The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Author Archives: jmarkowski

The Natives are restless

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It has become a Mother’s day tradition (OK only for the past three years) at the ONG household. We make Mom breakfast in bed (and the term “make” is a bit of a stretch) and then the kids and I go out for the morning/afternoon to give Mom a truly deserved day off from being all mom-ish. We will go out to lunch and then we head for the Bowman Hill native plant sale in New Hope, PA (click here to read more). I spend the prior week studying their catalog in great detail and I identify which native plants will work for me and I bring that list with me. Then the spending spree begins and I purchase a ton of plants I had never heard of before. Below is a photo of everything I bought earlier today;        

What are native plants and why should you buy them? Glad you asked … school is in session (and my apologies to all those who know this already).

Native plants are those plants that grow naturally in your particular region and have grown there for a long period of time. They thrive under your region’s conditions and require very little maintenance. Here are some reasons why you should go native already:
  • As previously mentioned, these plants are way low maintenance since they have existed in the wild for a long period of time without any special TLC.
  • Very little water is required in allowing these guys to thrive. Umm … hello … good thing! 
  • Natives have developed natural resistance to diseases and insects which make them even more appealing.
  • By planting native, you are keeping with the natural and unique look of your area and that will keep your garden from looking  so cookie-cutter.
  • In my simple words – you keep shit the way it is supposed to be. The whole balance of nature is not disrupted and you my friend will have good karma. The wildlife will get what they need and keep that whole circle of life thing going.

Now to keep it real, I don’t only plant native. There are just too many non-natives that rock. But by educating yourself on what the native plants are in your region, you may find that there is a native plant that will serve the same purpose, or give you the look and feel you are going for with a non-native. 

Here are some native plants I have purchased in the past that are absolutely kicking butt today:
Lobelia Siphilitica
Amsonia Tabernaemontana
Chelone Glabra
Phlox Paniculata 
Aster (Purple Dome)
Boltonia
Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats)
Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)
Eupatorium 
OK … enough of the preaching … for your viewing pleasure here are some updated photos from the garden this afternoon:  
                     

Peonies, Campanulas, and Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’.

Super blooms on the Ninebark ‘Summer Wine’.

Cascading branches on the same Ninebark.

Another view of a Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’.

Bloom on the Astilbe ‘Deutschland’.

Nepeta (Catmint) in near full bloom.

Close up shot of the Catmint blooms.

Nice big bud forming on the Iris ‘Snow Queen’. 

The buds are forming on the Camassia Esculenta. It worked … it friggin worked … successful bulbs!  

Amsonia is blooming for the first time. Loooove this native (wait until you see photos of the yellow fall color).

The ornamental grasses (Panicum) I butchered/divided into three a few weeks ago are all thriving. Tough little bastards.
 

I don’t do it enough … here are some Peony blooms brought indoors.

That’s all folks. If you’re reading this far down – thank you.

Brain dump

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I took the plunge and purchased a new camera yesterday (Canon PowerShot SX20IS) and managed to take a few quick photos before heading to work this morning. After seeing these photos displayed on the site, I am happy and haven’t yet had a chance to really play with the settings. The yard, on the other hand, still leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of thoughts floating around in this tiny brain of mine today, yet none are substantial enough on their own to carry a single blog entry. Alas poor reader, you will have to sit through them all; although I will keep them all brief enough to hopefully not lose you too quickly.

What should I plant underneath and around the trees in my backyard?
I have four substantially sized trees (3 River Birch and 1 Red Maple) all planted solo, so they are sort of “floating” in the backyard. Ideally, I’d like to create beds around all of these trees and from a design perspective, tie them more naturally into the landscape. Any suggestions as to what to plant under River Birch and Red Maples trees? Oh yeah, they also have to be deer resistant and able to survive wet feet from time to time.

What is the best method for creating a new garden bed in the lawn?
Here’s my method – dig out the grass and plant. This would seem like a somewhat easy task, but when you have that son of a &*^&* clay, it requires you to dig deep to get all the grass roots out. The manual labor required is a task of gargantuan proportions that takes weeks to eventually finish. And then, so much soil is removed in the process that I need to add a ton of new soil just to keep the soil level even with the surrounding area. I learned this lesson the hard way when I created a bed around my driveway and didn’t change the soil level; it gets bog-like with heavy rains so plant choices there are more difficult.
I think I am now leaning towards smothering the areas with a tarp so I can kill the grass first and avoid the unnecessary digging. This will require more patience (sort of lacking in that arena) but I believe it will pay off in the long run. Which leads to my next question/thought

To till or not to till?
I’ve read up a lot on this subject and I believe I can be added to “Team No-tilling”. I understand what it does to soil composition when tilling an entire new bed and how it exposes more weed seeds to the elements in the process. I’ll simply add some compost around the planting hole and mulch. Done and done.

Isn’t it about time there was a prime-time TV show built around gardening?
You laugh, but maybe there is a story line we are all missing here. Here‘s a few titles I think would work:

Me and Yew (quirky love story)
The Garden (simple yet feels ominous)
Dancing amongst the Poppies (love story that includes past and present storytelling device)
Dig, Plant, Grow (Male version of Eat, Pray, Love)
I Hate Your Yucca (Squabbling family a la Roseanne)

Feel free to add your own titles here and maybe we get the green light on one of these.

Enjoy your weekend.

Do gardening and pop culture mix?

You take the good with the bad

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This was a super busy weekend (Communion practice, baseball games, birthday parties, charity walk) so there wasn’t a lot of time to spend outside. Although with the temperatures in the low 90’s on Saturday and Sunday and a huge rain storm on Sunday night, this wasn’t really the weekend to hang with the plants.

But, that doesn’t stop me from my daily trips around the yard to check in on my little buddies to see how they are coming along. Here is some of what I found:         

The Viburnum Plicatum ‘Shoshoni’ is in full bloom and smells phenomenal. While my attempts to relocate the other one that was right next to this one failed miserably (RIP), I must admit that these look much better as a specimen shrub in a foundation planting.
 

You know by now that I can’t get enough of peonies so you will have to put up with yet another shot of them. As usual and as expected (cause they’re tough as nails) here come the numerous blooms. I think one of these years I am going to start a peony blooming party where we all drink to our hearts content and just stare at the buds until they bloom.
 

OK one more … couldn’t resist with the rain drops on them. 

The Campanula ‘Joan Elliot’ (isn’t that the lead singer of Def Leppard … never mind) is blooming profusely although here they are weighed down a bit from all the rain. Still … gotta love that color!

 

The Ninebark ‘Summer Wine’ is filled with buds and should be in full bloom by the end of the week. While the blooms are beautiful, I really like the shape of this shrub and the way the branches cascade to the ground. It has become a true focal point in the bed next to the deck.

The Crabapple ‘Prairie Fire’ has finally stopped blooming but I love the color of the new foliage early in the season. Soon come the berries.  

Wow John it’s a …. a …. leaves growing on a shrub … how stimulating. Well, this just happens to be the final plant to show signs of new growth so to me “oh cynical one” this symbolizes that the garden has fully arrived. By the way, if you still care, it is a Clethra ‘Hummingbird’.   

And now the bad. This hydrangea has numerous leaves that have turned brown and look like they are crisping (my technical term) and dying. It is definitely not from a lack of water as we’ve had plenty of rain. It does get a bit more sun than is typically recommended, but that has not been a problem in the past. Help!!  

More dead-ness. Could it possibly be the close to freezing temps we had about a week ago? I did not see any signs of critters either. 

Now we are getting personal and I’m ready to go all Rambo on whatever is messing with my Knockout roses. I saw no signs of anything underneath the leaf and it hasn’t completely taken over … yet. It’s bad enough with the Japanese Beetles later in the season. Can’t I enjoy these with nice foliage like everyone else does?    

And finally today, this is what you see at the entrance to the house from my back deck. Do the words make sense? Not really. Does it effectively keep the monsters out of our house? Like a charm. My four year old daughter is on to something. Maybe we should patent it now. Seeing things like this while outside and fretting over plants makes it all a lot easier to take.

Another busy week ahead and the goal outside is a very simple one. Remove every weed by hand and get the beds in tip top shape.

Until next time my friends.    

Embracing containers

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Little light reading/viewing today after the deep and dark psychoanalysis of the previous post (but damn that was cathartic).

I have sort of a weird relationship with container planting. We’re not really dating – more like “we’re seeing each other”. Nothing too serious and we have agreed to see other plants. But … I may be ready to take our relationship to the next level. It is a big step but I am at a point in my life where I am ready to make the necessary commitment.

While I am well educated on how containers can be incorporated into design and the benefit of this type of planting, I still have a few hang-ups:

  • I feel like I am stifling the plant growth when they are placed in containers. I love knowing the roots of plants in the ground can, in theory, go in search of nutrition as far out as they like.
  • Speaking of nutrition, I am not a big fertilizer guy. I get the whole N-P-K thing, I just can’t seem to stay on top of what is required for plants in containers. While my soil may be clay-filled, it is full of everything the plants need (and yes I’ve tested the soil – yeah me!).
  • Matching the actual container to the plant color/texture is always tricky for me. I just don’t like terra cotta and most of the plastic containers available, so I find myself purchasing more expensive options. And it kills me to spend hard earned cash on those things.

One huge benefit I see with containers is that I can use plants that would never be possible due to my soil conditions and the threat of deer.

I also like the ability to move plants around with ease so I can try out different designs with minimal effort.

I have also embraced purchasing annual seeds this season (just got the Zinnia – Green Envy – I may be in lust) and what better way to use these then to direct sow in containers.

So … count me in as a container gardener and while there will be bumps along the way, I think I am ready to commit to this.

One last container note – I purchase a lot of plants at the end of the fall and overwinter them in containers. The problem is I then have trouble finding a place for them in the spring. More often than not, I end up keeping them in their container (not forgetting the rule that a plant can typically survive in a container for me – zone 6 – if it can survive down to zone 4 or colder) and finding a place for them. As an example, see the two photos below:      

These three Pieris Japonica have made their way onto my front steps … for now. I sort of like them in the pots but just need to find something to plant with them. So, yes, I welcome your suggestions with open arms.

The three containers below fall into the same category:

Those are two Boxwood ‘Green Mountain’ and a Prunus Cistena (Purpleleaf Sand Cherry). I am trying out these three to block out the utilities on the side of the house without needing to dig into the soil around them. I am still on the fence here, but will give it a few days to determine if I like it or not.  

That is all for today folks. I am off to find me some thrillers, fillers and spillers for my containers. 

Later

Sitting in the therapist’s chair

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Do I post too often?

Am I not serious enough when I post?

Are my photos even interesting?

What is my motivation for posting?

Am I too concerned with the number of hits?

Will I eventually run out of things to write about?

I have undergone some blogger self-analyzation over the past few days and these are just some of the questions I have asked myself. It has been almost three months since I started my blog, and I am starting to see a pattern develop with how and what I post.

*Quick ADD side note – I am finding it difficult to write in nice long, descriptive paragraphs as I could back in the college days (quick shout out to TSC). The corporate world has forced me to write in quick bullets; capitalization and punctuation be damned.

Back on topic – I can break down my posts into three different categories and they always follow the same pattern. Here goes:

Let me show you what I know about plants and garden design
This is my chance to try and show off and develop credibility. I’ll throw out Latin names of plants and the specific cultivar names. I will also use design terms like “focal point”, “contrast” and “structure” to prove I can maybe hang with the big boys and girls. These posts typically do not include many photos. Once these posts are completed, I start to wonder if I am taking it all too seriously. After all, I dubbed myself ONG for god’s sake. This feeling will then lead to the next type of post.

I am different from those serious gardeners; I am witty and wacky; please read and laugh
The humor and wackiness is part of my personality and how I carry myself. I honestly write how I speak. It feels good when I write this type of blog entry. At a minimum, it makes me laugh. I’ll even throw in inside jokes for purposes of making only one person crack up. Once these posts are completed I pay closer attention to the number of hits and comments received. If it is slower than expected, I start to worry that I lost people. Maybe my humor is interpreted incorrectly. Maybe you just ain’t that funny homeboy. Then I get the itch to make up for it with …

The almost all photo entry with a mix of knowledge and humor
This is the middle ground for the two previous post types. The photos prove I actually own plants and gives me a chance to throw out a quick blurb that proves I know more than the average person. I can also add a touch of humor to show I haven’t gone completely serious on you. I then wonder if my many photos of barely emerging foliage and still dormant plants are not all that interesting so I resort back to (you guessed it) the first post-type above. The cycle is officially complete.

I am not sure what this cycle of posts really means but I will probably follow it to some degree for the foreseeable future. It’s me and to tell you the truth, I like it. It is like exploring different aspects of my personality and it feels therapeutic.

In my current job, self expression does not exist (just the nature of the job, don’t get angry fellow co-workers!) so this feels like a good outlet for me.

If I end up posting nearly every day or every-other-day, so be it.

If I want to over-analyze the number of hits and study the analytics, so be it.

This shit is fun, yo!

DigTheDirt.com

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Once again, the fantastically cool as hell people at Digthedirt.com have allowed me to write a “contribution” for their web site. It can be found here:

http://www.digthedirt.com/contributions/3461-Planning-Shmanning

But seriously folks, take the time to fully check this site out. There is such a cool and relaxed vibe and it is full of incredible information. I have already learned a ton from all of the gardeners there and befriended some really great people. I guarantee you will really enjoy it.

  
Peace y’all     

Perfect weekend

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If I had to define the perfect weather weekend (gardening wise that is), I would ask for the lower 70’s and sunny on both Friday and Saturday and then a steady light rain on Sunday. Well what a friggin coincidence, that just happens to be what we got here in the Garden State this weekend. This allowed me to comfortably transplant just about every plant I own on Friday/Saturday and then watch them get a nice watering on a lazy rainy Sunday.

Just to give you a taste of my transplant mania, here is a chronological play by play rundown of all that I moved/planted (you know you need to see this):

  • Chelone Glabra (3) moved to new location where they could have their feet covered by other plants.
  • Crimson Pygmy Barberry moved from partial sun to full sun spot vacated by Chelone.
  • 2 Other Crimson Pygmy dug out and tossed (not a real fan of these any longer and may soon fully eradicate them all – plus the whole invasive thing).
  • Hypericum moved into the spot vacated by the Barberry.
  • 2 Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) moved to be reunited with 3 other Sea Oats. Really wanted to have these all together in one large mass.
  • Panicum relocated about 3 feet away from it’s original location. Still haven’t figured out why I moved it but made sense at the time.
  • Amsonia moved about a foot so it wouldn’t grow into a Viburnum.
  • Viburnum attempted to be relocated, but unfortunately had to be hacked with a chain saw and the roots dug out with a shale bar. That little effort took 2 hours and 4 hand gashes later it was in the wheel barrow and off to the compost bin.
  • Hydrangea moved about three feet to help make up for the deceased Viburnum.
  • Ornamental grass moved to spot vacated by Viburnum.
  • Daylily moved just cause it looked better that way.

Am I happy with the results of all this nonsensical transplanting? Yes and no. But I’ve already bored you enough to get into the details.

Some rainy day photos to close out this post:

Rain on the Daylilly

Rain drop trapped in Sedum rosette

Nepeta (Catmint) bud. These are all coming on strong. 

Campanula bud really about to burst.
Everything is really starting to hit it’s stride.
Hydrangea foliage has just exploded the past few days.
Kale has started to take it’s typical shape and the leaves taste good already.
The deer pruning on the Euonymus was successful. The new foliage looks better than ever.   
Lettuce looks good and tastes good already. I dogged a ton of the tiny seedlings while thinning out this container.  
Thank you again for surviving another posting. It is super appreciated and I can’t believe you did it. 
ONG 

Taking photos and rhyming

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Yes, I am posting photos once again.

But here is the twist – I will drop some dope rhymes about each photo that will get your booty shaking, educate and inspire you at the same time. Quite a challenge you say? I say DJ ONG is ready to tear it up:

Campanula buds always make my heart swoon, keep ’em deadheaded and you gotz sweet flowers through the end of June. 

Ants on the peony- no better sign of Spring, while the blooms may be fleeting they are worthy of a King. 

Here comes da Siberian Iris – so reliable if water’s provided, imagine tripling your collection – after they’ve easily been divided. 

Yo yo – what is that – it’s a EU-PA-TOR-I-UM, you need it for the foliage alone, unless you a garden bum.  
Itea Henry’s Garnet, loves my moist soil – the red Fall color alone is the perfect garden foil.
You say this Carex is ugly, I say it’s unique, it’s cultivar name is Cappucinno, waiter, please don’t make mine too weak.
Astilbe and Potentilla, this combo was an unexpected surprise, contrast is a beautiful thing in the garden, most pleasing to the eyes. 

You call it a weed, I’ll call it a flower, dandelions are everywhere but let’s embrace their power. 

The gardening term “leggy” is personified here, the Ilex ‘Shamrock’ is on it’s way out, to the compost bin, have no fear.   

Who is that, oh no I say, who invited you – leave here now and I will spare you a swift kick from my shoe.
Happy Earth day! I promise you no caterpillars were hurt at any time during the creation of this post.     

Gardening is friggin hard

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Recently, while sitting in my car stopped at a traffic light, I glanced at the Boston Market on my left, specifically, the so-called landscaping that surrounded the place. Three different shrubs were all that were used for the “landscaping”. There were two different Barberry and a Spirea. All had grown into each other and were sheared into round balls.

After I threw up in my mouth a bit, I started getting this feeling of being part of the garden elite. Some samples of the conversation I had with myself:
  • “Everyone knows to avoid any shrub/plant you see planted at a fast food restaurant. They are so incredibly boring and common.”
  • “How dare they shear shrubs like that and not let them grown into their natural shape.”
  • “I know so much more about plants and design than these so-called landscapers.”
  • “My yard is so much more diverse and interesting. I should become a professional and show them how it is really done.”
And then I went home and pulled into the driveway. And cried (just go with the drama I’m trying to portray here). For as much as I claim to know about gardening and the so-called design rules, my yard ain’t all that grand.
I am fairly confident that I could hold my own on Plant Jeopardy and could talk a good game when it comes to the principles of design. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I even have a huge Microsoft Excel document that includes every plant I own or had previously owned and every factoid about those plants. I reference it often and constantly update as I am doing my daily googling.
But when it comes to putting it all together out in the field (pun intended) it just doesn’t seem to work as planned more often than not. I am no better than the landscapers I critique so often (well I won’t got that far … but you get the point). What sounds good on paper really is difficult to translate into the dirt. I have been thinking long and hard about why this is true and here are some of the reasons I’ve come up with so far:
Differing plant maturities – when it comes to design planning I tend to think about all of the plants at their ultimate mature size. In the long run this would seem to make the most sense, but man is it hard to remain patient and wait for that. Obviously all plants grow at different rates and grow differently depending on a number of factors (sun exposure, soil quality, etc) so getting to that ultimate size is a complex journey.
Plant size – this point ties into the first one but my point here is more about plant availability and cost. The boom of buying plants on the internet has been fantastic as we all can purchase plants we know we will never see in our local nursery. However, with the logistics of shipping these plants, it is either impossible to find large enough specimens or if they do exist, it can be very costly. I lean towards the smaller inexpensive plants as I do enjoy watching the growth progress over the course of time. It just adds to the difficulty when planning your garden design.
Boredom leads to over-analyzing – some times all it takes for me is a simple harmless walk through the garden to get some new big idea on how things can be re-arranged. It may require me to move five shrubs and relocate 10 perennials, but once it is in my head – GAME OVER. I will obsess on it until I am knee deep in the middle of the transformation and then I almost forget why I thought of it in the first place. Each year I plan to create new beds from scratch and expand my gardens, but I never am able to quite finish off the existing ones.  
I am sure I could come up with other reasons but I must admit I already feel better than I did when I started writing this. Funny that there can be such ups and downs in such a simple pleasure like gardening. After all, isn’t it supposed to take you away from life’s true ups and downs – a means for escape? After reading this you may think my answer would be an emphatic “no”, but you would be wrong silly reader. I enjoy this gardening thing even more when I am frustrated and unhappy with my results. That is what leads to the enlightenment.
Disclosure – my apologies if the previous two sentences did not make any sense. I have been analyzing Lost for too long.

Namaste!