We recently hosted my in-laws at our home and had a few great days together. The weather was perfect (sunny and low 70’s) so we sampled the local parks, ate like mad, enjoyed some beverages and just “chillaxed”, as the kids like to say. I’ll include some of these photos in a future post, but for today, I wanted to share one specific experience with you.

On Saturday morning, my mother-in-law asked me “Can you give us a tour of your gardens?” Innocent enough request, right? Um, no! No one ever asked me to actually bring them up close and personal with my plant collections.

Sure, some of my friends and family have limited interest in my “landscaping” passion but they never actually want to touch the plants or get to know the names. Could I present my gardens in an interesting way? Do I know the common names of the plants so it doesn’t sound like a lesson in Latin? Are the gardens even worthy of a visit? Answers: No, No and No.

Some day, I envision garden tours at my home that are majestic and life changing. I’m talking t-shirt vendors, scalpers and wine tastings. I want buses to pull up and I want to hand each camera toting tourist a map so they can navigate the grounds. Well, that is my romantic notion at least.

At this point in time, however, I am lacking skills. I almost put myself to sleep. And I couldn’t have sounded more snobby using only the Latin names for the plants since those are the only names I actually know (in my defense, I still find this the easiest way to know what plants I’m actually dealing with). I also climbed into the fetal position a few times when spotting weeds the size of small children.

Here’s a sampling of the cringe worthy tour:            

I wisely started the tour where there were some actual blooms and a bunch of buds. Below is a Campanula that I so deftly called “Um, something ending with ‘bells’.”

I tried to sell how the green shade of this Chasmanthium … I mean Northern Sea Oats… really stood out. Even I wasn’t buying it.

I kid you not, I used the term “dainty” describing the foliage on this Astilbe. I still hate myself two days later.

I truly love boxwoods but I really need to better prepare and identify why. “Because the deer ignore them” and “they’re evergreen” doesn’t inspire all that much.

I’m still trying to determine if “delicate” foliage sounds worse than “dainty” but more importantly, is a geranium’s foliage really “delicate”? I need to consult my thesaurus a bit more.

I was proud of the fact that I could recall that Monarda (the Bee Balm name escaped me at the time) belongs to the mint family, but I spent way too much time all excited about this tiny mound of growth.  

OK, I managed a “strapping foliage” when describing these irises. I was proud of that one but when I went into my contrasting foliage speech, it would have been nice to have these actually next to some contrasting foliage. And maybe not have them surrounded by weeds.      

Admittedly, I purchased this ‘Alabama Sunset’ coleus an hour before the guests arrived, which is OK, but removing the tag would have been a nice touch.

I really need to come up with something I can successfully grow underneath all of my river birch trees.

Home boy threw out a great nugget letting my guests know this Hakonechloa was Perennial Plant of the year two years ago. I also shared how it lights up a shaded area and I have mine in a container so I could meet it’s good drainage requirement. Maybe there is hope yet?  

I called this an “ice plant” trying to keep it real with the common name and no lie, my mother in law correctly stated it was Candytuft. I pretended like I never heard her.

As painful as the tour may have been, I am determined to get it right in the future. It will take a lot of work, but I’ve got the dream already played out in my head.

Time to get to work on it.

John

What a fantastic time of year this is. Everything brown has turned to green, foliage is emerging at a rapid pace and flowers, yes flowers, are here to light up our world:    

Nothing can go wrong, we just let nature take it’s course and soak it all in. I mean look at the color on the blooms of this Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’:

And the small divisions of this same groundcover have matured and look great at the front of this garden bed:

But you know what? I’m fixated on the 3-4 plants that have huge holes smack dab in the middle of them:

I really try to keep it as positive as possible and it works some days. But when you’re as neurotic as I am with my garden (Interestingly enough, I am not the least bit neurotic in “real life”. Interesting. Discuss amongst yourselves), the negativity eventually creeps in and takes over. I have even come up with a formula that accurately nails my garden mood for each day:

If 10X < 1Y then I am OK
X = plants in bad shape
Y = plants in good shape

So for example, if there are 2 plants in bad shape (X) and there are 21 in good shape (Y) the calculation is as follows:

10 x 2 = 20 and is less than 1 x 21 = 21

I am therefore happy. Trust me, I’ve fine tuned this formula the past few years and it is definitely spot on.
         
But enough of the calculus lesson, here are my frustrations in pictures:

What wonderful cherry blooms, so dainty:

And I’m now left with a weeping “ugly” tree:

And it’s all the deer’s fault:

The Prunus Cistena (Purple Sandcherry) is blooming and looks great with the foliage:

Too bad it is shoved in a container trying to hide the utilities. If I set this in the ground, the deer will chow down on it in minutes and the wet soil will make it whimper in pain:

I’m convinced this was destruction at the hands/paws of some deranged friggin deer. They destroyed half this euonymus which is just enough to make me consider trying to nurse it back to life:  

Um, what do I do with this? This hydrangea is in a prominent location near my front steps and it wants to pull a stunt like this? Be dead or be alive please. Pick one and go with it.

Have any of you ever tried rabbit stew? Is it any good? Any particular rabbit better than others? I could sell gallons of the stuff with the number of rabbits I’ve got under my deck and all over the yard. When I pull into my driveway at night, they scatter like drunken teenagers running from the police.  

I kid you not, I’ve now successfully killed 5 of these ‘Bennett Compact’ hollies in the past 4 years. You absolutely have the right to question my sanity. This is an end of an era and I vow to never even consider them again. Although they are the ideal foundation shrub, evergreen, nice shape …    

Tune in next time to see how much more I can bitch and moan about something I love doing more than anything else.

John

Some times all it takes to get me fixated on a gardening “item” is a walk to the car in the morning. Or taking the dog out at night. Or taking the garbage out to the curb. It is fun and maddening at the same time. Sort of like garden design OCD.

Here are a few of those “items” that I’m obsessing over today:

I love the foliage color on the Carex ‘Cappuccino’ (many will disagree). This grass fits the required criteria of handling the wet clay soil, being deer resistant and providing multi seasonal interest. The struggle is with what to pair it with:

Right now, if I could only choose one plant to use in the landscape, it would be any cultivar of Calamagrostis (Feather Reed Grass). The rapid foliage growth on this cool season grass is tremendous, as is it’s shape, as is it’s “early for a grass” bloom time of July. I am now hunting obsessively for every possible variety that exists (the photo below is ‘El Dorado’). Can I have too many of these? Do I like them in mass plantings? Or just as a specimen?:

Spirea ‘Goldmound’ looks great as the foliage emerges early in the spring. The chartreuse/yellow color is a great color contrast against plants with red/purple/green foliage. The problem is that I actually do not like the pink blooms and I find that the foliage color fades to an OK yellow later in the season. I can’t just chuck it in the compost pile so I need to locate them to a better location. Give them more shade and sheer the flowers off immediately? Hmm …      

Have a great weekend!
John

I think I’m really pushing the limits of uninteresting today.

My apologies ahead of time for providing weak content.

Consider yourself warned.

Today’s post is a mixed bag of odds and ends from yet another self guided tour around the yard. As we all know, dramatic changes occur daily outside in garden-land this time of year. Here is what I found during my most recent trek.  

“Leaves of three, leave them be.” Now I know where I got attacked from when I had poison ivy two weeks ago. It is growing right in the middle of one of my Russian Sage plants. The RS has already been cut down so no need to travel back here any time soon.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about pruning my Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’ and I just saw the first signs of growth on the severely pruned shrub. If the foliage remains as dark as it looks now, color me mucho happy.

I think Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’ is a way under utilized small shrub because of it’s fantastic foliage color and that color has emerged like mad the past few days. Throw in the yellow flowers and berries and you’ve got yourself one versatile shrub.

New growth on the Dwarf Alberta Spruce – riveting stuff, huh?

Hydrangeas are showing signs of life – told you this wasn’t going to be super exciting.

Years ago, I gave on tulips in the ground and started overwintering them in containers in my garage. These are a super bright orange and I cannot wait to see the blooms. Amazing what a good draining soil and protection from the creatures will do.  

And finally, a photo that sums up the condition of the yard right now. Can you say “bog gardens”?

John

I truly enjoy discovering signs of new growth on all of my plants each spring. You may even call it obsessive. But after another nasty winter, it is confirmation that we’ve survived yet again and all will “be OK”. I approach it like detective work and get all fired up to find even a single leaf sprouting underneath dead foliage (which of course explains all of the photos you’ve seen here over the past month or so).

Well, I’m ready to move on to the next phase in my spring ventures outdoors. Foliage growth has exploded over the past week or so and blooms have quietly emerged as well. I like to think of this phase as “initial interplay amongst the plants and rocks.” Yes, I need to work on that phase name and come up with something a bit more catchy but this will have to work for now.

While I love my trees, my shrubs, my bulbs and my perennials on their own, it is how they mix and match with each other that really inspires. That interplay changes from season to season and even from week to week and I can’t get enough of it. So without further ado, I give you the photos I’ve taken over the past few days that show the first mingling of my plant friends:

Sedum ‘Red Carpet’ and Spirea ‘Little Elf’. The contrast in foliage shape and color works and I could care less if either ever blooms:

Heuchera ‘Black Out’ in front of Summer Snowflake bulbs. Once the blooms are finished on the bulbs and the foliage starts to decline, the Heuchera foliage will hide the ugliness:

Arborvitae and Viburnum ‘Shoshoni’. I love the contrast in foliage shape and how the color on the tips of the Arborvitae stands out upon closer inspection:

I am lucky (won’t hear that from me very much when it comes to the landscape conditions) to have unearthed a ton of unique rocks over the past few years. They are stellar counterparts to all of the plants because of their different texture. Here are some of those rocks and the emerging plants:

A sugar rush can be defined as :

The elevated energy level people have when they eat a lot of sugary products which is similar to the crazy, energetic behavior people get when they are taking illegal drugs.

Thank you Wiki Answers for that description. I had the pleasure of dealing with two of these type junkies this past weekend:

As with all photos, you don’t see the effort that went into setting up the shot. Trust me when I say it was like trying to herd cattle on ice skates.

But let me back track a bit.

We started the annual egg dying on Friday night and the kids were way into it:

Don’t ask. I had good intentions and as usual, it all went wrong. I have also passed on this lack of artistry to my son. Here’s his best egg:

At least he knows to lower the expectations so you don’t expect any more from him.

Sunday morning arrived and the kids found all the hidden Easter eggs and found their hidden baskets:    

And for one day, we let them have free reign over all of their candy. Truth is, they were sugar junkies starting on Friday and it never let up all the way through Sunday night. We’re still reeling from their insane energy and mood swings but we’re happy to have made it through another year.

We had warm weather and some sunshine on Sunday, and because that is as common as a good Jennifer Aniston movie (which we all need to discuss at a later date), I had to get outside and see what was going down. Here’s what I discovered:

All in all, a great weekend and I look forward to the new week and secretly disposing of all the candy without the kids even knowing it.

John