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Creating an Outdoor Living Room

21 Mar

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.

In Defense of Dandelions

12 Jan

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

Stretching Your Garden Dollar

7 Oct

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.

Fall… three tasks for a great looking spring garden

13 Sep
A productive fall in the garden is the key to an outstanding looking garden in the spring.

Propagation

Fall is the best time for propagation here in Wisconsin.  Dividing can be challenging because it is hard to dig into a good looking garden knowing it won’t look so good after a division is made.  But who cares in the fall! With winter right around the corner, everything will die back and then come up fresh and new in the spring.  Fall is also a great time to divide because the earth is warm and the nights are cool.  This make a perfect environment  for those perennials to establish healthy roots.

Also making it easy to be productive in the fall is the fact that you can see where everything is.  When I have divided and planted in the spring, I often chose the same spots for planting and accidentally plant a division where something was already planted.  The spot was already taken, but it was too early in the spring/summer growing season to notice it.  In the fall, everything is up and established so it is clear-cut where the voids are in the garden, where the empty spots are that need filling.  You also have the advantage of knowing what worked well.  It’s still fresh in your mind, and you can duplicate successes.

Bulbs

alium-smallPlanting bulbs in the fall is a sure way to have a great-looking garden next season.  Bulbs are a great investment for your garden and worth the wait.  If you plant only one bulb, the globemaster allium is a must-have.  They are my absolute favorite, as deer, bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels and mice will leave them alone because, being an allium, they are part of the onion family.  Allium globemasters get very large and tall and are sturdy enough so you can avoid staking.  They also last an unusually long time in the garden.

My second-favorite bulb to plant in the fall is the lily bulb, which I have talked about in previous posts.  I love the strawberry-and-cream lilies from White Flower Farm and also the casa blanca lilies and stargazer lilies, which are both wonderfully fragrant.  The bunnies will love to gobble on your lilies, so I recommend topping the soil with organic oyster shells.  This helps deter animals from digging up and eating your bulbs as they are sharp, and they also will help amend your soil by adding nutrients as they decompose.

lily-small

Weeding

Another productive fall chore that will create a great looking spring garden is weeding.  It’s one of those tasks you’ve been avoiding since you were busy with all the planting this summer! Not only will it look better, but if you don’t allow the weeds to go to seed in the fall, next season your garden will have fewer weeds.  I like the saying, “1 year of seeding is 7 years of weeding.” Unfortunately it can be true.  Again, this chore, too, is so much better in the fall as everything is up and established and the weeds really stand out this time of year.  You can tell by now if something is a weed or that new perennial your neighbor gave you to try.  If you don’t have time to weed, another approach is to simply cut the “flower” head off.  Then it will not seed your garden.

Shade Garden

29 Apr

Don’t get discouraged by shade; Mother Nature knows no boundaries.  While the shade might give you some limitations, beautiful shade gardens can and do exist. Many perennials, annuals and bulbs grow quite well in shade. Think ferns and bleeding heart — I love white bleeding heart.  And there are gorgeous large blue hostas such as Elegans, Hadspen Blue, and Krossa Regal that look like elephant ears. I also love the Sum & Substance hosta.

Here are more ideas to help you get started or continue gardening in the shade.  These plants will thrive and grow well in the shade:

Perennials for shade

  • Bleeding heart – white, pinkIMG_1596
  • Lily-of-the-Valley
  • Astilbe -  white, red, pink
  • Ferns – try some showier varieties like Phyllitis Scolopendrium, zone 6-9
  • Hellebores – black and deep purple, white, greens and pinks – unique and bold
  • Heuchera (coral bells) – lime green, purples, variegated, peach, reds, browns
  • Hosta – large blue varieties – Hadspen Blue, Elegans, Krossa Regal; large Sum & Substance – there are so many varieties of hostas, smaller ones for a neat and tidy border or large ones as focal point
  • Lamium
  • Ligularia
  • Lilies – casa blanca, White Flower Farm strawberries and cream - these definitely prefer more sun, but I have grown them in some shade (put these in the sunniest part of your shade)
  • Primroses
  • Jack-in-the-pulpit
  • Viola
  • Columbine
  • Bamboo
  • Japanese forest grass - love this; creates such a clever focal point, and can be divided
  • Siberian Iris

Bulbs for shade

  • Crocus
  • Cyclamen
  • Snowdrops
  • Grape hyacinth
  • Daffodil

Annuals for shade

  • Coleus
  • Begonia
  • Caladium
  • Ipomoea (sweet-potato vine)
  • Impatiens
  • Persian shield
  • Tender bulbs
  • Colocasia (elephant ears) – my favorite – check out my previous post on elephant ears for some great photos of elephant ears; these can make a large bold, beautiful statement!

Some varieties of Hydrangea’s also do very well in shade like the Anna Bell Hydrangea

Tackle your weeds with a different approach!

3 Apr

Focus on the positive…  Planting beautiful flowers…

Rather then spending your time weeding, weeding, weeding, spend your time planting, planting, planting.  In a way, you are creating a barrier with plants that will suppress the nasty old unwanted weeds with layers of bulbs, perennial plant roots, annuals and shrubs.

For example, let’s take a typical spring Saturday of gardening.  Gardener Weeder spends all day pulling weeds, while Gardener Planter spends that time planting a combination of bulbs, seeds, and pretty plants, tugging away weeds as she plants, maybe even planting a hydrangea.

Fast-forward two weeks, Gardener Weeder looks outside to see her once neat and tidy weed-free garden bed full of creeping Charlie and other weeds sprouting back up, while Gardener Planter sees beautiful blooms of lilies and gladiolus, dahlias, snapdragons, etc. — maybe a weed or two as well, but the good will far outweigh the bad.

This is a principle I have practiced for years now.  I would rather spend my time focusing on the growing process than on the killing process.  I know many a gardener who battles weeds using . . . gasp . . .nasty mulches, nasty chemicals and nasty black plastic liners.  Gasp.  Where is the joy in all of that?  Use the money you would spend on plastic liners, weed-killing chemicals and unnatural red mulch on flowers, bulbs and beautiful trees and shrubs.  Think of your soil as a plant; it needs the same love you give your plants so that it is a healthy environment for earthworms and other beneficial insects that will help your flowers flourish.

So the next time you have a few hours on a glorious spring or summer day and your flower beds are full of weeds, grab a flat of flowers for under $20 and plant away, pulling up the weeds as you plant, and create that barrier of “FLOWER MULCH.”

Tip of the Day – Diggers hotline is 811

21 Mar

Before digging in the dirt this Spring please make sure to make that one simple, free call to Diggers Hotline.  It is simple, easy and free, and results in all of your local utility companies coming to visit your property to mark where dangerous lines are. Then you’ll know which areas to steer clear of them when you dig.

Just dial 811 on your phone!

Organic lawn management

15 Mar

Organic Gardening Magazine had a terrific article, The Dark Side of Lawns recently that covered all the great reasons why you should refrain from using the various synthetic fertilizers on your lawn.

I found the discussion on “weed and feed” practices particularly relevant.

The situation gets worse with the widely popular “weed and feed” products that combine a synthetic lawn fertilizer and herbicide in the same bag. “No lawn is 100 percent weeds, but people are spreading these chemicals over the entire lawn,” says Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual and spokesperson for SafeLawns.org. So if your lawn is 2 percent weeds, 98 percent of the herbicide product applied to the lawn serves no purpose, and it may wash into rivers and streams, leach into groundwater, or volatize into the air we breathe. One of the most common herbicides in weed and feed products, a chemical called 2,4-D, has been linked to human health problems, including an increased risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

I like a great looking lawn just as much as the next person, but these chemicals present a broad array of problems that we easily forget about. The health risks come from multiple angles – water, pets, children, and even indoor air quality when the contaminants are dragged inside on the bottoms of our shoes.

It’s a terrific article and well worth your time to read the whole thing. You can find it here.

Recession proof your garden

12 Mar

Tips for having a beautiful yard during trying times:

1.  Use flowers with staying power

There are flowers whose blooms come and go in a day.  Then there are flowers that are beautiful and stay a long time.

  • dsc02402Lilies are an example of a flower with staying power.  They can bloom for a month in the right conditions.
  • Elephant ears are another example of a flower with staying power. They will cover a large area both tall and wide and their beautiful leaves are lasting.
  • My favorite flower with staying power is the allium globemaster.  It looks good even long after it is dead and brown.  It is an expensive bulb around $15 for one bulb.  But….it will multiply through the years and produces a large purple ball flower, it needs no staking, the flower lasts for weeks, and best of all since it is part of the allium family (onion), squirrels, bunnies and deer will leave it alone.

2. Plant annuals to fill-in gaps until perennials mature and fill out

dsc03837To start a basic perennial bed on an unlimited budget one would plant in groups of three or groups of six to look really good.  For example, three bleeding hearts, six monarda, six lilies and six autumn joy – at around $6 for potted perennials – can add up fast.  So try planting one of each and then fill in the gap with annuals such as cleomes, cosmos, snapdragons and zinnias.  The annuals will provide color all summer long when the perennial bloom has come and gone.  After 2 -3 seasons, those initial perennials will look as full as if you had planted six.

3.  Use seeds and flats of flowers together

dsc03920A packet of seed is around $2, but a flat is around $20 depending on where you buy it.  I love to plant annuals such as cosmos, say 6 of the cosmo plants, then scatter cosmo seeds around.  This works great for two reasons.  First, when the original cosmo plants have bloomed and gone to seed around July/August, your little seedling will be mature and just starting to bloom.  The second strength of this method is the expensive plant will mark where your seeds are.

4.  Share with friends

Reach out to friends and share what you have and be gracious and accept divisions, this benefits everyone.

5.  Look for sales around the 4th of July

6.  Don’t be a store snob

I have found the most amazing perennials and houseplants at the farmers market.

7.  Think in terms of 4 seasons

When planting in the spring, think ahead to what your winter landscape will look like, and maybe grab that boxwood for $5 at Home Depot, it won’t be there when you are looking in October and then you might have to pay a higher price at a specialty store.  I love to plant trees and shrubs in pots in the spring and then in the fall transfer them into my landscape.  I have had great success with this.  I have planted limelight hydrangeas, boxwoods, evergreens, arborvitae all in pots.  You can enjoy them all summer long while you contemplate where they would look best in your garden.

8.  Mix fruit and veggies within your beautiful flower bed – a win/win strategy

Lettuce can be a beautiful border and you can pick a salad every night.  Save money on your grocery bill by growing it yourself from seed.  Some combinations can really benefit one another.  You can tuck tomato plants almost anywhere.  Your kids will be giddy when picking them and eating them.  This is a great way to get your kids interested and helping in the garden as well.  Green beans love climbing and grow very quickly, you could grow green beans up sunflowers or corn.  Plant, plant, plant, and don’t be afraid to re-arrange and move plants around.

Growing Green Golf Course Grass

6 Mar

Here is my recipe for golf course grass (organic of course).  I learned this method of growing grass from my dad, who is known for his beautiful putting green yards.

Ingredients:

  • 1 bag of high traffic grass seed
  • 1 bag of sun and shade grass seed
  • 1 bag of shade grass seed
  • 2 bags of organic garden soil
  • 2 bags of sand

(Madisonians, you can find the orgainic garden soil ($1.99/bag) and sand ($0.99/bag)at Johansson’s and they load it into your car for you!)

In a wheel barrow, combine 1/2 bag of each grass seed with one bag of the dirt and one bag of the sand, mix well and apply throughout your lawn – filling in bare and trouble spots.  It is best to apply to a wet saturated lawn.  You can either apply it after a good rain or a good afternoon of your kids running through the sprinkler.  Repeat the process with the remaining seed, soil and sand, 2 to 3 weeks later after you see where the grass neglected to come up.

Watering is also key to growing lush green, grass. Water conservation is not my greenest strength, I am a work in progress. Tips for this would be emptying your de-humidifier, which is liquid gold, installing and using a rain barrel, and taking advantage of mother nature and doing this process during a rainy week.  Let me know if you have any questions!!

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