Mid-Season Gardening Resolutions Check-up #2

I changed my mind about going to Bowman’s spring sale (two hour drive, one way) and instead ordered blue Scabiosa to border the front of the blue garden. Now that that garden is more mature, there is no room for a groundcover.

An unplanned purchase for the blue garden was Monarda Blue Stocking, a plant I couldn’t get last year. The Eupatorium I bought last fall is just getting ready to bloom. Be forwarned, this plant gets a late start --- I almost yanked it out thinking it had died!

Other native plant successes from last fall include Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) Spikenard (Aralia racemosa), and New York Ironweed (Veronia noveboracensis).

Finally, the two side gardens. Dan is madly working away on finishing the rose arbor (the rose canes are now long enough to start training onto the roof), as well as about 150 other projects. My volunteer Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa),shown above, is at its height of bloom, beloved by both bees and butterflies.

The east garden is now free of stilt grass and the pokeweed has been thinned out. Did you know the roots range from the size of a parsnip to a small loaf of bread?!!! What a job.

Some strawberries were moved to the berm on the west, after Dan once again grubbed out tons of crown vetch and Canadian thistle. The plants quickly burnt to a crisp from the shock of moving into the blazing sun, but the roots survived and new leaves are coming up. Time to move the runner plantlets that are popping up all over to the east garden.

So far the tomato ladders are keeping my plants nice and straight. I bought Cherokee Purple and a small cherry tomato. One bite out of the Purple reminded me why I wanted it in the first place; the flavor is extraordinary. My insurance, close to the back door, is a patio tomato.

Tried some greens, which were regularly trimmed by the bunnies. However, I’ve discovered that neither bunnies, chipmunks, nor groundhogs care a whit for arugala, so if you like it, plant it anywhere.

I didn’t get to the cucumbers, but the compost pile produced several plants of Galeux d’Eysine squash from last fall’s table decoration. I’ve got flowers; we’ll see whether I get squash. These are colored a wonderful pale pink and covered with grayish warts. A visual treat. They are edible, but we haven’t tried one yet.

We didn’t get to those 25 cedar volunteers but, overall, came pretty close to our goals. Time to sit back and enjoy it all before the next round begins.

Mid-Season Gardening Resolutions Check-up #1

Did you make some New Year’s gardening resolutions in January, or fantasize about a series of projects to complete before summer’s end? I did (see http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2008/01/gardening-resolutions-for-new-year.html). Well, it’s mid-July and we’re halfway through the gardening season. Time to check our progress against our plans. With one caveat. In the garden, it seems our imagination is always larger, or more abundant, than our capacity, whether of time, money, or ability.

The Golden Dragon Clivia sits on a shaded porch for the summer, per advice from experienced Clivia growers on the garden writers listserv. Once the air conditioner comes out of the window, it will go back to its in-house space. So far, so good. It’s still alive.

Climbing roses for the arbor. I got only one that was on my list, Bantry Bay. This was tiny compared to the others I finally purchased, but it is on its own root (not grafted) and I have great hopes for it. I’m disappointed to say I got ripped off for $85 from a California nursery with a web site. I thought I was protected by PayPal, but live and learn.

By the time I realized the roses I ordered weren’t coming, the local nursery stock had been picked over. But not the climbers. I got some very robust plants of Northern Crown's Coral Dawn, Weeks Joseph’s Coat (which looks better in person than in catalog photos), and Weeks Golden Showers. As a bonus, Golden Showers has almost no thorns. We were inundated with gypsy moth caterpillars which severely weakened some of my mature roses, but they are still putting out new leaves.

If you’re wondering how so many climbers can fit on a rose arbor, see http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=tsgykcv.u89lo8f&x=0&y=ec454e --- it’s not your usual rose arbor.

I decided against the Late Dutch Honeysuckle, but only because I had so many other plants for the arbor.

I chose Autumn Clematis for the fragrance and late bloom. More colorful selections can come at another time.

The Lavender garden (shown above) is coming along nicely. I had to replace only one plant of 23, a Provence which is iffy here at best. It also got caught by deer browse and a cold snap after new growth had already started. In another year, I think this garden will really take off.

This mid-season check-up has helped me see that I actually stayed much closer to my plan than I thought I had. There’s still time for a reality check and some mid-course corrections.

I’d love to hear how others are doing. More next time.

Papyrus Daydream

For readers who may have wondered what ever happened to the papyrus that I overwintered indoors (see http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2007/12/papyrus-prolonged.html), it’s alive and thriving again in its summer spot, next to the Ligularia. Having this plant in my garden is a personal eccentricity. There is no Egyptian theme, no water theme, no exotic plant collection.

I’ve always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt and visited there in 1986. The papyrus is, of course, an iconic symbol that is seen everywhere in Egypt, in temples, tombs, and on the towels of modern hotels. I brought home and framed a number of souvenir paintings made of papyrus. Most of them depict papyrus plants, either as the focal point, or in the background. There’s just something about the shape and texture of papyrus’ ethereal mopheads that appeals to me.

The plant itself turns out to be a surprisingly easy keeper. All it seems to want is continuously wet feet, sun, and a little plant food from time to time. Now that my Ironweed, Meadow Rue, and Wild Bergamot have matured, the six-foot tall spires of the Papyrus don’t look quite so out of place.

Papyrus spreads horizontally by runners and can become invasive, especially in warmer climates, so you may want to keep it in a pot, or a trench lined with metal. Mine stays in its same pot year-round. Outdoors, the pot is hidden by Ligularia leaves and some flowering weeds; indoors, it slips inside a seamless copper cache pot.

Do you have a favorite plant that just doesn’t seem to go with the rest of your garden? Here are two different ways you can solve this problem. The easiest one is to buy an exceptionally nice container worthy of the special meaning that plant holds for you. This portability allows you to accommodate the plant’s cultural needs regardless of the requirements of the rest of the garden while, at the same time, making it a focal point.

Another approach is to create a colony of your favorite plant and surround it with something neutral, such as ferns, boxwood, or a groundcover. This creates a buffer that provides a visual transition with its own interesting color and texture, but doesn’t compete with either the special plant colony or the rest of the garden.

A garden that satisfies your dreams must include those plants, no matter how weird or unconventional, that hold a special appeal for you.

Creating a Garden That Makes You Happy

I spend each summer running around and looking at 30 – 50 gardens in hopes of finding the one, two, or three that might be suitable for publication. Of the remaining 47, perhaps five to ten are for show --- to impress the neighbors. The majority simply make their gardeners happy. In today’s world, that’s no small accomplishment!

My garden is not likely to ever appear in a magazine. While I am working on a long-term plan to stretch the succession of bloom, the big, splashy blossoms (rhodies, bleeding heart, iris, and roses) have finished exploding by early summer. I’m hoping for some flowers on those field-trial hydrangeas that are one and two years old. And then there are the native plants I bought last fall. But they all have a long way to go before they can present the masses of color produced by the 15-year old rhodie wall. Living in the middle of the woods means that the garden’s primary summer color is green. It’s very soothing and the varied textures keep it interesting. But this kind of garden just does not photograph well.

My friend Diane said the other day, “I’m not into all that blue garden, white garden, and lavender garden stuff like what you do,” she said. She and Fred are enthusiastic nature lovers and spend a great deal of time working in their garden. They have an abundance of frogs, birds and, sometimes, bears. It isn’t easy for Diane, who is highly allergic to bee stings and poison ivy, but I’m pretty sure gardening is her favorite thing. I’m not into all that pruning, manicuring, and pond maintenance that she and Fred do to keep their place ship-shape. Our two gardens couldn’t be more different, but they do make their respective owners very happy.

Gardening is one of the few things in life we can do where our “mistakes” don’t matter. If we realize we’ve put a plant in the wrong place, we can move it. If our soil isn’t all that great, we can amend it. If we want more sun, we can limb up the trees; if we want more shade, we can plant more trees. We can emphasize color, collect particular kinds of plants, or create a fantasy land where we can escape from the world for a few hours.

So, as you flip through those gorgeous garden magazines and books, don’t get intimidated. Instead, zero in on those photos that excite you and figure out what it is about the colors, shapes, design, or atmospherics in it that is speaking to your soul. That’s the beginning of creating a garden that makes you happy.