Gumdrops and Meatballs

Dwarf Yaupon Holly gumdrops, complete with vivid red colored mulch

Time for a little rant. What is it about corporate America's fascination with bushes that look like gumdrops or meatballs? This time of year exposes all that is weak in a landscape. Driving around my town, which has lots of banks for some reason, I just couldn't look at another crappy bank landscape without deciding to blog about it.

Indian Hawthorns maybe?

Look at the bushes above. Can't you just tell they're dying to break out of their squat little molds? At least they didn't submit the Crape Myrtle to whacking.

Click to enlarge and see the red berries

These holly bushes above look like they're trying to hide their beautiful berries.

I did manage to find one bank landscape that hadn't screwed things up...yet. The landscape above is for a new bank. Dward Yaupon Hollies, Indian Hawthorns, Crape Myrtle, and some type of taller hollies. Yes, it's the same-old, same-old when it comes to plant variety but at least they're letting them grow normally.

Just down the street from the above photo was a fast food joint. Check out what they've done to their crape myrtles.

I ask you, is that pretty?

Another public landscape with whacked crape myrtles (can anyone tell me definitely if it's spelled "crape" or "crepe"?). Below is a close up of the wounded tree.

So here's what I want to know - is it the corporations who want their landscapes to look so artificial or is it the fault of the landscapers themselves, the ones who should know better? Do you see this in your town?

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

First Bluebonnet of 2009

2009 was an interesting year for me, personally and in the garden. I spent much of the year looking for a paycheck and also trying to figure out where my future lay. For the first time ever though, I found more of my time focused on one of the real joys in my life - gardening.

Blogging and Writing
Wow, I did not anticipate, when I started blogging in the summer of 2008, that I would get so into it. Granted, I don't actually blog as much as I'd like to and I don't get to read as many blogs as I'd like to. But boy has it been fun. I attended the garden blogger's Spring Fling in Chicago, not really knowing what I would take away from it but knowing I'd see some great gardens. It was SO MUCH MORE than great gardens. Getting to meet some of the bloggers and really connect with some was such a highlight. Reading their blogs now is like chatting with a friend.

Cindy, Beth, and Pam at Chicago Botanic Garden

Over the year I picked up a few pass-around awards and then was surprised to see Blotanical subscribers award my blog Best Louisiana Blog. And then to find out that Horticulture picked my blog for one of their Top 20 garden blogs. Well it was almost too much.

I have been writing the newsletter for our farmers' market this past year. That effort combined with my blogging confirmed that I wanted to pursue more writing so I am happy to say that I have almost completed my first article for a garden magazine, scheduled to come out in June (I'll let you know about that when it happens).

Learning and Sharing
In 2009 I decided to pursue a Louisiana Master Gardener certification. In order to retain your certification you must contribute hours to other efforts, mostly ones that benefit the community. Our class decided to update a garden bed in a local park as a teaching tool on butterfly and bird gardening. Although it was a group effort, I designed the planting plan, learned how best to measure a garden bed from my friend Alexis, and learned how to stay patient when the fall rains wouldn't quit!

Kathy and Virginia busy planting the butterfly garden

I gave a talk at a local nursery about butterfly and bird gardening and plan to give another talk in March on perennials. I started a garden coaching business but it's growing VERY slowly.

I worked part time in a nursery, learning more about the plants that folks in this area prefer and hopefully sharing some of my knowledge of different plants with them.

I managed to visit several public gardens that were great (and some outstanding). Here's some links to posts I did about them: Wildwood Gardens in Little Rock, Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania here and here, Chicago Botanical Garden, and Briarwood Garden in north Louisiana. And here's some great private gardens I visited: Layanee's Ledge and Gardens in Rhode Island and Rick Bayless's garden in Chicago.

I also learned a lot more about photography through the Gardening Gone Wild photo challenges and hints from my photgrapher brother Brian.

The Gardening
Well, the gardening was frugal but fun. The successes? Finding some plants that are more native to the area.

Viburnum obovatum ‘Mrs Schiller’s Delight’

I also managed to plant and even grow some favorite plants from my past gardening experience (by travelling back to Texas to buy them!).

Malvaviscus drummondii, 'Turks Cap'

I was also finally able to attract some much wanted butterflies to the yard.

Monarch and Coneflower

The failures in the yard in 2009 include very few fall tomatoes, mis-labeled daylilies from the big box store, a rose that grew way out of its normal bounds and on to the driveway (The Fairy), and the inability to find any plants in this area in the fall that weren't pansies, snaps, or mums.

Although there's not much I can do about it, the rather strange weather was a bit much - first, no spring rains; then too much spring rain; then August temperatures and drought in June and July; then June-like weather in August and September; then 40 days and 40 nights of rain; then early freezes. Hmm.

Looking Ahead
Now what? What will 2010 bring? Well I hope it brings me more garden blogging friends, more opportunities to pursue my writing, more garden coaching clients, more learning opportunities, perhaps a steady paycheck, and a chance to grow into my full potential as a person.

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2009. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

Gardening to the Max

Like some other garden bloggers out there, I've been busy in between rains trying to get the gardening work done before leaving for Chicago Spring Fling. It was an intense day of work yesterday as I battled the beasties (fire ants, slugs, and spider mites), deadheaded, transplanted (see yesterday's post for one of the transplants), fertilized, and tidied up beds.

The daylilies are still at the height of their bloom period. The daylily up top reminds me of a dreamsicle. The daylily below is one of my cheap-in-a-bag purchases called El Desperado. Or so they say. The description from the package describes it thusly: mustard yellow with a striking plum-purple eye, plum picotee and deep green throat. It has none of that. Basically it looks like the old fashioned Tawny daylily except that the petals alternate light and dark colors.



Okay, last daylily photo, I promise (for today anyway). There's still one more daylily to bloom in this photo. It's at the end of the rock wall and has the same colors as the last one in this photo only it's a double. And very prolific.



Okay, I lied. Here's one more photo of daylilies. But I didn't want to discuss them but rather the little red blooms in the background. I purchased a six-pack of Salvia 'Coral Nymph' and split it with a co-worker. They were very small plants at the time. Imagine my surprise when one of them bloomed bright red. Well that messed up my whole color scheme so I had to move it to this bed. Not that this bed really has a color scheme but it seemed the best place for now. It's a very brilliant red and quite lovely. I hope it can thrive well enough with the dappled sun it will get for most of the day until the end when it will get blasted by intense sun. Also seen in this photo is the hosta 'Elvis Lives' (love the name!) and Bamboo Muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa).



As I mentioned before, part of my work yesterday involved dealing with beasties and other tough garden problems. I seem to be getting them all at once! I had blogged previously (see Slugfest and other garden battles) how my coreopsis had developed powdery mildew because of the rain and humidity. That was leading only to more decline and a greater population of pillbugs and other creatures I don't want. So I whacked them all back. I have no idea if they'll come back but since I know it was only going to get worse, I don't mind. I'll find something else to fill the void if they don't survive the whacking. Also seen here are several 'Victoria Blue' salvias and a baby buddleia, 'Pink Delight'.





For my bird friends I decided to make a little ledge on my water pot (that's Equisetum hyemale or Horsetail Rush in the pot). I've noticed the finches and cardinals occasionally trying to drink from this but they were never able to stand on something. So I built them a little bamboo bridge. Hope it works.



I didn't really do any work in this area of the yard yesterday. But I thought it was looking nice now that the hydrangeas were starting to bloom. The one in the foreground is 'Lady in Red' and the one in the background is 'Mini-Penny'. Eventually (as in a long time from now) I hope to remove the lawn to the left of these beds and create one big shade garden.

I leave you with a close up of the 'Mini-Penny'. It hasn't started turning pink yet but should soon.

Slugfest and other garden battles

The spring rains, as I blogged about last, are bringing some not so wanted things to the garden. Chief among them are the slugs. I never had slug problems, or not much of one, until this year. Seems they've found their way into my raised beds and unbeknownst to me, were decimating the vines I was trying to grow on my willow teepee. But I caught them at it this morning and hope to score a knockout punch with them tonight. Below you can see what's been happening to my vines. This one is a hyacinth bean vine (Dolichos lablab).



Are the slugs responsible for the state of my jalapeno pepper plant? Hmm, I'm not sure. Anyone out there know?



The rains have also brought a host of fungi. Below you can see, if you look hard, the powdery mildew which is covering my coreopsis. Hey, I thought these flowers were supposed to be easy as pie to grow?!



And of course, my old friend Mr. Blackspot is back. The Marie Pavie rose has frequent bouts of blackspot and right now she's in tough shape. But I know she'll be back. I have a few other roses with blackspot, one old red rose that was here when we bought the house (might be Cramoisi Superior), the climber Madame Alfred Carriere, and a hybrid tea (what possessed me?) called Veteran's Honor. However, The Fairy, Janet, and Red Cascade are still disease free. If only it would stop raining long enough for me to get out the spray (organic of course).



There. That's enough about the ugly stuff. Besides, it's thundering again. :-( I hope to blog about some nice blooms tomorrow!

Tulip Dreams Quashed

Normally our garden blogs are all about beautiful photos and our gardening triumphs. Well here's a little something to dispel the myth that all is success in the garden. Last fall I thought I'd try my hand at a little spring tulip display. Knowing that they don't survive and thrive down here in the south I thought I'd pot up two different but complimentary kinds of tulips. They spent their requisite 6 weeks (actually a little more) in the fridge away from fruit and veggies while in the bulb stage. After potting up, the earlier variety started to grow right away. A photo of their blooms can be found in this blog. The mid-season variety starting growing about a week and a half later. But this is as far as they got until succumbing for some strange reason. Does anyone have any idea of what happened? As you can see from this photo, the other variety of tulips are still strong and healthy. Sorry I don't have the name of these guys as I inadvertently threw away the tags.