Choose your plants

In winter, do soil preparation and put in paths or other hard landscaping, then start planting in spring as moisture-loving plants become available. April is the best time, though pot-grown plants can be added all through the summer even when they are in flower.

For a wild and natural look: choose native moisture-loving species and their close cultivated relatives such as lythrum, lysimachia, epilobium, marsh marigold, Equisetum scirpoides, flag iris, gunnera and bogbean. 

For a cultivated/glamorous look: choose monarda, sanguisorba (pink, fluffy bottlebrush flowers), hosta, astilbe, rheum, Primula rosea, P denticulata and candelabra primulas such as P japonica and P pulverulenta.

For partial shade: choose hosta, primrose and ferns, especially ostrich fern and soleirolia (the ground-hugging, mind-your-own-business plant).

Winter interest

Most bog gardens look their best from mid- to late summer so in winter, when the perennials have died down, you need to add visual interest with a sculpture, gnarled tree stump or natural-looking ornaments. There are plants for winter effect: if space permits, plant red-, orange- or yellow-stemmed shrubby willows and either coppice them every two to three years in spring, or grow one as a tree and pollard (prune) it regularly so it has a trunk topped with a spray of young shoots. 

Hydrangeas will thrive in the damp area around the bog garden. Their late flowers will dry out naturally on the plant and last well into autumn. 

Make full use of early spring species such as marsh marigold (and its cultivated varieties with double flowers), early primulas and peltiphyllum (pink flowers in spring before the leaves appear and in autumn, large saucers on stick-shaped leaves that take on colourful tints). 

New England Landscape Design and History Association and Massachusetts Horticultural Society will sponsor a lecture by award-winning landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy at Elm Bank in Wellesley on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 6:30 p.m.

Messervy will talk about her new book “Landscaping Ideas That Work,” which has just been released. A wine and cheese reception precedes the lecture at 5:30 p.m. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Messervy is the designer of the award-winning Toronto Music Garden, Weezie’s Garden at Mass Hort, Hidden Hollow at Heritage Museums Gardens, as well as many other residential and institutional landscapes. She is the author of seven books on landscape design, including “Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love” and “Outside the Not So Big House with Sarah Susanka.”

Tickets will be $25 or $20 for NELDHA/Mass Hort members. Tickets can be purchased online at www.masshort.org or by mail. If purchasing by mail, send your check payable to “Massachusetts Horticultural Society” with your email address and your membership affiliation (if applicable) and mail to Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Attn: Maureen Horn, 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA 02482.

For more information, email MHorn@Masshort.org or Info@NELDHA.org; call 617-933-4912 or 781-407-0065; or visit www.MassHort.org or www.Neldha.org.

 

David Hughes, a Doylestown landscape architect with an affinity for native flora and natural landscapes, often finds himself ripping out dead, overgrown, or otherwise undesirable plants to make way for new.

But he doesn’t haul that nasty Japanese honeysuckle, Chinese white mulberry, or Norway maple to the dump, curb, or chipper. Hughes is that rare soul who prizes what other designers and gardeners despise, more so if it’s scarred by deer browsing, insect damage, or disease.

That’s because, in addition to designing ecologically responsible landscapes in the Philadelphia region, Hughes, 46, is a skilled woodworker who makes rustic furniture from garden “debris,” a kind of plant-world Dumpster diver.

“To me, it’s a nice marriage, landscaping and woodworking,” says Hughes, whose five-year-old business, his second, is called Weatherwood Design. It comprises about 70 percent landscaping and 30 percent woodworking.

Storm-felled trees and gnarly vines make good raw materials. So do pruned branches, old barn boards, and stuff plucked, with permission, from the side of the road.

An arborist friend scouts out intriguing branches and discarded trunks. Hughes helps the Natural Lands Trust and local preserves thin out invasives or dead trees. And every July Fourth, again with permission, he rescues unwanted driftwood from death by bonfire at a public beach on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The wood might sit for years on the one-acre property Hughes shares with his widowed dad, Merritt Hughes, a retired English teacher. Logs, planks, oddball sticks and scraps are stacked along the driveway, in the yard, and in and around Hughes’ densely packed, unheated 8-by-12-foot workshop.

“It’s hard to throw anything out,” he says a bit sheepishly of the jars of nails, screws, and bolts, the bits of this or that, and the saws, planes, and other tools of his trade.

Drying wood outside is challenging. But if rain and snow are his nemeses, water is also a friend. “My best ideas come in the shower,” he says.

Those ideas – for chairs, tables and benches, garden gates, and screens, trellises, arbors, railings, and birdhouses – are time-consuming. A simple-looking chair can take 35 hours to make, at $45 an hour, not counting time to find and dry the wood and do research.

“It’s like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle. There are no square edges to anything,” says Hughes, who is itching for some land of his own so he can grow hedgerows of the native trees – alder, sassafras, Eastern red cedar, black locust, Osage orange – he likes to work with.

He also wants to live off the grid and build native plant, meadow, and woodland demonstration gardens. Four acres, at a minimum, would do it, though so much real estate would involve a lot of deer-fencing.

But fenced it must be; deer are plentiful, and Hughes has had Lyme disease 14 times since the early 1990s.

That he has worked through such a scourge reflects a lifetime of loving plants.

Growing up in Glenside, Hughes was “always out playing and getting muddy and dirty,” often in Baederwood Park. Foreshadowing the landscape architect he would become, he spent hours in the attic constructing vehicles and buildings with Legos and Lincoln Logs.

As an 8-year-old, guided by his handy grandfather, Sylvester “Cookie” Cook, Hughes built metal cladding to reinforce a toy castle, and carved sticks to support a leather-covered tepee.

“I loved the outdoors,” he says, including time spent at his family’s vacation home outside Wellsboro, Tioga County.

Hughes is a graduate of Abington High School and Pennsylvania State University, where he knew almost instantly “I was doing the right thing” in studying landscape architecture. He also did graduate work at the University of Massachusetts.

His resumé includes jobs at plant nurseries, landscape architectural and planning firms, and the U.S. Forest Service. He has restored wetlands and woodlands and worked on suburban subdivision landscapes, meadows, and residential projects, including a highly idiosyncratic Bucks County second home belonging to New Yorkers Todd Ruback and Suzanne Schecter.

The couple’s 21/2-acre property, overlooking the Delaware Canal in Upper Black Eddy, features a converted century-old barn that backs up to a gravelly 200-foot red shale cliff that was choked with exotic vines. Hughes cleared the cliff and literally carved a landscape into it, choosing wildlife-friendly plants such as Eastern prickly pear cactus, the region’s only native cactus, that grows almost exclusively along the high cliffs of the Delaware River.

“He’s not bringing in eucalyptus trees,” Ruback says. “He’s making use of what local, Bucks County nature is giving us.”

And much of what Hughes takes away from “Bucks County nature” goes toward his rustic furniture. The results, says a mentor, Daniel Mack of Warwick, N.Y., are both sturdy and playful, and demonstrate “a poetic sensibility.”

“Nobody actually needs any of these chairs. There are plenty of chairs in the world already, thank you,” says Mack, a rustic-furniture teacher and author. “You’ve gone beyond need, and you’re into another realm.”

It’s a realm, Mack says, that “engages us with the landscape in a way you don’t see with more-anonymous furniture.”

 

---

vsmith@phillynews.com

215-854-5720

facebook.com/InqGardening

@inkygardener

 

As part of the quot;Art in Naturequot; series at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Rd., New Hope, landscape architect and rustic-furniture-maker David Hughes will host a workshop, from 1 to 5 p.m. March 8, called quot;Woodworking With Invasive Plants: How to Make a Small Whimsical Chair.quot;

 

It seems that I can’t talk about gardening with our friends without their eyes glazing over. I guess that with restricted water, there is not much to be discussed.

As we wait for Mother Nature to nourish the earth, trees, and shrubs, the hillsides remain parched and gardeners are forced to “wait and wonder.”

But most gardeners do not enjoy being idle in body and mind.

So while we are in a “holding pattern,” we can revisit a garden design appropriate for thirsty regions.

While we ordinarily are planning our spring planting at this time of year, perhaps our time would be better spent reviewing principals of gardening in an arid region. Gardening of this type is called “xeriscaping.”

In the early 1980s, Colorado’s Denver Water coined the term “xeriscaping” to describe a low-water-use landscaping design.

Xeriscape is a combination of the word “xeros,” the Greek word meaning dry, and “scape,” meaning a “kind of view or scene.”

Many water districts across the country have adopted the term and used it to help customers become familiar with drought-tolerant landscaping.

It continues to become more and more popular in the West as rainfall figures drop and gardeners search for efficient ways to use resources.

Essentially, there are seven principals of xeriscaping:

1. Plan and design your xeriscape. Consider soil, sun, shade, and slope.

2. Soil improvement. You can have your soil analyzed but we all know that most of our soil is deficient in humus, limiting absorption of water and holding capacity. Soils should be enriched with organic matter before planting.

3. Planting in “the right place,” in terms of sun and soil conditions, will greatly effect your success in creating a beautiful xeriscape around your
home.

4. Turf substitutes should be incorporated. Traditional turf can be replaced with low-matting ground-covers and grasses. Astro-turf? Well, I’m not there yet.

5. Make your irrigation system efficient. Trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers can be watered efficiently with low-volume drip systems or low sprinklers that emit large droplets.

6. Apply mulch to all bare ground. Mulch minimizes evaporation and reduces weed growth and soil erosion. Organic mulches are typically bark and wood chips, pine needles, or rocks. Hardscape such as paths and patios reduce bare exposed earth in gardens.

7. Maintenance. If you’ve followed the first six principals, the maintenance of a water-wise
landscape is relatively easy. Chores such pruning, weeding and pest control are lessened in a healthy xeriscape.

There’s much to learn while we are in our “holding pattern”. With a little effort, we can consider giving our gardens a “xeriscape face lift.”

Lee Oliphant’s column is special to The Cambrian. Email her at cambriagardener@charter.net; read her blog at http://centralcoastgardening.com.

Click photo to enlarge

Marin

• West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.westmarin commons.org.

• The Novato Independent Elders Program seeks volunteers to help Novato seniors with their overgrown yards on Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons. Call 899-8296.

• Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/get-involved/volunteer/.

• The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 114, or email jonathan@tirn.net to register and for directions.

• Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential Bay-Friendly Garden Walks to MMWD customers. The year-round service helps homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 473-4204 to request a visit to your garden.

• Marin Open Garden Project (MOGP) volunteers are available to help Marin residents glean excess fruit from their trees for donations to local organizations serving people in need and to build raised beds to start vegetable gardens through the MicroGardens program. MGOP also offers a garden tool lending library. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengarden project.org.

• The Marin Organic Glean Team seeks volunteers to harvest extras from the fields at various farms for the organic school lunch and gleaning program. Call 663-9667 or go to www.marinorganic.org.

San Francisco

• The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant species as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www.conservatory offlowers.org.

• The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sf botanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.

Around the Bay

• An olive curing workshop with Don Landis is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 19 at B.R. Cohn Winery at 15000 Highway 12 in Glen Ellen. $15 to $20. Call 800-330-4064, ext. 124, for reservations.

• Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.cornerstone gardens.com.

• Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.

• The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.

• McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123 or go to www.mcevoy ranch.com.

• Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.

• Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen covers 61 acres and showcases a large selection of scientifically documented wild source temperate Asian plants. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.

• The California Rare Fruit Growers’ scion exchange is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Veterans Memorial Building at 1351 Maple Ave. in Santa Rosa. $5. Call 707-766-7102 or go to www.crfg-redwood.org.

• “Tree Shaping” workshops are offered at 1 p.m. Jan. 25 and 26 at Wildwood Farm at 10300 Sonoma Highway in Kenwood. $25. Call 707-833-1161 or go to www.wildwood maples.com for reservations.

The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.

Remember all the weeds and insects that invaded your vegetable garden last year? Well, spring planting of home gardens will be here before you know it. And believe it or not, now and not later, is probably the best time to eliminate pesky soil insects, as well as weed seeds. The reason is, once you have planted your garden, there is often very little you can do to control soil insects like white grubs and wireworms or troublesome weeds during the growing season.

A home gardener’s best defense against soil insects and weeds is to avoid them and physically destroy them before they have a chance to take over your vegetable garden later in the year. By taking action now, you can save yourself a lot of time, trouble and expense later on this summer.

Since several of the more commonly used soil insecticides, like diazinon and Dursban, are no longer available to homeowners, so your best option for controlling bothersome grubs and other sol insects may be your rototiller. That’s right. Using your rototiller to turn your garden soil now while it is cold exposes insects, insect eggs and weed seeds to cold temperatures and drying winds. When the soil is workable and not overly wet, rototill your garden to eliminate weeds and kill as many insects as you can.

If you think this sounds harsh, just think ahead to what these little subterranean critters have planned for your vegetable plants. White grubs and wireworms are actually immature beetles. They will feed on plant roots and seeds. They may not kill the plant outright, but they can and often do seriously stunt plant growth.

The key to reducing problems with soil insects in your garden is to keep a clean site. Making sure your garden site is weed-free now will help you be pest-free later. Soil insects are there before you plant. If the garden is host-free now, insects won’t be as attracted to the site and you are less likely to have soil insects after you plant.

Once you start planting, you can avoid many of the early-season problems by using transplants instead of seeds. If you do want to seed, however, be sure to wait until the soil warms up so your vegetable seeds can sprout and grow fast. Aside from soil insects, most other insect problems, like aphids, cucumber beetles and stink bugs, occur after you plant.

Once your garden crops begin to sprout and come up, monitor for insects and control them when necessary using a simple solution such as physical removal of pests. A lot of people don’t realize that if the numbers of pests are limited and you don’t have a huge garden, keeping a close watch and removing insects by hand may be the most efficient control method. Large insect outbreaks, however, may require the use of an appropriate insecticide.

For additional information related to gardening, landscaping, pest and turf management issues, go to the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture’s website at www.ugaurbanag.com and click the ‘Factsheets’ tab. There you will find 260 informative factsheets on a host of environmental and horticultural topics written by University of Georgia County Extension Agents and Specialists.

Randy Drinkard is a retired technical writer for The UGA Center for Urban Agriculture and ANR Agent for Troup Cooperative Extension. The Troup County Extension office is located at 114 Church St. in LaGrange and may be reached at 706-883-1675, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Skylands, the New Jersey State Botanical Garden in Ringwood, is a unique botanical and architectural gem, a former country estate featuring elegantly landscaped grounds, historic buildings, and a vast collection of unusual plant species from around the world. What many people do not know is that Skylands is also home to New Jersey’s only State Botanical Garden.

Head Landscape Designer Rich Flynn will offer a presentation on “Landscape Design at Skylands: A Historical Perspective” on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 10 a.m. in the Carriage House at the New Jersey State Botanical Garden in Ringwood. All are welcome; a $5 donation is requested.

In 1922, Clarence McKenzie Lewis, an investment banker and trustee of the New York Botanical Garden, purchased the property from the estate of Francis Lynde Stetson, who founded Skylands in 1891. Over the next 30 years, Lewis built the existing Tudor-style 45-room Manor House and transformed Skylands into a botanical showplace.

Italian landscape designer Ferruccio Vitale (1875-1933), who developed his reputation through important civic commissions such as the National Mall and the National Gallery of Art, created the country-estate landscape of Skylands. Most of the trees now framing the house were planted by Lewis and his crew of over 60 gardeners (in peak seasons), including the magnificent copper beeches. Wanting to appeal to all of the senses, Lewis stressed symmetry, color, texture, form and fragrance in his gardens.

The New Jersey State Botanical Garden, located on the central 96 acres of this 1,100-acre former country estate, is a distinctive botanic and architectural destination in its own right. Purchased in 1966 as New Jersey’s first Green Acres acquisition, NJBG features elegantly landscaped grounds containing many of the original garden designs, historic buildings, extensive statuary and vast collection of plant species from around the world.

The centerpiece of the property is Skylands Manor, a Tudor Revival mansion constructed in the early 20th century by renowned architect John Russell Pope, for the estate’s owner, Clarence McKenzie Lewis. Pope also designed many outstanding private residences and public buildings, including the Jefferson Memorial and National Gallery of Art, both in Washington, D.C. Other distinguished contributors to Skylands included decorative metal designer and craftsman Samuel Yellin (1885-1940), who led the American revival of the use of iron as decorative art. Yellin fashioned the lanterns, electrical fixtures, lamps, spiral staircase rail and gate of the Manor House.

Since 1976, The NJBG/Skylands Association, an incorporated, member-supported non-profit organization of volunteers, has worked with the State to preserve and protect NJBG/Skylands and its historic structures.

The New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands, which appears on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places, is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day in winter; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. the rest of the year. Admission to the Garden is always free, with a small State parking charge on summer weekends only.

NJBG/Skylands is located off Morris Road in Ringwood. For an event schedule, membership brochure, directions or more information, call 973-962-9534 or visit www.njbg.org.

SALISBURY — While most gardens and landscapes are asleep for the winter, those in the landscape and gardening industry are busy trying to determine what will be the big seller for 2014.

Plant materials and landscaping are often as trendy as clothing in the fashion industry. Trying to guess what will sell for fickle gardeners and be the big hit in landscape and gardening can be a bit overwhelming. Continued advances in breeding plants seem to have created a neverending supply of new plant material.

So what’s the future in landscaping? Merchandisers and growers can’t really predict the future, but they can look at trends which can give them an idea of what will and won’t sell.

Perennials

Over the past few years, perennials have enjoyed increased popularity and are becoming more accepted as a permanent part of the residential landscape. Some relatively new perennials were considered weeds just a few years ago. There are many reasons why perennials are gaining in popularity. Perennials require less work because the plant material is permanently established. Perennials eliminate annual planting, reducing time needed to implement plantings.

There are hundreds of new perennial plant materials available at local garden centers and retail outlets. Some nurseries specialize in perennial plant and herb culture. These materials are available in many colors and textures. Herbs are also considered perennials and are being offered as a part of the perennial garden. Another important aspect is perennials adapt to many cultural situations that exist in the landscape.

Hot pots or accessorizing

Sounds more like a caption from an interior design magazine, but traditional landscapes are giving way to more creative accents in the landscape. Imported glazed pottery, metal containers and statuary are making their way into landscapes filled with non-traditional plant materials such as grasses, small trees and vines. Other landscaping accessories such as colorful garden benches, lighting fixtures and paving options are adding spark to the landscape. New technology allows high-quality materials at a fairly low cost.

Warm season turf

Even though cool season fescue is the turf of choice, warm season grasses such as zoyzia, Bermuda and St. Augustine are gaining in popularity in the Piedmont. Cold tolerance and longer green color in the fall make this turf a viable option. Warm season grasses require less water and are able to survive with low water requirements.

Edible landscapes

Many gardeners are opting to integrate small fruit and fruit trees into their landscape and create an “edible landscape.” The economy and popularity of the local foods movement have many interested in applying this idea to their landscape. Edible landscapes, if properly maintained, can be as attractive as an ornamental landscape. Blueberry, fig bushes and dwarf fruit trees can be easily integrated into most landscapes. Ample sunlight is an important factor.

Darrell Blackwelder is an agricultural agent in charge of horticulture with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Rowan County. 704-216-8970; www.rowanextension.com

ST. CATHARINES – 

My idea of gardening in January involves sitting back with my feet up and enjoying a good gardening book.

I love reading about new ideas and ways to garden, and this is the perfect time of year to start planning changes to your home garden.

My companion this week has been the comfortable, information-packed Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, by prominent Vancouver landscape architect and Niagara Parks School of Horticulture grad Senga Lindsay.

This book teaches us a garden doesn’t have to be decorative or functional — it can be both. Discover how to make an edible Eden in some unlikely spaces with this fresh garden design book.

“Edibles can double as ornamentals,” Lindsay said. “Grapes can replace traditional vining plants for arbours and screening. Kale, Swiss chard and lettuce are available in an array of colours and can be striking bedding plants.

“I always include edible flowers in my garden — they are great multi-taskers, providing food and cut flowers.”

Traditional Row Vegetable Garden describes a pleasing, ordered and utilitarian space with beds laid out in simple squares or rectangles with pathways between for access. A dedicated space for composting is often included along with a small potting shed, greenhouse or cold frame. This type of garden is ideal for people with a large property and lots of time to devote to their hobby.

The Children’s Garden chapter includes simple instructions for a garden tunnel covered with cucumber vines and a delightful sunflower fort or house. Also included are fun themes for children’s gardens — tree forts, pizza garden, alphabet garden and creative ways to recycle ladders and chairs as garden props.

The whole idea is to allow your children’s imagination to soar, to let them explore and learn about nature.

“No ground to grow your edibles? Think up — onto your rooftop,” recommends Lindsay in the chapter on Edible Rooftop Gardens.

I visited a garden in Buffalo a few years ago with tomatoes and other vegetables growing on the roof of their garage. This handsome raised bed was ingeniously accessed with a librarians ladder, installed on a rail along the front of the garage. The property was situated in a well-treed area, and the couple claimed the only sunny spot was on the roof.

At the University of Guelph trial garden, Dutch crates stacked on top of one another filled with planting medium and planted with annuals, were used to create an economical and portable living wall.

Another ingenious design for a living wall was shown at Canada Blooms a few years ago. The designers stood recycled wooden pallets on their side, then planted mesh-filled pockets between the wooden slats with herbs and baby lettuces.

An Edible Wall Garden is ideal for homeowners with limited space.

“An edible wall can accommodate a huge variety of crops from herbs and strawberries to tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to vines like peas,” Lindsay suggests.

Various edible walls systems including panel, trellis, pocket and A-frames are explained.

A chapter dedicated to the Enabling Garden is filled with practical tips for a barrier-free gardening. Raised garden beds, using unused walls and fences as vertical planting spaces, including shelter and seating, and the importance of landmarks, such as a fountain or birdbath to help orient visitors to larger gardens, are all detailed in this helpful section.

Lindsay explains, “In many cases, all it takes is a little tweaking to remove a few flaws that are inhibiting someone from enjoying the experience of an edible garden.”

Edible Landscaping also covers dreamy designs such as a formal Herb Garden with espaliered fruit trees and wattle fences; a French inspired Potager Garden laid out in a geometric pattern and edged with tightly clipped boxwood; or a stylish Gourmet Garden Kitchen, decked out with the latest appliances and furnishings for people who love to cook.

Whether you want to start with a simple edible wall, or experiment with beehives in a permaculture jungle, Edible Landscaping encourages us to think about growing and harvesting food with style.

A graduate of the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, Senga Lindsay specializes in integrating edible gardens into her design practice, whether for large developments or individual homeowners. She contributes to GardenWise magazine, and was awarded Best of the City by Vancouver Magazine in 2010 and Western Living Magazine’s 2009 Landscape Architect of the Year.

She lovingly maintains her own bountiful garden in North Vancouver.

— Edible Landscaping: Urban Food Gardens That Look Great, published by Harbour Publishing, is available on Amazon.ca

Theresa Forte is a local garden writer, photographer and lecturer. You can reach her by phoning 905-351-7540 or by e-mail theresa_forte@sympatico.ca

 

Gardening

Posted: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:40 pm
|


Updated: 8:41 pm, Wed Jan 15, 2014.

Harris County Master Gardeners announce February events

Several Harris County Master Gardener events are coming in February.

Mike Shoup gives our monthly “Hamburger Tuesday” lecture on Feb. 4 at noon speaking on “Empress of the Garden – Old Garden Roses – The Ultimate Plant.”

Shoup earned a master’s degree in horticulture from Texas AM. He founded the Antique Rose Emporium in 1984 and is a past president of the Heritage Rose Foundation. He is the author of two books: Roses in the Southern Garden and Landscaping with Antique Roses, as well as co-author with Liz Druitt of the book Empress of the Garden, released in October. The talk is open to the public and all visitors are welcome to enjoy a hamburger lunch at 11:30 a.m. for a $5 donation.

The 2014 Green Thumb Gardening Series of free lectures continues with talks on Spring Vegetable Gardening. The talk will be presented 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Meeting Room at Clear Lake Park, 5001 NASA Parkway in Seabrook; 10 a.m.-noon Feb. 15 at Maude Smith Marks Library, 1815 Westgreen Blvd. in Katy; 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 18 at Recipe for Success, 4400 Yupon St. in Houston, and 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road in Houston.

On Feb. 19, Master Gardener Jean Fefer will provide a preview talk about varieties of plants being offered at the annual Tomato Pepper Sale, The talk will be at 7 p.m. in the Extension Office auditorium, 3033 Bear Creek Dr. The sale will be held March 1, 8, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., and feature 21 varieties of tomato plants and 17 kinds of pepper plants, plus basil, green eggplant and a bookstore featuring selections for local gardeners. Another preview will be held in the auditorium 8 a.m.

Our monthly fourth Tuesday Open Garden Day will be Feb. 25 in the Demonstration Gardens at the Bear Creek Extension office. A hands-on talk on Spring Vegetable Gardens will take place at 10 a.m. in the raised vegetable garden bed area for adults with activities for children also planned. Visitors will also be able to tour the gardens before and after the demonstration. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer horticulture questions.

• 
  Discuss
  
• Print
  
  
  

Posted in
Living

on

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:40 pm.

Updated: 8:41 pm.