The View from the Garden Bench

Looking up at the flower garden from my new bench.

Thought you might enjoy this view from my new garden bench. We bought it last Thursday evening at B & M Greenhouses in Farmville, Virginia. It's a stone bench cast to look like natural wood, and it's surprisingly comfortable. It's actually more comfortable than the wood and metal park bench we bought several years ago that didn't hold up very well to the elements. We moved that bench onto our front porch, and it gives a nice view of the orchard.

But this bench is special. It's in a little green nook we created in the flower garden. We made a sort of keyhole shaped area where the two paths converge in the shady back corner. It's a spot that was a deer pathway, and you can still see the deer path behind the bench. We edged it with natural stones, the same as used along the pathway (you can see them in the photo above.).  Slates, white river rock, and a decorative slate with a dragon fly motif complete the scene.

The new garden bench.

The new garden bench invites contemplation. It invites a rest in the shade after the weeding has been done for the day. It invites a cool drink and a long look at the sky.

Another view from the garden bench.

I don't sit still much. There's too much to do. There always seems to be 20 chores for every one chore I complete. This upcoming week, we will host the Heart of Virginia Master Gardeners meeting. I have something like 25 Master Gardeners coming for a walk through the gardens and some fellowship and fun.  I'm looking forward to sharing my little gem, my garden, and its story with them.

But when I get too busy weeding, mulching, transplanting, seeding, I forget to stop and take in views like this, which was the scene yesterday:

Bed of yellow iris with the rose garden in the background

Or this....

Or this....

We could all take a cue from the cats. When they step into the garden, it's as if they are stepping into their own personal playground, an amusement park. Okay, so their amusements include catching and shredding butterflies (not something I want!) and stalking prey. But they also know when to just chill out and take in the scenery, as Pierre demonstrates, below.

Pierre has the right idea....

My gardening goal for this year is simple: to enjoy my garden more. To stop fussing with it every time I step out with the intention of enjoying its beauty. To sit and be still, and look at the sky. To stop and smell the roses. Or iris. Or whatever is blooming.

May is indeed the loveliest month. It's time to stop and enjoy the garden!

Blooming Today at Seven Oaks

Today's blog post is simply this: pictures of what's blooming at Seven Oaks.  Plus I couldn't resist snapping a quick picture of the perennial garden with my gardening helper, Pierre, jaunting along the pathway.  This is the garden we built into the steep slope next to the driveway.  We have one small section of pathway to complete and I have more sections to weed this year, but I wanted to take a 'before' picture today so you could see the bones of the garden...the hardscapes...the beautiful form that hubby and I created....and in a few short weeks I will take another image from the same spot and you can see it in bloom. 

Pierre in the perennial garden

Iris

Kerria japonica, shrub that attracts many pollinators

Yellow columbine grown from seed

Growing Rose of Sharon

Patty, my gardening buddy and neighbor, emailed to let me know that the beautiful Rose of Sharon plant I'm enjoying so much wasn't only from her - our mutual friend Joan gave her the original plant, which Patty added to her garden, and then Patty gave me an offspring. So it's like our little circle of friends and neighbors is connected by these beautiful plants!

I was so inspired that I sat down and researched the Rose of Sharon, then wrote a new article about it today for Hub Pages. One thing I forgot to put into the article is that Rose of Sharon is the national flower of South Korea.  It was also one of the first plants written about - over 1,400 years ago, in ancient Chinese texts!  Simply amazing.

Anyway, please enjoy the article. Click the link to read it:  How to Grow the Rose of Sharon.

Petunia Pizzazz

I managed to score a whole bunch of "Wave" petunias as well as many other types at Lowe's yesterday, each for 50 cents a pot. They're going to need some TLC, but I think they will recover quite nicely.  Below are photos of the last batch I rescued from Lowe's discount rack. A little water, a little talking to and some love, and lo and behold, abundant flowers!

With 3 inches of rain this past week, my garden is green and glorious just when Virginia's hottest summer weather rolls around.  Thank God for rain!


Enjoy the petunias...once the stragglers recover, I'll photograph them too.

Last petunias 'rescued' from the discount rack, and looking good!

What? Are You Crazy Adding Plants to the Garden Now?

Yup. Totally crazy. Actually....no.

Adding plants in July is fine IF you commit to watering twice a day and sometimes even shading them during heat waves.  I wrote an essay today for Main Line Gardening, the online gardening community hosted by Giverny Gardens, and talked about all the great reasons for adding plants to the garden in midsummer. Yes, there are reasons - great ones!

Please click the link to enjoy my essay:  Adding Plants to the Garden Now

Three Native Perennials for Southern Gardens

Butterfly Bush

A weekend spent moving buckets of rocks and slates for the paths gave me quite the workout. I also weeded and spent time noticing which among the flowers growing on the hot, sunny slope of the flowers beds thrived, and which struggled. Hands-down, the winners are always native perennials here in the garden at Seven Oaks.

What are native perennials, and why do they do so well? First, you have to understand that not all flowers are created equal (neither are trees, shrubs or vegetables, for that matter.)  Before people planted gardens, all sorts of plants flourished on their own. Time and natural selection ensured that the healthiest, hardiest plants survived in whatever conditions they lived. If you live in a northern climate, for example, anything growing in the wild can survive your coldest winters. If you live in the south, native plants thrive in the heat. And so on and so forth.

Gaillarida, "Punch Bowl" hybrid

This is a very simple way of describing native plants, but it gives new gardeners a clue as to why native plants are so great for the garden. First, they're uniquely adapted to whatever the climate in your area throws their way - heat, drought, snow, rain, ice, whatever. In my part of the world here in south central Virginia, the climate varies from hot and dry to mild and rainy (or snowy).  Our town is at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountain and the climate can vary a lot from year to year.

I've noticed that the flowers that flourish in my garden are those that are native to the United States, and especially to the hot, dry plains regions of the USA.  My soil is different, but the heat and drought conditions are the same.

Native plants that love my southern garden include:

• Gaillardia - I've talked about the hardiness of these beautiful flowers, but when you see seeds sprouting in hard-packed, blistering hot gravel driveways, you know the stuff is tough. It seeds freely and you can easily transplant the babies.  
• Echinacea - Purple coneflower is the old standby, but bet you didn't know Echinacea comes in other colors? There are purple variations such as my Cherry Brandy Echinacea, with chocolatey-rich center and bright red-purple petals.  But there's White Swan, with white flowers, and a yellow one too. They all flourish in the garden here in southern Virginia. 
• Buddleia or Butterfly Bush - there are species native to both the New World and the Old World.  These towering, fragrant and freely flowering shrubs attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and provide such welcome color in the garden. They are also so hardy that they seed wherever and whenever they can. I pick seedlings out of the walkways, the driveways, and even a pile of rocks we had delivered.  I just keep moving offspring of my main butterfly bushes into other parts of the garden or pot them up and give them away.  They don't mind heat and drought once they're established, and they bloom throughout the summer.

There are many other fine native plants for southern gardens - too many to list in one spot, really.  These three are my favorites for the garden here at Seven Oaks. What are yours?

Summer Gladiolus in the Garden

Do you love gladiolus - or hate them? They do tend to elicit that kind of reaction. I personally love them. Sure, part of that is the nostalgia factor. My mother grew them underneath her bedroom window in a small, narrow spit of dirt next to the screened in porch, where it formed a sort of L-shape with the house. My dad ripped them all out and planted a yucky leucothoe shrub instead. I'd much rather have flowers than shrubs.

The glads I have growing here at Seven Oaks came from the good old dollar store. Each spring they sell little packages of 5 tiny corms for $1 and I'm a sucker whenever they get gardening stuff in.  I'm always amazed that they grow - and seem to multiple each year.  I found out that the trick to growing them so that they don't topple over is to plant them very deeply, something I'm terrible at, which uses soil to support the stem as the flower grows. That's probably why most of mine are flopping this way and that in the garden.

I have gladiolus growing alongside the shed and under my kitchen windows. They take over after the daffodils complete their blooming cycle in the early spring.  I had so many flopping this way and that I was forced to snip a bunch for cut flowers, and now I love having a vase of them in my kitchen.  If you do grow gladiolus, don't be afraid to bring a bouquet indoors. Why grow flowers if you can't enjoy them?

And speaking of enjoying flowers, I've discovered something new with gladiolus too; hummingbirds love them.  When I sit out on my back deck, I always catch a glimpse of a whir of iridescent green as the hummingbirds find the peach and orange colored gladiolus.

Please enjoy my latest article on Growing Gladiolus as Cut Flowers here on Hub Pages. 

Growing Sunflowers

I couldn't resist! I woke up this morning feeling the urge to do some creative non fiction writing, and my thoughts immediately turned to gardening. I feel like I haven't written a gardening article for publication in quite some time. As I drove down the driveway this morning, I saw a cloud of goldfinches rise from the towering sunflowers along the southern side of the house, and thus an article was born. Researching this topic was a lot of fun, too; I learned that the sunflower is one of the most popular flowers to grow, and did you know it actually removes arsenic, lead and other horrible stuff from the soil? Japan is now encouraging farmers around the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster to plant sunflowers, and sunflower helped reclaim land spoiled by the Chernobyl disaster because they actually remove cessium and uranium from the soil (all of this from Wikipedia and the National Sunflower Association.)

Truly magnificent plants and now beloved additions to my garden every year. I grow them for their beauty and to feed the birds; do you grow them? Do you eat the seeds or save them for the birds?

Please enjoy my latest article here: About Sunflowers-Grow Sunflower Plants

(All of the photos today are ones I took of plants in my garden.)

Garden Volunteers Blooming Today - Sunflowers

Self seeded sunflower, blooming in June

I love sunflowers. They didn't grow very well for us on Long Island, and the chipmunks got most of the seeds. We had one very fat chipmunk living in the drain pipe next to our patio at our old house on Long Island. My father in law would plant sunflower seeds in the garden bed next to the drain pipe.  We'd catch the rotund chipmunk digging in the soil, stuffing his cheeks full of seeds, and racing back for the safety of his drain pipe. My husband always wondered if the little creature grew to be any fatter, would he get stuck inside?

I haven't seen any chipmunks on our little farm, and the sunflowers we grow are grown against the long southern wall of the house. Last fall I was lazy and didn't take the sunflower seed heads in like I did the previous year. The birds found them quickly, and we had a wonderful show of goldfinches and other birds on the abondoned seed heads.

I thought no more about it until this spring when we noticed "weeds" growing among the shrubs on that side of the house. The weeds quickly grew into sunflowers - and because they got such an early start, they're blooming today, in June instead of August.

Pink clashes with the red - but the petunias had other ideas!

Another group of volunteers that appeared just a few weeks ago are the pink petunias shown in this picture. I planted red - clear red - to make a nice contrast with all the yellows and oranges going on in the garden. Pink clashes. The petunias beg to differ. All along the area where I planted pink petunias last year are newly emerged volunteers.

My front window boxes are planted with geraniums that I wintered over.  This year, more volunteers emerged - geranium seedlings! Today we counted four altogether. They grew in the oddest places. Some are tucked up under the damp shelter of the azaleas, a few are under the porch overhang, and one is just next to the sidewalk. Honestly, if I tried to start seeds there they'd never come up, but these seeds found a way!

Lastly, I've got clusters of pansies growing under the shady stone wall of my back deck.  I've planted lots of pansies there in previous years, but this year switched over to impatiens.  Then I noticed the pansies coming up all over the place. I've got white and yellow pansies nodding among the impatiens.

Garden volunteers offer fun surprises. You never know what you're going to get when the plants start seeding everywhere.  It works for my unsophisticated country casual design where anything goes.  My plants know where to grow!

Coreopsis self seeded among the daisies.

Purple Coneflower or Echinacea in Bloom

Echinacea "Paradoxa" and friend

The Echinacea are now in full bloom throughout the garden, although the latest additions in 2010, Echinacea "Cherry Brandy," are shyly holding back their blossoms. I even found a few volunteers, or plants grown from seeds blown about by the wind, in the island bed in the middle of the lawn. Shadow and I went out to the garden at noon today, braving the scorching heat wave that's struck central Virginia, and she plopped down under the snowball Viburnum while I inspected the Echinacea.  I did a double take when I realized why Shadow chose to snooze under the Viburnum while I puttered about; it's tall enough to cast a decent shadow, and she lay down in the shade.  I only planted that little seedling in spring 2009 - they sure do grow quickly!

The Echinacea growing throughout my garden are from two groups I started from seeds. The first group started as a 'sampler' pack from Park Seed. I bought the Park Seed Coneflower Collection Echinacea and lavender sampler sets in 2008, started them from seed, and used the seedlings as a border around the island bed. I had a few lavender leftover, so that became the border around the rose garden and then a little hedge of lavender nearby.

Coneflower collection - White Swan, Purpureau (purple coneflower), Paradoxa (yellow). Petals are upright until maturity, then they point downward into the telltale cone shape.

The kit included Echinacea "White Swan," the Traditional "Purpurea" (purple, what everyone thinks of when you say Echinacea - Purple Coneflower), and Yellow "Paradoxa."  (If you buy the collection now, they swapped out the common Purpurea for Magnus, which has a more daisy-like appearance but is also purple.)

Echinacea is native to North America, which is another reason I love seeing the nodding, cone-shaped seed heads. The name comes from the Greek word for "hedgehog" because the first Europreans who saw the plant decided the seed cone looked bristly, like a hedgehog. I'm not sure if I'd have chosen a similar name. I probably would have called the plant "goldfinch mother" since it nurtures the goldfinches and kinglets that love to eat its seed. Every fall, flocks of the beautiful golden birds alight on the seed heads.  I collected seeds the first year; now I don't. I leave them for the birds.

Classic Purple Coneflower

This year I have a few more Purpurea seedlings snug in their nursery pots on the front porch, waiting for a cooler day to move them into the garden. I like to wait until I have at least three sets of strong, robust leaves on the plants before attempting to transplant them, and I have to wait for a time when I know I will remember to water them daily.  If I get too busy, I forget to water them, and in this heat the babies shrivel and wither away under the fierce glare of the Virginia sun.

If you've never grown Echinacea, they're truly easy care perennials, but they do need full sun and some space.  I recommend that beginners buy them as fully grown plants at the garden center, since the seeds require some TLC and nurturing until they're big enough to transplant into the garden. Some of my friends have had success sowing seeds directly into the garden; maybe you will, too. But do add Echinacea to the garden. Nothing says summer like Purple Coneflower!

Lavender, Roses and Bees-Flower Gardening Magic

Lavender blooms profusely throughout the garden now, and the border around the rose garden area is a symphony of humming and buzzing. Hubby and I worked on the garden pathways on Saturday, completing a record number of feet in one day; we finished the main pathway steps, then the circle around the rose garden. We have about 5 more feet of walkway to complete, stones on the work path to cement, and then we need to agree on the "ta-da!" factor at the garden entrance. I set aside a special stepping stone I bought at B and M Greenhouse in Farmville for the entrance; it has a butterfly impressed upon its surface. I'm considering buying those bright rock-sized glass stones at the dollar store that florists use to fill clear vases with to create a stained-glass effect, but I can't decide if it will look dazzling or Las Vegas showgirl cheap at the entrance. I get the sneaking suspicion that a scattering of those glass rocks may look too glittery for my country garden. I also have visions of them becoming slick with moss over the years and causing someone to tumble down the garden path a la Jack and Jill in the old nursery rhyme. I think I'd better wait and see what Hubby comes up with.

Garden entrance. Tempting to add some glitz, but it's going to ruin the natural look! Morning glories climb the trellis.

You can see from the pictures today how we are working on the pathways. First, they are cleared of weeds. The ground is hard-packed clay so I usually pull the larger weeds first thing in the morning when the dew wets the ground enough to loosen the weeds. Next, we tack down 4 foot wide landscape fabric.  Turns are tough; you have to slice and fold the fabric like wrapping a present.

The path to the right shows you stones on fabric. The pebbles are added last.

Next, we place the slates. That's another tough job since we bought the wrong kind of slates - we purchased the kind people use to build stone walls, not the kind for pathways. They're all of different thicknesses.  We have to work carefully through the piles of slates and find ones of comparable thickness. Then we have to spend time placing them into a pleasing pattern.

Last, I haul buckets of pebbles from the pile we had delivered.  Originally we bought Quick Krete concrete filler pebbles, but the company changed them from the nice little white and natural colored stones to ugly dark gray ones this year. Bags were a lot easier to haul around the garden, that's for sure. Instead, we bought a truckload of river stones from Jamerson's in Appomattox, and had them delivered into a big pile.  My job during construction is to walk two pails back and forth from the pile up the slight hill to wherever Hubby is working.  We dump the pails, and then do it all over. I am hoping it builds beautiful biceps muscles; I hauled so many pounds of stones this weekend I must have gotten a good workout!

Flower garden is buzzing with bees!

But the lavender and the bees...I couldn't get over the variety of bees buzzing about the lavender. Bumble bees, honey bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets. I know it sounds like a nightmare, and if you'd asked me this back in New York City before I moved, when I was a happily commuting suburbanite, my reaction would have been "Where's the can of Raid?"  I hated bees. My mom used to frighten me every time I went outside to play, "Now stay away from the bees or you'll get stung!" as if getting stung is the worse thing in the world. Well, I got stung by a yellow jacket last year when I reached into the strawberry bed and picked a strawberry the yellow jacket coveted; he stung my finger, and while it hurt like blazes, I'm alive to tell the tale. Now that I know I can survive a sting, I'm not afraid anymore.

The buzzing from the lavender patch is a living things. It pulses and soars, rising during the hottest part of the afternoon, the sound gently diminishing as dusk falls.  Last night I took a little walk around the flower garden to admire our hard work.  Even though night was approaching, there were still some bees, hard at work in the lavender patch.  I admired their industry.  "Busy as a bee" indeed.

Please enjoy the pictures of our progress on the flower garden.  All of these pictures were taken today here in my garden.

Blaze climbing rose on the hand-made trellis added this year.

Cottage Garden Flowers: Snapdragons

When you think of cottage garden flowers, what do you think of? Old fashioned roses, blowy peonies, perhaps pansies? I think of cottage gardening style as a loose arrangement of my favorite flowers, with a preponderence of old-fashioned favorites.

I'm not a good garden designer. I plunk whatever strikes my fancy into the ground, then shoehorn more plants in whenever I can. The paths I planned through the flower garden are uneven and a bit odd, but that sort of reflects their designer, I think: a bit odd.

Here in front of the garden shed is what I call my cottage garden.  I planted marigolds in the window boxes because as soon at the hot, dry weather strikes, those shallow boxes are tough to keep watered and marigolds are the toughest plants I know. In front of the shed, Hubby put in a little garden border bed for me.

I have Sweet Woodruff, a gift from my friends Eni and her late husband AJ, growing at the far left.  It's blooming now with tiny white flowers.  I have some gladiolus bulbs there too, and newly planted zinnia seeds springing up through the tangle. But mostly it's my snapdragons that I love.

I grew all of these snapdragons from seed.  It is a mixed package of the tall types. I love snapdragons. My childhood neighbor, Mr. Hoffman, grew them, and he taught me how to "snap" the flower heads like a Chinese dragon snout.  It's another plant I grow that reminds me of someone.  I love looking at a plant, a flower and thinking about someone I loved who is gone.  The sweet woodruff and mint in the garden reminds me of my friend AJ; the snapdragons and mint, Mr. Hoffman; the new kerria Japonica and coral bells; my mom.  My snapdragons also act like perennials here in Virginia, another reason to love them!

Do you like snapdragons, too?

Cottage garden (sort of) by my garden shed

Growing Lavender

Lovely lavender in the garden.

I always wanted to grow lavender, but my gardens on Long Island were too shady and humid to grow it successfully. Here in Virginia, I have full sun and long, hot summers, perfect for lavender. I've got three types of lavender growing in the gardens: Hidcote, Munstead, and Spanish lavender. The Spanish lavender looks nearly identical to Munstead.

I started my lavender from seeds. I bought a collection from Parks that had three types in it, but only the Munstead and Hidcote survived....and thrived!  The lavender have grown so big that I've had to trim some and divide others. It's gotten to the point that gardening friends who visit leave with a few Gaillardia and lavender plants tucked into plastic shopping bags. Their cars must smell like Bed, Bath and Beyond by the time they get home.

Lavender is one of my favorite plants to grow in our hot, sunny, sometimes zone 7 sometimes zone 6 yard.  It's tough and survives drought. It survives Shadow, who often chooses to lay on the lavender border in the rose garden when I'm out weeding. At least she smells better when she gets up thanks to all the crushed lavender underneath her.

I've got lavender growing around the perimeter of the rose bed. I love how the purple flowers blend with the mostly pink roses, and the scent rising from that garden on a hot summer day is enough to make a perfumer swoon.  I also have them growing in the island bed which sits in the middle of the front yard.  Lavender and three different colors of Echinacea form a border around other perennials including peonies, iris, daylilies, yellow and white daisies, Crepe Myrtle, Snowball Viburnum and a crab apple tree.

This year I had to dig up some lavender from the rose beds to make room for the arbor.  I just plunked it down into a hole dug among the invasive pink Missouri primrose, tamped it down, and forgot I'd moved it. Today I checked it, and you know what? It's thriving.  Talk about tough.

I like to snip off the flower heads and dry them in an old pie plate or a big metal roasting pan in the sun. I store them in a Mason jar with one of the silica gel packages you get with your new shoes - the silica gel removes any remaining moisture.  I make small counted cross stitch bags with flowers on them and tuck fresh dried lavender into the bags, as well as use it as a potpourri throughout the house. 

Do you grow lavender? I love it. It's one of the best and most useful perennials in the garden.

Lavender. I grew it from seed.

What's Blooming Today in the Flower Garden

We've been working like crazy on the flower garden and today noticed that many of the shrubs are blooming.  I'd estimate that about 10% of the flowers are blooming, but the seeds are all germinating and the rest of the plants are taking off.  The butterflies are fluttering over to the phlox, and today we had hummingbird moths on the azaleas. I tried to take a picture of them but like their namesakes, they won't hold still!

I'll write another day about the new rose arbor. What a gift that was from my husband....he used up some large wooden fence posts we had just stored behind the shed and constructed a wonderful sturdy arbor for my Blaze climbing rose.  And to keep Blaze company, he came home from Lowe's with a new pink climbing rose for me.  But more on that later. For now, please enjoy the flower garden update - in pictures.

Azaleas are in full bloom now.

Easter-egg colored tulips just in time for Easter!

Rain, Rototillers, and Waiting for Plants

Sometimes I think spring should be called the "hurry up and wait" season. I love spring; don't get me wrong. What gardener doesn't love spring, or for that matter, who doesn't love spring after a winter of ice, slush and snow? March entered not like a lion but like a lamb, bringing unseasonably warm weather to Virginia.  My peach trees are in bloom alongside the pears, and I'm grateful that the trees were buzzing with bee activity.  Maybe, just maybe, we'll get some fruit this year, although the trees are still very young.  Everything is blooming - tulips, daffodils, crocus, forsythia, heather, peach trees, pear trees, Redbud trees.  Even the grass has taken on a twinkly emerald hue as the frequent rains and thunderstorms bring much needed moisture before the heat parching begins in a few months.

We managed to find a neighbor willing to lend us a rototiller; thankfully, they had two, a narrow one which we borrowed and a big one which they plan to use.  Thank you Joan and Mel for your kindness and generosity to us!  After a frustrating session last weekend where my sudden inspiration to actually read the directions printed on the handle got it started (don't ask; starting this rototiller is like an evil game of Twister, only if your foot slips it's going under the blade. The engineer who designed this thing had a sadistic mind.)  We got the areas near the existing flower beds rototilled, with just one area left near the entrance to the driveway left to weed...and yes, there are more big, ugly, thorn-filled, nasty bramble bushes, ragweed and you name it left in this pile.  Its days are numbered.

And that's where we're stuck in terms of getting outside work done.  The plants I ordered from the mail order catalog not only aren't here yet but their phone isn't answered. I managed to get hold of customer service via email, who keeps telling me my order is with the shipping department, but they can't give me a better idea of shipping times.  Every time we decide "tomorrow is the day we will tackle the last weed pile", it rains.   Same for the pathways in the garden, which require us to haul out the cement mixer and mix fresh mortar.   I keep looking longingly at the paths, but every time we start thinking about finishing up the edging, rain is predicted.  And you can't dry cement in the rain!

Rain might be a good thing, however, since rainy weekends means the house gets cleaned...and spring means the pets are shedding.  Shadow, the long haired German Shepherd dog, has begun the annual spring shed, which means gigantic tumbleweeds of dog fur the size of guinea pigs in the corners and on the rug.  I stocked upon vacuum cleaner bags and the current one is already half full; normally they last months, but at this time of year, thanks to the annual fur shedding, I could keep the company in business alone through my orders.

Spring is here, rain, dog fur, weeding and all.  Come to think of it, I'm sort of in the mood to clean....well, about as in the mood as I ever get to clean.....but that will bring me full circle back to weeds and dog hair, so I think I'll hide in my office and do more work and writing today.

Happy spring! What's on your gardening agenda this weekend?

Harbingers of Spring: Daffodils

I'm a blogger for Main Life Gardening, a garden center near Philadelphia, contributing an essay or two per week to their website. I think you will enjoy my essay, Harbingers of Spring, posted to their site today (click the underlined words to read the essay.)

Yesterday the temperatures soared into the 60s again, so we spent about an hour and a half cleaning up the flower garden.  Last year the weeds had overtaken a section near the back along the treeline where we had planted wisteria and forsythia.  Along with the weeds come the brambles - wild blackberries along with other thorn-filled plants that send runners underground and emerge with long, pliable stems replete with thorns several centimeters long. Once those plants appear, we're in trouble.  The only way to get rid of them is to dig them out entirely.  We use a pick axe on the hard clay soil and dig, dig and dig.  I wear heavy suede gardening gloves.  My job is to pull the thorny stems up and discard them in the woods.  I always get stung by the thorns and develop a rash for an hour or two afterward.  It's really no fun.

But tackling these tough chores now is the best course of action.  In a few weeks, the ticks emerge, and clearing brush and weeds when the ticks are out just isn't smart. It's cold enough at night and warm enough during the day to keep those ugly, disease-ridden insects at bay, plus we're still wearing long sleeved shirts to protect our skin.  When it gets hot in Virginia, it gets hot - and even though ticks are a risk, I can't garden in a long sleeves shirt when it's hot!

Despite feeling sore and tired from all that weeding, we did uncover a surprise.  More spring bulbs were hidden underneath all the weeds along with daylilies that crept down from the hillside to naturalize on the forest edge.  We dug up the daylilies since they were growing where we are going to continue the pathways this spring.  We moved them into position underneath the forsythia, where we're trying to have a nice band of yellow starting in early spring, then continuing with orange-yellow daylilies during the summer.

Last night we made up another garden catalog order. We are adding more trees to the property - as if 13 acres or so of timber and 2 acres of hardwoods aren't enough - and adding a few Colorado spruce, more redbuds, and magnolias to the property.  I've got a "matchstick" mum on order, what my dad used to call a "spoon" mum because the petal ends have little spoons on them, and we ordered tons of ground cover plants. Our latest plan (to avoid weeding next year) is to plant lots of perennial ground covers such as sedum, phlox, and Mother of Thyme on the slopes.  We noticed that in spots where the ground cover has taken over, such as the pink Evening Primrose, it chokes out the weeds.  Any plant that prevents weeds from taking over the garden is a friend of mine for sure!

Please enjoy the essay today on daffodils and spring bulbs over at Main Line Gardening.

Growing Sweet Peas

The very last year I gardened in Floral Park, I grew sweet peas. I grew them near the backyard faucets in a tiny patch of earth. They climbed up and onto the thick black telephone wire, hanging upside down in curtains of pink and white as they marched like tiny acrobats across the wire to the garage.  I love their old-fashioned fragrance and Victorian charm but have had the worst luck trying to get them to grow in my Virginia garden.  I had the bright idea to grow them next to the arched trellis that marks the entrance to the flower garden next to the driveway.  My morning glories reseed the spot every year, so my bright idea was that the sweet peas would flower in the cool spring weather followed by morning glories in June.  I think the spot is too hot for them, for last year they grew just about 10 inches before turning yellow.  I also think Mosaic virus strikes them in that spots.  This year, I am hoping to grow them along the fence that marks the vegetable garden.  When we sit at the kitchen table we look right at the vegetable garden, so I might as well make it pretty!

Please enjoy my latest article on growing sweet peas.  I hope you too have the sweetly scented curtain of flowers like I had growing in my garden in Floral Park.


Growing Sweet Peas - article

Butterfly Garden Beginnings

The picture's a little blurry, but you're looking at the start of at least 30 new plants for my butterfly garden, if all of them survive the transplanting process this spring.  I'm focusing on native perennials and easy-care plants for the butterfly garden.  The entire tray of seeds erupted last night in a riotous, joyous celebration of spring. It's like the magical seeds from Jack in the Beanstalk; I've got dozens of new plants greeting the day.  There are yellow Oenethera (Missouri Primrose or Sun Drops) from Swallow Tail Garden Seeds.  I purchased the seeds last year, grew half, and lost them all to heat and drought once they transplanted. Never mind. Swallow Tail Seeds are amazing - despite an open, almost two year old seed package, they all germinated.

Columbine and lots of Poppies are also sprouting, alongside parsley. Why parsley? I'm adding parsley and several herbs to my butterfly garden this year as food for the caterpillar larvae.  I'll snip whatever I want to eat, but the rest will be to nurture along the baby butterflies.

Not up yet but hopefully soon is another tray of Echinacea and Gaillardia "Arizona Sun."   I bought a book this week called Native Perennials for the Southeast and am happy to report that all of the plants I noted in the sunny flower beds that thrive are indeed natives, so my choices this year were spot on!  I've added not one but two different Monardas (Bee Balm or Oswego Tea) to the seed trays too, along with Penstemmon seeds. 

I just hope I don't run out of room in the butterfly garden, but there's plenty of room along the back border, and two spots we need to clear free of weeds this year to add to the garden.

This week we have plenty of showers and warm 50-60 degree temps in the forecast, so I also need to get some cool weather vegetables planted - radish, lettuce, and my broccoli rabe, which I love.

It feels so good to 'get my hands dirty' and garden again.  Spring is in the air.  The flocks of migrating robins were once again visiting the yard, and every day I see new flowers peeking up in the garden....a few pink blossoms on the phlox, another inch of growth gained on the tulips, and new shoots of Siberian iris and crocus joining the celebrations.

Soon, I hope my garden looks like the image, below....but if not, I'll celebrate what I find.

Saving Money on Gardening

I wasn't always frugal by nature. But during the eleven years we saved to build our house and launch our freelance careers (and yes, it took ELEVEN years) I learned how to save every nickel and dime. And that goes for gardening. Especially gardening.

It would be really easy for me to go hog wild in the garden and buy every plant I crave. I'd love, for example, to collect iris; I'm smitten with them. Hey, your taste may be different from mine, but we've all got our favorites, and we all need to rein in our vices!


To keep my hobby spending in check, here's what I do to save money in the garden. Why not share your tips in the comments section?

• Wait for Sales: Everyone loves a sale. This weekend, Lowe's will have an 89 cent sale on six packs of annuals. Last week they had a sale of $1 on pink geraniums. Okay, so they were all pink, but I have three new window boxes to fill and the pink will look great with some cascading blue lobelia. Wait for sales!

• Discount Rack: Another thing I have noticed is that when shrubs, annuals and perennials stop blooming or look even the slightest bit trampled on, Lowe's and some of the other retailers around here put them on the clearance rack. And you can pick up some great bargains. I planted two new miniature rose bushes (each $2, marked down from $9.99), several perennials for $1.50 each (marked down from $6.99) and John's dad scored an azalea for just $2 this week! The flowers were gone and it looks a bit wilted, but it will be fine for the flower garden. I snag seeds at Wal Mart and the local dollar store for 20 cents a package and big packs of bulbs for $1 and $5. Love my discount racks!

• Share: I swap plants with my friend Patty. She's got some of my butterfly bush seedlings, and she gave me a nandina shrub and some beautiful purple ajuga reptans that's really doing a great job crowding out the weeds under the wisteria in the flower garden. I send seeds to my sister (and I save and use seeds such as marigolds, morning glories, zinnias, and gaillardia.) Another neighbor gave me old windows from a gymnasium his construction company was changing to an auditorium. They're parked behind the garden shed, awaiting next fall when I can build a little greenhouse or cold frame. And he also volunteered his tobacco sticks for me to use as tomato supports. Our little area of Virginia was once a major growing center for tobacco, and when he bought his farm down the road, the barns were full of tall pointed sticks that were once used to harvest and hang tobacco. He can't use them all so he offered them to me for plant supports. In exchange, I've sent him home with bottles of agave syrup after I found I was allergic to it and cookbooks for his wife to peruse. It's all about sharing!

• Make Your Own: I made a support for my Blaze rose out of pine branches that came down in the winter snow. I used rocks the size of baseballs or bricks found around the property to edge my garden. I make plant markers out of old Venetian blind slats and cut up frosting cans. I rip apart rags to make ties for my tomatoes. I make mini hot houses out of clean milk containers cut in half. What clever ways do you make your own gardening supplies?

Because of all these little cost cutting measures, I can invest in things that will last - like the metal trellis at the entrance to my garden, the flagstones, and the fence around the vegetable garden.

What clever cost cutting measures do you use in the garden to get more garden for you buck?

Flower Garden Ideas for Containers and Windowboxes

John is busy making me flower boxes to hang off the porch railing out front, and in fact he just came back from a trip to Lowe's with the perfect trailing annuals - lobelia - to go with the pink geraniums I picked up last weekend. My dad always had flower boxes on our home in Floral Park. The first time I saw a hummingbird, I was sitting at the dining room table eating dinner. My chair faces the window with the flower boxes planted with red geraniums. I saw the flash of green and the telltale hum. I'll never forget it! I now put out hummingbird feeders, but I always plant geraniums, either in pots or window boxes, near the front of my home.

To me, geraniums symbolize welcome. And no, this isn't a picture of my home, although I sure wish it was a little cottage I owned somewhere.

Here are some more flower garden ideas in my latest article -

Flower Garden Ideas or Containers and Windowboxes