Winter Cheer

My experience so far in Middle Georgia has been that, even among the people that like to garden, most only garden in the summer time. The most popular garden plants are crapemyrtles, azaleas, petunias, and geraniums--all plants that bloom while it's warm outside. Being from South Florida, I don't care much for the cold, but I love the outdoors and can't imagine not spending at least a little time in my garden every week, if only to see what's in bloom. I make sure to plan my garden accordingly, so there's always some beauty to enjoy in my garden.

I used to love pansies until I moved to Georgia. You can't really grow pansies in South Florida, but here, they are all you see in commercial plantings from November to April. To make matters worse, people often use these pansy color mixes that combine bright colors at random like a bad '80s outfit. When I ran across some pansies in a lovely shade of red, though, the color was so pretty and so unusual, that I took home a six-pack to brighten up my beds. Maybe I'll have to re-evaluate my view of pansies.

I really love how violas spill out of a pot, so this year I filled up two small pots for my patio. I remembered planting bulbs among the pansies while working at Callaway Gardens, so I decided to try giving my violas an extra punch by planting some tulip bulbs first (tulips like to be planted at a depth that's three times the size of the bulb) and adding the violas on top. Tulips really prefer colder climates, but there are a couple of species that tolerate Macon's mild climate better than others. Of course, those were not the kinds of tulip bulbs they actually sold at Lowe's or Home Depot around here (I'll have to remember to order bulbs next fall), but at least the bulbs were half off when I bought them. Even if they don't emerge beautifully in the spring, at least I only spent a couple of dollars on my experiment.

I planted the tulip bulbs (left) under the violas (right).
Here's hoping they emerge as pretty as the picture!

I couldn't imagine our first Christmas in our house without a few lights outside and a wreath on the door. I thought I might be creative and make my own wreath this year, but in the end I decided to save time when I saw a lovely fresh wreath at Home Depot. With a mind on the budget, we kept our outdoor Christmas decorations simple, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Merry Christmas!

Fall planting

Most people get planting fever in springtime or late winter, when the first warm days arrive after the long months of cold. In Middle Georgia, though, where spring is short and summer is long, many plants are happier being planted in the fall. By planting in fall, the plants have many months to grow strong and healthy before the grueling summer hits. Even in December, a heavy frost is still unlikely for a while. (For example, the highs have been in the 70s this week!)

Unfortunately, plants are harder to find in the fall. I went hunting at my local garden centers, and the particular perennials I was looking for simply were not available. You can usually get some good deals on shrubs that need a little TLC, though. Last fall I purchased a camellia & a rose at half-price. This year I got a similar deal on a 'Twist-n-Shout' hydrangea. Unlike most hydrangeas which only bloom for a couple of weeks out of the year, this variety is supposed to bloom all summer. Mine still had a bloom on it when I planted it in October.

Endless Summer^® Twist-n-Shout^® Bigleaf Hydrangea

Even though I didn't buy much, I still had plenty to plant! The same friends that gave me cuttings from their yard also dug up/divided many of their self-propagating plants, including irises, bugleweed (Ajuga reptans 'Bronze Beauty'), hostas, elephant ear, and ferns. I planted in October and early November, and they all put out new growth before the cold slowed them down (as you can see in the pictures below). I also divided some lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) which was a gift from a previous year.  I can't wait for them all to take off when the warm weather returns in full force in the spring! (Maybe then I can figure out exactly what species/varieties I have.)

Happy gardening!

Free Plants! (My home propagation experiment)

My free plants. They may not look like much now, but wait until next summer!

Back in September, some friends of mine generously let me raid their gardens. In addition to digging up some extra plants for me, they gave me several cuttings from their hydrangeas, gardenias, and pelargonium.

The last time I had tried rooting cuttings was almost 10 years ago in my plant propagation class, and we had a professional greenhouse. In a professional setting, they use a specially-formulated, sterilized potting mix and a mist system to keep the plants moist, and the air humid. I have a book somewhere that tells me the ideal cutting length, how many leaves to remove, and the best month of the year to take cuttings. I didn't pay attention to any of that this time. What I did have was some leftover Dip n' Grow that they gave us in class, some leftover potting soil, a spot in my house with plenty of bright, indirect light, and a spray bottle.

The hydrangeas got the most attention. I stuck them in Dip n' Grow, removed some of the leaves (it cuts down on moisture loss for the cuttings), and stuck them in the old potting mix I had on hand. The saddest-looking one I stuck in water because it looked too dried-out to make it otherwise (they got a little crispy because I left them in the hot sun immediately after cutting them--I was in a hurry). After that, I sprayed them all generously twice a day with my spray bottle. I stuck the gardenias, pelargonium, and some rosemary and sage cuttings (from plants I had at home) in straight water, no dip n' grow.

The results were actually a little better than I was expecting. Six weeks later, both rosemary cuttings, 1 of the pelargonium cuttings, and 2 of the hydrangea had rooted. The hydrangea cuttings that made it were actually the one in water, and one in potting mix that lost all its leaves early on. The sage died, and the others probably won't take root at this point, but I consider it a win considering I didn't put that much money or effort into it. I took the cuttings that had rooted and re-planted them into some new Miracle-Gro potting mix to give them an extra boost, and stuck them in a sheltered spot behind my house that gets partial sun (as you see in the picture at the top of this post). They probably won't do much in this cold weather, but they will get good and acclimated and ready to grow like crazy next spring.

The moral of the story is that, with a little patience, it's easy to stretch your gardening budget with cuttings. Just buy some Dip n' Grow--it's worth every penny.

Project #1: Compost Bin

When we moved to our new home, I imagined a beautiful vegetable garden enriched with compost for the biggest, healthiest vegetables. Any kind of soil you have can always be improved by adding organic matter. I figured if I got a compost bin in the summer, I could have enough compost for a small vegetable garden by next spring (it typically takes 6-12 months to make compost, if you work at it). Also, I liked the idea of finding a use for all those fruits and vegetables that go to waste when we don't eat them up fast enough. Well, we finally got around to building our compost bin a few weeks ago. I don't know how much compost we'll actually make in 6 months (especially since decomposition slows in cold weather), but we'll give it our best try.

Since we don't really own woodworking tools, I decided our best option was a nice, easy chicken wire bin. All we had to buy was a roll of chicken wire, 2 long, thin pieces of wood for posts (they cut them in half for us at Home Depot), and some wire. I think it cost us $20-30 all together. It's not the most beautiful bin ever, but it's functional. It took less than an hour to build with my husband and I working on it together. Since I think the last thing I built was a soapbox derby car with my dad when I was 10, I'm pretty proud of it. I found the directions at the University of Missouri Extension website.

A good compost pile should be half "brown matter" (like dry leaves and small sticks) and half "green matter" (like grass cuttings and vegetable scraps). I have plenty of leaves in my yard, but I'm a little low on green matter, so we're building our compost pile slowly.

Taking Inventory

I've done a little work in the yard since we moved in, but more or less what we have now is what we started with. I thought now would be a good time to take inventory, both to help me plan and to give me something to look back on one day and see the progress. Here's some views of the yard.

One of the nice things about the yard is a great brick patio on the side that came with a nice concrete picnic table and a chiminea (more on that later). I also love the loose stone edging around all the beds.

One of the challenges of the yard is the lawn. Other than the area immediately behind the house, most of the "lawn" is just weeds and whatever grows naturally. Also, due to the long, narrow driveway, the previous owners parked/drove on the lawn just about every day, so it's very compacted in a few areas, preventing anything from growing.

My climbing rose

As far as plant material, most of the beds are filled with ivy, which has become the bane of my existence (I'm constantly pulling it out of shrubs and our lawn--don't ever plant it in your yard unless there's going to be a wall around it.). We also have several Indian hawthornes, which I don't really care for (low maintenance, but kind of overdone). Some of the nicer plants we inherited are oakleaf hydrangeas, a cherry tree, hostas, a lovely climbing rose, a large oak tree and a couple of hollies. Other plants on our property line include camellias and dogwood. I need to get a survey done to determine exactly where our borders lie (and so I know which plants are mine!). I also need an arborist to assess my oak--it looks a tad sickly.

Mostly what I have is a blank slate. I was hoping to draft a master plan this summer, but other house projects got in the way. And the holidays will be here soon...so I'll probably drag out my drafting tools in January when there's not much gardening (or anything else) going on. In the meantime, I'll tackle some smaller projects while we have this great fall weather, and dream about all the great plants I'll have one day. What are some of your favorite landscape plants?

Introduction

In June, my husband and I bought our first house, on a street that's simply named Boulevard. It's an 83-year-old Tudor Revival home that sits on a third of an acre with a nice little brick patio on the side. We chose it for its historic charm, quiet neighborhood with friends nearby, and plenty of room to garden.

I've loved gardening since I was little. My grandfather was a Master Gardener, and he gave me a vegetable garden kit as a Christmas present when I was 7 or 8. My mom tells me she actually did most of the tending to it, but in my memory, it was my garden. From there, I grew plants on my windowsill.  As a teenager I started planting things in our yard--a butterfly garden, an herb garden, a favorite shrub I found. I would read gardening books, watch HGTV, and doodle garden designs for yard of my own I would one day have. So when it was time to go to college, choosing a major was easy. I studied horticulture. My dream job was executive director of a public garden, so I went on to get a Masters degree in Public Horticulture.

Life is funny. I moved to Middle Georgia to be with my husband, and the nearest public garden is at least an hour away. By a strange combination of events, I ended up becoming the executive director of a nonprofit organization in Macon that does art, music, and business--no gardening. But after living in apartments and dorm rooms for the last 12 years, I finally have my own little plot of land on Boulevard. This blog is my gardening journal. Feel free to join me on the journey.