I prefer to share articles I have written for limited publication sometime after they are released. Gardens With A Personal Touch appeared this winter in The North Star Monthly, a Danville, Vermont publication I admire. Covid-19 has changed many things but it will never change how important gardens are to us. In a time when we need calm from the storm, our gardens can help.Read on and think how to make your gardens more personal.
GARDENS
WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH
A snowy morning here on the mountain above
Peacham Pond. I’ve finally shaken off several weeks of a cold virus. The
woodstove is going, the birds have been fed and it’s time to turn to garden
thoughts. I read an article yesterday about a gardener who bought the house of
her dreams and always wanted a row of Hyperion daylilies along the road out
front. Hyperion is a wonderful daylily introduced in 1924. It’s +40” tall, a
nice shade of yellow and it’s fragrant. Sixty feet of garden is a great deal of
work so the woman started 10 feet at a time each year, turning the soil,
removing the stones and roots and debris and then amending the soil to
accommodate healthy plants, 30 inches on the center. The article included a
picture of the finished garden and it was really impressive!
The message here comes with a suggestion
that this time of winter is perfect for planning new gardens and improving upon
those you already have growing. Garden catalogs have arrived in the mail and
online catalogs have been updated. So grab a pad of paper and pen and map out
what you have and what you want to create. Think in terms of adding a personal
touch that is specifically yours. Think of adding items that will remind you
and your visitors that this garden is really “you”. This can included new
plants, shrubs or trees, anything vertical, bird houses or bird baths, stone
features, a piece of pottery, a piece of garden art, a single garden bench or a
set of garden furniture, an arbor or a trellis….or just a good cleaning out,
soil amending and a few complimentary plants.
When folks visit the flower farm and say
they would like some help picking out an assortment of plants for a new garden,
the first question we ask is whether the garden space is already prepared. If the whole thing is still a vision we
explain we don’t want to sell plants if the garden isn’t prepared yet. Garden
shortcuts never work and only create more work down the road. We also verify
soil condition, whether the soil has ever been tested, sunlight, soil
moisture/proximity to streams, ponds, seasonal water runoff, and visiting
wildlife. When we hear plants or shrubs that other nursery and garden center
staff have said “it should grow for you” we validate the temptation with
reality and our experience. We encourage our “plan it, validate that it will be
a success here and plant it once.” We have never been believers in “There’s
never time to do it right but there’s always time to do it over.”
Think about pockets of spring bulbs that
you always wanted but never got around to planting. Spring is the wrong time to
plant spring bulbs but the right time to figure out where you want to plant
them come fall, and then mark your calendar
with a note to order or purchase bulbs in September. Consider primulas, the
primroses you see almost year round now in grocery stores and garden centers,
Vermont hardy perennials that begin in late spring and grow into summer. They
often self-seed well and come in many colors and leaf types. The Japanese
primroses work well at the perimeter of shade gardens and can be planted in
moisture-retentive soils. They stand tall enough to offer a showy presence,
especially after a couple years when they have started to make colorful
colonies. Consider the penstemons, the salvias, the veronicas for a variety of
heights, bloom and leaf colors as well as bloom times well into summer. Spend a
little extra on brunneras and pulmonarias for leaves that offer excellence as
attention getters even after the flowers have passed. Give hellebores a try for
early spring color and forget about the notion that they are difficult to grow
or won’t survive here. And consider saving a package of dill to sprinkle around
your gardens in mid-spring. Dill plants are home to hoverflies which love to
eat aphids. They also are a magnet to a
variety of butterflies such as the tiger swallowtails. Add a package of Verbena
bonariensis to your dill seed and the result will be 3.5-foot tall flower
scapes with a wonderful blue color that all pollinators adore. And finally, if
through the process you have questions, send us an email at vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com
or call us at 802-426-3505 with questions. We’re always here to help you grow
your green thumb!
