My garden plans for 2010

April 27, 2010 by melissatracy 1 Comment

This is an exciting time of the year. After thinking back on the highlights and low lights of last year, I can now turn my attention to the new planting season!

We’ve definitely turned the corner with our weather here in Wisconsin, and I see gardening opportunities everywhere I look! Here are some of my ideas and goals for 2010. I thought it would be fun to share.

Ornamental edibles

Dwarf Pear Trees grown in espalier form behind my garage or along my dream fence.

Hardscape fence with arch entrance for the “magical kingdom”. (magical kingdom is the nickname my daughter gave the space behind our garage; it is full sun.) We grow most of our edibles so a fence would be nice to keep the dog out, and maybe the bunnies, too. On this fence or arch entrance, I would like to try growing Birdhouse Gourds up and around, possibly in conjunction with another climber, like Clematis Paniculata.

As I edit this blog, I have already changed this idea. I will keep it for you to see, but what has changed is that buying a new arch for the magical kingdom is definitely not in the garden budget this year. So I created a very large, very dramatic entrance with my tallest gardening stakes and then put my largest bamboo pole above. I plan to grow Scarlet Runner Bean up and around this from seed. I chose this because it produces both an edible flower and a bean we can eat, and it is a very fast grower. I am excited about this garden entrance and will try to remember to share pictures throughout the growing season.

Artichokes. I have started these indoors since I learned about them last June and started them too late. I am most excited about these! I am growing these both for the visual interest and because we like to eat them, too. They are beautiful and kind of remind me of the Allium Globemaster look. So I will have the Allium Globemasters blooming in May and June and, I hope, the Artichokes for July, August and September.

Brussel sprouts. Again, I’m growing these because they look very sharp; the bonus is we love to eat them and they are full of vitamins. My kids will eat anything they grow.

Sweet corn. Another ornamental edible I am excited to try this year is a sweet corn that is really good-looking. The past few summers, I have successfully grown a nice trio of “plain old” sweet corn with green beans growing up it and little pumpkins below. The new varieties I want to try are Zea Mays, Japonica and Tiger Club.

Other Ornamental Edibles I am planning to grow for both looks and nutritional value are Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Rhubarb, Broccoli, Ornamental Peppers, Kale, Cardones, Basil, Brassica Olemcea Kale, Parsley, Rosemary, Purple Hyacinth Bean, Pumpkin on a Stick, Edible Flowers, Pot Marigold, Nasturtium, Calendula Officinallis, Marigolds, Ornamental Millet, Sunflowers, and Beets.

Black/Dark Dramatic Flowers

I love the color black, and I am drawn to black flowers and foliage in the garden. It adds nice contrast and a neutral dramatic color. I am excited to try Ornamental Millet Purple Majesty in my 2010 Garden; the birds are going to love my backyard once again!

There are a lot of dark Ornamental Edibles. I am going to try Nero di Toscano and stunning, dark-leafed Kale. I am also going to try Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

Dark purple petunias. I love petunias because the smell of them takes me back to Palm Desert, California, heaven on earth for me. I loved how Allen Centennial Gardens in Madison had these planted in masses; they smell amazing in the evening. I plan to plant these underneath my 4 family-room windows in hopes of having the wonderful Palm Desert, California, smell enter my house. Again, I am going to buy early because I tried to do this last summer after visiting Allen Centennial Gardens, and all the stores were sold out of the dark purple.

On a side note, it seems to me that the purple flowers are more fragrant than the white flowers. I planted loads of White Petunias because I love how they look at night, but it seemed that the purple flowers had a stronger scent. I just had the same thing happen in my house last week with Hyacinths. I bought both white and purple from Whole Foods, and I noticed the purple ones were way more fragrant than the white ones. I’m just sayin’ . . .

Black elephant ears. Another idea from the amazing Allen Centennial Gardens that I plan to copy is to plant large Black Elephant Ears in between my existing White Hydrangea Limelights.

Fragrant Flower

More fragrant Lilies under key windows. I love the smell of Casa Blanca Lilies and Stargazer Lilies and have many of them in my yard. This summer I want to plant them in key spots to get the smell where I can appreciate it without having to cut them and bring them inside.

Shade Garden

I have a nice base of Hostas, Liguria, Ferns and Hydrangeas in the shadiest corner of my garden. I am hoping to pull this area all together by weaving Hakonechloa Grass throughout this shade garden. It is also known as Japenese Forest Grass, and its lime-green color should be a great accent in this shade garden.

Liriope or lily turf. My mother-in-law told me about this plant, and I am very excited to try it. It likes shade so I am going to put it in my shade spot that could use a makeover.

Plant What I Like to Decorate With

In the fall, I love decorating with Bittersweet. One measly little bunch can be $15-$20, so I am growing my own. I have heard Bittersweet can be thuggish, so I am going to plant carefully, but I do want it in my garden. I also love to decorate with Red Dogwood Branches and Winterberry in the winter. Every winter I think Why am I buying this? I should have these to cut from in my yard. But then in the spring I forget about it. This spring I am not going to forget. It will be much cheaper to buy the shrubs than to purchase those individual twigs. I also have a nice assortment of Evergreens to cut from to fill my window boxes: Pine, Boxwood, and Cedar.

Plant Where It Counts

Both for fragrance as well as vantage point, I am going to plant Lilies and Petunias underneath key windows and by doors. The window I look out most is my – you guessed it – kitchen window. I am going to focus on having 4-season interest. This has been a work in progress, and I have finally made some strides here. But it still needs work. So for 2010 I hope to achieve this goal.

So far I have beautiful Alliums to look at in the early spring. I am going to add a New Dawn White Climbing Rose that I see again and again in P. Allen Smith’s garden photos. I am also going to make sure one of the Dogwoods with the red winter twigs will be in a spot that I can see out my kitchen window. Of course it doesn’t get any better than a hot-pink Zinnia or sunny bright yellow Sunflower. Annuals are great to plant in a key vantage point as they keep their color all summer long.

Filed under Flowers, Outdoor, Seasonal, Yard Management

Reflecting on my 2009 garden

April 26, 2010 by melissatracy 1 Comment

For me, surviving a Wisconsin winter entails poring over gardening magazines, catalogs and books. I love mapping out my garden and coming up with new ideas. I am happiest when I am creating.

A big part of that process is reflecting back on the previous year to understand what went right and what went wrong. I’ll share my thought here and then follow-up with a post about my plans for 2010!

The 2009 successes

Using white Cleome and white Snapdragons as a border mixing tall and medium and short. It provided a lot of white for nighttime interest and helped to protect Lilies from bunnies somehow.

Another big success for my garden has been Alliums. Alliums are great because they are bulbs, which suppress weeds and form a natural barrier. Alliums are also great because they are resistant to pesky predators like bunnies and deer since they are part of the onion family. Rodents leave them alone. Alliums also look great in the garden at all stages, when they are in bloom and when they are brown. They also need very little attention such as staking. I have grown the Globemaster Alliums but hope to get some other varieties, like Stars of Persia, into my garden.

Another 2009 Mel’s Green Garden hit was using fishing line for an invisible trellis. I will definitely be repeating this, as well as planting loads of White Cleomes, Dinner-Plate Dahlias and Old-fashioned Vining Petunias.

A successful 2009 Mel’s Green Garden combo that will definitely be repeated and rolled out on a larger scale was lime-green Zinnias combined with dark-purple Basil, dark-purple Persian Shield and dark-purple Transdancantia.

The 2009 misses

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. — Randy Pausch

Birdhouse gourds

My biggest gardening failure of 2009 was with growing Birdhouse Gourds. I was so excited to grow these to turn into birdhouses with my kids. So I planted the seeds from Seed Savers. I managed to grow only 2, which was a bit disappointing since I have 3 kids, but that was okay. Then I picked them and started the drying-out process. Something went seriously wrong, and they molded and became totally rotten and smushy.

But I will not give up! I will try these again, and I have been consulting with other gardeners who have grown these successfully, to figure out where I went wrong. Here’s to hoping that the birdhouse gourds appear in the “hits” post for 2010!

Better planning for the vining petunias

Buy more Old-fashioned Vining Petunias earlier. Seeds, too. This is one of my favorite flowers, and stores were sold out of the plants as well as the seeds very early. I plan to hold back some of the seeds for July/August, to plant this continually to have the blooms constantly.

Fix the eye sores and neglected spots

I am going to try to do a better job growing a screen around my rain barrels. They are very large, very white and really don’t look that great. I have grown Morning Glories up and around them in the past, and this works well but takes a while to get started. I am going to try to have more coverage with a mix of taller grasses.

Plant more shrubs . . . the new perennial!

I am a big fan of of using Boxwoods as a border. But a look I see again and again that I would like to copy in several areas of my yard is to create a neat and tidy border with Boxwoods. I think I am going to try this in my front yard. I currently have Lamb’s Ear to edge my front-yard garden beds, with larger Boxwood in the shapes of cones. I think it would look great to have the smaller Boxwoods in front as a neat and tidy border and to have different dimensions of the same plant.

At a recent Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society meeting, Ed Lyon, the director of Allen Centennial Gardens, said that this is the decade for Hydrangeas. I love Hydrangeas and should have mentioned Limelight Hydrangeas and Annabelle Hydrangeas in the 2009 successes. I would love to try a few other Hydrangea varieties, like Pinky Winky, Pee Gee and two that are new to the market this year: Incrediball Hydrangea and Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea.

Filed under Outdoor, Yard Management

You had me at Monarda

March 28, 2010 by melissatracy 1 Comment

Monarda, also known as bee balm, is my favorite perennial. It was love at first sight eleven years ago when I saw this beautiful perennial growing in my neighbor’s yard. I asked her what it was and told her how much I loved it. A week later, she showed up with several generous divisions of it. This was the beginning of my love affair with gardening. She also offered to loan me a book on perennials. At the time, I did not know the difference between an annual and a perennial.

So I took her advice and planted the monarda in a sunny spot and watered, watered, watered. They grew successfully, and I was addicted to gardening.

There are many colors and varieties of monarda. For example, White Flower Farm sells 6 different types. My favorite is Monarda Jacob Cline. I have had good luck growing this in sun and in partial sun. It seems to like most soil conditions.

Monarda is a great perennial for many reasons. It has an exceptionally long blooming season. The flowers keep blooming with a strong burst of color for more than a month, which for a perennial is a very long time. They are also used as an herb for tea so they are not poisonous, which is a bonus if you have pets or kids. They also establish very quickly, giving your garden a full look faster than any other perennial. Monarda also smells great. Last but not least, they attract the best creatures: Hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, bees and birds will all visit your garden daily if you have this wonderful perennial in your garden.

So. . . if I were stranded on a desert island and could only take one plant with me, I would choose monarda.

Filed under Flowers, Outdoor Tagged with monarda

Creating an Outdoor Living Room

March 21, 2010 by melissatracy Leave a Comment

When my daughter’s five-year-old friend asked if we were having a garage sale, I knew I hadn’t yet achieved the outdoor-living-room look I was going for. It was time for me to pull it all together; my eclectic look wasn’t working. It was evident that I finally reached my goal this past summer by the amount of time we spent in our outdoor living room. My husband came home almost every night and worked on his laptop from the outdoor sofa. We dined outdoors, weather permitting, most summer nights, which was great with my 15-month-old son — less mess. Having a comfortable, beautiful outdoor space is an asset to your home and quality of life. My outdoor living room is still a work in progress, but here are some tips I hope will help you create yours.

Furniture, Fabric, and Comfort

My number-one goal for my outdoor living room is comfort. I want it to be a go-to place. So I invested in a comfortable, good-looking outdoor sofa and pillows with great outdoor fabric. I bought outdoor pillows from Restoration Hardware 9 years ago, and I leave them out in the rain and they still look sharp. I bought white, wood Adirondack chairs from Cub Foods years ago for less then $20 each; yes, the pillows cost more than the chairs. The outdoor sofa and cushions were from West Elm, but many stores carry a version, so there is one available at every price point. To get a cohesive look this past summer, I took the garage-sale table, Craig’s List table and hand-me-down table and covered them with layers of burlap. This is a fun choice because it is a neutral color and blends in with nature. It can stay out through all weather and still look great, and it is cheap, cheap, cheap. I love using burlap as an outdoor fabric. I also purchased some fabulous sunbrella fabric, yellow-and-creamy-white-striped. I used this fabric to make curtains for our mudroom but have found it also makes great tablecloths, and I plan to make more outdoor pillows with the sunbrella fabric.

Lighting

I have not mastered this myself but enjoyed one of my friend’s gardens last summer at a night-time party. She definitely mastered just the right amount of lighting by placing garden lights every 5-6 feet and then having traditional strings of lights hanging above. It was remarkably beautiful and not too much.

Bug deterrent

I learned the most fabulous tip during our annual movie night for our block. It was especially buggy, and a neighbor suggested we put out a fan. She ran home and got a fan, and it was amazing. It totally kept the air moving and the mosquitoes off of us and our outdoor-living-room area. So for an organic, deet-free mosquito repellant, plug in a fan outside.

Lots of flowers!

Of course nothing beats hanging out on your comfy couch surrounded by beautiful flowers that smell great and attract fun birds and hummingbirds and monarch butterflies to watch for entertainment.

My outdoor living room is still a work in progress, but it is a comfortable and entertaining place to hang.

Filed under Outdoor, Yard Management

Invisible Trellis

January 23, 2010 by melissatracy 1 Comment

As I write my list of hits and misses for Mel’s Green Garden 2009, one big hit was using clear fishing line for an invisible trellis.

I used this all over my garden this past summer for my Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory to climb. My daughter had an idea two summers ago that she wanted to wake up and look out the window and be able to see the Morning Glory we all love. It was August, so I tried staking it and growing it and it did well, but did not go all the way up the family room window.

So, this past summer with some help from my dear old dad, we installed little screws at the top and bottom of my family room windows and tied the strongest clear fishing line from my dad’s and brother’s tackle boxes, and the Morning Glory LOVED it and expressed this by climbing all the way up and across, covering the windows. It was such a sight to see each morning!

It also helped, as these windows are so sunny and can be so hot in the afternoon, by giving us a little shade and a lot of privacy. This was such a huge success, I added these invisible trellises to my dining room windows and the entire height of the side of my garage, and I did use it for clematis for one of my clients.

This idea is something I look forward to repeating in Mel’s Green Garden 2010!

Filed under Flowers, Outdoor

The White Cleome

January 15, 2010 by melissatracy 1 Comment

Looking for a way to light up your garden in the evening? The White Cleome is your answer. The cleome comes in many colors, and I have planted this flower for all of my gardening years; but I fell in love with the white variety because of its ability to help light up the garden at night with minimal exterior light.

The White Cleome has many strengths as a flower.

It gives your garden an instant English Cottage Garden style.
It is very easy to grow and grows best in full sun, but I have had success growing it in partial sun and even some shadier spots.
It is also very easy to grow from seed in the sunnier areas of your garden.

My favorite method for growing the cleome is to buy a flat of them at Brennan’s or Johannsen’s. Then I plant them around my entire yard. After they are all planted, I then sprinkle the white cleome seeds I saved from the year before all around the newly planted flowers. This way when the first plant has grown, bloomed and gone to seed, the new little seedlings are up and strongly growing, extending the period this flower will be in full bloom until the first frost.The White Cleome is an annual, but it does re-seed itself, and the seeds are super-easy to collect, as they are the part of the flower that looks like cat’s whiskers.

Another growing tip for this flower is to stake it. Or since I grow so many and stakes are a hot commodity in my garden, I prefer to put my grass clippings from my lawn mower around them, with coffee grounds over the clippings to hide them. This gives the flower enough support and also provides beneficial nutrients and does wonders to amend my garden soil. Earthworms love my yard.

I developed this method of growing the White Cleome throughout the entire border of my yard, both sun and shade, the first summer we lived in our current house. I started this garden from scratch and needed something to fill in between the baby perennials and shrubs to give my garden bed a full English Cottage Garden look.

This flower will give your garden a very full look, as one plant will produce many, many flowers. Even now that my perennials have filled out, I continue to plant the White Cleome flower throughout the entire border of my yard because I love the way it looks in the daytime and lights up the yard at night.

Filed under Flowers, Outdoor, Pictures Tagged with cleome

In Defense of Dandelions

January 12, 2010 by melissatracy 2 Comments

What is bright yellow, cheerful, edible and can detoxify your liver? Yes, the little old dandelion.

Last spring I watched my then 17-month-old son pick up one of those fuzzy seed pods from the dandelion and blow again and again, having such a joyful ball! Then I watched my daughters make dandelion crowns.

Later that week I drove through the Wisconsin countryside because my hairdresser moved from Madison to New Glarus, and admired the bright yellow fields of dandelions and wondered why is it we spend money planting yellow pansies, yellow marigolds, yellow sunflowers, yellow begonias, and yet we can’t stand the sight of a yellow dandelion.

In some neighborhoods, having a yard full of dandelions is more than frowned upon. And we will subject ourselves, our children, our pets, and our environment to toxins to get rid of this yellow, cheerful, edible flower?

In last month’s Delicious Living Magazine, Jessica Rubino highlighted the benefits of dandelions in “3 herbs to detox your liver“,

Related to chicory, dandelion’s historical uses include treating upset stomach, heartburn, and spleen ailments, pus enhancing immunity. Some health practitioners recommend dandelion to stimulate the liver and kidneys to filter toxins out of the blood.

So… you don’t want a garden full of dandelions, I understand, I get that….. How do you get rid of them? Since they are magnets for kids of all ages to grab and play with, let’s not spray them with one of the many popular weed-killers.

Instead, I recommend pulling them out with a dandelion picker. I bought one from Home Depot several years ago, and my kids really fight over who gets to use it. It is a great gardening tool. You don’t have to bend over, and it gets that long tap root all the way out. At the same time, it has the added advantage of aerating your lawn!

3 herbs to detox your liver

Filed under Health, Organic, Outdoor, Yard Management Tagged with dandelions

Dinner Plate Dahlias

January 9, 2010 by melissatracy 3 Comments

One of my garden’s big success stories this past summer was dinner-plate dahlias. I have tried to grow a variety of dahlias for years with little to moderate success, but for 2009, I tried a different growing approach and I enjoyed a bumper crop!

Dinner-plate dahlias definitely won most improved flower of the summer.

In the past, I would plant the bulbs all around my garden, trying to fill in gaps, and not always in the sunniest spots.

But this year, I put all my dahlias in one spot – in full sun behind my garage. When I planted the bulbs I put tall, strong stakes in. I also kept the plants well staked throughout the entire growing process. This proved to be the magic formula for the batch of bulbs I picked up at Costco.

Filed under Flowers, Outdoor, Pictures Tagged with dahlias

Window Boxes around Madison

January 7, 2010 by melissatracy Leave a Comment

Filed under Outdoor, Seasonal, Window Boxes

Summer Window Boxes