on the left.  Surrounding the Russian sage on the left will be several purple coneflowers that have grown each year from seed with mother nature's help!  (We just let the seed fall where it may!)

The Annuals - err... Annual ...kind of....

We have one annual that grace's this garden: California Poppy.  It's orange and has nothing in common with the rest of the garden's colors.  That's OK since sometimes a unique and unusual color mixed in a sea of similar colors can make the garden pop a little more.  Our California poppies self-sow freely.  The foliage is a beautiful silver color reminiscent of an artemisia like 'Powis Castle'. This poppy can survive mild enough winters but for us it's more of an annual. 

It won't be long before the irises are finished blooming and the dividing and transplanting time will be here.  Everything is happening much earlier this year than it has in past years!

The Front Sidewalk Garden in April

There are few things a gardener appreciates more than see the positive results of his hard work payoff. Over the years I've moved plants, added plants, trimmed plants, propagated plants in various areas and in some places I'm just now beginning to see the results. One such location is my front sidewalk garden. It's the garden between the house and the sidewalk and a narrow strip of garden that runs the length of the sidewalk. In the beginning - no we aren't talking the book of Genesis here - there was nothing, well nothing of appreciable value. Several Japanese hollies had just bit the dust in the freeze of 2007 and the only other thing to make it through was the Nandina.

Negrita

We quickly removed the hollies and tossed them. I found a deal on some densiformis yew. I know yew is rather common but you need some sort of evergreen backdrop for other plantings and at $2 a piece the price just couldn't be beat. They've come a long way since then! Two 'Emerald Gaiety' Euonymous plants were tucked in near the yew. I do not recommend planting this euonymous. It spreads, it runs, I think it may idolize kudzu like little kids idolize that Justin Bieber guy. (Ugh) Still the euonymous really is just a little kid compared to kudzu. I'm rambling now - let's head back to the garden.

Shirley

Later I added catmint which has turned into an incredible performer for me! Tulips came by the names of Negrita and Shirley, sorry no Laverne. They were a big box store buy that has turned out quite well! 'Autumn Joy' sedum found a home here along with everyone's favorite spring blooming ground cover - creeping phlox! I'll show you another garden later this week with a little phlox on the rocks. The opposite side of the sidewalk - the strip side - blooms later in the season with salvias that will emerge by May. I used to have Russian sage but I received too many complaints from important people that the pollinators were taking over the neighborhood. Since then the Russian sage has been moved farther away from the heavily traveled territories of our garden.

I mentioned before that the only thing to make it through the freeze of 2007 was the nandina, that's not entirely true.  Our house was a foreclosure when we bought it and if you know anything about foreclosures you know that often they are let go, both inside and out. The garden was like that too but at some point at realtor came through with a crew to demo the overgrown shrubs in the front garden. One little spirea was cut to the ground and later emerged after we moved in to show off its reddish tinted leaves. Here it is now with its friend phlox. They are pretty good companions although in all honesty I just stuck them together without any thought. It's better to be lucky than good sometimes!

Phlox and Spirea

And here is the garden together. It has three good seasons of interest and a shade of the fourth when the nandina berries are standing out with a bright red for winter color. Daylilies, catmint, salvia, 'Silver Mound' artemisia, gaillardia and a butterfly bush will decorate the front garden in summer. Mums and 'Autumn Joy' sedum will add to the color when fall arrives.

I look forward to the spring every year so I can follow the calendar of color to come!

What do you look forward to about spring each year the most?

Over the Weekend

The weather this past weekend was perfect for outdoor gardening activities! Unfortunately we are still a good six weeks away from safe outdoor planting and many of the tasks on my long term spring agenda need to wait until the frosts are done, but there is always something that can be done! Garden preparation!

By far the biggest job my garden requires in mulching. It's essential. Mulch keeps the weeds at bay, keeps the water from evaporating from the soil too quickly, breaks down and feeds the soil, and looks pretty spiffy too! On Saturday I picked up two yards of mulch and began the cleanup and mulch process. Each ornamental garden bed was weeded, edged (I did that prior to this weekend), and mulched with a fresh layer of hardwood mulch. You can use stone mulch if you like but I always prefer the organic mulches that feed the soil. It's more work since you need to add more each year but as the mulch breaks down the soil quality improves. When you have heavy clay soil that extra organic matter is a major asset.

Two yards of mulch and 6 garden beds later - not to mention one sore back - my front gardens were prepared for growing. The front porch garden is ready. The daffodils are springing up fast. I still need one more 'Otto Luyken' Cherry laurel to complete the evergreen backdrop. The crape myrtle on the left will be gorgeous this year - it has no choice... ;) One problem with this bed is the natural stone border. I love the natural look but the stones tend to sink quickly into the grass once the growing season starts and they become hard to see, even after trimming. We may have a solution: I'll buy some cheap concrete cap stones about 4 inches thick as a bottom layer to raise up the natural stones. No one will see the concrete and the natural stones will remain above grade to give us that natural stone border look.

The front sidewalk is cleaned up now. The scraggly sprigs of stuff on the right are the leftover stalks of the salvia. To the left is my winter jasmine just barely making the shot. I still need to trim the yews - I just ran out of time. 

One newer bed that received a mulching is the one under this Bradford pear tree. The pear tree is slated for removal soon but we thought we would give it one more bloom before cutting it down. This bed already had irises, agastache, penstemon, and a viburnum. 

My goal is to get all this mulching stuff done way before warm weather comes. That way I can simply enjoy the garden and maintain it rather than work myself to exhaustion - but most likely I'll end up getting myself into some other project!

Mulching a New Garden

This weekend's weather was a sign that there really is a light at the end of this dark tunnel we call winter - and it's not another trains headlight! Spring is coming and the warm weather that we're having this week has me itching to get in the garden - which is exactly what I did over the weekend - without the itching part! I managed to accomplish many of the clean-up chores that I've been putting off for weeks due to the cold weather and I even mulched up a new garden area.

The new garden is in our front yard and was mostly planted back in the fall. I moved transplants of coneflowers and Russian sage and also put in a few discount plant dwarf crape myrtles. I hope they made it through our winter - right now they look quite rough! We'll see how they do when the weather gets warm enough for them to grow. I also found a Montauk daisy on discount sale and put it into this garden. (I took cuttings from it in the fall and kept indoors over the winter which I haven't shared here on the blog yet - it's very easy and I had a 100% success rate!) Daffodils and irises were planted to create a river of spring time flowers from the top of the garden to the front. The daffodils will need to fill in more before they look as impressive as I hope! The irises were passalong plants that needed divided and moved, isn't that a great excuse to start a new garden? The garden itself is in a triangle shape and is cornered by three trees - 2 redbuds and one Yoshino cherry - all three are favorites of mine. The redbuds were transplants from my in-law's woods and haven't bloomed yet but this may be the year. They can be tricky to move because of their root systems.

The base of the garden would look great with a small stone retaining wall which may come later if I can get around to building one.  I always seem to come up with more projects than I have time to tackle.  Ask my wife and I'm sure she'll agree. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day Jenny!

It doesn't look like much yet since none of the plants are growing yet. I went ahead and mulched most of the area this weekend but came up a few mulch bags short. I used a combination of grass removal and newspaper layering to take care of the grass that was underneath but there are a few patches that still need some attention. I'm planning on filling the gaps with zinnias, annual rudbeckia, and verbena that should blend in perfectly with the coneflowers and Montauk daisies.

I love spring, don't you? That's good because it's almost here!