By structure I mean interest other than plants. This is a great time of year to look at your garden stripped! In fact all that is there are your structures and evergreens. I know, we all have sticks showing from our shrubs and roses. But structures are more commanding, they are in your face all year!
I am finally getting the idea of making a garden an extension of the home, in other words, an outside room or grouping of rooms. Think in terms of walkways, a raised bed here and there as you walk along. Think of going from room to room through an arbor or pergola. Try to vary the stone work, such as a tumbled stone for patio and walkways and a natural lannon stone for raised beds. Flag or irregular bluestone can be used for paths through arbors, etc.
In your outdoor rooms make sure there is a place to sit, or to at least look like you could sit there, a wooden bench, weathered metal or concrete. I love tuteurs (obelisks) placed in garden beds either left by themselves as decor or planted beneath with a clematis or other appropriate vine. Take it easy on the "chachkees." as they can make the garden look cluttered and take away from the plantings. If you can't pass up that concrete rabbbit or duck, have them peeking out from behind plantings.
A fence can be the frame for your garden. It can be very decorative like wrought iron and be part of the decor, or it can be woodsy like cedar and blend into the background.
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Iron fencing does not have to go anywhere to enhance the garden, and sometimes they are necessary to keep large plants within bounds. Two sections together can spotlight corner plantings.
Have fun planning your outdoor room, now is the time to do it!
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
Welcome To February In Zone 5
It's not a pretty sight is it? - not my yard, not my flamingo! There has been a little glitch downloading my camera or you would be seeing my wooden goose. I have been feeling very frustrated looking at not alone my photos but all of the beautiful photography of plants on the gardening blogs. What can we do in the garden in February when it's still too cold to garden?
Seed starting (under lights)
Cleaning and oiling of tools (I am not great at doing this, but I know I should)
Planning of gardens and containers
Ordering perennials
Buying seeds to start outside (if you wait too long some varieties like parsley and lettuces dissapear)
Cutting your Type 3 clematis at the base (you don't have to take all the vines down, but it prevents them from sprouting all over the vines if we get a warm spell).
Think about your pots! I know I have several I haven't used productively in several years - why am I keeping them when someone else might use them?
Call landscaping contractors soon, they get booked up very early in the season - even if you just have a little job. Also, their pricing is always better before they have booked several jobs.
Order garden furniture (if you want something special everything takes twelve weeks).
Forget all of the above and go on vacation!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Woodies continued ....
I am continuing around the house with the shrubs, some successes and some not so special. All along the front right side of my house I have a shrub called Rhus Aromatica Grow Low. It is aromatic and it is low. Other than this it is a pain! I have to trim it about three or four times a season to keep it from encrouching on my neighbor's yard, and last year it developed a scale problem - yuck! It supposedly grows about three feet high and can have a spread of eight feet. I can see this on a hillside, but this is one I am rethinking.
I have put in some Endless Summer Hydrangeas along the side of my dining room. They did well the first year and last year looked pretty good, but I am reserving my opinion because in zone 5 they have not always performed well. They do need to be trimmed down in the spring (I know they say they can grow on old and new wood, but mine die back to the ground) and fed with an acid fertilizer.
As I move back on the north side of my house I have three wonderful hydrangeas called "Unique," not as floriferous as Limelight, but they thrive in partial shade. I keep them lower than they are meant to be (can be up to ten feet) by cutting it down to about two feet in the spring. It still gets pretty tall but not ten feet. It has wonderful long panicles of rosy and white colored flowers in late summer, great for drying!
I really am delighted with the shrubs I have in the back of my yard. They are Amelanchier Regent, not very well known in this classification. It's namesake a much taller version is also known as Shadblow, Juneberry or Serviceberry and grows to ten or twenty feet depending upon the variety. Regent only grows to three to six feet (mine are more like three feet), long panicles of white flowers in spring, berries in summer and glowing red leaves in the fall.
Shrubs contribute to the bones of the garden. They should be attractive and have interest through more than one season and most of all be low maintenance.
I have put in some Endless Summer Hydrangeas along the side of my dining room. They did well the first year and last year looked pretty good, but I am reserving my opinion because in zone 5 they have not always performed well. They do need to be trimmed down in the spring (I know they say they can grow on old and new wood, but mine die back to the ground) and fed with an acid fertilizer.
As I move back on the north side of my house I have three wonderful hydrangeas called "Unique," not as floriferous as Limelight, but they thrive in partial shade. I keep them lower than they are meant to be (can be up to ten feet) by cutting it down to about two feet in the spring. It still gets pretty tall but not ten feet. It has wonderful long panicles of rosy and white colored flowers in late summer, great for drying!
I really am delighted with the shrubs I have in the back of my yard. They are Amelanchier Regent, not very well known in this classification. It's namesake a much taller version is also known as Shadblow, Juneberry or Serviceberry and grows to ten or twenty feet depending upon the variety. Regent only grows to three to six feet (mine are more like three feet), long panicles of white flowers in spring, berries in summer and glowing red leaves in the fall.
Shrubs contribute to the bones of the garden. They should be attractive and have interest through more than one season and most of all be low maintenance.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Woodies
I guess I am into the woodies right now, because these are the plants I can see in my yard right now. What would we do without shrubs, our landscapes would certainly not be as interesting. One of my favorite shrubs is right next to the walk as you approach the front door - Viburnum Carlesi Compactum. It is small (about three feet) fragrant and attractive in the fall. You can only prune it right after it flowers or you won't have blooms the following spring.
As I look out my front door I see the dried flowers of Limelight Hydrangea which is the showstopper of late summer. Cars stop, people with dogs stop because it is an unbeliveable specimen! It grows about eight feet tall and six feet wide. I cut it down to about three feet each March, feed it an acid fertilizer and it rewards me and most of my neighbors with gorgeous flowers in white, pale green, pink tinged and rose up until frost. This hydrangea prefers sun!
Along the side of Limelight I am struggling with a grouping of four Itea Virginica Henry's Garnet. They have been in the ground six years and never flowered. I have given them one more year and then it is goodbye. They get a few little flowers, so this year I cut them down, fed them with a systemic because it looked like some of the leaves were being eaten, and watched them revive to look more plush than I had ever seen. I try to be as organic as possible, but when an "antibotic"is warranted, I go for it. Well, we'll see come spring!
These are my woodies in the front of my house, we will move around the sides and back another day. Can anyone give me some pointers on Henry's Garnet?
As I look out my front door I see the dried flowers of Limelight Hydrangea which is the showstopper of late summer. Cars stop, people with dogs stop because it is an unbeliveable specimen! It grows about eight feet tall and six feet wide. I cut it down to about three feet each March, feed it an acid fertilizer and it rewards me and most of my neighbors with gorgeous flowers in white, pale green, pink tinged and rose up until frost. This hydrangea prefers sun!
Along the side of Limelight I am struggling with a grouping of four Itea Virginica Henry's Garnet. They have been in the ground six years and never flowered. I have given them one more year and then it is goodbye. They get a few little flowers, so this year I cut them down, fed them with a systemic because it looked like some of the leaves were being eaten, and watched them revive to look more plush than I had ever seen. I try to be as organic as possible, but when an "antibotic"is warranted, I go for it. Well, we'll see come spring!
These are my woodies in the front of my house, we will move around the sides and back another day. Can anyone give me some pointers on Henry's Garnet?
Friday, January 29, 2010
Trees We Love
I have always loved trees! They not only frame your home, but they put their arms around a neighborhood.
I grew up with Chinese Elms that made my father want tear his hair out. They had become completely entangled in our city lot sewer system. I remember the diggers coming to tear up our front lawn to rod out the system.
In the second home I owned, we had 100 year old American Elms that made a canopy up and down our street. They evoked such a peaceful feeling as we raised our children and lived our daily lives. However, one by one over a period of years all of those beautiful elms disappeared due to Dutch Elm Disease. We would stand outside in the springtime and watch a village person come through and mark a big red X on the trees they determined were infected. It was the X of death, and no matter how much we argued with the X maker, the tree came down!
Thousands of the Elms are gone, and even though I have a different home now on a street with many century old homes, most of the trees are new. Two months after moving in we lost two one hundred year old trees and now have trees not much taller than me planted in front of our home. I look at my new trees, and I can actually see which branches need to go, something I could never have done with the century old trees. This is the best time of year to shape your trees, either by a professional or by you if you are a careful pruner.
I have an Accolade Elm and a Maple in the front of my house on the parkway and a Chanticleer Pear closer to my house. The Chanticleer is an improvement over the Bradford because it's branches are more upright and stable during a storm. The Trinity Pear is lovely, but it does spread out more than the Chanticleer. These pear trees have leaves that turn a deep red in the fall and are the last to disappear. I forgot to tell you that it has beautiful white flowers in the spring.
I have a Pagoda Dogwood in the back because my yard is so small I could never have accomodated a shade tree. It has taken me a couple years to get this tree in shape as it was hit heavily by the cicadas a few years ago. They really liked this tree, lots of pruning!
Does anyone have trees that they really love?
I grew up with Chinese Elms that made my father want tear his hair out. They had become completely entangled in our city lot sewer system. I remember the diggers coming to tear up our front lawn to rod out the system.
In the second home I owned, we had 100 year old American Elms that made a canopy up and down our street. They evoked such a peaceful feeling as we raised our children and lived our daily lives. However, one by one over a period of years all of those beautiful elms disappeared due to Dutch Elm Disease. We would stand outside in the springtime and watch a village person come through and mark a big red X on the trees they determined were infected. It was the X of death, and no matter how much we argued with the X maker, the tree came down!
Thousands of the Elms are gone, and even though I have a different home now on a street with many century old homes, most of the trees are new. Two months after moving in we lost two one hundred year old trees and now have trees not much taller than me planted in front of our home. I look at my new trees, and I can actually see which branches need to go, something I could never have done with the century old trees. This is the best time of year to shape your trees, either by a professional or by you if you are a careful pruner.
I have an Accolade Elm and a Maple in the front of my house on the parkway and a Chanticleer Pear closer to my house. The Chanticleer is an improvement over the Bradford because it's branches are more upright and stable during a storm. The Trinity Pear is lovely, but it does spread out more than the Chanticleer. These pear trees have leaves that turn a deep red in the fall and are the last to disappear. I forgot to tell you that it has beautiful white flowers in the spring.
I have a Pagoda Dogwood in the back because my yard is so small I could never have accomodated a shade tree. It has taken me a couple years to get this tree in shape as it was hit heavily by the cicadas a few years ago. They really liked this tree, lots of pruning!
Does anyone have trees that they really love?
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