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Plant This! Lyre leaf sage

This lovely spreading ground cover produces tall, electric blue blooms for 4-6 weeks in spring.  Perfect for any shady or semi-shady spot, lyre leaf sage shows off before much of the summer garden wakes up.

Green and purple foliage adds interest once the blooms have finished.  About 1-2 feet tall when it blooms, it spreads quickly, so make sure you give it enough space to roam.    I’ve planted it in my woodland shade garden, pairing it with ferns, black scallop ajuga, ground orchids and columbine.

Check it out – you’ll be glad you did.

 

Simple steps to delicious container veggies at home

We are all craving back-to-basics outdoor time right now.  Early concerns about food lit a fire under many of us to grow our own fruits and veggies at home.  But what if you’ve never grown food before?

Many would-be vegetable gardeners are thwarted by a lack of experience or space, impenetrable rocky soil or clay, or a shortage of sunshine.  With limited space on a balcony or patio, too much shade or landscape conditions that aren’t conducive to vegetable gardening, what’s a wannabe green thumb to do?

The burgeoning gardening movement and the increasing national interest in growing vegetables at home has fueled the creation of many alternatives to a patch of rich soil in the ground.

Alternative growing containers are the latest trend, making vegetable gardening simpler than ever.  To go along with the increasing desire for small space alternatives, there are also more container-sized vegetable varieties now than ever before.

Most vegetables can be grown in a whole host of containers.  From boring plastic pots to specially designed grow bags, it’s never been easier to get started.  There are many other container options for inexpensive and moveable mini-gardens, too.  Consider large 5-gallon plastic buckets, leftover from house projects.  Other options include wooden barrels, galvanized tubs, even bushel baskets.   Just make sure the container has adequate drainage by poking holes in the bottom.  And, if you’d rather not look at a white plastic pickle bucket housing your tomatoes, you can spray paint your container to match any garden decor.  Make sure the container is safe, and not treated in any way with toxic materials.

Don’t forget about vertical spaces. Hanging baskets can be used for lightweight greens and herbs and some fruits or vegetables will even grow in upside-down hanging planters.  Train your vining vegetables up on poles, supports or trellises as much as possible, using the vertical space in your garden as well as the ground.  Large plants like tomatoes will also need tomato cages in the pots to give them the support they need.

Use the right size planter.  Smaller containers work for herbs, but for veggies, make sure your pot is big enough and has drainage holes in the bottom.  One of the most important things you can do to ensure success is to use a big enough container—the bigger, the better. For one indeterminate tomato plant, for example, you need a container that is at least 1 square foot, but 2 square feet is better. Five-gallon buckets (with holes drilled) are the perfect size for one plant.

Be sure to use a lightweight potting soil.  Choose a mix designed specifically for pots that will help it drain properly. Do not use topsoil or garden soil.

Keep a close eye on the moisture needs of the plant – remember, containers dry out faster than soil in the ground.  Be sure to water regularly to keep plants happy and healthy.  Keeping your containers near a water source will make regular watering easier.

Check out your sunlight.  Most veggies need between 6-8 hours of sunlight.  If you have lots of shade, containers are great because you can move them around the maximize sun exposure.

Make sure you give your plant the right nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—all essential for container growing. Some potting soils come with fertilizing nutrients in them. If your bag doesn’t, buy all-purpose slow-release fertilizer or a tomato/veggie-specific fertilizer and follow the directions on the bag.

Happy Gardening.

Design definition and texture in new landscape garden bed

I’m on a roll.  Gardening is good for the soul, and for the exercise and creative outlet it provides during this stressful time.  My free time is often spent surfing the web for the perfect plant since I’ve been avoiding nurseries.  As fast as they arrive in the mail, I’m expanding garden beds to contain them!

Since the move last summer, I’ve been lonely without my recommended daily allowance of blooms.

There were a handful of hastily pre-sale planted impatiens in the front of the house, but nary a flower anywhere else.  I couldn’t even make a tiny posey for my desk.

It was sad.

Having filled the new beds that I created along the dry creek, I decided I needed some more plants.

I turned to my winter sources, searching for my favorite plants online.  I’ve slowly been planting in front of the creek above of the sidewalk.  I’ve been digging out multiple 6-inch circles to plant individual plants, leaving the grass right beyond that!

Having filled the new beds that I created along the dry creek, I decided I needed some more plants.

I turned to my winter sources, searching for my favorite plants online.  I’ve slowly been planting in front of the creek above of the sidewalk.  I’ve been digging out multiple 6-inch circles to plant individual plants, leaving the grass right beyond that!

Last week, I finally got help to get the whole bed dug out with room for a lot more plants!

Here’s the before photo. When we moved in, there was little to no grass because of dense shade of over gown trees.

We pruned the trees heavily last summer and watered the grass, but this area is still a little shady, so it would be perfect for the part-shade and part-sun plants I love.

In the new bed I added salvia, rose campion, datura, daisies, lantana, gomphrena, iochroma, and eryngium. When the universe opens back up again, I’ll be in search of a very large turquoise pot to put on top of the large rocks at the top of the hill before the oak tree.

I can’t wait until all of these lovelies are in full bloom.  I’m hoping it will be a bouquet of color, texture and form every single day!

Mix colorful garden edibles into your landscape

Want to expand the plant palette in your landscape but having trouble finding just the right plants?  Consider mixing edibles into your ornamental garden beds.  Many families are working on growing Victory gardens during this Covid-19 crisis.  Even if you don’t have a designated veggie garden, you can still start growing them.

For those with smaller gardens who want to grow their own food, working vegetables into the landscape makes the best use of precious space.  No longer relegated to huddle in a hidden corner of the yard, edibles can stake their claim throughout the garden and open up a whole new group of plants to help you spice up your ornamental landscape.

Edibles aren’t just for eating anymore.  They also add color, texture and scent to the garden. Spring is the perfect time to evaluate your needs and incorporate veggies and herbs into the landscape.  Unsightly holes left by annuals or perennials that didn’t survive the winter can be welcoming spaces for edibles if the conditions are right.  Just make sure the light and water needs match those of your existing perennials and evergreen plants.  Most vegetables want six hours of sun and need consistent moisture.  Many herbs are drought-tolerant and will thrive with less water.

One of my favorite plant color combinations is the chartreuse, burgundy and ice blue colors often used in the Pacific Northwest.  With far fewer burgundy choices in our climate, I was stumped trying to incorporate those colors into my Austin landscape.  I had loropetalum, non-invasive nandina, and black scallop ajuga in my garden, but wanted more burgundy options. So, I turned to the vegetable and herb section at my local independent nursery.  Purple ruffles basil, red acre cabbage and red Russian kale proved excellent choices to tuck in between my contrasting perennials.

Many edibles also provide interesting contrast by adding unique texture and form into the mix.  Artichokes, with their large, spiky leaves and brilliant lavender thistle-like blooms make stunning sculptural focal points.  Thick-veined and curly greens stand out when planted next to smaller, softer border plants like zexmenia, purple skullcap or damianita. Feathery dill plants give the garden a wispy element to include next to woody perennials.

Plant herbs among your ornamentals for the scent they bring to the garden.  Instead of hidden away in a vegetable bed, rosemary or lavender along a path will release its fragrance every time someone walks by.  You’ll enjoy spicy aroma of thyme if you plant it around stepping stones.

Adding vegetables and herbs into your ornamental beds will also attract more pollinators.  Scatter a few bronze fennel, parsley, thyme, and chive plants throughout the landscape to provide both food and habitat for pollinators.  Unlike pests that eat other herbs, when swallowtail caterpillars defoliate my parsley, I know I can soon look forward to watching the emerging butterflies flit around the garden.

If you have a deer, rabbit or other animal problem, working edibles into your plan may prove more challenging.  Critters know no boundaries when it comes to foraging.  Deer will stay away from many aromatic herbs and velvety or spiky plants like artichokes.  Animals also generally leave the onions, garlic, leeks and chives to us.  You’ll have to experiment to determine what works in your garden.

Some years I have bunnies inside the fenced back yard, and some years I don’t. Last year I discovered a nest of three fuzzy baby bunnies under the oversized artichoke plant inside my fenced vegetable garden.  Needless to say, I left them there where they grew up enough to enjoy my 15 newly planted strawberry transplants next to the artichoke.  I guess that’s the definition or gardening for wildlife.

Whether you want to eat them or look at them, including edibles in your ornamental landscape can be both filling and fulfilling.

Vision and creating a new garden or landscape bed

Starting a new garden is scary.  There.  I said it.  Whether you’re gardening in a completely different space, creating a new bed, or just revamping what you’ve got, it can be daunting.

All sorts of things clutter up my brain.  What’s the soil like here?  Will there really be enough sun in that spot?  What if I change my mind later or come up with a better plan?

Realistically, these are all the questions any time we go into the garden, aren’t they?

I’ve given myself some time to sit in this new space, observe it, think long and hard about what I really want and what will bring me joy.  (Thank you, Marie Kondo!)  I wanted new beds immediately.  But creating new beds is an investment and I didn’t want to be rash and then regret my choices later.

I made lists of plants I love – shade plants, sun plants – evergreens, perennials, annuals, bulbs.  NO vines!  Never again.

Go back through a few posts and you’ll see that our current yard, trees and house  are being eaten by not just ivy, but Asian Jasmine, English ivy, Virginia creeper and trumpet vine. And what wasn’t covered in vines, was eroding and lifeless.

Grass originally lived in this area, but the overgrown trees reached across the street and made this full shade spot too dark for healthy grass.

Following my own consulting/design advice, I started by evaluating my goals.  Then I looked at physical/site issues like sun and drainage.  I measured and sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil.

I’ve posted pics of the whole new bed, stretching from under a massive oak along a new dry creek and down to the other end of our property.

Making my list of most-loved plants, I knew that I wanted a rose.  One of the first things we did at the house was prune the lot full of overgrown trees.  That gave us some sunshine along the street, and conditions that I hope will be enough for a Maggie rose.

I had two of them behind the pool at the other house.  They loved the sun and I loved having them.  But it wasn’t the right place for them – I couldn’t ever reach them to prune or care for them.  So, I pulled them out.  But I missed them.

Now I’ve made a special spot for a Maggie in my new garden.

We’ll have to see if she gets enough sun there.

There are some more branches I can prune in the trees directly above if she needs a few more golden rays.  I’ll have to see what happens in the summer sun.

For now, she’s small and spindly.  I ordered her from the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, so I know she’s a healthy plant.  She has some buds and I’m babying her for now. With the backdrop of a Mediterranean fan palm, variegated dianella and some neighboring trailing white lantana, I think she’ll be very happy there.

And I’m happy to have her.

Inspiration on a napkin turns ideas into reality in the new garden

I woke up at 5:15 Saturday morning, as excited to wake up and start the day as if it were Christmas morning.  Saturday was planting day.  I could hardly control myself as I tried to go back to sleep for at least a little longer.

When we moved last summer, I knew I would have a blank landscape canvas with which to work.  Now on a large, shaded and very hilly corner lot, the conditions in this garden are dramatically different than our previous garden.

I’m reminded of the adage, “be careful what you wish for…” and smile when I think of my complaints that the other landscape was flat and boring.  There’s nothing flat here!  In fact, the only thing here is ivy.  Lots and lots of ivy.  I’ve found Jasmine, English ivy, trumpet vine and Virginia creeper, all intermingled in an incestuous mess, threatening to eat the trees and the house and everything else in its path.

Over the last few months, I’ve tried to focus on the area that runs along the lower side of the property.

One of our first projects when we moved in was intensive pruning of the wonderful, yet long-neglected heritage trees.  We removed a few dead ones, and opened up the canopy of trees along that side of the property.  Because of the overgrown trees, all that remained in the total shade was dead grass, soil and exposed tree roots.  Now, the afternoon sun shines in this area, and I decided that it might be my best bet at creating a bed friendly to sun-loving plants.

I’ve scribbled on several napkins and I’ve had a few snippets of ideas about possible plant combinations.  Luckily, I came to my senses and decided to take the time to assess the space, allow my vision to evolve, and focus on some of my favorite plants.  The sketch of plants grew as I decided to intersect the long space with a dry creek, boulders and a large ceramic pot as the focal point.

Last week, I put the plan into motion as I drew out the creek outline with construction paint and got the crew digging and delivering rock.

Over the week, I finalized my plant choices and placed my order.  Saturday was the day.

I lovingly placed every plant and every boulder, turning and adjusting and moving an inch to the left and then a half inch to the right and then another half inch back to the left!

At the top of the hill, I’ll add a very large ceramic pot, filled  with a focal point plant and trailing potato vines or maybe silver pony foot.  It will be nestled in the middle of these boulders at the headwaters of the creek.

Bordering the sidewalk entrance, a few dianella, a purple trailing lantana, a red salvia Greggii, blackfoot daisies and damianita surround a regal purple Amistad salvia.  She’ll be the star of the show in short order with her almost foot-long plumes.

To create year-round interest, catmint is intermingled with the elegant and strappy leaves of Agapathus.  I like the textural contrast between the delicate, gray-green catmint and the lime-y foliage of the agapanthus.

In mild winters like this one, catmint was evergreen in my previous garden.

It will be interesting to see how plants fare in this new garden.

At the other end of the bed and the creek, the shining star will be a deep magenta Maggie rose (which I haven’t found yet).  She’ll be flanked by Dianella, a Mediterranean fan palm, trailing white lantana,  purple skullcap and a Weberi agave.  Just past the Weberi, another Dianella keeps an Indigo spires salvia company along with an artichoke and a scattering of sculptural foxtail ferns.

I didn’t realize how much I missed my other garden until I started to create a new one.  It’s filled a void and I’m excited to be moving forward.

I have lots of other ideas swirling around in my head.  And now that this bed is spiffy, neighboring areas definitely look shabby in comparison.

Now I’m dreaming about new stucco bed-bordering walls (to replace railroad ties), driveway flanking beds, and a possible new entrance from the street.

I’ve stocked up on napkins, there is plenty for me to do.  I’ll keep you posted!

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