Mossing Around!

I received my Oregon green moss from http://www.kinsmangardens.com/ and it is always a process to get it ready to put on the baskets, hayracks and urns.  One note, it has never happened in my garden, the leftover moss I had from last year, I donated to my daughter-in-law's urns and the birds are taking it to build nests!  I am going to take a chance putting it around my urns and hayracks.  Mine is fresh moss, so maybe they will leave it alone.

It comes in a bale all tied with string which needs to be cut away.  The moss can then be peeled away in sections (do not soak what you are not going to use) and soaked in water for about thirty minutes.  It needs to be squeezed as much as possible and then can be torn, pieced, stuck inside of the rungs of the baskets, and layered between the plants if you wish.  This is not like the moss you will buy at Home Depot or the local garden center.  It is so natural, green and brown, almost seems like you plucked it from the woods.

Once used outdoors, it lasts for the season.  If you have kept it dry from last season, it is still good to go, maybe a little darker.  I am going around today to collect the old moss from last year, and I will place it in the middle of my posts between the plantings to conserve moisture.  This may seem like overkill and fussiness, but it really does conserve moisture in those pots that are exposed to the heat and sun.

Go ahead, begin "mossing around."

P.S.  I bought a large basket of pansys (10 pansies in the pot), and will separate them into two hayracks.
Remember, if you buy those small ones in the flats they will barely get big enough when you will have to take them out because of the heat (if you live in zone 5 or above).  I put mine on the north side of my house when they are big and beautiful (around May 1, here in Chicago area).

Things Are Really Slow Out There

What is really going on in my garden?  Not much!  I am looking around and bulbs are poking through and my Early Sensation daffodils are blooming (almost two weeks now - I will certainly plant more of these next fall),, but my Tete-A-Tete daffodils are struggling to bloom.

I am beginning to feel disapointment that many of the bulbs I planted in the fall are not coming up and were probably taken by the squirrels before I could cover them with chicken wire.  I am using a new product (in three different gardens) for me called Plantskydd for Critters.  It is a granular, non toxic dried blood type material.  They guarantee that it will work and also make a deer repellant.  It is expensive, but if it works it will save many of the plants those little rabbits and squirrels (bulbs) feed on.  This is a bummer, I am definitely going to win next fall! 

I am going to begin feeding my evergreens, boxwood (boxwood take a general fertilizer not acid), shrubs and roses.  I used to buy spikes, but I haven't been too happy with the results in the past few years, so this year I am going to do an organic granular.  I have pruned all of my roses and cut down the perennials and the hydrangeas that grow on both old and new wood.  My Endless Summer Hydrangeas look good this year requiring very little pruning.  The Salome daffodils that surround these hydrangeas look good this year, just coming up through the mulch.

Bleeding Hearts have poked through, no hosta yet, daylilies up in the vegetable garden and elsewhere.  There is no Astilbe, no Foxglove, Phlox poking through, no Coneflowers, some Clematis showing buds, no grasses showing any growth, some roses budding, Shasta Daisies lots of green leaves, Hyacinths and Tulips poking through, no ferns, Heuchera showing growth, no Astrantia showing, no Polygonium (Soleman's Seal) , no Peony buds, no  - Why am I doing this?  It is making me so depressed!  I guess I will just have to wait like I do every year.

Matisse In The Garden

I went to my monthly workshop at the Chicago Art Institute on Thursday and was priviledged to view the Matisse collection.  The collection was from a period in his life from 1911 - 1916 approximately, so it was a surprise to me that I was not seeing all of the bright colors that I associated with Matisse.

I immediately began relating his paintings to how I could reproduce them in plants either in containers or in my garden borders.  It is amazing how fast I was able to reproduce the triangles and linear aspects to what Gordon Hayward had spoken about at the Morton Arboretum in regard to Art In The Garden.  I could pick out that important focal point, that object to view from a window (Matisse had several window pictures) and that white that draws your eye into the picture.

Matisse embraced cubism during this period of his painting and actually owned a Cezanne painting of the "Three Bathers" that influenced his paintings from then on.  This was a surprise to me as I never associated Matisse with cubism, but obviously this was a major part of his work.

A Most Unusual Garden

I have talked about my xeric garden which runs along the south side of my house right next to the foundation, but I have not told you about my xeric garden along the back of the fence facing our alley.  My hose barely reaches back there, so I was required to plant only those perennials which needed very little water.

The first thing we did was to have this strip dug out (it was all gravel, clay and asphalt) and filled with good soil which was then topped with a heavy river rock that would not wash into the alley in heavy rains. 

,Along the back I put in Panicum 'Northwind' a tall upright blue-green grass that turns tan in the fall and stays standing until the most heavy snows.  I also used some Sedum 'Autumn Fire' which stays more upright in the winter than Autumn Joy.  Interspersed throughout this thirty foot plus strip is Nepeta 'Walker's Low', Agastache 'Rosita', Agastache ' Blue Fortune', Centhantrus Ruber Alba 'White', and Sedum 'Vera Jameson'. These perennials are all xeric (requiring very little water) http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

It was a challenge planting these among river rock, but mulch would not work in this area because of the water flow, it would wash down the alley.  A few other neighbors have begun to beautify the back of their homes in the same way.  We now get some walkers down our paved alley to look at the garden.  I live in the suburbs but the lot is very citified.

Algerian Ivy

I have two clay planters attached to the walls of my patio.  I have tried several different plantings through the years and the most successful is Algerian Ivy (Hedra Canariensis).  It is a perennial in zones 8 - 10 and an annual elsewhere.  This is obviously considered a "spiller" in your container plantings.

I prefer the variegated Algerian Ivy because in the partial shade under the pergola it has a glow about it.  I have learned to buy the larger plants and also to purchase two for each container.  Many years I would try to get by with one in each planter because they are expensive, just didn't work, was not full enough to make a statement.

This is an unusual ivy because it is so large.  The leaves are at least 3" across.  It is very effective in containers with multiple plantings as it trails down the sides.  The varieties are in a solid green and green with a white rim.  I prefer the variegated but both are attractive.