Gardening Question of the Day for Friday, April 11, 2008
(Via Gardening Question of the Day (from the Old Farmer's Almanac))
How can I control chickweed in my lawn? (answer).![]()
How can I control chickweed in my lawn? (answer).
From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
spring fling, part one
(Via Idaho Gardener)
What I did on my summer vacation. No, make that, what I did on my spring vacation: Went to Austin, TX. Yes, I remembered to take some snaps to share with y’all. Didn’t bring you any barbeque or ice cold Shinerbock. Sorry. Pictures is all ya get.
I was participating in the first ever annual Garden Bloggers’ Spring Fling thing in Austin TX. With 35 fellow garden bloggers, we started the morning with a docent-lead tour of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Texas bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, yellow columbine and pink primroses bloomed as if on cue. Suhweet!
The Center is one of the best designed botanical sites I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. I especially liked the true Texas flavor of the preserve: the architecture and landscape architecture pay homage to the three main groups of Texas residents: the native and Mexican peoples, the German settlers and the ranch families. The entry building is a gorgeous limestone water cistern meant to celebrate the lifeblood essential to Texas land use: WATER. Rainwater is harvested throughout the property and carried via metal aqueducts to other buildings and other plantings. Texas limestone is the bane of many a gardener but an abundant and beautiful indigenous building material. The German settlers used it to build their farms and settlements. The humble, affordable and industrial corrugated tin is used for roofing and siding on some of the buildings as it was on working farms and ranches. Shade structures are made of branches and woods harvest in the area…….as they have been made for hundreds of years.
Next up, Austin’s famous Natural Gardener Nursery. The nursery has several demo gardens, I have included the poppy field and a couple of shots of the veggie garden. This place is all about color. Jeeeeez, I hate that. Not. I so wanted to bring home the copper globe mallow, pink actually, oh, I wanted it. Alas, the smallest they had was a one gallon container and I am so over the idea of packing plants on planes, especially one gallon plants. Arrrrggggh.
Back to the hotel to put up our feet for about three seconds and then to our hostess extraordinaire’s home for Texas-tinis and consumables. Our hostess, Pam, from Diggin has a delightful home, art I want, and makes a mean cocktail. I intend to shamelessly copy her blue bottle tree! Take THAT Boise! I know it is derived from Southern spiritual tradition (wards off evil), but if any body needed to ward off evil, it’s me. Some of you are aware we are in the war of our lives against the evildoers.
And let me tell you something. These folks are garden communicators. And man, oh, man, can they talk! You shoulda been there. To be continued…………
Post from: Idaho Gardener
Azalea bushes worth an encore
(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)
Recently I wrote about the changing trends in gardens and how plants seem to disappear out of vogue. One plant that I didn't mention was azalea bushes which seem to go through sporadical encores. One minute they're detested, the next they're the must-have trendsetter. Love them or not, I'm sure they will be with us for a very long time to come.
Recently I wrote about the changing trends in gardens and how plants seem to disappear out of vogue. One plant that I didn't mention was azalea bushes which seem to go through sporadical encores. One minute they're detested, the next they're the must-have trendsetter. Love them or not, I'm sure they will be with us for a very long time to come.
The most probable cause of their attention is twofold; (1) They bloom their butts off, and (2) they are fairly easy to grow. So easy, in fact, that many azaleas are sold in supermarkets - and who buys plants from the supermarket apart from those people wanting to just stick something in the ground?
Even though azaleas are supposedly easy to grow, they can just as easily die. My wife (the decisive gardener) ripped one from the ground just the other day - I swear I spotted tinges of green in the stems! Fortunately, this isn't typical of their growth habit and provided the conditions are good and they receive a little TLC they will continue to grow and bloom forever.
What attracts most people to azaleas is the colour range and the diversity of bloom shades and hue makeups. Many specimens now come in ranges from Vanilla white through dark purples and every shade and combination in between. And in peak flowering season - mainly spring - they can almost carpet most shrubs until it looks like a mass of colour.
In the past, azalea bushes were grown as great options for the shade bed. They had very little tolerance of the sun and their blooms, if there were any, would wilt and spot quicker than an icecream on a summer's day. It's not the case these days, though. Most of the newer hybrids are bred to not only tolerate sun but to thrive in it which gives gardeners even more freedom in planting one, or two, or....
The specs for growing azalea bushes...
- Make sure you read the label before planting your azalea in the ground. Some will only grow in shade and others can only survive in the sun.
- While it may seem a travesty against nature, cut off any blooms that appear on the plant before putting it in the ground. Azaleas are heavy feeders - heavy drinkers too - so to give them the best start, boost up the soil with a slow release fertiliser and handfuls of blood 'n bone (bonemeal). When flowering, feed with a liquid fertiliser every 2 - 4 weeks.
- Pruning a shrub is best done after flowering and when the plant becomes dormant - usually the end of autumn. You can be quite hard with them, snipping of about a third of their size. Fertilise again at this time with some more blood 'n bone.
- Azaleas can be propagated by semi or hardwood cuttings taken when you give the plant a prune. They're not hard to reproduce but may take a few turns, so be patient.
What type of gardens do azaleas suit?
Apart from "grandma's garden", azaleas are made for Japanese gardens. Their flowering profusion set against a back drop of dark green foliage make them the quintessential addition. The sun-loving pedigrees (now there's an oxymoron!) also work well in cottage or rambling gardens just as well as they do in formal designs.
There are few garden styles where an azalea wouldn't work well apart from the xeriscape. Their thirst for moisture is often insatiable and they won't survive on merely rainfall alone - unless of course you live in a climate where it rains every second day.
And while they tolerate frosts they don't seem to enjoy them.
Guest Blog—William Rein
(Via Heronswood Voice )
What can you say about a garden that you visited once and loved? That it was beautiful? That the extent of the exotic and the unusual was beyond that of any other private garden you’ve seen? That it was so magically and artistically arranged in its setting that anyone easily could be swept up in its spell? That once you entered it, you didn’t want to leave?
I am in the midst of my first visit to Heronswood, my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, my first encounter with spring in a climate with which I am unfamiliar. I have been sent here for work, as an employee of W. Atlee Burpee Company. Of course, I had heard the legends about the place, about the horticulture-friendly climate of the Pacific Northwest and the beauty of the Kitsap peninsula, about Seattle and its “cool vibe” and cool weather and its coffee. You get an image in your mind from such talk. Now, three days into my visit, I’m here to tell you – it is all true!
You can’t miss the really, really tall conifers – mostly native Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and some western cedar (Thuja plicata) – that constitute the woods along the road. Then there is the immenseness of scale of the surrounding region, with Alp-like snow-capped rugged mountains to the west and east, the Puget Sound between us and Seattle, the greenness of the place already, in early April. The cool, damp climate makes an East Coast guy like me wonder how all those different species I am encountering are in leaf so early, when just this morning it was freezing, and so far it hasn’t felt like the temperature has broken 50 degrees.
Actually, the weather when I landed in Seattle two days ago was just like I left it that morning, three thousand miles to the east, at Newark Liberty Airport – gray and chilly. But after a quick (if bracing) jaunt around the waterfront sites and Pike Street Market, stopping to photograph Mahonias in bloom, Acer palmatum cultivars already leafing out in numerous city planter boxes, and other “only in the Pacific Northwest” oddities I couldn’t quite identify by species, my coworker Dave Smicker (a seasoned visitor to these parts – this is his fourth tour of duty since last summer) steers the car to the ferry to Bainbridge Island. That had to be the best ferry ride I’d ever taken – smooth as glass, the vessel was very nicely maintained (nice seats!), and the weather held. Only after we land and start driving toward Kingston does it start to cloud up again, and begin to drizzle.
It is not too long before we arrive at the unassuming gate to Heronswood. It is pouring now as I get settled in. Dave takes me on a tour to get me oriented. Umbrellas in open mode, we dash puddles and mud, and enter the cathedral.
I had been forewarned by George Ball that the “verticality” of the place was amazing. Now I think I know what he meant. The Doug-firs dictate the setting – the straight-up-to-the-sky trunks are thick, corky gray-brown columns, and the shade from their evergreen branches way, way up provides a very high ceiling that darkens portions of the garden, especially under this leaden sky. But you can’t miss the floor as you enter – the sixty-plus mounded island beds are nearly all carpeted in color right now. Along the paths ubiquitous gold and green moss covers the edges. Patches of namesake Hellebores looking pretty close to perfect even if a bit past prime bloom time, stocky trilliums, lots and lots of Anemone and Erythronium, the prostrate Ribes and other woody groundcovers I have little if any familiarity with – all are in bloom. Even if the species are exotic, the effect immediately brings to mind the woodland gardens back home. But why are these Dicentra and beautiful blue Corydalis fully out in ferny leaf and in bloom in early April? Wow.
At eye level there are shrubs heralding spring. The witch hazel relatives with which I am more familiar – the dangling chains of subtle cream beads on various gangly Stachyurus (like ‘Magpie’), the very short soft primrose yellow bells of the more structurally refined Corylopsis ‘Winterthur’ and C. glabrescens gotoana (two other early bloomers but with its mildy-sweet fragrance), various early rhododendrons. They stand out even in the rain and under all that coniferous shade.
Late yesterday the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds. I decide to explore the landscape around the Heron House. There seems to be a different style of garden at every turn. Formality takes over, with hornbeam arches (what a sight – the bare silver stems spiked with bud-tipped spurs still glistening with raindrops) around the bog garden adjacent to the house; a rather substantial box-outlined “Potager” further west; a Magnolia ‘Iolanthe’ in full bloom to the south; the extraordinarily beautiful trunks of well-established specimens of Stewartia pseudocamellia and Acer griseum in the back, a glowing golden semicircle of Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Lutea’ fronted by just-emerging patches of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ to the northeast. White daffodils scattered strategically near the front door, guarded by the mossy-trunked contortions of the Harry Lauder’s Walkingstick and the stout, leafless stems of a dormant Aralia elata (said to be ‘Variegata’ when in leaf). Ever-present moss carpeting trunks and dripping from branches throughout Heronswood reminds me that I’m in that enchanted temperate rainforest.
The woodland across the driveway beckons me back. Huge, shrub-like tree peonies are starting to leaf out fringy-red at the tips of their bare stems. A large specimen of Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ reminds me of very large versions of the hardier saucer magnolias that hadn’t really opened yet back home. Aptly named, it takes center stage right now. Camellias are in bloom here and there. Scattered rhododendrons are in colors I don’t often see, species only now I am learning. Look at that one with the big red trusses; how about that deep purple R. recurvoides? Hydrangea macrophylla (at least fifty selections) and H. serrata (nine selections) are just leafing out at the tips; the lanky curved H. aspera types (twelve selections, give or take), taller than me, are all pretty dormant still – but look at those H. anomala petiolaris selections climbing the big tree trunks, reaching for the sky! Here and there, they are already in full leaf, new growth more like late May back home! It’s all so out of sequence, so unlike the spring seasons I have known. Can you imagine what this place looks like in May when most of the forty different Viburnum must be at their peak? Or June and July when the hydrangeas bloom? I hope the boss sends me back.
Willian Rein
Raised Bed Gardening - How to Grow Well in Small Spaces
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
You don't have to have a one-acre plot of land to have a super successful garden. Flowers, veggies, and herbs can thrive in a small raised bed garden.
You don't have to have a one-acre plot of land to have a super successful garden. Flowers, veggies, and herbs can thrive in a small raised bed garden.
Tips For Keeping Your Garden In Color All Season
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
Sometimes it is difficult to achieve colors for all seasons. There is no iota of doubt that everyone would love to see a garden full of blooms through out a year. You have to plan well for your garden to have colors for all seasons.
Sometimes it is difficult to achieve colors for all seasons. There is no iota of doubt that everyone would love to see a garden full of blooms through out a year. You have to plan well for your garden to have colors for all seasons.
What You Should Know When Buying A Garden Log Cabin
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
Having a log cabin built in your garden can definitely prove to be a fantastic feature. Not only are they available in a wide range of sizes and finishes, but they are also becoming much more cost effective and adaptable.
Having a log cabin built in your garden can definitely prove to be a fantastic feature. Not only are they available in a wide range of sizes and finishes, but they are also becoming much more cost effective and adaptable.
Backyard Researchers
(Via EnjoyGardening)
First published April 3, 2008
When one thinks of horticultural research, the stereotypical image that likely comes to mind is of a lab coat-clad scientist, standing among a sea of greenhouse plants.
There is, however, another category of ‘researchers’ who typically don’t have a lot of formal training in the science of horticulture but who, unquestionably, play a huge role in the advancement of horticultural knowledge. These people are, for lack of a better term, home garden researchers—individuals who love nothing more than spending their days experimenting with plants in their own backyards. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet dozens of them when I spoke at the Gardenscape show in Saskatoon.
The three-day event show draws some 24,000 gardeners, all of whom have a passion for growing plants and sharing their knowledge with anyone who cares to listen. Many of these avid gardeners truly are researchers in their own right. From Saskatoon, down to Regina, over to Prince Albert and all points in between, gardeners right across Saskatchewan are experimenting with a myriad of fruits, vegetables, annuals and perennials—some of which may even become good breeding stock.
The stories I heard from people at this event began like many of the stories I’ve heard from people right across the country. The most common story told starts with a grandparent or great grandparent bringing over a plant from the old country and transplanting it on the farm or in the backyard. Many of the Old World plants don’t find their new home very hospitable and die in their adopted country, but a few prove their mettle and endure our harsh prairie winters. These new heirloom varieties often become family favourites or, on some occasions, good breeding stock for new heirloom varieties. Sometimes the final chapter of their lives is bittersweet because the next generation doesn’t share the same passion that Granddad had for tomatoes or apples. But sometimes Granddad’s plants are as revered as the family pet and some truly great varieties find their way into the commercial marketplace. Outstanding fruit such as the ‘Thiessen’ Saskatoon was discovered on a riverbank in Saskatoon, and North America’s best-selling cherry tree was found growing in a farmyard north of Edmonton. The ‘Mortgage Lifter’ tomato was an heirloom variety that a home gardener in the U.S. bred and sold using the proceeds to pay off his mortgage.
While most of the breakthroughs in plant breeding come from public and private institutions around the world, you can bet that breeders with PhD’s behind their names keep their eyes open for those clandestine heirloom gems that exist in yards and farms throughout the country. I heard Dr. Bob Bors from the University of Saskatchewan speak about some of the great work they are doing with their prairie fruit breeding program on a very limited budget (Yes, that is a blatant plug for more funding for the fruit breeding program at the U of S!). While the U of S researchers do a lot of fine work, it still takes many years and many selections of plants to find those chosen few that prove to be worthy of commercial production. And I’m sure that there is nothing quite like ‘discovering’ some outstanding heirloom variety that family has kept tucked away in the backyard or growing wild on the back forty.
So while I have the utmost respect for those individuals who spend a good many years studying at university to become plant breeders, I must admit that I have a soft spot for those intrepid garden researchers from places like Prince Albert or Buchanan, Saskatchewan. White lab coats and Granddad’s gum boots may be a fashion faux pas, but sometimes the combination doesn’t look too bad.
