Perennial Gardening

For The Birds

Sat, October 8, 2011 No Comments by Neil

Our early October snow has the birds at my feeders devouring seed at a frantic pace. I’m sure many of these birds are migrators looking to fill the tanks as they move south, and feeding stations become a place of congregation for birds overlapping as they spend a little extra time fueling up.

This year, the finch feeders have been especially heavily used by the migrating goldfinches, and I find myself filling the thistle tubes every day to keep up with them. I’m keeping the hummingbird feeders full and fresh as well, in case any of those little guys haven’t made it through yet. I hear others chatting about migrating hummers still moving through, but I haven’t seen any around my yard for many days now.

Looking out my office window onto my front garden, I’m a little sad to see the wet snow folding the miscanthus and calamagrostis grasses over to the ground with their weight. I’ll hope that they’ll spring back upright when the snow melts from them later in the day, so I can enjoy their structure in the garden over the winter.

While saddened by the drooping grasses, I love the bright sound of the dozens – maybe hundreds – of birds who use my feeders and fill the air around the house with their song and activity. Birds are a perfect compliment to the well-designed perennial garden. If you add no additional feeders at all, you’ll still notice the bird population increase as your garden matures. The addition of feeders just brings that many more in. This time of year especially, migrating birds can use the extra calories from feeders kept full as they move south.

Feeders or not, you’ll want to leave your perennial seed heads standing into the winter. These standing seed heads – particularly of plants like Rudbeckia and Echinacia – are great sources of natural seed for the birds. You’re likely to see finches hanging on these heads to eat well past winter and into early spring.

The other two key ingredients for the birds are water and shelter. Some pine or junipers close-by offer great winter protection as the deciduous trees loose their leaves. I have lots of ponds and running water in my gardens, so the water is all around. If you don’t have that advantage, try and find a way to keep a bird-bath or like feature filled with water, and as the temperatures drop further, think about a small bird-bath heater to make sure the water stays available when other sources are frozen.

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Jade Blooms

Wed, September 21, 2011 No Comments by Neil

I’ve mentioned before that I can get my Jade plants to bloom, and thought this would be a perfect time to share how I do this. I stumbled on it by accident years ago, and have found it to work every year.

With a frost warning here in Parker for tonight, most folks are probably bringing in any Jade plants they have outside. If you want them to bloom, hold on for just a little longer, taking the time to cover them with sheets tonight instead.

The key to getting them to bloom seems to be the combination of shorter days and colder nights. I leave them outside as long as I possibly can – usually into October – then I bring them in and set them by a sunny window. Within a couple weeks, the buds will begin to appear, and soon the plant is covered with delicate white flowers.

I should mention that one prerequisite seems to be the age of the plant. It appears that until a plant is about 5 years old or so, it won’t go through this blooming process. But the older it gets, (I’ve got one 15+ years old), the better they bloom.

Kind of like people, right?

If you have Jade you always keep inside, try putting it outside for these next couple weeks, and see if you can force the bloom. If you do, be sure and keep it out of direct sun, and protect it from frost, as it isn’t hardened off to the outside.

It might seem harsh to keep the plant out, but often we do damage to plants in our effort to be kind to them. Just like the common practice of overwatering gardens in the fall to keep them going, which actually prevents the perennials from hardening off well for the winter. In this case, there must be something in the native climate of Jade that entices them to bloom, and this combination of cold nights and short days seems to mimic that enticement.

Sometimes ya gotta’ be cruel to be kind, right? Why deprive them? Enjoy the blooms!

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Fall Bloomers

Wed, September 7, 2011 No Comments by Neil

Asters and Mums are center-stage in the perennial garden for the next couple months. Pick up mums early in the fall and plant them right into your garden, and there’s a good chance they’ll establish and come back in the spring (assuming you get hardy mums). Check on the kind of Asters you see and like, and think about putting them in next spring.

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Fall Cutbacks

Sat, September 3, 2011 No Comments by Neil

Late summer is an important time in the perennial garden. It’s a time for the garden to prepare itself for the coming winter. The gardener can help this process along, though the help we can provide might seem counter-intuitive.

After the hot weather we’ve had, there’s a natural desire to try and use the cooler weather that seems to have finally arrived as an opportunity to “green up” and “flower up” the garden a bit – to pour on the water and see if we can get the garden really “cookin” again before winter. But for most perennials, this is exactly what they don’t need.

There are exceptions for sure, but in general, perennials need to be “hardening” themselves off for the winter now. They spent energy early in the season building themselves us, and most of them have spent energy throughout the summer flooding our gardens with blooms. Now comes the time when they need to pull their energy back into their root systems in preparation for the winter.

But if we pour water on the garden to try and “green it up”, we just confuse matters or worse. While we should still make sure the garden has sufficient water, we should be starting to cut that water back as the weather cools. That appears to be happening right now, with the highs this next week 10 or 15 degrees below what we had this last week.

For trees, it’s still OK to give them a good deep watering now and again if they’re young, but generally their system needs to go through the same process of hardening off, and reduced water helps them get there. We plant a lot of Honeylocust here along the Front Range, as they adapt so well to our climate and our soils. However, the Honeylocust can suffer tremendously from too much water late in the season. Unless you have a newly planted specimen, I generally recommend holding off on watering after September 1 for these guys. A hint on the Honeylocust is to look for “tip die-back” in the spring. If you notice that the tips of branches appear to have died over the winter, this is a sure sign of too much water in the fall and winter.

For lawns, (though I readily admit I’m not a lawn expert), it’s probably a good idea to reduce our watering schedule as well. I’ll cut my water in half starting this weekend in response to the cooler temperatures, and may cut it more than that once I see my water bill for last month…

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Little Hummers

Mon, July 25, 2011 No Comments by Neil

A common observation of birders in our area this year has been the scarcity of hummingbirds. They’re still around, just not in the numbers we’re used to seeing. Most years my gardens are full of hummers by now, but this year there are only a few.

What you consider that the hummingbird is constantly only hours away from starving to death, I would guess this sort of population anomaly is fairly common. The hummingbird eats its own weight in nectar each day – it has to in order to support the crazy high rate of metabolism that allows it to beat its wings 100 times a second with a heartrate of about 1000 beats per minute. The hummingbird can barely store enough calories in it’s tiny little body to survive overnight.

With that kind of intake requirement, it doesn’t take much of a drop in food source to have a big impact on population. We did have early cold spells last year, and it might be that the early cold caught lots of the hummers before they completed their migration.

Hummingbirds are easy to attract to your garden. Of course, the instant way is with hummingbird feeders. Mix the “nectar” at one part sugar to 4 parts water. Bring it just to a boil, then let it cool (covered). Store it in the fridge. Be sure and wash and change the feeders every 2 or 3 days, since the nectar will ferment and make the hummingbirds sick. Once they learn that a feeder has bad nectar, they won’t return.

While feeders are a good idea as a constant and controllable source of nectar, I highly encourage the gardener to do a bit of gardening for hummingbirds as well. Many of the plants that grow particularly well around here are also plants that hummingbirds love. Penstemon is a great example – they are abundant and native to our area, and the hummers love ‘em. Agastache is another example, with a wide variety of different versions available for the gardener to choose from.

It’s a rare garden we design that doesn’t have both Penstemon and Agastache in it, both for the visual value as well as a bit of help to our hummer friends.

Photo by Russ Thompson - Hummingbird feeding on Mexican Sage

One plant that is particularly loved by hummers is Mexican Sage. You have to be careful about where you plant it, because it’s barely hardy to our area – in fact it’s not really hardy in most locations. However, if you’re down in Denver, you’re likely to have good luck with it. Even out in areas like Parker, you can get it to work if you are sure and plant it with good southern exposure to avoid prolonged and deep ground cold. The first winter is the most risky, so we recommend only trying it if you can get it in early enough to build a strong root system before winter sets in. Mexican Sage wants at least half a day of sun, and is extremely drought tolerant. We find that it likes good rich soil.

The red flower spikes of Mexican Sage began blooming 2 weeks ago in my gardens, and will continue to bloom through the end of the growing season. The stand 3’ to 4’ tall. It’s a rare morning when there aren’t hummingbirds working the many spikes of Mexican Sage outside my office windows.

Below are the plants we regularly plant in gardens that the hummingbirds love:

  • Columbine (we don’t plant often, but it’s a good early season source for the hummers)
  • Bleeding Heart is a good early source as well
  • Coral Bells is a good early source
  • Lilac is a good early source
  • Monarda – especially the red ones.
  • Red Salvia – put some early annuals in planters as they love these!
  • Penstemons
  • Butterfly Bush
  • Lobelia
  • Delphinium
  • Liatris
  • Obedient Plant

 

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Lilies!

Sun, July 17, 2011 No Comments by Neil

‘tis very silly To gild refined gold, or paint the lily’.
Shakespeare

While I love all the seasons of the garden, this little window is surely among my favorites. The daylilies are splendid, as are what I call “summer lilies” (asiatic lilies etc).

I must confess that I’m a bit of a daylily bigot. I love the big bright flowers they’ve bred over the years, and can’t figure out why anyone would plant those anemic looking little ones. But that’s just my preference.

Technically, daylilies aren’t even true lilies. They all share the common “ditch lily” as a common ancestor, but have been bred over the years to a multitude of colors and sizes. some blooming early and some late. They all share the characteristic that each bloom opens in the morning, and fades that night. Most varieties send enough buds and blooms to keep blooming for 2 – 4 weeks, some varieties blooming early and others later.

It’s just a lucky quirk that many of the summer lilies bloom now too, creating a spectacular show of yellows and oranges and reds.

Daylilies and summer lilies can both be divided and propagated, but the process and timing is different. Daylilies are quite hardy and can technically be divided nearly any time. However, I like to divide either quiet early in the spring or just after they bloom. To divide, gently dig the root ball, and separate the plant into small clumps, each one with a bundle of little tubers supporting it. Depending on the variety, a big clump can produce anywhere from a handful to dozens of little transplants. Before planting, use a set of shears to cut back the tops of the plant to about 4” tall. Then plant and water. As with any transplanting or dividing, it’s best to do this in the afternoon in the shade, and keep well watered for the first few weeks.

Summer lilies are much different, and are quite picky about when you should transplant. You can transplant them early in the spring when they first come up – be sure and replant at the same depth as you dug them, and don’t cut the tops back. Or, you can wait until late in the summer – when the tops are dying back. If you divide and move them late in the year, the tops aren’t really important anymore – they’ve done their work of feeding the root during the summer.

 

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Fertilizer Labels Unmasked

Fri, July 1, 2011 1 Comment by Neil

One of the most confusing topics for most gardeners is the topic of fertilizers. Just what do those numbers mean? Why do the numbers matter?

The numbers on a fertilizer package represent the % of different nutrients that particular mix has. The three nutrients measure are:

  • N = Nitrogen
  • P = Phosphorous
  • K = Potassium (sometimes called Potash)

Generally, the value to the plant of these three nutrients is unique.

  • Nitrogen encourages and feeds the production of green plant material – top growth if you will. You’ll notice that many lawn fertilizers are heavy on nitrogen. An example of a heavy “top growth” or “green growth” mix would be 21-3-3, indicating 21% nitrogen, and 3% each of phosphorous and potassium.
  • Phosphorous encourages both root growth and development of flowers, fruits and seeds. It’s an expensive ingredient in the blend, and too much of it is bad for the environment. But it’s critical in the perennial garden.
  • Potassium is a critical component of a plant’s ability to develop vigor to resist stress and withstand changing weather conditions.

A well-established lawn needs a fertilizer heavy in nitrogen to feed that heavy and lush top growth. However, pure nitrogen without sufficient P and K will leave the turf susceptible to stress and disease. In our heavy soils down in Parker, I always apply less N and more P and K, because I care more about the grass plant’s ability to build and maintain a root structure that will penetrate and survive the tough soil.

For perennial gardens, you want a mix that is high on P and K. There are different opinions about how much N you want, but certainly you don’t want the N number to be higher than the other two – the most N you would want would be the same as the P and K – say something like 5-5-5.

You’ll notice also that fertilizers often advertise that they’re “organic”. While we do use synthetic blends depending on the situation, my preference is to use organic blends. An organic blend will always have lower numbers, but for the perennial garden you’re not looking for high numbers anyway. The greatest value to the synthetic blends are to the container plants and lawns (assuming you want a high N lawn fertilizer.)

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Density in Gardening

Sun, June 19, 2011 No Comments by Neil

Redwoods line the road in Big Sur State Park

I just finished a long bicycle tour, riding about 1300 miles from Monterey, CA back to Colorado. I’ll be having several upcoming articles on the ride at my writing website – NeilHanson.com – and will probably do a couple of articles here on some of the plant and bird life observations.

One of the things that struck me right off the bat about the plant life was the contrast in density that I got to ride through, and how we as gardeners use the notion of density in our garden designs.

Riding through the Big Sur country along the California coast, I was surrounded by deep and dense forest. Giant Redwoods towering above me, and steep hillsides covered in greenery and flowers below me. You’d have to peel back several layers of living matter to reach actual “soil”. It was truly stunning.

Big Sur GardenA week later, I was learning about heat in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of California and Arizona. The contrast with the Big Sur coast couldn’t have been greater. Tough and hardy plants spaced well-away from each other cling to life in the wind and scorching sun, surrounded by empty rock and sand as far as the eye can see. While I could see bare ground all around me, my Midwestern notion of “soil” did’t quite fit the rock and sand that made up that bare ground.

Hillsides covered in flowers along the coast

Here in the Front Range region of eastern Colorado, we’re nowhere close to either of those extremes. Our high prairie habitat provides 13” or so of rainfall a year – a veritable rainforest by the standards of the Mojave, but deadly drought by the standards of the Pacific Coast. In future posts, I’ll talk a bit about how we might consider density in garden design, since our climate here in Colorado allows us great flexibility in this area.

Spending time on a bicycle riding through these regions reminded me of an appreciation for a broad range of density of plant life. It’s certainly possible to take a position of liking one extreme and not liking the other, but I prefer to learn to appreciate both for their unique adaptation to the hand they’ve been dealt. Trying to recreate one or the other of these extremes here in my climate would result in heartache for me as the gardener, but adapting what I learn from the extremes can guide design decisions that incorporate the beauty in each.

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Design Basics – The 4th Dimension

Sat, May 28, 2011 No Comments by Neil

Iris close to patios and walkways are perfect

OK, right off the bat, I’m not a mathematician or physicist. If I were, and I started talking about a fourth dimension, I’d be talking about something like “spacetime” or maybe some sort of Euclidian tubal theory thing.

But I’m just a simple gardener. And a designer. That place where the designer in me and the gardener in me comes together knows that there’s more to experiencing a space than the things that can be described in the 3 spacial dimensions that we usually think about.

For example, when I walk through a garden, while my eyes experience the visual spacial layout of the garden, my nose is busy crawling through the scents that the garden dangles at the end of my nostrils. I’ll often stop and close my eyes, and enjoy a olfactory treat dancing in my head.

While my mathematics and physics friends will smile condescendingly and tell me that there is a difference between a “dimension” and a “sense”, I guess I’d like to argue that point when it comes to designing for people – especially designing gardens.

We don’t just see a garden, we experience it. Our eyes are part of that experience, but so are our other senses. In my mind, the first 3 dimensions of experience are visual, after which we move into the other dimensions.

Smell is the 4th dimension in my mind. Scientists tell us that our olfactory sense is the sense that’s the most “persuasive” on our brain. We all know how a smell that we associate with something can transport our mind powerfully to that thing we associate the smell with.

And there’s no palette on earth as rich for the olfactory designer as the garden. Why on earth shouldn’t we be thinking with our noses when we design a garden?

One of the things we like to do is line walkways with lavender when we can. The lavender grows out over the walkway, and get’s brushed against and crushed as people walk by, releasing the strong smell of fresh lavender. Thyme can do the same thing, though it’s not as powerful an odor.

Early June in Colorado is the time for the Iris and the Lilacs, two plants drip sweet smells whenever you get close tot them. Lilac is a big shrub, and we like to plant it next to raised decks, so that as it grows it reaches up into the deck area, and the smell can invade that space. Bearded (or German) Iris are perfect next to patios where there smell will be welcome on those early summer evenings enjoying the end of the day.

Design decisions shouldn’t be made in a vacuum. Don’t forget that 4th dimension – nose – when working through a garden design.

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Design Basics – The 3rd Dimension

Thu, May 26, 2011 No Comments by Neil

A picture on a piece of paper is 2-dimensional. Even if drawn with perspective, it can only “represent” the idea of 3 dimensions. That’s why people are so often disappointed when a really nice “plan” or “drawing” of a garden turns out to be barely mediocre after it’s implemented.

A garden is experienced in 3 dimensions. You never (or rarely) look “down on” a garden, to see how it’s laid out. You move through a garden, feeling the depth and the height around you as you do. Your eye moves up and down, often peeking “around” something to see what’s on the other side.

This is why we’ve developed the somewhat quirky design process we use at Prairie Eden. If a sketch is required for an HOA, we’re happy to put one together, but it’s not a “design document” in our eyes – it’s a really rough sketch.

The design process starts with the skeleton of the garden – the shapes that are put together with the walls, terraces, and walkways. While the skeleton is coming together, ideas begin to form about how the flesh might develop around the skeleton, and these ideas often help shape that early “skeleton phase”.

By the time the rough plumbing is being laid for the drip system, and the good rich soil is being ladled into the garden, a good bit of the “shape” of plants has come together in the mind’s eye of the designer. We might not have decided for sure which exact plant to put where, but we’ve started to visualize the ways we need plants to enhance the shape that the garden is evolving into. We can see where we need height, and how much. We have a feel for how dense the height needs to be.

It’s a truly fun stage in the design process – where you can feel the garden shape emerging upwards in the eye of the mind.

There are some basic design principles that the mind’s eye is using to imagine the shapes that can emerge – the same design principles that have driven the process to this point. This stage is a little different though, in that the garden skeleton almost begins to “call” or “suggest” what would work best.

It’s not something you could do in advance on a 2-dimensional piece of paper. It’s something that has to come together in your mind as you sit in the space and move through it. Of course, you can put anything you want on a piece of paper, and a good designer can do a fairly good job of predicting what might work well. But to really know – to really feel it and hear it clearly – you need to “be” in the space as it’s come together, and see what it will look like in 3 dimensions.

For the novice who’s a little nervous about starting down the path of building a new garden, this is all really good news. Throw away your trepidation, and listen to the shape the garden wants to become. Most of all, when it comes time to plant the garden, sit quietly in the new shape, and move around it it slowly. The plant shapes will come to you. If you’re not that familiar with different plants, this is a good place to bring in someone who does know plants, and get ideas from them on what might implement the shapes you see emerging in your mind’s eye.

At Prairie Eden, we’re happy to help our customers at this stage. If you’re doing some planting, and want some ideas on what might implement the vision you’re seeing, give us a call and let us walk the space with you.

 

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