Extending The Growing Season

So its Fall 2009 now, officially. The garden is beginning to go dormant. But... we don't have to give it all up til Spring! We can use a coldframe to extend the season or start the new one early! I was inspired by a friends coldframe and decided to try and build one for my own use. I naturally included my friend and husband to help out. And, my special 4 legged friends Charlie and Willy. Charlie was having a bad photo day, so we only have smiling Willy in the photo display. Maybe Charlie will be ready to smile for us in the Spring when we uncover and display all the bulbs I'm hoping to force in this lovely addition to the garden.

You know how project A always turns into project B. Well, for us it was the fence. We had to make access to the cold frame thru the fence, so the gate was the first addition to the scene. I've been wanting a gate into this area of the garden for a long time, so finally, I have one! Something I think most writings I came across on building a cold frame forgot to mention is how much soil you are going to have to put someplace when you dig the area. We had quite a pile! We dug an area 108"L X 35"W X 28"D. The lower portion of the frame faces South for best heat capture/retention and I have a little step into the frame due to the depth.

Many of the materials we used were recycled. Some old cinder blocks we had been storing out back were on the property when we moved here over 17 years ago, the window tops were freebies from the side of the road on my husbands daily commute to work and the shelves to be used inside the coldframe are leftovers from a friends project and a few of our own.
We did purchase wood for the frame and gravel for the floor.

It was a fun process learning how to make some of the materials work, such as the windows. They needed to be reglazed and painted. The cinder blocks had to be placed in a fashion that would allow all the wall corners to fit just right. And the wood frame, well the wood chosen had to be arrow straight, not curvy like some of the stuff you get in the recycled or seconds pile. On a dry day I will get the wood painted then the frame will be ready to fill.

Many thanks to my friends and husband for their support and knowledge in building my so very appreciated cold frame. I can't wait to start filling it up with my container plants, it will leave my garden shed floor free for me to use this winter instead of trying to hop around and over everything. I plan to capture and post my cold frame experience so be sure to check back maybe monthly to see how its going. With some luck I hope to enjoy a lovely display of forced Spring bulbs and maybe even some fresh greens before the ground thaws next year.

If you'd like more specifics on building your own coldframe I thought GardenGate magazine had a nice description complete with photos and materials list for a coldframe project
FineGardening magazine also has a great article of different types of coldframes you can build/use. So don't let the coming winter season here in Zone 5-6 put your green thumb into hibernation, go ahead and try even a simple coldframe to extend your current garden and start next years garden early! Most of all, enjoy the process, your reward will be more than just an extended harvest or early start of the growing season.

How About That Gourd!

Fall harvest is quickly approaching, and, one of the fruits of the garden are gourds. As a designer I am always looking at shapes. I consider how they can be maneuvered to fit the space, theme or feeling I want a design to achieve. I must admit though I had never considered looking at a gourd as a tool for a design pattern.

Well, I know someone who has the gift of the gourd so to speak. He takes these grown and harvested fruits and turns them into all sorts of wonderful works of art. The workmanship is meticulous, an obvious sign that he's doing something he truly enjoys. What started out as a past time has turned into a true revealing of artistic flair and capability. But then most things this fellow does are way out of the ordinary. Like participating in the Iditasport , you know, riding a bicycle in the snow, in Alaska. And then there's living in Fargo, North Dakota before settling into retirement in Arizona. Peter says he can make custom gourds if you'd like. A visit to his website will show you more of his talent. Or you can use the link Peters Gourds above the Search area of this blog to get to the gourd website.

I'm always looking for objects of interest for the garden. I'm told the birdhouse gourds can handle our winters here in New England. And who couldn't find a perfect spot for any of these creations indoors. I know first hand that each of these creations has a story. The Bike & Bean is a favorite coffee stop of the artist so he created a bowl for use at the cash register.

Part of being a Landscape Designer is finding and using good one-of-a-kind artist creations for the landscape and/or garden. When you are looking for something special for your landscape or garden, remember that it should be just that, special... not the neighbors special, your special.
Many artists such as this one welcome the opportunity to create for you a custom piece of artwork. Try not to talk yourself out it, but rather, embrace it and enjoy the journey!
I'm certain you will be pleased to learn about your own creativity and then see it come to life through the training and experience only an artist can provide. If you'd like to inquire more about Peter's Gourds, send an email to potscapes@gmail.com with a subject matter PetersGourds. We'll get you in touch.

Keep Your Eye on the Cone!

Cones, Cones, Beautiful and Lots of Cones Everywhere!

I had the pleasure of visiting the White Mountains earlier this month and hiked Mt. Osceola with some friends. It was a glorious day, the rains had stopped and the sun shone brightly. We enjoyed cool temps along the trail and an outstanding view at the summit. Check out the photos taken on our hike and enjoy the exquisite color of these cones! The summit was so full of them one had to force the eye to look beyond at the sites of the other mountain tops in view.

As many of you are noticing the conifer cones this year are quite abundant. You can see them at the tops of the trees from a distance, pulling the upper branches down into an umbrella like arch. The cones for many conifers actually take more than a year to reach their mature size, did you know that?

The red squirrels are busy trying to harvest the cones in the trees that surround my property. It sounded at first like someone either was hitting a slew of homers that fell the hardball in our yard or maybe they were throwing stones. We of course went out to 'check out' what the heck was going on. And thunk, thunk, then thunk thunk, thunk thunk thunk we heard them falling.

No it wasn't the wind, the air was still, so what was it causing them to drop? There are too many on the tree my husband said, I disagreed, I knew all too well what those little four legged furry tooth sawing, gnawing creatures were up to. Sure enough I found em, Red Squirrels, up at the top of the 50' or higher white pine, harvesting the crop! And below, it was 'bombs away'. The ground littered with fresh new cones not yet ready to fall. All nice and thin and green and fresh pine aroma in the air. Alongside of these perfect cones were the cartoonish looking skeletized cone, nothing left but a long thin post with a pointed top and rounded bottom.

So, keep your eye on the cones! For a couple of reasons, they just may fall on your head if you have a busy critter like we do in the neighborhood, and because they just look so beautiful hanging there in large clusters like I don't ever recall seeing before. Perhaps I just never noticed because they didn't get harvested by nature until later in the season when they may have lost a few on their own, or maybe I was just always busier that I am these days to have looked up enough to catch such a site.

I'm grateful this year for whatever the reason we have such a grand display of cones.
I'm also grateful that I'm able to enjoy and experience the journey to the summit of a mountain.
Nature is the most perfect designer of the landscape. I am most inspired by the plans that nature creates all by itself. Thank you Planet Earth for allowing us to join you for the view!





The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Containers are masters of magic for the tired garden

Oh yes it's here, the hot humid days of August in the New England garden.

Many of our gardens are now bursting with color! Yellows, oranges, pinks purples whites blues and more!

Soon September will be here and many of the garden colors will begin to wain.

If you haven't a container ready for placing in those oh so lonesome spots that emerge when the perennial burst is over, now is a great time to begin them. Many annuals and perennials are still out there waiting for a home! A container planting could be the perfect answer.

Here I've filled a dark corner that looks lovely with its Spring blossoms, but right now without the container it would be nothing but green, greeen, green. The oranges and yellows and limes I've filled the container with are visible from my Kitchen window a good 75 feet away! How nice is that.

The hummingbirds love the fuschia and impatience. I can opt to place the bright colored heucheras in the garden in late autumn, or overwinter them in the container for next year.

I will likely fill the container with a few interesting woody stems and evergreen boughs and berried holly stems for the winter season, a welcome site along the path during December and January journeys to the shed.

I have many containers - as you may have guessed with a name like 'Potscapes'. I use them in all areas of my gardens, patios, entryways, walkways, decks and landscape.

I enjoy planning what I will do with each one every year. Some years I've put roses in them when I wanted to know how a particular rose would look in the garden, other years I've planted them with vegetables to harvest from the kitchen patio. I bring many of them in to overwinter indoors. The lavendar I brought in last Fall flowered over the winter in my South facing dining room. Such a wonderful treat!

Finding the container to fill is as much fun as filling it. I've found a few fun things in my travels and received others as gifts. I'm always on the peek for something different and of course have a nice collection waiting for their chance to be part of the magic welcomed by the tired garden. Wouldn't you agree that meeting this little monster just might make your day!

Filled with Parsley and Portulaca, this little monster is a favorite of many visitors to my garden.
If you'd like me to help you with a bit of magic for your garden, visit my website and give me a shout.

Sun and Shadows in the Garden

The morning sun is such a welcome friend. I watch the rays stretch into the garden while brewing my morning cup of coffee. Which by the way was the plan from the start of this area of my landscape.

We often get all caught up in the beauty of a particular plant, or bloom or single characteristic of a tree or shrub, but a good master plan for the landscape considers what sun and shadows will offer the landscape when the garden is complete and mature.

You need to consider exposures of the sun when you design your garden or landscape. Where will the sun be and where will you be viewing the garden from? What will happen to the landscape when the trees have matured? Will the sun still shine through? Do you need or want it to? And what about the different seasons? What will your landscape offer when it's the dead of winter here in New England?

This is the Eastern border of my landscape, the towering white pines are quite large now and yet sun is still stretching through them. The shadows the pines cast are an art form and light show in themselves. On this particular morning there was a light misty fog in the air that was just lifting, providing the view of the sun's rays bouncing into the blue spruce. I had hoped when we planted the spruce next to the perennial garden nearly 18 years ago that this might be the finished product. I got lucky. Nature didn't hamper the plan with its own obstacles nor did the neighbor on their property next door.

Imagine the above photo without the 3 blue spruce, it would not have nearly the same effect. And the dwarf alberta spruce also has an impact on the image. They frame the rays of the sun. I'm no expert or even a novice on photography, but when I see an image that has an impact on me I research what it takes to reproduce it or create one with the same effect. Often the imperfections of the garden or landscape are just a gem not discovered. The tall pines have lost many of their lower branches in our New England winter ice storms, the blue spruce have thinned at their bases and the lawn, well it's always having some sort of issue, and yet, on this morning it all came together and harmonized into the perfect morning lightscape.

So, next time you're thinking about adding to your garden or landscape or removing from the landscape, stop and think about what it may mean to the 'big picture'. You can have a lot of fun with sun and shade in your gardens and landscape, so remember to think about them when you're designing or having someone do a design for you.


Truly a morning dance by nature! Enjoy!

What's Eating My Plants!

Oh the joys of summer gardening! Yes they are here. Those pesky pests! And, they are voracious consumers of our prized plants.

Japanese Beetles! These little machines feed on nearly 300 species of plants as adults!

So What To Do...
Well there are many styles of dealing with this particular critter. But.. the best practice is to prevent them from a life cycle in your lawn. If you deal with them in their larvae stage of life you will have fewer to trap or kill as adults. The eggs are laid in the soil and overwinter as larvae below the frost line. They produce 1 generation per yer. The larvae are called 'grubs' , a white C shaped image that is quite repulsive when you see them. If you have dead brown spots on your lawn, you may have had grubs in there eating the roots as they transformed into the flying beetle adult form. If your lawn peels back like a rug, you should check for grub infestation. Grubs can be controlled thru lawn care at the appropriate time of the season. There are many products out there to apply, but I would suggest you use those that are the most earth and human friendly. GardensAlive is a great place to find information and products you can purchase that are safe for you and your environment. Be aware that these little darlings can fly up to 5 miles to find a choice meal, so if your neighbor has them, you will have them too!

Dealing with the Japanese Beetle as an adult is much more challenging. Pheromone traps are really only useful in finding out when they've arrived, so please don't put one in your garden! You may as well post a sign that says 'Good Food Here!'. I actually do not use the traps. Part of good IPM practice is to visit your garden daily and spot problems early, like the arrival of the Japanese Beetle. I carry along a large open plastic bowl 1/3 full with water and dish soap on top that I drop these little pests into as I find them in the garden. It's quite simple, if you prefer not to 'touch' them (sometimes I just squish em with my fingers), just place the bowl near the area of the plant you've found them in, jiggle the plant and they will fall into the deadly soup. The dish soap keeps them from crawling out and eventually they will drown. I do this early in the morning before they become too active.

Some birds like to eat them, so attract birds to your property with housing, food and water for them. To mention a few: Cardinals, Robins, and Sparrows will feed on the adults, Starlings and Crows will feed on the larvae.

Choosing plants not preferred by the beetle will help if you just can't deal with them. Personally, I'm not willing to give up the beauty of a rose just because of this little critter. Persistence and good garden and lawn practices will help keep them under control and allow you to enjoy your landscape and all it has to offer.

UMASS and USDA have great fact sheets with information on the Popillia japonica pest we all love to hate.

Summer Color in the Garden

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange." --Vincent Van Gogh

and what an orange this Hemerocallis is. This one's name is 'Orange Crush' just like the soda pop you may be enjoying during the hot days of summer. For those of you who dislike the commonly seen naturalized roadside sweeps of orange daylilies this may be the choice for you.

This one is planted next to a Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) 'Blue Satin'; a striking combination as they bloom at the same time.

July is what I call day lily month, yet you can plant early, mid and late bloomers that get you from June to the end of August quite nicely.

Hemerocallis in Greek means day beauty. Each blossom does only last a single day which is why they are named as such. A good site to take a look at all these beauties is the American Hemerocallis Society website. Each year the list grows as new cultivars are introduced. Anyone can grow a new cultivar and submit it for registration thru the society. It can become quite a pastime er...obsession.

We have a lovely provider of hemerocallis here in Masssachusetts. They actually dig your plant after you've chosen your prize to take home. On my first visit it was quite a surreal experience as I chose to go at peak bloom time, which you can call ahead or visit the website to find out when that is. If you want to know what it feels like to walk thru what seems to be a European masterpiece of art, visit R. Seawright gardens in Carlisle Ma. Bob and Love Seawright are extremely knowledgeable and willing to help you find that perfect day lily!

Be aware of day lily rust and how to recognize it, its a good idea to select cultivars that are resistant to this disease. Cornell has a nice easy to understand description and best practices for dealing with it. I have not had any problems to date with it and I've been growing day lily cultivars in my gardens for over 16 years. Day lilies are a great plant to add color to your garden, they come in just about every color you can imagine, are easy to maintain and in a few years offer clumps large enough to dig and share with others.

Oh and did I mention I often see butterflies visiting day lilies? They twit and flutter from clump to clump while I sit and watch peacefully from my stump :)