South Eastern Connecticut Landscaping

You just have to love a flower that brings the sunshine down into the bland February garden. Winter Jasmine (Jasmine nudiflorum)  is a perfect fit for those gardeners who are fed up with winter and can’t wait for spring. It isn’t very showy the rest of the year with its normal looking deciduous green foliage but just before spring this Jasmine puts on a show!

Bright yellow flowers cover the leafless vine/bush all along the length of the branch. I planted my jasmine along one side of our front porch but it really deserves a home in more locations. Can’t you just see the yellow flowers cascading over a trellis before your neighbors even have forsythias blooming?

I traded for this at a plant swap a couple years ago and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the results! Last year it began blooming in March but this year it’s flowers are three weeks earlier. Have you planted Winter Jasmine in your garden yet?

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This week I actually found myself outdoors sowing seeds directly into the soil of my garden. Thanks to wonderful Tennessee weather, where you can count on a few days of warm even in February, we’re able to plant a few cool season crops this month.

So far in the vegetable garden I’ve planted:

• Lettuce – two varieties Little Gem, and Tom Thumb
• Spinach – a hybrid
• Sugar snap peas
• Garlic (done in the fall)
• Cilantro (self-sows regularly in the fall)

I planted the lettuce and spinach into my circular raised bed that just recently was put together. I arranged three sticks to divide the area into six sections. Four of the sections are planted and soon I’ll fill the last two with my red lettuce. If we get some really cold weather these plants may need some covering.

I’m planting the sugar snap peas everywhere I can this year. They are delicious right out of the garden and we never seem to have enough. They rarely even make it into the house! Once they have stopped producing we’ll let the foliage die back and nourish the soil with the nitrogen it fixed while growing. Legumes are a great resource! About that time I’ll be able to plant my tomatoes in the garden in and around the fast fading peas.

 

How are your seeds coming?

To join in on Seed Sowing Saturday just link back to this post and tell us about your seed sowing experiences over the past week. Be sure to leave a link below so we can come over and visit your post! Oh, and a Tweet or a Facebook mention/like is always a good thing!

Visit these Seed Starters!

• Sarah at Green Love Grass
• Lynda at Cortina Creek
• Tervy at Garden G’Imp
• Shannon at The Garden State

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Posted by CoolGreenGardens

What if the gnomes in your garden were practical jokers? You can outsmart them by planting a garden where form and foliage reign.

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When gift giving holidays are upon us (and happen during the growing season) I like to find gifts that can be planted in the ground and will give back the pleasure of the first gift many times over. I did that again this year with Valentine’s Day.

My usual gift to my wife is the sweetly scented hyacinth.  The flowers won’t bloom outdoors for another month or so but inside we can enjoy their fragrance then plant them in the ground after their foliage fades to enjoy again next year.

I took two more pictures, one with the flash and the other without. It’s amazing how different resulting colors can be.

The other plant is nothing other than a good ole’ dogwood tree! Cornus florida is common around here but it’s value as an ornamental tree and as a wildlife nourishing tree sure makes it worth planting. Especially so when you consider that I’m going to get to replace a smelly old invasive Bradford pear tree!!! Can you tell that I don’t like them?

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Recently I ordered plants (which I’ll cover in another post) and while choosing the plants I used a few criteria to guide my selections.  I wouldn’t rule out purchasing plants just because they might miss one or two of these characteristics but I do know that when all five can be found in the same plant I’ve got a winner!

Soil Conditions
The soil conditions in my garden range from pretty good to downright awful. The front yard is severely lacking in organic matter and consists mostly of clay and limestone gravel from the construction of our house (hello builders bring back the soil please!) When I dig I hit little rocks from the gravel and kick up tons of water-retaining-clay. In the back yard I have better quality soil and the plants thrive there with little help. When I select a plant I either have to find one that does well in clay soil or I’ll have to plant it in the backyard gardens.

Drought Tolerance
Our rainfall in the south is consistently inconsistent. The spring brings loads of moisture (last May we even had floods) while our summers can be severely dry. Plants need to be able to tolerate the drought conditions yet handle the wet springs. This is also another reason why soil conditions are important. A soil filled with good organic material will retain water during the dry periods.

Wildlife Benefit
Pollinators and wildlife can benefit when I pick plants with nourishing flowers or produce some sort of edible berry or seed. Hollies, pyracantha, and beautyberry all produce fruits that the birds can feast on to help them through the winter while coneflowers and other perennials produce seeds that the birds love!

Invasiveness
If the plant catalog says “self-sows” I’m always cautious. Many self-sowers are easy to control but other can be problems. In general if it’s on our state list of invasive plants I try to avoid adding it to my landscape. That doesn’t mean it can’t be controlled but it does mean it will require some work!

Overall Aesthetic Quality
In many cases this is what gets you to look at the plant to begin with, it just looks good! I try to fit it into a location with companion plant that will complement each other. Contrasting foliage with flowers, creating backdrops for berries (like Winterberry – Ilex verticillata), and long flowering periods are all factors to consider. Foliage, flowers, cand colors all factor in to providing and excellent accent in the garden!

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The other day I posted about the next evolution of my garden on its way to becoming a more formalized vegetable garden. Today I’ll show you the layout of what I hope the vegetable garden will eventually become. There are some distinct advantages to the layout changes that I am planning on making that I’ll share with you below the diagram of the vegetable garden layout.

First a Short Description of the Vegetable Garden:
I want to divide the garden into 4 main sections that curve around a center circle bed. Each bed will be lined with retaining wall blocks (most likely cast concrete) to define the beds and keep the soil inside. The central path and circle path in the middle will be approximately 4 feet wide. The pathways to the left and right will end with a couple of large pots filled with herbs as an edible exhibit. The corner beds will be 12 feet long on the outside edges and about 6 feet long along the straight edges of the pathway. Stepping stones will be placed inside each garden bed to allow easy access to the areas hard to reach from the pathway.

Vegetable Garden Layout in Parterre Style

The Advantages of this Layout:

• It divides the garden into four main beds which is ideal for organizational purposes when you are considering crop rotation. 
• The 4 ft. wide pathways give easy access to wheel barrows and equipment and make maneuvering around the garden a piece of cake. 
• The stone edged beds won’t rot like my wooden beds have. They can also be stacked higher to make deeper raised beds. My plan is to begin with one layer and add more height over time as needed.
• Stone borders will also heat up faster and retain heat over the night hours which may improve the length of the growing season some. In the summer the stones will be shielded by the foliage and won’t absorb as much heat.

The Implementation of My Scheme (Scheme sounds a bit more dramatic than “plan” doesn’t it?):
Rome wasn’t built in a day neither will this garden be. Over time I can add the stone borders for the raised beds. The first step will be to make the circle bed in the middle and mulch the remaining grass area.  That stone is already resting in the vegetable garden waiting for the gardener to get with it! Fortunately (for the garden but not our budget) we just had to replace our refrigerator and I saved the box for use as a weed blocker in the vegetable garden. I’ll lay the cardboard down and mulch over the top which should be all I need to get rid of the grass. The cardboard will last through this season and maybe some of 2012 before it completely disintegrates into the soil. I may sneak some newspapers underneath it for good measure and to recycle the newspaper – we sure have enough of it stored in the garage!

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‘Henna’ Coleus

When the outside temperatures began to drop in the fall I knew there were a few tender plants that I wanted to preserve for next year like my coleus. I brought 2 varieties of coleus indoors in the hopes of planting them again in the Spring of 2011 and both are doing good! I put the pot near a sunny southern window and one of them is thriving while the other is just getting by – but that’s good enough to get it through the winter.

The thriving coleus is ‘Henna’ which has some really nice foliage. The underside of the leaves is a deep red color while the top side of each leaf right now is a shade of green When it receives more sunlight during the growing season the top side of each leaf gains a more reddish coloration.

‘Alabama Sunset’ Coleus

The other coleus I’m overwintering is ‘Alabama Sunset’. ‘Alabama Sunset’ has some similar coloring to Henna in the red but the green is much more of a lime green and mixes with the red on both sides of the leaves with a mottled variegation. I saved two cuttings of this coleus and planted them in the same pot for space conservation reasons. When the last frost date gets close I’ll make cuttings of the ‘Alabama Sunset’ and plant them outdoors.

The ‘Henna’ coleus will probably remain in its pot so that it can be easily moved around in the future. Coleus is a tender perennial and will stay alive as long as it isn’t killed by the frosts! From what I’ve seen of ‘Henna’, it makes an excellent houseplant!

What plants did you overwinter this year?

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Posted by Ruth

The white-veined leaves of Alocasia micholitziana ‘Frydek’ steal the show in this tropical combination. But supporting players also do their part. The heart-shaped leaves of Ipomoea batatas ‘Ace of…

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I’m sure you can understand why the January garden doesn’t get much picture time here. It’s not because it doesn’t look great – even though it doesn’t – it’s because it’s pretty darn cold! This winter has been one of the coldest we’ve had in a long time here in Tennessee and I like it much warmer. I remarked this morning to my wife that it feels like we’ve already been through the winter and now it’s time for spring to start. Unfortunately it ain’t so as winter has only just begun! One thing is for sure – if a seed needs cold stratification this winter it’s going to have good germination when spring comes!

Yesterday I took a walk around the winter garden and took a few pictures.The self-sowing garden is a mass of dead foliage, seed stalks, and left overs from the 2010 garden. I’ll cut things back on a nice warm day in a few weeks – assuming we have one!

Just beyond the self sowing garden is the corner shade garden. Not much to see at the moment but we can stop and check anyway. Please enjoy the modern garden art in the back – I call it “gas meter.” I think it goes really well with its companion pieces “electric meter” and “water meter” but maybe that’s just me.

An ajuga I found this spring and transplanted here is showing its winter foliage. I’m not sure where it came from but I like it! It’s summer color is awesome even though it looks a little like frost bit lettuce right now.

Nearby a ‘Southern Comfort’ Heuchera looks rather uncomfortable in this cold winter weather. Perhaps it’s in need of some Southern Comfort itself…hmm.

The focal point of the corner shade garden is the oak leaf hydrangea which is lucky to have a couple leaves remaining!

Also in the corner shade garden you will find hellebores with a flush of green leaves.

Around in the backyard the birdbath garden looks devoid of life. It’s nearly all deciduous with the only real foliage remaining on the ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia and some leaves on the butterfly bush.

The birdbath looks quite strange…

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Posted by Ruth

The pointy petals of sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) reinforce the angularity of the spiky foliage of an African blue lily (Agapanthus ‘Storm Cloud’) and the radiating leaf lines of a sweetgum…

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