A Welcome Spring

Winter has finally loosened its grip, and the air of a new season has blown in.  The garden has at last awakened, albeit much later than typical, and the fresh blooms of springtime could not be more welcome.  I've been a busy bee, doing all the clean-up and garden chores and tasks that in a normal year would have commenced in March, but I find it totally invigorating being outdoors again after this long harsh winter.  Tomato & Pepper seeds have now been started, and this past weekend I made my first forays to the local Garden Nurseries to check out new plantings which have hit the scene.  As the garden season gets underway in earnest, its wonderful seeing browns and whites being replaced with pastel pinks, vibrant purples, cheerful yellows and other colorful shades of the rainbow.  Birds are happily chirping and rummaging about, building their nests, and fragrant hyacinths are again perfuming my garden.  Sounds (and smells) like a slice of heaven to me...

Achieving Harmony with Simplicity

Our local Garden Center was running a special offering $50 Landscape Design Consultations, and so I took this as an opportunity to get some personalized professional advice to help me achieve more harmony in my garden. It was a worthwhile endeavor, and I received a gem of wisdom. There is always a tendency for many gardeners to plant one of this, one of that, but the Designer reinforced the principle of choosing fewer plants, and then mass planting them. She suggested that I use Liriope 'Big Blue' as edging for my woodland garden, rather than the rocks that I had lined up to define the bed. Brilliant! I am now incorporating this idea and will get all these plants in the ground over the next days.

I've planted several Peony Trees beneath the Cherry Tree, and will continue to build the collection in this space. The cultural conditions are a near perfect part-shade/part-sun, and so in a matter of time I think this segment of the garden will look great.

The Rock Garden will receive a mild makeover next Spring. My plan is to divide and transplant the Carex 'Evergold' to beneath the Serviceberry 'Autumn Brilliance' tree, and then to populate the deck-side bed with a row of Hosta 'Patriot', or some other sun-tolerant Hosta cultivar.

Early Spring Renewal

My rock garden was quite an eyesore one year ago, but last Fall I installed a Serviceberry, and then today I dug out all the weeds and honeysuckle seedlings and put in some Creeping Phlox. I re-arranged several rocks and mulched the area to give it a nice unified appearance, and as a finishing touch, I spread some Sweet Alyssum seeds beneath the tree.


(Phlox subulata 'Purple Beauty')

(Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue')

(Phlox subulata 'Mcdaniel's Cushion')

Upon wrapping up work in the rock garden, I planted my first container of the season for the front door stoop: 1 Snapdragon, 2 Annual Dianthus, 1 Vinca Vine


While adding new plants to my garden is always a pleasure, nothing beats seeing the old ones come back again. The Viburnum Burkwoodii has just begun to bloom, and the wonderfully strong fragrance knocks my socks off.


My Bradford Pear, which has a (distastefully) unique scent of its own, is covered in blooms. I find this stately beauty to be among the most graceful of all trees.


What a great day in the garden!

Tree Planting Season

My Woodland Garden just got a little more varied, as 2 new trees were added in mid-October. I added a touch of Southern Majesty to the side border, with the addition of Southern Magnolia 'Little Gem', and the invasive Bush Honeysuckle in my Deck-side Rock Garden has now been replaced with a lovely Serviceberry 'Autumn Brilliance'. There is room in my heart for so many trees, and I just hope there is still room in my garden for at least a few more too.

Bush Honeysuckle Must GO!!

Since I started my garden a year ago, I have been committed to filling the landscape with mostly native plants and those that can attract wildlife such as birds, bees and butterflies. Definitely I am seeing results and yesterday alone, I saw 3 different species of birds visiting my bird bath within only an hour time frame. Still, I am not a die hard "nativism" adherent, and so far I have not ripped out any plant simply because it is not a native. My large fan-shaped Euonymous Alatas (i.e. Burning Bush) is so lovely and fitting in its place, that I have respect for this plant despite its less-than-ideal reputation for being invasive.


However, the Bush Honeysuckle is a whole different story. I like the fragrant flowers, I like the nice lime green color of the leaves when Fall arrives, I like the mildly weeping habit of this understory plant, but I DO NOT like the crazy amount of seedlings that are sprouting up everywhere! They are hard to yank out, and now I clearly see why Bush Honeysuckle is such a threat to woodland areas. I plan to replace it with Chionanthus virginicus (White Fringe Tree), an attractive native with a very unique look while in flower. I will not regret saying goodbye to the Honeysuckle.

日本庭園, Japanese Garden Design

As my woodland garden begins to take shape during this second year since we bought our home, I feel a pull to incorporate elements of Japanese Garden Design into the landscape. If the land could talk, I feel it would be whispering "make me into a Japanese Woodland Garden", and already much of the shrubbery present (Pieris Japonica, Euonymus Alata, Camellias, Peony Tree, Satsuki Azaleas) originate in the Orient. The Japanese Garden aesthetic emphasizes being in harmony with nature, and features may include:

* Water, real or symbolic.
* Rocks or stone arrangements (or settings).
* A teahouse or pavilion.
* An enclosure device such as a hedge, fence, or wall of traditional character.
* A bridge to the island, or stepping stones.
* A Stone lantern of some sort.

My garden already contains rocks and stone, there is a "bridge" to connect the deck closest to the house to the outlying floating deck, and I was already planning to install a Bubbling Urn water feature to be a focal point of the garden. I found a seedling Japanese Maple 'Bloodgood' at Home Depot last weekend for $12.97, and my plan is to transplant the Honeysuckle to the corner of the back of the deck, replacing it with the Bloodgood. The current Rock Garden is overrun with weeds & vines, and so I will dig those out and replace with a few pockets of shimmering Lamium 'White Nancy'. To bring it all together, I will add in smooth silver/gray river rock.

Rock Garden

Back Border
I would like to add a stone lantern somewhere, and so most likely I will move the bird bath that is under the Pink Dogwood and put the lantern in its place.