October 2013 - The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Bulb planting time

Posted on October 31, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Bulbs .

I am going to take you through my recent bulb planting in rapid fire fashion because, well, that is also how I put my plan together before I started.

Here we go:

1)Narcissus ‘Jack Snipe’:

Quick logic behind location (see photo below):

These are early spring bloomers so my daughter will have something nice to look at out of her playroom window.
That is actually all I got.

Negatives after evaluating my location decision:

Once these stop blooming, the spent flowers/foliage will be front and center without any attempt at hiding it behind emerging perennials.
These are so small (10 inches) that they probably cannot be seen from within the house.

2)Narcissus ‘Tahiti’:

Quick logic behind location (see photo below):

I found an actual open space.
I may be able to have these blooming at the same time as the purple Campanula ‘Joan Elliot’ in front of them.
When spent, these Narcissus may be hidden relatively well

Negatives after evaluating my location decision:

I think the height of the blooming Narcissus and Campanula are exactly the same so one will actually hide the other.
Do I even like these Narcissus? Not really sure yet.

3)Allium ‘Grateful’:

Quick logic behind location (see photo below):

I found an actual open space.
I found a space that was open.

Negatives after evaluating my location decision:

Unsure if the bloom color will work with the neighboring Lady’s Mantle and peonies.
The spent foliage will be in plain view.

A potential positive spin after even further review:

Spent Allium blooms are kind of cool and can lend a bit architecturally.

4)Allium ‘Globemaster‘:

Quick logic behind location (see photo below, will be in the middle of the bed):

I planted only one bulb as a trial run so location wasn’t a concern.

Negatives after evaluating my location decision:

None that I can think of yet. But give me time.

And then to top it all off, since I have failed numerous times in the past to successfully grow tulips in my wet soil, I figured why not give them a shot in containers. I will just store them in my garage over the winter. I’ve done it once before with moderate success so I am optimistic that I can pull it off again. And since I used bulbs from Martha Stewart, nothing can go wrong:

Wish me luck.

John

Out and about in Hunterdon County

Posted on October 29, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Local .

Meyer lemon tree

Posted on October 28, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Edibles, Tree .

For four years now, I’ve been doing my best to keep a Meyer Lemon tree alive and somewhat thriving. It is a container bound tree that lives outdoors June through September and indoors in front of a south facing window the remainder of the year. It has been a struggle ever since I received the little tree stub for Christmas from my beautiful bride but I am determined to eventually see the “fruits” of my labor.

Here is how it looks in its current state (actually from a week ago):

It has quadrupled in size but as you can tell, it is a bit awkward as many leaves have dropped from the branches over the years. As I move the container indoors each autumn, the tree becomes unhappy and sheds some leaves in protest. The tree manages to hold on OK through the winter, but it is your classic “one step forward and two steps back” situation.

So now I’ve decided to make some changes to hopefully get me a nice looking and well limbed tree and most importantly, some friggin fruit. Actually, my first fruit appeared this summer and here’s hoping I can keep it on the tree over the winter:

Fingers are crossed.

Back to my changes:

I think I panicked a bit in the past and brought my tree in too soon; usually mid to late September. This year, I gave the tree a few more weeks of outdoor time and only brought it in last week in anticipation of our first frost.
I made it a point to slowly transition my tree from the outdoors to its ultimate winter landing place. The tree went from full sun all summer to partial sun for a week to my garage for a week. I am now ready to bring her indoors and hopefully the transition is a bit less stressful this year.
I never considered fertilizing my lemon tree while indoors but I am open to doing so this year. I’ve read quite a bit on the topic and while opinions vary, I am leaning towards feeding. What would you suggest?
I had previously lined the bottom of the container with perlite to aid in the drainage process but I can now attest to the fact that I believe that actually hindered the drainage. The perlite is out, new soil and a larger container are in and here’s hoping we get some positives out of this.
Finally, I made the investment in a grow light and I’m counting on this to supplement the light the tree typically gets from my south facing window.

I’ll be closely tracking the development of the tree this “off-season” and will share the results. In the interim, I beg for your feedback on what has or hasn’t worked for you.

As always, thank you.

John

Like Frankie said “I did it my way”

Posted on October 25, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Uncategorized .

When we first moved into our home back in 2004, it was a complete blank slate in terms of plant life. There wasn’t a tree or shrub to be found. I was excited and beyond terrified at the same time. The options were limitless which unfortunately meant my stress level was also limitless.

Where the hell was I to begin?

Do I become the local drug kingpin and sell narcotics outside the country store and then take that money to buy mature trees? It was tempting but I wasn’t up to putting the family in danger (although after the success of Walter White on Breaking Bad I may want to hop into my time machine and rethink this one).

Do I hire a local landscape architect? My pride wouldn’t allow it.

Do I chunk it off a section at a time and develop a tight plan? Remind me again what is this term “plan” you speak of?

As expected, I just started buying shrubs and perennials I liked (ignoring my new conditions) and then tried to make them fit based on my whims for that day. In fact, this was the modus operandi for a few years and shockingly, this didn’t work out so well.

As a result, I finally made a concerted effort to consult my many thousands of garden/landscape books and surfed the interwebs determined to come up with a plan. I can remember taking notes on “foundation shrubs” while on the graveyard-feeding shift with my newly born daughter. I was all in and ready to do this the “right” way.

The first targeted area was the foundation planting at the front of my home. Like a good landscaping scholar, I purchased and planted some wonderfully generic evergreens and had my “bones” filled in. Next, I identified some smaller shrubs that could be placed in front of said “bones”. Finally, I made plans to fill in the remaining voids with sensible annuals for color in the spring/summer. Boo ya!

When all was said and done, I had me my first “garden” at the new home … and holy shit was it awful. I couldn’t believe that I allowed myself to follow such a plan. If I remember correctly, it was around the early summer in 2006 when I realized I needed to start over. Time to do what I like, the so called rules be damned.

I was going to put in deciduous shrubs that exposed the foundation in winter and didn’t care.

I was going to load up on perennials and allow the seedheads and messy foliage to stay on all winter.

I was going to add in ornamental grasses and accept their stubs in spring before the new growth would emerge.

And I did just that … with a number of stops and starts along the way of course . But the important thing was I was going to do what I liked.

Fortunately, I do not have photos of the “early days” of the front bed so my reputation may hold up a bit more than it should. But I do have a photo from a few years ago of my attempt at “doing it my way”:

Not a bad start but nowhere near my final vision.

Now we fast forward to the last year or so where I can honestly say I am finally happy with the results.

Late spring:

Mid-summer:

Winter:

And from a different angle:

Late spring:

Early fall:

And yet another angle.

Mid-summer:

Mid-fall:

Can I still tweak some things? Absolutely. In fact, I have come up with some ideas just as I am posting this.

I enjoy the constant changing of the shrubs/perennials/grasses throughout the spring/summer/fall and the winter interest is sufficient enough to allow me to make it through those long cold and dark months of December, January and February.

Many other areas in my landscape are nowhere near where I want them to be but it only took me nine years to get the front as I wanted it so we should be good to go around 2049.

Wordless Wednesday – No more flowers, and it is going to be OK

Posted on October 23, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Fall color .

Even more Fall color

Posted on October 22, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Fall color .

We are just about at peak Autumn color here in zone 6B New Jersey and a cold front is making its way in over the next day or so. We are anticipating having our initial frost and with that, you can feel what has been perfect weather since Fall began, starting to slip away. Not to mention the barely holding on annuals.

Having said that, I need to now make sure I can check off every item on my Fall to-do list. Here goes:

Pumpkin picking in the mud with a painfully rough ride in the back of a soon to be broken down tractor – check

Apple ~~picking~~ eating of every variety known to man (personal favorite is Solebury Orchards) – check

~~Make~~ Eat pumpkin pasta, butternut squash pasta, pumpkin pancakes, chili with pumpkin (yeah, you heard me right) and pumpkin muffins – check

Drink copious amounts of pumpkin beer (Dogfish Head Punkin is by far the winner) – check

Shovel candy corns into my mouth on an hourly basis – check

Visit The Garden at Federal Twist at its autumn peak – check

Clean out the garage, specifically, rid it of the thousands of deadly spiders – check

Yes I know, technically we aren’t even half way through the Fall, but let’s not kid ourselves. Winter starts on November 1st (at least in my neck of the woods) and runs through March 1st. End of story.

So as we mourn the passing of the season, here is another look at some wonderfully delicious autumn color:

The aptly named Red Maple ‘October Glory’ is putting on her show with new colors emerging daily:

Viburnum ‘Shoshoni’ is like all purpley and whatever:

Viburnum ‘Aurora’ is a little behind some of the other viburnums but that’s OK:

Fothergilla ‘Mt. Airy’, while still in its infant stages in my yard, is still displaying that frickin kick buttocks orange color:

As if we needed another reason to praise Panicum ‘Northwind’. The Fall color is a sweet yellow/gold as we transition to Winter:

Even the brownish/wheatish/beigeish color of Panicum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ ain’t so bad:

Ciao y’all.

I’m off to fill my growler at Triumph Brewing Company with their stellar Pumpkin Ale.

John

Revisiting the Garden at Federal Twist

Posted on October 20, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Local, Public Garden .

Back in June, I visited the Garden at Federal Twist and found myself inspired like never before. This friggin garden smacked me upside the head and said “This is what you love dummy. Stop with all the small groupings of plants and endless mulch. Think architectural plants and Piet Oudolf and grasses (that one I have nailed down).”

The memories of the garden still resonate today but hot damn I had no idea how much more inspired I would be after visiting Federal Twist again this past weekend. The visit was part of the The Garden Conservancy’s “Open Days Program” but before I share the photos with you, you MUST read the following article that just appeared in the New York Times on the garden and its owner, James Golden:

“The-good-for-nothing-garden”

Seriously, don’t move on until you have read this article. It provides such a wonderful backdrop before viewing the garden. And I couldn’t be more fortunate to live ten minutes away from this gem.

Now we move on to the photos … without interruption of my words … because my words will do it no justice:

Podcast #2 – “An interview with Allan Becker”

Posted on October 18, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Podcasts .

My second “Gardening Talk with ONG” podcast is in the books.

Tonight I interviewed Montreal’s own Allan Becker – garden designer, consultant, coach and jack of all gardening trades. I had an awesome time as I found Allan to be incredibly engaging and was fascinated by his career trajectory … not to mention the fact that he is an aspiring singer.

To listen to it, click the link below:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ongardener/2013/10/18/an-interview-with-allan-becker

Perennials have fall color too

Posted on October 17, 2013 by jmarkowski Posted in Fall color, Perennials .

In my part of the gardening universe, the Maple trees get all the pub when it comes to Fall color (rightfully so in many cases). But there are numerous perennials that are the offensive lineman to the Maple tree quarterback when it comes to sweet autumnal hues.

Quick aside – I’ve been trying to come up with a Football/Gardening analogy for a while now and I think I finally found one. Did that prior paragraph make an ounce of sense? I hope so, because it is money and maybe the best I’ve ever written. Aside over.

While they may not be as in your face as their tree or even shrub brethren, “dying perennials” can still pack a punch this time of year, especially if planted in mass. Here are some that are putting on their Fall show in my garden right now.

The chocolate foliage of Geranium ‘Espresso’ looks even better with doses of red thrown in:

Speaking of geraniums, even the previously maligned Geranium ‘Brookside’ ain’t looking so bad:

The Sedum ‘Matrona’ has an interesting mix of orange and gold hues that looks pretty solid to me:

While not as striking as ‘Matrona’, this Sedum has a nice dose of yellow foliage that looks great in conjunction with the mix of colors on the spent blooms:

From a distance (can I get a Bette Midler shout out?), Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) ‘Gateway’ takes on a new look as the golden foliage takes over for the long standing blooms that dominated all Summer:

Maybe it is a stretch, but I dig the Astilbe foliage even if the color is fleeting:

Just the slightest bit of yellowing on the blades of the Siberian irises floats my boat:

Penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’ has interesting orangey foliage:

I know I’ve talked about the next plant incessantly over the past few weeks, but can you beat the fall foliage color of Amsonia?

The next three photos are all from the same plant. Check out the difference in color:

Frickin awesome, huh?

Even Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ has great color right now:

And finally, the beauty of a dying Lady’s Mantle as it … OK, fine, it’s kind of ugly:

But is it really? The cycle of a perennial is always fascinating, even as it dies back in Fall. A time to kick back and accept the impending weather, knowing it will all start over again in a few short months.

John