Blooms that were left on the plants for winter are always a welcome sight this time of year:

As are the colorful stems of the Willow and the Red Twig Dogwood:

And if you’ve read this blog before, you know my love of ornamental grasses:

Even old,dying foliage is appealing now:

As is the subtle changing color on many of the evergreens:

Or the fabulous peeling bark on the River Birch trees:

Even the sign of anything “green” is welcoming with brown dominating the landscape right now:

Of course, it wouldn’t be my yard without those wonderful pools of water that are so common winter into spring:

Oh well, I can ignore those for now and focus on what looks good.

Good to be back and good to be back in the garden as well.

John

This photo was taken at the Philadelphia Flower Show and it inspired me to some day design a garden with only ornamental grasses:

My attempt at taking advantage of lighting with this Hypericum:

Spring is in the air … and allergies too:

I have an unhealthy lust for Viburnums:

Love these Campanula blooms up close:  

An Allium bloom right before it “pops”:

The only Peony bloom that survived the deer this year.

I like how the bee appears to be holding on for dear life:

Just a cool ass looking macro shot of a bloom that you would never really notice from afar:

Just fantastic color on this Astilbe:

My best attempt at controlled chaos:

A reminder of why I love native plants so much:

I think this pic best represents my gardening style; ornamental grasses and native perennials:

Again, trying to take advantage of natural light:

I just like it, even if the colors clash a bit:

MMMMMMMMMMMM, ornamental grasses:

This makes the cut because my son actually took this one:

A Hydrangea bloom “aging” well:

How many more colors can we get in this Miscanthus:

Autumn and Hunterdon County, NJ – perfect together:

I’m begging you my peeps, can you identify this creature:

 
Lots of cash prizes to be doled out to the winners.

I have been chasing him/her all morning and now turn to you all for identification.

Thank you in advance,
John

Now normally, I leave all of the perennials and grasses up all winter to provide some level of winter interest and to provide food and shelter for the birds.

I’m thoughtful like that.

But with the Northern Sea Oats, it’s time to treat them with kid’s gloves:      

You see, these grasses reseed like mad. You can call them invasive in the right situation, which apparently is just what my landscape provides.

You can see all of the dying seedlings here:    

And there are plenty other seedlings that popped up out of the blue in different areas of the yard:

So my goal this year was to cut them down in the fall (of course, I wanted to do this weeks ago) and hopefully minimize the rampant reseeding. I realize I can’t account for each and every seed, but I’ll do my best to do just that.

So the haircut went down:

And now we wait and see what kind of impact this will have next spring/summer.

I really hope to keep these guys around for years to come as they are reliable and interesting from spring to winter. But if this reseeding nonsense continues down this not so great path, I’ll cut my losses and move on.

John  

Obviously, it makes the entrance way look completely out of balance, but I had no choice because the Hibiscus on the right was brutally destroyed/chowed down on in early summer:

So “a chopping” I went:

The obsessive part of me could not handle how this looked while hanging in the backyard, so I eventually moved both of the Hibiscus to another part of the yard. I figured I could survive this tragedy knowing that the back deck was still “framed” by the two large arborvitae (more on that in a few).

Example #2 – Below is a photo of the entrance from my driveway to the backyard. In a moment of panic (why I don’t recall) I planted two Caryopteris ‘Sunshine Blue’ at the front of this entrance. Once again, you can see that the shrub on the left gave up and threw in the towel once it hit three inches in height:      

Yet the one on the right thrived:

As much as it pained me to do it, I left this mess as is. But rest assured, they are both coming out this spring as we do the transplant dance once the ground is no longer frozen.

Example #3 – Remember the aforementioned Arborvitaes? Well that didn’t work out so well either.

Here they are looking OK late in the summer:

And then one got hit by the dreaded bagworm:

And the other nearly ripped out by Superstorm Sandy:

Losing the Arborvitaes may be a blessing in disguise but that is besides the point.

Even if the plants chosen to frame an entrance survive and thrive, if one is larger or fuller than the other, it can defeat the purpose of attempting to frame in the first place. It’s a roll of the dice that they will develop and grow together in perfect harmony.

That is why I am going to attempt to NOT match “like plants” in these examples above next spring. I will still attempt to frame, but with varying plants and a little creativity. Hopefully it will still look and feel similar, without having to be the perfect match. Does that even make an ounce of sense?

Feel free to offer up advice, we are always accepting feedback free of charge.

John        

My daughter would love to know that it is the Robin that lays all of those beautifully colored eggs:

Maybe now they’ll understand why Dad ignored their stories about school in order to hunt down the elusive  Eastern bluebird:

I’ll encourage them to wow their friends by reeling off the little factoid that this isn’t a “Red Headed” woodpecker but a “Red-bellied” woodpecker:

This thing is just ugly as sin but we can’t ignore the fact that it takes care of all of the roadkill for us, and that is an underrated task:

We can all rejoice in the fact that I finally got a somewhat decent shot of the Ruby-crowned kinglet:

I can teach them all about the benefit of native plants and how they provide an environment that allows our winged friends to thrive:

We can all practice imitating the tune of the Catbird:

And won’t they be thrilled to know that the American Goldfinch is the state bird of New Jersey:

Even I forgot just how many birds I’ve tracked down this year. Good for me!

I really think I found the key to eventually get the kids to dig all of the holes in the garden for me. It starts with the birds and other wild animals and eventually makes it way back to what we need to plant and why.

Well played John … well played indeed.

Daffodil ‘Kokopelli’

Daffodil ‘Double Beauty’

Allium ‘Purple Sensation’

Iris versicolor

Geranium ‘Karmina’

Astilbe ‘Amethyst’

Astilbe ‘Amethyst’

Bee Balm ‘Colrain Red’

Northern Sea Oats ‘River Mist’

Geranium ‘Espresso’

And one shrub in the mix:

Hydrangea ‘Little Lime’

We’ll see how things progress in 2013, but for now, I’ll bask in the initial glory.

2). Blooming trees in spring: For most of you, this is a given. But for me, this has been a struggle since I moved into our home back in 2004. There wasn’t a tree of any significance on the property, so it has been a slow climb to make it more tree-mendous.

Nothing beats those first tree blooms of spring and this is the first year where I felt like I was invited to the party. Here is what I had going on back in April and May:

Serviceberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’:

Hawthorn ‘Winter King’:      

Plum ‘Thundercloud’:

I hope to add more in the near future but unfortunately, money doesn’t grow on …

3). Existing plants that exploded out of nowhere: These are all plants that had been progressing decently the past year or two, but then put on an awesome show like never before. Or a better way of putting it:

“Plants I some how managed not to tinker with too much so they actually had a chance to establish themselves”.      

They include:

Panicum ‘Northwind’

Mountain mint

Salix ‘Hakuro Nishiki’

Salix ‘Hakuro Nishiki’

Iris siberica ‘Snow Queen’

Iris siberica ‘Snow Queen’

Miscanthus ‘purpurascens’

4). The benefits and fun involved with experimental pruning: Back in June, I created my “Prune in June” series (I’m a killer rhymer), which was all about strictly following the pruning for size/delay in bloom laid out so beautifully almost a decade before by Tracy DiSabato Aust.

I picked four different perennials to experiment with and all taught me something unique.

I like the look of a sedum when cut back as it produced more flower heads and delayed bloom later into Fall when color is at a premium:    

By cutting back significantly in early June, I was able to keep my Boltonia upright into September:

I really like the layered look achieved when pinching back the lower blooms on a mass of Joe Pye Weed:

And finally, despite all of my efforts to keep Sneezeweed standing at attention:

I realized it may be an impossible task, even after pruning for size control along the way:

5). Get to know your weeds as well: Back in the summer, I wrote a post on Red Sorrel and through my own research and reader comments, I realized I went about its eradication all wrong:

Remember, weeds are plants too and they all have unique traits that change how you confront them. Hoping to do more of the same in the new year.

6). Got to know my camera much better: My wife gave me a lesson with a local photographer and it completely changed how I look at photography. While I still rely on the “Auto” function a bit too much, at least I have an understanding of shutter speed and aperture.

Trying to capture action shots became a hell of a lot easier:        

What does that have to do with gardening you say? Well it helped me identify the beauty of movement in the garden and hopefully these pics are only the tip of the iceberg:

Camera upgrade in the future? All depends on the Powerball results Wednesday night.

So there you have it.

Me singing my own praises.

Feels a little dirty. I need to screw something up real quick.

John