Monday, December 31, 2012
Keeping a garden journal is a great way to see what works for your garden.
On the morning of January 1, 2013, I will brew a cup of coffee, open my garden journal and record the temperature, the color of the morning sky, and what plants (if any) are blooming in my winter garden. This year Hana Jiman Sasanqua camellias, coneflowers (Echinacea), feverfew and hardy salvia are still blooming in our relatively balmy temperatures. I have been keeping a garden journal for the past ten years. I began my first journal in January, when my garden was reduced to its “bones”, and I could view it without the distractions of flowers and shrubs in bloom. This clear view allowed me to see what changes I might make and make plans for spring planting. A garden journal is a useful tool. On a practical basis, it helps with …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Assessing Post-Sandy Tree and Shrub Damage
The Northern Virginia area escaped relatively unscathed through Hurricane Sandy’s onslaught. The forecasts of heavy winds, storm surge and flooding were lessened by Sandy’s eventual track, and we were spared the kind of damage that devastated our neighbors to the northeast. Some large trees did succumb to the sixty-mile-an-hour wind gusts and saturated ground, but most of the debris seems to consist of large tree limbs, small branches and leaves…lots of leaves. While we pick up and bag this debris from our yards, gardeners should assess whether any hidden damage was done to those trees and large shrubs left standing after the storm. Trees and shrubs adapt to the normal stresses of wind flow as they sway in reaction to this pressure; the …
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
It's not as spooky as it sounds…
When we gardeners refer to the good “bones” of our gardens, we are not talking about this month’s All Hallows Eve decorations, a new composting element, or the occasional remains of a vole or field mouse we might find. The “bones” of a garden are the elements that are permanent and that provide its structure: trees, shrubs, arbors, walls, trellises, walkways, and statuary or other sculptural elements. They represent the garden as it appears when the growing season ends, when the color and texture provided by blooming plant material is muted by snow and bare earth. The garden’s bones are the single most important design element of a garden — a garden with “good bones” looks right throughout the growing season and in the heart of winter. A …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
That leaves September chores for the gardener.
Summer’s end finds this gardener hard at work preparing the garden for fall …taking inventory of what worked and what fizzled; cutting back any plant that has finished blooming or is diseased; and preparing the beds to receive new perennials. I am taking advantage of the cooler September weather to divide overgrown spring and summer blooming perennials such as black-eyed susans, daylilies, peonies, Asiatic lilies, moss pinks and yarrow. Dividing these overgrown perennials will result in healthier plants and provide me with free plant material to fill in bare areas in my garden beds. Dividing and replanting the divisions of black-eyed Susans, peonies and moss pinks is relatively easy; you simply cut into the crown of the plant with a shovel…
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Take advantage of end-of-season sales.
In my last column, I wrote about August as the perfect time to assess your garden, eliminate plants that did not perform well this season and determine what new plants you might choose to fill in the “holes” in your garden beds. After assessing my own garden, I have decided to completely eliminate the last small bit of lawn and to plant more hardy salvias, hardy hibiscus and a new crepe myrtle to fill in my garden “holes". My front lawn will now become a fieldstone-and-pea-gravel courtyard with enlarged side garden beds and a central circular garden bed. I have fallen in love with a large cast concrete ornamental urn that will become a focal point of the central bed. And I was able to capitalize on one of the gardener’s most sought after …
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
What went wrong, what went right …
Gardening in the hot, muggy days of August can seem like a marathon. We gardeners can only dream of sitting in our lounge chairs, sipping lemonade and enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of our summer labor. Enjoy that cold drink in the afternoon after a day of assessing your garden this month — which plants did well and which plants did not. My garden beds are currently decked out in a riot of yellow blooms (rudbeckia), orange blooms (Echinacea) and blue flowers (salvia 'black and blue'). These plants did well despite the heat, humidity and lack of rainfall. I will keep these standouts and increase the number of hardy salvia. I have fallen in love with hardy salvia this summer, and I intend to add an orange-red variety (salvia ‘darcyi…
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Have some daily beauty throughout the summer.
Throughout this hot, oppressive summer, I have come to rely on a cheery morning greeting from the daylilies in my garden. My bank of daylilies has been steadily sending up blossoms since late May with seemingly no regard to the high temperatures and sporadic watering. Daylilies are very hardy perennials that belong to the genus Hemerocallis and are not true lilies. The term hemerocallis comes from the Greek words hemera (day) and kallos (inherent beauty), and the term is apt — each flower opens to reveal its beauty for only one day. Luckily, each plant produces a succession of flower buds that bloom throughout the summer. There are many varieties of daylilies, and they can exhibit a wide range of colors, textures and bloom time. They all …
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Coneflowers — they’re not just for Grandma anymore…
It’s been a hot time in the garden this past month with more heat to come. We are more than seven inches below normal rainfall. This trend may continue for the next few years. Consequently, I am looking for a dependable flower that will tolerate heat and scanty rainfall and still bloom most of the summer. Black-eyed susans (rudbeckia) fit this bill—they begin to bloom in June and continue right through September if I remember to do an early June pruning. As dependable as rudbeckia are, however, the only color they contribute is yellow, and I would like to add more color to my flower beds. My roving eye has once again returned to coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea). They are perennial plants (so I don’t need to replace them each year), native…
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Keep cool under the canopy.
This is the last of a series of columns dedicated to the pleasures and surprises found in gardening in the cool of a shady garden. In previous articles, I discussed the types of plants that grow best in filtered shade and dappled shade. This article is devoted to plants that work where the sun almost never shines — dense, deep shade. Residents of the Potomac River corridor can escape the heat of summer in the shade of the woodland areas that run along the river and its tributaries. The large leafed tree canopy and evergreens in these areas can result in conditions where the understory growth gets very little or no direct sunlight. Urban gardeners can also find this kind of shade in enclosed yards where walls or trees block direct sunlight…
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Make the most of your shady side …
The past week of temperatures higher than 80 and sweltering humidity have reminded me just why I love the breezy shade of my back gardens. My shade gardens grow down the slope of a hill and under the canopy of several 75 to 80-foot red and white oaks, numerous maple and beech trees and a couple of redbud trees. At this time of year, most of these back gardens are in full shade, although the sun does trace a line of filtered light through the trees as it crosses the sky during the day. I spend a lot of the summer out of the sun on this breezy slope and, consequently, have figured out which plants might thrive in the shade, which might be devoured by the wildlife we cohabitate with along the Potomac and which will lend brightness to the …
Nancy A Burns
10:09 am on Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Great article, thanks for using the hotlinks~~makes me want to start gardening again, after all the heat! Nancy more ›