Why Visiting Nurseries Ruins Garden Designs

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The vague inclination I had to put strawberries in the back garden suddenly took fruit after a visit to a local garden center. My husband and I were on our way to visit family and had some extra time. What better way to spend it then visiting a garden center? We went to Cook’s Farm & Greenhouse in Orem, UT. This is the very first nursery I remember visiting as kid to pick out starts to plant in our family vegetable garden. I enjoyed it then, and I still enjoy it now.

They price everything (at least the herbaceous smaller stuff) based on the size of container it is in. Very convenient from a consumer standpoint. (Too often I go to garden centers and can never find the price, hoping that when I check out it won’t be too outrageous.) Otherwise, the greenhouse has a good layout, and they also sale produce. (I was thinking that selling produce would be an excellent way to extend the season at a garden center. I’m glad somebody actually does it). I was browsing through all the plants, mostly uninterested, and happened upon a very large six pack of Albion strawberries.

I purchased the reasonably prices strawberries. Then I had to go home and figure out where to put them. That resulted in digging up my coral bells, moving them over to the newly dug out bed, and replacing the space with my strawberries. That is never what I had planned, but I like it. And I’m super excited to have fresh strawberries.

(Side note: I did an undergraduate project on strawberries and grew a 300 ft row. That year I had all the strawberries I desired. And evie-2 was my favorite variety, but not easy to come by.)

I want this tree

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This is a Golden Variegated Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus ‘Areo Variegata’) I was unaware that pines could be variegated. The effect of the variegation is stunning. I found this tree on a recent visit to the Utah Botanical Center, over at the Varga Arboretum. It wasn’t the only tree I was impressed with.

I have long loved Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), but this variety ‘Cascade Falls’ makes it easy to fit in a residential landscape. Bald cypress is a swamp tree–and yet here it is growing in a water-wise arboretum. Highly adaptive and quite unique. This tree is actually deciduous–it will turn red and lose its needles in the fall.

Many times in my visit I found I knew the species tree, but not the cultivar. The cultivar was what impresses and I began to realized that I need to learn cultivars not just species. But oh what a daunting task that is.

This is Diablo ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diablo’). It’s not an uncommon shrub–but I’ve never seen it pruned up to tree form, exposing exfoliating bark. I was unaware this shrub had such beautiful bark.

This is Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). A more open pine, but that allows a clear view of the bark. This would be great in the winter, or any season for that matter.

The Varga Arboretum is still under construction. I almost didn’t find a way in–but it was worth it when I did. When I worked at the UBC, I wasn’t even too aware of it’s existence (although at that time it was more a holding place for trees, not somewhere to visit). It has well labeled trees that give the botanical and common name, the year it was planted, and water use. They have unique trees, but some more common ones as well. It’s a great place to go and look for trees to use in your landscape.

One final tree. I would never plant this, but it made me laugh. This is Weeping Treadleaf Arborviatae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Filiformis’)

It’s the Cousin It of trees.

*Side note: anyone know of a good place to order bulbs?

Vacation

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We survived our vacation, and enjoyed most of it. Trips are much harder with a kid in tow. Everything took longer to do and so we didn’t do as much. But it was still very enjoyable. First we had to stop by a couple of public gardens that were beautiful. We went up to Logan and visited lots of family and friends, kept going to Grand Tetons and camped two nights. It rained, but not when we were putting up or taking down camp. Just the whole day we had to go out hiking and visit places. We went hiking anyway, but not quite as much as we might have. The one trail we went on was across a lake, up to a fall, and back around the same lake. We saw a moose + baby on our way back, and it stopped raining.

We visited my brother who moved up to Powell to go to school, and back home taking one final stop at my wonderful grandparents. It turned out to be a great trip. I decided not to really plan it–we had a direction and that’s about it. As it came close a lot of the plans just came together. It was fun and a nice break from home.

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Ogden Botanical Center

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My family went on vacation last week, and I was able to stop by a couple of gardens. One stop was the Ogden Botanical Gardens, located in Ogden (I bet you didn’t guess that). They had a cottage garden feel, and were very full of color. They are run by USU extension and have a education building, along with the park and gardens. There are classes, plant sales and other events, along with very helpful people there to help you out. Well worth the small side trip.

They did use a lot of annuals, but mostly in the front to add color. Those beds were gorgeous, and I like the use of the large variety of flowers all growing in and around each other, just packed with color. Further on, there were rose gardens (not my favorite, but fun if you like roses), perennial beds, shade gardens, and lots of pathways to meander down. It seemed to have a more naturalized feel: nothing was heavily pruned or maintained but still very pretty. They used a lot of warm-colored flowers which worked wonderfully to make a bright-feeling garden. After seeing this garden I am much more likly to use annuals (they just bring color in you can’t get any other way), and also let things go a little more naturalized.

Soil Texture

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Everyone should know their soil texture. Soil texture is the amount of sand, silt, and clay in a soil. Sand, silt and clay refers to the size of the soil particle. The texture affects most soil properties such as water relations, nutrition, compaction, and structure.

This is how you can classify soil texture, known as the texture triangle:

From USDA--NRCS

To get accurate measurement of sand, silt and clay particles it takes more skill than the average person has. But approximating works just fine. There are two easy ways to determine soil texture. The first is filling a jar with half soil, half water, shaking it up and letting it all settle out. The layer on the bottom is sand, the middle is silt and the top is clay. The texture triangle will help you determine the type of soil you have.

Here’s another useful method that takes less time (the jar method takes a whole day). I’ve seen people get very different results, but it’s not bad to determine a ballpark texture.

I hope you all tested your soil and came up with something close to a loam. That’s what we all want, and if you don’t have it: ADD ORGANIC MATTER.

*Ink and Penstemon recently had a couple of great posts about soil. That’s why I put this up.

Steep Hike

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My little family went on a hike yesterday. We actually got out of the house before 9:00, which is doing pretty good for sleeping in until 7:00. Here is where we went on the USGS Springville map. It’s located at the east end of center street in Springville.

Based on my rough interpretation of the map, we climbed 1,000 feet in 2.5 miles. In other words, it was very steep. I have no idea what to call this hike: it certainly isn’t that popular (we were the only people on it on a Saturday). The only reference I found on a google search called it Spring Canyon. It does say “spring” on the map, but it doesn’t really call the canyon “Spring Canyon”. But the hike, as mentioned before, was steep. Most of the way up it was pretty shady, although not all that pretty. Scrub oaks dominated, with an occasional maple and rare mountain mahogany. Under-story plants included lots of lupine, a few penstemons, DYCs and grass (most past bloom).  At the end, we started to get into more of an aspen forest and the grasses were still green. Much prettier. We stopped when we made it to the end of the trail: there’s a couple of different lookouts you can go to, but we were done and had no desire to hike another mile.

Peter kept me going a little. Joe carried him, but he hated slowing down and stopping, so we didn’t. I haven’t worked out so hard in a long time and it felt good. The shower after for my stenchy body was even better.

This week is vacation week, as Joe is in between semester. And he did very well his first semester of grad school, even while working. We will be going up to Wyoming. I’m excited. Peter should be too, but he has no idea it’s his last night in his crib for a few days…I hope he enjoys the traveling. Or at least tolerates it.

Watering the Lawn

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When I went outside to give my kid a ride on the swing, I discovered the mystery of the lawn irrigation. When they started the irrigation around my place it was going off multiple times a night, every night. I set out a tuna can, and found out they were applying a little over a half inch of water. Recently the irrigation was shut off entirely. The lawn is now quite dry and no longer lush green. So a neighbor came up to me and said that I must be cringing over the lawn. (I wasn’t. Just confused.) Turns out they had a leak in the system that needed to be fixed. She then said that they had an owner come up and say that this place looked like a dump due to dry grass. (Now I’m cringing.)

Where I am at, a lawn will survive with one irrigation a month. Not day, or even week. Month. This irrigation, and all irrigations for that matter, should be at least a half inch of water. One is better. If you do water that infrequently, the lawn will go dormant. Yellow, crispy, dormant. This is not a bad thing, and certainly doesn’t make a place a dump. Once it cools off, the lawn springs back into the lush greenness we love.

But most people like lush green lawn. That’s okay. You can get it by irrigating. But watering every day makes me cringe a lot, especially at a half-inch of water per irrigation. Its tons more water than the plant needs. Water the lawn ever day is a common practice around here, although why in the world it’s caught on is beyond me. More does tend to make lawn greener, although in a short-term non healthy way. It’s a lot like caffeine. Quick fix–but in the long run, the plants will crash. Plants, including the non-aquatic lawn, need a good night’s sleep rather than quick fixes. They need deep watering, much less frequently than is common.

I set one of my client’s clocks. Their lawn is watered twice a week, pretty deeply. (They also had a free water check, which is a great program if you are in Utah. They tell you how much to water based on the output of your system. So I really didn’t have to figure out how long to water to put a half inch on, I just set the clock.)  I’ll step it back when I stop by next time. Their lawn looks amazing. It’s getting less than a third of the water than the lawn at my complex was, and it’s actually more lush and healthy.

Do we have to maintain unnaturally lush green lawns in the heat of the summer? We can conserve a lot of water by allowing summer dormancy. But even if you want a green lawn, it needs a lot less water than you think. Please don’t follow what a neighbor is doing. Stop drowning the lawn.

Landscape Contractors

Recently, a weedy duplex near where I live received attention from a local landscape company. Within a few days, they had removed the weeds, put in some sod, various other shrubs and plants, and plenty of bark and rock mulch. This was all in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, but with proper irrigation it has all flourished and nothing is dead.

It’s nothing tremendously special, but a thousand times better than the weeds before. I wish they would have at least buried the rocks a bit so they look more natural, but no real complaints. The narrow park strip in this property was also dealt with well. I hate grass in park strips. Perennials are a good option if you have the room. But if the strip is narrow, I like this:

Rock mulch. No irrigation to water the cement, and no plants to get tramples and die. Narrow park strips just aren’t that functional. The only other option I would consider is low ground covers that can take a bit of traffic with a drip system. But the rocks are a lot easier.

Landscape contractors aren’t the cheapest way to create a garden, but they are fast and easy. Landscapers (good companies) also know what they are doing and avoid a lot of mistakes. They uses good plants, put in a decent irrigation system, and (hopefully) plant everything properly so it doesn’t die right off. The professionaly landscaped yards tend to have the same look about them around here. Curves, shrub beds with bark mulch and only a few different types of plants, and lawn. It’s better than what I normally see: lots and lots of lawn with teeny tiny planting beds.

Someday I will inspire someone to have only a bit of lawn and lots of neat plants. And it doesn’t have to include curves. (Not that there is anything wrong with curves. Just landscaped curves are so predicable and boring.) Or even better: I can do it myself. I will celebrate the day I get a house with a yard: and I won’t go out and hire a landscape contractor.

Harvest

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This is one of the best times of the year. The heat has started to abate, but most of all it’s time to harvest. My harvest is smaller than in previous years (I had less space), but I’m quite pleased with it. I picked my first couple tomatoes yesterday, and ate one like an apple. Certainly not the best tomato I’ve ever had but still delicious. I’ve made ratatouille twice this week, with eggplant and pepper from my own garden and zucchini from others. (No need to grow that myself. I keep turning down requests to take even more than what I have.)

Ratatouille is my favorite dish from the garden harvest. I craved it in the spring and resorted to buying rubbery grocery store eggplant. Ick…should have waited until harvest. Now is when I can make as much as I want (almost) and eat to my heart’s content. My garden has most of the fixings: eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, herbs. All I need to add is zucchini, onion, garlic. I was just about to write what I did tonight in recipe form, but I can’t quite translate it. You will get a paragraph instead. I cut corners when I cook and try to do everything as easy as possible, so feel free to elaborate the idea.

I put butter in the bottom of a crock pot, and layered slices of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and zucchini.  I sprinkled that all with garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and dried chopped onion. (Told you I cut corners. You could use real onion, etc.) I have no idea how much of each, just put on what looks good. Bake on high for 2-3 hours. I let it cool down, and used it to top toasted bagels, but have eaten it by itself, and on top of pasta.

Enjoy your harvests!

Curb-Side Makeover

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On of my relative’s house is a very plain manufactured home:

I gave them a landscape design for a present and recently finished the front planting bed. I wanted to get rid of the look of the manufactured home, and add lots more plants. I went with plants that mirrored the blue-grey and maroon in the house color, focusing primarily on foliage color. There are actually lots of interesting blue-grey/purple-leafed plants out there, so it was a fun design to do. The following plan could be planted more heavily, but I decided it was  good enough start.

I also decided to experiment with a digital makeover. I saw some on another garden blog and wanted to give it a go. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be, and the results are dramatic. I think people are much more likly to follow a landscape plan when they can see it as it would turn out. Overhead plans are functional, but don’t have the wow factor. Here’s the generated image of the matured landscape:

I’m pleased with how it turned out and have shared it a lot. It is the first of a lot more mock-ups follow: I enjoy doing it and it helped my planting plan as well.