I have a restless beagle. He used to be content sleeping in the bottom of a closet, but then he discovered that by putting his front paws on his blanket and walking backwards he can move his blanket to other locations. Now he scouts new locations several times a day. The Winnebeagle can move out of the closet, around the bed, down the hall, and loop around the living room before he chooses a location - usually an inconvenient threshold .
Unfortunately, a plant is pretty much stuck where it was planted until a gardener moves it. If you notice a plant is not doing well or getting crowded, now is a great time to dig it up to move or divide it. Experienced gardeners do not hesitate to move a plant that is not thriving, because they know plants respond to the right conditions. Sometimes a plant needs to move because it did not turn out to be the size you expected or it is clashing with or crowding its neighbor. And dividing plants? - well that gets you more impact and more plants for free. Who could turn that down? So stroll around your garden and notice the plants that need to be moved. In Georgia, the recent rains have softened the soil, making it even easier to dig this weekend.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Siting Plants in the Landscape
One key to a beautiful, low maintenance garden is to locate plants in the area where they are most likely to thrive. A plant in favorable growing conditions will grow faster, have fewer pests and diseases and require less (or no) chemicals. There are many conditions to consider: sun, moisture, soil, wind, etc. No gardener can know all of these or find just the perfect spot, but the more one does know and works to meet the plant requirements, the healthier the plant will be and the less work is required once the plant is established.
Sometimes finding the right spot for a plant means moving it until it is happy. To try to avoid this, it is important to review the information on the plant tag and in reference books. It is wise to keep at least one gardening reference book on your shelf, preferably one with regional information. The summer sun is more intense as one moves south. A plant that thrives in full sun in Michigan may burn without afternoon shade in Oklahoma. Also, plants mature at different sizes in different locations where there are different soils, rainfall and growing seasons. In the deep South some crape myrtles become majestic trees and butterfly bushes are semi-evergreen, yet in their northern ranges these plants may die back to their roots in winter, serving as smaller summer-blooming shrubs in those landscapes. Since plant tags are produced for nationwide use, a regional book provides information relevant to your garden.
There are many factors to consider when choosing and siting a landscape plant. This article will look at two key factors: sun exposure and moisture.
Sun Exposure
Full sun is easy to understand, but when we hear terms like ‘part shade’, ‘light shade’, ‘filtered shade’ or ‘deciduous shade’ it all starts to get confusing. Part shade means just that – shaded part of the day. But which part makes all of the difference.
In the South if an area gets morning sun and afternoon shade, then ‘part shade’ plants will do well. If the area gets morning shade and the hot, intense afternoon sun, then plant only a plant that can handle full sun in that area. Further north a part shade plant can handle afternoon sun better.
Filtered shade is shade under trees. Although it may be bright at times, sunlight is filtered though the tree canopy.
Deciduous shade is shade provided by a tree that drops its leaves in winter. This is a special area of the garden, as early spring bulbs and wildflowers love the sunlight coming through the branches in March, but by May the leaves are protecting the hostas and ferns in the garden. A few evergreens that prefer shade may suffer foliage burn when the leaves drop and they are exposed to the winter sun. Also, there are trees that drop their leaves earlier than others. This is a situation where a gardener gets to know their plants and microclimate over time – observation and experience gives a gardener much that no book can offer.
As a landscape matures, more than likely shade patterns will change and some sun lovers may have to move away from maturing trees to stay healthy. Similarly, if a tree is cut down a landscape may change dramatically. Plants that were in full shade may adapt to morning sun, but probably will not handle afternoon sun.
Moisture
When considering moisture a gardener not only has to supply enough moisture for the plant but also adequate drainage, especially in clay soil, which retains water.
Some plants can handle “wet feet”, but in the clay soils prevalent in the Southeast most planting beds should be constructed to ensure adequate drainage. For the sake of your home, surface drainage should flow away from any structures. Clustering moisture-loving plants, such as hydrangeas, together allows the gardener to concentrate watering where it is most needed. If drought tolerant plants are planted away from the house or near the end of the hose the gardener doesn’t have to drag the hose out to the edges of the property as often.
Every plant does need supplemental watering and a little babying during the first year it is in the ground, while it is establishing its root system. After that, even drought tolerant plants may need help during the driest times – just not as often as some of the more thirsty plants in the garden. A layer of organic mulch can lessen water needs by discouraging competing weeds, helping to retain water in the soil, and lessening rainfall runoff.
One Last Note – Changing Sun Patterns
Observe sun patterns throughout the year in your garden. In late March and late September (Spring and Fall Equinox) the sun rises due east and sets due west. During the winter the sun rises and sets further south and is lower in the sky at midday. During the summer the sun rises and sets further north and is higher in the sky at midday. There are fewer hours of sunlight in the winter than in the summer, when the hottest part of the day is mid-afternoon. These seasonal changes are more pronounced the further one is from the equator (much more noticeable in Chicago than New Orleans). What looks like a shaded area in November may prove to be sunny on a July afternoon, when the sun angle has changed. A garden that looks sunny in winter may seem oppressively dark when the leaves come out on the trees in spring.
Sometimes finding the right spot for a plant means moving it until it is happy. To try to avoid this, it is important to review the information on the plant tag and in reference books. It is wise to keep at least one gardening reference book on your shelf, preferably one with regional information. The summer sun is more intense as one moves south. A plant that thrives in full sun in Michigan may burn without afternoon shade in Oklahoma. Also, plants mature at different sizes in different locations where there are different soils, rainfall and growing seasons. In the deep South some crape myrtles become majestic trees and butterfly bushes are semi-evergreen, yet in their northern ranges these plants may die back to their roots in winter, serving as smaller summer-blooming shrubs in those landscapes. Since plant tags are produced for nationwide use, a regional book provides information relevant to your garden.
There are many factors to consider when choosing and siting a landscape plant. This article will look at two key factors: sun exposure and moisture.
Sun Exposure
Full sun is easy to understand, but when we hear terms like ‘part shade’, ‘light shade’, ‘filtered shade’ or ‘deciduous shade’ it all starts to get confusing. Part shade means just that – shaded part of the day. But which part makes all of the difference.
In the South if an area gets morning sun and afternoon shade, then ‘part shade’ plants will do well. If the area gets morning shade and the hot, intense afternoon sun, then plant only a plant that can handle full sun in that area. Further north a part shade plant can handle afternoon sun better.
Filtered shade is shade under trees. Although it may be bright at times, sunlight is filtered though the tree canopy.
Deciduous shade is shade provided by a tree that drops its leaves in winter. This is a special area of the garden, as early spring bulbs and wildflowers love the sunlight coming through the branches in March, but by May the leaves are protecting the hostas and ferns in the garden. A few evergreens that prefer shade may suffer foliage burn when the leaves drop and they are exposed to the winter sun. Also, there are trees that drop their leaves earlier than others. This is a situation where a gardener gets to know their plants and microclimate over time – observation and experience gives a gardener much that no book can offer.
As a landscape matures, more than likely shade patterns will change and some sun lovers may have to move away from maturing trees to stay healthy. Similarly, if a tree is cut down a landscape may change dramatically. Plants that were in full shade may adapt to morning sun, but probably will not handle afternoon sun.
Moisture
When considering moisture a gardener not only has to supply enough moisture for the plant but also adequate drainage, especially in clay soil, which retains water.
Some plants can handle “wet feet”, but in the clay soils prevalent in the Southeast most planting beds should be constructed to ensure adequate drainage. For the sake of your home, surface drainage should flow away from any structures. Clustering moisture-loving plants, such as hydrangeas, together allows the gardener to concentrate watering where it is most needed. If drought tolerant plants are planted away from the house or near the end of the hose the gardener doesn’t have to drag the hose out to the edges of the property as often.
Every plant does need supplemental watering and a little babying during the first year it is in the ground, while it is establishing its root system. After that, even drought tolerant plants may need help during the driest times – just not as often as some of the more thirsty plants in the garden. A layer of organic mulch can lessen water needs by discouraging competing weeds, helping to retain water in the soil, and lessening rainfall runoff.
One Last Note – Changing Sun Patterns
Observe sun patterns throughout the year in your garden. In late March and late September (Spring and Fall Equinox) the sun rises due east and sets due west. During the winter the sun rises and sets further south and is lower in the sky at midday. During the summer the sun rises and sets further north and is higher in the sky at midday. There are fewer hours of sunlight in the winter than in the summer, when the hottest part of the day is mid-afternoon. These seasonal changes are more pronounced the further one is from the equator (much more noticeable in Chicago than New Orleans). What looks like a shaded area in November may prove to be sunny on a July afternoon, when the sun angle has changed. A garden that looks sunny in winter may seem oppressively dark when the leaves come out on the trees in spring.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
UGA Trial Gardens Open House
Went to the UGA Trial Garden Open House yesterday. Terra Nova's Rudbeckia 'Henry Eilers' is doing well in my garden too. It's a fun flower form. The Coleus 'Mint Mocha' was a showoff.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Almost new gloves!
I finally gave up on my 1970s Singer and bought a used sewing machine from a friend. Dresses that actually fit and Christmas presents from the macine will be nice, but the first stitches were to repair finger blowouts on my Foxgloves. I wear Foxgloves, thin cloth gloves that don't hamper your sense of touch or feel to hot in summer, every time I work in my garden and go through a few pair every year. They would last longer if I could fix the fingertips whenever I have a blowout. I wear out leather gloves almost as fast when I am moving lumber or mulch. I spoke with the owner of Foxgloves a year or two ago and she told me they would last longer if they were washed after every use, so I am doing that too. So now my chartreuse, red and periwinkle pairs of Foxgloves are in the garden basket kept inside the front door - ready for a second life. Ah, the sewing machine is a great invention!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Learning Lots this Next Week!
I'm taking a day off work Friday to spend time at the Cherokee Garden Library (http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/), one of the top horticulture research libraries in the Southeast. I love listening to podcasts on my new IPod, but there is nothing like holding a 100 year old book. I look forward to meeting with Staci, the Library Director, to learn more about this rich resouce.
Saturday morning (July 11th) I am working at the UGA Trial Garden Open House on the UGA Campus in Athens, Georgia. There are many amazing plants to see there, plus a book sale, plant sale and tours led by Allan Armitage. Read an article about it here.
Next weekend (July 16-18) I will be in the Specialty Ornamentals booth at the Joy Garden Tour Gift Shop in Cashiers, NC. What a great chance to learn more about conifers, hydrangeas and more from the very knowledgeable Flo and Joe Chaffin (http://www.specialtyornamentalsretail.com/)!
It all sounds great, but I will be so glad to come home to my husband and pets!
Saturday morning (July 11th) I am working at the UGA Trial Garden Open House on the UGA Campus in Athens, Georgia. There are many amazing plants to see there, plus a book sale, plant sale and tours led by Allan Armitage. Read an article about it here.
Next weekend (July 16-18) I will be in the Specialty Ornamentals booth at the Joy Garden Tour Gift Shop in Cashiers, NC. What a great chance to learn more about conifers, hydrangeas and more from the very knowledgeable Flo and Joe Chaffin (http://www.specialtyornamentalsretail.com/)!
It all sounds great, but I will be so glad to come home to my husband and pets!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Give Your Blooming Plants a Little Trim to Spruce Them Up
It is amazing how tidying up can improve the looks of a planting bed: weeding, cleaning up, cutting back, staking, reshaping, edging and mulching. And a little pruning now can rejuvenate the perennials, or even encourage them to rebloom.
Deadheading, removing faded flowers, has many benefits for you and your flower garden.
First, deadheading can be done in small segments of time. Just grab a bucket and a pair of garden snips. You may want to cut flowers for an indoor bouquet while you are in the garden.
Second, it gets you close to the plants, so you notice other things, such as insects, yellowing leaves, new blooms, and interesting color combinations.
Third, deadheading redirects the plants energy into creating more blooms. You may have planted your flowers to provide beauty, fragrance or cut flowers, which they do. But honestly those pretty, bright, fragrant flowers are produced to attract pollinating insects so the plant can set seed and reproduce. Once the seed is produced, the plant's goal is achieved. The plant's energy is redirected from producing flowers to producing seed. If you cut off the spent flowers, the plant produces more flowers in its attempt to reproduce.
Fourth, deadheading blooms and seed pods is a way to control self-sowing plants. Some annuals, such as cleome, self sow to return next year. Many biennials, since they bloom on second year plants, must self sow to keep blooming. Prolific self-sowers, such as rudbeckia and tall verbena, can be controlled by keeping the blooms deadheaded or encouraged by leaving some to reseed.
Self-sowing plants can be fun. Random planting by Mother Nature surprises you with a slightly new design scheme each year, adding to a cottage garden look or creating surprising plant combinations. However, letting the pretty blooms on chives go to seed can result in little chive plants everywhere and you know what their cousins, the wild onions, are like to weed.
Finally, regular deadheading improves the looks of your garden display by removing old blooms and encouraging more flowers. Those plants that only bloom once a season (columbine, hostas, most daylilies and iris) will simply look better if the spent flowers are removed.
How you deadhead is an art in itself. Start by looking at that plant's structure. Where are the next blooms forming? In a daylily, pick off the spent flowers until the stalk no longer is carrying any buds, then cut the stalk back almost to ground level. Carnations and balloon flowers have new buds just below the old blooms, and need a careful approach. Flowers that appear on their own stem should be cut to the ground.
Perhaps it is not feasible to cut every little spent bloom. Many perennials benefit from shearing the plant back after the first flush of blooms. This is much faster and the plant may bloom heavily again in a few weeks. Instead of cutting every one of the hundred of blooms on my coreopsis, I just give it a rough haircut, cutting the plant back by half.
Many shrub roses, such as Rosa mutabilis (the butterfly rose), Caldwell's Pink, Nearly Wild, Simplicity, or Knock Out can be sheared back with hedge shears after each flush of blooms. This creates more compact, bushier plants and three or more bloom displays from a rose planting in a season.
Deadheading, removing faded flowers, has many benefits for you and your flower garden.
First, deadheading can be done in small segments of time. Just grab a bucket and a pair of garden snips. You may want to cut flowers for an indoor bouquet while you are in the garden.
Second, it gets you close to the plants, so you notice other things, such as insects, yellowing leaves, new blooms, and interesting color combinations.
Third, deadheading redirects the plants energy into creating more blooms. You may have planted your flowers to provide beauty, fragrance or cut flowers, which they do. But honestly those pretty, bright, fragrant flowers are produced to attract pollinating insects so the plant can set seed and reproduce. Once the seed is produced, the plant's goal is achieved. The plant's energy is redirected from producing flowers to producing seed. If you cut off the spent flowers, the plant produces more flowers in its attempt to reproduce.
Fourth, deadheading blooms and seed pods is a way to control self-sowing plants. Some annuals, such as cleome, self sow to return next year. Many biennials, since they bloom on second year plants, must self sow to keep blooming. Prolific self-sowers, such as rudbeckia and tall verbena, can be controlled by keeping the blooms deadheaded or encouraged by leaving some to reseed.
Self-sowing plants can be fun. Random planting by Mother Nature surprises you with a slightly new design scheme each year, adding to a cottage garden look or creating surprising plant combinations. However, letting the pretty blooms on chives go to seed can result in little chive plants everywhere and you know what their cousins, the wild onions, are like to weed.
Finally, regular deadheading improves the looks of your garden display by removing old blooms and encouraging more flowers. Those plants that only bloom once a season (columbine, hostas, most daylilies and iris) will simply look better if the spent flowers are removed.
How you deadhead is an art in itself. Start by looking at that plant's structure. Where are the next blooms forming? In a daylily, pick off the spent flowers until the stalk no longer is carrying any buds, then cut the stalk back almost to ground level. Carnations and balloon flowers have new buds just below the old blooms, and need a careful approach. Flowers that appear on their own stem should be cut to the ground.
Perhaps it is not feasible to cut every little spent bloom. Many perennials benefit from shearing the plant back after the first flush of blooms. This is much faster and the plant may bloom heavily again in a few weeks. Instead of cutting every one of the hundred of blooms on my coreopsis, I just give it a rough haircut, cutting the plant back by half.
Many shrub roses, such as Rosa mutabilis (the butterfly rose), Caldwell's Pink, Nearly Wild, Simplicity, or Knock Out can be sheared back with hedge shears after each flush of blooms. This creates more compact, bushier plants and three or more bloom displays from a rose planting in a season.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thinking of Dad
Fathers Day and my 92-year-old father is 800 miles away, but close in my thoughts, especially when I am in the garden.
I learned about gardening from my father, who grew up in a brownstone in an immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey and, like me, finally owned a small piece of acreage in the South after he turned 40. His passion for gardening compelled him to try it all: fruit and veggies, a greenhouse full of orchids, a front yard arboretum, a rose garden, espaliered fruit trees, banks of daffodils, and a lawn quilt on the side of the house where he trialed every kind of sod he could find.
One thing I learned from Dad was organization. Actually by bad example, because Dad would know just the right tool for the job, then go off into the greenhouse, then the carport, then to the house to get the key to the well house, to the well house, back to the house for the key to the carport closets and through both carport closets to find this perfect tool. I’d get the job done well enough with a tool at hand while this search ensued and when he returned I would agree his way would have been better and yes, his is the perfect tool for the job.
But for a guy whose tools are totally disorganized, Dad is a meticulous organizer of dirt and weeds.
I use the method of weeding that he taught me. One bucket (actually a colorful trug – I do have to add my personality to the chore) is for weeds that go onto the compost pile. The other bucket is for weeds that go in the trash - weeds too noxious to add to the compost. Spent plant tags and other trash are also tossed into this second, much smaller trug.
If a new planting bed is being created, then additional buckets are needed. One is a small container of soil where earthworms are gently placed while the tiller, shovel and pitchfork plow through the bed. They are returned to the planting bed later, when their neighborhood is safe again. Another is for stones found in the bed. These do not return. Yet another may be needed for plants and bulbs that are to be saved and replanted after dividing.
Then there is the organization of the dirt itself, starting with the creation of our garden soil. After dinner in the 1960s, before recycling and living green was cool, food was carefully separated – leftovers for the fridge, meat and bones for the pets and almost everything else for the compost bin, which Dad carried to the cluster of huge 8’ square compost piles. In addition to weeds and kitchen scraps, he added soil and cow manure, both rich in microbes and good bacteria, to these compost bins. After some months the result was rich, dark soil.
But before the soil can be used there is yet more organization. Using a handmade sifter made from 2 by 4s and wire mesh (the one my daddy made for me leans against my compost pile), every shovelful of aged compost is sifted as it enters the wheelbarrow. What doesn’t fit through the mesh is separated again and goes back onto the pile or into a bag hanging on the compost frame that is later carried to the trash can.
This may sound extreme to someone who did not grow up organizing dirt and weeds, but it was expected from me. I am so grateful for that upbringing, because the end result of planting beds with richer soil and fewer weeds is well worth the work – work that is so second nature to me as a gardener that I don’t even think about it when I enter my garden. I just do it. Thanks, Dad.
I learned about gardening from my father, who grew up in a brownstone in an immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey and, like me, finally owned a small piece of acreage in the South after he turned 40. His passion for gardening compelled him to try it all: fruit and veggies, a greenhouse full of orchids, a front yard arboretum, a rose garden, espaliered fruit trees, banks of daffodils, and a lawn quilt on the side of the house where he trialed every kind of sod he could find.
One thing I learned from Dad was organization. Actually by bad example, because Dad would know just the right tool for the job, then go off into the greenhouse, then the carport, then to the house to get the key to the well house, to the well house, back to the house for the key to the carport closets and through both carport closets to find this perfect tool. I’d get the job done well enough with a tool at hand while this search ensued and when he returned I would agree his way would have been better and yes, his is the perfect tool for the job.
But for a guy whose tools are totally disorganized, Dad is a meticulous organizer of dirt and weeds.
I use the method of weeding that he taught me. One bucket (actually a colorful trug – I do have to add my personality to the chore) is for weeds that go onto the compost pile. The other bucket is for weeds that go in the trash - weeds too noxious to add to the compost. Spent plant tags and other trash are also tossed into this second, much smaller trug.
If a new planting bed is being created, then additional buckets are needed. One is a small container of soil where earthworms are gently placed while the tiller, shovel and pitchfork plow through the bed. They are returned to the planting bed later, when their neighborhood is safe again. Another is for stones found in the bed. These do not return. Yet another may be needed for plants and bulbs that are to be saved and replanted after dividing.
Then there is the organization of the dirt itself, starting with the creation of our garden soil. After dinner in the 1960s, before recycling and living green was cool, food was carefully separated – leftovers for the fridge, meat and bones for the pets and almost everything else for the compost bin, which Dad carried to the cluster of huge 8’ square compost piles. In addition to weeds and kitchen scraps, he added soil and cow manure, both rich in microbes and good bacteria, to these compost bins. After some months the result was rich, dark soil.
But before the soil can be used there is yet more organization. Using a handmade sifter made from 2 by 4s and wire mesh (the one my daddy made for me leans against my compost pile), every shovelful of aged compost is sifted as it enters the wheelbarrow. What doesn’t fit through the mesh is separated again and goes back onto the pile or into a bag hanging on the compost frame that is later carried to the trash can.
This may sound extreme to someone who did not grow up organizing dirt and weeds, but it was expected from me. I am so grateful for that upbringing, because the end result of planting beds with richer soil and fewer weeds is well worth the work – work that is so second nature to me as a gardener that I don’t even think about it when I enter my garden. I just do it. Thanks, Dad.
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