October
2003
"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I
was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished
by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could
have worn."
-- Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), American essayist,
poet, naturalist from "Walden," "Winter Visitors" (1854)
Sharon Truett has been an avid
gardener for nine or ten years now. She has been the nursery manager
for three out of the four years that she has been at The Natural Gardener.
Her home garden is an exhibit of her love of plants, and reflects her
colorful, spirited personality.
One Saturday in September, Sharon
presented a free class on the subject of "Fall Garden Design"
for the customers at The Natural Gardener. Since fall is the time to
plant here in Central Texas, the class was very timely. In fact, attendees
to the class and readers alike could take this information to create
a garden of their own this month.
The focus of Sharon's presentation
was on achieving year-round interest: a design approach that makes a
garden dynamic and lush. When some plants only remain blooming or even
visible for part of the year, how do you minimize bald spots in the
garden? Sharon answered this question with her characteristic humor
and candor.
The garden bed that Sharon was
assigned to design runs alongside our garden cottage. The cottage is
roughly to the north-northwest of the garden; to the east-northeast
is a tall wire fence, which would be considered the back of this garden.
Beyond the fence is our vegetable garden. At the corner where the garden
cottage almost meets the wire fence is a fiberglass rainwater harvesting
barrel, which is not necessarily an attractive feature. The rest of
the garden is bordered by a low limestone edging and a curving granite
path. The area is approximately 15' by 10,' about 150 to
200 square feet. The garden receives full sun. Not surprisingly, the
garden design style that Sharon chose would be best described as a cottage
garden -- an informal, yet well-designed, riot of color, texture,
and height.
Two keys to keeping a garden lush
and dynamic are proper soil preparation and a garden design with succession
in mind. The first step is to prepare the soil. Ample compost was added
to Sharon's demonstration garden, perhaps one-fifth to one-fourth
of the volume of the soil. For example, three inches of compost could
be laid on top and dug carefully into about twelve inches of the native
soil. If you do not have twelve inches of soil to work with, a high
quality soil blend should be imported to create at least a foot of soil
for your raised bed. If it is a good garden mix, there would be no need
to add further compost initially. Since we are lucky to have a deep
soil, we used a combination of Lady Bug Revitalizer compost and a pine
humus compost. Even though our soil is deep, we added some of our Garden
Mix also, to create more of a raised bed. Also added at this time were
other soil amendments to sustain the nutrition of the plants. Lady Bug
8-2-4 organic fertilizer was added, along with greensand, an organic
mineral supplement. When planting each plant, Sharon also added a small
amount of Rabbit Hill Farm "Buds and Blooms" fertilizer
right in the hole.
In this process, two mistakes
to avoid are working the soil when it is wet and tilling the soil too
much. When a soil is worked when it is wet, soil particles are forced
together to form clumps. This can ruin the soil texture -- sometimes
for years. Likewise, the soil does not benefit from being tilled repeatedly.
The "No-Till" and the "Double-Digging" methods
of farming and gardening are testaments to this idea. Yes, we want to
mix our amendments rather uniformly through the bed, but the old idea
of bringing out the rototiller and working the bed first one direction,
and then the opposite is not necessary. For one thing, this method can
wipe out many beneficial insects and critters from our garden soil,
such as earthworms. Another reason not to over-till is that the soil
has a natural structure that can be lost if the soil is too homogenized.
All soil amendments can be laid on top of the soil at the same time,
and gently worked into the soil below with a garden fork. If you use
a rototiller, try to only make one thorough pass through the soil.
Once the soil is prepared, it
is best to let it settle and "mellow" for at least a week
or two, especially if compost has been added. Water the whole area deeply,
then set your sights on designing the garden on paper and choosing your
plants. Knowing the character of your plants is essential in succession
planting. Just as each of our friends has a different personality, our
plants do too. To get the most beauty out of a garden with succession
planting, we plant an early bloomer, which fades in the heat, next to
a plant that excels in the heat. The heat-lover provides shade for the
early-bloomer and also provides us with a bloom and interest in the
summer. Ideally, plants with evergreen foliage are mixed throughout
to give us some color even in the winter months. In this plan, 55 perennials,
three shrubs, one shrub rose, and dozens of annual bluebonnets were
planted. In addition, seeds and bulbs were sprinkled throughout the
design, too, which will peep up through existing plants in winter to
early spring and then fade when the warm weather plants begin emerging.
For example, since the ground-hugging
Winecups (Callirhoe involucrata) love the cooler months, and start blooming
in early spring, Sharon planted them right next to a grouping of purple-flowering
Dwarf Ruellia (Ruellia brittoniana "Katy") at the very front
rim of the garden. With their trailing habit, they will spill over the
edge, looking beautiful against the limestone border. The Ruellia dies
back in the winter, just when the Winecups are doing their thing. Once
the weather warms up, the Ruellias will come out, and the Winecups will
fade somewhat. On the other side of the Winecups, a trio of Lamb's
Ear (Stachys byzantina) were planted, whose silvery leaves will look
beautiful with the magenta blooms of the Winecups. As the garden matures,
the Winecups will snake through the taller plant, making it appear as
though the Lamb's Ear has wine-colored, cup-shaped blooms. Behind
this grouping, there is a limestone rock feature, and an evergreen Salvia
greggii "Compact Violet", both giving a taller, more vertical
structure to this grouping. Also planted here are a smattering of bluebonnet
plants, flanking the outside of the arrangement, and an evergreen Origanum
microphyllum, spilling over the limestone edge along with the Winecups.
In another grouping, three Hill Country Penstemon (Penstemon triflorus
"Hill Country") were planted with a white trailing Lantana
(Lantana montevidensis "Weeping White"). An evergreen, the
Penstemon looks its best in the fall through the spring. It will bloom
cherry-red in the spring, but does not look very good in summer. That
is when the deciduous Lantana comes to the rescue. The warmer it gets,
the more the Lantana loves it, shading the Penstemon and hiding it from
view. Also planted around the edge are more bluebonnet plants. Their
basal rosettes will grow in the fall and winter, along with the Penstemon,
and will bloom in the early spring. Their job is to bring beauty to
the area, along with the Penstemon, while the Lantana is still dormant.
Columbines are lovely perennials
for a flower bed, but they have their preferences. They like full sun,
but only in the cooler months. Therefore, they are a nice choice to
plant under a deciduous tree. In this garden design, we did not want
a large deciduous tree shading the whole garden in the summer. Therefore,
a small Purple Leaf Sand Cherry (probably Prunus cistena), which will
only grow up to about ten feet tall, was chosen to frame the back of
the garden. Within the shade of the Sand Cherry, Sharon planted golden-flowered
Columbines (Aquilegia chrysantha). Along with the Columbines, she placed
a lavender-flowering Pitcher Sage (Salvia pitcheri) to one side of the
Sand Cherry, and in front an Abelia (Abelia grandiflora "Sherwoodii")
was planted. The Sand Cherry does not have a distinctive trunk, so from
one angle, the Abelia, reaching a height of only three to four feet
tall, blocks the view of the trunk, and from another angle, the Pitcher
Sage, growing up to five feet, does the same.
In front of the Abelia are three
Philippine Violets (Barleria cristata). In between the Philippine Violets,
Summer Snowflake bulbs (Leucojum aestivum) were planted. In this case,
the Snowflakes produce white blooms with green-tinged edges in the early
spring, while the Philippine Violets perform best later when it is warm,
blooming a dark purple. The only drawback here is that if we get a late
freeze while the Snowflakes are blooming -- late March or early April
-- the blooms will be lost. Off to the side is also a Sedum "Autumn
Joy," which will bring out its pinkish-colored blooms in autumn,
as the name suggests. Both the wide, strappy leaves of the Snowflake
and the broad leaves of the Violets contrast well against the tiny leaves
of the Abelia behind them. As Sharon pointed out, if a plant with small
leaves and a "busy" look were planted in front of the Abelia,
it would simply get lost since both plants would have a similar foliage.
Likewise, the bulky leaves and flower heads of the Sedum contrast well
with the Abelia 's tiny leaves.
Also framing the back of the garden
-- and helping to cover up an ugly pole -- is a Hardy Bottlebrush
(Callistemon citrinus). At a maximum height of 20 -- 25 feet, it
is the tallest plant in the garden. Sharon admitted this is somewhat
of an experimental choice: the Bottlebrush does fine in her garden in
town, but our nursery in Oak Hill gets notoriously colder in winter.
The Bottlebrush is another plant, like the Sand Cherry, which has a
nondescript trunk. Therefore, an evergreen Gray Leaf Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster
glaucophyllus), reaching an ultimate height of five to six feet, was
planted a few feet from the base. Its powdery gray leaves complement
the bluish tint of the Bottlebrush leaves very well.
To help block the view of the
bottom of the rainwater collection barrel, several plants were employed.
Two Thryallis "Golden Showers" were planted fairly close
together (about one to two feet apart) to form one large glossy, yellow-flowered
shrub. Possibly the centerpiece of the garden, a Floribunda rose --
the pink-flowering "Else Poulsen" -- helps to hide the
center of the tank. A Big Muhly (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri), with its
thick profusion of leaves and beautiful silvery flower plumes in the
fall, rounds out the disguise. The Big Muhly, or Lindheimer Muhly, is
often considered a superior substitute for the Pampas grass because
the blades do not scratch and cut tender human skin as the Pampas blades
do.
As I mentioned earlier, bulbs
and seeds were planted also to fill in every nook and cranny of the
garden throughout the season. Planted amongst the bluebonnets in the
Winecup-Ruellia grouping are some Narcissus "Grand Soleil d'Or."
These are small-flowered, Tazetta-type Daffodil bulbs with a yellow
saucer and an orange cup. Likewise, another Tazetta Daffodil, Narcissus
"Chinese Sacred Lilies," with a white saucer and a yellow
cup, are planted amongst Bluebonnets around the Sedum "Autumn
Joy." The goal is that these bulbs should bloom about the time
of the Bluebonnets and provide quite a show in the early spring. However,
if we have a warm autumn, these Narcissus are likely to bloom within
the next six to eight weeks. Either way, they will be beautiful. Rain
Lilies are planted at random within two feet of the edge all around,
to give a surprise bloom from their underground bulb whenever it rains.
Then, on top of the finished planting, wherever there was bare ground,
seeds were sown. Sharon planted the seeds of the shortest flowers near
the edge of the garden, progressively planting the seeds of taller and
taller flowers as she moved back towards the Bottlebrush and Sand Cherry.
These seeds, listed in order of height from shortest to tallest, are:
California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), Oriental Poppy (Papaver
rhoeas, P. paeoniflorum, and P. lacinatum), Bread Seed Poppy (Papaver
somniferum), Larkspur (Consilida ambigua), Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus),
and Old-Fashioned Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea).
Listed herein are just some of
the examples of the plants and their associations in this lovely new
cottage garden at The Natural Gardener. And this cottage garden is only
one example of the possibilities! The combinations are practically infinite.
If you have an island garden bed, for example, instead of a garden with
a front and a back, these same plants could be rearranged so that the
tallest plants are in the center, rather than in the back. Then the
rest of the plants could be arranged so that they radiate out from the
tallest plants in the center to the shortest plants on the edge.
Get to know the personalities
of your plants and combine them to show off all of their best features
and hide them when they are not at their best. Do not be afraid of color
combinations -- Mother Nature does not clash. However, it does help
to have a common theme running through the garden -- a repetition
of color and a repetition of certain plants helps prevent the garden
from looking too "busy." Even though there is a riot of
color going on in this garden, and numerous species, there are threads
of uniformity to tie it all together. The purple and lavender colors
throughout provide repetition, as do the Ruellias, Dianthus, Salvias,
Bluebonnets, Rain Lilies, Daffodils, and Larkspur.
In October, we are usually blessed
with the perfect weather to enjoy all the best gardening activities.
Since it is prime time for planting, why not design and plant the garden
of your dreams? Pick your favorite theme or color, pull out all the
gardening books and catalogs, consult your favorite horticulturist,
and dive in to planting a beautiful garden that will treat your senses
year-round. Enjoy!
October
2002
As
much as possible, our homes should be a peaceful oasis. The peace and
comfort of home extends from our bedroom to the rest of our house, outside
into our yard, into our community, our country, and our world. Within
our sphere of influence, our home and our country can also reflect our
dedication to personal and human freedom. If we want a pink house with
a shrub pruned into the shape of an elephant, so be it. This is America.
Our homes are an outward expression of our personality, our values,
and our creativity, not another sphere of subjugation by those who would
have us all look and act the same. Living in the land of the free, we
accept the potential risk of living next door to the pink house with
the elephant shrub; we value and honor our freedom - and the next person’s
freedom - that much.
Now, we do have freedom up to
a point. We are restrained and governed by the laws of nature, by cause
and effect. If we plant a cactus in clay soil and we want to water it
every week, that cactus will pretend to thrive up until the point of
no return. At that point, the cactus will suddenly croak, because the
laws of nature state that that cactus wants a well-draining soil and
very little water. Likewise, if we plant a Texas Sage (Cenizo) in some
shady location, and water it every week, it will get sickly also, and
likely begin to host a colony of lace bugs. (Lace bugs, the pests, are
not to be confused with lacewings, the beneficial insect).
So, how do we create that oasis
of a landscape around that house we call “home”? With a little
research and understanding, along with patience enough to accept some
losses due to trial and error, we can design our own outdoor sanctuary
surrounding our home, sweet home. Even if we already have a landscape
and we just want to spruce it up and make it our own, there are some
questions that it would behoove us to ask ourselves.
The first question we have to
ask (and answer) is, “What do I want?” One design trick is
to look out of each window of our home and ask, “What do I want
to see here?” The second design trick is to walk around out in
our yard and ask, “What do I want to do here?” Delineating
the outdoor “rooms” according to their respective activity
or activities is an important step in transforming a yard from just
a pretty picture into a vibrant place to spend time with our loved ones.
“Do I want to entertain guests and have barbeques here?” If
so, that area should be convenient to the kitchen, and perhaps secluded
with a privacy fence or hedge. Perhaps we want this area to have a cool
lawn under the perfect shade tree. Do we have a view of the neighbor’s
pink house that we’d rather not see? There’s another opportunity
for a privacy fence or hedge or vine. Make sure that privacy plant is
an evergreen! Do we want to avoid mowing at all costs? I have seen some
beautiful yards - there’s one in my neighborhood - made up of lovely
perennials and ornamental grasses planted all the way up to the sidewalk.
There’s not a speck of turfgrass anywhere. Talk about low maintenance!
Do we want to attract birds, hummingbirds, or butterflies? Do we want
a vegetable or herb garden? Do we want a compost pile or bin? Like the
barbeque area, the veggie garden and compost should be planned relatively
close to the kitchen. Do we need an area in which children can play
safely? Perhaps this area should be easily seen from the kitchen or
living room, with a nice lawn for play and a tree or two for shade and
for climbing. A children’s play area should be well separated from
our prized flower garden, lest a ball or a couple of exuberant feet
find their way (accidentally, of course) onto the Amaryllis bloom that
we’ve been waiting all year for. Do we want a segment of the yard
to be wild and wooly and untouched by human hands?
All of our desired activities
and “rooms” should be mapped out onto a diagram of our yard
so that our landscape design more easily meets our needs. After this
step is taken, then we can choose whether we want to hire someone else
to do the landscape design and installation or if we want to do the
job ourselves. If we choose to do the work ourselves, then our next
step is to look at the specific indications and limitations of each
site. (Even if we choose to hire a landscape designer, this step is
beneficial. The more knowledgeable we are, the better we can get our
needs met). The first step in this stage is to get to know our soil.
When the soil is partially moist (perhaps two or three days after a
deep watering), dig down as deep as you can. Get a handful of soil.
Look at its color. Squeeze it into a ball, and toss the ball lightly
up in the air. If the soil feels sticky and the ball stays intact, and
the color is blackish, you have the native Blackland Prairie clay soil.
If the soil is black and more crumbly, less sticky, you may be lucky
enough to have a native clay soil that has been amended over time with
organic matter. If the shovel inserts perhaps two inches before it comes
to a jarring halt, you live in the Hill Country, and you have probably
just hit the native white limestone or the native white caliche clay.
If you find either of these soils below, but on top is an orange-ish
colored, gritty clay muck, then you are probably in a relatively new
home where the builders have trucked in what they erroneously call “sandy
loam.” This material will grow nothing - not even weeds - until
it is amended with plenty of high quality manure compost, preferably
with a little sand mixed in as well. (Too much sand, and it will make
matters worse). Repeat the soil-testing procedure in several different
places throughout the yard, because oftentimes one can have different
soil types on the same property.
The other questions to ask regarding
each site’s indications and limitations are: Is it shady or sunny?
Is it a low spot or a high point? Is it well-drained or does it hold
water after a rain? Are there power lines overhead which limit the height
of a planting? Is the spot on the corner of two streets, where drivers
need a view of the crossing traffic and dense, tall plantings should
be avoided? Where is the prevailing wind? We will want to take advantage
of that. What plants are growing well there already? The answers to
these questions and all other pertinent observations should be marked
on our diagram of the yard.
After this site analysis has been
done, now we can get down to the nitty-gritty! Now we can begin to consider
what plants would be a good match for each site. This is where a good
book and/or a knowledgeable nursery staff can come in handy. In the
book department, here are several books to choose from: Native Texas
Plants by Sally and Andy Wasowski; Gardening Success With Difficult
Soils by Scott Ogden; and Howard Garrett’s Plants for Texas. In
the nursery department, I am partial to our staff at The Natural Gardener.
It is beneficial to consult more than one resource. Getting a second
or third opinion helps to filter out bad advice and broadens our plant
choices.
The importance of planting native
and well-adapted plants is starting to be common knowledge now. However,
it’s not enough to just plant natives; we need to understand the
specific requirements of each plant under consideration. Like the Texas
Sage example, we must know whether the plant we’ve chosen likes
sun or shade, the Hill Country or the Blackland Prairie soils, or both.
We need to know the mature size of our plant. Have we chosen a location
with enough room to accomodate our plant, without having to prune it
mercilessly? At this point, we also want to consider some basic art
principles in order to create beauty. Line, form, texture, color, repetition
... break out the old art books!
What do I think is beautiful?
Perhaps if we moved to Central Texas from the emerald green of the Northeast
or the tropical beauty of southern Florida or California, we may have
to adjust our idea of beauty to fit within the constraints of our ecosystem
here. If we try to plunk that lilac or azalea, for example, into our
extremely alkaline soil here, and expect it to survive our summers,
we will most likely be disappointed. However, there are plenty of beautiful
plants to choose from in every category. Sun or shade? Evergreen or
deciduous? Flowering or not? Pink, purple, yellow, blue, or red flowers?
One foot tall or ten? The aforementioned books and nursery resources
can usually pinpoint our desires into at least one or two plant selections
for each spot in our outdoor sanctuary.
Home is one of the best places
to express fully our freedom of choice and our personal identity. Let
this prime season for planting be our season for self-expression. Here’s
wishing you and yours all the peace, comfort, and enjoyment of home,
sweet home.
|
8648
Old Bee Cave Road
Stacey
(Rosina) Newton is a graduate of the Texas A&M University (Aggieland)
Horticulture Department, class of 1984, and has been in the environmental/horticulture
field ever since. She learned everything she knows about organic gardening
while working at The Natural Gardener, starting in 1997.