2008 April — A Way to Garden

and the hits… (part 2)

April 30, 2008 at 7:13 pm

IT’S ALL HITS, ALL THE TIME here at the garden, or at least it is this time of year. Meet more of my beloved companions (click to get to know each one)…and hurry, the next gang will be showing up and showing off at any minute now. (By the way, the third click’s the charm; the photos are better big.)

: Clematis recta ‘Lime Close’

: Euphorbia polychroma

: Fothergilla major

: Lathyrus vernus (purple)

: Mertensia virginica

: Physocarpus ‘Dart’s Gold’

: yellow Primula veris

: Amelanchier flowers

: Stylophorum diphyllum

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now about those forums…

April 30, 2008 at 7:08 pm

HAVE YOU VISITED OUR Urgent Garden Question Forums? And if not, why not? (I felt I had to ask.) Read what they’re about…or just go. And while you’re there, upload photos of your sick/beautiful/unknown plant and get it promptly healed/admired/identified. You get the idea: Got a gem/problem? We praise you/fix it. All of life should work like this.

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hosta pot? why not!

April 29, 2008 at 6:04 pm

FOR SEASON-LONG COLOR in containers, true annuals (like marigolds or petunias or zinnias) aren’t the only answer. I always keep a few choice hostas ready to do duty as pot plants, carrying them over from year to year in the vegetable garden when it’s empty all winter, then lifting the big clumps out and popping them into pots for use in shady areas spring through fall.

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take a walk with me

April 28, 2008 at 5:32 pm

COME AND JUST TAKE A WALK with me. No big plant lesson, nothing to prune or weed or sow. Just pay a visit as I do early each morning and evening to the parts of the garden that are calling out to me in living color. [read more…]

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rain, anyone?

April 28, 2008 at 4:45 pm

I WAS READY FOR RAIN, long prayed for, with the requisite equipment: two sets of foul-weather gear, rubbery bib pants with hooded jackets and all (two because…surprise…the first one gets wet by lunchtime, and wants replacing). Rubber boots, of course, were also at the ready. Far more important, I had three of the most delightfully cheap plastic rain gauges hard at work outside. But why? [read more…]

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pruning, pared way down

April 28, 2008 at 11:41 am

ONE OF GARDEN’S FEAR FACTORS (except to those who’ve totally mastered it, which doesn’t include me) is pruning, the way to get our woody plants into shape and keep them that way. I want to offer a version of pruning that’s so pared down that anybody can do it (even if you don’t yet have the kind of artistic vision that turns boxwood into crowing roosters, or reshapes a badly storm-damaged tree so well that nobody notices it was ever hit). All you have to do to be at least a B-plus pruner are these simple steps: [read more…]

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and the hits just keep on comin’

April 27, 2008 at 7:32 am

LET’S HEAR IT FOR the little guys: It’s their moment. Click and meet them.

: fritillaria uva vulpis

: trillium erectum

: uvularia grandiflora

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calling all caterpillars

April 27, 2008 at 7:32 am

I WAS OUT ON PATROL AGAIN this morning, tent-caterpillar patrol. Armed with a piece of bamboo I’d cut down to about 10 inches long and my camera (the latter being optional), I searched out and destroyed several nests of the Eastern tent caterpillar. Pretty brave of me, huh? [read more…]

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remember, nothing lasts

April 25, 2008 at 8:04 am

NOTHING LASTS. Need I say more to a bunch of gardeners? Not winter, nor spring, nor any other season; not Narcissus nor magnolias. Not us. The Japanese celebrate this very fact (instead of fearing it) in the form of the Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival, which honors the ephemeral nature of all things. I like to celebrate it at every passing in the garden, like today when the magnolia flowers shattered in the warm breeze and fell from heaven to earth, like snow…speaking of things that are transient.