Gardening Tips for Beginning Gardeners

If you are a beginning gardener, don't be afraid to delve right in, as it isn’t meant to be difficult. Once you feel the connection, you’ll be hooked on gardening. If you don't know how to start, there is always an avenue of knowledge for you: gardening neighbors or friends, gardening books and gardening magazines to read, watch for new gardening trends, and the Internet to browse for more information. 

English: old books in Château de Breteuil, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At one time, it seemed gardening only appealed to the older folks. But nowadays, people of all ages, children, young adults, adults, and older folks alike enjoy gardening. They see gardening as a refreshing and rewarding hobby. With all the benefits that you get, being a busy, working person should never be used as a hindrance to start growing your own plants indoors or outdoors. You will see the big difference when you get to reap your own fruits of labor.

Would you enjoy a bed of beautiful, colorful flowers, a country garden full of wild flowers and shrubs, manicured lawn strategically placed with shrubs and trees, or just a simple backyard with lots of pots and containers filled with amazing plants? It’s all within your reach to have.  Learn the basics of landscape design.

For a starter, you will need these basic tools: trowel, spade, lawnmower, rake, and plants of your choice to grow. It would help a lot if you have a garden plan based on the space that is available. It will not be difficult to place flowerbeds, lawns, or paths. 

The kinds of garden plants that you will grow will depend on what you want, the availability, and the climate of your location. There are plants that grow only for the season, called annuals, and there are others that can be cultivated to grow year after year, often referred to as perennial. If you consider yourself a hobby gardener, then you would want to have plants that do not grow more than a few seasons. These are perennial plants that allow you to tend to things other than gardening.

If you don't know what plants to start growing, you can always ask assistance from your online plant nursery. The expert staff will know what plants will thrive specifically considering the climate in your area. Also, you can use the Greenwood Nursery Plant Finder online to narrow down your plant search.

The small young plants are great choice if you want to have an automatic decorative display on your garden. 

Smaller, younger plants are easier to plant and require less watering and care to get growing than larger container plants do.

Gardening should be this fun and exciting, and, of course, rewarding, even if you are a beginner. Ready for more? 

Here is a free online gardening course courtesy of BBC Gardener's World. Learn at your own pace.

Learn the basics of landscape design to understand placement of plants and how they are used. 

Gardening Tips for Beginning Gardeners by Greenwood Nursery.

The Most Common 8 Gardening Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Do you realize that gardening mistakes happen right in your front yard? Whether you think that your garden looks good or not, if everything doesn't work together, the entire garden doesn’t work. Let’s talk about the most common gardening mistakes and how to fix them.

Lawn&Garden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Grass is not greener. This ranks number 1. Why? Most gardens and yards have lawn, but one may be slightly greener than the other. If your lawn looks browner than the soil underneath, it is time to reassess your watering, fertilizing and mowing schedule. Think where you may have gone wrong and make the necessary lawn care adjustments. Tired of lawn care? Consider other lawn substitute options such as ground covers such as periwinkle. Visit Greenwood Nursery for more on lawn substitutes.

2. Tools and clutter are everywhere. They may be useful objects, but if they are just stacked in your garage or tossed in a box, then you think they are not worth the storage. At that point, they don't just look like junk; they are junk. Sort through them one by one and determine whether you want to keep them or not. Your criteria when deciding if they deserve the trip to dump or not is simple: Ask yourself, do you specific plans for them?

3. Your house and garden can be seen from the road. There are several short- and long-term solutions to using plants to create privacy. One quick-fix solution is to build a concrete wall that would separate your garden from the sidewalk view. For a longer, much appealing look, planting fast growing shrubs is a good idea.

4. Weed invasion. Keeping your lawn regularly maintained can solve weed problems. Do a regular walk through to check for weeds about twice a week during the growing season. Dig the weeds out by hand to keep them from re-growing by seeding the empty areas of your lawn.

5. Limited space. If your problem is space, then here's one idea that can definitely help you maximize every square inch of your garden: think vertical gardens. With vertical gardening, you can create a sense of lush greenery by using wall space, arbors and trellises to allow plants to climb upwards.

6. Where's your house? If shrubs have swallowed your house, then hedge clippers comes in handy. You don’t want plants blocking the way from your drive to the front door so some serious pruning may be in order. You want landscaping, not a house in the middle of the forest. Also, tall and over grown shrubs are a security hazard providing a burglar with the protection and opportunity that they would need to break into your home. It's time to select curb appeal plants.

7. Selection and winter care. Some garden plants will not survive winter temperatures without proper care. When planning your garden, be sure to select the majority of your plant that will grow year round and always include a few evergreens and plants with winter interest. In fall be sure to provide your garden plants with a good thick layer (approximately 3 inches) of shredded bark mulch to insulate and provide moisture over the winter months.

8. Fences are falling apart. Fences are not just to separate your property from your neighbor's. They also add to the overall look of your garden. Make sure that you maintain your fences like the way you keep your plants. Use fences as backdrops for your landscaping projects.

8 Gardening Mistakes and How to Correct Them by Greenwood Nursery

The Perfect Mix of Shade Garden Plants for Your Landscape

A shade garden can be a great place of relaxation and serenity. Sitting under the shade, you can do a lot of restful activities without sweating under the sun. Just sit under the shade and enjoy the beauty of the nature, read books, or have casual talks with family members. The uniqueness of the shade garden plants is that they flourish well in areas frequented by limited natural light. The decreased light may be of a morning sun, gloomy sun, or filtered sun. 

These plants require moist soil that is rich in organic matter to grow well. Ideal places to grow the shade-loving plants would be the areas where there is blocked light from tall buildings or in areas receiving diminished light due to tall trees in the surrounding area. When compared to the sun garden plants, the shade loving plants bloom well even with little care and water. They are also easy to maintain.

There are certain varieties of shade garden plants that grow for more than three years under mottled or full-shaded areas. The good thing is, as these plants flourish in the shades of the neighboring trees, they are well protected from the damage or breakage during the extreme temperatures of summer and winter. A perfect shade garden would be the one that has a blend of bright colors, arousing fragrance, nice foliage, and pervasive combination of heucheras.

Shade garden, coming along - 21 June 2012 (Photo credit: mmwm)

Color

By planting a cluster of perennial shade-growing plants in your garden, you can witness a steady presence of colors in your shade garden. Azalea is a colorful shade-flourishing plant that bears brightly colored flowers during the spring. The astilbe bears flowers with varying colors- red, pink, purple and white. It blooms a variety of such colors predominantly in the June and July. Bee balm is an attractive shade garden plant that bears white and red fragrant flowers starting in mid summer and lasting till the end of fall. This means, you can sit back and have an extended garden season on your landscape.

Fragrance

Two shade garden plants, the daylily and hydrangeas are well known for their fragrances. The flowers of daylily live for only a day but produces magical fragrance. Hydrangeas have green foliage and naturally scented flowers. Hydrangea blooms will vary in color according to variety selected and the pH of your soil. White blooming hydrangeas are not affected by the soil’s pH.

Foliage

Add foliage to your shade garden with an assortment of ferns. Large growing ferns such as the royal and ostrich ferns make excellent backdrop plants while the delicate lady and maidenhair ferns mix well with other plants such as hostas. Variegated hosta varieties like the patriot, revolution and Francee brighten up dark shaded garden areas.

Heuchera

A shade plant garden would certainly look incomplete without the vibrant foliage of the many evergreen heuchera varieties. The leaves can be seen in various hues- green, pink, purple and many more. Grow the North American native Heuchera plant in the shade landscape; this colorful plant won’t fail to grab the attention of any visitor that visits your shade garden.

Tips for Growing Fern Plants in Shade Loving Gardens

When you think of fern plants, the first thing that comes to your mind is their long attractive leaves. Fern plants are interesting for many reasons. They can thrive in the shaded areas to great heights, texture and color. Ferns flourish better in a woodland garden that requires at least partial shade. When grown in a sunny garden, they will require protection from the hot afternoon sun. 

Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If your have a large maple or an oak tree in your yard, the fern plant would be one of the best shade-loving plants you will want to include. There are different types of fern plants that can be grown indoors as well as outdoors. The indoor fern plants might need a little bit of more watering while the outdoor fern plants can thrive well in predominantly shady lawn and garden areas.

Ferns are among the few species of non-flowering plants. They reproduce by means of the spores that found underneath their leaves. Ferns come in different shapes and sizes. Their height can range from a few inches to as much as 6 feet tall.

Some of the popular types of fern plants are Lady Fern, Cinnamon Fern, Maidenhair and Japanese Painted Fern. Two unusual ferns are the arborvitae fern, which really isn't a fern, and the true ostrich fern, which produces edible fiddleheads.

Popular evergreen ferns are the Autumn Brilliance and Christmas Ferns.

Generally, ferns prefer soils with more moisture content but not too watery. Some types of ferns will freeze during the winter. It is important that you choose your fern based on two things: the climate in your area and the type of landscape (shaded or sunny).

Tips for outdoor ferns:

One important thing you need to know is that over exposure to sunlight might dry out the ferns. Therefore, it is best to plant the fern plants in the shady areas of your garden. Let the place be mildly shady but not completely shaded. Ideal shades would be those from the tall trees creating a woodland feel with filtered light. Ferns like maidenhair grow well in dappled shade.

Test the quality of the soil before planting the ferns. They generally prefer soil that is more acidic than alkaline. If your soil is alkaline then you might have to get some fresh soil that is more acidic and plant your ferns in it. A suitable soil can be prepared by adding peat moss and sand in the ratio of 3:1 and mixing it up with the fresh soil.

Planting the ferns is simple. Just dig a hole that is more or less the same size of the fern pot and plant the fern in the hole so that the plant sits just above (approximately 1 to 2 inches) the ground level.

Ensure that the soil has good amount of moisture content but continually damp or wet. At times when there is heavy rainfall or excess humidity, see to that the moisture content doesn’t change drastically. The best way to combat such extreme climatic conditions is to bring the ferns indoors. If they are maintained at a temperature of not more than 60 degrees then they will maintain the moisture content that is required for their growth. What if the temperature is on the lower positive range? In such cases, you might allow the ferns to freeze temporarily. Once the climate gets back to normal, add more organic manure to the soil and replant them back in the outdoors.

Tips for Growing Vertical Gardens

The new buzz phrase in gardening is vertical gardening. Vertical gardening is landscaping or using plants to draw the eye upwards which creates a larger, more airy space. Any space or landscape can benefit from vertical gardening, especially small yards, apartment balconies, limited spaces as well as large unused exterior walls.

The new trend in vertical gardening is to build up. Pallet gardening is one way to build up. 

Other ways are trellises, arbors, teepees, window boxes, hanging baskets, varied sizes of containers, or merely planting shrubs and trees that are tall and narrow.

Vertical Gardening Planting Tips:

• Mix water retentive polymers into the planting soil.
• Water frequently - daily during hot weather.
• Add nutrients to the soil more often than ground growing plants.
• Prune regularly.
• Deadhead flowers right away.
• Harvest fruits or pick vegetebles as they mature.

Plant Ideas for Vertical Gardens:

• Vines
• Small growing fruits such as strawberries.
• Succulents - Hen and Chicks
• Ferns
• Hostas
• Columnar evergreens - North Pole and Emerald Green Arborvitae (planted in the ground)
• Creeping phlox
• Drift roses
• Heucheras
• Creeping sedums
• Creeping euonymus (ground covers)
• Vegetables - tomatoes, peas, beans, etc.
• Herbs
• Ivy
• Small ornamental grasses

Butterfly Bush Gardens Make Welcoming Habitats for Butterflies and Hummingbirds

Growing butterfly bushes is a popular hobby for many Americans? The enchanting colors of buddleia flowers, the bracing fragrance of the leaves, the hypnotic effect of the stems swaying back and forth, the sight of the trees rattling their leaves when touched by the gentle breeze, and of course, the green background of the landscape - all contribute to the uniqueness of a scenic butterfly garden. Hey wait a minute; is something missing? Yes, the butterflies!

Who doesn’t like to see a rabble of butterflies fluttering in the garden? Watching those colorful butterflies flit from one plant to another and circling in rabbles can be a great stress-relieving site for anyone. If your garden is without the butterflies then you might consider making it colorfully attractive by planting butterfly bushes.

Also referred to as summer lilac or buddleia, butterfly bushes are attractive flowering shrubs that can embellish the look of any garden. They grow fast, filling the neighboring space in quick time. And they flourish well in any type of well-drained soil; regardless of it is gravel, clay or sandy type. The butterfly bushes are flowering plants that provide a welcoming habitat for the butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterflies and bees love to feed on the nectar-rich flowers. One good thing about the butterfly bushes is that they don’t drop dead flowers.

Butterfly Bush Planting Tips

There are different butterfly bushes that thrive well in different climatic conditions. They generally spread quickly; hence should be planted at a distance of at least 6 feet away from each other, depending on the specific variety. The butterfly bushes grow at heights ranging from 5 to 15 feet, although some of the newer hybrids are small growing at 3 feet. Typically, they need at least six hours of direct exposure to sunlight everyday and should be watered regularly.

Maintenance and Variety

Butterfly bushes require regular trimming as they can grow fast in quick time. For best growth results, constant pruning of the dead petals should be done; this will make them bloom longer and grow denser. The ideal time for pruning is from July till the tail end of winter. There are over 100 varieties of butterfly bushes in the world. The flowering plants of butterfly bushes come in multiple colors ranging from red and blue to pink and purple to white and yellow and lots more. As a warning, do not use insecticides on your butterfly bushes as they can kill the butterfly larvae or sometimes even the butterflies.

Best Butterfly Garden Plants Habitats

Having butterfly bushes to attract the butterflies and humming birds is a great idea. But it would be wiser to think out of the box and create a friendly habitat for the butterflies. One such idea is to incorporate a few flat rocks in the surrounding area where the butterflies can enjoy and bask in the sun. Also, butterflies need some place to cool off. You can provide a relaxing habitat by including small muddy patches in your garden.

Butterfly bushes are available in a large variety of single colors- purple, orange, blue, red, pink etc. They are also available as bi-colored plants. A great selection of butterfly plants is available in smaller container sizes that are easily affordable from Greenwood Nursery.

Check out our Instant Butterfly Garden Plant Package!

Add Small Fruting Plants to Your Garden

If your landscape isn't suitable for standard-sized fruit trees, you might want to consider fruit bushes. Here are some idea starters:

Thornless Blackberry plants could be a very good choice! In addition to being thornless, they do not need a trellis, and I find that they have a particularly sweet flavor. I like two varieties, Arapaho Thornless and Triple Crown Thornless. Both produce sucker plants that help them co-mingle quickly and produce an appealing blackberry hedgerow that can be very attractive in various different landscape designs. By the way, Arapaho is the earliest thornless blackberry of any variety. Both are hardy in zones 3 - 8.

There are a number of very good varieties of strawberry plants available. If you have questions about which varieties might be best in your area, you can drop me an e-mail at steve@landsteward.org One variety that I frequently recommend is the Ozark Beauty because of its exceptional hardiness and because it's one of the heaviest producing plants I've ever tested.

If you'd like to find a strawberry that's also an effective and attractive ground cover for your landscape, take a look at Sweet Charlie. It produces runners freely, making for good ground cover, and it produces large, juicy fruits with a tart, distinct flavor.

Here's a pleasant mental image for you: It's a Saturday morning, and the weekend is stretching lazily in front of you. How about a plate of home made pancakes? Step outside in you pajamas and pick a handful of your own fresh blueberries and you're all set. I love the distinctive taste of blueberries, and the plants are an attractive element in your landscape, too. Bear in mind that you will need to plant at least two different varieties for proper cross-fertilization.

Some of the rabbiteye varieties of blueberry bushes I often recommend are Austin, Brightwell and Powder Blue. These have an excellent flavor and produces nicely colored firm fruit.

Well, there you have it. Just a few ideas that should get you thinking about landscape that tastes as good as it looks! I invite you to tell me about any topics you'd like me to address in future columns.

Tips for Landscaping Basics - How to Landscape Your New Home

These tips for landscaping your new home will provide you with the landscaping basics that you need to get started. Whether you are a first time homeowner, own a new home or a new to you home, landscaping is often one of the most daunting tasks for a homeowner. Follow these steps to make your landscape project a success.

If your home is a new construction, then you may have a blank canvas to work with on landscaping. Should your new home be an existing one, keep in mind that foundation plants in landscapes generally need to be replaced every 12 to 15 years to keep them fresh looking and keep from getting overgrown. Smaller perennials and ornamental grasses will vary in their lifespan anywhere from 3 years to permanent fixtures. It really depends on the plant variety as it can vary.

For new home construction landscaping, start with foundation plants and lawn area. To keep year around color and texture, plant at least 50% of the foundation plants in evergreen shrubs. Then, blend in smaller sized flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses and perennials. Use plants that bloom at different times of the year to create interest in all seasons.

The main rule for planting trees in the landscape is to plant them at least as far away from the foundation as they will grow in height. For example, a red bud tree generally matures around 20 feet tall, so it should be planted no closer to the house than 20 feet. One can fudge a little, but over the long term, the root system from trees can seriously damage the foundation of the home.

As a new homeowner, it is exciting to begin your plan for landscaping your property. However, whether the house is new or new to you, it is highly recommended to live in the house at least one full year before beginning any major projects. A complete year will show you how the house and property react during the seasons, such as drainage, lighting, privacy and other potential problems as well as showing you how specific areas are being used by you and your family.

Keeping a journal to record the seasonal changes of the property along with pictures and articles of plants or landscapes will be invaluable to you as you begin your landscape project.

Factors to look at in planning your landscape:

Budget

How property/areas are used

Style of house

Existing hardscaping

Outdoor lighting

Foundation plants

Extensive plantings (beyond foundation)

These factors are also what a landscape architect will ask you to consider.

Once you learn the basics of landscape design, you will be able to design your own backyard, place foundation plantings, and plan for gardens and activities.

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Cheryl Jones writes articles on plants, plant care, gardening tips and landscaping ideas. Read the complete Basics of Landscape Design Her website, GreenwoodNursery.com, offers a great selection of plants including nut trees, flowering shrubs, evergreen ground covers, flowering perennials, small fruiting plants, lavender plants, red twig dogwood, and Thjua Green Giants.

Planting a Small Sized Garden

When you don’t have the budget or inclination to do the landscaping projects you really should do, downsize. Downsize with smaller landscapes and smaller plants. Small sized gardens can be used effectively to enhance bland foundations, corners, and entrances as well as add color, fragrance and interest to patios and other sitting areas.

Small gardens use small scale shrubs and perennials. Anchor shrubs should mature around 3 to 4 feet tall and are typically placed in the back 1/3 of the area. Planting one or two evergreen shrubs makes a good base. Colorful small shrubs and shrub-like perennials are other good choices.

Small garden anchor plants:

• Boxwood Winter Gem
• Boxwood Wintergreen
• Nandina Firepower
• Sungold Cypres
• Sunjoy Gold Pillar Barberry
• Bloomerang (reblooming lilac)
• Barberry Royal Burgundy
• Arctic Fire Dogwood
• Clethra Sugartina Crystalina

Karley Rose, Prairie Dropseed, Karl Foerster and Adagio are some of the more striking ornamental grasses that are attractive as single specimens and can be used in lieu shrubs as anchor plants.

Plant perennials of varied heights keeping within 12 to 40 inches tall for added interest. Some of the friendliest and brightest varieties are:

• Lo & Behold Blue Chip Buddleia
• Lavender (Munstead, Hidcote & Kew Red)
• Pineapple Sage
• Walker’s Low Catmint
• Echinacea Day Dream (yellow) & Hot Lava (orangey red)
• Purple Dome Aster
• Heucheras Plum Pudding & Mystic Angel
• Gaillardias Arizona Sun & Burgundy
• Monardas Fireball & Blue Stocking
• Veronicas Red Fox & Sunny Border Blue
• Little Spire Russian Sage
• Hostas
• Ferns

Small scale groundcovers are the last touch for small gardens.
Select from:

• Creeping rosemary
• Corsican Mint
• Elfin Thyme
• Red Creeping Thyme
• Blue Star Creeper (Laurentia)
• Big Blue Liriope
• Highland Cream Thyme

Use spreading plants that have a spreading habit to fill in over several years such as:

• Red Drift Rose and Apricot Drift Rose 
• Beauty Bush Dreamcatcher
• Rudbeckia Autumn Colors
• Moonshine Yarrow & Summer Pastels Yarrow
• Shasta Daisy Crazy Daisy
• Dianthus Firewitch

How to plan a small sized garden for your enjoyment:

• Select at least one small scale shrub to anchor the garden
• Choose 3 or more perennials in varied heights
• Use one variety of groundcover for the front most part
• For even more interest add a butterfly house, bird house or whirligig just off the center point

For more ideas on small sized gardens, visit Greenwood Nursery.

Drift Roses

From the Knockout Rose Family, are the Drift Roses. Drift Roses are gorgeous compact growing ground cover like roses with miniature roses that will bloom continually from early spring to frost. Like their Knockout Relatives, the Drift Roses are tough, disease resistant and cold hardy as far north as zone 5.

They are sure to become a favorite for any type border. Prune back to 4" in early spring (after the last hard frost) for best performance. Regular deadheading encourages re-blooming and helps maintain a tidy appearance.

We have the Red Drift Roses and Apricot Drift Roses as well as some newer varieties. Check out all of our ground cover roses.

New garden books in time for spring planting… and reading

Like most garden lovers, Cheryl and I enjoy reading books on our favorite subject. However experienced you are, you can always learn something new (or re-learn something you had forgotten) and many of today’s books are a delight to look at with page upon page of lavish photographs.

Here are a few books that recently landed on our desks at the Nursery. They might be treasured additions to your own garden bookshelf.

“The Homeowner’s Complete Tree and Shrub Handbook”


Penelope O’Sullivan (Storey Publishing)


Trees and shrubs are the heart and soul of the home landscape. You can learn how to use them effectively with this comprehensive handbook, covering all the essentials of woody plant gardening.

In addition to basic design principals and plant selection and care, the handbook features an extensive encyclopedia of more than 350 tree and shrub profiles.

“Garden Bouquets and Beyond”


Suzy Bales (Rodale)


If you love to see an abundance of flowers growing in your garden but are somewhat hesitant about how to bring their color and fragrance successfully indoors, “Garden Bouquets and Beyond” could be the ideal book for you.

Combining her lifelong experience as a gardener with her skills as a floral designer, Suzy Bales puts together fresh flowers and foliage from her landscape for dozens of enchanting seasonal designs.

The book’s subtitle, “Creating Wreaths, Garlands and More in Every Garden Season” points out that getting creative with your flora is something you can enjoy all year round, for special occasions or just your own pleasure.

This is an all-encompassing guide, from when to cut and how to arrange to using flowers, leaves and vines in all types of decorations and arrangements. Lavishly illustrated with more than 150 photographs, Suzy’s book takes found objects, foliage of all colors and seasonal blooms to put together deceptively simple, beautiful arrangements.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Year-Round Gardening


Delilah Smittle and Sheri Ann Richardson (Alpha)


Most people in temperate zones think of gardening as a seasonal endeavor, but there is a way to stretch the planting season and harvest fresh produce year-round. The authors of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Year-Round Gardening” take you through every step of both covered outdoor and indoor gardening.

I’m not suggesting you’re an Idiot (honest!) but both a complete novice and a more experienced garden lover will find plenty of tips to keep the goodies coming all year long. Particularly useful are the in-depth sections on the best use of row covers, cloches, cold frames and greenhouses. It’s an easy-to-follow guide with straightforward information presented in bite-sized chunks.

Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own


Bob Flowerdew (Kyle)


If you’re looking for something a little more lavish than the Idiot’s Guide, look for this new book by Bob Flowerdew (Could there be a better name for a gardener?) one of the world’s most respected authorities on organic gardening.

The first part of the book begins in the garden, showing you how to achieve a more continuous crop as well as how to extend your harvest. But Flowerdew’s book goes beyond the garden and into the kitchen to show the best way to preserve and cook these crops by bottling, drying, jamming, smoking, freezing, juicing, soaking and candying. It includes a ton of luscious photos that will appeal to both the gardener and the home chef.

“Dead Head”


Rosemary Harris (Minotaur Books)



Subtitled “A Dirty Business Mystery”, this is a novel that has all the elements to appeal to gardeners who also love to curl up with a good mystery. Wise-cracking gardener and amateur detective Paula Holliday is back, following her two previous adventures in “Pushing Up Daisies” and “The Big Dirt Nap” in this quick-witted and fast-paced mystery.

Author Harris is a master gardener and a former television producer, and knows how to cultivate a mystery that appeals to gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Groundcovers can replace lawns… and mowing

Is there a groundcover that doesn’t need mowing, is kid-friendly but uninhabited by critters and insects? That’s a tall order as this reader finds out…

QUESTION: “We recently moved and purchased 5 acres but we only plan on a small garden for now. I really don't want to spend time mowing right now. Is there a short ground cover which the kids could play in?

”I am reading things about snakes, chiggers and ticks. I want my kids to be safe, yet I would like to keep the mowing to a minimum. Any suggestions?” – Linda

ANSWER: Most groundcovers will attract those unwanted elements, although they can be present even without the habitat that groundcover provides. Outside dogs and cats will help to keep the snakes at bay, but chiggers, ticks and other such critters are all around.

Any groundcover will take several years at best to fill in a large area such as you describe. There are chemicals that can be sprayed on the ground to help reduce the tick and flea population, but with children in and about the yard, you probably wouldn’t want to use it.

Here’s a compromise suggestion. Mark out a reasonably small area close to the house and seed or sod it to provide a “kid friendly” lawn. You could then put down some groundcover over much of the remaining area, so you only have to keep the kids’ play area mowed.

If you’re looking for a low-growing groundcover, you could try Wooly Thyme. It’s a fast spreading thyme with no scent or flavor, but it makes a very attractive soft carpet of hairy grayish foliage topped by bright pink flowers in summer. Wooly Thyme thrives in dry well-drained locations that receive full sun. It is a hardy evergreen that grows 2 - 5 inches high.

You could also look at Wooly’s cousin, Creeping Red Thyme, valued for its fragrant foliage and a profusion of beautiful red flowers all summer long.

Another possibility: Pennsylvania Sedge Grass, a good groundcover that could be a good choice if you have any damp shady areas under tree canopies.

But again, most groundcovers aren’t particularly suitable play areas for small children. In addition to harboring critters and insects, groundcovers can conceal rocks, stones and sharp twigs that can injure little bare feet and legs.

QUESTION: “When is the best time to plant weeping willows? I have approximately 80' span of yard that is extremely wet and hope the willows will assist in absorbing some or most of the moisture.

“How far apart should I plant the trees? I do not have any pipes or drains nearby to worry about the roots of the trees interfering with. Also, can you suggest any other trees that would do well in very moist soil? I have a fairly good sized yard 80' wide x 150' deep.” – Brenda Anderson

ANSWER: You should be able to begin planting around the latter part of March. It is important to remember that the willows won’t actually absorb the moisture in the ground. It is simply that they will tolerate the damp soil. If the ground is soggy wet, it may be trial and error to get them established. Should there be a period where the soil is drier, you might try scheduling to plant at that time.

I recommend the Weeping Willow Babylonica, the best and most beautiful of the green weeping willows, in my opinion. They grow to a mature height in the 30 to 50 foot range with a spread just as wide, so they need to be spaced about 30 to 50 feet apart, and are suitable for zones 4 – 9.

There aren’t many trees that grow happily in consistently wet ground. However, true weeping willows, bald cypress, red maple, river birch, green ash, swamp oak and willow oak are known to be tolerant of moist soil. But, as I mentioned, with soggy ground, it may take several tries to get them established.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Call 811 before you dig this Spring

So you’ve decided to plant a couple of trees in your landscape this weekend. What’s the worst thing that could happen? An aching back? Blistered hands? Not even close!

How about swinging a pickaxe, hearing a clang and getting drenched with a geyser gushing from the water main you hit? Or maybe pulling back the lever on your rented Bobcat and realizing you’ve just ruptured a gas line or torn up a buried electrical cable?

It’s safe to say that any of those could pretty much ruin your weekend. You would also earn the wrath of your neighbors whose utilities were cut off until crews could repair your damage, and it’s likely you’d be responsible for the cost of repairs and possibly even open to legal consequences.

You might think that the hole you are digging for that new tree isn’t deep enough to cause a problem, but that can be a dangerous assumption. For one thing, some utilities might be closer to the surface than you imagine.

Additionally, you have to remember that tree roots can go deep and wide as the tree matures, and planting over or close to underground utilities is like burying a green time bomb that can dislodge and break lines many years in the future.

Fortunately, this is a problem that has a very simple (and free) solution.

All you have to do – BEFORE you dig – is call a single 3-digit phone number: 811. When you call 811 from anywhere in the country, your call will be routed to your local One Call Center. Local One Call Center operators will ask you for the location of your digging job and route your call to affected utility companies. Your utility companies will then send a professional locator to your location to mark your lines within a few days.

Utility companies have offered this service for many years, but with so many companies with so many phone numbers spread across the country, there was a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Hence the start of a national one-call service and a unique phone number, 811.

Some homeowners believe the 811 service is solely for contractors but that is incorrect. Utility companies are just as happy to mark their lines for your DIY projects as for professional excavation jobs.

I should add that, even if you hire professional contractors to build that new deck or fence on your property, don’t assume they will call 811 before they begin work. I recommend that you ask the contractor if they have already done so, or you can simply call 811 yourself and tell your contractor that you’ve made the call.

Within a few days, you’ll see some little colored flags or lines of colored paint criss-crossing your land, indicating what lies beneath. Here’s what the colors indicate:

• Red – Electric
  
• Orange – Communications, Telephone/CATV
  
• Blue – Potable Water
  
• Green – Sewer/Drainage
  
• Yellow – Gas/Petroleum Pipe Line
  
• Purple – Reclaimed Water
  
• White – Premark site of intended excavation
  

As you can see, white paint or flags are used to indicate where you or your contractors are planning to dig. It’s a very good idea to mark the dig location before the utility locator teams come out. But be sure you use only WHITE markers to avoid any confusion!

While the marker teams are looking down, you should take a few moments to look up. Overhead power and telephone lines are so much part of our lives that they almost become invisible to us.

But a tree planted under or close to an overhead power line can be a major problem. Before you plant a tree anywhere near overhead lines, double-check the possible mature height and canopy spread, and if necessary err on the side of caution and plant it a little further away.

Special thanks to Alecia White, representing The Common Ground Alliance, for reminding us that more than 256,000 underground utility lines are struck each year in the U.S. If you’d rather not be part of that statistic, simply call 811 so you’ll know what’s below before you dig.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Dramatic, colorful grasses perk up any landscape

Ornamental grasses are an easy-care way to add interest and texture to any landscape. Here are some tips about two of our favorites.

QUESTION: “A couple of years ago, I bought about 25 Karley Rose grasses to plant along the edge of a path. The plants were (and are) vigorous and healthy. During the past spring and summer, we had a lot of rain and the Karley Rose grasses got SO big they flopped over into the path.

“If we should have another wet spring and summer this year, will pruning back the grasses prevent them from getting so tall and floppy?” – Clare Oliva

ANSWER: It’s important to understand that pruning during the late spring or summer would limit the plant’s growth. Normally, the Karley Rose stands up nicely on its own. Maybe the force of the rain pressed the grass blades closer to the ground.

If you see this beginning to happen in the spring, you might try staking them or if you do decide to prune the lower areas nearer the path, cut the blades at angles to blend. Otherwise you will end up at the end of the season with lovely grass mounds with flat ended blades. Yes, I have done that before and it’s not a pretty sight. The best strategy is to cut off the foliage to 6 inches from the top of the ground in early spring before it begins its seasonal growth cycle. It will then grow into its natural shape.

Remember though, they do have a slight natural weep on some of the lower outer blades. The plumes grow straight, but can also be weighted down when there is a lot of rainfall. I have noticed this happening with the Karley Roses in my garden after a weekend of rain showers. As they dry out, they will usually pop back up.

QUESTION: “I have a question about wild grasses. I enjoy and have started a collection of different grasses. This year I added to my collection a Karl Foerster grass from my local nursery.

In years past, I would cut down my other grass in early spring and I have great success with them each year. I am not sure what to do with this newer variety. Do I cut back the flowering stems and grass, or just the stems producing the flower of the Karl Foerster grass? – Wayne

ANSWER: There’s no need for any special treatment, Wayne. The Karl Foerster grass (sometimes called Karl Forester) should be cared for just like other ornamental grasses by cutting it back close to the ground in early spring before it begins to sprout.

The two plants mentioned in the readers’ questions are among the favorite ornamental grasses for Cheryl and me.

Karl Foerster Grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) is a cool season ornamental grass, named to honor the German botanist and plant breeder who, in the 1920s and 1930s, turned his hometown Bornim into a Mecca for gardening enthusiasts and later bravely resisted both the Nazis and the Soviet occupiers in East Germany.

Karl Foerster is a very strong grass in that it maintains its upright position without being too rigid in appearance. Flowers appear in and at first they are loose, feathery and pinkish in color, then, through the summer, they become very narrow, gradually turning a wheaten color that lasts through the fall. Recommended for zones 4 – 9.

Karley Rose Grass (Pennisetum orientale) is a warm season grass for zones 5 - 9. The green foliage is topped with long-blooming (June till frost) rose lavender plumes. I planted two Karley Rose Grass' on a berm we have in the garden, on either side of a green lace leaf Japanese maple. The texture and pink plumes really offset the green lace foliage of the maple.

Cool season grasses generally begin to grow earlier in the season and do well in cooler temperatures. When rainfall is scarce or temperatures are high, cool season grasses need more frequent watering. Warm season grasses handle hot weather and limited moisture quite well and can retain an attractive appearance without a lot of watering on your part.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Lavender brings fragrant history to your garden

Today we’ll take a look at a very old plant with a long and storied history, but one that deserves a fragrant place in your garden.


Lavender was definitely familiar to early Pilgrims arriving in America in the 1600s, and no doubt it helped to mask some of the less pleasant odors during their long sea voyages. But growing and using lavender goes back much further than that.


The word lavender has its origin in the Latin word “lavare” meaning to wash and has many connections with the concept of cleansing. The ancient Phoenicians used lavender in their bath water and as an air freshener. Greeks were said to anoint their feet with lavender oil, no doubt as an early odor eater!


Egyptians were big fans of lavender and evidence has been found in excavated tombs to show that they used it as part of the mummification process. Wealthy Egyptians would wear a compress on their heads, made of lavender that would create a pleasant perfume as it warmed with their body heat.


Lavender has also been used for many hundreds of years as a healing and calming herb. Roman texts describe its use in treating everything from insect bites to stomach and kidney ailments. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have drank lavender tea to treat migraine headaches and that popularized the rapid growth of lavender farms in England.


Growing lavender in the USA is not difficult and will reward you with the delightful sight and smell of this revered plant, even if you don’t plan to anoint your feet with its oil. However, note that lavender will NOT grow in highly humid areas such as south Florida. If you live in USDA zone 5 or further north, you probably won’t get a lush thick lavender hedge as you would in more temperate areas, but lavender is a hardy perennial and will bloom anew in the spring.


If you’d like to see a brief video that Cheryl made with tips for growing lavender, you can find it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenwoodNursery


Ready to enjoy your own lavender? Try these…


Lavender Provence


A beautiful addition to any garden path, container, or border plant, it has a strong fragrance and is long blooming. The Provence Lavender is a Lavandin variety which refers to the hybrid lavenders commonly grown in France and cultivated for the oil and dry buds. A wonderful attraction for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds,.the du Provence Lavender has pale blue to purple blooms, growing to two foot with a two foot spread. Zones 6 to 9.


Lavender Grosso


The most fragrant of all the lavenders, Grosso Lavender is a hybrid variety commonly grown in France and used in scenting perfumes and making sachets. An abundance of long spikes of deep violet flowers standing well above the grey/green compact foliage makes the Grosso a remarkable addition to any garden. Additionally, the Grosso is the most cold-hardy of the French hybrid lavenders. Zones 6 to 9.


Lavender Hidcote Blue


If you’re looking for a lower-growing lavender variety, try this one. Hidcote Blue, a.k.a. lavender angustifolia, is a free flowering dwarf variety that produces deep purple flower spikes in late spring and summer. Lavender Hidcote Blue is great for a dwarf hedge, edging or for massing. As a famous English Lavender, the Hidcote’s blooms are distilled to provide one of the purest lavender scents. Zones 5 to 10.


Lavender Munstead


Munstead is a many-branched, somewhat woody, perennial that grows much like a small shrub. The narrow leaves of the Lavender Munstead are about 2 inches long and have a pleasing grey-green color. Munstead Lavender has small, heavily fragrant lavender flowers on long-stemmed, slender spikes. As a favorite English Lavender, the Munstead is a top choice for the edible buds. Zones 5 to 9.


Lavender grows best in rocky, dry, sunny places with an abundant amount of lime in the soil. The scent is strongest in dry, sunny locations. You can cut faded whole flower spikes when the first flowers begin to open, and then dry them for use in sachets in the home.

Bring “four season” color to your garden

What element is the first to strike you when you look at a garden, yours or someone else’s? Quite probably the answer is “color.”

On the other hand, a landscape devoid of color seems dull and lifeless. For months on end, some gardens are little more than a sea of green, or in winter, brown sticks.

It doesn’t have to be that way. With some forethought, you can create a landscape where colors abound and transition from season to season, even winter.

Today, let’s take a look at plants (some of which might be new to you) that can surround you with colors from serene to eye-popping, whatever the calendar says.

Spring

Heuchera Peach Flambe


The peachiest way to enter into spring! You will brighten the neighborhood when its bright peachy yellow leaves unfurl in early spring to turn into redder shades of peach as the summer progresses. They display white flowers on 16 inch spikes and the leaves are almost burgundy by fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Magnolia Butterflies


An upright, pyramidal tree, reaching 30 feet at maturity, it produces beautiful yellow, fragrant flowers (3 to 4 inches) during early to mid spring. The bright yellow blooms on this magnolia give the appearance of yellow butterflies welcoming spring. Zones 5 – 9.

Forsythia Show Off


Forsythia Show Off is a standout with large, bright yellow flowers that adorn the plant from head to foot. Show Off has attractive dark green foliage, unlike any other Forsythia, that adds season-long interest. Zones 5 – 7.

Transitioning from spring into summer, you can’t go wrong with:

Dianthus Firewitch


A compact species, perfect for a rock garden but used in mass creates a stunning effect. The Firewitch is an intense, spicy-scented plant with a mat of hot-pink to magenta colored flowers with small white centers. The fragrance comes from the flowers that bloom from mid-spring through early summer. Zones 3 – 8.

Summer

Crape Myrtle Dynamite


Cheryl and I think Dynamite is the most amazing Crape Myrtle we’ve ever seen. The bright red blooms on the Dynamite are in giant clusters all over this tree. It displays smooth tan bark, dark green foliage and a beautiful fiery orange fall color. Zones 6 – 9.

Monarda Fire Ball


When it comes to summer color, this should be on your list! A mid-summer heavy bloomer with showy, aromatic, bright red-scarlet flowers, it is fast growing from 15 to 36 inches tall and packs a visual wallop in the garden planted in full sun or part shade.

Does well in average garden soil and attracts droves of butterflies and hummingbirds. Zones 4 – 9.

Hydrangea Incrediball


This really is an eye-popper! It produces huge 12 inch blossoms forming a massive ball. The Incrediball’s enormous blossoms vary in shades of green and cream fading to white and then to a paler green as blossoms mature. Once the Incrediball Hydrangea begins blooming in early summer, it continues into early fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Fall

Black Eyed Susan


Yes, not exactly a rarity but you can’t go wrong with Black Eyed Susans as they’re great for mass plantings and provide wonderful contrasting colors when paired with ornamental grasses, Shasta daisies, Russian sage or dianthus. They are deer and rabbit resistant yet attract butterflies. Their gold to orange petals provide striking color through mid fall. Zones 4 – 9.

Sedum Autumn Fire


Cheryl and I have several varieties of sedum in our garden and we just love them in the fall. Sedum Autumn Fire has tighter growth habit, thicker foliage, and more brightly colored, rosy, early fall flowers than other varieties. Zones 3 – 9.

Winter

Tiarella Crow Feather

This new Tiarella has bright green leaves and is deeply marked with a black “feather”. Tiarella Crow Feather displays the best winter color of all in a brocade of pinks, reds, purples, and blacks. Tiarella Crow Feather sports pink flower stalks and is a strong grower. Zones 4 – 9.

Nandina Dwarf Firepower

A bright compact evergreen with lime green leaves and superior fire red color in the fall and winter. Plant Nandina Dwarf Firepower as a single specimen in smaller gardens and courtyards, where its color provides a focal point or accent. It is an ideal plant for spas in small urban backyard gardens and may also be planted in pots. Zones 6 – 10.

Yes, you CAN have color all year!

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org

Spring Flowering shrubs and perennials provide brilliant color and fragrance to fill your garden

In the dreary depths of winter, garden lovers console themselves with visions of gorgeous plants that will soon fill their landscapes with glorious color and wonderful fragrance.

If you are in need of a little moral support to lift your spirits out of the winter blahs, I can point you in the direction of a few plants that might not immediately spring to mind, but could be just what you need to treat your eyes and nose a few short months from now.

Regular readers know that, in spring and summer, I like to start our day by taking our first cup of coffee out to a garden bench where we quietly take in the colors and aromas of the plants as they begin to wake up and stretch towards the morning sun. Somehow, it is a time that is both calming and stimulating, and it sets us up for the hustle and bustle of the day ahead in the nursery.

So let’s start with a shrub that certainly could be the poster child for fragrance-and-color plants.

Dwarf Philadelphus 'Snowbelle' Mockorange

I believe this is perhaps the most fragrant of all the Mock Oranges. For me, inhaling the sumptuously intoxicating orange sweetness given up by the pure white blossoms of Mock Orange Philadelphus Snowbelle is pure heaven. It has gracefully arching branches and sure to be fragrant white flowers clustered along the branches.
A newer spring flowering dwarf shrub that grows 3 to 4 feet tall.

Persian lilac - Syringa x persica

This is a graceful, arching spring flowering shrub reaching to a height of 4 - 8 feet and half again as wide. The flowers of the Persian Lilac are delicate blend of pale violet and lavender and are very fragrant. The 2 - 3 inch long blooms appear in late spring and bloom abundantly into early summer, attracting bees, butterflies and birds.

The rounded and low mature form makes the Persian lilac a perfect plant to be used in a foundation planting or as a border plant. The blooms can be cut and taken indoors for a lovely scent and floral display. Zones 3 to 7.

Monarda Blue Stocking

Although the name makes one assume the flower color is sky blue, in fact it really has uniquely shaped flowers that are a striking violet/purple and appear in July on erect stems of very fragrant foliage. This perennial grows to about 2 – 3 feet tall and a width of 1 to 3 feet. Monarda Blue Stocking is very attractive, and acts as a magnet to bees and hummingbirds.

They thrive in full sun or partial shade and evenly moist soil. As a bonus, they are quite deer resistant. A good choice for a border plant and nice for cut flower arrangements with its aromatic leaves. Zones 4 – 8.

Buddleia Bi-Color

You probably know that Buddleia is known as the “butterfly bush” but this one is rather special. It is the first butterfly bush to sport two different colors on the same bloom stalk; rich lavender combined with butterscotch yellow. Buddleia Bi-Color is easy to grow, extremely fragrant and will attract tons of butterflies to your perennial border or patio garden area. Buddleia Bi-Color blooms all summer long with most blooms measuring 5 - 6 inches and some growing out to a full 10 inches at the end of the growing season with a jubilant fragrance almost overwhelming to their color show.

The Buddleia Bi-Color reaches 5 - 6 feet in height and by cutting back each winter more branching and more blooms will appear each and every subsequent season. Buddleia Bi-Color grows easily in any sunny, well drained area, while demonstrating fantastic drought tolerance and indifference to extreme heat and humidity. Zones 5 – 9.

Eye-popping color and invigorating fragrance. What more could you ask! Hopefully, I’ve stimulated your senses and lifted your spirits with the suggestions. Take heart, garden lovers. Winter will soon be behind us!