Proper PH balanced lawn

Sometimes when explaining to people the needs of their gardens, I say, “Well how would you feel if …”

Attributing human qualities to your plants can give you a refreshing understanding of your garden needs. Let’s try that with explaining the importance of proper pH in your garden.

For plants and lawn- Proper liming and pH is an integral part of the plants’ ability to absorb nutrients.

For you- Sitting down at the table with a beautiful spread of chicken, potatoes and broccoli is really great after a long hard day.

For plants and Lawn- Without correct pH (around 7) the plant and lawn cannot achieve its optimum growth and or bloom no matter how much fertilizer you put on it.

A person with correct pH!

For you instead of a nutritious meal you, you get watery pudding, frozen lettuce, and cotton candy and you are still hungry.

For plants and lawn- If any stressors or going on like low sunlight, muggy summers and too much rain.

For You- If someone  turns off the lights, cranks up the heat,  locks the doors, and the center of the room fills up with 2 “ of water…

For plants and lawn- Everything is more vulnerable and weakened as to the harm that pests, root rot, and drainage problems can do.

You get angry, hungry, tired and catch a terrible cold.

Get the idea?

So go out now, buy a bag of pelletized lime and broadcast it on your lawn and beds.  It takes 6 months to raise your pH one half of a point.

When you finish, go inside and have a nice turkey, lettuce, and tomato and cheese sandwich with a smidge of mayonnaise, potato chips and a pickle. Give a collective sigh of relief for you and your yard.

Flowers anyone?

All gardeners, no matter where we live or what we grow, have a universal problem. There is some living creature that attacks or eats our favorite plant.

You know what I mean…that peach colored rose with its early tender bloom; that row of lettuce you were just ready to harvest for your lunch salad; or how about the rhododendron bush that is at a cockeyed angle and in horror you realize when touching it, that the whole root system has been gnawed away.  Then there is the lovely cherry tree, right before it blooms that has webbing and caterpillars massed between 2 branches.

According to the Gardeners Supply Company out of Vermont their top 10 varmints include in order of damage:

• Deer
• Rabbit
• Slug
• Mole
• Beetles
• Woodchuck
• Jap beetles
• Aphids
• Squirrel
• Caterpillar

Are you gnashing your teeth and growling yet?

It is important to remember that any products you use stand little chance of being effective if you have droves of any one thing (10 deer, 6 rabbits, 100 caterpillar webs), and if you don’t keep at it.  The numbers just work against you.  The goal should be to interrupt or make unpleasant their feeding habits and steer them somewhere else for lunch (hopefully not your neighbor’s azaleas).

Here’s what we have tried or seen for deer and rabbits. To get a full run down of their suggestions and products go to gardeners.com/10 least wanted.  It’s a fun spot on the web.

Deer and Rabbits

• We found that whittled pieces of Irish spring soap around each plant deter deer for a while until it rains and reduces the size of the soap and scent.
• We have also used Scram a granular product (which is $60.00 a bucket full). You spread that around the perimeter about 2 feet away from any plant you don’t want eaten. The two feet perimeter is for the reaching factor a deer has with its long neck.
• We tried battery operated zappers near tasty treats, but the batteries kept needing to be checked and replaced.
• (Deer only)Deer netting is pretty good.  It virtually disappears if you are more that 5 feet away. The idea is that when the deer feed they get a mouthful of nylon. With their favorite “candy” of annuals in a pot, I have seen them pull away the netting and clips that are used to stake them down.
• (Deer and Rabbits)We have had success with sprays around the perimeter of the garden beds.  The problem there is that each time it rains you have to reapply the spray.  If you miss an application of just a day or two, it could be an overnight blitz.
• ( Deer only) I have seen, but not done human hair.  You take a handful of hair from your brush or a beauty salon and put it in a mesh bag.  The person I saw using it said it worked, but I had a hard time with the look of it- disembodied hair hanging as bait- I just couldn’t handle it .
• (Rabbits only)- We have tried steel traps with vegetables in them so that they are caught and relocated to the country …not killed.  After a 3 week attempt in west end Richmond off Cary Street, we caught 3 juvenile very upset possums. Never have caught a rabbit.  (Bugs bunny was really that smart after all!)
• Our most recent attempt is garlic clips!  They are made with concentrated garlic oil.  They come 25 to a pack for 20 bucks from Gardeners Supply.  We took them out of the bag and were knocked back by the smell.  (If vampires hate them we figure it might work for deer and rabbits.) Some of my clients are in such dire need of a repellent, that we have already used them. As soon as it stops snowing, I am going to buy a full pot of pansies, put a garlic clip in it and leave it out as a sacrificial plant in the middle of my meadow.  That should be the test! I’ll let you know how it goes next month.

I look out my front window in December just as the first big snow is falling.  The fog is suspended above the snow covered ground with cold air and warm earth mixing.  I suddenly see movement at the base of our tree, then a spot of red. It is a Pileated Woodpecker hammering away! My husband, daughter home from college, and I stare out the window. We frantically whisper to each other at once,  “Get the camera…get the camera!” Meg clicked this picture (right).  It is a dream scene.

I spot these terrific birds about 5 times a year. They fly ahead of you from tree to tree in the woods.  Half the time, I see them low near the ground pecking away for grubs in trunks of trees.

Here are a few fun points about the bird.

• They are the cartoon Woody Woodpecker type of bird (unlike the Downy or Flicker woodpecker).
• The Pleated woodpeckers are about the size of a crow.
• They dig rectangular holes in trees looking for ants.
• They stay in pairs all year.
• Their feeding is so extensive that they attract other woodpeckers and wrens to the area.
• Their excavating can be so deep that they break smaller trees and in half.
• They had declined with the clearing of Eastern forests, but have been steadily coming back since the 1950’s.

Keep your eyes peeled for the red mop top and a moving black and white wing.  It’s not a dream…but a cute little buddy from Nature.

As we all struggle to recover from the negative speculations of some of our financial institutions, I thought it might be fun in an ironic way to look at a similar situation that occurred in Europe in the 17th century.

Tulipomania was the name attached to the period of time early 1600’s in northern Europe.  The Dutch were one of the first to go nuts over the tulip which came from Turkey.  (The Ottoman Empire in later years will be so enthralled by the flower, that the period from 1718-1730 will be called the Tulip Era.) What one has to realize with Tulipomania is that tulips were so different from every other flower know to horticulturalist. The colors were more intense and concentrated than other blooming plants up to then.

In the Netherlands, the development of the range of tulips was reflected in the number of books produced on the subject. Prospective clients and country estate owners decided on what to buy from watercolors bound together in catalogue form, and often times painted by well-known artists.  This paralleled the great American pastime of window shopping. The prices for these tulip books were sometimes exorbitant.  The most expensive book sold for an equivalent of 1.5 million US dollars of today.

Around 1630, lured by big profits, the market grew quickly while the number of tulips to be harvested did not.  It takes 7 years to grow 1 bulb from seed. Bulb prices rose, and the futures market in bulbs began.  Some bulbs were changing hands 10 times a day. Tulip trader were found doing business in across the Netherlands in many of the Dutch taverns.

Speculation in the years 1634 to 1637 grew to the extent that bulbs were sold faster than they could grow.  Consequently they were sold in advance, on paper (sound familiar?). These papers were re-sold before harvesting making prices higher and at a ridiculous level. Sometimes neither the seller nor the buyer had seen the flower.  This tulip mania got out of hand so badly that bulb growers asked the government to ban the trade, but not before the market crashed.  A compromised was agreed upon with brokers, where most traders were able to settle their debts for a small portion of their liability. The overall harm out to the Dutch economy however was negligible.

I hope we can make the same statement in a few years for our predicament to date.

Karen Watkins called me last spring to talk about building a park to celebrate the legacy of 4 generations that had created and run Watkins and Son’s Funeral Home.  I knew she was really serious about having something designed, built and maintained.  She used the words “inspiring” and “amazing”, which is right up our alley.

We met on a piece of property adjacent to her business, which had been left empty after a building on the site had been razed. The soil was dry, uneven and strewn with cement chunks.  Karen and her aunt, Valerie, talked about how they wanted the site to be a spot where their clientele could sit and be uplifted after the death of a loved one. A place to celebrate their lives on earth, instead of being saddened by their physical loss.   What better place to do that, than a garden filled with Nature?

There was also to be an area in the garden for people to install a memorial stone.  The stones were to be engraved with a loved ones name, and a phrase fitting their spiritual selves.   We chose 2’ by 2’ bluestone pieces 2” thick, and lay them in the gravel walkway in a checkerboard pattern.

Karen Watkins devotion to the project was monumental.  With Kevin Barry’s help, co-owner of Christie’s, weeds were kept down in the new beds at minimal cost by spraying them judiciously. Kevin worked closely with an employee on the watering needs of each plant.  Their employee, Ben,  did a fabulous job in the heat of July and August keeping everything alive and lovely… looking after his “babies” in the garden.  One of Christie’s client’s in hearing about the project, was so moved that she donated 4 lovely Japanese maples to be planted at the 2 openings of the stone walkway.

Last week it all culminated at a Legacy Reception where there as an  unveiling of the exciting plans that Watkin’s has for the metropolitan area.  Karen’s interests lie not only in running a caring and professional business, but also in  helping a range of students from All Saints High School. These students include orphans,  children from foster families,  from underprivileged families and  from caring loving families.  She has also reached out with Global projects of developing a teaching curriculum for dance and art in Guatemala.  She has also done research on how to be a  part of the “greener industry “for funeral businesses.

So if you drive by 2700 North Ave on Richmond’s North side and come upon a clearing of blue sky and green grass…slow down.  Take in the locust trees, roses, limelight hydrangeas, lilacs, smoke bushes and meandering path with stone benches. You can’t miss. It is a healing place… a private park to be inspiring to the public at large through the generosity and love of the Watkins family.

This past month we had the great fun of doing over a large yard in Manakin- Sabot, Virginia.  We had worked for this family about 8 years ago, and were back this time to help landscape their entire yard after they had enlarged their deck, and built a free standing garage/ guest room.

The project flowed beautifully. Plans were drawn up, pricing agreed upon and a few trees dropped to open up the woods which came up to their deck. We worked around their contractor who was finishing up his part of the new garage, and went for the deadline of a neighborhood party they were having in a few weeks.

Because of deer, the lack of an irrigation system, sun and shade exposures, an acre of lawn, lousy soil, and two goofy but loveable white labs, we kept it simple and bullet proof.  Trees like crape myrtles, vitax, styrax, and a hornbeam were used for structure and leaf or flower color.  Bushes like Knock Out roses, Davidi viburnum, and oak leaf hydrangeas were installed as well as ornamental grasses, hellebores, ferns were and hypericum.  Wow! What a pallet!

In the hardscaping department, one great benefit was that the home owner had a few tons of Tennessee ashlar stone that had lined their long driveway.  We used it to build a few retaining walls for a really great look.

These before and after pictures say a lot.  It looks really rough in some parts, because we had just aerated the lawn, but the bed lines, the stone walls and plant placement tell a lot.

We don’t often do Japanese gardens, but this project on West end Richmond near St. Christopher School was great fun. It had a great blend of stone, plants, and wood that made it work. We really hit the “Wow” factor with this one!

Our client had the vision of a low maintenance, easy to care for garden with an oriental flair.  We all had a tough time getting past her overgrown liriope, large weeds, tons of unevenly laid slate, and dense dark shade.

Stone work included incorporated adding a lower level terrace to her existing cement patio using Asian bluestone .We stained her existing cement patio to match her new terrace. We lay her inventory of black slate in small river stone pebbles around the berm. The same pebbles are in front of the berm to play with and rake in large sweeps.  Small boulders are a great addition to many landscapes we redesign. You can see how powerful they can be in these pictures.  They create great nooks and crannies in which to tuck a fern or hosta.

Wood accents include a unique but simple pergola custom designed and made to her space to help give her privacy.

Plant- wise the picture shows pachysandra in the beamed area. The pictures do not show as well how we utilized her Japanese maple tree and her inventory of English boxwoods, hostas and hellebores that were scattered throughout her yard. Additional autumn ferns, sarcacocca, chino viburnum and carex grasses really gave her the leaf texture and color she needed.

We gave her suggestions down to the nitty gritty on the type of pot needed for her weeping yaupon accent against her wood fence.  And as a final touch, we bought and set up the hoses, sprinklers and splitters necessary for watering effectively.

Check out these before and after pictures the owner sent me, then come play with us.

Before

After

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Our design talent with the clients help often includes being able to truly make , as the saying goes, a  “silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.

This is especially fun in 2 decks that we worked on last month.

Do Over Decks

The first deck was a “do over” where we re-vamped the existing deck with an additional wide staircase that serves as “sitting steps” when entertaining.

If you look to the right of the finished deck you will see latticing there to hide garbage cans and recycling.

The client had fabulous taste in choosing the dark “Pottery Barn style” color stain, the chartreuse potato plants and blue pots.

This deck serves as a separate “room” from the terrace and furniture located below to the left.

Let’s take a look.

Do Under Decks

This client had an upper deck where the sun beat down during the day, and 3 dogs to accommodate at her new residence.

Rather than just laying gravel or an expensive stone patio for her, we made a deck under her deck.

Her pupsters can get to the deck and stay within the fence, as well as be let out on the upper deck to run down to the grass area below.

She can visit with the dogs on the lower deck, as well as entertain people on a hot day.

The deck surfaces cut down on the mulch and dirt factor that the dogs track in on their paws and fur.

In the age of trillions of garden magazines and TV shows telling us what the trend for landscaping is, sometimes it’s just fun to go quirky! I have collected a few pictures in my travels that may give you some ideas for a different look on your garden and life!

Board Fence- No pickets

This first fence is made of flat topped redwood where pickets are cut off square and arranged with varying heights.  There is a real casual air to this design. It looks like the neighbor found some boards, cut them and slammed them up with a few nails. It was in an exclusive area in California so the artistic spontaneity of the fence was definitely planned.

Use an Old Tree Stump

Do you have an old tree stump you just don’t want to pay to take out?  How about using this idea of incorporating an old stump with a fence/gate.

I guess it will rot someday, but at that point you could just pay to grind the rotted stump out and put in a regular post.

I think it is totally cool and saves some money.

Hummingbirds Anyone?

Can you see the red hummingbird feeders between each window on the upper story of this hotel?

God bless the guy who changes out the sugar water for the little hummers every few days.

Scrabble on Stone?

This is an idea I would love to incorporate in someone’s yard, if they thought they would use it.  The inlaid stone into the terrace can be for scrabble, chess or checkers.  This one is congratulating a wedding couple at their brunch after the wedding day.  What fun for the kids and grandparents-   be outside and play a board game.

We Could Learn Something from this Redwood Tree

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could learn to go with the flow like this redwood tree’s root system?  This tree was growing just fine, using what Nature gave it to be strong.  Unbelievable.

Not Every Plant is Perfect (but that’s OK!)

I was dead heading a perennial garden last month, and came across this mutant white cornflower.  Isn’t it cute!  I think the whole plant is a mutant.  Talk about hybridizing.