Many of us will remember that was the name of a camera not "Spring." However, in many areas, it seems to have come on instantly following frost and snow. We are happy, our mood is on the upswing and we are giddy at the sight of all of the beautiful flowers. Our gardens have exploded with color, so fast in many cases, that we go to bed in the evening and plants we didn't even notice the day before are blooming.
My daughter-in-law asked me yesterday how she could have all of her tulips blooming behind the daffodils for Easter. They are all early tulips, Monte Carlo and Emperor but normally not quite ready to bloom with the early daffodils. However, with all of the heat we have had it might work - how? Water, water, water, not something you think about this time of year. But, if you have high temperatures, your early spring flowers are going to need water. We are getting some rain today so I won't have to water again this morning.
I looked like a crazy gardener out yesterday morning with my hose. You would have thought it was the middle of summer, but to me it was with 84 degrees Thursday and 82 degrees yesterday. We are supposed to get rain and cooler temperatures, but with the heat give your little blooms a drink and they will stay around a little bit longer
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
A Magazine Worth Owning
I just received my new issue of GardenMaking. I know, you are saying, "I never heard of that one!" Well, it was a recommendation from my blogging friend Allan Becker from the gardenguru a couple of months ago. It is published in Canada, and as Allan said, it is all gardening information, not advertisements.
I am so thrilled with the article Allan Armitage wrote saying phooy to all of those people who worry about how to pronounce all of the latin names and making the garden perfect - it is always a work in progress. He loves the idea of sticking plants in that we like even though they may not go with the "design." How can you try new plants if you don't experiment?
Another article that impressed me with it's ease of understanding was Six Steps To A Beautiful New Border by Stephen Westcott-Gratton. He tells us that a new border should blend in with the overall garden design i.e., if curved beds already exist, it should be a more casual border rather than structural and geometric as in straight bed borders. He goes on to stress mapping out dimensions, improving soil, adding a focal point, choosing plants and planting. This is a great article for beginners or seasoned gardeners who need reminders.
GardenMaking has article after article (I counted twenty-one), with a minimum of advertising pages. You might find it here in the States at a major book store like Barnes & Noble or Borders, or look it up on line. In the United States, it is $29.95 for six issues and reads like a gardening book each time you receive it.. http://www.gardenmaking.com/
I am so thrilled with the article Allan Armitage wrote saying phooy to all of those people who worry about how to pronounce all of the latin names and making the garden perfect - it is always a work in progress. He loves the idea of sticking plants in that we like even though they may not go with the "design." How can you try new plants if you don't experiment?
Another article that impressed me with it's ease of understanding was Six Steps To A Beautiful New Border by Stephen Westcott-Gratton. He tells us that a new border should blend in with the overall garden design i.e., if curved beds already exist, it should be a more casual border rather than structural and geometric as in straight bed borders. He goes on to stress mapping out dimensions, improving soil, adding a focal point, choosing plants and planting. This is a great article for beginners or seasoned gardeners who need reminders.
GardenMaking has article after article (I counted twenty-one), with a minimum of advertising pages. You might find it here in the States at a major book store like Barnes & Noble or Borders, or look it up on line. In the United States, it is $29.95 for six issues and reads like a gardening book each time you receive it.. http://www.gardenmaking.com/
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
It Happens Every Year
Our walkway sinks, our patio pavers sink, our stone walkway to the front of our house sinks, our north side stepping stones sink. Some of the repair my husband can do with his crowbar and bag of sand. The long walkway from front to back on the south side we had to have a professional do two years ago and the front ditto. The stepping stones on the shady side my husband can do, grunt work but no special skills necessary.
On our patio, we have been looking at the leaning fountain for at least three years. It has been shimmed up at far as it can go. When one sits next to the fountain, your body leans to the right. At a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, my husband was going to ask the guests to help him take apart the three-piece fountain so that he could get at the bricks underneath. Yikes, I said no way - it weighs hundreds of pounds and screams lawsuit if it falls on anyone.
So, yesterday he hired a professional, they started today, and the men have relaid the bricks, took apart the fountain, replaced a flagstone walk in the back of my garden and added two irregular bluestone walks. They did all of this in a span of four hours, a job that would have taken my husband at least four weekends.
I will give the flagstone to my daughter to complete her walk on the south side of her home. I am not a big fan of flagstone and am slowly replacing it and giving it away. It gets really grimy and dirty, even with power washing it never looks clean. In a wooded area, it would probably be more natural, but I do not have this type of garden.
The fountain looks straight again, the pathways allow me into my garden without stepping all over my plantings and all's right with the world! Oh, I forgot to tell you it's 70 degrees and the sun is out.
On our patio, we have been looking at the leaning fountain for at least three years. It has been shimmed up at far as it can go. When one sits next to the fountain, your body leans to the right. At a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, my husband was going to ask the guests to help him take apart the three-piece fountain so that he could get at the bricks underneath. Yikes, I said no way - it weighs hundreds of pounds and screams lawsuit if it falls on anyone.
So, yesterday he hired a professional, they started today, and the men have relaid the bricks, took apart the fountain, replaced a flagstone walk in the back of my garden and added two irregular bluestone walks. They did all of this in a span of four hours, a job that would have taken my husband at least four weekends.
I will give the flagstone to my daughter to complete her walk on the south side of her home. I am not a big fan of flagstone and am slowly replacing it and giving it away. It gets really grimy and dirty, even with power washing it never looks clean. In a wooded area, it would probably be more natural, but I do not have this type of garden.
The fountain looks straight again, the pathways allow me into my garden without stepping all over my plantings and all's right with the world! Oh, I forgot to tell you it's 70 degrees and the sun is out.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
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).
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).
Sunday, March 28, 2010
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.
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.
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