Installing a Front-Yard Garden

Last fall, I marked off the area for a front-yard garden, something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years. Our front yard faces east and south and while we have planted some big trees, the corner in question gets baked by sun, and consequently, required watering all the time, and still the grass looked brown. Minnesota doesn’t really have the right climate for growing turf grass, even under better conditions.

I used the smother method to kill the grass and was only semi-pleased with the results. As the photo shows, not all the grass was as dead as it should have been. Next time, I’ll used the method described at the Minnesota site, lesslawn.com, which calls for a minimum of 10 sheets of newspaper and then a heavy load of mulch on top. To finish killing the grass, I did a judicious spritzing with Round-up, which kills pretty much any plant it touches, but disperses rapidly. I’s a good choice for this kind of job. During the week or so I had to wait for the Round-up to wear off, I took care of a couple of other pre-planting jobs.

First, call Gopher State One-Call (or use their web site, if you can figure it out) to have the utility lines marked. As I suspected, wires were under my bed. This meant hand-digging very carefully in those areas. Second job: Go buy your plants!! That’s the fun part. I had an idea of what I wanted because I’d had Kristin from Knecht’s visit last fall. I swamped out a couple of the choices Kristin suggested for similar plants that were more to my liking. (As great as they are, I refuse to plant even one more purple coneflower in my yard.)

Once I had all the plants selected, I started arranging them–in their pots–on the garden site. My daughters said it looked like aliens were staging an invasion of our yard. In placing them, I thought about the ultimate size of each plant, the various types of foliage, and the bloom time of each plant.

Placing plants is tricky, but as Don Engebretson says, “It’s not rocket science!” You want variety in foliage, plants with different textures and shapes. You also want to have something in bloom all season long. Finally, you want to plant in swaths or drifts. This has long been my downfall, since I tend to pick a plant and just put it in the ground. For more on how to create interesting perennial gardens, check out this article on Don’s web site or look at the pictures of Terry Yockey’s Red Wing garden on her web site.

Once I was satisfied with the foliage, the bloom times, and the drifts, I let it sit for a couple of days. Remember, it’s easy to move pots, not so easy plants that are in the ground. I made a few adjustments, then Monday afternoon started planting.

Bloom Tuesday No. 3

Whoa…it must be late May because the blooms are popping–and my hands were freezing when I took these photos. Despite the colder than normal weather and a lack of rain in my area, the lilacs are in full flower (left, and also my new banner photo), the red-twig dogwoods (right) have started to bloom nicely, the lamium ‘White Nancy’ (below, left) is starting to flower, and a geranium I bought at a recent plant sale is also in bloom. My Purple Sensation bulbs continue to provide nice color near the front door. The pansies I put in pots also look nice and some of the petunias that I planted in pots and window boxes are blooming, despite the rather chilly temps. I planted my new front-yard garden this weekend (more on that in a later post) and the wonderful chokeberry bushes (Aronia ‘Autumn Magic’) that will anchor the corner of the bed are in bloom (below, right).

For the blooms to really take off, we need a gentle inch or two of rain and a dab of heat (please!!)–preferably in that order.

A Bouquet of New Books

I’ve been so busy in the garden and with work that I haven’t had much time for garden-related reading, but four new books worth mentioning recently came my way.

Two of them are part of a series of regional gardening books put out by Lone Pine Publishing, a Washington-based publisher of gardening and how-to books. Herb Gardening for the Midwest, by Debra Knapke and Laura Peters, is an herb-by-herb guide to growing and using herbs from basics like basil and parsley to the unusual. Has anyone heard of orach? According the Knapke and Peters, it tastes like a mild spinach and can be used to treat sore throats and jaundice. If you are interested in herb gardening, this would be a good, basic book to buy. It’s a soft cover and costs $19.95.

Container Gardening for the Midwest by William Aldrich and Don Williamson, with Alison Beck and Laura Peters, follows a similar format to the herb book. It opens with an introduction to the basics of container design and upkeep, then goes plant-by-plant through a selection of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees that can be grown in containers, everything from arborvitae to yucca plant. I like that Williamson, who Minnesotans may know as co-author of several books on gardening in Minnesota with Northern Gardener columnist Don Engebretson, and company do not restrict their plant choices to the usual suspects. For instance, they recommend growing blueberries in a container, which makes a lot of sense since blueberries require soil much more acid than Midwestern gardens usually have–so why not manage the soil better in a container? Also, soft cover, $19.95.

British publisher Cico Books recently released Quick and Easy Container Gardening by Tessa Evelegh. The book includes step-by-step instructions for 20 container projects. This is more of a “pretty picture” book and the photographs by Debbie Patterson are beautiful. The book also leans toward gardening as decorating, so if you want an idea for using containers for dinner party decorations or finding cool containers at junk stores, this is the book to check out. Again, soft cover and $19.95.

The last book is probably my favorite of the lot, but it’s not out yet. I received an uncorrected proof of Rodale Press’ new Best-Ever Backyard Birding Tips, by Deborah L. Martin. This is 300-plus pages of advice on how to create a bird-haven in your backyard, with information on everything from providing cover to growing the plants birds love. It includes profiles of individual birds, including those most commonly seen in Minnesota. The book has several nice features, including tips for attracting birds on a budget and “myth-busters” that address common misperceptions about birds. For instance, their feet will not get stuck on a metal perch in cold weather a la Ralphie’s friend Flick’s tongue in the best Christmas movie ever made, A Christmas Story. Best-Ever Backyard Birding Tips will be released in late July, and speaking of the holiday season, it would make a great gift for any birders or bird-loving gardeners on your list.

Fancy Plants

My fancy plants have arrived! I’ve had such hit-and-miss luck with plant starts sent through the mail that I pretty much swore off them this year. I’ve either grown things from seed (another hit-and-miss effort, but that’s a different story) or bought them from local nurseries. But when we ran a photo of Phoenix™ series penstemon on the cover of Northern Gardener in March/April, all my resolve evaporated.

Penstemon–its common name is beard tongue–is a huge genus of plants with ranges as far north as Alaska and as far south as Central America. It includes about 275 species, including the perennial Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’. This was Perennial Plant of the Year in 1996 and is a familiar sight in northern gardens. In fact, there are two or three Husker Reds in my garden as well. The Phoenix series penstemon are an annual in Minnesota. They look like a cross between a snapdragon and a foxglove. They are heat tolerant, produce lots of flowers, and often are used in bouquets. I bought two types from Territorial Seed Company, Appleblossom and Pink. You can read all about penstemon at the American Penstemon Society web page.

A quick note on planting starts: Most come with instructions that you should follow as carefully as you can. Usually this involves watering the plants as soon as they arrive and getting them in the ground as quickly as weather permits.

Butterfly Bush, R.I.P.

I could have titled this post “I pushed the zone and the zone pushed back.” Last spring, filled with thoughts of permanently warm and wimpy winters, I planted a butterfly bush (Buddleia ‘Nanho Purple’). It was supposed to grow up to 6 feet tall and be covered with long clusters of purple blooms from August through September. (This image is from the Missouri Botanical Garden.) The bush seemed to do well, growing to about 3 feet in height with several nice blooms last fall. Butterfly bush is generally a Zone 5 and south plant and grows very large in some climates. Alas, Minnesota is still Zone 4, as this past winter proved. I’ve been watching the bush’s corpse in hopes of seeing some signs of life. None so far; none expected.

This incident drives home advice I heard from a horticulturist about planting for climate change. “Push the zone, if you want,” she said, “but don’t plant anything you can’t afford to lose.”

It also reminds me how grateful northern gardeners should be for the research that has been conducted over the years at places like the University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University. Research has expanded the growing options for gardeners in the north with everything from new magnolias to a wide range of shrubs to better apples. Plant breeding is a long, arduous and often frustrating process. Last summer, I had a chance to visit Harold Pellett (left), a retired U of M researcher and director of the Landscape Plant Development Center in Mound. Pellett, who during his 30-year career at the U helped develop 25 new varieties of shrubs including the Lights series of azaleas, founded the center to continue his work creating plants for the North. The center has already introduced a new ninebark, Center Glow™ ninebark, and a new non-climbing clematis, Center Star™ clematis. Pellett and his fellow researchers, who are based in Oregon, Russia, and lots of places in between, are working on several new varieties of woody plants, including a hardier butterfly bush.

“Will it be hardy enough to be reliable in Minnesota?” I asked him last summer. Pellett gave me one of those gentle, knowing looks that seemed to say, dream on, sister. “More like Iowa,” he said.

Bloom Tuesday

The prettiest plants in my garden today are the azaleas. These are ‘Pink Lights’ azaleas, part of the University of Minnesota’s Northern Lights series. The flower structure on these is so striking, like a series of horns playing off the center bud.

In the past, I’ve had trouble with the blooms blowing off the plant, just as they are blooming. Despite strong winds this weekend, the flowers hung on.

I have lots of things just about ready to burst, including (left) my Haralson apple tree and (right) lilacs.

I’ve also got flowers on some volunteer strawberries in my vegetable bed.

Purple Sensation

The Purple Sensation allium (Allium aflatuence ‘Purple Sensation’) bulbs I planted last fall are starting to bloom. They are a bit shorter than the package promised–maybe 24 to 30 inches high compared to 44 or more. It’s likely they will grow taller in future seasons. They seem to like the spot where I placed them. All of the 32 bulbs planted came up. I love the way they open up with the purple petals emerging from the tight flowerhead (right), and then bursting into a fireworks-like circle.

Cherry Blossom Time

The cherry blossoms–along with crabapple blossoms–are opening up all over Minnesota. My ‘Bali’ cherry tree began blossoming two days ago. It will look fluffy and white for a week or so before the cherries that ripen in late July or August begin to form. Bali (Prunus ‘Evans Bali’) is a variety developed in Canada, where it is known as the Evans cherry. It’s a pretty, compact tree and said to be hardy to -54 F. I’ve seen size estimates of anywhere between 8 and 20 feet tall at maturity. My little tree has been in the ground less than two years, and is less than 5 feet high.

What sets the Bali cherry apart from other cherries is its prolific fruit production. My friends at Northscaping, a Canadian gardening site, say they have seen gardeners collect 50 pounds of cherries off of a 5-year-old tree. The cherries are technically a sour cherry, but if left on the tree long enough, Bali gets sweet enough to eat raw. It is reportedly a delicious pie cherry. However, if you want to collect any cherries off a Bali tree, invest in a bird net. Last year, I noticed the little cherries were getting ripe, and thought “Better get some kind of net over this before the birds get them.” The next day, the cherries were gone.

Containing My Enthusiasm

“Uh, Mom, why is there a garden in our garage?” I heard that question the other day, as my college daughter surveyed the landscape of plants in flats and nursery pots that consumed half of our garage. The truth is my enthusiasm for plant buying–from the church youth group, several nurseries, and two local plants sales–had collided with cooler than normal spring weather, and it seemed the plants needed a bit more indoor time.

With slightly warmer day-time temperatures promised this week and lows that are not quite so low, I have been slowly planting things out. Many of those plants are finding homes in containers, which are a great way to experiment with annuals, tropicals, and even perennials. You can find books on container gardening, but the basic principles are simple. Find a pot you like. The bigger the pot, the more you can pack into it, although if the pot is deep, fill the bottom with light stuff, like crushed four-packs. Then, pick a “thriller,” a plant that will grow tall or be striking in some other way. Add a couple of “spillers,” plants that will fall out of the container dramatically. Finally, pack the container good and full with a “filler,” a type of plant with lush foliage or pretty blooms. My favorite container from last year was a large, green and white striped pot filled with Lava Rose and Lava Green coleus, Fiesta Ole double impatiens, a fern, and petunias. Here’s the same pot filled with new things for this year: caladium, Supertunia petunias, a fern, and a pink and green coleus.

For the Northfield in Bloom program, many downtown businesses and residences will be planting window boxes and pots with a designated container-formula. The Northfield Garden Club recommends planting dark coleus (thriller), sweet potato vine (spiller) and pink petunias (filler). My two backyard window boxes have a variation on this theme. I could not find any sweet potato vine in town, so I bought vinca vine, which is a little less lime in color, but drapes nicely. One box is planted with Dark Star coleus, an almost black coleus, and the other with a Perilla Magilla, which is not a coleus, but comes from the same family. It looks like a coleus and is a dramatic foliage plant. For petunias, I used a mix of Wave petunias and the youth group petunias, which are called ‘Pink Celebrity.’

All the pots look a little skimpy and cold now, but just give them a few weeks and some warmer weather. What are your favorite container combinations?

Bloomin’ Trash Talk from Florida

Excuse me, but who are these people from Stuart, Florida, already trash-talking Northfield in the America in Bloom contest? I came upon this article from the Palm Beach Post while looking for some information on Northfield in Bloom. It appears we have been challenged, and Northfield’s motto “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment” has been dissed. The Stuart folks have already had their visit from the America in Bloom judges but Northfield will not be visited until late July. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start planting!