Hardscape in the Garden

Aside from gardening with plants, most gardeners are interested in having structure and interest in the garden or landscape.

The fall and winter months provide a great time for building projects such as patios, walks, stepping stones and other “hardscape” projects for the garden. Not only are the bugs and snakes gone, but the temperatures are cooler.

Over the years we have used a professional landscaper for some projects while taking the DIY route with other projects. How did we decide? If the project requires special heavy equipment or if the materials are beyond our ability to handle safely, we hire a professional. We have used the same professional landscaper at our previous home and our current home.

One of our family projects last fall was the building of a dining patio. One son (an archaeologist) dug out and leveled the ground for us. He also helped build the garden beds, including the planting of the shrubs and trees. The other son (a pharmacy student) laid the flagstone and the retaining walls. I designed and drew the plan, calculated and order materials. My husband assisted with the heavy lifting and breaking of the flagstone.

We used polymeric sand in the joints between the flagstone for our walk and one patio. It's made by Techni-seal and is used for dry-laid projects. It's a sand product with polymers that make it harden so that you don't have to keep sweeping sand or screenings between the stones. I did our patio one morning all by myself.

This photo was taken right after the patio was completed. It is already much more lushly planted. Even more, there is now a backyard swimming pool accessible through the arbor.

Vines on the arbor include jasmine and akebia. There is a sweet bay magnolia, ginger, winter daphne and gardenias for additional fragrance during different seasons.



Less difficult projects included laying stepping stones or adding garden benches and accents.

Before beginning any difficult project, we always purchase a book to help us understand the preparations, instructions and tools needed. Sometimes the information can be found online or by asking others. Still, having a book for a reference has been very helpful. If, after reading how to DIY the project, you feel overwhelmed, then perhaps it's time to call in a professional landscaper for help.

This is also a great time to find outdoor garden accessories or accents on sale. We purchased a large market umbrella for half price. We also purchased a teak and stainless outdoor shower to use with our swimming pool. We never would have purchased these items at full price. Planters, benches and other accents are often on sale this time of year.

I've also found that winter is a great time to find gardening books on sale. With the holiday season, there may also be offers of free shipping if you are purchasing online. Sitting by the fire sipping coffee or tea on a cold winter's day is a great way to plan your garden projects for spring and summer.

Happy Gardening!
Cameron

Favorite Small Trees

I'm often asked about my favorite small trees. Here's a list of those that I like the best with a bit of information about each.

For different textures I like to mix deciduous, ornamentals and evergreens.

There are some clumping bamboos, like Bambusa glaucescens 'Fernleaf' which grow to 10x6. They sway in the breeze, the birds love to hang out there, they are evergreen.

Osmanthus fragrans is a wonderful evergreen, fragrant shrub that grows to 25x15.

Cryptomeria japonica 'Sekkan Sugi' 30x15, has very graceful needles.

You can mix these evergreens in with some ornamentals:

magnolia virginiana: sweetbay magnolia, semi-evergreen, fragrant blossoms in March. Can take wet feet or not. 30x20

Chionanthus retusus: Chinese fringetree, deciduous, fragrant in May/June, well-drained soil. 20x15.

Evodia danellii : Korean Evodia, deciduous, average/fast growth, white flowers in summer, red fruit after. 30x30.

Franklinia alatamaha: Franklin tree, deciduous, fragrant July/August white flowers. 20x15. This one may be best for the experienced gardeners.

hepaticodium miconiodes: seven-son shrub, deciduous, fragrant white flowers. 20x10 \

Vitex (chaste tree); very drought tolerant and great in a butterfly garden

Large buddleia (butterfly bush); very drought tolerant and highly attractive to butterflies.

Betula nigra Fox Valley™ 'Little King' is 10x12.

Cercis canadensis 'Covey' is a weeping form 6x8.

Magnolia x 'Ann' is 10x10

Prunus x 'Snow Fountain' is 10x15.

D4-Exceptional Drought (rethink our landscapes)

Our county is one of the many in North Carolina in stage D4-Exceptional Drought. This is worse than D3-Severe Drought. You can track the drought at NC Drought.

The impact and damage is at many levels: water supplies, native plants, landscapes, gardens and those who earn their livelihood at professions that rely upon water such as nurseries that keep plant inventory. Some public water systems allow new landscape for new construction to be watered for 30 days. However, there is no way to know what rain will fall after those grace periods. Therefore, the builders and homeowners are running the risk of losing whatever they have planted. With no possibility of rain in the forecast for another five days, we are faced with new challenges that we have not experienced in this area in a very long time, perhaps in my lifetime. I’ll have to do some more research on past droughts for an accurate history.

We no longer use weekly drip irrigation for the few plants that were on our system as we can’t be assured as to the water level of our private well. If some of the surrounding water systems have only 80 days of water supply left, what does that mean for private well owners? It will vary from site to site, of course.

We are keeping buckets in our showers to collect water before the water turns hot. We are collecting pots of water in the kitchen as well. This water is providing selective watering to plants and shrubs that would be very expensive to replace. Otherwise, the garden is going to have to survive on its own. In the last few weeks I’ve noticed that the morning dew has been heavy. This small amount of moisture is actually providing some benefit to the garden.

This week I set about checking for dead plants. I could literally pull some of these out of the ground without digging. I dug down into the soil in several places. Our garden is heavily mulched. The soil is dry. It is too dry to plant anything. In the lowest places, I found some moist soil still down below the mulch.

That’s the bad news and a big wake-up call about this precious resource. We can learn from other parts of the country that experience drought or low-water conditions on a regular basis. Xeriscape™! The best resource that I have found to explain xeriscape is Colorado WaterWise Council.

In a nutshell, the site explains the principles of xericaping your lawn and garden (paraphrasing the Colorado source):

1. Plan and design from the beginning for water conservation and beauty
2. Create practical turf areas of manageable sizes with appropriate grasses
3. Select low water plants for your zone and soil conditions
4. Use appropriate soil amendments such as compost
5. Layer mulches to retain moisture and prevent evaporation
6. Irrigate efficiently with the right amount of water at the right time
7. Maintain the landscape

Please take time to visit the Colorado WaterWise Council site to understand their suggested Xeriscape™ Colorado principles. I have posted many blogs regarding drought tolerant plants for our zone. I will continue to provide drought, deer and butterfly gardening updates.

With good xeriscaping principles we will save water and continue to create beautiful gardens for our homes.

Happy Xeriscaping!

Cameron

Xeriscape™ and the Xeriscape logo are trademarks of Denver Water.

Deer Me: The Garden Thrives

The deer are out and about all hours of the day. With the drought conditions, they continue to have to forage more often. They have very little fear of us. Our greyhound doesn't bark at deer nor does she chase the deer. As a result, they just amble out of the way when we go outside. They bed down in our front meadow at night. They drink from our manmade stream. Our natural stream in the woods continues to have some water as it is fed by underground springs.

The outer garden continues to do well with the deer and the drought. We've had very little rain, but what little we did get has set off the fall blooms.

Currently blooming in the outer garden and recommended for deer and drought tolerant:

Pineapple sage, tender perennial, red blooms
Salvia gregii Navajo Red, red blooms
Salvia black & blue, blue blooms
Buddliea, all colors
Osmanthus fragrans, evergreen shrub, white blooms, very fragrant
Lantana 'Miss Huff', tender perennial, shrub size, pink/yellow blooms
Hypericum x hidcote, semi-evergreen, perennial, yellow blooms
Spirea 'Neon Flash', deciduous shrub, magenta blooms on dark green foliage
Caryopteris (Blue Mist Shrub), blue blooms on bright foliage
Creeping perennial heliotrope, lavender blooms, groundcover
Vitex (Chaste Tree) is still blooming lavender flowers and looking
great
Nepeta keeps on blooming as long as it gets a trim after each bloom, a terrific perennial

Currently blooming in the fragrance garden, but on drip irrigation. This area is not fenced off, but the deer aren't bothering these plants:

Gardenia 'August Beauty', evergreen shrub, white blooms, very fragrant
Colocasia esculenta 'Fontanesii', perennial elephant ears, gold blooms, fragrant
Butterfly Ginger, perennial, fragrant white blooms
Swamp sunflower, perennial, hundreds of yellow blooms with dark centers

Ornamental grasses doing well in spite of drought, no irrigation, no deer problems:

Clump bamboo, evergreen here
Miscanthus 'Cosmopolitan', variegated white/green, bronze tassels
Miscanthus 'Little Zebra', gold bands on green, tassels starting up
Eragostis (love grass), blue green foliage and airy tassels
Pampas grass, green foliage, white plumes

The perennials that were deadheaded before the drought are finally starting to come back to life with green foliage at the base. Those include the coneflowers and coreopsis 'Creme Brulee'.

The lavender and rosemary plantings all have great foliage through the drought. The yucca is doing fine as expected. The smoke tree is doing well.

In the rain garden, on drip irrigation during droughts, is flourishing. The perennials include pseudocorus, Japanese and Siberian irises (no blooms this time of year), canna 'Tropical Rose' (still blooming), perennial ageratum (blooming), salvia ulignosa (bog salvia, still blooming).

The foliage of amsonia hubrechtii, a perennial is still lush and I'm looking forward to the fall color. This perennial is planted in both dry and moist settings. The deer leave this one alone.

After all of those winners, there are some losers. After years of successfully growing penstemon, they are looking bad and haven't bloomed as well as in previous years.

Inside my cottage garden (away from deer), the Japanese Beetles and the drought have done the most damage to my roses and weeping cherry. I continue to reassess the flower beds around our stream. Receving full sun all day, it was difficult to keep some flowers alive and I couldn't water them sufficiently. I'm starting to see some comeback, but I've been discouraged enough to decide to replant with drought tolerant plants next spring. I think I'd be happy with a mass planting of saliva greggii 'Navajo Red'! I may even move the weeping cherry out and replace it with a sweet bay magnolia (which is doing great in the fragrance garden on drip irrigation -- no pests).

Meanwhile, we're getting ready to plan and plant some more beds and looking at fall bulbs to plant (when the weather turns cool).

The butterflies are still around and I'm seeing more Monarchs again. We have three hummingbirds still hanging around the garden. Fortunately, the salvias are helping out in addition to the feeder.

Happy Gardening!
Cameron

Photographing Butterflies

This has been a great year for butterflies in the garden. The Monarchs came, they used the host plants of milkweed. The garden was certified as a Monarch Waystation. The Monarchs migrate south as far away as Mexico. With the loss of wild milkweed, it is crucial for gardeners to add this necessary host plant to help the Monarchs survive and thrive. (see my previous blog on Monarchs) I have also added a link to a very informative and educational blog on Monarchs and Milkweed written by one of my Forum Friends.

The Swallowtails were plentiful, sometimes they literally swarmed our butterfly bushes. Other butterflies were about and I tried to capture a few of the others with my camera to show you what varieties are found here in the Triangle area of North Carolina.

These first photos were taken last week in my garden. The last ones were taken earlier.

If you are interested in the camera that I use, it's a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph, 7.1 megapixels. I used the macro focus setting for the Red-banded Hairstreak, Common Buckeye, the Swallowtails and the Monarch. I used the zoom for the photos of the Pearl Crescent and the Variegated Fritallary. As you can see, the macro focus shots are much more detailed and finer quality. All of these photos have been compressed from several megabytes down to a size that will load quickly on the blog.

I carry the camera in my pocket and watch for the butterflies while I'm going about my gardening or strolls. Sometimes it is easy to get a close-up with the macro when the butterfly is calm and quiet on the flowers. However, if they are flitting about, I will resort to using the zoom lens knowing that the photos won't be as crisp.

I try to focus on the butterfly and wait for the wings to be open so that I can capture the full pattern. However, I won't pass on a great photo when the wings are closed. It usually takes a dozen or so shots of one butterfly to get one that's great. They are moving, so like kids and pets, you have to be patient and ready to snap a shot without a blur. I use a high-speed memory card to store the photos. The high speed allows my camera to be ready for the next shot very quickly.

None of these butterfly photos have been edited (except to add text to a few). I did not change the lighting or color balance with a photo editor. I cropped a bit of brown mulch off of the Pearl Crescent photo. What you see is what I got in the shot.

I use the software that is provided with the Canon camera to upload the photos to my PC. You can also use the software to export the photos and change the size so that they won't be so large when you post them or email them.

I use Google Picasa (web version) to organize and post photos here in my blogs and in the forums that I frequent. The slideshow that is embedded at the bottom of the blog page contains all the photos from this blog since the beginning. So, if you see the same photo twice, that's because I've used a photo more than once over time. All of my blog photos are automatically added to an album for me by Picasa.

Red-banded Hairstreak:



Pearl Crescent:



Variegated Fritallary:



Common Buckeye:



A Red Admiral showed up on September 19th.


Previous photos taken earlier this summer of Swallowtails and a Monarch:






By the way, all of the photos in my Tour of Tuscany blog were taken using the same camera. Other photos shown on this blog and my Define Before Design blog that were taken since March 2007 were from the Canon camera.

Happy gardening!
Cameron

Deer and Drought Update

Six weeks with no rain....here's a recap of my goals and the results so far.

I decided to create a deer tolerant, rather than deer resistant, garden. My definition of deer tolerant is: A plant that still looks good after being nibbled by deer.

An example has to do with new blooms. The deer nibbled a few new blossoms, but then left the plants alone. The result was that they had pinched back some of the perennials (which I would normally do) which increased the bloom count and bushiness of the plants. I also don’t mind if the deer come through in the fall and winter and deadhead the remaining blooms on sad looking perennials. I leave seed heads for birds, too.

I also made another big decision about gardening with deer on this property. I use no applied repellents. It makes no sense to me to spend hundreds of dollars every year to apply and re-apply repellents to the garden. I speak from experience! At a previous house, I had hostas and hydrangeas out in the back yard. I tried many different kinds of deer repellents at great cost – only to have the deer sneak in just after a rain and before I could reapply the repellent. I also tried the deer netting, but it really distracts from the plants.

With the current drought, the deer herd on our property (now exceeding 20+), is coming into our outer garden nightly to drink from our manmade stream and waterfall. With the natural creek in our woods dried up, I'm glad to be helping the deer and co-existing in harmony. With all the tracks around the plants and yet no damage, I do believe I've established a garden with the right plants for both deer and drought.

My definition of drought tolerant: Once established, plants can survive without water for two-three weeks in the summer.

That said, at the time of this writing, most of the outer garden hasn’t received any supplemental water and no rain in over six weeks. We’ve had temperatures in the 95-100 degree range for many days and weeks at a time.

We have an unusual environment in that we receive full sun all day in the summer. (We took advantage of this setting for a passive solar home.) Such a setting requires really tough plants. Lavender, buddleia, cotoneaster, lantana, snapdragons, black and blue saliva, lambs ear, and creeping perennial heliotrope have received no water in six weeks and are thriving. All of the plants are well-mulched in good garden soil. None of these plants have been in our garden longer than two years, having moved here in September 2005.

I'm now planning what bulbs to add this fall and what plants need to be moved or discarded. I am also planning an ornamental grasses garden. While I've used OGs throughout the garden, I want to make a nice display garden using some of the very large varieties.

Meanwhile -- there is finally rain in the forecast! Perhaps I'll be reporting on our rain garden in the near future!

Happy gardening,
Cameron

Gardens from Vacations in Italy

In the oppressive heat of August I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors. I took time to go through our travel photos for inspiring gardens that we have visited. I pulled just a few select examples to share with you. Hope you enjoy!

Rome, Italy:

We have rented (several times) an apartment in an Italian villa on a hill that is a 10-minute walk to the Forum. From the top of the hill, there is a wonderful view of the Vatican in the distance. The gardens are enclosed by walls, including the ancient Aurelian wall on one side at the gate of Porta Metronia. We love the gardens there and enjoyed meals on our private terrace. The gardeners grow vegetables and fruit among the flowers, shrubs and trees.

Another favorite place in Rome is Villa Borghese, both for the Bernini sculpture and other art inside and the gardens/grounds on the outside. The villa gallery can be visited by advance ticket bookings. The grounds are open without an admission charge. These photos were taking by looking through the wrought iron fence that enclosed the parterre garden.

Pompeii, Italy:

There are a few ancient gardens restored at the archaeological site of Pompeii. The garden layout was so perfect for the setting. Of course, the site is filled with statuary, mosaics and frescoes. Among the "garden" aspects of the site, what stood out most to me was this water feature and an arbor restored at the site of an ancient villa.

Florence, Italy:

On most visits to Florence, we spend a half day at Boboli Gardens. This year, there was an exhibit on ancient gardens that included gardening artifacts that had been unearthed at archaeological sites, including Pompeii. In addition to the beautiful gardens and grounds, one can enjoy the fabulous views from different vantage points up the hill. To see photos of those views, visit the link to our Tuscany vacation blog.

Happy Gardening!

Cameron

Gardening with Forum Friends

There was a time when all of my gardening friends were local. Now, I feel as though I have gardening friends from all over the US and in several countries. With my background in technology, I’m not surprised by the capabilities of using the web. What surprises and thrills me is how there is a new society of virtual friends who share stories, advice, photos and similar experiences from around the world!

I’ve been using forums for several years now. My first experience was in building a home, but I also participated in other related forums around kitchens, baths and decorating. I had wonderful experiences there, so I went over to the Cottage Gardening and Carolina Gardening forums. Gardening is my favorite hobby, probably passion. I found there’s a world full of other folks who feel the same way about gardening.

Do you want to know about another gardener’s experience with growing a new perennial in a sunny spot in zone 8? Want to know how to attract butterflies and create your own butterfly garden? Want to post a photo of your garden and ask for some design help? Ask the question and watch the amazing answers and photographs posted in response.

It’s so easy to say wonderful things about my forum friends. Talk about inspiration! The photos, the ideas, the blooms, the flowers…what I’ve seen and what I’ve learned from my forum friends has been nothing short of amazing!

There are some very talented folks who have opened up their warm hearts and their beautiful gardens to the world. They are a part of my everyday life. If I miss a day on the forums, I’ve missed a day with my friends.

Thank you all!

Happy gardening,
Cameron

Colorful Coneflower (echinacea) Comments

Update July 2008: Best performer is echinacea 'Ruby Star' with great blooms and a long bloom season. Only one 'Harvest Moon' survived the drought and winter. Echinacea 'Sundown' survived and looked fine for a long bloom season. 'Sunset' did not survive.


When I decided to “garden outside the fence” this year, I was challenged to plan a garden that would be colorful while being deer-resistant and drought-tolerant. I was skeptical about using coneflowers (echinacea) as some consider those to be deer food. However, I found an equal number of sources that put these on the deer-resistant list. Since I love research and experimentation, I decided to test the new coneflowers for myself for both color and deer-resistance.

Whatever the color, butterflies, bees and birds all love coneflowers. I found a few nips of early buds by either deer or rabbits, but the damage has been so minimal that I’m glad I planted lots of coneflowers. At this point, if the critters want to come out and help me deadhead in the 90-100 degree weather, I would welcome their assistance! I try to leave the last fall blooms on the stalks to help feed the birds in winter. The coneflowers are planted in the company of known deer-resistant perennials/shrubs/grasses/herbs such as: agastache, verbena, coreopsis, salvia, fennel, miscanthus, vitex, clumping bamboo and crocosmia. It may be that the scent of these other plantings reduced the damage to the coneflowers. This morning, I noticed deer tracks throughout the garden, but they did not touch the coneflowers.

As for care, these coneflowers receive minimal watering from me. I deadhead as needed to promote more blooms. All of the varieties have produced bushy plants with lots of blooms, especially considering that this is the first season in my garden.

Please see the slideshow at the bottom of my blog for photos of the coneflowers.

Orange echinacea (2 patented varieties)

I was really impressed with the color when the orange coneflower varieties first bloomed. The colors will remind you of a gorgeous sunset or sundown. However, the more I left the flowers on the stems, the more faded they looked and the more they resembled purple coneflowers. But, the orange hues lasted long enough that I felt satisfied with the color combinations. These look wonderful with blue agastache or purple verbena. Whereas, I’ve found purple coneflowers to handle extra moisture just fine, these orange varieties got a bit of powdery mildew if they were in the high-moisture areas of my garden.

Yellow echinacea (1 patented variety)

I love the new soft yellow coneflowers for the color, the bloom size and the shape. The color is like a moon at harvest. The blooms are stunning and hold color very well. However, they really don’t like extra water. At one point, we received a lot of rain and all of the yellows planted where the soil drains really well, turned black, so I’ve cut them back to the ground. I think I’ll have to put these in the ‘plant like lavender’ care section of the garden. I had planted them with daylilies (inside the cottage fence)and while the colors were great, the moisture needs are too different. In the outer deer-resistant garden, I planted these with yellow coreopsis and snapdragons in front of blue buddleia.

Ruby echinacea

Echinacea purpurea 'Ruby Star (Rubinstern)' are my favorites! They perform well in moist soil or up on the slope in the drier areas. The color is true throughout the bloom season. The colors are so vibrant and the blooms are huge. These look so great with spirea ‘neon flash’ or agastache ‘red fortune’ of the same color blooms. I also have some coreopsis colors in my garden that would look great at the feet of these tall perennials. Rose thyme would be another magenta color combo. Or combine the rubies with blue-purple perennials like heliotropium amplexicaule or eupatorium coelestinum. The rubies are magenta enough to look fine with yellow. I don’t think I’d put these with orange unless the orange matches the color of the huge cones.

Please comment on your experiences with colorful coneflowers!

Happy Gardening!
Cameron

Butterfly Garden: Monarch Butterfly Update

News: Just got our garden certified as a Monarch Waystation by Monarch Watch! Learn more by visiting their website http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/

This is a quick update on the Monarchs. We now have 9 more Monarch cats (caterpillars) in our garden. This time they are on the swamp milkweed (asclepias incarnata), even though it isn’t blooming. The asclepias tuberosa was shown in previous reports on Monarch cats in the garden. I never thought that cats were cute until now! :-)

All of our milkweed was planted this spring, so we are thrilled with the response from the Monarchs. It was difficult to find milkweed for sale in my area as it is very late to emerge from the ground. If you plant it, make sure you mark the spot this fall so you won't accidentally dig it up next spring.

I have found it very difficult to photograph a Monarch butterfly. Seldom do they sit on a plant with their wings open. They flit about a lot more than the swallowtails, so I find myself chasing them around with my camera! I managed to snap one photo (after lots of blurry attempts) of one sitting on the blue agastache in the butterfly garden. The buddleia varieties and the lantana continue to be big favorites for all of the butterflies.

I’m still watching the bronze fennel to see if we’ll have Swallowtail cats!

Happy butterfly gardening!

Please see the new slideshow feature at the bottom of the page...

Combinations of Color in My North Carolina Garden

We’re always looking for inspiration for great color combinations in the garden. The color palette should reflect the personal taste of the gardener. To me, one of the biggest challenges with color combinations is finding perennials that bloom at the same time. I believe this is why annuals are so popular – they bloom together all summer long. If I can’t have blooms, I try to bring in color with foliage plants. In a new garden like ours, we have allowed spacing between the perennials to allow for future growth. As such, it can be difficult to get the full effect (especially in photos) of a color combination for a few years.

I’ve seen gardens of others with jaw-dropping color combinations that I can only dream to replicate! Here, growing in my North Carolina garden, these are my favorites for 2007.

In the spring, our lavender and dianthus (cottage pinks) bloomed at the same time. The purple lavender and pale pink blooms lasted for weeks and weeks. The spicy fragrance of the dianthus permeates the garden when grown en masse. The lavender blooms and foliage provides a soothing fragrance. So, I consider this duo to be my #1 color (and fragrance) combination for our spring garden. When these two are not in bloom, the foliage is still beautiful. I shear both with the hedge trimmer after the blooming is finished and within a week or so of new growth, they look lush. These two also stand up well in our hot summers, yet the blue-grey foliage provides a cool look in the garden. I like purple-red foliage next to these, such as a purple heuchera (coral bells). Lamb’s ear is a fuzzy silver foliage plant that also looks great with these two. Actually, it’s hard to find a color that doesn’t go well with the foliage. I give the dianthus a little more water than the lavender, but otherwise, I consider them to be easy-keepers. We have found the dianthus to be uprooted by either deer or bunnies when it’s located outside our cottage garden fence.


For big impact, think big plants. This is the first season that I’ve tried elephant ears. I selected colocasia esculenta fontanesii to plant on the sunny side of a magnolia virginiana (sweet bay magnolia). The big ears work so well with the magnolia, but I wanted some color. The mauve veins and hue of the stalks in the ears seemed to be the color to bring out. I planted buddleia ‘pink delight’ and a monarda (bee balm) of the same mauve color. In the shade of the ears, I planted heuchera with burgundy and amber foliage. This is my #2 choice of favorite combinations. We have drip irrigation around these plants. Other than deadheading the bee balm and butterfly bush, there is little maintenance. I fertilize the elephant ears whenever I fertilize the brugmansias and cannas in the garden.


For combining colorful foliage with colorful blooms, I have a tie for my #3 favorite, but one is in the blue family and one is in the red family. A Moench aster combined with purple sage is just glorious. I have to go look at this combination at least twice a day! Purple hypericum (a shrubby St. Johns Wort) growing alongside coreopsis ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is the tie for stunning colorful foliage and blooming perennials. The hypericum has some small yellow blooms, but mostly it’s a foliage plant that looks the same all season. The asters start blooming in July and bloom until frost. The coreopsis started blooming in June and with shearing, will repeat until frost.

I’d love to hear comments about the favorite color combinations in your garden!

Happy Gardening!

Butterflies: beauties in the garden

In the 100+ degree heat about the only movement in the garden comes from all the butterflies.

The swallowtails, monarchs and varieties unknown to me are literally swarming over the garden. This spring, we planted a butterfly garden of hot colors. While the garden needs to mature to look lush, it did not disappoint in terms of attracting the butterflies.

We planted both host and nectar plants.

The host plants become the homes of the caterpillars that turn into these beautiful butterflies. We didn’t think we’d attract monarchs the first season, but we did! We were so excited to see monarch cats on the milkweed (asclepias). So far, we’ve not seen any swallowtail cats on the bronze fennel, but there are more swallowtails in the garden than another other variety.

We are using a shallow birdbath on the ground as a butterfly water source. We have moistened sand and water in the bath. In this heat, it requires daily refilling to keep the sand moist and water available.

The butterflies seem to spend the most time on the butterfly bushes (buddleia) that are throughout our garden.The lantana seems to always be covered with lots of varieties of butterflies. The pentas, annuals for our area, work well for butterflies, but the deer (or rabbits?) are keeping the blooms off of ours. Perennials that serve as good nectar plants include agastache, asters, coneflowers, coreopsis, crocosmia, lavender, phlox, rosemary, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

Happy Gardening!

The 3 Dreads: Drought, Deer and Disease

So many stories of disappointment from gardening friends prompted me to address the three big dreads of gardening – drought, deer and disease. We all begin the garden season with high hopes of beautiful blooms, lush foliage and great design only to watch as perennials and shrubs fall victim to these three big dreads. What perennials and shrubs flourish throughout the growing season with minimal effort to defend them from the three dreads? Can we have beautiful gardens that also resist these dreads? Observing my garden, I’ve made my list of winners for the Triangle area, zone 7, of North Carolina. Some of these winners may work in other zones as well. I’m listing only my favorites and only those plants which are growing in our garden that meet all three criteria of resistance to these three dreads.

Drought-resistant: these plants can survive without water if we go on a two week summer vacation. There are no irrigation drip hoses among these plants in our garden. In fact, about the only problem you’ll have with these plants is if you over-water them! All can take direct sunlight most of the day. My garden receives sunlight from the east, south and west with no shade.

Deer-resistant: the deer haven’t eaten the foliage or the blooms in our garden. There is a large herd of deer that traverse and live on our property. They are so bold as to hang around during the midday hours as well as sleeping in our meadow at night. The herd seems to increase by 3-4 fawns per year, based upon those observed together on our property. There is currently a herd of six bucks, all of the same age, with four point antlers roaming around. The largest count that we made at one time (2 years ago) was 17! I’ve now removed the edging that used to be around the newly planted garden as the plants are established. The deer had started jumping over the edging and munching just a few plants – some lobelia blooms, a taste of ageratum houstonian and as many of the leaves as possible on the seven-son shrub.

Disease-resistant: we’ve not had any problems with disease on our plants in our environment. Additionally, none of these plants were damaged by the Japanese Beetles that plague our property and devour the cherry trees, roses and the shrub crepe myrtle. If not for the beetles, I would have put crepe myrtle on this list as I put disease and insect damage in the same category.

With these selections, I’ve found lots of long-blooming color as well as the added attraction for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. You can use this list to create a butterfly garden! Most ornamental grasses and herbs also work well in resisting the three dreads. In fact, some of these perennials will fall into the herbal category.

Agastache

Hummingbird mint is a real trooper in my garden. As the name implies, the hummingbirds are attracted to this perennial. I’m most fond of ‘Red Fortune’ as it is tall and upright, full, and a prolific bloomer. The rosy color works well with blues or yellows. Just brushing up against the foliage, you will smell the wonderful mint leave fragrance. I also have ‘Blue Fortune’ and ‘Apricot Sprite’.

Buddleia

While being easy to maintain with cutting back in late winter and deadheading in the summer, our butterfly bushes are currently covered with swarms of butterflies and bees. I love the ‘Pink Delight’, ‘Royal Profusion’, and ‘Adonis Blue’ which are growing in my garden. I also have a pale yellow variety that is quite lovely, but doesn’t make as big a statement as the bolder colors. Give some of these varieties lots of room as they can grow quite large unless you get one of the smaller varieties like ‘Adonis Blue’.

Caryopteris

I’ve only recently discovered the blue mist spirea (sometimes called bluebeard) shrub and have two varieties in the garden. The variegated caryopteris divaricata ‘Snow Fairy’ provides beautiful pure white and bright green foliage with blue flowers in late summer. The foliage looks great in the company of red blooms of companion plants. The almost chartreuse foliage of caryopteris icana ‘Jason’ is a full and lush 3x3 sentinel by our garden gate. The blue blooms attract bees and butterflies, too. Cut back like a perennial.

Coreopsis

When it comes to non-stop blooms, ‘Crème Brulee’ is my favorite among the coreopsis varieties. The yellow blooms go on forever. My other yellow favorite is ‘Moonbeam’. Coreopsis emerges late, so don’t expect results until summer is in full force. Then, enjoy. After the second bloom, I use my cordless hedge trimmer to deadhead as there are just so many blooms. I also have ‘Heaven’s Gate’ and ‘Limerock Ruby’ in the mauve and maroon color range. However well they bloom, they do fall over a bit due to the height of the stems and weight of all those blooms. I may trim these back early next year to try to get sturdier stems.

Heliotropium amplexicaule

Creeping heliotrope is blue-lavender perennial that blooms non-stop for us and spreads quickly as a flowering groundcover. The flower color goes with so many other blooms. This is another butterfly favorite.

Lantana

Whether you choose the annual, the tender or hardy perennial, this plant is really tough and blooms profusely. We have ‘Miss Huff’ which grows like a shrub for us. It’s very late to emerge from dormancy, but then it grows very fast and blooms throughout the summer until frost. The butterflies literally swarm this plant!

Lavender

Although some may argue that lavender is difficult, I’ve found it to flourish if planted high and dry (see my previous blog on growing lavender).

Nepeta x faassenii

If all else fails, grow nepeta! We grow both ‘Walker’s Low’ and ‘Six Hills Giant’ in our garden. We use it as a border plant along our sidewalks and paths. Give these catmints at least three feet of space. We use hedge trimmers after each bloom to shape it and keep it looking good for reblooming. This is a favorite for honey bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

Oregano

Whether using the ornamental or the culinary varieties, oregano makes great filler for bare spots. While it’s not going to give you lots of bloom color, the foliage is wonderful.

Ornamental grasses

Choose from a wide variety of ornamental grasses. I tend to favor miscanthus and panicum varieties. Fountains of grasses that move in the breeze add so much to the perennial gardens. I also love to see the morning light coming through from the back of the grasses.

Rosemary

Another herb for planting high and dry, rosemary provides beautiful aromatic foliage and some varieties have tiny pale blue blooms. We have rosemary scattered throughout the garden and some close by the kitchen for use in recipes. Rosemary is evergreen for us and can grow very shrub-like and tall, depending upon the variety. If you don’t cook enough to keep the tops trimmed, use a hedge trimmer to shape it and keep it from getting woody in the middle (much like growing lavender).

Salvia

Although we have many types of salvia in the garden, my favorite is a tender perennial Salvia greggii 'Navajo Bright Red'. The hummingbirds absolutely love this salvia! It blooms early and will rebloom with deadheading. It grows to 30 inches tall and is evergreen in our sunny winter garden. We have a mass planting of five on a slope accompanied by yellow coreopsis.

Stachys

We grow the fuzzy stachys byzantina (lamb’s ears) as an edging and companion with lavender or nepeta. All of the fuzzy lamb’s ears, whether the small or large leaved varieties, work well in the hot, deer-resistant gardens. Again, about the only enemy is over-watering, so plant this one high and dry. A favorite foliage plant that is very reliable and so soft to the touch! If children visit your garden, this plant is a teddy bear!

Thyme
There are both culinary and ornamental thyme varieties to provide colorful foliage and even little blooms. In our garden, thyme is a fast-growing groundcover. Another favorite for bees, you can always find a sunny, dry spot for this herb. I’ve seen photos of thyme used in lieu of grass in a drought area.

Verbena

We grow stick verbena bonariensis for the goldfinches that live on our property, but the purple blooms and tall, airy structure are very attractive in the butterfly garden. We leave the seed heads as food for the finches, but it will also seed across the garden so you’ll have volunteers popping up the next spring. Since it’s tall and narrow, it doesn’t really interfere with other plants, so we let it seed freely. We have planted stick verbena in a mass of at least seven plants. We use ‘Homestead Purple’ the groundcover verbena, around the feet and also around other shrubs in the butterfly garden.

Lavender

Spanish lavender with Bath's Pink dianthus in top left and blue rug juniper in bottom left:



Lavender has been a hot topic among my gardening friends here at home and in the virtual world. I thought I'd try to summarize some of the information that I've gathered from my personal experience of growing lavender in North Carolina.

The lavender that you see in my photos here are Spanish Lavender. I've found it very easy to grow here as long as it is planted high-and-dry and watered from the base to get it established. Either in the fall or late winter, I take a cordless hedge trimmer and shape the lavender by trimming off about 1/3 of the top. This keeps the lavender from getting too woody and it helps produce lots and lots of blooms. After the blooms fade, I once again use the hedge trimmer to deadhead and shape the plant. It looks a bit stubby at first, but then there is lush new growth.

This spring, I added Provence Lavender. So far, it's looking good but I don't have photos of it in bloom. I also moved some Munstead that was in a spot last year that was too wet. It is now flourishing, so I hope to have lots of blooms next year.

The lavender looks great with a variety of companions -- roses, dianthus, lamb's ear, nepeta and buddleia are my favorites. Around the roses, the lavender is planted higher due to the different needs of roses and lavender. Dianthus, lamb's ear, nepeta and buddleia have similar growing conditions and are centered on a grey foliage color scheme.

In my area, the lavender blooms in May, so I don't worry too much about blooming companions. In the vignette with the Bath's Pink, there is also a purple heuchera that bridges well with the dianthus and the lavender. Looking at one clump of our lavender from another direction, there is a mass of scabiosa 'blue mist' and daylilies. Another good foliage plant to use with lavender is a sage -- tricolor or purple. If you want more color around the lavender summer foliage, magenta blooms such as rose campion, agastache 'Red Fortune' or penstemon 'Red Rocks' work well as companions.

With rose bushes (not in bloom):


in October with roses in bloom.


Close up with nepeta in background:

An advantage of lavender is the evergreen foliage here in NC. While it might get a little dull in late winter, it provides some structure in the winter scene.

And, there's the fragrance! It's wonderful to walk through the garden and brush your hand over the lavender at any time of year. You can cut bloom stems, band them with a rubber band and hang them upside down in a dry, warm environment (attic) to use for other purposes. I've not ventured very far with drying lavender, but there is a commercial lavender farm in nearby Hillsborough that has a wonderful website with a wealth of information about harvesting, uses, recipes, etc. http://sunshinelavenderfarm.com/planting.htm

Next year, I will try to add a few more varieties -- perhaps Hidcote or Goodwin's Creek.

By the way -- the deer, the bunnies, the Japanese Beetles -- will not munch on the lavender!

Happy Gardening!

The Deer Update

Addendum: Found the baby bunny in the garden, so I've made a few edits here to place blame accordingly. They are SO cute!

When I started this blog, I said that I would provide periodical updates regarding our experiences with deer around our flower garden. Last fall, we created a mixed border outside our cottage garden fence (the "outer garden") planted with all deer-resistant shrubs, trees, perennials, bulbs, and ornamental grasses. During the winter, we had some leaf damage to some of the evergreen shrubs. I'm happy to report that all recovered just fine (in spite of the frost damage after Easter) from the deer munching. The hypericum are now blooming beautifully and the bees are in a frenzy on the blossoms. The illicium now has green leaves. The cleyera is full and lush, having suffered only minimal damage.

This spring, we filled out the border with new perennials and grasses. For reference, this photo shows the cottage fence and part of the outer garden with a stepping stone path. The second photo shows the width of the outer garden between the fence and the meadow. The outer garden slopes down to the house. We have planted drought-tolerant plants at the top of the slope and plants that like wet feet at the bottom of the slope -- but, that's a topic for another blog.

Please click to enlarge the photos


Here's the list of what's planted in the outer garden. We have multiple varieties of many of these plants. Of the bloomers, some plants have bloomed; others are in bloom; and others are yet to bloom.

I have indicated in bold the plants that have had minor damage. That said, the only plant that I would avoid in the future is the illicium as it took so long to recover from being stripped of leaves in the winter. So far, there has been no damage to the rest of the list. I'm sure that I've left off some plants.

Agastache (hummingbird mint)

Amsonia (blue star)
Asclepias (milkweed for the Monarch butterflies)
Baptisia (false indigo)
Bamboo, clumping (not spreading!)
Basil
Buddleia (butterfly bush)
Brugmansia (angel's trumpet)
Canna
Caryopteris (blue mist shrub)
Carex (sedge, multiple varieties)
Chives
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cream Ball'
Colocasia (elephant ears)
Coreopsis (multiple varieties)
Cotoneaster (multiple varieties)
Crocosmia (bulb)
Cryptomeria (multiple varieties; minor nibbling on the 'Globosa Nana')
Daffodils
Echinachea (coneflowers, multiple varieties)
Echinops (globe thistle)
Eupatorium
Fennel
Deutzia
Delosperma cooperii (ice plant)
Dianthus (cottage pinks)
Gaillardia (blanket flower; bunny munched)
Gaura (whirling butterflies)
Hedychium (butterfly ginger)

Heliotrope (groundcover perennial)
Hepatocodium micionides (seven son shrub)
Heuchera (coral bells)
Hydrangea (not deer-resistant, it is up against the fence on one side; flanked by hollies and fronted by a huge indigo)
Hypericum (St. John's Wort, multiple varieties)
Illicium (anise shrub)
Ilex (multiple varieties; we don't have the varieties that will be damaged)
Iris ensata (Japanese iris)
Iris siberica (Siberian iris)
Iris pseudocorus (yellow flag iris)
Itea virginica(sweetspire)
Lavender (multiple varieties)
Lantana 'Miss Huff'

Lobelia (bunny munched)
Loropetulum
Lysimachia (creeping jenny)
Macbridea caroliniana (native for sunny bog)
Miscanthus (ornamental grass, multiple varieties)
Monarda (bee balm)
Nandina 'Alba' and 'Moonbay'
Nepeta (cat mint)
Oregano, culinary
Oregano, ornamental
Osmanthus fragrans (fragrant olive)
Osteospernum (annual)
Parsley
Pentas (annual)
Penstemon (multiple varieties)
Phlox subulata (groundcover phlox)
Rosemary
Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum' (black-eyed susan -- bunny munched, but growing back)
Salvia (multiple varieties)
Sage, culinary
Sage, ornamental
Snapdragons (annual)
Spanish bluebells (bulb)
Spirea (multiple varieties)
Stachys betony humello
Stachys (lamb's ears, multiple varieties)
Syringa (lilac)
Thyme

Verbena (groundcover and tall perennial varieties)

Vitex (chaste tree)

Okay -- maybe I cheated a little? The deer were accustomed to walking past our cottage fence from east to west on their daily traverse. Trampling and pulling, not munching, was a concern. Over the winter, we had experienced some plants (dianthus) either being pulled up or pawed up without being eaten. To try to get them to go around the garden, we put up a little 32" high flimsy wire edging. They can easily jump something that low. We had a deer jump the edging one night and that's when I suspected the rudbeckia and a few coneflowers had been nipped. I've since discovered only bunnies and no deer tracks around the rudbeckia, lobelia and gaillardia. So, my apologies to the deer on those!

Actually, it was a bit like deadheading the first blooms, which I do anyway. So, no harm was really done and the coneflowers are doing great. The rudbeckia has lots of buds now and should bloom soon (provided the bunnies stay away).

Recently, we had a doe (probably the mother of the fawn in the photo beside our well) walk down the river rock and the garden path taking off just the open blooms of the Japanese iris. She left the buds. She didn't touch any of the other plants in the outer garden. I could see where she left the garden, so she walked almost the entire length of the outer garden.

So, I've now closed that one gap where deer could enter the garden. If you click on the photo below, I think you can see this flimsy edging behind the bridge. The second photo was taken after the doe had nipped off the open blooms and more buds had opened. So, the edging is working for now. We see the doe everyday, so she's staying close by her fawn. There is obviously the possibility that she'll jump the edging. If so, I'll report the news.

If you would like to ask questions, please send email to DefiningYourHome at Yahoo dot com. (I spell it out to avoid spammers -- use the typical syntax).

Happy gardening!