After the summer garden is gone there is still work to be done. My daughters and I went out last week to take care of some last minute raised bed winterizing. We are doing one important step now: adding organic matter. Why? Because organic matter matters! By improving the soil you enrich it with the nutrients the plants need to be happy. We are using a readily available supply of newspapers like we did to add material to the compost bin. We shredded them down and mixed them into the beds. They will break down over time and will help the beds maintain their moisture.
After we added the shredded newspaper we leveled the soil and sprinkled red clover seed (Trifolium pratense) over the garden. Clover is an excellent cover crop for the garden since its roots have a nitrogen fixing property that will help to add nitrogen back into the soil. When the clover flowers we'll turn it back into the soil to use as an organic green manure then cover the beds with plastic to let them cook for the last couple of weeks before spring planting. By covering the raised beds with plastic we should be able to kill off all the clover plants and prevent the clover from becoming a weed in the raised bed garden. We should be able to replenish any used nitrogen in the garden and enhance our garden for next year without artificial fertilizers. Feed the soil and you feed the plants! (More importantly: feed the soil-feed the plants-feed the gardener!)
One thing to note: legumes may not be advisable to plant after a clover cover crop as clover is a legume and is susceptible to the same diseases. Clovers and vetches (legumes) as well as wheat, rye, and oats (grasses) are some good suggestions for winter cover crops in Tennessee. (And probably many other areas too!)
To see what others are doing in their vegetable gardens go visit Tina at In the Garden for her November Veggie Garden Update!
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Showing posts with label ground cover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ground cover. Show all posts
S is for Sedum!
It's amazing to see how plants grow. You look back at pictures taken in previous years and see a drastic difference between then and now. Take my sedum garden for instance. When it started there were only a few plants in the area between our driveway and the front sidewalk. A 'Blue Spruce' sedum that we had in a pot was divided into two plants initially and several others were added like 'Dragon's Blood', 'Autumn Joy', and one other unidentified sedum. As the garden grew and weeding was done pieces of sedum broke away from the main plants and were stuck where ever open space was to be found. No plan was put together for the sedum garden other than the general theme. Things grew, some faster than others, especially the 'Blue Spruce' sedum.
'Blue Spruce' has taken off and is in full bloom right now. The worst thing about its current blooming state is the open spots in the middle of the plant that form when the weight of the blossoms cause the branches to fall toward the ground. It almost looks like a cat decided to lay in the bed of yellow. The bees are in love with this plant! When the blooms fade the sedum will regrow back up through the center of the plant and replenish itself, become larger and larger. 'Blue Spruce' sedum is extremely easy to propagate by using either a stem stuck into the ground or stripping the leaves and rooting them in a pot of soil or on a damp paper towel.
In this case the "S" stands for super-sedum!
Sedum 'Blue Spruce'Full SunZones 4-9Succulent, Extremely drought tolerant!
What's Not to Like About 'Homestead Purple' Verbena?
What's not to like about 'Homestead Purple' Verbena? The only answer I could come up with to my own question is that I don't have enough of it! It is a fantastic flowering ground cover. 'Purple Homestead' grows very well with little care in full sun. For Tennessee gardens it's a must have.
Who Discovered 'Purple Homestead' Verbena?
Do you know Allan Armitage (Armitage's Native Plants for North American Gardens
) and Mike Dirr (Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season
)? You've probably heard their names before. These two University of Georgia professors, horticulturalists, and authors are responsible for the discovery of 'Purple Homestead' verbena. According to an article by retired Arkansas Extension Agent Gerald Klingamen, the two Georgia professors were driving to Athens when they spotted a large mass of Verbena on a homestead (hmm, could that be where the name came from?). They stopped to inquire about the plant but the lady who owned the property didn't know much about it. She allowed Armitage and Dirr to collect some cuttings and now it's in garden centers and nurseries everywhere.
It's hard to beat these purple blooms that flower prolifically throughout the summer. We have three of these plants with two more coming from cuttings. One of the 'Purple Homestead' verbenas was in our mailbox garden and mysteriously died. I suspect it may have had too much moisture. It really looked fantastic this spring mixed with 'May Night' salvias and an Achillea (yarrow). I had just bought two more small plants for other locations when it passed away. The verbena in the first picture was a cutting from our first one that I rooted last summer so technically we still have the first plant since this one is a clone. It's growing thick and strong in our front porch garden.
This verbena bloom is forming a near perfect circle with its flowers. They root very easily from cuttings or you could divide them each year if you want more, who wouldn't?
I wish I could take a photo of the verbena flowers when they are bathed in the moonlight. I doubt my camera would get a great shot but they seem to glow an effervescent purple when reflecting the moonlight. It would be a perfect ground cover flower for a night garden.
Can you figure out what's not to like about 'Purple Homestead' verbena? I sure couldn't!
Who Discovered 'Purple Homestead' Verbena?
Do you know Allan Armitage (Armitage's Native Plants for North American Gardens
) and Mike Dirr (Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season)? You've probably heard their names before. These two University of Georgia professors, horticulturalists, and authors are responsible for the discovery of 'Purple Homestead' verbena. According to an article by retired Arkansas Extension Agent Gerald Klingamen, the two Georgia professors were driving to Athens when they spotted a large mass of Verbena on a homestead (hmm, could that be where the name came from?). They stopped to inquire about the plant but the lady who owned the property didn't know much about it. She allowed Armitage and Dirr to collect some cuttings and now it's in garden centers and nurseries everywhere.
It's hard to beat these purple blooms that flower prolifically throughout the summer. We have three of these plants with two more coming from cuttings. One of the 'Purple Homestead' verbenas was in our mailbox garden and mysteriously died. I suspect it may have had too much moisture. It really looked fantastic this spring mixed with 'May Night' salvias and an Achillea (yarrow). I had just bought two more small plants for other locations when it passed away. The verbena in the first picture was a cutting from our first one that I rooted last summer so technically we still have the first plant since this one is a clone. It's growing thick and strong in our front porch garden.
This verbena bloom is forming a near perfect circle with its flowers. They root very easily from cuttings or you could divide them each year if you want more, who wouldn't?
I wish I could take a photo of the verbena flowers when they are bathed in the moonlight. I doubt my camera would get a great shot but they seem to glow an effervescent purple when reflecting the moonlight. It would be a perfect ground cover flower for a night garden.
Can you figure out what's not to like about 'Purple Homestead' verbena? I sure couldn't!
Want to know more about 'Purple Homestead' Verbena?
Here's some information on propagating 'Purple Homestead' Verbena.
More Sedums for the Garden
One of the plants I was looking for at the plant swap this weekend was sedum. We have a small area between our driveway and our sidewalk that I want to convert into a sedum bed. We already had three varieties of sedum ('Blue Spruce', 'Autumn Joy', and another unidentified sedum) and we wanted a few more to add to the bunch. I was hoping that there would be some available at the swap since sedum are notoriously easy to root and as good fortune would have it we found three sedums to add to our sedum garden. All three succulents are suitable for use as a groundcover.
The first one pictured here with the bright canary yellow flowers is Sedum acre. We may have to watch this one carefully as it has a tendency to become invasive. Since the location it will go in will be between two hard surfaces I think it will be manageable.
This next one is a small cutting from a sedum known as 'Angelina' (Sedum repestre 'Angelina'). It will have yellow flowers in the fall and grows up to about 6 inches.
This one has to be our favorite of the moment: Dragon's Blood Sedum (Sedum spurium). The reddish tints make it easy to see why it got its name. Dragon's Blood Sedum grows up to 6 inches tall and blooms with red flowers.
You can bet I'll be propagating a few more of these sensational succulents! We brought home many more plants but I thought breaking the posts into several smaller posts might work better. Tomorrow I'll tell you what we added to the Corner Shade Garden!
The first one pictured here with the bright canary yellow flowers is Sedum acre. We may have to watch this one carefully as it has a tendency to become invasive. Since the location it will go in will be between two hard surfaces I think it will be manageable.
This next one is a small cutting from a sedum known as 'Angelina' (Sedum repestre 'Angelina'). It will have yellow flowers in the fall and grows up to about 6 inches.
This one has to be our favorite of the moment: Dragon's Blood Sedum (Sedum spurium). The reddish tints make it easy to see why it got its name. Dragon's Blood Sedum grows up to 6 inches tall and blooms with red flowers.
You can bet I'll be propagating a few more of these sensational succulents! We brought home many more plants but I thought breaking the posts into several smaller posts might work better. Tomorrow I'll tell you what we added to the Corner Shade Garden!
Propagating Phlox
In the spring time one ground cover really stands out due to its prolific flowering. Creeping phlox or Phlox stolonifera really punches out the color for a couple weeks in spring then fades into a nice lush and green carpet of foliage. You can use it on slopes, around mailboxes or as a low growing front border plant. It has many options. As many other ground covers are, this one is easy to propagate. I took a small cutting last summer from a plant at my in-law's house. I popped it in some dirt and kept it watered through the Drought of '07. When fall came and the rains returned I forgot about it. I left it sitting in its little pot in the front garden area. 
Last week I rediscovered this wayward cutting to find lots of green growth and a good deal of budding. I didn't take a picture of it last year but it was an unbranched cutting that was approximately 3-4 inches long. I don't remember if I used rooting hormone or not, and I don't think it's necessary, but it may speed things up a little.I'm not sure what the exact variety is, or even if there is one for this particular plant ('Candy Stripe' comes to mind, but I don't have any way to know for sure) other than the botanical name: Phlox stolonifera. The word stolonifera is used in many plant names and indicates that the plant has a rooting stem or stolon. Another example of this would be a Red Twig Dogwood whose botanical name is Cornus stolonifera. Plants like this are prime candidates for propagation since rooting is a natural method of reproduction for them.
In the photo above you can see the sprig and its progress. Once I took the phlox out of its pot to transplant it I found that the root system went all the way to the bottom of the pot. In the picture below you can see all its flower buds. Not bad for a little sprig!
I took some pictures of the torrential downpours we had today. I'll have them up sometime this weekend!
Gardening with Variegated Liriope
Among many potential plants a gardener should consider in the garden are ground covers. Groundcovers allow you to fill in areas of the garden for a lush seemless scene. One such groundcover that is very low maintenance is liriope and in this post I'm specifically talking about Liriope muscari 'Variegata'. There are other varieties of liriope that aren't as attractive or can be more aggressive like Liriope spicata (which spreads via runners) but variegated liriope is much more tame. It fills in quickly into clumps and depending on how close you plant it can easily cover wherever you need a groundcover.
When comparing the variegated to the non-variegated versions of Liriope muscari I've noticed that the variegated does much better when placed in shade. The non-variegated seems to do fine anywhere. The plants in these pictures were divisions I made while remodeling a fence garden at my parent's home. More than twenty plants easily came from three large clumps in another location of their yard. All you need to divide liriope is a good sharp shovel and a strong back. I always pull away the loose crowns first by hand then divide the more stubborn pieces more aggressively with the shovel blade. Washing the soil away from the roots can also help to loosen the clumps.
Liriope has also been recommended as a lawn replacement/substitute due to its drought tolerance and low maintenance
Here is a picture of the partially finished garden. It was completed later in the year but this picture shows the liriope in the center of the garden underneath the cherry trees and in front of azaleas and a dappled willow. It flowers in the summer and eventually produces berries. Many people recommend mowing liriope in the spring to encourage fresh new growth, around here that's not usually necessary - the rabbits do that for us!
Your thoughts?
It seems that some people either love liriope for its utilitarian uses or hate it completely. I think if used the right way it can be an asset in the garden, what do you think?
I'll Have a Moss on the Rocks
What's not to like about moss? It's green, soft, fuzzy, grows well in shade, and is as resilient as they come! While gathering rocks over the weekend I stumbled upon (not literally) loads of mossy cover rocks. This little ground covering plant attaches itself and needs no soil. It gathers its nutrients from the air and requires good moisture to survive. As I've noticed in our own yard they will dry out through the summer and come back with a vengeance when wet weather returns. Perhaps vengeance isn't the right word here. Moss has a subtle calmness that surrounds it lending it a very important role as a ground cover in Japanese gardens. 
I wrote last year about moss in the yard and garden but it's a subject worth revisiting. Too many people view it as a weed and don't appreciate its potential value in the landscape. This weekend we brought home a small round rock completely covered in moss to add to the shade garden. I'm considering cultivating more to place at the base of a Japanese maple I bought in the fall as we have a large crop of moss in the backyard just waiting for cultivation. For more mossy information take a look at Frances' post Moss Magic.
