The Cottage Garden Begins

Well, it's been quite a week in the garden. Two of my roses started blooming, I've planted a bunch of new things, and two young deer (an unexpected garden "pest") seem to have taken up residence in the neighborhood. Fortunately, they've mostly stuck to eating the weeds in our backyard. They did start nibbling on the beans, though, so we'll be building a cage for the vegetable garden this weekend.

'Knock Out' Rose, and a climbing rose I can't identify.

Yes, that's a deer frolicking in my backyard.

When we bought our home last summer, I decided our quirky little Tudor Revival cottage needed a cottage garden in the front to match.  At the time, Indian Hawthorne shrubs were planted across the front of the house. Indian Hawthorne is the kind of shrub that's planted on roadsides and around apartment complexes because it's hard to kill. It gets nice flowers, but I get so tired of seeing it everywhere--it had to go. I decided to start with the area to the east side of my front door, probably because it was the biggest challenge. It gets shade most of the day, and most beautiful flowering perennials and annuals like a lot of sunshine. But I would find a way.

Front of house, summer 2012

So I started doing my research. I researched what makes a cottage garden. I poured through my plant books, cross-referenced my findings online, and made a list of cottage-garden-style plants that would tolerate shade. From there, I narrowed it down to a few that I liked the best and would look good together, and I drew a loose diagram of my bed to figure out spacing and how many plants I needed.

Then came the real work. We tore out the shrubs and prepared the beds last October. I planted a few things my friends had given me--hostas, irises, and bugleweed. I divided up my lemon balm and planted part of it in the new bed. I found a good deal on a hydrangea that needed some TLC. I added some pansies for a splash of color. I fertilized everything to help it get established.

And then I waited. Most of the plants on my list wouldn't be available until spring, and even the plants I had wouldn't really fill in for a while. Most everything went dormant.

Spring came, everything has flushed out with new growth, and I found the plants I was looking for...and then some. I just finished planting everything this week, and mulched it to keep in moisture and prevent weeds. Here's the final product:

Of course, it's not really final. The hostas and bugleweed will spread more. One of my hydrangeas is only six inches tall right now--it was from one of the cuttings I took last fall. It will eventually grow to about four feet tall and wide. My spindly little climbing hydrangea will eventually cover that trellis and then some. Some things will start blooming, some things will stop blooming. After the summer I will assess what died (if anything), or what just needs to be moved to a different spot, and I might try some new plants. It will always be a work in progress.

For reference, here's my plant list (roughly left to right):

Hosta spp.

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Iris spp. (I have no idea what kind--my friend dug it out of her garden for me, and I haven't seen it bloom yet)

Columbine (Aquilegia caerulea 'Origami Mix')

Endless Summer Twist n' Shout Bigleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'PIIHM-I')

Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomola petiolaris)

Coleus (Solenostemon hybrid--I don't know which one)

Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)

Wishbone flower (Torenia hybrid)

Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans 'Purpurea')

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

Happy gardening!

Flowers Anyone Can Grow

My garden is chugging along. The radishes have sprouted, the onions are putting out shoots, and my bugleweed (Ajuga reptans 'Purpurea') started blooming (and spreading) this week. The bugleweed came to me as a clump that some friends gave me out of their garden, and it seems to have established itself splendidly.

My bugleweed has little blue-purple flowers.

 Not only are the plants I planted doing well, but I also have some volunteers! My compost pile hasn't given me any compost yet, but it has a handsome tomato seedling growing out of the side.

A 6-in. tomato seedling is growing out of my
compost pile.

I have friends that keep insisting that they kill everything they try to grow. Well, I'm here to turn anyone who wants to be a gardener into a gardener. I posted last month on the 5 Things "Green Thumbs" Know, and went into more detail about how to put some magic in your dirt and how to plant a plant. I'll talk about how to water your plants soon, but I thought maybe my good readers would like a list of a few flowering plants that aren't too difficult to grow--to increase your chances of gardening success here in the hot, humid South.
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Before you figure out which plants you can grow, the first question you need to answer is how much sunlight you have. There are roughly 3 categories: full sun, part sun, and full shade. Plants that prefer full sun need direct sunlight almost all day--8 hours or more. Plants that like part sun like to be shaded half the day--only like 4-6 hours of direct sunlight. Part sun areas also include areas that get light shade all of the day--like under a pine tree where plenty of sunlight comes through the trees. Plants that like full shade don't need any direct sunlight. If you look at the label on any plant at Home Depot or Lowe's, you'll see a little symbol that tells you how much sunlight that plant prefers. If you're at a local garden center, they don't always have those commercial labels, but the people who work there will be happy to tell you what the plants need.

The universal symbols for the sunlight needs of a plant.

Here in the South, those recommendations aren't set in stone. Sometimes plants that prefer full sun in cooler climates will benefit from afternoon shade here in the heat of summer. They won't bloom as much as they would in full sun, but they might survive July and August!

One more thing before you run out to your garden center--make sure to pick plants that look healthy and don't have too many flowers. While your instinct may tell you to pick the most beautiful plant, a plant with mostly buds and only 1 or 2 flowers will adjust better to its new home than one that's covered in blooms.

And now...drumroll please...The List:

Full Sun
Daylilies (Hemerocallis hybrids)*
Lantana (Lantana hybrids)
Knock Out roses (Rosa 'Knock Out')
Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides)
Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)
Verbena (Verbena species and hybrids)
Annual vinca/Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Gaura (Gaura lindheimerii)
Lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus species and hybrids)
Moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora)

Part sun
Everything in the full sun list can tolerate part sun, they just might not grow as big or bloom as much.
Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)
Camellia (Camellia japonica or Camellia sasanqua)
Azalea (Rhodendron hybrids)
Geranium (Pelargonium hybrids)
Begonia (Begonia hybrids)

Full shade
Plantain lily (Hosta hybrids)
Periwinkle (vine) (Vinca major or Vinca minor)
Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans)
Coral bells (Heuchera species and hybrids)

*The words in parantheses are the scientific name for the plant. Since common names can sometimes be confusing--a plant can have more than one common name, or two plants can have the same common name--the scientific name will help you know you're getting exactly what you're looking for.

Are you a novice gardener? Do you have any questions for me?

So much to do, so little time!

Here in Middle Georgia, April is the main month for gardening. Almost everything needs to be fertilized because it's starting to grow like crazy, it's prime planting time for summer vegetables and warm season annuals, and perennials have returned to the garden centers (and need to get planted before it gets too hot). To add to it all, the weeds are growing faster and the plants need to be watered more often. If only I could take the whole month off from work and just work in the garden...

I planted some tulips with my violas in some pots in December. I wasn't sure how the tulips would do. Fifteen weeks later, they bloomed beautifully! The only thing I would do differently next time is plant them earlier, so they'll bloom a little earlier. My violas stopped blooming for much of the winter (I don't know exactly why), but I kept watering them. They started blooming again when springtime arrived.

'Happy Generation' tulip planted with violas

I got most of my vegetables planted yesterday. Since I really don't have much experience with vegetable gardening, I wanted to do a little bit of everything to see what works. I'm doing the square-foot gardening method, where you plant things within a grid of squares instead of rows, so I planted something different in almost every square. So far I have cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, bush beans, onions, carrots, and radishes. I bought seedlings for the tomatoes and peppers (I didn't want to bother with starting my own seeds this year), and planted everything else from seed because radishes, carrots, and beans don't transplant well.

Who says a vegetable garden can't be beautiful?

Well, we're halfway through April, so I guess it's a good time to see what's left on the April gardening checklist!
     Plant warm-season vegetables
     Fertilize vegetables
     Plant summer annuals
     Fertilize annuals
     Fertilize lawn (late April)
     Plant, transplant, or divide perennials
     Fertilize perennials
     Plant or transplant shrubs
     Fertilize shrubs
     Prune camellias and other shrubs that have just finished blooming
     Fertilize trees
     Mulch new beds or refresh mulch on existing beds

It looks like I have a lot left on my list! Of course, if you're not starting three new flower beds and a vegetable garden this year (like I am), your list may be much shorter. For my friends who live north of me, your time to do all this will come after your last frost date (so you can start planning for it now!). If you're not sure, you can look up your last frost date here.

What are you planting this spring?

Project #2: Raised Bed

Spring is finally here! The hydrangeas and roses started leafing out a week or so ago, and the hostas followed shortly after. The cherry blossom trees bloomed late this year, but mine finally came into full bloom last week, followed by the dogwoods.

The hostas and hydrangeas are emerging from
dormancy (finally!).

Dogwood (left) and cherry blossoms (right) in my yard.

This spring I decided it's finally time to really try my hand at vegetable gardening. Even though I've been gardening for many years, I never really got into vegetable gardening. When I was a teenager, vegetable gardening probably didn't appeal to me because it can be so labor-intensive--preparing the soil, pulling weeds, treating diseases and pest problems. Over the years I made several half-hearted attempts at growing vegetables in pots with little success. My most successful crops in containers were the hot peppers I grew in the summer, and the mixed lettuce greens I grew in the spring.

I've been carrying around my grandfather's copy of Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew for years with dreams that one day, when I had a yard of my own, I would have a beautiful vegetable garden like the book promises. A couple of weeks ago I ran across Mel's All New Square Foot Gardening and picked it up with much excitement. After more years of experience, and adapted for the busy modern gardener, Bartholomew rewrote his recommendations, and the new recommendations include raised beds, which I like because they're pretty.

Isn't it pretty?

Now, I will say, if you ask 20 successful vegetable gardeners what their secret is to growing amazing vegetables, you will probably get 20 different answers. The square-foot gardening method, of course, has sentimental value for me, so that's why I want to try it out first. After reading the new book, here's my quick review. Even if the cover looks a little gimmicky, Bartholomew's methods are based on both years of experience and solid research. The book is full of photos and has very detailed instructions, plus a great appendix with information about each kind of vegetable, perfect for the beginner. I think he goes a little overboard on some things (I'm a little lazy if you haven't noticed), and you could probably grow half-decent vegetables without following every step. It's definitely not the most traditional method, but it's designed to grow a lot in a smaller space, which I like.

So, after reading the book, I set out this weekend to create my vegetable garden. I picked a spot that gets plenty of sunshine (which vegetables love), except for some light afternoon shade (which is great in the heat of a Georgia summer). I put it in the back of the yard behind the treehouse (so if it turns out to be a disaster, I don't have to look at it while relaxing on my patio). Instead of following Mel's instructions for building a raised bed frame yourself, I bought an easy-to-assemble kit from Home Depot because I was in a hurry. Also because I was in a hurry, I did my math wrong and bought too much material for the soil mix. But hey, at least I can still find plenty of uses for vermiculite and peat moss--like making the perfect mix for rooting cuttings! I found everything I needed at Home Depot except for the vermiculite--I found that at Johnson's Garden Center here in Macon.

My 4-foot pile of supplies--vermiculite, peat
moss, compost, and a frame.

Instead of using existing soil, Mel recommends skipping all the tilling, soil testing, and finding the right amendments, and just making your own soil mix to fill your raised bed--a mix of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. It's full of nutrients, and has the right balance of water retention and drainage. After assembling my pile of supplies, I mixed it up batch by batch in my wheelbarrow with my handy trowel.

It took probably eight batches with the wheelbarrow, but I finally filled up my raised bed.

And there it is, my lovely 4' x 4' raised bed ready to fill with vegetables this week. Stay tuned to see what veggies get planted!

A Good Start: How to Plant a Plant

A few weeks ago I won a contest on Your Easy Garden blog, and the prize was 3 Flower Carpet roses. I wasn't previously familiar with them, but they're supposed to be low-maintenance, disease-resistant, and (more recently) bred to tolerate heat and humidity. I just planted them last week. They're a spreading rose, so I made new flower beds with plenty of space for them. I planted one of my roses under the perfect conditions--full sun, good drainage. But I was determined that I wanted a rose in front of my house, so I planted it in mostly shade, heavy clay soil, at the bottom of a gutter spout. We'll see if all my soil prep will keep my rose alive in spite of my better judgment!

There's a rose bush there, if you look closely.
It will have leaves soon, I promise.

What my Flower Carpet roses should look like in a few months.

I decided to give one of them to my mother-in-law. I had never ordered a bareroot (without soil) plant before, so I carefully followed the 6-step instruction sheet that came with it. As we were planting it, my father-in-law commented, "It's a good thing you did it because I would just have dug a hole and stuck it in the ground." I think that's what most people do when they're planting something--just stick it in the ground. The way you plant something, though, can affect whether the roots get established well, whether the plant gets the right amount of water, or whether the plant gets disease. Don't worry--doing it right isn't actually that complicated. I'll give you a few tips.

1. Wider is better, deeper is worser. One of my horticulture professors taught me this rule of thumb for what size your hole should be. It's terrible grammar, but it stuck with me. To be more exact, your hole should be exactly as deep as your root ball (or the pot your plant is coming out of), and about twice as wide as your root ball. This is more important when you're planting strong, long-living trees and shrubs, but less important if you're planting an annual like a pansy that you'll rip out in a few months.

2. Break up the roots. When you buy a plant, it may be "root-bound", which means the pot is full of roots, some of which may be growing in a circle (the shape of its pot). You want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the size and shape of the pot it was in--the plant won't necessarily do this on its own. Just take your hand, grab the roots at the bottom, and pull them apart. If you break some small roots, that's fine--they'll grow back. If it's really bad, sometimes I'll take my pruning shears and make a few vertical cuts down the sides of the root ball.

3. As you plant it, make sure the top of the original soil of the plant is even with the surrounding soil. You shouldn't be putting soil on top, or planting it so shallow all the water runs off. There's a few exceptions. Tomato seedlings like to be planted deep, so you cover up the first few inches of stem. When I planted my rose, it was in heavy clay soil (and roses like well-drained soil), so I planted it slightly raised up to try to improve drainage (I hope it works!).

After I planted my rose, I watered it really well.

 Happy planting! What are you planting this spring?

As always, feel free to comment with any questions you have.

Preparing Soil for Planting

We've had some crazy weather this past week, but spring is definitely here. My tulip bulbs emerged--I'm still waiting on blooms. Our cherry tree has put out a few blooms, but it looks like the cold snap has left it mostly covered in buds. Here's hoping it will be covered in flowers for Easter.

A sure sign of spring: my tulips are emerging.

In my last post, I mentioned how the magic for growing things is in the dirt. Well, this past week I worked a little magic in preparation for all the planting I am doing this spring. One bed was already there--we just removed the existing shrubs and improved the soil.  The other was an entirely new bed, but the process was basically the same for both.  I'll take you step by step through that process.

1. Break up the soil. I'm fortunate to have a husband who is good with a shovel. The soil in most of our yard is very compacted clay, so he alternated between a shovel and a pick mattock to loosen up the soil.

After that I came behind him with a little combo hoe and cultivator mattock. The sharp hoe side breaks up the smaller chunks of clay, and the cultivator side is great for stirring and fluffing. I kept going until the whole bed was tilled to a depth of 6 inches. I probably should have gone deeper, but that was all I had the energy for. Of course, if you have better soil than me, this whole step will take a lot less work.

2. Add compost. There are many different soil amendments available, but if you have to pick one, use compost.  If your soil is too sandy, you'll have to constantly pour water and fertilizer into it just to keep your plants alive. If your soil is heavy clay (like mine), your plants can drown or your roots can rot. Compost can improve any kind of soil--it adds drainage to clay soil, retains moisture in sandy soil, and adds nutrients to boost. I only started my compost bin last fall, so my pile is still cooking. Fortunately, you can buy compost at your local garden center. You'll want to add about one part compost for every one part soil. If you already have soil that's rich in organic matter and has the right balance of moisture, you'll need much less. If you have poor soil, you might want to add more.

3. Mix it up. After adding a few inches of compost, I took the cultivator side of my little hand tool and mixed it in thoroughly. After breaking up the soil previously, this step was pretty easy.

And that's pretty much it! Now you have a nice, healthy bed ready for planting. Depending on the size of your bed and the quality of your soil, you can knock it out in a couple of hours and reap the benefits for years.

5 Things "Green Thumbs" Know

People always tell me, "I have a brown thumb" or "my grandfather had a green thumb." I actually don't like those terms at all. It makes it sound like gardening is a magical talent--either you're born with it, or you're not. Gardening is really a learned skill. I can grow things because I've spent a long time learning about and practicing gardening (and your grandfather probably spent many years gardening, too). If you consider yourself a brown thumb, I'll give you a head start by sharing with you the basic gardening principles I've learned in the last 20 years. I realize I'm touching on a lot of concepts that may be unfamiliar if you have no previous gardening knowledge. I'll go more in-depth on these in later posts.

1. Location, location, location. Otherwise known as "the right plant in the right place", this principle refers to the fact that different plants have different requirements. If you ignore these requirements, your plant will under-perform at best, or die at worst. Sure, I'll push the boundaries sometimes, but I don't plant something in a place that obviously won't give that plant what it needs. What do plants need? The right amount of sun, the right amount of water, and the right temperatures. Read your plant labels. If you want to branch out a little, pick up a good plant book. (The Southern Living Garden Book is my go-to).

2. The magic is in the dirt. Half of a plant (sometimes more) is underground. If you have bad soil, your plant will never be happy. Good soil gives your plant the right amount of water and nutrients. You can do a lot to improve your soil. I'll dedicate a post to this soon. If your garden consists of what you can grow on your patio or balcony, then your answer is simple: buy good potting mix. I bought cheap potting mix once--it wasn't worth it.

Both of these pansy groupings are currently in my garden.
I prepared the soil before planting one of the groups,
can you tell which one?

3. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Water, fertilizer, and sunshine are all good things, but too much can kill plants if you're not careful. Too much fertilizer can fry any plant, too much sunshine can fry a shade-loving plant, and too much water can drown a plant (unless its native habitat is a wetland).

4. Sometimes plants die. A lot of gardening is trial and error. Despite your best efforts, occasionally plants die anyway--that doesn't make you a "brown thumb". It could be killed by disease, you might not have the right climate for it, or it might just give up for no real reason. I've killed a lot of plants in my life, too, but it's all part of the learning process. I don't have patience for plants I have to baby too much, either. If something dies despite reasonable effort, I just won't plant another one--it obviously wasn't a good fit for my garden.

5. Your local garden center is your best friend. By "local", I DON'T mean the closest Home Depot or Lowe's. I mean some place owned locally, and staffed by people who are gardeners themselves. Those people are treasures of information. They'll tell you how to take care of your plants in your climate. If you bring in a leaf with disease or insect pests, they can tell you what pesticides to use. Not to mention, a good garden center will only sell you high-quality plants that are suited to your climate.