Rudbeckia

If you need a tall, stand-out plant for a special place, Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne' is it. Blooming from July until frost, the bright yellow cone flowers are a cheery addition to a blank wall or back of the garden. The seeds feed small birds from summer into early winter.

The plant must be staked in places where you don’t want to give it a lot of room. At over 8 feet tall, our yellow rudbeckia stands sentinel at our garage door.

I bought it at Point Phillips Perennials. This great garden with wonderful plants for sale is located 15 miles north of Bethlehem. (see web site for directions) http://www.ppperennials.com/about/about_us.htm Kay and Herb Johns also offer classes, seminars and tours.

Hydrangea

The hydrangeas are in bloom. These great showy bushes are a delight - little care and great blooms. The bones in the garden.

Hydrangea ‘Venice’ is a small, about 2 1/2’, plant with large blooms that is tucked away in part shade in my garden. It was a gift in 2004 and has bloomed every year.

The lace cap hydrangea was also a gift and planted in 1994. This plant is taller at about 4’ and also blooms reliably every year. The blooms form on the previous year’s growth.
This plant is nestled next to a tall spruce which shelters it from some of the late spring frost that burns new growth.

Neither plant blooms blue due to lack of an acid soil, but the flowers are great no matter what the color. I fertilize with Holly Tone once a year. I cut off dead branches and flowers as they fade and I trim it back if it gets out of bounds. The smaller ‘Venice’ has needed no trimming so far. Neither bush is bothered by any pests.

More information on hydrangeas: http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/hydrangea.html

Mulch

I finally got another load of mulch to finish the garden. Spreading it is not much fun at this time of year. The plants have grown and most of the mulch must be spread by hand. I have to be careful not pack the mulch against the stems to prevent burn. But the soil will benefit. It should help keep weeds down and hold moisture during the hot summer.

My next few days will be filled with moving mulch. The plants always stand out after a fresh layer of mulch and the garden looks neat and tidy. Bring on the Gatorade.

English Garden

I’ve always admired the look of an English garden. My attempt at an English garden contains perennials and re-seeding annuals. The garden, pictured above, contains: snapdragon, snow-on-the-mountain, a tall ornamental grass, yellow/orange cosmos, coleus, cleome, a red rambling rose, pussy willow, mum ‘clara curtis’, annual forget-me-not, sweet alyssum. Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’, purple cone flower and a purple liatris are not shown in this picture.

My aim is to have something blooming all summer – from daffodils to mums. The garden is different from year to year and I think that’s part of the charm. Although there are many interpretations of an English Garden, this is my version this year.

Fragrant Lily

Lilium ‘American Dream’ purchased from White Flower Farm in 2003 grows to nearly 8 feet tall with a mass of blooms and a heady fragrance. I don’t know why this lily grows so tall and has such a terrific show of blooms. It loves the spot where it is planted. Sometimes a gardener gets lucky.

Coleus for Color

A variety of spectacular colors, shade or sun varieties, tall or short, spreading or upright, easy to propagate, easy to grow – that’s the mighty coleus. A friend turned me on to these wonderful annuals several years ago and I’ve been a fan ever since.

I planted about 70 cuttings in May and added few new ones. They are now coming into their full colorful glory – pink, yellow, white, green, orange, red. They brighten up dark spaces and provide color all summer. They look great grouped or standing alone - in pots or in the garden.

The bloom on the coleus is not spectacular so I pinch off the flowers as they appear. I fertilize the plants when/if I get around to it. I water when I can or if they begin to droop. Of course, the pots need to be watered daily. I’ll begin taking cuttings in August to start next year’s crop. I am definitely hooked and, some would say, a little out of control.

The infinite variety of coleus can be seen at http://coleusfinder.org/pictures.php?lang=en

Compost Tea

I continue to make compost tea. Here's a picture of the compost sack which looks like a floating turd. It will sink when it get's thoroughly saturated.

One difficulty is deciding how much tea to sprinkle on each plant. I get the leaves thoroughly wet and wet the ground around the plant. I can't find any information on the amount of compost tea to use on each plant. So, I'm using my judgement. Maybe my judgement will improve with experience.

Container Vegetables

This year I am trying container vegetables for the first time. I have two large pots on the deck.

I ordered cucumber Bush Champion and pole bean Kentucky Wonder from Burpee and planted the seeds on May 7. The seeds germinated by May 12. I watered frequently (sometimes in the heat, 3 times a day) and fed with an Algoflash solution, fish emulsion (1X) and compost tea (2X).

I picked the first cumbers on July 1. There are a lot of flowers and small beans on the vine. So far I'm happy with the progress. We'll see how in goes through the heat of July and August.

Community Gardens

Bethlehem’s community gardens

The Garden of Serenity maintained by the Bethlehem Garden Club was a 2006 recipient of the Suburban Greening Award by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society. (see April 21, 2007 post) It is a peaceful oasis in the city with a place to sit and enjoy the garden.

Miller House Garden is also maintained by the Bethlehem Garden Club. (see April 21, 2007 post) Full of 18th century plants, this garden offers a view of what might have grown in a colonial garden. The plants, from roses to lavender to tomatoes and thyme, fill a walk through this little plot with delightful nostalgia.

Musikfest’s Blumenplatz, is planned, planted and cared for by members of the Blumenplatz committee. Starting in May until the middle of August, the garden illustrates the dazzling fun of Musikfest. This colorful garden was also a 2006 recipient of the Suburban Greening Award by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society.

As you stroll around Musikfest (August 3-12, 2007) stop to look at the community gardens in Bethlehem. Blumenplatz and The Garden of Serenity are located near Americaplatz in Bethlehem’s City Center near the Public Library. The Miller House Garden is located behind Volksplatz in the Colonial Industrial Quarter.

Varmints in the Garden

Bunnies and birds and ground hogs and deer and skunks – we’ve had them all.

Right now either the bunnies or the birds are munching on the dusty miller. I’ve tried putting pinwheels near them. That worked for a while. Now I’m sprinkling cayenne pepper on the leaves. That seems to be working for now. Soon the plants will be large and less tasty to the critters.

The ground hogs stand on their hind legs and feast on the cone flowers. I use cayenne pepper there too. It seems to work – unless the ground hogs are waiting for the tomatoes to ripen so they can make salsa.

Compost Tea

I’ve started making compost tea. It’s a simple process, really. I purchased an Aquatic Gardens Single Outlet Aquarium Air Pump Hi-tech 800 and 8 ft Clear Air Line Tubing for $11.64. I loosely tied a hex-nut to the end of the tubing to keep the hose at the bottom of the bucket. Then, I followed the recipe and instructions from Doug Green’s http://www.beginner-gardening.com/compost-tea.html

After filling the 5 gallon bucket, I ran the pump for 24 hours to remove the chlorine from the tap water. Then I put 3 or 4 handfuls of compost in a knee-hi ladies stocking and hung it over the side of the bucket. I added a little molasses and lemon juice and let the pump run for another 24 hours. I used a sprinkling can to water vegetables and flowering plants. It’s too early to tell if this process is worth the effort. I’ll be making compost tea all summer to see if I can notice a difference in areas where I’ve applied the compost tea. There are a lot of variables so I don't know if I'll be able to tell if the compost tea makes difference.

Anyway, it can’t hurt, right? Well, not according to some writers. See “The Great Compost Tea Debate” in Garden Rant blog by the Jeffs and comments – 6/21/07 http://www.gardenrant.com/ Jeff Gillman: Benefits? Maybe. Problems? Likely - and - Jeff Lowenfels: AACT (and only AACT) is the real deal

Watering and Trimming

With the weeds under control (which means there are now more plants that I want than weeds that I don’t want), my gardening attention has turned to watering and trimming. After a few weeks of hot, dry weather I’ve turned soakers on in each garden about once a week for about 20 minutes. Some of the potted plants need to be watered twice a day. We had a storm last night so I will have a watering-day off today, I hope.

I’ve also managed to trim the overgrowth from the garden paths this week - to reduce the chance of getting poked in the eye on my walks through the garden.

Another Ground Cover

Probably the most work-intensive ground cover in my garden is ivy. Again, I don’t know the name. The neighbor who gave it to me called it American Ivy. There are bunch of varieties at http://www.ivy.org/list.html .

We originally put it on our small bank in the front of the house to hold the hill and to eliminate the need to mow the lumpy little bank. It needs to be cut back about three times a year and gets an unattractive green-brown color in the winter. I think mice live in there, too. The colossal job of ripping it up and replacing it makes me put up with the work it takes to keep it somewhat neat.

On the plus side - The ivy provides some winter protection for Heather Erica x darleyensis ‘silberschmeize’ which blooms white from December to May.

Ground Cover

One of my favorite ground covers is this little sedum. It was another gift from a gardening friend so I don’t have it’s name. It looks similar to Sedum rupestre 'angelina' but I can't be sure.

The fast-growing stonecrop pictured here survives in the hot, dry pathway between our deck and garage. If it grows over the stepping stones, it’s easy to pull out – I scoop it up with my finger tips. Stepping on it is usually enough to keep it back. It spreads quickly and has a pretty little yellow flower in late spring. It helps keep the weeds to a minimum and moisture in the soil. It’s about as care free as it gets.

More Weeds

As I continued weeding this week, I realized some weeding tasks are more tedious than others. I have several places that I allow to reseed. Above, nicotiana and alyssum reseeded with weeds (top). In order to save the plants and get rid of the weeds, I had to pick out the weeds one by one. This time-consuming task is worth it to me for free plants. I sit in the shade with a cool drink and pull them out one by one.

Weeds

"Nothing satisfies like a neatly weeded bed; improvement in the garden is immediate, sometimes even dramatic. Gardeners who like it often describe weeding as 'therapeutic.'" HGTV website article “Weeds Aren’t All Bad” by Lindsay Bond Totten, Scripps Howard News.



After a steady rain, compliments of tropical storm Barry, the weeds are growing with a vengeance, the ground is soft and I’m off on a weeding frenzy.

Weeds are a fact of life in my garden. Even landscape fabric will not stop them. I know a home owner who used the fabric in the entire garden and thought he would never need to weed again. His weeds grew higher than the shrubs.

A layer of mulch keeps down the weeds or makes them easier to pull out. Years of compost and mulching keep most of my garden’s soil soft and loamy so the weeds come out easier. The pre-emergent Preen helps me keep some of the weeds out of the paths. (Although, now Preen comes with fertilizer. What’s up with that?)

Getting to the root of the matter -




My favorite tool for weeding is my good old dandelion digger. I feel great satisfaction getting the weed out roots and all. I am almost euphoric when I get a complete dandelion, wild garlic or a small thistle.

My new paving weeder is great for getting weeds that grow in the brick edging, between bricks and in tight places. The nicotiana coming up between the bricks is a weed in that spot. The thin blade will fit between the bricks and lift out the plant, roots and all. It’s also great for edging along sidewalks.

My least favorite weed at present is oxalis - the one with red stems & roots. The shallow horizontal roots are difficult to completely dig out. I use the dandelion digger or a small trowel to slide as many roots out as possible. I’ve been hot on the trail for years. I’ve resorted to Roundup where the weed is not too close other garden plants. I don’t seem to be winning the battle. But, the challenge keeps me going.

I attended a class at Lehigh County Extension “The Wicked World of Weeds” with Dick Pudliner, Master Gardener that was extremely informative. Call the Lehigh County Extension office if you want some expert help with your weeds.

Sweet Shrub

The Sweet Shrub is almost finished blooming. I believe it is Calycanthus floridus, although when it was given to me, the owner called it a strawberry bush. I guess the small blooms do resemble a strawberry.

This bush fills the air with a sweet, pungent odor for the month of May. The shrub is about 10’ tall and 6’ wide. I hack it back a couple of times during the summer to keep it within bounds. In the early spring, I dig up the runners so I won’t end up with 100 sweet shrubs. It doesn’t seem to be bothered by any diseases or bugs.

While the blooms aren’t much to look at, the fragrance is irresistibly alluring.

Shade Garden – Sun Garden

We arrived home after the Memorial Day weekend to be greeted by our thirty foot pussy willow on laying its side. A storm Sunday night knocked down the old friend. After three hours with a chain saw and lopping shears, we finished cleaning up the last branch by 8 pm. Now our shade garden is a full sun garden.

Annuals

Many years ago I started digging up the yard for gardens. Each year I bought spring blooming bulbs to plant in fall – tulips, hyacinths, daffodils. Since I couldn’t afford a ton of perennials, I bought annuals to mask the bulbs fading foliage. I continue to use annuals even though I have added many perennials.
If I had to pick my three favorite annuals -

The top of the list of would be coleus. Bright, cheerful and a Joseph’s coat of colors, they brighten shady spots. Some can take sun. They are all almost care free. They are also easy to propagate so I save a lot of money raising cuttings.






Second on the list is impatiens. The colors pop in the shade garden. The New Guinea impatiens is great for the sunnier areas.




There are some annuals that have a special meaning for me. Cosmos is planted for a special young lady whose birthday is in October. Cleome reminds me of my Grandmother’s garden. The tall, spectacular, ever-blooming habit looks great in large groups at the back of the garden.





Whoops, that’s four. I wouldn’t want to be without any of them as well as dusty miller, sweet alyssum, marigold, zinnia, petunia, wax begonia, snapdragon, sweet pea . . .

Dicentra - Bleeding Heart

There is a huge difference between ever-blooming ('luxuriant') and the May blooming (spectabilis) dicentra in my garden - in size, shape and bloom.



Dicentra 'luxuriant' blooms reliably all summer with the greatest blush in May. Planted in 1995 the plant is now 1 ½ feet tall by 2 ½ feet wide. This small plant with cut-leafed blue-green foliage blooms in the shade reliably all summer. The flowers are smaller and not quite as well defined as spectabilis.







The one I call the “old fashion bleeding heart”, Dicentra spectabilis 'pink', was planted in 2002 and has a lovely form and flower. The plant is about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and blooms in May. It grows in the shade of a dogwood and dies back in August. I cut it back as each stem or leaves begin to yellow, but it has come back reliably each year.




Both plants are easy to grow. The Dicentra ‘luxuriant’ needs no care at all and, if space is at a premium, will stay within bounds. The “old fashioned” bleeding heart is a large plant, but the attractive spring show of arching stems and definite, heart-shaped flowers is spectacular.