The End and The Beginning

Today is the last day of 2008 but unless you've never seen a calander you probably knew that already.  As one year ends and new one begins.  It's time for a short look back at 2008 and a glance into the future.

2008 was the first full growing year that we really had in the garden.  Our first year in our home (2007) time and money was spent making it suitable for living.  The money went into the hardwood floors, new carpets, painting, wainscoting and other miscellaneous projects and wasn't there for gardening in our first year.  Needless to say 2008 was a better year for the garden!

My first project in 2008 was the rain garden. We had an area of our driveway the pooled a significant amount of water during a rain. It didn't matter whether it was a light rain or a heavy one standing water always remained on the driveway. The solution was the rain garden. I have more planting to do but it succeeded in eliminating the puddles on the driveway.

Before spring officially started growing in our garden I tackled my second project of the year, the raised bed garden.  I made a vegetable garden layout that would be both functional and aesthetically pleasing.  I put the lumber together and filled the beds with compost and soil and the garden did fantastic.  I can't say enough how beneficial raised beds are for gardening!  The tomatoes took off and produced into October.  Unfortunately squash vine borers attacked our squash vines and our cucumbers fell to a bacterial wilt, but we had a ton of tomatoes!  I fell short on my plans for the space around the garden.  I was hoping to make a circular ring of perennials and annuals to decorate the vegetable garden space.  I didn't get that done due to time (gardening and raising two little children don't always mix!) but maybe I can move that item of the to-do list to 2009. 

I propagated all kinds of plants including salvias, Russian sages, coneflowers, red twig dogwoods, Japanese dappled willows (very easy, it almost seems unfair to mention it as propagation), gaillardia, catmint, daylillies, liriope and many others.  Some were by division but most were made from cuttings.

I moved a fair share of plants around.  You see, I have this gardening syndrome that many other gardeners seem to have: The I-Can't-Decide-Exactly-Where-To-Plant-This-Plant Syndrome. It's OK since so much of gardening has to do with experimenting (trial and error).  The aforementioned syndrome is often directly related to the I-Bought-This-Plant-Because-I-Like-It-But-I-Don't-Have-A-Place-For-It Syndrome. 

I put together the corner shade garden and filled it with hostas, heucheras (a favorite of mine), coleus, astilbe, two heucherellas (related to heucheras), and an Oak Leaf Hydrangea.  It did fairly well except for some of the hostas who experiemenced what must be the hosta's equivalent of a horror movie: Attack of the Slugs.  Coming soon to a theater near you! (hopefully not)

I added the front sidewalk garden and moved several Russian sages to it, a wise gardening move. The silvery green foliage and purple flowers looked great when in full bloom and they lasted all summer.  Silver mound artemisia and a discount gaillardia were brought into the garden.  The artemisia served as a border and softened the hard concrete walkway while the gaillardia added some long lasting color to one end of the sidewalk.

The patio project was started in 2008 and after many months eventually completed. A raised bed was built against the garage that I never talked about. I meant to mention it but wrote about other things instead and time has a way of letting you forget things.  The patio itself was completed with a Japanese Maple Garden and a raised bed deck wrap around garden.  These beds aren't completely filled yet with plants but I do not doubt that they will be soon enough.

The bird bath garden continued to expand growing from a copper birdbath and a couple plants to an area covering 12-15 feet by 6 feet.  That's just an estimate and plans for its expansion are still in the works.  This little area will become a peaceful area for contemplation next to our dear departed friend, Amber.  We buried her near the bird bath in the garden, could there be a more appropriate place for our feline friend than by a birdbath?

Yesterday in the warm weather I began a new project for 2009 a self-seeding annual garden.  I'll talk more about the self-seeding garden in greater detail soon.  

I'm sure I left out a few things that were accomplished in the garden this year. Lots of new plants were added, some propagated, some discount, some swapped for and some just new.  2009 will bring new challenges, new plans, new plants, and a new to-do list.  I'll show you the 2009 To-Do list tomorrow!

Garden Coaches: Pimp My Yard?

OK, I wouldn't have titled the article with Pimp My Yard (I'm really not cool enough to do that) but there's a very good article on Slate about garden coaching as an emerging horticultural profession.  Garden coaches offer guidance for do-it-yourselfers who want to learn how to garden better.  For more information beyond the Slate article go check out Susan Harris's Garden Coaching Blog.

Return of the Gardener

The gardener returned to the garden today from his voyage across Tennessee.  From his home, to the lands of the cedar glades, and to the western lowlands he crossed the miles in only trio of days.  Friends from long ago were coming to visit from the northern winterlands and he had to return in time to see to their hospitality.  Today the gardener returned to the garden. 

The gardener entered cautiously into the boggy soil paying careful attention to the shifting ground still soaked from frequent rains.  He observed the changes brought about by moisture and freezes, the unseasonably warm temperatures and the snowfall.  The hardy verbenas were turned to mush, a casualty of the hidden sun and weeping rain.  The ravenous rabbits gorged themselves upon the evergreen chutes of the liriope while the gardener was away.  Leaves layered for mulch shifted and traveled, not far, but far enough to appear unkempt and unruly. The ravages of winter were present but so too were the signs of an emergence of spring still months away.  Cool season weeds were emerging from their slumber.  Wild onions, henbit, and chickweed were continuing their assault on the garden.  The gardener chose not to engage in combat with these enemies.  Today was for reconnaissance and not battle. Good things were happening as well.  Daffodils were peeking above the mulch, raising their leaves like little periscopes peering above the water.  Buds on the crabapple and viburnums were continuing to swell bringing hope that this spring will be just as good if not better than any before. 

The gardener returned and the gardener found that there was much work to do.

Looking Ahead

It's amazing how fast time flies, isn't it? It seems like just a short time ago I posted my 2010 garden project list (which I can never fully complete!) Soon it will be time to write a new project list and bring back some of those projects that have been hanging around for years! I'll have that list up after the 1st of the year but there are many things to start thinking about now in the garden like seed starting, planning new planting beds, and moving plants to better locations. All of that will have to wait a few days more until I have some time to get to it.

As for seeds I'm hoping to get some winter sowing started very soon. Winter sowing is great for plants that like some cold stratification. It doesn't take much effort to winter sow which makes it a favored method of seed starting for many gardeners! I also have a magnolia I started from seed that needs moved before warmer weather comes along.

Two book reviews will be on their way in the coming weeks also. But what I am most excited about in the weeks ahead is the opportunity to blog for the Tennessee Gardener Magazine. Many of you may be familiar with the State-by-State Gardening magazines that offer gardening articles catered to each state and now once a week or so I'll have a blog post up on their website in 2011. It will be a fun way share more gardening experiences with more people! (I think I'll save the blowing up the lawnmower stories for this blog though!)

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas with friends and family!

Dappled Willows and Winter Interest

One of my favorite shrubs is the Japanese dappled willow (Salix integra).  In the springtime its new foliage emerges with variegated green and cream leaves that persist through the fall.  The leaves darken some as they grow older (or for those who prefer different terminology "grow more mature") until they bare themselves when the light levels drop and cooler temperatures arrive in the fall. 

One thing you may not have considered with these willows is their value in the winter landscape!   The younger branches emerge with a reddish color that may not match Salix alba 'Britzensis' for winter value but certainly does an adequate job.  To ensure that you get nice reddish tinted stems you may want to coppice the shrub (cutting it back to just above the ground) and allow new stems to grow from the roots each year.  Depending on the desired size of the willow you may not want to trim it back drastically but cutting out the oldest wood would be advisable to attain the winter red.  It's a similar strategy to trimming Red Twig Dogwoods.  Just trim out the brown and leave the red.  Japanese dappled willows may not be as showy as other plants for winter interest but they look pretty good to me!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas 

and a Happy New Year!

Posting over the next week will be irregular as we celebrate the Christmas season with our family. 

How Cold Was it This Morning?

How cold was it this morning? The wireless thermometer said 15.5 Degrees Fahrenheit at 8:00 AM. That's pretty cold! The low last night in our little nook on the hillside was somewhere around 3-4 degrees!

But really, how cold is that? Cold enough that the bird's won't receive any enjoyment out of the birdbath in the birdbath garden for a while. Cold enough for icicles to form along the edge of our copper avian jacuzzi. Wait, it would have to be heated to be a jacuzzi wouldn't it? Perhaps Woodstock will come along and go ice skating, or maybe I've just seen one too many Christmas specials.

Whatever the case the advantage to a metallic birdbath is that you don't have to do anything special when it fills with water and you can leave it up year round.  And when you get freezing temperatures you get to take neat pictures of icicles hanging on in bitter cold temperatures! Concrete birdbaths can't hold water during the winter or else they may crack under the stress of the expanding and contracting water turned to ice that collects in the winter rains and snows.  At least for this birdbath garden, copper conquers concrete!

Taking Flowers from the Dead

I saw this story online at the Tennessean Newspaper's website. Apparently a women was stealing decorations from grave sites and adding them to her landscape! How desperate must your landscape be to take fake flowers from the graves of the deceased then add them to your garden. The story also says that she took solar lights and benches. Maybe she was affected by the Seasonal Affected Disorder that Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal was talking about. Maybe she was just desperate for some color in her yard. Some community service in the graveyards she robbed would be a fitting sentence!

Here's the story:
Woman charged with stealing flowers from graves

A December Day in the Garden

We had a short reprieve from the cold winter temperatures we've been having.  It reached nearly 70 degrees  and we actually saw the sun for the first time in days. It felt good to be outside this afternoon tending to some minor garden chores.

My first task was to pot up some more Purple leaf plums (Prunus cerasifera) that had rooted.  I put all six  cuttings into a medium sized pot and left them in the garage near the window and the garage greenhouse.  Last year I made nearly 20 cuttings from some leftover branches after a pruning of another plum tree.  It was an experiment then, I didn't need nearly that many!

I also went outside and did a walk around.  I examined the garden beds around the house and took note of the current state of each area.  Cool season weeds were encroaching in most of the beds.  Wild strawberries were invading the corner shade garden while henbit and chickweed were invading every other area.   A little maintenance now should save a lot of work later. 

I ended up in the Japanese maple garden where I began removing the henbit and chickweed while they were small sprouts.  It was easy work since the recent rains have left the ground very pliable.  The best time to weed is after a good rain!

After removing most of the alien invaders I brought a bucket of kitchen scraps to the compost bin and perused the wilder areas of our yard.  The deer have been still been visiting as evidenced by their prints in the mud. 

I finished up with my time outside today by taking a few cuttings of a Dragon's Blood Sedum.  I put the cuttings in a small pot to bring indoors for the winter.  My goal is to produce a few new plants for next spring's planting season.  I also dressed up a pot of succulents I threw together for my wife to take to work.  I'll show you that in a future post. 

It was nice to see the sun!

Designing the Winter Garden: All Planted...for now!

I managed to plant all the plants for my new winter garden on what was a warm December day. With temperatures in the 50's it was somewhat pleasant, which is about the best you can expected from December in Tennessee. You're probably wondering which plan I decided to go with, the Symmetrical Plan or the Asymmetrical Plan. The answer was neither! Inspiration struck over the weekend and a new idea formed. I added another kind of plant that, while it won't provide winter color, will give us a burst of blooms in the spring. The goal of a winter garden should be to provide year round color from a variety of sources which is hopefully what I've accomplished, after all winter is only one of four seasons.

In the picture to the right you can see what the area looked like just before I planted.  The Yoshino Cherry is standing between the two rocks.  The new garden went in to the left of the tree.  What plants are the foundation of this winter garden?  Three red twig dogwoods, two Bird's Nest Spruces, two Cotoneasters, a Schip laurel, three rosemary plants, and two redbuds.  I came home this weekend with 6 transplanted redbuds and placed them in the yard.  Two of them are now forming corners of this garden.  They are spaced far enough away from the Yoshino Cherry so that all the trees will have plenty of room to grow.  Redbuds tend to be shade tolerant and would do fine underneath the cool shade of a cherry tree.  These redbuds are small with the tallest at only three and a half feet tall.  Since redbuds are slow to moderate growers the Yoshino cherry should have no real competition for light and will become the dominate tree in the garden. I can't wait to look out the window in the springtime and see the white flowers of the Yoshino flanked by the pink blooms of the redbuds.  I may consider trimming the redbuds to keep them on the small side but they have a long way to grow before that should be necessary.

Here's the winter garden now after planting.  Admittedly it doesn't look terribly impressive right now.  After I mulched around each plant I covered the spaces in between with collected maple leaves to kill off the grass underneath.  In the spring I'll cover the spaces with newspaper and mulch the whole area.  The leaves make the small plants very hard to see but I added annotations to help with identifying where the plants are.  In the front of the garden I'll add an additional planting area to round out the garden with annuals and perennials for spring through summer (see Future Planting Area). 

The picture on the right was taken on the left side of the garden looking toward the street.  At the top of the bed is one of the Redbuds.  The cotoneasters are on the left and the Schip laurel is planted closer to the house and to the right of the cotoneasters.  It should provide evergreen color interest.When it grows larger it will stand behind the redtwig dogwoods and form a green backdrop to help highlight the red stems.




The two Bird's Nest Spruces are planted near each other as a small evergreen grouping toward the front side of the bed.  In this last picture the red twig dogwoods are planted in a diagonal pattern.  It's here that I'll add one of the most fun elements, a dry creek bed.  The dry creek bed will only be for decoration and not for drainage.  It will start near the Schip laurel then travel either between the first two dogwoods and skirt around them toward the front or go between the last two dogwoods and skirt toward the front.  I'll play with it some and see what looks best. 

It's all planted, at least for now.  I'll add to it as the inspiration hits.  Unfortunately you won't be able to see how it all works until next winter when the plants have grown a bit but as spring progresses I'll highlight the garden's growth process.  I wonder how ornamental grasses would look on the top side?

Previous Winter Gardening Posts:

Designing the Winter Garden: Aspectual Musings
Designing the Winter Garden: Starting Small
Designing the Winter Garden: A Symmetrical Plan
Designing the Winter Garden: An Asymmetrical Plan

Garden Thoughts: A Gardening Equation

(Time x (Knowledge + Experience) x Money )= Your Garden

How successful is your garden? I think you can tell just by observing the outcome, but there are elements that go into it that effect your desired outcome.

Time to me is by far the most important. The amount of time spent planning, weeding, planting, propagating, or even researching play a huge role in what you get. With enough time you can grow large trees from small saplings, perennials or annuals from seed, or propagate plants from cuttings. Your knowledge and experience is a factor, but each time (there is that time word again) you try something new you increase your experience and learn something new! With experience and knowledge you can find other gardeners to exchange plants or seeds. You could even get help in landscape planning from garden clubs or other gardeners.

Instant gardening gratification can be achieved with enough cold hard cash, but you don't have to have a lot of money to be successful. Every now and then you will see a plant you can only find at a garden center or nursery and you may spend some money there. You may even spend a little on dirt, mulch, or containers. If you compost (experience, knowledge, and time again) you get free super powered dirt and you won't need fertilizers. You can even collect rainwater to reduce the cost of watering your garden. Knowing how to cut your lawn will help your grass grow without using fertilizers. Knowing what the plant requirements are will help you to figure out the best plants for your climate. Money can be the least of all factors but time is by far the most important!

Designing the Winter Garden: An Asymmetrical Plan

Here is the second of the two hand drawn sketches of my winter garden layout. The first one was symmetrical. This layout uses mostly the same plants just puts them in different places. One addition to this plan is a miscanthus that I originally planted in the Japanese Maple garden. It was only placed there temporarily until a better spot came open.

In this plan I put the rosemary on the left with the red twig dogwoods down in front. The Bird's nest spruces are in the back and the cotoneasters are in front and in back of the Yoshino cherry. The Schip laurels aren't pictured in this layout either. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post this is just a sketch and I may or may not stick with it. Sometimes inspiration strikes when you're planting and the plan goes out the window! The big advantage in this plan is that it is more expandable than the symmetrical plan and I like expandable plans. It also will look much more natural.

I'm leaning toward a variation on this plan but tell me, what do you think?

Previous Winter Gardening Posts:

Designing the Winter Garden: Aspectual Musings
Designing the Winter Garden: Starting Small
Designing the Winter Garden: A Symmetrical Plan

Designing the Winter Garden: A Symmetrical Plan

Now before you go looking at my hand drawn art please note that I do not claim to be an artist, just a gardener. The paint I am used to is usually accompanied by foliage, flowers, and fruit. The "artistic rendering" below is intended to illustrate the image inside my head for one of the two concepts for the winter garden. The illustrations in this post and in tomorrow's post hopefully will give you enough of an idea that you may be able to offer suggestions about the placement of the plants. In the end I may decide to take your suggestions, go with the original plan, or even do something completely different!

So now that I've given you the disclaimer here's the drawing!

This view is all about symmetry. Symmetry in the garden can be great but does have some pitfalls. If one plant dies and the other survives then it may be difficult to match the original with a replacement. Symmetry looks very organized which makes natural looking plants feel a little out of place. That being said I think this plan could work nicely.

The Yoshino Cherry tree stands in the middle and is flanked by the cranberry cotoneasters. To the front would be two red twig dogwoods. Toward the back would be the Bird's nest spruces and in each "corner" of the garden would be a rosemary plant. There are a few plants that I put in the picture that would be worked around these foundation plants including several irises, creeping phlox (not purchased yet I'll wait until spring for them), and a couple 'Mystic spires' salvias. I plan on keeping at least 5 foot radius clear around the base of the tree to prevent any damage to the Yoshino's roots while digging. Most of the trees roots will live in the top layers of the soil, not down deep in the ground which makes it important to provide adequate moisture or add complimentary plants underneath. Sedums make good choices for underplanting trees since they are extremely tolerant of drought conditions so I may add some 'Dragon's Blood' sedum in the spring. The whole garden is on a slope and most of the moisture should move toward the red twig dogwoods.

This is just one plan and it has its problems. I think I like my second plan better as its layout is asymmetrical and groups the plants rather than spreads them out. I'll show you that one tomorrow, stay tuned!

Edit:
I have a couple of Schip laurels that I am considering adding to the plan. I would probably put them behind the Yoshino between the Bird's Nest spruces if I move them a little farther apart.

Previous Posts on Winter Gardening:
Designing the Winter Garden: Aspectual Musings
Designing the Winter Garden: Starting Small

Designing the Winter Garden: Starting Small

In all our gardens we start small and add plants as we go. If you look back the the birdbath garden you can see what I mean.  What started with a birdbath and five small plants has slowly turned into a medium size garden area with about 15 different plants. The winter garden will be no different! With economics being what it is no to low cost gardening is a must, but money cannot stand in the way of a great garden! All the plant selections that will form the founding plants in the winter garden are either discount plants or came from propagation (cuttings or divisions).

The first plant to tell you about is the foundation, the Yoshino cherry tree. I know what you're thinking, "cherry trees are great in spring, summer, and fall but in winter?" My goal is to make the winter garden a garden with year round interest which validates the cherry tree, but have you ever looked at the bark of a mature cherry?  It's a nice shiny glistening reddish brown that I think is very attractive.  At least that's my excuse!  It's also in the front yard where we will see the garden year round and growing season interest is important. 

The second plant that I will install (sounds like an appliance) will be the red twig dogwood.  You're probably tired of hearing me talk about the red twig dogwoods, but really, they are great plants! I have several that I can move from other locations to add to the winter garden that I've gotten from cuttings and in one case a division.  I'll start with two and grow from there.

The third subject to join the garden will be a pair of Bird's Nest Spruces.  Like other spruces they are evergreen and will add a bit of color to the garden.  I learned an interesting fact recently about the origin of one variety in the most recent edition of the American Gardener from the American Horticultural Society.  The Bird's Nest Spruce 'Little Gem' was developed from the Witch's Brooms that appear as a mutation on another Bird's Nest Spruce tree (Picea abies 'Nidiformis').  I won't be planting 'Little Gem' but I thought that was a pretty cool to have a dwarf plant come from another dwarf plant!

Two Cranberry Cotoneasters (Cotoneaster apiculata) will also join the garden as berry producing plants for the birds.  They produce red berries in the fall along with burgundy red foliage.  It will lose its leaves but should retain its fruit until the birds eat their fill.  It's not a native plant but isn't listed on the Tennessee invasive plants lists.  It's a low growing shrub with a height of 3 feet as its maximum but spreads out to five feet.  It's also capable of rooting where it touches the ground much like forsythias so caution should be taken to prevent it spreading where it's not wanted. 

The last plant to go in will be another one I have around the yard, Rosemary!  It's purpose will be to add a scent to the garden to hopefully repel any marauding deer and it looks great in the garden.  In our area it does very well as an ornamental edible and serves as a great evergreen planting. 

There you can see a few of the choices that will go into the garden.  Initially there are only a few but I'll add to them over time.  I'm a little apprehensive with the cotoneaster but as its not listed on any of the invasive lists here in Tennessee it should be OK.  Tomorrow I'll show you one of two sketches I made of the winter garden area to see which arrangement you like best.

Previous Posts on Winter Gardening
Designing the Winter Garden: Aspectual Musings

Designing the Winter Garden: Aspectual Musings

One of the areas that I would like to improve upon in our garden is the lack of winter interest. I can look outside our windows and see lots of stark naked deciduous trees waving in the wind. If they were covered in snow we would have plenty of winter interest but here in Tennessee snowfalls of that magnitude are few and far between. Over the next several days I will talk about planning our winter garden and will end with planting a few things into it! Yes you can still plant trees and shrubs this time of year, in fact winter dormancy is an excellent time to plant them.

So what makes a winter garden? To me a winter garden has something unique to look at when the other plants are sleeping. Cool bark on trees, colored berries, interesting branching patterns, evergreen foliage, flowers and seed heads that sway in the wind are all things that come to mind when I think of a winter garden.

Salix alba 'Britzensis'

Birch trees are a favorite tree of mine for their bark and their foliage but there are many other choices in trees and shrubs. Could I talk about cool bark without talking about red twig dogwoods? The bright red stems are a perfect choice for winter color. There are also yellow twig dogwoods that have yellow tinted stems that look great en mass. A Coral Bark willow (Salix alba 'Britzensis') is another good choice for red stemmed bark. When I think of good bark I would be remiss if I didn't mention the crape myrtles. These southern delights have fantastic peeling bark on their trunks and branches if they are allowed to grow into the tree form. The list of interesting bark is very extensive to go through in one post.

Colored berries are good for the eye as well as the birds. One of the reasons I garden is to attract wildlife. The deer come of their own accord (unfortunately) but the birds need motivation and providing garden plants that give them nourishment in the winter is a favor they will likely return with their presence. A family favorite the orange berry bush, better known as Firethorn (Pyracanthus augustifolia), is a great choice. The birds love the berries and the thorns provide them with a protected place to build their nests safely tucked away from any cat that might be hanging around. Many berry bearing plants like pyracantha are evergreen and do double duty in the winter. Hollies fit the bill. Their year round green color is decorated in the winter with red berries that birds really enjoy. One favorite holly of mine that I'm ashamed to admit I don't have yet is the Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticulata). It's actually deciduous but that just enhances its appeal. When the leaves drop off and reveal the abundance of bright red berries you end up with a spectacular winter show.

Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
Interesting branching patterns can be found on many trees and shrubs. The corkscrew willows do exactly what their name entails and twist their limbs into various contorted formations. Speaking of contortions, what about the Contorted Filbert (Corylus avellana), also known as 'Harry Lauder's Walking Stick'. This small tree grows up to 15 feet tall and is one of the most twisted trees you will ever see. Vines also have interesting branching patterns and once they lose their leaves all is revealed.

Evergreen trees and shrubs abound. This list ranges from tall pines to dwarf conifers, arborvitae to evergreen azaleas. I'm partial to Bird's Nest spruces and the dwarf cherry laurels ('Otto Luyken' or Schip are both also called English laurels) but there are so many great plants to choose from in the evergreen category. Even evergreen herbs like Rosemary can add winter interest. This time of year you will see quite a few rosemary plants trimmed up into little Christmas trees but you can trim them up into all sorts of topiaries.

Some plants even flower in the cold winter months. Heaths burst out in an explosion of little tiny blossoms during the winter months. I've added at least 5 Mediterranean White Heathers to various areas of our garden because of the flowers and evergreen foliage they present. Witch hazels are another good plant for flowers in the colder months. The streamer like blossoms that appear in the later winter and early spring are also very fragrant.

Seed heads might not be the most thought of element of a winter garden but really have a great amount of winter interest. Ornamental grasses are probably best known for their seed heads that flutter about like feathers in the wind, but what about other perennials? The seed heads of echinacea (coneflowers) are pretty in the winter as are the round seed globes left by gaillardia in the fall. There are all kinds of options out there.

I've given you a small glimpse into my mind's planning process for our winter garden. (Hopefully it didn't scare you any!) Tomorrow I'll highlight the three kinds of plants with which I'll begin our winter garden. As all my garden areas have the winter garden will expand over time.

The Cold of Winter is Coming

Today more than many others I felt the cold of winter beginning to enter our Tennessee garden. The weather has been mild all throughout November and as December approaches noticeable changes are entering my consciousness. Overcast skies seem more prevalent than the sunny days we've been fortunate to enjoy, colder air seems to last here longer than the pleasant air. Even the wind seems different, more biting and much less inviting. I should count myself lucky that the weather has been so pleasant for so long but as is human nature I just can't seem to get enough of a good thing. The nice days have really been a boon to my recent project and have propelled it much faster than I really anticipated.

From the Birdbath Garden

Later this week the weather report is calling for highs of 40 degrees. Much too cold for this gardener to enjoy significant time outdoors, especially one spoiled by 55-60 degree temperatures. A few minutes here and there are fine but long term projects and activities will be slowing down a bit while waiting for the occasional unseasonal and extremely welcome pleasant day that is known to pop up from time to time here in TN. To rephrase a cliche I am definitely a fan of fair weather. Since the doors and windows are mostly on the greenhouse I should be able to tinker with its construction during the cold days and get it ready for spring seed starting. There's a whole list of things I need to do to get the inside plant ready but I'll save that for another post. For now though I'll be spending one more pleasant day outdoors working on my project before the cold sets in for the week. December 21st is the first day of winter and it is approaching fast. It's time to accept the fact that the inevitable cold weather is coming, winter is coming!

What outdoor activities do you like to tackle in the winter?

What did I do this summer?

I propagated plants! Propagating is a great way to increase your landscape plants cheaply. What could be better than cheap plants? This was the first summer I seriously experimented with rooting cuttings. Some plants can be propagated by division, some by stem and tip cuttings and others by root cuttings. What I did was mostly the stem and tip cutting types. Stem cuttings are pretty much what it sounds like: a section of the plant stem. The tip cutting is just as self explanatory: a section of the stem tip. The stem tips tend to be green wood and contain auxins that help to stimulate growth in the plant. In the past I have toyed with rooting willows and several easy to root house plants. This year I expanded my repertoire. I continued to do some willow cuttings, mostly for a deciduous hedge row to define our border, but I "branched" into some other plants as well. Here is what I found:

• I found that Euonymous 'Emerald Gaiety' is extremely easy to root. The branches of this euonymous actually form aerial roots and may be propagated with nothing more than simple cup of water.
• I found that butterfly bush tip cuttings root fairly easily in sand by applying rooting hormone to the base of the stem cutting.
• I found that spirea is also a simple to root plant with rooting hormone. You do have to be careful with damping off as this did happen with a couple of my trials.
• I also found that I don't need to buy too many verbenas next year! Once these plants get going they take off. They root very easily and and quickly become a 2' diameter mound of delicate little blossoms. Verbena often is treated as a tender annual depending on your zone. Both types that I experimented with were successful in rooting.
• My favorite this year was rooting the dwarf English laurels. I was able to make 4 of these plants easily with rooting hormone in a sand/peat mixture. I plan to make several more cuttings of these!
  
• Mums are another one that I found are extremely easy to root using mostly a peat mixture and a little rooting hormone, although I doubt the hormone was a necessity. Asters have worked this way also.
  

I'm still waiting on a few cuttings that are slower to root like a couple cherry trees, pyracanthus, some purple leaf plums, and a sweet gum but hopefully these will grow as well as the other plants have. Even with the drought conditions in Tennessee this year these plants were successful. Lots of plants can be propagated through cuttings so pick one and experiment!

The 5 Hats of the Gardener

As a gardener you will find that you wear many hats.  We aren't talking about fedoras, ball caps, or even straw hats here. We're talking about the different roles you will be called to fill as a gardener! Gardening isn't just about sticking a plant in the ground and watching it grow (although there is always some of that), gardening is a many faceted field with strong influences in areas from design to science.  Let's take a look at 5 of the many hats a gardener must wear!

The 5 Hats of the Gardener

The Hat of the Garden Designer

Gardeners are landscape designers.  As a gardener you have to make good decisions on plant placement, hardscaping, landscape lighting, garden structures like arbors or pergolas, and the layout of your garden.  We try things.  We fix things.  We tear down things and start all over!  (I've done that a more than a few times.) We aren't always perfect in our design decisions but we are designing gardens and learning.  Sure you can hire someone to come and design the garden but even then you make a lot of the decisions about what you want in the garden for landscape features or what you want to plant.

The Hat of the Farmer

You may not have a tractor, or even an acre of land but if you grow plants you're a farmer.  It may be small scale but everything you grow is an effort in agricultural cultivation!  The vegetable garden in your back yard is a perfect example of your farmer's hat.  You might grow tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, or maybe herbs as a farmer. Maybe you have a few fruit trees you harvest from each year.  Strawberry plants in the planter on the back porch count.  Do you plant and harvest from pots, raised beds, or rows in the ground?  It really doesn't matter - you're farming!  Farmer's cultivate the soil, grow the plants, harvest the produce, and bring it to the table.

The Hat of the Plant Pathologist

Into everyone's garden a disease must occur.  It's a gardening rule that however much I wish could be broken will never be!  You will get a fungus, I promise, but you will also learn how to defeat it or work around it.  You'll end up with dead plants - it's impossible not to!  I'm not telling you this to make gardening sound difficult or pointless but to encourage you to put on the plant pathologist hat!  Research those problems when the occur and learn how to treat them.  If they can't be treated then learn how to prevent the diseases in the future. So many plant diseases can be prevented with the proper gardening techniques.  Pests will bother your garden too and you'll have to find a way to get rid of those damaging voles or the grazing deer who love eating your hostas.  Part of your role as a gardener is to solve these mysteries. Be the plant detective!

The Hat of the Landscaper

The landscape maintenance technician is another gardening hat you will be called to wear.  Even if you have no lawn - you have trees that need pruned, weeds that need weeded, shrubs that need trimmed, more weeding, garden beds that need edged, plants that need planted, leaves that need rakes, even more weeding, or any one of a hundred different things landscapers do. All that regular maintenance falls on your shoulders as a gardener, and that's how we gardeners like it!  Well maybe without the weeds...

The Hat of the Nurseryman

Perhaps this is my favorite hat to wear.  Everyone of us gardeners has a little bit of the nurseryman inside.  Have you ever divided a hosta plant?  Or planted tomato plants from seed?  Maybe you've tried growing plants from cuttings, layering a hydrangea, or potted up plants to give to a friend?  All of these things fall in the nurseryman's field.  Obviously part of the nurseryman's job is to produce a profitable plant but there is a whole lot more to it.  Planting the first seeds of the spring at the right time, preparing cuttings, and then growing the plant on to become larger enough to survive in the landscape.

At some point you will wear each of these hats and most of the time you'll probably being wearing at least three at a time! Gardening is part art, part science, and everything in between.  What gardening hats can do you wear?

More from the Friday Fives


Today's Post featured my 2 year old son Sam! Cute isn't he?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! And please, for the sake of this fellow and his friends here, take it easy on the turkey!

I usually fill up on the sides anyway!

I Was Leaving Today

I couldn't stand it anymore. I've been thinking about this for a while now and I just couldn't take it anymore. It was just too much. The pressure of leaving has been building since the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project and each day it built a little more, another layer added to the top. I took all I could before I gave in and did something.

While the girls were napping I began the process of leaving. I gathered what I needed and went out through the garage. Wouldn't you know it, I had a flat. I examined the tire and determined it had enough air in it to go, at least for today. I really need to get that wheelbarrow fixed but a flat wheelbarrow wasn't going to stop my leaf gathering!



I brought it to the backyard and armed with my rake and my gloves I proceeded to rake the leaves into piles then I gathered them into the wheelbarrow. Now what to do with them? I could have put them in the compost bin, in fact I did put one pile there but I had other plans for the rest of the leaves. What could be better than free mulch? Leaves make the perfect mulch. They're free and they break down over time improving the soil as they decompose. I put the leaves around the hemlock privacy screen and along the eastern property line. One day that side of the house will be a shaded corridor but for now its just another work in progress!