A Foolproof Flower Garden

A Foolproof Flower Garden By Fran Sorin

Don't settle for potted pansies. With a little effort and patience, you can create your own backyard paradise.Maybe you've just moved from an apartment to your first house. Between family, work, carpooling and everything else -- has it been 12 trips to the Home Depot? -- your first garden awaits your imprint. Planting flowers is a great way to exercise your creativity, but it can seem daunting to the beginner. Don't despair: The investment of time and energy will repay you in spades. After more than 20 years of designing gardens, here's my insider's guide to getting started.
1. Know your property's relationship to the sun. If you have a true southern exposure, you'll get direct sun most of the afternoon. A northern exposure will give you mainly shade; eastern exposure, morning sun and afternoon shade; western exposure, pretty much late-afternoon sun, with shade the rest of the day.
2. Make sure the type of garden you want can be done with the amount of sun you get. For example, although most herb and cutting gardens need direct sunlight (six hours of sun a day), woodland gardens thrive in shade. If you have a shady lot and you want a cutting garden just like the one you saw in a magazine, forget it. Instead, try to re-interpret it by using shade perennials, bulbs and shrubs.
3. Choose a site for your flower bed that can be viewed from inside your house. If possible, take advantage of garden views from outdoor terraces or patios, too.
4. Let your garden reflect your personal style, just as your indoor space does. If you tend toward the traditional indoors, think in terms of a traditional garden with a formal, symmetrical outline, perhaps with pedestals of evergreens to add to the mood. If you lean toward a more rustic style, your outdoor space should reflect that informal feel: Let an abundance of flowers brim over the edges of the garden, and use some flea market finds as containers.
5. When you're ready to experiment with the placement of the flower bed, lay out a hose to outline its shape and size. (Or use spray landscape paint from a paint store.) Leave the hose in one position for a few days before deciding whether that configuration works. Geometric shapes generally indicate a formal design; irregular or island beds are more informal.
6. When the soil has warmed up and is not too soggy, you can dig the bed. First, remove the grass -- roots and all -- with a spade, or use an herbicide (like Round-Up) or an organic grass killer. Then rototill the area or turn it over with a fork. At least 12 inches of good organic matter should be laid on top of the existing soil. Once you've raked the organic matter evenly across the bed, edge the perimeter with a sharp spade to give it a professional, crisp finish.
7. The most effective gardens are simple ones that follow the adage "Less is more." Select plants of various shapes and textures that bloom at different times of the gardening season and that resist disease and drought. Limit your palette to two or three colors. I like to work with combinations of three plants to create a vignette.
8. Plant a lot of each specimen. The repetition of specimens and colors soothes the eye and paves the way for a more glorious design. I plant a minimum of seven of each specimen in a small garden bed, and up to 20-something of each in an expansive area.
9. Plant in a flowing or wavelike pattern. Play around with the plants while they are still in their pots, positioning them around your garden bed to see how they look before you actually plant them. Some of my greatest moments of inspiration occur when I make last-minute changes.
10. Spread mulch as soon as possible after planting (no more than 2 inches thick). Do it carefully, to avoid damaging the plants.
11. Until the plants are settled in (about two weeks), I water every third day early in the morning, 30 to 45 minutes at a time, with a soaker hose or a rotating sprinkler.
12. Over the remainder of the spring (in cool regions, into the early summer), fill in bare areas with exuberant summer bulbs or tubers such as dahlias, cannas, elephant ears, oxalis and colocasias, and annual plants or seeds that can be scratched right into your garden soil.
13. To give the plants extra "oomph," spray them with an organic fertilizer, such as fish fertilizer, once every four weeks, preferably first thing in the morning when it's cool -- never when the temperature is above 80 degrees.
14. Be patient. Plants won't fully mature for a good two to three years. Enjoy the process and keep notes on the plant combinations that give you great pleasure. I think you will be surprised how often you use them as you continue to create new gardens.
Three of my favorite plant trios-- Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage), Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' (coneflower), Liatris spicata-- Salvia greggii 'Maraschino,' Alchemilla mollis (lady's mantle), Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'-- Phlox divaricata 'Chattahoochee,' Tiarella cordifolia (foamflower), Dryopteris marginalis (leatherwood fern)

http://fransorin.com/index.asp Fran Sorin, she's a great source for gardening info.

Spring Pruning Guide

Apple
Early spring
Prune moderately. Keep tree open with main branches well spaced. Avoid sharp V-shaped crotches.
Cherry
Early spring
Prune the most vigorous shoots moderately.
Clematis
Spring
Cut weak growth. Save as much old wood as possible.
Flowering dogwood
After flowering
Remove dead wood only.
Forsythia
After flowering
Remove old branches at ground. Trim new growth.
Lilac
After flowering
Remove diseased, scaly growth, flower heads, and suckers.
Peach
Early spring
Remove half of last year's growth. Keep tree headed low.
Plum
Early spring
Cut dead, diseased branches; trim rank growth moderately.
Rhododendron
After flowering
Prune judiciously. Snip branches from weak, leggy plants to induce growth from roots.
Rose (except climbers)
Spring, after frosts
Cut dead and weak growth; cut branches or canes to four or five eyes.
Rose (climbers)
After flowering
Cut half of old growth; retain new shoots for next year.
Rose of Sharon
When buds
Cut all winter-killed wood to swell begin growth back to live wood.
Trumpet vine
Early spring
Prune side branches severely to main stem.
Virginia creeper
Spring
Clip young plants freely. Thin old plants and remove dead growth.
Wisteria
Spring, summer
Cut new growth to spurs at axils of leaves.

From The Old Farmers's Almanac http://www.almanac.com/garden/trees/springprune.php

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Golden Hakone Grass By Yvonne Cinnington

Golden Hakone Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola')2009 Perennial Plant of the Year

One of my favorite plants, Golden Hakone Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola') is the 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year.
In my garden I team this ornamental grass with gold-tinged 'Golden Tiara' hosta and purple-leaved oxalis, a non-hardy summer bulb plant.
This grouping at my side entry garden (shown below) looks lovely all season long.

This species of grass is native to Japan's main Island, Honshu, and gets its name from the region near Mt. Hakone. Chloa is the Greek word for grass.
How to growGolden Hakone Grass
Hardiness: USDA zones 5-9.
Size and growth habit: This grass grows 12 to 18 inches tall and 18 to 24 inches wide, and its leaves fall attractively in one direction.
The bright yellow foliage is 1/2" wide with thin green stripes, and in the fall becomes tinged pink and red.
Golden hakone grass spreads by rhizomes and stolons, but grows so slowly that it does not becomes a rampant spreader. Slow growth means that you don't need to divide it for many years.
However, if you wish to divide to obtain more plants, as with other ornamental grasses, the best time to do this is in early spring just as new growth starts.
Light and soil conditions: This ornamental grass grows well in partial shade, especially in hot climates, but it can take more sun in cooler areas. Plant in moist, humus-rich, well-drained soil.
The Perennial Plant Association recommends not planting it in poorly drained soil, heavy clay or excessively dry and sandy soils. However, I've had several readers tell me they have it in moist clay areas, where it grows well.
In its native habitat, the growing conditions are wet, rocky cliffs, so this plant appears to be quite adaptable.
How the 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year was chosen
Each year the Perennial Plant Association selects a plant of the year.
The chosen perennial must be:
-Suitable for a wide range of climates
-Easy to grow (low maintenance care)
-Easy for growers to propagate (comes true from seed or vegetative propagation
-Attractive throughout the gardening season.
Golden Hakone Grass is the second ornamental grass to be chosen as a Perennial Plant of the Year. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster', feather reed grass, was chosen in 2001.
Maintenance: Golden Hakone grass is a shade tolerant grass and has few insect or disease problems. Even deer tend to leave it alone.
The only maintenance required is to cut the previous season's dead leaves back in fall, late winter or early spring.
This grass has shallow roots, and therefore is best divided in spring, like most grasses. If divided in fall, the divisions are prone to cold weather damage and frost heaving.
Garden uses: This perennial grass makes a great companion for hostas, especially hostas with gold variegation, or bluish leaves.
Other good matches with perennials include foam flower (Tiarella cultivars) and Heucheras, especially those with purple leaves, and purple leaved bugbane cultivars (Actaea, also known as Cimicifuga), such as 'Hillside Black Beauty' and 'Brunette'.
Golden Hakone Grass also looks great with astilbe, epimedium, wild ginger, bleeding heart and lady's mantle.
I've also grown it as a container plant and love the way it cascades over one side like a waterfall. My favorite way to use it in my garden beds is as an edger where its foliage can cascade onto a path.

http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/index.html

Outdoor Planting Table from Old Farmers Almanac

Outdoor Planting Table for 2009


The best time to plant flowers and vegetables that bear crops above ground is during the light of the Moon; that is, from the day the Moon is new to the day it is full. Flowering bulbs and vegetables that bear crops below ground should be planted during the dark of the Moon; that is, from the day after it is full to the day before it is new again. The Moon Favorable column below gives these days, which are based on the Moon's phases for 2009 and the safe periods for planting in areas that receive frost. See the Moon Phase Calendar for the exact days of the new and full Moons.


To find the best time to plant for your area check out this link;
http://www.almanac.com/garden/plantingtable/index.php

The Old Farmers Almanac is a great source for gardening information, and it's fun.

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