Small Gardens Mean Fewer Colors

To keep a small garden from looking chaotic, show restraint with the number of flower colors. Smallish gardens can look fabulous with only two colors. This is not to say only two types of plants. Yellow and purple flowers pair well and give the gardener a large number of choices. Repeating the same flower colors but using different sizes of blooms and leaf forms provides attractive contrasts. Because flowers bloom on their own timeline, the use of different plants with the same bloom shades will keep the garden colorful even if some of them are taking a blooming siesta.

For my own small courtyard garden, I decided all perennials and flowering shrubs would be in shades of yellow, coral, and purple. To lure pollinators, I included yellow goldenrod (Solidago) and brown-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba) in the dryest area, and yellow rain lilies in the damp areas near the drainage catch basin. For coral shades, I used Drift roses (small, shrubby, lower maintenance than most roses), coral penstemons, a dwarf Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia ‘Poco Red’) which is more coral than red, and a couple unknown varieties of daylily. For the purples, I chose sterile, dwarf Pugster® butterfly bushes (Buddleia), purpleheart (Tradescantia), purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea), and lavender-flowered Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea). All these plants attract numerous butterflies and hummingbirds.

I wasn’t certain that the Cuphea ‘Candy Corn’ that I planted last year would overwinter, but they did and now the yellow and orange flowers look right at home between the corals and yellows. The Gaillardia ‘Spin Top Red’ I planted last fall is more red than coral, but it has bloomed so lavishly that it will remain. Several varieties of Calla lilies in the chosen colors have not begun flowering yet.

This being a first-year garden, there were a number of empty holes in the layout, so I started annuals from seed to fill in the gaps. Next year, those gaps will be smaller as the shrubs and perennials gain size. By year three, annual use will be at a minimum. For now, yellow Melampodium, coral Zinnia, coral Salvia, purple Gomphrena and purple Salvia are providing abundant color. These were chosen not only for their hues but because they flower like mad all summer long and require little in the way of maintenance, other than the occasional removal of spent flowers (Zinnia and Salvia).

My past gardens have never featured coral shades, but I’m loving this color in the new beds. Plans are underway to add peachy/coral shades of Yarrow, Alstroemeria, Lycoris (“Hurricane Lily”), and Chrysanthemum to extend the chosen color palette into autumn. I’m including a few photos of the coral plants.

Red Hot Poker

Daylily

Drift rose

Penstemon

Zinnia

Look Forward, Gardeners

With spring’s approach, gardeners are ready to wield their spades. One of the most common requests is “something for privacy.” Gardeners are not unfriendly people — we just don’t want to see quite so much of our neighbors and vice versa. Dense and fast-growing, Leyland Cypress and White Pine are two trees commonly chosen for a privacy screen.

Before you purchase or plant, please take a hard look at the intended location. White Pine, Pinus strobus, grows two or more feet each year, with a mature height up to 150 feet and a 20-40 foot spread. Leyland Cypress, Cupressocyparis leylandii, is a hybrid between Monterey Cypress and Alaska Cedar. It grows three to four feet per year, with a mature height of 70-100 feet and a 20-foot width.

Sadly, the popularity of these two screening trees leads people to plant them where they do not belong: under utility lines, too close to neighbors’ yards, or too close together. In a few short years, utility companies do what they must do to keep pumping the juice to our homes. It is not the fault of the utility workers. If they don’t prevent limbs from falling into their lines, they are eviscerated when homeowners lose power, telephone, or internet during snow or ice storms. Necessary trimming sometimes results in ugly, deformed trees. The people screaming the loudest during outages are sometimes those who would not allow tree trimming on their property.  

Leyland Cypress should be planted 20-25 feet apart. Trees which mesh together will shade each other, resulting in dead brown needles and dropped lower limbs. A too-close planting invites dieback, blights, cankers, and damage from bagworms. A heavy bagworm infestation can kill a full-grown tree.

Whether it is the two trees described above or any other trees, please take note of their ultimate size. Do not plant under utility lines, too close to service boxes (electrical, internet, telephone), or so close to the neighbor’s property that your trees will encroach onto their side within a few short years.  Otherwise, you may be forced to see some of the sad, sad sights shown in these photographs.

Planted underneath utility lines, a portion of these Leyland Cypress trees was pruned away, leaving half the tree intact. Unbalanced and weird.

Half the tree limbs on either side of this street were removed so that they would not fall onto the street.

Pruned pines and a split hardwood make way for electrical lines (suburban area).

Anxious for a quick privacy screen from the street, this homeowner planted many Leyland Cypress trees, spaced four feet apart. Three-fourths of them should be removed. I’m giving them the benefit of doubt, and assuming they plan to remove some of them once the trees’ growth spurt begins.

This old Oak was likely a small tree when these lines were strung. With time, limbs were removed for the integrity of the lines. Necessary but sad.

What is a Cottage Garden?

Cottage gardens evolved from Victorian kitchen gardens. “Cottage” meant a small, informal home on a small lot. These were homes of workers, not nobility. Working class folks had little leisure time for complicated pruning, lawncare, or rows of plants transferred from a hothouse. Their garden plots were originally used for food cultivation. Over time, food gave way to flowers or a combination of food and flora.

Cottage gardens share main elements. A white picket fence, stone walls, or clipped evergreen hedges (boxwood or privet) often define the perimeter. Informal paths of woodchips, gravel, bricks, or stepping stones lead the visitor through the garden. Any concrete paths are softened by allowing flowers to billow over the edges. Trellises, sundials, birdbaths, benches or planters are focal features, while the plantings themselves are a combination of shrubs, annuals and perennials, with emphasis on flowers of many colors and shapes These may be planted in graduated heights with taller plants at back, or sited in a patchwork arrangement, with tall specimens at front, back and throughout, living shoulder to shoulder with shorter companions. To accommodate the contrasting heights, borders are typically deep and grass lawns are limited in size. Sometimes turf only appears as a mowed walking strip between flower beds. Seen from a distance, the cottage garden is a riot of color. Plants are meant to spread and lean into one another, with little or no visible spaces between.

Roses, coneflowers, daisies, Nicotiana, and foxgloves are traditional favorites for the cottage garden. Sweet peas are also a traditional choice but they are short-lived in southeastern heat. Likewise, I have attempted to grow Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla) and killed it each attempt, so have moved onto plants that are more tolerant of heat and neglect. Some of my friends in cooler zones report their Lady’s Mantle is so prolific it borders on invasive. I am envious.

Herbs such as rosemary or thyme offer fragrance in cottage beds, and lamb’s ears, dusty miller or Artemesia are commonly used to provide a sensory element. Flowering vines such as jasmine, honeysuckle or Clematis can be grown on a trellis or tuteur to introduce a vertical element. Small flowering trees can do the same. Redbud, dogwood, crabapple or flowering cherry add both color and height.

The goal is to have flowers in bloom through the entire growing season. My favorite long-flowering perennials are tall Phlox, dwarf butterfly bush (Buddleia), Lantana, Bee Balm (Monarda), and coneflower (Echinacea). My favorite annuals are Melampodium, Four O’ Clocks (Mirabilis), Spider flower (Cleome), and Cosmos, all of which reseed readily, withstand heat, tolerate a wide range of soils, and need little maintenance other than deadheading. For cool season flowers, Johnny Jump Ups (Viola) are outstanding and they reseed readily.

Several shades of Four O’ Clocks mingle with white Nicotiana and a blue Mophead Hydrangea. Magenta Rose Campion is at the back of the bed. Orange and yellow daylilies are at the right, near the birdbath.

Wagon-Wheel Herb Garden

The winter solstice this week marks the longest night of the year. Beginning December 22, daylight hours lengthen by a few minutes each day until the summer solstice in June marks the longest day. Like many of you, I am spending cold winter days indoors, perusing seed catalogs and waiting impatiently for the time to arrive when I can start tomatoes and peppers from seeds. It is difficult to resist my heated greenhouse’s alluring call to action.

It is too early to start most vegetables and summer annuals, but it is an ideal time to plan an herb garden. Two of my favorites, parsley and chives, take a long time to germinate and grow to decent size, so I can satisfy my seed-starting urges with these.

Parsley is finicky. Always start with fresh seed because they lose viability faster than most other seeds. I attain excellent germination by placing seeds in a waterproof container and pouring boiling water over them. I allow seeds to soak overnight before using tweezers to place them atop seed-starting medium, which is finer texture than potting soil. Use 4-6 seeds in each four-inch container. I featured curly parsley as a flower bed edging one year. It was very pretty – until hungry caterpillars moved in and annihilated it almost overnight. (It’s best to remind oneself that the caterpillars of today are the butterflies of tomorrow.) I prefer flat-leaf parsley for kitchen use.

One of my favorite designs for an herb garden is a wagon wheel. Metal lasts longer than wood, of course, but wooden wheels meant for decorative use are readily available and not expensive so you won’t mind replacing them when they rot. For the one pictured below, I removed half the spokes to make larger planting windows.

Labeling your herbs is not essential (you know what you planted) but is an attractive enhancement. Many plant markers are decorative as well as functional. My favorite ceramic markers lend humor to the garden: “Peakus Lastweekus,” “Plantum WhydIbuyem,” and “Twigga Mortis.” For the herb garden, I use small terra cotta saucers and a permanent black marker. (May God richly bless whomever developed the Sharpie Extreme, UV-resistant felt pen.) The coarse texture of terra cotta combines well with the unrefined exuberance of herb plants. Fill any gaps in the wheel with pansies or marigolds.

Small-stature herbs for the wagon wheel design: parsley, oregano, chives, garlic, dill, lemon balm, culinary sage, basil. Rosemary is my favorite herb for cooking and fragrance, but it grows large so should be planted where it has room to flourish. Innocent-looking mints are best confined to containers because they spread aggressively.

A lush herb garden, ready for harvest.

The initial planting of the herb wheel, in March.