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.

You will kill more houseplants from over watering than you will from under watering.  Gardening outdoors taught me how to garden indoors. Many of my houseplants are simply plants I like to grow in my garden, but they are not hardy in my Wisconsin Zone 5 and cannot stay outside during the winter.

Houseplants offer a variety of benefits.  They look great; they clean your air for free, providing everyone with a healthier living space; they help add humidity to a dry winter house; and they give you something to care for, which makes one feel better.

The following is a list of great plants that I currently grow:

Ferns

Foxtail Fern, Asparagus Fern, Boston Fern, Elephant Ears, Cordyline, Peace Lily, Coleus, Banana Plants, Sweet-Potato Vine, Jade Plant.

Herbs

Rosemary, Basil

Houseplants that flower

Christmas Cactus, Hibiscus, Orange Trees, Mandevilla, Geraniums, African Violets, Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile, Begonias, Clivia and Orchids

Houseplants love to be outside in the summer.  You can move them outside when the nighttime temps are in the 50s and 60s consistently.  Start by placing them in a shady spot, or they will get a sunburn just like we do if we lie in the sun all day after a long winter.  Slowly move them into sunnier conditions.

If they do get sunburned, don’t give up and discard them.  They will bounce back in 3 weeks and remain strong, vital houseplants.  I have sunburned many a houseplant to the point where they look completely dead with no hope of returning, but I let them be and continued watering and they always made a strong comeback.  So never give up!

Since I am green, I do not use any chemicals and I always start off with a good organic potting-soil mix.  Never use topsoil or dirt, as it will harden like clay in a pot and kill your plant.  I probably do not fertilize enough, according to textbooks or experts, but nature seems to take good care of my plants and they seem to be living a long and happy life.  I sometimes add earthworm castings to my potting mix when they are outside for the summer, but only in the earlier part of the summer.  It is best to let your houseplants take a rest in the winter, by watering less and not fertilizing.

To give you additional incentive to add more houseplants to your life, here is another great article from Organic Gardening:

Weeping fig and fatsia work day and night to remove contaminants from the air.

Findings:  Two common houseplants reduced aerial concentrations of volatile formaldehyde by 50 percent in two hours or less, according to a joint study by Korean and U.S. researchers.  If you’re wondering ‘What does this have to do with me?’  you may be dismayed to know that formaldehyde is emitted from products found in most homes, including carpet, plywood, particleboard, curtains, and adhesives.  Formaldehyde levels are several times higher in new houses than in older ones, the researchers report.  Aerial parts of the plant–the leaves and stems–absorb the volatiles during the day:  the root zone continues the work at night.

Our advice:  Take a tip from Stanley Kays, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia, one of the study’s authors, and place a houseplant or two in every room to improve air quality.  Kays also recommends Boston fern and areca palm.

This is the 2nd week of November and the zinnias are long-gone; the last of the hosta leaves have been raked away; most of the perennials have died back and gone dormant for the winter; and the last of the lily bulbs’ stalks have been cut back.  But the grasses in my garden are still growing strong.  Such show-offs.  The fancy plumes on the top are poking through, making them actually look better than ever.

I personally overlooked grasses my first 5 years of gardening.  I did not garden at all with grasses in my first two gardens.  I first noticed and loved purple fountain grass.  It is an annual grass that my mother-in-law grew in her pots in RI, and I tried that one first.  It taught me the benefits of having an ornamental grass in the garden.  I love that particular grass and still grow it in my pots every summer, but it is no different than an annual because it is not hardy in my zone 5 garden.  Another annual grass I couldn’t live without in my pots each summer is King Tut grass.  This one was hard for me to find this past summer so I am trying to overwinter it inside this year as a house plant; will let you know in a future blog if that is successful.

I have successfully grown several varieties of grasses in my garden for years.  One of my favorites and a must-have for every garden is zebra grass.  I prefer the taller version.

Another grass I have successfully grown and would recommend is Variegatus Miscanthus, or Japanese Silver Grass.  This one can be a thug.  On the bright side, it will look full and established within just a few years.  It can then be divided for other parts of your garden or to share with friends.

My newest favorite grass is Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass.  It is like learning a new word.  I now see it everywhere and after asking about it, have planted several.

Another grass I have grown for winter interest in the view from my kitchen window is a pampas-like grass; it is very tall and the plumes move in the winter wind.  This variety is called Japanese switch grass.  I also have a friend who grows it as a hedge in the very back of their yard, and it provides nice privacy from the bike path.

There are even grasses that will grow in shade.  I have not grown the shade-loving ornamental Japenese forest grass myself, but see it again and again in gardening magazines and I just love it.  Another shade grass is Aureola Hakone Grass; it can be found at Jung Garden Center.

Why should you grow an ornamental grass in your garden?

1. You won’t find a lower-maintenance plant.
2. They make a great hedge for privacy or to create a dividing border.
3. They are easy to grow.
4. All sorts of varieties are out there:  shade or sun, poor soil, tall or wide or short.
5. They are long-lasting and will look good for 3 solid seasons.

Grasses should not be overlooked as key tools in landscaping.  Not only can they provide a very nice hedge for privacy, but they also make a nice statement at the end of a garden bed, like a punctuation mark.  They also do a great job filling space and suppressing weeds.

Not a whole lot looks great in my yard right now, and the past week has been unusually warm for a typical November Wisconsin day.  So it has been fun hanging out on my outdoor couch with my kids, surrounded by the beauty of the tall grasses, and watching the plumes blow back and forth in the wind.

Stretching Your Garden Dollar . . .

Four things you can do now to stretch your garden dollar are divide mature perennials; take cuttings to root before the first killing frost, which looks like this Sunday; bring outdoor plants inside for the winter before the first killing frost; and collect seeds.

Dividing Perennials

This is a great time to divide your more mature perennials.  I have divided my peonies and still need to divide my large hostas.  I am really looking forward to having more substance in my garden by doing this.  I am also excited because dividing this fall will give my garden a more cohesive look with repetition.  I am also planning to divide monarda (bee balm), Autumn Joy and some of my Strawberry and Cream Lilies from White Flower Farm.

Rooting

I love trying new varieties of coleus and plan to take several pieces to root inside over the winter.  I also am taking stalks of basil, rosemary, wandering Jew,  tradescantia (purple heart), Persian shield, and black and green sweet potato vine to root over the winter.  I love, love, love propagation.  This is one of my favorite aspects of gardening:  creating more.  It is so fun to give my Grandma a piece of something and to get pieces of plants from friends to try.

Bringing the Outdoors In

Another way to stretch your garden dollar is to bring in your favorite hanging basket or potted annual.  I also take at least one cutting off it to root, for insurance.  Geraniums, begonias, coleus, tradescantia and Persian shield all overwinter well as houseplants and root very easily.

Collecting Seeds

My kids and I have fun doing this every year.  It is fun at every stage.  A really good friend taught me how to do this during a play date at her house.  Our kids were 2 or 3, and she handed me an envelope and a pair of scissors and we started cutting seeds from her garden.  It is really easy!  My daughter and I then went home and did our garden.  This is such a fun family activity, and it is so joyful to now do it with my almost-11-year-old, 7-year-old, and yes, my youngest, who is not allowed to use scissors yet but who gets the concept of pulling those dried pods.

Each plant is different so some seeds are easier to locate than others.  Morning glories get little green balls that turn brown; and when you break open the shell, there are several hard black seeds.  Cleome seeds come from those whisker-like pods that hang off the flower.  Cosmos and zinnia seeds come from the center of the flower head.  Cosmos seeds are thinner and longer, and they get hard and crunchy. The zinnia seeds are a bit smaller and softer, and they have a roundness to them.  Old-fashioned vining petunia seeds are as small as sand, and they come from the little brown cone.  (I see I need to post pictures of what each seed looks like.)  Tithonia or Mexican sunflower seedpods hurt your hands and are very prickly, so I like to pull those off with gloves that are used for working with roses.  Then I put them in a Ziploc and break them up within the Ziploc.  Sunflowers seeds look just like what you eat.

Seeds are best collected when they are dry and almost ready to drop naturally onto the ground.  After I collect the seeds, I like to let them dry out a bit more, but I have had good luck putting them right into envelopes.  My kids love to decorate the envelopes, and the seed packets make great gifts for grandparents and teachers and all your gardening friends.

Propagation

Starting from seeds can be a very successful way to plant in one’s garden.  Some seeds to try this time of year are basil, old-fashioned vining petunias, nasturiums and radishes.   I learned that radishes will produce within 20 days from seed, so you will be able to eat your radishes by the end of July.  I plant seeds continually throughout the summer until the middle of August and have had success with this.

Planting seeds in stages is a great way to keep your garden looking fresh.