Red-Hot Mocha

As a garden writer, I often get asked the most difficult of questions: What is your favorite plant? It's a query akin to asking which of my children I love the most, and I often defer to the answer offered by the late plantsman Allen Haskell, who always said something along the lines of " . . . whichever plant is in bloom that day."

When pressed, I often cite lemon-scented thyme as my favorite plant. I just love planting it around my walkways, driveway and other full-sun areas. It's impossible to tire of the lemon fragrance that clings to your shoes or the leg of your pants. Tolerant of hot, dry locations and moderate shade, Thymus citriodorus is a great lawn substitute unless your soil is too moist for prolonged periods.

Enough about thyme, though. A new plant is creeping up my top 10 list since it arrived in a package of plant samples from the folks at Proven Winners, who are known for their annual plants that spill out of containers. A most unassuming plant when it arrived, a heuchera known as 'Dolce Mocha Mint' has been a spectacular performer for consecutive summers in my Zone 4b garden.

Coral bells, as heucheras are commonly known, have long been underappreciated inhabitants of the shade garden. When a cultivar known as 'Palace Purple' hit the market a few years ago and earned some attention from the Perennial Plant Association, coral bells started showing up in more garden centers. Breeding has recently intensified into varieties like 'Mocha Mint.'

The plant's medium-sized leaves have hints of purple, green and silver and provide an almost year-round backdrop. I planted my samples under a birch tree with a fairly low canopy, figuring the foliage would be a nice complement to the green leaves and white bark of the tree.

Last year, the plants bloomed like crazy, but I figured maybe that was a first-year aberration. This year, though, the red flowers emerged in early June and when I looked outside on Aug. 7, the color had faded but was still discernable. For a heuchera to bloom for two months with flowers of any note is amazing -- a major step forward in comparison to previous cultivars of coral bells.

The official zone rating of the plant is Zone 5a, but 'Mocha Mint' made it through last winter in New Gloucester, Maine, when several other alleged Zone 5 plants such as gaura, hibiscus and even lychnis did not.

Northeast winters can be fickle and the plant could still prove to be too tender in time. At two months of bloom, though, this plant holds up well, even as an annual. If you need a perennial to brighten up a shady area, I'd encourage you to give 'Mocha Mint' a try.

-Paul Tukey: August 11, 2006.

Landscaping Your Yard On A Budget

One of the first questions that clients tend to ask me upon an initial meeting to discuss landscaping their property is: “How much is this going to cost me?” to which I always respond “Don’t think about that now. Concentrate on what you want and need. And whatever you tell me the budget is, I promise we will not go over that amount.” This is the same piece of advice that I offer to you for the following reasons.

Developing or creating your own landscape (with or without the assistance of a professional) is simply a matter of brainstorming, prioritizing and then problem solving. The first step is to spend time thinking of what you want (i.e. a cutting garden, a cottage garden front yard) as well as what you need (i.e. an area for a basketball hoop, a place for a swing set) and letting your imagination run wild. Do you remember ever being taught that brainstorming is a process by which you let all of your ideas, from the sublime to the grandiose, come to life on a piece of paper? If you censor yourself in advance and only think in ‘logical’ terms, you may miss out on a concept that could help to make your garden a very special haven.

After you’ve brainstormed and realized what works and what doesn’t (i.e. you may have thought you wanted a barbeque pit but then your husband reminds you that you hate cooking outside in the summer because of the bugs), it would make sense to edit your ‘wish list’ and number your’ wants and needs’ in order of importance.

Finally, make a rudimentary sketch of your property and begin to sketch in the landscape elements on the sheet of paper to see how and where they would fit on your property. This sketch is strictly for you; so that you can begin to imagine the most effective way of designing your landscape. Give yourself time and patience with this stage, the stage that I call ‘problem solving’. You may end up doing a half dozen sketches before you get a sense that you are on the right track. Don’t try to do it all in one sitting. If you get frustrated with your lack of progress, leave this piece of the project alone and come back to it at some later point.

If you do what is suggested above, it will save you a tremendous amount of time and money as you work towards creating your landscape. Along with the above ideas are some tips on working on a budget:

1. Always have a master plan from which to work. If your budget doesn’t allow, do the landscaping in stages. For example, if you are building a new home and are left with only dirt after the house is completed, you may only be able to afford landscaping the front of your house and seeding the front and back yards for the first year.

2. If you are not doing the landscaping yourself, interview at least three different landscapers, garden designers etc. to be able to compare prices and perhaps to get more ideas.

3. In order to cut costs, use smaller plant material (even with evergreens) selectively (particularly when it is a fast growing specimen, i.e Leyland Cypress).

4. If you are Doing It Yourself, comparison shop. Take into consideration the quality of the plant, the size and the reputation of the store from which you are purchasing it. Do they stand by their plant material and do they offer a warrantee?

5. If you are using a garden designer, find out from where they are purchasing their plant material and ask to see some of the properties they have landscaped.

6. Make sure that you have good thick, top soil on your property so that you can grow healthy, long lasting grass. If you are digging beds, add plenty of organic matter and roto-till it in to soil as deeply as possible. It is worth the time, energy and money.

7. Don’t be disheartened when you finish landscaping your property. The first season, your yard and garden beds will most probably still feel somewhat bare and you might even think to yourself: “Will these plants ever grow?” Trust me, they will grow, more quickly than you can imagine. And believe it or not, watching them grow over the seasons can be one of the great pleasures of designing your own landscape

8. Continue to work from your master plan over the coming years; making amendments when necessary. If you keep on adding new elements to your property each season (even on a limited budget), you will be surprised at how quickly your property will evolve from a somewhat sparse space to an organic, lush, living outdoor space.

Article by: By Fran Sorin

Watering the garden - How to make each drop count

Have you ever stood watering the garden on a hot summer afternoon, the sprayer nozzle and hose in one hand and a cool drink in the other? It feels good, but the trouble is, you're getting a better drink than your plants are.

Why? You're using the wrong tool for the job.

A sprayer nozzle is great for washing the car, but pretty ineffective for watering because it gushes a high-pressure jet that flattens plants. This makes it almost impossible to stay in one spot long enough to give an adequate amount of water. A sprayer nozzle just won't deliver enough moisture to penetrate the soil to the root level where plants take it up.

Then there's the fact that a hot mid-afternoon is about the worst time to water this way, or to run a sprinkler as a lot of water evaporates in the heat.

Watering the garden the right way

Plants need moisture — a healthy plant is 75 to 90 percent water. Adequate water is especially critical during the first few weeks of growth, while plants are building their root systems and getting established.

To water individual plants or plants in containers, rather than a hose end sprayer nozzle, the better tool is a watering can, or a hose-end watering wand. A watering wand has a water breaker with many tiny holes to release water in a soft shower rather than a high-pressure stream.

More tips for watering the garden

• Don't water if you don't have to — too much water is as bad as too little. Measure and keep track of rainfall on a calendar. The ideal for most gardens is an inch every week, but many established plants can easily weather short periods of dryness. If heat and drought are prolonged, water your most valuable plants.


• When you're watering the garden, give infrequent but generous waterings, about an inch once a week. Avoid frequent shallow waterings, which only encourage roots to stay near the soil surface. The more deeply rooted your plants, the more resilient they'll be in a dry period.


• When you water, moisture should penetrate the top five or six inches of soil. Dig a small hole with your hand trowel an hour after you've watered to check. Let the soil surface dry between waterings.


• The best time for watering the garden is early in the morning or in the evening. In the heat of the day — between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. — sun and wind quickly evaporate a significant quantity of water.


• Overhead watering with a sprinkler is best done early in the morning so that leaves can dry off through the day. Foliage that's frequently wet overnight creates the perfect environment for fungal diseases.


• Add organic matter to improve soil's ability to retain moisture. This benefits all soils, but it is especially important for helping sandy soils retain water.


• When planting, whether annuals, perennials, trees or shrubs, dig a hole, fill it with water to allow moisture to be absorbed into the soil. Then put the plant into the moistened hole, firm soil around the roots and water again.


• Once they're in the ground, keep new plants moist, watering generously once a week if it doesn't rain adequately. After six to eight weeks, gradually cut back on watering.


• Mulch bare soil to a depth of two to four inches to help retain moisture.

Article by: Yvonne Cunnington
www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com